Authoritative SS Power Amplifier

[Nikhil]

I've been a Bryston owner and it is synonymous for Authority.

helium
CA 640c V2 / SB Classic + Sansui AU-317 + Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary LE / Vintage B&W DM4 + Pure Silver cables= Music

helium,

I did hear a pretty decent Bryston setup at Audio People here in Hyderabad. I don't know if there was something wrong but it just did nothing for me. The chain was all Bryston - CD Transport, Pre amp, SST monoblocks into Thiel 3.7s. In terms of cost it was probably about Rs 18L worth of gear in that chain. I sat there thinking what was I going to do if I dared to like how this setup sounded.

Still, I really wanted to hear something special with all that gear in place but I came away shaking my head and wondering if there was something wrong with me! I had taken some decent CDs of John Mayer to listen. I was just so disappointed that I could not "hear" anything special. In the Brystons defense the regular Audio People audio crew were not in that day so perhaps that would have been the reason. I would still like to go back and hear that setup once again just to save myself from that disappointment.

 

[heliumflight]

helium,

I did hear a pretty decent Bryston setup at Audio People here in Hyderabad. I don't know if there was something wrong but it just did nothing for me. The chain was all Bryston - CD Transport, Pre amp, SST monoblocks into Thiel 3.7s. In terms of cost it was probably about Rs 18L worth of gear in that chain.

I really wanted to hear something special with all that gear in place but I came away shaking my head and wondering if there was something wrong with me! I had taken some decent CDs of John Mayer to listen. I was just so disappointed that I could not "hear" anything special. In the Brystons defense the regular Audio People audio crew were not in that day so perhaps that would have been the reason. I would still like to go back and hear that setup once again just to save myself from that disappointment.

I would never suggest anything to anyone without hearing it in extended listening sessions. As long as you've found what authority to your ears is, I'm only happy for you

helium
CA 640c V2 / SB Classic + Sansui AU-317 + Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary LE / Vintage B&W DM4 + Pure Silver cables= Music

 

[Nikhil]

I would never suggest anything to anyone without hearing it in extended listening sessions. As long as you've found what authority to your ears is, I'm only happy for you

helium
CA 640c V2 / SB Classic + Sansui AU-317 + Wharfedale Denton 80th Anniversary LE / Vintage B&W DM4 + Pure Silver cables= Music

You're right about the "authoritative" part. I did have some ambitions about getting a real "four balled mother..." I won't go more into my Bryston experience but I will say that I found that power alone was not going to be enough for me. The kit had to be musical as well and thats where the AP combo was head and shoulders above whatever else I had heard. Quite frankly I wasn't expecting what I heard from them until I did. To concede a point I did stray away from the "authoritative" line a bit .. hopefully not by much. With 200 watts coming out of the CPA-3 Dual Mono amplifier I'm thinking I will have enough power on tap unless I get some really hard to drive speakers down the line.

 

[captrajesh]

Congrats Nikhil; having owned the AP amps myself, I can imagine how happy you would be right now.

 

[Nikhil]

Update 12 Oct 2012:

Thanks again everyone for your feedback and information. After closing the deal with square_wave it took me some time to get the amps to Hyderabad. Dealing with square_wave has been great. The AP amps did not have the usual thermocol packaging and boxing, so square_wave had the amps boxed and packaged as best he could. This however left out the possibility of shipping by any transport so I decided to just drive to Bangalore and pick up the amps by car.

Perhaps the drive to Bangalore and back would be more appropriate on TeamBHP but it was fun. The Hyderabad Bangalore highway is a blast. It was about 7 hours door to door both ways. Had the amps connected as soon as I got back to see if they made the journey without a problem. As luck would have it the preamp would not turn on. Took off the cover to check and found nothing broken so made some calls to Bangalore. After some anxious moments, it turned out to be a faulty wall socket. Appropriate curses later ... changed to another wall socket and the blue LED lit up along with the tubes a little later. Quick check of the sound and it was time for dinner so we left the amps on to settle in.

After dinner we came back to check on the amps. Turned on the fan and immediately there was a loud "bap bap bap" sound from the speakers. Turned off the fan and reached to flick the wall socket switch of the CD player. Again the same "bap bap bap" sound. This time really freaked me out and I just powered down the system. My electrician was going to redo the wiring the next day so I just left it that. I sent Siva an email asking for help on what needed to be checked and hoped for the best. Not the best way to end a long day.

Yesterday my electrician redid the entire wiring. Changed out the entire wire right from the meter with fresh copper wiring. Made sure the earthing was done properly. Bypassed the UPS with a fresh wire to the new switch board I had my electrician make for the system. Since he was already at it I had new MCBs installed and by the time the whole thing was done it was about 9:00 pm. This time there was no sound when the fans and lights were turned on! Powered up the system and still found a thick click sound when I turned on the CDP switch on the board. This was relatively minor so was very happy with sorting out the wiring to the extent that we could.

After dinner I sat down for some listening. Will write more about that in my next post. But those three damn tubes kicked my ass for three days. What an introduction to the world of tube amps!

 

[reignofchaos]

The normal way to turn on equipment would be

transport->dac->pre->power

This would avoid any funny noises or damage when upstream equipment is turned on.

You'd want to do the other way round when turning things off:

power->pre->dac->transport

 

[Nikhil]

Last night I had a chance to finally settle in and listen to some of my music on the AP PM1 Valve Preamp and CPA-3 Power amp. As the title of the post goes, I still have stuck to a SS Power amp which the CPA-3 is with a Dual Mono design 200 W/c. Plenty of power on tap for whatever I need in the immediate future at least. There is absolutely no information on this amp available anywhere.

However, for those interested here's the spec on the PM1 Valve Preamp:

Freq Response : 20-20kHz, +/-0.3 dB
SNR : 79dB Full Bandwidth
THD : 0.0093
THD+N : 0.43 @ max o/p
Output Impedance : 130 ohms
Total Gain : 12dB

My chain is the same as my signature below:
Sony CDP > AP Pre > AP Power > PSB Image T5. All cables are Mr Murthy's "TnT" cables!

At 10:30 in the night the max I can play these amps is about 8 o clock on the volume dial. Even at this level my PSB speakers are singing! Vocals are forward and beautifully rendered. Lots more body to the sound. Mid range is just awesome and the LF region is well defined. After the initial wow moment I decide to sit back and pull out some of my older CDs just to hear what they will sound like.

Foreigner - The Very Best and Beyond

I've owned this particular CD from my college days and I know how it sounds on all all the gear I've owned since. Its not a great sounding CD and I usually skip the first 5 - 6 tracks. Not a chance this time. I find myself listening to tracks 1 to 16 non stop. Lou Gramm's lead vocals are sizzling and the guitar riffs are coming on like hot lava. The valve pre + SS power really does a great job with rock. No distortion at all. Clear guitar, drums - high hat and bass, cymbals and vocals. Easily some of the best separation of instruments I've heard in a while. Most noticeable is that it is very clear and natural sounding. No sibilance. No fatigue. Great sounding rock!

I'm stoked and getting excited with what the possibilities are with my other CD albums. Just for kicks I pull out the AC DC Iron Man 2 album. Picked this one up from Landmark last month and its a very ok recording. The poor CD wasn't even given a decent plastic jacket - just a card sleeve and a 50% discount sticker slapped on top!

AC DC Iron Man 2

For those who've watched the movie recently you will recognize "Cold Hearted Man" straight off with its signature guitar. The amps nailed it even at low volume. Complete control of the guitar track again with no distortion. This is how I "imagined" this would be on a perfect system. The guitar sounds full bodied with the bass track just kicking ass right through.

Next up is "Back in Black" and my reference for this is always the sound at the Hard Rock cafe here in Hyderabad. This is one of HRC's popular tunes and I've always wanted a system that would be able to capture that big clean sound. Well well well ... Here I have it in my living room! Angus Young's quick riffs at the very beginning followed by the heavy hitting chords as he starts off - these are huge guitar sounds that need power and finesse. Most amps end up sounding thin and don't give you that satisfaction. The AP combo is belting this out with no sweat and without even a hint of discomfort.

For fear of waking up the neighbors I switch to something more mellow and load the Best of A R Rehman album. "Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi" sung by Rashid Ali catches me completely by surprise. Huge dynamics and clear sound absolutely startle me after my earlier rock trip! If what I said was good earlier, then this was even better. To be fair this is a much more recent recording and has a lot more sizzle to it.

I could go on about the AP Combo. Its really been worth all the trouble of the past few days and more. The sound is incredible. My chain has so much room for improvement and yet I am still amazed at what it has done so far. Cant wait to pull out some more CDs to play with later this evening.

Once again, thanks for reading this post!

 

[jls001]

Wow!!! Great culmination to a long but fruitful search.

 

[square_wave]

@Nikhil,

It was a good move to bypass the inverter. The earthing too has to meet standard electrical spec for these to work correctly. I too had a similar problem when I moved into this house last year. I had to get the land lord to re-do the earthing for me. Another friend had a a similar problem with the lift in his apartment. Whenever the lift went up and down, the tube picks up some hash. He finally went with an APC inverter.

Good to hear that you are happy now.

 

[Nikhil]

@Nikhil,

It was a good move to bypass the inverter. The earthing too has to meet standard electrical spec for these to work correctly. I too had a similar problem when I moved into this house last year. I had to get the land lord to re-do the earthing for me. Another friend had a a similar problem with the lift in his apartment. Whenever the lift went up and down, the tube picks up some hash. He finally went with an APC inverter.

Good to hear that you are happy now.

Actually I was using an APC Inverter. Still no idea what caused the electrical disturbance that we had. Installing the fresh wires was a real pain but luckily the results have been good.

Have never been happier with the way my music has sounded.

 

[Nikhil]

The normal way to turn on equipment would be

transport->dac->pre->power

This would avoid any funny noises or damage when upstream equipment is turned on.

You'd want to do the other way round when turning things off:

power->pre->dac->transport

roc, I have been doing this for powering up. After rewiring, the CDP and other problems are more or less sorted.

I am still having one issue which I am trying to solve.

When powering down: Power > Pre > CDP in my case, I get a crackling sound from the speakers a few mins after shutting down the Power amp. It starts slowly and rises until its at a fairly audible level and then dissipates after a few minutes. Its driving me nuts.

I don't have any crackling / hiss when powering up or while playing. I get this only after powering down. I have tried powering off the CDP to take it out of the equation but I am still getting the sound.

 

[Nikhil]

I am still having one issue which I am trying to solve.

When powering down: Power > Pre > CDP in my case, I get a crackling sound from the speakers a few mins after shutting down the Power amp. It starts slowly and rises until its at a fairly audible level and then dissipates after a few minutes. Its driving me nuts.

Update: Problem Solved and enjoying the music!

Just wanted to say that Acoustic Portrait contacted me to check on the status of the system.
As luck would have it all issues have been resolved so had nothing to say.

Next stop is a speaker upgrade and DAC addition.

 

[denom]

Nikhil,

Let the Games Begin (New Speakers Hunt)

:lol:

PS: Best of Luck

 

[reignofchaos]

Just curious what the issue was which got fixed. Would help others with acoustic portrait equipment.

 

[bhagwan]

Amp was purchased - so my post was not needed - sorry

 

[square_wave]

Just curious what the issue was which got fixed. Would help others with acoustic portrait equipment.

I too am curious. I never faced this issue

 

[Nikhil]

Nikhil,

Let the Games Begin (New Speakers Hunt)

:lol:

PS: Best of Luck

Ha ha ha ... thanks Dave! I had started a thread on "Speakers that Disappear" a few weeks ago. Have picked up some really interesting info on what I think I like "theoretically". Now am in the process of auditioning and fact finding. Its been interesting so far.

Will keep you posted!

 

[Nikhil]

Just curious what the issue was which got fixed. Would help others with acoustic portrait equipment.

I too am curious. I never faced this issue

sq after talking to you I realized this - I had been switching off the equipment from the wall sockets and leaving the switches on - at the back of the amps. Instead, now I first switch off the power amp switch then the pre switch (on the back of the amps). Finally I turn of the wall socket. Over the past few days I've just been leaving the wall sockets switched on.

Didn't realize that it would make a difference but it does.

 

[Nikhil]

Amp was purchased - so my post was not needed - sorry

Would still be interested to know your suggestion.

 

[square_wave]

sq after talking to you I realized this - I had been switching off the equipment from the wall sockets and leaving the switches on - at the back of the amps. Instead, now I first switch off the power amp switch then the pre switch (on the back of the amps). Finally I turn of the wall socket. Over the past few days I've just been leaving the wall sockets switched on.

Didn't realize that it would make a difference but it does.

Oh...okay

Thanks for the clarity. Enjoy !