AudiopaxModel 88usedAudiopax Model 88 MK II upgraded tubesOriginal owner purchased as very lightly used dealer demos in 2012.These replaced a 100 w stereo Cary V12i driving my Avantgarde Duo 103db horns. Huge improvement in resolution and frequency extens...5200.00

Audiopax Model 88 MK II upgraded tubes

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Condition
8/10
Payment methodsContact seller
Ships fromSan Juan Capistrano, CA, 92675
Ships toUnited States
Package dimensions30.0" × 10.0" × 25.0" (45.0 lbs.)
Shipping carriersUPS or FedEx
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Original owner purchased as very lightly used dealer demos in 2012.

These replaced a 100 w stereo Cary V12i driving my Avantgarde Duo 103db horns. Huge improvement in resolution and frequency extension. Only selling now as I have gone to $25k Nagra 845 50 W tube amps and can't justify keeping two sets of tube amps.

These are extremely high end, 30w each, SET like amps from a very unique Brazilian company founded by a Genius designer who passed away in 2012,and now run by his son and his brilliant Engineering co partner. They are in same league as Lamm and Kondo from a performance perspective, but completely different design philosophy.

AudioPax 88's give you SET sound with KT88's using a very innovative design that is unmatched anywhere else. They are actually two separate Mono KT88s in each chassis, with the Timbre Lock circuit design being able to contour sound and the impedance match for any pre amp and high efficiency speaker.
For more on this design see here:

http://www.audiopax.com/e/timbrelock.html

For the price, if you have speakers over 95 db, there is nothing that can beat their sound. These became very popular in the 2000s when Jim Smith, then the US distributor for Avantgarde brought them to the US based on how good they sounded with Avantgarde.


My pair were bought from an AV Dealer who used them sparingly on his Trios. They had very low hours and were like new when I bought them. They came with SED KT88s, which I will include along with two additional quads of upgraded power tubes from Gold Lion and Sophia Electric .

These are the improved MKII's which generally don't come up very often, and have a really nice blue painted finish that matched my AV Duo's. The reliability issues in the MK1 88s were fixed in this version. It was actually a user interface issue, in that the MK1 Timbre Lock control lights were confusing, and users turned them up too much resulting in over biased tubes and transformer failures.

The company is now in great shape and delivering stunning new amps like their M50 and M100, albeit at Lamm and Kondo level price points.

The 88 is now in it's MKIII iteration and Alma Audio in San Diego, the US distributor, provides service interface to the Brazil HQ. There is no upgrade path between the MK1 to MKII or between the MKII to MKIII, as each has significant design, transformer and chassis layout changes. That said, Alma does offer a nice trade in credit if you were to trade these in for an 88 MKIII or the Maggiore 50 or 100 Watt monoblocks.


I can demo these on my 2015 107db AV Duo Mezzos for local buyers. They are dead quiet (actually quieter than my Nagra's ) and sound great.

Included tubes:
- original quad of SED KT 88s - probably 1000 hours, and still sound good when I took put them in boxes. Note = there is no warranty on these tubes given their age, so consider these freebies.


- upgraded Gold Lion Reissue KT88's $300) - estimate 400 hours

- recently upgraded quad of Sophia Electric KT88s ($500 list) - less than 300 hours, These are my favorite power tubes - provided additional frequency extension and resolution compare to both the Gold Lion and the SEDs. I had tried $1900 EAT KT 88s and these Sophias are pretty close to those.

- upgraded quad of NOS Mullard AT7 driver tubes from Upscale Audio ($200). Significant difference for better compared the stock Rubys

Pictures show amps with both the Sophia Electrics 88s and Gold Lions. The only flaws are two small nicks in the paint - one in the side panel of one amp and the other in the base of the other amp.

No owners manual but you can download from the web .

No PC or original boxes. I will pack well, and they should not be too expensive as they only weigh about 35 lbs each. I estimate about 45 to 50 lbs each boxed for the mono blocks plus a 3rd box for the tubes.

Dimensions and weight is only for one mono block box, so double plus another $30 for the tube box. paypal accepted but buyer pays 3% fee, or send no fee friends and family. Check my perfect feedback here or on ebay under Mayan0454.

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