Integrated Amplifiers

Sidebar: Take Notice
The warnings on the rear of the amplifier and on the cover of its user manual are very clear – 'neither + nor – output [speaker] terminal can be shorted to ground'. The consequences of hooking the Mimas up to an active sub or any other terminal with a route to ground are, says Aesthetix, 'not covered under warranty'. This is because the Mimas's power amp stage actually comprises two matched amplifiers per channel – one handling positive- going signals while its 'mirror' handles the negative-going signals, the ensemble connected as a balanced, bridged output.

Lab testing such an amplifier must proceed with extreme caution! Moreover, the pair-matching of these positive/negative amplifiers is arguably more critical than the matching of the 6922 triodes in its line stage, not least because Aesthetix eschews the application of global compensation (feedback). The subjective benefits of low-feedback amplifiers are legion among audiophiles, although the drift (hysteresis) of distortion with temperature [see inset Graph] is also not uncommon with such designs. But it does sound glorious! PM