That was true next day delivery! I decided not to order from shenzenaudio or Hifi-express or audiophonics.fr. The last has the best price but err... France. In case of any problems that won't help. And added postage. I decided to buy local for only €10 more. Turns out it's the same shop that I bought speakerparts from. Seems they expanded their business.
So, what did I get? Half the size, triple the power (also at double the price)
As you can see it matches the other gear below. That CD player is moving out anyway, I'll be using the ripper. That saves an extra spot. I love the remote. It's different from the SP400 and DP5 and it works very well. Versatility is great. I can control the subwoofer level from my couch... If only... The display font for the menu weren't do idiotically tiny. I can read it without glasses if I come close. Missed opportunity there.
However... There is plenty to tune the sound with without penalty like old-fashioned bass and treble controls. The mysterious 'Tabebua' equaliser position is for their own small bookshelf speaker (with the awesome Wavecor units!) and makes my speakers sound great too.
So why I bought this amp? For the power. Man, I didn't dare go over 40. It has a lot more power than I ever had. And that was in the 'low' setting. My tiny speakers have only 2 3" drivers rated at 25W. But other than that it feels like
I'm ot saying that it is, but it has plenty.
One of the negatives that were mentioned in reviews were heat so that the fan starts up. Yes, well, I didn't get it over 45° C. And yes, the fan kicks in. But you'll only hear it when the music stops. Another thing was slight hiss. Well, I had to put my ear to the driver to hear an ever so slight midrange brown noise.
So how does it sound?
Well, that is one question that none of the reviews really answered. With the caveat that I played it without any burn in (and I suspect it hardly needs any). It has a lot more headroom on top, but it loses micro dynamics and details at the bottom. It is the best small Chinese class D I ever heard. But I miss the ultimate air, sense of space and tiny details that I know are there in 2 reference songs.
In 'Praya deserta' by Morelenbaum² & Sakamoto's 'Casa' I could not hear the birds outside the studio. And at the end of Melody Gardot's Lisboa the streetsounds were very faint. I think, I hope this is (again) to blame on input caps. They are better than most but miss the clarity of audiophile quality caps.
So, in my opinion: good but not high end.
And how does it make vinyl sound?
Unfortunately, in this configuration, it's like going back from a high end MC via my silver transformers to a decent solid state MC input. That's a big step back. Or from dsd back to CD quality. Some people say CD is the best possible quality... If you never heard better you may think that. It impacts vinyl more than digital.
Did I waste my money? Hmm. I don't know. I need to take a peek inside.
Does it make me happy? No. But when you live in California you never talk about the weather. I do realise how blessed I am with that other small translinear current mode amp that only cost me €300. It is so hard to beat.
All those reviewers say: "well if I compare it to my €3000 amp, it lacks a bit of this and that. But you can't compare because it's 5 times cheaper". Yes? So what? Just compare it in absolute terms. Come on, my little €300 giant slayer against your goliath. Bring it on!
In Dutch we call that 'the law of handicap by headstart' or 'the dialectics of progress'. Once you have a big head start it gets harder and harder to progress.
Edit:
I can't get it open. I didn't study butchery. I got the rubber feet off hiding the screws. But with all screws out it still wouldn't fall out. I don't want to go damaging it with screwdriver prying. Oh well.
What I thought off later... The lack of low level detail might be due to a digital volume...
So with low sensitivity speakers it might improve. I hope.
Edit2:
I'm partly right on the volume. When I turn up the volume to 80=full and let the SP400 control the volume (resistor relay ladder) I can hear the birds better. So just use it as a power amplifier... With tone control
I still need to get a rca to 2rca subwoofer cable. This amp has a (controllable) sub out (only mono I need 2 plugs for left and right. Sub 100Hz is mono anyway so that's no problem).