AKSA 55N demoed to Arizona audiophiles

CButterworth · « **on:** 27 Jun 2007, 02:46 am »

Last Saturday, a bunch of us from the Arizona Audio Club got together for our monthly meeting. The main feature of the meeting was the demoing of DIY equipment. I felt quite proud as I carried in my DIY speaker cables, Aikido preamp, and AKSA 55N. We set-up a good quality music system consisting of off-the-shelf equipment (solid state Haffler amp, Conrad-Johnson preamp, Granite Audio CD-player, and electrostatis speakers). We had three pieces of music - including a Frank Sinatra recording and a piece that sounded very much like part of Holst's Planets. Please excuse my ignorance.

We first swapped out the speaker cables (zip cord) for mine cat5 based cables. Then added my Aikido preamp. Everyone was very impressed and the Conrad-Johnson remained excluded from the system!

Then, we inserted the AKSA 55N. The initial comment from one discerning member was that the sound wasn't [changed to the negative, Ed] all that great - he thought that the amp needed warming up. After we played the second piece, he expressed praise for the extremely good sound quality of the AKSA and the fast warm-up time.

Anyway, a number of fellow club members asked me to talk about my DIY gear. The final comments from the club members can be paraphrased as "WOW, you have a great sounding system, and all for under around a $1000"

I know that many threads use fancy terminology such as "soundstage," "imaging," "bass extension," etc. Anyway, I have difficulty recognizing when to use such technical terms to describe what I hear. All I know, is that other experienced audiophiles were very impressed with the AKSA 55N (as well as my preamp), and I also know that I also really love what I hear from my AKSA.

Thanks Hugh for a great product. I hope to invest in the LF upgrade someday soon. Until then I have my wife and I have our own personal "lifeforce" upgrade to keep us busy, and he is certainly doing just that!

Regards,
Charlie

andyr · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 Jun 2007, 08:58 am »

Quote from: CButterworth on 27 Jun 2007, 02:46 am

I hope to invest in the LF upgrade someday soon. Until then my wife and I have our own personal "lifeforce" upgrade to keep us busy, and he is certainly doing just that!

Regards,
Charlie

Hehe but would we do that if we knew just how much that particular "upgrade" would cost us?

Let's see ... 15 years school fees, 5 years Uni fees, a car, numerous lunches for her friends ... at least A$250K not including food and not in today's dollars! And constant antagonism during the 'teen' years!

My god, How much hifi could I have bought for that!

Regards,

Andy

CButterworth · « **Reply #2 on:** 27 Jun 2007, 04:31 pm »

Andyr,

Yes, but consider ALL the emotional envolvement that you got for your $250K

No amount of HiFi could equal that, could it?

Charlie

kyrill · « **Reply #3 on:** 27 Jun 2007, 05:42 pm »

emotions?

I have two sources of big emotions and those were the ones i was afraid off:
1) doing exams
2) girls or ehh young women. Women could really shake up my emotions too much
.
.
Not afraid
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.
.
.
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3) superb food meal 2 star Michelin level, real fine wines red of course, with loved ones or friends, one long big Argaszm like experience, not 30 sec

4) enjoying good music with superb equipment
.
.

5) riding my Yamaha HL500 4 stroke dirt bike ( changed a bit to be allowed to ride on the road, do it less and less)

AKSA · « **Reply #4 on:** 28 Jun 2007, 01:28 am »

Charlie,

Many thanks for your post, and for demoing the AKSA in Arizona, much appreciated.

If you have a choice between hifi and children, choose both. Only the second is truly expensive.....

Kyrill,

I relate strongly to your choices, too, a motorcycle, in fact anything which burns fossil fuels, is a thing of great beauty, particularly to males. Dunno why.....

I recently heard of an enthusiast in California who achieved over 1200 bhp from a turbo 3 litre Toyota 2JZ http://www.theoldone.com/components/cylinderheads/Supra/toyota_supra_2jz.htm

Cheers,

Hugh

Imperial · « **Reply #5 on:** 6 Jul 2007, 09:28 am »

I just came across this photo of a Aksa 55 on the gallery:

Now that was superb casework!!!
Builder is "jules"

I have to say! This is industrial design on a very high level!!!

Imperial

AKSA · « **Reply #6 on:** 6 Jul 2007, 09:44 am »

Yes, Imperial,

Jules is an extraordinary craftsman. He is also a gifted chef, ran the kitchen of one of Melbourne's most prestigious restaurants for some years.

On top of that, he's a great guy, and he drives a WRX.....

Hugh

Imperial · « **Reply #7 on:** 6 Jul 2007, 10:15 am »

So... it was "chop chop" gotta hurry with work here! and...
"chop chop" gotta get home quick!!!

Yes. I am very impressed by that amp casing! That was really something!

WRX... well, Petter Solberg, The Subaru driver is from Norway you know...
We have policecars that are Subaru WRX's here in Norway...
You can NOT get away from those!!!

We also have Dodge SRT-"viper" Police cars...

This car was at the 4th of July cruise... Looking cool! Ready to put the lawless on the "barbie"...

Imperial