Does anyone have any experiences with the Tru Technology C-7.4T (tube Amp)? How good is it compared with other SQ amplifiers on the market? Does tube amps make a lot of difference compared to non-tube amps?

Cheers!

Seems like Tru Tech amps aint that popular...

It is popular, but then the price aren't, very few people can afford that particular amp. My advice is to try out the amp yourself.

Tru Tech are very well regarded but are quite expensive and hence are not as commonly used as some other brands, particularly the C7.

henrysutrisno is a member on here who has just got one. Try a search on it and get his feelings….

Yeah I love my Tru Tech but have never heard the C7. I would say that they are popular seeing as a lots of rich people have them in their cars. I think their was a Lamborgihni or something with a few in it?? But yeah how many people on this forum have a car like that Ask about Jaycar and you will get a lot more responses simply because lots of people can afford them.

Not sure about the tube series of Trutech... but what i have experienced in tube, they are not road friendly... the tube is quite fragile... i used to have Butler Tube Driver and I took it off because problems with the tube and it cost me AUD300 to replace them. However, TruTech might have solved this problem tho... usually tube amplifier is not as powerful as any other amplifiers... but it procuce a very warm sound... i took butler as an example eventho it is not a fair comparison... butler 2150 produces 2x150watts... and i used it to run Dynaudio MW160GT... i compare the result with ARC2100 and ARC is much more powerful... the musics are more live...

I have 4 TruTechnology amplifier so far... T1 4.65, T03 4.150, C7.4 and Hammer H1... and i love all of them... The T series are a very american characteristic amplifier as they are very powerful, detail and bright (not as bright as those ARC Audio)... IMHO to have a better result, i wouldn't recommend you to use Alpine or Pioneer headunit... Eclipse, Denon and Nakamichi are hightly recommended to pair with any TruTechnology amplifiers... it would give detail, neat, warm and mellow result...

I just installed my C7.4 in my car a couple of days ago... so i can't really give a short review regarding it... and I'm still working on the passive crossover... All i can say, C7 is more to european characteristic... When it comes into TruTechnology, you can't go wrong even with the T1...

Cheers

What do you mean by not road friendly? and it's quite fragile? Is it due to the bumps on the road?

yup... due to bumpy road... i didn't know that until i bring the butlers back to Indonesia where bumpy road is one of our cultures... LOL...

Maybe its your lowered car with the big rims.

Get a 4wd and dodge all the bumps. lol

LOL... it might be one of the factors... but it was before i put big rims and lowered it down...

From memory, Tru Technology do not use Svetlana tubes that Butler use.

well, if so then problem is solved (maybe)....

Any recommendations on what speakers would go best with the C-7.4t? Since you said it produces a very warm sound, should I be looking at speakers that are able to produce a warm sound as well? Thanx!

Depends on your budget tho... I like the one that is attached in my car but i'm not too sure if you have it in Australia... it calls Fabulous Acoustic... there are 3 version... the most expensive is FA1 (USD1650), FA3 (USD750) and FA2 (USD550)... visit the website www.fabulousacoustics.com and if you are interested to buy, lemme know... i can probably send it from my country...

Another option for you to consider is Scanspeak D29 and Scanspeak Revelator midbass... notes, do not buy the R29 as it is harder to cope up with car environment...

fyi, Fabulous Acoustic midbass is made by Audio Technology (Skanning)... and unlike any other tweeters on the market, Fabulous Acoustic using Ribbon instead... i assume you know how the ribbon tweeter works... I used to have R29 in my car and I decided to get rid of it and go for Fabulous Acoustic FA1 and i never wanna look back...

If you can afford to buy a C7.4T, then by all means look at the high end model of some of the widely known high end brands (Dynaudio, Seas, Scan Speak, Rainbow, Morel, Focal, etc.). I believe that of all the audio components, speakers are the most subjective when it comes to listening preferences, and they do have sonic differences (what may be excellent sounding to me may be so and so to you).

If I were you, I'd go for Seas Lotus Reference because of its excellent midrange performance, snappy midbass and very smooth highs. And to some people Seas speakers are very close to being transparent; that is, they neither add nor substract anything from the original signal upon playback. With tubes being 2nd (and/or even) harmonic distortion amps, you might as well produce those enjoyable-to-listen-to distortions with accuracy.

Cheers,

Bon

PS: You lucky sod (if you do get a brand new C7.4T), I could only afford a 2nd hand C7......but it's still a C7 nonetheless!!

I can't seem to get into that website...Are you sure that's the correct website?

Cheers!

That's http://www.fabulousacoustic.com (without the "s" after acoustic).

Cheers,

Bon

Thanx guyz!!!

You might want to look at milbert 235 as well. I use it on bumpy road in Bangkok for 17 years and it is still in working condition. Along the line I have gone through 1 set of tubes due to normal mantainance cost A$250 all up or you can auction vintage tubes from Ebay but that will cost more and definetely sound better. I personally never heard anything better than milbert before not even Luxman, Mcintosh, or alpine F900. so for the $$$ milbert have the longest service life and the best sounding amp I ever own. Their might be something better on the market but I just haven't discover it yet.

C-7.4T is an amazing piece of gear. Not cheap, but hand built quality rarely is.

Milbert has one of the best tube amplifiers in the car audio industry... and i think the price is not as expensive as Trutechnology...

Milbert indeed... here's mine
My Milbert

hey,
hendry..tell us more bout your new speakers ok..how much slope they hav en wat points do they crossover etc. ive been wanting to try a Aarum Cantus or Raven ribbons to go with some seas or morel but was held back by people telling me its not easy to integrade them well in a car environment. Ive heard ribbons in home speakers setups n their detiai is amazing especially in the very high freq range........TELL US MOREEEEE......

Go for the G2si I have use G3 and I feel like killing my self!!!! be very careful about this thing it is so fragile only one pop from an amp is more than enough to burn everything. I would recommenr you to use 4Uf camp as a safeguard against any disaster. While ribbon are very detail it is very hard to get the staging right. riggon is very localise due their narrow off axis response. I personally don't want to waste too much time getting the angle right. it will work great and sound great but you stage will end up having nearly no pan. only hard Right Center and hard Left with virtually nothing in between. But the detail is far better than the Ring radiator. I hope this help

hey golf,
thanks for yer comments.......mmm.i was exactly goin for the G2 as i can get it for a very good price. and yeah the fragile nature of the foil is to be considered i guess..but AC ribbons usually have well conforced casing now...i think unless somone tries to poke it with a stick..i guess its reasonably safe for the car. may i ask wat sort of midbass did u use with it.did u go for a 3 way or 2 way. But if i go ribbons i like to go ative though...makes it easier to tune when on the road whenever i want to.

Gp for G2si. Even G2 scale is too big for a car. Whenever the scale is bigger you will need more space for it to do a propper job. no matter what you do, don't connect the ribbon directly to your amp. you will kill it!!!!! my mids are Fostex FE168 E Sigma. the only mid to match the sensitivity of the ribbon without killling the piggy bank. You can go Lowther if you like super hi-end stuff. I ran my ribbon 3 ways. with DLS IR3 softdome mid.

Speaking about ribbons golf, are you familiar with Swans drivers? What do you think of this? Swans RT1L

Also, have you heard the LCY ribbons, too? Either the 108, 110 or the 130 drivers. Oh, for those who don't know: LCY

Cheers,

Bon

Nop I have use only 3 ribbon so far. Infinity Emit, AC G2 andG3. I have read some article about the ribbon you have mention above but Ijust haven't got a chance to audition them. so couldn't help you much. Regguading the material of the ribbon, pure aluminum is the best. Kapton ribbon sound quite dull and a bit harsh to me.

Is it true that u can fix yourself those ribbon tweeter?? I read the tutorial on how to fix it and it seems quite simple, just a aluminium foil and glue lid (to make the zigzag pattern), but then the material would be different right??

seems that golf_bht has answered your questions... BTW, if you have any processors such as PXA or BSS or Behringer speaker management, you wouldn't have to worry about the staging... just put the tweeter on the dashboard with 15 degree on axis and you'll be allright... and make sure that the tweeters installed at the same height with your ears to get the optimum staging... I, myself having problem with the staging as I don't trust any processors... it creates a very digital sound for some reason... i've tried PXA, HXD2 and Behringen speaker management... they are just don't work well with my ears... LOL...

It is true that ribbon is very fragile... a lil bit of low pass... BUMM... get yourself another pair of tweeter... and one more thing about ribbon, do not park your car in the open area during summer time... the heat kills the ribbon... IMHO, can't really compare this ribbon tweeter with any non-ribbon tweeter on the market... it has an AT28 kinda characteristic... very strong in musical... the frequency range is wider than non-ribbon tweeter and you don't really need to run 3 ways to have a perfect sound...

Setting up custom passive crossover is such a pain in the a$$... it is harder to build one than non-ribbon tweeter... time consumption is one thing too... just be patient... LOL...

for midbass, the best midbass that i have ever heard is audio technology midbass... it is uncomparable with any midbass on the market... dynaudio, focal, scanspeak... you name it... unless you have the very old monitor audio midbass (home speaker)... but goodluck in finding one coz i've been trying to search for brand new and second hand but i have no luck... if you are willing to spend big $$$$ for midbass, try audio technology CQUENZE... it depends on the car but it can go crazily low... you wouldn't need a subwoofer for SQ setup tho... however if you need one, Audio Technology FLEX unit subwoofer FS is 18Hz... it does go EXTREMELY low... but the price is unquestionable... dang it!!!

btw, can i get the website for Aarum Cantus and Raven???

hey,

raven
http://www.orcadesign.com/companys%20produ...ers/raven1.html

ac
http://www.aurumcantus.com/

yea.........skaaning is good.......but price is also good tooo . right now i'm pretty happy with my kinocrapa davis mids......but ive got spare morel thats why i want to try the ribbons in.....maybe in my gfs car 1st......hihihihih btw wat ribbons does that fab acoustics use.

kinocrapa: if i'm not mistaken, its aluminium ribbon... BTW, aurum cantus... izzit China manufacturing??? the midbass section got chinese characters and the company called JINLANG Audio and the address is in China... pretty amazing hah...

yeah man.....ahuah its MADE IN CHINA....another good brand LCY ribbons is hongkong made too...but i think in these cases....these r the higher ends in their countries. so henry......can i ask where u mount yer ribbons....i think i will try some ACs if i can find a way to mount them on the dash or pillars......somehowwww..

kinocrapa: i heard that HongKong has a lot of brand that we might never heard before but extremely high end... i mount the tweeter on the pillars... i'll take some pictures and i'll post it up in this forum...

Kinocrapa: here is where i mount the tweeter... sorry i haven't took the interior picture... you are see a big square thingy on the pillar... that would be the damn tweeter... LOL... very disturbing but that is the best place...i hope i can give you the idea... remember 15degree in axis...

henry,

From your photo it seems that you mounted your ribbons sideways/horizontally. From what I understand, in its normal or vertical position ribbons actually have limited vertical dispersion and excellent horizontal dispersion. By mounting them sideways you're effectively listening to their vertical responses. Why is that? Is it because you're trying to combat side bias and reflections from your interior panels? But that wouldn't make sense, because since their "normal" horizontal responses become the "new" vertical responses there would be tons of reflections instead.

But do correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers,

Bon

bodapa: good question... i'm mounting it vertically... once i asked my installer and the dude that bring FA to the country... why vertically??? If the tweeter mount horizontally, the staging will be horizonally narrow... a total mess up... and this particular tweeter has the instruction for the installation (just like venture, esotar and morel supremo)... it has to be mount vertically and 15degree in axis...

henry,

You've just confirmed the general idea of how ribbons should be oriented, and I agree. It's just that from your photo it doesn't look like as if they are mounted vertically...more like horizontally.

Cheers,

Bon

bodapa: i'll post up some more interior pictures... but later, coz my car still in the workshop...