15/12/2008

The new AT2000 integrated amp, a classic in the making?

The new AT2000 amplifier seems to be a success before the first magazine review comes out. Our Distributors have been busy presenting at the Hi-Fi shows around the world (7 shows to date) and ordering stock on the back of real orders and the interest it has already generated. This is good news indeed.

The feedback so far has been very positive from all quarters; the most encouraging news is that we seem to have achieved our goal - namely an amplifier that offers up all the detail in a truly 'musical' fashion, rather than presenting it in a clinical, 'razor sharp', or (worse still)grey and uninteresting way, like so many of our competitors seem to!

'The AT2000 offers you amplified music that absorbs you, and can be listened to for hours' says Rolf, our Scandinavian Distributor.

We want you to sit in front of the players, to listen to a concert from the best seat in the house, not from the front row - or worse still, on the stage with the players.

We are also interested in your comments. Please do email us (from our web site page or sales@astintrew.co.uk) if you have listened to the AT2000 and compared to other amplifiers, we are always interested in feedback.

Finally, do not forget the AT1000 / AT5000 combination, if you are in the market for a pre. amp. and/or power amp. They remain extraordinary good value. We were told a story recently (again) by Rolf, our Distributor in Scandinavia. He was presenting the Astin Trew products and another, much, much more expensive audio set up at the biggest Hi-Fi show in Norway this year, and to his horror, the very expensive pre-amplifier blew up! They managed to borrow an equally expensive pre-amp. from another exhibitor at the last moment (no names ... American sourced) and were very under-whelmed with the sound qualities. They decided to have a go with the Astin Trew AT1000 pre. as a last resort, and were amazed at the results, it 'sounded' so much better than the borrowed pre. amp. and not far off their (bust) hyper expensive brand pre. amp either. Very gratifying!

Seasons greetings and a happy new year to one and all,

Michael Osborn.

14/10/2008

Isolation feet - a feat of sound enginering!

Astin Trew sells isolation feet upgrades for hi-fi equipment. Not a lot of people know this. We developed the feet for our AT3500 CD player, as it required something a little special to sit upon. They have been on sale as upgrades for some time now, at £29.90p per set of four - we have not marketed them, no reviews or advertising, but they show on our price list and we get asked for them from time to time.

We sold a set recently and I got the following email back from Jonathan in Tonbridge... 'They are superb. Over the years I have used aluminum cones (bad), and Russ Andrews wooden supports (better), but yours are a substantial improvement. Please send me two more sets, and I will use them throughout.'....which is very pleasing to hear, and we have indeed sold Jonathan another two sets.

Nice to think that we really did get this component right.

Which leads me to think that we should really start marketing these beauties. Made from a very particular filled (hard) rubber material, they have a threaded brass insert in the middle of them and rather than being your standard solid cone shape, they are castellated on the 'flat' surface, so they make contact with the underside of the equipment chassis at three points only; the cone point itself facing downward and siting on the table or equipment support rack.

We thread them onto the AT3500 with an M4 thread stud, but we know that performance improves further if used without a mechanical fixing, or the application of a little BlueTack to hold them in place. Your local Astin Trew dealer may not have them in stock, but they can order them from us. If you do not live near one of our dealers, we will sell to you direct. Now to design a marketing campaign for our isolation feet!

11/09/2008

Never Connected publish a 'white paper' that tells all.

With the imminent launch of our new AT2000 integrated amplifier, at the London Heathrow Sound and Vision show, 19th-21st September (Syndicate room 9), it was good timing to receive a 'white paper' from Richard at Never Connected. It outlines the design and development process that has produced the amazing Mk 2 power supply for audio applications we are using in the AT2000. So, for those of you who are interested in the technical details and inner workings of the products they own, or are thinking of owning, please read on:

WHITE PAPER

Never-Connected, Generation 2. September 2008

The Never Connected Isolating Power Supply for high quality Audio use was originally developed over 5 years ago and is now incorporated under license in equipment manufactured by Astin Trew, ECS, Mitchel and Trichord Research.

Built on this initial success with many thousands of satisfied Never-Connected users, we have now developed a totally new and improved version of Never-Connected known as version 2.

The role of the power supply in producing high quality natural sound is absolutely fundamental, rather like the foundations of a house.

The use of simple low cost linear or switch mode power supplies always compromises sound quality, a fact which in our experience no amount of clever circuit design, sophisticated regulator circuits, fancy cables, or filters can correct for.

This is down to the fundamental fact that all power supplies either let through high levels of mains borne interference or worse still in the case of switch mode power supplies actually produce this noise.

Whilst filters can prove effective in removing this noise, in our experience they also tend to have an adverse effect on the source impedance of the power supply producing a sound spectrum with un-natural tonal balance.

The Patented Never-Connected supply overcomes this using a sophisticated switching system to ensure that at no time is there a direct connection between the incoming mains and the connected load thus breaking the conduction path for mains borne noise and interference.

As a specialist in the development of Power Supplies for Audio use we are able to justify spending far more time and money in the development of the power supply than most manufacturers who are often under time and cost constraints to produce complete new product designs on a regular basis, often resulting in the use of refined versions of standard power supply designs.

Building on our extensive experience in the use of Never-Connected v1 in a very wide range of applications we looked at every element and function of the existing Never-Connected design in detail.

We came to the conclusion that the design could be improved in many areas. In the first instance, we took several new design iterations and evaluated each by measurement and extensive listening tests, utilising a wide range of different equipment.

At an early stage it became clear that the design of the output regulator and switching circuits played a critical part in achieving optimum sound quality, in the case of the output regulator it was clear that the use of even the highest quality integrated circuit type regulators was a major compromise when compared to discrete circuit designs; especially when the supply was used to feed a 2 channel load where output stability and uniform source impedance are required over a wide frequency range 20hz to 40Khz (2 channels, operating at 20khz, 180 degrees out of phase).

On this basis a discrete regulator design was developed and optimised, in all listening tests we ensured that for best results all secondary regulators were removed from the equipment to give us a clear window on the sonic effects of the new regulator design.

Once circuit design was optimised the development and fine tuning of board layout was undertaken along with further optimisation of circuit design. Having got to this stage comprehensive listening tests were undertaken to firstly establish which components effected the subjective sound quality, this was then followed by further listening tests to select the best possible component.

This was a fascinating process, at every stage of this exhaustive process small but meaningful gains in sound quality were achieved.

The cumulative effect when finally compared to a high end commercial power supply and the original Never-Connected design is a significant lift in sound quality, with a clearly lower noise floor, improved dynamic resolution (macro and micro), truly natural tonal balance and excellent tonal colour, combined with unforced detail, and greatly improved sense of depth width and focus.

Further evaluation of N-C v2 was then undertaken in a wide range of equipment to establish the relative benefits of its use in various different circuit locations.

The greatest levels of improvement were achieved when N-C v2 was used to power the analogue line level stages in source components, eg pre-amplifier stages, CD players. The input and low level drive stages in power amplifiers also show substantial gains in sound quality.

In the case of a high end digital to analogue converter using N-C v2 to feed the analogue stages, if the local regulators (x4 decoupled high performance IC type regulators) were put back in circuit, a clear and definite compromise in sound quality occurred.

When used to power digital stages the benefits of using N-C v2 were again clearly audible and definitely worthwhile.

Whilst the supply can be adapted to work with Power Amplifier output stages, the improvements here were not as great as those achieved on the line level stages with their greater susceptibility to noise and interference.


If you found this interesting, you may well now wish to go and have a listen to the AT2000 to understand what impact the N.C. power supplies can have on an already good amplifier design!


29/08/2008

We are exhibiting at the London Heathrow Hi Fi show in September, there are more details on our web site www.astintrew.co.uk for those of you who might be interested in hearing our products. We will be launching the new AT2000 integrated amplifier at the show, and with this in mind, we thought we would offer you some passages from a very interesting review in the 'Hi Fi Critic' magazine (May/June 2008), that discusses the principles and use of the 'Never Connected' power supply design; as this is used extensively in the AT2000, powering the critical low power circuits throughout the design.

It is no coincidence that the review tests conducted by Chris Bryant for Hi Fi Critic magazine were using two AT3500 Astin Trew CD players, as this is now an upgrade available through Trichord Research Ltd. in the UK and it was therefore easy to offer Chris an A/B comparison.

The Astin Trew working premise, when designing audio products, is to offer a listening experience that is 'true to the source', indeed this is our tag line. We work hard to design our products so they offer as real a sound as possible at each product price point. We have found that the power supplies (and indeed the condition of the mains entering the component) is one of the most important factors to design correctly, to ensure you do not loose musicality. It is quite easy to design audio electronics with faultless specifications; quite another to make it sound highly involving, entertaining and 'real' sounding.

So, back to the article. The first third sets the scene, talking about just the points I have mentioned above, pointing out that the Never Connected design has evolved over the past three years, and is now significantly improved. Please read the review or go to the Never Connected web site if you wish to know more about the design concept. I will leave you with these comments from the AT3500 A/B comparison listening tests:

' ...the listening tests proved interesting, and the difference between these two units was substantial, and the NC supplied player was simply better everywhere. Bass sounded cleaner, apparently more powerful and better defined, with more impact, better structure, improved tune playing ability and dynamics. Midrange had better focus, more realistic tonality and dynamics, and just generally sounded more like a real sound. The treble had less grain, greater definition and extra air and sparkle. The sound stage was more solid with greater depth; focus was far tighter, and the whole illusion more realistic.'

The AT3500 in standard form has won awards, five star reviews, and blown most the competition out of the water in comparative reviews! The Trichord NC add-on box for the AT3500 is not cheap, but it does take the AT3500 into another league and still represents good combined value.

By directly incorporating the Never Connected power supplies into the AT2000 amplifier, we have managed to keep the manufacturing prices right down, but offer the benefits indicated above. The £1,299.00p UK retail price represents (we think) extraordinary value - and that is before you start looking at the features also offered on this amplifier. Look out for reviews in the magazines. If you are in the market for an audiophile quality amplifier at a sensible price, we would urge you to have a listen to our AT2000.

30/05/2008

New AT2000 amplifier on its way.

In a perfect world, we would be adding blogs every month. I see that our last entry was back in February and it is now almost June! How time has flown.

Briefly, since the last update, we have exhibited at the London Heathrow High Fidelity Show in the Artisan Audio room, our Dealer in the South Bucks. area; were awarded a HiFi and Records (German audio magazine) Editors Choice 2008 award at the Munich High End Show for the AT3000 CD player in April; and have taken on several more distributors around the world as well as appointing a dealer in Scotland (see web site for details) and taken in stock of the AT3500 CD player in black.

The AT2000 integrated amplifier will finally be launched this summer. Very overdue and much awaited, this amplifier will offer a number of features, such as two room audiophile sound and outputs for 2.1 (stereo + sub-bass) in an amplifier that offers our now sought after good value package and a great musical sound.

The AT2000 has been developed out of the A1000 and AT5000 pre/power amplifier we currently sell. The development however, took a number of twists and turns , the AT2000 now utilising the power amplifier design. with changes, to squeeze some more power from the circuit, and the pre-amplifier now being a class A design, all solid state.

The rated power output at 8 ohms will be around 75W RMS per channel. There is a good reason for this still modest output - we only use a single pair of very particular MOSFET's per channel, with very large power supplies behind it, and valve (tube) assisted at that! This combination offers great transient response and clarity, combined with a very natural sound. Unless you have a VERY large room, with less than average efficient speakers, this is we believe the best approach for true musical fidelity. If you want to listen to 'thrash' bands until your ears bleed, this will not be the amplifier for you!

Their are two aspects to the audio electrical design that we are rather excited to be using, as they both offer quite stunning improvements over the more standard designs employed, particularly in the price range we are aiming at (£1,000 - £1500) with the AT2000.

Firstly, we are using the Never Connected power supply design for all the low power audio supply rails. This power supply simply offers the best supply solution we have ever used, including all of our designs, and allows the pre-amplifier and other audio components to operate at their best.

Secondly, we are offering a balanced XLR input, used when the 'audiophile' second room option is implemented. However, the amplifier when used in the main listening room (or stand alone amplifier if you do not use the multi-room option) can use this input as a normal balanced signal input.

We have used a 'pro-audio' circuit, offering perhaps the best sounding solution available, short of using highly expensive transformers - indeed, (the legendary) Bill Whitlock of Jensen Transformers actually helped develop the circuitry, and he knows everything about balanced circuit designs. Powered with the Never Connected supply, this circuit is stunning, and allows both VERY long balanced cable runs and single ended to balanced cables to be used from your source equipment, with great results.

We hope this has whetted your appetite for hearing more about this product - and hearing the product! We will keep you informed as to availability, we will be playing it at the Heathrow, London, Sound and Vision show in September 08, but it will be with your Astin Trew dealer well before that!

14/02/2008

More on the AT3500 CD player

I was going to comment on the issues around power amplifier ratings and perceived loudness this month. But I am finding the high volume of interest in, and the pleasure the AT3500 CD player is giving to a growing band of happy owners, should be acknowledged. Thank you all for your feedback and support.

Of several email correspondences we have had recently with satisfied customers, this one is from Derek in Italy:

I am the proud owner of an AT3500 CD Player!
It is outstanding!
I congratulate You all for making such a great music machine.
My AT3500 is connected to a Klimo Merlino Gold pre-amp,
two Rega Exon 3 power-amps, Rega R9 Speakers
All cables are Klimo. The above combination sounds great.
I listen mainly
to Modern Jazz and R. & B.
I have two more costlier "high end" Cd players,
but honestly, the AT3500, although much cheaper,has nothing to envy....
I wish You all great success. Best regards from Roma -Italy
from Derek! (English name but absolutely 100% italian ! )

and then a few days later:

maybe i should not tell You but.....
I have ordered a see-through plexiglass cover in order to see the inside of the AT3500! It is so beautifully made inside,and it a pity not to be able to see the components "at work". My Klimo pre-amp also has a see-through cover and does make a great scene!
Ciao from Derek

We always welcome feedback from our customers, thank you Derek - and everyone else who has phoned and emailed us about their Astin Trew purchases. As a design and manufacture company, selling through UK retailers and distributors around the world, we are at 'arms length' from our end customers.