Tickets are now on sale!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/burning-amp-festival-22-online-via-zoom-tickets-420682301087
Support for Burning Amp Online via Zoom provided by Linear Systems, a manufacturer of small-signal JFETs. Linear Systems will also be at Fort Mason, exhibiting their JFET products and providing limited free samples on both days.
Schedule
Saturday afternoon is educational seminars with Demian Martin and Scott Hinson.
Saturday morning is the ACA Redux Build Camp hosted by Nelson Brock (limited seating, separate material fee required).
Sunday is the full day Burning Amp Festival from 9:00am until 8:00pm. Bring your audio projects for display! (If you are bringing a project to display please arrive by 9:30.)
Sunday afternoon speakers will include Jon Ver Halen, Tony Salsich, and Nelson Pass . Following will be an auction, raffle, and social hour.
See you there!!
Our stellar list of presenters:
Scott Hinson: Speaker Design and Measurement Techniques
Scott Hinson is probably best known to the DIY community for 70 plus loudspeaker design white papers at facebook.com/DIYRM, covering all aspects of design, measurement and construction. He’s been involved in DIY audio since 1995 when he ran “The Bass List” out of the listserv system while an engineering student at The University of Texas at Austin.
In the following years Scott designed medical devices, space rated high reliability battery management systems, amplifiers, power supplies and all sorts of things that could shock you. (One of which was the TEMS system for a multi-modal muscle electro-stimulation device.) Scott now researches renewable energy integration into the grid.
In the commercial audio world, Scott consults on and designs audiophile, pro-sound, and studio loudspeaker systems for numerous clients all over the globe.
Demian Martin: Tools & Techniques for Measuring and Troubleshooting Audio Electronics
Demian returns having presented at the two previous Burning Amps.
After college (UCSC) Demian Martin worked for Four Phase Systems, a pioneering semiconductor/computer company designing peripheral interfaces. He then went on to work at Dysan designing disk drive test equipment. Finding that work not really interesting, he went on to cofound Spectral Audio with Rick Fryer and designed all the first generation products. After a few years he left to start the subwoofer company Entec to commercialize Keith Johnson’s subwoofer servo in a family of subwoofers. He also worked with Jerry Crosby developing the CAW Quad modification during that period. He then moved on to work as Monster Cable’s Director of Engineering.
At Monster he was responsible for designing cables (both audio and RF/video) including the industry’s most advanced HDMI cables. Other products he designed or helped design at Monster Cable Products included the original Beats headphone, the subsequent headphone products, all the power products, and all the speakers.
In addition to his consulting work at Monster Cable Products, since 2000 he has been consulting for audio companies including NuForce, NuPrime, and Constellation. He has 27 issued patents.
Jon Ver Halen: Why Full Range?
Jon Ver Halen graduated from Purdue with honors and then a masters degree in engineering, also from Purdue. He has been building speakers since his undergraduate days. At some point he took an interest in SET’s, designing and building a number of amplifiers.
Since his wife would not tolerate the big horns that he so desired, Jon turned to high efficiency single drivers systems. He started importing the Lowther speakers in 2000. While importing those speakers he designed a pair of commercial speakers, the Alerion and LOB (little open baffle). He is now the importer the Cube Audio line of speakers.
In his spare time Jon designs custom cranes that have been used by Space-X, Norad stations, various nuclear power stations and even Disney World. He also acts as an expert witness in civil lawsuits determining how products failed, and the liability of various parties. This work supplies the income to support his ever-more-expensive hobby.
Tony Salsich: The Hill Type I Plasma Speaker: How It Works, and How You Can Hear It
Tony Salsich worked for Alan Hill at Plasmatronics Inc. from 1977 to 1990. He helped design some of the electronics supporting the Hill type I plasma loudspeaker and worked the CES shows with Alan. During those years he got an incomparable education in pulsed power and laser physics. He currently designs welding and induction heating power sources for Miller Electric in Appleton, WI.
When faced with the 2020 Covid lockdown, Tony finally accomplished his dream of resurrecting his personal pair of plasma speakers; designing the high voltage power supplies and class A amps from scratch. Tony also plays the Gansa in a Balinese Gamelan group.
Nelson Pass: Current Topics
“Papa” Nelson Pass needs little introduction to the DIY community and to attendees of Burning Amp having been there from the start.
In 1974, he received his BS in physics from the University of California-Davis. While there he and Mike Maher founded the small speaker company PMA. From 1973 to 1974, he was employed at ESS and assisted Dr. Oskar Heil with crossover design, woofer selection, and final build cabinetry of audiophile, consumer grade loudspeakers. Nelson Pass holds 6 patents related to magneplanar speakers.
After graduating in 1974, he and René Besne founded Threshold Electronics. Threshold is perhaps best known for the “Stasis” amplifiers . He sold Threshold Electronics in 1997. In the mid 1980s, Pass also designed the well-reviewed Adcom GFA-555 amplifer.
Pass Labs was founded in 1991. Notable Pass Class A product lines include the “Aleph” series of single-ended amplifiers. The X series amplifiers, which make use of the SuperSymmetry topology (patented by Pass) giving extremely low distortion levels, and the XA series, which combine the two. In parallel with Pass Labs, Pass also runs First Watt, a “kitchen table” commercial venture which produces, in very limited numbers, low-power / minimalist Class A designs.
Nelson Pass has been a champion of the DIY community for decades, beginning with a series of articles in Audio Amateur magazine introducing the “Zen” variations, amplifiers that answer the question “What is the sound of one transistor clapping?” His more recent designs introduced at prior Burning Amps, include the ACA (Amp Camp Amp), DIY Bi-Amp 6-24 Crossover, ACP+ (Amp Camp Pre-amp + Headphone Amp) and most recently the ACA Mini. His Moth SLOB (Slot-Loaded Open Baffle) was built at the Speaker Camp held this June in Sonoma County.