[JCarney]

I sent my Ultra SL in for the Ultra II upgrade. It arrived in MN on Weds., and at about 10 this morning I shot them an email inquiring where in the que I was. Couple hours later, my phone rings, it's Mary from AVA letting me know the upgrade is done. I call back to pay for it, and 20 minutes or so later, I get an email from UPS letting me know it's in their system and will be here, ironically enough, on Weds. 1 week from hitting their door, to back to me done. Man that's quick. Oh, while on the phone, Frank walked through the office and saw the invoice, told Dean to let me know if anything went wrong with it, to blame him, he did the upgrade. HA! Like anything will go wrong.

Thanks for the quick turnaround,
JCarney

[avahifi]

We can't do all the projects this fast.

We recently got an order of big power transformers in that were great, except they were missing the outer shield rings.  So they had to go back for completion to the manufacturer.  Unfortunately we have clients waiting for these transformers to complete their power amp orders, so they will be waiting a bit longer than normal.

We are back ordered for four months for a special semi-conductor we use in many of our best units.  The problem here was the flood in Malaysia this winter.  Fortunately for us we had a good stock on hand when the disaster occurred there and are not in order filling trouble at this time, assuming that the promised delivery date for new stock does not slip way out further.  We will learn more about that in April.

There is always something going on out there beyond our control, no different from any other manufacturer I suppose.  Jay got a bit lucky, I had a bit of free time available and an itch to do some more bench work, the parts were here and I got it right the first time. 

Regards,

Frank

[JCarney]

I'll gladly take a little good timing, and needin' ta scratch an itch.

Jody

[ajzepp]

I can vouch for Frank's customer service, and I haven't even bought anything from AVA lol. When I was in the market for an amp a few years ago, I happened to go in another direction only because of a local dealer that I had a relationship with and was able to demo the unit. But I was VERY close to pulling the trigger on an AVA piece, and I have no doubt that at some point I will become a customer. But when I was in the shopping phase, Frank returned calls personally and helped me with questions about his products. I have a lot of respect for the way they do business at AVA.

[bearman2]

Tell us how the upgrade sounds because I was thinking of having this done on my ultra SL.

[bunky]

I have never bought gear from AVA but i have followed Franks posts for years and i know that he is one of the good guys in this business.

[rcag_ils]

I did the Burr Brown OPA627AP and the tube upgrade for my Ultra DAC, is there another upgrade for this? And what is the cost? And how does it sound?

[Lefty052347]

There is an additional upgrade.  We replace the old mosfet with an exicon 10p20.  It costs $300.  The comments are positive and it sounded great in the shop (what else woukd I say).

Regards,
Dean

[pansixt]

They probably mess around like we all do at work and play, but to hear a good word from an AVA Associate about my gear, I am like an expectant Father.

Bunky, See ya at D.C.A.F. 2012.
James

By the way, Your avatar, that is a chick, right?

[I.Greyhound Fan]

I did the Burr Brown OPA627AP and the tube upgrade for my Ultra DAC, is there another upgrade for this? And what is the cost? And how does it sound?

The Mosfet upgrade cost $300 and is worth every penny.  I did it to mine along with the same upgrades as you.  The Mosfet took the DAC to another level.  The music is much more dynamic with deeper, more controlled bass along with making it more musical.  This is not a subtle change, it is readily apparent.  I did the same Mosfet upgrade to my Ultra II Preamp and it to was well worth the money.  These upgrades are basically giving you a new piece of gear for $300.

[JCarney]

Tell us how the upgrade sounds because I was thinking of having this done on my ultra SL.

I was thinking of multitasking this thread, and posting my impressions end of next week, or weekend.

JCarney

[bunky]

They probably mess around like we all do at work and play, but to hear a good word from an AVA Associate about my gear, I am like an expectant Father.

Bunky, See ya at D.C.A.F. 2012.
James

By the way, Your avatar, that is a chick, right?

Gotta love a pretty girl wih a Guitar 

[JCarney]

Well, it made it back in one piece, in a new box to boot. Pulled the top to take a peek, and to put my 6CG7's back in. Looks fairly different in there, but I don't have much of a memory for electronic layouts. Got the backup out, and the now UltraII in the rack. Fired up the digital rig,('09MacMini w/ ssd, stripped/optimized os running BitPerfect to PSAudio DLIII via SilFlex optical), checked to make sure it still sounded better then the back up, yep, walked away for 15 or 20 minutes to let it warm up. Came back and listened to a couple regular tunes to just get an idea of what might be happening. Hmmm, sounds a little clearer perhaps..? More stuff findin it's way thru? Little fuller overall..? Ok, walk away again. There is always a little settling in when something is new, or upgraded, or just out of the system for a bit. Some of it the gear, some of it me. Usually doesn't take to long to sort itself out. Sat down for about an hour and threw a pretty good variety at it. Very much liked what I was hearing, but having trouble coming up with a description. During an energetic part of "On My Own", Three Days Grace, One-X, it came to me. I can better hear/feel the energy/emotion of the performers. As a whole, or individually during an instrument solo, or a particularly emotional vocal piece. Leanord Slatkin-St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Telarc from 1983 has Pachelbel's Kanon on it, which is my favorite rendition. I listened to it twice today. The first time was wonderful, the second, about an hour after the first listen, completely sucked me in. I was powerless until the piece ended. That piece usually owns me, but not like that.

Bearman, with only about 5 on it hours since I fired it up, I would tell you to go right ahead and give your money to Frank and the gang. I have a couple days off, so I'm going to give it some vinyl love tomorrow and see what's what there. I'll report on that as well. I like to take a few days to get to know anything new in my system. Initial impressions are very, very good though, so I'm pretty stoked about that.

JCarney