Integrated amplifiers — T+A Symphonia

The Symphonia is a streaming integrated amplifier from T+A of Herford, Germany. In one 10 x 38 x 34 cm chassis weighing 6.2 kg it combines class D power amplification, a DAC, a network streamer, FM and DAB tuners, an MM and MC phono input plus headphone amplification, and it is available with a silver or black anodised aluminium finish.

Key specs that matter

Output is 125 W per channel into 8 ohms and 250 W into 4 ohms, with a damping factor above 800. The power amplifier covers 1 Hz to 60 kHz, and the preamplifier section 0.5 Hz to 300 kHz with THD and intermodulation below 0.002%, channel separation above 90 dB and signal to noise at 105 dB unweighted or 109 dB A-weighted. For digital sources the rear panel offers S/PDIF on coaxial and TosLink, a USB DAC input at up to 768 kSps and an HDMI input with ARC. Analogue sources connect through two RCA inputs, and the first of these can be switched to the MM or high-output MC phono stage with 5 mV sensitivity. Outputs include one RCA pre-out, two RCA subwoofer outputs and a 4.4 mm Pentaconn headphone socket with a 6 ohm source impedance.

Engineering and use context

The power stages are customised class D amplifiers based on Purifi Eigentakt technology, supervised by T+A's Intelligent Safe Control regulation. They are fed by a T+A high-frequency sine power supply whose capacitors are recharged 100,000 times per second. PCM is converted by a double-differential converter with two 32-bit sigma-delta D/A converters per channel at 705.6 or 768 kSps, while DSD passes to a separate True-1Bit converter that accepts native bitstream up to DSD512. A T+A signal processor performs synchronous upsampling with four selectable oversampling algorithms. The streamer connects over Fast Ethernet or dual-band Wi-Fi 6 with 2x2 MIMO, supports Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, Amazon Music HD, Spotify Connect, AirPlay and Roon Ready, and plays files including FLAC, WAV, AIFF, ALAC, DFF and DSF. Streamed PCM is accepted up to 384 kHz and DSD from DSD64 to DSD256. Bluetooth handles aptX HD, SBC and AAC. The FM tuner covers 87.5 to 108 MHz with 40 microvolt stereo sensitivity, and the DAB tuner covers Band III from 168 to 240 MHz with 2.5 microvolt sensitivity. Power draw is up to 800 W in operation and under 0.5 W in standby.

Pairing

A television can feed its audio to the Symphonia via HDMI ARC, and up to two active subwoofers can be wired to the two sub outputs. Supplied accessories are a power cord, the SRC 2 remote, two WLAN antennas and an FM aerial.

Alternatives

A larger choice from the same maker is the PA 3100 HV, a fully discrete class AB integrated design that delivers 300 W per channel into 8 ohms.