[Vinnie R.]

Is this the thread to give suggestions for future features or is there another thread?  The possibilities seem immense with this approach.  Just amazing.

Thanks,
UL

Hi UL,

Great idea!   

See:  http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=130693.0

Looking forward to your posts!

Vinnie

[christopher3393]

Hi Vinnie,

Any update on LIO production and when shipping might begin?

Thanks,
Christopher

[Vinnie R.]

Hi Christopher,

I emailed everyone on the pre-order list this AM, but I'll attached the note here so the whole world knows were we stand.   

Dear (LIO Pre-Order Customer's name),

Thank you for your LIO Pre-Order!

I want to take this time to provide you with an update on LIO production and the status of your order:

Slowly but steadily, parts are coming in!  There have been some delays with the enclosures as well as with certain parts for the modules, but barring any other unlikely delays, we should have all the parts by the end of this month.  Then we will immediately begin populating PCBs, building the LIOs, carefully testing them, and then packing them in our custom-made packaging (including double-wall box) for a safe journey to you.

The LIO Pre-Order campaign was a big success (thanks to you!) and we have many orders to build - following our order queue.  Your LIO is scheduled to ship next month.  I will check-in with an update early next month to give you a more accurate estimate on when it will ship.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.  Thank you again for your pre-order, and for all your patience.  Finally - wishing you and yours a very happy, healthy and safe holiday season!

Sincerely,

Vinnie

More to come soon!

Vinnie

[christopher3393]

Thanks, Vinnie. Great timing.

Hope you and yours get some holiday music listening in. All through my childhood and adolescence, my family had a tree decorating party a week or so before Christmas. We always sang Christmas carols while decorating. There were 8 of us. So over the years, harmonies were added, as well as occasionally irreverent changes in lyrics. All was completed with a toast, glasses filled with homemade eggnogg...with just an Irish touch of spirits to further gladden the already glad hearts.

Best wishes,

Christopher

[Vinnie R.]

Thanks, Vinnie. Great timing.

Hope you and yours get some holiday music listening in. All through my childhood and adolescence, my family had a tree decorating party a week or so before Christmas. We always sang Christmas carols while decorating. There were 8 of us. So over the years, harmonies were added, as well as occasionally irreverent changes in lyrics. All was completed with a toast, glasses filled with homemade eggnogg...with just an Irish touch of spirits to further gladden the already glad hearts.

Best wishes,

Christopher

Hi Christopher,

Thanks for sharing.

It is awesome how music can bring us 'back in time.'   When I hear a song for the first time, somehow my brain seems to save other details in memory, such as where I am, and what I am doing - WITH - remembering the song.  It does't happen for every song, but it does for many of them.  When I hear certain Christmas songs, I can remember being a little boy and where I was and who I was with the first time I heard them.  It sounds like this has been your experience with your caroling as a child. 

Here is to another glass of 'spirited' eggnogg! (the best kind!) 

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

All,

UPDATE TIME

- LIO MOSFET AMP - Good news!  We found a heatsink that is fits perfectly and is far superior thermally, so we will NOT be using
any fan.   

- Deliveries of parts continue to come in, and the LIO enclosures are almost complete and ready to ship.  Final REV PCBs are also
being made and shipping soon.  So it's getting exciting because we're gearing up to start production and we'll be doing it all day and
night once we have everything. 

- LIO Packaging - All set!  With two well made foam end-caps, a separate box for accessories, and a double-wall outer box.  Designed to be used multiple times and to keep your LIO protected in the harshest shipping environments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q6_9A90cUk     

- After the holidays, I'll be emailing our pre-order customers to give a more precise estimate on when their LIO will be shipping. 

Thanks for all your patience, continued support, and excitement!     

Happy Holidays to everyone, and all the best in 2015!  It's going to be a great year! 

Vinnie

[rodge827]

Vinnie,

There will be a mass lay-off quality workers that will be migrating from the north in about 3 days. These guys are kinda small so you can fit a lot of them in your "workshop". They like candy canes, candy corn, and maple syrup, but will only be around for a short time till they are called back to the old grind.

If this guy shows up put him in the quality control department...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEUkxtdVVPA



 
Chris




   

[Blu99Zoomer]

All,

UPDATE TIME

- LIO MOSFET AMP - Good news!  We found a heatsink that is fits perfectly and is far superior thermally, so we will NOT be using
any fan.   

I was }{ this close to ordering a LIO during the pre-order period when you offered free shipping both ways.  Then I saw there was a high probability of a fan on board and opted out.  The heatsink is really exciting news Vinnie.  Great work!! Merry Christmas.

Blu99Zoomer

[Vinnie R.]

All,

UPDATE TIME

- LIO MOSFET AMP - Good news!  We found a heatsink that is fits perfectly and is far superior thermally, so we will NOT be using
any fan.   

I was }{ this close to ordering a LIO during the pre-order period when you offered free shipping both ways.  Then I saw there was a high probability of a fan on board and opted out.  The heatsink is really exciting news Vinnie.  Great work!! Merry Christmas.

Blu99Zoomer

Hi Blu,

Thanks - I'm glad we found a good sink.  Not cheap, but well worth it instead of the fan.  I did some 4-ohm load torture testing and it works great!

So now you need to place your order.     

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

All,

Just a quick update:

LIO ENCLOSURES - should finally arrive by end of this week! 

LIO PCBs - most of them will be here by next week, and then we'll be soldering away!  A few will
follow the week after and we'll finish them, and then we'll be BUILDING AWAY! 

- January is going to be a busy month!  I believe we'll be able to ship out many of the pre-orders then, and hopefully
some review units as well!

- End of January is scheduled for a big photo and video shoot, so after that the LIO website will be updated as well. 

- Our next audio show is going to be AXPONA (Chicago - April 24 - 26).  This will be my first AXPONA and I'm looking forward to it!

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and music-filled New Year!     

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

All,

Happy New Year!

I've been very busy - NOW THAT (many) LIO PARTS ARE IN!!!!                 

- LIO ENCLOSURES are IN
- MOST of the blank PCBs for the modules (which we are soldering parts do around the clock!) are IN
- LIO Packaging is all here

So... just waiting on a few more PCBs that will be coming in in the next 1 - 2 weeks, but in the meantime, we are building
away on the LIO Pre-Orders and expect to be able to ship most of them this month (definitely to those who ordered
in October and November, and hopefully a handful of the orders received in December).

If we were already in production last month like I hoped for, I would have been at CES.  But since there is just too much to do now, we are staying back to build pre-orders and review units.

I was also informed that the new issue of The Absolute Sound lists LIO as "Top 10 Most Significant Products at RMAF 2014."  I need to
get a copy... 

More updates soon...

Vinnie

[christopher3393]

Hi Vinnie,

Thought you might find a little news from CES interesting: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/01/chord-electronics-launch-hugo-tt-dac-at-ces-2015/

The noteworthy part:

In surrendering portability, the Hugo TT has been designed to run continuously from the supplied wall charger. However, the battery has been doubled in size and is now ameliorated by 10,000,000 uF of supercapacitors providing greater power storage potential than the standard capacitors found in the original Hugo. The Hugo TT packs a power supply double act about which Franks says, “We use them (supercapacitors) in the same way that Formula 1 racing cars use them: they give the batteries more time to ramp up their chemical action, extending battery life as well as improving dynamics and a providing a faster response to demanding transients.”

(Keener observers will know that Vinnie Rossi’s forthcoming LIO amplifier will also deploy supercapacitors).  --John Darko

[Vinnie R.]

Hi Vinnie,

Thought you might find a little news from CES interesting: http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/2015/01/chord-electronics-launch-hugo-tt-dac-at-ces-2015/

The noteworthy part:

Hi Chris,

Thanks for sharing.  Looks like a different application using ultracapacitors - in parallel with batteries. 

If anyone has any questions about the ultracapacitor technology used by LIO - feel free to ask.

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

Just an update:

We are neck-deep in building LIO modules.  They are coming out great!   


LIO MOSFET AMP modules being assembled (top view).  Cool blue heatsink -
no fan.


LIO MOSFET AMP modules, rear view.  Cardas binding posts.


LIO RVC (Resistor Volume Control) modules.  Only 3" x 3" (and analog circuitry
is only 1/2 of that!)


LIO OUTPUTS (1 fixed level, 2 variable).  Cardas Rhodium RCAs.


A stack of LIO bottom panels (black anodized aluminum) being populated with standoffs, feet, and more...


A freshly opened box of ultracapacitors that will be used in building LIO PURE-DC-4EVR boards. 

More pics, videos, and details coming soon! 

Vinnie

[brh]

How many farads in that box of caps, Vinnie?

Pictures look great, and I appreciate the update emails as well. Exciting stuff!

[Captainhemo]

Nice to see things comng along Vinnie 
Pics are great, keep them coming 

-jay

[Vinnie R.]

How many farads in that box of caps, Vinnie?

Pictures look great, and I appreciate the update emails as well. Exciting stuff!

Hi brh,

Each ultracapacitor we use has a storage rating of 350 Farads (350,000,000uF).

In the LIO, each capacitor bank of the PURE-DC-4EVR power supply uses 9 ultracaps.

Just for fun, each carton (cardboard box, from the pic above) contains 63 ultracaps.  If all in parallel that would be
22,050,000,000 microfarads of charge.  Yes - 22 trillion uF !!!   That's a whole lot of electron lovin' 

Another tidbit - the ESR (effective series resistance) of each ultracap is approx. 3 milliohm = 0.003 ohm.  Needless to say,
peak output current capability is insanely high!

Nice to see things comng along Vinnie 
Pics are great, keep them coming 

-jay

Thanks, Jay!

-Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

And here we have a LIO bottom assembly.  Just a couple of pics from my phone (real photo shoot this weekend!). 

These are the 2 main boards in the LIO.  The one with the 18 ultracapacitors is the PURE-DC-4EVR board, which is located
closer to the front panel (not shown).  The board behind it is the LIO MB ("motherboard"), with no modules installed yet.  You can see black, 10-pin headers and stand-offs on this board that the LIO modules plug into.

When the sides and front panel get installed next, the LIO CONTROL board is mounted to the front panel and connects to both of
these boards.  LIO CONTROL is the main "brain" of the system.  I'll show that one next!



[A top view of LIO MB and LIO PURE-DC-4EVR main boards, mounted to black anodized aluminum bottom panel.]



[Side view of the pic above.]


I'll be going into more detail soon (with professional photos).  For now, we are too busy building away the pre-orders! 

Have a good weekend,

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

My photographers are doing their thing today.  Their pics are going to look MUCH better than mine!  Tomorrow
is a new video shoot. 

I should have them to share in a few weeks.   

Vinnie

[Vinnie R.]

All,

UPDATE

I anticipate shipping the first handful of pre-order units this week, followed by more next week. 

I am confident that *most* of the pre-orders will be shipped out by the end of this month.

I want to thank you all for your patience and understanding.  I really was hoping that you would of had them by now,
but there have been a few delays as well as some lost days from being hit with winter storms (if you live in New England,
you know what I'm talking about.  This year is heading towards being one of worst ones for snow fall  ).

The good news is that we are building away around the clock now and will be shipping soon.  And once we clear through the
pre-orders, we will be working on some of your great ideas for future modules.   

Thank you!

Vinnie