GAS_logo SUMO_Logo

One of the better known SAE designers, James Bongiorno, left SAE and founded Great American Sound (GAS). After some general unpleasantness with his partners, he left and subsequently founded SUMO. Both companies were renowned for their equipment, so I thought it would be a nice accompaniment to the SAE gear to have some of their descendants, too.

For whatever reason, there is much less information on the Web about GAS and SUMO than SAE, so I have put together a brief product overview on a couple of pages here (for GAS) and here (for SUMO).

Here’s a selection of GAS equipment. Top to bottom:

- GAS Thaedra preamp

 

 

-GAS Ampzilla II amp

 

 

 

 

-GAS Thoebe preamp

 

 

-GAS Son of Ampzilla amp

 

 

 

-GAS Thalia preamp

 

-GAS Grandson amp

 

 

 

-GAS The Bridge (for bridging amplifiers)

Ampzill_Thaedra
Son_Thoebe
Grand_Thalia
bridge

Here’s a rack of my SUMO equipment. Top to bottom:

 

- SUMO Delilah crossover

-SUMO Axiom CD Transport

 

--SUMO Theorem DAC

-SUMO Aurora tuner

-SUMO Athena peramp

-SUMO Polaris amplifier

 

-SUMO Charlie tuner

 

-SUMO Andromeda amplifier

 

 

SUMO Electra Plus preamp

Here’s the front and back views of my new SUMO The Power amp. 

It’s a monster - roughly 70 pounds, 10 inches tall, and 450 watts/channel. The Coke can is to give a reference point on the size.

These are pretty rare - only 385 of them were built.

From the biggest to the smallest - here’s a Ulysses, the smallest amp in the SUMO lineup

SUMOV2
Power_1
Power_2
SUMO_ulysses

Later in the company’s history, they produced several high-end preamps with separate, off board power supplies - the Artemis and the Diana. Both preamps are quite rare.

I have two versions of the Artemis - one with a small power supply (above) and one with a rack-mount power supply (below). I have no idea which came first. In fact, I have never seen any factory literature on the Artemis

SUMO_Artemis_one
SUMO_Artemis_Two

The Diana (seen here) looks just like an Athena, except with a separate power supply.

SUMO_Diana

With the advent of CDs, SUMO marketed a CD transport (Axiom) and separate DAC (Theorem).

SUMO_Theorem_Axiom

Contact me at: david@davidsaudio.com

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