Say "Hello!" to boXem | audio Arthur series, Hypex and Purifi based power amplifiers

[bluefuzz]

So maybe we can conclude that I underestimate the importance of graphical communication as much as you overestimate it

Believe me, I have no illusions as to the importance of graphic design – especially in marketing and advertising nowadays. Google is blind as they say ...

But my point (if I have one) is that in this case no logo would be preferable to a poorly executed one. It's actually you who has overestimated the need for a graphic 'logo'. It's simply unneccessary and actively detracts from the otherwise pleasing æsthetic of the case design. You have obviously put some effort into the physical design of the cases with 'interesting' textures and colour choices. They don't need any help from a logo - and especially not a bad one. ;-)

 

[restorer-john]

Believe me, I have no illusions as to the importance of graphic design – especially in marketing and advertising nowadays. Google is blind as they say ...

But my point (if I have one) is that in this case no logo would be preferable to a poorly executed one. It's actually you who has overestimated the need for a graphic 'logo'. It's simply unneccessary and actively detracts from the otherwise pleasing æsthetic of the case design. You have obviously put some effort into the physical design of the cases with 'interesting' textures and colour choices. They don't need any help from a logo - and especially not a bad one. ;-)

That's just utter rubbish. The logo looks fine and if he wants to change it sometime, nobody will care. It's not going to prevent anyone buying, that's for sure. People wanting Hypex amplification in a can know it's a bit bespoke, different and cottage industry, DIY stuff. That's the charm apparently.

The world is sick and tired of pointless and stupid logo changes and pet projects by 'graphic artists' that actually do more damage than good. And they piss away millions of shareholders' dollars doing it, often with absolutely no confirmed return on the investment and confusion in the marketplace. How many utterly stupid logo changes do we see for changes sake?

 

[Wombat]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

 

[boXem]

All the best and congratulations on bringing yet another Hypex to a crowded market.

I have to say, the slightly burnt orange colour looks fantastic. Looks so retro 1970s, like a pair of JBL century L100 speakers with the chocolate block foam grille. Or the new L100 Classics:

View attachment 87738

It'd look right at home here:

View attachment 87740
(10 points to the person who can identify the other HiFi apart from the obvious Marantz 7c and the Empire 398 Turntable)

On a technical note, I would like to see proper FTC compliant specifications, not just parroted best case DIN numbers from the Hypex datasheets. As you will no doubt be looking to sell into various world markets, please consider appropriate ratings.

View attachment 87741

Maximum power? At what THD, frequency range and load?
THD @1W. What spot frequency or frequency range and what load?
CMRR Who cares?
SNR weighted/unweighted with respect to what? Full power at 8R?
Output noise- OK (maybe residual noise)
Frequency Response at what level? 1W@8R?
Gain- OK
Input sensitivity. For full rated power at 4R?
etc.

For the record, power output headline number must be specified as minimum continuous average power with both channels driven into a specified load, across a specified bandwidth (usually for 20Hz-20KHz) at or below a specified THD from 250mW to rated power.

Cherry picking best case THD and power output numbers in a product spec is a definite no-no.

Here's a current example (brand new model McIntosh MA12000 integrated):
View attachment 87742

Don't be like everyone else. Rate your products like NAD rate their Hypex/Purifi implementations... honestly.

Thanks for your comments John. Really apreciated.
Ref the orange: the more time goes, the more I realize that each screen gives a different impression of it. In real life it's less 'brown' than the 70's orange.
Ref the specs: you are right, we don't want to be like everyone else. I want to run a full set of measurements on the production version, but I am a bit under water for the moment, so waiting for this, I took the Hypex datasheet as a reference.
As side comments, THD+N is on 20k-20kHz bandwidth, not just 1 kHz, and CMRR is there for Maty .

The spelling on the colour choice should be (UK eng) "oxidised" or (US eng) "oxidized".

View attachment 87746

You didn't check the (FR eng) dictionary
Thanks for spotting it!

 

[Soniclife]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

We refer to these people as B ark material at work.

 

[boXem]

Hi BoXem, nice to see a new European brand in the class D amplifier market. I noticed your auto-standby product ability.
I remember the complain of a (NAD?) user about the auto standby: it takes a bit long to switch on, and it becomes irritating after a while.
I hope your technology is instantaneous... wouldn't it be more interesting to make a product that uses very little power while idling?
30w produced at 20 degrees C° is ok, but when the room is already at 30 or 35deg C° it's another matter. In forums you can notice that more and more users ask if it becomes 'hot', and then you can find some electronic boards Infrared picture, questions if the case has enough venting holes, etc.

For myself, even with a high efficiency amplifier I would go for a large case with radiators turned ouside: I want to be able to play loud a 86db efficiency pair of speakers that has an average impedance of 4ohms (down to 2.8 sometimes) at 32 deg C° room temp. without hesitating... (or maybe I want to cook an egg on the amplifier too ;-)

Hi Stephen,
The amplifier module needs a bit more than 1 second to initialize itself. It's not instantaneous, but not long either.
EU mandates a consumption below 0.5W when an electronic product is not used. I am not aware of any power supply technology being able to deliver 250W peak while idling below 0.5W. But I may have missed something.
Reference the temperature, this summer I have been running an NC1200 at 120 W average of pink noise in 2 ohms for 30 minutes. Case temperature was very hot, but below pain threshold.
This makes an equivalent of 60 W stereo, i.e. 121 dB (86 + 20log(60)) average with your speakers. Loud enough?

 

[boXem]

Would there be room for the NC100HF?

At a first glance, yes, what would be the application?

 

[restorer-john]

You didn't check the (FR eng) dictionary

Is that right? I'm sorry, my mistake.

French sure is complicated...

 

[restorer-john]

I see you have put your auto-power sense on one channel only. I presume it's sitting after the input buffer stage and in front of the power amp module. Or if it's on the actual input, what differences in input impedance will the parallel connection of the sense resistors* (making assumptions here ) make?

* I designed a simple, yet incredibly effective, automatic (signal based) power on and delayed turn off 30 years ago so I could play music in the bedroom and go to sleep with the entire system turning off 8-10 or so minutes after the actual music had ended. The issue was taking both channels signal content and the attendant channel separation reduction. Your idea with just one channel being monitored solves that.

 

[voodooless]

At a first glance, yes, what would be the application?

With two Arthurs one would have everything to build a 3-way active system

 

[Stephen]

Hi Stephen,
The amplifier module needs a bit more than 1 second to initialize itself. It's not instantaneous, but not long either.
EU mandates a consumption below 0.5W when an electronic product is not used. . But I may have missed something.
Reference the temperature, this summer I have been running an NC1200 at 120 W average of pink noise in 2 ohms for 30 minutes. Case temperature was very hot, but below pain threshold.
This makes an equivalent of 60 W stereo, i.e. 121 dB (86 + 20log(60)) average with your speakers. Loud enough?

Hello BoXem,
"I am not aware of any power supply technology being able to deliver 250W peak while idling below 0.5W", the point here is not to get an idling power below 0.5w, it's to have the lowest possible one... and some hard work should be done to acheive to get the strict minimum possible. Then maybe we won't need a standby mode and a trigger.
"Case temperature was very hot" and that's exactly what i'm talking about: It's nice to have cute compact case box, but I would go to a efficient one even if it's larger: a box that pulls the heat out of the box!

 

[boXem]

Hello BoXem,
"I am not aware of any power supply technology being able to deliver 250W peak while idling below 0.5W", the point here is not to get an idling power below 0.5w, it's to have the lowest possible one... and some hard work should be done to acheive to get the strict minimum possible. Then maybe we won't need a standby mode and a trigger.
"Case temperature was very hot" and that's exactly what i'm talking about: It's nice to have cute compact case box, but I would go to a efficient one even if it's larger: a box that pulls the heat out of the box!

Being below 0.5W when not in use is not a choice, it's the law. I know that various manufacturers don't care about it, but it's not in our policy.
Various solutions are available:
- Off: user needs to push a button on the amplifier, I am not even sure this solution is legal
- Standby with wire/infrared/radio remote so that the user doesn't need to reach the amplifier to get it running
- Standby automated, no user intervention needed, what we do
- Idling, no user intervention needed either but not technically achievable today

At 121 dB per speaker, I doubt you wonder what the case temperature is, you will just be deaf. When playing stereo very loud in a home environment (90-95 dB), your speakers need less than 3W average. In this situation the case just stays at the same temperature as ambient air.

 

[boXem]

With two Arthurs one would have everything to build a 3-way active system

I get it now. I will PM you.

 

[bluefuzz]

That's just utter rubbish. The logo looks fine

Obviously there's no accounting for taste, but no, it doesn't look fine. Whether you accept it or not design does matter. Have you never considered why you like some things and don't like others? Chunky 70's japanese audio separates for example? There was a savvy designer behind these things who knew exactly how to push your buttons.

One of the biggest problems of the internet is people pontificating on matters they know nothing about. Even worse is not being able to accept that there are people who do know stuff about things you know nothing about. I will refrain from expressing an opinion on the technicalies of audio circuitry ... ;-)

The world is sick and tired of pointless and stupid logo changes and pet projects by 'graphic artists' that actually do more damage than good. And they piss away millions of shareholders' dollars doing it, often with absolutely no confirmed return on the investment and confusion in the marketplace. How many utterly stupid logo changes do we see for changes sake?

Actually, I am in complete agreement with this. Pointless and unneccessay 'design' is a bane (especially in the name of marketing) on our collective existence. Which is why I am trying to advocate that Mr. Boxem not try and play that game without having the chops to do so ...

 

[bluefuzz]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

One of my favourite books ... ;-)

 

[Billy Budapest]

Thanks for being so direct

On the logo design by itself, nothing to add other than everything is done in house and that the font is not Verdana. When I can feed myself with my work, I will think about hiring a graphic designer. Before that there are much higher priorities.
About the size on the face plate, I tend to disagree with you. There needs to be something to fill that dull flat plane, that is the role of the engraving. Other solutions would have been even more expensive.
For the name, I hear what you say, but I know a company called Schiit which is rather successful...

I like the logo size in the faceplate.

 

[ririt]

Any »fresh » news regarding a future purifi-based amp and a preamp? any chance to see a HT bypass on the pre amp?

 

[boXem]

Any »fresh » news regarding a future purifi-based amp and a preamp? any chance to see a HT bypass on the pre amp?

The design of the interface board for the Purifi should be finished this weekend. Concerning other future products, we are listening to the HT community requests and will do our best to satisfy them .

 

[boXem]

 

[toei]

Thanks for posting the photo! As you seem to be open to frank feedback, I'll offer that I find the two-piece cases from March Audio easily more appealing than your six-piece case. However, I do consider your signal-sense feature a desirable one that I would make judicious use of. I think many members of this forum would be feeding one of these small-company Hypex amps with a DAC that includes volume control. Almost none of them include a 12v trigger output (Benchmark is the only one that I know of).

It would be nice to see a ASR test to confirm that the single-sided signal-sense circuit doesn't cause any channel imbalances.