SOUND ON SOUND

[Jack Ruston]

Dan, I've just ordered an amp from classdaudio.com. It was 600 dollars and I'm told by a reliable source that it's 'amazing'. I will check it out and let you know. If it's good, it might be a worthwhile solution.

J

[dmills]

Dave,
given a working amplifier, do you really think it would take me (or any halfways competent analogue 'tronics type) more then about a day or 3 to rev. eng. the voicing networks.

Getting them empirically right might be tediously tweaky, but the netwoks themselves are rarely anything massively complex.

And yea, the usual suspects have plenty of analogue expertise on hand if they need it.

Regards, Dan.

[. . . Delete This User . . .]

i'm quite impressed by some offerings from Ground sound

http://www.groundsound.com/

[ef37a]

Dave,
given a working amplifier, do you really think it would take me (or any halfways competent analogue 'tronics type) more then about a day or 3 to rev. eng. the voicing networks.

Getting them empirically right might be tediously tweaky, but the netwoks themselves are rarely anything massively complex.

And yea, the usual suspects have plenty of analogue expertise on hand if they need it.

Regards, Dan.

No Dan I do not think that. My point is that the company PERCEPTION is that circuits will be copied and that is why they don't stick a schematic in every cab.

My personal view is that circuit information should be readily available and for other reasons than just the service man's convienience.

And if a "certain" company wants to rip the works, at least they will have to buy an amp first! But then it has long been page one, book one of the electronics designers bible, "See how the other buggers did it first".

Dave.

[Martin Walker]

Dan, I've just ordered an amp from classdaudio.com. It was 600 dollars and I'm told by a reliable source that it's 'amazing'. I will check it out and let you know. If it's good, it might be a worthwhile solution.

J

That sounds most interesting Jack - looking forward to your feedback 8-)


Martin

[Dan B]

Indeed! Let us know how it works out. I take it that it's this one:

http://classdaudio.com/products/complete-amplifiers-1/magic-garden-mastering-amplifier.html

[Martin Walker]

It’s certainly $600, but what an odd design!

Completely blank front panel and gain controls on the rear :headbang:


Martin

[James Perrett]

I guess that they expect most users to have a mixing desk or monitor controller so that the gain controls are just there to match the amp sensitivity to whatever else you are using. Some of us use amps with no gain controls - although I've made a small attenuator box to go inline for my monitor amp.

James.

[Dan B]

I guess so. Still, a pain adjusting the trims on the back of a rack. At least it's a "set once and forget" thing. I'm using a hi fi pre-amp with my Moles (discontinued s/h Cambridge Audio C500 - probably sacrilegious but I was struggling to fund - or justify - paying a lot more for a volume control).

The ebay Moles went for £430 odd including postage. And only one of the pair was working properly. I wasn't prepared to stretch to that: I paid less than that for a brand new pair. Since I actually have 4 Moles (only 3 working) and 2 sets of PMC TB2s's with 2 CA C500 pre's (studio set and live room/living room set). So I suspect I'll keep the third Mole as a spare (I gather quite a few class d amps have reliability issues in the longer term) and look for a new amp.

I'd be interested to hear about the $600 one above (probably the best part of £600 once import duty, VAT, shipping and handling all accounted for). Perhaps even more tempting (based on favourable reviews - e.g. http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=76400.0 - and low price) is this: http://classdaudio.com/index.php/120w-x-2-240w-x-1-amp-power-supply-transformer.html

Any thoughts / comments?

I'm struggling to imagine that any traditional class A/B or tube amp offers as much bang for buck, but do let me know if I'm wrong here.

[forumuser695516]

^ Thats partly why I went with Hypex. They are dutch, so no import duty/taxes to worry about. And from what I could gather at the time, they seemed to have about the best reputation going for Class D kit. Which in turn also means they are not the cheapest. But still a bloody good amp for the money.
I guess it could self detonate some time, but so far so good (1.5 years or so)

[James Perrett]

The specs on even the cheapest Hypex amps are much better than the ClassDAudio ones. While paper specs don't mean everything, there are so many mastering engineers using them that I'd say they're a safe bet.

James.

[Paulusuk]

Hi Dan B
If you are still looking at repair for amp maybe this might be of use to you....

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/6992527.html

All the best
Paulus

[Dan B]

Belated thanks for the diagram. One of my other Flying Moles has also developed the same fault, so now I have a pair to repair. If anyone knows who might be able to repair a digital amp (and that link above may well help), please do let me know. My aged Pioneer A400 has been pressed into service in the meantime, but it's not really cutting it!

Many thanks,

Dan

[JonSnell]

I have just completed my 100th Flying Mole Amplifier repair and have achieved 100percent success.
www.flyingmole.co.uk

[Hugh Robjohns]

Good to know, Jon, and welcome to the SOS forums.

H