While Tasmania is a great place to visit, you wouldn’t exactly call it a technological hub. Bucking that trend is audio manufacturer Holton Audio. Based in Northern Tasmania, the company has released its latest offering, the Ex Nihilo Mono Block Power Amplifier.

The amp is the result of 20 years of research in hi-fi audio electronics and as the first product in the company’s latest line; it is packed with all the latest technological advances.

It packs decent power as well with the ability to drive 2Ω loads under continuous power output with ease.

The audio engine printed circuit board is a true mono block fully balanced topology construction with the entire power supply, protection and audio amplifier circuitry built into a 2mm, 2oz copper gold-plate board.

The high current power supply feeding the output stage has two high current SMD bridge rectifiers feeding two banks of 48 low ESR filter capacitors for a total filtering capacitance of 225,000μF.

The input driver stage has its own electronically regulated power supply which provides extreme electrical isolation from the high current output stage pulses. The two electronic regulators feeding the input driver stages have their own dedicated and isolated secondary winding and bridge rectifier filter bank, providing a well-regulated and isolated power supply for the best possible sound quality.

The main audio amplifier uses 12 x 250W dual die lateral MOSFETs in each output stage to transfer the enormous DC reservoir to the loudspeaker load.

The Ex Nihilo is a true DC direct coupled power amplifier with no audio capacitor anywhere in the signal path including the feedback network.

The amp uses a DC Servo in its feedback network to correct DC offset to practically zero volts.

Protection for the amplifier is managed by a smart power controller in conjunction with a 120A solid state relay on the output of the power amplifier for seamless protection and noiseless power-up and power-down modes.

The mono block cases are exclusively built from 10mm aerospace grade aluminium alloy panels.

The anti-vibration case harbour’s a 2.5kVA fully shielded encapsulated toroidal transformer, placed on its own patented double isolated mezzanine system. Together with a third isolation level, this system cancels out acoustic noise. The two 400mm heat sinks ensure an optimal heat transfer and allow for driving the amplifier at low temperatures at any power.

Anthony E. Holton is the brain behind the creation of this new amp.

He has been designing high end amplifier kits for the past 12 years for customers all over the world.

“We (Holton Audio) built a reputation for very high quality world class amplifiers in Europe, UK, USA, Canada and Australasia with many thousands of our amplifier kits been sold to date.

“In recent years it became apparent that we should be producing our own high-end commercial power amplifiers; with partners in Switzerland and Europe, the Ex Nihilo is the first of five amplifiers we have developed for the high end hi-fi commercial market.”