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Maya200

i had my first listening session on Maya.

my speaker is a usher audio two way bookshelf and i had a Rotel RA-970bx which is being replaced by Maya.

first thing i noticed was the more focused sound stage . then i can hear lot of details crystal clear which i missed with Rotel. sound quality is comparable to a good tube amplifier + additional tiny nuances is a bonus compared to tube. there is no sound compression and there is a fluidity in music . i like it very much. my rotel sounded muddy in the midband areas without clarity in complex music passage . have to listen more and will report here .
Big Thanks to Hugh . And my sincere wishes to Professor for his achievement with MAYA.
 
i had my first listening session on Maya.

my speaker is a usher audio two way bookshelf and i had a Rotel RA-970bx which is being replaced by Maya.

first thing i noticed was the more focused sound stage . then i can hear lot of details crystal clear which i missed with Rotel. sound quality is comparable to a good tube amplifier + additional tiny nuances is a bonus compared to tube. there is no sound compression and there is a fluidity in music . i like it very much. my rotel sounded muddy in the midband areas without clarity in complex music passage . have to listen more and will report here .
Big Thanks to Hugh . And my sincere wishes to Professor for his achievement with MAYA.

Namaste, Suresh - glad you like it! That's why we keep using Hugh's amplifiers - he keeps making them sound better and better! :D


Andy
 
i had my first listening session on Maya.

my speaker is a usher audio two way bookshelf and i had a Rotel RA-970bx which is being replaced by Maya.

first thing i noticed was the more focused sound stage . then i can hear lot of details crystal clear which i missed with Rotel. sound quality is comparable to a good tube amplifier + additional tiny nuances is a bonus compared to tube. there is no sound compression and there is a fluidity in music . i like it very much. my rotel sounded muddy in the midband areas without clarity in complex music passage . have to listen more and will report here .
Big Thanks to Hugh . And my sincere wishes to Professor for his achievement with MAYA.

Tuesday,My audiofriend(Eric) and I had a shootout between the Maya and an other amp(don't say here which one out of respect)at Eric's place and the Maya wins.
Both amps almost were sounding and behaving equall but the Maya sounded more calm and relaxed but without loosing the things Suresh is saying.
Hugh knows I like my Naksa 80 very much but the Maya is a huge upgraded
N80.If you want to know the opponent just mail me.
Hugh,Great amp
 
Heard many more tracks and now I feel how is missed the ambience . Maya reproduces ambience better with control , authority and spot on . I have been hearing a song released in 1992(which is not recorded well ) . i have heard it many times . but hearing the song in maya is something like hearing in tube amplifier with huge dynamics . i am more happy with maya purchase. i wish some maya customers have a shootout with parasound halo A21.
 
Raj,
This makes me very happy:
....something like hearing in tube amplifier with huge dynamics.
You might be surprised to hear that this was my EXACT wish when I started out with amplifier design in 1993! I love tube amps, but I do not like the price, the lack of dynamics, the weight, and the short life of output tubes. This was my ambition: to design an amp with solid state that sounded like the best aspects of a tube and the best qualities of solid stage - grace with muscle!
I'm getting closer........ thank you for your post.
Ciao,
Hugh
 
Update

After a few months of delays from Hugh's suppliers they have finally come through with all the bits for the Maya casework.

Hugh is assembling the modules etc into the case and despatching to NZ later this week.

I've got the transformers and will look to get this sorted in the next week or so, and then report back around the end of August.

Looking forward to it!!
 

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Listening Impressions - A Week In

Folks - long post follows.

I've had the Maya in my system for just on a week now and the following is a narrative on my journey to this point:

I've been doing this for 35 years, spending what I can where I can. I've never been a serial upgrader, but around 2.5 years ago decided to go digital and buy a DAC. I ended up with a Lampizator L5 / G5. Wow, the upgrade bug had got me.

Speakers were next, and I now have the Golden Ear Triton 1's having auditioned Thiel (the proper ones :) ), B+W, Focal, Castle, Dynaudio. In the respective price range the T1's literally blew everything else away. The folded ribbon tweeter is great, and the package hangs together nicely.

On to the amp. My existing amp was a Perreaux 250P, very well regarded but now 18x years old, although Perreaux describe the technology as current.

I trawled the web for around 12x months looking at various technologies / philosophies (see previous post in this thread).

I have friend who has also been doing this a long time, building various amps and DACs, so I have access to some decent skills. I stumbled on to Hugh's website and this forum. Hugh's design philosophy matched many key attributes I was looking for; few devices in the signal path, tuning the H1 - H10 distortion levels / ratios, two output devices per channel, mono design, reasonable power, reasonable price. I was keen on class A / single-ended but wasn't hung up on that.

Hugh was great to deal with amid the frustrations we both had with his casework supplier but the end result is very well made housing for the important bits. There is also plenty of room inside the case.

Transformers were easy to source (I used Tortech). Hugh did most of the wiring and did a great job. Installation of the transformers and hookup was straight forward. There was a minor issue with the documentation around test points which has been fixed

So after some issues with hum which were resolved by lifting the signal ground here are my impressions:

The amp is sounding wonderful. Better and better over the past week. There is more naturalness, delicacy and immediacy than my previous amplifier, the well regarded Perreaux 250P (250 / 400W)

Improved soundstaging delivers more presence to music.

The interplay between the musicians in live recordings is more obvious and therefore the music is more 'intimate'.

Bass is better defined but there isn't any more of it. Dynamics are the same as the Perreaux, but having said that low level listening has improved, so I guess there is less residual noise which implies a greater dynamic range. This is manifested as hearing nuances and inflections that clearly (now) were always there but previously masked.

When I first plugged the amp in I lost most of the the crickets on Roadhouses and Automobiles / Chris Jones, but after a week the crickets have returned. What is more impressive is I'm hearing birds behinds the crickets on the same track, something that has never happened before.

On tracks with with natural or processed reverb there is a greater depth of that effect.

On tracks like Belfast Child / Simple Minds the crescendo can get very messy and strident at decent volumes levels with the Perreaux. The stridency still exists, but is reduced through the Maya.

Ghost in this House / Alison Krauss, Sinnerman / Nina Simone are stunning.

A friend with ears I respect described listening to Times Square / Marianne Faithfull as being in front row seats.

In audiophile terms everything is better and impressive. In listening terms I'm getting drawn more into the music, seeing and feeling the emotion where it exists. I'm looking forward to revisiting old, and meeting new music.

I haven't listened to every amplifier out there, but enough to firmly believe that for around NZ$4K landed including tax, transformers and freight this has to be one of the audio bargains of the century.

Well pleased :):):):), THANKS Hugh.
 
Murray,

I have to say I'm very happy about this, and thank you for your patience, confidence, and willingness to take a risk..... not to mention penning a long, detailed and well presented critique!

I am hoping over the next five years that I can build on the Aspen brand. My only issue is that my work output is limited, and might need a bit of help!

Cheers,

Hugh
 
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Folks - long post follows.

I've had the Maya in my system for just on a week now and the following is a narrative on my journey to this point:

I've been doing this for 35 years, spending what I can where I can. I've never been a serial upgrader, but around 2.5 years ago decided to go digital and buy a DAC. I ended up with a Lampizator L5 / G5. Wow, the upgrade bug had got me.

Speakers were next, and I now have the Golden Ear Triton 1's having auditioned Thiel (the proper ones :) ), B+W, Focal, Castle, Dynaudio. In the respective price range the T1's literally blew everything else away. The folded ribbon tweeter is great, and the package hangs together nicely.

On to the amp. My existing amp was a Perreaux 250P, very well regarded but now 18x years old, although Perreaux describe the technology as current.

I trawled the web for around 12x months looking at various technologies / philosophies (see previous post in this thread).

I have friend who has also been doing this a long time, building various amps and DACs, so I have access to some decent skills. I stumbled on to Hugh's website and this forum. Hugh's design philosophy matched many key attributes I was looking for; few devices in the signal path, tuning the H1 - H10 distortion levels / ratios, two output devices per channel, mono design, reasonable power, reasonable price. I was keen on class A / single-ended but wasn't hung up on that.

Hugh was great to deal with amid the frustrations we both had with his casework supplier but the end result is very well made housing for the important bits. There is also plenty of room inside the case.

Transformers were easy to source (I used Tortech). Hugh did most of the wiring and did a great job. Installation of the transformers and hookup was straight forward. There was a minor issue with the documentation around test points which has been fixed

So after some issues with hum which were resolved by lifting the signal ground here are my impressions:

The amp is sounding wonderful. Better and better over the past week. There is more naturalness, delicacy and immediacy than my previous amplifier, the well regarded Perreaux 250P (250 / 400W)

Improved soundstaging delivers more presence to music.

The interplay between the musicians in live recordings is more obvious and therefore the music is more 'intimate'.

Bass is better defined but there isn't any more of it. Dynamics are the same as the Perreaux, but having said that low level listening has improved, so I guess there is less residual noise which implies a greater dynamic range. This is manifested as hearing nuances and inflections that clearly (now) were always there but previously masked.

When I first plugged the amp in I lost most of the the crickets on Roadhouses and Automobiles / Chris Jones, but after a week the crickets have returned. What is more impressive is I'm hearing birds behinds the crickets on the same track, something that has never happened before.

On tracks with with natural or processed reverb there is a greater depth of that effect.

On tracks like Belfast Child / Simple Minds the crescendo can get very messy and strident at decent volumes levels with the Perreaux. The stridency still exists, but is reduced through the Maya.

Ghost in this House / Alison Krauss, Sinnerman / Nina Simone are stunning.

A friend with ears I respect described listening to Times Square / Marianne Faithfull as being in front row seats.

In audiophile terms everything is better and impressive. In listening terms I'm getting drawn more into the music, seeing and feeling the emotion where it exists. I'm looking forward to revisiting old, and meeting new music.

I haven't listened to every amplifier out there, but enough to firmly believe that for around NZ$4K landed including tax, transformers and freight this has to be one of the audio bargains of the century.

Well pleased :):):):), THANKS Hugh.

Very nice review,once you've heared a Naksa or the Maya you can't or want to go back.
I don't know how Hugh pulling this off but his amps are amazing.
 
Attempting my first DIY cabinet . aluminium 3mm sheet folded on 4 sides and black powder coated . planning the top cover with glass or polycarbonate . not yet prepared the aluminium face plate . in spite of my tight work schedule i am forced to do the cabinet since my son broke one input pin while playing (by pulling the input wire from the table) will post once all work is completed .
Maya sings .....
 

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Wow Raj!

This is very nice metalwork, and I love the transformer. I have found over many years that a good EI with a large core sounds better than any other transformer; and if you can run the core at no higher than 1.4T, just under the magic 1.7T, you will never have hum.

I have been trying out my Maya in some very impressive audio systems. A recent, a 125W SET using 833A 'pancake' triodes with 950V B+ I found that the Maya had an equal of the midrange, and far superior bass, particularly depth and definition. The depth was outstanding compared to the SET amp, and given that this was arguably the best amp I've ever heard, this was a wonderful result and the owner was very surprised.... a very experienced audio man of 75 years who has been interested in audio for more than 60 years.

Very nice case work, I'm very impressed with the quality of the work and the finish. BTW, the thermal issues, particularly the heatsink orientation, are they sufficient?

Ciao,

Hugh
 
this is the only heatsink available here for the pcb size and i think it is ok so for. at full volume for 1 hour i am barely able to touch the heat sink. also the heat from heat sink will get transfered to the case which is 3mm aluminium (may be contact area will be less). the heat sink dimension is 330*104*45 mm.
the transformer is made by my friend and he always gives overrated one. actually it is 600va as per the order but will do easily 800va.

great to hear maya was compared to a SET tube . i love the sound quality a lot.
 

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Have you considered to mount the heatsinks vertically in the case?
If you are able to drill and tap a hole with M4 threads, just a single screw in the center of the heatsink bar would secure the heatsink in place to the case. Otherwise an angle support from case to heatsink would secure the heatsink in a vertical position. And a vertical position would allow more effective cooling.