News: Sanders ESL amp Mk II upgrade announced

Cool news, Sanders Sound Systems just updated their ESL amplifier with some cool (literally) technology to improve both performance and durability.

The MK II version of the ESL amp uses new transistors that monitor their temperatures for instantaneous bias adjustments that allows the amp to run cooler and last longer as well as having a lower noise floor due to tighter bias control.
Thanks to these enhancements and a larger torodial power supply transformer, it is also able to deliver even higher current and voltage levels to our demanding electrostatic loudspeakers.

These amps should be on everyone’s short-list of amps to audition with their ESL speakers, as to my knowledge, they are the only ones actually designed to drive the unique characteristics of ML ESLs.

I’m planning on getting three ESL amps to drive the panels of the five main speakers + the line array woofers in my center channel.

Here is the description of the latest updates on the Sanders web site.

I have the original Sanders, (not the Innersound, but the Sanders) ESL amp and love it! Wonder if the MKI can be upgraded to MKII? Anyone know? I'll have to call Roger and find out. Thanks for the heads up JonFo.

Edit: I also sent Roger an e-mail, so whomever hears first, please post.

FoxMulder said:

I have the original Sanders, (not the Innersound, but the Sanders) ESL amp and love it! Wonder if the MKI can be upgraded to MKII? Anyone know? I'll have to call Roger and find out. Thanks for the heads up JonFo.

Click to expand...

Let us know what Roger has to say. If the original is upgrade-able, I'll jump into the queue.

Edit: Being an impatient sort, I just sent Roger an email inquiry on this. I'll post his reply.

Here is Roger's reply:

Turning directly to your question, the answer is "yes", I can upgrade your ESL amp to a Mk II. Doing so requires replacement of all the major elements of the amplifier as both amplifier channels and the main power supply transformer must be replaced. Therefore, this is an expensive upgrade. I am sorry, but it will cost $800 to make all these changes.

The difference between the amp you have and the new one is only about 50 watts of power. While this is significant, it probably won't make any difference in sound in your system. So you really shouldn't feel that your current amp is "obsolete" and that the Mk II amp will be a lot better.

In other words, if money is an issue, you can continue to use the amp you have with complete satisfaction. I don't think you really need to change it. But if you just want the latest and greatest, and $800 isn't a big deal, I will be happy to upgrade it for you.

That's a very reasonable upgrade charge, considering what needs to be replaced.

I'm paying over $1,000 to upgrade my three-year-old Denon AVP-A1 preamp/processor to the latest so I can do Audyssey XT32 room correction and gain HDMI 1.4a (for 3D) switching.

At least vendors are offering upgrades, which is way cheaper than re-purchasing the units all over,

Reading the reply I also thought it was reasonable. A stellar product the Sanders amps!