Pre/Power Amplifiers

A sumptuous Italian pairing with sonics to match the exquisite looks You have to hand it to Italian designers: they sure do know how to make a statement. These mightily imposing valve power amplifiers dubbed 845 Monoblock and accompanying PhL-5 preamplifier simply ooze luxury. At £9995 per pair, the monoblock employs twin 845 tubes in parallel single-ended pure Class A mode, with two 6SN7 dual-triodes used as drivers and, as you might expect, zero negative feedback. The transformers are hand-wound with litz wire to avoid the use of solder and are ‘potted’ in a mix of resin and gravel to provide mass damping.

A very potent performer considering the accessible price In its most recent 15-Series line-up Rotel entered the brave new world of efficient Class D amplification with some of its models. It promotes them more for home cinema and custom installation duties rather than ‘pure audio’ systems, however. For high fidelity music reproduction Rotel still prefers to focus on tried-and-tested Class A/B solid-state designs, in which it has a fine pedigree. Cosmetically, the RB-1552 is identical to the more powerful ’1582, only the chassis’ reduced depth and lighter weight suggesting a smaller power rating here.

A robust design that produces a sound noticeably free of adornment Famous for its uncoloured, bomb-proof monitors beloved of recording engineers the world over, ATC builds not just speaker drive units but also the amplifier power packs for its active speakers in true artisan fashion in its Gloucestershire workshops, populating circuit boards entirely by hand. Similarly, the company’s standalone pre- and power amps are individually hand crafted, only the metal casework is bought in from an external supplier. As mentioned on page 43, we reviewed the P1 and its partnering CA2 Mk2 preamp in March ’10. Since then the power amp has unfortunately crept up in price by some £250.

A very substantial design indeed with impressive performance to match Owned by Paradigm, Canada’s largest speaker manufacturer, the Anthem electronics brand is renowned for its high value AV offerings. While its ‘bread and butter’ receivers are made in China, its premium Statement components are built entirely in-house, this massive P2 power amp sharing the same case as the company’s five-channel P5 [see HFN June ’09] that draws so much current it needs two power cords. Just as in the P5, each channel of the P2 is built as a monoblock on its own PCB with substantial heatsinks fitted with thermal sensors to monitor operating temperature. And each channel has its own toroidal transformer and regulated power supply.

Though outwardly unchanged, a serious internal makeover has brought Karan's cool-looking pre/power duo up-to-date. But how do these revised models sound? here must be many audiophiles who are torn between valve and solid-state amplification. If you are attracted to the sound of valves, but hesitate to take the plunge for practical reasons, you’ll be interested in solid-state products which try to offer the best of both worlds. And that’s part of the promise held out by the Karan amplifier line, which is built in the Republic of Serbia and has been gathering a following in several other countries since around 2000.

The first product from a new Japanese high-end marque, this imposing hybrid power amplifier system employs a ‘DC reactor’ power supply housed in a separate chassis Rarely does an amplifier designer launch a new hi-fi company with such a bold high-end statement. ‘This is our vision of amplification’s ultimate form’, says designer Robert Koch of the imposing ‘tri-chassis’ Takumi K-70 power amplifier, designed and built in Japan, and the very first product to sport the Robert Koda brand name on its fascia. The Japanese ‘Takumi’ character can be translated as ‘maestro’, while the word ‘takumi’ actually means artisan – the naming of the Takumi K-70 being particularly apt as the amplifier is wholly hand-crafted, and manufacturing is limited to just 20 units per year. It’s a single-ended hybrid design employing some 32 power transistors and two 5842 triodes in each monoblock and one 6X5 rectifier tube per side in the power supply.

With the C-600f preamp and the M-600A stereo power amplifiers, Luxman has delivered its interpretation of current generation solid-state excellence. The power amp offers balanced or single-ended operation, the option of converting it into a bridged monoblock of up to a specifi ed 120W/8ohm, plus a couple of neat touches on the back. Like all new Lux products, an indicator tells you with the press of a button if your mains polarity is correct. Another rear panel delight is a quartet of the largest speaker terminals I’ve ever seen, a nod to those who like tight terminals, but with an aperture for banana plugs.