Aavik I-880

Powerful with a Maximum of Musicality

The Aavik I-880 was conceived to create a powerful non-switching pure Class A amplifier with the lowest possible output impedance that would contribute to a better signal and less noise, thus improving speaker performance and resulting in a much more organic sound with more musicality.

Technologies and Components

The engineering team identified several characteristic elements in traditional Class A design that could be improved. The ultimate goal of this thorough approach is for the amplifier to unlock a dynamic musical range that projects even the smallest musical details onto a palpably larger soundstage with an extremely quiet background.

200W Pure Class A Amplifier

The circuitry maintains a bias spread of 0.63V above the required current throughout the cycle, keeping operation in Class A up to 2x200W into 8 ohms. This significant reduction in the power requirements of the amplifier allowed Aavik to design the capacitors as smaller units and place them locally, so that essentially each of the eight pairs of output transistors has its own capacitor bank right next to it.

Resonant Mode Power Supply

Unlike conventional square-wave switching supplies, this design uses a sine-wave-driven resonant topology. When more power is needed, the operating frequency increases, which in turn has the advantage that the power density also increases, allowing higher peak power when required by the music. The amplifier features four 500W power-factor-corrected resonant mode supplies capable of delivering peak currents exceeding 80A, ensuring the power supply never becomes the performance limitation.

Volume Control

The volume control features a unique inverted amplifier topology with a virtual ground for maximum stability. This maintains the full signal with the lowest signal-to-noise ratio, whether the volume is turned up or down, providing the speakers with a clear and distinct flow of information.

Switchless Optical Input Board

The LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) is ultra quiet thanks to the switchless principle. Traditional switch arrays and relays are more noisy — they suppress subtle sound details and unnaturally color the tone.

The 880 Cabinet Design

Designed by Flemming Erik Rasmussen, the cabinet prioritizes purpose-driven aesthetics. It was designed primarily with the goal of maintaining the best audio characteristics of the electrical design — the lowest inductance, reducing hysteresis to an absolute minimum, and ensuring excellent resonance control. It features cooling elements on the sides and top, a titanium-covered volume button, and a large LCD touchscreen display.

Bottom Plate Sandwich Construction

The bottom plate is designed as a sandwich construction with a copper plate, a heavy compact laminate plate, and a titanium layer on the bottom. This unique sandwich construction ensures minimum resonance and supports a natural and organic sound.

The Solid Copper Enclosure

The enclosure uses solid copper, chosen for both its aesthetic qualities and sonic properties. This results in a further reduction in hysteresis, lower output impedance, lower inductance, a positive effect on the damping factor, and cooler operation of the amplifier.

Active Analog Crossover

The Aavik active analog crossover secures precise timing in the delivery of sound signals to the receiving components, which is essential to avoid a harsh and compressed sound.

Subwoofer Control: Since the crossover is analog, there is no latency. The timing of the signal transfer to both the speakers and the subwoofer is absolutely precise, resulting in an utmost pristine and authentic sound.

2.1 System Control: Low pass and high pass filters optimize individual speaker performance by directing low frequencies to the subwoofer, releasing more energy to the main speakers.

Analog Room Correction: Addresses room-specific resonance ("room boom") through frequency-specific adjustment of the low pass and high pass filters.

The Tesla Coil Principle

The principle is to have two coils that are wound in each direction — a coil and a counter coil, in Ansuz words "a double inverted coil." Both coils carry voltage, and when the Tesla coil encounters a voltage spike a counter spike is activated to eliminate the noise. Multiple P-TC coils in parallel increase performance, and by implementing this the perceived blackness in the music improves significantly.

Analog Dither Technology — 3rd Generation

Developed from radar technology, active Tesla coils send pulsating signals at precisely defined frequencies in anti-phase. This significantly amplifies the musical signal and eliminates the background noise floor. The third generation represents further optimization of the most effective frequencies, which opens the soundscape even more and with the tiniest details when it comes to reproduction of the recordings.

Active Tesla Coil

The active Tesla coils are power supplied, which secures a remarkably lower impedance and thus a better ability to eliminate noise. The active version is about three to four times more efficient than passive Tesla coils.

Active Square Tesla Coils

The active square Tesla coils are embedded in the circuitry boards — one coil on the top and the counter coil on the rear side — providing superior noise elimination compared to passive designs.

Anti Aerial Resonance Coil Technology

All cables and cable screens act like antennas for airborne RF noise, which is a huge problem. The passive cable Tesla coil is wound on the external part of the cable and protects the signal from absorbing airborne RF noise.

Active Zirconium Anti Aerial Resonance Tesla Coil

This technology incorporates a zirconium bar for unprecedented resonance control. The properties of this zirconium bar allow for unprecedented resonance control, resulting in outstanding musical refinement that creates a natural soundstage, unrivalled in its purity, precision and attention to musical detail.

Active Zirconium Cable Anti Aerial Resonance Tesla Coil

Featuring three zirconium bars with an extended Tesla coil design, the complete solution improves signal handling dramatically — both in terms of eliminating noise and controlling resonances, ensuring a crystal-clear sound. Technology sharing between sister brands Ansuz, Aavik and Borresen drives these cross-brand innovations.