[AKSA]

Once again, I feel I should intervene in this thread because of the dreadful racket!!

Australia is entering autumn, man it's cold in the early morning when I take my jog in the park, while the northern hemisphere is entering spring and I'm told Switzerland is an unseasonably warm 25C during the day now.  It seems the scientists were right 15 years ago when they warned us this might happen!

Laurie tells me the Vsonics will be ready for audition in my home in two weeks.  I'm still waiting on the new pcb I designed for the crossover;  this is the delay.  We've bought initial components for a start.  A recent audition was quite extraordinary, it sounded like a 12" bass driver on organ notes, and all this from a small, 32 litre enclosure!

The Squeezebox power supply is slowly taking form, with the chief holdup being graphics and CNC machining of the Al enclosure.  All parts are purchased, and the prototype has been out on long term trial with Supermart, who loves it.

I'm working on another amp design, but nothing concrete at this stage.  It will likely not compete with the Lifeforce - low power - but it will essentially be a crossover between tube and SS amps, a non-switching Class AB mosfet of around 40W.  It will have to be truly exceptional to best the Lifeforce, I can say that emphatically!

My Toyota Cressida is off the road still as the rear heater coupling in the head has a busted thread which has had to be drilled, machined and rewelded because the damage was impossible to fix, even with a helicoil.  It's been traumatic, because we had to remove the head a second time, spitting chips as we went.  This is the archilles heel of these engines;  dreadful cylinder head problems caused by inadequate factory bolt tension and relentless electrolytic corrosion due to dissimilar metals and poor head to block grounding.   Funny how grounding rears its ugly head in so many areas!

The LF continues to sell well;  a 100 watter recently replaced a 600W monobloc amp of impeccable branding at a customer's home;  his reply was, 'Well, it's much more detailed, and the bass and midrange is so much clearer and better defined.  And it's got an image now!'

I have put the finishing touches to the front panel of a full on retail 100W Lifeforce.  I will post pictures both here and on the website when it's all complete;  it's a 12mm thick Al billet, machine engraved and anodised in matt satin.  Should look sensational!

Life on DIYaudio has been interesting lately!   I've been relentlessly lampooned for being an 'alchemist', understanding insufficient to modify amps, let alone design them.  While this has stung somewhat, the fact is objectivism is a religion to the meter readers, and there is no point arguing.  None of these guys are commercial designers;  they are academics and highly qualified hobbyists with a strong math background, but the fighting has been bitter.  Sadly, no matter how low the measured distortion, it will be used for music, and if people don't like the sound, they won't buy it.  And some tube amps distort dreadfully!  You can't easily measure this quality of market acceptance, but it dictates the commercial realities.

Cheers,

Hugh

[raptor]

I have put the finishing touches to the front panel of a full on retail 100W Lifeforce.  I will post pictures both here and on the website when it's all complete;  it's a 12mm thick Al billet, machine engraved and anodised in matt satin.  Should look sensational!



Cheers,

Hugh

Hugh,

I hope this is my Lifeforce you are talking about

To explain:
I ordered a retail Swift and Lifeforce 100 from Hugh on March 25th and he told me there was a 4-6 week waiting list as he was very busy. I promised that I wouldn't give him a hard time about delivery until the 6 weeks were up, so we are down to 10 days and counting.

I spent a number of months deciding what amplification I wanted to get and auditioned Musical Fidelity, Primare, Qinpu, Melody, Consonance and a number of other brands. I did some at home auditions as well as in-store and my final playoff was AKSA versus a Consonance passive pre-amp with Consonance Cyber 845 monoblocs. I had been extremely impressed with the Consonance gear when I listened to it in store.

However, once I connected them up to my Shanling CDT-100C player and my Whatmough (a local brand made 1 km away from where I live) P31 speakers, there was no contest. The AKSA was so much more musical and pleasurable to listen to that it made my decision extremely easy. 

As you can well imagine, I am hanging out for my goodies to be ready as I am currently using a Yamaha receiver to play my music.

I wouldn't worry what the people at DIYaudio may say Hugh, I listen to music, not numbers, and I think you have got the music portrayal just right.



Cheers,

Neil 

[LM]

Hugh,

I wouldn’t beat myself about the head too much if I were you about fighting objectivism that would seem to be a pointless pursuit.  Your components speak (or is it sing ) for themselves.  Thank goodness there are creative people that are not bound to the assumption that something ‘can’t work because it doesn’t follow a conventional model’ or that we can’t measure it therefore it doesn’t exist.  That way, the rest of us can purchase something that ‘only’ sounds good.

We all have what is still the world’s greatest computer between our ears so if I can ‘hear’ a wider and/or deeper soundstage etc. from your amp or speakers (or anyone else’s for that matter) I am not phased by the fact that no-one seems to be able to supply me with measured soundstage specs.  Please keep regaling us with your thoughts and ideas that you seem to have an uncanny ability to make happen and that work.  An alchemist that succeeded eh; now that’s news!

[AKSA]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for your post - nice name in light of the vehicle you drive, too!  I certainly appreciate your patience, and you can be pleased work is proceeding apace, and come have a gander and a coffee any time!

Lyn,

Yes, you are right.  I should console myself that while the EEs fret over 0.001% distortion, they will usually miss the target, and while I don't profess to get a bullseye, I do feel there is more room for subjective assessment, which is what the subjectivist mags do all the time, right or wrong.

Thanks for the encouragement!!

Cylinder head went in today for the final welding.  We anticipate a happy engine......

Cheers,

Hugh

[kyrill]

Hi Sean,

Thanks for your post - yes, the Vsonic will be a GREAT product, I'm immensely satisfied with what I've seen and heard.  When you finally get down to grey Melbourne, your presence is commanded at my cafe.

There's good coffee to be drunk.....

Cheers,

Hugh

"Good coffee to be drunk"  Oh no this can['t be true

Au is very very English based not Italian.. Shall i come over from Holland to challenge Hugh's coffee?
IF . and I mean IF  Hugh really has good coffee ( which I very very doubt given AU history)  then. then the Aksa's and the LF's are not Hugh's core  life force basics, but quality of human experience is. Next to making  a good love  enjoying a good meal and glasses of wine, riding on a 4-stroke medium thru AU dessert, and music as enjoying the o so intimate caress of moving  emotions thru  languages of soul, then Aspen core business is quality of life expressed in harmonics. But coffee? Coffee too?

[AKSA]

Hi Kyrill,

Couldn't resist this one......

You wrote:

Au is very very English based not Italian.. Shall i come over from Holland to challenge Hugh's coffee?

The food industry in Melbourne, the second most British Australian city after Adelaide, is dominated by Italian, Greek and Lebanese immigrants, now into their third generation here.  My favorite cafes are owned by people of Italian, Lebanese and Austrian heritage, so their standards are every bit as European as most of Europe, especially as many of them consistently visit their country of origin.  Listen to the names of the larger Melbourne coffee companies:  Vittorio, Beraldo, Mio, Cisco, Atomica.  There are also some very, very nice coffees out of Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia makes beautiful coffee, although it's very hard to find here (probably you know it in Holland!).

I would suspect that our coffee is up to your high standards, but I would suggest that since Holland is such a powerful trading nation with a large population and a tradition of the finest products of the world, you probably could pip us at the post, but it would be close.......

... then the Aksa's and the LF's are not Hugh's core  life force basics, but quality of human experience is.  Next to making a good love, enjoying a good meal and glasses of wine, riding on a 4-stroke medium thru AU dessert, and music as enjoying the o so intimate caress of moving  emotions thru  languages of soul, then Aspen core business is quality of life expressed in harmonics. But coffee? Coffee too?

Absolutely.  Kyrill, at our age, we see the end of the tunnel, and value our time greatly, leaning towards 'sniffing the roses'.  Amplifiers are a pivotal aspect of my life, but it's unidimensional, obsessive stuff, and a little unbalanced.  That's why I value the family, friends, reading, an avid interest in motorcycles, and world politics.  I think the world is fascinating, and the more so as I age.  You cannot spend your whole life working, there has to be recreation and rest, and I really enjoy conversation, good food, and particularly coffee and chocolate.  I'm not a big drinker;  it doesn't like me, and makes me feel off colour, which is probably a very good thing......

Do you recall Bertrand Russell's comment about ageing?  He said, 'When I was young and my brain was fresh, I was a mathematician.  In my later years, I became a philosopher'.

A love of beauty and an intuitive understanding of the concepts of nature is, in my view, the preserve of late middle and old age.  Could this apply to you too?   

Cheers,

Hugh

[kyrill]

ah ya AU is the best cultural kitchen mix in the world..
but i assumed you to be standing proud on old English tradition and taste for food and coffee, heavy dark plumb plumb xmas cakes, watery coffee, grey cooked vegetables beans and filled scheep lungs and so, no ?

But i could have been warned, yr Aksa's then, would probably sound like Cambridge Audio 

[AKSA]

Kyrill,

I had all that dross in my childhood on a farm, and at boarding school and later the military.     My poor Father died last year from widely disseminated arteriosclerosis caused by too much dairy products and animal meat. 

At 32 I married Sri, an Indonesian Army Officer from Semarang.  She came to Australia from a privileged background, knew no cooking, but used cookbooks to learn both English and about food.  She settled on Italian/Greek/Indonesian food, a wonderful mix of all three, and I've lived grandly ever since on a totally different diet to my younger days.  All the food I eat now is passably hot, and I've learned to like rice, fish, tahu and tom yum.  She does cook British fare, but we both know that tends towards bland by comparison!  People cry out in discomfort after leaving our table;  they have eaten too much, but felt it too beautiful to refuse.....   

We rarely eat sweets now, a good thing.  My makeup and temperament is certainly British, but my food preferences are generally European and Asian.

Anyway, enough......  where did you buy your very elegant teflon tube socket?

Cheers,

Hugh 

[EchiDna]

..... but i assumed you to be standing proud on old English tradition and taste for food and coffee, heavy dark plumb plumb xmas cakes, watery coffee, grey cooked vegetables beans and filled scheep lungs and so, no ?

them's fightin words... 

 

[Johnny]

But i could have been warned, yr Aksa's then, would probably sound like Cambridge Audio 

Kyrill! Your killing me!

 

[stvnharr]

People cry out in discomfort after leaving our table;  they have eaten too much, but felt it too beautiful to refuse.....   

Yes I can vouch for truth of the above statement, having been in said state a few times from Sri's cooking.  Feasts every night!!!!

[Jens]

Likewise 

[Seano]

Oh.......good!

[LM]

Well, for those looking for some current noise coming out of AKSA HQ, there was some this morning that I was listening to and it was actually a very pleasant noise.  First time I’ve heard the new Vsonics and they sound very impressive indeed.  I won’t comment on looks too much as Hugh told me the production version dimensions will be a bit different (smaller) but as prototypes they looked fine as a wood veneer with a simple two way facia (1 inch tweeter over an 8 inch main – Peerless drivers I believe).

I love my Vandersteens and would hesitate to ever compare directly as a different room and CD source would substantially influence things but I can post some initial general impressions.  Overall I felt the Vsonics were highly resolving and beautifully detailed.  The excellent focus, imaging and stable instrument location stood out immediately and the soundstage was quite 3D though not the widest or deepest I’ve ever heard.  Perhaps a tad laid back rather than absolutely neutral and the base whilst also extremely well detailed was a bit hard for me to judge as it’s a while since I’ve been limited to about 40hz as mine go down solidly to the high twenties.

The crossover is third order and well sorted and I suspect that those that love really musical 2 way speakers that emphasise a superb midrange and upper base will be very pleased indeed.  I suspect Hugh didn’t design them to rock and they don’t but golly if you like to hear vocal, orchestral and unplugged instruments that sound truly clean, natural and musical, pop in and have a listen like I did.

[Seano]

I too sampled the Vsonics last week....(thanks Hugh and Sri for your hospitality).  And I'd have to mirror LM's assessment.  They sound quite impressive......in fact, given my limited experience with loudspeakers, they probably are the most impressive speaker I've ever heard.

True, room effects and speaker positioning make comparisons of speakers somewhat moot but suffice to say that these Vsonics trounced my Krix Lyrix in virtually every way possible.  If there was one thing that was clear to me it was the strong belief that the speakers were too close together - Hugh's room just wasn't wide enough - and the 'soundstage' was congested for width.

Hugh's CD player was plugged straight to a LF100 as his GK-1 was off impressing someone else (dammit!!).

I had a go with them using some newly purchased CDs from Peter Gabriel and The Knife while Hugh tried out tracks from The Wonder Boys soundtrack (Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Van Morrison).  My memory of the Vsonic is comprised of 'detail', 'speed' and 'bass control'.  And it was the bass control that had me interested.

Unlike LM I think they can rock - I tried The Knife track called 'Silent Shout', which is a spectacular slab of electronica that exploits a massive frequency range with rapid shifts between such frequencies, at a volume just shy of ear splitting and it is fair to say that they managed extremely well.  The low frequency crescendo was quite impressively delivered.  Deep floor shaking harmonics.....so cool!!  Tracks from Peter Gabriel's singles compilation such as 'Solsbury Hill' and 'Sledgehammer' were reproduced extremely well - tonnes of detail. Perhaps a bit too much given the mastering quality!  Hugh's response that it needed some tubes in it was probably on the mark......

I'd love to try them in a bigger room!!!!!  With a few valves in between!

[AKSA]

Thanks Sean!!

It was great to meet you last week, really enjoyed the exchange of ideas and general audiophile and automotive banter!!     aa  I should tell you that Russ, my biker mate, recently found a 1995 Aristo biturbo in SA for $16K with only 88K kms on the clock, now there's a car........

Appreciate your comments on the VSonics.  I have a secret weapon in Simon Williams, a close family friend who visits frequently and who LOVES music with a passion unmatched.  He knows more about popular, classical and particularly jazz in all its genres than anyone I've ever met, including all the gurus on the media who purport to be experts.  He has an extraordinary, eclectic taste, likes everything, even (I'm a bit sheepish about this) RAP!!     Can you imagine that?  (And he's 53, I worry about that...... )  Every time Simon visits, he brings a new CD - he buys one almost every day from the merchant nearby - and tries it out on my system.

Last Saturday I found Simon sitting in the listening room late at night in the freezing cold - no heater here - listening to the VSonics/100LF at about 100dBA playing some very complex electronic music.  I was amazed, he normally listens very quietly because he just loves the detail.  He is a blues fanatic, and runs a weekly music program on the local community FM station.

I asked him why it was so loud.  He responded that he found it really exciting, because all the realism and detail was still intact.  He loves the speakers, and really loves the bass.  Sean, I think this reinforces your comments, and I should add that nothing gets by me without first seeking Simon's approval;  he is a large part of my quality control.  It is interesting that he is a linguistic camelian (just like you, Jens, I know you are there!!);  he speaks utterly fluent Indonesian and Greek, has an unmatched ear for sound, and is about as interested in the electronic gimcrackery as I am in garden snails.......

Cheers,

Hugh

[LM]

Just to clarify, the ‘not designed to rock’ was intended to be complimentary.  I have been a victim of my own inexperience a number of times in the past where I have bought speakers that I later realised were designed to overtly emphasise the base and as well as the consequent base bloom and muddiness, I also found that this seemed to adversely affected the midrange quality.  Hugh has made no such design mistake in my opinion.  The Vsonics certainly reproduce the input signal input very accurately indeed, rock sources included (apart from the lowest octave), so only those who want a woolly ‘duff duff’ sound, a big base driver or added distortion will be disappointed.  Sorry if that was not clear.

[Jens]

Hi Hugh,

Sure - I'm here 

Would love to hear those Vsonics! Unfortunately, there's nothing on the agenda that points in the direction of me getting to Melbourne in any foreseeable future

I guess I could build a pair of Vsonics myself, but the next question would be where to put them? They're too small for my big room (around 45 sq.m), where I currently have eight (!) 8" drivers (also Peerless, very similar to the ones used in the Vsonics) to ensure the room is "filled" properly with sound. And I don't have (and don't intend to have) a "second system".

Well, I suppose I'll come across the Vsonics during my travels - we'll see 

[Seano]

Jens.........are you sure your room size estimate is correct?  45 sqm is not unusual for a medium Australian loungeroom these days and Hugh's listening room is certainly bigger than this - I'd guesstimate around 65 sqm...........and I found the audio setup quite deafening.

The other thing I forgot to point out was how effortless the Vsonics seem to be to drive.  The LF100 remained basically cool to touch despite 20 minutes of enthusiastic volume management from Hugh (I never got near the remote!!) - something that impressed me no end.

[DSK]

Jens.........are you sure your room size estimate is correct?  45 sqm is not unusual for a medium Australian loungeroom these days and Hugh's listening room is certainly bigger than this - I'd guesstimate around 65 sqm...........and I found the audio setup quite deafening.

The other thing I forgot to point out was how effortless the Vsonics seem to be to drive.  The LF100 remained basically cool to touch despite 20 minutes of enthusiastic volume management from Hugh (I never got near the remote!!) - something that impressed me no end.

Seano, I'm not surprised. I've had loud listening sessions much longer than 20 minutes, in a much bigger room, with my 84db speakers, and my LF100 was still only barely more than cool to the touch.