I encourage those of you who are on Facebook and would like to stay up to date on my retail product developments to follow and 'like' my Tom Christiansen Audio page:
www.facebook.com/tomchrAudio
It's a skeleton page, but I'll add content as events happen. It could be a nice opportunity to follow the birth of a new product line (or company, depending on how you look at it) and get a little insight into the day-to-day operations.
The HP-1 successor is coming together. Attached are pictures of a "proof-of-concept" amp. It performs rather well, so I'm pressing on with an actual prototype. I hope to have a small collection of hand-assembled prototypes with me to RMAF in September.
The final version will use the bigger ALPS RK271 ("Blue Velvet") volume pot, feature an RCA input (as well as XLR), have two gain settings, and also have an on-board power supply.
The production PCB colour scheme will be red solder mask with white silk screen. The PCB will be designed, manufactured, and assembled in Canada. The chassis will likely come from Japan. As a minimum, I'll offer a black chassis. I might make a silver (or silver with black hardware) chassis available. I'll send out a survey before I order 100s of these.
I won't promise anything related to specs until I've seen the measurements of the next prototype. I plan to open up for preorders by mid-September with a nice discount for early birds. I hope to be able to start shipping before US Thanksgiving (i.e. mid/late November). I'm targeting a price around the $500-600 mark. I don't have all the numbers yet, so that is subject to change, however.
Tom