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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 8:00:17 GMT
Ah right, I can empathise with that. Class T amps leave me feeling the same way. If you're ever coming Basingstoke way, let me know and pop over for a listen. The John Franks amps you have very well designed the originals were designed by a very good friend of mine who sadly died on Christmas day a few years ago with his lovely family all about him, I liked Walter Halliday a very clever man, Irish by birth and not tarred with the same brush with the last Irishman I made friends with. I was offered the opportunity to work with Mr. Franks but sadly I turned it down as the Scottish wife I had did not want to live in Kent. Shame my family came from Kent and I would have been close to them now. Walter was a fantastic teacher and specialized in SMPSU designs, we worked together at a company called Minebea in Port Glasgow, another story of wooded curtains and very poor folk. It was well worth the flight up and down the country from Somerset twice a week just to learn from this great man. John choose well calling on Walters designs shame he was never here long enough to see the great legacy he left behind an unknown designer in the history of Audio and Hifi. He, I and Gordon Strachan worked on some real magic projects I later work with Gordon at a company that designed X Ray machines and Optothermal Scopes in Dunfermline and BEA and Hughes, Gordon now works for Raytheon in the USA and often reads this site, he had a Claymore from me year before we met and it now works still in Boston Mas . I enjoy those days of learning and having fun and damn good Whiskey. God Bless you Walter. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 8:12:20 GMT
Dan,s Amps are another good design having met the man in the 1990's at Ramada when we showed of the biggest SECA ever made he came over very learned kind and generous and his amps reflect that for me, interesting that some designer leave a small bit of themselves in a design I found, Croft again rich full of detail and the man is the same great people, these amps designed by a design house sound bland and dead just like reading a Times New Paper or any new paper. The TQ Claymore was designed by me but the interference from the Irishman screwed the sound up for me, OK it a good amp but not the way I would have made it sound no way, and the remote idea was ghastly YUK and put lots of limitation on the sound and that was bad. I fear now that TQ cable will go the same way with no real design in the new ones or long term future my IP will be screwed well and trully. (idiots) It will be just another cable coming from anywhere the cost can be cut, just a product not a special product anymore. No Soul and dead.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 8:14:46 GMT
The ones with big oval meters on the front?  The Krell Audio Standard. Sounds somewhat familiar! Oh, how I loved my KSA 50. Selling it was my worst ever Hifi decision. Another "clanger" on my part was not buying a pair of KAS at a silly cheap price (for them anyway). Still, I did get to see them in the flesh. As I was writing this, saw the pic and I remembered the KAS as being far bigger than the pic suggests. |
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Post by MartinT on Aug 3, 2015 8:57:40 GMT
The John Franks amps you have very well designed the originals were designed by a very good friend of mine who sadly died on Christmas day a few years ago with his lovely family all about him, I liked Walter Halliday a very clever man, Irish by birth and not tarred with the same brush with the last Irishman I made friends with. I was offered the opportunity to work with Mr. Franks but sadly I turned it down as the Scottish wife I had did not want to live in Kent. Shame my family came from Kent and I would have been close to them now. Now that I didn't know, many thanks for the insight into Chord's designer, Colin. I shall research Walter Halliday, sounds like another John Curl / Nelson Pass / Charlie Hansen type guru able to design circuits that elude lesser mortals. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 9:09:00 GMT
His PSU designs were amazing he specialised in N+1 systems and Hot replacements, a real challenge at 5KWs.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 3, 2015 9:11:36 GMT
Oh, how I loved my KSA 50. Selling it was my worst ever Hifi decision. I can only imagine  |
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Post by MartinT on Aug 3, 2015 11:17:36 GMT
Now that I didn't know, many thanks for the insight into Chord's designer, Colin. I see that you did indeed tell me this before. I'm definitely getting old! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 12:16:59 GMT
I hope Colin won't mind me sticking my oar in here, but I have to say that class A amps do not have any specific sound. I have read this fallacy on several forums in the past few years..... that class A tends to sound this or that in it's presentation and/or tonal balance. It's yet another hi fi urban myth (amongst MANY others.
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Post by ChrisB on Aug 3, 2015 13:33:59 GMT
Maybe you were thinking of the KRS? (Krell Reference Standard)  |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 13:45:40 GMT
I am sure it was the 4 box combo with the VU meters. I remembered them to be about three feet deep, but maybe my mind is exaggerating! Buying them would've meant a large blow to my credit card but it would've been paid off long ago. Wonder where they are now.......
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 13:48:27 GMT
Maybe you were thinking of the KRS? (Krell Reference Standard) I'm off to do some reading on these beauties. I'm sure my Krell owning days aren't over, although the KSA100 and KSA80 did nothing for me. I had a Bedini, an Aragon and a Bryston around the same time and all were much better than those two Krells. |
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Post by ChrisB on Aug 3, 2015 14:01:03 GMT
Here are the vital stats for the KAS:
Weight for each monoblock appx. 220lbs
Dimensions: 25” Deep x 18” Wide x 13.25” High (stacked)
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Post by Sovereign on Aug 3, 2015 14:31:24 GMT
Maybe you were thinking of the KRS? (Krell Reference Standard) HOLY COW! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 14:55:28 GMT
Maybe you were thinking of the KRS? (Krell Reference Standard) HOLY COW! Just babies ah nice. |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 15:25:00 GMT
Now this is an "A Class" Mono SECA 300W/8ohms, 600W/4ohm, 1000W/2ohm's 1.8M Tall 180KGS idle power 1.8KW all heat warm winters mmm nice.   Who is now going to be the brave soul to build these as a Kit?? c,mon no chicken now lads.  |
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Post by Sovereign on Aug 3, 2015 15:28:06 GMT
Colin, I thought I was extreme.
Dare I ask how these amps sounded???
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 15:29:57 GMT
Very much like the Gryphon Colosseum mono's the pair idle around 4Kw and are capable of 3.2Kw into 1 ohm cost I believe was around £100K? The main drawback after running them for one month our electric consumption had increased by £400 per month, time for them to go lol Great amps limitless power, just utterly hifi, had to go for many reasons not just the power cost |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 15:43:14 GMT
Damn, Tony I wanted to do these as a KIT now you frightened everybody away. Spoil sport. The cost for these and there was only one pair made was £120K they now live near Salisbury UK.
Only 80 huge FETs 80 Darlington and 3 sets of PSU caps at 1.5 Farads (not a Typo) each.
Sound wise it was terrifying, but detailed with a sweet nature but with rock it scared the pants of me.
The 50W babies were my favourite I loved them Quickie has heard those and they live in Somerset.
You need 16 of 20W TOCA boards to make one amp. One as a master the others as slaves.
The inrush without limit was over 600 Amps pop went fuses until I slowed it to a silly value 10Amps crappy UK mains.
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Post by MartinT on Aug 3, 2015 17:24:28 GMT
Erm, it all sounds like mad class A one-upmanship to me Never again will I think of the 620W per channel of my Chord into the Ushers as excessive! |
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Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2015 18:24:54 GMT
The Gryphons were by no means the daftest amplifiers I have listened to and we are not talking pro equipment wise either, which is easy to obtain 5-8Kw with a few phone calls. A good quality Class 'a' design works for many people, as do quality a/b designs and IF you can implement true PWN switching correctly and not reduce its bandwidth to 50Khz by having to use the switching frequency of the SMPS to cancel out the switching frequency of the PWM noise. The main problem for a digital amplifiers I believe, (I am not talking a true digital amp which takes a PCM input) but 'switchers' as they are affectionately known is not sounding dry, emotionless and un-involving. Technically correct, great dynamics, bass control, slam and sheer speed, yet fail to capture even the most obvious of sonic traits like, tonal quality, real three dimensional texture and have a natural rhythmic unforced pace. Personally I have always found that have an amplifier that can correctly deliver speed BUT with full trailing body and note decay yet have no dynamic constraint or grain, glare or grit and produce quality texture and layering is very difficult to find at an affordable price point. I have been 'dabbling' with many designs over the years and with varying success dependent on the flavor of the month class of amp. Recently I have finished off a prototype for a new generation of switching amp design, testing against my current reference model (which has been in place for a solid 10 years in various states lol) Sounds have been very promising as the design is settling down to a few changes that have been made, thus far we have a FET switching time of 25nsec (Ultra quiet gate close and open with superb gate operating times) and a current swing measured very close to 128amp (peak)Yet some of the most enticing mid range, smooth, wide open and sweet, full 6th harmonic bandwidth. runs around 28C even when being pushed hard, case size is 460 x 360 x 120 so no large monoliths to accommodate. With the design of any product, whether it's electronics, audio, cars, bikes, watches, guns, fishing rods, camera's etc, no matter how good the components used, how clean the environment it was constructed built by robots the designer had 3 Phd's in off hand masturbation, electronics and quantum physics. The implementation is the key imho The layout of the board, signal pathways, emi/rfi control, components used, smd or through hole, a combination of both, Power supply rail separation, manageability of power and signal conflict areas, FET selection, enclosure construction and a myriad of other considerations go into the design, but the way the 'meal' is created is the key ingredient here (imho) However we all have different tastes and styles, likes and dislikes plus the grand daddy of them all the room / speaker interface. Oh last word on the big G's you never felt the cold  |
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