AVA is honored to be in TAS's Illustrated History of High End Audio

Mary · « **on:** 17 Feb 2016, 07:59 pm »

As many of you, may or may not know, The Absolute Sound has completed Volume II of their Illustrated History of High End Audio. I am pleased to say that Frank and Audio by Van Alstine are in this edition.

TAS is also hosting a seminar at AXPONA Saturday April 16, from 4-5 p.m titled Legends of High End Audio. Frank will be one of four speakers on this panel.
Details can be found here http://axpona.com/sessions_detail.asp?id=3983

All of us at AVA are quite proud that Frank has been honored with this recognition.

We hope to see you at AXPONA!

Mary

aln · « **Reply #1 on:** 17 Feb 2016, 08:52 pm »

Well deserved. Franks early modification of the Audio Research SP 3A was groundbreaking at that time. Its great that he is still breaking new ground today!

ArthurDent · « **Reply #2 on:** 17 Feb 2016, 09:16 pm »

Congratulations Frank, and all at AVA. As aln said, well deserved.

SteveFord · « **Reply #3 on:** 17 Feb 2016, 10:13 pm »

Congratulations, that's something to be proud of.

charmerci · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Feb 2016, 11:53 pm »

Quote from: aln on 17 Feb 2016, 08:52 pm

Well deserved. Franks early modification of the Audio Research SP 3A was groundbreaking at that time. Its great that he is still breaking new ground today!

Methinks you are confusing that with the Dynaco Super PAS3.

dB Cooper · « **Reply #5 on:** 18 Feb 2016, 02:37 am »

Actually, I believe Frank did offer a mod of the ARC way back when but he is much better known for his work in the Dyna boxes. There's one person who knows, of course....

JerryM · « **Reply #6 on:** 18 Feb 2016, 03:07 am »

Quote from: dB Cooper on 18 Feb 2016, 02:37 am

Actually, I believe Frank did offer a mod of the ARC way back when but he is much better known for his work in the Dyna boxes. There's one person who knows, of course....

Yes, back in the day it was called the *SP3A-1 Van Alstine mod*.

martyo · « **Reply #7 on:** 18 Feb 2016, 09:28 am »

I have in my hand; the absolute sound, volume 3, number 12, late spring 1978, five dollars.

In the Editors Choice section listed under "CREAM-OF-THE-CROP" we have "Van Alstine/Audio Research SP-3a-2.

Listed under Recommended, Amplifiers Large; we have the Van Alstine Double 400.

Then in volume 5, number 17, march 1980, they had a Cartridge Survey with 30 cartridges.

2 of those were the; Van Alstine/Sonus Dimension Five and the Van Alstine/Grado F3E+1.

mresseguie · « **Reply #8 on:** 18 Feb 2016, 09:40 am »

Good job!

avahifi · « **Reply #9 on:** 18 Feb 2016, 02:54 pm »

We noticed that there was about a quarter of of volt of ripple on the ARC SP3 heater circuits so we installed MUCH larger filter caps to tame that.

We also noticed that the tone control defeat circuits in the SP3 still left a lot of the tone control circuit stuff connected to the line level outputs even in the defeat position.

We added an additional switch on the side of the chassis to "really" defeat the tone controls.

The Absolute Sound and many other users really like our improvements.

Years later we noticed a blunder in the B&W 801 Series II crossover layout, causing nearly perfect coupling between the largest inductor in the bass section and the largest inductor in the midrange circuit. We fixed that too.

Of course back then other companies noticed our good work and just copied our designs, producing copies such as the B&K 140, the Dyna 416, and Dyna PAT-5 BiFet.

Frank

ricmon · « **Reply #10 on:** 19 Feb 2016, 06:47 pm »

Congrats....One more back story to tell my friends about my equipment choices.

Ric

Scroof Neachy · « **Reply #11 on:** 19 Feb 2016, 07:17 pm »

It's too bad that TAS wasn't a more credible rag - lots of pseudo-science and subjective musing in that thing. The irony is that it is the polar opposite of Frank's philosophy. Any publicity is good publicity as they say.

Wayner · « **Reply #12 on:** 19 Feb 2016, 08:21 pm »

How is that? Frank currently has 4 products in the recommended components of The Ab$olute Sound and advertises frequently with them. He also just had the Vision phono preamp favorably reviewed by DO.

I have bought several pieces that AS has had in their recommended components and found them to be equal to their praise.

'ner

Scroof Neachy · « **Reply #13 on:** 19 Feb 2016, 09:30 pm »

You've missed the point. I'm not dismissing the calibre of Frank's products, nor am I suggesting that the reviewers don't know their stuff. What surprises me is that you're going ga-ga about Absolute Sound saluting you. Isn't the Absolute Sound the antithesis of what Frank stands for? Doesn't Frank stand for sound engineering practices while AS loves audiophile foo-foo?

avahifi · « **Reply #14 on:** 19 Feb 2016, 10:03 pm »

Most of our TAS reviews have been done by Richard Olsher, a serious senior reviewer, who is more impressed with good engineering than foo foo dust.

What any audio review says about cables, power cords, and ming shu dots is beyond our control, but we are very happy with the serious respect we have received from TAS over the years.

Frank Van Alstine

werd · « **Reply #15 on:** 20 Feb 2016, 12:47 am »

I'll take low-gain, big power with lots of current and some of that "foo foo dust". Over that high-gain "needs" voltage regulated circuits - competition - any day of the week.

rcag_ils · « **Reply #16 on:** 20 Feb 2016, 02:16 am »

Frank, congrats, well deserved and about time.

rcag_ils · « **Reply #17 on:** 20 Feb 2016, 02:16 am »

EaRich · « **Reply #18 on:** 3 Mar 2016, 12:04 pm »

Good morning Mary, Frank, Dean, and the rest of the AVA family!

Just seeing this and want to add my congrats for AVA being included in TAS history tombs! I have my copy but is still waiting for the 'right time' to enjoy it...

Earl

Minn Mark · « **Reply #19 on:** 3 Mar 2016, 03:13 pm »

Got my copy.

It joins my happy rack of AVA equipment in the man cave.

+1 on the Congrats, to Frank and Co.

Mark