so, is the 1500W transformer equipped Cherry Ultra the same as the MEGAschino?Had to modify this answer.... No, it's not. The MEGAschino is a new design. It LOOKS the same from the outside, and has similar power output (MEGA puts out more power with the same transformer). However, the MEGAschino has much more bandwidth (150kHz), is DC coupled, has true balanced outputs, and lower output impedance than Classic Cherry Amps. The MEGAschino uses the same modulation circuitry as Maraschino. The sound is like Maraschino, but with higher output power.
We had to divide the design into two boards. There was just not enough room on one!Quick update: The Channel Boards checked out. Measurements were better than expected. We're getting the Motherboards soon (less than 2 weeks) for testing. So, we're almost there! Just a few things to do on the side, like the faceplates (for new MEGAschinos, not the upgrades which will use the original plates)....
So.... The first board is complete, and we're working on the second one now, maybe about 2 weeks from the prototyping phase.
Official MEGAschino announcement (prices and more) this week! It will be sent to our newsletter subscribers, so sign up (takes about 10 seconds) here if you're not already:Official release only two hours ago and we're already getting pummeled (in a good way) with inquiries! To those who have contacted us: Thank you for your patience.
http://bit.ly/1G8bsxZ
Official release only two hours ago and we're already getting pummeled (in a good way) with inquiries! To those who have contacted us: Thank you for your patience.
More information in the email release or on your website would have probably saved you some headaches. :duh: :lol:We will be sending out a product sheet that covers all the bases. Newsletter subscribers who express interest get the info first. There are customers (also subscribers) that have waited years for this amp. Thanks for posting here.
Simple things that I would like to know. e.g. price, weight. No, I do not buy amps by the pound but I have an upper weight limit. Above that I don't give an amp a second thought.
Once people start receiving Mike's amps I suspect you'll hear some good things about them... But how good are they compared to the Maraschino's and MEGAchino's is another question. Tommy has been doing Class D for a long time. And he doesn't source off the shelf chips from anyone. :thumb:
It would be interesting to know how these MEGAschino amps would compare....We design all the circuits, so Cherry Amps are not built from "inflated-price, one-size-fits-all, pre-fab modules".
Price? :scratch:LIST PRICES:
I had a chance to visit Tommy last week and listen to the new MEGAschino monos. He had them hooked up to JTR Noesis 210RTs, speakers that can readily take advantage of the tremendous power on tap.Thanks for your kind thoughts. Glad you enjoyed the MEGAschino MONOs!
The combination produced an effortless and invisible reproduction of everything we listened to. The JTRs offered razor sharp imaging, and the MEGAschinos got out of the way and just delivered to the JTRs whatever was sent to them from the DAC DAC HS and Squeezebox Touch source. Regardless of the volume, from whisper quiet to deafeningly loud (110dB measured at the listening position, and we didn't turn it up all the way), the system maintained a realistic finesse that sets this equipment apart from the competition. The sound pressure this setup can reach is deceptive, because there's absolutely NO strain or distortion. Lows remain tight and well controlled, maintaining tonal balance and good punch at any volume, and highs stay articulate and refined, with zero harshness.
Tommy has another winning product, delivering on his goal of complete transparency and ultimate control of whatever speaker load you decide to feed, with a bottomless pit of power to play at any volume you dare.
Who would you like to see review this amp?
How about The Absolute Sound or Stereophile?We have tried many times, but since we don't advertise there, they have declined. I guess it's no problem to ask again, but we have reviewers from other publications (not at liberty to disclose) asking US to review the MEGAschino! Thanks.
Minimum Channels Wpc Wpc USD List
Model Type Bandwidth Load per amp into 4Ω into 8Ω Price (new)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MEGAschino Stereo Stereo Amp 0 - 150kHz 2Ω 2 660 400 $6,100
MEGAschino MONO Mono Amp 0 - 150kHz 2Ω 1 720 430 $9,800/pr
Classic Cherry Stereo Stereo Amp 1Hz - 60kHz 4Ω 2 600 360 $2,100
Classic Cherry MONO Mono Amp 1Hz - 60kHz 4Ω 1 650 390 $3,000/pr
Classic Cherry ULTRA Stereo Stereo Amp 1Hz - 60kHz 4Ω 2 675 400 $3,900
Classic Cherry ULTRA MONO Mono Amp 1Hz - 60kHz 4Ω 1 770 420 $7,000/pr
Desktop Maraschino Mono Amp 0 - 100kHz 2Ω 1 145 (36V) 70 (36V) $2,500/pr
250 (48V) 125 (48V) $2,500/pr
400 (60V) 200 (60V) $3,500/pr
KING 60V Desktop Maraschino Mono Amp 0 - 100kHz 2Ω 1 400 200 $4,000/pr
Golden Cherry Mono Amp 0 - 100kHz 2Ω 1 400 200 $6,900/pr
In-Line Maraschino Mono Amp 0 - 100kHz 2Ω 1 145 (36V) 70 (36V) $1,900/pr
250 (48V) 125 (48V) $1,900/pr
KING In-Line Maraschino Mono Amp 0 - 100kHz 2Ω 1 400 200 $3,100/pr
Stereo Maraschino Stereo Int Amp 0 - 100kHz 2Ω 2 70 (36V) 70 (36V) $1,200
125 (48V) 125 (48V) $1,200
KING 60V Stereo Maraschino Stereo Int Amp 0 - 100kHz 2Ω 2 400 200 $1,700
Congratulations on a fantastic new product.Well, for low level to medium level listening, neither are necessary. However, more caps are great for low to medium level listening as well as loud "pulsating" music. For continually loud music, bigger transformer. For "knock you off your seat" type playback, both! Thank you for your kind post.
I have just a few questions:
I wonder if you could tell me what would make the most difference, the bigger transformer upgrade or the higher capacitance upgrade?
What is the maximum power consumption?
Are there going to be faceplate options like red or white or silver?
Keep up the good work.
This is very exciting!
Thanks.
Bruce
It may be obvious to some of you that I am much better at designing amplifiers than marketing. I was recently asked by a large publication editor (no guesses, please) what amplifiers are in the "MEGAschino genre". Can you help me out and suggest some models to compare against in the $3,000-20,000/ch range? By the way, "old stuff" still counts, if it's still being sold by the manufacturer. We realize many brands haven't put out new amps recently. I'm also interested in who's actually designing amplifiers and building them with their own technology these days. I heard Levinson is doing that. Other big names have fired their designers and turned to modules. Has anybody gone the other way? Thanks for any help you can provide.Bump
I'd heard that Jeff Rowland was all excited about his Class D amps when he came out with them, but went back to solid state.Do you mean Class-A/B? They are the perfect candidate for Maraschino Modules.
Larry D.
Yes, I believe he went back to Class A/B. A friend of mine has bought several of his amps including his Class D mono-blocks (he always buys mono-blocks) and used to sell his products, so he and Jeff communicate a good bit. He actually came up here last year to deliver a pair of B&W Nautilus speakers to the guy. I missed my chance at meeting him. Anyway, my friend stays in contact with many of the manufacturers which are still his friends.Larry,
Larry D.
I spent a day with a Mega. It's better.
How so?Some of it is the corny "removal of stuff that I didn't realize was there". We compared to Golden Cherries on Tekton Double Impacts.
Hard to quantify what Wholesale means for each of us.
Legacy's need a good amount of break in. The ribbon tweeter especially changes a lot during breakin. You have to play them very loudly to achieve good break in. That's what they're meant for, so let it rip. And if they have never been played loudly, then they are not broken in, no matter how old they are. Seriously. You have to beat them.Richidoo thank you for reply, thing is I have Luxman m900 amp and everything plays just fine so it could not be the break in issue but when I plug in line v60 the sound just falls through and trying to figure it out. I used short speaker cables supplied with the in line cherries will try to use my long speaker cables I got with the cherries see if that helps.
I will surely miss the placement flexibility of the Maraschinos. My rig is all set up to not have an amp in the rack.Amp stands ?
Who would you like to see review this amp? We're looking for someone with at least a double digit pro review history and very high quality speakers.... Thanks.
Tommy, there is one specific reviewer that comes to mind; his name is Steven Stone. He writes for both The Absolute Sound and Home Theater Review. Unlike some writers, he can elucidate his thoughts straight up without requiring one to read in between the lines. He's a member of Audio Circle and checks in every so often. I don't know how he determines if he's writing for one publication or the other, but that's a discussion you might want to have with him. Here's a link to his profile... :thumb:
https://hometheaterreview.com/steven-stones-associated-equipment/ (https://hometheaterreview.com/steven-stones-associated-equipment/)
Is there any significant benefit to upgrading Cherry amps if your speakers have very high efficiency and you never listen at ear bleeding levels? In other words, do Cherry amps have basically the same sound signature and high level of resolution, but just have differences in power depending upon one's needs?Maraschino owners have been surprised at the difference made by going from 36V or 48V power supplies to 60V power supplies. The difference is essentially additional headroom, with the same sonic "signature" (speed and clarity). This is especially true for high efficiency speakers. Some high efficiency speaker owners had 36V Maraschinos and upgraded to 60V. In every case so far, when the Maraschino owner compared 36V to 60V in the same system (the upgrade allows time with both power supplies), they stayed with 60V. There just seems to be a "limitless" feel to quality high efficiency speakers driven by 60V Maraschinos (KING or Golden Cherry types). Not sure if I would call this subtle.
For instance, my ILMs have 140 wpc into 8 ohms and I use 98 dB speakers. If I upgraded to a Cherry Stereo with 360 wpc or a MEGAschino with 1,000 wpc, are we talking about subtle, significant or negligible improvements?
Same reason they put all that horsepower in a Dodge Demon or Vette, doubtful it will ever to totally utilized, but damn fun just the same!
Not sure that's a good analogy. My previous amp had twice the horsepower of the ILMs, but there's no decrease in headroom with the ILMs. In fact, the opposite occurred. I'm sure there's lots of other factors.Yes, great way to put it! "Effortlessness" is the top pick for how I would describe the sonic implications. Thanks again (:
This begs the question -- what does "headroom" sound like? More headroom, I suppose, sounds like increased dynamics, greater micro detail, and an unrestrained, effortless (i.e., cleaner) sound???
Tommy, can you post measurement curves for the Megs? I am sure many here would be curious to see:"Static" measurements/specifications are posted earlier in this thread:
Distortion vs power @ 4 ohms
Distortion vs frequency @ 4 ohms and 200 watts
! kHz square wave @ 4 ohms
10 kHz square wave @ 4 ohms
1 kHz distortion spectrum
18.5 kHz + 19.5 kHz IMD spectrum @ 4 ohms/200 watts
After listening to the Mega for a couple weeks I love the soundstage. It's much larger than the Ultra, which I thought was large. There's much more detail and body to the music which is one of the things I listen for. I took the Mega to my buddy's house (who is the former president of our local audio club and a musician) and his comment was that he enjoyed the huge/wide soundstage the Mega put out. He did not hear that with his Rowland monoblock digital amps as clearly as he did with the Mega. He noticed how the instruments were individually spread out across the soundstage on good recordings (which is all we used). The more I listen to the Mega the more I hear those things that draw me into the music even deeper. That's my quick/short update on my couple weeks with the Megaschino.
Larry D.
After listening to the Mega for a couple weeks I love the soundstage. It's much larger than the Ultra, which I thought was large. There's much more detail and body to the music which is one of the things I listen for. I took the Mega to my buddy's house (who is the former president of our local audio club and a musician) and his comment was that he enjoyed the huge/wide soundstage the Mega put out. He did not hear that with his Rowland monoblock digital amps as clearly as he did with the Mega. He noticed how the instruments were individually spread out across the soundstage on good recordings (which is all we used). The more I listen to the Mega the more I hear those things that draw me into the music even deeper. That's my quick/short update on my couple weeks with the Megaschino.Larry,
Larry D.
* Optimized for SONICS above all else ---- we start with amazing bench specs, like 128dB SNR, then we tweak for sound AFTER that
* Black background and micro-dynamics ---- 120dB SNR, 0.005% THD+N at low power
* High power ---- MEGAschino channel boards are capable of comfortably driving up to 1000W into 4Ω and up to 2000W into 2Ω
* Extended bandwidth ---- up to 150kHz !!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/378044010/megaschino-world-class-high-power-audio-amplifierThanks for the compliment, but it's important to note the difference between SONICS and specifications. Yes, we have great specs, but our primary concern is sound quality. Have you read the first post on this thread?
The 1200AS2 about 70 kHz at -3 dB. With this trick -like many others amps- increases SNR. Well, 70 kHz is a good compromise, bandwith greater than other class D amps.
Class D poweramp with great efficiency and bandwith <- very good engineering here.
Richidoo thank you for reply, thing is I have Luxman m900 amp and everything plays just fine so it could not be the break in issue but when I plug in line v60 the sound just falls through and trying to figure it out. I used short speaker cables supplied with the in line cherries will try to use my long speaker cables I got with the cherries see if that helps.
Ottablue,The guy that owns all these Cherry amps also has Legacy Aeris. I’ll try to find the photos. You can see the crossover from outside the enclosure, I seem to recall....
I am so glad I found this thread. I just got myself a pair of Legacy Aeris and looking for a good class D amp and was also considering Luxman AMPs (M800A, M700) etc.
Did you resolve the issue with your Aeris, I would love to find out more.
thanks
The guy that owns all these Cherry amps also has Legacy Aeris. I’ll try to find the photos. You can see the crossover from outside the enclosure, I seem to recall....Here’s one of the photos. There are more somewhere. He would probably enjoy speaking with you about the combination of our Cherry MEGA and Maraschino amps with the Legacies. He’s also driven the them with Classic Cherry amps as well as many non-Cherry Amps. Send me a PM if you’d like to get in touch with him. Thanks.
(https://www.audiocircle.com/image.php?id=185800)