Customer Reviews

Sonic Impact Super T Amp 5062 Amplifier

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4 star:		(3)
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This (and it's super cheap little brother) are some of the most hyped items in audiophile land. I approached the super-T with skepticism: I mean it's a 10 wpc amp with a cheesy outboard power supply. How good could it be? The answer is very good indeed. In my setup with Athena AS-B1.2 (super cheap $99 speakers with high 90db sensitivity), very good speaker wire (Straightwire Maestro - yes it's worth more than the rest of the system - but it was lying around) and a G4 iPod with losslessly compressed rips the music is forceful, tuneful, and involving. This combo's strengths are jazz, female vocals, folk, pop, and small ensemble classical stuff. Hard rock and orchestral stuff sounds a little small. Its zone of competency is very wide, however - and within it bass is rich with great pace. Trebles are sweet and extended. The midrange is lush and tube-like with incredible presence. Vocalists sound like they're in the room and I frequently stop what I'm doing (the system is in my kitchen - so I'm usually cooking) to listen - a very good sign. This level of musicality at this price is outstanding. This system blows away my mid-level system of Dynaco Stereo 70 amp, NHT model Zeros. I swapped the Dynaco (a classic tube amp with 35 wpc) into the kitchen system and immediately noticed the loss of bass impact and high end clarity I enjoyed with the Sonic Impact.

Caveats? First of all - it's a very low powered amp. That means you must use very efficient speakers or it will not bloom. Second, your output is only as good as the source. Make sure you use a source with great resolution or you're just wasting your time.

I've heard you can upgrade the power supply and get better sound. It wouldn't surprise me. This unit begs to be tweaked in general. I can attest it sounds great out of the box. This isn't a true integrated amp. It offers only one input. The only controls are a volume knob and a power button. For me this is ideal. You don't need a pre-amp! The cheaper Sonic Impact T amp doesn't have binding posts (uses clips) and has a plastic body, lacks power supply and smaller on-board caps. It's meant to be battery powered. It's also only $40 - but tweaking is mandatory on that unit (you'll need to add a power supply at minimum - and those speaker wire binding clips are real downer). There's a new prettier version of the cheap unit - but it's still a battery powered less robust unit. This one has no capacity for battery power, comes with a decent power supply and a beefy extruded aluminum case and big serious binding posts and beefy caps. I think the extra money is well spent. You can use this one for an audiophile rig right out of the box. You can tweak this one too - it's so easy to get to the circuit board and replace the outboard power supply - but it isn't necessary at all.

Considering that the Sonic Impact/Athena AS-B1.2 system is less than $250 and rivals serious systems - I don't see any competition as a stay-at-home iPod system from the purpose-built iPod systems. A CD/DVD player would also make an excellent front end. Is this a giant killer? I don't know. I didn't put it up agains the ARC Classic 60 in my family room. I don't think it's fair to put a $140 amp up against kilo-buck gear. In the sub $1000 price range it's a monster and a paradigm shifter - even given its limitations. If you listen to the right music - and have the right ancillary gear, you will not be disappointed.

(addendum - I posted this as a comment - but feel that it adds to the review):
I can't leave well enough alone. I have two other music systems in my house - the Super-Zero/Dynaco Stereo 70 system mentioned above, and a home theater setup with a Yamaha HTR-5860/Gallo Micro w/the Gallo woofer sphere. The Sonic Impact Super-T/Athena system is cheaper than these other two and is more musical and involving than either. The Sonic Impact really has lush tube-like timbres with nice solid bass and a very refined treble. The Dynaco lacks a bit of clarity by comparison and the Yamaha lacks both the refined treble and the lush mid band. The Yamaha is very representative of basic cheap solid state amps - the principle competition at this price range. Listening to the Yamaha isn't a chore - although you have to be careful to turn off all that filtering garbage that I tend to throw on to TV and movies - as it utterly trashes musical playback. The Yamaha has excellent bass. The treble band has a bit of grain, however, and doesn't feel effortless or sweet. It's not bad, it just doesn't totally sing. The mid range also feels competent, until you compare it to tubes - or a tube-like amp like the Super-T. The Yamaha's mid band is neat and clean, but is without a trace of romance or glow. It lacks that voluptuous quality that brings tingle and thrill. The genius of the Super-T is that it does that tingle and thrill mid band thing kinda like expensive audiophile amps at a budget price. The Athena's blow away the little Gallos too. Note - the little Gallos like power and don't light up well with the Super-T. That's the main issue with the Super-T - you must find some really sensitive speakers. The more sensitive the better.

I've had the Sonic Impact Super-T amp for several months. Yes, it's an incredibly good sounding amp on the cheap but only if your speakers do not require much power. These puppies don't put out anywhere near the claimed 15-watts.

The Sonic Impact Super-T amp sounds wonderful listening to smooth jazz or female vocals at modest volume levels but don't expect this thing to rock. Turn up the volume a bit and it WILL distort.

As good as this "T" amp sounds, I don't think these Tripath chip based amps will be taking over the world anytime soon. Looks like Tripath couldn't pay their bills and filed for bankruptcy in February 2007. Cirrus Logic bought up some of their assets and intellectual property.

My Sonic Impact Super T amp is now powering a couple small but efficient speakers in my little kitchen system attached to my Slim Devices Squeezebox for streaming audio.... A cute toy combo w/o spending too much money.

For the price, T-amps are fantastic. But no, they won't be replacing high audiophile gear anytime real soon. And don't even think of getting 15 clean watts out of one. Push them that hard and sound quality plummets.

But if you don't need to shake a room, and you want cheap, clean amplification, this thing's cheaper brother (the 5066 in the plastic case) is very, very impressive, for the price. Caveat: you can't bridge them, so 5 clean watts is 5 clean watts. Don't look for much more.

I have both the T-Amp gen 1 and the Super T and I can say confidently that they are great. The Super T definitely is worth the extra money if you care about having nice connectors and a nice chassis. The regular T-Amp is good too, but this one is nicer.

I use them with my home made Electrostatic hybrid speakers (13x36" panel + 6" TL woofer). The sound is very good, plenty of volume, and I've never had any issues with the amp faulting. I have seen many solid state amps fault out when connected to ESL speaker panels, but never with a T Amp.

The only thing I don't like about this amp is the Blue power LED. It is WAY too bright.

Overall, I'm quite happy and would recommend this Amp to anyone.

No, don't think of replacing a high-powered amp or receiver with the 15-watt wonder. BUT, for the price, and with high-efficiency speakers, you will be hard pressed to match the clarity of the sound.

I use this to power a pair of Klipsch AW-650 (outdoor) speakers, which are hyper-efficient at 95dB (1 watt @ 1 meter). The Super-T drives them perfectly, producing nice string-instrument textures, punchy (not boomy) bass, and an overall top-to-bottom balance that belies their low price. Sure, you may be able to find a bargain-basement receiver for this price, with lots of features, inputs, and more (supposed) power -- but it will sound like mud in comparison.

The trick is to get high-efficiency speakers, so that you don't need a whole lot of brute force power to reach adequate sound levels. Do that, and this amp will reward you with sound that punches WAY outside its weight class. Horn-loaded speakers seem to be a perfect fit.

The only complaint I have is that the volume knob which I guess is machined to produce the "grippable" surface is kind of rough-edged, not polished down as smoothly as it could be. But what do you want for this price?

...you might want to do a Google search for "Stereomojo digital amp shootout." It includes this SuperT-amp, the Trends Audio TA-10 T-amp, and a number of other digital amps costing as little as these and as much as $1000 if I remember correctly.

The surprising winner: the $120 Trends Audio TA-10 (now $150, alas) which I personally own and have been extremely happy with. Google up their website. Sold in the US by audiomagus dot com and in Canada by ObadImports dot com.

Power is really not an issue at all, I have 89db sensitivity speakers and in a 25 x 25 room with high ceilings, the amp effortlessly reaches very very comfortable listening levels without any distortion. No you won't shake the plaster off the walls, but believe me it's plenty loud for most people...easily 75-85db is my guesstimate.

The sound is wonderfully rich with full luscious mids, precise treble, and tight healthy bass. Above all, incredibly musical in a way that I had only experienced with tube amps and upper-mid-fi gear (the stuff sold at Best Buy and other big chains falls under low-fi).

This Super-T amp is not quite as good as the Trends Audio, but fairly close the last time I heard it. I would whole-heartedly recommend either amp over any other 2-channel receiver or integrated amp up to $800, if pure sound quality is your top priority (it's much closer if features and versatility come into play).

Simply blows away amps costing $2,000+. Sonic Impact's patented technology has amp makers in trouble. The sound is AMAZING, at a fraction of the cost of comparable models.