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Welcome to Audiophilia. We publish honest and accurate reviews of high end audio equipment and music.
Welcome to Audiophilia. We publish honest and accurate reviews of high end audio equipment and music.
All in Amplifiers
Icon Audio’s Canadian distributor, Warren Lavender, has been excited to share products with Audiophilia for review. I echoed his excitement for Icon’s remarkably good phono stage, the PS1 Mk.II. It was such good value at $2400, I purchased the unit for my mono setup (it has a rare ‘mono switch’).
Lavender was equally excited about Icon amplification and preamp designs, including integrated amplifiers. As Icon owner/designer David Shaw calls them, ‘All Valve’. Brit-speak for tubes. As such, Lavender requested a review of the 50W (Ultralinear) 30W (Triode) Stereo 40 MkIV Integrated Amplifier. The MkIV is a KT88 based design. The 4 KT88s are a matched set.
This is the 25th Anniversary edition of Allnic Audio’s A-2000 stereo power amplifier. The 25th is both a 100 watt (pentode) and 50 watt (triode) push-pull design that retails for $9,900. The pentode/triode feature is switchable ‘on-the-fly’.
Changes from the original A-2000 include upgraded output transformers, a modified chassis with a newer, swept look and a power tube swap from KT88s to KT150s. Designer Kang Su Park also made some circuitry changes for greater stability and tube longevity.
The new Allnic Audio M-2500 Monoblock Amplifiers are available in three tubed versions: PX25, 300B (both Triode) and the subject of this review, KT150 (Pentode). The MSRP for the KT150 tube model is $14,500/pair.
Audiophilia has reviewed a number of Allnic products, preamps, phono stages and cables, but no power or integrated amplifiers. All reviewed so far have received Star Component Awards and a few were included in our Products of the Year lists.
Much smaller (30x50x15mm) than a smart phone! About the same weight (20.9g) as many USB stick drives! Can easily power (250 mW into 32 Ohms) headphones (not just earbuds) without a sweat! It’s the Periodic Audio Nickel, a super-compact $299 headphone amplifier that can be used on the run.
It is essentially the size of a small box of matches. It is made in the USA. I gave it a quick try at the recent RMAF in Denver in early October 2018, was impressed, and the ever so friendly Periodic Audio Co-Founder Daniel Wiggins offered to send me a review sample (and thanks to Sue Toscano for helping).
One day very recently my wife and children were outside in a park socializing with another family. I joined at one point, and the husband told me that my wife had mentioned that I was reviewing some new amplifiers, and that she thought they sounded amazing; she hoped I would keep them. When we came home, I watched as she listened on the couch with our daughters to various pieces of music, and I saw her tapping her foot. I never saw that before, let alone hear her praise a component of my audio system!
What were these amps you might ask? They were a pair of Audio by Van Alstine DVA SET 600 Mono Block Solid State Amplifiers at $2499.00 each ($4998/pr.). In a nutshell, each of these mono blocks is a mono balanced version of Van Alstine’s recently released and very well received Vision SET 400 Stereo amplifier ($1999 − $2199.00, single-ended input (RCA), reviewed by Audiophilia’s Martin Appel who awarded it an Audiophilia Star—and rightly so). This newer DVA SET 600 mono block is Class A/B, rated at 600 watts into 8 ohms and over 700W into 4 ohms; it weighs 36 pounds and is 17” wide, 13” deep, and 7” high. Its power is actually way more than what I just stated (via storing power in capacitors), as according to the Van Alstine specs it offers using burst measurements ‘775W into 8 ohms and 1500W into 4 ohms’.
Some forty or more years ago, the average person who set out to buy a stereo system, typically ended up with a stereo receiver. Things were much simpler then; all you needed was a receiver, a turntable and a pair of speakers. As for ‘audio furniture’, milk crates were the order of the day. A pair of included patch cord interconnects and if you were somewhat sophisticated, a run of heavy gauge lamp cord and you were in business. You didn’t have to give any thought to power cords, because components had captive power cords.
Of course, there were serious hobbyists who bought separates and had furniture grade cabinets made to house their components and speakers. These folks constituted a very small minority of stereo buyers. Once the transistor era took hold, watts per channel was the order of the day; the bigger the box with more knobs and lights, the better.
Over the years it’s been my good fortune to have reviewed and/or been exposed to many fine power amplifiers. These ranged from solid state Class A, a variety of tube amplifiers, with and without transformers, to the latest solid state Class D designs. I concluded there is no one right way to achieve excellent sound quality. We all hear differently and we all have our individual preferences. So, it can be difficult to review a product that will make an impact on a field of quality products.
My current reference, a pair of Merrill Audio Veritas Monoblocks, was doing an excellent job and I was happy with them. Michael Levy of Alta Audio called me and was ecstatic in his praise of a relatively inexpensive, new stereo power amplifier by Audio by Van Alstine. Like all passionate audiophiles, Levy is demonstrative in praise and can be equally demonstrative about dislikes. He enthusiastically offered me the amplifier for Audiophilia review.
Bel Canto, Minnesota’s manufacturer of quality hifi equipment has kicked its already wonderful digital line up a notch with ‘Black’. Black is a deceptively simple digital/amplification solution for your high end needs — described by Bel Canto as: ‘elegant simplicity. Three boxes. Two connections. One coveted musical result.’
I killed two Italian birds with one stone while reviewing the mighty and impressive Audia Flight Strumento n1 Stereo Pre Amplifier. To the preamp, I added the hefty and equally impressive n4 power amplifier. Both these pieces are the stars of the Audia Flight (AF) top line, named Strumento.
Dieter Burmester has been a force in the high-end audio business since 1977, but North America has experienced his particular brand of brilliance for only the past few years. I first heard about Herr Burmester and his glittering equipment through the pages of The Absolute Sound – hp raved about digital and power gear alike. The look of the equipment was intriguing and certainly espoused an expensive aura; if the look was commensurate with sound, then winners had arrived from the Federal Republic of Germany.
