GOOD widely available £500 integrated amps...

[Dingdong]

If you think it's good enough?

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/solid...10p-amp-2.html

Okay, so that one looks as though it has been bodged up in a garage by a blind person. That's an old one though. Surely he must have figured out how to build summat proper by now. All his products can't be bodged up crap like that can they?

[Marco]

If you think it's good enough?

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/solid...10p-amp-2.html

From the thread:

add to the above that there is absolutely no input filtering no input capacitor ( can be tricky ) and for every output transistor there is 470nf miller or stabilizer capacitors that between amplifier people are notorious as ...sonic killers ....

thermal run away, with poor heatsink ,no ventilation ,absence of fuse ,poor choice of output devices no thermal compensation, and higher rail voltage is a bomb construction

all family of darlingtons BDV66-67 TIP 142-147 BDW 83-84 will suffer from thermal runaway even if a proper VBE multiplier exists on the circuit if the amp is pushed ....imagine how is going to be without it

smoky regards
sakis

And there's more:

here is pictures of bigger NVA ..toasted cause the user wanted to make a ""burn in "" to his brand new speakers and he thought that was ok to keep the amplifier working with music to a modest level of 30% for a period of 24 hours .

amplifier boards completely toasted
both of main power transformers toasted ( since the amp had no fuse )
both woofers toasted

a total damage over 2.000 euro ..as about the construction i see it as a total mess with or without the telephone cables .....Obviously not a device that you are supposed to pay almost 1000 euro ...that is a ripoff

Nice and neat and safe, eh?

Oh dear! Are those 'unmentionable' prototypes, too?

RD: "It wasn't me who made those, honest guv - somebody bodged them..." Aye, and all our heads zip up at the back!!

Marco.

[Marco]

Okay, so that one looks as though it has been bodged up in a garage by a blind person. That's an old one though. Surely he must have figured out how to build summat proper by now. All his products can't be bodged up crap like that can they?

It seems like much of the earlier output from NVA was 'knocked up' in the crudest way by someone who at that point either didn't know any better, didn't care, and/or was satisfied with the principle of 'out of sight, out of mind'!

You have to remember that this was 1993, not 1973, when RD was still learning his craft, so what excuse is there for such shoddy workmanship from any experienced, commercial amplifier manufacturer? Naim gear (and the output from other high-end amplifier manufacturers then) didn't look THAT bad inside. Quite frankly, the quality of construction of these NVA amps is disgraceful.

There is no other word for it.

I've seen far better work here from many DIY-ers!! Yes, his kit is made much better now (thank fook), but that's no excuse for the existence in the public domain, in any era, of the disorderly shambles, seen above

The burning question is why wasn't the equipment he made in 1993 built to the same standard as this (part of a current MK2 A80):





I don't see any reason, other than apathy, why someone who is clearly capable of producing neat and tidy work, made such a mess of building this shambolic (and arguably unsafe) entity, no matter how long ago it was produced:





Answers on a post card please to: 'Jim'll Fix It'.

Marco.

[Dingdong]

I guess that's why the panels are glued on. I'd be shocked if I opened summat up and it looked like that.
Are they still picky about cables as well?

[Marco]

Apparently, he glues them together because it sounds better that way!

Protection circuitry (with fuses) also appears to remain against Mr Dunn's religion, hence why what happens was described by Sakis, on the thread on DIY Audio... See post #19: http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/solid...ml#post3028899

I wonder if his current stuff is built with even a modicum of professionalism and safety in mind? One would HOPE so, surely??

Marco.

[DSJR]

The theory goes that since speaker cables add some inductance of their own, why place an inductor in the amp itself? Naim don't fit one on most (but not all) of their classic stuff as well. What then happens is that the onus is firmly on the end user to use the correct and recommended cables with the product if a blow-up or bonfire is to be avoided. Maybe NVA users are sensible enough to follow the correct wiring procedure, but it's a heck of a responsibility on the manufacturer to ensure that they do.

For a £500 integrated, likely to be used with all manner of dire anciliaries, I'd want it to be safe as houses and, if it fails, it goes down without taking the speakers with it!!

Do Myryad still make integrated amps? The stuff they introduced in the mid 90's was really good and harked right back to the good things an A&R A60 used to do, since both were designed by the same chap. The amps had proper short-circuit protection too, as did Audiolabs.

[Dingdong]

Apparently, he glues them together because it sounds better that way!



Marco.

Maybe it helps to keep the magic smoke in as well.

[Marco]

For a £500 integrated, likely to be used with all manner of dire anciliaries, I'd want it to be safe as houses and, if it fails, it goes down without taking the speakers with it!!

Too right, mate! Safety should be any professional amplifer manufacturer's No 1 priority. NO RISKS, in that respect, no matter how supposedly small, for the sake of optimising sound quality, should be taken. Mr Dunn appears to have a rather blasé attitude towards safety!

What then happens is that the onus is formly on the end user to use the correct and recommended cables with the product if a blow-up or bonfire is to be avoided.

Automatically expecting your average 'Joe' to comply with the above, IMO, is asking for trouble, especially when items eventually fall into the second-hand market and potentially into the hands of less experienced users.

Marco.

[DSJR]

I hate to bring them into it here, but this is one factor why a notorious active speaker manufacturer abandoned separates a few years ago, since inappropriate use caused all manner of warranty headaches and supplying dealers weren't as indoctrinated as Linn/Naim ones used to be, and probably still are. And my gawd were we patronising - still comes out occasionally, doesn't it?

[Macca]

Given how long NVA has been trading if there was any safety risks of the sorts being suggested then they would either be out of business or have a terrible reputation for reliabilty by now. As neither is the case then I suspect the amp pictured above is possibly another (or the same) 'not for re-sale' prototypes and therefore atypical. There was another thread about this a while back and it was taken down. Rightly IMO.