Review: Neuhaus Labs’ T-2 Tube Amp Transports You To Audio Heaven

Until I tried Neuhaus Laboratories’ T-2 vacuum tube amp, I thought I had a pretty good speaker system hooked to my Mac. It was a three-piece ensemble with a pair of nice satellites and a honking big subwoofer. It pumped out 200-watts and I thought it sounded great.

But then I hooked up the T-2 Amplifier, and it’s literally night and day. I know this sounds like an old cliche — but it’s true. Even a half-deaf old punk like me (too many ear-piercing concerts) can hear the difference. It’s striking — and it’s absolutely glorious.

Based in Miami, Florida, Neuhuas Labs is a newcomer to the audio industry. Its $795.00 T-2 Amplifier is a blend of old and new technology. It’s powered by trusty old tubes for warm, rich amplification. But it has a pair of digital inputs and a built-in DAC (Digital to Analog Converter) so it plays nice with your computer.

Plug in your Mac via its one of its digital ports (USB or optical) , and it acts like an external sound card: the DAC allows the T-2 to bypass your machine’s internal sound circuitry.

There’s several tube amps on the market but few with digital inputs. Most have older analog jacks, which forces you through hoops to play music on your computer. The T-2 is designed with Mac users in mind. It’s “made to bring audiophile quality sound to people who use iTunes and especially Mac users as we have incorporated an optical connection,” says Neuhaus’ founder and CEO, George Golik.

The optical port (SPDIF/Toslink) is designed for newer Macs with digital audio out, as well as Apple’s Airport Express. Hook the amp to an Airport Express and you have a high-quality stereo that can stream music wirelessly from any Mac in the house. The system can be controlled by an Apple remote or iPhone/iPt running Apple’s Remote app.

I’m no audio snob

I’m definitely no audiophile. I love music, but I’m happy listening to a cheap radio or a pair of iPod headphones. Or so I thought.

I was skeptical about the benefits of vacuum tube amps until a buddy set up a listening test a few months ago. First he played a song from his iPod through a solid-state amplifier and a pair of good-quality computer speakers. It sounded great. But when he played the same song through the tube amp, I almost fell off the couch. It was much, much richer and warmer. It sounded like a crest of warm ocean surf breaking over my quivering earbuds.

So I had high hopes when I hooked up the T-2 to my Mac (via USB) and a pair of Polk Audio Monitor 5A speakers, which date from early ’80s. I like bass, so I also wired up an old JVC subwoofer. The T-2 is two-channel at 20-watts per. The subwoofer is wired to both speaker outputs.

Audio Heaven

Crank it up and woah! What a sound! It’s gorgeous. Fat and meaty. Beautifully detailed, with a solid kick from the sub. There’s no comparison to the old computer speakers. They’re nasty and horrible now, like a cheap tranny radio. I’m in audio heaven. Got it up mid- loud and it’s as clear as a bell. I like that bass though. It’s really a pleasure to listen to music like this. What have I been missing all this time?

Of course, a heavily compressed MP3 will only sound worse through this amp, but these days, newer digital formats like FLAC or Apple Lossless are as good as LP recordings, or so Golick contends. It certainly sounds fantastic to me. Most music is still recorded for two-channel stereos, and you can always listen to your uncompressed CDs.

Though the T-2 is not cheap, Golik says it’s equivalent to tube amplifiers that cost $3,000-$4,000, and likely don’t include digital inputs.

The amp is built like a tank. Weighing 20lbs, the body is made from stainless steel with a piano-black finish on the front and a mirror finish on the sides. Round the back, there’s three gold-plated analog inputs for hooking up other stereo components, and the speaker connections (also gold-plated).

As befits a $800 piece of equipment, the T-2 is nicely packaged. It includes both cables, a pair of white gloves and a remote. In addition, Golick is so confident his amp will impress, he offers a 15-day return policy, shipping included, no questions asked.

Now Everything Else Sounds Like Sh*t

DON'T MISS

Of course, the T-2 Amplifier has ruined my life. All my other audio equipment now sounds like ass. The home stereo, my kinda-fancy iPod earbuds, even the Harman Kardon soundsystem in my car, which is highly rated, all sound wanting.

What am I going to do? I can’t afford this. Help me, I’m turning into an audiophile.

The Specs:

T-2 Amplifier is a true Push Pull Vacuum Tube Amplifier (not solid state)
Output- 20W x 2
Frequency Response-10-30KHZ
Output Impedance-4ohm-8ohm
Harmonic Distortion-1.5%(1KHZ)
Input Sensitivity-1000mv
Input Impedance-50Kohm
Signal to Noise ratio-85db
Power Consumption 100W
Weight-19.8lbs 9kg
Dimensions-11.5 (W) inches x 11.5 (D) inches x 6 (H) inches
Tubes 4-6N7 2-6N1 2-6N3
Homemade output transformer is made with two special designed EI steels and the OFC wire by our technicians. It has high frequency range with low distortion.
Stainless Steel Case
Japanese ALPS Motor potentiometer
Steel Black Piano Black Glossy Finish Front PanelMirror Stainless Steel Body
Removable Flat Black Steel Tube Cover/Clear Polycarbonate Side Panels
Volume Remote Control
Slow Start Power On
USB and Optical/Toslink/SPDIF Input
3 Rear Gold Plated RCA style input jacks
Gold Plated speaker connectors

27 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by Leander Kahney.

Posted in iTunes, Music, Reviews, Top stories |

onesixone
Haha. This article is written so lovely. Great. I definitely will not test this superior device, cause i couldn’t afford it either.
Sayam Aggarwal
I can’t afford it either and so want it after reading lol..
Charel
This brings back memories of my Quad pre & amp in the seventies. It lives with my sister now. I have never been able to achieve the sound since. I have just bought a new iMac and am broke, so no buy from me at he moment, but I’ll keep it in mind for the future.
Just one question. Does the AC input allow 220v or is it 110 only?
MonsterMagnet
Charel, is that you dad? Ha ha! My old man was a “quad” nutter, had the full kit, hydro-vinyl turntable, JVC quad amp, demuxer loads of cables and big mess of complicated stuff I never under stood! When he cranked up the Doobie Brothers and Creedance through quad it blew the roof off and it was so warm and mellow.
I love all these modern amps, very expensive and crystal clear sound, but then someone plugs in an iPod, ( despite owning several Macs I utterly hate the naff sound you get through iPods! ), then plays an MP3 through them, from a 128kbps source, compressed to death so you have a really narrow range of sound, it ruins any chance of getting quality.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of these FLAC snobs, quite the opposite, I listen to a lot of metal so 256kbps MP3 is more than enough for the crap I listen to, but if you’re going to buy pukka, expensive kit like this for your sound rig, then you should always start with a really pukka source to make the most of it.
http://www.thefieryscotsman.com Mike D
$800 is a small price to pay for audio heaven!
I’d be very interested in getting my hand on one off these.
iGenius
Some advice: Get rid of the Polk POS speakers, and the booming sub. Hook up some high definition speakers and a large tight subwoofer (careful, large and tight seldom go together except at high prices).
And then get back to us.
It is likely that you can borrow some good speakers for evaluation purposes.
You should notice details in the music that were inaudible before. Like “Hey – I never noticed that there are three vocalists singing harmony there!” or “Hey – listen to how sometimes the bass guitar and the drums play together, but at other times they play totally different lines!” And when you are not really listening carefully, it will just sound beautiful – it will, as you like to say, “just work”.
Most especially, if you get somebody to set it up properly for you, you will hear 3D sound stages with width, height and depth. Electronic music will fly around the stage, just as the producer intended, while acoustic music will be rock-solid. If you close your eyes, it will feel like you are right there with the performer in the same room.
Good electronics are important, but high-def speakers are necessary as well. Especially for midrange stuff like vocals and guitar.
http://cultofmac.com Leander Kahney
@Charel no idea about the voltages i’m afraid. i’m sure the company can tell you.
@iGenius thanks for the advice. i did approach a couple of speaker companies about testing some quality speakers with this rig, but didn’t hear back. i’ll keep trying.
http://cultofmac.com Leander Kahney
@iGenius got any recommendations for speakers and subs, btw?
FeralFreq
Please post pic of “tranny radio” V curious.
http://www.t2tube.com/ ÙŠÙˆØªÙŠÙˆØ¨
@iGenius got any recommendations for speakers and subs, btw?
Bryan Walls
…and by “literally night and day” you mean literally figuratively.
iGenius
Hey Leander –
First, kudos on your Neuhaus blog getting noticed. I saw lots of reprints elsewere, and your buddy over at WiReD.com sounds mighty jealous!
Next, I’m not terribly recent on audio gear. My audiophile days are long behind me. But that being said…
If I were you, with a couple of published books and as somebody influential in the Mac world, I’d contact smaller, higher-end American speaker manufacturers. My guess is that these guys have dedicated staff to help the media to get product to review.
First you need to decide what sort of a setup you want: Desktop stuff surrounding your monitor, or full-sized speakers to fill a living room or office. I’d go for the latter, given that the amp has no dedicated low-level subwoofer output (desktop-sized speakers will have a separate subwoofer, and optimally, will need such an output) . Get some full-range speakers with good deep bass response and ditch the separate subwoofer. Make sure to get proper speaker stands if your speakers are not floor-standing..
If it were me, the first guys I’d contact would be Snell Acoustics. They are a Massachusetts maker of quality speakers in various price ranges. Boston Acoustics is similar, but more mass-market oriented.
B&W (a/k/a Bowers & Wilkerson), a British company with a North American office, is already into the Apple world with its Zeppelin iPod dock. They make very fine speakers, which would sound great with your amp. I’d bet that they would hook you up with a good pair of appropriate speakers to evaluate, and could also supply additional expertise.
Finally, Neuhaus seems to be partners with a speaker company, judging from their website. My guess is that the guys at Neuhaus would fall all over themselves to get you a set of speakers that would match perfectly with their electronics, especially now, with such a nicely written review already out there.
I’d stay away from the big names sold at big box stores, like Klipsch, Bose and Polk. These are rarely the best choice at any particular price point.
And get some half-decent speaker wire. There is likely little need to get super-expensive wire, but the zip cord you are using likely rolls off (or muddies up) the bass. Even something like Monster Cable would yield tighter bass.
Its good to see somebody noticing good sound. It can be incredibly enjoyable to listen to music on a high-definition system.

http://cultofmac.com Leander Kahney
@iGenius. thanks for the suggestions. i’ll contact snell and a couple of others. very curious to see what difference the speakers make. i’m starting to doubt these polk “POSs” (as you put it) are any good. can’t wait to upgrade everything else also, from the wires to lossless files (i’ve got a ton of crummy old MP3s). i can feel myself slipping down a very slippery slope…

Jim Feeley
Weird…I have the same old Polk speakers. Still pretty decent, though I use newer and more accurate monitors for work (at various times in my career, I’ve made money building and using audio equipment). And iGenius, the older Polks are/were much better than the more recent speakers that carry that name…I don’t even think they’re made by the same company However, depending on how “old punk” Leander treated them it may be time for something newer. So I basically agree with you.
For some other recommended brands, maybe poke around Steve Guttenberg’s Audiophiliac blog on cnet. I don’t always agree with him, but he’s pretty enthusiastic and periodically mentions low-cost speakers that he likes.
http://news.cnet.com/audiophiliac/
Then find a good local dealer and do some listening…at a certain point, it’s like wine. But you can do better than the audio equivalent of Two Buck Chuck.
Some new speakers would be a great birthday gift, no?
Jim
TS
You’ll get as many different answers as the people answering this question but for my two bits, check out Totem Acoustics speakers. I have spent a small fortune on audio systems over the last 20 years, and never have I heard sound as authentic, rich and emotional as I have from Totems. I have a pair of Mani-2s and a pair of Model Ones. If you have opportunity to, listen to them with music you know well, and I swear to you, you will sell a kidney to get a pair of these. They are shocking. Good luck in rounding out that system – by the looks of it, you’ve got a great start! Thanks for the article.
John Dore
Nice looking amp. http://www.tubeamplifierreviews.com is a nice review site for tube amps for those who want to see what else is available on the market. I Have the iTube carbon edition myself and it sounds amazing.
iGenius
WRT Leander’s old Polks – Its entirely possible that my ex-audiophile prejudice is showing through.
My impression is that these are 3-way speakers built at a price point sufficient to support either 2 excellent drivers (with an excellent 2-way crossover) in a sturdy box, or 3 mediocre drivers and a complex crossover in a flimsier box. My impression is that the Polks fit the latter profile, given that they are 3-way speakers in a smaller bookshelf enclosure.
They are not really POS speakers. If they were, they would have 12 inch woofers with chrome rings around them and 17 additional midrange drivers and tweeters. The old Polk’s instead (or so my prejudice tells me) are built to sell in a crowded store, and have a mid-bass hump to give the illusion of deeper bass, with another hump up in the treble to highlight the cymbals et al. It is likely that a 2-way system at the same price point would have better midrange and more transparent highs. IOW, they are decent consumer-grade stuff, but not as good as speakers built solely to be as accurate as possible within their size limitations.
Hooked up to a japanese transistor receiver and playing The Buzzcocks, they likely sound plenty good. But they are not even in the same class (or so my prejudice tells me) as Leander’s new electronics.
And Leander – Keep firmly in mind that none of this equipment can make the music sound any better. All that it can do is to let the original source material through without changing it. The best hifi adds nothing to the signal at all, it just makes it louder without taking anything away.
So the most important thing that you need is a good recording – good source material. You’ve discovered that poorly-ripped MP3s sound pretty dreck. If the details of the sound are not there in the source, no electronics or speakers will add it.
Then you need a DAC that will accurately decode them (check), without altering the original, a good preamp that will route and boost the signal while preserving the original waveform with a high degree of fidelity (check), and an amp that is accurate and powerful enough (check).
Finally, you need accurate speakers. And that means “neutral”, neither adding nor subtracting from the source.
A decent analogy is looking at .jpgs on a good monitor versus looking at the original uncompressed image. A great monitor cannot and will not make a badly-ripped .jpg look “better”. The information simply is not there. And great speakers will not make a badly recorded file sound better. Good speakers will instead let the original source material shine through, with the good and the bad reproduced in detail.
So the better the speakers, the less differences you hear. Nothing is going to blow your socks off. (Think monitors – if one were to look significantly different from others, it is not likely that it is the best, but instead, it is likely that it needs adjustment). The differences between excellent speakers is subtle.
Adrian
From how you described this system it literally blows any computer speakers out of the charts. Great review.
O2IVEKG
What an awesome article. Great job writing about an apparently great device! Thanks..
Lee Ponton
I-genius makes a great recommendation to go with anything by B&W. I have a pair of 20-year-old Matrix I bookshelves that sound better than anything I’ve compared them to under $1000/each. Can’t wait to pair up with the new Neuhaus T-2 and my I-Mac,
matthew Hosek
All of my MP3s are 128. To make this thing sound decent, do I need to re-record everything at 196 or higher?
thanks
http://www.alshellah.info/ alshellah
So the better the speakers, the less differences you hear. Nothing is going to blow your socks off. (Think monitors â€“ if one were to look significantly different from others, it is not likely that it is the best, but instead, it is likely that it needs adjustment). The differences between excellent speakers is subtle.
Rick
Use the TOSLINK (optical) output into the optical input on this amp !!! and set the Mac MIDI control panel to 24 bit, 96kHz operation !!!!
The USB input only does 16 bit …
Rick
BTW, the AirPort Express will knock this down to 16/44.1 … which is OK, but not optimal (esp. if your files are Apple Lossless or FLAC 24/96).
I think the Airport EXTREME will stream 24/96 … haven’t verified this, but want to try it out soon.
http://www.youtube14.com يوتيوب
So the better the speakers, the less differences you hear. Nothing is going to blow your socks off. (Think monitors â€“ if one were to look significantly different from others, it is not likely that it is the best, but instead, it is likely that it needs adjustment). The differences between excellent speakers is subtle.
http://bubice.info bubice
Ohhh i love the specs…good choice for a title…
Tom
wonder how this USB DAC compares with Wolfson or Burr-Brown