Saturday, December 22, 2018
Friday, December 21, 2018
Dream Machines - Zellaton Statement
From Robb Report "Tech" featured column January 2019 magazine.
On june 19, 1930, a United States Patent and Trademark Office drawing was filed by engineer Emil Podszus of Berlin, Germany, for a “Sound Reproducing Apparatus.” Podszus’s early sound system was the beginning of the company known as Zellaton (zellaton.de) and the founda- tion of its current innovative line.
Each Zellaton Statement loudspeaker, for example, uses five cone drivers—components that change electric signals to sound waves. Each one of these is designed to reproduce a specific range of low, mid, or high frequencies, measured in hertz (Hz).
The company’s proprietary midrange driver delivers near full-range response from 100 Hz to 8 kHz. Such unfet- tered bandwidth is a remark- able achievement for a single driver, allowing it to reproduce instruments and voices with a natural ease and complete freedom from artificiality.
The drivers in all of Zellaton’s speakers are handmade in Munich by Manuel Podszus (the grandson of the founder), require up to six weeks to manufacture, and have a build quality on par with a military specification product. It’s no wonder that the Statement’s utterly convincing sound pin- points instruments and voices with uncanny realism.
Each of the Zellaton Statement’s 771-pound enclosures is nearly six feet in height. At its size and price—$200,000 per speaker—the Statement is an impressive cornerstone for the finest two-channel audio system.
Robert Ross
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Saturday, December 8, 2018
YS Sound YSS-782
$260,000
Freq response - 1-300k
S/N - 160dB
Distortion - 0,001%
Size - 46x15x35
Weight - 16 kg
Tri B Oberton SET
A very fast and phenomenal sounding amp delivering 15 watt.
For example ARC REF 160M sounds slow and flat compared to it.
Friday, December 7, 2018
Magico M2
Magico is revealing the all new M2 which expands the M-Series product lineup and features many ground-breaking engineering designs distilled from the M6 and M3. Here is the complete info…
Our materials science research in the properties and applications of carbon allows the M2 to feature a new monocoque enclosure. Similar in construction technique introduced in the M6, it is formed using multiple layers of carbon fiber adding up to a 3/8” thickness. Similar to the external shell of an F-35 fighter jet, this enclosure construction compared to machined or extruded aluminum parts increases the structural strength-to-weight ratio by a factor of 60, while reducing overall weight by 50% and yielding outer dimensions that are 30% smaller without compromising internal volume. The curved interior and exterior walls minimize internal standing waves and eliminate external diffractions.
The M2 incorporates a 28-mm Diamond coated Beryllium dome tweeter with optimized geometry. The Diamond coating on the Beryllium dome increases the stiffness without adding the extra weight of a pure Diamond dome and offers a near perfect stiffness to weight ratio that is unmatched in the industry. This revolutionary tweeter design provides extra-long excursion movement and uses a customized neodymium- based motor system that matches the sensitivity and power handling capabilities of the M2 while maintaining ultra-wide dispersion characteristics and ultra-low distortion measurements.
Magico is the world’s first audio product manufacturer to utilize graphene in the development of a radically new and advanced loudspeaker cone design. Graphene has many extraordinary properties and is rated to be 100 times stronger than the strongest steel. The newly designed Magico six-inch midrange driver and seven- inch bass driver cones found in the M2 are both manufactured using Multi-Wall carbon XG Nanographene with a new ultra-stiff proprietary carbon weave which is 20% lighter and 300% stiffer than cone materials used in previous Magico product offerings. The midrange driver features an underhung neodymium-based motor system that uses two extra-large magnets which provide an ultra-stabilized magnetic field for the pure Titanium voice coil to operate within. This radical new driver design sets a new industry benchmark for performance and the minimization of total harmonic distortion.
A purpose built sub-enclosure formed of a proprietary polymer houses the midrange driver to optimize the control and articulation of mid-band frequencies and provides protection from the massive back wave pressure of the bass drivers. Midrange sub-enclosures using different shapes, sizes and materials have been implemented throughout the history of Magico 3-way loudspeaker designs.
The dual bass drivers in the M2 are vertically aligned to achieve ideal room integration and reproduce the lowest registers of bass frequency with speed and accuracy. Combined, the bass drivers are optimized for minimal music related distortions in the frequency and time domain using the latest state-of-the-art FEA simulation of acoustics, mechanics, electromagnetic and thermal behavior. The testing process is now completed on a single platform allowing optimization levels to be taken to a higher level.
An internal three-axis matrix framework along with three tension rods running front to back internally, contribute to an extremely rigid enclosure which eliminates unwanted resonances and colorations, allowing all drivers to perform with stunning resolution and dynamics. All four drivers in the M2 are acoustically integrated using Magico’s exclusive Elliptical Symmetry Crossover topology that includes state-of-the-art components from Mundorf of Germany. The MPOD 3-Pt stand contributes to the overall sonic performance by converting mechanical energy to heat through the science of constrained layer damping, while providing ideal coupling to the floor.”
State of the Art Loudspeaker, Floor standing, 3-way (Four Driver) Design
Driver Complement
– 1” MBD5D Tweeter (x1)
– 6” MAG60004RTC Graphene Nano-Tec Midrange (x1)
– 7” MAG70008RT Graphene Nano-Tec Bass (x2)
Specifications
– Sensitivity: 88dB
– Impedance: 4 Ohms
– Frequency Response: 26 Hz – 50 kHz
– Recommended Power: Minimum 50W rms
– Dimensions: 18” x 17.5” x 45” (w/ MPod Stand)
– Weight: 165 lbs. (w/ MPod Stand)
– Price M2: SRP US $ 56,000 /pair
– PriceM2 MPOD 3-Pt Stand: SRP US $ 7,600 /pair (optional)
– Ship date: 1st Quarter 2019
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Friday, November 23, 2018
Metaxas T-RX Portable Reel to Reel
After 35 years of serious recording work for Broadcast Television using Swiss portable and studio machines from Stellavox [the SM8 portables & TD9 Studio machine], and over 40 years experience in the Hi End Audio industry,
Artist/Designer/Recording Engineer Kostas Metaxas has finally designed what he hopes will be the ultimate machine to capture an unrivalled realism with Analogue Tape.
Metaxas wanted to see how far the medium of tape could be pushed even though it is already considered as the absolute reference for current music recording and playback.
His research into the state of the art machines from the 60-80s showed that despite their high quality, they were still limited by the technology of the time. When the Tape machine producers all ceased operations in the late 1980's, the manufacturers of precision motors were still in their infancy. Today, motors are an order of magnitude more refined simply because of the improvement in manufacturing techniques, technology and computer-aided software controls.
Metaxas combines the absolute cutting-edge in Swiss motors and technology [Maxon] with the most inert chassis design to realize an order of magnitude improvement over past designs.
You'll be able to hear this for yourself at the world premiere during the Munich Hi End Show in May 2019.
Monday, November 19, 2018
Holton Audio Inviso with Camerton Binom-1 & Totaldac @ Paris HiFi Show 2018
True Class A Dual Mono amplifier, 50W/PC 8 Ohm 100 W/PC 4 Ohm, 0.003% THD+N -120dB SNR, 2.5KVA power supply.
Fully Balanced 2 stage MOSFET cascode topology, 300,000uf total output stage filtering with dual mono active input/driver stage electronic regulation, just to name a few of its features.
Electron Audio Kinesis
Single ended triode (SET) amplifiers have a long standing reputation of subjectivly providing the highest fidelity amplification. However, while they capitalize on circuit simplicity, there are many practical problems with implementation – they are heavy, have very low efficiency resulting in a lot of excess heat being produced, relatively low output power, and can be made with only a limited number of tube types which are usually driven to the edge for maximum power, hence a short life.
As the saying goes, only a fool keeps doing the same thing expecting different results. There are many approaches to improve the technology, which are rarely used, mostly because they do not fit the established set of topologies and parts. In times past, there were about 7000 types of tubes and many variations of the basic types freely available. For many years we have searched for the optimum tube that fits the rarely used approaches to single ended triode amplifier designs – one that would not require very high voltage power supplies, had high gain so that class A2 operation is feasible to get higher power and effieciency, does not require extraordinary transformers, so could fit a smaller and lighter form factor – AND, last a very long time.
Kinesis is the result of our search. It is a dual Triode SE class A2 amplifier, it's two channels operate two tubes in parallel to provide 40W per channel, and be connected for single channel operation with 80W of output. The wideband transformers extend full power bandwidth an octave above and below the full audio band. Input stages are fully balanced for either balanced XLR or unbalanced RCA input. Total thermal efficiency is about 22%, which is almost double that of a typical triode SE amplifier, and the tube life is well over 20000h.
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