Product Description

Audio Wave Ltd was founded in 2007 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, UK. Although the company was officially founded in 2007, design, research and development had started much earlier in 2002. As the car audio market have been through some tough times, consequently many companies have closed down and those left in the industry have cut back. There was an urgent need for some Hi-End car Hi-Fi amplifiers equal to the domestic amplifier market sector!

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Audio Wave’s approach was to design and hand-craft every amplifier one at a time. The first models in production were the CR-200 Mono Block, CR-200X Mono Block and the CR-400 Dual Mono Block with each amplifier taking between two to six weeks to build. In 2009 a more affordable amplifier was designed called the Aspire and then the Aspire Pro range was later introduced in 2010.

Every process from the schematic diagram to the design of the PCB is done in-house including fitting all the components by hand and of course not forgetting all the metal work. All the electronic components are carefully matched before PCB assembly. After testing they go through a burn-in period before final tests are carried out.

All our CR-400 amplifiers, Aspire DST, Aspire Pro DST and Aspire Pro Dual Mono amplifiers go through an amplifier matching process to ensure they have the closest specification pairing resulting in fantastic reproduction and balanced sound.

We take pride in all our products and the time and dedication of building each amplifier is paying off with more dealers and customers acknowledging the build and sound qualities, not to mention winning international competitions.

Audio Wave is always investing in R&D and design to deliver better products for the future. It started with a dream and now we have more than ten products that will stand up against the competition. We don’t just build amplifiers, we build Hi-end amplifiers equal to or surpass some domestic amplifiers costing many times more!

Aspire Pro

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The Aspire range has grown since it was launched in 2009. The more affordable entry level Aspire was the first stereo amplifier built by Audio Wave, and the Aspire Pro added to the production line in 2010.

This amplifier is another step up from the Aspire not only in sound but also components. Hundreds of hours were spent on R&D trying to get the perfect sound and performance. The Aspire Pro is biased more into class A but still runs in class A/B operation.

The sound is full, focused with loads of width and depth and does not sound shut in. There is plenty of headroom for the most demanding music, overall a very transparent amplifier.

The Aspire/Aspire Pro amplifiers are stereo and have no EQ filters or crossovers on the input stage. It has been kept very simple with only a high quality Alps gain control with only the Aspire Pro Mono Block and Dual Mono having a built in phase switch for bridging. The amplifier has a LED display port that is the same as the CR amps that displays temperature, protect and power. These LED displays are machined from a single piece of aluminium billet and have a nickel or gold plated engraved front panel; they are an option that can be added to the amplifier at any time.

Aspire Pro has many upgraded components including the PCB. The PCB is 3 once Gold plated through double sided with a different layout. Many more hours were spent on re-designing the Pro version PCB layout to accommodate extra caps, larger coils and a bigger ground plane resulting in a more focused dynamic amplifier.

The Aspire and Aspire pro series chassis are made from 2mm thick zinc coated steel and then powder coated in a black textured finish. The lids are made from 3mm aluminum or a metal and acrylic lid if preferred.

Although the Aspire range is more affordable, every amplifier is hand-crafted like the CR range. A standard Aspire takes a week to build and the Aspire Pro a little longer, the DST and DM just takes twice as long.

You can use the cross reference specification sheet to see the model difference and options.