Steve Hoffman's Ongaku

[sphinxsix]

Simple facts. A week ago Steve Hoffman had created a thread about $140k Audio Note Ongaku SET amp he was going to get. He has been quite active on it ever since praising Ongaku and Audio Note in general.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/audio-note-uk-ongaku-kensei-211-valve-single-ended-triode-balanced-amplifier-now-up-running.685663/

Some time later (page 8 of the thread) he admitted that the amp was a GIFT from Audio Note.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/audio-note-uk-ongaku-kensei-211-valve-single-ended-triode-balanced-amplifier-now-up-running.685663/page-8#post-18517942

Furthermore yesterday he 'pinned' (!) a new thread which is a list of Audio Note UK AN-E speakers versions (he himself uses one of them - the AN-E/SPx HE Alnico to be exact) atop the Audio Hardware forum.

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/audio-note-uk-an-e-speaker-choices-from-cheapest-to-most-expensive-a-handy-and-useful-chart.765769/

 

What do you think guys - will the Steve Hoffman's Ongaku ($140k is obviously a retail price) prove to be a good investment for Audio Note.?

I'm pretty sure it will

[sphinxsix]

On 7/30/2018 at 11:15 PM, miguelito said:

Why did I buy this? Mostly because when I was a kid (in Argentina) I saw the Ongaku on the cover of a magazine and I was shocked ...

I can easily understand that. There was an Ongaku review in one of the first audio magazines (maybe even  the very first one) I ever bought. It was so enthusiastic that if I had had the money at that moment I would've probably bought it right after reading it  Not even bothering to listen to it earlier (which wouldn't have made much sense anyway - I had zero critical listening experience back then and I absolutely didn't know what good sound was). I really wonder what it would've sounded like connected to my really shitty $200 speakers I used back then

 

On 7/31/2018 at 1:09 AM, miguelito said:

I do and would be happy to host a listening... See my signature.

A great room and the system. Actually I'm not a big fan of horn speakers but I've heard that Avantgarde speakers don't necessarily sound like typical horns.

 

One more remark - Audio Note UK typically claims the sensitivity of their AN-E speakers to be 98db. According to my knowledge their real sensitivity is usually a little more than 92db (https://www.stereophile.com/content/audio-note-e-lexus-signature-loudspeaker-measurements  ) . That's almost 6db difference. I'd say that the industry 'cheating standard' in this regard is 2-3db. 6db is much more than that so I'm afraid AN customers may be slightly disappointed by the maximum sound pressure level of their upgraded systems (BTW will it be ever possible to sue audio manufacturers for such practices?). Anyway I think I'll stick to my a little more sensitive (almost 95db) speakers. Just in case I heard the Ongaku call some day (been sticking to SS amps for 20 years now but one never knows)

 

 

On 8/1/2018 at 12:13 AM, semente said:

Certainly, the transformer has some inherent problems such as mu-linearity of magnetic core

@christopher3393 Have you heard about 'mu-linearity' before.? (I haven't)

[sphinxsix]

36 minutes ago, the_bat said:

This thread is starting to look like the IT/audio equivalent of industrial archaeology - the Stereophile quote above is ten years old, and the Kondo/Qvortrop parting is nearly twenty.

 

 

Shame on me. I'm probably archeological object too (I'm more than twenty)..

[sphinxsix]

7 hours ago, firedog said:

A 7x markup for high end audio from manufacturers full cost when sold through a distribution channel and a dealer network isn't unknown.

 

I think I once witnessed a situation in which (I estimate) a 20x (!) markup might have taken place: