Coda Technologies

Source: Stereophile May 2005

Review dealt with Coda S5 power amplifier, 50Wpc pure class-A. What makes Coda interesting is that the founders have in their background a company called Threshold - a formidable company founded by Nelson Pass and which most audiophiles think became extinct. Their S/5000 amplifier was reviewed in April 2004 Revue de Son with preamp R3.0 with very good remarks, especially S/5000's measurements were immaculate. Soundstage has also S/5000 review on-line.

About Coda S5. Wes Phillips said: "Listening the music through the S5 was a delight - and a sensation...at the very least, you really ought to experience your music through the S5 at least once." He was really captivated my musicality of this amp.

The S5 was reviewed by Srajan Ebaen of 6moon.com in April 2004. Based on what I understood (?), he also liked the S5. But the way this guy writes the reviews (extract from S5 review: "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."). I mean, come on! I do understand it is tough trying to get through market noise and establish yourself as a serious HE-reviewer, but trying to communicate in meaningful way might facilitate it.

Viewpoint: Love to learn about this "new" (actually has been in operation more than 15 years) audiophile company. Note their mission statement: "We are a mission-driven organization singularly dedicated to the advancement of state-of-the-art audio reproduction technology". Seems to me that they operate with the same bandwidth as Plinius Audio and Pass Labs. The only alarming thing, and for me running against the face to that mission statement, is some troubling measurements. Stereophile measured input impedance of 1085 ohms (!) in balanced mode. Forget using tube pre-amps with S5.