Posted by Al Sekela on November 17, 2003 at 18:19:15:
In Reply to: Edge posted by mariano on November 17, 2003 at 05:45:00:
I spent some time listening at the Edge display and spoke with the designer. The discussion turned towards the "laser bias" feature in the amps. They actually cut open the case of the driver transistor to shine a laser on to the silicon chip.
I spent 25 years in the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Cases and packages are designed to keep ionic contaminates away from the silicon. This practice is roughly equivalent to cranking the boost on a factory automobile turbocharger by 20 psi. You get more performance for a while. Good luck with your NL-12.
Based on my audition under show conditions, the Edge amps were harsh. See my description of tweaks that markedly improve the performance of the InnerSound ESL amp. I haven't spent quality time with an Edge amp in my system, so you may be correct about overall performance out of the boxes. A magazine is constrained to review the equipment as they receive it, but TAS is notoriously obtuse about reliability and stability issues.