Ampzilla Son of Ampzilla 2000, Son of Ampzilla Owners manual

OWNER’S MANUAL

Almost 30 years ago Great American Sound Co. introduced the original
legendary Son of Ampzilla amplifier designed by James Bongiorno. Many tens of
thousands were produced and sold. The popularity of this product enamored it
with a kind of mystic reputation in that most believed that this amplifier had a
smoothness & openness akin to the very best tube amplifiers yet retained the
detail and “punch” of the best of the solid state amplifiers. As a matter of fact, the
vast majority of these units are still in use today, which speaks volumes about the
sonic performance and the product reliability.
After leaving GAS Co. James Bongiorno founded a new company called Sumo,
with the intention of furthering the state of the art yet again. The resulting Sumo
amplifiers were the very first, and up to now the only ones, to employ a concept
called the full differential, full complementary, balanced bridge. And as of this
date, no other company or designer has yet been able to figure out how to make
this concept work.

nd

Spread Spectrum Tech. Inc. proudly introduces the 2

in a new series of
amplifiers, the first being the Ampzilla2000, and now its prodigy, the Son of
Ampzilla2000. Compared to the original Son of Ampzilla (Actually there really is
no comparison) the new Son is the third generation of concept design after the
original SAE-GAS designs. Firstly, it is completely balanced input to output with
full four quadrant differential push-pull feedback from both

sides of the speaker.
Secondly, each channel has twice as many power transistors as the original (and
they are bigger ones too). Thirdly, the new Son is all servo controlled whereas
the original was not. Fourthly, the power supply has 3 times more capacity than
the original. Indeed, the power transformer in the new Son is rated at 2000VA
with totally independent windings and power supplies for each channel. Finally,
as an improvement over its bigger brother, the input single ended to balanced
convertor has been totally eliminated wherein the new son uses automatic
switching to select either balanced or unbalanced inputs. Therefore, there is no
need for a switch to select between the two.
The power supply capacity is exactly the same as in the Ampzilla2000. In
addition, our unique grounding procedure insures absolutely no ground loops and
the lowest wide band noise ever seen in a power amplifier. No other amps in the
universe are even close.
The circuit design of the new Son reflects the attitude that “if it ain’t broke, don’t
fix it”. In other words, the design is very traditional with more detail to refinements
instead of exotic new circuitry. Since specifications of performance do not
necessarily relate to the sonic performance, we are dispensing with these
parameters. Needless to say, most good amplifiers have low distortion, wide
bandwidth, and flat frequency response. In general, this doesn’t tell you much.
The new Son has all these good qualities too. However, in the area of noise

performance, like the Ampzilla2000, the new Son has no equal in this universe.

Wide band

correlates to less than ½ microvolt at the input which is lower than virtually every
PHONO stage input made on earth. Since most listening is done at very low
power levels, noise modulation is of paramount importance.
The nominal power output of the new Son is more than the original i.e. 100
watts/channel into 8 ohms and that’s
somewhat conservative. In addition, the new Son will drive virtually any load in
existence (no it won’t drive ½ ohm loads and be happy). The smooth distortion
characteristics of the Son are reminiscent of many fine tube amplifiers and
therefore we call o ur new design ------

noise is less than 20 microvolts at the output (80kHz filter). This

We believe that this new amplifier combines the best sonic virtues of both tubes
and solid state without making any compromises. Smoothness and not
harshness: detail rather than vagueness: solid low end power rathe than
muddiness & mush. For those of you who don’t need monster power, the new
Son might be a choice for your consideration.

US Retail price---$3250.00 Retail prices will be higher outside the US.

Visit our web site for performance graphs and much more information including
awards, show photos, history, white papers and our other products.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES

Combo input jack---accepts either balanced XLR or mono phone jack for
automatic switching between balanced & unbalanced signals. 2 gold plated
phone plugs supplied.

Input impedance--- 33kOhms on each leg of balanced inputs
33kOhms for mono (unbalanced input

Dual peak LEDs

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