I am hesitant to make such posts as I do not want to take advantage of the forum's good will, but there is news so here it is. Assuming there are no major setbacks and that none of the parts are back ordered for too long, I am anticipating having amplifiers to ship in mid to late April. As Tari noted above, they will be metal and wood -- similar to my past amps -- but similar in size and shape to the acrylic with the pokie transformers (that size being ~7" x 1.5" x 10"). Price point is about $1600 with a possible small discount for preorders.

Here are some pics of the final proto. The actual factual will have a different jack and a brushed finish (and wood sides), but it otherwise look pretty similar. I am planning to be at the NYC meet in April, and I will have a prototype with me. 

Exactly. I currently have the Diamond on loan thanks to Tari, and I think it is AWESOME!

I think so (for voltage amplification).

looks beautiful Doug.

I understand how you feel... but don't even think that way! You are always welcome here.

Thanks.


In the green acrylic version, the second box is a DAC. So the amp is a single chassis with a regular power inlet on the back.

Actually, it uses a switching module instead of a power transformer. I did this because it was quieter, sounded better, used less space, and it allows for universal wall voltage. But really, while the space and wall voltage thing are a nice side benefit, the better sound and quieter operation are the reasons for it. I would not have used it otherwise. I know, I know, switcher are bad for audio, blah blah blah -- Actually, these are quite good, and the amount of noise generated by transformers and rectifiers is considerably higher than most people think. In one of the prototypes I used a traditional transformer and it was noisy enough that I pulled it out and replaced it. I am of the opinion that if you can tell an amp is on, it is too loud, and the switcher passes that test. Don't read this as me being anti-power transformer, it is just that for this amp, the switcher was a good solution.


Yes, it uses transformers for voltage amplification. The topology is an input buffer driving the step up transformer with an output buffer. Both buffers are a variation on the diamond buffer circuit. The transformers were made for me by Cinemag.


The L-2 has been discontinued. The "business model" is to make a new design, do a small run, and move on to something else. The designing is the fun part, and this allows me to play with lots of different ideas.