Reite Audio amps

[Kingsrule]

Anybody know anything about these Reite amps HP is bragging about?

[Myles B. Astor]

This really doesn't say much other than the normal ad material.

Reite Audio: Born From Genius

[jdandy]

I read the entire Reite Audio website, including the credentials and experience of the two owners. Their slogan "Born from Genius" might be a bit of a stretch, but then one never knows.

[mulveling]

Wow, what a pretentious slogan. No "real" genius would be OK with that. And only 36 lbs. per 400W monoblock at $25K for the pair? Either that's a lightweight low-bias AB amp or they glued a lead brick to a digital module.

A variable damping factor is not going to be a good thing on a high powered SS amp. Sunfire did that too, though only in a single fixed step. If your speakers don't sound good with a super-high damping factor, then don't buy a high-power SS amp; the only way to lower the damping at that point is to add a series resistor on the output (i.e. throwing away power you've paid for) or lowering the amount of global negative feedback (why was it so high in the first place?).

Also it would be great if the genius could explain what the heck they mean by "Watts RMS"
To spec an amplifier ins "Watts RMS" displays extreme ignorance, even though many makers (even self proclaimed geniuses) do so. You know that they actually meant "Continuous Watts", which has a completely different mathematical meaning. RMS is not a unit nor is it bound to a particular unit; it is a procedure (yielding a scalar value for a given set or a continuous function over a defined range) that is typically applied to periodic functions of voltage vs. time or periodic functions of current vs. time. Voltage and current are typical, because power is derived from their square -- hence the "Root Mean Square". Thus, continuous power into any non-reactive load (i.e. a fixed resistance) is easily determined for any periodic function of voltage or current once you've calculated that function's RMS value.

The RMS of a sinusoidal voltage function of amplitude 4V (any frequency) is √8. Hence its continuous power into a non-reactive 8Ω load is (√8V)^2/8Ω = 1 Watt. The RMS value of that very same signal's power function is actually approximately 1.22474. But of course, nobody ever actually means nor specs "RMS Power" or "Watts RMS" because that's completely stupid; hardly anything -- certainly not in audio -- actually works with the square of power. I would hope that the makers of a $25K amp were wielding mathematical knowledge beyond that of the high-school level, or at least that they could pass the blame for this onto marketing droids (haha, ironic -- you'd think a "droid" would be good at math).

Ok, sorry guys -- rant mode off for now...