In good time, in good time my friends. Yes, we are evaluating digital designs right now. Again folks, keep in mind that I'm NOT a designer. Believe me, you don't want to have anything that I would design, BUT I believe that I have good ears, and great connections. That also means that I don't have the handicap of being an engineer. (I refuse to work with engineers because their background gets in the way of solutions. Thinking outside the box and flexibility is nearly impossible, and there are more than just one way to the musical truth in music reproduction, which is an oxymoron anyway. Neither Rolf, nor Alain or 2 othrs that I'm working with are engineers, but fanatical tweakers and "let's do this and try this" guys)
Now, I'm working with some boy geniuses in regards to the digital. Over the past 3-4 months I've done an extended listening effort (had some fun, but for some part a real pain in the ass because of the amount of work in the first place), and even went to a couple of my customers within driving range and listened to their setups and different amps, which they have had, and why I made the trips in the fist place. BTW, thanks Antonio, Alex, and Pete, you really should contribute here.
Anyway, it was important for me to listen to mainly the PS Audio and the Carver and Spectron's. I actually was able to take the PS Audio home, together with the MF A3, an AVA Fetvalve 350, and a pair of Chinese SET's. Well, let me say it this way, the week or so I've had the units in my system was VERY interesting and enlightening. Speakers were the Symphonic Line Belcanto's, the Loreleis, Nightingales, Epiphonies, and Numen bookshelves, Sonus Faber Electa Amators, and some Apogee Stages. (Yep, the living room loked like a stereo shop. Had to fence off my son Alex when he wanted to play PS2 on the big screen, hehehe) Amps on my part were the Stratos mono Extremes, Khartago, the SL RG 4s, an RG 1 MK II Toshiba (to counteract the Sankens on the 4's), A Rotel Multichannel, and a Shanling tube unit that another friend brought over,and 2 digital prototyps of my friends. (The Kraft 400 had to go into storage for the time being. Just no place for this monster at all and sherrie refused to have the amp sitting in the kitchen, hehehe) Again, all of this was to determine if I want to go digital in the first place !!!!
This is to give you some idea as to how I make my listening judgements not only about the "other" equipment, but also about my stuff. And keep in mind that especially with the Belcantos and teh Loreleis, I know these units like the back of my hand for years and years.
So, what's the result here ??? In short, I refuse to go with class d or class t output designs. I had a chance of getting an EAR as well, but the problem with the ICE module(which, btw, is not a B&O design as so many of you blieve. It's indeed another brainchild of a younger boy wonder, a 29 yo professor of the University of Stockholm. Anyway, ICE doesn't stand for the operating temp either and stands for intelligent, compact, efficient. Anyway, the danish government pretty much gave the design to B&O for export market expansion ) is that it's extremely temperamental. You shake it a bit to hard, and it goes up in smoke. The other aha experience came when I discovered for myself, in my own listening coccon that I really, really don't like the tripath modules. Neither would I want to go the way of the PS or the Spectrons.
What to do ??? Well, I have discussed with a renown tube designer 6 months ago !!!!! the possibility of him designing a tube pre stage for a then / and yet to be determined digital design. This would certainly give the digital amp some of the emotional quality that , to say it simply, every single digital amp lacked. I don't want to get into the different strengths and changes of system synergies and speaker load changes at all. That's another long, long issue. Similar of what Kevin at Solar hinted at with the tubes. However, after discussing this with my guy, I can see tons of problems arising here as well.
Oh yeah, this I wanted to say for a long time now. I see some guys proclaiming that analog is dead, and that ss or analog in general is a relict of the past, and that some always come to the conclusion that the superior efficiency rates and specs in general simply rule the audio universe now or soon. Well, guys, do yourself a favor, and get some experience under the belt. Do some listening and get an idea about system synergies, dependencies, software interactions, etc.
Anyway, this week I listened to a similar version of what I want to do and an extension of the digital protos from last month, except it was set up for a pro audio customer, and it was good. We now have to finalize our versions and start designing a case. BTW, I'm definitely all ears about any input regardin the case design, as it is easy with this compact unit and since we're starting from scratch.
Let me put it this way: I want to have premium audiophile parts in the unit, a nice and solid case, and still sell it as a super bargain, which I know I can.
Here's a dirty little secret for you: the cost of digital d and t class modules. We could have had the 500 W ICE modules for less than $ 100>!!!!!!!!! The tripath go as little as < $ 50.!!!! Digital is very, very cheap and audiophile parts don't cost hundreds and hundreds either. It's just a new venue that is being exploited by more than one manufacturer, and most if not nearly all customers, especially those who jump on the band wagon of the digital buzz, are simply not aware of the fact that they pay probably the highest average profit margins in the audio bus right now. (maybe toe to toe with cables, but people know about them)
As you guys hopefully know, this is a 180 to my philosophy and believes. Yes, of course I want to make a digital amp as high quality as I can, NOT being build overseas, and charge a bargain price.
Anyway, I figure that we should be able to start up production within 4 months or so, and I really want to offer this design for 2 reasons:
1. to offer a really good, the least digital sounding as possible for the money amplifier for somebody who wants to have digital for one reason or the other, and
2. because we now are seriously looking into the Home theater market with complete system approaches, hehehehe(hey, we already have great HT speaker systems and teh HT 3 for analogue)
Late,
Klaus
