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Albarry M-408 Mono Blocks

They do sound very ordinary when first plugged in, but should start sounding right after a day or so. I hope they work out for you after your efforts finding a pair!

Dave
 
Hi Dave

Thanks for the encouragement, I can tell you that I have needed it for some time with these M-408's, what a journey this has been, first the long hall search for a pair, then multiple faults and consequent repairs and re-builds, finally I believe that all is working as it should, however still with no circuit protection.

I must admit to being a little confused by some of the posts here referring to the infra-red/opto-coupler protection circuit used in the original design as being "THE SOUND" of the M-408's, what on earth is this all about :confused: I really believe that any protection circuit in any amp shoud be totally transparant to the signal path, and as a consequence the sound produced.

I know for a fact that the Velleman protection circuit as suggested by Andrea Ciuffoli on his excellent site has no effect upon the final sound of the M-408, it does nothing until the shit hits the fan, so it is truly transparant in this regard.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Andrea of Audio Design Guide for all his help and advice, for his patience and consistant encouragement for his part in getting me to this point of euphoria with these amps, he has been a true legend, many thanks Andrea.

Does anyone out there still own an Albarry DMP1 pre-amp the associated APS1 pre power supply, I would love to hear from any owners of this pre-amp and their opinion of its potential, I have heard nothing but crap comments with respect to this pre-amp, if anyone still has one in use please post your comments, good or bad :D
Paul
 
Dunno how the protection works on Albarry's, but some limiters will induce soft-clipping of sorts I believe.

My bridged Crown D-60's are fine until a failure and/or clip point abd then they go into hard VI limiting via multiple, rather than global feedback loops being used. Perhaps not needed in a domestic situation, but when a driver tranny failed, all that happened was that the sound became very distorted, the failure contained to the component affected.

Think I've got the above right, but if not, someone will hopefully correct me.
 
Pulse Studio said:
I must admit to being a little confused by some of the posts here referring to the infra-red/opto-coupler protection circuit used in the original design as being "THE SOUND" of the M-408's, what on earth is this all about :confused: I really believe that any protection circuit in any amp shoud be totally transparant to the signal path, and as a consequence the sound produced.
Paul
Click to expand...

Hi David, I think that most limiter circuits will only be audible when the peak level or current drawn reaches an unbearable point, so under normal operation should remain as I said, "transparant" to the sound at the speakers, I really don't see how it could be anything other.

Does anyone here have any experience of protection circuits and their effects on the "sound" if any of power amps, please come forward all you true bodgers on this forum and clear this mystery up for me.

Paul
 
Thanks so much Alan, how are things with you these days, still got the NCC200 and Naim NAC32.5 ?? I still have my NCC200 build/NAC112x and NAP160/NAC42, they all offer a different approach to musical pleasure, none individually offer 100% ultimate nirvana though, it is fun swapping the Naim pre's with the Albarry pre and like wise with the power amps, which is what I have been doing for the past week or so and has proved to be very interesting. In fact the slightly brighter and more detailed NCC200 power amp suits the Albarry DMP1 beautifully and vice vers with the Albarry mono blocks and the NAC112x, all interesting stuff. I ses that you got the Mil spec wet Tants in place and are very pleased with the end results, I have been experimenting with the Tant beads for collector/emitter TR5 by-pass in the NCC200, using a 68uF 35V and it sounds really very well balanced on my set-up, just had a few of them lying around so I thought I'd give it a go and I have been pleasantly surprised, still use the Mis spec wet tants for feedback duties though ;)

Paul
 
Do you know why they are called Albarry? I was working in Manchester in 1978 to 80 and got to know Albert henshaw very well who started Bespoke Audio in Stockport. They sold Allison speakers of which i had a pair of Ones's and got to know Albert and business partner Barry very well. They loved the Trio LO5 monoblocks and they challenged Neil to better them. So infact the Albarry was borrowed from the Trio amp concept. They became Albarry because they combined their names Albert and Barry = Albarry.

BTW I agree - excellent amps had a tri-amped set up with Allison Ones - Neil made me a pair of active crossovers but they never wentinto production.


EDIT - sorry hadn't read page one and just realised you all know about Albert and Barry - would love to speak to Albert again if anyone has a contact - he came to my wedding in 1980 but haven't seen him since that time. Did you know about the Trio connection though!?
 
Hi ellamoo

Thank you so much for this info, is there anything else you can grace us mere mortals with?
Yes Les W and Richard D have given the heads up re the origins of these 80's classics, do you have any further knowledge of Neil Burnett who apparently designed them, not sure if Les meant the actual circuit or the aesthetics ! any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Do you still own your tri-amp set-up ?? or any Albarry amps/pre-amps, do you have any info on any of the range, spec sheets and product lists, all this info would be so useful, as Richard suggested in an earlier post there should be a dedicated web site for these amps IMO, they appear to have a loyal following some 25 years down the line.
Thanks again for your input ellamoo and any other help re the Trio connection would be gratefully recieved.
cheers
Paul
 
Hi all, sorry if this is all a bit vague! a guy on the forum who posts as Dandy (i think) who i nearly bought some Audio Physics speaker from a while back, had six of the Red Albarry's (going to use them with DBLs) and two of the Black lower powered versions.
The Red ones sounded good, But the Black version sounded simply sublime, easily bettering some heavily modified Bel Canto monoblocks and making the Lyngdorf SDA i took with me sound pants!:D

*My apologies! i see Dandys posted on the first page! Youve still got the amps then?
 
Hi Muz640

I have had a few mail exchanges with Dave (dandy) over the past months, yes he does still have them all, lucky begger :D and he loves them, I believe that Dave has a selection of both Grey and Red perspex M-408 and M-1008, 40 watt and 100 watt respectively, the grey panelled ones I believe are the M-1008's, Dave ???? but I thought these were just as good as the M-408's, they only appear to have an extra pair of output transistors going from the circuit, and a higher voltage power supply, as far as I know all else being equal so I don't think they should sound that different, but this is not the first time I have heard it said though, but I think it is the M-408's that have recieved the acclaim, which are the lower powered amps :confused:
Thanks for your post muz
Paul
 
The 'grey' perspex model was the M1008, a 100 watt mono block. This was a later model and IMO not as good as the M408 and early 408's were sweeter than the later models. The Albarry reputation was based on the M408.
 
Paul - SOA protection and 'clipping' are actually two different things IMO. But 'soft clip' circuits are interesting. Ben Duncan long ago made the point that the 'hard clip' point (running into the rails) is inexorable for any amp, so 'soft clip' circuits *must* come into action earlier than the usual overdrive protection. Which might mean they are in play within the range ordinary listening... Something to think about, anyway: I'd love to have a poke about inside your amps [swapsies for a deltec or two ;) ]
 
martin clark said:
Paul - SOA protection and 'clipping' are actually two different things IMO. But 'soft clip' circuits are interesting. Ben Duncan long ago made the point that the 'hard clip' point (running into the rails) is inexorable for any amp, so 'soft clip' circuits *must* come into action earlier than the usual overdrive protection. Which might mean they are in play within the range ordinary listening... Something to think about, anyway: I'd love to have a poke about inside your amps [swapsies for a deltec or two ;) ]
Click to expand...

Oooooweeeeer Sir you want to poke about inside my amps!! you devil !! you are more than welcome to have a poke mate, are we still doing the Bath lunch meet sometime this summer ?? if so I could bring them over to you then, I do have other amps to use but maybe I should have a listen to what the pro's listen too :D
I get the point about soft clip limiting and hard clipping protection, but the Albarry original protection uses an opto-coupler, the diode section across both the emitter resistors on the output trannies, so sensing current/voltage changes, ie a SOA circuit, but unlike a transistor SOA circuit the opto-cicuit does not need to be slightly biased on does it ?? if this is correct then the opto-coupler circuit would not have a detremental effect upon normal listening conditions, however a transistor based SOA circuit could introduce a small amount of distortion due to the biasing of the sensing transistor, or do I have this all wrong ? at present I have no form of protection at all, I am trusting to lady luck, so far she has been good, shhhhhh !! she may hear and pop a trannie again ;)
Paul
 
Martin I will try to find time to trace the protection circuit used on the original M-408's, I have taken a stack of pics of the board, so should be easy enough to do, mail me a suitable date for a visit, quite fancy a stroll around glorious Bath in the sunshine.
Oh BTW will post the boards to you on monday.

Paul
 
Pulse Studio;840113]Thanks so much Alan, how are things with you these days, still got the NCC200 and Naim NAC32.5 ?? I still have my NCC200 build/NAC112x and NAP160/NAC42, they all offer a different approach to musical pleasure, none individually offer 100% ultimate nirvana though, it is fun swapping the Naim pre's with the Albarry pre and like wise with the power amps, which is what I have been doing for the past week or so and has proved to be very interesting. In fact the slightly brighter and more detailed NCC200 power amp suits the Albarry DMP1 beautifully and vice vers with the Albarry mono blocks and the NAC112x, all interesting stuff. I ses that you got the Mil spec wet Tants in place and are very pleased with the end results, I have been experimenting with the Tant beads for collector/emitter TR5 by-pass in the NCC200, using a 68uF 35V and it sounds really very well balanced on my set-up, just had a few of them lying around so I thought I'd give it a go and I have been pleasantly surprised, still use the Mill spec wet tants for feedback duties though ;)
Click to expand...

Paul, presently using Audio Research LS3 pre and NCC200 X 2 power amps Bi amped, thanks for the tip on the wet axial tants in the feed back position produced a dramatic difference / improvement, the film decoupling caps also smoothed out the sound, I am very happy with my amps now but will continue experimenting (just because I can:D)
When I get time I still intend to build a line stage / pre amp using the 829 boards I got from LesW and your 32.5 board;)
Did you find the tant beads better than the BC128s?

The Albarrys are still stunning it doesn’t matter if they are not as good as the amps available today, I am sure you are still sitting listening with a big grin of self satisfaction after getting them up and running again. Nice one.
I still love to listen and watch my TEAC 3440 reel to reel player its far more sexy that a CD player.

Alan

Paul[/QUOTE]
 
Hi Alan
I hadn't realised that you were bi-amped, nice one, I imagine that your system sounds really spot on now ;) pleased that the wet tants worked for you too, I have been extolling the virtues of these caps since replacing all the signal path caps in my Crimson amps back in the mid 80's, still have them too, in fact I contacted Crimson not so long ago and the man himself responded, Mr Brian Powell who designed them, another worthy 80's design IMHO, I used to power the Crimson Pre-amp back in those days with 2x 12V SLAB's too, as I do my NAC112x and 323 Phono stage now, some things never change for me ;)

I don't like or use BC128's anywhere, this is not a critisism of the cap, just a personal preference, I use either Tant Beads or Wet Tants for the by-pass cap across TR5.

Yes to have the Albarry set-up finally staring back at me and glowing red in the corner of the room is a joy to see, they are not Naim 'U' Like sound though, quite the opposite in fact, more dynamic tube warmth IMHO, they exhibit a kind of relaxing pleasure to the music and the detail, although all there, it doesn't jump out at you and grab you by the throat and say listen to me, but you become more aware of it the more you live with these amps, well that is my experience, I think that Dave ( dandy ) was correct when he said that you have to give them some time, and I believe that is not for anything to settle in or bed down but simply that your ears and mind set get used to the program material presentation, I will not be changing them that is a fact ;)

I too have some R2R's as you know, and I whole heartedly agree with you mate, I can sit and watch my big 10" spools chunder round for hours and get lost in the music, and surely this is what it should all be about !! isn't it ??

Paul
 
Pulse Studio said:
Hi ellamoo

Thank you so much for this info, is there anything else you can grace us mere mortals with?
Yes Les W and Richard D have given the heads up re the origins of these 80's classics, do you have any further knowledge of Neil Burnett who apparently designed them, not sure if Les meant the actual circuit or the aesthetics ! any suggestions greatly appreciated.
Do you still own your tri-amp set-up ?? or any Albarry amps/pre-amps, do you have any info on any of the range, spec sheets and product lists, all this info would be so useful, as Richard suggested in an earlier post there should be a dedicated web site for these amps IMO, they appear to have a loyal following some 25 years down the line.
Thanks again for your input ellamoo and any other help re the Trio connection would be gratefully recieved.
cheers
Paul
Click to expand...


Hi Paul - I don't have these amps any anymore -long gone. Not sure what else I can add so a few bits and pieces. Barry was a carpenter by trade - a really nice guy - in the end found the shop too stressful and bowed out. he'd go through several roll-ups just adjusting a Linn on the rig. They were big fans of the Thoresn 124 Mk 2 turntable - they all owned one - this was the reference source for production.

The Albarry production was tense process and I know in the early days they were hit by production process problems but survived. Their shop Bespoke Audio was a new venture and TRio gave them a special dealership which meant they were one of the first to promote the Trio L07D turntable. In turn they loved the Trio amps that were in this suite of manufacture. So what came first were the power amps - Neil used the Trios as the benchmark - and interestingly Bill Beard Valve power amps too - we all agreed these were great amps! The preamp was also an attempt to beat the Trio preamp that came with the Trio suite - they thought they got close!

Those were great days. I was working on a TV game show called Its a Knockout and my escape was to spend some hours in the shop and I helped out selling some of their stock for them just for fun of being involved. They repaid me with a special deal on the L07D - maybe one of the great turntables of all time. My triamped Allison Ones with the Albarry's were the first ever but not before doing a Beard tri-amped system which in those days was a total Naim/Linn/isobarik killer!

Neil designed the circuits. I dont know about the aesthetics.

Happy days - these were one serious amp - Neil was a genius - is he still with us - one never knows these days? Would love to speak to Albert again if anyone knows where he is.

All the best :)
 
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