[Rocket]

hello all,

i've had a bit of bad luck since prior to xmas.  the good part was after trading emails with hugh dean for a few months i ordered his aksa 100 amp.  anyway a couple of days later my darn motor in my car broke (new head), okay i was feeling a bit guilty that i ordered this amp, but decided i'd still go thru with it.

i ordered the amp with the amp boards and power supply pre-assembled and it arrived a day or two before xmas.  i also have no experience with electronics so i enlisted a friends help to complete the amp for me, he had me running all over perth trying to get parts several times.  

i also have an n.e.w. dc-66 amplifier which runs on batteries, the sound is excellent, it was timely that i ordered the aksa as the recharge circuit died in the amp and i had it in for repair (unfortunately i'm having problems with the units reliability).

okay fast forward to a couple of days ago and the my friend is still working on the aksa (i didn't want to rush him as he was doing me a huge favour) and i decided i'd check out the batteries in my power supply.  unfortunately i discovered that the recharge circuit had fried my batteries, they are huge mothers and cost me $560 australian and were only 6 months old.  as you can imagine i was a tad upset.

last night i recieved a phone call to say that the aksa was finished, to be honest i was expecting it to sound okay but not in comparison to the n.e.w, bearing in mind the ne.w. amp cost $6500 au/$3000 us new and had been modified by pat o'brien at war audio.  i was warned by my tech that i need to change the location of the switch as i couldn't put the front face plate on properly and he was apprehensive that i might damage the amp.

i switched the amp on and there was a huge spark and i thought f.... here we go again.  anyway luckily it was just a fuse which i replaced and everything worked okay, luckily.

well it's only early days and i've heard it takes about 20 hours for the amp to break in but after 3 hours of listening this amp really rocks.  i was amazed to say the least, the amp was similiar sounding to the n.e.w., although a tad deeper in the bass.  

i decided i'd put on some discs that are really well recorded patricia barber (companion), rebecca pigeon (the four marys) and a sara k disc.

anyway i have to say this amp is slightly better than the n.e.w.  i'm in shock as i didn't expect this result, i'v read other ppl's impressions of the amp but also noted they had upgraded from nad, pioneer etc.  which are pretty average amps.

my system is quite good and ruthlessly reveals electronics which are of poor quality.  i have a modified pioneer pds-507 (g&d clock upgrade), perpetual technologies p3a (stock), n.e.w. p3 preamp (modded), n.e.w. dc-66 (battery amp in for repair at the moment) and i have a pair of mtm speakers.  2 x 7k4211db focal drivers in each speaker and the raven 1 ribbon tweeter the speakers were designed by pat o'brien of war audio and it took him a week full time to design and built the xovers for the unit.  the speakers sound wonderful.

the main difference i hear between the 2 amps is that the aksa just reproduces sounds more realistically compared to the n.e.w.  everything just sounds more life like, i've been a musician for 20 years and i know what live music sounds like.

all i can say is that you should do yourself a favour and either built the amp yourself or like me enlist other ppl to help.  you won't be disappointed, i'll let you know what improvements i hear after a couple of weeks listening.  btw this amp is the stock version without the nirvana upgrade.

regards

rod gittos

[PJ]

I think mine arrives tommorrow....but will be about 2 more weeks before I get the heatsinks and case..

[fred]

Glad to hear of your success and positive experiences.  It seems to me you may nevertheless have an issue with power surge, since you blew a fuse.  Maybe you need a larger capacitor in your power entry snubber circuit.  (although bear in mind I know almost nothing about electronics, other than the teensy bit I picked up building my AKSA). Do any of you technically savvy guys think Ron should be concerned, and if so how should it be addressed?

[Rocket]

hello fred,

no problem with power surge, what happened is that i have put the power switch too close to one of the transformers which prevents me bolting the front face plate on.  when i initially turned the amp on one of the terminals on the switch touched metal on the face plate and luckily blew a fuse and didn't damage anything else.

actually the amp looks quite funny at the moment i have to finish putting the amp chassis together.  

the amp has about 10 hours on it at the moment and last night my system never sounded so good.  i'm really struggling with how to describe the improvement, the music now sounds holographic.  i really thought my n.e.w. was one of the best amps around, we had compared it to bel canto evo's, aleph 3's and aleph 0 mono blocks.  i thought the n.e.w. compared well with these amps, only the aleph 0's sounded better than my amp and by the smallest of margins mind you.  i think the 0's retail price was about $10000 us.

i'll attempt to do a review in a couple of weeks time.

regards

rod

[fred]

Glad to hear everything is actually working.  Your AKSA comparison is now the most extreme I have seen.  The only other that's close is the one TNT-Audio did comparing the AKSA-55 to a McIntosh amp.  I look forward to your review.  You might consider posting it on audioasylum as well.

[Rocket]

hello fred,

i'll do a proper review in a couple of weeks and will post on audio asylum.  these amps should be getting the proper accolades they deserve, to be honest i was only going to use this amp as a back up for my n.e.w.  using it for when the batteries ran out of juice.  

have you bought the gk-1?  and how is the perpetual technologies dac with the modwright upgrades going?

anyway catch you later.  gotta go and finish off the chassis before i blow any more fuses.  btw i'm probably going to make a nice jarrah faceplate.

regards

rod

[andyr]

This thread had some comparisons of AKSAs vs other amps, so let me add my AU$2 worth (well, actually that's only US2c worth, given the sinking "pacific peso"!!).

I had a tri-amped system system - 3 x first-generation Naim 250s driving Maggie IIIas through an active crossover.  Now Naim amps are very good at delivering a musical line and I know if I replaced the old 250s with the current models, I would have got a significant increase in musical enjoyment.  Howeeeever, this would have been a verrrry expensive upgrade!!

Luckily, I live in the same town as Hugh Dean so I was able to visit his home, listen to his AKSA 55w and then compare this with one of my Naim 250s.

I heard a positive benefit ... so I made the decision there and then to buy 3 x AKSA kits (with the nirvana upgrade).  6 months later, when I had finally put it all together, the result was way beyond my expectations!!

What I was listening to was way, way more musicality ... as Hugh says, if it makes ya want to tap your feet, then it must be good!!

Regards,

Andy

[Rocket]

hello andy,

i have been into audio for about 17 years (since 1985) and it has been a gradual procession with upgrading my system, like many ppl i have made mistakes with certain products over the years.

i guess one of the reasons that i posted my initial impressions was that most ppl have indicated that the aksa is a good amp and always compared it to the price.

well i think that it is a superb amp regardless of price.  even if you don't have experience with electronics you can always do what i have done and enlist ppl to help you along the way.  in fact i'm going to get off my rear end and enrole in an electronics course as diy is the direction i'm interested in.

i don't think the aksa is a major improvement over my n.e.w. dc-66 amp (this amp has an innovative power supply utilising 4 x panasonic 12 volt 33 amp hour batteries) but it is a little more transparent and i think it recreates music more realistically than my n.e.w.  not bad considering my previous amp sold for $6500 australian.

anyway i'm happy with my purchase, do you know anyone that i can sell my n.e.w. to?

regards

rod

[andyr]

Rod,
No, sorry!  I guess you need to find someone with a) no DIY ability and b)a fair amount of unaccounted for shekels, so they can afford to pay the $3,000-odd I'm sure you want for your N.E.W..

Jokes aside, I've always found the Melbourne Trading Post to be a good method of buying or selling - do you have the equivalent over there in Perth?

Or, you do what I did with my Naim amps and trade them in for a high-priced component ... a graham arm in my case, but this required me to match the trade-in with cash!

Regards,

Andy

[Rocket]

hello andy,

i need to have the amp fixed before i can sell it, plus i have to replace the batteries which will cost about $560 au.  i'm probably going to ask for about $2000 au which i think would be a good price.

perth is a small market so i'll see how i go.

regards

rod

[Pleb Plebian]

You could also try posting in the aus.hi-fi newsgroup?
Cheers
-D

[Rocket]

hello pleb,

i've never heard of the site previously i'll check it out.  i will attempt a review in a couple of weeks once the amps is run in, i'll also have my friend bring his n.e.w. for me to compare the 2 amps side by side.

thanks for the info.

regards

rod