Nowadays customers see heavily inflated MSRP pricing allowing dealers to offer “discounts”. They think they are fooling customers into making a purchase but in today’s economy we think most customers have more intelligence and experience to purchase a product solely on the “discounted” price. We offer the absolute best pricing possible for McAlister Audio products designed by Peter McAlister and built in Canada.

We would be pleased to discuss any requirements you might have or need.

View the OTL 195 FAQ

The fundamental difference between solid state and tube based technologies: solid state products are current amplifiers with odd order harmonics and tube products are voltage amplifiers with even order harmonics. Well designed tube products will sound much more musical due to even order harmonics and with proper design dispel any myths that exist due to vintage circuit design performance. My tube amplifier circuits all use fast recovery diodes, lots of initial power supply capacitance, low impedance power supplies, no electrolytic capacitors in the signal path, proprietary designed, hand wound output transformers ensuring very musical reproduction with very fast slew rates and low distortion.

Biasing:

All my power amplifiers use a fixed bias system with adjustments on the top chassis. This is a simple, quick user friendly adjustment that is well explained in the operating procedure with each amplifier.

Fixed Bias and Self Automatic biasing Explained; Cathode/ automatic/ self biasing amplifiers use a large resistor impedance between the cathodes of the output tubes to ground. This raises the cathodes above the ground potential in effect creating the required negative grid number one voltage on the output tubes that determines the current flow and class of operation. Amplifiers with this type of bias do not require any adjustments when output tubes are replaced and are less expensive to the manufacture as no additional negative power supply or controls are required- just a cathode resistor and by-pass capacitor. With cathode biased amplifiers the speed and rise times are much slower due to the large value cathode resistor that is in series with the audio output. Further a large value electrolytic cap in parallel with this cathode resistor has to be used for a shunt AC path ground return and impedance reduction. Electrolytic capacitors in the signal path further degrade the sound quality. Fixed negative bias supplies connect the output tube cathode to ground and have an additional negative voltage power supply. The negative voltage is adjustable and fed to the control grid of the output tube that determines the current flow and class of operation. All of my power amplifier designs use a fixed bias voltage that eliminates the cathode resistor and electrolytic by-pass cap producing an amplifier with fast rise times, superior dynamics and transparency. Bias adjustments are required whenever output tubes are replaced.

Warranty on New Product Purchases
McAlister Audio units carry a 2 year parts and labour warranty, tubes are covered for 90 days. Warranty registration cards will be included in all product going forward and will have important information regarding warranty repair if required.

Warranty on Repairs and Restorations
All repair and restoration work is guaranteed for a period of 90 days. All tubes and replacement parts are guaranteed for a period of 90 days. I cannot guarantee cosmetic appearance. The customer is responsible for proper packing of their equipment to avoid any cosmetic damage.

(Please read very carefully)
All products I ship adhere to the following guidelines to ensure your new purchase or repair is received in good order at a reasonable shipping cost without hidden transport charges or additional duties

1. All equipment must be DOUBLE-BOXED with at least 3 inches of cushion or foam between the inside box and the outside box. The most important factor here is to make sure there is NO possibility that your product can move inside the packing carton. McAlister Audio will return product with the same packaging as received.

2. Tubes must be removed from products and either shipped in a separate box or packed with the equipment wrapped in foam, bubble pack and highly insulated from the equipment chassis. In some cases it might be acceptable to leave the tubes in the unit but please ask prior to shipping.

3. Please use "Fragile" or "Handle with Care" stickers on the box- your shipping provider usually will be glad to do this at no charge.

5. Please insure the shipment for maximum value of your equipment.

6. Use USPS or Economy FedEx or better if sending from the U.S. The Postal system is very reasonable and reliable- I have used this system for years on outbound shipments to the U.S. with out any problems. Xpresspost is recommended for shipping within Canada. For most Asian and European customers, international Xpresspost is recommended. Airmail or surface mail is recommended for other international customers. Avoid UPS due to past experience with poor handling and damage claims. This courier sometimes charges additional fees for border crossing making pre-paid shipments either way suddenly become collect shipments.