PS Audio's new line of amps, preamp and integrateds . . .

J North · « **on:** 28 Sep 2004, 03:21 am »

Just announced today.

More hyperbole (witness all the HCA-2's flogged on AG) or something new to turn the audio world upside down?

http://www.psaudio.com/newsletters/9-04.asp

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #1 on:** 28 Sep 2004, 03:42 am »

Say the magic words...."Gain Cell".

Occam · « **Reply #2 on:** 28 Sep 2004, 04:38 am »

Quote from: lonewolfny42

Say the magic words...."Gain Cell".

Quack! Quack! Quack!

I've gotta hand it to PS Audio; there market-speak obfuscation is the best! These are the folks who call a CMC (common mode choke), their UltraOutlet, a Balun....

"A Gain Cell is the culmination of 25 years of work and thought wrapped up into a single module. A Gain Cell is the most revolutionary piece of audio technology I’ve been associated with in all the years I’ve been involved in our audio/video world."

It may well be the culmination of 25 years of work, just not work by PS Audio. So they take a TI THS4131 differential amp (or TI'sr TPA audio specific version) and wrap it in a Wolfson (for that 'stretch' [at best] claim of non-attenuating volume control] WM8816. BFD.

This is not to say that it isn't an excellent approach, it would depend on the implementation. Revolutionary? Hardly. But if it pulls one's pizzle string, go for it.

J North · « **Reply #3 on:** 30 Sep 2004, 09:46 pm »

According to a Ric Shultz, it looks likes PSAudio is using the B&O IcePower amplifier modules with the built in Switch Mode Power Supply in the new GCA and GCC amplifiers. I was wondering how they got the power ratings up so high from the HCA-2 level.

sethk · « **Reply #4 on:** 1 Oct 2004, 06:44 pm »

Is this really a "100% pure analog" design. Seeing the word switching in there makes it sound like one of the switching digital amps. Weren't PS Audio's previous amps digital too?