ayon VulcanIII PSE Triode Mono-Power Amplifier Eintakt-Trioden Mono-Endverstärker Owner’s Operating Manual BEDIENUNGSANLEITUNG Ayon Audio – Hart 18 – 8101 Gratkorn – Austria – Phone: +43 3124 24954 www.ayonaudio.
English I N T R O D U C T I ON Thank you for your purchase of the Ayon Vulcan power amplifier. With this amplifier, you have entered into the world of exclusive design which will give you great satisfaction and privilege of enjoying the advanced technology of Ayon Audio products. It is designed to serve as a high standard of truthful real musical performance. The care in engineering and manufacturing of this product anticipates a long time of enjoyment.
CONTENTS PRECAUTION, INSTALLATION & USER INFORMATION OPEN CARTON – UNPACKING THE VULCAN ACCESSORIES OPERATION YOUR NEW VULCAN 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
PRECAUTIONS, INSTALLATION & USER INFORMATION 1. Always be sure your hands are clean and free of any dirt or oil before carrying your Ayon Vulcan. Carry the amplifier with both hands by gripping its side. Handle the Vulcan with respect, it is heavy. 2. Never hold the face plate against your clothing as coarse materials, stitching, belts and the rivets from denim pants can mar the surfaces. Use a soft cloth with non-abrasive cleaning product to clean your amplifier. 3.
OPEN CARTON - UNPACKING THE VULCAN Inspect your amplifier for any shipping damage and call your dealer immediately if any is found. Do not plug your amplifier into an AC outlet if you find shipping damage. To avoid damaging the vacuum tubes please don’t turn the cardboard box upside down. Open the box and carefully take out the vacuum tubes and then the amplifier. The amplifier is very heavy! We advise saving all packing materials so that the unit can be easily and safely shipped if the need arises.
OPERATION 1. Installing the vacuum tubes Please remove the vacuum tubes and the Vulcan from box and place the Vulcan on a firm, level surface. Insert the vacuum tubes in accordance with the designated tube numbers into their relative assigned sockets. It is very important to insert the tubes in the correct location. Pay close attention to the direction of socket pins and their different diameter (AA62B) of pins. The 5U4G and 6SJ7 tubes and their socket have a “nose” too.
VULCAN III - TUBE INSTALLATION PLAN 1. 2. 3. 4. Install 5U4G tube in position V3 Install 6SJ7 tube in positions V4 and V5 Install 62B tubes in positions V1 and V2 Install 6BQ5-EL84 tubes in positions V6 and V7 All tubes are clearly marked (box) with their correct tube socket positions number! 7 Ayon Audio – Hart 18 – 8101 Gratkorn – Austria – Phone: +43 3124 24954 www.ayonaudio.
2. Connecting To assure reliable operation always turn the Vulcan OFF while making or changing input or speaker connections. No connections should be made while the amplifier is ON.
INPUT GAIN: Select via toggle switch between 0dB and -6dB. Activating the switch while the VULCAN is running, could cause switching noise. LOUDSPEAKER CONNECTION: There are three sets of gold speaker output terminals at the rear panel: common, 4, 8, ohm. Connect the speaker input terminals to corresponding speaker output terminals at the rear panel according to the impedance of the speaker with high quality audio cord.
3. Turn ON procedure When all sources are connected properly, turn down the volume (preamp) to minimum, switch on the power - the Ayon-logo is flashing for a while and then it glows; it will go through a gentle power-on sequence first. Please wait for min. 60 seconds before turning the volume up. After approximately 60 seconds, the unit is operational. Now you can increase the volume. Follow this procedure each time you turn your Vulcan on. Some preamplifiers and sources can generate transients.
4. Turn OFF procedure ● Always turn down the volume to minimum first. When powering down your system, always turn the amplifier off first. The unit can be turned off at any time. Important: If the amplifier was turned OFF even for a short period of time, you have to wait at least 2 minutes before turning it back ON. Do not turn it ON then OFF and then ON again in quick succession. This precaution will minimize the stress (high voltages) on internal components.
5. Intelligent Auto-Fixed-Bias (AFB) circuitry The bias setting controls the current, thereby the operating point of the tube and therefore is vital for its lifetime and sound. With the bias the power amp can be tuned to cooler/cleaner or hotter/more impure; in the latter case the amp has more punch and can be overdriven more easily. However, too high a bias leads to faster wear of the tubes.
5.1 Automatic determination of the bias reference value (optimal tube operating temperature) When the amplifier is in operation for more than 45 min (optimal tube operating temperature) an additional bias reference control is performed after switch-off (the LEDs on the back are flashing in order from V1 to V2 during the shut-down process).
6. Activation of the tube test program after a potential tube change The manual activation of the tube test program with the "bias-setup" button becomes necessary after changing the AA62B tubes. The circuit is activated when operating the "bias setup" button while the Ayon logo blinks; this is necessary for the immediate detection of a possibly defective tube (electric short circuit or too high current consumption of the new tube).
6.1. Activation of the auto-fixed-bias system in case of wrongly placed power tubes (socket) In case that you did put the original AA62B tubes in a socket different from the marking on the package (V1, V2) or you do not remember where which tube was to be put, it is mandatory that you manually activate the auto-fixed-bias system, after turn on, wait 2 minutes and then press the bias set up button.
BREAK-IN PERIOD Your new Ayon Audio electronics Vulcan tube amplifier has an initial break–in period. The unit will not perform to its full sonic potential when first installed in your system. This is partially due to a residual polarization of the dielectric materials used in the PCB, like resistors, capacitors, chokes, transformers and internal wiring. As music is played through the unit, the electrical signal will gradually anneal these materials.
AYON TUBE TESTING PROCESS Every power and signal tube is visually examined and tested by our own special custom made tube testing machine with burn in feature and add on the industry's most advanced computerized electron tube testing system – Amplitrex AT1000 tube tester, for all 5 specs: Plate current, trans-conductance, heater-to-cathode leakage, internal gas and microphonics. Actually tube manufacturer only tests mostly one spec – the plate current in their factory QC process; we test all 5.
WHY TUBE AMPLIFIERS After decades of solid state amplifier innovations, tube amplifiers have staged a powerful comeback in the last ten years, due to their sonic merits. Tubes are the heart and soul of tone! Simpler, purer circuits At Ayon Audio, we feel that tubes are the sonically superior technology for audio, as their generally simpler circuits and smaller number of components provide for a purer signal path and consequently more truthful signal handling.
SOME WORDS ABOUT AYON TUBE AMP TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR BASIS DESIGN Vacuum Tubes The choice of signal and power tubes have a significant influence on the sound and hence on the inspiration and joy of listening. This is not only the decision between good and bad tubes but finally the interaction of the different types of tubes and their combination that are used in the various Ayon amplifiers.
Output Transformer The biggest challenge with designing a big output transformer is that it needs to be as big as possible to be able to handle the bass current, but it gets harder and harder to keep the speed in the top end as the size of the transformer increases. If the coupling is not watched carefully, the capacitance and leakage inductance will roll off the high frequencies.
USING 4 OR 8 OHM IMPEDANCE TAPS Our amplifier has multiple impedance taps: try the 4 ohm taps and 8 ohm taps to see which sound better. They will sound different. It does not matter whether your speaker is specified with 4 or 8 ohms impedance; the impedance curve is never flat over the whole frequency range but normally varies between 3 and 10 ohms, with the exception of short-time peaks.
WARRANTY AND SERVICE LIMITED WARRANTY Ayon Audio electronic components are warranted by the manufacturer to be free of defects in materials production for a period starting 2 years (except for wear parts like all types of signal*, rectifier* and power tubes*; AA52B or AA62B power tubes***, CD-mechanism**, laser pick up** and CD-acrylic-lid**), from the date of dispatch (factory). Under this warranty defects are repaired free of charge.
