Boazu 2

[lejonklou]

Finally Boazu 2 is complete.

Number 001 was just auditioned and it’s better than the prototype.

Shipping to Amsterdam later this week.

Text will be updated asap.

[Sopper]

Congrats Fredrik
Marco is the first I presume?

[Tendaberry]

Congratulations! Are there any visual changes?

[TMV]

Nice to hear the good news! :)

Any chanse for a B2 to Göteborg before vacations?

Have you set the final prise?

[Fred11]

Congratulations!!!

[lejonklou]

Thank you!

Yes, Marco at Hexagon Audio in Amsterdam will receive number 001 early next week.

The only visual change is that the IR receiver is moved from the left side to the right, next to the three buttons. And the logo is grey instead of white, so it's easy to tell the original and Boazu 2 apart.

Tonläget in Göteborg, Sweden, will receive a unit early next week. Approximate prices have been set and they are SEK 42000, €3950, £3700 and $4990.

So what has changed from the original Boazu?

1. Everything is now made in Sweden (apart from electronic components). This is more expensive than the original production in Estonia, but the advantages are many. The main one is that I have intimate communication with and immediate access to the assembly (an hour away by car), so we can sort out difficulties and improve how things are done. Several techniques used are also of higher quality and required a redesign of the main board.

2. The new case (also made in Sweden) is the same as on Tundra Mono 3, has more ventilation and sounds better (mainly due to the integral pillars that support power supplies and main board).

3. The inductors in the preamp section have been changed to the models used in Tundra Mono 3.

4. The internal cabling has been changed to the models used in Tundra Mono 3.

5. The inner layers of the circuit board have been optimised for capacitive coupling between layers. This is something I hadn't mastered in 2016 and takes a long time to evaluate. Basically it's a trade off between low impedance and unwanted capacitive coupling and most of the trial and error was done on Tundra Mono 3.

6. Selection of all components is more optimal, partly thanks to my soon to be employee Oscar, who's measured an enormous amount of components and selected them into small groups. On the original Boazu, I used all the selections that were left after making Tundra and Tundra Mono, but on Boazu 2 I decided to use the best selection of many parts. Resistors are inexpensive, so there we just bought more of them until we had enough of the best selection of each value. For transistors we decided to measure them under conditions that are closer to the actual working conditions, meaning that we clamp each one to a copper heat sink and pre-heat them with a high current for 45 seconds before measuring their parameters. This results in selections that are musically better performing.

7. Idling currents are a bit higher than in the original Boazu, which sounds better. This is fine tuned on each unit, which can sometimes take hours, as it involves changing components until optimal values are obtained. I wanted to have a quick trim feature on the boards to make this tuning easier, but I did not succeed in making one that sounds good enough. But, you might point out, there is an external trim knob on Tundra Mono 3? Yes, and it works perfectly. The problem is that it can't be used on Boazu due to it having two channels and being different in other aspects. So I tried and failed in making a "transparent" time saving trim feature on Boazu 2 and will therefore manually trim both the main board and the two power supplies on each unit.

8. The feedback loop has been fine tuned to a precision of 0.1 Ohm and 1 pF. In the original Boazu, the precision of the resistive part of the loop was 1% and now it's 0.0005%. This may seem over the top, but it does nail down the "pace" of the amplifier more precisely. It's one of those parameters that can easily be heard in the music and that appears to have no limit when you gradually increase the precision. Each time we tested one tenth of the previous precision, the musical differences were about as big as in the previous comparison.

9. RCA connectors now have gold plated barrels and tin plated signal parts. Original Boazu had nickel/nickel, because they were much less expensive than the gold/gold model I use on all other units (which appears simple and standard in its design, but is quite expensive). Instead of changing to the gold/gold model, I found this new RCA to be more musical than the nickel/nickel one and very close to the gold/gold model.

10. The IR receiver on the front panel (now on the right side, next to the buttons) is a little more sensitive than the version used on the original Boazu.

11. Output transistors now have the same phase-shift thermal interface material and the cooling arrangement with a spring loaded copper clamp as Tundra Mono 3.

12. Chassis ground is now of the new and better sounding type. It first came with Källa and was gradually upgraded on all other units.

There might have been a few more changes, but those are the ones I could think of right now.

[Sopper]

Impressive list, Fredrik
I’ll audition a unit, just for the sake of it, being curious ….
And maybe I can convince a good friend of mine who loves his LFD, but would really be happy with a remote controle

[mrco99]

Hi Sopper,

Boazu2 comes with a remote control as well. As with the previous Boazu there's no source selection, just volume control.

[lejonklou]

I forgot the cooling parts!

Added number 11 to the list above.

And the chassis ground!

Added number 12 to the list above.

[Fred11]

And, the pricing sounds very reasonable as well. This sounds like another revolution!
F

[Hermann]

Thanks for the info Fredrik. As always, very detailed description of the changes.

Considering the sound of the Baozu 1, which in my opinion is superior to the 32.5/72/140 and 72/140 recapped in many areas, version 2 will probably surpass the impression.

[ThomasOK]

Considering all the changes, and especially the TM3 parts, I have to wonder if this shouldn’t be called SuperBoazu. Anybody ever seen a reindeer with a red cape?

[maffe]

Considering all the changes, and especially the TM3 parts, I have to wonder if this shouldn’t be called SuperBoazu. Anybody ever seen a reindeer with a red cape?

They are frequent flyers in some parts of norden Sweden😜

[Spannko]

When will dealers be able to get stock to sell?

[lejonklou]

Four units have shipped, the fifth is playing right now and will fly to North America tomorrow, the sixth will be made tomorrow.

With vacation soon arriving, there will be pause in deliveries until September.

[Spannko]

Excellent, thank you Fredrik.

[Fred11]

Hi!
Still looking forward to hearing about listening experiences and camparison with the 1.3. Anyone yet?
Regards
Fredrik

[coverto]

Yes - I also was especially intrigued by Fredrik's comment that the production Boazu is even better than the prototype! I am wondering whether Marco has any fresh impressions or stories to tell? Have any other distributors, customers been able to listen so they're able to share their thoughts?

[cannonball24]

Congrats Fredrik! This is very exciting. I have spent a lot of time recently learning about the original Boazu and it has been a pleasure. I am strongly considering this component as my next system upgrade. What a nice coincidence that the new model is coming out this year. Can’t wait to hear more about it. Cheers!

[mrco99]

Hi Fredrik, Coverto and Cannonball,

We received the first production version of Boazu2 and absolutely love it.

Previously we had the privilege of playing with the pre-production version and already thought it was a great step-up from the 1.3 but this really takes it a bit further even.

With the new Boazu2 the music sings/sinks/syncs in you. It's an impressive list of improvements that Fredrik published with the end result being you simply have to hear it - this cracking 'little' amp just wants to go on and play!

With all improvements made in the new Boazu, the technical specs haven't changed.
Once again proof of the fact that you can't measure musicality.

We don't have our Boazu 1.3 here anymore for a direct comparision but maybe Fredrik himself can put both versions next to each other?
Anyway we're totally smitten with Boazu2 and can't wait to receive our next orders we placed - meanwhile we call this
the ''big grin machine" ourselves :-)

[Fred11]

This sounds amazing! Can’t wait to hear it.

[cannonball24]

we call this the ''big grin machine" ourselves :-)

Love it! Also can’t wait to hear it sometime. Wish I lived closer to Thomas lol … I wonder if there are any dealers in the Boston area? Let me know :)

[HearkenAudio]

I sent a message to Thomas about the new version as I've been a little behind on the Forum chat. This looks like an impressive upgrade and am looking forward to getting one on the floor at the store!

[ThomasOK]

It is a bit slow on here during vacation time. I thought I might post first impressions on the Boazu 2 that I just received last week (it arrived over a week before but I was on vacation in Los Angeles so it was held at the Post Office until I returned).

I have had it running in my system for a few days and let it run for 24 hours to warm up before listening to it. I don't have a Boazu 1.3 for comparison so I can't really say how it compares except to say it feels like a big improvement from what I can remember. I connected it in my main system to the Quad ESL speakers and Källa as source and was immediately impressed with how musical, fluid and enjoyable it is. After a couple of days I did a few comparisons with my friend Simon present to my current Superkikkin/Tundra Mono 3s setup. Now there was no question that the SK/TM3 setup let you hear more music and made the musicians sound more in the room, as you would certainly expect. But the interesting thing is that every time I switched back to the Boazu 2 there wasn't the letdown you might expect, instead the first comment was how musical the Boazu 2 sounds. It is said that the great is the enemy of the good, and there have certainly times when upgrading to a new component has made the old one unenjoyable by comparison. (I would say the Kandid vs. Akiva and Ekstatik vs. Kandid were two examples to me.) But this isn't how the Boazu 2 feels. Switching from the much more expensive separates let you know you were hearing less, but the Boazu 2 is so musical, well timed and engaging in its own right that you just enjoy listening to it and don't feel a sudden need to go back. We felt this way every time we did the switch (a few times) and I'm still listening to it now with great enjoyment. Again I don't have the equipment for direct comparisons but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Boazu 2 is competitive with, possibly even a more musical piece, than a Sagatun 1.4 stereo/Tundra 2.5 stereo combo. It is awfully good!

I think the Boazu 2 will become the center of many very fine systems. Hook it up with a Källa and/or good turntable and any good pair of speakers and you will have a very, very enjoyable system.

[Mitmu]

It is a bit slow on here during vacation time. I thought I might post first impressions on the Boazu 2 that I just received last week (it arrived over a week before but I was on vacation in Los Angeles so it was held at the Post Office until I returned).

I have had it running in my system for a few days and let it run for 24 hours to warm up before listening to it. I don't have a Boazu 1.3 for comparison so I can't really say how it compares except to say it feels like a big improvement from what I can remember. I connected it in my main system to the Quad ESL speakers and Källa as source and was immediately impressed with how musical, fluid and enjoyable it is. After a couple of days I did a few comparisons with my friend Simon present to my current Superkikkin/Tundra Mono 3s setup. Now there was no question that the SK/TM3 setup let you hear more music and made the musicians sound more in the room, as you would certainly expect. But the interesting thing is that every time I switched back to the Boazu 2 there wasn't the letdown you might expect, instead the first comment was how musical the Boazu 2 sounds. It is said that the great is the enemy of the good, and there have certainly times when upgrading to a new component has made the old one unenjoyable by comparison. (I would say the Kandid vs. Akiva and Ekstatik vs. Kandid were two examples to me.) But this isn't how the Boazu 2 feels. Switching from the much more expensive separates let you know you were hearing less, but the Boazu 2 is so musical, well timed and engaging in its own right that you just enjoy listening to it and don't feel a sudden need to go back. We felt this way every time we did the switch (a few times) and I'm still listening to it now with great enjoyment. Again I don't have the equipment for direct comparisons but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the Boazu 2 is competitive with, possibly even a more musical piece, than a Sagatun 1.4 stereo/Tundra 2.5 stereo combo. It is awfully good!

I think the Boazu 2 will become the center of many very fine systems. Hook it up with a Källa and/or good turntable and any good pair of speakers and you will have a very, very enjoyable system.

That is something....

So with this experience, does it outperform my Superkikkin & Tundra combo? ;)