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Brand New Super AKSA - the SAKSA 85!

Hi Zia and Thimios,

Thank you both for your contributions......
Most of my power wires are twisted, but not that tightly. The mains wire is quite tight however, but you cannot see it and the wires are covered with heatshrink.
The signal paths are connected to power earth via a 10R resistor; and the IEC and power earth are connected to the one stud at the rear right. The pcb ground is connected to the power ground on the centre of the pcb with back to back diodes; that is, no galvanic connection to the chassis, but protected with high current smd diodes.
This approach works extremely well. The SAKSA, and the Maya in fact with same earthing, are utterly silent idling; you cannot hear anything on the speaker if with your ear inside the cone. Earthing is a black art; I have arrived at this after years of stuffing around!

Hugh
 
EARTHING AUDIO AMPLIFIERS

Sure, Thimios :cool:

Hugh
 

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That previous pic of the Saksa Hugh posted was for a mate of mine, I fitted the supplied attenuator and have been running for around 10 or 12 hours now in my system. Just wanted to congratulate Hugh of a fine amp, It's a cracker! nicely blending of what I find nice in the subjective aspects of SS and tubes. At times I could have easily thought I was listening to my triode strapped EL34 amp, especially with acoustic material. These will be partnered with my friends Aurum Cantus M103's after I hand it over to him.
 
Thanks for the post, PW!
I wish you all the best with the source switching, it's not a trivial issue and has to be done really well to avoid noise. :(
I was incredibly pleased with your view that the SAKSA compares more than well with your lovely PP Triode amp, which I'm sure would sound fantastic.
You know, that was EXACTLY what I was trying to achieve; a tube sound from SS, with resolution, depth of image, powerful dynamic, harmonic tonality, and low noise.

You might consider the next SAKSA for yourself? Or perhaps a Maya? ;)

Hugh
 
Is a nice blend of attributes of both, Hugh. The valve amp has more weight to it but lacks the resolution, clarity and grip of the saksa. For myself mids is where there are similarities mostly, vocals can sound similar to my ears. I guess mids are an important part being where most of the music is. Very enjoyable to listen to, I'll be with valves for the time being but maybe one day I will be in a budgetary position to pick one up myself, but then the Maya would be a temptation at that point. Time will tell. Cheers
 
Hi Jim,
Thank you for the post!
I'm very pleased the amp fares so well at the local audio club, I tried to design something which sounded more like tube than SS!
The schematic is proprietary because I have no protection on the many ideas I've developed over two decades. It is a diff pair input, with Lender drive on the voltage amplifier, and a buffer to the VAS for low impedance drive at the output mosfets. The bias generator is two part; one is the ubiquitous Vbe multiplier, using a BD139, whilst the other is a 4.7V zener, both in series.

Jim, thanks for your great words about ownership of the SAKSA! I am really pleased it hits the spot......


Hugh
 
Hi Hugh,

To answer your question, what I hear is:

Saksa has superior bass depth, tone and slam. The Naksa has superior mid range and treble incisiveness and resolution. The Saksa has better overall drive.

There are both excellent amps but I prefer the Saksa. I like the extra power and bass.
 
Thanks Jim,

This is precisely I was after; stronger bass, more power, and higher resolution. It really was the big one for me, though tried to bring in more depth of image, so you could perceive each instrument in a large orchestra, left to right, and front to back. If you have more imaging, you can pick out more resolution, and differentiate each instrument as you hear....... it's a psychoacoustic issue, can't easily be measured.
Thanks again, Jim, I'm very pleased as you are very logical and have both to compare with identical room, speakers and source.

Cheers,

Hugh
 
Hi Hugh,

To answer your question, what I hear is:

Saksa has superior bass depth, tone and slam. The Naksa has superior mid range and treble incisiveness and resolution. The Saksa has better overall drive.

There are both excellent amps but I prefer the Saksa. I like the extra power and bass.

Thank you for posting these comments, Jim.

I selected NAKSA 80s for the mids & ribbons of my 3-way active Maggies (with Soraya modules on the bass panels). They replaced Lifeforce 55s. I'm delighted to know that I made the right choice of amps for these. :)

For the bass panels - I went over to Hugh's this morning and listened to a Maya 200. Terrific-sounding amp ... extremely quiet, very high resolution and great bass! I think at some stage, I will have to move to Maya modules instead of my Sorayas, for the bass panels! :eek:

Andy
 
Not much said here!

I have a couple of modules in the custom box going off to Wisconsin today. Life in Melbourne during spring is wonderful, days are improving, up to 20C yesterday.

Today I'm visiting a Jaguar/Aston Martin workshop on the south side with Lyn, who has a very elegant AM which is about to be repainted. Refurbishing old classics is a big, difficult job, I want to see how their techniques are in the workshop.

I'm selling more Mayas and they really give extraordinary performance. I'm about to canvass my owners for their thoughts to put into the website - Maya owners, expect an email quite soon!

Ciao,

Hugh