[carboncopy]

Quick update. Amplifer arrived today. Packaging was first class. As for the sound I need some time with it, but it is dead silent with my Grado RS2e, no hum or noise. But the first impression regarding sound quality is promising!

Quick note: my amplifier has darker side panels and the power button has a small light on it. Both these customisations were my request and were done for no extra cost.

 

[Shroune]

Quick update. Amplifer arrived today. Packaging was first class. As for the sound I need some time with it, but it is dead silent with my Grado RS2e, no hum or noise. But the first impression regarding sound quality is promising!

Quick note: my amplifier has darker side panels and the power button has a small light on it. Both these customisations were my request and were done for no extra cost.

On what date was yours ordered? Looking forward to your detailed impressions with your vérité!

 

[Rebel Chris]

Quick update. Amplifer arrived today. Packaging was first class. As for the sound I need some time with it, but it is dead silent with my Grado RS2e, no hum or noise. But the first impression regarding sound quality is promising!

Quick note: my amplifier has darker side panels and the power button has a small light on it. Both these customisations were my request and were done for no extra cost.

Beautiful! Which TOR amp is it? And where does the headphone connector goes?

 

[carboncopy]

On what date was yours ordered? Looking forward to your detailed impressions with your vérité!

I ordered it at the end of September. Sadly I sold my verity in the meantime, I have several Grados and a Campfire Cascade And nothing else.

 

[carboncopy]

Beautiful! Which TOR amp is it? And where does the headphone connector goes?

It is the "balanced". The headphone connector is at the top, the most right one next to the two signal XLRs.

 

[Arum16]

Quick update. Amplifer arrived today. Packaging was first class. As for the sound I need some time with it, but it is dead silent with my Grado RS2e, no hum or noise. But the first impression regarding sound quality is promising!

Quick note: my amplifier has darker side panels and the power button has a small light on it. Both these customisations were my request and were done for no extra cost.

Very nice. Congrats. Exactly what my choice would be.
Looking forward to hear your impressions on this unit.
Nice to know about those custom options.

 

[carboncopy]

So...after a couple hours. I used this amp with my Grado RS2e excusively. My other amp which I regulary use is the (much more expensive) Pathos Inpol Ear.

This amp (the Tor Balanced) has a somewhat typical tube sound. Typical because it has a very smooth and spacious mid and high range. Acoustic instruments, human voices have their own little space around them, but they are nicely connected to a soundstage. Microdynamic (how lively some small details are) are super. Listener fatigue is not something these amp heard of.

The mid-bass is a bit elevated, but fast, dynamic and has rythm. This is what is a bit untypical to the "tube sound", it never gets to slow or confused. But elevation is there.

So, its a warm sounding, very smooth amplifier with pace and rythm.

If I compare it with the Pathos, the Pathos is still better. It has a more clean (but not analytical) sound. Plus it has much more macrodynamic, the whole sound is more impressive in scale with the Pathos. Just to give a perspective.

But, If I would listening to mostly acoustic songs the Tor would be almost as enjoyable as the Pathos. It is with more complex music where the Pathos shines. As it should given it's price.

Oh, and the Tor has a much quiter background, almost no noise with the super sensitive Grado. (Just a tiny bit, only heard in the black of the night).

While the wait was long I think it was worth it. Besides the sound qualities the amplifier (for me) is a real stunner.

 

[OctavianH]

Interesting amp, but there is one thing I do not like from principle: the IEC plug for power cords, if you have better cables you cannot use them. And I'm refering to this one (picture taken from the website):

 

[carboncopy]

Well...I found it strange too. But I think it has to do with its design. It does not have any metal in its chasing plus the whole thing is transformer coupled. There is no place to connect the third (safety) pin of the cord.

But it can be ordered probably with an IEC socket, just the third pin will not be used. I think.

 

[OctavianH]

Yep, this is how I was thinking, at least for compatibility with other cables, even if only 2 pins are soldered. I have several good power cords, made at exactly the length I need so for me lack of compatibility with them is a problem.

 

[carboncopy]

I ordered some weeks ago a complete Shunyata cable loom (the Venom line).

They have this:

https://shunyata.com/products/power-cables/venom-line-power-cables/venom-v14-mini-power-adapters/

Maybe other manufacturers too...

 

[Bonddam]

wire world has that kind of cable for upgrade.

Interesting amp, but there is one thing I do not like from principle: the IEC plug for power cords, if you have better cables you cannot use them. And I'm refering to this one (picture taken from the website):

 

[audioisemotion]

Subscribed.



Let us know how it sounds!

Well the amp arrived and I have been listening to it for a month. I wish I had never said I would comment about it when it came. I was being silly as I have nothing to compare it too. There is nothing I have heard which is this good. The previous reviewer has a much more expensive head amp to compare it with and once the tor amp is burned in they may be surprised as I can definitely say it has improved over the month of listening.
The tor is using good tubes but there are better and for a few dollars more (pounds for me) the sound can. theoretically, be further improved. I bought this because of the simple design, the tubes chosen and most of all the choice of toroidal transformers for the output matching. It just sounded right technically and indeed it does sound right through the headphones.
Can I say its the best amp for the price, well no because as I said I have nothing in my history to compare it too.

I will say I listen to headphones exclusively every night and to high quality recordings. My hifi journey began in 1974 and I have no further plans to change this amp and its' an end point for me. I heard the designer is looking at a balanced dac and if it follows this design I may well buy that as well. I think once you find a sound you like it makes sense to stick with the designer of that sound.

I wish I had more experience of gear to entertain you all with comparisons and witty words about how it is or isn't a great amp.
I can only say I love it and everyone else who has something to say about it has been favourable and given the money back guarantee why not take a punt. I did and I'm now hoping for a tor balanced dac to appear. First though a pi2aes and some big batteries to prepare for it. Then into retirement with music to sooth the soul and some spare tubes of course.

 

[JazzArtist123]

Glad to see a few others have very positive things to say about what I was planning to purchase (@carboncopy and @audioisemotion). Finally set aside enough and purchased mine. Guess just a few more months now haha.

 

[audioisemotion]

Well the amp arrived and I have been listening to it for a month. I wish I had never said I would comment about it when it came. I was being silly as I have nothing to compare it too. There is nothing I have heard which is this good. The previous reviewer has a much more expensive head amp to compare it with and once the tor amp is burned in they may be surprised as I can definitely say it has improved over the month of listening.
The tor is using good tubes but there are better and for a few dollars more (pounds for me) the sound can. theoretically, be further improved. I bought this because of the simple design, the tubes chosen and most of all the choice of toroidal transformers for the output matching. It just sounded right technically and indeed it does sound right through the headphones.
Can I say its the best amp for the price, well no because as I said I have nothing in my history to compare it too.

I will say I listen to headphones exclusively every night and to high quality recordings. My hifi journey began in 1974 and I have no further plans to change this amp and its' an end point for me. I heard the designer is looking at a balanced dac and if it follows this design I may well buy that as well. I think once you find a sound you like it makes sense to stick with the designer of that sound.

I wish I had more experience of gear to entertain you all with comparisons and witty words about how it is or isn't a great amp.
I can only say I love it and everyone else who has something to say about it has been favourable and given the money back guarantee why not take a punt. I did and I'm now hoping for a tor balanced dac to appear. First though a pi2aes and some big batteries to prepare for it. Then into retirement with music to sooth the soul and some spare tubes of course.

Update
I have been feeding this Toraudio amp with a topping D50 single ended dac, using single to balanced inline converters. Not a good or pure path for a feed to a balanced amp. I have been saving my pennies and have bought a Gustrard A22 dac, which is fully balanced all the way through. It will take time to burn in and then I will try to compare balanced to unbalanced as balanced tube amps are like hens teeth.
Next month I plan to add a Pi2aes as its i2s out is setup for the Gustard dacs I2s input. It would have to be shipped from America so a final system review is going to be at least a Toraudio order->delivery away. LOL. I have also heard of some simple modifications inside another Gustard dac which is said to take the performance even higher. These modifications are reversible so I may give it a go. I also need to move the Toraudio to it's own connection from my apc battery power supply because when I turn it on it's capacitors draw enough current to cause my monitor to go blank for a few seconds as they are on the same filtered trailing sockets. So this small amp must have some large group of capacitors inside. A previous post spoke of a suitable power lead for this and I may as well get one ordered. Damn this is getting expensive.
Once I have the pi2aes setup with the i2s I will report it's sound compared to the current win10->usb3->Gustard->Toraudio-> Ananda, Grado,