Aesthetix Integrated Amplifiers

That "Aesthetix Sound"
Over four years in development, the challenge of delivering the Aesthetix Sound in a more accessible package has been fully realized. The same volume control used in our award-winning Calypso was borrowed for use in the Mimas. It consists of 88 1dB steps, utilizing individual switched 1% metal film resistors. The volume control has long been considered one of the most difficult design challenges of a preamplifier, with more compromised designs utilizing potentiometers witch impart the music with a dullness due to loss of detail. Others use inexpensive integrated circuit based volume controls which have good matching between channels and small step size but impart a hardness and glare to the sound. Our volume control avoids these pitfalls. It is costly, but worth it.

Fully Differential and Balanced Amplification
The preamplifier section utilizes one 6DJ8 (6922) vacuum tube per channel in a fully differential, balanced configuration. Again borrowed from our Calypso preamplifier, this circuit will balance a single-ended input and provides voltage gain before the power amplifier section. This stage uses Roederstein plate load resistors from Germany, Reliable Capacitor coupling capacitors from California, USA, and a discrete solid-state current source. Tubes are burned in for over 100 hours before testing. Our tube testing regimen includes full FFT distortion analysis, gain matching to within .1dB, microphonics and noise levels.