In this Polish-Chinese device at an affordable price, you will find tubes and transistors, speaker and headphone outputs, and the ability to work with analog, digital, and wireless Bluetooth sources. It remains to find out how it all sounds.
Surely, most people had the feeling that we had already seen something very similar on the “famous site” of the eastern neighbor. However, the Polish company TAGA Harmony does not hide this, clearly indicating on the back panel that the product is “Made in China”, not forgetting, however, to add that the device is “developed in the European Union”.
And to what extent this “development” implies deep intervention into the Chinese original is not important now. What is more interesting is to what extent the price of the device – not particularly biting considering all the logistics and customs manipulations – corresponds to the declared content.
Externally, the amplifier is intended to evoke direct associations with vacuum tube devices from the middle of the last century, but it looks like a solid new product, like bronze lamps or antique stucco.
However, you can’t deny its neat assembly – a smooth aluminum front panel with neat handles, where the tone controls even have clear tactile “neutral”, glossy wooden (or MDF) sidewalls, and well-painted body parts. And everything is done without visible gaps and distortions.
Behind the removable perforated metal cover on the top cover is a pair of Chinese-made 6P1 and 6N1 tubes, which are said to be used in the preamp section. It is implied that in the absence of small children and naughty cats, the protection should be removed in order to please not only the ear but also the eye, but I personally found the flickering of the tubes through the slits in the matte cover to be no less stylish.
Behind the second opaque casing are a large toroidal transformer and an impressive aluminum heatsink, to which are attached four bipolar transistors of the push-pull power amplifier stage. All this provides 2 x 18 W with 8-ohm speakers and 2 x 25 W with 4-ohm speakers.
On the whole head
The HTA-25V model is designed not only for working with acoustic systems but is also positioned as a self-sufficient headphone amplifier. Let’s start with them. The manufacturer promises confident playback with headphones with an impedance of 32–320 Ohm, so for the test I chose a closed monitor Beyerdynamic DT 250/250 Ohm.
Connecting via Bluetooth was quick and easy: all you had to do was turn the round knob on the front panel to the “BT” indicator and point to the “NTA-25V” inscription that appeared in the phone menu.
Developer mode showed that Android had automatically selected the aptX codec, and I have to admit that in this case, it’s not immediately noticeable between connecting over the air and via a cable through the phone’s 3.5mm audio jack – even when playing a DSD digitization of Pink Floyd’s sacred vinyl “Wish You Were Here”.
Of course, it is expected that the high frequencies on the “blue tooth” sound a little more simplified, a little duller and there are fewer of them – but not so much as to spoil the impression. The lows are not so sharp and outlined, but also quite clear and distinguishable.
Most importantly: the stage does not become flat and does not lose volume, as often happens with such a connection. So, despite the fact that in “peaceful life” I do not use Bluetooth sound transmission on principle, this time I unexpectedly listened to the album to the end.
I also found it convenient to control the tracks using the round knob: turn it left or right to play the previous or next track, press the knob to pause, or play the track again. It’s faster than unlocking your smartphone and swiping your finger across the screen.
Now let’s listen to music via wires. The source was an iMac with the Audirvana Plus software player, which sent a signal to an external DAC via the USB output – in this role, I used which had previously proven itself worthy as a “stationary” in linear mode.
I chose the composition “I Want, I Want” by the St. Petersburg band “Stolen Sun” for its sharp, defined highs and delicate bass guitar, which you still have to try to properly present to the listener. This time, in the HTA-25B’s interpretation, there were too many highs: they are no longer sharp, but downright unpleasantly piercing.
The situation is similar with the lows: the bass guitar is not just audible – it hums noticeably. But the situation can be fixed, you just need to turn down the frequencies to taste with the tone block knobs, which until this point were in the neutral position, and the sound becomes quite pleasant and comfortable.
It is important to note here that the sound in headphones depends heavily on the DAC – after all, the “British” is capable of extracting even deeply hidden details and nuances of the recording, presenting them brightly and prominently, but its own amplifier handles them extremely carefully, while the HTA-25B, having received the signal in linear mode, amplifies its advantages and disadvantages as if under a magnifying glass.
However, it was worth connecting the LG V20 smartphone with QuadDAC based on ESS Sabre S9218 with its emphatically smooth and even feed, as the highs themselves cleared up, there were fewer low frequencies (the hum, however, did not completely disappear), but the middle also seemed slightly muffled. So the Korean “audiophone” paired with TAGA Harmony turned out to have a deliberately “slick” sound.
But chamber classics – in particular, the impeccably recorded album “JS Bach. Oboenwerke. Alexei Utkin. Hermitage Chamber Orchestra” – performed by the Mojo and HTA-25B tandem sounded very good and without any exercises with tone controls.
But the nuances of presentation are felt here too: if the “Brit” himself emphasized virtuosity and musicality, then in the duet these qualities somewhat gave way to emotionality and expressiveness. That is, the sound of the instruments – especially the strings (mainly the cello) – lost the slightest bit of detail, but became brighter and clearer.
But where the TAGA Harmony HTA-25B worked great with headphones was when playing digital copies of vinyl from the 70s. That moment when the “good old” becomes “warm and tube-like.”
The legendary guitar solo in Deep Purple’s “Highway Star” sounded much more intense, voluminous, and emotional compared to Mojo’s smooth and “correct” delivery in the solo version. The same can be said about Murray Head’s vocals as Judas (in Jesus Christ Superstar’s “Heaven on Their Minds”), which gained expression and expressiveness.
Here we can argue for a long time about the “even tube harmonics” and their real influence on the perception of sound, but old recordings that have not undergone remastering really acquire a pleasant and comfortable coloring, if you like – a kind of “pseudo-authenticity”. Whether this is good or not is a matter of personal taste, but this curious nuance is worth paying attention to.
Looking ahead, I will say that it is with headphones, and not with speakers, that the HTA-25B amplifier manages to best convey the nuances of recordings and the features of the source presentation.
External factors
I tested the HTA-25B’s performance with acoustic systems using a Denon DNP-F109 flat and music network player with an Asahi Kasei AK4424 DAC. First, three-way Pioneer S-N901-LR bookshelf speakers, which can already be considered almost vintage, were connected to the amplifier. These 100-watt acoustics should be a difficult test, since with an impedance of 4 ohms, their sensitivity is 84 dB.
Let’s start with a tough task right away – Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”. And you know… it’s not bad! You can feel the bass, there’s a stage, and the vocals are distinct. Of course, there’s no talk of any special expression or pressure, but you can listen to it – and even with pleasure. Swedish metallers HammerFall also sounded decent – although the presentation lacked detail, the impression was also rather favorable.
Pop music sounds much better with the demanding Pioneers – in particular, the king of the genre Michael Jackson with the composition “Liberian Girl”. The amplifier managed to convey the nuances of quiet sounds, the whisper of the singer Letta Mbulu on backing vocals, and a panoramic stage. In this case, such work would not be shameful to present to a device of a higher class.
However, let’s try connecting speakers with slightly higher sensitivity – for example, large three-way JBL LS40 bookshelf speakers (87 dB), interesting in that they have two tweeters working with the midrange/low-frequency emitter, which divide the highs between themselves. Here, the sound of all genres acquired noticeable detail, the lows became deeper and more distinct, and the overall presentation was slightly “darker”.
But despite all the external “correctness” of the second option, to me personally the combination of the HTA-25B with the “Pioneers” seemed emotionally more comfortable – however, I realize that this is a subjective factor.
Transmitting a signal from a smartphone via Bluetooth when working with different speakers was significantly different from listening with headphones – now the compositions noticeably lost volume and detail, and this can be explained not only by losses during codec processing but also by the difference in the class of sources.
However, you can do without external sources – the device is capable of reading digital audio files directly from a USB flash drive via a connector on the front panel – however, the flow for FLAC and APE is limited to 913 kbps. The manufacturer in this case is silent about what DAC is on board, although in the description of older models, it is less shy.
The HTA-25B is supposed to start playing files in alphabetical order. You can switch between them and pause/resume playback using the same knob I used with Bluetooth.
But this is only if the recordings are “in bulk” in the root folder, and when there are several directories, the device gets lost and selects a single composition at random. Compared to an external player, Taga Harmony’s own processing significantly loses in detail and dynamic range and is suitable only as a backup option in the absence of high-quality third-party sources.
When working with external speakers, I also missed the remote control (the absence of which, when listening to music on headphones, initially seemed insignificant).
Conclusion
Considering the price (imagine these three words written in very large letters), the TAGA Harmony HTA-25B hybrid amplifier is perceived as a rather interesting universal device. The manufacturer believes that it can be recommended to users who are just starting to search for good sound and, in particular, are looking at tube devices.
It seems to me that this amplifier looks most organic as an additional “office” device for equipping a workplace or, say, a bedroom. It will work well with compact acoustics and full-size headphones, wired connection, and pairing with a phone, tablet, and computer via Bluetooth.
The main thing is that in this role the HTA-25B will sound much more lively and natural than comparable wireless speakers and computer speakers that are usually purchased for such purposes. And it also looks vintage and “cozy”…
Specification
Advantages: Versatility, and ability to work with various digital, analog, and wireless sources. Special sound color (for connoisseurs). Attractive vintage design.
Flaws: As expected, the sound is not as detailed and smooth as that of higher-class equipment. There is no remote control.
Price: 20,000 rubles
Passport details
Type: Hybrid Class AB, Tube Preamp, Transistor Power Amplifier
Output power: 2 x 18 W at 8 Ohm, 2 x 25 W at 4 Ohm
Electronic tubes: 2 x 6P1, 2 x 6N1
Harmonic distortion: THD ≤ 0.5% (1 kHz 1 W)
Signal-to-noise ratio: ≥ 75 dB
Frequency range: 20–20,000 Hz
Inputs:
analog – RCA, CD, AUX;
USB – MP3/WMA/WAV/AAC/FLAC*/APE* (*up to 913 kbps)
Outputs: RCA REC Out
Wireless connection: Bluetooth v4.0, aptX
Headphones: 32–320 Ohm
Dimensions (WxHxD): 26.4×13.8×29.8 cm
Weight: 4.2 kg
