eVo & S
Time to put those purportedly gold-plated (actually, gold-over-soft-brass) ears to use and split hairs. The comparator wouldn't be my customary AUDIOPAX monos for obvious reasons -- comparing tubes and solid-state while remarking that one doesn't sound the same as the other is a bit fruitless -- but the Bel Canto Design eVo 4 GenII. So much in-depth ink has dried on the eVo amps that even someone who's never personally heard one can have a reasonably close image of their sonics purely from the exhaustive reviews that have described them. And that makes the eVos a highly useful benchmark to refer to. Of course, time waits for neither man nor eVolution and the GenII eVos benefit from comprehensive upgrades all across the board. But then, so does the S5 over its own older stable mates. Even penny-wise -- definitely not pound-foolish, both amps in this comparison are unequivocally great HiFi values -- even dollar-wise, this would be a fairly matched juxtaposition. The comparable eVo 2 retails for $3,290 dealer or direct (yes, Bel Canto's new on-line store now adds factory-direct options at full retail to service territorial 'white spots') - and the eVo 4 is effectively two eVo 2s in a common chassis. I'd forego the lure of balanced-bridged operation on the Bel Canto amp and use it as a de facto eVo 2. I left both amps continuously powered up for 48 hours prior to launching into this session to assure that their respective circuitry had thermally risen from the dead and was ready to put its best foot forward.


First up was the new and just-reviewed Blue Moon release by El Pele/Vicente Amigo called Canto for song [BMG 82876559282], and specifically the buleria "Los Amantes" that sports Susi and El Pele assuming the
female/male polarity in the Cante Jondo Flamenco song department; with Cristobal Agromonte on saxophone; Rafael and Antonio de Los Reyes on backup chorus; Antonio Ramos on bass; Paquito Gonzales and Pedro Barcelo on percussion; Marcos Vidas and Antonio on palmas, and Vicente on guitars. This CD rocks! If you didn't think Flamenco could, you've obviously never heard Camaron - or El Pele.


Very dynamic, with a full assault battery of charged transients from the guitar, percussion and hand claps and completely hair-raising vocals that give new meaning to the adjective incendiary, this is a stupendous cut, very well recorded like the whole album and perfect to take the measure of electronics. Both amps were far more similar than not except for one distinct difference - the Coda amp placed more emphasis on the leading edge. This made for more incisiveness on percussive elements, creating a jump factor that had certain string attacks, hand claps and highly charged vocal emoting literally explode forward from the general textural fabric of the soundstage. Have you ever seen those boxes with movable pins arrayed as a tightly packed cluster - you create an imprint of, say your hand on one side which aligns all the pin ends to perfectly conform with the contours of your hand in negative space while, on the other end of the box, you get to admire your imprint in positive relief?


The S5 aimed for deeper imprints and thus more jagged peaks on the other end. This translated as a more forward character of gestalt. I'm not talking about a spatial soundstage shift - the performers didn't move. I'm referring to the energetic realm of how the music felt. By comparison, the eVo seemed more relaxed, less bristling and charged. If you've seen the Oscar-winning movie/musical Chicago and noted the difference of body language between the trained Zeta-Jones and the learned-for-the-movie Zellweger, you understand exactly. The former's entire body, no matter the challenge of the dance move, always remains centered, connected under fluid tension and accordingly radiates an aggressive communicativeness that's fully conscious of the audience through every single motion. The latter, when you feel into it, moves differently and does not consciously project her energy upon the viewer. This is plainly visible and, in the movie, simply a function of Renée being trained as an actress, not as long-term Broadway dancer like Catherine.


Musically speaking, the Coda added a few degrees of transient charge. At higher volumes and on this energetically already hot material, said perspective introduced a degree of hardness and steeliness sooner than the eVo - and remember, whenever you play things louder than is realistic, this always happens with HiFi. It's simply a question of how far you can push things before this phenomenon sets in. The more resolved a system becomes -- i.e. the truer it is to the signal -- the less margin for user willfulness remains; the more critical it becomes to select just the right and appropriate playback level; and the easier it is to hear exactly where this level resides which, naturally, is also a function of room size, listener distance and hearing sensitivity.


Because the Tripath amp was inherently more relaxed, you could push it harder before the fur retracted and the first claws became visible. For both amps, I'm talking enthusiastic levels - hence this isn't a criticism as it is a mere observation to flesh out the point about the flip-side of enhanced leading edge speed. Its added outline sharpness can be an attractive three-dimensional asset or turn into a minor liability depending on the overall voicing of your system, what you consider average playback levels and the kind of music you fancy.


What this excursion into the anguish-ridden depth of truly blood-curdling Flamenco song confirmed was simply that all the earlier tech talk about speed was no marketing fluff. No, speed is the name of the game with the S5. Unlike the expensive Mapleshade cables which deliberately push this trait to its ultimate edge, the S5 does not come across as harmonically bleached or zippy - but neither is it harmonically enhanced. It thus straddles a particular cusp that, like most everything in fine audio, will require a complimentary balancing action whereby to retain the very real asset portion of this quality while avoiding to tap into its potential liability section.


Dulce Ponte's 1995 landmark recording Lágrimas [BMG 74321 25787 2] must count as one of the ultimate female-vocalist gems not just in an audiophile demo but most profound music sense. The title cut is one of my favorites here - though ask me another day and I might well falter and claim "Cançao Do Mar", "Nova Fado Da Severa" or any other. But just as with Lila Downs, Sœur Marie Keyrouz and Kari Bremnes, you can't go wrong with Dulce Pontes. All four permanently live in my secret harem of music divas - and one's a nun to boot. And no, I'm not giving you the keys to my kingdom. Jesting aside, the track "Lágrimas" features a Portuguese guitar on the left, a Spanish guitar on the right, Dulce in the middle, and pedal chords and embellishments of strings in the background - simple and rapturously gorgeous.


The already noted grip which the Coda exerts on leading edges made for slightly stronger vocal lock or focus. The eVo didn't sound amorphous or blurry by comparison but simply a tiny bit softer. The other item of note -- but again also subtly -- was the Tripath amp's more extended fades, especially on Paulo Jorge's Portuguese guitar floating against the backdrop of string ambiance. This could possibly have been a function of the Coda's higher noisefloor where my 103dB hornspeakers were concerned - the level of background hiss on the S5 was higher than on the Bel Canto, something that would turn completely inaudible on more conventionally efficient designs.


Remembering the Coda Unison Ltd vs. the first-generation Bel Canto eVo 2i, I gave the nod of airy treble effulgence to the latter at the time. Comparing the new S5 against the GenII eVo4 now, the Minneapolis advantage no longer held true. In my book, both designs were as equal as equal gets without being a bat or test bench. What's clear too via hindsight? That Coda's integrated amplifier is both warmer and 'fuzzier' than the S5, making the stand-alone amplifier a more resolved and dynamic design, albeit also one that's less forgiving. And in the scheme of expense and advances, that's exactly what you'd predict. I agree with Mark Ward that the enhanced transparency of the S5 does not go about its rescue work in a recognizably solid-state fashion. The only area in which it still does telegraph transistors is in the domain of harmonic density where, to date, I've only heard one sand amp be the true and unequivocal equal to valves.


Besides being an altogether 'different' design, this -- ongoing -- mystery amp did sport output transformers just like McIntosh but wasn't a Mac. But I shan't belabor this point. It's as mute as wishing for a white girl to have one of those stacked derrieres certain black ladies are blessed with. Some things just don't happen, no matter how close they seem to come at times. There was one last item I wished to explore - balanced input drive, especially because the unusual S remote access between RCA/XLR inputs would make evaluation truly child's play. Alas, my spare pair of balanced interconnects unexpectedly developed a short in one leg and the other pair was out on loan to a friend. However, Mark Ward has courteously agreed to let me hang on to the S5 for two upcoming digital amplifier reviews as a short-term in-house 'conventional' amp reference. Upon the next sighting of this Coda in these pages, I shall comment on whether or not balanced drive confers any advantages or sonic shifts.


For today, the verdict is, I believe, an already-open secret: Coda's newest amplifier is not only excellent value but a highly accomplished, flexible and diligently tweaked amp that clearly benefits from compounded savoir-faire on part of its makers who are busy not just with their own brand but contractual OEM work for other well-regarded marques. As it should be, the S5 is an essentially neutral device (as far as any listener can ascertain such a thing; read my latest ruminations on this subject here). Its stomping grounds rest more or less squarely 'in the middle', diverging from invisibility merely with certain core strengths that remain recognizable solely because of their well-endowed focus. Hey, if you've got it, flaunt it so folks notice, right? Speed and micro-dynamics then make up these 'noticing' core attributes to create a very direct, lively, crisp and -- when the music summons those reserves -- exciting sound with just a skoch of warmth.


Perhaps even more notable are the things the Coda doesn't do: Dryness and relentlessness, the potential shadowy alter egos of speed and dynamics. The very fact that these adversaries have been banished speaks once again of balance - balance of design, balance of parameters, balance of attributes and qualities. And while talking about such balance isn't as rife with immediate conversation material as more flamboyant personalities would provide, it is exactly what superior components should leave in their wake: Little to talk about since it's the music you notice, not the component. Let the music provide its personality. To do so requires no or very little personality on part of the portal through which the music is being summoned.


And with the Coda S5, you can rest assured that if anything, passage through this rev-happy portal is slightly accelerated. What can I say - the design team here has clearly done its homework. Through some private off-the-record exchanges with Mark Ward -- two sales managers, one ex, one current, commiserating over the interface dance such parties perform between engineering and customers -- I caught the distinct impression that said homework was a very fruitful give'n'take between hard engineering on one hand (all solder sounds the same) and audiophile sensibilities on the other (I insist that we get that discontinued part revived). Bravo. While some audiophile notions are clearly nothing more than bad religion, others in fact are grounded in empirical evidence. And what could ultimately be more rewarding than having certain of those notions be attested to by hard-boiled text book guys who don't embrace weirdness for the sake of weirdness but take out the slide ruler and whack it over the head until it keels over and gives up its ghost.


Consider the S5 then the outcome of a collaboration between the resident dyed-in-the-wool 'philes and an experienced team of circuit designers and accountants who had to translate a very specific wish list and ongoing critical feedback into real-world hardware at a real-world price. That mission's been accomplished with a bang. If you're in the market for a true Class A transistor amp of 50wpc that runs cool but goes nose-to-nose with the famous eVo, the only question remaining is which color you want the beast in: All black; black with silver face plate; black with graphite face plate, black with gold; all silver; all graphite; all gold? I did mention that the S5 is a handsome chap. I didn't? Goodness gracious. Well, hard-core audiophiles claim that looks don't matter but the pix said something else all along and better than I could have. So the S5 sounds like a champ no matter how you slice it, don't it?
Coda responds:
Our sincere thanks to 'the Moon' for an excellent unbiased and candid review. As usual, Srajan's style and unique brand of insight was a delightful and informative read. Entrusting him with the debut of our newest creation set the bar quite high... we wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

We are honored that our latest Class A Precision Bias amplifier has performed so well in the presence of such great digital amplifiers as the Bel Canto eVo 4. This is further indication that, as new designs come and go, two topologies remain the bedrock of audiophile amplification - tubes and Class A solid state. Our continued efforts to refine Class A into more efficient modes of operation will find our designs in the homes of discerning audiophiles for years to come.

Srajan refers to the synergy of our development process in the review. It is indeed a pleasure being a member of such an excellent team of design engineers and devout audio enthusiasts. In addition, the feedback we receive from our customers, reviewers and friends are a crucial part of our design and refinement process. The final result of this organic development process has been a living, breathing example of the audio art - the Coda 'S Class' Amplifier Series.

Lastly, kudos to Srajan and 6 Moons for such phenomenal growth and universal respect within the audiophile and manufacturing communities. Here at Coda, we are proud to support this unique and valuable presence in our community.

Mark Ward
Director of Marketing and Product Development
Coda Technologies, Inc.

Manufacturer's website