# Blast from the Past - Synopsis Audio



## envisionelec (Dec 14, 2005)

Anyone remember Synopsis Audio? Ken Anderson?

Discuss.


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## envisionelec (Dec 14, 2005)

Whiff.

Guess Not!


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## A Audio Stench (May 23, 2011)

Not even a little. What era are we talking?


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## dodgerblue (Jul 14, 2005)

I remember reading an review over 10 years ago on the synopsis 50w pch model .Stiffly regulated pwr supply and tested around 80wpch if I remember correctly . It had an abundance of outputs 6 pair or so of Wich looked like tip35/36 .Great looking simple heat sink . I don't know if they ever made it into production or the history of the designer/company .


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## dodgerblue (Jul 14, 2005)

Not much to discuss I suppose


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## envisionelec (Dec 14, 2005)

Over on DIYAudio.com there was a guy (screen name Zagisrule!) named Matt Aurand that was somehow related (nephew?) to the owner of Synopsis. 

They had a bunch of preorders for a big amp and then went under within a short amount of time. Shortly thereafter, Zagisrule! was selling off toroidal transformers that were used in the amp; I bought a few. 

Apparently I stumped you guys. I was actually looking for more details on the shenanigans and wanted to see if anyone here had dealt with them or had remembered them. But...I guess not!


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## dodgerblue (Jul 14, 2005)

I do remember him selling the transformers on DIY and I believe he offered to have some made for 300 or so . But I didn't hear about the Shenanigans !


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## jel847 (Nov 8, 2007)

i remmper him and owned one of the original amps. it had issues that it took a while to get resolved but it was a great amp.
the guy was a bit odd and not a good business man but the amp was top notch.

the problems wer he sold the amp, marketed by another guy who i cant remember his name, was in ocean grove new jersey. he sold the amps but they had issues with the pre amp and crossover if im not mistaken. the guy that made the amps dissapeared for a while and left a bunch of us waiting. he did finally come through and the amps were repaired.
later he did have a large amp in the works, took pre orders etc. and it nevr came to be. i honestly remember it being someone else trying to get the project going and not the guy that actually made the amps.


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## jel847 (Nov 8, 2007)

dodgerblue said:


> I remember reading an review over 10 years ago on the synopsis 50w pch model .Stiffly regulated pwr supply and tested around 80wpch if I remember correctly . It had an abundance of outputs 6 pair or so of Wich looked like tip35/36 .Great looking simple heat sink . I don't know if they ever made it into production or the history of the designer/company .


the amp you described is the one i owned, it was a great amp once the bugs were worked out and yes it was a simple and clean looking amp.


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## jel847 (Nov 8, 2007)

envisionelec said:


> They had a bunch of preorders for a big amp and then went under within a short amount of time. Shortly thereafter, Zagisrule! was selling off toroidal transformers that were used in the amp; I bought a few.
> 
> Apparently I stumped you guys. I was actually looking for more details on the shenanigans and wanted to see if anyone here had dealt with them or had remembered them. But...I guess not!


this is correct, it wasnt ken anderson that was sellng them and taking the orders, i cant think of the guys name but his website was ampmanaudio.com
ECA was thriving at this time as well.

the ampman guy took the pre orders and he basically got left hanging because the amp neer came to be.
he is also(ampman) the one who sold the other amps that had the issues when ken anderson flaked out for a while. they did finally get that problem worked out.


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## jel847 (Nov 8, 2007)

if you google synopsis audio you can find a review, the amp was the sa50x
theres a picture of it here:
Synopsis Audio Introduction

I just spoke to a friend who refreshed my memory.
the original synopsis amps were purchased from ken anderson. they had issues that werent major but ken anderson was mia. since the amps were sold by ampman he made good on the repairs. i dont remember if ken anderson actually designed the amps or not. there was another person possibly a engineer that designed the amps i thought and did the repairs via ampman. when the other amp you spoke of came to be, due to the shenanigans with ken anderson, everything went through ampman, pre orders etc. but as mentioned that amp never happened.
my friend said that ampman did have his own ampman branded amp but doesnt know if this was made by synopsis.


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## envisionelec (Dec 14, 2005)

Thanks for the detailed responses, jel847. I am interested in contacting him to see if his heatsink extrusion die (among other things) is for sale. For all I know, he may have liquidated the assets, but possibly not tooling and such as they are often not saleable items. 

I'm glad to hear that Ken was not likely to be the perpetrator of these pre orders. It might make dicussions a little smoother.


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## jel847 (Nov 8, 2007)

i think ken just got in over his head and had his plate full at the time. Kirk( i remember) from ampman really wanted to make synopsis work. when the issues with the original amp arised and ken was nowhere to be found he panicked. of course this caused a chain reaction but in the end everyone made good. i dont remember all the details of the pre orders for the other amp because i wasnt involved.

dont get me wrong, ken wasnt innocent, he led everyone to believe he would be making the amps. amp man stepped in because ken admittingly wasnt a very good busines man. he was just in over his head.


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## thehatedguy (May 4, 2007)

They were pretty amps. I think Carsound tested one of them way back when.

There was so much shady **** with that company though.

I remember them.


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## dodgerblue (Jul 14, 2005)

Great to hear some background on this Co.. I was curious myself .Thx Jel.
Here is that old review from carsound mentioned above .
Synopsis Audio SA50X


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## envisionelec (Dec 14, 2005)

If any of you know how to put me in touch with Kirk or Ken, I would appreciate it.


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## jel847 (Nov 8, 2007)

A lot of it was drama created by the internets......


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## HyPer (Dec 16, 2013)

Someone just showed me this thread last night, so I had to go dig thru my closet.....sorry ahead of time for the thread rez, just figured ya'll might have liked to see the Serial #1 amp.


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## jel847 (Nov 8, 2007)

Cool amp. That must be a prototype or something. The amp that was being discussed here, back in 2011, was the sa50x which was a 50 watts per channel amp, was silver if I'm not mistaken.


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## HyPer (Dec 16, 2013)

jel847 said:


> Cool amp. That must be a prototype or something. The amp that was being discussed here, back in 2011, was the sa50x which was a 50 watts per channel amp, was silver if I'm not mistaken.


This was the big boy preorder that "never happened".....it's got (2) sa100x(2x100wpc) boards in it, end to end.


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## bassfromspace (Jun 28, 2016)

Cadillac was one of the guys helping to move the project along on ECA. I think this was the pre-order phase, prior to Ampman getting involved.


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## [email protected] (Nov 7, 2010)

That looks like the PPI M/AM heatsink sort of...


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## jel847 (Nov 8, 2007)

bassfromspace said:


> Cadillac was one of the guys helping to move the project along on ECA. I think this was the pre-order phase, prior to Ampman getting involved.


Chadillac aka chad Lukan 
Haven't heard that name in a long time...this post is bringing back some memories and has me thinking of some old friends!


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## dodgerblue (Jul 14, 2005)

HyPer said:


> This was the big boy preorder that "never happened".....it's got (2) sa100x(2x100wpc) boards in it, end to end.


Nice ! 
It would be sweet to see some internals if possible !


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## HyPer (Dec 16, 2013)

dodgerblue said:


> Nice !
> It would be sweet to see some internals if possible !


All the internals were removed from the boards before the amp was sent.....guess they didn't wanna chance it at getting reverse engineered.


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## envisionelec (Dec 14, 2005)

HyPer said:


> All the internals were removed from the boards before the amp was sent.....guess they didn't wanna chance it at getting reverse engineered.


I just happened to check in on this very old thread. Thanks for the additional info!


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