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CD player + integrated amplifier T+A elektroakustik E-Series CD Player + Power Plant MkII Price: 7490 zł + 7490 zł Distributor: Dynamax Contact: ul. Romantyczna 333, 43-384 Jaworze tel./fax 33 8101806 tel. kom. +48 662 714 883 e-mail: piotr.chmielarski@dynamax.pl Manufacturer's website: T+A elektroakustik Text: Wojciech Pacuła Photos: Wojciech Pacuła Translation: Krzysztof Kalinkowski |
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I already wrote earlier about the company T+A elektroakustik, during the test of the amplifier PA 1260 R. For “Audio” I tested the SACD player SACD 1260 R and the file player E-Series Music Player MkII. So I already know something about it. However this is the first time that I am testing a system coming from this manufacturer, composed of the player E-series CD player and the Power Plant MkII. Both are part of the “E” series, cheaper than the “R”. Instead of the CD player we can use the mentioned file player (for 9900 zl), which also has a built-in CD drive. T+A gear has its own, very characteristic external design – clean, but not sterile, it offers also lots of features, which are lost by many audiophile products, which have their sound path as short as possible or which are just cutting costs. T+A engineers chose another path: they tried to understand what a music lover expects from his or her system, a user, and not what they expect. Maybe this is not the most pure approach, in terms of sound, but for sure it is the most humane one. Because spending lots of money we do not only expect good sound, but at the same time reliability, solid devices lasting for years, and versatile ones. And this just how T+A products are – even the tested, cheapest system is like that. 
I received for testing a CD player and an integrated amplifier. Both have the same size and a characteristic shape – the sites are made from modeled, rigid plastic, the top, front and bottom from aluminum sheets. The top cover extends far to the back of the unit, protecting the plugs, with a reinforcement connecting both sides of the cover. Both devices are incredibly functional. In the CD we have a big LCD display, which presents information about track, time, CD-Text, bar-graph showing the position on the track, etc. The display can be dimmed in three steps. We have also three different filters at our disposal – two digital and one analog. Those can be used to influence the sound. There is also absolute phase reverse switch. The amplifier has tone controls – with nicely retractable knobs – which can be bypassed; there is also loudness and balance control. There is also a headphone mini-jack and optionally a MM/MC phono preamplifier. The player can be connected to the amplifier by an E-link connection, which allows using one remote to control the whole system and some additional automation. For example – when we put the CD out of standby, the amplifier will do the same, and the input will switch to CD. The remote bundled with the CD is the system remote F100, which can be used to control all T+A products. The buttons are not lit, but they are quite well placed and differ in color and shape. To date we tested: Discs used in the test:
Japanese versions of CDs one can find on CD Japan – press HERE. I could not help comparing the T+A to the McIntosh. Yes, I already wrote about that, but it is true – it stays in my head for some time now, and it is only confirmed with subsequent listening sessions, photographs, technical data, etc. We get an incredibly thorough, honest approach to the client, very “time proof” construction, and care for technical aspects and safety. But it is all about incredibly precise, thorough, absolutely solid sound. There is no “romance” or “strain” in it. On a diagram with an axis splitting the “warm” devices to the left and “cold” to the right, T+A system would be exactly on axis. Just like most McIntosh devices. This is not a sound, that appeals to anything – our sensitivity, our sense of quietness, safety or the need of clinical decomposition of music into primary parts. This is just neutrality. Both devices play in a very similar way, none dominates the other. Even more – the headphone amplifier of the Power Plant sounds similar to its loudspeaker output. We could just take it for granted, because in most cases (as we can see in the description part – not here) the signal to the headphone output is led from the loudspeaker terminals, but it is more than just mere information. Most amplifiers, which do not have a separate headphone amp, sounds different with loudspeakers than with headphones – and the latter sound really not well. I could not help comparing the T+A to the McIntosh. Yes, I already wrote about that, but it is true – it stays in my head for some time now, and it is only confirmed with subsequent listening sessions, photographs, technical data, etc. We get an incredibly thorough, honest approach to the client, very “time proof” construction, and care for technical aspects and safety. But it is all about incredibly precise, thorough, absolutely solid sound. There is no “romance” or “strain” in it. On a diagram with an axis splitting the “warm” devices to the left and “cold” to the right, T+A system would be exactly on axis. Just like most McIntosh devices. This is not a sound, that appeals to anything – our sensitivity, our sense of quietness, safety or the need of clinical decomposition of music into primary parts. This is just neutrality. Both devices play in a very similar way, none dominates the other. Even more – the headphone amplifier of the Power Plant sounds similar to its loudspeaker output. We could just take it for granted, because in most cases (as we can see in the description part – not here) the signal to the headphone output is led from the loudspeaker terminals, but it is more than just mere information. Most amplifiers, which do not have a separate headphone amp, sounds different with loudspeakers than with headphones – and the latter sound really not well. This time I started the session from the latter. I am not always acting rational, sometimes an impulse, a flash, something I am not fully aware of, directs me in a different direction than usual. When I unpacked the T+A system, placed it on the Base’a rack, I readily got the message the engineers of the company wanted me to get: it is a “system”. Looking well, user friendly, having worked out functionality and easy to handle system. It was so elegant, so mannered, that I wanted to listen to it the evening I packed it out, using headphones. It was not about killing it, as this is just what usually happens, but to consume what it promised. And so it happened. The sound from my Sennheser HD800 was surprisingly true. “Fidelity” is a good description of what I heard. No underlining of anything. And at the same time large sound stage and really good resolution. Dynamics was slightly flattened, and I missed some saturation of the midrange, but this can be expected from external headphone amplifiers for 2500zl and more. Here we get this for free. So if we do not want to spend 1500-2000zl for a separate preamplifier, we do not have to do that. It is just worth to look at the impedance of the headphones – T+A states in the technical data that they should have impedance greater than 50Ω, so for example Grados does not fit. Also with some Sennheisers modifications of impedance can have an influence on the final effect. Like I said using the T+A is like a fairytale. It is intuitive and easy. The large display of the CD player will show CD-Text and at the same time other useful information. In addition we have the choice of two digital filters and one analog filter, cutting of the frequency range at 60 or 100 kHz. And there is switchable absolute phase reversal. Each of those buttons brings changes to the sound – small, but accumulating into something bigger. The most pronounced effect is brought by the filters, then the frequency cutoff and finally the phase. But together this combines into a new quality – in my case, the discs sounded best with the no. 2 filter, “Wide” and reversed phase (although this last setting did sometimes change). Such sound was deeper and fuller. It has also a more palpable character. In general this is still a clean and slightly distanced sound. Because standing in front of the T+A we have to think about what we are looking for. I am writing about that every time, because this is the basis of a friendship with audio gear. Those German devices are going in the direction of “transparency”, trying to disappear from our field of view, not interfere with anything. This is of course only one of the many possibilities available, but a solid and clear one. This is why we need to know if this is a proposition for us. This kind of sound is mostly due to the character of the treble and midrange. I heard the same from McIntosh gear, also those costing ten times as much. The whole frequency range is flat, like a table, or at least it seems so to me. The idea behind that is simple – the device is a “pipe”, which allows the signal from the carrier flow through it, with as little distortion as possible. Garbage In Garbage Out - this phrase from the computer jargon fits here ideally. And this is exactly how the sound is. The vocals have an incredibly clean timbre, as do the cymbals. But they are not as saturated and multidimensional as for example from the CD-7 from Ayon and a tube amplifier. But this is just how life is. But they are deeper inside, are – I have to say it over and over again – cleaner, have a more noble attack. Such presentation allows for big possibilities of creating the sound using appropriate loudspeakers, cabling and room acoustics. When we try T+A with Spendor then we get something in the middle – fullness and thoroughness. When we attach Harpia Acoustic or Monitor Audio then we will get lots of space and splendid separation. The vocals themselves, although maybe not so vivid as from some other systems, have splendid volume. They are also deep, although in a less euphonic way than elsewhere. Their naturalness does not come from coloring, slight movements of accents but from the lack of those. Some gear of Marantz and Denon – but only some of them – try to follow that path, but there it does not translate into the increase of musical satisfaction, because it sounds too dry. The German system does not sound dry, I would even say, that it sounds juicy, just like we could expect from a system for the money. It is only that the lack of coloring, flat characteristics, etc, can make us think, that it sounds similar. But in fact it does not. 
The space is very good. It is built around a clean treble, and its size can be attributed to a very disciplined, active bass. It is springy and full. It is not colored, as for example with monophonic discs Kelly Blue Kay Starr and Movin’ Out Sony Rollins Quintet and Quartet the contrabasses had the same proportions I know from my Luxman M-800A and the Tenor 175S. For contrast I listened to synthetic bass, sometimes very deep, from Bright Red Laurie Anderson and it was even better. |
There was fleshiness and tightness. The lower bass, but really very low, was slightly less controlled; sometimes it reverbed longer and was not so well differentiated. But I listened to the T+A system mostly with the German Physics HRS 120 loudspeakers (for 95000zl), which are quite demanding in that aspect, and require absolute control. Here we could hear, that the Power Plant MkII is not a titan. With less demanding loudspeakers it returned to normal, but even there, we could not talk about the iron fist of the bass. But the biggest surprise came, when I listened to two, just received boxes. Please do not switch off: Bad Boys Essential Bad Boys Blue and 25th Anniversary Box Fancy. Both boxes were prepared in Poland by Damian Lipiński and/or Rafał Lachmirowicz, using 32 bit sound processing technology (please look at the pages 4everMusic and Klub 80 Records). For as far as I know, the recordings were copied from analog LPs, because the master tapes were either not available (what means – nobody knows how to find them), or in a very bad shape, and then re-mastered. So it could seem, that we would deal with a disaster, and computer pepped-up sound. But those gentlemen made something incredible – they brought them to life! It sounds much better than the original vinyls!!! How this is possible – I do not know, but I will find out… Anyway those discs have splendid saturation, depth, etc. Those are still recordings from the 80-ties, when most were bright, sharp and flat. But it turns out, that something can be done with those. Yes, some instruments sounds brighter, but this is only a part of the recordings. It can be heard that this is an instrument (or rather its synthetic counterpart), and not the recording itself, what shows the differentiation of German system really well. And the bass – low, strong and funky. 
Like I say – the T+A elektroakustik system is not for everybody. It shows the reality of the recording exactly as it is. This is the way the best system sound, but there the depth and saturation is built by resolution and something “extra”. The tested devices are not expensive, so this kind of presentation has its flaws. So we need to choose our loudspeakers wisely, and we got to know what we want. It is a brilliant system in terms of user friendliness; it has everything we could expect from an audio system. And it looks really interesting. This is a system for years, with solid engineering behind every little bolt in it. DESCRIPTIONE-Series CD Player On the front panel of the player we have a big LCD display, backlit in blue. It is very communicative; it will show CD-Text and other information with a really big font. It can be dimmed or its contrast can be adjusted. Below it there is the CD tray, which front is made from the same plastic as the display border – hence it is not readily visible. To the side we have buttons controlling the filters and red LEDs indicating its function. The first two are for digital filters. The first one is a classic FIR filter, with a very precise frequency response, splendid damping of mirror deflections (damping above the Nyquist frequency) and linear phase. The second one, with a smaller filter length, has weaker damping outside of the frequency response, but instead of that the “ringing” before and after the impulse is much better damped, and thus smaller. The next filter works in the analog domain – we can choose if the frequency is cut at 60 or 100 kHz. Although the upper frequency available with CD is max. 22.05 kHz, due to oversampling the frequency is changed to 352.8 kHz, and the output filter can be much smoother and placed higher. And finally there is absolute phase inversion switch. On another side of the display there are buttons controlling the drive. On the back there is a single digital output S/PDIF RCA and a pair of analog, unbalanced RCA. There is also a RS-232 socket, allowing the unit to be placed in custom systems (like Crestron) and two E-Link ports, for communication within the T+A system. Next to the IEC power socket is a mechanical power switch. The circuit inside is split between three main PCBs, one supportive PCB and one integrated with the drive. The latter is a universal module from the Chinese company ASA Technology, a leader in production of such transports (Rotel and some other companies use them too). Its tray is made from plastic covered with aluminum and reinforced on the sides with two messing, chrome plated pipes. The rest is also plastic, but as usual in DVD-ROM drives, it is reinforced with a metal plate on top. Two bitumen strips were glued on top of it, to minimize vibration. The whole drive, with the PCB below, is bolted to a rigid plate and that module to the bottom of the enclosure. From the drive the signal goes via computer tape to a big PCB, where we can see many empty spaces, what suggest that the same PCB is used with the R series SACD. There are also chips to control the RS, E-Link and digital output. There is also a DSP chip and a microcontroller. From that PCB, also via computer tape, we go to the output one. It is very nice, with splendid Wima and ERO capacitors. On the input we have two stereophonic converters Burr-Brown PCM1796, one per channel. Those are delta-sigma 24/192 chips with 123dB dynamics. In the I/V conversion we have one BB OPA2134 per channel. Behind them, there is empty space for volume control, used in other T+A devices. So the sound path is shorter here. The output, buffering and amplification use three identical Burr-Browns, same as before. The output is keyed with two relays (they choose the analog filter), next to those there are four big electrolytic capacitors, what suggest that the output is coupled through them and not a DC-Servo. The output RCAs do not have the middle pin gold plated. And one word about the power supply – this is a switching one, quite worked out, locally supported by additional stabilizers and filters. Technical data (according to manufacturer): Power Plant MkII In the price list, we can download from the web page of the Polish T+A distributor, the company Dynamax Power Plant MkII is described as “Integrated switchmode Amplifier”. I did not notice that at first, and I first listened to the unit, and then unscrewed it. Conform to the description, the PP MkII is a switching amplifier, working in class D. Frankly speaking, this was not audible during the test, but some elements post-factum can be attributed to it, but not all of them, what tells good things about the German engineers. But let me start from the beginning: the sections are split between five PCBs – four with amplifying circuitry and one control PCB. The preamplifier PCB carries only a few Omron relays and two opamps – one OPA2134 from Burr-Brown per channel. Next to them there are nice capacitors from Wima and Ero-Vishay. From this PCB the signal goes with a computer tape to the next one, bolted to the front panel. There is a motorized black Alps and active tone control made with the same ICs as the preamplifier. The passive elements are high class components, and the controllers are small Alps potentiometers, usually used in car audio. The signal then goes back to the first PCB with the same computer tape it got here. Then, with another short tape it goes to the power stage. I mentioned the headphone amp during the listening session. It seems that the signal is not taken from the loudspeaker output, and that the tone control PCB has also a full fledged headphone amplifier. The power section is a class D amp, this is why it does not get hot and it does not need a heat sink. It was designed from scratch by T+A. On the input we have two ICs from Analog Devices, the AD829, in sockets. From them the signal goes to the modulators PWM IRS20955S from International Rectifier. They control bridged MOSFETs, bolted to the bottom plate. I could not read the symbols on them. On the output we have the mandatory re-construction filters (low-pass) made on toroidal, core coils and Wima capacitors. Usually this is the Achilles heel of such amplifiers, and we could see, that T+A needed to save some money there – almost identical filters are in the B&O ICEPower modules (used for example in the amplifier Audiomatus AS500). 
The power supply is very worked out. It is a linear one – B&O uses a switching power supply. It is based on a toroidal transformer from Noratel, big and very solid. It has separate windings for the preamplifier and power amplifiers. The first one is stabilized and many times regulated. I’ll just add that the side panels are grated and covered with a vibration damping mat. All T+A devices come with its own product card, signed by a few people, responsible for quality control. Splendid work, and not a garage job. Technical data (according to manufacturer): |
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