“Audiozen started over 10 years ago with an approach to Hi-Fi more philosophical than technical, searching for the best sound combining tradition and new technologies. Audiozen decided to use a new device called Si-C Mosfet for Mono and Lysios power amplifiers. Silicon carbide (Si-C), also known as carborundum, is a semiconductor containing silicon and carbon. In 1893 Ferdinand Henri Moissan discovered the very rare naturally occurring Si-C mineral while examining rock samples found in the Canyon Diablo meteorite in Arizona. The mineral (the second hardest natural mineral) was named moissanite in his honour.”
- Very high temperature handling capability leading to simplified thermal management as well as improved system reliability;
- Significantly minimal variation versus temperature resulting in more compact designs (smaller heatsinks);
- Higher system efficiency.
“Usually solid state amplifiers run complementary devices in n-channel and p-channel guise but Si-C mosfets are available only as n-channel versions. Hence Audiozen developed a quasi-complementary circuit with just n-channel parts like great companies did in the early 70s, when p-channel power devices were still unavailable. It seems strange but it’s easier to find and match two nearly equal n-channel parts than two complementary versions. After several tests on many Si-C mosfets made by several manufacturers, best devices have been chosen for Audiozen’ Mono and Lysios power amplifiers.
About 50 years ago, Mr. Baxandall discovered that a diode at a very precise point of a quasi-complementary circuit eliminates the local Miller effect to obtain superior linearity at high frequencies.
It seems strange again but in many amplifiers with a quasi-complementary circuit, this Baxandall diode never appears. In Mono and Lysios power amplifiers that Baxandall diode is present.
So by combining a traditional quasi-complementary circuit, Baxandall diode, and the innovative modern Si-C mosfets devices, Audiozen created Mono and Lysios, the first power amplifiers equipped with silicon carbide mosfets.”