I believe that Peter asked to use his mastering studio as a part time Hifi store, in order to increase brand visibility in London. In fact he called Peter while I was there. The owner has an AN Ongaku at home! He is a seasoned studio drummer and a personal friend of Peter Q. They use AN-E SPE HE speakers, either a Meishu Silver integrated or a 211 tube based amp (forgot the exact model), an M6 or M8 preamp, TT-2 Deluxe and lots of Sogon cables! The A/D and D/A processor is a high end English boutique model. The mastering desk that you see has wheels to allow it to move out of the way of the main listening couch for demoing Hifi gear. The room has been custom designed and treated acoustically. They have a studio in an upcoming industrial part of London and do everything to the highest standard. In the end, due to changes at work, I ended up going with an Audio Note dealer one city away.Īnyway.back to Gearbox Records. My job has taken me regularly to London for the last ten years so I was looking at possibly purchasing AN gear from them and having the factory ship to me in Canada. I have auditioned it with Rogers LS-3/5a speakers mainly and I would like to get one in for review but it's already out with another reviewer.Yes I did audition there. Still this is one of - if not the best - sounding EL43 based amps you will find. It uses double C-Core transformers, has remote and a built in non-oversampling DAC. It is high bias class A in A/B mode and is really a beautiful amp for a low price (well low for Audio Note).Ĥ) Audio Note Cobra (sam price as the PL) is a E元4 amp that has just won best amp in Asia (oh no those reviews again). They also make Push Pull versions of it instead of the SE (Single Ended) that offer more power and are less expensive.ģ) Audio Note i-Zero - a 9 watt amp for about $2600 - it is a velvety smooth amplifier that leans to the dark chocolate side of the spectrum. This amp is 10 Watts per channel but only 4.2 watts undistorted so they need ~95dB sensitive speakers. The OTO is basically the king of the EL84 output. But the entry level ones are all excellent - the upper ones are to give people what they have requested over the years. Like the above - the prices start relatively sane and go way up as they use improved transformers, wiring, caps. Again they make something like 8 versions. Downside is that it is 30kg and BIIIIG.Ģ) Audio Note OTO Phono SE - I have had this amp now for 18 years. This has been the best 300B integrated I have ever heard - I auditioned the entry level model yesterday and it was superb. They make 3 versions in both line and Phono stages. What you may seriously want to try are the following amplifiers from Audio Note - depending on your speakers and how much power they need.ġ) Audio Note Meishu Tonmeister (8 watts per channel 300B) ~$8,500 - $24,000. Now I am more in the Audio Note camp who largely make Single Ended Triodes at some astronomical prices but it's just so much better IME. PL to me has always sounded "blah" and it costs a lot for some gimmicky things IMO. So it can sound good because they chose a good company to copy. I have Line Magnetic but they basically copy Western Electric. I have nothing against the Chinese but they typically just copy. I would try and get a tube amp from people who have a proven track record in designing tube amps and from people who actually have extensive music collections and hire actual engineers. Again if it never sounded right I follow the dealers recommendations and give it time. Most times I can tell if a component is good in first few minutes but it always takes days going through cold shuts downs to sound as good as it should. I never worry about now except to check to make sure its biased hot on occasion. The amp sounds good now but it took 600 hours. I know I made a spread sheet logged and followed it on a complete chassis wire etc.rebuild. Its a pattern that goes out to 600 hours. I think Grant Fidelity has a recommended 600 hour process for tubes and its pretty detailed like play soft 2 hours day one. I hate break-in its painful and you will always have doubts you got it right especially when it was never right in first place. I never bought new higher end component but I have done complete rebuilds, extensive component swaps and tube rolling (Yes it is expensive, Any extensive component swapping is voicing components is not cheap and its work !! ).
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