Soraya CB105

[Cloth Ears]

Heard (a prototype of) this new amp from Hugh Dean last night at a demonstration at the Melbourne Audio Club. Along with a pair of 3-way "adjustable" speakers, this was commented on as being the "best sound" that people had heard for many years. It should be noted that the room itself doesn not really lend itself to audio demonstrations.

The speaker itself was made up of a Peerless XXLS 10" in a 65 litre passive radiator (for the first part of the night) and 65 litre sealed (for the remainder) - a Vifa P13WH in a sealed box (for the first few tracks) and then open backed with Tontine stuffing (fro the remainder that I was there) - a Scanspeak D2904 along with an Optimus dipole tweeter. The crossover is a first-order series between mid and bass (plus a zobel for each), and this is crossed (as a whole) to the tweeter using a third-order parallel crossover. The Optimus is used as the resistor in the zobel for the Scanspeak tweeter, or can be switched out. Told you it was "adjustable"...

The amp was displayed, open topped, and was very simple and well laid out and "pretty" to look at. And drove the speakers (in all configurations) with control and authority - which is not something that all amplifiers could do (IMHO). It did pretty much what all amplifiers should do - disappeared.

[vynuhl.addict]

Cloth Ears,


Short,sweet and to the point, aurally disappearing is one of the many things this amplifier does well. It does what it should do, play music as it is naturally, without obstruction or a sonic imprint from the gear itself causing you to get lost in and focus on the music, I have been enjoying listening to all of my old recordings that have become new once again with details once hidden .


Colin

[Cloth Ears]

The other thing that was good about it in this particular demonstration, was that we were able to listen to the changes brought about by the various combinations of the speaker set-up (it's really quite ingenious) without having to put up with the limitations of the amplifier in being able to driver the crossover/driver combination. OK, so we didn't have a Apogee Scintilla to really test its' driving abilities . Nothing worse than having an amplifer blow a fuse when you ask it to drive 1 ohm loads .

[destroyer X]

This Soraya is not more, not less, than the best.

regards,

Carlos

[AKSA]

Thanks Jont, Colin and Carlos! It was a good night and I was pleased. The speaker was a doddle to drive, it was so well designed.

The Soraya CB105 is extraordinarily load tolerant. I took an Acustat recently to almost destructive levels and the amp didn't raise a sweat. There is no sonic influence at all with a 0.47uF cap switched across the speaker while playing, with no sign of instability when viewed on the CRO.

This amp will be exhibited at Denver RMAF with Ellis 1801b speakers and I welcome any member here to have a listen - particularly those who feel these achievements are not credible! (Andy, can I buy you a beer??)

Ciao,

Hugh

[sparkle]

Hugh,
this is very good news.....very nice ..... keeep the good work going....still going up...allways....for sure

congratulations....

[AKSA]

Hi Daniel,

I'm moving towards an ultra low distortion model. New amp has 15 devices per channel, quite complex. I've found that huge quality gains are possible by better controlling very low amplitude signals, around the dead zone of crossover. Feedback is now nested, and compensation is quite complex. It's an amp I'm pleased with, certainly, but will only sell as a retail product.

Trust you are well!

Hugh

[sparkle]

yes i am fine - thank You - LF is working very nice from the day one (well, actually since it was burned in completely)...
now i am playing with some power amplifier designs that i would like to build ...one is on the way....we will see....of course LF will be the reference...


15 devices...wow....nice....nested feedback ..... nice....

[vynuhl.addict]

Hi Sparkle,


15 devices that work together to pass through with gain some of the
most lucid and involving sonics to ever pass by these ears ever!, all without any hint of typical SS glare and edginess that is often associated with a transistor design. To be able to do this, without added coloration and with very low distortion is a wonderful combination. I hope Hugh the best on this one as he has nailed it in sonics and realism that is hard to beat and possibly unsurpassed in the nth degree. and I feel will be a rose smelling time to some EE's, further proof that a design should be met by both ears and measurements, but finalised by ear.

Best Wishes
Colin

[sparkle]

that is really good Colin,

i am happy for you and i wish all the best for Hugh...
i have Lifeforce and i am very happy with it...sounds nice with my tube preamplifer....
Soraya seems to be ultra super turbo upgrade on the LF sound.... this makes me a bit sad - makes me wanna jump out of couriosity - but still i am also very happy for Hugh....