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Casablanca Monos
$16,000.00
***Please note these come as a pair.
“Here’s looking at you kid…”
The Casablanca’s earned their name due to their classic looks and commanding performance, and came about in response to requests from our customers for an amplifier capable of driving difficult speaker loads while retaining the purity of our SET line.
Typically high power single-ended amplifiers are either run in pentode or using exotic power tubes; for this task we instead opted for a push-pull based amplifier based on the classic Eico HF97. This choice allows the use of commonly available tubes with texture and realism while providing more than enough power to control nearly any speaker.
The Casablanca’s provide 60 watts with KT88/6550 power tubes and 45 watts with EL-34s. Using a 12AX7/6SN7 front end allows access to a vast array of NOS/NIB tubes without the costs and sourcing of exotic tube choices. The goal is to bring classic tube texture, harmonics and realism without reliance on exotic choices or modern solid-state additions which color the sound, diminish the impact and realism.
While the chassis of the Casablanca utilizes a wooden base, the mounting plate is ampsandsound’s typical heavy gauge plate, offering some of the noise reduction and mechanical damping of the Zion or Arch, while reducing size and costs significantly. Connoisseurs of tube amplifiers will be well familiar with the form factor, but may be surprised by just how compact these amplifiers are: two Casablancas fit nearly in the footprint of one of our stereo amplifiers.
Despite the changes in chassis, the Casablanca is still built to ampsandsound’s exacting standards, with extremely clean point-to-point wiring, and outfitted with our suite of renowned in-house iron. Like other ampsandsound amplifiers, no expense has been spared in parts or build standards, and the Casablanca is an exceptional performer.
Purchasing an ampandsound amplifier is an intentional choice to support a company that believes in proven circuits, fanatical attention to implementation details and use of custom wound transformers. With all ampsandosund amplifiers, we show our work. There are no secrets: we just care deeply about how our products are made.
ampsandsound aims for build quality which exceeds reasonable standards: perfection is our standard. We want customers to be able to follow circuits by sight, and wiring clean enough to eat off of. While build and wiring are a core value, even more important is the sophistication that ampsandsound transformers represent. Each transformer’s IP is designed, developed and owned by ampsandsound. We don’t just spec a custom choice, but understand how these spec’s impact the sound and allow us to optimize the amplifier from transformer to circuit.
Choosing the Casablanca prioritizes power and access to ampsandosund’s famous transformers. By maintaining the traditional tube amp appearance, Casablancas showcase a pure circuit implementation and sophisticated transformers that produce music not sound.
The Casablanca’s come with multiple output taps and a supremely over spec’d power supply. You will likely never bring the Casablanca’s to clipping or hear them compress as the power supply and current reserves feel limitless. As with our other two-channel amplifiers, massive current reserves and robust amperage on tap are part of our highly dynamic, low-distortion house sound.
The Casablanca’s provided extremely articulate bass, with remarkable mid and high-frequency extension. Several customers have described these as ‘Baby Zions’ with excellent linearity, but perhaps a little more warmth. The bottom line – this amplifier offers the tone and detail we all expect from a reference level push-pull amplifier and nearly limitless personalization with different tube combinations.
Specifications:
Input impedance is 475Kohm, 1.6v for full power.
Noise is 680uV RMS.
Power 60 Watts RMS with KT88 power tubes.
Bandwidth is 10 Hz to 35 kHz -3db @ 1 watt
Bandwidth at full power 60watts is 26hz to 18khz.
THD 1Watt @ 0.016%
THD 5Watts @ 0.042%
THD 20watts @ 0.095%
THD MAX @ 0.124%
Noise @ 1.48mV
Power and Noise specs are dependent on tube selection.
The Casablanca Monos are in production.
All ampsandsound amps are handmade in Southern California with custom hand-wound output transformers and U.S. sourced parts.
Our amps are hand-made by a small team with quality being our first priority.