We were hit by the 'dreaded' swine flu in the Astin Trew office over the last few weeks. Back to full strength now I am glad to say - with back-orders fulfilled and on-going developments back in full swing.

We have asked our dealers if they would like to report on any interesting Astin Trew related stories that might be of wider interest, and I thank Ralph at Artisan Audio for kicking this occasional series off for us:

"As an analogue specialist, I’m not sure how qualified I am to blog about the new AT3500 plus in comparison to the AT3500. My start position is that all CD players are at a disadvantage relative to vinyl replay. My focus when choosing CD players has always been to identify where the law of diminishing returns kicks in, and to my ears that has, in recent years, been the AT3500.

For fun, a few months back I ran the digital output from an AT3000 into a Benchmark DAC-1. This is a product that John Atkinson raved about in Stereophile and is still used by that title as a reference. Comparing the output from the AT3000 with the output from the Benchmark I was unable to discern any significant difference between the two. That’s how good the entry level Astin Trew machine’s DAC is.

Fascinated to explore what benefits the plus offers, I set up both machines on my rack, using identical interconnects (Discovery Essence) and mains cables. Amplification was the high resolution Quicksilver Full Preamp and Triode power amps through the revealing Klipsch Jubilee speakers.

I have two copies of a number of CD titles, so was able to set identical albums running in synch and switch between the two machines at will. An element of blind testing was introduced by having an assistant switch between the two sources. I also enlisted three passing visitors to participate in the trial.

First music choice was GRP’s Sounds of ’93. Initial impressions, on mostly instrumental cuts, were that the two machines sounded very close tonally. Over several tracks, listeners consistently preferred the plus, describing the replay as “sounding bigger.”

Next, Ian Shaw’s “Famous Rainy Day” CD – beautifully recorded to analogue tape using valve microphones with very spacious, acoustic guitar arrangements and subtle percussion. Again the perception was that the two machines had similar tonal presentation. The bass sounded “tighter” on the plus, there was slightly more sparkle on the cymbals and a sense that each part was more easily followed.

Finally, playing System X’s “Beat the System,” there was an appreciation that the leading edges of notes – particularly slap bass, drums and latin percussion, had a faster rise time and greater dynamic impact via the plus.

In a subsequent customer evaluation, the reaction was similar. Initial impressions were that the two machines sounded similar, however after ten minutes of relaxed listening there was a consistent preference for the plus. Probably due to its better handling of the high frequencies that provide subtle nuances and cues about location of instruments which the brain processes sub-consciously. Somehow it just feels more natural.

In our previous A/B comparisons, the standard AT3500 trounced a heavily-promoted CD player of European origin and in a recent home demonstration we did, matched a very pricey high-end Japanese transport and DAC, whilst delivering more tuneful bass.

The plus goes one step further and now carries our highest recommendation. We believe that the plus will hold its own in A/B comparisons against all but the most expensive players."

Ralph Bagge
Artisan Audio
http://www.artisanaudio.co.uk



More next month, happy listening

Michael Osborn.

More feedback on tube rolling and 'plus' upgrades.

Firstly, here is an email from one of our customers who has been busy 'tube rolling', that might be of interest to Astin Trew CD player owners.....

Hi. I had a conversation with a member of your staff earlier this week about buying a black AT1000 to match my AT3500 CD player.

During the conversation we got into the subject of 'tube rolling" in the AT3500. I mentioned I think that a friend was going to lend me a NOS Mullard gold pin E88CC to try in the AT, which had a factory fitted Philips JAN tube when it was supplied. I may be wrong, but I think I agreed to let you know how it worked out.

In short, I'm quite impressed with the Mullard. It is I think different to the 6922 - less 'glassy' on some not so well mastered CD's, quite 'bassy' - its as if I had a subwoofer - which I don't. That is not to say that the bass is all loose and uncontrolled. It isn't. It is also interesting that the sound produced using the upsampling button is very different with the Mullard. with the Philips tube the upsampled sound was quite 'ethereal'. I didn't like it at all, and never used it. With the Mullard, using upsampling changes the sound stage, but it doesn't lose body.

I'm running the AT into a Quad 24 Pre, Quad II/40 power amps and a pair of Martin Logan speakers.

Anyway, I'd recommend that if people want to try different tubes in the AT that they put a Mullard on their list. They may or may not like the sound, but at least they will get their money back if they decide to sell the thing on, as they are pretty hard to get hold of.

One final thing. The Mullard I'm listening to tested out at the lower end of the normal range for anode current, so it is probably past its best. I would like to hear a good one.

Anyway. Back to more listening. I'm glad I bought the AT. I had (well I still have) a Linn Ikemi, and TBH I much prefer the AT.

Cheers, Iain Lockerbie
PS you did say that there were some upgrades in the pipeline for the AT3500. Please let me know when they will be available.

We can now confirm that yes, there is a new AT3500plus product available, and it will be reviewed in the May issue of Hi-Fi World magazine; and here is some background and a description of the two new updates for the AT2000 amplifier and AT3500 CD player, now available:

Introduction.

Both the AT2000 and AT3500 represent good value designs in their standard forms, offering a high level of musical satisfaction. Since the AT3500 CD player was launched, we have known and have been suggesting that there are NOS (new old stock) valves available, such as the Philips JAN 6922 that offer a significant improvement to the ‘standard’ Electro-Harmonix valve supplied.

During the last year, we have also been experimenting with a considerable number of other component upgrades, as part of our continuing development programme for future product.

It became clear to us that some of the more obvious ‘improvements’, whilst perhaps offering some small additional insight into the music, were not very good value for money – and these included exchanging power supply capacitors with acknowledged ‘better’ audio types and changing the filter I.C.’s on the DAC with higher cost audiophile components. Put together, they do offer an improvement, but double the price of the machine.

It was the ‘smaller’ changes we made that really offered a considerable difference, and at a reasonable cost. We therefore decided that whilst we were not going to become rich offering these ‘good value’ upgrades, they offer such a good value relative to the standard product price, that this would be a popular option for many customers.

These we call the plus versions, and they come with a certificate showing that they are an Astin Trew authorized upgrade. The plus modifications are offered on new machines or as an upgrade path for both the AT2000 and AT3500 after purchase.

AT2000plus

We replace a number of the critical capacitors in the signal path with Auri-Cap polypropylene types, as already used in the standard AT3500. All line level signal cable is replaced (and hard wired) between input and PCB’s with super pure single crystal cable. Valve dampers are fitted.

AT3500plus

All line level signal cable is replaced (and hard wired) between input and PCB’s with super pure single crystal cable. Eleven critical I.C.’s on the DAC board are damped with custom heat sinks, bonded into place with thermally conductive adhesive. Philips JAN 6922 valve is fitted.

Conclusion.

Both products sound significantly improved in many, if not all areas of musical reproduction. These are some of the comments we have had fed back to us from dealers and reviewers:

* there is a deeper ‘blackness’ to the background

* bass is tighter and goes much lower

* instruments are much better placed within the sound stage

* there is more 'in-focus' detail

* there is better ‘timing’ of the music

* the overall musicality of the products is not changed.

Michael Osborn,, Dir. April 2009

Both plus modifications add just over a couple of hundred pounds to the product price, but do offer a substantial improvement and make a super upgrade to the standard products, if you want the very best musical enjoyment from these two products.

AT2000 plus point (or the point of AT2000plus).

As always, we have been busy looking to find ways of offering you the most musical sounding products, and have just launched the AT2000plus that takes the already well reviewed (and newly launched) AT2000 amplifier to the next level. Talking UK retail prices, the AT2000plus is £225.00p more, costing £1,575.00p RRP. I have been asked why bother with such a 'small' relative additional increase for a second integrated amplifier in the range, when the incremental quality improvement is not at all small?

Well, this comes down to our business philosophy, that in part sets out to offer our customers excellent value for money. Yes, we could have stuck another £399.00p on the price of the AT2000 and still offered a good value upgrade, but we would rather you kept the difference, or better still, spend it on a signal or speaker cable upgrade, and made the AT2000plus sound even better in your system! We will upgrade as an after-sale by the way, discuss with your dealer.

Regarding the AT2000, we have just had some interesting news from our Netherlands distributor Music2. They pointed me toward a web review:
http://www.hifi.nl/recensies/3757/Astin_Trew_AT2000.html
and kindly translated some of the text.

''The AT2000 has become one of my favorites, if I had to recommend an amplifier in the 2000 euro range, this is the one.''

''Astin Trew is becoming a very strong player at the market, very hard to beat''

''A very strong competition for the well known Naim's, Prima Luna's and Primare's. It reminds me the most of a good old Sugden design''

This way I could go on and on, 4 complete pages filled with comments like this. "


I am assured no money changed hands! It is always nice to receive favorable reviews like this, but you must always listen yourself of course. I wonder what this reviewer is going to make of the AT2000plus?!!

Our Music2 distributor has been busy undertaking several Hi-Fi exhibitions lately, as well as demonstrating our products to dealers throughout the Benelux countries. They recently made the following observations, which are useful - and perhaps telling:

'We have also started (distributing) with the turntables of Acoustic-Signature, very well build and sounding, they really go well with the Astin Trew electronics. The AT 3500 [Astin Trew CD player] already received the name ''the one digital thing closest to analogue'' because of these combinations. Together with the DSS loudspeakers we try to bring out the message that Astin Trew goes very well with absolute high-End equipment. We believe that these combinations do the trick. The combination AT3500, AT1000 and 2 x AT5000's sounded already better than a Naim combination with Living Voice loudspeakers and a Linn LP12 (which totally was 3 times the price by the way), a complete Sugden setup ( twice the price), and Sonneteer (also twice the price).'

And finally (having sung our praises far too much I think) I can now let our US and Canada supporters (we already have a database of potential US customers) know that we have appointed Stephen Monte at Quest For Sound, 2307-R Bristol Pike, Bensalem , Pa.19020 215-953-9099 as our distributor. Contact him directly and he will put you in touch with his nearest dealer to you, for a demonstration.

Also, we would like to welcome Mark and Gary Cargill as new UK dealers for Astin Trew, our first Scottish dealership - Audio Emotion. www.audioemotion.co.uk. based just outside Edinburgh. They opened for business at the beginning of March and have a terrific demo. facility as well as a home demonstration service. All the best Mark and Gary.

Happy listening, Michael Osborn.

Distribution to include US and Canada very soon.

For those of you in the US and Canada who have been asking where to buy or hear the Astin Trew products, we hope soon to be able to direct you to a dealer nearby, as (we hope) a distribution deal is now imminent! I guess distributors in the US and Canada are pretty wary of taking on new brands, particularly in the current economic climate - it has taken us two years searching.

However, it seems the exceptional reviews of the new AT2000 amplifier (Hi-Fi Choice, has the first review in the UK, giving it a 5 star rating and best buy award in their latent magazine); and inclusion in the Hi-Fi News special 'ultimate Hi-Fi in 2008' for the AT3500 CD player, have made their mark.

It is so gratifying to receive positive reviews and endorsements from Magazines, Distributors, Dealers, and of course our customers. Here are a couple of extracts you may like to share with us:

'The AT2000 is a remarkably transparent amp in all important respects – it produces attractively open results and reflects the quality and nature of the incoming signal with a very natural and fluent precision....There's no sense here of the sound being mechanical or etched; rather, instruments and voices are placed in the context in which they were recorded....With the AT2000, Astin Trew is offering a genuine alternative to the majority of integrated models in this price range. It's a design of such subtlety and finesse that it rivals Sugden's classic A21 amp, but without the thermal and power challenges of that model. The fact that it offers so much flexibility is the icing on a highly musical cake. (Reviewed by Jason Kennedy - Hi-Fi Choice 317)

AudioStone Distribution (Scandinavia): Dear Michael, I’ve just been playing the AT2000 at low levels for 3 days now. Today I came home, put in a very special recording of Peter Gabriel's “don’t give up”. Damn it’s good. Even with my reference audio setup, replacing [amplifier] equipment far out of its league. Black, silence, I like it....On Monday the AT2000 leaves Sweden for magazine testing up in Norway. It’s the first time I’ve had a chance to listen to the AT2000. Congratulations Michael.
Best regards, Svein.

Thank you one and all, as we say 'true to the source' Michael Osborn.

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.

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!

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!