NEWS

July 2008

Finally, Some News!!

Ah, more apologies for not deliverying news earlier. It's been a frenetic eight months......... my thanks to Felipe for the gentle reminder!

The world has changed abruptly with the sharp increase in oil prices, the emergence of the sub-prime and associated financial ructions in the US, significant appointments in Russia, and rapid changes to the military-political landscape in the Middle East. As I write, Mugabe has regained power after a one horse race, presently under debate by the African Union in Egypt, and China prepares to showcase itself to the world during the Olympics. World sharemarkets are taking quite a battering, reliving much of the disaster of 1987, and housing prices the world over are drifting down, with predictions of up to a million US citizens to lose their homes in the next twelve months.

Of these happenings, a surprising number could have been predicted (particularly the oil shock), though a time line is always the question.

The last few months have been a time of development and consolidation at Aspen. There were some immediate sales following RMAF in October, and I worked hard to get them out the door. The retail paradigm is more difficult and demanding than the kit model, which focusses on email support. Retail focusses on production efficiency and customer service, and can be tricky where sourcing and vast distances are concerned.

In December the creative impulse struck again and as a result of intelligence garnered at RMAF, and together with my good friend Colin Brown in Canada, Aspen decided to design, refine and perfect a 200W//8R amplifier which has been christened the Aztec.

This has taken a long time, and continues to occupy my every waking thought. The power supply and speaker protection still remain to complete, but the amp circuits are done, and the power supply and protection circuits only remain. But they are in my head, ready for pcb layout. I will need to get a few more parts together, but it's in the bag.

Colin has built and auditioned a 100W version and the results are stunning. With this new model, which will be twice the power of the Soraya CB105, all three circuit blocks of the standard Bailey amplifier topology which dates back to the 1960s have been re-examined critically and very carefully redesigned. The input stage underwent radical re-invention with the Lifeforce, the voltage amplifier with the Soraya, and now the Aztec has an utterly new output stage which Colin tells me from his listening tests is utterly, completely, transcendental - the sound this amp produces is so natural the electronics and speakers are all but forgotten. This is, of course, how it should be......

This amp will debut at the end of this year, but first up will be a review. It uses four output device pairs with 62 volt rails and two large 500VA transformers. The Aztec should easily do 350W into 4R, delivering quality to match the best in the world. The entire front end and voltage amplifier have been incorporated into a tiny 20mm x 28mm encapsulated module with twelve pins; only the driver/output stage and certainly ancillary functions use leaded components on the main board. This has naturally consumed huge resources - until now I have not been a smd man - and I must thank Sam Mitchell, a brilliantly clever and recently graduated EE with honours, for his seminal layout work getting my design together! Sam now has work as a project engineer with a significant R&D company here in Melbourne which specialises in digital electronics. Aspen wishes Sam well in his new job, and hopes he will still meet up with Hugh from time to time over coffee to discuss wild, off the planet analog circuits!!

Work has continued on power supplies for the Squeezebox products. The collaboration with Bolder Cable has been fruitful for us both, and Wayne has sold many Nirvana modules for use in his Ultimate power supplies for the SB2 and SB3. Recently, Logitech debuted the new Duet Squeezebox, which uses an interactive remote on which is displayed the music selection, and this now uses the Wolfson DAC chip from Edinburgh and operates on an amended nine volt supply. I have poured R&D into a power supply for this product too, and am about to test the new circuit on my own Duet, purchased from Wayne just a few weeks back! It will still be called the Hologram III, but will have 9V output rather than 5V like the original. I'm hoping this will be a winner too!

There is more in the offing too, but I won't mention them here until I have something to demonstrate!

Sales of the VSonics are good, and arrangements are in process for a pair to be built in Denver for the upcoming RMAF in October, where Wayne will show them off to great advantage.

I take this opportunity to thank all Aspen customers past and present for their continued enthusiasm and support for my little boutique company!

Cheers,

Hugh

November 2007

RADIOACTIVE News!!

First, allow me to apologise for not updating NEWS for a long time, almost eight months!! I've often felt I'm a passable designer, but a better writer, and Kyrill Gooseff of The Netherlands has upbraided me recently for this failure to publish NEWS and I am sorry......

I have decided to return to the old website format, because I can easily maintain it myself. For a web novice like me, this is REALLY important, and so you see the same format originall designed by Nicholas Dunand and tweaked by Andrew Gartside. My sincere thanks to Russ Bayliss for his work, but my sheepish deprecations that I was unable to maintain it have finally swung me over. In coming weeks, you will see changes made to bring this up to date, but it is a pleasing format, is it not?

I have just returned from Rocky Mountain Audio Festival in Denver, CO where I exhibited with David Ellis, of Ellis Audio, ably assisted by my wonderful friend Martin Walker, who travelled all the way over to be with us. We made a great team, a variation on Abbott and Costello, as anyone will attest who saw us there, in Room 1117! The Audiofest was just amazing, my first trip to the US a revelation, almost a spiritual awakening, and I will be back.......

Here are Aspen plans for the next six months.

#1 Bed down the manufacture and sale of the Soraya CB105 power amp, which debuted at Denver and drew significant praise from some very experienced people, including some manufacturers.

#2 Commence work on a higher power version of the Soraya using SMD module assembly.

#3 Market and sell the new VSonics loudspeaker, a 8"/1" two way Transmission Line designed by Laurence Menogue, a highly experienced speaker designer based here in Melbourne.

#5 Formalise a North American Service Agent, one Chris Bridges, based in Canada, for sales backup on the retail products.

#6 Bring the 'Paris' Moving Coil headamp to the market as a retail product.

#7 Ramp up marketing and manufacture of the Lifeforce and Soraya power modules.

Let me offer some impressions of America. It is often informative for people of one culture to comment on another; Australia and America are very similar in culture, but there are important differences highlighted here. This is a short take on what has already been published in the Aspen forum, in response to a question from Chris Becker, aka LonewolfNY, a wonderful man to whom I owe a debt of gratitude.

"I loved America passionately. It has a friendliness, scale and landscape which staggered me, I love the country and wish I'd been there thirty years ago. The Rocky Mountains were stupendous; at 11,300 feet my breath was all but taken away!! At just 16 I travelled all over Australia by air, and came to see the grandeur of my own country, which is very different, based as it is upon ancient desert landscape, a very few tropical areas, severe water shortages, and a dazzling array of burned colors. The US is very different, with almost the entire country arable and water plentiful. That makes a huge difference. Martin and I hired a car and drove 500 miles to Aspen and back to have a good look. I was grateful that although I drove on the wrong side of the road the entire distance no one hit me...... You really do see the States by car, and it was awe-inspiring. I found the people very friendly and willing to talk. There is a natural reserve in Australia, people don't like to talk to strangers, we mind our own business perhaps a little too much!! I am extremely talkative, and many is the time Marty walked away from me, embarassed that I'd engaged a bag lady in a long chat about nothing much on a street corner. I find I can really discover things about a society this way. But in the States, people were very happy to talk, and as soon as they heard my accent, they were fascinated because Australians seem to have good press these days. Most did think I was a Pom, which is regrettable, but hey, we are none of us perfect.......... I had conversations with all kinds of people, in shops, cafes, streetcorners, airplanes, gas stations, bookshops, parks, you name it. (If only I'd been like this as a young man, hmmm, ) The sheer numbers of people compared to my own tiny country made it a smorgasbord for me; everyone has a story and I had a ball. Paul and his wife Nancy made my NYC stay a tourist dream; sadly, however, I did not get about as much as I should have, but then I'm nearly sixty and my energy was limited anyway. The three of us covered just about every restaurant of note in the Brooklyn district, and man, that's a big town!!

Of course there are problems in all societies. In the US I saw very tough survival for most of the population, particularly if you should get sick. There are quite a few beggars on streetcorners, many of them mentally ill. This is very different to Australia, where we have a benevolent approach and society's unfortunates are generally better cared for. But this has its problems too, and our vitality and drive does not compare to yours, with a consequent effect on our psyche. Your society is intensely driven and creative and people are endlessly resourceful, and I can see why the world's best technology originates in the US of A. This feature can be argued; many European countries are outstanding in this area, notably Germany and Scandinavia, but the US leads the world in consumer technology in my opinion.

I was struck by the sincere courtesy I received at all times during my visit. I can count on the fingers of one hand instances where people were rude. I recall a conversation with an old black woman on a bus hurtling down a major street in Manhattan as Paul and I searched for a good camera store. She was a beautiful old lady, and just charming, with no trace of prejudice towards me at all. I struck up a conversation with a beautifully dressed, professional business woman, a thirty something black lady in Denver, and was deeply impressed by her intelligence, and her grasp and acceptance of the racial issues within her society. I met a Hispanic man on an airplane who was another wonderful person, visiting a dying close friend in Miami who was critically ill with liver disease and pneumonia. He was a very accomplished man, too, a fully certificated engine and airframe fitter for US Airlines. We spoke of the racial mix of US society, and patterns of immigration, always a hot topic and for me, a fascinating one. I would say that levels of politeness and community spirit are stronger in the US than in my own country; I'm very impressed by this and am saddened by the way Australia is going.

OTOH, I was appalled by the waste of oil I saw in the States. The country is not taking depleting oil reserves and green house heating very seriously. I come from a rural background of large diesel engines and broadacre farming. I know about this stuff, and the pickup truck culture with it's huge gas guzzling motors does need to change soon. Mind you, I love this technology with a passion, and it would be tempting if I were a US citizen to buy a Lincoln Navigator (or even Toyota Tundra!!), but over consumption could bring the country to its knees and more than anything I want to see the US survive and prosper.

I was disappointed I saw so very few motorcycles. I love them with a passion, perhaps I should have spent time in California!!

In closing, I now know why New York city is the greatest Megopolis in the world. I fell in love with the city, it is stupendous. A walk in Central park, a frantic shopping spree on the corner of W 75th St and Amsterdam, a stroll by the brownstones near the park, a ride on the subway, a visit to B&H audio/video store, an aimless wander through the Museum of Natural History - these were powerful memories for me and I shall never forget them. I really want to go back, I loved the energy and vibes, and was very impressed by the clean air and good condition of the city. The history speaks to me in a way no Australian city can match; very, very impressive."

I will add to this chronicle as time passes, and try to keep it regular. I will soon add my comments on world politics, too, as things are moving much faster than I had expected both in China and on the North American economic front.

Hugh

End June 2006

Announcement - HOT News!!

Much to discuss - a lot happening. After a decade, the world economy appears to be moving out of a low inflation paradigm; oil and resource companies are riding high; militarism is increasing everywhere; India and China are looming giants in the industrial world; the mid-East appears as mired in conflict as ever before; and weather patterns are now confirmed as changing worldwide, with increased sea levels and higher temperatures a very real possibility in the coming decades.

On the communication front, I have now changed the AKSA email address from aksa1@optushome.com.au to aksa1 -at- bigpond.com. I've decided to go with Australia's largest ISP after receiving an offer I could not refuse; I was fed up with my present ISP, an overseas company which has a very aggressive and confusing billing and marketing policy. This change was effected on 6th June, and so far - cross my fingers - I've not yet received dreaded spam. Not yet, anyway.......

MC Headamp

A fully built Moving Coil Headamp for vinyl lovers is about to be released. I have only to devise artwork for the case, finesse the gain and input switching configurations, and organise painting, enamelling and silk screening. This headamp, named 'Paris' (after Ry Cooder's famous Paris - Texas album, not the terrible two!), gives selectable gain of 26dB and 32dB. It will run from a 24V wall wart. The Paris uses unique ground referenced circuitry to confer one of the lowest noise outputs in the MC world. It's been extensively beta tested in Australia and Belgium (thanks Andy and Uwe!) and delivers what everyone wants in a headamp - resolution, low noise, selectable gain and affordability. At this stage price is not set but I would expect around $US600.

An AKSA upgrade

Those who know my journey will realise I've been searching for a further upgrade to the venerable AKSA for some two years now. This is not just the time-honoured march of technology, but a very personal challenge at the core of my intellectual life; Aspen continuously strives to improve all its products. The AKSA remains a top seller, and is an incredible amplifier for its refinement, engagement and impact. It is ideally suited to the DIY constructor because of its relative simplicity and elegance. But despite protracted effort, I have consistently met with brick walls, as Ginger (aka Ian Miller), who has retraced many of my steps, can testify. Each time I had a bright idea, I'd doodle it endlessly in cafes over countless lattes, then breadboard it, test it, design the pcb, then prototype and test it again. This process consumed many weeks each time, as the pcb design, an integral part of the amp, often took a month of chasing the mouse on a PC screen to get exactly right. On completion, a good listen over just two hours was enough to pronounce the newbie dead or alive, and a trip to an AKSAphile down the freeway (thanks Martin!) would confirm or deny my impressions. All too often, however, it was back to the drawing board (or the PC). Well, I have some good news to report......

I've done it. I've actually discovered and refined a topology which preserves all the benefits of the AKSA such as Class AB efficiency, elegant design, moderate assembly ease, and compact size - and significantly raises the bar!! Sonically, this new amplifier is remarkable, but it's taken a radical redesign and component changes to achieve this. I am calling it the AKSA Lifeforce, to reflect its subjective sonic presentation (and in recognition of good vampire movies across a couple of generations!!). In fact, if the stock AKSA 55 is 7/10, the Nirvana 8/10 and Nirvana Plus 9.2/10, then this design is 9.8/10!! The sound is so good that FM radio sounds like the N+ playing a CD on a high quality front end!! On CD/DVD, the quality is so highly resolving, so broad and deep in the sound stage, so intimate and alive in its musicality, that you would swear you were listening to the original performers in a LIVE situation - with absolutely no electronics intervening!

Technically, I cannot say much as I don't want this technology revealed in the short to medium term. While the AKSA Lifeforce uses all the usual building blocks of electronics, to my knowledge in the audio world such a circuit has never been implemented in quite this way. The new Lifeforce is of course a significant watershed for me and for Aspen, and so I have decided to release the upgrade modules initially ONLY TO EXISTING AKSA OWNERS!!

There are two reasons for this decision. The first is that my existing customer base has been good to Aspen and to me, and should be given first opportunity to take up this new technology, which I believe has the potential to significantly influence the audio design world. The second is that I wish to build a complete power amplifier for retail sale, as it's time I generated a reasonable wage.

Accordingly, there will be a three tiered trade-in pricing structure, depending on whether your present AKSA is stock, Nirvana or Nirvana Plus. As an Aspen first, we will offer a generous trade-in on your existing working, fully functional AKSA 55 modules; they must be returned intact to Aspen (minus heatsinks, transformers and case - just the pcb modules) to reap the benefit of this upgrade. Since the same power supply is used it will be a plug-in upgrade, very little work required. There is no trade offered on the 100W AKSA at this stage, but this may follow in the months to come depending on how I hold up building scores of new Lifeforce amps!!

I will be offering a fully built and tested module so as to closely control assembly quality and reduce service backup. No instructions will be produced, of course, and no schematic will be published. All you need do is remove the existing pcbs from the heatsink, keeping the nuts, bolts and mica washers; then send Aspen the fully operational modules adequately packaged, and wait a couple of weeks to receive your new modules pre-built and tested! They will bolt straight in, connect exactly as the previous modules, and immediately deliver a very significant performance increase.

The upgrade will comprise two fully built and tested pcb modules each rated identically to the original AKSA modules, that is, 55W into 8R from +/-36V power supplies. The new modules naturally will utilise the existing power supply and case. More on price later, but first I must get some reviews so people have a better idea of the sonic benefits.

For those who do not have an AKSA, the only other option to own the Lifeforce will be a new retail product, which will be direct sold in the same way as the AKSA Swift preamplifier.

A few words on the new amplifier. The Lifeforce delivers such an exceptional peformance that it can hold its head high against any product in the store-bought market. I will elevate the Lifeforce to the status of retail product for all new Aspen customers. The DIY business has never been lucrative, chiefly because of the low budget approach which characterises the industry, but also because of strong competition from chip and switching amps coupled with a heavy service demand. While DIY remains my first love, it remains problematic as a business model and I now feel the Lifeforce and Swift are the best products to bring Aspen to the retail market.

I am pleased to announce that there are even more products coming soon. There will be a sophisticated error feed-forward power supply developed as a universal 2 x +/-15V power supply for active crossovers. Prototypes are presently under assessment by two beta testers, Philip (PT914) and Mark (Aurelius). This product will be suitable for the Orion, Seigfried Linkwitz's speaker masterpiece, or any other active preamp circuit requiring +/-15V at up to 200mA per channel. Another forthcoming product is a Ben Williams designed microprocessor-controlled switching component which will marry up Home Theatre/Entertainment systems with a high quality stereo rig. It will accommodate a multichannel synthesizer, a Haffler matrix, for simple stereo, along with formats for all the commonly used multichannel configurations. It will have a premium quality remote volume and balance control as well, and will incorporate the new error feed-forward power supply described above.

In conclusion, I'm proud to say I've traded my Honda CB900F Hornet for a ZRX1200R Kawasaki. I am a large, heavy fellow, and when astride my Honda it almost disappeared from view, causing passers by some amusement. This comical presentation is not at issue with the Kawasaki, and it is more comfortable, easier to ride, smoother, and just as economical. In fact, the Kwaka is an engineering masterpiece and a stunning motorcycle from all aspects, with more grunt than a pig farm and more torque than the House of Parliament!!

Here's a picture of my red ZRX (often just termed the Rex):

I wish all AKSAphiles the best for the changeover of the seasons, summer in my hemisphere, and fall in the North.

Cheers,

Hugh Dean
Ben Williams

March 2006

Developments...

Christmas is past, the New Year is spent, Hamas is all but installed in Palestine, Iraq is aflame with civil insurrection, Condoleeza Rice is building bridges in Asia and Australia, and just last night the Commonwealth Games opened in our own fair city, with Queen Elizabeth herself in attendance......

Much has happened in the DIY world. I recently met and now talk regularly with Anthony Holton of Aussie Amplifiers - an impressive individual whose mosfet designs I admire for their quality, high power and robustness. He is presently engaged in contract analogue design with a UK company who manufacture switching amps in China, but assures me that linear amplifiers still have a future!

There are now increasing numbers of people building Seigfried Linkwitz's Orion - a marvellous speaker system I have heard twice now in Melbourne, both built by AKSA owners. Steady inquiries about AKSAs for the Orions have led me to believe that there is definitely a market for true high end amps for this sytem, and that AKSA is an outstanding choice. More on that later!

The drivers for the AKSonics are now discontinued after the sale of DST to a Chinese company. Soon stock will dry up, so the AKSonic product run will come to an end. I might add that three months ago, Ron and I fitted the AKSonic with the Scan Speak top line speaker and the Revelator tweeter - and the results were just astonishing. It was the best two way I've ever heard, so with suitable modifications to the crossover this too may be an upgrade option. BUT, the drivers are VERY expensive!

There has been something of a scattergun approach to R&D in recent times. There are no less than five new audiophile designs - a tube hybrid presently under long term audition; a second hybrid awaiting reconstruction with a novel output stage; an all-tube 6AS7/6080 6W SET prototype built, tested and auditioned; a battery powered, solid state moving coil head amplifier, and a highly original design with complementary, low feedback control which I doubt has been seen or heard before, particularly in solid state.

At least two of these designs will see the light of day, as they all sound different, and tastes do differ. There is unquestionably a place in the market for many different amplifier types, and if properly voiced all could very likely be commercially successful. However, a long standing notion amongst audio designers for six decades has been that amplifiers should be designed for lowest possible measured distortion. This attitude prevails today with many audiophiles, yet, as we all know, there are amps in this category which sound dreadful. While it is not rational to condemn this approach outright, it is likely there is more to it than measured, steady state distortion. It is worth mentioning that tube amplifiers, particularly of single ended topology, are very highly valued by audiophiles; yet, their distortion measurements at even moderate levels are often around 2%, an outrageous figure by these standards. Could it be that 'harmonic enrichment' gets a bad rap, and we really should draw a line in the sand between harmonic enrichment and harmonic distortion? (pun intended!).

The audio industry is large and enjoys pervasive marketing, and swimming against the tide is traditionally difficult. I have found that audiophiles have a broad spread of tastes, and if carefully questioned on their preferred listening material and tastes, an amp can be selected which meets their criteria. All this makes perfect sense if we realise that an amplifier and speaker are effectively a musical instrument, rather than a scientific apparatus. The latter description implies zero coloration, while the former assumes some tonal contribution.

Perhaps this approach would yield better systems in the future?

My sincere thanks to all Aspen customers for their continuing support and loyalty, and a guaranteed welcome to the AKSA family for all future customers,

Cheers,

Hugh

December 2005

Swift, Lifeforce, Christmas...

Christmas is almost upon us, and I take this opportunity to wish all AKSAphiles, past, present and potential, a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year. It has been sobering just how quickly this year has passed by with so many things remaining to be done......

The world landscape has changed extraordinarily during the past year. It is almost the anniversary of the tsunami which took so many lives in Sri Lanka, The Andamans, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Since then there has been a horrific earthquake in northern Pakistan, and of course the Middle East remains the most politically and militarily compromised location on earth. Let us hope there is some resolution of these natural and man-made disasters in 2006.

It's been a busy year of design and sales. There has been a lot of progress, and Aspen is tradiing well. And designs are coming thick and fast; I'm working on three new designs at present, at least two of which might make it off the cutting room floor! (That is, after all, the acid test! Does it sound any good?) All are hybrids, using low power tubes and high power semiconductors.

The Swift is now a retail reality, and will be formally installed as a product in January 2006. Even the marketing copy is done!

The DAC remains unfinished, perhaps not surprisingly as Ben, the digital brains behind this masterpiece, is finally in the closing stages of his PhD. He starts a new research/teaching job at a local University here in Melbourne, not two miles from Aspen's home, in January, and this will put us even closer in touch! While I'm sad about all the delays, it's best to do it properly, as experience has shown that if a kit is released without full and proper design and documentation, the service call is heavy, and the time input considerable.

The forum is going very well, with people using it as first line help in a lot of cases. I extend my sincere thanks to those who have stepped forward to offer their advice; since it always comes from those who have been there, it's extremely well informed. A great case in point was the inquiry about wiring up a source switch, from Fredly in Canada. The help offered as extremely apt.

It is becoming ever more evident that the fads and fashions of audio come and go, but there is still a place for a truly high end DIY Class AB amplifier. While the attraction of the latest technologies is beguiling, it is still true that the best available technologies are those on the verge of obsolescence; they alone are truly refined.

Once again, best wishes and good health for Christmas and 2006. I extend my sincere thanks on behalf of Aspen, Ben and Michael for the wonderful support received during 2005. We'll be here for a long time yet!!

Cheers,

Hugh Dean
Ben Williams
Michael Hollmann

August 2005

GK1 Swift, Consulting, Terrorism, Oil...

Time marches on, and the Northern Hemisphere is now approaching autumn. China devalues its currency 2.2% - a tiny amount, but indicative of policy change and of things to come; Hiroshima commemorates the dropping of the first fission bomb; Iraq seems mired in insurgency, London and Madrid sustain horrific terrorist attacks, Gaza is about to be returned to the Palestinians, oil has now risen to over $US64 a barrel, cracks are appearing in the EU driven by G8 concerns, and world populations grow accustomed to higher air fares, pervasive surveillance, and changes to civil rights in the name of the war against terrorism.

July brought the sad news that Malcolm Fear, a much loved AKSAphile, had passed away in tragic circumstances in Sydney. Aspen and all AKSAphiles offer our sincere condolences to Toni, his wife, and Jackson and Carly, his children. Malcolm will be greatly missed; he was liked by all, a huge influence on Hugh, and an extraordinarily generous man.

Aspen is now consulting for a high end company here in Melbourne which is building arguably the world's best phono turntable. Ben and Hugh have designed a remote controlled tracking angle system, which raises and lowers the tone arm on demand and displays the tracking angle on a display on the remote. It's nearly finished; man, what a brief this has been! Aspen will supply built and tested modules for this system, which is microprocessor controlled and powered by a servo motor. The turntable will be sold for a very high price in the US and European markets. The downside has been that Aspen projects, and in particular the DAKSA and other amplifier products, have been relegated to second place for a time.

Nonetheless, R&D proceeds at Aspen. A new amplifier, the Antares, was developed, built and auditioned. It used a tube front end and dual bootstrap with bipolar transistor output stage. The pcb is elegant, compact, and easy to build. But after exhaustive testing and a great deal of tweaking, it failed to meet requirements, so out it goes...... The cutting room floor of the Aspen workshop is littered with past unsuccessful attempts, with only about 30% of designs making it to commercial reality. We have therefore resumed work on the Lifeforce amplifier, a 1997 design, and presently we are assembling the pcbs. We are confident this will deliver the goods for the ultimate AKSA in due course. It too is a hybrid!

The DAKSA is ever in our minds, and after complications with the manufacture of the pcb, we are about to build and test the prototype. This project has been frustratingly slow in gestation, and is worrying for its complexity. Because some components are only available in surface mount, we will be performing some of the assembly prior to shipping; this will guarantee very high success rates amongst our constructors but may cost a few dollars more.

Along with the kits, Aspen is now preoccupied assembling the GK1 Swift. It is now available as a turn-key retail product, and coming together very well. Performance matches the kit - in a word, astonishing. Two have been delivered locally and one to South Africa, and more are on order! Aspen is now taking orders, and price will be $AUD3400 until early 2006 when it will increase due to the higher costs of the second production run.

On a closing note, Hugh has fulfilled a dream and returned to motorcycling after 23 years with the purchase of a Honda CB900F Hornet! It is a most enjoyable way (in warm weather!!) to fang down the street for a coffee. Ultimately he will don his leathers and join the Ulysses Club, a collection of grumpy 50 and overs who travel the highways on weekends, reliving their youth.......... The only problem is the police radar!

NEWS

April 2005

GK1 Swift, DAKSA and world developments...

Almost six months have elapsed since the last News Update; my apologies for the tardiness - Aspen has been busy preparing the GK1 Swift for the market and readying other designs for production and life is hectic. Melbourne enters the best season of the year - Autumn - oil tops $US55 a barrel, sharemarkets are all ajitter, China grows restive with Japan, Syria is forced out of Lebanon, earthquakes and tsunamis visit the Indian ocean with devastating effect on SE Asia, Pope Benedict XVI is elected, and the love affair with low interest rates enjoyed by home buyers around the world looks like it might soon end.....

The 100W AKSA Nirvana Plus US Audition tour has been very successful, with a number of people very impressed with the sonic performance of the AKSA and sales made. Testimony to this is the large number of very comprehensive reviews which appear on the forum group; some of them are absolutely wonderful and do great credit to the interest, energy, veracity and experience of the reviewers. I would like to formally thank these people, and particularly Occam (aka Paul) for shepherding the AKSA around the US, and Lonewolf (Chris) for his tireless campaigning and kindness lending out his own AKSA. Both did Aspen, and many audiophile peers, a big favor and I greatly appreciate it.

However, to build on this successful showing Aspen needs to have the AKSA reviewed professionally so that people can read official reviews and make judgements about how the amplifier ranks with its peers. Accordingly, in future the amp will be made available only to groups or clubs where it will be shown in a formal audition environment. I will contact a number of audiophile groups around the US and ask if they are willing to undertake this, but they will be required to pay carriage and insurance to and from NYC. If you are a member of an interested club, please contact me or Paul and we will respond immediately!

There have been continuing requests for the DAKSA. This project is nearly complete, but I am holding off because the investment in chips, pcbs and components is very high and I'm uncertain of demand. The DAKSA is a difficult commercial decision because it is extremely complex to assemble, and there is sure to be a huge service commitment which I'm not well set up to meet. Ben Williams (who is the digital brains behind the DAKSA) and I are delighted with the topology, design and pcb layout; thousands of dollars have been invested into the DAKSA and we believe it will be up there with the best Red Book CD DACs in the world. At this stage I've made the decision to build the first prototypes, assess the performance, and report back to AKSAphiles, but in the present economic climate this is unquestionably a risky venture and until I have assurances that I can sell at least twenty of these exotic kitsets I am loathe to continue..... such is the difficulty of a DIY business!

Present interest in Class D amplification has burgeoned on the web, and cannot be ignored. Three months ago, Aspen purchased four well known proprietary modules, built up a 100W/8R power amplifier, and began exhaustive listening tests. Results were reported in detail in the 'Class D SOTA' thread on the forum. It has been the considered opinion of all who have listened to this amplifier that it is very clean, very powerful, with marvellous dynamics and good soundstage, but lacking in engagement. One has no real desire to tap the feet, click the fingers, or smile. These are subtle aspects, but at the high end we are dealing in marginality, and they are important. After lots of discussion with Ben, we came to the conclusion that these amplifiers are probably superior for pulse response and deep bass, but they seem to lack the sort of engagement expected by most audiophiles and exemplified in the Single Ended Triode. For sub-woofer, special effects and movie duties, I think they are very good, and their efficiency is obviously a huge benefit in an energy conscious world, but at present, and perhaps until their switching speed exceeds 2MHz, they do not compete head-on with the best linear amplifiers.

Aspen is involved in many R&D projects at present. One is nearing completion; a hybrid amplfier based on a tube front end and modified AKSA 100W N+ output stage. I have dubbed this amplifier the Antares, because it is very cool and a long way off, but I might yet surprise myself and produce a working model quite soon. All the bench testing is very promising, and if this amplifier is the sonic success I believe it might be, I will consider making it as a retail product. But it will be quite expensive as the topology is quite unique, yet simple, the AKSA trademark!

Sales have been brisk, particularly the last month. Most are for the N+ versions of the amplifier, but a few GK1s have been sold too. The GK1-R will be withdrawn from the market on 12th May, to be replaced by the Swift, which will sell for $AUD3680, or approximately $US2850, as originally notified. I cannot begin to describe how proud I am of this preamplifier; I have had a lotof input from valued friends around the globe, and the results are stunning.

Sincere thanks to all those who have helped Aspen along in recent times - Ben, Michael, Darl, Paul, and all those who have expressed their confidence in the company and bought the products. I have greatly appreciated this faith and confidence, and continue to strive for ever better products across each year......

Hugh