Re-imagining "Class A" Amplification

[seatrope]

@MarkusBarkus Excited to hear about your audition of the REI bridged. That's going to be pretty awesome.

I've had great results running their own dedicated 10GA lines for each REI monoblock (I just have a single pair, not bridged) using MC solid core Cu 10/2 from a dedicated subpanel being fed by copper 2-2-2-4 GA 100A service from my main panel. I've been using Shunyata CopperCon outlets with Furutech carbon faceplate and wall frames.

Right now I have 6 circuits from that subpanel, all with the same cabling, and all measured to approx the same length to avoid ground loop/differing ground resistance back to the subpanel. No additional power conditioners in the mix, all direct to wall.

In fact, my electrician is coming by tomorrow to install another (7th) 10GA circuit just for my new Quest, which is sounding amazing compared to a direct H connection to the REIs for which i'll provide more details later. Thanks again @gleeds and @LampiNA!

What's interesting and inconvenient to test is that I have a bank of 48 kWh LG RESU16 x3 batteries that I can run the whole house on, peak power of the 3x 7.6kW inverters is 22.8 kW. I am getting MUCH lower THD when completely isolated from the grid (1%) measured on an industrial AC power THD analyzer as compared to grid-synced (4.5%). However, it's annoying to switch over to isolated mode as the whole house power goes down for 3 seconds, turning off the Extreme which as you know does not sound good for a while after power off. So not an experiment I am sure of yet.

Keep us updated!

 

[MarkusBarkus]

I am looking forward to this epic demo. Gary has been a prince to sort through the logistics of pulling this demo together.

The Quest arrived yesterday, ensconced in its Pelican travel shell. I unpacked and powered it up to ensure all is good. REIs are scheduled for Friday. I have made an offering to the shipping gods at FedEx for a good outcome.

The power feed you describe @seatrope looks like an excellent way to manage things. I have considered a sub-panel more local to the audio gear, which makes it easy and technically smooth to run a few dedicated lines.

As it is, I have two dedicated lines: a 12ga and a 10ga running the show. I may not get a new line run before the weekend, so I am wondering if OK for demo to run four REIs off a 12ga line with two Shunyata duplex outlets.

In no way do I think that's optimum, but I may not be able to reasonably expand in the next few days. We'll see.

 

[steve williams]

I am looking forward to this epic demo. Gary has been a prince to sort through the logistics of pulling this demo together.

The Quest arrived yesterday, ensconced in its Pelican travel shell. I unpacked and powered it up to ensure all is good. REIs are scheduled for Friday. I have made an offering to the shipping gods at FedEx for a good outcome.

The power feed you describe @seatrope looks like an excellent way to manage things. I have considered a sub-panel more local to the audio gear, which makes it easy and technically smooth to run a few dedicated lines.

As it is, I have two dedicated lines: a 12ga and a 10ga running the show. I may not get a new line run before the weekend, so I am wondering if OK for demo to run four REIs off a 12ga line with two Shunyata duplex outlets.

In no way do I think that's optimum, but I may not be able to reasonably expand in the next few days. We'll see.

I had a bridged version plus Quest in my system when Gary first took on the line. I was gobsmacked. You are in for a real eye opening experience. I have told Gary and Angus that this amp is IMHO underpriced . It truly checks all boxes.

 

[MarkusBarkus]

...yes, but don't tell them to raise the prices until after I sort myself out! You may be costing me money, Steve!

Looking forward to the demo. Will have a few folks enjoying it with me as well.

 

[steve williams]

...yes, but don't tell them to raise the prices until after I sort myself out! You may be costing me money, Steve!

Looking forward to the demo. Will have a few folks enjoying it with me as well.

If your friends are audiophiles, tell them to bring their check books as the amp/preamp and phono stage for the money makes for a killer system. If I weren't a tube guy for most of my audiophile life, I would own these without a second thought and call it a day as your quest (no pun intended) will be over

 

[seatrope]

I've spent my day off today trying to figure out how to get the Quest (and the Horizon; they have similar remotes) programmed into a universal remote. Has anyone had any luck?

I am attempting to have a one button activity that turns on the Horizon - delay - Quest - delay - REI. REIs are the easy part, I have them triggered on a 12V Lutron RadioRA2 switch that is linked to Alexa and my main home automation system. It's the IR-only Quest and Lampi Horizon that has been the issue. Integrating it all would also automatically turn on the "listening dim lights" in my room (a pair of salt lamps via Lutron, already integrated), turn off the LG heat pump (already integrated), and turn off the air purifier (already integrated).

Using a Harmony Elite, the Harmony claims to "learn" the commands after many attempts but some don't work (Volume Down works but Up does not, no matter how many times I relearned this).

When I actually capture the Quest IR codes with a Global Cache iTach Flex, the codes seem to change/alternate. At first I was super excited as one code would only turn on the Quest but subsequently sending the same code does nothing. The next code seemed to turn off the Quest only. But if I used the remote to toggle the Quest, now the functions of these two distinct codes reversed, with the one formerly doing "power on" now ONLY doing "power off".

You can actually test this yourself with both the Horizon and Quest remotes, interestingly. If you click the power button, then cover the IR window with your hand, and press it again, the next (3rd) press will do NOTHING. the 4th press will work again, and so on. If you keep covering the IR window with every other press, the power button will never work.

I am dreading that both the Horizon and Quest are on some "rolling" code system, which makes it nearly impossible to integrate into a HA system

Does anyone have personal experience?

Just a silly little side project that has nothing to do with sound quality and more to do with WAF who hates too many remotes.