Zanden Aiudio Chouku - new statement mono amp from Zanden Audio

andromedaaudio · Jul 14, 2013

Its diy so that will forever be a mysterie i pressume ,however i do trust mr yamada(zanden ) regarding his designs , ive heard quite a few ,and own one myself and my expirience is there really is not much to wish for anymore , which makes it kinda boring

Roysen · Jul 14, 2013

This is what the Zanden Chouku looks like with the fully assembled cabinet:

Roysen · Jul 14, 2013

Some more Pictures:

Apparently the the Chouku is only made for Audio Exotics in Hong Kong but I have inquired about availability anyway.

Roysen · Jul 14, 2013

The output transformer has a core made from FINEMET - a super material only available from HITACHI Corporation.

mep · Jul 14, 2013

This may well be a great sounding amp, I'm just not a fan of amps that look like they were built into a computer tower case. Can you say VTL, ARC, Dart, and a few others (ML to name another one)?

jfrech · Jul 14, 2013

Audio Exotics has some interesting forums and exposure to some different gear than we always see in the USA. It's partially what turned me on to most recent purchase...Robert Koda K-10 preamp. This Zanden amp really seems interesting...

Roysen · Jul 14, 2013

mep said:
This may well be a great sounding amp, I'm just not a fan of amps that look like they were built into a computer tower case. Can you say VTL, ARC, Dart, and a few others (ML to name another one)?

I on the other hand really like that.

LL21 · Jul 14, 2013

jfrech said:
Audio Exotics has some interesting forums and exposure to some different gear than we always see in the USA. It's partially what turned me on to most recent purchase...Robert Koda K-10 preamp. This Zanden amp really seems interesting...

Agree...they are passionate extremists over there...but some of the stuff they rave about really is great. You own one of them (koda) so you know what i Am talking about. I would love to hear the new Zanden amp...love their digital and have heard the ref monos.

wizard · Jul 15, 2013

View attachment 10748

wizard · Jul 15, 2013

View attachment 10749

wizard · Jul 15, 2013

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LL21 · Jul 15, 2013

Thanks wizard! Any notes on specs or comments about how they sound?

andromedaaudio · Jul 15, 2013

Hey there is my amp as well , but thats the monoblock version , i have the stereo

NorthStar · Jul 15, 2013

wizard said:
View attachment 10748

Is this one of the largest audio tubes around?

NorthStar · Jul 15, 2013

Roysen said:
View attachment 10725

How tall is it? ...The tube.

wizard · Jul 15, 2013

View attachment 10754

andromedaaudio · Jul 15, 2013

Mine is a little different , this one has one little tube more , but they are also 300 B based amps iirc the big monos are 845 up until this last design

_DSC0337 by andromeda61, on Flickr

I might post a picture of the inside this weekend with the transformers

here you go : Tamura transformers

DSC_0073 by andromeda61, on Flickr

DSC_0071 by andromeda61, on Flickr

DSC_0072 by andromeda61, on Flickr

DSC_0075 by andromeda61, on Flickr

DonH50 · Jul 16, 2013

andromedaaudio said:
In holland there was a guy (diy) who designed an amp around the TB3 - 2000 , the 833 is a dwarf compared to that thing.
huge : http://home.tiscali.nl/fishbowl.amping/bouwfase.html

http://forum.zelfbouwaudio.nl/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=12736 scroll down for pics absolutely massive , never heard it unfortunately

There you have some single ended power

Look up the ML-6696A or -6697A (60 kW), or even the Eimacs 3CV200000D3 or ML-7482 (200 kW). Makes the little 2 kW ham tubes look tiny... I helped at a radio/TV station that used some large RF tubes in their 100 kW transmitters, water or vapor cooled. Serious antenna feeds (coax to the antenna had nitrogen piped through to expel any air and moisture).

andromedaaudio · Jul 22, 2013

Pretty big the first one , but does it have a glass bulb or something else with liquid cooling???

http://www.tubecollectors.org/eimac/archives/ml6696a-6697a.pdf

Interesting read about aging and "" seasoning "" of tubes on page 3

Maybe the tube designers should design some 1 KW triodes, maybe then the SS guys with vampire loudspeakers will stop complaining how bad tubes sound .

I hope the dutch zanden importer will buy a pair of choukus so i can listen to them at a show

Ps ive just polished my zanden with degreasing spray its like new again , and i doubt i ll ever sell it

andromedaaudio · Jul 22, 2013

Roysen tip :why dont you buy a pair of choukus plus a pair of XLFs and get the whole amplification problem (biamping what ever ) over with , 40 watts per channel should work fine.

Zanden Aiudio Chouku - new statement mono amp from Zanden Audio

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