Posted by noize_harmonics (A) on March 20, 2012 at 00:48:50

I just completed my TRK-3488 last Friday and was able to start using and listening to it the same day and half a day on Saturday afternoon. I was very impressed with the sound and even more I haven’t even break-in the unit for 24-hours. Without even turning the volume control to the maximum, I can tell that it can produce around 114dB up to 120dB using speaker pair with 88dB efficiency which can surpassed my calculated output of only about 107 to 110dB SPL. I used two speaker types, the BMB speaker with horn tweeter just to check if it sound without smoke and it sounded great and then I finally put it to my well-ventilated audio rack where I paired it with my DIY speakers I bought from Parts express, the model is TriTrix MTM TL speakers where I spent about $300 total including the paint, the glue, etc. I attached photos here just to show and at least visualize how happily I enjoyed this Tube amp.

Comparing TRK-3488 to Transcendent’s “The Beast” OTL using only about 80Watts of Power (half of 160Wpc), I would say it cannot beat the Beast but at least it can be a candidate for runner up based on my own comparison. The Beast is a $5,000.00 Tube Amp(my friend bought and built it) which me and my friend auditioned a week ago and yet it’s very close comparing the sound quality, the muscle and brilliance of every instrument that comes out of it. Comparing TRK-3488 to Jolida’s JD502 CRC (60W/ch @ 8-Ohms) Class AB tube amp, it easily beats the Jolida when it comes to clear sound reproduction and at high volume TRK-3488 is dead-quiet listening in front of my speaker. The Jolida amp I’m using already reached the break-in period and so it’s now producing a clear, brilliant and complete detailed sounds with wide bandwith and yet the TRK-3488 surpassed that quality even before reaching its break-in period.

All of these comparisons just to tell you how happy I am with this Triode. I haven’t even use my Polk LSI speakers yet and not even using the Vitamin Q caps – I’ll post the result when I already did. So, I want to thank Victor for recommending me this unit and without argument this is the one I will keep.

I attached some photos for reference.


- Alex