Sydney Audio Club Meeting - September 2022
Alan March, from March Audio, presented the March Audio Amplifiers and Sointuva WG Sprekers on Sunday 11th September:
September Follow Up Report
After several false starts due to Covid related travel restrictions, Alan March (and his wife Ruth) from March Audio made his way from Western Australia to Sydney for our club meeting.
Alan as well as providing his amplifiers and speakers generously gave a technical talk based on his amplifiers and in particular the details of class D amplifiers. Alan started his talk with an exciting video (destruction of a jet engine) from his previous career and detailed the path he took with his extensive engineering knowledge to becoming a manufacture of amplifiers and speakers in Australia.
Alan’s talk in summary covered the following:
The technical talk was an informative and interesting discussion, particularly as there are many new active speakers that often incorporate class D amplifiers. There was quite a lot of technical questions from the audience which Alan provided thoughtful and technically sound responses.
The second part of Alan’s talk was a brief overview of speaker design and what is important to ensure a speaker both measures well and also sounds good. This naturally led into a brief overview of March Audios new Sointuva WG speakers.
The Sointuva WG speakers are made in Australia of solid wood as opposed to the common veneered products such as mdf and are quite heavy for their modest size which is attributed to both the timber used and the substantive construction to ensure a resonant free enclosure. They are an attractive speaker and the unique Purifi PTT6.5X04-NFA-01 extended stroke driver with its unique construction was widely inspected by the members.
After a short break the regular meeting started with Alan playing a selection of music of his choice across a wide range of genres. Alan had both mono block amplifiers and a stereo amplifier to demonstrate. It is still quite hard for many audiophiles to adjust to the small physical size of class D amplifiers with their high output rating as compared to other amplifiers which are physically larger and usually with lower power ratings.
However, it was obvious from the performance of the March amplifiers that there was plenty of power and combined with the speakers they provided a clear and engaging presentation which with their modest cost rivalled much more expensive systems. It was another enjoyable meeting and particularly of note it was great to have another Australian company who are producing high quality and affordable audio products.
Special thanks to Alan and Ruth for persevering and travelling from WA to Sydney for the club meeting, providing a well presented and very professional technical talk, and providing both March Audio amplifiers and the newly developed Sointuva WG speakers.
---------------------------------------------
Meeting Invitation:
You may recall that this meeting has been in the pipeline for a couple of years due to the COVID interruptions and flight restrictions preventing Alan March from travelling from Albany in Western Australia to Sydney.
At the recent StereoNet Show in Melbourne the MARCH Audio room was packed nearly the whole weekend. As with last month’s presenters they are an Australian small batch manufacturer who sell via internet direct to the customer, so this will be your only chance to actually hear this remarkable range of products in Sydney.
In addition, Alan will be presenting a 'Tech Talk' from 12:30pm, which will cover a number of subjects:
The Equipment:
Alan will be running ROON music playing software on a NUC computer, Streaming from Qobuz, and using either a RME ADI2 pro DAC or Topping D90SE DAC directly feeding the power amps.
P501 Monoblocks: https://www.marchaudio.com/product/p501-mono-block-power-amplifier
The P501 is a mono block power amplifier based on the new Purifi 1ET7040SA module is housed in a case milled from solid aluminium with a tough anodized treatment. Exceptional fit, finish and build quality can deliver up to 500 Watts into 4 ohms. This nearly doubles to 950 Watts into 2 ohms. The massive 40 amp current and power output capability ensuring tremendous grip and drive even with the most insensitive and challenging of speaker loads.
P262 Stereo Power Amp: https://www.marchaudio.com/product/p262-stereo-power-amplifier
The P262 is a Purifi based stereo power amplifier. This simply elegant product is milled from solid aluminium with a tough anodized treatment. Exceptional finish and build quality featuring the stunning Purifi class D technology developed by Bruno Putzeys, the P262 delivers extraordinary low noise and distortion with sublime subjective audio quality. Exceptionally clean and neutral sound with deep tight bass and extended sweet high frequencies. It delicately reveals the smallest of details in the recording.
Sointuva WG speakers: https://www.marchaudio.com/product/sointuva-wg-speaker
The Sointuva WG is a bookshelf speaker featuring state of the art drivers from Purifi and SB Acoustics and beautiful solid wood cabinets. A 6.5” Purifi PTT6.5X04-NFA-01 extended stroke driver is mated with an SB Acoustics Satori TW29BNWG Beryllium Dome Tweeter. Dual Purifi PTT6.5PR-NF1-01 passive radiators are used on the rear of the speaker to extend the low frequency response.
September Follow Up Report
After several false starts due to Covid related travel restrictions, Alan March (and his wife Ruth) from March Audio made his way from Western Australia to Sydney for our club meeting.
Alan as well as providing his amplifiers and speakers generously gave a technical talk based on his amplifiers and in particular the details of class D amplifiers. Alan started his talk with an exciting video (destruction of a jet engine) from his previous career and detailed the path he took with his extensive engineering knowledge to becoming a manufacture of amplifiers and speakers in Australia.
Alan’s talk in summary covered the following:
- Overview of the different classes of audio amplifier (A, B, A/B & D)
- Played a video of the output of class A amplifier, both with a load and no load
- Discussed the common myths associated with class D amplifiers (the most common is that “D” stands for digital !)
- Discussed the actual facts regarding class D amplifiers (low noise & distortion, high efficiency, happy with difficult speaker loads etc).
The technical talk was an informative and interesting discussion, particularly as there are many new active speakers that often incorporate class D amplifiers. There was quite a lot of technical questions from the audience which Alan provided thoughtful and technically sound responses.
The second part of Alan’s talk was a brief overview of speaker design and what is important to ensure a speaker both measures well and also sounds good. This naturally led into a brief overview of March Audios new Sointuva WG speakers.
The Sointuva WG speakers are made in Australia of solid wood as opposed to the common veneered products such as mdf and are quite heavy for their modest size which is attributed to both the timber used and the substantive construction to ensure a resonant free enclosure. They are an attractive speaker and the unique Purifi PTT6.5X04-NFA-01 extended stroke driver with its unique construction was widely inspected by the members.
After a short break the regular meeting started with Alan playing a selection of music of his choice across a wide range of genres. Alan had both mono block amplifiers and a stereo amplifier to demonstrate. It is still quite hard for many audiophiles to adjust to the small physical size of class D amplifiers with their high output rating as compared to other amplifiers which are physically larger and usually with lower power ratings.
However, it was obvious from the performance of the March amplifiers that there was plenty of power and combined with the speakers they provided a clear and engaging presentation which with their modest cost rivalled much more expensive systems. It was another enjoyable meeting and particularly of note it was great to have another Australian company who are producing high quality and affordable audio products.
Special thanks to Alan and Ruth for persevering and travelling from WA to Sydney for the club meeting, providing a well presented and very professional technical talk, and providing both March Audio amplifiers and the newly developed Sointuva WG speakers.
---------------------------------------------
Meeting Invitation:
You may recall that this meeting has been in the pipeline for a couple of years due to the COVID interruptions and flight restrictions preventing Alan March from travelling from Albany in Western Australia to Sydney.
At the recent StereoNet Show in Melbourne the MARCH Audio room was packed nearly the whole weekend. As with last month’s presenters they are an Australian small batch manufacturer who sell via internet direct to the customer, so this will be your only chance to actually hear this remarkable range of products in Sydney.
In addition, Alan will be presenting a 'Tech Talk' from 12:30pm, which will cover a number of subjects:
- Class D Amplifiers 101
- What is Important in Speaker design?
- Let’s get off the ground – Why its time to ditch RCA connections
The Equipment:
Alan will be running ROON music playing software on a NUC computer, Streaming from Qobuz, and using either a RME ADI2 pro DAC or Topping D90SE DAC directly feeding the power amps.
P501 Monoblocks: https://www.marchaudio.com/product/p501-mono-block-power-amplifier
The P501 is a mono block power amplifier based on the new Purifi 1ET7040SA module is housed in a case milled from solid aluminium with a tough anodized treatment. Exceptional fit, finish and build quality can deliver up to 500 Watts into 4 ohms. This nearly doubles to 950 Watts into 2 ohms. The massive 40 amp current and power output capability ensuring tremendous grip and drive even with the most insensitive and challenging of speaker loads.
P262 Stereo Power Amp: https://www.marchaudio.com/product/p262-stereo-power-amplifier
The P262 is a Purifi based stereo power amplifier. This simply elegant product is milled from solid aluminium with a tough anodized treatment. Exceptional finish and build quality featuring the stunning Purifi class D technology developed by Bruno Putzeys, the P262 delivers extraordinary low noise and distortion with sublime subjective audio quality. Exceptionally clean and neutral sound with deep tight bass and extended sweet high frequencies. It delicately reveals the smallest of details in the recording.
Sointuva WG speakers: https://www.marchaudio.com/product/sointuva-wg-speaker
The Sointuva WG is a bookshelf speaker featuring state of the art drivers from Purifi and SB Acoustics and beautiful solid wood cabinets. A 6.5” Purifi PTT6.5X04-NFA-01 extended stroke driver is mated with an SB Acoustics Satori TW29BNWG Beryllium Dome Tweeter. Dual Purifi PTT6.5PR-NF1-01 passive radiators are used on the rear of the speaker to extend the low frequency response.
MARCH~audio products are proudly hand built in a facility near Albany in Western Australia. They specialise in the design and manufacture of exquisite audio components. Their mission is to provide exceptional engineering, superb technical performance and sound at modest prices.
Alan March founded March Audio in 2018. Alan has had a life long passion for music and audio electronics and wanted to bring this passion, along with his engineering skills, into a range of exceptional audio products. His professional career has been based in engineering including working for Rolls Royce Aero Engines in the UK, and latterly in noise and acoustics engineering in Australia.
At Rolls Royce he worked in test measurement, data acquisition and instrumentation. At first glance this may seem have little to do with audio, however the signals and recording techniques for the dynamic data being acquired in jet engine test (such as vibration and stress) are extremely similar to those used in audio and audio recording studios. This has lead to a wealth of experience in recording and analysing delicate audio frequency signals, including the design and performance of the associated signal conditioning amplifiers, electronics and digital recording systems.
Alan enjoys being personally involved with customers and directly communicates with them, answering enquiries and technical questions on a daily basis.
We are pleased to announce that you can also grab a bargain as everyone who attends the meeting will receive a 10% discount code for orders of MARCH~audio products.
Following afternoon tea the second half of the music sessions will be our popular music BYO. Members and guests are welcome to offer music to share with us all. So bring along your favourite music on CD, SACD or USB thumb/flash drive. All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting. We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played. Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go.
Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others. Feel free to come and hear the capabilities of the system, or to just share the experience with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Guests are welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound.
If you are a guest and would like to attend, please email <enquiries@sydneyaudioclub.org.au> to ensure we will not exceed the room numbers for the current Covid Guidelines.
John McEvoy
Club President
Sydney Audio Club Inc.
Alan March founded March Audio in 2018. Alan has had a life long passion for music and audio electronics and wanted to bring this passion, along with his engineering skills, into a range of exceptional audio products. His professional career has been based in engineering including working for Rolls Royce Aero Engines in the UK, and latterly in noise and acoustics engineering in Australia.
At Rolls Royce he worked in test measurement, data acquisition and instrumentation. At first glance this may seem have little to do with audio, however the signals and recording techniques for the dynamic data being acquired in jet engine test (such as vibration and stress) are extremely similar to those used in audio and audio recording studios. This has lead to a wealth of experience in recording and analysing delicate audio frequency signals, including the design and performance of the associated signal conditioning amplifiers, electronics and digital recording systems.
Alan enjoys being personally involved with customers and directly communicates with them, answering enquiries and technical questions on a daily basis.
We are pleased to announce that you can also grab a bargain as everyone who attends the meeting will receive a 10% discount code for orders of MARCH~audio products.
Following afternoon tea the second half of the music sessions will be our popular music BYO. Members and guests are welcome to offer music to share with us all. So bring along your favourite music on CD, SACD or USB thumb/flash drive. All we ask is that the music and recordings be interesting. We'll ask you to tell us a little about the artist/recording before it is played. Tracks over 6 minutes will be faded out, to give everyone a fair go.
Whether you are a novice or a seasoned veteran, you will have the opportunity to listen, learn and share your experiences with others. Feel free to come and hear the capabilities of the system, or to just share the experience with like-minded music lovers in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere.
Guests are welcome – we are a very friendly club so you don't need to know anyone to join us for an afternoon of fine music and sound.
If you are a guest and would like to attend, please email <enquiries@sydneyaudioclub.org.au> to ensure we will not exceed the room numbers for the current Covid Guidelines.
John McEvoy
Club President
Sydney Audio Club Inc.