Aavik R-880
Experience the pinnacle of analog sound with the Aavik R-880 Phonostage. This ultimate phono preamplifier delivers breathtaking realism, detail, and an ultra-low noise floor, revealing the true soul of your vinyl records.
Pure Signal. Pure Emotion.
Aavik R-880 reference phono stage has been designed to excel at this essential process, so that listeners can rest assured that the signal sent form it to the components downstream is of remarkable quality no matter what cartridge type is in use. Aavik R-880 was built to brilliantly support them all.
Resonant mode power supply
This Aavik series is designed to ensure massive power resources with ultra-low noise. Unlike the square waves used by conventional switch mode power supplies, this Aavik series boast a resonant mode design which is principally driven by sine waves.
When more power is needed, the operating frequency increases, which, in turn, has the advantage that the power density also increases, thus allowing higher peak power when required by the music.
The noise floor in the raw power supply is extremely low but could be even further lowered by the ultra-low noise regulators supplying the different parts of the circuit. The noise of these regulators is measured in a few microvolts respectively nanovolts, which is significantly lower than the noise level of conventional regulators.
The principle of a traditional class A power supply is to create switching noise. This happens when the large capacitors have to absorb current from the transformer. Current can only flow into the capacitors when the voltage on the outside is less, so when current is needed, the voltage across the capacitors will be lower than the 50/60 Hz cycle. Although defined as a linear power supply, there are a lot of current transients flowing in these power supplies.
The Aavik 880 amplifier has four 500W power factor corrected resonant mode power supplies. The 500w power supplies combined with the extremely large power banks mean that the amplifier can deliver peak currents in excess of 80A, so it is not the power supply in the Aavik 880 amplifier that will limit how much you can feed into your speakers in transient and they will never switch.
The 880 cabinet design
A study of materials and shapes
The exterior design of the Aavik 880 amplifier is the result of Flemming Erik Rasmussen’s artistic and aesthetic work. However, his design philosophy is and always has been that design must serve purpose. The cabinet of the Aavik 880 amplifier was designed primarily with the goal of maintaining the best audio characteristics of the electrical design, i.e. the lowest inductance, reducing hysteresis to an absolute minimum, and ensuring excellent resonance control. In addition, since this was a Class A amplifier that was to be developed, there were some predefined premises for the design. With these goals in mind, the design process became a study of shapes and materials that opened up a unique and constructive synergy between Flemming Erik Rasmussen and Michael Børresen.
In addition, the amplifier features cooling elements on the sides and top that clearly bear Flemming’s design signature. The control panel is designed as a large LCD touchscreen display.
The choice of materials, as well as the interior and exterior design, are the result of Fleming and Michael’s collaboration and are characterized by functionality, but also by a very aesthetic and elegant design.
The solid copper enclosure
Based on Flemming Erik Rasmussen’s fascination with copper for its visual appearance and feel, and Michael Børresen’s insight into the sonic properties of copper, this material was chosen as a fundamental component of the design. As a result, the Aavik 880 amplifiers feature a solid copper enclosure. This results in a further reduction in hysteresis, lower output impedance, lower inductance, a positive effect on the damping factor, and cooler operation of the amplifier. All these components ensure that the music is reproduced with more energy and power.
DS Audio – The optical machine
The R-880 supports DS Audio optical cartridges. The optical cartridge input in Aavik R-880 is built upon a dedicated direct-coupled floating input stage that allows operation without the conventional DC-blocking cap.
Aavik R-880’s input stage for optical cartridges embeds an adjustable high-pass filter to counter unwanted modulation issues. From there, our RIAA filter and discrete operational amplifier as introduced above. We apply an optional low-pass filter designed to linearize the high frequency response of the optical cartridges.
The addition of high-/low-pass filtering network also means that Aavik R-880 allows for adjusting bass and treble of these cartridges, and to select the setting that suits the individual cartridge model best.
The Tesla coil principle
The principle is to have two coils that are wounded in each direction / a coil and a counter coil. In Ansuz words: “a double inverted coil” – the two coils are both carrying voltage – and when the Tesla coil encounters a voltage spike a counter spike is activated in order to eliminate the noise. As Noise spikes are pure voltage and carries virtually no charge, the cancelation is quite good, but not 100%. By adding more P-TC coils in parallel the performance increases. By implementing this the perceived blackness in the music improves significantly.
Ansuz Tesla coils are available in various types as they complement each other in terms of strengths /weaknesses.
Analog dither technology 3rd generation
A 3rd generation of the Ansuz analog dither technology has been developed. Analog dither technology originated in radar, where it ensured a stronger signal and thus greater range. The active Tesla coils send pulsating signals at precisely defined frequencies. These signals are sent in anti-phase. This significantly amplifies the musical signal and eliminates the background noise floor.
Analysis and studies have led to new options – and a lot of listening has resulted in this 3rd generation design which is a further optimization of the most effective frequencies which opens the soundscape even more and with the tiniest details when it comes to reproduction of the recordings.
Active square Tesla coils
Impressive noise reduction.
The active square Tesla coils are embedded in our circuitry boards – one coil on the top and the counter coil on the rear side. The principle is exactly the same as the active Tesla coil and thus a great ability to eliminate noise than the passive Tesla coil.
Gold Anti-Aerial Resonance Coil (Gold AARC) Technology
Featured in the R-880 series, Gold AARC uses a dual-coil design to eliminate airborne RF noise—one coil absorbs interference while the other cancels it out. Built with a zirconium rod and silver/gold-layered copper coils, it ensures a cleaner, more refined signal path.
Active zirconium anti aerial resonance Tesla coil
Based on Ansuz general curiosity on the properties of different materials, Ansuz has implemented a zirconium bar in their anti aerial resonance coil design. This is another impressive upgrade to the Ansuz anti aerial resonance coil technology.
The properties of this zirconium bar allow for unprecedented resonance control resulting in outstanding musical refinement that creates a natural soundstage, unrivalled in its purity, precision and attention to musical detail.
MC and MM section
The Aavik R-880 phono stage features a topologically balanced and floating MC input, using ultra-low-noise BISS transistors to ensure a quiet signal path. Cartridge loading is adjustable from 50 Ω to 5k Ω, with reduced sensitivity to voltage spikes—minimizing pops, cracks, and unwanted noise. The MM input, based on a similar topology, uses JFETs and offers adjustable capacitive loading from 80 to 240pF, with load values between 1k Ω and 36–58k Ω. Both sections include a precisely engineered output stage using components with 1% tolerance for outstanding signal integrity
All Børresen, Ansuz, Aavik & Axxess products sold by Next Level HiFi feature Audio Group Denmark's full 5-year manufacturer's warranty against defects in materials and workmanship. Normal wear-and-tear by the user does not qualify as a defect.
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