原文来自:www.hifiplus.com
Reproduced from HI-FI+ Issue 185
作者:Alan Sircom
Let’s start with an admission. These are not Accustic Arts’ flagship mono power amplifiers.The Mono III is the flagship, and it’s a big ‘un.These are ‘just’ the new Mk 2 edition of Accustic Arts popular Mono II power amplifiers. It’s still a big ‘un, but in these days of a new kind of ‘stranger danger’ ,manhandling a power amp that weighs 25kg per channel as opposed to one that weighs 60kg per channel is the difference between breaking into a sweat and breaking a few vertebra.
翻译:
在德国AA(Accustic Arts)这个庞大的家族中,MONO III是旗舰。而今天我们为大家带来的是全新的MONO II-MK2,也是众多放大器中的佼佼者。它不是那种动则60公斤的劳命伤腰骨的庞然大物,它一只才25公斤,一个人只需花点力气,出点汗就能搬动。
If you set aside the Mono III, the Mono II Mk 2 screams ‘flagship’ in its own right. The amps are substantial, taking up the low, deep rather than wide form factor of something like a pair of the latest ‘cheese grater’ Apple Mac Pro computers,but with arguably cleaner lines and lots and lots of aluminium,with a highly polished chromed brass inlay.
翻译:
MONO II-MK2简约的设计风格,深而不宽的外形,机身使用厚实的铝制外壳,面板中央为镀铬抛光镜面面板。
Each Mono II Mk 2 delivers a substantial 310W into eight ohms and will continue on down to two ohms, where it’s capable of hitting up to 750W. Much of the internal architecture is taken up with a large and fully screened toroidal transformer, hooked to 80,000μF of reservoir capacitance.It can be driven in balanced or single-ended mode at a flip of a switch.
翻译:
每一台MONO II-MK2的功率为8欧姆310瓦,2欧姆环境下,功率最高可达至750瓦。内部采用了一个特大的全屏蔽环形变压器且连接到高达80000μF的储能电容。背部提供一个开关,可以在RCA和XLR之间来回切换。
The core technology here is the current mirror used in driver stage of the Mono II Mk 2 (and-in fairness-in Accustic Arts amps in general). This circuit enables power to be drawn from an existing current, making effectively a ‘power-controlled’ output amplifier so the 10 MOSFET output transistors in each amp deliver very high current capacity without being pushed to their performance limit. Moreover, as the quiescent current is generated by the integrated control of that current mirror circuit, there’s no need for servo-controlled DC offset monitoring.
翻译:
其核心技术在于所使用的电流镜电路,该电路可从现有电流汲取功率,从而有效地构成了“功率控制”输出放大器,因此10对精选的MOSFET输出晶体管可为MONO II-MK2提供了稳定且充足的电源,而不会受到任何限制。此外,由于静态电流是由该电流镜电路集成系统所产生的,因此无需对直流偏移进行监控。
This control system also monitors the temperature of the output stage, as well as clipping and high frequency oscillation.This control references against pre-defined values and if these values for any parameter is exceeded, the amplifier shuts down before it kills loudspeakers. This is a more sophisticated approach than either a simple fuse or an over voltage ‘crowbar’ circuit, and the sonic performance benefits from that.
翻译:
该控制系统还会监视输出级的温度,以及防止突波和杂讯的干扰。其预先设定一个定值,超过阈值前,会让机器处于保护状态,从而有效地减少对扬声器的损害。
Let’s be truly honest with our selves here. When faced with a big, beefy, heavy and powerful pair of mono power amplifiers,we tend to go a bit… feral. We want brute force. We don’t want a volume dial, we want a throttle! We want the full ‘Max ell Man’ effect of being pressed into our seat by sheer force of air movement. And, if you talk about your system as if you are ‘unleashing’ it, the Mono II Mk 2 are more than capable of playing along with your base desires: be it Black Sabbath at ‘aural sacrifice’ levels or opera played at full Sturm und Drang ear-bleeding intensity. With the right speakers capable of taking this kind of punishment, you will blink long, long before the Mono II Mk 2. And though this ear maceration is an understandable and natural part of the process of becoming one with the big monoamp, it’s expressing a fraction of what these amps are capable of.
翻译:
说句实话吧!当使用一个强劲的单声道功率放大器时候,我们往往会变得……野性。我们需要粗暴、野蛮!我们不要适当控制音量,只需要踩足油门即可!我们想要完美的“麦克斯厄尔曼”效应,那种冲击性的能量把我们死死地压倒在座位上。此时,MONO II-MK2可以满足你的要求,这也是单声道放大器该具备的能力。
Putting my inner caveman back, one becomes aware that there is a lot more than just power on tap here. The sheer control the Mono II Mk 2 have over the bass in particularly is outstanding; Accustic Arts discusses high damping factor a lot on its site and these amplifiers have alot of ‘grip’; bass is full-bodied and visceral rather than dry, but it’s also precise and completely free from overhang. The deep bass electronic introduction of ‘Welcome To My World’ [Depeche Mode, Delta Machine, Columbia] is a fine example of how fine a line this can be; too much control and the bass notes sound like angry wasps in a jar, too little and it sounds like a ship’s foghorn. Here it just sounds powerful yet not dominating the music.
翻译:
MONO II-MK2的高阻尼系数使其低频控制方面尤为出色,低频饱满且非常精确。在重播《Delta Machine》专辑中的《Welcome To My World》时,低频不多也不少且线条感非常好。低频控制过量时候如怒蜂飞舞一般,太少又显得如雾如幻般朦胧。
The deeper you delve, the more you like what you hear with the Mono II Mk 2. I’ve long held that a good amplifier works from the middle out; get the mid-range right, with good separation, coherence, vocal articulation and projection and excellent fine detail and dynamics. If you do that, the rest falls more or less into place. There is still a need to have high-frequency extension accurate and peak-free, and a bass that is controlled as it is deep, but if you don’t nail that midrange first, the rest will never be able to compensate. And that ‘nailing the midrange’ is precisely what the Mono II Mk 2 does so well. Playing ‘Animales Hambrientos’ by Bebe [Cambio De Piel, Warner Music Spain] really highlights that midrange quality; her voice, at once sultry and expressive if a little too close mic’d, comes across perfectly, and is clearly separated from the rest of the band while still being very much in the mix. It’s sometimes useful to hear a voice in a language you don’t understand (as is the case here) as you hear the diction and articulation without your brain ‘filling in the blanks’ linguistically. This is a very liquid midrange presentation and not without warmth, but it is predominantly detailed and highly informative. The combination of those elements makes for a sound that is remarkably easy on the ear, allowing hour upon hour of listening.
翻译:
MONO II-MK2的声音你会越听越爱,重播BEBE的《Cambio De Piel》专辑中的《Animales Hambrientos》,BEBE一开声,你会感受到她的形体刻画,甚至贴近话筒的动作,温暖且极富表现力的声音给人非常完美的感觉。她的歌声与乐队的其他成员是分离的,但两者却十分和谐。这种表现力时是十分的抓耳的,让你能久久地坐着欣赏。
The weight and authority of a pair of big mono amp scan be a double-edged sword. Faced with no crosstalk in a stereo amplifier and an amplifier with a lot of power in reserve,music can come across as a bit ‘soulless’… but not here.The Mono II Mk 2 manages to combine much of the lithe sound of smaller amplifiers with the bold and effortless sense of dynamic range and scale that only comes with big power amps. That combination comes across regardless of music played; whether it’s Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’ [Deadpool 2 OST,Columbia] or Mahler’s Eighth [Solti, Decca]-and that’s a back-to-back musical combination that you don’t often hear-the Mono II Mk 2 delivers the ‘grace’ and the ‘space’, and quite a lot of the ‘pace’ too. In terms of sound stage, the amplifier goes more for depth than outright width; the stereo imagery is still wide of the loudspeakers, but not Cinemas cope-like wide.
翻译:
一对大的单声道放大器的分量和权威可以说是一把双刃剑。面对立体声放大器中没有串扰和一个有大量能量储备的放大器,音乐可能会让人觉得有点“没有灵魂”。而Mono II Mk 2设法将小型放大器的轻巧与只有大功率放大器才能提供宽松的动态范围完美的结合起来。不管播放Dolly Parton的《9 to 5》、《Deadpool 2》还是Decca版,Solti指挥的《马勒第八号交响曲》,MONO II-MK2都能提供非常优异的空间感,音场非常宽阔、纵深。
Downsides? Naturally, when an amplifier is this good, it is tempered by the quality of the rest of the devices in the signal path. Don’t even think of using these amplifiers in an ‘almost there’ system, as the Mono II Mk 2 will highlight limitations,especially those upstream, and especially in your power delivery. Also, these are not ethereal, floaty sounding amp sand neither are they the almost supernaturally fast leading edge led fast-paced designs. But, even here I’d argue that at the Mono II Mk 2’s price (and way beyond), what you lose by chasing such goals is usually more than you gain. Yes,when you get to the absolute pinnacle of performance, there is something of a convergence, but criticising a £20,000 hand-built pair of amps for not being a pair of £120,000 pair of amps tailor made to your system is more than a little unfair.Besides, what you get here is balance in all things, which is often lost irrespective of the amplifier design, and its price tag.
翻译:
至于缺点?我认为当一个放大器表现如此出色的时候,你需要提升你其他的设备去平衡它。假若你对MONO II-MK2的价格十分执着的话,你的损失将会十分巨大。放大器的设计与性能往往跟其价格是成正比的,当然,你不能拿2万英镑的放大器和12万英镑的放大器去做比较。
Otherwise, the only downside I can think of is the absurd bragging rights some audiophiles get when showing off an amplifier with someone’s name in the title, even when that ‘someone’ has moved on or passed on. If the Mono II Mk 2were made by ‘HJ Voss’ instead of ‘Accustic Arts’, you can guarantee someone, somewhere will be saying, “Yes, I’ve been a fan of Hans-Joachim’s work for some years now.Jochen and I go way back!” and bragging rights are restored.You might very well think that implies ridicule at the notion of people choosing an amplifier simply because there’s a man’s name on the front panel; I couldn’t possibly comment.
翻译:
除此之外,我想到的唯一缺点是发烧友通常会以设计师的名字去炫耀这个放大器,即使那个设计师已经离世多年,这是十分荒诞的。假如MONO II-MK2是由HJ VOSS而不是Accustic Arts制作的。肯定会有人说:“你是Hans-Joachim的粉丝,所以吹捧而已”。你很可能认为这是在嘲笑别人仅仅因为面板上有个名字就选择该放大器的想法。这个恕我无法评论。
I started out by saying how the Accustic Arts Mono II Mk 2 isn’t the company’s flagship and my spine thanking me for that. But the Mono II Mk 2 is so damn good it makes me wonder just how much better the big Mono III can be.The Mono II Mk 2 is one of the very best mono power amps available right now at its price... and beyond.
翻译:
德国AA(Accustic Arts)的MONO II-MK2虽然不是这个品牌的旗舰产品,但我认为他足够好了!切实让我感受到他们旗舰产品MONO III毋庸置疑的好。MONO II-MK2是目前价格价格最优惠的单声道功率放大器之一。