Open Door
14-12-2014, 10:03
Private personal amp - not a trade deal.
The original Anthem gear was made by Sonic Frontiers in the US to allow those who could not stretch their budget or funds to the max to afford the true Frontiers kit but could get close enough to taste it through their Anthem range.
This was prior to the Parasound buy out which is now well known in the AV world. Parasound bought out Anthem / Sonic Frontiers to get into the high end market (what happened?).
Sonic Frontiers and Anthem valve kit were designed by Chris Johnson (very well known in the industry) and his team. Chris now owns Parts Connexion in Canada and does a Sonic Frontiers exchange programme which is where I purchased this amp from recently.
Chris offers an upgrade package when you buy his older designed kit off him. He first tests every component and replaces or upgrades as necessary and then he can specify or the buyer can on upgraded specific components at a price (with his guidance since he knows the amp better than anyone).
So I/we agreed on:
Convert to 240 VAC
4 x Telefunken Diode additions where beneficial
4 x Hexfred ultra-fast and soft diodes
4 x Kiwane resistors
4 x Arcol resistors
2 x Takman resistors
4 x Mundorf Supreme Silver & Oil coupling capacitors
2 x Mundorf Evo Aluminium in oil coupling capacitors
1 pair Vampire Wire RCA (copper body gold plate)
6 x Cardas SSGR-S speaker binding posts (silver, rhodium and gold plated)
Input wire now solid cast silver, Teflon wrapped and shielded (+drain wire)
1 x Solen film cap upgrade for the DC filter
Labour, freight and handling (painful)
I have also added a little Dynamat Extreme to dampen the chassis and replaced the feet with IsoCorX-IsoBlocks
Tube compliment is 4 x Svetlana EL34s used but still measure good/high, 1 x 12AX7 NOS black plate branded Motorola made in the US likely by RCA, and 2 x Siemens NOS ECC82.
No point saying how good the amp is, that is expected. If you search the web for reviews you will find the few that were conducted on the stock item which are stellar.
Specs:
40w per channel into 8 ohms (there are also 4 ohm taps)
Freq: 10Hz to 75KHz
Total harmonic distortion: 1%
Damping factor: 14
Gain: 22.8db
Input sensitivity: 1.3V
Signal to noise ratio: 100dB
Weight: 18kg
I have the manual but no original box however I have packaging to post if need be (collection or meet half way preferred). Will be sold with a cheapie power cable. Demo is available if you want to bring your speakers over to hear their synergy.
The original Parts Connexion invoice will be included with the sale which covers all the upgrade components, labour etc as well as all the email exchanges in discussion of the mods and Chris's view of the amp.
This is one of my personal amps so not a trade deal.
£1100.00
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y535/Dizarden/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps9351ba4d.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Dizarden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps9351ba4d.jpg.html)
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http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y535/Dizarden/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps4b5820b7.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Dizarden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps4b5820b7.jpg.html)
The original Anthem gear was made by Sonic Frontiers in the US to allow those who could not stretch their budget or funds to the max to afford the true Frontiers kit but could get close enough to taste it through their Anthem range.
This was prior to the Parasound buy out which is now well known in the AV world. Parasound bought out Anthem / Sonic Frontiers to get into the high end market (what happened?).
Sonic Frontiers and Anthem valve kit were designed by Chris Johnson (very well known in the industry) and his team. Chris now owns Parts Connexion in Canada and does a Sonic Frontiers exchange programme which is where I purchased this amp from recently.
Chris offers an upgrade package when you buy his older designed kit off him. He first tests every component and replaces or upgrades as necessary and then he can specify or the buyer can on upgraded specific components at a price (with his guidance since he knows the amp better than anyone).
So I/we agreed on:
Convert to 240 VAC
4 x Telefunken Diode additions where beneficial
4 x Hexfred ultra-fast and soft diodes
4 x Kiwane resistors
4 x Arcol resistors
2 x Takman resistors
4 x Mundorf Supreme Silver & Oil coupling capacitors
2 x Mundorf Evo Aluminium in oil coupling capacitors
1 pair Vampire Wire RCA (copper body gold plate)
6 x Cardas SSGR-S speaker binding posts (silver, rhodium and gold plated)
Input wire now solid cast silver, Teflon wrapped and shielded (+drain wire)
1 x Solen film cap upgrade for the DC filter
Labour, freight and handling (painful)
I have also added a little Dynamat Extreme to dampen the chassis and replaced the feet with IsoCorX-IsoBlocks
Tube compliment is 4 x Svetlana EL34s used but still measure good/high, 1 x 12AX7 NOS black plate branded Motorola made in the US likely by RCA, and 2 x Siemens NOS ECC82.
No point saying how good the amp is, that is expected. If you search the web for reviews you will find the few that were conducted on the stock item which are stellar.
Specs:
40w per channel into 8 ohms (there are also 4 ohm taps)
Freq: 10Hz to 75KHz
Total harmonic distortion: 1%
Damping factor: 14
Gain: 22.8db
Input sensitivity: 1.3V
Signal to noise ratio: 100dB
Weight: 18kg
I have the manual but no original box however I have packaging to post if need be (collection or meet half way preferred). Will be sold with a cheapie power cable. Demo is available if you want to bring your speakers over to hear their synergy.
The original Parts Connexion invoice will be included with the sale which covers all the upgrade components, labour etc as well as all the email exchanges in discussion of the mods and Chris's view of the amp.
This is one of my personal amps so not a trade deal.
£1100.00
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y535/Dizarden/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps9351ba4d.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Dizarden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps9351ba4d.jpg.html)
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y535/Dizarden/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps1d311d62.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Dizarden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps1d311d62.jpg.html)
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y535/Dizarden/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps239be255.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Dizarden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps239be255.jpg.html)
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y535/Dizarden/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpse17e6a8a.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Dizarden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpse17e6a8a.jpg.html)
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y535/Dizarden/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps2ec18ebc.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Dizarden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps2ec18ebc.jpg.html)
http://i1279.photobucket.com/albums/y535/Dizarden/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps4b5820b7.jpg (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Dizarden/media/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zps4b5820b7.jpg.html)