Allnic Audio T-1500 MK2 Single-Ended Stereo Integrated Amplifier
We live in an age of behemoths. Corporate behemoths that are the agents and producers of things. We have been told that large economies of scale are a requisite for modern life, and only vast multinational corporations can service the requirements of a globalized modern world. So, we hand over our agency and purchasing power and national sovereignty to enormous trade agreements; we listen to a large, noisy backdrop of corporate advertisements that are all competing for our gullibility; we smell the self-interest of the large corporate lobbyists of the monied class whose job it is to manipulate governments to engineer the continuance of their privileged survival; we have been conditioned to believe “big is better;” and the beat goes on.
Just one of the reasons I love the high-fidelity audio industry is the size of most of the firms—small to medium. When we ask, what happened to small we can point to our industry and say—right here! Today we are going to review one of the most impressive of the “small is beautiful” companies: the Park family from South Korea and its marvel, the Allnic Audio T-1500 MK2 Stereo Integrated Amplifier ($8250).
The head of the family, Mr. Kang Su Park, after studying French and English languages at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, got a desk job that taught him exactly what he did not want to do with the rest of his life. Showing a very early interest in music and electronics, he decided to switch gears and join a company called Silvaweld learning advanced electronic and audio design, then left after 10 years to set up his own company, Allnic Audio.
Park and the seven-person family team not only hand assemble all of the Allnic lines of audio equipment, but Papa has designed and manufactured the constant impedance bridged T and H type, 41-stepped silver contact attenuator used in the T-1500. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. A general introduction is in order.
The T-1500 MK2 is a tube-designed stereo-integrated amplifier operating in Class A with feedback of -6 dB. The T-1500 is an exemplar of the Single Ended Triode (SET) design, differentiating itself from the push-pull vacuum tube amplifiers which have two banks of tubes sitting opposite one another. In the “push-pull” model one set of tubes generates one-half of the sine wave and the other bank of tubes fulfills the other half of the sinewave. The push-pull tube amps by definition are a powerful architecture with significant wattage output, but they have one weakness. In handing off the positive signal in one set of tubes to the other set of tubes, at the precise moment of crossover, there is NO signal. For less than a nanosecond, as one-half of the sine wave is about to hand itself over to its other half, there is a small gap. This is called crossover distortion; there are ways to remedy this dilemma, but every solution in electronics inevitably creates another problem-solution situation. (Please note this crossover distortion problem has nothing to do with the better-known crossover point in speakers.)
The T-1500 MK2 ($8250), on the other hand, is a Single Ended Triode design tube amplifier, let us call this type the Archangel Michael of Vacuum Tube amplifiers, where the whole analog sinewave is generated and recycled throughout one tube—the 300B, the Rolls Royce of tubes first invented in 1907. SET amps and the T-1500 use a vacuum tube with one single triode per channel to produce amplification. The signal’s plus and minus, or positive and negative parts in each channel are never split. The one tube fulfilling the complete sinewave cycle creates a technical cohesiveness that translates into a cohesive sonority. However, because the SET amps use but one main tube per channel they create lower wattage, and therefore require speakers that have a very high SPL or dB rating. I used the T-1500 with the Dundee 8s Dual Concentric Horn Speakers with a dB rating of 96. The speakers do a lot of the heavy lifting here, but the benefits of an Allnic creating 12.5 watts per channel with the quality of internal parts that Park uses and his engineering design offers a radiant output of coherent sound. Not once did I find 12.5 watts per channel with the Dundee 8s anything other than a monstrous, warhorse of potential volume.
Part of the significant clarity of sound comes from the very expensive, large, heavier, output transformer with Permalloy cores. This Nickel alloy construction allows fewer windings on the primary winding and high open circuit inductance which results in a wide frequency range and low distortion bass response. With the use of Park’s patented 41-step silver contact attenuator, instead of a cheaper carbon potentiometer, a significant qualitative benefit emerges in distortion and noise cancellation. It should be noted that many 300B tube amps are under-driven and distorted due, primarily, to the use of conventional R-C circuits which offer at best 70V swing voltage. The T-1500’s inductor drive circuit doubles this to 150V, with a low 0.3% distortion. As stated earlier, the 12.5 W per channel with high sensitivity speakers was like having an orchestra 6 feet away from you delivering the triple forte ending of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. The Grand Canyon in open and warm glorious sound. We will get to more of these aural benefits, but let’s first immerse ourselves further into some engineering observations.
The interesting paradox of all SET amps is they are as inefficient as any amp can be. One of the realities of the SET amp is the large transformer must handle continuous DC—this results in a physically larger and more costly output transformer. The Allnic weighs in at a formidable 50 lbs. More weight and the requirement of more filters to reduce the electronic hum from continuous direct current may suggest a big disadvantage, but this also brings with it an accentuation of even order harmonics, proven empirically to be satisfying and pleasing to our ears and mind. This, in part, helps to explain the sound of the Allnic and SET amps in general. There is an incomparable satisfaction that borders on the spiritual. In addition, the Allnic T-1500 MK2 ($8250) offers a quality of sound detail at a unique, low volume, with an overall coherent sound and warmth that is formidable. Remember, there is no crossover distortion to filter away here, just coherent signal travelling a less distant signal pathway picked up by a high dB set of loudspeakers. Whether it is this manifestation of even order harmonics that brings this sense of well-being to so many listeners, or whether it is the harmonics and the “warmth” generated from the quality of tubes, it matters, perhaps, little. The outcome is the same. Wonderous sound. A sense of true well-being in listening.
This South Korean beauty is also a showcase of sleek austere functionality, available in black and natural all-aluminum chassis with Allnic in-house wound Permalloy nickel transformers. The Allnic speaks of quality, speaks of authority and a deep expert simplicity in the service of excellence. Its weight of 50 lbs. is singularly matched by the solidity of the workmanship. Moving handles on each side offer a significant degree of stability in transferring the amp anywhere. There are but two control knobs on the front and two bias meters for the tubes; one knob to select the input and one for the volume. The on/off switch rests comfortably on the right-hand side. I love the weight behind both control knobs, but the remote, a statement itself of permanence and weight, is your choice for volume control. The back of the amp is beautifully laid out with great spacing and ease to hook up power cords, interconnecting cables and speaker cables. And each 300B tube has a small yellow screw so you can adjust it with a jeweller’s screwdriver and ensure each valve is getting enough current. All very straightforward.
As stated earlier the T-1500’s “inductor drive” circuit gives up to a 150 Volt swing voltage, with an impressive low distortion rate of 0.3%. The driver tubes in the Allnic are the 6SN7 and 6SL7, tubes that—yes, drive the 300B’s via a nickel permalloy choke plate. Invented in 1914-16, Permalloy was the great solution for the Atlantic submarine telegraph cables, first laid in the 1860s. Both the Brits and the Americans discovered the long Atlantic ocean length cables produced a field distortion which reduced the maximal signalling speed to 10 to 12 words per minute. The math was worked out around 1866.
Park is at pains to point out his use of coupling transformers made of Permalloy instead of capacitors in the gain stage, although difficult and expensive in its use, does create for him a massive advantage in higher gain—Permalloy transformers transfer 90% of the signal, the efficiency of capacitors, 5%. Nothing more needs to be said!
What does this wonder sound like? Well, I’ve dropped modifiers and superlatives throughout the discussion of the engineering principles and the overall description of the Allnic and they hold firm for what I will repeat now. Because the Allnic T-1500 was used in conjunction with the review of the Dundees 8 Dual Concentric Horn Speakers, I encourage the reader to go read many of the listening examples mentioned. However, let me summarize, finally, the overall sound I heard from the T-1500. Both performances mentioned here, the Bernstein and the bass, José van Dam, were pushed through my Apple MacBook Pro with Apple Music USB’d to the Mytek HiFi Manhattan II DAC, through the Allnic T-1500 out through the Dundee 8s.
“Um Mitternacht”, the fourth of six poems of the 19th-century poet Friedrich Rückert, set to music by Gustav Mahler, is my favourite, employing a Protestant chorale-like ending with the inevitable probing darkness so characteristic of Mahler’s music and the words of Rückert’s opening stanza. The famous performances of Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder from the 20th and 21st centuries are etched into the collective classical music listening consciousness: Baker with Barbirolli, Hampton with Bernstein, Norman with Mehta, Fischer-Dieskau with Bohm (1964), Schanewilms with pianist Martineau—one of the most recent, and Christian Gerhaher with Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and a separate recording with piano accompanist with Gerhold Huber. All remarkable performances, displaying technical and interpretive excellence. But if we take one unique performance of José van Dam, bass vocalist, with Jean-Claude Casadesus conducting the Orchestre National de Lille from 1987, we can begin to hear the stunning attributes of this amp in the service of a great musical performance, recorded unfortunately, not ideally. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s performance with Karl Bohm in 1964, so emblematic of his youthful brilliance, is fantastically well recorded, but van Dam was one of the premier basses of his generation, singing opera and concert works, performing with von Karajan in one of many recording of Beethoven’s 9th and with Bernstein, singing the bass part in Mahler’s 8th Symphony, this recording made with the Vienna Philharmonic. Just a magnificent voice. His Rückert-Lieder will not supplant Dame Janet Baker’s performance with Barbirolli either, but the sheer beauty and eveness of his tone makes this French recording worth hearing.
The warmth and aura that the Allnic displays are “holographic” in nature; that is, there is a type of aural reality displayed that brings you into the orchestra, with a space-defining presence around the players that creates less of an analytical discernment and more of a live energetic discernment in listening to the performance. I don’t know how else to phrase this. Even with this not-so-great recording, the sheer depth of the ending of “Um Mitternacht” with the brass punching forward and van Dam on the words “Herr, Herr” (God) with tightness and warm presence of the trumpet section in 3 part harmony, maintaining clarity and sweetness in the sound, all of this is remarkable—remarkable. Listen to the opening of this piece and you can hear the “pointillistic” orchestration that Mahler brought to all of his Rückert-Lieder. The solo clarinet and flute in the upper tessitura have a forward presence without any distortion in authentic tone—beautifully reproduced. The pianissimo tuba part revealed clear down to a low A and then in the final 4 bars of the piece all the way down to a super low E natural. There is not a shred of electronic glare, or harshness, even at very high volumes. There is a sophisticated, natural, smooth and coherent sound to the Allnic T-1500 that is so impressive.
I’m going to plagiarize myself from the review of the Dundee 8s and talk about Lenny Bernstein’s recording of Shostakovitch’s Symphony No. 7, the so-called Leningrad Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. “ I just finished reading ‘The Conductor’ the historical fictional account of Shostakovitch’s writing of Symphony no. 7 under the siege of Leningrad by the German Sixth Army and was grateful the author, Sarah Quigley, didn’t offer a literal interpretation of the work during the course of the book. You know, the snare part represents the march of the German army, etc. I have a hard time with these statements, particularly in light of Shostakovitch’s own statement, safely uttered after the death of Stalin, that the dark moments in his symphony represented the horrendous burden of an artist working under the Stalin/Soviet regime. This sounds a more likely explanation. I’m not dogmatic on this point, however. What I am dogmatic about is the stunning final movement of this piece as played by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Bernstein. The finale calls for double the number of brass one usually finds in the symphony orchestra and a host of added percussionists that are fit to be tied in their attempt to equal the volume of the boosted orchestra. If you know the history and pedigree of the Chicago brass section, it is almost impossible to imagine these titans doubled. This is ‘pedal to the metal’, ‘balls to the wall’ playing, full forte, a wall of sound. And the requirement of an amp and its loudspeakers to handle this ending, especially at the volume I coaxed out of the Allnic, (after I told my wife to put on a crash helmut), well, all I can say, is what…clarity. What a large soundstage and what…clarity, again. No harshness, no midrange ‘shouting’, just a full overall well balanced sound. It was like sitting in the eye of a symphonic hurricane without getting my hair disheveled.”
Imagine an open sound with beautifully saturated timbres, clear microdynamics and a vast potential for macrodynamics and you have the Allnic T-1500. The bass sound is not flatulent, but its not unnaturally hard and defined like a solid state amp might produce; there is an airiness and space in the treble range that create such a feeling of well being, that one cannot help but grin as one listens. I don’t believe I’ve stated this before, but in listening to the T-1500 I have felt a profound sense of gratitude. A sense that I have been so privileged to hear the music I love and respect played in the intimacy of my home by the finest musicians both living and passed on, and I feel I am sitting within the ranks of the symphonic players themselves.
For me, this is the Archangel Michael or at least the higher-order angel of SET amplifiers. I know further tweaking will occupy Park’s never-ending pursuit of sound clarity and engineering perfection, but for the price of the T-1500 MK2 ($8250), it is hard to imagine a SET amp reaching this standard of sound.
“Small is beautiful”, again—the once rallying cry of the ‘60s’ Left. This review is dedicated to all of the small producers wherever you are, and the standard of excellence you hold yourself to. In a country like South Korea, with corporate giants like Hyundai, Kia, Samsung, and LG, it is startling to find a family of seven building this quality of amplifiers, phono-amps and cartridges, all by hand. And yet, why wouldn’t we have imagined great craftsmen existing under the shadow of the large? May the god of prosperity ever shine its face on the Allnic Audio brand.
On a final note, I would like to acknowledge the generosity of Don Corby, owner and operator of Corby’s Audio, situated in the rare and shrinking bucolic setting of Flamborough, in the ever-increasing traffic-dense GTA of southern Ontario, Canada. Don has taken over the Canadian distributorship of Allnic Audio products and it is through his generosity that I was able to spend more time with this South Korean wonder than I deserved.
Further information: Allnic Audio
