I have the first I believe Maya200 from Hugh.
I've been burning it in over Christmas after Aussie Post lost it for 9 days silly silly wombats.
I must say it sounds very musical and powerful sounds like more then the 250W it pushes into 4ohms.
The low end driver grip is very strong and the sound stage is very wide.
No fatigue or SS glare at all tube like but with power.
Looking inside there are only two output devices per side for each channel.
I'm very happy with this AMP much better then the Bryston SS7T's it replaced.
Highly recommended.
Happy New Year
Garry
I've been burning it in over Christmas after Aussie Post lost it for 9 days silly silly wombats.
I must say it sounds very musical and powerful sounds like more then the 250W it pushes into 4ohms.
The low end driver grip is very strong and the sound stage is very wide.
No fatigue or SS glare at all tube like but with power.
Looking inside there are only two output devices per side for each channel.
I'm very happy with this AMP much better then the Bryston SS7T's it replaced.
Highly recommended.
Happy New Year
Garry
Thank you Garry! I am very pleased you put the Maya in such good company, this is quite a pressie for 2016! The output devices are BIG, they are rated EACH to 480W. It took some time to figure out how to use them, they are extraordinarily robust.
You are the second Maya customer, in fact! I have a few more on queue right now, pity the weather in Melbourne is HOT at present; 39C today.
A very Happy New Year to you and your family - 2016 will see some changes in the world I'm sure.
Ciao,
Hugh
You are the second Maya customer, in fact! I have a few more on queue right now, pity the weather in Melbourne is HOT at present; 39C today.
A very Happy New Year to you and your family - 2016 will see some changes in the world I'm sure.
Ciao,
Hugh
Maya
The cat is poking it's head out of the bag now. And 2016 is the year of the Maya Amplifier. I'll leave it to Hugh to fully get the cat out of the bag at the proper time.
However, I have been building and listening to prototype versions of the Maya for several months while Hugh continued work on the final product. This is a special amplifier with wonderful sound and spatial qualities that are easily heard with all genres of music. I continue to be amazed at every single listening session, which is most every day.
The cat is poking it's head out of the bag now. And 2016 is the year of the Maya Amplifier. I'll leave it to Hugh to fully get the cat out of the bag at the proper time.
However, I have been building and listening to prototype versions of the Maya for several months while Hugh continued work on the final product. This is a special amplifier with wonderful sound and spatial qualities that are easily heard with all genres of music. I continue to be amazed at every single listening session, which is most every day.
Yep, Steve is on the money...... and my sincere thanks to him for incredibly patience taking the Maya through its paces to ensure it will be utterly reliable and durable. We are both at last happy with this long gestation!
As most realise, I'm a lousy salesman, but this does mean that I understate most of my comments and you can be quite sure my descriptions are precise and up to date!
I'm listening to a 50V Maya at present, on classical guitar. This amp will be released with 62V rails, which relates to an easy 210W into 8R and much more, depending only on the transformers, into 4R, at least 300W. The topology is unique, different to the NAKSA, and the flagship for Aspen. I will be offering the modules for $AUD2250, which is $USD1642 on the present rates. This is actually pretty much the same as the original N125, which was sold at $AUD1620 when the Oz dollar was almost at parity, so in a sense it's a lineball price, and much more technology and performance.
Features:
SS relay speaker protection, which tripped with more than +/-2V DC on the output.
Soft turn on and fast turn off for the speaker.
29dB of global feedback, delivering wonderful spatial characteristics, viz sound field.
Blinding speed; the amp is limited with a low pass filter on the input, but will deliver real power up to 150KHz. Quiescent is 125mA, and total dissipation of output stage is up to short term 940W.
Very low THD, less than 0.025% into 200W, and very low noise, lower than -105dB.
Very low odd order harmonics in the distortion profile; this is the primary aim in this design, which is supernaturally musical - tube grace with SS muscle.
Attached is the module, which is double sided on 2mm black FR4 and 70 microns copper. Every attempt has been taken to address all detail in the layout of a SOTA Class AB amp.
I am now finishing the documentation, but I will not be publishing the schematic!
Cheers,
Hugh
As most realise, I'm a lousy salesman, but this does mean that I understate most of my comments and you can be quite sure my descriptions are precise and up to date!
I'm listening to a 50V Maya at present, on classical guitar. This amp will be released with 62V rails, which relates to an easy 210W into 8R and much more, depending only on the transformers, into 4R, at least 300W. The topology is unique, different to the NAKSA, and the flagship for Aspen. I will be offering the modules for $AUD2250, which is $USD1642 on the present rates. This is actually pretty much the same as the original N125, which was sold at $AUD1620 when the Oz dollar was almost at parity, so in a sense it's a lineball price, and much more technology and performance.
Features:
SS relay speaker protection, which tripped with more than +/-2V DC on the output.
Soft turn on and fast turn off for the speaker.
29dB of global feedback, delivering wonderful spatial characteristics, viz sound field.
Blinding speed; the amp is limited with a low pass filter on the input, but will deliver real power up to 150KHz. Quiescent is 125mA, and total dissipation of output stage is up to short term 940W.
Very low THD, less than 0.025% into 200W, and very low noise, lower than -105dB.
Very low odd order harmonics in the distortion profile; this is the primary aim in this design, which is supernaturally musical - tube grace with SS muscle.
Attached is the module, which is double sided on 2mm black FR4 and 70 microns copper. Every attempt has been taken to address all detail in the layout of a SOTA Class AB amp.
I am now finishing the documentation, but I will not be publishing the schematic!
Cheers,
Hugh
Attachments
Wombats777,
The SS7t would be a Carver amplifier if I'm not mistaken, or is it the Bryston 7B sst?
Colin
The SS7t would be a Carver amplifier if I'm not mistaken, or is it the Bryston 7B sst?
Colin
Colin,
I found this at Enjoythemusic, by Dwayne Carter:
I await Garry's reply, but this is, I think, the amp he owns. He told me it was a Bryston, and it's a very well made amp with good figures. These are well made and a technical de force, with a patented, clever and elaborate output stage. I understand they have been around for more than ten years, and VERY powerful.
Colin, as you know, and you go for this too, I'm trying to peel back the subjective listening experience with my designs. In 50 years SS has been obsessed with technical specifications, particularly THD, and I discerned that there was a place for going to the sound quality, assessed by critical listening tests. This is why Pass' amps, JLH's Class A, Le Monstre from Hiraga, and the recent DartZeel from Delacretaz really pricked my ears. My recent amps are designed in the ethos of all these amplifiers.... regardless of specification, which is pretty good but not exceptional.
Thanks for your post, and Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Hugh
I found this at Enjoythemusic, by Dwayne Carter:
I await Garry's reply, but this is, I think, the amp he owns. He told me it was a Bryston, and it's a very well made amp with good figures. These are well made and a technical de force, with a patented, clever and elaborate output stage. I understand they have been around for more than ten years, and VERY powerful.
Colin, as you know, and you go for this too, I'm trying to peel back the subjective listening experience with my designs. In 50 years SS has been obsessed with technical specifications, particularly THD, and I discerned that there was a place for going to the sound quality, assessed by critical listening tests. This is why Pass' amps, JLH's Class A, Le Monstre from Hiraga, and the recent DartZeel from Delacretaz really pricked my ears. My recent amps are designed in the ethos of all these amplifiers.... regardless of specification, which is pretty good but not exceptional.
Thanks for your post, and Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Hugh
Hi Hugh,
Out of curiosity, why did you choose FQA40N25 instead FQA28N15 as a FQA36P15 complement...FQA40N25 has ~1/3 higher gfs and parasitic capacitance than FQA36P15?
Happy New Year
Ivo
Out of curiosity, why did you choose FQA40N25 instead FQA28N15 as a FQA36P15 complement...FQA40N25 has ~1/3 higher gfs and parasitic capacitance than FQA36P15?
Happy New Year
Ivo
I'm not Hugh, but the mosfets you are posting about are the ones in the Naksa 125. The Maya, topic of this thread, uses different mosfets altogether. Hugh can comment further.
Hi Ivo,
Happy New Year to you!
I use much bigger, 480W mosfets for the Maya, and yes, they have much higher transconductance and parasitic capacitances. The NAKSA 125 uses 280W devices.
I could fill a page on this; it's my stock in trade for the last twenty years. Firstly, higher transconductance means there is very little change in Vgs on these devices over the full waveform, and the Cgs (input capacitance Ciss) is bootstrapped by a common source configuration. These devices have transconductance around 25S plus, where bipolars are markedly less (typically 20S for a C5200), so the waveform compression of mosfets is generally superior to equivalent bipolars by 1:1. A single pair of very large mosfets are superior to multiple pairs of bipolars; more resolution and easier to drive (no gate current). It is much easier to drive large mosfets than most expect, and in fact I found using drivers increased phase shift and gave no subjective improvement in sound. We are working with audio, not radio frequencies, and up to 20KHz a high driver current is more than sufficient drive. In fact, the Maya will do huge output to 100KHz and beyond if not fitted with a mandatory LP filter.
There are some dark secrets in using mosfets in this way. They are skittish devices, inclined to self-oscillate. Robert Cordell helped me from a 1984 white paper on these fascinating devices. These days I would not use anything else, and we can thank SS traction technology for this; hybrid electronics use them in VFD modules.
Thanks Steve, absolutely, different devices, and we think, you and I, that the bigger mosfets sound as good and even a bit better.....
Hugh
Happy New Year to you!
I use much bigger, 480W mosfets for the Maya, and yes, they have much higher transconductance and parasitic capacitances. The NAKSA 125 uses 280W devices.
I could fill a page on this; it's my stock in trade for the last twenty years. Firstly, higher transconductance means there is very little change in Vgs on these devices over the full waveform, and the Cgs (input capacitance Ciss) is bootstrapped by a common source configuration. These devices have transconductance around 25S plus, where bipolars are markedly less (typically 20S for a C5200), so the waveform compression of mosfets is generally superior to equivalent bipolars by 1:1. A single pair of very large mosfets are superior to multiple pairs of bipolars; more resolution and easier to drive (no gate current). It is much easier to drive large mosfets than most expect, and in fact I found using drivers increased phase shift and gave no subjective improvement in sound. We are working with audio, not radio frequencies, and up to 20KHz a high driver current is more than sufficient drive. In fact, the Maya will do huge output to 100KHz and beyond if not fitted with a mandatory LP filter.
There are some dark secrets in using mosfets in this way. They are skittish devices, inclined to self-oscillate. Robert Cordell helped me from a 1984 white paper on these fascinating devices. These days I would not use anything else, and we can thank SS traction technology for this; hybrid electronics use them in VFD modules.
Thanks Steve, absolutely, different devices, and we think, you and I, that the bigger mosfets sound as good and even a bit better.....
Hugh
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Yes, and in my prototype experiments I've used some even larger N channel mosfets with good results.
Sorry Ive been on business travel past week in Tokyo but Skiing this weekend in Nozawa in Kanazawa in Japan.
Hugh's new Amp sounds better every day I guess that the Caps are running in.
Colin was right I had 7B ST mono blocks but they sound very dry and not engaging.
I spent a lot on money on these and regret it to be honest.
Sold them on gumtree with a big loss 🙁
So far pretty dam happy with Hugh's beasties sound nice very musical and can drive my bloody difficult Dynaudio Contors5.4's
On 0419803286 OZ number if someone wants me
Cheers,
Garry
Hugh's new Amp sounds better every day I guess that the Caps are running in.
Colin was right I had 7B ST mono blocks but they sound very dry and not engaging.
I spent a lot on money on these and regret it to be honest.
Sold them on gumtree with a big loss 🙁
So far pretty dam happy with Hugh's beasties sound nice very musical and can drive my bloody difficult Dynaudio Contors5.4's
On 0419803286 OZ number if someone wants me
Cheers,
Garry
But that's the Bryston "house sound", surely - so how come you were persuaded to buy them?
Regards,
Andy
Too True
Hi Andy ,
You are right I made a mistake.
I thought it was a good idea at the time but time proves otherwise.
Cheers,
Garry
Hi Andy ,
You are right I made a mistake.
I thought it was a good idea at the time but time proves otherwise.
Cheers,
Garry
Hi Garry,
Thanks for the clarification, Brystons may measure well but don't sound all that well IMHO. That may be sacrilege considering they are Canadian as well as myself but the ultimate truth is not solely in measurement, or we wouldn't be holding tubes so close to our chest 🙂. The Bryston amps contain a loop within the gnfb loop, that darn op stage, complex and measures well, but just sounds simply not that alive!.
Colin
Thanks for the clarification, Brystons may measure well but don't sound all that well IMHO. That may be sacrilege considering they are Canadian as well as myself but the ultimate truth is not solely in measurement, or we wouldn't be holding tubes so close to our chest 🙂. The Bryston amps contain a loop within the gnfb loop, that darn op stage, complex and measures well, but just sounds simply not that alive!.
Colin
Ah yeah Colin, you and I have been down this road together, haven't we?
You are the zero global feedback guy, I'm a bit half in and half out, as you know. The Maya (series II for you!) has about 26dB of global feedback but lots of nested feedback.
I admire the build quality and warranty for Bryston. It's the best in the business, and it is true the specs are very, very good. People need to figure out if this is their cup of tea; I'm strongly influenced by subjective listening, and this is very difficult to justify in the absence of hard measurements. I honestly believe that the ear is far more sensitivity than many accurate instruments in this comprehensive field.
Thank you Garry, great praise!
Cheers,
Hugh
You are the zero global feedback guy, I'm a bit half in and half out, as you know. The Maya (series II for you!) has about 26dB of global feedback but lots of nested feedback.
I admire the build quality and warranty for Bryston. It's the best in the business, and it is true the specs are very, very good. People need to figure out if this is their cup of tea; I'm strongly influenced by subjective listening, and this is very difficult to justify in the absence of hard measurements. I honestly believe that the ear is far more sensitivity than many accurate instruments in this comprehensive field.
Thank you Garry, great praise!
Cheers,
Hugh
Hugh,
Of course, it's almost the agree to disagree scenario 🙂. A figuratively pick your poison. If audio weren't so subjective it would have been nailed during the slew rate and thd wars of the late 70's early 80's.
Colin
Of course, it's almost the agree to disagree scenario 🙂. A figuratively pick your poison. If audio weren't so subjective it would have been nailed during the slew rate and thd wars of the late 70's early 80's.
Colin
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Hi Gareth,
I use a CFP on the GK2, and on my Glass Harmony both in 1994 and the recent version I'm working on now. I like the CFP, generally, but not at the output stage. I love it in the Class A mode.
Your TGM8 is dang good, no question........
Cheers,
Hugh
I use a CFP on the GK2, and on my Glass Harmony both in 1994 and the recent version I'm working on now. I like the CFP, generally, but not at the output stage. I love it in the Class A mode.
Your TGM8 is dang good, no question........
Cheers,
Hugh