Review - Bladelius ASK integrated amplifier - With DAC and streamer!

[@haraldandreasweng3873]

Nice review! I have owned three three Bladelius amplifiers over the last 15 years: The Bladelius Thor MKII, Bladelius Thor MKIII and now the Bladelius ASK Integrated. I really think it is something special. By the the way, the swedish magazine Hifi & Musik measured the power of ASK with a little different result: 252w 8ohm / 445w 4ohm. Looking forward to your review in your magazine😀

[@TheAlphaAudio]

That is very odd... We measured 3 times. Maybe they use a different setup...

[@haraldandreasweng3873]

@@TheAlphaAudio The amplifier has enough power for most speakers anyway. And the sound is superb😀

[@predikarn]

Maybe a faulty powersupply in the test unit? I have an older poweramp from Mike, the Advantage s150.

[@Micke607]

Mikael bladelius was a friend of mine,when we was kids in the early 70:s. Our fathers worked in the same company,then called Televerket, now called Ericsson in nynäshamn a couple of miles from Stockholm😊

[@TheAlphaAudio]

Pretty cool! He definately knows what he is doing!

[@gino3286]

Mr Bladelius designed top of the line products also for Primare brand Amazing integrated indeed When the noise is so down is indeed a good sign

[@marcinkantoch7176]

I have the Bladelius Oden Valhall Edition. The best amp I ever heard by a large margin. In the world of crazy expensive audio components I would say that Bladelius offers true value for money.

[@DddNnn-r2y]

Would hooking up a DDC to the amps internal dac be of any benefit to sound quality?

[@billarmstrong5568]

Mike also used to make amps under the Advantage marque. I recall Hi-Fi Choice reviewing their power amp back in the 90s- they were also supposedly very good performers. Are you going to post some sound clips too? That would be nice🍻😉

[@RoderikvanReekum]

Why is this amplifier so small?

[@giannislarch]

OMG, what a...monster ! 😁 It'll be very interesting when it goes to the listening room for review ..(i hope all the team to be there for helping with transfer )!😀

[@GadgetyMV]

I like Bladelius powerful and stable amps. That said, could you explain the image at 2:57? You mention -110dB S/N for the integrated amp, which looks like the 1 kHz reading. So that means good noise performance. However the digital readout shows SINAD at around 78 dB, so that means the difference of around 32 dB is distortion? Is this an average of the 8, 4 Ohm measurements? You may have covered this in one of your other videos, yet it warrants repeating.

[@TheAlphaAudio]

This is a measurement with a 1 KHz tone at 1 watt output. The SINAD shows around 78 dB. That's because of some spikes. There is a formula for SINAD that takes distortion and noise into account. But I actually never look at SINAD, because all designs with low feedback score badly. They can sound amazing though. This unit score pretty bad as well: 78dB is not good. But I can guaratee it sounds a LOT better than my Hypex Nilai-amp that has a better SINAD-score. 🙂.

[@GadgetyMV]

Thank you for the reply! The corresponding spikes are not visible in the diagram, hence my question. So is the SINAD a composite of the 8 Ohm and 4 Ohm measurements? @@TheAlphaAudio

[@TheAlphaAudio]

@@GadgetyMV there are two small spikes in the graph.

[@GadgetyMV]

Yes, however, they are at around -90 dB or so. @@TheAlphaAudio

[@TheAlphaAudio]

@@GadgetyMV Let me quote: " Signal-to-Noise-and-Distortion (SINAD, or S/(N + D) is the ratio of the rms signal amplitude to the mean value of the root-sum-square (rss) of all other spectral components, including harmonics, but excluding dc" You can't just see that in a graph.

[@Philear4124]

Who distributes Bladelius in the Benelux and is the streaming module always included or can you buy it without it? Grtz Phil

[@TheAlphaAudio]

Ervins Audio is the distributer. It has the streamer build in. DAC and Phono is optional.

[@Philear4124]

Thanks, I once had a Bladelius Tyr at home, I think this one is another level. Grtz Phil@@TheAlphaAudio

[@word2RG]

thanks! 👍

[@TecraTube]

12,000 euros can i write them a check 😂

[@TheAlphaAudio]

Probably!

[@TecraTube]

@@TheAlphaAudio it's a joke bro

[@TheAlphaAudio]

@@TecraTube i know that.

[@OrazCostanzo]

I got excited then i heard the price was hoping for it to be in the 6k euro range

[@georgecav]

Why do so many people say they would be interested at half the price rather than focussing on sound quality at the price it is and how it sounds at the price and from the sound of it it it is well worth it