Tellurium Q Listen Pre-amp and Atom power amps
You may have noticed some changes in my signature file recently. A couple of weeks back Colin (@Brain_dead) lent me three little boxes, around the size of my Young DAC, along with some TQ Blue interconnects and an extra set of Ultra Black speaker cables because my set are currently with @Jim.
It’s taken a while to run them in, but after Al’s pitch for the Best British Amplifier, I thought I’d better say something about these amazing pieces of kit.
Let’s put this in context. I'm known as being the owner of possibly the UK's only pair of NVA TDS power amps. I've had them for nearly 20 years and haven't heard a single amp that has made me want to move on.
For example, this year at Scalford, I found just one system I thought I could really live with. Andy's system based on Avondale amps, very similar Mac & Young front end and similar two-way speakers was almost as good as mine :-) . A Snell/Audio Innovations system also did some good things, but I'm not about to go to the tube side. The rest? No thanks.
The set-up I’ve been listening to is my Modded White MacBook/Audirvana+, Young DAC and outboard PSU feeding the TQ Listen Pre and then two Atom power amps bi-amping my Royd RR3s with TQ Ultra Black cable on the tweeters and TQ Graphite cable on the bass/mids.
Swapping out the TDSs and Statement pre for the Listen and Atoms has been a revelation. On balance, I prefer the TQs.
I can't tell you how much I wasn't expecting that.
I have to say that these amps are really special, and I think a lot of people will love them, especially because of their size. Imagine having proper high-end hi-fi at the size of a mini-system?
To understand why I think these amps are so great, I think the TQ speaker cables I've been loving are a great place to start. With these amps in the system, all the great things the cables have been doing - detail, stereo image, bass extension, texture, involvement - have been increased.
I must mention the bass range. Some time ago, a man who built our bookcases and had a bit of interest in hi-fi insisted that I had a sub-woofer hidden somewhere when I played him some music. At that stage, there was no TQ gear in the system. Now, I have even more tangible double basses and bass drums. Kick drums and floor toms are a visceral experience - a punch in the stomach even at only moderately loud levels. Electronic sounds shake the room, too.
These things go much louder than I thought they would. And, because the sound is so clean, it's very easy to keep pushing sound levels up until your eardrums are telling you it's getting loud! Shockingly, these tiny amps sound more weighty than the NVAs.
The challenge when using them is not to harm the RR3s, as there are no remaining drive units available.
I have some recordings with treated piano, and you can really hear and feel the strings, metal frame and body of the instrument. Keith Jarrett's stamping on the Koln Concert is shocking in its immediacy.
I don't listen to much classical music, but I'm currently being hypnotised by Anner Bylsmer's performance of Bach's Cello Suites. He's sitting in a wonderfully reverberant acoustic, and the system is finding the odd 'noise off' that only adds to the experience of having a cellist here in the room.
I'm completely bowled over by the stereo image. The soundstage just occupies the whole room, and when the source material is up to it, the speakers disappear. Closing my eyes, it's impossible to hear where the speakers are. I've never felt that soundstaging was a great priority, but having heard what this combo does, it's now up there as a must.
I notice that Joe Akroyd claimed that the RR3s were designed to minimise phase distortion, something that Colin has been stressing with the TQ designs. I think there's some great synergy going on here.
The system, as it stands, is merciless with source materials. Some may not like this, but most of the material I listen to is of good quality (ie there's little 'chart' material , compressed to buggery, on my NAS), so I want as much illumination of what's in those files as possible.
The downside. The one downside, is that they can lack the fluidity of the NVA set-up, making the music sound a bit stiff and mechanical sometimes. They sometimes sound a bit cold (not in the temperature sense). But, in every other way, the TQs win out.
And, with everything else seeming so right, I've been just sucked into the music rather than worrying about coldness/dryness/lack of fluidity.
In being home-friendly, they break the rules of needing huge great power supplies to get the kind of dynamics and grip these things give. I don't know what Colin has done, but he seems to have broken some hi-fi laws with these things.
However, I am a bit disappointed with the exterior design and finish. They're fine inside my cabinet, but if I had them in a room with nice decor I'd like to see some shiny or otherwise special faceplates, and the volume control knob is a letdown both in terms of appearance and feel. I also feel the typography is from a by-gone age.
I think they have a real chance to sell these to enthusiasts who struggle with WAF if they just raise the presentation quality a bit. Even my wife, Sam, who doesn't complain about my gear said how much she likes these little boxes.
I'd also like to hear the Atoms with a TQ passive, designed to pair properly with them and with phase distortion minimised. Alan's Lightspeed gave a glimpse into a world where a little more delicacy exists, but at the expense of stereo image, which collapsed back towards the speakers' plane.
I haven't tried the headphone amp yet, though. Just because I don't have a set of worthwhile cans. Col tells me it’s great because it’s one of his beloved Class A designs.
So, there you are. A real surprise. A set of brilliant amps that just happen to be tiny.
Comments
I was lucky enough to spend three hours or so listening to this setup a week or two ago, and I have to agree with @Uglymusic's assessment almost 100%. I am genuinely gobsmacked that what I considered an absolute pinnacle amp setup, a reference, has been bettered. By tiny weeny little boxes! What trickery goes on inside I cannot imagine...
Well done Colin, I sincerely hope these amps make it into production. I haven't really stopped thinking about them since (nor have I stopped being very jealous of Dave)!
Colin may insist that Class A is better, as he does have that fixation ;-)
Where do you live?
Oh, well. Can't offer you a listen and a cuppa
They weren't intended as private thoughts, it was just that Dave hadn't told you his thoughts yet. Would you like me to add what I said as well? - For the record, everyone else, I loved them.
I had certain expectations of your amps, given the TQ black is ever so slightly
on the 'warm' side and the fact you favour class A amps. To be
honest, I didn't feel any of those expectations held up (which is a
good thing). I thought the amps were pacy, downright brutish in the way
they put the music out into the room but still delicate in the way
detail was handled. Perhaps they are still just ever-so-slightly on the
warm side of neutral, but that is no bad thing (as the NVA can be ever-so-slightly
on the strident side).
My comments are based on the system as a whole (I did not know the Listen pre/Headphone amp is already in production when I wrote this)
The soundstage was wide, the image thrown
was truly extraordinary. I have never heard such a fullsome, solid image
before, and it became really addictive. I have to wonder if the imaging
is down you TQs obsession with phase, the cables do something
special and hard to describe with the soundstage and so do these amps.
Is it really possible that your active pre is more phase coherent that
my passive LDR? This is astonishing. Really Col, you have built
something special here.
On the subject of soundstage, Dave and I
put my Lightspeed LDR in to try it out. It had certain good effects
(more about this in a minute) but it caused the soundstage to collapse,
it was no longer as three dimensional as with the TQ pre. It wasn't bad
by any stretch, but what Listen was doing in concert with the Atoms was really amazing.
It
was interesting to compare the two Pre's, I enjoyed both for different
reasons. I did feel the Atoms really wanted to be driven with an active
pre. With your TQ pre, there was something about the bass, how it
projected into the room, the 'shapes' it threw. The Lightspeed did very well,
but the bass was just slightly diminished - but the lightspeed didn't allow the power
amps to have quite so much control. I only really noticed this
with Rock/blues or electronic music - on acoustic bass there was no
issue at all.
There was one area where I might have preferred the
lightspeed, it seemed to have a small edge when it came to getting out
the way, being invisible. The Listen has just a smidgen of character to the Atoms, when
it is removed you can hear it. I suppose it is swings and roundabouts,
both pre' seemed to be amazing but the preference would be down to the
listener. I think I would be happy to live with either, except for one
thing - the huge soundstage thrown by the TQ pre. Having experienced
this, I will always want that in my system but doubt I will ever
achieve this. Obviously the Atoms are a key part of this, but I thought the Listen & the Atoms go so well together they are almost an integrated solution.
(This makes me think that I would like to hear
your LDR design (remember you mentioned this a while back - with green
LEDs?) - and perhaps something like a PASS B1 buffer, so those power
amps have the same verve they do with your TQ pre. I did plant such an
idea in Dave's mind, so I apologise if he brings this up... )
Really
the only criticism I can find is a certain dryness in the treble, a
thin-ness with some things. I noticed it with Hi-hats and tightly tuned
snare drums (I used to drum myself). Dave had a similar thought, but
said that this had been progressively improving, and was far far better then it
had been. I am confident it will improve further with time - but I
honestly am nit-picking here. I could live with this right now.
Interestingly, I didn't think the Lighspeed changed this, so I would say
that was more a character of the power amps. Otherwise, the power and ability to convey more detail than I have ever heard simultaneously is addictive. By the way, they were spellbinding on Piano work, the immediacy of the note being struck was so just dynamic.
Col, Dave's system is
very similar to mine. We both use a MAC source, the same DAC (and power
supply), the same type of amps (NVA statement), similar speaker cables
(TQ) and identical speakers. We like the same things, but Dave is way
better at expressing what he hears and analysing things. I know how his
system sounds - but I have never heard it sound so fine. -- I don't know how much of that is down to
the amps themselves, or the cables, or a
kind of synergy which overtook the whole system, but it left me pretty stunned.
If I were ever in a
position to spend three grand or so on an amplifier system, I would go
straight for these. I am convinced you have cracked something
fundamental, after hearing them for a few short hours.
There it is then, I wish I had spent longer with them. As they are pre-production test items I was trying really hard to be critical, so my nit-picking should be seen in that context.
I agree with Lasse, sounds like a great idea.
And no designing PCBs under the blankets with a torch, y'hear?
My streamer 2 is an inline USB DAC, it's about the size of a flattened mars bar and takes its power from the USB line.
I was reading what someone thought of the Iridium Class A amp, I would be surprised if the Atom was able to beat that. Beat most other stuff, to be sure, but not it's big brother!
@Chrisb bought the one I procrastinated over.