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In the spirit of learning new things, I just bought a Butler TDB 5150...

...5-channel amp. Rated, all channels driven, at 150Wpc into 8 and 225 into 4, I'll use it initially to drive my main speakers (still the 97dB-sensitive Serenity Super-7s) and centerchannel, a Revel C208, and one pair of surrounds/ceilings. Will drive the rest with my humble-but-old-and-good Outlaw 7100. Found the '5150 on eBay and in Phoenix for local pickup, saving $50, and ended up paying less than half of current retail price. :-)

I may also buy a local pair of Vienna Acoustics Mahler speakers to see how this amp drives speakers requiring almost 10dB more power than the Super-7s. If this amp proves to sound great (and 99% of the reviews and opinions I can find indicate it will), I'll buy a Butler model TDB* 2250, the 250-into-8 and 400-into-4 stereo amp for the Mahlers and later for the Salon2s.

Have chosen not to afford my former pair of McCormack DNA-750s due mostly to the cost of getting both amps back to excellent condition plus SOTA improvements. When each amp has 8 DNA** caps, and the combination of BlackGate and SoniCap-Platinum replacement caps cost $100 each DNA cap, that's $1600 for the two amps plus more work to do and pay for. That's the same reason I'll soon be selling my c-j MET150 and ET250S hybrid poweramps. (Interestingly, these two amps have the very same power ratings as the two Butler amps.)

But first, the Butler '5150 has to sound great.


* TDB = Tube Driver Blue, one of BK Butler's trademarks.

** Distributed Node Architecture, which has small PS caps (generally, 470uF) mounted 'at' the output transistors. After buying the assets of McCormack Audio of Califirnia some years ago, conrad-johnson has been using this technique in all of their SS or hybrid amps for several years.



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