Exhausted, I walked again into city and descended stairs right into a conveniently situated nook restaurant. I needed to eat quick as a result of my practice again was departing quickly. In search of one thing fast, I ordered miso soup and eel over rice. Think about my shock when I discovered myself gazing into probably the most wondrous bowl of soup I might ever seen. Floating on prime of its clear, brown broth have been numerous greens and herbs, every completely positioned in relationship to the opposite, as in a handcrafted textile. I felt as if I might been granted personal entry to an important murals.
And the style. Oh, the style. It was as completely proportioned, complicated, and multilayered because the soup’s floor. If I had not been compelled to eat quick in an effort to make the practicetrains in Japan are by no means lateI’d have spent 15 or 20 minutes consuming slowly, savoring every mouthful and considering the myriad tastes and sensations.
What does all this must do with the Electrocompaniet AW 800 M Reference energy amplifier ($22,500/every) that’s the topic of this overview? You will must learn on to search out out.
Earlier than the soup, there was Electrocompaniet
Fifty years in the pasteight years earlier than Krell issued its first stable state amplifierNils Bjarne Kvam based Electrocompaniet in Norway. After attending a symposium at which a famed professor, Dr. Matti Otala, offered a paper on easy methods to keep away from the transient intermodulation distortion that prevented transistor-based amplifiers from delivering credible high-fidelity sound, Kvam returned to Norway, joined up with PA programs producer Per Abrahamsen, and proceeded to construct some amplifier prototypes. Three years later, in 1976, Electrocompaniet launched its first energy amplifier, a two-channel, 25Wpc mannequin. The Audio Critic quickly hailed it because the best-sounding transistor amplifier on the earth.
In its fiftieth anniversary yr, Electrocompaniet now consists of six staff who focus primarily on gross sales and improvement. Manufacturing takes place subsequent door in an enormous electronics manufacturing facility run by Electrocompaniet’s sister firm, Westcontrol, which manufactures audio merchandise for just one firm, Electrocompaniet.
“We had good distribution within the US again within the day,” Lasse Danielsen, Electrocompaniet’s gross sales and advertising and marketing director, advised me close to the beginning of a chat throughout AXPONA 2023. After I sat down with Danielsen, Electrocompaniet CEO Björn Kindingstad, and Antal Distribution Nationwide Gross sales Supervisor Frank Gazzo, I had not but heard the Electrocompaniet AW 800 M Reference monoblocks. “Then, when issues weren’t going nice, we began to handle our personal distribution for some time. That did not prove very nicely both, so we have teamed up with Antal to reinvigorate distribution in the USA.” On the time of our dialogue, Electrocompaniet had 12 US sellers. Two months later, the quantity had grown to fifteen. Fifteen sellers for 15 Electrocompaniet fashions.
As I began studying then and continued to study from a collection of follow-up emails, the design of the Electrocompaniet AW 800 M Reference is new “from the bottom up.” The amplifier first reached the market in January 2023, after three years of improvement. Danielsen described it as a completely discrete, true-balanced, class-AB design with roughly 10W in pure class-A. All of the amp’s pre-stagesevery thing earlier than the output stageruns in pure class-A. Output is a large 800W into 8 ohms, 1500W into 4 ohms, and a mighty 2200W into 2 ohms.
“Each parameter contained in the amp is approach forward of something we have ever produced earlier than,” Danielsen stated. “It is a dual-monoblock configuration with two amplifiers inside which can be bridged. There is a swap on the again to make use of it as two particular person amplifiers in stereo mode, or with one other in biamping mode. With every thing redesigned, based mostly on the identical topology we have used earlier than, it accommodates higher elements, a greater transformer, and higher mechanical and electrical isolation. The noisefloor is extraordinarily low; it is the blackest-sounding amplifier we have ever made. It is pitch black once you take heed to the quiet elements of the music.
“The amp contains an RF filter supposed to take away widespread mode and differential high-frequency noise from the road. The transformers embrace an electrostatic protect that blocks noise from coupling because it strikes between the first and secondary wirings. An inside DC filter reduces uneven principal AC voltage and prevents DC voltage from saturating the transformers and inflicting mechanical noise.” For these causes, Danielsen stated, Electrocompaniet had achieved the most effective outcomes with the amplifier plugged straight into the wall moderately than into an influence conditioner. I made a decision to comply with their lead.
Danielsen despatched data from Electrocompaniet’s engineer and augmented it by e-mail over time. In edited kind, it reads: “The AW 800 M makes use of Electrocompaniet’s direct-coupled excessive open-loop bandwidth topology, additional enhanced by a excessive slew-rate and really high-bandwidth amplifier phases. Our topology has all the time been known as ‘Ampliwire,’ aka ‘AW.’ On this new amplifier, AW know-how is additional enhanced to a degree we name ‘Ampliwire 2.’ The concept behind the time period is that the amplifier ‘amplifies the wire’ from the supply with out altering or coloring its sound in any approach. So the sound stays as near the unique as attainable.
“As well as, a brand-new output stage with 32 high-bandwidth, high-current bipolar output transistors closely shields the enter and driver phases from the load and makes the output extraordinarily stiff, unaffected by the related load. This has the additional advantage of considerably simplifying the workload of the suggestions system, which is already working gently, thereby offering vanishingly low distortion figures.
“To feed the output stage, the tremendously up to date energy provide now has a complete of 210,000µF provide filtering. The mains energy enter is DC- and RF-filtered. The upgraded twin toroidal, wire gauge transformers are magnetically and electrostatically shielded to stop any noise intrusion. The interior floor reference has been vastly enlarged and saved totally freed from rectifying and output currents. The result’s a really clear, noise-free output sign no matter output energy, offering a really steady soundstage with the blackest background attainable at any sound degree.
“The AW 800 M additionally options design upgrades together with a brand new entrance plate design with a 3D brand and a brand new energy button design. The chassis has been re-engineered from the bottom up. Its new modular design building has been enhanced by two black, brushed-aluminum rods excessive that make the chassis way more inflexible and contribute to its aesthetic enchantment.”
The Electrocompaniet signature sound
Kindingstad stated that the brand new design wasn’t motivated by unhappiness with the efficiency of earlier amplifiers; “We simply knew we might do it higher.” The portal to “higher” was opened by the arrival of a brand new engineer who had fallen in love with Electrocompaniet’s sound and had studied its engineering since he was a younger child.
“Soundwise, we predict there is a heat to our sound,” Kindingstad continued. “That does not imply that it is incorrect or coloured in any approach. Identical to one singer has one voice and the opposite singer has a special voice, completely different amplifiers have completely different voices. That does not imply that one is out of tune; they simply sound completely different.
“We wish individuals to concentrate on and luxuriate in music. We predict you possibly can take heed to the nice and cozy, pure, and natural sound of our amplifiers for a very long time with out ever getting fatigued. You will not get drained, particularly when it will get loud. And there is not any noisefloor that you could hear.” As I questioned what phrases I would ultimately use to explain the sound of an amplifier I’d encounter for the primary time later that day at AXPONA, Kindingstad characterised the sonic signature of Electrocompaniet elements as “the Nordic Tone” or “Nordic Sound.” “Our sound is somewhat bit tender, however additionally it is crisp, very good, and really detailed. I consider it as one thing natural and lightweightlike going into the woods and listening to a creek.” I’ve hung out alongside the Olympic Peninsula’s Quilcene River, listening intently to the sound of the water with a dB meter in my hand. I used to be intrigued.
“It is like a nature sound,” Danielsen provided. “One of the well-known Norwegian landmarks is a couple of miles from our workplace. It is a very wild panorama over a fjord, and you’ll see the sundown over the fjord and the large mountains past. It is fairly tender, nevertheless it’s additionally somewhat deep as you expertise the depth of the fjords and the peak of the mountains. And, as a lot as we love the sunshine, easy elements of nature, we additionally embrace the ruggedness of the tough mountain terrain and the dramatic nature of our a part of the world. We attempt to re-create this complete environment.”
Classical music lovers might not be shocked to study that when requested if there was music that exemplifies the Nordic Tone, Danielsen cited “Morning Temper” from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt. “It begins with the solar rising,” he stated. “There is a little bit of dew on the grass, and you’ll hear the small birds and bugs waking up. Then you could have this superb music when the solar breaks out in full. It is best to take heed to it, as a result of it captures that very good, easy Norwegian environment with the darkness of the trolls within the floor and the glories of the solar developing.”
As I believed to myself how completely different the dawn in Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony is in comparison with Grieg’s depiction, I requested if Danielsen had favourite recordings of Peer Gynt. I acquired a number of suggestions by e-mail and resolved to take heed to no less than one in every of them.
