advertisement


Nytech Audio / Ion Systems Appreciation Thread

I had a 3+Xpak and it was a great amp, definately way ahead of a Nait 2 imo.

I went to the factory in Newtown, cycled from Knighton and met Richard Hay there. Real shame the company went bust.
 
Any of these of any interest?

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion1001.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion2001.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion3001.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion4001.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion5001.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion6001.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion7001.jpg Whoops sorry

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion8001.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion9001.jpg

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion10001.jpg

Those are Ion sales leaflets of the day (1991) when I bought a pair of the superb MA400s
and later another pair for biamping. Here is a pic in my system with them in. The MA400s bettered Linn and Naim amps
of the day in dems to my ears anyway.

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb453/mountainbiker3/ion11001.jpg

I have owned a CTA252xd so did my Dad when my amp in the 252 failed I used it as a seperate tuner
till that failed they were very good and if you have a working one no doubt still are!
 
The Nexus pre/powers were very nice too.

I had the SP1 pre with 300va power supply/MA40 monos with the 750VA p/s

Sold them to a guy in Hungary.

Paul.
 
Epic post mountain biker. Thank you.

They weren't cheap were they! :D Serious business some of those systems, a tri-amped monoblock system at £5k. I wonder how much that would be at today's industry prices? I had no idea they were so high end, fancy cables even!

I would never have guessed the Obelisk 3x and X-Pak 1 were above a Nait, there is one coming up on ebay this evening so it will be interesting to see how time has treated them both...

If there are any more photos of either Nytechs or Ions in the wild, please share them, it would be great to hear more tales too, especially about the people involved with them.
 
deltaunit said:
Epic post mountain biker. Thank you.

They weren't cheap were they! :D Serious business some of those systems, a tri-amped monoblock system at £5k. I wonder how much that would be at today's industry prices? I had no idea they were so high end, fancy cables even!

I would never have guessed the Obelisk 3x and X-Pak 1 were above a Nait, there is one coming up on ebay this evening so it will be interesting to see how time has treated them both...

If there are any more photos of either Nytechs or Ions in the wild, please share them, it would be great to hear more tales too, especially about the people involved with them.
Click to expand...

They are bloody heavy too massive torrodial and giant caps and only 50watt but thats only half the story its the sound that captivates :)
 
A reasonable looking Ion Obelisk 3x + xpak 1 just sold on the 'bay for £160. A total bargain at that price, although the pick-up only may have had a bearing there. Either way, someone got a cracking amp for the money. Anybody reading this thread?
 
I bought an Obelisk 1 from Brooksy in 1991.

Soon swapped for a 3X-XPak, which I soon paired with another for bi-amping.

Excellent stuff which outclassed all NAIM for me, not just the 'equivalent' models.

Sorry I sold them.

And I loved the looks. Cool, minimalist but purposeful design with that nice touch of red in the logo.

Well cool

I've always hankered after an FMT 1 or 2. Do folks think they would still be OK, or 'fixable' if not?

Mull
 
Mullardman said:
I bought an Obelisk 1 from Brooksy in 1991.

Soon swapped for a 3X-XPak, which I soon paired with another for bi-amping.

Excellent stuff which outclassed all NAIM for me, not just the 'equivalent' models.

Sorry I sold them.

And I loved the looks. Cool, minimalist but purposeful design with that nice touch of red in the logo.

Well cool

I've always hankered after an FMT 1 or 2. Do folks think they would still be OK, or 'fixable

Mull
Click to expand...

Did well out of us two did Chris in 1991 thats when I bought mine plus a Kairn and my second LP12 :D
 
quickie said:
The Nexus pre/powers were very nice too.

I had the SP1 pre with 300va power supply/MA40 monos with the 750VA p/s

Sold them to a guy in Hungary.

Paul.
Click to expand...

was the name of the guy "Gergo"..if yes,it's in good hands,don't worry:D..a big Ion lover-user,main system with mono's and stereo power amp,which is also dual mono ,fm1,pre with psu,big mc card inserted,xerxes 20 plus-artemiz 2-zyx 1000 gold,bi-amped roksan darius,second system also from Ion,and several spare units on other shelf also Ion's:D

As Expo 3010s2 and Tannoy D700 user,i like it also:p
 
JezmondTutu said:
I had a 3+Xpak and it was a great amp, definately way ahead of a Nait 2 imo.

I went to the factory in Newtown, cycled from Knighton and met Richard Hay there. Real shame the company went bust.
Click to expand...

I also visited the Newtown Ion factory (well, small industrial unit) I remember being shown the Ion Obelisk Tuner which the staff were very pleased with. I own a dead CA 252 which I WILL get round to sending to a PFer who seems to know about this gear! I was sold the Nytech with a pair of Mk 1 Kans by an independent consultant who worked out of a couple of rooms above a cake shop in Moseley, Brum. Can't remember his name but he bought a load of cakes from downstairs and we auditioned a Linn/Nytech/Kan system while scoffing said cakes cross legged on the floor! Those were the days...
 
deltaunit said:
My knowledge of their value was based solely on the secondhand prices they fetch, i.e. about a 1/3 of a Nait 2.
Click to expand...

The nytechs were down on the quality of the case, but there is no doubt they are excellent in many respects. Large transformers, perhaps the power supplies weren't as good. I'm not aware of the power amplifier design, but they sound sweet to my ears.

Mine has been going strong for nearly 30 years.
 
If anyone wants/needs them I have the pre and power amp stage circuit diagrams for the obelisk 3, along with manual and brochure from hifiengine. Drop me a pm with email address if you want them.
 
I agree with Mudlark, the casework did let the amps down. From an electronic design point of view they were good though. They chose to use their own transistor regulators and capacitor multipliers rather than go down the Naim road of using IC regulators. This decision gave them the edge in terms of sound quality and improvement potential IMHO but at the expense of a more complex circuit and build. The wiring inside the cases to the multiple boards in a tight space was a tricky job in the factory. The build costs must have been higher as a result and dug into their margins. Check out this picture of the CP112:

SANY0366a.jpg


There were a multitude of other clever design tricks in the Nytechs and Ions. On some of the power amps they had two feedback networks, one either side of the output capacitor. That made the output cap more linear in the circuit and is arguably a better design choice than having a direct coupled split rail amp circuit like the Naim one. I have modified some Ion Obelisks by adding this second feedback loop around the output cap to good effect. The evidence is here:

nytechca252pwr.jpg


There are other real improvements that can be made to the already well designed Nytech/Ion power/pre amp circuits that do nothing but develop its qualities further. That's why I like these amps so much. The only problem is fittting the improvements into the case - which is why Ion themselves came up with the piggybacked power supply option. Some guys have admired the design so much they have done a total rebuild:

N252internal2.jpg


I do have some gripes from a circuit design point of view though. The early Nytech/Ion Obelisks had poor thermal management in their power amp. This was sorted in later versions but I have mended three that had gone into thermal runaway and blown fuses and output trannies. They were skimping on heatsinks and it caught them out a bit. I've got the picies to prove it. I get the feeling that they briefly lost the understanding of their own design, possibly when some key individual left. There is evidence that they tried to copy and scale down earlier circuits and misunderstood how they worked for a while when the Obeisk came out. They sorted the glaring errors but never fully replicated all the clever bits from the Nytech era.

What I hope to do one day is design an amp that incorporates all the best bits of the Nytech and Ion amps, and have it all on a single circuit board in a decent case. That would be a winner.

John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top