OmegaStar 240/3 Amp - Why/How is it so cheap??

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LightninBoy

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 15
OmegaStar 240/3 Amp - Why/How is it so cheap??
« on: 2 Mar 2003, 08:36 pm »
Ok, I'm not usually one to complain about low costs but this raises an alarm in my head. And I am in the market for a 3 channel amp. Let me explain ...

The 2 channel OmegaStar 240 amp is $1025. The 3 channel OmegaStar 240/3 amp is $1200 - only $175 dollars more for another 120 watts! And the 3 channel amp weighs exactly the same as the 2 - 32 lbs. This leads me to believe that the 3rd channel is sharing a lot of components with the other two - including the same power supply.

For sake of comparison, the 3 channel Odyssey Stratos is $380 dollars more expensive and 10lbs heavier than its two channel little brother.

I'm not criticizing - I know next to nothing about amplifier design. But this did spark some doubts in my mind and I would love to read happy Van Alstine customers or Van Alstine himself address these concerns. After all, if it still SOUNDS fantastic these specs simply don't matter.

avahifi

OmegaStar 240/3 Amp - Why/How is it so cheap??
« Reply #1 on: 3 Mar 2003, 03:52 pm »
Hi:

Each OmegaStar amplifier has separate drive and output sections for each channel.  The only "shared" component is the power supply (and case, naturally).  In the OmegaStar 240 there are two channels made of a driver board and two output transistors for each channel.  In the 204/3 there is a third driver board and another set of transistors.

In addition to the actual amplifier parts there is a heavier power supply and an additional heatsink (to support the third set of output transistors).  One important thing to know is that while we offer different size of OmegaStar amplifiers they all use the same exact circuit.  The only difference is the amount of output transistors and the size of the power supply.

Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Larry Jenkins

avahifi

One other thing:
« Reply #2 on: 3 Mar 2003, 04:29 pm »
I noticed I forgot to mention the price.  While it may look like the price is out of whack, it' actually correct.  Adding an additional board, heatsink and transistors is fairly straight forward so there is no need to raise the price beyond a reasonable amount.

Larry

avahifi

We got the weight wrong.
« Reply #3 on: 3 Mar 2003, 10:42 pm »
We made some estimates in weight for the last catalog under time pressure and got the weight wrong for the 240/3.  It actually is two pounds heavier than the two channel 240.  Note that the designs are not cheap or lightweight to save money, the units have very rugged steel chassis and tons of heatsink, its just that they are efficient mechanical engineering designs, and the faceplates are not an inch thick (as if that matters).  FVA

LightninBoy

  • Jr. Member
  • Posts: 15
OmegaStar 240/3 Amp - Why/How is it so cheap??
« Reply #4 on: 4 Mar 2003, 06:34 am »
Many thanks for the info folks. It was as I hoped; I was reading too much into the specs. BTW, my follow up question was regarding the weight listed on the web site - but it looks like that was addressed too!