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A clarification from Hansen

Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on January 28, 2008 at 10:21:43

In Reply to: Ayre DPS turntable - Comments by Hansen/Silberman posted by restock on January 27, 2008 at 21:24:58:

<< I find there is lots of misleading information propagated in that article and
it certainly does not give the original design of the DPS its due. >>

I agree that the show reports on the Stereophile website were misleading in
several respects. I would like to clarify the situation with regards to Ayre and
the dps turntable. Here is the full and complete history of the situation.

I first met Willi Bauer at the Frankfurt Hi-Fi Show some six or eight years ago.
At that time I saw and heard an early version of his turntable. It was a
brilliant design, with a unique zero- clearance bearing. Only a handful of
turntables have ever been manufactured with a zero- clearance bearing (the Well
Tempered and the VersaDynamics 2.0), and I find that the pitch stability
afforded by these designs is remarkably noteworthy from a sonic standpoint. (By
the way, at that same show, Willi took me to the Schroeder booth to show me the
Schroeder tonearm. It also has a zero clearance bearing, with no chance for
rattle or chatter. So this show was very enlightening for me with regards to
vinyl playback.)

Recently I decided to purchase a new turntable. My previous model was a
VersaDynamics 2.0, which is a fine turntable, but overly complex with its pumps,
controllers, hoses, et cetera. (I also now have two small boys, so need
something that is not so fragile.) After looking at various different options, I
decided to investigate the dps that I had seen so many years before. Willi had
refined the design considerably, and to me the dps represents the perfect
turntable:

- Beautiful aesthetics
- Compact form factor
- Simple operation
- Reasonable price
- Incredible performance

I figured that if I liked the turntable, then other audiophiles in the US
probably would also. We initiated discussions with Willi regarding various
options for distributing his 'table in the US. His previous US importer is an
excellent person, although with limited resources. We discussed the possibility
of helping him add new dealers, but in the end agreed that it would make more
sense for Ayre to handle the distribution. We agreed to continue supplying the
handful of dealers that already carried the dps.

One of the biggest obstacles for importing any products in the US is the
weakness of the US dollar. The dps-3 with the modified Rega arm would have to
retail in the US for over $11,000. A large part of this cost was due to the
3-phase power supply over the standard 2-phase power supply of the dps-2. We
were not sure that the dps-3 would be successful at that price.

We were not sure why the 3-phase power supply was so expensive, so we began
discussions with Willi regarding the possibility of Ayre building a 3-phase
power supply that we would sell with units distributed in North America. Our
thinking was that we could build a high-quality 3-phase supply for a
significantly lower price than the one supplied with the dps- 3.

Willi said that his electronics engineer had worked hard to make the existings
3-phase supply. He didn't send us one, as he didn't want us to "borrow" any
ideas from his engineer, an approach that we strongly agreed with. So we built a
3-phase power supply from the ground up that should sell in the US for roughly
half the price of the original dps-3 supply.

The only information Willi provided us was the model of the motor and the drive
voltage used. Everything else we had to figure out ourselves. There are a few
ways to make a 3-phase power supply, and we looked at many different approaches.
Our power supply uses a pure- analog phase-shift oscillator to generate the
three phases, and then each phase drives a zero-feedback amplifier that is based
on the circuit used in our MX-R power amplifier. It provides a significant sonic
improvement over the 2-phase oscillator that came with the dps-2 we purchased as
a development platform. (As I noted in the replies in the Stereophile show
report, I have no idea how our power supply compares with the standard supply
currently used in the dps-3.)

To summarize, our only contribution to the dps turntable is simply making the
3-phase version more widely available to North American customers, and at more
affordable price. In our opinion, Willi has created a fantastic design that
deserves more exposure, and that vinyl enthusiasts will benefit from having one
more outstanding option when making a purchasing decision.

The power supply displayed at the recent CES was a prototype. We are putting the
final touches on the design, and hope to be shipping production models by late
April. My understanding is that Willi will evaluate our supply in the near
future. It is possible that he may switch to our supply if he finds the
performance to meet his high standards. Willi is obviously a very keen listener,
so we will be interested to hear his impressions of our design.

I trust that this clarifies the situation. If you have any further questions, I
will be glad to answer them.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Schiit Audio

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