Just like all human endeavors, the audio hobby is a mental state and a psychological affair. I have always wondered if I would be a happier person were I to have remained single with a bare living room but a killer sound system and all the time in the world to listen to music through it. And without commenting on the various situations in which I wished I had remained single, and the rampant thought that all married men will contemplate sooner or later, I’ve always fathomed the degree of change one would have on the perception of his world when he became enfolded into the bubble of happiness that is music envelopment days in and out. That is until you walk out the door and see this lovely woman you have been missing, and the state of mind changes and you want a companion. Suddenly, everything you have is in her way.
Life is truly short, so if there is a way we can intensify our music listening experience when we are allowed time to do so, wouldn’t it be wonderful? Dear readers, I have discovered the conduit to music nirvana like I have never experienced, and it started with a singularity of sorts in the world scene of high-end audio establishment. This singularity occurred in the form of a new company called Ypsilon Electronics, whose principals and their U.S. Importer are packing its U.S. introduction with such wallop it can only be described as “grand”. YE was given life in 1995 by Ypsilon Live S.A., its parent company and a concert organizer in Greece. According to the YLSA website, “Ypsilon Live S.A. was founded by five young people, who were actively involved for more than 10 years in the Greek market as professional sound engineers, or lighting and sound technicians.”
Two of the five young founding principals of YLSA, Demetris Backlavas the designer, and Andy Hassapis the business brain, became the two pillars in creating the Ypsilon Electronics, an independent operation from the parent company. Their goal was to “create products that communicate to the listener the true meaning of music – emotion.” Underwritten by the comparatively infinite resources of the parent company, YE launched a line of electronics dubbed the “100 series”. Aaudio Imports, Ypsilon Electronics’ U.S. Importer, promptly brought in the entire line of products:
· the $25,000 CDT 100 CD transport/player;
· the $29,000 DAC 100 Stereo Valve D/A Converter;
· the $25,000 VPS 100 Valve Phono Stage;
· the $36,000 PST 100 Stereo Preamplifier;
· the $25,000 PST 100 TA Transformer Attenuator Preamp;
· the $90,000-per-pair SET 100 MKII hybrid monoblock amplifiers;
· the $54,000 SET 100 VS Dual Mono Valve Stereo Amplifier;
· the $3,600 BC 1 Balanced Converter Transformers;
· the $2,700 MC10/MC16/MC20 Moving Coil Step Up Transformers
The $90,000-the-pair SET 100 hybrid monoblock amplifiers are the source of my musical ecstasy. It makes use of an NOS 5842 type high-gain single triode input stage with tube rectification, a single-ended MOSFET output stage facilitated by 16 matched (2% tolerance) parallel MOSFETs operating in class A with constant bias, thereby effectuating a 2-stage single-ended triode output topology. Oversized power supply chokes with a bandwidth of 5 to 1MHz (-3dB) are used on both gain stages for the DC load, therefore effectively negating any active device in signal path. The tube stage is directly coupled to the output MOSFETs.
The Ypsilon SET 100 is also unique in utilizing 6 transformers for the various critical functions. According to Ypsilon, the in-house designed and manufactured 1.2KVA power supply transformer was given an M6-grain oriented core material used normally by output transformers, so as to realize the lowest level in EMI. Twenty 4,700µf high-temperature capacitors are employed to eradicate power supply output ripples. Then, a choke-complimented power supply is allocated just for the input tube, plus a signal transformer at the input stage and a 66lb transformer of proprietary amorphous double C-core for the output stage.
The YE website contains a page on the decision process it went through in adopting the hybrid approach. The YE approach is unique in that a single-ended MOSFET output stage is chosen, instead of a class A/B one implemented by many other companies to produce maximum outputs of several hundred watts per channel.
The company’s is the most fanatical approach in that it did not subject the creation of its ultimate monoblock amplifier to inhibiting limitations of a standard chassis design; it was as if the gargantuan external dimensions of the monoblock only took form after the types of internal components and circuitry needed to facilitate a 100 watts-plus output were defined. The end result is a wonder of sorts at least on paper: The most powerful SET in existence capable of 120 watts into 8 ohms, 130 watts into 5 and 6 ohms, 100 into 4 ohms, yet with the stability and output impedance of a solid-state design.
Thus, the name SET 100 refers not to a tube amplifier but a solid-state, high output design that operates with the circuit topology, elements and characteristics of an SET. Measuring 24 inches high by 26.5 inches deep, the SET 100 is only 9.5 inches wide, the construct serving the very blatant function of deprivation of freedom on the part of its owner to put it in a rack. The designer’s motive becomes clear as day once you realize the two monoblocks’ heat dissipation needs. Solid-state they are, the SET 100 is constantly biased at 350 watts regardless of signal changes, producing a working temperature of 50̊ to 55̊ Celcius. Nonetheless, the Ypsilon is just as hot as any tube amplifier that can manage to put out 120 watts from a dozen 300Bs, or half a dozen 211s, if not hotter. In my 12 feet wide by 27 feet long by 8 feet high listening room, the $29.5k
Red Rock Renaissance monoblock amplifiers that I reviewed in October 2008, slightly higher at 26.75 inches but not as deep at 17.5 inches, and just about as wide at 9.25 inches, already produced considerable heat after an hour or two in operation, but still not to the extent of the Ypsilon. The likelihood of the Greeks being put into a standard rack, were they of more standard dimensions, would be very high and the likelihood of thermal damage imminent. It seems reasonable to assume the readers among us who can afford the Ypsilons are likely to have much larger listening room with central AC already installed, thus rendering my heat predicament moot, although I couldn’t turn on my central AC because it was spring and only hot in the listening room while the rest of the house was at least 10 degrees cooler.
