Amplifier History: The JBL SA-600

The beautifully styled JBL SA-600 amplifier was launched by the James B. Lansing company in 1966, and Bart Locanthi (the designer) wrote the  technical article linked to at the bottom of this write-up in January 1967. I’ve included this in the hifisonix power amplifier library because it is one of the earliest – if not […]

Read more →

Ovation 250 Power Amplifier

The Ovation 250: A 250W per Channel Audio Power Amplifer (updated 1st June 2013) This amplifier was built in 2005/2006 and this write-up originally published in 2009. Introduction Diy Audio is a wonderful activity:-  if  you cannot  afford a $10 000  power amp,   you can always  build  one that comes pretty damn  close in terms of  sonics  […]

Read more →

The Monolithic Op-Amp: A Tutorial Study

This was an invited paper at the ISSCC in 1974 by James Solomon, who at the time worked for National Semiconductor (acquired in 2011 by TI). Those were heady days in semiconductors, with major process and circuit design breakthroughs taking place at breakneck speed. The general purpose microprocessors’  pivotal role in powering the Apple II […]

Read more →