So why am I dwelling so much on the past? In the intervening decades, I spent tens of thousands of pounds on audio equipment without finding anything that served me better than that original system. Only when I stepped from in front of the counter to behind it in audio retail could I start building what I now consider my ultimate system, which combines terrific sound with domestic acceptability. As a reviewer, I am privileged to hear many different components, which I enjoy hugely. Still, I usually have them here for some time, learn their strengths and occasional weaknesses, write about them, and send them back. I rarely get excited about a forthcoming “guest” component, but when I read about the new Quad33/303 combination, I was bursting with enthusiasm.

Nostalgia was a factor, but so was curiosity and an enduring fondness for the Quad brand.

Enthusiasm Justified?

Before we know whether I was right or wrong to have been so enthusiastic, let me describe these brand-new, twenty-first-century versions of the pre and power amplifiers. They may strongly resemble their ancestors but are very much contemporary under the surface. Starting with the 33, my first impression when I lifted it from the box was its solidity. It feels sturdy, and the toroidal transformer within it gives it a reassuring weight. Once on the rack and wired up, the LED illumination gives off a wonderful orange glow. Looking at the front panel, on the left is a rotary control for volume, and below that, four rectangular buttons marked Aux 1.2 and 3 and XLR. To their right are two small black circles, one being the receiver for the remote control and the other a full-size headphone input. To the right are four rectangular buttons: Phono, Tone, Backlight, and Standby. Above those is the backlit LED screen, which shows how much bass adjustment has been applied, how much Tilt has been dialled in and whether or not the balance has been adjusted. These three functions are controlled via rotary controls above the LED screen.

So, what is Tilt? Peter Walker developed this idea because he felt that separate tone controls were inadequate and clumsy. Quad says, “The Tilt control differs in that it adjusts both ends of the frequency spectrum together, either attenuating the bass and lifting the treble or lifting the bass and attenuating the treble in 1dB steps.

“It rotates – or tilts – the audible frequency range on a 700Hz axis, thereby adjusting the overall sound balance with ‘warm’ or ‘cool’ hints without altering volume or adding colour to the sound. This feature is unique to QUAD and offers a subtle, precise, and consistent way to adjust your system’s performance and compensate for recordings or environments.” My old Quad 44 was equipped with a Tilt control, so this was not a new concept for me, but it may take some acclimatisation for someone new to Quad.

Switchgear

The rear panel offers an IEC input socket for mains power from the bottom left. Above that is an on/off rocker switch. The next cluster of sockets relates to output. There is a pair of XLRs and a pair of RCAs, allowing the user to choose either, and then a second pair of output RCAs marked Aux for connection, for example, of a subwoofer. The right-hand side is given over to inputs – a pair of XLRs and two pairs of RCAs, and above them, two pairs of RCAs, the right-hand ones being for access to the built-in phono stage. There is a grounding pin to the right of those. A tiny pair of sockets for the 12v trigger system is also available for powering up the 33 and the matching 303 power amplifier simultaneously. The supplied remote control is excellent, allowing access to the tone controls and the inputs while giving precise level settings for the volume.

Turning to the 303 power amplifier, the designers at Quad have remained faithful to the original version in terms of size and shape but have again built a contemporary piece of engineering within the familiar exterior. At the flip of a switch on the rear panel, the 303 can be used as a singleton stereo amplifier, putting 50W per channel into an eight-ohm load or 70W into four ohms. It offers the user the choice of XLR or RCA connection to a pre-amplifier, two pairs of multiway binding posts and an IEC input socket with an on/off rocker switch above it. The front boasts just the single orange rectangular switch in the lower centre, which brings the unit out of standby mode and is illuminated when the power is on. 

I started the review using a single 303 in stereo mode. I connected the visiting Gold Note CD5 (reviewed next issue) using Tellurium Q Ultra Silver II XLR cables, and the guest turntable, a Michell Orbe SE, fitted with Michell’s own Cusis M moving coil cartridge in the Michell TechnoArm A-II was plugged into my own Gold Note PH10/PSU phono stage. This was connected with Vertere RedLine RCA cables to the 33. My pair of Harbeth Compact 7ES XD loudspeakers completed the system, connected to the 303 using Tellurium Q Ultra Silver II cables.

Listening To The 33/303 

As I do not own a standalone DAC, and the 33 is strictly an analogue-only device, I used only CD and vinyl throughout the sojourn of the Quads at Kelly Towers. I let the units warm up for a day with a selection of compact discs before starting to do any serious listening, but even cold from the box, I was struck by the engaging nature of the sound being delivered. The first CD to be loaded into the Gold Note’s drawer was Audio Fidelity gold CD issued in 2011 of Crosby Stills and Nash’s eponymous first album from 1969. As the opening notes of the first track, ‘Suite: Judy Blue Eyes’, poured into the room, I was drawn into the music. Stephen Stills and his bandmates had wandered into my room and were positioned just ahead of the loudspeakers. Their voices were clear, well-defined and, for me at least, as lovely as ever. I had intended to play just a few tracks but could not tear myself from my chair until the last track ended. 

I played a couple more compact discs, then switched to vinyl, and was not surprised that from the outset, this sounded terrific. As I was on a Stephen Stills kick, the first album onto the Orbe SE’s platter was an original 1972 copy of Manassas on the Atlantic label. Although Stills’ name is prominent on the cover, this is truly a band effort, and all the better for it. The four sides each have a theme, and side one is titled ‘The Raven’, and starts with the rocking ‘Song Of Love’ and ends with the gorgeous ‘Both Of Us (Bound To Lose)’, on which Stills the writing credit with Chris Hillman, formerly of the Byrds, but a key member of this band. The music had real rhythmic drive, and with the volume advanced halfway through, it was an awe-inspiring performance. 

Unable to resist, I reconfigured the system, adding the second 303 I had been sent and now running a pair of them, bridged to mono. The power output was increased to 140W into eight ohms and 170W into four ohms. I cued up Manassas again and lowered the stylus onto the black disc. Oh my goodness! The same music positively leapt from the Harbeths, transporting me to the studio with the band and encouraging me to listen to their contribution while immersed in the overall sound.

Record after record followed because this system made me want to keep playing music. From modern pop à la George Ezra through 1950s jazz via rock, folk, classical and electronica, the 33/303 trio delivered. Two final system changes had to be made to complete the review process. First, the Gold Note PH10 was disconnected from the 33, and the Michell’s cables were attached to the phono input on the pre-amplifier. Setting up the Moving Coil was a straightforward process. I cued up the second side of my early 1970s pressing of Pink Floyd’s Meddle. I sat through the 20+ minutes of ‘Echoes’, absolutely absorbed in the complex music. This fine phono stage is extremely quiet when not playing and will make a fine match with many mainstream cartridges. 

Lastly, I removed the Harbeths from the system and replaced them with a pair of Wharfedale Super Lintons mounted on their dedicated stands. Again, I allowed the newcomers some time to warm up before sitting to listen more closely. What a team they make, the Quads and the Lintons. Yes, this turned the nostalgia to 11, as I had lived with a pair of original Lintons in the early 1970s. However, this modern version is a better-built and sounding device than its illustrious forebear. Modern drive units, a carefully designed crossover, and much higher quality cabinetry and internal bracing make this new version impossible to ignore at its price point. That said, I found this whole system’s visually retro appeal irresistible. 

Final Thoughts

At the end of the review period, I reluctantly dismantled this system. I liked the way it looked at the other end of our lounge, and I also had to enjoy the sound it created. If you have grown up with modern audio equipment, the Quads are slightly less analytical, perhaps a tad warmer tone than you are accustomed to. However, you will not want to hear details or musical communication.

If I were buying and had the budget, I would go for the 33 with a pair of 303s. You will own a first-class amplification system for under £4,000 here in the UK. If they were coming here, I would site each 303 close to the speaker, which it was to drive, using the ability of XLR to carry the signal the width of the listening room for the 33 and requiring much shorter runes of loudspeaker cable. I would also set up the 12V trigger system so the 303s woke up when I took the 33 off standby. More than once in the first days of their time here, I took the 33 out of standby, cued up some music, and then was momentarily puzzled by the absence of music, having forgotten to wake up the power amplifiers. They turn themselves to standby mode if they detect no signal for a period. My feeble excuse is that my amplifier is integrated, so I never have to take that extra step.

If you prefer to stream their music, remember that the 33 will require you to connect an external DAC, as it is is resolutely analogue only. I enjoyed the forced abandonment of my iPad and a full-time return to using physical media. One unexpected but welcome consequence was that I listened to whole albums, undistracted by fiddling with an app to find the next piece to play. 

It came as no surprise that the Quad/Harbeth combination worked so well. I know that Alan Shaw, who designs Harbeth loudspeakers, uses a Quad 405MkII as one of the tools in his development laboratory. However, I am sure the amplifiers will work well with many modern loudspeakers. They have enough power to stir even the most challenging loads into musical action.

When the Quads arrived, I fell for their looks. By the time they left, I had fallen for their performance. These are a first-class, carefully conceived, and brilliantly executed homage to Quad’s illustrious history but should appeal equally to those unfettered by the remembrance of times past and are highly recommended. 

Specs & Pricing

Quad 33

Type: Line and Phono Preamplifier with headphone amplifier
Inputs: 3 x RCA, 1 x Balanced XLR (pair), 1 x Phono (MM/MC switchable)
Outputs: 1 x RCA (AUX), 1 x XLR, 1 x RCA (Pre Out), 1 x Headphone, 2 x 12V Trigger Out
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz (±0.2dB)
THD: <0.0005% (1kHz, Line/XLR), <0.002% (1kHz, Phono MM / MC)
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: > 108dB (A-weighted, Line/XLR), > 82dB (A-weighted, Phono MM), > 74dB (A-weighted, Phono MC)
Output Impedance: 120Ω
Headphone amplifier output impedance: 2.35Ω
Headphone amplifier load impedance: 20-600Ω
Dimensions (WxHxD): 25.8×8.3×16.5cm
Weight: 4kg
Price: £1,199, $1,599, €1,499

Quad 303

Type: Class AB bridgeable stereo power amplifier
Inputs: RCA stereo pair, XLR stereo pair, 12V trigger
Outputs: Loudspeaker terminals, 12V trigger
Rated power output: Stereo: 2 x 50W (8Ω, THD<1%), Bridged: 140W (8Ω, THD<1%)
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz (±0.3dB)
THD: <0.002% (1kHz)
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: > 108dB (A – weighted)
Input impedance: 15kΩ (Line), 22kΩ (XLR)
Dimensions (WxHxD): 12×17.6×32.5cm
Weight: 8.4kg
Price: £1,199, $1,599, €1,499

Putting on the cynical hat on for a moment, maybe changing the amplifier high-end need not be quite as Herculean a task as one might first imagine. There is a lot of laurel-resting going on in that arena. A company might have made a ground-breaking design or two to make its reputation back in the day, but since then the same company has simply reinvented the wheel, often with minor variations on the same theme. Arguably, the last product that shook the amplifier tree was Devialet with its Class ADH-based D-Premier and subsequent shiny pizza boxes. While ultimately Devialet didn’t up-end the high-end amplifier industry, it had an impact. Linn’s Klimax Solo 800 has the potential to have an even bigger impact.

Why? Because although what happens on the inside of the Linn Klimax Solo 800 is different to the high-end mainstream, it’s capable of being slotted into an existing system without completely redrawing that system. Devialet’s great selling point was also its great limitation; it replaced everything except a turntable and loudspeakers. That’s something not everyone wants to do; they might like their digital front-end or preamp. Even the box-count reduction wasn’t much loved by die-hard audiophiles, where every shelf in the rack tells its own story. While going down Linn’s ‘Exakt’ digital ecosystem route does require the listener to change almost everything to Linn’s own components, Linn’s Klimax Solo 800 mono amps are analogue power amplifiers and can be a direct replacement for your existing mono amps, or an upgrade for stereo designs.

Poor push-back

That’s not to say Linn didn’t get a spot of push-back when releasing the Klimax Solo 800, but that push-back was unjustified. There’s a tendency to oversimplification in audio circles (not helped by unfriendly rivalry resorting to lies). In this case, that meant “runs cool = Class D = bad!”.

This is a bit like farting in an elevator; wrong on so many levels. First, the Linn Klimax Solo 800 is not a Class D design. Second, even if it was Class D, this is not 2000 anymore and Class D has improved significantly since its early day. And third, it’s not Class D. I know just repeated the first one, but it’s such a significant bit of wrong, it’s worth repeating just in case someone is still dense enough to still think this is a Class D amplifier.

  So, what we have in the Linn Klimax Solo 800 is a 27kg power amplifier that is ‘big’ by UK standards and ‘tiny’ compared to the likes of Boulder and D’Agostino. It’s also an amplifier that runs cool to the touch no matter how much punishment you choose to give it and is stable enough to just keep pumping out the power under any conditions this side of throwing rocks at the thing. But not Class D.

How did Linn make such an amplifier? OK, I’ve been a little tough on the naysayers. There are two recent errors introduced into audio amplification. The first is irrelevant here; the ‘D’ in Class D stands for ‘Digital’. The second is that a switch-mode power supply automatically means ‘Class D’. It’s a flawed syllogistic logic that was pointed out as being wrong 2,500 years before the invention of Class D amplification. Linn has been making amplifiers with switch-mode power supplies for years. Not for efficiency, low cost or even heat-dissipation reasons, but because they intrinsically move power supply noise out of the audio band. The Klimax Solo 800 power supplies have very high switching frequencies that are nowhere near the audio band.

It’s worth comparing this with a conventional linear power supply. They operate at 50Hz or 60Hz (depending on your country’s alternating current frequency). Not only can this cause transformer hum, the spectrum of noise is right in the audible range, with harmonics hitting our most sensitive frequency range, which itself causes a mild hum, this time heard as low-level noise through the loudspeakers.

Also, Linn hires a lot of extremely bright mechanical and electronics engineers and this really is a meeting of minds. Which means that chassis size is no accident, and its heatsinks create ideal thermal pathways to help cool the already cool-running amplifier circuit. It also vents through the chassis itself, from the bottom plate up to top. This is nothing new… if you are used to building skyscrapers. Some amplifiers have also adopted a similar means of cooling, but often rely on a fan to force air through the chassis. The number of audio companies that use this kind of passive cooling and do it so successfully are extremely rare.

Adaptive Bias Control

We often only think of bias in terms of balancing the output of tube/valve amplifiers. However, all Class A/B amplifiers apply a bias voltage across the output transistors to set bias current during crossover (when one set of transistors that generate the positive half of the musical waveform hands over the signal to the set that generates the negative half). This applied bias compensates for changes in temperature, voltage, current, and transistor age.

In that great empirical tradition of every scientist since Sir Francis Bacon died of pneumonia from trying to stuff a chicken with ice, Linn asked the question… is that all? The result is the company’s Adaptive Bias Control.

Adaptive Bias Control uses a digital algorithm to monitor the current flowing in the output transistors and then extract the bias from the music signal. The result is far lower distortion than an amp which operates in Class A at a higher power level. This gives the amplifier the potential to make the changeover from Class A to Class B so seamless, the only things that stop you from thinking it’s an 800W Class A amplifier is the absence of sweltering heat and a fuel bill so large you can see it from space.

Monitoring of the status of the amp is simple, and uses the roundel on the front panel. This has 100 LEDs that can be dimmed, but glow white under normal use and red when things go wrong… or so I’ve been told. Nothing went wrong. It almost unbreakable. It has a single RCA and XLR per chassis, two chonky speaker terminals, a 20A IEC input, and the power switch under the front of the amp.

Anointed audiophile

Moving out of ecosystem is a good thing for Linn, as it shows just what the company’s electronics can do when partnered to those ‘best in show’ anointed audiophile greats. Such as a pair of Wilson Audio Sasha DAWs. And that’s a fascinating exercise.

The degree of control over those speakers is immense. It doesn’t change the inherent ‘Wilsonosity’ of a pair of Sasha DAWs, but it just lays out what a lot of amp systems don’t quite get to. Sure you expect that big and expansive sound – and you get that – but with a sense of grip to the bass that gives Moving over to Francine Thirteen’s ‘Queen Mary’ has that fast percussion move from left to right perfectly with her voice and her own backing track perfectly delineated in the centre.

Go Go Penguin’s ‘Murmuration’ is a bit of modern Brit Jazz that’s usually left off the audiophile play list because it’s subtle and atmospheric, and so often played dead wrong. If the percussion and piano don’t hold together, it just sounds like noodling. Played well, it’s like a Keith Jarrett improvisation but with a full band playing together. Here, that’s precisely what it does. There’s not artifice here, and for some wanting their speakers warm, soft, spongy, a little background might need to look for something softer and milder. This is amplification that leaves you excited and breathless from all that endless information on offer.

I got into a brief sojourn through modern female artists, starting with Charlotte and the Queens, going through (in the not bad way) to Billie Eilish to Taylor Swift. ‘Billie Bossa Nova’ and ‘Anti-Hero’ by Tay-Tay are often audiophile poison; close mic’d and self-assured, they can sound peaky and ‘flubby’, or thin (because the recording itself is thin). Here, the honesty of the Linn amps doesn’t hide anything, but neither does it detract or point to a recording’s limitations.

I switched over Angus and Julia Stone’s ‘Draw Your Swords’ with its really good guitar strummed part, a piano in background, atmospheric vocals, and it’s ‘nothing added, nothing taken away’. Antipodean Americana at its best. There’s no unnecessary air, although sounds are atmospheric and wide.

Metal and Glass

Similarly, play ‘End of the Road’ by Infected Mushroom. This should sound industrial, like bits of metal and glass are being hit, but in a good way. And here it does. Often in big audio systems it just sounds large and boomy. The Linn just makes you feel the adrenalin rush.

It gives the scale and majesty to opera too. This is a telling part of tempo. Some systems tend to sound like they are racing through the music, or give it too much portent, here it’s just balance and poise. The characteristic clean, dry and detailed sound of Linn is a function of the electronics, but it’s not an imposition. It’s like the music with all the fluffy stuff taken out of the mix.

The Klimax 800 Solo lets loudspeakers do things you don’t expect. Lateralus by Tool really shows what the Klimax 800 Monos can do. That slow build from quiet squishy synth sound to full-thickness graunch is played perfectly. Everything under control, everything in reserve. It’s not bringing a gun to a knife fight… it’s bringing a tank.

More than anything, this sounds like really good, really advanced engineering in audio form. Nothing is making it sweat. Any load, any music, any volume. That’s a sure sign of that engineering is playing quietly, as the same sense of grip and control applies just as much at lower levels as it does further up the chain.

I played ‘Memphis Soul Stew’ by King Curtis through the system. You hear each musician flow perfectly together, but you can’t help but focus on Bernard Purdie’s ‘going like a train’ Purdie Shuffle. The conga often gets lost beneath this heavy mix as it’s off to the left of the stage and sometimes lost in the percussion. It’s rendered perfectly here.

Finally out came ‘The Ghetto (live)’ by Donny Hathaway. The hand claps and audience make it. They clap in a surprisingly complex sequence, and you can hear individuated sounds in the audience. It’s a great track anyway, but it becomes something so much more. And, if you carry on and play ‘You’ve Got A Friend’, you can hear the point where every woman in the audience is set on sleeping with him.

A bonus. Those cubes run cold. I gave them some bad sonic hurting. I played them to practically PA levels, to the point of wearing ear protection to see who gave in first. The amps fed such a clean sound to the speakers, they ran loud and proud (admittedly, this is one of the things Wilson loudspeakers can do… they can be given some good clean power without getting into distress), and even then it was my ears that folded first. The Klimax 800 had just been through a thorough thrashing and were cool running throughout.

Not a radiator

Downsides? There will be those who want a stereo amp instead of mono models, and it’s not hard to think there’s something coming that will satisfy their demands soon. But otherwise, unless you like the idea of your amplifier doubling up as a radiator in winter months, like the sound of your woolly existing amps, or maybe prefer the look of a specific amp that doesn’t match the Klimax, what’s not to like?

Linn wanted to plant a flag in the high-end amplifier ground. With the Klimax 800 Mono it’s done it. And it’s a huge Scottish saltire telling the high-end world to buckle up… Linn’s back and this time, it means business!   

Specs & Pricing

Type: Solid state, class-AB, mono power amplifier with 2kW Utopik power supply and Adaptive Bias Control,

Inputs: 1x RCA single-ended and 1x XLR balanced input per amplifier

Passthrough: 1x RCA single-ended and 1x XLR balanced outputs per amplifier

Outputs: One pair Furutech 4mm multi-way loudspeaker terminals

Power input: 20A IEC connector

Power Output: 400W into eight ohms, 800W into four ohms, 1.2kW into two ohms

Nominal gain: 26.6dB unbalanced, 22.6dB balanced

Bandwidth: 150kHz into 8 ohms, 140kHz into 4 ohms, 130kHz into 2 ohms, –3dB

Output impedance: 0.10 ohm at 1kHz

THD+N: 0.0004% at 1kHz, 400W into 8 ohms; 0.0005%
at 1kHz, 800W into 4 ohms; 0.0006% at 1kHz, 1.2kW into
2 ohms

IMD 18kHz+19kHz): <–115dB at 100W total into 8 ohm

Finish: natural aluminium or black anodised

Dimensions (WxDxH): 35×41.2×26.8cm

Weight: 27kg per amplifier

Price: £75,000, $90,000, €89,260 per pair

Manufacturer
Linn Products Ltd
www linn.co.uk
+44 (0)141 307 7777

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The New Goldmund

Goldmund has been one of high-end audio’s most esteemed and coveted brands since 1978, when it was founded and introduced its first product, the revolutionary (and revolutionarily expensive) Reference turntable. That product brought a new level of materials science and isolation techniques to turntable design, quickly establishing itself—and the brand—at the pinnacle of the high end.

For decades thereafter, Goldmund went from success to success, expanding its product portfolio to well-received electronics, digital sources, cables, and speakers. Along the way, Goldmund pioneered many then-groundbreaking technologies, such as mechanical grounding and megahertz bandwidth (see “Telos Technology”), that are now considered table stakes at the top of today’s high end. The brand’s hallmark sound—speed, resolution, vanishingly low distortion, and previously unheard-of dynamics—could be found across the product range.

Unfortunately, the company’s decision in 1989 to purchase Stellavox, maker of bespoke open-reel tape decks, and subsequent poor management decisions eventually led to a cash crunch that derailed Goldmund’s momentum. Though it continued to introduce new products, for much of the early 21^st century the company was without distribution in North America. As a result, today many younger audiophiles aren’t even aware of Goldmund or its influential past.

But all that is changing. Based on a visit to its sparkling new headquarters and factory, interviews with its technical and commercial leadership, and, most of all, its new products, I can confidently report that Goldmund has essentially been reborn.

First, there is new ownership in the person of Johan Segala, the stepson of Goldmund’s fabled founder, Michel Reverchon. Segala inherited the company and began a stint as CEO in 2018, when Monsieur Reverchon became too ill to continue running the firm. In addition to a cash infusion, Segala brought with him new leadership, culminating in 2023 when he lured Carsten Roth away from Focal/Naim to head up global sales.

A year later, Segala promoted Roth to CEO. Among the latter’s first acts was to bring in a new U.S. distributor, well-regarded Rhythm Distribution. Roth also moved the entire company, including the factory, to an all-new, fully modern facility on the outskirts of Geneva.

Yet some things remain the same. For instance, Goldmund’s vision has remained constant. Transparency remains the primary sonic goal, and to that end the company has updated the technologies it pioneered back in the 80s. Goldmund also continues to enhance the advanced metallurgy and materials science that elevated the original Reference turntable. Further, as in the past, Goldmund believes that there are advantages to keeping signals in the digital domain as far along the audio chain as possible. This explains the presence of digital inputs on all Telos amplifiers.

Another constant with the past is Goldmund’s propensity for frightfully expensive gear. The latest Gaia flagship powered speakers, for instance, cost a cool $710,000. And, as already noted, the Telos 800 under review runs $89,000. That price is even more remarkable considering that the 800 is the bottom of Goldmund’s amplifier line. The flagship Telos 8800 monoblocks, which put out 1400 watts, cost a princely $380,000 each.

However, now, as then, Goldmund delivers the goods. The first hint that Goldmund had once again hit its stride and was building world-class components was Jonathan Valin’s 2021 rave review of the NextGen 590 II integrated amplifier. Jonathan praised that unit, concluding that it “sets a new eye- and ear-opening standard for integrated amplifiers.” Now, with the Gaia powered speakers and revamped Telos amplifier range, Goldmund is intent on fielding more standard-setting products. The Telos 800 certainly qualifies.

Making a Vivid Impression

To evaluate the Telos 800, I compared it with recent exposures to live music, as well as to my reference CH Precision I1 integrated amp. Though the latter’s power amp section delivers fewer watts/channel than the Goldmund (100 vs. 300), until the Telos 800 I’d never had a better-sounding amp in my system, including some much more expensive stand-alone units.

Further, the CH Precision shares much of its technology and sonic performance with the Telos, which is not surprising since CH was partially founded and populated by Goldmund alums. As I’ve written before, the I1 is a miracle of dynamics, tonal color, resolution, and upgradeability. Plus, thanks to its pre-out ports, which bypass the internal amp in favor of an external unit, comparing the CH to the Telos 800 was a snap.

When I first made that switch, I was shocked. The sound was so much… larger. And by that I meant bigger in scale and possessing more sheer musical and sonic information. But I soon realized that “larger” was an insufficient descriptor for the wholesale change I was hearing. I needed a better word to describe the sound. Ultimately, I decided the sound was much more…vivid.

What does that mean? Perhaps the best way to explain is by analogy. Go to your nearest Best Buy and check out the wall of TVs. They all look sharper—with more vibrant colors and greater depth—than usual. That’s because their pictures are literally set to Vivid for demonstration purposes. Unfortunately, there is a price to be paid when a TV is so configured. Colors are indeed saturated, but to an unnatural degree. And there is such a thing as being too sharp, which lends an electronic edge to images.

But imagine if, in the audio world, you could have all the benefits of a Vivid setting but without the downsides. Indeed, what if you could have a vivid recreation of sound where everything was more rather than less realistic. That’s what the Telos 800 does.

There are many factors that contribute to this phenomenon. I’ve already mentioned two of them: presentation scale and density of musical and sonic information. But that’s just the beginning. There’s also the fact that within the vast scale the Telos creates, instruments are so precisely positioned and so stable you can sit farther off-axis and still preserve the stereo image.

And part of the 800’s sonic information density is a wealth of timbral colors that makes instruments sound distinctly more like themselves. You can hear this 30 seconds into the 30^th Anniversary edition of Jazz at the Pawnshop. What were unremarkable drums, for example, become full-fledged simulacrums through the Goldmund.

But many top amps do these things to one degree or another. So, while these virtues contribute to the Goldmund’s excellence, they don’t fully explain how and why it sounds so much different—and better—than most of those other amps. For that explanation, we must turn to two far less common attributes.

Heads and Tails

Reviewers often listen to how notes trail off—their “tails.” A long, gradual diminishment is a sign of excellent low-level resolution, whereas a curtailed drop-off signals the opposite. To be sure, the Telos 800 offers long tails. Just listen, for instance, to the electronic accents at the beginning of London Grammar’s “Hey Now.” Through the Goldmund, their tails stretch on and on.

But the “heads” of notes and transients—how they begin—are equally important. Ideally, there should be no lag, blur or fade-in as the note starts up. Instead, it should go from rest to full power instantaneously. Most amps can’t and don’t do this; there is either an ill-defined start or a subtle glide into the note or transient attack. Like so many distortions, this one isn’t particularly noticeable until it’s gone. The Goldmund, with its high-bandwidth and thus high-speed circuitry, banishes this artifact. That turns out to have a surprisingly significant effect on the level of realism it delivers.

As it happens, I recently attended a day-long “Blues and Brews” festival, featuring three local blues bands. There I noticed, as I have in the past, that real drums are particularly easy to identify as live rather than recorded. One reason is the unrestrained dynamics of real drums. But this time I also noticed that a live drum whack starts without any “build up.” Instead, it just starts, coming out of nowhere. This, I realized, is exactly what the Goldmund amp was doing at home, and it helped explain why the amp sounds so lifelike.

Now, my CH I1 happens to be extremely good at transients. But compared to the Goldmund, it’s like a sports car with an internal combustion engine: despite lots of horsepower and torque, there’s still a slight but unavoidable lag before it reaches full power. In contrast, the Goldmund amp is like an EV: full torque is available instantaneously at any speed with no lag. And just like with EVs, once you’ve experienced that instant acceleration, it’s hard to go back. Another analogy would employ cone versus planar drivers. With respect to how it handles the starts of notes and transients, the Telos 800 is the amplifier equivalent of a planar speaker.

This gives the music a startling immediacy, and I experienced it on pretty much everything; though, as you might expect, bass and drums were the biggest beneficiaries. Take the Notting Hillbillies’ beautifully recorded “Your Own Sweet Way.” On the CH Precision, bass notes are full, but they have no leading edge to speak of. Not so with the Telos, which delivers tight, crisp leading edges. Likewise, the Sonny Rollins track “I’m an Old Cowhand” from Way Out West has a fast-moving bass line which, through the Goldmund, is clearer and much easier to hear. Moreover, drums and bass instruments sound far more realistic through the Telos, and I suspect a lot of that has to do with its proficiency with heads and tails.

Dynamic Envelope

Another uncommon factor that sets the Telos 800 apart is what I’m calling its “dynamic envelope.” This is akin to dynamic range, but I prefer the term envelope because a range is fixed whereas an envelope can be “pushed” or “stretched.” The Telos 800 stretches the music’s dynamic envelope.

Again, what do I mean by that? Well, I never thought of other great amps as pulling their punches, dynamically speaking. But compared to the Goldmund, they do. To employ another car analogy, when music asks an amp to deliver a dynamic peak, most amps will go from 0–60 mph without a sweat. Better amps will top out at 80 mph. But the Goldmund goes all the way from 0–100 mph, thus delivering the full measure of intended drama. Through the Telos 800, instruments don’t just get louder, they veritably pop out of the speakers.

This was apparent, for instance, on the wonderful head-banger “Los” by the German band Rammstein. (Go ahead, stream it loudly!) The opening is an aggressively played acoustic guitar. On a good system, there is significant emphasis on the downbeats. Through the Goldmund those dynamic bursts are more apparent and forceful, because the amp is expanding the dynamic envelope.

Another (probably better) illustrator of this phenomenon is the Third Movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony. The entire movement is built around the theme of dynamic contrasts. If those contrasts aren’t sufficiently stark, you’re missing out on what Mahler intended—or what you’d hear in a live concert. Through the Telos 800, the Vienna Philharmonic under Gilbert Kaplan (DG) delivers playful sparks of sound and dynamic exclamation marks that really jump out at you. And when the full orchestra comes in, dark and unrestrained near the movement’s end, the effect is terrifying. That’s a vivid presentation, to be sure.

Of course, dynamic changes don’t have to be sudden. Lots of music features gradual buildups (or decreases). You want crescendos to reach their full and true peak, not some curtailed version of it. The Telos 800 does this in spades. A good example is Fleetwood Mac’s “Over and Over.” After a 3½ minutes with steady dynamics, the song unexpectedly heads into a slow crescendo. Through the Goldmund, the build-up of tension becomes all but unbearable—until it’s finally shattered by one of Mick Fleetwood’s rare cymbal crashes. Again, the expanded dynamic envelope helps create a vivid musical experience.

I know what you’re thinking: This is all because the Telos 800 is more powerful than my reference amp. Well, not so fast. I’ve had powerful amps in my system, and while they did enable greater overall volume and stronger bass, they did not stretch the dynamic envelope like the Goldmund does. And, unlike the Telos 800, not one of them was any more vivid than my I1.

Conclusion: Undiminished Returns

Several years ago, upon hearing the then-new Magico M9 speakers, Robert Harley bravely declared that the law of diminishing returns did not apply to high-end audio. With truly exceptional products, he professed, very expensive gear can be proportionately (as opposed to fractionally) better than less expensive options.

I absorbed this rather radical stance with extreme skepticism. I had always found that the law of diminishing returns applied as much to high-end audio as it did to everything else. But, as the Monkees once sang, “Now I’m a believer.”

It’s true that the Goldmund Telos 800 costs a staggering $89,000. But to my surprise, I find that it’s worth every penny. This amp is no mere incremental improvement over less expensive—though still costly—amplifiers. To my ears it represents a sea change in sonic capability, delivering a presentation that makes music more engrossing, enlightening, realistic and awe-inspiring, not to mention fun. Is it worth three times as much as my excellent reference amp? Absolutely. If I could afford it, I would. As it stands, I’m not sure how I’m going to live without it.

On a higher level, the Telos 800 is indicative of what the new Goldmund is capable of, and a promising harbinger of what’s to come. For now, a once-great company is great once again.

Specs & Pricing

Balanced inputs: 1
Unbalanced inputs: 1
Digital inputs: 1
Output power (stereo 8 Ω): 300Wpc
Frequency response: 0 Hz–over 1MHz (+0 dB/–.5 dB)
Dynamic range: 110dB
THD + noise (@1W): <0.05%
Damping factor: 600
Shipping weight: 57 kg
Dimensions: 17.3″ x 13″ x 17.8″
Price: $89,000

Associated Equipment

Analog source: Lyra Etna Lambda Edition cartridge, Goldmund Studietto turntable, Graham 2.2 tonearm
Digital source: Bryston BCD-3 CD player
Electronics: CH Precision I1 integrated amplifier (phonostage, DAC, streamer, linestage, power amplifier)
Speaker: Wilson Audio Sasha V
Cables and cords: Empirical Design
Footers: Goldmund Cones

Although class A amps in some ways use simpler circuits, the massive power, output device and heat dissipation demand mean that class A designs are quite expensive on a price/watt basis. In this case, the Block Monos are priced at $60,000 per pair in the US.

If you are a firm believer in the commodity status of audio equipment, class-A amplifiers (and many other audio concepts) will make no sense. But if you are curious, as I was, whether class A, and this implementation in particular, have some sonic merits, well, let’s take a look. Or a listen.

Before I cover sound quality with my objective observations (see our methodology paper for more on this approach), I should say that there are theoretical reasons class A circuits might be advantaged. The basic idea is this: output devices (bipolar transistors, MOSFETs or tubes with transformers for example) are non-linear devices. We want an amplifier to simply output a larger version of the input signal so that we can make speakers deliver realistic sound levels. For that we need linearity, which just means the output mirrors the input, only bigger. But, as I said, with real amplification devices, linearity is not inherent. Class A circuits have the distinctive characteristic of amplifying smaller signals using the most linear part of the amplification device’s operating region. Because amplifiers are mostly used in the low power range (what Nelson Pass and others call ‘the first watt’ in recognition that most listening only uses a few watts on average), class A has the advantage of being the most linear where the music is operating the most. Nothing is ever so simple in real engineering, and it is extremely hard to reason from technical ideas to sound quality, but it may be helpful to know that class A probably isn’t just a really expensive way to do what could easily be accomplished in other ways.

Sound Quality

I set up the Block Mono SEs in my main listening room, driving Perlisten S7t speakers. I used the Block control amplifier which is designed to manage the parameters of the Block power amps – a handy feature. My main source was Qobuz on an Aurender N200 streamer into a Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC Reference Series 3.

Let’s start with voicing.

The Block Monos present an almost mysterious combination of sonic detail and soft, naturalistic treble. I say mysterious, because even very good amplifiers make you feel there is something of a tradeoff necessary between clarity, instrumental separation and texture on the one hand and effortlessness, smoothness and balance on the other hand. You begin to feel that you can’t quite have both. If you want detail and musical insight, you often think have to accept extra edge or sharpness or excess upper frequency output. And yet, when you listen to real music (what we call the absolute sound) you don’t sense this tradeoff as much. The Block Monos come closer to giving you both detail and lack of artifacts than any amplifier I have heard.

Now to be fair, the Blocks run at the upper level of the product pricing I normally cover, so I can’t say they are the best amplifiers in the world in this regard. Probably no one can say that about anything. But I do think the Block Monos do something special in an area that matters or has been a point of frustration for many music lovers, especially those who use digital sources.

I do also want to say that the Blocks don’t solve the problems of digital encoding and decoding, so they aren’t a silver bullet. They also don’t solve the problems of recording engineers using their tools to do unnatural acts of treble balance or compression or distortion overlay.

On two albums I played, the Barber Adiagio with the Pittsburgh Symphony under Honeck and then the Bach Cello Suites with William Skeen, I was deeply impressed with the textures and resonant details of the instruments which came across as relaxed and flowing and yet very high resolution. The amp moved the reproduction to a level where you stop thinking about the sound and are moved by the beauty on offer.

Then I tried Rachmaninov’s The Bells, with the Berlin Philharmonic under Rattle. I haven’t been in love with this recording, but the Block helped move it away from the sizzle zone while digging into the sometimes heretofore muddled sound and extracting a sense of life and openness.

Switching gears to John Coltrane’s Interstellar Space, which sat in the vaults for years, then was released in 1974 and more fully realized in the CD era, I was again pleasantly surprised. This recording is just Coltrane on sax and Rashied Ali on drums. The drums are wonderfully dynamic and even when Coltrane goes nuts on the sax, it doesn’t drill a hole in your head. You simply hear layers of expression at high volumes or low.

I want to put a fine point on what this sounds like because I don’t think the Block is playing tricks with frequency response. It sounds much more like midrange and treble notes are less muddled in time. Specifically, transients seem to be “unpacked” by the Block so that you hear the real detail of the signal spaced out over small realms of time, rather than having transients spiked into a pile. This could equally be the Block not adding some distortion component on difficult transients so as not to cause distracting attention to certain instruments. I don’t offer this as a technical explanation, but as an indication of how the Block sounds more detailed and at the same time less harsh.

The other element of voicing with the Block Monos is their bass reproduction. Bass with the Blocks is simply meaty and rich, but to an artfully judged degree. In a way, it might be better to say the Block Monos have excellent bass power and control, the so-called feeling of “grip”, rather than suggesting the bass output is elevated. A nice feature, depending on your situation, is that the Blocks have a very high damping factor but the bass isn’t unnaturally tight or dry. This seems useful to me for an amp in this price range because you aren’t going to fix room problems (and all rooms have them) with an amp. At this elevated level you can probably afford some room design and treatment to get the bass more in line.

The Other Big Thing: Imaging

The other reason I think the Block Monos balance detail and tonality so well is that they image like champs. It may help to understand that psychoacoustic research shows that listeners can hear more detail when the sound stage is broader and deeper, and the instruments have well defined and differentiated positions.

The front to back layering of images with the Blocks is simply outstanding with reference to the absolute sound. I have noted in many amplifier reviews that it may be surprising how different amplifiers are in this regard. But then you listen to these amps, you hear a wonderful sense of the sound having been, say, recorded in a real concert hall, with instruments separated front to back by 10 or 15 or 20 feet. I don’t think of this as a party trick; rather it is part of making the music seem believable and getting your focus on the music and the musicianship.

Another Test of Balance

I also have noted (this isn’t a secret nor an original observation) that recording quality and recording balance have changed over the years. An ideal system would work well on recordings from the ‘60s through to the future. This isn’t to say that a system will make 1960’s rock sound like 2025 electronica. But ideally systems would work well enough in all cases.

With this in mind, I like to try recordings from many eras. I was pleased with what I heard from the Block Monos. The big thing they do is open up older music so that you can hear it less as sludge or tinkly noodling. As an example, I thought the Blocks did an impressive job on Little Feat’s live album Waiting for Columbus originally from 1977, but in the 73-track version issued in 2002. The soloists stand out in a way that you can follow their impressive work. And the mix is full of occasionally odd perspectives, but these come across as…how concerts sound as the performers move around.

And how can you not love “I’ve been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet, had my head stoved in, but I’m still on my feet”? Hopefully, you know the punchline.

Summary

This is an amp that makes sense of high-end amps if you’re interested in what is possible. It does what most people think they want, which is to resolve the tension between detail and beauty. At least to the degree that an amplifier can, or thereabouts. I think some listeners would call the performance of the Block Monos subtle. I think that is fair is both senses: the difference these amps make versus less expensive gear is immediately obvious but not dramatic. And the difference these amps make is a significant accomplishment because beauty in real music is often subtle.

And Burgundy? That’s a challenge unto itself. A region that captures the minds, hearts, and pocketbooks of the geekiest of wine geeks. Here is where identifying the nuances that define the region’s distinct communes earns you street cred. But the next level up is distinguishing among the finest vineyards within a commune. What makes a Chambolle Bonnes Mares different from, say, neighboring Les Amoureuses or Musigny? Put another way, what makes it a wine of place and soul as opposed to just another tasty pinot noir?

How exactly this relates to the latest gear from the hands of Jim White and his team at Aesthetix is something I’ll get to shortly, but I suspect you have already sensed where this might be headed.

The pair under review today are the latest additions to Aesthetix’s Saturn series. As such they naturally sport names adopted from one of that planet’s 146 moons.

Both the Pallene preamplifier and Dione power amp ($6500 and $7500, respectively) are hybrid designs that one could say were birthed by Aesthetix’s first integrated amplifier, the Mimas (wonderfully reviewed by Neil Gader in our May/June 2019 issue). As White emphasized in an email: “At Aesthetix, our product design is an ongoing process in which we continually build on our previously released work. Our latest products, Pallene and Dione, are no exceptions. To fully understand their technology, we must first unpack the challenges and breakthroughs that created Mimas.

“Mimas was released in 2019 and is an amalgamation of our award-winning Calypso pure tube linestage and Atlas hybrid power amplifier (tube input, solid-state output). Developing this integrated amplifier presented numerous technical challenges, as we wanted the highest performance possible while including a headphone output, an optional phono module, and an optional DAC module.”

With a “wink” in his voice White also observed that at Aesthetix “One of the things that make us unique is our willingness to do things the hard way.”

For example, and quite rare in the audio field, Aesthetix manufactures all its transformers in-house. And though it may not seem particularly obvious, White told me how making transformers is so completely different an undertaking from audio manufacturing that it’s like having a whole other company.

This reminds me of how A.J. Conti of Basis decided to grind his own drive belts in-house and developed the tools to do so, because no one could make them to his demanding spec. Similarly, with no prior experience, Aesthetix started making its transformers eight years ago because White wanted complete control over the process. “Most audio companies will provide voltage and current specs but leave the details to the [transformer] maker,” he told me. Meaning while there are myriad approaches to creating the same transformer specifications, not every approach is ideal for audio applications.

Another thing Jim underlined is how fundamentally important creating his own transformers has been to his growth as an audio designer. Now it was Jim’s turn for a wine analogy: “It’s as if a producer is buying grapes versus growing grapes; the latter has more control. My designs before and after making our transformers are night and day.”

Both units are housed in beautifully constructed, minimalist-looking brushed aluminum housings. Let’s first unpack the Pallene.

Design Pallene

Here is a supremely functional modern-era preamp engineered to cover pretty much any contemporary music lover’s needs. The circuitry is identical to that found in the Mimas integrated, which in turn was derived from work White did designing the Saturn series Calypso all-tube linestage preamplifier. “The volume control, the vacuum-tube gain stage, and input switching are all taken from our work developing Calypso. The volume control is a unique multi-stage switched-resistor network employing individual metal-film resistors in a balanced configuration. The gain stage is also fully balanced in a differential amplifier configuration, using one 6DJ8/6922 per channel.”

The Pallene employs 100% zero-feedback fully balanced differential circuitry, while incorporating a solid-state balanced output buffer capable of driving long cable runs. Pallene also accepts the same phono and DAC modules as the Mimas and comes standard with a headphone output.

Getting into the technical nitty-gritty, White also points to the Pallene’s unique technologies—multiple regulated power supply sections, including separate transformer winding and discrete regulation for the vacuum-tube high-voltage section; separate winding and discrete regulation for low-voltage sections; separate winding and regulated heater supplies; separate winding and regulation for the optional DAC module, as well as a separate transformer and regulated power supply for the display and control sections, in order to fully isolate any clocks and noise from sensitive audio circuits. Not to forget those low-flux custom-wound made-in-house transformers.

The front panel is a model of elegant simplicity. The center display window is flanked by a pair of triangular buttons (whose shapes echo the company logo): DISPLAY (right, to illuminate or extinguish the LED panel) and MUTE (left). No VOLUME control is visible. Instead, pressing the left side of the display lowers the volume, pressing the right side raises it. Beneath the display window sit a trio of additional buttons—INPUT (selection), STANDBY (brings the tubes to life, otherwise the solid-state circuitry is always on), and SETUP (accesses all setup menus).

The rear panel offers a plethora of options: Five balanced and single-ended inputs and a single set each for preamp out, plus IR extender jack, DB9 RS232 connector, and a remote trigger jack.

When fully loaded, the optional phono module offers two sets of RCA inputs that can store unique settings for different cartridges. All are set via the front panel SETUP button. For moving-coils resistive load options are 47k, 20k, 10k, 5k, 2.5k, 1k, 750, 500, 375, 250, 200, 150, 100, 75, and 50 ohms (I used 500 for my My Sonic Lab Signature Gold), and gain settings are 60, 64, 68, and 72dB. For moving-magnet cartridges resistive load options are 47k, 20k, 10k, and 5kK ohms; capacitive load options are 100pF, 220pF, 330Pf, and 470pF, while gain values are 44, 48, 52, and 58dB.

White seems especially proud of the phono module’s flexibility and quality, citing as one of his biggest accomplishments achieving such high levels of gain in spite of the challenges of various electromagnetic fields within the housing. “To me, that’s a $3000 phonostage for $1250 (if this were a separate unit), because it uses the same FETs you’d find in a $20k or $30k stage.”

The DAC module sports five digital inputs: one USB, and two each TosLink and coax RCA. Each can store a unique setting, and the USB input is capable of reading a 24bit/352k DSD and DSD2 signal, while utilizing Wavelength Technologies’ asynchronous implementation. One may also deactivate any unused inputs.

Pallene also comes with an exceptionally nice-to-use backlit remote, reflecting White’s thoughtfulness about the smallest details.

Design Dione

Rated at a healthy 160Wpc into 8 ohms and 320Wpc into 4 ohms, Dione, too, is a direct descendant of the Mimas integrated amp. I’ll again quote Jim White (with minor edits), as his explanations, like his design thinking, are crystal clear. “The core of developing Mimas was designing a new power output stage, which is based on the [Saturn series] Atlas but has slightly different requirements. Solving these new requirements led to numerous breakthroughs, resulting in a revolutionary new output stage incorporating an FET input/gain stage, bipolar driver, and bipolar output stage in a balanced bridge configuration.

“To achieve the performance, we wanted from this output stage we chose to use the much-coveted out-of-manufacture Toshiba 2SK246/2SJ103 (don’t worry, we have lots!) that we match to very tight tolerances. They are the only devices we’ve found that can deliver the level of performance we demand for the FET input section of the output stage and are usually found only in extremely expensive audio equipment.”

In conversation, White explained how sensitive these devices are, saying that even touching them with our fingertips changes their measurements, which means that careful matching requires plenty of extra patience and attention to detail. “But it’s the only way you can get away with no DC servo,” Jim told me.

“You can add a DC servo, and it will be fine, but if you take it away, it is life changing—bringing a sense of life and naturalness to the sound that otherwise would not exist.”

Zero feedback is another part of what makes Dione special. While noting that feedback is found in amps at all price levels and that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with it, White believes that, all other things being equal, getting rid of feedback makes for better sound (if worse measurements), and speaker sensitivity goes up.

Lastly, White added that he and his team don’t design around one system or one speaker. Instead, he brings newly designed gear to friends with different systems to make sure they work well in a wide variety of applications.

Let’s Listen

Before I describe the sound of the Pallene and Dione I want to circle back to my concept of “transparency” vis-a-vis wine. When I discussed this with Jim White, he immediately got my point.

Let’s briefly discuss two highly admired producers of white Burgundy. One is known for wines that have a distinctive style. They’re rich, powerful, high in acid, and made in a reductive fashion (meaning with little oxygen exchange and a moderate dose of sulfur to ensure anti-oxidation). While each of his wines can be readily discerned as his style, interestingly they still express the different communes and vineyards where the fruit was grown.

The other vigneron’s techniques aren’t radically different, but his lighter touch results in wines that are relatively dialed back, less “flashy” if you will, with a less obvious style. They too are quite transparent to the places they’re from.

Both are damn tasty wines that any one of us would be happy to have poured for us. But they’re distinctly different.

I’ll now revisit my take on a product I reviewed earlier this year, the Zesto Audio Eros 500 Select monaural power amplifiers. The Zestos are highly sexy beasts—offering 250 watts a side of pure Class A tube-driven power. I loved the sound of these amps. They brought me massively high levels of musical enjoyment and hedonistic pleasure over the time I had with them and are among the best pieces of gear I’ve heard during my lengthy journey into the high end. If I could have afforded to, I would probably have purchased them, but they also take up lots of space in our small house and run hotter than the flames of Hades.

Like that first producer’s Burgundies, the Zestos have a strong personality, while also readily showing differences among recordings.

The Aesthetix gear is more akin to the wine of the second maker. The Pallene and Dione lack such a strong signature—which, in a way, makes their sound that much harder to describe. They’re very pure, not as overtly seductive, but nevertheless quite convincing, musically.

I’ll start by describing my impressions of one recording that nicely illustrates much of what I found so appealing in this Aesthetix duo. Yarlung Records’ marvelously natural live recording of Petteri Iivonen playing Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2, one of the finest renderings I know of a solo acoustic instrument in real space.

When played through the Zestos (along with VTL’s likewise tube-driven TL6.5 Series II Signature linestage), this record was pure liquidity. As I wrote in my review, “Iivonen plays a marvelous sweetly toned 1767 Gagliano fiddle. The upper register is honey-kissed, light and limpid as dew drops; the mid-to-lower registers are sweet, too, but with just the right edge of sandpapery grit. Heard through the Zesto 500, the entire presentation is exquisitely coherent, seamless from top-to-bottom.”

By comparison, the Aesthetix pair is not as liquidly honey-toned but is still marvelously of a piece from bottom-to-top, still conveying that Gagliano’s rosiny sweetness, warmth, and texture, along with a lovely expression of the subtlest dynamic shifts and musical curlicues. I also like that it seems just right in terms of instrumental scale, making the impression of the fiddle’s body size, as I expect from this LP, into a highly convincing replica of a solo violin performed in a real venue. It’s a slightly drier but by no means cold presentation.

Radically switching musical gears, listening to the classic Maazel Decca recording of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess led me to Janis Joplin’s cover of “Summertime” on Big Brother & The Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills (MoFi 45). I’d forgotten the clarity MoFi’s mastering brings to this LP, digital steps or no. It’s appropriately raw, upfront, and viscerally thrilling as Janis and this band were. “Ball and Chain” also benefited from the Dione’s hefty 280 watts of output power into the 4-ohm loads of each of the speakers used during the review process. The music is so totally there in all its funky, unrefined glory, with plenty of air in the reverberant space, in-your-face dynamics, incendiary fuzz-soaked guitar solos, and Janis’ impassioned vocals slicing through the air like a celestial buzz saw.

As analog is my preferred playback medium, I don’t play many CDs these days, and streaming is something I do mostly in the car, at the gym, or at work. Hence, I use the good if not state-of-the-art Bluesound Node 2 at home for more causal listening. But feeding the Pallene’s excellent DAC module via the Bluesound’s coax out has brought the sound of higher-res sources to a whole other level for me. Right before deadline I learned of Phil Lesh’s passing and had the urge to play Live Dead. But not being able to locate my vinyl copy I streamed it through Pallene’s DAC to impressive results in definition, clarity, and tonal naturalness, as was immediately apparent during the subtle, jazz-like “Dark Star,” as Lesh’s brilliantly nimble bass work sets the theme, weaving hypnotic magic with his bandmates throughout the tune’s myriad pathways.

Moving to a full-throttled orchestral workout, the legendary Mercury recording of Stravinsky’s Firebird with Dorati and the London Symphony offers a marvelous open-aired window on the performance. With the Pallene and Dione the presentation was notably neutral—straddling the line between super-revealing and detailed and tonally as close to dead-center as can be—neither overtly warm nor cool sounding. Which is tricky with this recording, as Mercury’s are famously on the brighter side of the tonal spectrum (though this Classic Records reissue is less so).

And Stravinsky’s score covers the range, from the rumble of the opening double basses to the upper reaches of violins, winds, and percussion. The solo violin parts sing sweetly, the bases purr and growl as written. Flutes and piccolos flutter, horns announce transitions with their distant hollow brassiness.

Spatially this recording is about as good a test as one can conjure. And the Aesthetix gear does a mighty fine job of stepping aside and letting this great recording strut its considerably impressive stuff. The stage is very large, while seemingly just right proportionally—front to back, top to bottom—a damn fine rendering of a large orchestra. Dynamics are likewise on excellent display here. From the quietest chamber-like passages to the full-on brass and percussive assaults, with those famous shake-the-rafters bass drum thwacks. There’s no tonal fat, to be sure, but, at the same time, the sound isn’t lean and never edgy. More like a svelte, muscular athlete.

Thrilling stuff.

End Point

White ended our conversation with an interesting point that I found refreshing and one that nicely sums up the value I find in Pallene and Dione, a value I find that much more impressive given the obvious care that Jim and his team put into all things Aesthetix.

“Even though I enjoy designing equipment at the bleeding edge, I also derive great satisfaction out of creating products that break price/performance barriers.”

Specs & Pricing

Pallene
Type: Hybrid preamplifier
Tube complement: 1 6DJ8/6922 per channel
Number and types of inputs: 5 pairs balanced XLR, 5 pairs single-ended RCA
Input options: Phono (2 pairs RCA), DAC (2 coax RCA, 2 TosLink, 1 USB 24 bit/352K
Number and types of outputs: 1 pair Balanced XLR, 1 pair single-ended RCA, ¼” headphone
Dimensions: 17.9″ x 5.5″ x 17.7″
Weight: 35 lbs.
Price: $6500 (phono module: $1250; DAC module: $1250)

Dione
Type: Hybrid power amplifier
Power output: 180Wpc into 8 ohms, 280Wpc into 4 ohms
Tube complement: 1 6DJ8/6922 per channel
Number and types of inputs: 1 pair balanced XLR, 1 pair single-ended RCA; optional high-pass crossover: 1 pair XLR, one pair RCA
Dimensions: 17.9″ x 5.5″ x 17.7″
Weight: 44 lbs.
Price: $7500

Aesthetix Audio corporation
5220 Gabbert Road Suite A
Moorpark, California 93021
(805) 529-9901
aesthetix.net

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Loudspeakers: Magnepan 1.7i, 1.7x, and Piega Coax Gen2 611
Headphones: Audeze LCD-X
Analog sources: Basis 2200 Turntable, Basis SuperArm, My Sonic Lab Signature Gold moving-coil cartridge
Digital Source: Bluesound Node 2
Preamp: Sutherland N1
Cables: Nordost Tyr 2
AC Power: Nordost Tyr 2 power cables; Nordost Qx4 power conditioner and Qb8 AC distribution center

The really unusual thing about the C298 is that it sounds like a marriage of tube and transistor, but it is a class D amp. If you haven’t heard class D amps, that won’t mean much to you. But if you have, you will probably have an opinion,  and it won’t be entirely positive. Bruno Putzeys the designer of the core PuriFi Eigentakt modules used for this class D circuit, set out to change that.

Product Overview

Putzeys has been involved with class D amplification for a long time (incidentally Class D amplifiers are not digital, the Eigentakt module can be described as “fully analog”). So, the Eigentakt module represents the application of his learnings from past designs. This has led to a series of patents on solutions to previously unsolved problems. Examples of the progress made here:

• Extremely low intermodulation distortion, a good measure of the ability of the amp to handle complex signals
• Load-invariant frequency response, so that 2 ohm and 8 ohm loads have the same behavior
• Minimization of magnetic hysteresis distortion in the output filters

As with many Class D designs, output impedance is very low, meaning damping factor is in the thousands.

The C298 has balanced and single-end inputs. It is modestly sized, emits relatively little heat and weighs 25 lb.

Sound Quality

As we remind readers, I can’t reason well and most of you probably can’t reason well, from technical details to sound quality. So, we listen.

The first thing I noticed about the C298 was the excellence of the imaging. That may seem like an odd starting point, but I have found significant differences in amplifier imaging with speakers that image well (I mainly used the Perlisten S7t for this review). The soundstage of the C298 is more fine-grained in left to right placement of performers than many good amps. This aids the amp in getting the image off the speakers and more into the virtual performance space than is usual. The other outstanding imaging attribute is the depth of the image. There is more layering of performers front to back than is normal.

I also thought the instrumental separation was very good. What I mean is that the C298 delineates each instrument from others so that you can follow musical lines with ease. This attribute and imaging seem to be related in ear/brain research, so perhaps this isn’t surprising given what I said about imaging. And of course, the recording has to allow this, which many do. However, I tried the new Lilly Hiatt album, which recalls the heyday of ‘90s power pop and apparently is intentionally mixed to sound rather “wall of sound” congealed on the loud parts (of which there are many). But the Shostakovich 6^th Symphony, with the BSO and Nelsons, is more complex than Lilly Hiatt and the instruments are superbly delineated. The point? Components that perform well often don’t work miracles. And hey, Lilly Hiatt probably sounds like this live.

Next up, the C298 has a low-grain presentation. You might think this the so-called black background, but I think there are blacker backgrounds. Instead, the believable thing about the C298 is that instruments and voices just sound believably smooth and continuous. Some class D amps seem to overlay a slight roughness to sounds that you don’t hear as roughness per se, but as a sense that the music has been processed. The C298 doesn’t do this.

The frequency balance from bass to upper midrange is also commendably flat. The low output impedance, which leads to very good woofer control and highly defined bass, is there but some class D amps seem to roll off the bass a bit. This one doesn’t.

Voicing

Now, for those of you who have been waiting, we come to the “tube” part of the story. The upper frequencies of the C298 seem ever so slightly soft or smoothed. On extended listening, I conclude that this might be the sound of lower distortion (after all, the amp does not roll off in the so-called audible range, or even up to 50 kHz). As I’ve noted before, some distortions at high frequencies draw attention to the treble range and you register the sound as “bright”. But it isn’t bright in level, it is bright in distortion. It may be that there is a similar story with some of the excellent tube amps we know and love.

Now to be clear about the magnitude of this, I should add that this sweetening or softening or distortion reduction of treble isn’t enough to fix the difficult problems of either DACs or recordings in this region. These are hard problems. DAC (and streamer) distortion really isn’t a frequency balance issue and I think is best addressed at the DAC (and in creating the Master File). But it may help to see that there appears to be another issue. Some data suggests that the frequency balance that you hear in a concert hall is quite different from the balance that is recorded. The purple line shows measured levels in a concert hall and the green line shows recorded frequency balance. The level falls by 10 db over the spectrum in the hall and the recorded level rises 1-2 db.  This is at least partially made intuitive when you realize that you sit perhaps 30 or 50 feet from the stage and high frequencies don’t project as well as lower frequencies. The recording mics are near the performers, so more high frequency level is picked up. This is why audio science suggests a roughly 1 db per octave tilt to speaker output. Many speakers do not quite provide this. And there is the pesky issue, assuming the data is correct, of that treble rise. Even if our stereo matched the -1 db per octave tilt of the hall, we’d theoretically have overbright sound.

So, you can understand why some listeners might want to “manage” treble output. But 2 or 3 or 4 db of “management” generally doesn’t happen in traditional electronics. Add to that the problem of different balances on different recordings (see our list of the 6 major problems of audio) and you may not want a fixed device to solve the problem because you’ll just keep getting it wrong.

I offer this to put into context what the C298 does in the treble region. It has a sound that I think lovers of vividness and engagement will enjoy – clear and open. It also has a sound that is very slightly tilted in the direction that lovers of tonal beauty will appreciate – low treble distortion. It may not go as far as some of the latter would like, but I am not clear that any linear amplifier would go that far.

Now to close out this section on the tube-like nature of the C298, I think the character of the sound is more transparent than most tube amps. While that sounds good, and personally I think it is, this isn’t what everyone wants. At the same time, there are transistor amps with even more transparency. But at higher, often much higher, prices.

Summary

The NAD C298 offers the power, voicing, imaging and naturalness to make the audiophile’s wish list blush. That the price is so reasonable makes it an unquestionable value. Add in the upgrade path to even more power in mono form and you have an amplifier that could be the basis of building a wonderful system. Heck, it would fit in a really good $50,000 system. Sometimes it pays to know what’s under the radar.

I will discuss some of the technical aspects of both units later—as well as some of the differences between the original and the new versions—but since we are on the subject of sonic performance, allow me to continue along those lines. Let me just say, upfront, that the P30A and H30A combo is simply a joy to listen to. I relished my long listening sessions with the Hegels. I would inevitably go beyond my allotted time to check various sound quality cues as a reviewer, simply because I would let the recordings continue beyond my normal “test passage.” I had reviewer work to do, but the Hegels kept me listening.

While I was auditioning in the early stage, the single-word summation that came to mind was “clean.” I don’t mean a sound that can border on antiseptic or clinical or dry. Just beautifully clear, low-noise, flowing music. The combo has such a low noise floor that it was a bit surprising—and wonderful, of course—to hear familiar music with such ease and “musical flow” from a combo that did not cost a fortune. Some “high-resolution” gear imparts a kind of crispness or sizzle to the music. I think I have partially bought into that character as a positive attribute. I also had surmised that some of that electronic sizzle is often just part of the recording chain or part and parcel of high-end playback in general. The Hegels challenged my thinking and reminded me that high resolution and musical beauty are not incompatible. In some ways, the Hegel pair sounds more like live music than many other high-end pre/power combos—especially solid-state ones. Their “easy resolution” reveals lots of information in recordings, but details are not shoved in your face (or ears). Of course, a lot of output power also helps enhance listening ease, especially with difficult-to-drive speakers. The H30A delivers there, too.

The H30A power amp has 305 watts per channel on tap in stereo mode (1100 in mono) into eight ohms and 599 watts into four. When it comes to power delivery and dynamic stability, it is as calm an amp as I have had in my system—and I have had some 450- and 500-watt (8-ohm spec) bruisers in house. Nothing perturbed the H30A while driving the excellent YG Sonja 3.2 (review in the works). The amp had power to spare. As you would expect from such a powerful amp, the bass is robust and commanding. Big music is served well. A feeling of weight and substance is conferred in playback. It can be thrilling to get the kind of corporeal, feel-it-in-the chest impact the H30A and Sonja 3.2 impart.

Along the lines of “clean as well as musical,” Hegel reinforced what I encountered with the much more expensive Constellation gear I had reviewed in 2019: the Revelation Series Pictor linestage and Taurus monoblock power amplifiers—current pricing $32,500 (with power filter unit) and $57,000/pr. They, too, upended the “resolution vs. musicality” dualism. The Constellation combo was fabulously transparent and revealing of fine details as well as musically enjoyable across a wide range of recordings. Similarly, the Hegel combo revealed plenty of sonic information but didn’t sound stilted or forced. I could hear deeply into soundstages, and the music seemed to “make more sense” as artistic expression.

With the new Hegels, decays lasted longer, and leading edges had finer gradations compared to my reference Ayre K1xe preamp and Gamut M250i mono amps (both no longer available). I heard musical lines and instrumentation details that I had not noticed before. The Constellation combo had “peer into the recording” transparency that the Hegel combo probably can’t match (going by memory), but the Constellation gear costs over three times more. My reference pre/power combo also has fairly high resolution, but the Hegels’ ability to track multiple, differently timed events, as they unfold on their own timing trajectories, simply outpaced my reference combo. My combo also could not portray soundstage depth as well as the P30A/H30A did. The Hegel pair cost about $6000 less than my Ayre/Gamut units when I bought them several years ago (and they would surely cost more now). Yes, my Ayre/Gamut set represents older technology, but plenty of other newer models have not sounded better in my system.

The Hegels always brought my attention back to the music, not audiophile checklists. I got really swept up in the longing and passion of “Io piango” an acapella work for choir from Morten Lauridsen’s Madrigali [Layton/Hyperion]. The pathos was communicated vividly through the Hegels. On Radiohead’s self-released album In Rainbows, the “All I Need” track sent me into “eyes-roll-back” ecstasy after the song shifted to its concluding theme and drummer Philip Selway came in with shimmering cymbal work at about 2:55. On lesser systems, that cymbal sound can come across as hashy and a bit gritty, thus detracting from its musical impact. A recording can intentionally have a gritty cymbal sound, of course, but the playback system should not also add its own gritty noise on top of it.

Throughout my listening sessions, I never felt bored because the Hegel pair were masking details or lacking in rhythmic drive. On the contrary, I found the Hegels amply portrayed details—not in a hi-fi “look what I can do” way but in a musically integrated one. The Hegels also have an appealing dynamic verve that kept the music skipping along. All kinds of music remained interesting. I will say, if you are used to your music playback on the crisp, transient-snap-favoring side of things, you might find the Hegel pair to sound a tad controlled. I hear it as a lack of added electronic sizzle, but others might hear it differently. The Hegels carry a sense of speed and attack quite well. They just don’t scream dynamic cues at you. Caveats? Well, the amp is a huge brute at 104.5 pounds and 17″ x 9.4” x 25.6”, and I think the preamp should have three XLR/balanced inputs instead of two. Nit-picky? Admittedly, yes.

The soundstage is huge—on par with the overall size conjured by the considerably more expensive Constellation Revelation Series set I mentioned earlier. In my setup, the soundscape could (per recording) extend well outside the speakers laterally, about six feet behind the speakers and about two feet above them. It was not unusual for the whole front third of my listening room to be filled with a soundscape, with the speakers seemingly evaporating into that area of the room as sound sources. In one case, I heard a repeated musical element (probably a hand-cupped whistle of some kind) that originated from the middle of the soundstage and then continued over to the side of the room directly across from my right ear (Dead Can Dance “Song of the Stars” [Spirit Chaser, 4AD]). Individual images had a sense of weight, substance, and roundness, not merely partial relief outlines. I heard depth layering, especially on classical recordings—that was quite like a very fine tube amp. A lot of this sort of soundstaging comes from an entire system functioning well enough to make it happen, not just the contributions of a preamp and power amp. Even so, the Hegels enhanced my system’s soundstaging and integrated with my system beautifully.

A key aspect of both the P30A and the H30A that contributes to their evocative musical appeal is their extended and refined high-frequency presentation. The Hegels’ upper end is just lovely: clear, smooth, and refined, like a great tube amp with an extended upper end, not a stereotypical rolled-off tube sound. Hegel has a long-standing knack for producing solid-state gear that has many of the positive attributes of tubes. A lot of electronic noise in amplifiers is most audible in the midrange and upper frequencies. Reduce that noise, and you should end up with cleaner, less strident results. When I can hear deeply into a recording and do not hear a hashy or etched quality, I surmise that the gear I am listening to is on the right track. Some of the more expensive, high-performing solid-state equipment I have come across also have this “details with musicality” quality, like the Constellation gear I mentioned. The great news is Hegel offers a fair amount of that experience at substantially lower prices.

On a personal level, I am encouraged by what Hegel is doing in a market that seems to be racing toward ever-higher pricing, almost as if higher prices provide some perverse bragging rights. With Hegel gear, you get smart innovative engineering aimed at delivering the best possible sound quality at reasonable prices, not cosmetic bling. Hegel’s aesthetics are understated and functional. I identify with Hegel’s apparent priorities in this regard and find the styling to reflect humble Scandinavian sensibilities. I would rather pay for good sound than beautiful case work.

Let me address some of the technical elements, after which I will comment on the sonic differences between the original P30/H30 and the newer P30A/H30A combos. First, the fully balanced P30A preamp is a complete redesign from the original—other than the front-panel controls and the back-panel layout. The internals are all new. Short signal paths were a priority in both units. (Please see the Specs & Pricing section for input and output details.) Hegel’s VP of Sales & Marketing Anders Ertzeid offered this about the P30A: “We use a whole new volume attenuator system: a digitally controlled analog volume attenuator, and this is really where the magic is.” And further: “Tweaking and working on this bit of the preamp took a long time. Both in back/forth listening and measuring but also as a learning experience.” The preamp’s input stage uses just two hand-matched—apparently by Holter himself—SuperTex FETs. The power amp also has a new input section—also with just two FETs, but it gets “hand-matched Siliconics transistors.” The output section has 56 “15A, 200W, high-speed, ultra-low-distortion bipolar transistors.” The power supply has two 1000VA toroidal transformers and 270,000μF in capacitance. The amp has lots of power reserves to accommodate demanding speaker loads and demanding music, and it sounds like it, too—rock-solid, robust, dynamically agile bass.

For those unfamiliar with Hegel’s SoundEngine technology (and can’t watch the YouTube video I cited earlier), here is some text from my TAS piece called “Visit to Hegel Music Systems in Oslo, Norway”: ”SoundEngine is Hegel’s feed-forward technology, which allows the output transistors’ operating parameters to be adjusted as the waveform continually changes its characteristics so that the crossover notch distortion at the ‘hand off’ between the positive-going and negative-going phases is greatly reduced, compared to most other typical Class AB amplifiers that set static operating parameters which cannot account for the changing conditions (bias, temperature-related flux, etc.).” Per Hegel, SoundEngine also increases dynamic range, damping factor (more than 1000 in stereo mode), and greatly reduces higher-order harmonic distortion.

Both the new preamp and power amp look very similar to their predecessors. The main visual difference is a subtle cosmetic upgrade in the form of a tasteful, beveled cutout in the top center of the new face plates. Thankfully, the new power amp has easier-to-use binding posts that replace the larger, wing nuts in the older version. The H30A and its forerunner were designed as mono amplifiers, but many are used as a single stereo amplifier. Per Hegel and to my surprise, a good many H30As are sold as mono pairs, even though the cost, size, and weight double by going that route. My experience with the H30 and H30A in my own system is solely as a single stereo amp. Both the pre- and power amp couldn’t be easier to use. They have straightforward knobs (input and volume) and buttons (on/off). Completely intuitive.

The old and new versions have a similar tonal balance. The newer models sound more extended and focused in the upper frequencies and give the impression of sounding closer to (although still just a hair warmer than) neutral compared to the older versions’ more apparent tilt toward warmth. The obvious sonic differences are in overall resolution, spatial realism, and dynamic precision. The new units fill in a notable amount of information that the older units soften or don’t quite flesh out as fully. Subtle details emerge with greater verisimilitude, like the way singers enunciate lyrics. Spatial cues like hall sounds become more readily apparent, soundstage depth is more lifelike, and individual images are more finely focused. Subtle dynamic shadings and leading edges of notes have finer delineation and are integrated into a more convincing musical gestalt. The level of “musical interest” is also higher with the newer models.

I suspected the original preamp was not quite as good as its partnering power amp when I first used them a few years ago, but I certainly cannot say the same holds true of the new pair. When I used the new P30A with my reference Gamut M250i monoblocks, I thought they complimented each other well in general with only a slight reduction of low-bass weight as a small compromise. When I paired the P30A with the H30A—its intended partner—the bass filled in nicely. In general, the P30A and H30A together amount to a performance result that is greater than the sum of their parts. Something bordering on magical happens when the P30A and H30A play together.

The common denominator across all Hegel products I have reviewed is low distortion without sounding analytical. The P30A and H30A have such low levels of noise riding along with the signal, and are so musically compelling, that I would happily live with them as my primary references. This is the first time a preamp and power amp priced lower than my long-standing references has outperformed them. That should tell you how highly I regard the P30A and H30A. I am unaware of any other solid-state combo that offers higher levels of sonic refinement, power stability, and sheer musical enjoyment in its price range. Bent Holter and the folks at Hegel have done a great job. Enthusiastically recommended.   

Specs & Pricing

P30A preamp

Inputs: 2x XLR balanced, 3x RCA unbalanced, and one home theater
Outputs: 1x XLR balanced and 2x RCA unbalanced
Other connections: 3.5mm IR-direct jack, 3.5 mm 12V trigger output jack
Signal to noise ratio: More than 130dB balanced mode
Crosstalk: Less than –100dB
Distortion: Less than 0.005%
Intermodulation: Less than 0.01% (19kHz+20kHz)
Dimensions: 17″ x 3.8″ x 12″
Weight: 15.9 lbs.
Price: $8995

H30A Power Amplifier

Output power: 305Wpc (8 ohms), 599Wpc (4 ohms) in stereo mode; more than 1100W (8 ohms) in mono mode
Minimum load impedance: 1 ohm
Inputs: RCA unbalanced and XLR balanced
Speaker outputs: One pair of heavy-duty gold-plated terminals (spades or bananas)
Input impedance: Balanced 20k ohm, unbalanced 10k ohm
Signal to noise ratio: More than 100dB
Crosstalk: Less than –100dB
Distortion: Less than 0.003% at 100W into 8 ohm
Intermodulation: Less than 0.01% (19kHz + 20kHz)
Damping factor: More than 500 (mono) 1000 (stereo)
Power supply: 2000 VA dual mono, 270,000μF capacitance
Output stage: 15A 200W high-speed, ultra-low-distortion bipolar transistors (x56)
Dimensions: 17″ x 9.4″ x 25.6″
Weight: 104.5 lbs.
Price: $18,995

HEGEL AMERICA INC
Fairfield, IA
usa@hegel.com
(413) 224-2480

Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Basis Debut V turntable & Vector 4 tonearm, Benz-Micro LP-S MR cartridge
Phonostage: Simaudio Moon 610LP
Digital sources: Hegel Mohican CDP
Linestages: Ayre K-1xe, Hegel P30
Integrated amplifier: Hegel H390
Power amplifiers: Gamut M250i, Hegel H30
Speakers: YG Acoustics Sonja 3.2, Dynaudio Confidence C1 Signature
Cables: Shunyata Sigma V2 signal cables, Shunyata Sigma NR and Omega XC power cords
A/C Power: Two 20-amp dedicated lines, Shunyata SR-Z1 receptacles, Shunyata Everest 8000 and Typhon power conditioners
Accessories: PrimeAcoustic Z-foam panels and DIY panels, Stillpoints Ultra SS

The Icon Series features Onkyo’s proprietary DIDRC, Dynamic Intermodulation Distortion Reduction Circuity, which reduces beats generated in the ultra-high frequency band by DIDRC’s High Slew Rate Circuit to improve the sound of analog recordings and stabilizes audio signals with positive and negative signal symmetry to reproduce minute signals such as those of MC cartridges even when amplified.

Icon P-80 – 2-Channel HiFi Network Pre-Amplifier

The P-80 Preamplifier is no exception to Onkyo’s commitment to impress. The DIDRC, ONKYO’s patented technology that reduces high-frequency noise at a high slew rate, is installed in the DAC Filter section and Phono stage, allowing users to experience an emotional sound.

Thanks to HDMI ARC, Dirac Live Room Correction (Limited Version 20Hz-500Hz), (w/DLBC/ART option), Wi-Fi/Airplay2/Chromecast, Bluetooth, Roon Ready, Separate Phono stage, supports (MM/MC) and a high-quality phono terminal, 5mm Aluminum Front Panel, 3-pieces housing, a fan-less design to eliminate noise, the P-80’s premium stereo DAC reduces distortion, and extrusion aluminum heat sink for vibration suppression, this preamp lays a solid foundation for superior sound.

Users curated playlists play well with the Onkyo P-80 Preamplifier. Seamlessly hardwire or cast your content from any of the built-in platforms: Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, qobuz Connect, Amazon Music, TuneIn, QQ Music, AirPlay 2 and Google Cast, and is Roon Ready. Controllable with Onkyo Controller, our proprietary application.

Model: Model: Onkyo Icon P-80 /  US SRP $1,999. Available in Q4 2025

Icon M-80 – 2-Channel HiFi Power Amplifier                                                                                                                   

The new Icon M-80 2-Channel Power Amplifier (200W@4ohms, 150W@8ohms) features a Symmetrical Class AB amplifier with 3-stage Inverted Darlington (output stage), high current drive with low distortion.   It features the patented DIDRC distortion reduction circuitry (Driver Stage), 3-pieces housing, 5mm Aluminum Front Panel, and a fan-less design that eliminates noise, a custom high current power supply to provide, dynamic full-range sound, and an extrusion aluminum heat sink that suppresses vibration. These material elements allow you to experience Onkyo’s unique delivery of sound.

Add in hi-fi grade terminals, quality capacitors, copper bus bar, and anti-vibration rigid 5mm Aluminum front panels and you will get world-class playback that packs a punch.

Model: Onkyo Icon M-80 / US SRP $1,999.  Available in Q4 2025     

Icon A-50 – 2-Channel HiFi Integrated Amplifier

Thanks to patented DIDRC circuitry, the Icon A-50 Integrated Amplifier, Symmetrical Class AB amplification with three-stage inverted Darlington amplifier (180W@4ohms and 140W@8ohms) that drives high current signals with minimal distortion for clear and strong content just as the creator intended.

Combined with HDMI ARC, Dirac Live Room Correction (full bandwidth is optional), Wi-Fi / Airplay 2 / Chromecast, Bluetooth, Roon Ready, Separate Phono stage, supports (MM/MC) and a high-quality phono terminal, 5mm Aluminum Front Panel, a fan-less design to eliminate noise. Like the P-80, its premium stereo DAC reduces distortion, and extrusion aluminum heat sink for vibration suppression with fan-less design to eliminate noise, premium stereo DAC that reduces distortion, and extrusion aluminum heat sink for vibration suppression, this preamp lays a solid foundation for superior sound.

Hi-fi grade terminals, quality capacitors, copper bus bar, and rigid front panels further reduce vibration and signal degradation. And with a separate, high-quality phono terminal that supports MM/MC, and more!  Its separate Phono stage supports (MM/MC), a high-quality phono terminal and 5mm Aluminum Front Panel suppress vibration to deliver crisp and clear sound reproduction.

The Onkyo A-50 streams music content from any of the built-in platforms: Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, qobuz Connect, Amazon Music, QQ Music, TuneIn, AirPlay 2 and Google Cast, and is Roon Ready. Controllable with Onkyo Controller, our proprietary application.

Model: Onkyo Icon A-50 / US SRP $1,499.  Available in Q4 2025

Odyssey Audio Khartago

$995

Shockingly similar in tonal balance to certain high-priced solid-state amps, this 130Wpc stereo amp has no discernible grain, high resolution, and a deep, wide soundstage. Positively, the best budget amp JV has heard. JV, 195