Satie S MK II
High Power Triode Amplifier

Concept
The musicality and naturalness of historical triode amplifiers is legendary. Unfortunately, even the most famous (and most expensive) power triode, the WE 300 B, only achieves an output power of no more than 4 - 5 Watts.
The end triode of the Satie S amplifier, the high power 211 (VT 4 C), however, resembles the 300 B in sound and characteristic curve, yet it bestows each channel with generous 20 Watts of power reserves.
The 211 was originally developed as a radio transmitter. It covers a broad frequency band, works very reliably, and has a long lifetime. It is currently available in good quality from military productions at reasonable cost (a WE 300 B calls for a more than 10 times higher price).
To achieve the high output power, the circuitry of the Satie requires a sophisticated high voltage supply, which is separated from the audio amplifier stage into an external power supply cabinet. This increases the operation safety and effectively prohibits noise pick-up. The power supply is equally nobly finished as the audio stage and recommended to be placed next to it.

Sound
The Satie plays music in a way that fulfills highest expectations in a top-class triode: homogeneous and relaxed, extremely vivid, 3-dimensional, and wide-ranging. The musical event entirely detaches from the speakers, and – so the recording provides – a fascinatingly spacious sound stage opens up. Instruments and voices have ample body, yet at the same time also a precise contour and a well-defined position in space.
The Satie has exceptional reserves of power and develops astonishing dynamic capacities. It reproduces impulses (large orchestras, horn sections, drum beats, etc.) with high precision and vehement force. Such energy and dynamic is likely to surprise traditional fans of the 300 B.
The Satie never softens or embellishes the sound. Authenticity and naturalness, on the contrary, are what it eagerly strives for. The Satie is not only predestined to reproduce chamber music and small Jazz ensembles. In combination with sufficiently sensitive speakers it is equally capable of convincingly picturing large orchestras.
If once one gets used to the sovereign resources of the Satie, less powerful components may well appear as unsatisfying compromises...
Roland Kraft of image hifi (1/2001) was deeply impressed:
„With respect to sound quality, Gundlach’s design is perfectly comparable to an excellent 300 B, yet fortunately it offers about 3 times more power, which brings about some decent share of sovereignty (...)
Respect! And a big, big compliment, for immediately the Satie joins the elite circle of my four or five personally favorite amplifiers. A dream tube with a dream sound ( ...) „

Construction
Only non-magnetic materials are used for the enclosures of the Satie. The amplifier – consisting of separated audio stage and power supply – is first assembled in a rigid aluminum chassis. The outer cabinets then are fitted onto the chassis like car bodies, which provides for perfect vibrational decoupling and electrical shielding.
The circuitry is built only with extremely carefully selected audiophile components. The wiring is made of pure silver and pure copper.

Being the most decisive element between the amplifier circuit and the speakers, the output transmitter is of particular importance for the sound. For this reason a special output transmitter is produced in Germany exclusively for the Satie. The structure of this transmitter is strongly influenced by legendary designs of the 1950s. The coils are intertwined in a complex manner and multiply immersed in vacuum. Special metal plates and the generous dimensions of the transmitter effectively prohibit saturation effects and distortions. The result is a very homogeneous transmission spectrum that covers a vastly broad frequency band without any interfering resonances in the audible range.
We devoted particular attention to operation safety. The anode high voltage of the end triodes is generated by two separate power supplies that operate in series at half the voltage. All other anode and heater voltages are likewise produced by discretely rectified power supplies and choke chains. The driver and input stage is each rectified by a GZ 34 (5 AR 4) vacuum tube.
A laborious manufacturing process such as for the above amplifier needs time and devotion. Please therefore allow your Satie for a delivery time of at least 20 weeks.