Myles B. Astor
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2013
- Messages
- 2,884
IIRC Fremer wrote he took out a loan to pay for his Wilson speakers.
D'Agostino Helius Monoblock Amplifiers
- Thread starter Adrian Low
- Start date
IIRC Fremer wrote he took out a loan to pay for his Wilson speakers.
mep
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2013
- Messages
- 5,074
JA did talk about that. It might have been his retirement account he dove into.
still-one
Active member
Actually he was supposed to come out with two new amps, the one ~$250k and another ~$125k. There are other products in his pipeline that should show up before the uber priced products.
still-one
Active member
He will be at Paragon in Ann Arbor on the 24th if you would like to ask him. You could also question the people from dCS, Transparent Audio and Wilson why they have crazy priced products.
Actually I don't know why any manufacturer would participate in online discussions. They have little to gain and usually get nothing but grief.
mep
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2013
- Messages
- 5,074
still-one
Active member
SCompRacer
New member
The Wilson's with the D'Agostino amps were wonderful at the 2013 New York audio show. I've got some of Dan's older gear when he was heading Krell. I think he was and remains a great designer.
Wow, I just finished reading through this entire thread and quite frankly, I'm exhausted. A lot of anger at the relentless upward spiral in price. I remember when I got into this hobby back in the 80's, if you saved your money you could really put together a top of the line system. Not too much was out of reach. Those days are long gone for most of us. In my opinion, this has really become a rich man's hobby. And unfortunately for most of us, this is now the audiophile manufacturers' main focus.
Ken
Ken
Ken - don't get discouraged, there is a lot of great gear for reasonable prices.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Well Ken you have a some great gear in your system now. I understand your post full well I started in the mid 1970s buying gear. You are right a average guy could buy the best of the best it was a lot of money then but do able sort of. Many would love to have the system you have.
The million plus systems are few and far between. I wonder if their is more 100,000 dollar gear in inventory than in homes. It is out of my reach which is fine you get what you get in life.
Since I stopped trying to make sense out of life things have gone a lot smoother LOL.
Thanks Garth. You have a really fine system too. How are you liking the KXR-20/MXR-20 combo? Are they a big improvement over the KXR/MXR combo?
Best,
Ken
I did the upgrade about a month ago. Big improvement in sound much cleaner more depth, better at instrument placement . I do not think anyone or at lest a very few would not find it worth doing.
It has a completely different sound than it did. I did the MXR and KXR at the same time which added the most to the sound I do not know. Ayre is a good company for me anyway no problems so far and upgradable . It took less than a month for the upgrades and a lot of that time was the Canada USA border it slows things down . The upgrade is not cheap but worth it IMO.
Garth,
That is a terrific feature offered by Ayre that allows you to upgrade these components. Even though expensive, it is probably far cheaper than selling or trading in your KXR/MXR and purchasing a new KXR20/MXR20. The chassis construction on both components is one of the finest I've ever seen.
Ken
kev313
New member
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2014
- Messages
- 360
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!
From Meet Your Maker - Dan D'Agostino interview | Hi-Fi+
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!
From Meet Your Maker - Dan D'Agostino interview | Hi-Fi+
the professor
Well-known member
Wow
Thanks
Thanks
a.wayne
Well-known member
Go Dan,
always appreciate Dan's approach to muscle amplification , like it or not Krells could drive the world , glad to see the tradition continues ....
Regards
always appreciate Dan's approach to muscle amplification , like it or not Krells could drive the world , glad to see the tradition continues ....
Regards
the professor
Well-known member
The whole interview is great.