Berendsen IPA 80 Intergrated & HP Amp

[jp11801]

Well here is some fresh meat for the peanut gallery. I got this off our resident gear whore Tyrion a while back in a gear swap. The Berendsen IPA 80 is from Germany and retails for about $2000 but they recently pulled out of the US market.

From the website and visually there are three transformers one for the pre and one for each side of the amp. They talk about the power of the amp coming from ring emitter transistors ( I have no idea what the fuck that is). I will say this cleanly slays the Krell 400xi I owned briefly and thought sucked.

The main bonus this amp presents in a killer headphone amp that is so ergonomically challenged it has me questioning the designers sanity. The HP jack is on the rear of the unit and to turn it on you need to press the tape out and standby buttons on the front of the amp. Once activated it is top shelf and think it competes with the best out there. I have no idea if it draws from the amp circuit or is a separate entity.

Here is a link to the amp from the manufactures web site

Berendsen Audio - produkte - ipa80

Here are some gut pics for those that know what parts are what. I'd appreciate any thoughts about the amps build and design.

overhead shot

transformers

closer internals

one of four large caps that I believe are for the PS

[hungrych]

If only it was half as much...

[tyrion]

This is a great integrated that happens to also have an excellent headphone amp. The integrated is very versatile in terms of the number of inputs and outputs. You can set the gain for each source used. It also can act as a preamp and has a separate power supply for that purpose. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the cdp transport in the cdp they sold here which resulted in Berendsen to losing it's US distributor. The cdp is excellent but for the transport issue. Berendsen was the manufacturer of the well regarded Gamut CD-1 as well as other gear for Gamut. I have a Berendsen preamp and it's as good as any I've heard.

[jp11801]

so no thoughts on design or build?

[luvdunhill]

I'm using those same PCB high density RCA jacks on my preamp. Do you like them?

Other than that, your pictures don't really capture much of the circuit. What are all those transistors on the long heat sink.

[Pars]

Looks like typical Digikey/Mouser parts... not a bad reference by any means. Panasonic caps in PSU section, probably TSHA (good). Why didn't they get a single transformer with all windings on it? That seems kinda cheap for a manufacturer, though somewhat cost prohibitive for a DIYer.

Really shitty IC sockets... such an (in)expensive part to skimp on.

Hard to say for sure WRT those Aerovox caps as to whether they are PSU related or output stage related...

[jp11801]

the amp is dc coupled the caps according to the manufacture are for the PS

[jp11801]

I'm using those same PCB high density RCA jacks on my preamp. Do you like them?

Other than that, your pictures don't really capture much of the circuit. What are all those transistors on the long heat sink.

the rca jacks are fine I never noticed them