I was thinking about trying out one of these T-Amps. I read that there are jumpers on the amp to bypass the volume control to use as a power amp. I was thinking of using this little amp to drive my rear surrounds on my 5.1 system - it would be driving my brand new Paradigm Atom v5's. Anyone used the T-Amp in such as scenario? Thanks is advance - as usual, my "newbieness" is painfully obvious...
I would suggest you not use the jumpers for now. Rather than committing the amplifier to use as a power amp only, try it as a passive pre amp by using the volume control. You don't mention what pre amp you would be using with the T-amp but the chance that a passive pre will outperform most sub $2k active pre amps is pretty good, especially for a souped up T amp where parts quality has been the reason for the design. Advancing the volume control to its full rotation will effectively remove it from the signal path and allow you to hear the T-amp as a power amp only for comparison purposes. If, after some listening, you prefer your pre amp driving the amplifier, you can easily put the jumpers in place. As a rule, the T-amp likes tube pre amps and not many transistorized units unless you are well along in cash layout for the solid state variety.
Theer are several threads here dealing with the T-amps, check the archives, particularly "Buy this amp". Also I wrote a review of the basic T-amp and the Italian Auotcostruire variation which can be found in the Consumer Reviews section of the forum or through a link on the above referenced thread.
Right now my pre-amp would be my HT receiver, an aging Kenwood KR-X1000 receiver (for the time being until I can afford to upgrade this unit). I have offloaded all the amplification to power amps except for the rear channels. This is what I was thinking of using the T-Amp for.
I'm not sure I understand your advice: "Advancing the volume control to its full rotation will effectively remove it from the signal path and allow you to hear the T-amp as a power amp only for comparison purposes." Do you mean that if I use it with the volume turned up full I can use it as a pre-amp without installing the jumper?