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Brand New Super AKSA - the SAKSA 85!

Nice...and good to see the NAKSA get improved without costing a brick tonne more. Congratulations! That said...I'm not sure I'll be moving on up at this stage from our well used NAKSA.

I've still got my 100N+ to a new home...and my not quite finished GK2 remains not quite finished and it should probably go to someone who will [sigh]

Question though. I run my NAKSA with a passive stepped attenuator on the output. Presumably I can do the same with the newbie?
 
Hi Seano,

Thank you for your post, I hope in Mildura continues nicely, and that you had plenty of rain and not too cold..... vines doing nicely?

The SAKSA has a couple of advantages over the NAKSA. Bass, quiet at idle, deeper and wider image depth, warmer and engaging. It is also more robust, and will take 50V rails to deliver 120W, and I would expect to have no failures at any time over decades.

A stepped attenuator is just fine and I offer one as an option if people buy the case as well. I've designed all my last seven years to run straight from a digital source, no preamp.

Ciao,

Hugh
 
Eric,

Do not give up your NAKSA 80. It is a fantastic amp. I would not spend the money to replace with the SAKSA 80 until you have very good value from your NAKSA 80 and even then I would sell your NAKSA 80 to recover some of your investment first. I did not design it to replace it; I designed it to see if I could do any better. I suffer from OCD; I cannot come up with new ideas unless I redesign an amp; it is my tragedy but it is a good way to spend your bonus years in your dotage.........

We are dealing with marginal improvements. Unless you hear a SAKSA you would never know.......

Ciao,

Hugh
 
Erik, Patrick,

The SAKSA input stage came to me from a good friend in Vancouver, Canada. He used a LTP input stage and VAS with a preamp, and told me it was wonderful. I studied it for a few weeks, mostly on LTSpice, and then decided to adapt it for a power amplifier. I made a couple of very significant changes to it; the drive of the voltage amplifier, and the stability regime. I then laid out the pcb (this is the best aspect of design for me, I love the art and engineering in a good layout), it was the built by a more energetic English friend here in Melbourne, and when it came up trumps (??!) I decided to polish the pcb further and then commit to producing 25 at an component assembler here in Melbourne. This is a long gestation, it takes about three more weeks to complete all the documentation (schemat, pcb layout and bill of materials, down to the catalogue numbers for each and every part) and then another 10 weeks to get the parts purchased at reasonable price and then assembled. About two weeks back I picked up the first batch, and after careful listening, I made a few dimensional changes to refine a good amp into a masterpiece, and then handed all the 25 modules back to another guy, another friend of mine with lots of skill in smd components, to change the four components to what I had discovered.

One of the problems I had with the NAKSA was this: With bad recording (that is, around 90% of most in the market!) it did not sound wonderful. All the problems were very obvious; you wince each time you listen to a crappy CD. I wanted an amp which would deliver immortal performance with outstanding recordings, but at the same time deliver a very enjoying sound even with a bad recording. This has eluded me with most designs, except the Glass Harmony from 1994, the Maya in 2015, and again the SAKSA 85.

I have come to see that audio is the entertainment for the people, but nothing is as boring than a zero THD, full global feedback amp design from a genius. I have tried with my designs over many years now to combine engineering with an understanding of music and harmonic structure, and how the human being perceives music. This music issue is so complex it is beyond measurement - not even a symphonic score can do this. We have to come back to our hearing, and trust our own perceptions. I have noticed that when people are highly educated and trained in logic they generally forget the detective clues that I have found seem to work very well with good amp design. This is anti-genius work; it is almost a return to primordial thinking. Perhaps because I am a simple country boy at heart, but in fact I was trained as a pipe organist as a young man at boarding school and it left its mark on me. Oddly enough my hearing is terrible, but I am very sharp with amps if I turn up the wick to blinding levels!!

Ciao,

Hugh
 
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Hugh,

Thank you for sharing some background on the SAKSA amplifier, as well as your design philosophy. Love the determination and conviction you have in bringing good sounding amplifiers to music lovers. :)

If not prying too much, may I ask what speakers you use/prefer?

- Zia
 
Hi Zia,

Thank you for your welcome post, I trust you are well......

I use my speakers, the VSonics. With another man, now 72 years old, we designed it about ten years ago. It is a two way 35 litre transmission line with a SEAS 8" woofer and a 1" Peerless tweeter. The crossover is 3rd order and the three folded tube is 10 feet long. The Vsonics are 9" wide, 34" tall, and 17" deep. They have wonderful imaging, resolution and musical bass. Sufficiently resolving that I can hear absolutely everything coming from the source and amp.

I am by nature non-conventional as I have noticed over my life that the conventional sounds, well, ordinary. I believe there is a place for subjectivity in audio because normally it is ignored in the shouts for linearity, low THD, 'correct design'. To me the tube world has it right, and SS has it twisted. Audio is like food and clothing; music is art, and art impinges more on the subjective than the objective.

Hugh
 
Heat Sinking Requirements

Hi Hugh

If +/- 50 volt rails (from a 300va or 500va trannie?) are used, does the standard supplied heat sink require any special positioning or orientation within the case - eg, a 2U 16" deep Altronics vented case?

Regards, Peter Roberts
 
Peter,

Thank for the post! I would say no, it really would need two MF30-75 heatsinks for the heatsink, OR a MF35-100 which might fit nicely into your case. It is best not to cut up the 283mm long pcb; it can be messy as it is all integrated onto one, long pcb.

The best option would be to ensure there is sufficient air ventilation, use 8R loads, and keep voltage rails below 46V. It will go higher, of course, but the limitations are cooling.

Cheers,

Hugh
 
Heatsinking

Hi Hugh

I'm not 100% familiar with interpreting Conrad's spec sheets, but I'm guessing that the heatsink you refer to - at 350mm wide and 100mm 'long' - won't fit in a 2U case, unless the tips (the skinny bits) of the fins are facing downwards - eg, as in the NAKSA 80 that John Darko reviewed a while back. And, if one decided to go down that track, what price difference would that make? In such a case, would a 300va transformer still be sufficient for optimum performance?

Regards, Peter
 
Speakers

Hi Zia,

Thank you for your welcome post, I trust you are well......

I use my speakers, the VSonics. With another man, now 72 years old, we designed it about ten years ago. It is a two way 35 litre transmission line with a SEAS 8" woofer and a 1" Peerless tweeter. The crossover is 3rd order and the three folded tube is 10 feet long. The Vsonics are 9" wide, 34" tall, and 17" deep. They have wonderful imaging, resolution and musical bass. Sufficiently resolving that I can hear absolutely everything coming from the source and amp.

I am by nature non-conventional as I have noticed over my life that the conventional sounds, well, ordinary. I believe there is a place for subjectivity in audio because normally it is ignored in the shouts for linearity, low THD, 'correct design'. To me the tube world has it right, and SS has it twisted. Audio is like food and clothing; music is art, and art impinges more on the subjective than the objective.

Hugh



Thank you Hugh for sharing.