Tom
Evans
With a background of working with defense contractors,
with exposure to components unused in the field
of Hi-Fi, Tom Evans was dissatisfied with the
standard of hi-fi in the late seventies. He
began a journey which took him eventually into
the realms of theoretical physics and psycho-
acoustics. His first commercial product in 1986
"The Finestra" pre-amp was using multi-layered
circuit boards to optimize signal paths. He
had already developed an ultra linear circuit
and had recognized the importance of the use
of Perspex in case work to minimize eddy currents,
vital in preserving signal integrity in order
to reproduce maximum resolution.
Milestones
along the way were his collaboration with Michell
Engineering to produce a phono stage "The
Iso" along with Pre and power amps for
Michell. With the formation of Trichord Research
came the original work on precision crystal
oscillators and the start of his work in digital
replay. Tom developed the Trichord CD precision
clock to fit to other manufacturer's CD players,
and also the stand-alone Trichord DAC.
A
decision to 'go solo' brought about a rethink
in what was important in CD replay, realizing
the potential of what was theoretically possible
from 44.1Khz 16 bit. This fundamental research
eventual bore fruit with the creation of the
Eikos CD player from Acoustic Precision.
One
year after the launch of the Eikos CD player
Evans realized that the ceiling of performance
achievable was being compromised by even the
best voltage regulators in key positions on
the board. The regulators had voltage noise
figures equivalent to that of the output of
an average moving coil cartridge and a transient
response/recovery time that was measured in
"Weeks per Volt". Nine months later
he had developed the Lithos regulator, a discrete
fast transient response time ultra low noise
a devise 1000 times quieter, 53 times faster,
and five decimal places more accurate than the
best regulators available.
He
realized that this was the key that would unlock
the potential of vinyl as the application of
Lithos to an analogue source would move the
goal posts of performance in speed resolution
and dynamic range, in a media unfettered by
sampling rate and bandwidth. He returned to
his roots to design "The Groove" phono
stage.
With
the advanced Lithos technology providing a quantum
leap in speed and resolution capability over
conventional electronics, the way forward is
open to develop a new range of products that
re-defines the performance of reproducing recorded
music from all sources.
Product Review:
For
more background information about Tome Evans
and his products, read the following articles:
Linear
A Stereo Amplifier
, Jeff Day at 6moons.com, August 2005
Vibe
Lithos 7 preamp
, Jeff Day at 6moons.com, December 2005
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