Ice Block 5001 Background

Much of what I found on the Seymour AV website was laced with a sort of sarcastic, dry humor but their 'About' page was the best (take a good look at the picture) -

Seymour AV was founded to bring unique audiophile-focused solutions with premium components to the audio/video market at factory-direct prices. We focus on delivering top quality bang for the buck by minimizing or eliminating the overhead you, the customer, aren't interested in paying us for, like chairs or water (update: we just purchased a chair but we had a coupon). We quickly answer questions and send samples. If it's not what you expected, we'll do what it takes to make it perfect. Don't worry about being less than smiling from your purchase. We’ll treat you like you’re our only customer, just not in a desperate, creepy kind of way.

Listeners of AV Rant know that I like to interact with manufacturers stealthily. I often call customer support to get help rather than our press/review contact to get the "real deal" about their customer service. If I don't tell them I'm reviewing their product (even if I do, they don't usually believe me thinking I'm just trying to get preferential treatment), I can report on how they treat Joe Consumer - not how they treat Tom the Reviewer.

I'm not going to pull punches with this review - I had problems with the Seymour AV 5001 Monoblock. I sent my review samples back. I told Chris Seymour (owner/operator/customer service rep) I didn't want to do the review. I told him (at one point) that he should just send it to someone else as my review will detail exactly every problem I had. He wouldn't relent. He wanted a review and he wanted it from me (oh, if only my wife felt the same way). If you want to skip to the good bits, hit the set-up page. But before you do, realize what this means. Seymour AV is not afraid of a little criticism. Seymour AV is not afraid of a reviewer known to be… harsh (I say honest but whatever). Most of all, Seymour AV is not afraid to have his amps put through the ringer. Well, they didn't come out without a blemish but they did shine.

History of Seymour AV

Or specifically, history of my relationship with Seymour AV. Chris Seymour is a friend of a friend. I first met him on Xbox live during marathon games of Halo 3 and Gears of War 2. At first I didn’t know much about him until finally I found out he made projection screens. Well, since I don't have a projector his product offerings seemed irrelevant for me to review. It wasn't until much later that I found out he was looking into productizing amplifiers. Specifically Class D IceBlock amps.

IceBlocks are an analog switching type amp developed and licensed out by Bang & Olufsen. I've actually been to their plant and have seen their operations. It is pretty impressive. What is most impressive is how much electronics they shove in those small, euro-design enclosures. Such tight tolerances and so little wasted space equates to two things - lots of power in a very small package and LOW HEAT. Ice Blocks are called that because they run so cool - somewhere around 83% efficient. While not as efficient as some class D designs that top 90%, that is impressive considering typical Class A amps are about 20% and A/B (the most common type these days) are lucky to hit 50%. What about the rest? Heat baby. Lots and lots of heat. That's fine if you have your amps out in the open and it's the middle of winter in Minnesota but if you have a component cabinet with less than adequate ventilation or, perish the thought, a converted armoire (you know who you are), it is a recipe for at the very least a significantly shorter lifespan on your amps. Worst case is burn-up and catastrophic failure a la red-ring-of-death (you Xbox 360 owners know what I'm talking about).