News & Annoucements

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Dear Allnic...

Dear Allnic,

A couple of months ago a friend of mine lent me his Allnic T-1500 to “try out.” I often swap gear, cables and tweaks with friends. It’s probably the most economical way to navigate this hobby and make small advances towards one’s perceived audio nirvana. Now that I pretty much have a Class A or high B level system, when averaged, the difference between live music and recorded music is no longer a great divide. I was expecting this unit to chip away at what I call the last 5%, you know, a little more realism, a little more of the studio room, a little less of my room, etc. I wasn’t expecting to be catapulted so close to realism that I can no longer measure the distance in whole percentiles. Oh man, I did NOT budget for this friend’s “kindness.” I’m in trouble.


Have you ever loved a record so much you wish you were a part of it? I don’t necessarily mean playing a part, but you wish you were in the room, watching brilliance happen? Well I found myself there all the time, in the room with shivers on my arms. Every side was an event. And I believe my “being there” might be better than the actual because I could always pull my tonearm back and do it again, studying every aspect, sometimes getting lost and always finding something new. I lived in that room thanks to the T-1500. I had my own chair.


I found that tube rolling and cable swaps no long offered huge changes in coloring and spatial cues. I have a set of I/c’s that I like to swap in from time to time, they make the room feel like it drops three degrees in temperature compared to my mainstays but the highs seem more accurate in trade. With the Allnic, the room temperature barely drops. What were once sweeping changes had been reduced to mere notes. I also found tweaks to be pretty much irrelevant with the T-1500. This must be what it’s like when the amp dictates the room, not the treatments. I’m not sure I’ve ever really experienced that before. It’s pretty great. Don’t ever try to convert a (insert tweak) skeptic in an Allnic room or you’ll risk being the butt of jokes for a long time to come.


The last major change I noticed is that I could rarely turn the amp too loud. I find with lesser amps, the highs aren’t as realized and as I hit a certain volume they sound as if they’re reflecting off a paper ceiling. That’s my signal to dial the gain back a bit. With the T-1500, I had no paper ceiling and the volume pot was no longer associated with making the amp louder it simply delivered more music. Beautiful.


Well, all good things must come to an end. It’s been a week since I had to return the Allnic and I’m going through the post T-1500 dee-tees. I’ve been a vinyl junkie for decades but I’ve never tried to kick. In the past I’ve managed to procure more sophisticated and realized gear as my system, both biological and electrical, becomes accustomed to what was, at first spike, un-distilled heaven. It is with the Mindset of a recovery rookie that I make a grave error and attempted to go cold turkey. By that I mean I rolled in a fully refurbished Marantz 1060. I thought it would be fun. The Marantz lasted a side and a half before I yanked it from my system while doing my best Sandman Sims impersonation. Does a fella have to consume three martinis for those amps to live up to their hype? If so, I don’t think my liver could keep up with my listening regime. Eeeesh, the 1060 has been exiled to my shop where it competes with compressors, grinders, parts washers, et al … Harsh, I know , but it’s better than Siberia, right?


Cold turkey didn’t work, go figure. Now I’m running a Level 2 modded Jolida 300B with Sophia 300B Carbons and NOS Mullards up front as my audio methadone. The weening is pretty bumpy and the paper ceiling has returned but there’s good news, I’ve started squirreling away money to get my own T-1500. So I’ll be in touch… SOON.


Sincerely,

Kevin Temps

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January 12th, 2012

Busy times this early winter, with December arrival of Wilsons Sasha’s, Joel Durand’s Talea tone arm and Dobbin’s Beat turntable. The Wilson’s were the pair Xact Audio showed with at RMAF last October driven with the Allnic Direct Heated Triodes, Allnic H3000V and the Puritas cartridges with the Schroeder Prototype arm alongside the REED on the Kodo Beat table.

The Wilson’s require attention to setup. Preferred sitting distance is recommended to be within 1.1 to 1.25% of the tweeter to tweeter width with the speakers pointed directly at the listener. Best is to be able to slightly see the inner wall of the cabinet from your seating position. Once dialed, the magic is there! These are very good, surprisingly efficient to be driven to decent listening levels with Allnic 12.5 WPC DHT A5000’s. The sounds leap off the cabinets rendering them invisible.

KS Park has announced the design of the new entry phono stage yet unnamed. It will be a single box design much like H3000 in appearance. We will be incorporating the 4 level custom gain transformers shared with H3000, H3000V, AUT2000 and H1500. This will satisfy a champagne taste with a beer budget in mind. Tube rollers can rejoice with the decision of selected E180CC NOS tubes. Scheduled April 2012.

Also under trials is the 14 Gram medium output Monolith mono cartridge, a single motor design. We have several prototypes out in the field , we await feedback. The magnets are so strong in this cartridge, one could use the cart to post the kids report cards to the fridge! KS reports this is one musical offering. More on this in very future.

KS Park has built a unique vacuum tube headphone amplifier using a pure OTL, OCL circuit. He first saw a Japanese unit about 15 years ago that showed potential but did not quite get it right. His 8 tube unit is the real deal, can power 16 Ohm speakers such as Axiom or Altec if one wished. Headphones impedance range of 30-50 Ohms will guarantee smiles. Pics will be posted within days.

The Allnic A5000 DHT’s, Puritas, L3000, T2000 and Monolith are currently under review(s) Great feedback from the writers, will post their comments as soon as offered.

Cool record of the week is “Safety in Numbers” by David Van Tieghem, produced by Roma Baran who also did work for Laurie Anderson. David and Laurie also worked together on Home of the Brave, Mister Heartbreak. The Mister Heartbreak album also featured Bill Laswell, Phoebe Snow and Peter Gabriel just to name a few.

Stay warm!

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Beat turntable

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Beat turntable

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November 29th, 2011

A busy week fighting my first Flu bug of the season and organizing a large shipment that Steve Dobbins delivered to the Osoyoss BC border crossing. Steve had perilous driving coming through the mountain passes but he and the goodies showed up intact. Included is the Beat turntable color keyed to match the Wilson Sasha’s we used to show with the mighty Allnic DHT’s at RMAF 2011. Should look superr once I get the speakers up and running.

I dressed and mounted the Beat with a Reed and Puritas. Running alongside is my this years freshly plinthed Garrard 501 featuring same arm/cartridge combo. Interesting sonic presentations, need to burn the new table combo before offering any kind of an opinion. Very good out of the box with deep powerful bass lines, big black background with an energy forcing dance factor. Cool!

The 6 year run of the H1200 is coming to an end. I have 11 units available. Price is $999 delivered world wide and we are extending the tube warranty for all owners whether you bought an H1200 new or on the pre-owned market.

Under trials is our prototype Monolith, a few mono owners will be experiencing shortly. Reports from Korea is that the Allnic Monolith offers greater bandwidth, frequency extremes and a very nice sense of ease over competitive carts, this is good. We have been tube rolling with the 300B’s in the A5000 DHT monos, am liking the EML XLS’s. Today received a pair of the EML 300B mesh plates, am told from John in Belgium these work well, I look forward to giving these a run.

We are closing 2011, a frantic year of world wide fiscal events. I wish for each and every reader, an improved future. Remember, trust your ears and invest soundly.

David

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See Story below

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November 21, 2011

Winter is on us with a vengeance, about a foot of new snow and overnight lows of minus 14C in Kelowna, BC. Good time to get proactive with our systems. I had the opportunity this weekend to audition a reviewer returned H1500 phono stage that the man was not overly taken with. I set it up with the and M3000’s powering a pair of Innoson 65’s, a 2 way KS Park had a hand in designing. The turntable was a Dobbins skeletal plinth Garrard 401 hosting the Audiocraft AC4400 and Puritas cartridge.

I spent time warming it up and had a listen. Sounded OK for the most part but some records presented an occasional harsh top end with an absence of deep bass extension. Puzzling. I spent the next hour assuring the table was set up properly, checking absolute phase and polarities with the rest of the system. All appeared fine but the frequency balance seemed skewed. I examined the Allnic H1500 tube rectified power supply. The tube employed was a Shuguang 5Z3PJ, a good inexpensive rectifier we supplied successfully with the H3000 and H3000V. I swapped the H1500’s Shuguang rectifier with a Mullard 5AR4, not the wide bottom or metal base collectable’s of the Mullards but a later, less expensive version from the 1980’s. WOW, the music fleshed out with immediate warmth and weightier bass! This is good! Next in went the RCA black plate 5U4GB, another decent tube I had snagged for about $20. Great sound here also but exhibiting a larger sound stage with more transparency. Lastly this evening I tried the Mullard GZ37/GZ378, this in the current setup sounded more immediate with a bigger stage and sense of ease but not quite as weighty as the original Mullard. What this all amounts to. Trials of different rectifiers are mandatory and will be system dependent for the best sound. Don in Boston likes the stubby Mullard 5AR4/GZ34, I look forward to other owners contacting me and sharing their experiences.

So, this is an alert to any purchaser of an Allnic H1500 with a factory supplied Shuguang 5Z3PJ Rectifier to contact me soonest. I have solutions to better the Allnic H1500’s performance. Comments from other Allnic owners suggest trying the RCA Black plate 5U4G,a very decent rectifier for the Allnic H3000, Call or write.

Wilson Sasha’s and the Beat turntable arriving early this week, contact me directly for above average clearance pricing of TTWeights Black Onyx and Genesis 5.3’s (Titanium). Please, telephone inquiries only.

As always, best wishes and sound investing.

David

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