"Constellation Audio's Performance Centaur Mono is a powerhouse of an amplifier capable of delivering very high power with very low distortion into 4 and 8 ohms. While it was less comfortable with 2 ohms, it will have no problem driving low-impedance speakers with aplomb. Although I broke it with sustained delivery exceeding 1kW into 2 ohms (footnote 1), there isn't a speaker made that would not be the first to expire at this power level! Color me impressed."
Always have something great to say about that shoddy product you are testing eh John?🙄
lol, it doesn't even look good. I've seen better looking arc welders in my time.
We have a box in the loft which we use for taking the cat to the vet, it looks a lot like that amp. I showed it to the missis and she said "does it have a litter try inside it"
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Kind of sad. Hagerman's products and kits always seemed very reasonable to me. Looks like they weren't bringing enough money in.
i bet you could buy pure silver wire from goldsmiths enough long to make a own cable."What's the cost of this improvement? Don't ask . . . I did ask, and was told that the 4m demo length pair of Valhalla 1 costs $12,200 and Valhalla 2 of the same length is $17,850! "
and save money
SOC, I am surprised that you are allowed to criticize another design here. Perhaps they have not caught up with you yet.
For the record, I had relatively little to do with the power amp design, and I don't know why they attributed significant credit to me, but I did help with a few problems that they had, AND the engineer who actually designed the power amp, Bascom King, helped me with the phono preamp's problems that developed during prototyping, along with Demian Martin. While I appreciate both Bascom's and Demian's help, I would not call them 'co-designers' of the Perseus phono stage. They might think different, however.
In any case, this is a 'cheapened' design, much like the Perseus is, and it would appear that they put it together in a normal engineering fashion, rather than the typical 'hi end' fashion with a very pretty layout and placement of parts.
Still, this is an interesting design, and it apparently sounds pretty good. Please remember these are one off made products that take a lot more time to make than something that is mass produced. Here is an approximate schematic of the power amp:
For the record, I had relatively little to do with the power amp design, and I don't know why they attributed significant credit to me, but I did help with a few problems that they had, AND the engineer who actually designed the power amp, Bascom King, helped me with the phono preamp's problems that developed during prototyping, along with Demian Martin. While I appreciate both Bascom's and Demian's help, I would not call them 'co-designers' of the Perseus phono stage. They might think different, however.
In any case, this is a 'cheapened' design, much like the Perseus is, and it would appear that they put it together in a normal engineering fashion, rather than the typical 'hi end' fashion with a very pretty layout and placement of parts.
Still, this is an interesting design, and it apparently sounds pretty good. Please remember these are one off made products that take a lot more time to make than something that is mass produced. Here is an approximate schematic of the power amp:
Attachments
A "cheapened design" that costs $54,000 a pair and has so many flaws?😉 If they take longer to make then they should perform as designed.
Apparently, they RUSHED the design. The problems will be fixed. Why don't you fix it for us, and do something useful. By the way, thanks for bringing up the problem. I see the reason for their problem, can you?
Why don't you fix it for us
I'd be happy to, for my usual hourly rate.
I'd be happy to, for my usual hourly rate.
What do you charge for the evening?
se
My normal technical consulting rate for commercial entities is $150 per hour. $250 for law firms.
What do you charge for the evening?
se
They usually just leave it on the nightstand.
Somewhat OTT response - reading the subjective assessment it clearly delivers what counts, being able to reproduce cleanly what is on the recording. As an analogy, there's been a long history of belting the makers of supercars by various magazines, because the door handles don't have sufficient bling, or microscopic measurements of the fit of a dial in the instrument panel show 'problems'. Well, the purchasers of these items tend to not get too fussed about such, I think they concern themselves with somewhat more important qualities ..."Constellation Audio's Performance Centaur Mono is a powerhouse of an amplifier capable of delivering very high power with very low distortion into 4 and 8 ohms. While it was less comfortable with 2 ohms, it will have no problem driving low-impedance speakers with aplomb. Although I broke it with sustained delivery exceeding 1kW into 2 ohms (footnote 1), there isn't a speaker made that would not be the first to expire at this power level! Color me impressed."
Always have something great to say about that shoddy product you are testing eh John?🙄
For the record, I had relatively little to do with the power amp design, and I don't know why they attributed significant credit to me:
Because your name is worth more to the consumer. Hopefully you charge as much as SY does.
Apparently, they RUSHED the design. The problems will be fixed. Why don't you fix it for us, and do something useful. By the way, thanks for bringing up the problem. I see the reason for their problem, can you?
Well if they can't deliver a near perfect product for the asking price of $27,000 each then they deserve to fail. Why don't YOU contribute to the INPUT of the device. Oh wait that is what you did 😀
Somewhat OTT response - reading the subjective assessment it clearly delivers what counts, being able to reproduce cleanly what is on the recording. As an analogy, there's been a long history of belting the makers of supercars by various magazines, because the door handles don't have sufficient bling, or microscopic measurements of the fit of a dial in the instrument panel show 'problems'. Well, the purchasers of these items tend to not get too fussed about such, I think they concern themselves with somewhat more important qualities ...
You deserve to own these so please buy them.
Anyone that spends $54,000 per pair for these amps aren't doing so strictly for the performance. The physical faults have already been mentioned It's not even pretty for the bling bling crowd either. What I was mostly pointing out was John Atkinson's repeated "kissing up" to the manufacturers that send in crappy products by smoothing over the summary at the end of testing Does he ever come out and say not to buy something he tests? It's all good.
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