Bella EXtreme Custom
Antique Sound Labs
EXtreme Hurricane and Monsoon mono bloc amplifiers

The Ultimate in high power tube amplifiers

 

The Legend Continues

Response Audio, over the years, has become well known for it's custom EXtreme Antique Sound Lab Hurricane and Monsoon mono bloc amplifiers. We have continued this tradition with the latest MK II versions released in 2007.

Response Audio will also continue to perform EXtreme modifications on consumer supplied units, both pre 2007 and MK II versions, of both the Monsoon and Hurricane mono blocs for those who already own these amazing products. DETAILS

Our specialty is to perform extensive upgrade modifications to them bringing out all the potential they have to offer and released as an exclusive Bella EXtreme Custom product. We do not build these products to an *affordable* price point rather design them for those who want only the very best the design has to offer as well as being a one-of-a-kind item. The Bella EXtreme Hurricane and Monsoon amplifiers are not for those looking for the 'budget component' although many have considered our custom products to be much more affordable than other exotic name brands offering a similar level of sonic nirvana costing upwards of $40k - $50k.

Don't forget, we also stand behind all of our custom products with a full 5 year parts and labor warranty and servicing right here in the USA!!

Response Audio is an authorized Antique Sound Labs dealer.

 

EXtreme ASL Hurricane MK II
200 watt Pentode / 100 watt Triode mono bloc tube amplifiers

 

bella extreme custom cane.jpg (269053 bytes)The new Hurricane MK II amplifiers are becoming another ASL legend with many refinements over the original design. The EXtreme Hurricane MK II is becoming known as our flagship product.
 The original EXtreme Hurricane kept our benches full with a pair on the benches every month. We only allowed 12 pair a year and we built 12 pair a year for the past 2 years. The MK II design is even better than the MK I. One EXtreme owner put these amps up head-to-head with a pair of $50K  Surprised mono blocs and ended up keeping the "Canes".  

Response Audio now has custom solid Curly Maple amp stand/platforms available exclusively for the MK II Hurricane amplifiers. Details

   
"Award winning legendary performance of this very musical powerhouse has been further refined with this new MK II version.

Legendary performance is now even better with improved circuit, select transformers and a tight new chassis.

True balanced inputs are now added as a standard feature. Tubes, mounted on a separate level at the top are isolated from hefty transformers for added clarity.

New bias and protection circuits have been developed for stability, reliability and more precise biasing. Dual level vertical chassis construction is stronger, better vibration controlled and occupies less floor space."

 Here is a comprehensive list of everything that is performed on these units. As you can see, these are very time consuming projects taking up to 30 days to complete (depending on work load) but current owners can assure you they are well worth the wait.

  1. Reference Grade V-Cap Teflon capacitors installed in the signal path coupling stages. (16 pieces) The capacitors are mounted using a high quality double sided  adhesive tape as well as being secured with zip-ties to eliminated vibration. We do NOT use "hot glue" to secure components in our amplifier products.

  2. Inner stage coupling capacitors are replaced with V-Cap Teflon capacitors (4 pieces total). These capacitors are securely mounted in a way that eliminates mechanical vibration as well as radio frequency interference.

  3. Mills non-inductive resistors replace the input tube cathode resistors. 

  4. High quality carbon composition resistors, 16 pieces, are used for the grid stop applications. All grid stop resistors are mounted directly to the grid pin of each power tube eliminating all unnecessary wiring. It is a common practice to mount the body of grid stopper resistors as close to the tube grid as possible. Many tube amp manufacturers do not utilize this practice. All grid stop  resistors are then mounted directly to the leads of the coupling capacitors and all leads are cut to minimum length.

  5. Mills non-inductive resistors, 16 pieces, are used for the screen grid applications. These resistors are removed from their circuit mounting boards and also mounted directly to the screen grid pin of each power tube eliminating all unnecessary wiring. 

  6. High quality 5 watt Mills non-inductive resistors used in cathode ground locations. 24 pieces.

  7. Dale/Vishay 1 watt 1% non-magnetic resistors used throughout the signal path. 40-60+ pieces. The signal leads of these resistors are shortened to the shortest lengths possible

  8. Dale/Vishay 1 watt, 1% resistors are used in the bias stage in series with the coupling capacitors. These resistors are mounted in series with the coupling capacitors and then into the bias stage circuit boards. Again, we keep all signal wiring as short as possible. 

  9. Dale/Vishay 3 watt 1%, non-magnetic resistors utilized throughout various power supply locations.

  10. All exposed resistor leads throughout these amplifiers have heatshrink applied to help reduce mechanical vibration as well as preventing circuit shorts.

  11. The grounding layout is reworked to provide the best possible results with a dead quite background and lower noise floor.

  12. All  power supply filter banks are bypassed with SoniCap Platinum Teflon units. Each power supply filter rail receives its own bypass unit. Total of 4 Teflon bypass capacitors

  13. Bybee Quantum Purifiers are installed in the B+ voltage of the power supply directly at the rectifying stage. (4 pieces total - OPTIONAL).

  14. Bybee Quantum Purifiers are installed in the input single of the single ended input. (2 pieces total - OPTIONAL).

  15. Fairchild "Ultra Fast - Soft Recovery"  diodes are utilized in the rectifying stage of the power supply. The diodes are mounted directly to the capacitors of the power supply.

  16. High quality signal wire both from the input RCA jack to the first stage of the circuitry as well as for the balanced input signal.

  17. RCA input jacks are high quality gold plated "RA Jack" RCA jacks. (optional)

  18. High quality RoHS compliant Silver Solder used throughout

  19. Bench tested for 2 hours

  20. Minimum 12 hour burn in

  21. Labor - 17-20+ hours per pair

EXtreme Hurricane MK II V-Cap - $11,900 pr.

Output power:

Output impedance:
Input impedance:
Input sensitivity:
Frequency response:
Frequency response:
THD:
THD:
S/N:
Nominal Voltage gain:
Global NFB in dB:
Inputs:
Dimensions:
Shipping dimensions:
Net weight:
Shipping weight:
 

200 Watts (pentode/tetrode mode).
100 Watts (triode mode)
4, 8, 16 Ohms.
100kHz.
600mV
12 Hz – 41kHz. (At 1.0 Watt)
18Hz – 30kHz. (At full power)
0.3% (at 1 Watt)
5% at full power
88 dB (at full power)
50.46dB
0, zip, niltch, NONE!
Single ended and balanced
350mm., 13 ¼” W X 350mm.,13 ¼” D X 325mm., 12 ½” H
470mm.,18 ½” W X 470mm.,18 ½” D X 450mm.,17 ½” H
38 kg., 84lbs.
95lbs
 

EXtreme ASL Monsoon MK II
120 watt Pentode / 60 watt Triode mono bloc tube amplifiers

bella extreme custom monsoon.jpg (210769 bytes)If you click on the thumbnail, you well get a full size view of the new ASL Monsoon MK II amplifiers. These have also just been released. The new Monsoon MK II is based on the original Hurricane chassis and circuitry, in which I am very familiar with, with a few refinements to optimize for the use of EL34 output tubes to produce 120 watts per channel in Pentode operation and 60 watts in Triode. 

Based on the original and now legendary Hurricane DT design circuit and now optimized for EL 34 output tubes.

Unique, new protection and bias circuits for reliable and precise operation. Balanced inputs added as standard features.

 EXtreme Monsoon MK II V-Cap - $9,500 pr.
 

  1. Reference Grade V-Cap Teflon capacitors installed in the signal path coupling stages. The capacitors are mounted using a high quality double sided  adhesive tape as well as being secured with zip-ties to eliminated vibration. We do NOT use "hot glue" to secure components in our amplifier products.

  2. Reference SoniCap Platinum Teflon  capacitors installed in the single ended input stage. 

  3. Inner stage coupling capacitors are replaced with SoniCap Platinum Teflon capacitors.  These capacitors are securely mounted in a way that eliminates mechanical vibration as well as radio frequency interference.

  4. Mills non-inductive resistors replace the input tube cathode resistors. 

  5. Elna Cerafine electrolytic capacitors used for cathode bypass on input stage (where applicable).

  6. Mills non-inductive resistors, 16 pieces, are used for the grid stop applications. All grid stop resistors are mounted directly to the grid pin of each power tube eliminating all unnecessary wiring. It is a common practice to mount the body of grid stopper resistors as close to the tube grid as possible. Many tube amp manufacturers do not utilize this practice. All grid stop  resistors are then mounted directly to the leads of the coupling capacitors and all leads are cut to minimum length.

  7. Mills non-inductive resistors, 16 pieces, are used for the screen grid applications. These resistors are removed from their circuit mounting boards and also mounted directly to the screen grid pin of each power tube eliminating all unnecessary wiring. 

  8. High quality 5 watt Mills non-inductive resistors used in cathode ground locations. 24 pieces.

  9. Dale/Vishay 1 watt 1% non-magnetic resistors used throughout the signal path. 40-60+ pieces. The signal leads of these resistors are shortened to the shortest lengths possible

  10. Dale/Vishay 1 watt, 1% resistors are used in the bias stage in series with the coupling capacitors. These resistors are mounted in series with the coupling capacitors and then into the bias stage circuit boards. Again, we keep all signal wiring as short as possible. 

  11. Dale/Vishay 3 watt 1%, non-magnetic resistors utilized throughout various power supply locations.

  12. All exposed resistor leads throughout these amplifiers have heatshrink applied to help reduce mechanical vibration as well as preventing circuit shorts.

  13. The grounding layout is reworked to provide the best possible results with a dead quite background and lower noise floor.

  14. All  power supply filter banks are bypassed with SoniCap Platinum Teflon units. Each power supply filter rail receives its own bypass unit. Total of 4 Teflon bypass capacitors

  15. Fairchild "Ultra Fast - Soft Recovery"  diodes are utilized in the rectifying stage of the power supply. The diodes are mounted directly to the capacitors of the power supply.

  16. High quality signal wire both from the input RCA jack to the first stage of the circuitry as well as for the balanced input signal.

  17. RCA input jacks are high quality gold plated "RA Jack" RCA jacks. (optional. See notes below)

  18. High quality Neutrik XLR connectors are used for the balanced inputs.

  19. High quality RoHS compliant Silver Solder used throughout

  20. Bench tested for 2 hours

  21. Minimum 12 hour burn in

  22. Labor - 17-20+ hours per pair

Output power:
Output impedance:
Input sensitivity:
Input impedance:
S/N Ratio:
Nominal Voltage gain:
THD:
Frequency response:
Nominal Voltage gain:
Dimensions:
Shipping dimensions:
Net weight:
Shipping weight:
/

120 Watts (in pentode), 60 Watts in triode.
4, 8, 16 Ohm.
350mV.
100kOhm.
92 dB at full power.
38.1 dB.
3% at 100 Watts.
38.1 dB
20 Hz to 29 kHz at full power.
485mm , 19” D X 300mm. , 12” W X 170mm., 6 ¾” H.
630mm., 25” D X 430mm., 17” W X 14 ½” H.
26 kg., X 57lbs.
31kg., 68lbs.
 

EXtreme Policies - Domestic US Sales (includes Hawaii and Alaska)

New units

  • All new EXtreme amplifiers are built by special order only

  • There is a 65% down payment required at the time of ordering. Balance is due prior to shipping the amplifiers out.

  • Shipping is determined when units are completed and will be added into the balance due. If amplifiers are paid in advance in full, shipping charges will be calculated and invoiced separately.

  • No returns or cancellations accepted on EXtreme units.

  • Turnaround time is approximately 30-40 days from date of receiving payment depending on current work load. 

  • All work is performed at our New York facility only

  • Please add 3% if paying via Paypal.

If you have any interest in any of these products are simply would like further information, Please feel free to contact us. Orders on custom, limited products will be taken on a first come - first serve basis.

http://www.bellaextreme.com/bella%20custom%20builds.htm