Audio Federation - high-end audio blog

December 27, 2006 by Michael

Annoucement: Lamm ML3 Signature Power Amplifier

December 26, 2006

The ML3 Signature Power Amplifier

LAMM INDUSTRIES, INC. is proud to introduce its crowning achievement, the ML3 Signature power amplifier. The ML3 is a single-ended amplifier with a separate power supply utilizing a very powerful direct-heated triode GM70 (plate dissipation 125W).

The ML3 continues the fine tradition that began with the Lamm ML2 single-ended amplifier, and takes it to unimagined heights of performance attainable only now.

The ML3, along with the renowned Model ML2.1 amplifier, is practically the only single-ended amplifier on the market capable of reproducing the entire range of audio frequencies. The ML3’s midrange is beautifully rendered, along with a natural and extended bass, and unparalleled high frequency reproduction, up to now only available in our ML2, ML2.1, and ML3 models.

The ML3’s innovative circuitry enables a recreation of the original spectral balance and harmonic structure of the recorded material without loosing a strand of low-level detail or nuance. Another unique aspect of the design enables the ML3 to recreate a three-dimensional soundstage without boundaries or limitations, while maintaining an extraordinary transparency of perceived sound. The ML3 truly demonstrates what a properly designed single-ended amplifier can do.

Technical Aspects in Brief

The ML3 is a 32 Watt, no overall feedback pure class-A single-ended amplifier. It’s built on one of the most sophisticated power supplies ever used in audio, and its most prominent features are:

* Separate plate and filament transformers
* Six filter chokes
* Six rectifier tubes
* Highest quality film capacitors used in high-voltage power supply feeding the output stage
* Refined soft-start and delay circuits
* Option for turning the amp on/off controlled via Lamm preamplifiers

While the ML3 has no overall loop feedback, the amplifier features an option allowing the user to introduce small amounts of local feedback in the output stage. You can choose between two levels of feedback: NFB1 and NFB2, which differ in their levels. This allows for three feedback options: No feedback, NFB1 or NFB2.

A multi-turn trimming potentiometer, accessible through a special opening in the amplifier’s chassis, along with a set of test points, allow the user to adjust and measure the plate current of the output tube via an external voltmeter.

Absolutely unique custom-made output transformers, along with our unique output stage and sophisticated power supply, allow the ML3 to drive most real-world speakers yielding tremendous sonic impact and stability under the most dynamic conditions. Although the ML3 can drive most speakers, their full potential is best realized with high-efficiency speakers of 92dB and higher.

The design goal of the ML3 was to use best modern technology and processes in a style reminiscent of equipment from the golden age of vacuum tubes. Each amplifier is carefully constructed and handcrafted of the finest materials and world-class parts, some of which include military-graded DALE metal film resistors, PRC wirewound resistors, CADDOCK power film resistors; BOURNS multi-turn potentiometers; CORNELL DUBILIER and UNITED CHEMI-CON electrolytic capacitors, ELECTROCUBE, ROEDERSTEIN and ELCON film capacitors; HAMMOND chokes; gold-plated NEUTRIC and FISCHER connectors; military-graded low-noise long-life vacuum tubes.

Special attention was given to designing the plate and filament transformers that have no mechanical contact with either the transformer cover or the chassis, and are suspended in a special encapsulant that almost completely absorbs even residual mechanical vibrations. This plays a significant role in assuring absolutely unique clarity and micro-resolution.

Tube Complement:

* One 12AX7/ECC83
* Four 6N30P-DR / 6H30П-ДP (cyrillic)
* One GM70 / ГМ70 (cyrillic)
* Six 12AX3/12BE3

The ML3 is designed to function on AC line voltages throughout the world — 100/120/220/230/240 V — and can be internally adjusted without elaborate modifications.

Suggested retail price (preliminary): $126,290.00/pair

See you at the Venetian at CES, Suite 34-309!

December 26, 2006 by Michael

Predictions for the New Year

1. We will see people cryo’ing entire amplifiers, cd players, and pre-amplifiers.

2. TAS will finally match Stereophile in number of subscribers and number of copies printed.

3. Somebody will make a blu-ray high-end audio cd player which will not sell well.

4. Somebody will make a blu-ray high-end video player that sounds almost as good as the best high-end audio SACD players which will open the market for true high-end Audio+Video systems and the dredging up of all sorts of video to go with the large, currently video-less, music catalogs from the last 100 years. This will stave off the recording industries demise until broadband is capable of downloading the equivalent of a 70GB blu-ray disc in finite time.

5. The official CES High-end ‘High Performance’ Audio Show and the Stereophile Home Entertainment Show continue to dwindle.

Wishes for the New Year

1. We see larger and larger diamond drivers culminating in six-foot tall diamond drivers for a high-resolution single-driver speaker.

2. The current bear market for high-end audio turns into a bull market (i.e. it becomes popular) and drives down costs by a factor of two every six to eigthteen months (like the digital video market today) and today’s $150K speaker costs $5K in 5 years.

3. The recording industry goes bankrupt (fiscally this time) and the resulting Laissez Faire environment which allows actual talent to rise to the top results in a new revolution in music similar to that which occured in the 60s.

4. Someone will make a component that has built-in vibration mitigation from, say, HRS, a custom designed power cord and internal wiring that was tuned for the component from, say, Nordost, the best capacitors and resistors and silver transformers from, say, Audio Note, and…etc…. so that there is no need for aftermarket tweaks or modders to do any work on the piece. Oh! And it comes broken in already. REALLY broken in. So it sounds good as soon as you take it home.

5. Mike will learn how to spell, or at least get a spell-checker for the blog.

Humor for the New Year

1. Every single home audio company will now offer a $2oK turntable…. no matter if they are a cable company, an equipment rack company, a speaker company or an amplifier company.

Including Bose.

……………………… And Rockport.

All of which will receive rave reviews.

2. The Stereophile Show collapses and gets split up into 50 shows per year, one per state capital, and once per week. This ends up putting many overly exuberant show attendees out of work and overly exuberant exhibitors into bancruptcy court, and the court creates a new ‘Chapter 50’ for these poor souls.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Humor 0 comments

December 23, 2006 by Michael

Everyday is Christmas here at Audio Federation

Everyday is Christmas here at Audio Federation, what with all the toys that keep arriving all of the time…

Everyday is also Thanskgiving here as well.

I consider myself very fortunate to be here at this time.

I have always felt that one must be cognizant and always appreciative of one’s good fortune, but also that fortunes can change in the blink of an eye, a quake of the earth, a hurricane of the ocean, a misplaced bus here or there.

We also try to share our good fortune with others in various ways. Yes, including some of our fave charities, like many of you out there.

We also share our listeningrooms with anyone who makes an effort to make it here, and we have this website and Blog so that those who can’t make it can see upclose what some of the finest craftspeople in the world have wrought.

If we were an antqiue shop, or an art gallery, or a greenhouse, or whatever, it would be the same: trying to communicate the beauty of these marvelous works wrought by humans and nature through photos and prose.

Because it is NOT all just about the music, it is all about the appreciation of ‘works’, works created out of nothing but ideas and atoms. And appreciation and respect for the effort and skill and talent and sweat and mystery and inspiration and luck and love that went into their creation. Whether that be music, or equipment, or album covers, or a well-designed system, or the gestalt of it all roled together in one big sometimes awe-inspiring mess.

As anyone knows who has been around for awhile, nobody owns anything. It is only borrowed for a little while. And then it dies, or the borrower dies, or it is sold, or it breaks, or it is lost…or crumbles into dust.

We are all just Custodians. And all we can do is try to be the best darn custodians we can be.

Happy Holidays Everyone!
-Mike & Neli

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo 0 comments

December 22, 2006 by Michael

XLO Test & Burn in CD [GOLD CD]

Been playing the XLO Test & Burn in CD [GOLD CD] on the Marten Coltrane Supreme loudspeakers (driven by all Audio Note electronics)

Can’t decide if we are craziest playing this thing and expecting more results that just playing music, or even crazier because thesound of the break in track on this CD would drive ANYONE crazy.

Sounds like pink noise and two oscillators, simultaneously but not in sync, generating a piercing tone going up and down the frequency spectrum… Whee Whoo Whee Whoo Whee Whoo ……..

Track 9
Track 9
Track 9
Track 9
Track 9
Track 9
Track 9
Track 9
Track 9

At about 90 to 100 decibels…

Neli is out at the gym so I can play it without wondering [more than I already do 🙂 ] if she is going to Lizzy Borden out on me… or me to Jack Nicholson out on her…

I guess the oscillating tones do hit some frequencies that might not normally get hit – and this might cause the drivers to loosen up / break in, and little faster or more evenly…

I put this on the Kharma Mini Exquisites for almost a whole week, but at lower volume… didn’t seem to hurt – but it is hard to tell if it was better than just playing some music.

But I am in a good mood, Lizzy and Jack personalities fighting for control notwithstanding. We picked up about 100 LPs this afternoon, 2/3 of which were 99 cents each. Many were wellknown bands and LPs.

But the ones I am more excited about are the ones I know nothing about. Some wierd Techno and Indie LPs, mostly 45 speed. And of course classical, something else we know so little about that each choice is almost random. And some new age as well. I think the Shadosfax was scratched too much, but I got another Jarre and some unknowns, too. New Grass Revival…

And Hey at $1 one can risk a little and buy whatever looks like it might sound good. Kind of like letting serendipity take a hand piloting our musical selection, but more participatory than just letting a DJ make the selection.

Hmmm… maybe I should go back and only buy *ONLY* LPs that I have no idea what they sound like, but which look like they would sound good. Or interesting. Kind of like Peter Qvortrup’s anti-Audio Hell Hi-Fi evaluation technique applied as a Purchasing Technique.(i.e. instead of listening to unfamiliar music to evaluate a system, to buy or othewise aquire unfamiliar music enjoy a system).

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo 0 comments

December 21, 2006 by Michael

Snow Federation

A few pictures of the snowy Audio Federation…

I hear our area of the country is receiving a lot attention because of this storm…

All I can say is it must be a slow news week. It doesn’t help that DIA airport waits until the sun is shining to start plowing the runways… Stranded holiday travelers is always a good story I guess…

The back deck got about 18 inches.

A wider view of the back deck.

Through the window but it is agood view of the tree and neighboring hills facing NNE

Oujtside picture facing more or less the same NE direction, showing just a few of the 45 steps and 50 yards of driveway the shoveling of which has become our gym-away-from-the-gym [we still can’t get our cars out. My S8 has about 4 inches clearance, Neli’s Allroad is adjustable upto about 10 I think, and there is still about 18 inches of snow on about 10-15 yards of driveway to go. It has taken us multiple forays and about 10 hours combined shoveling to get this far. One way to keep fit for carrying amps, moving speakers, and lugging that heavy 5lb? camera around shows, huh? 🙂 But I hope it stays clear until after CES… these storms lately are closing freeways and airports all too often…. .]

Facing NW still on the front stoop. The mountains in the distance are getting some respit from the frozen deluge.

Acoustic Zen Adagio ala Snowy Winter.

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo 0 comments

December 20, 2006 by Michael

Photos, Photos and more Photos

As of the last post, we have taken 15299 photos in the last 10 months. A quick estimate would be that 15000 of them are of stereo equipment and high-end audio paraphernalia.

That seems like a lot of photos.

It certainly is a lot of diskspace, at an average of about 7MB per photo that is about 105 GB.

About half of these pictures are taken at shows, 5000 at the Stereophile Show HE 2006, and one can presume that there may be a lot of photos taken at CES 2007 in smokey old Las Vegas as well.

It is funny, people who venture an opinion about these things come down on two sides of the fence: either the commentary is everything, who cares about the photos, or, on the other side, that the photos are awesome and the commentary is just icing.

Well, we’re still going to do both – so no need for a feud.

But still, 15000 seems like a lot of photos.

in CES 2007 / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Show Reports 4 comments

December 20, 2006 by Michael

Acoustic Zen Adagio and Audio Aero

Acoustic Zen Agagio loudspeakers powered by Audio Aero Capitole 50 watt amplifier in main listening room

We wanted to test a theory of ours – that the Acoustic Zen Adagio speaker worked better with amplifiers that were more ’round’ and less detailed sounding.

We also wanted to see if the Adagios could fill a room that is 15 feet by 35 feet by 24 feet tall, which is more or less open on one side, with sound.

Not to mention whether the 50 watt Audio Aero amplifier at 50 push-pull KT88 into EL34-based amp could drive the speakers…

Finally, almost finally, we are looking at building some lower cost systems out of the Audio Note and Adagio / Audio Aero lines and this system, at roughly $24K + cables and rack, is definitely on the inexpensive side here at Audio Federation. Whether we continue in this direction or not depends on the response from our customers – but eventually we would like to have a system, in some as yet imaginary showroom, that is based on, say, Audio Aero Prima CD player and intergrated amplifier and Adagio which comes in at say $10K + cables and rack, tuned by Mike and Neli with special cables and isolation gear. Similary for a comparably-priced Audio Note system.

And, besides all that, we are running out of room and so why not put the Adagios in the least likely place? 🙂

Audio Aero Capitole Reference CD player on Rix Rax equipment rack.

Hey, it sounded pretty darn good!

Technically, and I have not listened all that critically yet but, it did not sound as accomplished as the system with the $70K Audio Note M10 and Emm labs CDSD / DCC2 driving Edge Signature One amplifiers, coming in at $130K, but this less expensive system captured more of the character of what these speakers do well: which is to create a satisfying, room-filling sound in a musical and very competant, balanced fashion. No tipped up mids and bass here, no collapse into mush at the first sign of complexity… not that we are point fingers at the, oh, I don’t know… perhaps the five most popular speaker brand’s speakers that cost less than, say, $40K? Nahhhhhh….

Yeah, there is a hump at the port frequency and a dip above it, like most ported speakers. But it is not overly prominent or distracting.

Listening from my office, which is off of the main listening room, it sounded different, but as enjoyable and nearly as emotional, as the much larger, soon to be shipped, system looming behind there in the photos. Considering the difference in cost and pain-in-the-ass factors, for casual listening one can’t help wondering why someone would want something more than this. But we are a store, so we do not wonder too awfully long. 🙂

Which brings us to in-room, critical listening.

Nordost Tyr speaker cable.

Next step is to put some vibration mitigation underneath the Capitole Amplifier, which is just sitting on its BDR cones on the carpet: most of the notes from, say, 1600Hz on down are muddied on the decay as their deliterious effects feedback upon themselves. I would like to go with a full out HRS Isolation Base and Nimbus Couplers – just to be able to get rid of these effects and be able to start probing for other weaknesses – but they are all on active duty here, so it would pain us to have to steal one from another system….We’ll see.

There is also a question about whether the less expensive Acoustic Zen cables would mate better with these speakers than the Nordost Tyr. If so, that will be a clear win in improving overall price performance.

Anyway…. This system is kind of fun to have up in this listening room, a room which is usually reserved for the big mutha systems we have here. Kind of nice to ‘travel light’ for a change.

in Acoustic Zen / Audio Aero / High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Showroom 1 0 comments

December 15, 2006 by Michael

Festival Express DVD

Festival Express

This is a movie, with 50 minutes of added material, about three concerts that took place in Canada in 1970 that were supposed to be Canada’s Woodstock.

Because of legal issues, it was not released until late 2004.

I had never heard of it until I ran acorss the movie about 6 months ago and finally watched it over the last two days…

The offical quotage goes like:

“In the summer of 1970, a chartered train crossed Canada carrying some of the world’s greatest rock bands. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Buddy Guy, and others lived (and partied) together for five days, stopping in major cities along the way to play live concerts. Their journey was filmed.”

Some of the performances are pretty good. Janis was just awe inspiring and makes the current crop of musicians these days seem like … pretenders… No, not THE pretenders! Like business people who sing songs instead of musicans who happen to make money.

Jerry and Buddy Guy (in the extra footage, especially) also show off their stuff pretty well.

But this is not the fun part about this movie, and I cannot say all that much about the sound quality [from what I can hear of it, it is pretty good], as it was played through a couple of little active speakers, our A/V system being kind of given the Supreme push into a corner for the moment.

What is great about this movie is the footage of all of these musicans partying together. Jerry and Janis singing together is most memorable. And the bunch of them discovering a new drug that they all like… alcohol.

It is the realization that they all decided to play music for a week straight on this train together (stopping once in a while to play at a concert), instead of retiring to their rooms to check the stock portfolios [I exaggerate, I hope, but trying to emphasize a point here], that shows how much into the music they were. That they were like most of us! How cool is that?

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo 0 comments

December 13, 2006 by Michael

Guitar Fu

Or ‘Kung Fu for the Guitar’.

Back when I thought I had time (haaaaa ha ha ha) to learn how to play the guitar better, I subscribed to the Guitar Principles newsletter [Be careful with their bright red screen. Early in the morning it can be blinding, perhaps waiting until afternoon to visit might be better… Yeah, I just don’t think they got the Webdesign-Fu thing going yet].

Their approach has always been very deep, paying attention to every detail as well as paying attention to the numerous ‘purposes’ one has playing a guitar. Yes, it is very much like our hobby, but luckily we do not require much hand-eye motor coordination :-)!

[… though, often, the amount we do require can be duanting, plugging left channels into right, output cables into the input sockets, … all sorts of difficulties can arise if we do not FOCUS. Or maybe it is just us….]

For example, here is a (small) exerpt from their last newsletter, which I found myself identifying with both as a listener to musician’s music as well as a audio reproduction system optimizer [but not so much as guitar player – free time disappears as if it were nothing but a poof of smoke from Gandalf’s pipe]:

“….in the course of developing as a guitarist, you will be forced to confront who you really are, not who you think you are.” Musical performance does not allow us to lie, it forces us to speak the truth, whatever our truth might be. If I am afraid, if I am shallow, if I am passionate and profound; the music will say it.

As we play, we must ask “where is my attention? Is it focused on what I want, or am I allowing my psychic energy to be devoted to my fears and doubts, thereby bringing me what I don’t want?” The smallest corners of our minds and hearts, though we may keep them hidden from our awareness in everyday life, will come to life in the midst of our artistic endeavors. And that is why an artist must strive toward purity, which is earned through honest, fearless, and constant self observation.

So, let us observe ourselves fearlessly, especially when we play guitar, and see if we are focusing on the problem, or the solution. Is it our fears to which we give our attention, or are we thinking of and focusing on what we want? What we get [the results we get] will depend on the answer. “

Anyway, inspirational, for me at least. And I try to apply ‘Guitar Principles’ to other parts of my life.

[Boy, some people have bad hair days, I get bad spell days [everyday is a bad hair day, but I’m a guy, so who cares]. I’ve had to look up half of the words on this post…. *sheesh*].

Well, here we are at the end of this little Blog post….

in High-end Audio HiFi and Stereo / Philosophy 3 comments

December 12, 2006 by Michael