We select a high efficiency blue LED, because they look cool!

Light intensity from a LED depends on the efficiency of the LED and the supply voltage. Most LEDs run at around 2V from anode to cathode and a current from 0.15mA to 10mA; red down to 1V6, and blue to 2V2. Thus setting up an indicator LED must be done empirically; you need to judge the intensity for yourself and dimension the dropper resistor to taste. Tip: don’t set it too bright. LEDs have a tendency to bore holes in the head if run at too high a current, and since, like most audiophiles, you will stare at the amp and speakers while playing, too bright an LED is 1 BAD THING.

Here’s the math. For the 36V rail of the 55W AKSA, we need to drop around 34 volts across the dropper resistor. At 0.5mA, for example, a reasonable level for a blue LED, this means the dropper resistor, by Ohms Law, is 34/0.0005, which is 68,000 ohms, or 68K nearest preferred value (NPV). For 2mA, the dropper resistor would be 34/0.002, which is 17,000 ohms, or 18K NPV. At 5mA however, this resistor should be 34/0.005 = 6,800 ohms, or 6K8 NPV. For the 49V rail of the 100W AKSA, the NPVs respectively are 100K, 22K, and 10K. All of these resistors should be rated at no less than half a watt; in the extreme case, 5mA from a 49V supply, the resistor dissipation is a mere 220mW, which is a long way shy of the 500mW rating of a half watt resistor. Nonetheless, keep it well ventilated!

en Amplifiers is a small company with one full time principal and two part time employees. As such we are building up our infrastructure and constantly struggling with cash flow and time constraints.
The AKSA products are already discounted. They are inexpensive. This is a competitive market place, and these products sell for little more than the US dollar cost of the constituent parts. Accordingly, please do not ask for a discount, as refusal may offend. This policy cannot and will not change for the foreseeable future, and like everyone else we may even be obliged to raise our prices in the months ahead as economic conditions in Australia and abroad change.
That said, we do offer quantity discounts. Orders for three AKSAs attract a 5% discount on total price. Five AKSAs attract a 10% discount, while an order for ten AKSAs will receive a 15% discount.

This is, in fact, a very important topic, and one that has been written about interminably since hifi began. Conventional potentiometers damage the sonics considerably, and we recommend a 100 kOhm linear, double ganged cermet, law-faked with a 100 kOhm 1W 1% resistor between output and ground.  This solution takes full account of the AKSA input impedance.  This is why:
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Potentiometers are generally of poor sonic quality, with profound and deleterious effects on the sound quality.
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The human ear requires a logarithmic curve on the track of the pot to give any kind of even progression as you increase the level.  Fabricating these log tracks istricky and achieving a match better than 1.5dB between gangs is almost impossible, even with sophisticated laser trimming.  The best tracking pots (the Alp Black Beauty) use conductive plastic, which is trimmed to great accuracy using programmed lasers, but they are markedly below the sonic standards of a properly executed stepped attenuator.
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The best sonics come from stepped attenuators, which typically use a long series of linked and switched high quality resistors from input to ground.  The best attenuators use just two resistors to form individual voltage division, selectable with a high quality switch from a large array of resistor pairs.  The resistors are often surface mounted components.  By use of a switch, usually with 24 positions and up to 60, the voltage division is moved up or down with respect to ground, achieving a switched voltage divider function.  This system is simple, but expensive to implement - but it avoids the sonic horrors of carbon potentiometers.  Stepped attenuators are made by DACT, Goldpoint, CoherentTechnologies and others, but are very expensive because of the switch, which must be of very high quality to deliver negligible signal interaction and yet withstand constant, unrelenting operation.  We know of one which costs around $US1200 for a stereo!  This is serious, high end territory!
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A myriad of potentiometer ideas have come and gone over the years, in attempts to improve the sonics whilst keeping the cost down.  The Alps Blue and the Black Beauty series (both conductive plastic and widely used in recording studios) are highly regarded and a lot cheaper than the stepped attenuator.
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Generally, it is far too expensive to manufacture a compact logarithmic, wirewound pot.  Furthermore, the wire used on a typical 50K or 100K pot is very fine, with many turns, and this creates high inductance.  Sadly this makes such pots unsuited for audio, since at 20K the response is at least 2.5dB down and this rolloff is particularly noticeable, particularly on percussion.
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The pot to buy is the cermet type.  In our opinion the best cost/benefit choice are the cermet pot’s, which really work well if law-faked and have the advantage of wonderful durability and infinite adjustment, unlike a stepped attenuator.  Try to find a dual gang version.  Thecermet pots are only available with linear curve, and are not made for audio, although they work very well.  They were originally designed for the precision industrial and instrumentation markets.  Cermet pots are sonically superior to and a little cheaper than the conductive plastic types, far less than the stepped attenuators and arguably just as good sonically.  Bourns make dual gang cermet pots;  try to purchase from the 81 or 82 series, but be sure the resistive element is cermet (ceramic/metal).
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You can law fake a linear 100 kOhm pot with a simple 15 kOhm resistor from middle terminal (wiper, or centre;  output) to ground.  The 47K input impedance of the AKSA combines with this resistor to give around 11K4 from wiper to ground.  Signal input is taken to the top terminal, bottom terminal is earthed, and the middle (wiper) terminal is then taken to the AKSA input.  This gives you an excellent and progressive volume control, with a minimum system input impedance (with the 47kOhm Zinof the AKSA) of 10K2 kOhm (at full volume), a maximum of 100 kOhm (at lowest volume), and a full range with additional sensitivity in the earlier stages for easy adjustment during quiet listening.  You have infinite adjustment, and a double ganged cermet Bourns should cost no more than $US18.  This is far cheaper than the starting price of the DACT, which is around $US190 plus postage, and superior because the DACT offering is only 24 position, which is a tad coarse for most audiophiles.  No change is required to the AKSA;  no mod’s to the board, and the wiper of the pot is simply hooked to the input terminal on the PCB.  Leads should be keep short for reasons of stray capacitance, and all earthing should be referred to the signal earth terminal on the amp, slightly to the right and above the star earth spade connector.

Guarantees are very difficult. Since we do not assemble and quality test the amplifier, it would be very foolish for us to guarantee your final product. If insured during transit, we can guarantee that the kitset arrives in good order and condition. We also guarantee the operational integrity of our pre-assembled and tested AKSA modules where sold. If we’ve made some, albeit highly unlikely, error in putting together your kit we will quickly correct it for you at no charge if you alert us within three days of receiving the package. Of course, it cannot be overstated that we offer comprehensive technical backup via email; the AKSA may only be a kitset, but it is extremely well supported and this, we feel, is important to its commercial success.
We also guarantee that the design is well engineered, and delivers the sonic performance we say it will deliver. We even ask that when you have completed and auditioned the amplifier, you consider writing a testimonial for our website. We are really that confident; this is an exceptional amplifier by any standard.

In modern consumer societies, the economists describe business enterprises in terms of ‘barriers to entry’. In essence, this phrase describes the cost of infrastructure and production equipment necessary to create the product. Today we live in a highly regulated and litigious environment, and all electrical appliances, including amplifiers, must pass a number of rigorous safety and electromagnetic emission tests. No manufacturer can sell his product without passing these tests and winning proper certification. In a world market, each and every country has its own tests (but of course!!) and all consumer goods must be passed locally for sale within that market.
A moment’s thought reveals that this is the major barrier to entry for the AKSA on world markets. Aside from the technical aspects, which are straightforward and easy to arrange, there is the matter of negotiating the various government agencies and bureaucracies. And then there is often a maze of complex trading and marketing controls, which make it difficult to mass market any complex consumer product – taken as a whole, these are substantial issues and at this point in time we are not able to negotiate them. Not yet, at least.
That said, a commercial agreement has been reached with a Californian company to produce a retail product based entirely upon the AKSA design. A similar discussion is in process with a manufacturer in Turkey. Of course, it is too early to say when fully complete AKSAs will be available and at what cost, but they will certainly be marketed across the Internet, at first in North America and Korea, and then throughout Europe.

No. Parts are not sold separately. The AKSA is sold only as a kitset.
The reason is that the AKSA is highly sensitive to component choice, and to guarantee the sonics, we must specify all components precisely. The best, most convenient and most cost-effective way to do this is to sell a kitset.
A second, important consideration is intellectual property, which in this design is considerable and worth thousands if incorporated into a fully assembled, retail product. The value of a circuit board takes no account of this.
Thirdly, the electronic components market in Australia is relatively cheaper than North America for the same quality. This is a happy circumstance for our North American and European buyers, and clearly is a win-win.

The instructions for the 55W AKSA run to 12,200 words, with 22 photographs and diagrams. For the 100W AKSA these figures are respectively 12,700 and 28.
The AKSA boards are easy to assemble and solder because the tracks are thick and the pads large. This is quite deliberate, to maximize copper area and reduce any chance of destroying the PCB. Someone who knows how to use a soldering iron, has moderate patience, and recognizes different components, and can follow instructions will have no problems successfully assembling the AKSA.

As well, there is an extensive diagnostics section which covers most faultfinding issues. If you are a patient and careful person, and you can follow instructions, you should have no difficulty reading and digesting these instructions. However, the actual construction does require some skill at soldering, and you are advised to practise this art to a reasonable standard so that you can construct a compact, single sided printed circuit board with track sizes down to 47 thou (1.2mm). If you have no experience in wiring or electronics at all, you are advised NOT to tackle this project unless you have a suitably experienced mentor looking over your shoulder…..!