Integrated Amplifiers

Simaudio, headquartered in Quebec, Canada, was born under a different name. Founded by Victor Sima in St Hubert in 1980 to make audio products 'aimed strictly at professionals', it was originally called Sima Electronics, yet by the next decade had rebranded to Simaudio and launched its Celeste range. These models, including integrated, pre- and power amplifiers, had a consumer rather than professional focus, and were later joined by Simaudio's 'reference-grade' MOON series, which launched in 1997 with the i-5 integrated [HFN May '02], P-5 preamplifier and W-5 dual mono power amplifier.

For a while the company continued to sell products across these different lines, but eventually the Celeste name was mothballed, so that now all Simaudio hardware is from the MOON stable, and the website labels the brand 'MOON by Simaudio'. What this means is that a product line that was introduced to signify the high-end now ranges from entry-level to flagship and everything in between. The 250i tested here, and the similarly priced MOON 230HAD headphone amp/DAC [HFN Nov '15], are its most affordable offerings apart from the £560 MOON 110LP V2 phono stage. Ranged above are more than 25 models in CD player, DAC, phono preamp, preamp, integrated and power amplifier categories.