Stereophile Tests $45k D'Augostino Monoblocks

[sarumbear]

You've heard of relays, right?

I have but I can’t imagine why you create a system that caters for polarity reversing. Why add extra active circuitry only because the QC may fail???

 

[Newman]

It is difficult to blame JA when his employer expects him to reconcile the utter absurdist BS of the subjective journalist reviews, it has probably rewired his brain into thinking that Newspeak is real.

 

[GXAlan]

Not as good as the Marantz PM-90.

Marantz PM-90 Review (Vintage Amplifier)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Marantz PM-90 Vintage stereo integrated amplifier. It was purchased by a member from japan and drop shipped to me for testing. It came out in 1991 with a price of 160,000 Yen (about $1,500 in today's exchange rate). I looked online and I can...

audiosciencereview.com

 

[Ron Texas]

Even better than Nordost. I'm saving $45,000 by not buying these heavy beasts. Now I can go on that world cruise!!

You are saving your back too. As for the cruise, the Mrs. is always looking,

 

[Omar Cumming]

Just think of the full system you could put together for $45K with quite a few K$ left over, instead of these 2 lumps of of overpriced, under performing distortion generators.

Cheers

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

How does a firmware control an analogue signal path?

Firmware control can get very integrated into the signal path, although not directly in the path. Microcontrollers are very useful for controlling currents, voltages, and fault conditions. Doing an A/D of the output signal voltage , an A/D of the output current, an A/D of the temperature from multiple points, user settings, and some secret sauce things I can't get into, will yield a lot of information on what's going on which can be number crunched to control signal path operating conditions and relays among other things.

Microcontrollers also monitor and control input AC voltage auto-ranging and over/under voltage protection, and store fault codes from each channel which can be interrogated at a later time to aid in fault identification.

There are other, much more ambitious uses in the pipeline which I can't get into.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

I have but I can’t imagine why you create a system that caters for polarity reversing. Why add extra active circuitry only because the QC may fail???

I can't imagine a use for that either, let alone how the programmers could screw such a simple thing up.

 

[pma]

https://www.stereophile.com/content...n-m550-monoblock-power-amplifier-measurements

I would give this a headless panther. Since I have no panthers I can't. Measured performance looks weak to me (unless I'm missing something). The conclusion is bias is adjusted wrong causing crossover distortion.

You are right. The strange distortion vs. amplitude plot that you can see here

https://www.stereophile.com/images/1021Dag550fig5.jpg

speaks for itself - it is a medium biased class AB amplifier with very low feedback factor or no global feedback at all. Then you see the rise of distortion above 1W and a minimum near to 200W, because the crossover area and distortion compared to the high output voltage gets relatively lower. Shame on the designer.

This and similar amplifiers are its own category with "special" customers. They do not care about measurements at all and probably would not hear any problem. @John Atkinson stays too much on a polite side in my opinion, this should be clearly condemned how poor is the result.

P.S.: I have just posted this comment of mine to the Stereophile review page, as I feel this is too much.

 

[Gorgonzola]

We see here that the whole trend to tweaking amplifier to taste has got crazily out of hand -- not mention the trend to baroque case esthetics. One is inclind to say that D'Augustino has lost his marbles, though doubtless he will find as many buyers as devices he can build.

This broken amp is an extreme example of sucker bait for plutocrats with more money than audio brains.

 

[Mart68]

don't know if anyone looked at the subjective review but there's some classic nonsense there too:

''During my first listens after Bill departed, I discovered that the lower midrange had lost its customary focus. Thinking back to my chats, at T.H.E Show 2021 in Long Beach, with Norman D. Varney of A/V RoomService, I decided to try his EVP (Equipment Vibration Protectors) under the Progression M550s.''

Needless to say:


''Once those setup issues were resolved, I was a happy camper as I noticed at once the M550's ability to convey subtle details. In-breaths were more evident on Rickie Lee Jones's marvelous take of the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" (Tidal, 16/44.1 FLAC), from her album The Devil You Know, and the transition from soft singing to whisper was more impactful. On the line, "I killed the Czar and his ministers," I discerned a sly change in tonal color that had never come through before—nor had I noticed places where RLJ intentionally lags a bit behind the beat.''

 

[MaxBuck]

One thing I've noticed is that all these golden-eared audiophiles seem to love Rickie Lee Jones. I honestly don't get it.

 

[KSTR]

JA is quoting D.D'A with "I use the same Audio Precision gear that John does—mine may be bigger—but I certainly don't use it for listening. Believe me, if I want to make low distortion, there's a whole lot of things I can do. However, in my experience of 40 some years, low distortion never makes it sound better. Ever."
A clear agenda. Period. There's nothing to add from either side ;-)

 

[pma]

JA is quoting D.D'A with "I use the same Audio Precision gear that John does—mine may be bigger—but I certainly don't use it for listening. Believe me, if I want to make low distortion, there's a whole lot of things I can do. However, in my experience of 40 some years, low distortion never makes it sound better. Ever."
A clear agenda. Period. There's nothing to add from either side ;-)

And a poor agenda. Distortion residual is extremely ugly

https://www.stereophile.com/images/1021Dag550fig7.jpg

And this is really not supposed to result in a "better sound" as anybody of us who has ever designed some amplifiers and was finding a correlation with listening knows.

 

[anmpr1]

Vic Serinos is a man completely overwhelmed by his emotions. I would say that with him, gear is a borderline fetish, but he crossed over that border a long time ago. The man is completely lunatic hardcore.

Even someone who can be as off the wall as Fremer, a man often known for excitability and a lack of dispassionate restraint, would be too embarrassed to write the kind of stuff Serinos routinely hands in. My only guess is that they keep him around for a laugh. But then again, it's Stereophile, so maybe it's not a question of irony.

Does he actually get paid for his gig over there?

 

[nothingman]

FYI, Stereophile is deleting comments on this review. They are doing this without any trace of the deleted comment so no one would know. Goes to show how much they are willing protect the industry.

My comment was first loading fine as “new” then just disappeared. Sure, I was harsh, but I wasn’t crude.



(edit: and yes, I messed up on the price, it’s $45,000 as noted)

 

[Ron Texas]

I think the real crime here is letting a defective unit ship in this stratospheric price range. Whether it was "voiced" or has intentional euphonic colorations as some around here are guessing, I'm not so sure.

You may note that D'Augustino is often sold alongside Wilson speakers.

 

[sarumbear]

Firmware control can get very integrated into the signal path, although not directly in the path. Microcontrollers are very useful for controlling currents, voltages, and fault conditions. Doing an A/D of the output signal voltage , an A/D of the output current, an A/D of the temperature from multiple points, user settings, and some secret sauce things I can't get into, will yield a lot of information on what's going on which can be number crunched to control signal path operating conditions and relays among other things.

Microcontrollers also monitor and control input AC voltage auto-ranging and over/under voltage protection, and store fault codes from each channel which can be interrogated at a later time to aid in fault identification.

There are other, much more ambitious uses in the pipeline which I can't get into.

All that doesn't answer how you can reverse the polarity of the signal without adding extra circuitry (buffers)?

 

[ta240]

What causes bias drift in a new amp? I've heard of old ones needing rebiased, especially after having components replaced but in a new(ish) amp what would cause that?

FYI, Stereophile is deleting comments on this review. They are doing this without any trace of the deleted comment so no one would know. Goes to show how much they are willing protect the industry.

My comment was first loading fine as “new” then just disappeared. Sure, I was harsh, but I wasn’t crude.

View attachment 160487

(edit: and yes, I messed up on the price, it’s $45,000 as noted)

They have replied that it was calling the other person a "cancer" that got your post deleted. Most don't allow personal attacks on other readers.

Although, I do agree that there are at least two that post on there that make it impossible to have any intelligent conversation.

 

[MakeMineVinyl]

All that doesn't answer how you can reverse the polarity of the signal without adding extra circuitry (buffers)?

I never said you could. We certainly don't approach anything close to this.

Evidently the product in question is a preamp. I could see how this type of circuitry could be included.

 

[Ken1951]

One thing I've noticed is that all these golden-eared audiophiles seem to love Rickie Lee Jones. I honestly don't get it.

C'mon man, she's done some really nice music over the years. Just because those deluded folks like her doesn't diminish her for me.