Tundra Mono 3

[ThomasOK]

Yes, we found the same thing with the pair we used at Axpona. On setup day Thursday we weren't sure about the speakers as the bass was somewhat indistinct and the overall musicality of the system was good but not great. On Friday, the first day of the show, the whole system was sounding much better with the speakers settling in (their spikes were too cone shaped and couldn't penetrate the industrial carpet in the hotel rooms) and the TM3s burning in. Saturday the system really was cooking and we, as well as most of the people visiting the room, were really enjoying it. People were coming back a second time, staying in the room a long time just enjoying music and referring other people to the room (even some other vendors). Sunday it was better yet and it was hard to hear any of the limitations we had felt were there on Thursday. When we were breaking down the system at 3:00PM Sunday Fredrik said it was sounding so good he didn't want to stop, he wanted to do another day! But I had a puppy to get home to, a rental van to return and the show closing that day preventing such action. So they do indeed take a while to settle, but boy is it worth it!

[barrie]

Any updates on the Mono 3’s?

[lejonklou]

Hello Barrie!

Production, final assembly and tuning are working full speed. I am just about to start on number 009.

Next week I plan to make the first upgrade of an older pair. As there are various small differences in casing, cooling, power supply, etc. over the ten years it’s been in production, a detailed description of the conditions of the upgrade will follow.

While I initially thought I’d be able to upgrade any Tundra or Tundra Mono, regardless of age, to a Tundra Mono 3, I now suspect we’ll run into limitations with units older than Tundra 2/Tundra Mono 2. But we’ll see.

[Mitmu]

Any plans for a Tundra Stereo 3, Frederik?

Maybe in the 'far future' as I can imagine you are quite busy right now with the assembly of these mono's first ;)

[Spannko]

And a Super Boazu!

[Whatsmynaim]

"And a Super Boazu!" Hear, hear!

It would be neat if the discoveries that came from making the TM3 could trickle-down in the form of an upgrade to the Boazu.

[matthias]

"And a Super Boazu!" Hear, hear!
It would be neat if the discoveries that came from making the TM3 could trickle-down in the form of an upgrade to the Boazu.

Agree,
maybe discoveries from both Superkikkin and TM3.......

[lejonklou]

It later struck me that I could have bypassed the Superkikkin preamp and just connected Källa straight into 001 and 002... Maybe next time!

I am curious about this, Fredrik!

Tonight we tried this.

It’s a LOT better with Superkikkin set to volume 80 than Källa directly to Tundra Mono 3!

[Defender]

interesting find - I somehow thought it would be like that (well there was a chance it would be different with your equipment). It somehow reminds me of the experience I have with those passive pre amps. Always sounded like the music is robbed out of the signal.

[matthias]

It’s a LOT better with Superkikkin set to volume 80 than Källa directly to Tundra Mono 3!

Thank you Fredrik!

Years ago I connected my cd player at that time directly to the power amp and prefered also the preamp in between.

[Defender]

I always thought its the impedance matching which helps so with a decent pre amp its more musical. But maybe its more that the pre amp is kind of making sure that the source "sees" no influences from further down the path and acts like some kind of a "buffer".

[lejonklou]

The impedances in the audible range are identical for both Källa and Tundra Mono when Superkikkin is inserted and removed.

What the preamp does, however, is to filter the signal at the low and high extreme ends. That’s the main reason why it sounds so much better. Removing the filters from the preamp makes it sound more like the direct connection - sonically kind of impressive, but musically incoherent and “all over the place”.

[u252agz]

Hello Barrie!

Production, final assembly and tuning are working full speed. I am just about to start on number 009.

Next week I plan to make the first upgrade of an older pair. As there are various small differences in casing, cooling, power supply, etc. over the ten years it’s been in production, a detailed description of the conditions of the upgrade will follow.

While I initially thought I’d be able to upgrade any Tundra or Tundra Mono, regardless of age, to a Tundra Mono 3, I now suspect we’ll run into limitations with units older than Tundra 2/Tundra Mono 2. But we’ll see.

Does this mean that you may struggle with the original Tundra Monos - ie before a certain serial number. Or would it be those that have not yet been updated to TM2/Tarandus.

[ThomasOK]

I was asked this by one of my customers. Off the top of my head I can see one difficulty with Tundras that are not up tp version 2 or higher. One of the big parts of the musical upgrade of the Tundra 2 was changing the original aluminum heat sink to pure copper. This substantially improved dissipation of the heat from the transistors and also provides a small, but useful, damping to the chassis. By cooling the transistors more effectively it keeps them operating in a more linear temperature range and made the upgraded units sound more powerful, forceful and in control. This was an important enough difference that Fredrik put it in the Boazu even though he was trying to keep the price down. It is also in the Källa. So a Tundra that is previous to a v2 would not only need the complete new boards and output transistors, the new grounding parts and the upgrades to the power supplies but would also need the copper heat sink and possibly new internal AC wires. This leaves basically only the case itself, and possibly the AC inlet and banana sockets.

The TM3 upgrade is already likely to be a pretty expensive upgrade, considering how much is replaced and the labor involved. The replacement of the heat sink would significantly raise the parts cost and add a fair bit of additional labor. It is possible it could get to the point that it is no longer cost effective. There may also be small case changes I don't know about that could play into how well the TM3 upgrade would work with early units. This is all conjecture but does indicate that the upgrade is not as simple as it might look from the outside.

[u252agz]

Thanks for that.

I will be keeping my fingers crossed that at least the Tundra Mono 2s can be successfully updated.

There’s something very satisfying about keeping the original units and having them sound as good ( or at least nearly as good ) as the new ones.

[lejonklou]

The upgrade of older Tundra Mono’s and Tundra’s have now been tested thoroughly. Thomas is correct in that they need to be version 2, which has a copper heat sink, in order to be upgradable.

More details after the weekend.

[barrie]

Hi Fredrik,
Anymore updates on the mono 3,do you think you we will be receiving
our UK orders any time soon(as I’m having sleepless nights)?
Best regards,
Barrie.

[lejonklou]

Hello Barrie!

001 and 002 were shipped to Michigan, US.
003 and 004 were shipped to Germany.
005 and 006 were shipped to Amsterdam.
007 and 008 were shipped to Michigan, US.
009 and 010 were shipped to the UK.
011 and 012 were shipped to Michigan, US.
013 and 014 were shipped to Stockholm.
015 and 016 were shipped to Amsterdam.

017 and 018 will likely be shipped to Michigan, US next week.
019 and 020 will likely be built and shipped to UK next week.

I hope you will sleep better soon!

[macrotech2]

Which means I am the luckiest man in the UK!
Still running in but improving every day. As others have said, they sound OK at first, but after a couple of days they are already sounding magical.

[anthony]

Which means I am the luckiest man in the UK!
Still running in but improving every day. As others have said, they sound OK at first, but after a couple of days they are already sounding magical.

Wow indeed you are lucky!
Barrie must have been one of the very first to place an order.
He has been very patient.

[lejonklou]

I’m very happy to hear that you enjoy them, macrotech2!

Regarding the “order of the orders”, it’s a challenge trying to be fair. Before I even started mentioning Tundra Mono 3, I had people wanting to place an order for “The next Mono amp”. I said no, you can’t place an order for something that doesn’t exist. I started accepting orders at a point when I knew they would soon be ready but didn’t yet know the price.

Suggestions for a really fair system are most welcome!

By the way, regarding making more of them in the future, I recently found a box of 1000 pcs of one of the missing components at a trustworthy site online. Earlier this year I bought 500 from a components dealer in China, only to find that they were all right at the edge of the specifications and none were useable.

This time Oscar found around 20 (need to check the exact amount) that are within Tundra Mono 3 specs. So there’s hope! Luckily Boazu uses a different selection of the same component and now we’ve got a lot of those!

[anthony]

I’m very happy to hear that you enjoy them, macrotech2!

Regarding the “order of the orders”, it’s a challenge trying to be fair. Before I even started mentioning Tundra Mono 3, I had people wanting to place an order for “The next Mono amp”. I said no, you can’t place an order for something that doesn’t exist. I started accepting orders at a point when I knew they would soon be ready but didn’t yet know the price.

Suggestions for a really fair system are most welcome!

By the way, regarding making more of them in the future, I recently found a box of 1000 pcs of one of the missing components at a trustworthy site online. Earlier this year I bought 500 from a components dealer in China, only to find that they were all right at the edge of the specifications and none were useable.

This time Oscar found around 20 (need to check the exact amount) that are within Tundra Mono 3 specs. So there’s hope! Luckily Boazu uses a different selection of the same component and now we’ve got a lot of those!

I placed an order with Marco at the end of last year, I suppose it would be nice to know where we stand in the queue if that’s possible?

[mrco99]

Hi Anthony, TM3 #019&020 - the UK ones being built & shipped to me next week will be coming your way so I hope that will give Barrie some peace of mind.

[macrotech2]

Apologies if I've caused any upset here - but I did place my order two days after Fredrik announced that the TM3s would exist in early November last year, so the order of delivery has matched orders as far as I can see.

[anthony]

Hi Anthony, TM3 #019&020 - the UK ones being built & shipped to me next week will be coming your way so I hope that will give Barrie some peace of mind.

Thank you