In what Neodio dubs the Blue Program, it has committed to creating a more sustainable company and product line: carbon footprint is reduced by using locally located sub-contractors; circuits are designed and components are selected on the basis of long-term availability in order to maintain serviceability and a long working life; products come with a 10-year guarantee for original owners, three years for subsequent buyers; products are designed to be upgradable over time as circuits evolve; manufacturing techniques and finishes are chosen for proven longevity and minimal ecological impact; plastic has been entirely eliminated from the packaging. It’s a little like designing a car in this day and age that the owner can actually work on, with parts readily available off the shelf and no electronic management or diagnostics required. It also recognises a simple social pressure: people, especially young people, have less money and less space to devote to hi-fi. If we want them to engage, we’d better make it affordable, practical – and we’d better make sure it delivers. The TMA ticks all those boxes. But what is really shocking is just how distinct that makes it from the rest of the market.
Once upon a time, this sort of hair-shirt amplifier was the bread-and-butter of ambitious but affordable audio systems. These days they’re almost unheard of. But back in the day they were successful for a reason – and it’s a reason we seem to have lost sight of. It can be summed up as “more music for less money” – which is a world away from more facilities/options/stuff for less money. It firmly puts performance first on the basis that performance is all you get. In the case of the TMA you also get a very simple but attractive box, but this amplifier really is about and only about the music.
Inside the TMA, you’ll find more, thoughtfully executed aspects to the design. A 300VA transformer and 44,000uF of reservoir capacitance is plenty for a 2x80W output, without being overkill. The output stage, built around high-current MOS devices has its own, shunt-regulated supply. The amplifier is built on a single, large PCB, with the well-spaced dual-mono circuit specifically designed to aid clarity and ease future servicing – even if the technician doesn’t have a schematic. Cables from the output stage to the speaker terminals use Neodio’s cotton insulated Fractal 8 and the low-mass connectors are mounted on a PMMA rear panel, to help damp the all-welded chassis, and decouple the sockets, both electrically and mechanically. The amp stands on three Delrin feet and, like everything else to do with this product they have carefully auditioned for maximum sonic and musical goodness. Pick up the TMA and, at 14kg/31lbs you’ll notice that it’s reasonably but not overly heavy. You’ll also notice that the lid can ‘clank’ – but like the feet that has been listened to and critically damped for maximum musicality. Kill it completely and you kill the sound too.
Other than that there’s little to say about the TMA save for one word of warning. The inputs are not numbered, front or back. Instead, they are identified using a simple graphic. Just be aware that the graphic is a mirror image of the front-panel – meaning that the extreme right input indicated on the amp’s rear corresponds to the extreme left position on the input switch. Likewise, the ‘red’ speaker sockets are in the upper position, the right channel inputs are the lower sockets in the RCA pairs.
