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rodan
Purely because Sean of Zero Fidelity reviewed the original version of the T9 and outside of some issues that were resolved with the 'T9 Pro', really liked the way it sounded and said in some cases he felt it was comparable to amps in the $1k range. He doesn't have sponsors and has a tiny Patreon that pays him like $350 a month. I feel like I can more easily trust the opinion of someone like him than I can someone who has affiliate links and sponsors etc.
As far as I understand its a generic product that several people make, but it came from Amazon and can be returned very easily. I decided to get it over one of the Fosi options purely because Sean hadn't reviewed any of the Fosi ones... I currently have laptop via USB and TV via Optical going into my Topping E30 and that is connected to the T9 via RCA. I listened to it with optical straight into the T9 and that sounded decent also, but I have the E30 so I may as well use it.
It really can push a lot of air through my woofers which none of the other amps I've used with seem to have (Onkyo A9150, Rogue Sphinx v3 and an SMSL AD18). Even though its the Apprentice theme song, I really love Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights and it sounded outstanding. Tight low end rumble that I've not heard before from these speakers.
I'm particularly surprised, b/c the Rogue was $1695 and gets outstanding reviews from basically everyone that reviews it and they all say how much of a great value proposition it is. Feels like a lesson in diminishing returns and not being sucked in by shiny MiUSA HiFi stuff and reviews from audiophile publications... It still feels weird having a $170 amplifier pushing a $2600 pair of speakers but whatever. It sounds good.
Is this the end of the road? Of course not. I will inevitably end up buying a nicer amplifier again, just because it looks nice, but this scratched an itch. Would still very much like an Accuphase on aesthetics alone. I also quite like the idea of a Parasound P6/A23+ stack. Total overkill on both accounts but just looks cool.