Coda no 16 amplifier

[shawnf]

@shawnf I had the Immanis | Magna | CA-1a in the house for a week (Thanksgiving). I also had the RAAL VM-1a and the Schitt Mjolner preamp | Schitt Aegir v1 amp. I used the RAAL T1-1b amp interface to connect the Aegir to the phones. The TI-1b is a lot better than the original amp adapter that RAAL sold. That one needed an amp like the CODA #16. The much better TI-1b requires much less power, and my Aegir v1 at 20 watts is near the top limit of power for the safe use of the adapter.

Both setups used the incredible Schitt Yggi+ OG DAC.

The Immanis is an experience, A huge sound taking the SR1a sound to new levels of greatness. However, it does not sound 2-channel-ish like the SR1a. There is more of everything on the Immanis. It was great with both my amps. There is a lot of sound leakage on the Immanis.

Even though I loved the Immanis, I decided to repurchase the SR1a that I had sold in anticipation of buying the Immanis. The Immanis was too distracting for me to get work done. I use the phones for late night work, like right now. It was also too loud and would disturb my family that are sleeping close to my home office.

The SR1a is not as good overall as the Immanis but is it great in its own way and that 2-channel like sound stage is something I like more than the headphone presentation of the Immanis. The Immanis gets close to the presentation but not as good. I am a 2-channel person so that is my subjective preference. A lot of people like the Immanis for the opposite reason.

I did have an AHB2 in the house with the Immanis. It was good with the warm Mjolnir v3 preamp but nothing spectacular. It is also too powerful with the TI-1b adapter. The Schitt Aegir was a better match.

Even though Alex in Serbia designed the RAAL using the AHB2, do not use the AHB2 with RAAL phones it is not a great match. With my SR1a it is a bad match, with the Immanis is OK but the amp is too powerful.

Saying all of this I may still get the Immanis because I moved the VM-1a amp to the bedroom, and I can close a door there to listen late at night. Though relaxing like that is a rare treat.

@yyzSB Thanks for the feedback. Great to hear.

I have an AHB2 driving at Hifiman Arya Stealth. Also heard the Susvara before and it was a great pairing. The source is an Antipodes CX into an MSB Premier DAC.

I'm thinking of getting a CODA amplifier to power a set of speakers. Still deciding whether to get the integrated CSIB or the power CS16. They are both on the shortlist as they support speaker bi-wiring.

Have you tried bi-wiring with the CODA? And what are your thoughts on the sound compared to other amps you previously owned.

FYI I've been told you can also bi-wire using a single AHB2 by using running both the binding posts and Speakon speaker outputs at the same time. But havent tried this yet.

 

[yyzSB]

@yyzSB Thanks for the feedback. Great to hear.

I have an AHB2 driving at Hifiman Arya Stealth. Also heard the Susvara before and it was a great pairing. The source is an Antipodes CX into an MSB Premier DAC.

I'm thinking of getting a CODA amplifier to power a set of speakers. Still deciding whether to get the integrated CSIB or the power CS16. They are both on the shortlist as they support speaker bi-wiring.

Have you tried bi-wiring with the CODA? And what are your thoughts on the sound compared to other amps you previously owned.

FYI I've been told you can also bi-wire using a single AHB2 by using running both the binding posts and Speakon speaker outputs at the same time. But havent tried this yet.

Sorry for the late reply. I was not on this site for a while.

I have not bi-wired any CODA amps nor any amps recently.

I did use an AHB2 at one time with Audience FrontRow speaker cable which had SpeakON connections at the amp end. It sounded great and I love the FrontRow cables.

I owned the CSiB, #8, and the #16. The #16 is much better. If the lower cost amp makes more sense to you, then I would get a Schitt Wotan over the #8 or CSiB. I now only have the #16 and Wotan. The Wotan is not better than the #8 or CSiB, but it is not worse either. It costs $2k.