HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

Some time ago i discoverd NVA. I have always been a fan of Brtish HIFI but NVA is something else. Been reading a lot about the brand and mr. Dunn. The design philosophy appeals to me a lot. I have heard some amps and paired with equipment which share the same design principles these amps can sound stellar. I can't imagine something can sound better. After al it's al about circuit design and signal preservation. And thats what NVA is al about.

So a old AP50 came to my path. Molested, "modified" and abused by some hifi guru i think.
Dismantling:



Cleaned everything, restored the wood, chassis. Complete recap and even new wood:
New top and bottom alu plate. The old top plate was missing and the bottom was abused.
During the project i started to think about the lay-out and recap. I always want to keep things as original as possible. But then i remembered mr. Dunn also did some upgrades sometimes for customers. I did had a 30v transformer lie around. So why not use it. I ended up with a setup for powering the vas parted from the last stage instead of dual mono.
All in all this was a fantastic project. And the result is the best amplifier I can imagine. On to the next NVA project.

It looks as if you've done an excellent job.

Thanks. The amp deserved it.

Mooi gedaan AdeWitte.

Super job Ade, hope you enjoy the fruits of your labours.

Nice job.

It's been a long time since I played around with any NVA amps, but fwiw I never found increasing the power supply capacitance over a pair of 4700 or 6800uf caps worth doing, and can actually make the amps sound worse ime.

Thanks. That is my experience also. It's make the amp sound more "dead" if you put more in. Thats why i have two caps on the VAS stage. I first had four but that did not sound right to me. Going back to two and two Wima bypass did make it sound better. I could maybe get away with 2200uf on the VAS stage. But the project has to stop somewhere. Next time i want to try DNM slitfoils.

Wow- love the wiring - not seen that before
Those are older boards- I used to have some in a metal A60 a few years ago - they had a different tone to the later boards - liked both

Yes, the older do have a different tone. But is that thanks to the pcb or different parts used on the boards? Stuf on the old boards become obsolete like the styroflex and Wima tropyfoil caps. They are both good, but i realy do like the old boards.