Welcome to the website for Oxygen Amplifiers.

Oxygen is located in Vancouver, BC, Canada and builds amplifiers for those that are truly serious about tone.

Combining classic components with cutting edge industrial design our amps boast a tone and versatility that will add depth and clarity to your musical style.

There are hundreds of boutique amplifiers crowding the marketplace for your attention and dollars.  There needs to be a compelling reason to introduce yet another boutique amp.  We think we have a number of compelling reasons why any serious player needs to check out Oxygen.  We’ve launched our versatile 18W product line (head, 1×12 combo, 2×12 combo) with a number of features and benefits that provide solutions to common problems experienced by most players. Click on the headings below for more info!

• No Feedback! No Ghost Notes! No Unwanted Noise!
  We build our amps using a proprietary Ground Plane Circuit Design. Instead of using eyelet or turret boards which introduce unwanted impedances into the grounding design, we utilize a copper ground plane to effectively eliminate feedback and ghost notes. This style of building is a little more labour intensive but the end result speaks for itself. Its not that other manufacturers couldn’t utilize this same technology its just that our designers have learned the tricks to perfect it over the last 40 plus years. The end result is an amp that delivers nothing but pure tone completely free of unwanted “noise”!
• Achieving your Loud Tone at Low Volumes while Extending Tube Life!
  Many other amps have master volume controls, or attenuators or even a version of power scaling. Oxygen is set apart from the others because of our third generation London Power Scaling. This feature allows the power (and thus volume) levels to be reduced to allow the amp to be played at a comfortable volume in smaller venues without losing the saturation, gain and even order harmonics that characterize the amp at higher outputs. On some amps when you turn the volume down to satisfy your sound person you lose that full, rich tone that you work so hard to achieve. Not so with the Oxygen power scaling. Our circuit is completely transparent! By adjusting the volume and gain accordingly you are able to achieve the same tone and gain characteristics at power levels around 1 Watt which is ideal for even the smallest venues. Our builders in conjunction with Kevin O’Connor, the originator of power scaling, have developed the latest iteration of this proven system to reduce power output. Since the Oxygen power scaling reduces power (and thus volume) by reducing voltage to the output stage, the result is clean tone without sacrificing tube life. By contrast, master volume controls just limit the signal to the output stage, not the output stage power. This is fine for preamp distortion but output stage saturation is lost at reduced drive. Attenuators, on the other hand, reduce power output by creating an artificial load after the output stage. This requires the output stage to run at maximum power which negatively impacts transformer and tube life. We are so confident that this is the best way to achieve power scaling that we have licensed the technology from Kevin O’Connor.
• Tubes that aren't Microphonic!
  Many players and manufacturers tout the benefits and characteristics of EF86 tubes to deliver warm, full tone with solid mid-range and bass. We wouldn’t argue that point. But we would point out that the major downside to using EF86 tubes is microphonics. That feedback and ringing that you can’t seem to get rid of or maybe even locate are inherent in EF86 tubes. Its something you have to put up with if you are using EF86’s. Its also probably worth mentioning that you will have to replace that EF86 tube one day. Yes it will fail, eventually. And trying to find a good replacement EF86 will be a challenge. If you’re lucky, it will take 10 tubes to find ONE that performs satisfactorily. We, at Oxygen, feel that the downsides to using EF86’s outweigh the benefits particularly when there are other great tubes that deliver exceptional “cream” tone. We have chosen to use the 5879 tube in the cream channel. It produces warm, full tone with solid mids and bass without any of the microphonics that the EF86’s are prone to. Not only that but the consistency from one tube to the next is extremely good. Almost every 5879 can be counted on to provide exceptional sound. You’ll be relieved when you replace the tube one day and the new one delivers tone that is just as good as you’ve come to expect.

Thank you for your interest in Oxygen Amplifiers and we look forward to your feedback and questions.