Solid-State Power Amp Adventures

Discussion in 'Power Amps' started by purr1n, Jan 24, 2017.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

    Staff Member Pyrate BWC
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    ^ this.

    If you want coupling, Easter egg holders with large ball bearings in them work too. No need for audiophool spikes that cost $449. Although those do look sexy.
     
    Last edited: Feb 1, 2020
  2. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Expensive ones are stupid. Been there now I am enlightened. Damping components or coupling (I know contradictory but you have to try several methods) can make audible changes to the system (speaker based).

    My favorites are old ball and cup Herbies and a remarkably good one are Ikea bamboo cutting boards and they are cheap. Search up the ikea boards and you will get lots of info.
     
  3. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    General Speaker Advice and Recommendations

    What Marv is talking about gets into the "different axes get different methods". In the z-axis, the hard ball bearing and hard-ish egg holder (mostly) couple the device to the base. If the base has greater mass, then the vertical/z-axis component of the vibrations will be mass-coupled with the bass and the vibrations will try to "shake" a larger mass, effectively lowering the resonant frequency of the system. typically, the lower the resonant frequency the better. However, the x and y axis (horizontal axes) are "free" and are damped by the mass of the component rolling up a little tiny hill (in the egg cup) the mass of the component will convert the motion into friction between the egg cup and the ball bearing rolling around. It's kinda like hanging your component on a limited arc and small radius pendulum. If the device creates horizontal or rotational vibrations (like, typically in a cd transport) these vibrations get turned into a vertical vector components due to the "hardness" of the egg cup and the ball bearing.

    There's really two things at play - self noise and airborne noise. You may or may not want to get rid of either or both of these depending on how any component (especially speakers) were designed. mitigating self noise (like trafo vibrations in an amp) is usually easy, since it means sticking heavy absorptive things to thin sheet metal, or potting components, or dipping the trafo in wax, or putting a device on lossy footers. Mitigating airborne noise, i.e., vibrations fed back into components from the music playing in your room, is more difficult.
     
  4. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    This amp in the high end category ($7500/pair), but interesting nonetheless. It’s a class D amp that he claims competes with SET amps, but better bass control etc. Up to 30A of current. The entire output stage is housed in a KT88 tube. Of course he’s selling these, so take with a grain of salt...

    I don’t think this “AGD” has any association with Audio-GD as far I know, but could be wrong. They appear to be out of L.A...



    Website for the amp:
    https://www.agdproduction.com/static/audion.html
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2020
  5. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    Uses "new for audiophiles" GaN mosfets - there's a cheaper implementation at https://orchardaudio.com/bosc. I'm curious what some of the more informed friends can add about the technology.
     
  6. ogodei

    ogodei MOT: Austin AudioWorks

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    The video makes it seem a bunch of audiophile trappings have been glued to a proprietary MOSFET some engineer came up with. A class D amp with a giant fake tube & cage stuck on top of it to appeal to tube guys.

    Additionally the salesman is full of shit. He's never seen an amp sold in a pelican case with 'custom cut foam' for less than $20,000 dollars. He guarantees full money back if you don't like the amp, but will accuse you of being dishonest because obviously you had no intention of buying if you return it. He values the included generic power cables at $500 apiece.
     
  7. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Don’t disagree with any of that for sure, I’m more interested in the tech. The sales guy is Mike Powell, who was selling Kinki Studio, Denafrips and other stuff from China not too long ago. Definitely an interesting character.

    Thanks for the tip on the other alternative @yotacowboy
     
  8. JeffYoung

    JeffYoung Friend

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    GaNs are very fast, and that probably allows you to overcome a lot of class D's problems. Enough to make it better than class A? Dunno.

    It might be a bit like premium petrol. The detergents in it don't make it "better", they're just there to keep the gunky stuff they put in it to raise the octane from gumming up your injectors.

    [Edit: oh, and there's this from Panasonic: Stereo Power Amplifier SE-R1]
     
  9. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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  10. ogodei

    ogodei MOT: Austin AudioWorks

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    ... at $17K MSRP.

    Looks like Orchard Audio is the one to try out at this point.
     
  11. yotacowboy

    yotacowboy McRibs Kind of Guy

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    6moons also did a review, but I won't link to it for fear of giving Friends headaches.
     
  12. msommers

    msommers High on Epipens

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    Yep that's @MikePowellAudio who made a couple posts about the Kinki amp like a year ago.
     
  13. rlow

    rlow A happy woofer

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    Oh dude, don’t invoke the guy!!! Lol
     
  14. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    My adventure continues. After having my eyes opened by the Aegirs, but ultimately realizing they wouldn't work in my setup, I got a class A brute arc welder of an amp, a Bedini 200/200. It's a muscular, warm, gorgeous amplifier. But it lacked the ultimate transparency and "sparkle" of the Aegirs.

    So I bought a used McCormack DNA-125 along with its matching preamp, the RLD-1 late last year. Really happy with the RLD-1 as it sounds at least as good as the OG Saga it replaced but also has some features I needed above and beyond the Saga. But the amp? I hooked it up and really liked it, until it blew up on me an hour after I got into seriously listening to it.

    So I sent it off to SMC Audio in CA for repair and upgrades. It finally came back this past Monday. A lot of the parts added to it - the DNA 1 transformer, the Lundahl balanced transformers, are all used from other builds, even my faceplate was a swap with a different amp. So it's basically all ready to go.

    Sat down with it in earnest last night and I'm trying not to get too dramatic with it but in short, it's like someone took the Bedini and the Aegir monos and fused them together and out popped this little bastard. And it is little, but extremely dense. This tiny little package weighs about 60 lbs. Nevertheless, it is pretty remarkable. It has the slam and texture of bass that the Bedini has but it's more focused now. Bass and double bass lines are believable, like you can picture them just hovering in space. The imaging out of this amp is remarkable. I played Chocolate Chip Trip last night at a pretty insane level, all the lights off and it was mesmerizing. So f'ing cool. And again, it has a level of control and grip on my Focus 260s that I thought only the biggest monos would deliver.

    But even with all that torque, it just loves to dance around piano and brass instruments. It's really hard to describe but after just a couple of days, I am quite certain I've not heard an amp like this before. I still have the Bedini but once I've really gotten familiar with the DNA-125, I'l llikely let it go. Not looking forward to shipping that damn thing, but I know it's going to make someone really happy. It's a terrific amp, but this modded DNA-125 is just a totally different breed.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  15. Cakecake

    Cakecake Guest

    You miss the Aegir sparkle?
     
  16. toddrhodes

    toddrhodes Friend

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    It's been many months since I had the Aegirs and maybe "sparkle" isn't the right term, but there was just some quality to the sound they made that was almost addicting. I was seriously and honestly bummed to find they just couldn't work in my setup. I was pissed and have been searching for that same quality.

    It's like a form of clarity that I just can't describe. It's not just that it presents a very clear and transparent window to the sound, that's not exactly remarkable. But just when I heard it, I knew I wanted more of it. The Bedini got kind of close but was just a little too warm. The DNA-125 has it, and I think has even more of it than the Aegirs. So it's clarity, but it's realistic clarity to the performance that makes it seem like less of an illusion, I guess.

    As you can see, it's hard to put into words. I just know I hear it, and heard it in the Aegir monos too.

    For contrast - amps I've had that did NOT do it: Odyssey Stratos Stereo Extreme (fully upgraded), upgraded Nuprime ST-9. Some call them veils or haze but I think it goes beyond that. It's not just a clean window I'm trying to describe :)
     
  17. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    That's one hot rod of an amp. Looks angry!
     
  18. bixby

    bixby Friend

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    Easter Bunny just dropped off a few "essentials" . Pass / First Watt design in monoblock format. Can't wait to hear these puppies.

    pass amps 003.JPG pass amps 002.JPG pass amps 001.JPG
     
  19. uncola

    uncola Friend

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    What are those? They look awesome. Custom firstwatt f5 turbo?
     
  20. JeffYoung

    JeffYoung Friend

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    Fantastic casework!
     

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