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Nytech Audio / Ion Systems Appreciation Thread

Thank you John for that fantastic post and for the interesting technical perspective. It would be good to find out a little bit about who worked for them doing what and when, especially who the original designer was. I'd love to know more about some of these reasons behind some of the design decisions and how they differed from their competitors...

It also would be fun to to see some of these Nytech's that have gone wrong!

I think Heed was also mentioned in connection with Ion - I wonder if some of the design ideas carried on in their amplifiers?

Here's a better picture of the capacitor multiplier daughter boards on a late model 252 that might be of interest:




In doing the 102/180 vs 252 test again recently it is easy to come to the conclusion that one of them is certainly overvalued. Even with a HiCap (admittedly unserviced) added to the system they are very close in performance with little between them. I guess this might show the importance of voltage regulation brings as with out the HiCap it is hard to believe a little shoebox integrated can best a costly pre/power setup.

I can't help but wonder just how much better the pre/power Nytech is! :cool:

Has anyone come across any reviews of Nytech stuff on the internet or possibly remembers reading one that they might have still in an old magazine somewhere? It would be great to read some reviews or interview etc.
 
Blimey, this thread took me back a bit.
I still have a CA252 in the back office where it has sat un-used since 1987. Last time it was plugged in it worked just fine - but a switch was not 100% on the facia from memory. One of the side platers is a bit loose as I had no idea how to get into the thing to try and fix the switch.
I would be happy to let one of you guys have it to play with / use for spares etc. While I don't actually desire any payment for it - I would just ask for a reasonable donation to a charity or to PF funds for it seems fair? It could be collected from Dudley or I can ship pretty much anywhere on works UPS acct if req.
It was purchased nearly new in 1986 from Worcester - Peter J. Thistleton Dyer, a Naim dealer as I remember.
* That would be West Midlands Audio as was after a bit of ferreting through old paperwork.
If prefered - please pm.
 
Sonority said:
.
I would be happy to let one of you guys have it to play with / use for spares etc. While I don't actually desire any payment for it - I would just ask for a reasonable donation to a charity or to PF funds for it seems fair? It could be collected from Dudley or I can ship pretty much anywhere on works UPS acct if req.
.
Click to expand...
I feel this is a really good gesture, its nice to make things work again as all too often we throw stuff away that some one can fix.
Wouldnt it be good if some one could fix it and give it to some one who really needs it and would appreciate it.
 
That's a very generous offer Sonority - I had trouble myself opening the case thankfully the good people of PFM came to the rescue.

If I hadn't one already I'd be very tempted. In fact I am very tempted, if the lettering on the power button is in better condition than mine (on the front page) then the temptation might be too much!

:cool:
 
I've just been and got it from the back office - I'll put a picture up later.
Its serial no CA83605 if thats of any use.
The side it not loose as I remember - I obviously re-assembled it better than my memory allowed.
The power button is just fine. Disc/Aux Tape Mon are slightly naff. A couple of places where the powder coating have come adrift - finishing was not a major strong point I imagine.
I know I only ever used it via disc input as I had no cd or tuner back then.
It powered some Mordant Short MS100's for about a year before it was superseded by a 32.5/250 Naim combo.
Cheers.
 
Sorry Bob, you have lost me there?
It has a built in phono stage (mm)
It went loud enough for my neighbour to complain.
Mind you - he used to have a go at the vicar for walking over the (council owned) grass in front of his house..
 
sorry I am being arsey!
you need a power supply if you have a 250. It won't power a 32.5 on its own.
 
I purchased a Nytech 252 from one of the 'high end' Hifi shops in Den Haag when I was working there in the late 70's. I had gone in to look at the "sale" items and spotted it on a shelf, it was so inexpensive, that I thought it was 2nd hand. I assumed that it was unsold because it resembled a large calculator, and probably nobody in Holland had even heard of the company.
I purchased it without a demo' with a pair of Sennheiser HD 424's so that I could listen to it once I got back to my flat. What a surprise I received when I first turned it on and tuned into a radio station to listen. I only sold it in 1981, when I was emigrating to Canada, after 'consulting' with a certain Mr. C. Brooks esq. regarding the possibility of 'easily' converting it to run on 110v.
In 1989 I was in Johannesburg, and considering how helpful Mr Brooks had been previously, I contacted him with a view to assembling a 'compact' system that could be easily sent by air. It consisted of an Ion 3X, Creek T40, Nakamichi CR7, Rega P3 with an Elys and a pair of Royd Edens. What a delight that system turned out to be, considering the relatively low cost of most of the items.
Back in Den Haag in 1990, I returned my original 3X to get it 'up graded' with an X-Pak. Another surprise, the units that were returned to me were both 'brand new' items, and later when they produced the FMT 1, I traded in my Creek T40. Unfortunately in 1996 as Ion were apparently no longer in business, I regretably (with hindsight) decided to 'trade in' my Ion items against a Linn 'aktiv' system.
Currently I have some Heed items (Zene, Questar, Q-PSU, Canamp) waiting to be added to my Lorricraft 401 along with an Audiomods arm, to see if they are an improvement compared to the Rega 301 / Goldring 1042 that was previously fitted.
I would be very interested to hear a 'full' Heed system demonstrated to see how it compares to my old Ion units.

Mike Kelshaw
 
I have a CTA 252 and CXA 252, bought them with Arc 101s that turned out to be dead. I've been meaning to sort them out for a while but I probably won't, what's the going rate for both/either?
 
Steve,

I think someone was looking for a CXA 252 over on the classifieds recently. Are the ARC101's repairable? These all made a great sounding set up in their day and the crossovers can be easily improved too.

John
 
Thanks John. They were and I PMed them, no reply yet.

The ARCs had tragic foam rot and I threw them away, it was 10 years + ago before i knew about Lockwood, DK speakers etc. Back then when a speaker had foam rot it was dead. These days the amps would suit a DIYer, a few XO tweaks and you would have a great active 2 way setup. Failing that the power amp section could be just used as, er, a power amp. I do like the Nytech but you can't keep it all.
 
I have a pair of Ion JC1-A speakers. Rear ported shoebox sized with an external passive crossover to allow upgrade to active. I bought them second hand in 1993-ish. I could try and post piccies if anyone is interested.
 
Definitely some interest in the Ion speakers here - I don't remember seeing them on the price list and haven't seen or heard of them before.

Would be interesting to see what drivers they have.
 
they had the same tweeter as the roksan darius and it had a felt ring around it on the pairs we sold.
the bass unit was amazing and it had an external crossover too.... i ran mine active they were so amazingly good......nearly as good as a full blown pair of roksan darius.

great stuff was ion gear......anyone compare it to the deva stuff?
 
Sonority said:
Blimey, this thread took me back a bit.
I still have a CA252 in the back office where it has sat un-used since 1987. Last time it was plugged in it worked just fine - but a switch was not 100% on the facia from memory. One of the side platers is a bit loose as I had no idea how to get into the thing to try and fix the switch.
I would be happy to let one of you guys have it to play with / use for spares etc. While I don't actually desire any payment for it - I would just ask for a reasonable donation to a charity or to PF funds for it seems fair? It could be collected from Dudley or I can ship pretty much anywhere on works UPS acct if req.
It was purchased nearly new in 1986 from Worcester - Peter J. Thistleton Dyer, a Naim dealer as I remember.
* That would be West Midlands Audio as was after a bit of ferreting through old paperwork.
If prefered - please pm.
Click to expand...

What happened about this? I PM'd you but I bet your box was full pretty quickly!
 
I can give you some insight into the speaker and Deva equipment.

The ION speakers were designed by John Chapman (hence the model name) who had a dealership in Bournemouth (formerly Russ Andrews HiFi).

John was a Nytech/ARC (Linn/Naim/Royd too) dealer and the original JC-1's were built into the ARC Atom cabinets.

They always used a Scanspeak tweeter, the same one that Naim used in that period, presumably for the SBL (John supplied Naim when Scanspeak factory caught fire). The bass unit was his own work with help from Allister from ARC. The frame for the driver was cast aluminum and initially the cones were paper, but changed to polypropylene later on which increased their speed. They were originally made in a friends garage in nearby Poole.

The port came later and many crossovers came and went and the felt was added to the tweeter to disperse the sound. Originally they were not rear ported but sealed, a friend still has a pair of these and they sound lovely, driven by a Naim 42/160. I have a heavily breathed on pair which I used for 25 years, I've kept them as these are really special little speakers.

John closed his dealership and moved to Llaniloes Wales and became the production manager for Ion. His speakers were then made under the ION name until ION folded.

These speakers are magical little speakers. They have all the positives of the Linn Kans but not the negatives, combining the best of the Kans and Royd speakers in my opinion.

I had many prototypes and spend many an hour listening to the development of these, even down to evaluating the sound of different grades of speaker braid. Mine were improved post the ION collapse and are a unique pair. They sound especially good playing Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush Don't Give Up, this track was used extensively during development.

The Deva equipment was designed by the same people who were doing R&D at the end of ION. They went on to form Morgan Audio Systems in Liverpool. This gear was also excellent, I have the DAC, CD Player and amplifier, (look out for the amp for sale shortly!). I changed to the Integrated amp from Ion Nexus monoblocks with matching pre-amp which had previously replaced by Naim 42/Hicap/250 (CB), it was a great amplifier, smooth like the ION but with more drive and PRaT. It was also built much better than the ION equipment.

Richard
 
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