Audiophilepure

In general, the TA1’s performance is of the crowd-pleasing nature you’d expect from a feature-packed integrated at this price – it plays loud and low, has tangible driving ability, and snaps into detail. Depth of soundstage is also handled well, ensuring The Allman Brothers Band’s At Filmore East [Mercury 0600753270240] comes across like the live recording it is. But the amp doesn’t spread the sound particularly wide, meaning that, on the epic-length ‘Mountain Jam’, there’s a suggestion of the players fighting for the spotlight.

This, and the TA1’s lack of real richness and smoothness in mids and highs are where its sonic aspirations come face to face with its price tag. Yet I’ll end on a high, as the amplifier deserves it – Warren G’s hip-hop hit ‘Regulate’ [Violator Records 523 335-2] sounded as vibrant and bouncy as its producers intended, the TA1 digging up warm, room-filling bass and projecting the soul-inflected vocals right at me. That so much energy was coming from a slim, black box was an eye-opener.

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