A Tale of Two Amps (Part 2) The Sonofa'GUM SG-5500

Like the McChanson SET, the REDGUM Sonofa is one of the best bang for buck amplifiers around at the moment, and when it comes to solid state it may just be the very best value on the market fullstop.

The name REDGUM should be better known than the name McChanson, but like McChanson, REDGUM is hardly the household name that Rega, NAD, Rotel, Denon, Technics, Sony, Yamaha etc have become. REDGUM are a small and specialised HiFi business operating on the outskirts of Melbourne (Australia). They do a a range of stereo gear, but their big speciality is amplifiers, and they produce an impressive range. From the Sonofa, which is their baby amp at AUD $699, right up to their AUD$19,000 monoblocks.

The Sonofa is the latest model added to their range and it departs from the usual REDGUM formula of "Made in Australia." REDGUM had the Sonofa made in China, so they could keep the prices down of what they see as being the introductory model to their range. Sonically, it's a REDGUM design, for sure, and they modify the units once they arrive back in Australia. Presumably to prevent the Chinese factories from producing grey label copies.

I don't need to give a long review here of how good this amplifier is. Michael O'Conner has already done that for Audio and Video Lifestyle magazine, and he knows how to talk about stereo gear better than I do. So I can only give you my personal experiences.

Out of the box, it's got weight and substance to it. It's an immaculate build and as Michael says in his review -- think Rotel. So you set it up and plug it in. It sounds good, really good, but it is also one of the most interesting sounding amplifiers I have ever heard. Hard to put a finger on. It's different, but a good different, and I'm thinking that maybe this is the REDGUM sound that gets talked about. But it will probably need burn in I say to myself. I have been so conscious of burn in since I started to upgrade my equipment and am constantly amazed at some professional reviewers who appear to review quality stereo equipment straight out of the box. What you hear today will always sound better tomorrow, unless of course it's a cheap, ordinary piece of gear. But that is not what we are talking about here.

Cut to three weeks later and the amplifier is fully burned in and and has been delivering exceptional music. There is clarity across the mid-range and the bass is exceptional, and the overall sound has a sharp definite punch to it. This is a powerful amplifier. It kicks and keeps the clarity at its 55 watts per channel. No distortion in sound whatsoever as you pump the volume.

Speaking to Lindy Gerber at REDGUM, she told me that she believed the amp would be great for somebody who wanted to replace one of their classic Japanese amps that was getting a bit long in the tooth. While I agree with her, kind of, I think she was being too generous, and maybe underselling the Sonofa. The Sonofa is a better and very different amplifier to the classic and reasonably priced Japanese amps that we all know and love so well. It has much better clarity across the mid-range, and its bass is sharp and tight. Not the more boomy bass which has always been a problem with the mid-market Japanese amps in my opinion, and something that has always sent me seeking alternatives. I like reggae and amps that boom the bass turn reggae into a mess. The Sonofa handles reggae beautifully, as it does everything else. I am tempted to say that it really excels with rock music, but some further listening is needed.

My own view about Sonofa is that it handles bass just so well, that it sounds more like a great Brit amp (I'm thinking QED) from the mid 90s, when reggae was big in the UK.

Is there anything else that I need to say? Maybe a couple of things. The burn in period of 2 to 3 weeks is really important if you only play vinyl. On CD it doesn't probably need so long, although after 3 weeks it starts to do soundstaging on CD really well, and I guess that does matter if you like CD.

This amp, like a valve amp, needs warm up. I believe this is because of the large toroid transformer (180VA) REDGUM use in all their gear (the same thing that is responsible for their big sound?). It needs five minutes to warm up in standby, and about 20 minutes if you have shut the amp completely down at any stage.

You can get this amp direct from the REDGUM site or try The Wizard on Ebay. Make him an offer like I did. The Wizard also has a link to the Michael O'Conner review I mentioned above.

The Soundsmith Denon 103 Rebuild

Every now and then you come across a piece of stereo equipment whose performance goes way beyond your expectations. Up until 3 weeks ago I had been using a Denon DL304 in my system and raving about its clarity and musical detail. I was pleased to see that my own experience of this cartridge was matched by just about every reviewer around.

I had bought the DL304 as a step up from my stock standard classic DL103. You either love the DL103 or you wonder what all the fuss is about. I'm in the former camp. The DL103 just makes beautiful music and seems to have a real talent for eliminating record surface noise. The DL103 I had was a secondhand one I picked up from one of those online Japanese stores that specialises in selling used gear into the western market. I knew nothing about its history, so wasn't all that surprised one day when it touched down on a piece of vinyl and the cantilever broke off.

In seeking to replace it, this time with a brand new version, I came across a total bargain price for the DL304 and have been happy ever since. Here was the same Denon sound but with far greater transparency and more musical detail. At the price I paid it was more than worth the additional cost above buying a new DL103. The only problem I had was the fact that the DL103 was now useless only because the cantilever had snapped off and I couldn't bear to just throw it away. Sure I had heard about rebuild and retipping services that were available, but I was led to believe that they produced mixed results. Then I came across the particular service that The Soundsmith was offering, thought about it for a while and decided that the idea of ruby cantilever with a nude contact line diamond being added to the dead DL103 was a great way of getting a new DL103 for around about the same price. Obviously, there also seemed like some good potential here for getting an improved sound out of the 103.

Then the evil voice of the audio devil popped into my left ear and said "why not get the rebuild done in a wooden body?" I managed to resist this for quite a while. I had already placed my order with Soundsmith for the ruby cantilever option and the DL103 was winging its way to the US. It was only when Soundsmith emailed to confirm they had received the cartridge, and it was in the standard 13 week wait for a rebuild, that the audio devil popped up again and began a full-frontal assault on convincing me that I would never be happy until the DL103 had been fully reincarnated. After several days I realised that resistance was futile and emailed Soundsmith asking about the wooden body. This option more than double the cost of the rebuild and, coincidentally, took the price of the rebuild to what I had paid for the DL304.

It was audio madness, but I gave into temptation and paid the extra money for the wooden body, then went back to enjoying the 304. Then the fully reincarnated DL103 finally returns in the mail. It looks good but kind of weird too. The wooden body is kind of greenish, it has a brass top plate and you can clearly see that the cantilever is ruby red. Apart from having a certain chunkiness about it, it does not look anything like a Denon cartridge.

I was expecting the sound to be good. I was expecting that it would sound nothing like the DL103 any longer and nothing like any of the other Denon cartridges I had ever heard. I was not expecting the sound to be gob-smacking astonishing. As soon as it touched down on a piece of vinyl for the first time, I knew I was in goose-bump territory. It was the Denon sound taken to a whole new height. The richness and timbre that I love in the Denons had suddenly and dramatically burst into a full and glorious bloom. The clarity, transparency and detail reached beyond not just what the DL103 could do, but the 304 as well, and the soundstaging was simply magical.

I am tempted to say that, with hindsight, I didn't really need to spend the money on the DL304. It's an exceptionally good cartridge and worth every cent I paid for it, but the reincarnated DL103 is simply astounding. It is the cheapest way that I've come across to buy a cartridge that is clearly hitting at the big end of town.

A Tale of Two Amps (Part 1) - The McChanson MarzE Single Ended Triode

It's highly likely that there are only a few people who have heard one of these rather exquisite 8 watt per channel SET valve amps. McChanson is hardly a household name when it comes to stereo systems, yet the maker of these amps, Eric Chan, has been involved with valve amplifiers since the 1960s. He's currently a one man cottage industry, building stereo and guitar amplifiers from his residence in the leafy suburb of Burwood (Sydney, Australia).

I came across Eric largely by chance. Over the last 3 or so years, I have grown interested in what the Chinese have being doing with bringing cheaper valve stereo amps to the international market. Irrespective of the debates about the quality of some Chinese gear, the Chinese have allowed many of us, myself included, to hear what that really expensive valve sound was all about, without having to buy in at the higher end. So in idle moments I regular check valve amps on Ebay just to see what the latest "remarkable" offer might be. Three months ago, the McChanson amp pops up within my Ebay scope and I notice that the seller was in Australia and that what he was offering was truly remarkable indeed.

The offer simply was this: A custom built single ended triode Class A amplifier for between $600 and $750 Australian, depending on which components you chose. Basically, Eric was offering me an opportunity to place an order with him on Ebay, and then work with me (when I won the bid) to build the amp. As I said a remarkable offer, an offer that I thought was too good to be true. So I Googled "McChanson amplifiers" and ended up going through a long list of dud results to find some wonderful snippets about Eric's guitar amplifiers on obscure (to me) guitarist forums. Comments were universally full of praise for the tone Eric's amps could produce, and I realised that a McChanson guitar amp had a bit of a cult following, not just with guitarists in Australia, but also in the UK and the US. Could not find one single thing about one of his stereo amps, but this was looking like it had potential.

So I contacted Eric and we had a very interesting email conversation about what he does and how he works, and I was totally knocked out by his knowledge and how humble he was about having such knowledge. I asked Eric at one point that if I didn't like the amp he built for me would he be unhappy if I resold it? His response was that if I did not like it he would be happy for me to re-sell it, but he was 100% confident that I would like it. He was 100% correct.

Work commenced on my amp in late June and Eric kept in contact with me by email nearly every day. He would send me pictures when he had cut the top plates, when he had commenced the point to point wiring, and ask questions about which of the components he might use that I would prefer. This was during the football world cup, and Eric is a big soccer fan, and he would email me occasionally saying "no work on your amp today, I stayed up all night watching the football" and we ended up discussing the world cup results for several emails.

I ended up paying just over $700 for the McChanson MarzE amp Eric built for me. Better tranformers and the ability to switch between pentode and triode mode. Triode is sweeter; Pentode gives you a bit more kick in power. I made the decision upfront to go with the 6L6 power valves in the amp, and hence have them as strapped pentodes for the SET stage. Eric offers to build this amp in pure triode mode for 300B valves.

I shied away from the 300B configuration; just search the internet and see how much each 300B valve costs. Out of my league right now.

When Eric says he is building the amp in 6L6 mode, he means the whole family of valves that work that way. For example, KT 66s can be used, and EL 34s, easily done with a bias adjustment with a multimeter. This is very much an interactive piece of gear. And you will change the valves to suit what you like. You can't do that with solid state.

Okay, I guess the big question is what does it sound like? Unbelievably transparent; rich and full and incredibly detailed. It gives a big three dimensional sound on vinyl that makes it hard to listen to CD on a good solid state amplifier. So it seems that everybody says that valve amps have warmth; I suppose it does, maybe, but the biggest thing for me is its pure tonal clarity. Vocals and instruments just sound so real on the McChanson.

For the price, this is a simply a killer of an amplifier. And the service you get from Eric, well, what can I say, other than he is an exceptional and honest person, who treats his customers with the utmost respect, and endeavours to find out what they like in order to deliver an amp that suits their tastes.

And what is even better for me is that most nights I get to play it as loud as I want. I am the only guy in a family of five, and yep female ears are more sensitive, particularly to any distortion. There is no distortion on a McChanson amp. None at all.

Here's the link to Eric's current Ebay sale.