Coda Technologies CS Amplifier Review

A Clydesdale Is A Beautiful Horse

They talk about “horsepower to spare” in motorsports. There is such a thing in audio as well. When assembling a system one may inadvertently under-power a rig through mismatching amp and speakers, a move which drains life from the sound of a system. But there is no problem on the other end of the scale; you’ll not soon regret over-powering a system. I consistently choose to have more “horsepower” in an amp than less.

I remember as a young man while in St. Louis on summer vacation to my grandparents’ home making a day of touring the Anheuser-Busch estate. This magnificent showcase of a home built through the business of beer is also a horse farm. For decades people have been seeing the symbol of Budweiser Beer, the eight horse team of Clydesdales. The Clydesdale is a draft horse, a working horse, and it only takes one moment standing beside them to get that point! They are hugerelative to racing horses, with hulking muscles and broad shoulders. They have equine torque in their legs, the true “muscle horses” of the world. But when not slogging through a slough, when cleaned up they are beautiful.

I would describe the Coda CS amplifier in similar terms. It is a strong, consistently reliable performer with a sense of ease driving even tough speakers. Capable on its own, it became towering in its presence when multiplied for four or six channels. It is an excellent choice for an individual who wants “no nonsense” quality and no solid-state thinness or treble scratchiness. Throw less efficient speakers at it and it will not flinch. Pair a couple of them and learn how an amp with “torque” pulls through music with ease. The venerable Threshold amps of the past were seen as reliably rich and muscular. Here is a contemporary equivalent in the Coda, an amp which can shoulder under a rig and carry it well! If you’re tired of pissy solid-state amps which seem to crap out when pushed, it’s time to call upon the Clydesdale of amps, the Coda CS.

Even The Budweiser Clydesdales Have Synergy

Budweiser has a tradition of advertising at the Superbowl using the Clydesdale horse team, but a new owner, Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2010 was going to cut the horses from their ad. Bad move. In a Facebook survey, fans selected the advertisement with the horses over two others; the horses were shown at game time. Horses, beer and football – it’s testosterone –laden synergy. We audiophiles rarely claim to be driven by our hormones, but I’ll admit that I much prefer a good, stout amp to a “lite amp.”

In the same way, the Coda CS and Legacy Audio speakers are a commercial for component voicing as a guiding principle for component selection. The Legacy DSW is a speaker just begging to have a powerful amplifier driving it. The CS does so, and in exemplary fashion. The outcome of this is that my conclusion is trending toward the belief that it is advantageous to the audiophile to look first to equipment which has been used in voicing rather than take a shot in the dark. While it would be impossible to say definitively that one will obtain the absolute best performance from doing so, I believe I can support the belief that one will obtain excellent results.

Synergy is real, but it’s not some mysterious, elusive unquantifiable quality that some audiophiles get and others don’t. It’s designed into gear, but only when used with the complementary electronics with which it was voiced. Case in point the Coda CS and Legacy Audio Whisper DSW. Over the years I’ve gravitated toward Legacy speakers as my reference since they combine virtues of speakers I value. When an amp drives them well, I find it will drive many other speakers commendably. That is what I find with the Coda CS. It is outstanding with the Legacy line of products, and I’m guessing that if you hitched one up you would find it to be a workhorse you would soon not want to be without.