Here we go! Two pics of the new amp:
The front, in silver:
And the back:
The A1400-8 has XLR and 1/4 phone on the amp, and it comes with 8 90-degree adaptors for 1/4 phone to RCA, and 8 straight adaptors, so you have lots of input options.
Elegantly simple. I love it. Were you at all tempted to put meters on the front of it to appease the needle-obsessed?
I only have one remaining question. What color does the ring around the front-panel power button glow?
Alan lobbied hard for the meters but Ian wouldn't budge
The ring glows blue.
Any chance it will be available in black, as many of us have black equipment in our AV racks? Not that I'll be able to get one anytime soon.
Where does the power cord connect?
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Where does the power cord connect?
It's a nuke!
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Any chance it will be available in black, as many of us have black equipment in our AV racks? Not that I'll be able to get one anytime soon.
Considering you can preorder it in black, I imagine so...
Awesomeeeeeeee dude! I'll start saving my pennies...
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Where does the power cord connect?
*Axiom engineers scratch head in unison and wonder whose job it was to remember that* 
If my guess is correct, it is a captive power cord that protrudes from the lower right side of the rear, directly below the hump on the right side of the bottom edge.
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If my guess is correct, it is a captive power cord that protrudes from the lower right side of the rear, directly below the hump on the right side of the bottom edge.
smart ass
Very exciting. Congrats to the Axiom team.
Those pictures are so lovely, it's almost as if they were taken by MarkSJohnson.
I keep thinking of all of the things I'm going to stick in that.
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I keep thinking of all of the things I'm going to stick in that.
I didn't see any ports on that thing?!?!?
Tom has just verified that the power cord enters from the bottom on a right angle plug.
Good guess Peter!
Andrea
Do I win an amp?
That would be the row of black circles on the top. It looks like they're using hybrid xlr/phono plug inputs with adapters for RCA. Eeenteresting.
What are they, then? And if not those, where are the ports?
Or am I missing a joke?
Im guessing that this amp is going to be marketed towards more professional applications? It just doesnt make sense to use the 1/4 locking plugs in home audio and then have to use all those adapters.
Well, there's XLRs. It seems like Axiom's been heading in the XLR direction for awhile now, with the amps on the EP4/5/600s.
From a manufacturing standpoint, it makes sense. They don't have to have three different versions of the amp.
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Do I win an amp?
No Peter, good try though!
Just got the word from Ian that we will soon post pictures of the bottom of the amp which will show where the power cord goes in and the 110/220 voltage switch is located. As you can see we are unveiling the amp one step at a time.
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As you can see we are unveiling the amp one step at a time.
Sorta like the dance of the seven veils, so to speak.
I'm ready for the home unveiling. How many more steps before that one?
I think i represent all of us here when i say, Lets see some pics of the really cool stuff. The insides!
Seek and ye shall find my friend...
That would appear to be an earlier prototype from the position of the ports and posts.
Looks simple enough to make myself...
Yeah, just gotta find me some of them circuit boards, preprinted...
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That would appear to be an earlier prototype from the position of the ports and posts.
it is quite an early prototype, however, I imagine it wouldn't change ALL that much from these inner workings.
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it is quite an early prototype, however, I imagine it wouldn't change ALL that much from these inner workings.
well they probably cleaned the wires up a bit. 
So it would look better in photographs.
Randomly oriented wires have lower crosstalk; neatly bundled and "squared off" wires increase crosstalk and hum but make the purchaser feel they are getting something more to justify the high price.
Welcome to high end audio
I can't wait until someone mentions that this amp won't sound/perform any different than a $300 AVR.
A $300 AVR? No way. I'm sure there are plenty of $500 AVR's that will give the A1400 a run for it's money though.
As long as that $300 AVR isn't being overdriven, I'd say you couldn't pick out from the A1400-8 in a double-blind test. I'm sure alan would concur.
Now stop being a flame war seeder, you naughty boy.
I bet you could in Randy's Basement...
not if driven with reasonable limits -- which would pretty much rule out Randy's basement as a testing location.
Mmmmmm. Now were talkin!
I noticed the rocker switch on the back and the pushbutton on the front. I assume both are "power" switches. But why two?
It's common design practice with audio equipment to have an easily-accessible standby switch on the front and master switch on the back.
Power can be disconnected easily by unplugging the unit. The switch on the back therefore doesn't add value IMO but it does complicate compliance and leadtime and is another point of failure.
If the rear switch is removed, the last module can then be lined up with the other three and a backplane can connect all of them together eliminating a good number of the point-to-point wires.
I suppose a backplane can still be created for the current configuration but trace routing is not as clean and straight-forward.
Quite impressive nonetheless! Meeting the footprint and height requirements while keeping the manufacturing engineers happy is a challenge I'm sure
.
All of my professional equipment, as well as many "consumer" audio products that I've owned have had a master power switch on the back as well as a standby switch on the front.
Probably related to power-triggering devices in this case.
I think somebody's got OCD... Where's medic8r when you need him?
It takes one to know one, Mojo
What can I say? For the benefit of man-kind, engineers are trained to be obsessive-compulsive
.
But there's still got to be cables coming up from the outlet. I don't know that they could move that board backwards.
The cable could come in from the back if that switch was eliminated. Yeah, I am very much a minimalist (although I do admit that a graphic display panel would be cool)
.
Come to think of it, those 4 boards could be one single board with extra layers to accomodate the inter-channel traces. This single board could be made to break away into individual pairs of channels for the various models.
I'm sure Axiom thought of all of this though and there's good reason for the present design.
what the heck does the engineering matter if it is efficient and can output 1400 watts from a 15a wall outlet?
Well, a hair dryer does pretty much the same thing
.
But it's so inefficient that it needs a fairly loud and high speed fan to do it without melting.
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But it's so inefficient that it needs a fairly loud and high speed fan to do it without melting.
I dont personally use hair dryers, But If im not mistaken the fan is to blow the hot air. Which in turn dries the hair. Hence the name hair dryer.
And if that fan doesn't work, poof! Melted hair dryer.
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And if that fan doesn't work, poof! Melted hair dryer.
Praise the Lord for engineers .
I'm sure Tom had his reasons, otherwise he would not be the chief engineer.
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I'm sure Tom had his reasons, otherwise he would not be the chief engineer.
Not even Tom, the greatest and all-powerful wizard of electrons and all things audio, can control the two most precious company resources: time & money .
Your right, that is Amie's job.
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I can't wait until someone mentions that this amp won't sound/perform any different than a $300 AVR.
Randy,
That statement does have flamewar fuel all over it. I just find it funny that not to long ago you would have argued the same thing. up until you saw/heard the subjective light with your purchase of new power amps. i'm not trying to pick on you because i have no idea which camp is right. I am just pointing out the irony and giving you a hard time for the fun of it.
Jake
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I can't wait until someone mentions that this amp won't sound/perform any different than a $300 AVR.
I just can't resist anymore. Never mind a $300 AVR. I wonder if it would sound any different than my wife's Sony boombox's amp if that amp is run within its spec. Let the wars begin .
Of course it would sound different... to me, anyway. I didn't have King Midas touch my ears for nothing.
funny funny Jake
At lowww levels there may be no difference the human ear can detect, I have yet to do any blind tests. However, at least to my ears, it seems pretty obvious that at normal to even high levels it is pretty obvious that I'm noticing a difference in many categories.
I know you guys think I listen to insane levels of SPL. In fact, I do not most of the time. I'm heading down to listen to Mozart at 120dB right now, later. ha ha lol
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I'm heading down to listen to Mozart at 120dB right now...
Good for you, Randy. It's about time you start enjoying your system. And now that those flux capacitors have perfectly formed in your Odyssey, every single coulomb will be at thy command to satisfy your audio pleasure .
Amie, Andrea, Ian, someone...do you know when this amp is going to start shipping? Just curious...
I'm none of the three you asked, but I'd venture to guess "when it's ready." Release dates are a risky business as they often slip away, much to the dismay of anxious customers. I'm sure when the product enters production, forum members will be among the first to know about it.
Yeah!, way to tell him Peter.
Hut, eh, crack open a cold one man and enjoy your evening....
I vote that we let the team over there make the product as excellent as it can possibly be.
I vote that only people who have ordered the amp get to decide about this.
I'm and old school PEIslander. I vote for whomever brings me a pint of rum and drives me to the polls.
Well, I am guessing that this amp will ship on or about after it debuts on October 6/07:
http://www.axiomaudio.com/ASCE2007.html?1171
It is interesting that there is a link to an ordering page from the ad but when one goes to the main Axiom site and selects "products", I don't see the amp there. Am I missing it buried somewhere?
Another question I have is whether it really has 8 channels or 7 channels with an option to add a 7th; that last channel is somewhat obscure as the power ratings, etc are tabulated on 7 channels. It would be nice to know, for instance, for people who have two centers or orther configuration that can use 8 channels besides the sub(s).
Perhaps Axiom can provide more information on these questions and when we can expect the amp to ship.
John
should have said with an option to add an "8th" instead of "7th" above.
Yeah, all I'm really asking for is a new estimated ship date. Originally scheduled for the end of July, it was then announced for mid-August, and now it's the end of August with no further mention. It would be nice to be kept in the loop with something to go on.
Also, I just found out that my preamp either shipped today or will ship Tuesday, so I'll really be itching for the amp.
When I ordered my amp, the rep clarified that the amp has 8 channels. I asked why 8 instead of 7 and he responded that they are seeing more people with 2 centers these days.
I must say I am with everyone on wanting to get this first run of the A1400-8 competed. We would have had the amp finished 3 weeks ago but there were some cosmetic issues with the die cast aluminum top piece that caused us to have to rework the mold. The rework on the mold was finished early this week and the samples got their final finish today. All is looking good now. We are going to cast the production tops this weekend which means we will be able to have the final finish on them by Wednesday. We will be able to start assembling the final product on Wednesday afternoon. It is looking now like we will start shipping on Thursday or Friday. Since we have actually sold more amps than the first run was scheduled for we will have to wait for more circuit boards to be completed to move onto the second run. They are due to arrive in three or four weeks.
As for the number of channels the A1400-8 has 8 channels. We do the ratings for 7 since that is the normal quantity used for a Home Theatre amplifier but there is an extra channel for a second centre channel that is becoming so popular with bigger screens.
Geez, I've got to start bugging you about the computer speakers.
Thanks for the reply, Ian! It says a lot about your company that you're willing to get in the trenches and keep your customers so up to date on your plans and production!
Yes, thank you for the update. I just hope my order made it into the first run.
Ian,
Thank you very much for the update.
John
I just happened to stumble on
this article. I wasn't sure if all of you out there have already seen this.
I've read that article several times, and I still like it.
So just how many have done the pre-order? I would, but I am sure my wife would shoot me on the spot, especially since she just went part time at work.
Yup, by definition, it's only a disorder if it gets in your way/impairs your function. Otherwise it's just an interesting trait.
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Yes, thank you for the update. I just hope my order made it into the first run.
We just had to take a picture for you, CV - here's your amp early this morning:
Final tests tonight (perhaps a protective top ;-) )and you'll get tracking numbers tomorrow. Wooohooo! We're emptying the nest and sending the babies out!
CV is unavailable at the moment, Amie......
He's asked that you send it to my address in NH for safekeeping.....
Maybe he'll be so busy with his new gadget that his computer will go unused for a few days.
He has been very quiet the past couple days, perhaps the session with JP and whatever medication was prescribed is doing the trick.
Ha ha, I guess I know what my reputation is. I haven't been talking much because since I replaced my Xbox 360, I got caught up with some of the Xbox Live Arcade games that came out. I'm really liking Carcassonne, even though I'm not smart enough to be really good at it yet.
Thanks, Amie, for the pictures! Hopefully I'll be a good parent... though as it stands, I don't have a proper crib for it. It will have to sit on a box in front of the entertainment stand until I either get a new stand or move my system to the basement. Oh, great. Now you're not going to send it, are you?
You're forgiven if it's a nice box
.
Wellllll, right now I have my Onkyo receiver and Integra preamp sitting on an Xbox 360 box. It's actually the box for the Core system, not the Elite which I just got. Should I switch those out?
But yeah, I was too impatient to wait for the amplifier before messing with the preamp. I'm liking it so far, and of course there are a lot more options than on the receiver. I do appreciate the menu system a lot more. On the receiver, unless I wanted to change settings through the panel on the front, I would have to hook up a composite video cable to traverse the really bland-looking menu. Now there's at least some blue in the menu, and the text is much smoother at the higher resolution. I ran the Audyssey auto-setup, and I had to redo the channel levels manually, but the distances seemed to be spot-on, except for the subwoofer, which I assume was a way higher distance to account for the DSP processing. Is there any problem with letting it account for this through the distance setting as opposed to delay settings?
Distance and delay should be the same thing. They're related by the speed of sound.
I've discovered that auto-cal is a good start but you have to trust your ears. My Denon mic and my meter couldn't, for some reason, account for the fact that I have a large staircase beside my right M80 and QS8 but my ears could. I actually ended up tweaking all the channel levels to my liking because I found that setting them all to match the same SPL at my sweet spot simply wasn't giving me the right experience.
You should put your A1400 on the box that has the lowest parasitic impedance to ground
.
That's a good point on the calibration. I might try just be ear sometime and see how it turns out.
And yeah, about SPL levels, it seems like you're often talking about changing the levels of certain channels for certain material. This is definitely not a hobby for lazy people, if you really want the most out of your system, huh?
That's right but you know after all the tweaking, I found that I only need to use the following:
1. Stereo: calibrated levels.
2. PLIIx for music: for some pieces (jazz and classical), lower the volume on the fronts by 5dB to deepen the sound-stage. For all other pieces, use calibrated levels. For some other pieces, go to a phantom centre.
3. PLIIx for TV/cable: calibrated levels
4. PLIIx for movies: calibrated levels but sometimes boost the center as required. A couple of times I used a phantom center.
5. Dolby and DTS for music and movies: calibrated levels with some minor and movie-dependent adjustment on the centre.
Hey, that doesn't sound so bad when you have it all collected like that.
Yeah, but to get to this point required hundreds of hours over the last 7 months. Axiom's pre/pro will take all the guess-work out of it.
So yes, now it's the wait for FedEx. Maybe by this Friday, fingers crossed, and then I'll disappear from the message board so you can't have my opinions on it. Ha ha ha.
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So yes, now it's the wait for FedEx. Maybe by this Friday, fingers crossed, and then I'll disappear from the message board so you can't have my opinions on it. Ha ha ha.
We are going to need LOTS of pics!
which are worth more than 1000 words, so...
The person who said that was a photographer for a newspaper, though.
CV, I bet you can't wait. I'm anxious myself, so I called Axiom and spoke with Brent today. He said my A1400 should be shipping tomorrow!
That's great news. Yes, I'm definitely excited. I'm trying not to get my hopes too high, simply because I don't have a large room right now, and it really shouldn't make that much of a difference, but hey if it sounds better--even just due to psychology--all the better. I mainly bought it for down the road, when I'm in a larger space, and I wanted to take advantage of the cost savings.
OMG, I GOT IT!
Just kidding, or practicing for the real thing, if that's cooler.
Well, it's on the FedEx truck for delivery.
I'm waiting for it to show up in the outlet...
tcha right!
The ONLY way i'll EVER be able to get this beautiful piece of gear is if I win the lottery!
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Well, it's on the FedEx truck for delivery.
Well?
Normally I work until 7:30 pm PST, but today I managed to get off early, and it's here! I will go play with it, take some pictures, and be back!
Okay, so this sucks. I was only able to take one picture. My camera decided to freak out NOW of all times. When I turn it on, the image is dark and tinted red. Here's the picture, though:
Just a few general impressions. Right off, it seemed to play cleaner at the louder listening levels. The sound can still fall apart a little bit in certain situations, but I'm sure that's the combination of poor room acoustics and the limitations of the speakers themselves. Needless to say, there's no scientific weight behind any of this. I'll just echo what I've heard other people say who've gone to separates. It seems to play cleaner at louder levels, with detail I hadn't heard before, and overall, just more authority. That said, I can't be positive it's not simply psychological. I wasn't really expecting a vast improvement in my medium-sized room, and I didn't get one. Just a bit better, but I'm happy with the difference so far.
Oh, and for those who didn't know, I have the A1400-8 paired with an Integra DTC-9.8 via balanced XLR cables (thanks again, JohnK for finding the great price on the cables).
Hopefully I can borrow my parents' camera this weekend and take more pictures.
Ha ha, one thing I forgot to do was recalibrate after switching the Onkyo with the A1400-8. Didn't have to change much, but a little. I just listened to another song I listened to in the last couple of days, and many times before. I've never heard it sound so clean and full. I think it must be because I'm able to play louder without being annoyed by distortion, and so some of the details that would have normally been lost to the ambient noise is now there. Maybe?
You are planning on conducting double-blind listening tests with your loved ones this entire week-end, right?
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You are planning on conducting double-blind listening tests with your loved ones this entire week-end, right?
Are you mocking my lack of loved ones?
I don't have the gear to really make a test like that effective, anyway. See, this is why you needed to get one.
Oh, man, I just realized I haven't eaten all day. I guess I can take a break for my all-in-one breakfast/lunch/dinner.
With the A1400, you will win friends and influence people.
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With the A1400, you will win friends and influence people.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Axiom Audio fortune cookies?
Okay, then. Maybe I should have started a new thread for all of this, but anyway, so far the biggest difference I've heard is in the Ben Folds and WASO Live In Perth DVD. I would try to turn it up to a respectable level in the past, where it would sound like I was at the performance, but the sound would always fall apart and sound compressed with the orchestra going. Now I can turn it up and turn it up, and it sounds great. It finally sounds pretty close to being there. I'm very happy.
We're all looking forward to a full review after you've had a chance to get comfortable with it. The review should include a description of your room size and furnishings (pics would be ideal), listening distance, equipment, channel settings, etc etc. Oh, and a statistical analysis of your A/B testing
.
Also, which fuzzy slippers and Underoos you are wearing at the time. And what breakfast cereal you are eating. The crunchy stuff gets in the way of the A/B testing.
Good points, doc. After all, acoustical properties vary with the material.
Has anyone noticed the rolled-off frequency response from 8kHz upward on the FR curves of the A1400-8? The magnitude reaches to only about (-)0.6 to 0.7dB, but given the otherwise ruler-flat part of the FR, it stands out. Perhaps someone at Axiom could help us understand why this is so, how important it is, and why the FR curve is not flat throughout.
The only picture CV has shown us, the frontal shot, shows the black color to be less than impressive; it looks grainy and matte. We had heard that they reworked the mold for the cover to improve it cosmetically; I recall noticing small round depressions near 4 corners of the top cover (resembling attachment points of support feet for the under-surface) when Amie had posted pictures of a champagne unit. I would love to see more (updated and close-up) pictures of the amp from CV or Axiom.
John
Regarding the frequency response, a low pass filter at the output of the switching (power) stage strips the pulse width modulated carrier and leaves just the baseband audio signal. The low pass filter isn't perfect and hence attenuates the highs. Someone that has knowledge of class D amplifier design would recognize that, for the power and load driving capability, the A1400's performance is exceedingly excellent.
If I'm wrong, maybe someone at Axiom can correct me.
As far as the looks of the amp, I'm actually pretty impressed. The picture looks worse than it actually is, thanks to my horrible photography skills. I have been given permission to borrow my parents' camera this weekend, so I'll take a lot more pictures, hopefully with better lighting. It IS a matte black, and yes, those circles in the top cover are there, but I actually like it. Everyone has different opinions, but I'm happy with the look.
For the photos, just remember that on-camera flash is the enemy. Try to get some natural light from a window to illuminate the scene, and don't be afraid to get in close and use manual focus.
I'll see if I can figure that out on my parents' camera. I can't believe I have to learn photography for the sake of my audio hobby.
Seriously, I didn't think ahead when I bought the A1400-8. I should have foreseen the responsibility. D'oh.
It's like the saying goes: You do not seek out great deeds; rather great deeds are thrust upon you.
I think I'm going to leave the close-up shots of the amp up to Axiom. The pictures I had taken are garbage, and now I have the unit actually in the entertainment stand, along with the preamp. There still isn't enough clearance above the preamp to make me feel good about ventilation, but thankfully the vents are at the back of the unit, and I can push it far enough back to stick out the rear of the stand. The stand is away from the wall a fair amount, so I'm thinking there will be enough ventilation now. It doesn't look great, but at least it gets those units off of my floor.
I'll take new pictures of my setup sometime this week, so at least you'll have that. I'll post them in the old thread about my system with the old photos. Not a lot about the layout has changed, just equipment.
I'd better take the pictures today, with Halo 3 coming out Tuesday.
We were all expecting your full report today. Hopefully you'll be more productive over the next few days and won't disappoint us again
.
We expected more of you. For shame. If you do not comply within 1 week, you will be receiving a "Letter of Concern". Thank you.
John, even for those who can hear 20KHz at less than an extremely high sound pressure level(probably very few of us)a rolloff of about 0.6dB at that frequency would be inaudible compared to a totally flat response to that frequency.
You're right but I understood his question to mean "Other amps are more flat than the A1400. Why isn't the A1400 as flat?".
John and Mojo, thank you for taking the time to reply. I am by no means an expert on any of this. Human hearing ranges between 20Hz to 20kHz and lowest audible sound is somewhere between 0 and 4 dB. At the 20kHz, the roll-off by 0.6-0.7 is very unlikely to be audible to us. However, there are some people (see Stereophile's review of the Ayre C-5xe universal player) ,who feel that a filter that provides a flatter curve may not be audible in itself, but offers a better time-domain performance, particularly regarding the accuracy of stereo imaging. In any case, I am sure that my untrained ears still cannot tell the difference. Mojo indicated that the experts will find A1400's performance to be "exceedingly excellent". I have no doubt that this is indeed the case, and I am looking forward to reading the reviews by such experts.
John
John, just a little more info relating to what I stated can be found in the "What About Wires Longer Than 50 feet?" section of Mr. Russell's excellent
wire explanation . It refers to an article from Audio which apparently isn't available in full online which indicates that a substantial difference is necessary at the highest frequencies before it's audible. Incidentally, in my view the comments from Stereophile would appear to fall into the voodoo audio category.
To quote the Stereophile reviewer:
"...the output above 15kHz dropped significantly, to –3dB at 20kHz. This kind of response is not that audible in itself. However, I am becoming convinced that the better time-domain performance offered by the digital filter that produces this response does sound better, particularly regarding accuracy of stereo imaging."
So he's saying that the (digital) filter that is responsible for this poorer magnitude response offers better phase (time-domain) response.
I would definitely agree with him on that point. If you want to improve phase response (time delay) you can give a little on magnitude response.
ihifi,
This roll off at the top is pretty much standard with high powered amps no matter the class of the design. In a digital amp it is to keep the clock out of the output and in an A/B amp it is to stop ringing. Below I have posted a graph we took of a competitor's high-end class A/B amp and you can see it exhibits exactly the same roll off. The limit of human hearing is around 14 – 16 kHz so you are out of the audible range before you get beyond 0.2 dB of drop. Even if you could hear to 20 kHz then 0.6 dB of a drop would also be inaudible. Hope this answers this one for you.
Ian,
Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply. Just to be sure, my querry was about the response at the high frequency not looking ruler-flat as compared to the rest of the curve, not as compared to other amplifiers' response curves. I am not an audiophile, so I greatly appreciate your explanation regarding the purpose of the slight roll-off. While curves and figures (will see how Mark Johnson will play on the "curves and figures") hint at the performance potential of this amp, I think listening to it will likely provide the ultimate test. I look forward to hearing this amp powering eight of his sisters and brothers in my home in the next few weeks.
On a side note, If the Axiom pre/pro becomes a reality, I may end up with an all-Axiom set-up, save for the DVD player and the pop-corn machine.
By the way, do you have any updates that you can share on the planned pre/pro? Thanks again.
John
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Just to be sure, my querry was about the response at the high frequency not looking ruler-flat as compared to the rest of the curve,
You have to take into context the scale of the graph.
A drop of 0.2-0.6 dB is essentially inaudible to the human ear. If the Y axis scale were set to values of 2dB increments or more, the curve would not even be visible.
They say you can do anything with statistics but i say the advertising marketers do far more magical wonders with graphs.
