recstar24
Can Jam '10 Organizer
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Todd graciously loaned me a TTVJ FET-A amp and I have been listening to it for the past month and a half. It’s a fine solid unit at a pretty attractive price point, considering there are not too many high quality discrete solid state options made here in America. The design is by Pete Millet, who also designed the Wheatfield HA-2, one of the finest OTL tube amps that I have heard. I had a really good time with it, and would like to leave my impressions of the amp before I send it off to whoever is lucky enough to take a listen.
First, some background and my personal listening biases, which I feel are important in order for you as the reader to get a feel for my experience in headphone fidelity and how I approach music and sound. I am basically a tube head – my past four amps that I have owned extensively have all been tube amps under the Eddie Current or Moth Audio label, designed by Craig Uthus. I currently own a tweaked Moth Si2a3, which Craig dubs the Moth Si2a3/45H, because it can run 45 output tubes, has an external power transformer chassis so there is no hum or noise, and has upgraded caps in the power supply. With my Meridian 508.24 and Grado HP-1000’s, I feel my rig offers a very full bodied, tonally dense presentation that offers plenty of inner detail and extension, as well as presenting a relatively realistic soundscape. I have always enjoyed tubes because I feel they simply get you that last bit of realism that music lovers strive to reach for. It has nothing to do about artificial warmth or coloration; I simply feel tube amps are the best at presenting an actual three dimensional image, with the full tonal palette that the best recordings present to the listener. I felt the Zana Deux offered this in spades, which I owned previously, and my Moth offers the same but also speaker output to my hornshoppe horns.
Comparing the moth si2a3/45H to the TTVJ FET-A presented very little drop off. The FET-A fully satisfied my musical jones for conveying what I call tonal accuracy – the feeling that instruments actually sound like what they would sound in a real life setting. I use string and choral recordings to test for this, as my musical background is in orchestra and choir, and I am currently a music teacher and choir director. I try to listen for that warm, dense rich layering that a well executed string or choral recording can give you, there are so many different harmonic things going on that it is hard to get right electronically. The FET-A performed incredibly well in this regard, much better than what I would expect from a solid state amp, especially a $700 amp compared to a $2200 highly tweaked tube amp with about $500 worth of tubes in it. I get that same tonal density on the FET-A that I do on the Moth, with none of that solid state thinning in the midband or bleached quality that solid state can sometimes present to the listener.
In addition to capturing the timbre correct, I felt the soundstage portrayal of the FET-A amp, though not quite at the level of the moth or ZD, was very good. The HP-1000’s are really good at this – grados, especially the HP1000, can have a very narrow headstage; you get the left and the right, and dead center is pretty much right your face, a couple of rows in front. Yet plug them into a high quality amp and source, and the HP1000 can really transform, filling in that soundscape nicely, presenting the images as discrete units in space. The focus and image specificity of the FET-A was excellent, of course I wouldn’t expect less from such a detailed, well designed amp by the likes of Pete Millet. The moth offers just a bit more space and distance between performers and in front of the listener, and the FET-A is just a bit more closed in and narrow by a small margin, but I tell you it is pretty close. I use an A/B box to really zero in on such fine details, and its easy to discern what your hearing when you use such a device. I would have loved to hear the HD650 with the FET-A, but I no longer own the senns as I have found them quite boring compared to my grados (another of my listening biases duly noted). I think the FET-A would sound great with the senns because it would wake them up, and play further into its soundstaging abilities. Solid state amps in my experience usually fall very short especially compared to high quality tube amps, and I think it speaks volumes of the design of the FET-A that it came very close to my moth, which can probably be attributed to its discrete nature and minimal use of feedback (the Moth is a DC coupled no negative feedback SET design; hence, it’s a soundstaging monster, especially on speakers).
The FET-A was really quite refreshing to hear. Its hard for me to really like solid state, I really am an unabashed tube head. So to hear the FET-A compare so favorably to what I currently own and have owned – Moth Si2a3/45H and EC Zana Deux – is remarkable for me. I know I focused on the tonal and soundstaging abilities of the FET-A in this review, but only because those are the biggest things that really strike my musical fancy. I felt the amp was very detailed, without sounding etchy or what I call “jiggy”, that feeling that you just want to put the headphones down and do something else because you feel disengaged with the music. The amp offers really nice bass solidity and extension, and has a firmer, more solid grip in the nether regions than my moth, which I would expect from a well designed solid state. The midrange was very open and transparent – I feel you should be able to hear “through” the midrange, like seeing through a window so clean that it almost appears there is no window there in the 1st place, with that open quality that allows the midrange to connect with the bass and treble in a very smooth, cohesive manner. I did not hear any upper midrange shout, or treble glare whatsoever with the amp, which I feel I am very sensitive to, being a tube-lover; listening to solo piano recordings, jazz piano trios, violin concertos, and saxophone solos will typically bring that stuff up, and the FET-A performed well in this regard.
What issues did I have with the amp? Personally, the gain is a bit high for my listening tastes. I am a relatively low level listener, as I need to preserve my hearing for my profession and to best serve the musical needs of my students, and with the grados I am below 9, usually at the 8 oclock level, which is fine, but I do like to have more play with the pot, and the thought of throwing away all that gain makes me weary. I noticed some noise issues with my shure se530 IEM’s, some thermal hiss which I find sometimes in single ended designs. Though it has been a while since I have listened, the HeadAmp GS-1 was dead silent on IEM’s and offered switchable gain levels as well. The other solid state I have owned in the past is the RSA HR-2 and was silent in this regard as well. Noise is present with the pot maxed out all the way to the right, which though not musically pertinent, does show some noise present in the circuit, which again I attribute to the high gain and single ended DC coupled nature of the amp – I find that push pull amps and transformer coupled amps are able to reject this noise much better, as my moth being a transformer coupled amp is dead silent with the pot maxed out, even with IEM’s. I conclude by saying that within the normal range of listening for me, the pot did not exhibit any noise.
I can’t speak of “value” for the amp because I really think “value” is a subjective thing. I also don’t do rankings or this is better than that because I simply haven’t had the time or interest to listen to the latest offering from china or asia in general. Take this “review” simply as a review of a solid state offering from someone who swears by high quality tube amps for hi-end headphone listening, and that he found the TTVJ FET-A to offer excellent sonics for a pretty decent price. If you wish, you can follow the link below to read some of my reviews that I did in the past as a writer for 6moons (under Ryan Clarin, just to get an idea of some other amps that I have listened to, and how my listening preferences and biases have sort of developed over the years. Thanks for taking the time – now I need to get going on that HeadAmp USB DAC/Amp review I have been dragging on - sorry Justin
6moons.com - archives - audio reviews: by writer
First, some background and my personal listening biases, which I feel are important in order for you as the reader to get a feel for my experience in headphone fidelity and how I approach music and sound. I am basically a tube head – my past four amps that I have owned extensively have all been tube amps under the Eddie Current or Moth Audio label, designed by Craig Uthus. I currently own a tweaked Moth Si2a3, which Craig dubs the Moth Si2a3/45H, because it can run 45 output tubes, has an external power transformer chassis so there is no hum or noise, and has upgraded caps in the power supply. With my Meridian 508.24 and Grado HP-1000’s, I feel my rig offers a very full bodied, tonally dense presentation that offers plenty of inner detail and extension, as well as presenting a relatively realistic soundscape. I have always enjoyed tubes because I feel they simply get you that last bit of realism that music lovers strive to reach for. It has nothing to do about artificial warmth or coloration; I simply feel tube amps are the best at presenting an actual three dimensional image, with the full tonal palette that the best recordings present to the listener. I felt the Zana Deux offered this in spades, which I owned previously, and my Moth offers the same but also speaker output to my hornshoppe horns.
Comparing the moth si2a3/45H to the TTVJ FET-A presented very little drop off. The FET-A fully satisfied my musical jones for conveying what I call tonal accuracy – the feeling that instruments actually sound like what they would sound in a real life setting. I use string and choral recordings to test for this, as my musical background is in orchestra and choir, and I am currently a music teacher and choir director. I try to listen for that warm, dense rich layering that a well executed string or choral recording can give you, there are so many different harmonic things going on that it is hard to get right electronically. The FET-A performed incredibly well in this regard, much better than what I would expect from a solid state amp, especially a $700 amp compared to a $2200 highly tweaked tube amp with about $500 worth of tubes in it. I get that same tonal density on the FET-A that I do on the Moth, with none of that solid state thinning in the midband or bleached quality that solid state can sometimes present to the listener.
In addition to capturing the timbre correct, I felt the soundstage portrayal of the FET-A amp, though not quite at the level of the moth or ZD, was very good. The HP-1000’s are really good at this – grados, especially the HP1000, can have a very narrow headstage; you get the left and the right, and dead center is pretty much right your face, a couple of rows in front. Yet plug them into a high quality amp and source, and the HP1000 can really transform, filling in that soundscape nicely, presenting the images as discrete units in space. The focus and image specificity of the FET-A was excellent, of course I wouldn’t expect less from such a detailed, well designed amp by the likes of Pete Millet. The moth offers just a bit more space and distance between performers and in front of the listener, and the FET-A is just a bit more closed in and narrow by a small margin, but I tell you it is pretty close. I use an A/B box to really zero in on such fine details, and its easy to discern what your hearing when you use such a device. I would have loved to hear the HD650 with the FET-A, but I no longer own the senns as I have found them quite boring compared to my grados (another of my listening biases duly noted). I think the FET-A would sound great with the senns because it would wake them up, and play further into its soundstaging abilities. Solid state amps in my experience usually fall very short especially compared to high quality tube amps, and I think it speaks volumes of the design of the FET-A that it came very close to my moth, which can probably be attributed to its discrete nature and minimal use of feedback (the Moth is a DC coupled no negative feedback SET design; hence, it’s a soundstaging monster, especially on speakers).
The FET-A was really quite refreshing to hear. Its hard for me to really like solid state, I really am an unabashed tube head. So to hear the FET-A compare so favorably to what I currently own and have owned – Moth Si2a3/45H and EC Zana Deux – is remarkable for me. I know I focused on the tonal and soundstaging abilities of the FET-A in this review, but only because those are the biggest things that really strike my musical fancy. I felt the amp was very detailed, without sounding etchy or what I call “jiggy”, that feeling that you just want to put the headphones down and do something else because you feel disengaged with the music. The amp offers really nice bass solidity and extension, and has a firmer, more solid grip in the nether regions than my moth, which I would expect from a well designed solid state. The midrange was very open and transparent – I feel you should be able to hear “through” the midrange, like seeing through a window so clean that it almost appears there is no window there in the 1st place, with that open quality that allows the midrange to connect with the bass and treble in a very smooth, cohesive manner. I did not hear any upper midrange shout, or treble glare whatsoever with the amp, which I feel I am very sensitive to, being a tube-lover; listening to solo piano recordings, jazz piano trios, violin concertos, and saxophone solos will typically bring that stuff up, and the FET-A performed well in this regard.
What issues did I have with the amp? Personally, the gain is a bit high for my listening tastes. I am a relatively low level listener, as I need to preserve my hearing for my profession and to best serve the musical needs of my students, and with the grados I am below 9, usually at the 8 oclock level, which is fine, but I do like to have more play with the pot, and the thought of throwing away all that gain makes me weary. I noticed some noise issues with my shure se530 IEM’s, some thermal hiss which I find sometimes in single ended designs. Though it has been a while since I have listened, the HeadAmp GS-1 was dead silent on IEM’s and offered switchable gain levels as well. The other solid state I have owned in the past is the RSA HR-2 and was silent in this regard as well. Noise is present with the pot maxed out all the way to the right, which though not musically pertinent, does show some noise present in the circuit, which again I attribute to the high gain and single ended DC coupled nature of the amp – I find that push pull amps and transformer coupled amps are able to reject this noise much better, as my moth being a transformer coupled amp is dead silent with the pot maxed out, even with IEM’s. I conclude by saying that within the normal range of listening for me, the pot did not exhibit any noise.
I can’t speak of “value” for the amp because I really think “value” is a subjective thing. I also don’t do rankings or this is better than that because I simply haven’t had the time or interest to listen to the latest offering from china or asia in general. Take this “review” simply as a review of a solid state offering from someone who swears by high quality tube amps for hi-end headphone listening, and that he found the TTVJ FET-A to offer excellent sonics for a pretty decent price. If you wish, you can follow the link below to read some of my reviews that I did in the past as a writer for 6moons (under Ryan Clarin, just to get an idea of some other amps that I have listened to, and how my listening preferences and biases have sort of developed over the years. Thanks for taking the time – now I need to get going on that HeadAmp USB DAC/Amp review I have been dragging on - sorry Justin
6moons.com - archives - audio reviews: by writer
