Return of the King!

Return of the King!

(or Queen)...

Way back in 2005, TNT Audio did a comparison between Charlize and other T-amps.

And Charlize won the little virtual bout.

Hey, we weren't suprised. We tried a few Tripath chips before settling on the one that sounds best. Between then and almost 2 years later today, we have tried other offerings too, for more power but sad to say, though the power is there, the gracefulness isn't.

Okay, here are the major changes in this new Charlize: -

No input coupling capacitor
Save your precious moolah! Some time after we sent Charlize to TNT Audio, we then upgraded the input capacitor from Elna Cerafines to Non-Polarized Black Gates. But now, eliminating this cap improves the sound even further! Less component in your signal path leaves you closer to your music.
[*sob*sob* yeo is going to lose out on mundorf cap sales. but hey, see what lengths we go for your sonics?]

No turn-on 'pop' noise
Yup, without the input cap, there's no charging of cap during power up. Thus, no more "power up pop". Just a soft 'tick' sound. Yeah, our girl purrrrrrsssss...

Various tweaks
Added some nice tweaks here and there to the new design that reduces electrical switching noise. Definitely not obvious to you but if we say there is so, then there is!

So why go through all the hoolah? The fuss? The work? The whole rigmarole?

For a more beautiful Charlize, you dummy!

How about better highs? More details? Hey, who wouldn't welcome a more revealing Charlize into their homes?

Downside
After relaying the layout to go "cap-less", there are 2 caveats with the new Charlize.

No feeding her DC voltage okay? Previously there's a cap there for this purpose but there's none now, so don't be daft and feed her some strange DC voltage okay? If you insist, and you get strange noise... brother, what are you thinking? Actually all properly designed gears shouldn't give out any DC voltage at the output but we just said that didn't we, "properly designed gears".
Charlize's power supply has to be STANDALONE. Yup, don't share her power supply with another girl, sorry, component, or ANYTHING at all. Even Monica. Yeah, Charlize is a bit fussy here. She must have her own power supply. I tell you, she'll scream at you if don't heed this advice.

There you go! Just 2 little caveats. If you pay attention to this, Charlize will reward you in spades! [Otherwise I'll come to your house and clobber you with a spade!]

This is the part I do my sales pitch
Okay, back then when the TNT review came about, the only T-amps to use the TA2020 chip are Charlize, AMP6 from 41hz and Autocostruire 2020. But today, there are so many! You said "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery"? Well Charlize is flattered!

If you look at Charlize's competitors, they are mostly built using thru hole components rather than surface mounted components. What's the big deal you may ask? It's not a big deal if you love a higher noise floor. You see, we build using the more difficult-to-handle surface mounted components for sonic reasons and not for ease of manufacturing.

We still insist on using air core inductors, not ferrites. Hey, it's a lot more work but it's for your sonics okay?

Lastly, we heard that even after extensive mods on the competition's offerings, Charlize still reigns supreme. And now the bar is raised with the NEW Charlize.

So why waste your time going for the pretenders when there is one and only one King around.

With apologies to Mr Tolkien, all hail the Return of the King! (or Queen...)

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