Audiophilepure

When I got the ProLogue One back from my (now ex) niece a few years ago, I couldn’t have been more excited to be reunited with this old friend. And it cost me dearly – I had to trade she and her husband a new Simaudio NEO integrated ($3,400), along with some heavy convincing that having a tube amp around the house with a couple of toddlers was a really bad idea. The fatigued tubes were replaced with a new pair of PrimaLuna 12AU7s, a pair of EAT 12AX7s and a mint quad of NOS Siemens EL34 power tubes. Other than a slightly noisy volume control (with a little bit of contact cleaner took care of immediately) the PL One was back rocking with a pair of 1976 vintage Klipsch LaScalas. The sound was glorious, and with the coolio, upgraded tubes, even better than the day I unboxed it for the first time.”

https://www.hifinews.com/content/dagostino-progression-integrated-integrated-amplifier

Running them side by side, the Progression Integrated’s amplifier section is undoubtedly less bold, less forceful than the costlier Momentum Stereo. But the differences were so minute as to cause a bit of head scratching. I had to keep reminding myself of the Law of Diminishing Returns, acknowledging that the Progression customer is not the same as the Momentum client.

It was the subtlety of George Benson’s guitar work on The Other Side Of Abbey Road [A&M Records 82839 3028 2] that showed how two amplifiers from the same designer can sound different, yet share common ground.

Sorry about this, folks, but an analogy from the world of wine best illustrates this: the Progression Integrated is to the Momentum what ‘second growth’ wines are to Premier Cru. For someone like me, who can’t afford £800-a-bottle reds, there are, blessedly, plenty of astounding second growths. So, for you teetotallers: the Progression Integrated is to the Momentum what Le Volte is to Ornellaia. And that spells ‘Bargain’.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/cambridge-audio-cxa81-integrated-amplifier

I greatly enjoyed my time exploring the CXA81. It helped me realize how much music can be had for such a low price. It knocked me flat with its ability to sound good in so many ways. It is versatile, well-made, and smartly designed. Most important, it sounds good to great. If you’re in the market for an affordable integrated amplifier, this one should be on your audition list.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/ps-audio-stellar-m1200-monoblock-power-amplifier

Want a sonic checklist rating? Bottom end: A+, midrange transparency: A, high-frequency extension and freedom from grain and grit: B+, macrodynamic “slam”: A, microdynamic delicacy: C, imaging and staging: B, timbral verisimilitude: Jekyll and Hyde, A or C, depending on the recording and the instruments involved. Maybe the M1200s were just too fast for their own good.

After the superclean attack, they went right for the too-fast decay and missed the sustain. While that often leads to “skeletal” sound, the M1200s never delivered bones, because the transients were never edgy or nasty. They were natural and just right. Still, I’d probably like the M1200s even more if they put on a little weight.

https://www.soundstageultra.com/index.php/equipment-menu/998-linear-tube-audio-z40-integrated-amplifier

I played the Cars as loudly as I could bear but could hear no compression from my 87.5dB-sensitive KEFs. More impressive, this self-professed solid-state guy who’s a sucker for immaculate-sounding, high-power amps found the Z40 as generally enjoyable as my reference Hegel H590 integrated ($11,000). The only performance parameter in which the Z40 came up short against the solid-state Hegel was in bottom-end power and control. While David Robinson’s drumming had none of the softness or bloom that it might through a traditional tube amp, I think that most of the solid-state integrateds I’ve reviewed in recent years — most of them far more expensive than the Z40 — edge out the Z40 in terms of outright slam.

But a recording from 1978 — even in a high-resolution remastering such as this one of the Cars’ “Just What I Needed” — isn’t the sternest test of a tube amp’s linearity and transparency. So I opted for a torture test: “Brothers in Arms,” from the stupendous score for Mad Max: Fury Road, composed and performed by Dutch DJ Thomas Holkenborg, aka Junkie XL (16/44.1 FLAC, WaterTower Music/Qobuz). This track is an entropic melding of wailing strings, thunderous drums, and distorted electric guitars, all coalescing into rock-operatic madness that makes a lot more sense if you’ve seen George Miller’s visionary film. The Z40 more than held its own up to reasonably high volumes with this demanding cut, allowing me to make out all the cacophony laid out before me. Every aspect of the performance was highly resolved — and, even better, I could hear no bowing of the LTA’s frequency response at either end of the audioband.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/gryphon-essence-mono-power-amplifier

Next, I tried Gryphon’s BlackSpikes. I found the sound somewhat fuller and more fleshed out in the lower midrange, with a concomitant boost in color saturation. With more there there, the perception of air and depth increased. Although the change was not huge, anyone who can afford these amps would benefit from shelling out an extra $700 for the BlackSpikes.

My entrancement was momentarily shattered when I began to explore other kinds of music. Enter Chris Bell, who is working on a video that explores the journey of Art Dudley’s former Altec Flamenco loudspeakers to their new home. Because Chris was passing through Port Townsend and was eager to take a listen—and because I always benefit from hearing music I don’t usually play—I invited him to cue up some of his favorite tracks. Due to COVID-19, we sat masked at opposite ends of the couch, where neither of us could fully appreciate the Essence’s superb depiction of spatial relationships.

Air Tight ATM-300R Power Amplifier

“The Air Tight ATM-300R wowed me with countless hours of listening pleasure. It consistently brought to life the full sonic promise of the 300B, and fully justified its reference appellation. Its performance rests on four major sonic pillars working in synergy: velvety textures, remarkable timbre fidelity, superb soundstage transparency and image focus, and a satisfying bass foundation.  It gives me great pleasure to crown the ATM-300R as the new king of low-power amplification. I’ve yet to audition a more musically convincing low-power amplifier at any price point. Simply put: an awesome display of the power of the first watt!”

https://www.stereophile.com/content/grandinote-shinai-integrated-amplifier

It has the spirit of a revealer. It speaks the truth—not ruthlessly, but honestly. It showed me, with conspicuous clarity, the sonic differences among music formats, speaker models, song-to-song recording quality, that section on an LP where, on my rig, the sound seemed to have spontaneously gotten much better, and the Shinai’s own conspicuous improvement after 45 minutes of playing music. More importantly, it revealed myriad strains of musical information I’d not known were there.

It also forced me to face up to the fact that my tubed electronics were sweetening and homogenizing the sound.

Does the Shinai’s tube-based circuitry make it sound like a tube amp? Not exactly. The Shinai sounds like its own thing, worthy in its own right. It’s rich but not in the voluptuous, warm way of my combo of Audible Illusions preamp and vintage ASL monos. The Shinai is more neutral sounding. The Shinai did some things better than my tube gear—definition, detail, space, scale, touch—at a price I think fair considering that, for the money, one gets a line stage and two powerful-sounding (even if rated at just 37Wpc), class-A monoblocks, designed and hand-built in Italy.