Australian made amplifiers

[Addicted to music]

28 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

I know the US brought design, manufacture and assembly back to the US. But there are so many companies in the rest of the world whose base may be the UK but manufacture and assembly is in China or other asian countries. Maybe we need to just retain design here but farm the rest out. China is probably too expensive for a merging Oz audio company but there is always India and Vietnam. 

I’m very sure that multiple Aussie designers, and all the ones I know don’t even have circuit pcb made here.   The blueprints  are sent to somewhere in China and they produced them next to nothing to be sent back to Aus...   even when SMDs are required, the whole pcb can be populated using machinery .....and solder baths, I’ve seen this at the NEC when they were here in Springvale.

  Even some metal cabinets are not built here, the initial blueprint would be and then it’s off to another manufacturer in the east to be sent back.  

The reality is, to manufacturer here the cost in labour, utilities  bricks and mortar and taxes are just too high making it unfeasible to do, case in point is recycling, we don’t even have any processing here in aus apart from storage and how these recycling storage businesses are going into liquidation because no one wants the product they collect, and they’re all exceeding there capacity so out to landfill..

There is one Aussie battler who is experimenting with the latest hypex  modules.  Not bad modules,  if he sees a market for it he’d probably negotiate with Hypex the quantity of modules to lower costs, have cabinets made up, set them up as a complete product and sells them locally.  Most of the hard work is already done, all you need  is to complete the package and out it goes.

[HdB]

There are a lot more Aus built 'pro-audio' amps available and the rapid development of the Class D amps with/without dsp is a 'game-changer' too. 

[MattyW]

It's still early days with class D. Although I've not heard one competes with the very best class A and AB amps yet the day will surely come when it surpasses prior amp technologies.

[Wimbo]

3 hours ago, Cafad said:

On the DIY focused side of things we have:

Retrothermionic (or Mark in his retrothermionic guise) make one, geared towards vocals and acoustics more so than hard rock but a very impressive performance for a class D design IMHO.

Got Marks Preamp. For me, exceptional.

[HdB]

Yeah Matty,

There is still this misconception that pro-audio amps and equipment are just about high power and sound 'rough', noisy, unreliable, etc and that it's only the much advertised high profile 'hifi' equipment that sounds good - those days are well and truly gone.

However, much of the equipment we use is about recognizable names and attitudes - perfectly reasonable, too - we're much more comfortable using something that seems familiar to us and the changing world of digital amplifiers is definitely unfamiliar territory for many of us 

 

The Putzey 'Hypex' class D amplifiers are often regarded as the epitome of class D (ie the Kaluga from Mola Mola, etc ) but there's a whole lot of other class D amps out there and the association with high performance dsp (ie Pascal, etc) allows performances unknown to purely analogue systems.

 

 Interesting times ...

 

[Aussieamps]

The fact is for a lot of Australian manufactures it has become very hard to compete on the open market, not because they make a poor product but simply

getting their product seen and taken seriously takes a lot of marketing for a long time and therefore lots of cash, which in the current HiFi Market is very hard indeed.

Getting things made in China is no longer cheap, I currently just get the PCB blanks made there and the actual PCB assembly is done in Australia as well as all of the CNC Chassis machining.

So for me I try and keep as much of the manufacturing in Australia, however that may change in the future.

 

 

[Mat-with-one-t]

I’ll add OAD (Jon De Sensi - Open Audio Designs).  His power amp saw off my StereoKnight M-100 Tube monoblocks......

 

http://openaudiodesigns.com/

[genkifd]

reading rave comments about the new Purifi Class D amps - very comparable to the Benchmark AHB2

[mwhouston]

5 hours ago, MattyW said:

It's still early days with class D. Although I've not heard one competes with the very best class A and AB amps yet the day will surely come when it surpasses prior amp technologies.

I’d say you missed it.

[mwhouston]

4 hours ago, HdB said:

Yeah Matty,

There is still this misconception that pro-audio amps and equipment are just about high power and sound 'rough', noisy, unreliable, etc and that it's only the much advertised high profile 'hifi' equipment that sounds good - those days are well and truly gone.

However, much of the equipment we use is about recognizable names and attitudes - perfectly reasonable, too - we're much more comfortable using something that seems familiar to us and the changing world of digital amplifiers is definitely unfamiliar territory for many of us 

 

The Putzey 'Hypex' class D amplifiers are often regarded as the epitome of class D (ie the Kaluga from Mola Mola, etc ) but there's a whole lot of other class D amps out there and the association with high performance dsp (ie Pascal, etc) allows performances unknown to purely analogue systems.

 

 Interesting times ...

 

Well written and well said.

 

After building about a dozen Class Ds I think the Ds may have it over the A’s and ABs. Certainly from comparative experience I have had it almost comes down to the toss of a coin. For me, the Tripath Ds have the edge by showing a touch of warmth. 

[mwhouston]

1 hour ago, genkifd said:

reading rave comments about the new Purifi Class D amps - very comparable to the Benchmark AHB2

Got a link? 

[MattyW]

I seem to be migrating towards fleawatt class A SET tube amps....  Has the best low volume performance I've heard to date sounding excellent even down at 35db for late night listening sessions. That's 20db less than day time ambient noise levels

[mwhouston]

1 hour ago, MattyW said:

I seem to be migrating towards fleawatt class A SET tube amps....  Has the best low volume performance I've heard to date sounding excellent even down at 35db for late night listening sessions. That's 20db less than day time ambient noise levels

Pick your speakers very, very carefully. 

[Mat-with-one-t]

13 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

Pick your speakers very, very carefully. 

He did - he built them!

[MattyW]

2 hours ago, mwhouston said:

Pick your speakers very, very carefully. 

I went DIY and built open back speakers.  Sounds spectacular.

 

The 10" Zenith 49CZ924 alnico is full range,  15" Magnavox alnico for bass with a 8.2mH Mundorf L200 inductor,  and 2x super tweeters,  an up firing Skar Audio VX1-ST bullet and a front facing Plat Audio RT4-DP planar both wired in series with a 3.3uf KZK White Line bypassed with 0.033uf Miflex KPCU-1.  Everything else is wired in parallel.  I used 16awg Dueland oil impregnated cotton covered tinned copper wire throughout

 

I've a pair of Aurum Cantus G3Si ribbon tweeters to replace the Plat Audio RT4-DP though I probably won't have a chance to install for another 6 months or so. 

 

 

 

 

I'm temporarily powering it with a little Chinese amp where I've removed the volume pot,  bypassing with Dueland wire and replaced the Wima coupling caps with Miflex KPCU-1. 2x NOS RCA 5654 black plate and 1x RCA 832A installed.  Due to only one power tube the sound stage width is decidedly average however depth, tonality,  detail and low volume performance is the best I've ever heard with excellent performance down to 35db for late night listening sessions with no loss of dynamics, treble, bass or anything else that I notice. Another thing is the bass seemingly reaches deeper with detail I never knew was there. I'm blown away by how good home made speakers can be for similar money to factory built

 

I've a new Wavebourn Edelweiss-3 power amp prototype coming from the US to replace the Chinese amp utilizing CV1127 radar sweep tubes. The 4 position variable damping switch is an interesting feature. Anatoliy is currently installing it in place of the volume knob and converting to 240VAC. Keen as to try this. Even now this is perhaps the best I've ever heard with the notable exception of soundstage width.

 

This is it in the video:

 

 

This is the reason I've been selling so much in the classifieds recently

Edited August 18, 2019 by MattyW

[MattyW]

1 hour ago, Mat-with-one-t said:

He did - he built them!

Selected every part of them. For my first effort working with wood it turned at as well as I could have hoped. Nothing pre-cut. Built myself from the ground up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by MattyW

[Addicted to music]

7 hours ago, HdB said:

Yeah Matty,

There is still this misconception that pro-audio amps and equipment are just about high power and sound 'rough', noisy, unreliable, etc and that it's only the much advertised high profile 'hifi' equipment that sounds good - those days are well and truly gone.

However, much of the equipment we use is about recognizable names and attitudes - perfectly reasonable, too - we're much more comfortable using something that seems familiar to us and the changing world of digital amplifiers is definitely unfamiliar territory for many of us 

 

The Putzey 'Hypex' class D amplifiers are often regarded as the epitome of class D (ie the Kaluga from Mola Mola, etc ) but there's a whole lot of other class D amps out there and the association with high performance dsp (ie Pascal, etc) allows performances unknown to purely analogue systems.

 

 Interesting times ...

 

There’s also a misconception on using SMPSU.  Go to the 38min mark in this video.  I’m still getting my head around using an SMPSU for valves , thanks to the brilliance of Bruno Putzey listen to what’s been said.

 

https://www.manley.com/news/2019/6/17/a-factory-tour-with-produce-like-a-pro-and-a-chance-to-win-a-micmaid

[mwhouston]

29 minutes ago, Addicted to music said:

There’s also a misconception on using SMPSU.  Go to the 38min mark in this video.  I’m still getting my head around using an SMPSU for valves , thanks to the brilliance of Bruno Putzey listen to what’s been said.

 

https://www.manley.com/news/2019/6/17/a-factory-tour-with-produce-like-a-pro-and-a-chance-to-win-a-micmaid

With a hand firmly on the weapon of old (linear) I’m recently being coerced to switch modes. 

[mwhouston]

1 hour ago, MattyW said:

Selected every part of them. For my first effort working with wood it turned at as well as I could have hoped. Nothing pre-cut. Built myself from the ground up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not totally convinced on your driver choice but then, I’m not there. 

[MattyW]

11 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

Not totally convinced on your driver choice but then, I’m not there. 

Sounds great

 

When I eventually replace the Plat Audio RT4-DP planar these are done, though I will likely experiment with extending the rear partition behind the 15" woofer. Curious about that. 

 

The 15" Magnavox drivers apparently have been tested to reach down to 20Hz,  hence their use. The Zenith 49CZ drivers are gaining a reputation for use in open baffles hence their inclusion.

 

http://glowinthedarkaudio.com/zenith-49cz852.html

 

The planar was never intended though I felt something was missing and added it as I had them on hand. Much better with than without. The bullet tweeters were primarily about efficiency and pointing at the ceiling was intended to avoid phase issues and the known harsh sound of bullet compression drivers.

Edited August 18, 2019 by MattyW

[mwhouston]

27 minutes ago, MattyW said:

Sounds great

 

When I eventually replace the Plat Audio RT4-DP planar these are done, though I will likely experiment with extending the rear partition behind the 15" woofer. Curious about that. 

 

The 15" Magnavox drivers apparently have been tested to reach down to 20Hz,  hence their use. The Zenith 49CZ drivers are gaining a reputation for use in open baffles hence their inclusion.

 

http://glowinthedarkaudio.com/zenith-49cz852.html

 

The planar was never intended though I felt something was missing and added it as I had them on hand. Much better with than without. The bullet tweeters were primarily about efficiency and pointing at the ceiling was intended to avoid phase issues and the known harsh sound of bullet compression drivers.

Just jumped to the link. I’m more than shaken I’m stirred! Like a good chocolate cake, I’m going  back for more. 

Edited August 18, 2019 by mwhouston

[MattyW]

55 minutes ago, mwhouston said:

Just jumped to the link. I’m more than shaken I’m stirred! Like a good chocolate, cake I’m going  back for more. 

I've confirmed that the 6" Diatone P610 clones from China he reviews sound really rather excellent too. Use them in the bedroom system.

 

Certainly better than the Dayton Audio PS220-8 I used to favor. Smoother, richer and never sound congested. 

 

 

http://glowinthedarkaudio.com/diatoneclone.html

Dirt cheap too.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2019 by MattyW

[genkifd]

9 hours ago, mwhouston said:

Got a link? 

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-purifi-1et400a-amplifier.7984/

 

DIY though

[Addicted to music]

45 minutes ago, genkifd said:

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-purifi-1et400a-amplifier.7984/

 

DIY though

You couldn’t call that pure diy,

the pcb are already populated and you can’t even get the wiring wrong!   How good is that!................

 

or could you?   

 

and look what it measures on a bench with AP...... superb!

Edited August 18, 2019 by Addicted to music

[genkifd]

yeh the Purifi kit is pretty damn good. pitty im not and hands on person. Im actually waiting for the reviews on the new Nord Purifi mono amp reviews.