Orchard Audio BOSC Mono block Class D Amplifiers

I got bored, started skim reading then gave up after about 30 seconds. When you have Linn Kans to listen to, time is precious!

Not being funny but watch those speaker connections, looks like the +ve in the top picture is going to pop out.

Subjective bloggers are to me the worst of them all. Jumped up prats who want to be heard and who speak the audiophool speak (maybe it takes one to know one, ymmv). There's a cartridge bod on Youtube who seriously grinds my gears. He says he hates 'digital' so that alone colours both his and my sensibilities and absolutely no reference to a known good sonic reference for his comparisons, so it's all his personal uneducated opinion at that moment and really no use to anyone... Send him to a bloody studio first so he can see how records are mastered and cut and get an idea what it should sound like!

I expect those amps to be very good indeed and any measurable distortion way below our abilities to hear it. I *think* current top quality Class D amps are absolutely benign where speaker loads are concerned, seem good now at all audio frequencies and the extra power means no soft clipping at normal levels so a more effortless and less compressed presentation, maybe making the effect slightly dry compared to soft clippers more usually used domestically. Orchard have too much of a rep at stake to inflict crap on unsuspecting punters... Tiny too, so you could almost hide them away rather than show them off as a badge of honour as many stereo's seem to be presented...

They are supposed to be on extremely short speaker wires and hidden behind the speakers but I haven't got anything short enough to try that with.

Sonically, they are incessantly clean and don't seem to impart anything on the sound. Macca would love these.

I'm impressed so far but they need to open up a touch. Everything still feels a bit "fresh out the factory".

Oh they definitely sound different with every album I've played. No doubt about that.

Listening to some classical via Vinyl, which is rare for me but these amps are exceptionally quick. Fleet of foot so to speak. Nimble maybe but everything is stop start on a 5pnce.

They are doing stuff the Krell didn't manage but at the same time, that Krell slam and the mahoosive dynamic swings aren't there in the same degree.

Listening to this classical album, I am seriously feeling like I'm at the Queens Garden party. It has a really refined and dignified way of delivering the music.

I'll be putting some Metallica through them tomorrow to see how they handle that.

So far, so good.

It was the part about wanting his heart to stop that really put me off. Overkill.

Thanks for the mention.

If anybody has questions, don't hesitate to ask.

I'll save you the trouble...here is what the circuit board inside looks like:

I think 'we' in the UK have to remember that elsewhere in the world, services aren't given away for next to nothing as they often are here, but sold at a fair rate for the work involved. To the likes of many of us forum peeps, amps like this look expensive for what appears to be on offer, but then, the designer has to get the boards drawn up and made if he/she can't do this themselves, most of the components look to be surface mount so I suspect a third party board-stuffer has to make them, the case is a bespoke one by the looks of it and how many are going to be made in a batch - 10,000 at a time, or maybe a hundred or even fifty? Believe me, the numbers made for domestic audio use are barely worth these third parties' time (Rega had this trouble with turntable plinth quantities at one time, the numbers they wanted being pitiful for their suppliers I was told). I suspect Hypex and similar modules are made in significantly larger quantities so can be made cheaper, possibly in a country with give-away labour rates for all I know...

Sorry Dave (Antonio), I've learned that very small scale amp manufacturing like this really does cost dear if it's going to be profitable and the NVA stuff I've enjoyed making up for the last five years is going to have to increase in price if the new company is going to be viable, especially as it's mostly hand assembled with a lot of point to point wiring and not sold in large quantities...

Economy of scale is everything when it comes to pricing. It's why Technics could offer the (old) SL1200 at just £500 retail. Boutique audio is always going to be sold at boutique prices, otherwise it wouldn't exist at all.

And that's before you consider the phenomena of Veblen goods. Sometimes if you hike the price right up you'll sell more of them. Rich people don't want to buy stuff that anyone could afford. I mean otherwise what's the point of being rich?

What is the power output, 8 ohm/ 4ohm?

I just feel there really are hidden costs in some of this stuff. Of course the kind of electronics often reviewed by HiFi news has beggar all inside and doesn't always test out that well, but that's likely because of the Veblen effect, which I wasn't fully aware of until recently (thanks for reminding me macca). The Orchard Audio chap, whom I've followed by lurking on ASR for some months now (), will know of that TotalDac thingie from France, which performs worse than many original 1983 era CD players I believe, yet sells to devoted audiophile followers for 13,000 Euros or similar with a huge cachet around it.

I wish this little amp well and hope it sells in sufficient quantities that maybe the price could come down.

Yep especially if you have high sensitivity speakers.