Tucana ii review
Seasons greetings allBefore i start I would like to thank Robbie at the audio oasis, a proper gentleman to do business with. First up a bit about my old set up: creek evo50a. Absolutely nothing wrong with that amp, i found it to be a rather sweet sounding amp. I remember when i first hooked it up with the cm5. It sounded amazing and my brother said to me "can music sound any better than this?" Well, i now have the answer for him, that's beside the point i am trying to make here. Evo50a + cm5 sounded better than both the pmc 21 and cm6, and forgive me for saying this' 21 sounded unexciting and cm6 never paid much attention to the evo50. In class room scenario it was like a supply art teacher trying to contain a room full of 14 years old. This might have played a big role prompting an amp upgrade. I learnt a valuable lesson here and if you are new to this game take notes. As another forum member cnoevil mentioned on a speakers v amps thread, no matter how expensive the speakers are they will only sound as good as the amp, where as a better amp will make the speakers work to their full potential and a bit more. Now to the Tucana ii. Packaging was solid and simple. It weighs 18 kg so you feel the weight when you take it out of the box.Out of the box it looks solid and authoritative and those heatsinks on the either sides add a touch of arrogance to it. you just can not but admire it. Any one who understands hi-fi will know just by looking at it that this amp is made and designed to give pure pleasure. There is nothing unpremium about it with bomb proof built quality. Now to the performance and my limited command over english as a language might be apparent here, so apologies. When i pressed the play button, those speakers reacted, if i was to give another classroom scenario was like, how we would when unexpectedly head master walked in to the classroom in our school days.There was no messing around they did what they were commanded to do. Play music and music they played. Moving from a relatively low powered amp to something as powerful as Tucana does make you realise how much of an impact more power can have on the speakers and the presentation as a whole. First up a couple of indian tracks, vocal sounded sharp and commanding almost demanding attention from the listener, reminded me of those 21s i had. If you want something to play background music then look elsewhere. Bass from percussion instruments (tabla, dholak etc) sounded real and open stroke sounds reverberated with great accuracy. String instruments with bw's twitter on top sounded magical and produced almost like a 3D sound stage. All the instruments had adequate space in between them. Stereo imaging was very well balanced. one thing that annoys me about cheap hifi is their stereo imaging, they tend to over do it. Then came the Enigma cd 'cross of changes' track: 'love you kill you' again the electric guitar sounded very real and the handling of the expressions between each notes were amazing ,it poured out emotions. Even with rather husky and sensual vocal expressions in the song i was able catch each word. Then on to few other tracks, Bass guitar notes were very clear and i was able to recognise each note even when the drums were at high volume. Symbals started with intended impact and stopped without extra noise. All in all Tucana ii is a very sturdy and solid amp with plenty of power and finesse. It won't fail to entertain those who are looking to be entertained by the high fidelity sound of what we call music.Couple of gripes i have: A )i will have to reposition and use those bungs that were supplied with the speakers to minimise the bass at high volume. Not that i listen to my music very loud.B )it won't take command from either the marantz or arcam remote to even adjust the volume also the source and volume button are too close to each other which is very annoying if you hit the wrong button. Ok now the question is: does the Tucana ii justifies the price tag it comes with? Well, the simple answer would be: yes, but the life isn't always so simple. I haven't heard any other amp at that price range. However, i have a strong suspicion, at that price point, with good enough speakers and source they will all sound just as amazing or may be a little less or more but amazing nonetheless. Hi-end hifi manufacturers or anything hi-end for that matter, don't charge their consumers just because they are giving them a premium products. I believe it is also to maintain exclusivity and by paying more it makes us feel that we indeed are buying something special and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, after all. A )what would be the point of waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning when instead, you can enjoy the beautiful sound of rain on your glass window while lying down in your bed if you can't enjoy a bit of luxury.B )more importantly, if that purchase helps you stay within certain tax band/threshold.On a more serious note, if you are considering buying something as expensive as that i would strongly recommend you source a good preowned one and if you buy from a dealer or a reputed company you have nothing to worry about.Buying preowned/exdem will mean that you are mostly paying for the actual product and not for joining the club, if you know what i mean. Thank you very much for taking the time out to read my thoughts, if you have indeed read it thru.
Seasons greetings allBefore i start I would like to thank Robbie at the audio oasis, a proper gentleman to do business with. First up a bit about my old set up: creek evo50a. Absolutely nothing wrong with that amp, i found it to be a rather sweet sounding amp. I remember when i first hooked it up with the cm5. It sounded amazing and my brother said to me "can music sound any better than this?" Well, i now have the answer for him, that's beside the point i am trying to make here. Evo50a + cm5 sounded better than both the pmc 21 and cm6, and forgive me for saying this' 21 sounded unexciting and cm6 never paid much attention to the evo50. In class room scenario it was like a supply art teacher trying to contain a room full of 14 years old. This might have played a big role prompting an amp upgrade. I learnt a valuable lesson here and if you are new to this game take notes. As another forum member cnoevil mentioned on a speakers v amps thread, no matter how expensive the speakers are they will only sound as good as the amp, where as a better amp will make the speakers work to their full potential and a bit more. Now to the Tucana ii. Packaging was solid and simple. It weighs 18 kg so you feel the weight when you take it out of the box.Out of the box it looks solid and authoritative and those heatsinks on the either sides add a touch of arrogance to it. you just can not but admire it. Any one who understands hi-fi will know just by looking at it that this amp is made and designed to give pure pleasure. There is nothing unpremium about it with bomb proof built quality. Now to the performance and my limited command over english as a language might be apparent here, so apologies. When i pressed the play button, those speakers reacted, if i was to give another classroom scenario was like, how we would when unexpectedly head master walked in to the classroom in our school days.There was no messing around they did what they were commanded to do. Play music and music they played. Moving from a relatively low powered amp to something as powerful as Tucana does make you realise how much of an impact more power can have on the speakers and the presentation as a whole. First up a couple of indian tracks, vocal sounded sharp and commanding almost demanding attention from the listener, reminded me of those 21s i had. If you want something to play background music then look elsewhere. Bass from percussion instruments (tabla, dholak etc) sounded real and open stroke sounds reverberated with great accuracy. String instruments with bw's twitter on top sounded magical and produced almost like a 3D sound stage. All the instruments had adequate space in between them. Stereo imaging was very well balanced. one thing that annoys me about cheap hifi is their stereo imaging, they tend to over do it. Then came the Enigma cd 'cross of changes' track: 'love you kill you' again the electric guitar sounded very real and the handling of the expressions between each notes were amazing ,it poured out emotions. Even with rather husky and sensual vocal expressions in the song i was able catch each word. Then on to few other tracks, Bass guitar notes were very clear and i was able to recognise each note even when the drums were at high volume. Symbals started with intended impact and stopped without extra noise. All in all Tucana ii is a very sturdy and solid amp with plenty of power and finesse. It won't fail to entertain those who are looking to be entertained by the high fidelity sound of what we call music.Couple of gripes i have: A )i will have to reposition and use those bungs that were supplied with the speakers to minimise the bass at high volume. Not that i listen to my music very loud.B )it won't take command from either the marantz or arcam remote to even adjust the volume also the source and volume button are too close to each other which is very annoying if you hit the wrong button. Ok now the question is: does the Tucana ii justifies the price tag it comes with? Well, the simple answer would be: yes, but the life isn't always so simple. I haven't heard any other amp at that price range. However, i have a strong suspicion, at that price point, with good enough speakers and source they will all sound just as amazing or may be a little less or more but amazing nonetheless. Hi-end hifi manufacturers or anything hi-end for that matter, don't charge their consumers just because they are giving them a premium products. I believe it is also to maintain exclusivity and by paying more it makes us feel that we indeed are buying something special and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, after all. A )what would be the point of waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning when instead, you can enjoy the beautiful sound of rain on your glass window while lying down in your bed if you can't enjoy a bit of luxury.B )more importantly, if that purchase helps you stay within certain tax band/threshold.On a more serious note, if you are considering buying something as expensive as that i would strongly recommend you source a good preowned one and if you buy from a dealer or a reputed company you have nothing to worry about.Buying preowned/exdem will mean that you are mostly paying for the actual product and not for joining the club, if you know what i mean. Thank you very much for taking the time out to read my thoughts, if you have indeed read it thru.
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