Transcendent

Transcendent Sound was founded by Bruce Rosenblitt, an iconoclastic engineer who disregards “common wisdom” to produce some of the best sounding amps available at any price. I would argue that his SE OTL is the best sounding amp you can buy, period.

Bruce designs his kits to be easy to build. Everything’s mounted on printed circuit boards. Some of the wiring can get tedious, but there’s never any question of whether you are going to be able to get the thing done. All his products worked the first time I powered them up, and have never caused a bit of trouble. This is the way kit amps should be done.

Bruce’s trademark is the the use of his patented “Output Transformer-Less” (OTL) technology. This eliminates the output coupling transformer from tube amps, along with the distortion and non-linearity of the transformer.

When I bought his products, the T-16 monoblocks (40 watts/channel) were his flagship product. They have since been supplanted by an amp he calls simply “The Beast”. I’m awfully pleased with my T-16s so I don’t know whether I’ll bother upgrading, but I would definitely recommend any of his products.

T-16 system

The system consists of (top to bottom):

-Micro Seiki DDX1000 turntable with Micro Seiki MA 505 tonearm and ClearAudio Virtuoso Wood cartridge

-Sony SACD player

-Transcendent Grounded Grid preamp

-Transcendent T-16 monoblocks

-Transcendent Balanced power Supply

-KEF Reference 201 speakers

(The brown box at the top is a Nitty Gritty record cleaner)


	Here’s a closer view of the T-16’s:


	And a peek inside (they’re not as complicated as they look, most of the wiring is just tedious, not difficult):


		The Micro Seiki DDX 1000 turntable.....

	and the KEF Reference 201 speakers

SE OTL

This is Bruce’s foray into the Single Ended Triode (SET) market. Being Bruce, he wasn’t going to follow conventional wisdom in his design and instead used his patented “Output Transformer-Less” technology and applied it to the SET market.

I own a few power amps (in case you haven’t noticed) and I have to say the SE OTL is the best sounding amp I own. It’s one big downside is that it only produces 1.5 watts/channel, which pretty much restricts your choice of speakers. I’m using Klipsch Cornwalls, which have an efficiency of 98 dB/watt, and the SE OTL can drive those to ear-bleeding volumes.

This system consists of:

-California Audio Lab Delta CD Transport and Sigma Tube DAC

-Bottlehead Foreplay preamp

-Transcendent SE OTL


	Contact me at: david@davidsaudio.com


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