Pre/Power Amplifiers

You gotta love items with absolutely perfect names: 'Land Rover Defender', 'Rolex Explorer', 'Fender Jazzmaster'. When founder and chief engineer, Dan D'Agostino, dubbed his assault on the high-end 'Relentless', with cost-no-object flagship monoblock power amps [HFN Mar '20], he might have been referring to himself, as that is how he approached the task. With this matching three-chassis Relentless Preamplifier (£159,500), he's raised the bar once more.

DNM's long-awaited update to the PA3 power amplifier has finally arrived. Fully regulated, the PA3 S reflects the uncompromising approach of its designer Denis Morecroft. Offering just 23W per channel but costing £3750, this stereo power amp has undergone a long gestation, the reasons for which Morecroft outlines in our interview boxout.

The story of DPA is not uncommon among small and specialised hi-fi manufacturers. Arriving in 1992, it actually represented the second iteration of a company co-founded by Robert Watts (who has since gone on to be digital design consultant at Chord Electronics). And while Deltec Precision Audio, which debuted in 1984 with its CTA80 preamplifier, had ultimately shut up shop in the early '90s, the ideas behind its original models clearly had some merit – it was soon back with Watts onboard, albeit under a slightly different name.

While sawing Electrocompaniet's AW 800 M power amplifier is probably not advisable, doing so would admittedly bring some advantages. Not only would you get even better channel separation from dividing the amp right back to the mains socket - not that the stereo amp is exactly lacking in this respect - the resulting monoblock amps would hopefully be more manageable than the stereo model. It may not be huge, but the 800's 55kg mass puts unpacking and placing it firmly in 'phone a friend' territory.

The promotional literature for EMM Labs’ MTRS stereo power amplifier is so sure of its designer’s cachet within the audiophile community that it simply refers to him as Ed. For those not in the know, Ed is Ed Meitner, founder of Canada’s EMM Labs, and – back in the day – the engineer tasked by Sony and Philips to help with the development of SACD. The company that bears his initials operates in the high-end (there’s a more ‘accessible’ Meitner Audio brand) and maintains a boutique separates catalogue.

It’s often said that less can actually be more. For example, many high-end hi-fi products are devoid of fripperies because the lion’s share of the build budget is spent on the bits you can’t see, such as high quality components. This in turn gives better sound per pound, or so the theory goes. Yet other designs come festooned with features and often lack ability in the sonic stakes.

To misquote Sly & The Family Stone just a little, Swedish hi-fi company Engström – it only makes tube amplifiers – is a family affair. Founded by engineer Lars Engström and his industrial designer nephew Timo as recently as 2008, the company is based in Lund, just northeast of Malmö, and has its R&D HQ some 600km away in Nacka, south of Uppsala on the Baltic Sea coast. The division of labour in the company sees Lars Engström as chief engineer, having given up work in fields as diverse as navigation, microcomputing and railway signalling systems in 2001 to concentrate on amplifier development, while his nephew is responsible for the look of the products, and the company operations.