ASI amplifiers - anyone seen or heard?

Hyperion

Well-Known Member
Oct 3, 2011
441
231
950
Stockholm/Sweden
A few high-end dealers that I've been in contact with recently believe these newly introduced amplifiers to be among the very best out there (clearly outperforming brands such as Soulution, Vitus, Gryphon, Karan...). Has anyone seen or heard them? Designed by Frank Tchang and constructed and assembled my Karan.

http://cybwiz.blogspot.com/2011/02/franck-tchang-liveline-asi.html


 

Whatmore

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2011
1,011
2
438
Melbourne, Australia
Apparently it delivers 2.4kW
http://www.francktchang.com/electronics.html

The other frank will be interested :)

Mt Tchang also makes Acoustic Resonators:
From 6moons:
Franck Tchang of Acoustic System Int'l has played the guitar forever. He is fascinated by harmonics, tone, modes and composition. He's also a trained and practicing goldsmith. Add those two passions and you arrive at his mindboggling acoustic resonators. Those are tiny metal bowls riding atop a trident cradle whose shaft is embedded in a grain-oriented, well seasoned soft or hard Maple wood sliver, with the bowls made from copper, silver, gold or Platinum alloys like Japanese or Tibetan singing bowls, winged protrusions added like an inverted Wagner warrior helmet. Once I tell you that these devices alter a home's acoustic ambience regardless of whether you listen to music or not
 

fas42

Addicted To Best
Jan 8, 2011
3,973
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0
NSW Australia
Interesting. As I have already mentioned before it's not too hard to produce this level of power, pro equipment routinely is capable of such performance. It's all about how well the final product is crafted, and this appears to be very well done.

The chap behind it, Karan, has a slightly less powerful monoblock, KA M 200, available under his own name, so this would appear to be a special edition of that design. He's using bridging of two stereo channels to get the voltage swing, something that my old Perreaux was set up to do in the early 80's, and in fact that 30 year old design has a slightly larger voltage swing used as a mono amp. Where the ASI wins is that it has enormously higher current output capacity, and from the looks of it a very well engineered power supply. It is not quite in Krell territory, the transformer isn't big enough to square off against their most ambitious units.

The other downside is weight, 90Kg per side, and cost, 70,000 euros (single or per pair??); at the moment I'm sticking with class D, bigger voltage swing, not as much current output, but much greener!!

Reading between the lines, the ASI should be a very, very nice sounding amp ...

Frank (the other,)
 

Orb

New Member
Sep 8, 2010
3,010
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0
Apparently it delivers 2.4kW
http://www.francktchang.com/electronics.html

The other frank will be interested :)

Mt Tchang also makes Acoustic Resonators:
From 6moons:

LOL I was starting to get a bit bugged as I was sure I recognised Frank Tchang name, then your post reminded me with the resonators.
I wonder who is the design engineer for these amps.
Edit:
Is Milan Karan definitely the designer of these amps?
Cheers
Orb
 

Orb

New Member
Sep 8, 2010
3,010
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0
NVM here is a bit more info on the ASI/Milan Karan design at a show:
http://www.stereotimes.com/Munich2011Key3.shtml
About half way/two thirds down.

Seems to be promising, and Milan Karan is a respected engineer with good history on audio equipment that are well liked and have a following.

Cheers
Orb
 

LL21

Well-Known Member
Dec 26, 2010
14,411
2,509
1,448
heat sinks look like boulder 2060. interesting...pls post if anyone hears this.
 

Hyperion

Well-Known Member
Oct 3, 2011
441
231
950
Stockholm/Sweden
Official prices are as follows:

ASI Grand Mono: 50.000€ (pair)
ASI Grand Stereo: 30.000€
ASI Grand Stereo/ASI Liveline: 25.000€

I can't tell if these are new designs all together, or if the inner workings are based on existing Karan amps (which might be the KA S600 or KA M 2000).
 

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