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Originally Posted by peanuthead /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I spy a TTVJ FET-A. Any impressions on this amp?
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I spent much of the day listening to the FET-A (that's it sitting on top of the tower of Wadia 830's, next to the iTransport). I have to tell you that it's a damn fine amp.
I used a variety of cans with the FET-A, including my own Denon D5000 markl modded cans, Sennheiser HD600's and HD 800's, and the new Shure SRH840's. I found it to be both resolving and warm, with a distinctly detailed bass signature and gobs of fine detail and soundstaging.
When I started out using it, Jude said two things about it:
1) It needs to "warm up" for a few minutes, and
2) It is good with lower impedance, but great with higher impedence cans.
I'd have to agree with both of these things.
It DID take a few minutes to really warm up and open up. It's a class A amp, which means it's going to throw some heat when it's in operation. It did run warm - though never hot - to the touch. Once it had warmed up for a few minutes, I noticed that it did open up substantially.
I spent most of my time listening to my own HD 600's and modded Denon D5000's, and thought that it did a very nice job with both. The Denon's have an interesting sonic signature, and I find that they don't behave so much like lower impedence cans as some others I'd had (e.g. Grado's) with most amps. I liked them a lot with this amp. Maybe it was because it had sufficient headroom to power them correctly...dunno. It also made the HD600's sing nicely. I've always felt like these cans need a LOT of juice to really sound great. In fact, I think that's why I like them so much in balanced configuration, but not so much unbalanced. I've heard it said that there's nothing that one can't do balanced that can't be done single-ended if one has sufficient power. The TTVJ FET-A, and some other amps I've heard recently (like the Luxman P-1) have convinced me that's mostly the case (though there's something that I sure do like about balanced termination regardless).
Then I had a chance to listen to the HD800's...and the FET-A handled them very well indeed. I did notice that I had to crank the volume up substantially, though never so high as the 12:00 position. For anyone who is concerned about the cost of matching these admittedly pricey cans with a sufficiently powerful amp, the FET-A handled them very nicely indeed.
Oh, and I listened with my AKG K240 sextets - they've never sounded better.
I also spent some time with the new Shure SRH 840's. I thought it did a nice job with them, but not so much as with other cans. It presented similarly as Grados do when there's an impedance mismatch - a little on the bright side - though nothing that I couldn't live with. I didn't find the same signature when I subsequently plugged them into the RSA Apache. So if all you listen to is lower impedance cans, it's worth giving the FET-A an extra close listen. Not a deal breaker for me, but worth noting.
The only other wish I would have is that Todd would offer some kind of upgraded casing. The casing is nice enough, but is frankly not up to the standards of RSA or HeadAmp in terms of finish and overall appearance.
In summary, it's a very nice amp. An excellent value IMHO.