Home | My PC-based A/V System (circa March 2004) | My Home A/V System (circa 2001)
Images only; mods coming soon...
Description:
Under the hood, this MOSFET amplifier features a circuit with "no overall feedback". Nevertheless, feedback does exist, according to avahifi.com (Audio by Van Alstine), via a "unique active and buffered powered feedback loop that is electrically and thermally matched to the active input parameters". The result is "smoother, quicker, tighter and more detailed audio without the solid-state artifacts", avahifi.com claims.
Internal components include eight big die heavy-duty TO-3 Hitachi J50 power MOSFET devices, a Plitron toroidal-transformer-based power supply, and the input and output circuits. The power supply section is bottom-plate-mounted near the front and the input/output section is horizontally-mounted on the back wall.
The parts quality is generally good, but the soldering work is a bit sloppy. Someone at avahifi needs to learn to clean PC boards after soldering them up!
The large case has a lot of extra space, which is good thermal news for the internal components. Heat should not be a problem. Although not this designer's original intention, the extra space also allows DIYers to "play around" with -- i.e. drop in -- various circuit tweaks of their own design or choosing.
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