Extracts of review:
The review by David Mitchell.
"This is not an amp that jumps out at you and screams "I'm here in your room! Listen to me! I demand your attention....". Its more the kind of amp that our esteemed colleague Jan would say lets you "hear the music and not the hi-fi". I like that."
"Not surprisingly, the amp is exceptionally well put together."
"This is probably the most musical gear I've had come through my music room in recent memory."
"To sum up, if you're ever in the market for a no bells and whistles, beautifully musical, well built integrated, this is the one."
and there's more, but you'll have to read the to get the full thunder clap.
"This is not an amp that jumps out at you and screams "I'm here in your room! Listen to me! I demand your attention....". Its more the kind of amp that our esteemed colleague Jan would say lets you "hear the music and not the hi-fi". I like that."
"Not surprisingly, the amp is exceptionally well put together."
"This is probably the most musical gear I've had come through my music room in recent memory."
"To sum up, if you're ever in the market for a no bells and whistles, beautifully musical, well built integrated, this is the one."
and there's more, but you'll have to read the to get the full thunder clap.
Added By: Haider @Sonneteer
Thank you very much for these kind words. It's always good to hear or read that we have achieved what we have set out to with this amplifier. The Alabaster has been with us for about 15 years now. It has been tweaked a little along the way mainly due to the advent of RHOS compliance. The principles from the start have not changed and pretty much dictate our designs through out, Having designed and worked for a number of other British brands over the years we have learned a great deal (and still are). The idea of not ventilating, for example, came from monitoring service departments of much larger consumer electronics' businesses and learning what causes the most trouble. Most amplifiers get very hot internally and the heatsinks rely on airflow to cool them down. we simply place the heatsinks on the sides or the base. We slightly over size them and then airflow on the outside does the rest of the work, They rarely exceed 46 degrees centigrade however. This does slightly pinch to touch. No more than an in room radiator. We've had one or two Alabasters back over time. Mostly ones that were built in the 1990's. We open them up and they look as new and as clean as the day they were made. The faults have mostly been a blown internal fuse. In 1994 it started out as a theory. We like to think that practice has mostly proved it correct. I can see you are all glazing over so I'll get onto volume pot tracking some other time. Your course work is at the bottom of your notes and I'll see you again next week. Haider(Welsh boy living in England)
Comment Added: 10/8/2012 1:35:06 AM
Added By: dmitchell
Really looking forward to hearing your comments on the volume pot, Haider. It tracks exceptionally well.
Comment Added: 10/8/2012 7:31:28 AM
Added By: Haider @Sonneteer
Haha you dared to ask. Not a story to chat women up with. Or any other potential partner for that matter.
As you may already know the volume on many commercial audio Amplifiers tend to peek at about 12 O'Clock on the dial. something I learnt in a former design life was that the 5 minute demo on the shop floor was critical. So the perception that amp was louder than a rival on the shelf was considered critical to sales. Hence amplifiers with high gain and sensitivity.
The problem of course is the typical analogue volume control potentiometer including the Alps 27mm and 18mm (Alps Blue and Alps Black) track at their best in the second half of the dial. Meaning of course from 12 O'Clock onwards. The error at the lower volumes, or the first half of the dial can exceed 3dB. So with very high gains there can be a two fold or more error between left and right.
Sonneteer amplifiers are deliberately designed to use the full dial as much as possible. So on average clipping does not occur till the dial is at or close to maximum. This allows for better listening at lower volume and more accurate listening across the board.
There is a little more about this on our blog too. But the the above is more or less the gist of it.
http://sonneteer.co.uk/home/magazine/2012/05/23/speaking-volumes/
I have also been involved in CD player designs (not Sonneteer ones) where the same has applied. Setting the output to 2.5volts instead of the standard 2Volts for example. Again to give the impression of better sound quality in a quick on the shelf demo. A common practice it seems. Really not the way we play things here however.
In some ways digitally controlled volume controls have reduced the practice as the visual feedback is quite different. The only problem is there are only one or two half decent analogue, digitally controlled volume chips available. Only at best do they compare with an average quality potentiometer in the same design.
Ok you can wake up now. I'm done :-)
Added By: dmitchell
Excellent information Haider. Thank you for that. I have noticed that my Sonneteer sounds excellent even at low volumes. A good test for me with an unfamiliar amp is to slowly turn down the volume to zero to see how well it tracks. A lot of amps, with inferior volume controls, I will notice that at almost zero volume, one channel is noticeably louder. The Sonneteer does not have this flaw.
Comment Added: 10/8/2012 1:01:48 PM
Thank you very much for these kind words. It's always good to hear or read that we have achieved what we have set out to with this amplifier. The Alabaster has been with us for about 15 years now. It has been tweaked a little along the way mainly due to the advent of RHOS compliance. The principles from the start have not changed and pretty much dictate our designs through out, Having designed and worked for a number of other British brands over the years we have learned a great deal (and still are). The idea of not ventilating, for example, came from monitoring service departments of much larger consumer electronics' businesses and learning what causes the most trouble. Most amplifiers get very hot internally and the heatsinks rely on airflow to cool them down. we simply place the heatsinks on the sides or the base. We slightly over size them and then airflow on the outside does the rest of the work, They rarely exceed 46 degrees centigrade however. This does slightly pinch to touch. No more than an in room radiator. We've had one or two Alabasters back over time. Mostly ones that were built in the 1990's. We open them up and they look as new and as clean as the day they were made. The faults have mostly been a blown internal fuse. In 1994 it started out as a theory. We like to think that practice has mostly proved it correct. I can see you are all glazing over so I'll get onto volume pot tracking some other time. Your course work is at the bottom of your notes and I'll see you again next week. Haider(Welsh boy living in England)
Comment Added: 10/8/2012 1:35:06 AM
Added By: dmitchell
Really looking forward to hearing your comments on the volume pot, Haider. It tracks exceptionally well.
Comment Added: 10/8/2012 7:31:28 AM
Added By: Haider @Sonneteer
Haha you dared to ask. Not a story to chat women up with. Or any other potential partner for that matter.
As you may already know the volume on many commercial audio Amplifiers tend to peek at about 12 O'Clock on the dial. something I learnt in a former design life was that the 5 minute demo on the shop floor was critical. So the perception that amp was louder than a rival on the shelf was considered critical to sales. Hence amplifiers with high gain and sensitivity.
The problem of course is the typical analogue volume control potentiometer including the Alps 27mm and 18mm (Alps Blue and Alps Black) track at their best in the second half of the dial. Meaning of course from 12 O'Clock onwards. The error at the lower volumes, or the first half of the dial can exceed 3dB. So with very high gains there can be a two fold or more error between left and right.
Sonneteer amplifiers are deliberately designed to use the full dial as much as possible. So on average clipping does not occur till the dial is at or close to maximum. This allows for better listening at lower volume and more accurate listening across the board.
There is a little more about this on our blog too. But the the above is more or less the gist of it.
http://sonneteer.co.uk/home/magazine/2012/05/23/speaking-volumes/
I have also been involved in CD player designs (not Sonneteer ones) where the same has applied. Setting the output to 2.5volts instead of the standard 2Volts for example. Again to give the impression of better sound quality in a quick on the shelf demo. A common practice it seems. Really not the way we play things here however.
In some ways digitally controlled volume controls have reduced the practice as the visual feedback is quite different. The only problem is there are only one or two half decent analogue, digitally controlled volume chips available. Only at best do they compare with an average quality potentiometer in the same design.
Ok you can wake up now. I'm done :-)
Added By: dmitchell
Excellent information Haider. Thank you for that. I have noticed that my Sonneteer sounds excellent even at low volumes. A good test for me with an unfamiliar amp is to slowly turn down the volume to zero to see how well it tracks. A lot of amps, with inferior volume controls, I will notice that at almost zero volume, one channel is noticeably louder. The Sonneteer does not have this flaw.
Comment Added: 10/8/2012 1:01:48 PM
