Jun 01, 2015
What’s next?
The next thing I’m going to build is a new product line called the
Progression, set to be priced somewhere between $10,000-$20,000. The
first product in the line will be a big mono power amplifier, similar to
a Momentum but costing somewhere around $16,000-$18,000. And it will be
very powerful. I’m hoping that will appear before the end of the year –
I’ve told the factory ‘August’, which means I’ll probably finish it in
late November!
Once the Progression line is done, I’ll turn my attention back to the
Helius amplifier I’m building. Helius is truly a monster amplifier. It’s
made of three chassis – it’s got a ‘plus’ amplifier and a ‘minus’
amplifier because it’s a purely balanced design. People say they’ve made
a balanced design, but I don’t think anyone’s made a truly balanced
design like this. It’s got two completely mirror imaged amplifiers that
are virtually identical, only one is inverted from the other.
And then, I took the insides of the amplifier – all the bit stuff, the
transformers and electrolytics and power devices and heat sinks – and
put them all in one case. But no input board: the input board is inside
the base, fully isolated chamber with its own power supplies, and sits
below the amplifier on some suspension equipment made by Mike Lapis of
HRS fame. So there’s no vibration, then it’s totally sealed with µ-metal
and copper shielding around it so no influence from the amplifier.
The amplifier is built out of a solid block material, and the toroid is
10” in diameter and it’s seven inches tall. So the toroid itself
probably weighs about 130lb, and that is actually milled into a block,
the outside block of the amplifier; the toroid fits into a hole and is
then covered.
The electrolytics capacitors, of which there are a total of 12 in the
two sides, comes out to 1.2F. Each transformer is 6kW, 12kW in total.
It’s got a giant copper heatsink; 10” tall, 28” long, and 1.5” thick.
That’s bolted to a piece of specially designed aluminium designed for
heat reduction in aircraft known as 5051, and each fin of that heatsink
is milled out whilethen the base is bolted to the outside of the
copper. And that’s three inches deep and of course 10” tall and 28” long
– it’s a single piece. And that’s the heatsink for the output stage.
The capacitors, and power supplies are all in this great big block. If
you imagine the block is 11” deep, 10” tall, 28” long – that’s where the
block starts – and then it’s hollowed out to fit the transformer and
the six electrolytics. Then in the back – where it’s ‘empty’ – is where
the protection circuits and the hook ups and all that go, then that part
is slid onto that heatsink, there’s bolts that go through the inside
web of the heatsink to hold that block on, so it’s one rectangle.
If you add up all the parts, the amplifier is going to weigh 780-800lbs.
Per channel. Each plus amplifier and minus amplifier has its own cord;
it’s designed to run on 220V or 240V… it doesn’t run on 110V. And you
need two of them for each channel.
It’s got an extraordinarily gorgeous meter on the front. It’s about
10-12” in width, and six inches high that sits on the front. It’s really
strange – it’s almost Bauhaus in design, but looks like a Momentum from
another dimension. This is not that big for the kind of power it will
produce, though, because it will produce up to 20,000W into one ohm!
Once I get the Progression amplifiers done, this is next in line. I
would love to have it ready for CES, but maybe I’ll just show the case. I
have the metalwork ready. But it will definitely happen by March next
year. Or maybe CES 2017!
