Thursday, December 16, 2010

The Legendary John Curl masterpiece Blowtorch Line Amplifier



This Blowtorch line amplifier was designed and hand made by John Curl. The have the similar circuit designs of SCP2 Phono Amplifier. I can not read from the picture but it seems that the dual FET was made by sticking two P and N channel FET transistor back to back with Epoxy. That is what I guess only because I have not seen the actual amplifier myself. I have talked with John Curl that he has no stock on hand, his dealer has stock for sales .It is USD$10,000.00. The wires are all extremely expensive Silver single strand wire. A perfect layout, separate power supply. I am afraid that is the world quietest Phono Amplifier.
If you have a tight budget, try this Halo JC3

Parasound the Halo Series JC 3

John Curl - Parasound's chief amplifier circuit designer - has created several truly exceptional products. His Vendetta Research SCP2B is still considered among the very best phono preamps ever brought to market. His latest masterpiece - the Halo JC 3 - is a dual mono phono preamp built with ultra high quality parts and the typical built-like-a-tank Parasound construction.

Each channel on the JC 3 is housed in its own extruded aluminum enclosure, isolated from the power supply with 3/8-inch-thick low carbon mild steel partitions. Ya think they went the extra mile to ensure a black-as-night background?

As Parasound President Richard Schram told The Absolute Sound: "Curl's Vendetta was so good that it was almost magical, but each one was essentially hand made, and would probably cost over $8,000 to build today. Now, Parasound has a new design that draws from the same creative genius while offering amazingly high performance from each piece we produce."
How's about these for some impressive specs and features:
- Designed by legendary John Curl - renowned designer of Vendetta Research phono preamp.- Unbalanced inputs and outputs use Vampire RCA jacks; balanced outputs are Neutrix XLR jacks

- MM 47 k Ω, MC 100 Ω or 47 k Ω; (47 k Ω is also ideal for Statement Series Grado moving iron cartridges)

- S/N 83 dB MM; 73 dB MC

- RIAA accurate within 0.2 dB

- Audio path resistors are exclusively Vishay-Dale

- Triple shielding; low carbon mild steel partitions isolate the power supplies & AC wires

- Dual mono design; each channel is separately enclosed in its own extruded aluminum enclosure
- Separate high speed-soft recovery rectifiers, filter caps and voltage regulators for each channel
- Low emission R-core power transformer

- Mono can be selected to improve sound of mono or older recordings

- Built-in AC line conditioner to prevent AC noise from entering the set

- AC polarity reverse switch can reduce hum in many systems

- Non-magnetic aluminum rear panel for purest sound

- Turn On Options switch: manual or auto with 12v trigger input

Halo3 is selling on line at US$2,350.00!

HK Snob