Built, sound, all components seem to be high grade.

Never used another tube amp before so can't say.

This was my first tube equipment, and really what got me to become an enthusiast. I couldn't believe the difference in sound I was getting from this amp, and it made me a believer. I think the guy I bought it from did some upgrades to the tubes, so it's really not "original" anymore. However, the unit is solidly built and looks great! I am going to give it a 5 since I really like it, even though it made me drop a lot of money on other stuff.

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None

Clarity, Power(hey, it's a tube amp)

lack of warm

I think this is a quite good amp, especially for the price.
My amp's tubes are replaced to NOS Tungsol and RCA inputs and Svetlana outputs. This amp produces very clean sound, But I remember Fisher 500c produced more soft and warm sound. But much better than the Fisher in every ther aspects except that. Enough power to control my Apogee Centaurs. B&O beomaster has better sound, but it is double in price and weight(I sold it to raise some money). Doesn't take long time to produce maximum sound quality. Worth to try. If you meet a good deal, don't hesitate to try it.

Using it with
Nakamich OMS-7 cd player
Toshiba DVD
Onkyo p-304 pre
Apogee Centaurs hybrid speakers

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used to have Beomaster 8000, Yamaha m4, several Marantzs, Fisher 500c, and Roksan

Good value, great customer service.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

First I would like to say that I am sick and tired of people handing out 5 stars like water. For all you morons who don't understand, five stars means "the best possibly available--nothing better". This website would be a lot more useful to serious audiophiles if people used a realistic grading system.
Anyway, as value goes, I definately give this amp four stars and I give Sonic Frontiers five stars for customer service (when I needed help with a blown reistor they were great help).
Now, as an amp, it is certainly very nice, very neutral and fairly musical. However, it is Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It has no life, no spirit--it's dull!!! I love tube gear, but my Musical Fidelity X-A50 amps that I had before the Amp 1 (which cost less) were waaaaay better in every way.
Hey, some guys might prefer Jennifer Aniston, but I'll take Pamela Anderson, thank you very much! A realistic three stars overall (which means an average piece of hi-fi gear).

Inexpensive, smooth midrange and highs, decent soundstage

Low power, little depth to the stage

I listened to these guys at a local hi-fi store against some steep competition. For the price, I think they're absolutely amazing. They easily competed wih the Mac and Krell in terms of overall musical experience. Sure, the Mac sounded better and the Krell had more power to control the bass, but the Krell seemed too bright for me- too hot up high. The Mac was beautiful, with a tad less soundstage than the Anthem, but more refined. It had a smooth, seductive sound that the Anthem lacked. The Atma's destroyed all three amps in every way except for bass response, a problem I believe was due more in part to speaker selection and placement than the amp. For $750 (or even the $1200 retail), this amp is quite nice and I believe it's one of the better amps I've listened to regardless of price. I highly recommend you listen to it.

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Not similar- compared to Krell KAV-250, Mac 352, and Atma Sphere MA-1

(Reviewed a second time since I could not find my first submitted review.) The Anthem AMP-1 has received some very luke-warm reviews recently. Basically, the reviews said that the amp sounded somewhat like a transistor amp but without the transistor-like bass control. Well, the Anthem AMP-1 is very dependent on its tube complement, and I would strongly recommend replacing its single 12AX7 pre-driver tube with the best NOS you can find. The 12AU7 drivers also should be replaced with something good, but I did not go NOS with these.
This amp is very well put-together as is typical of Sonic Frontiers and Anthem; it is very handsomely done -- I have silver. The new tubes make it very enjoyable to listen to. It still lacks in the bass department, but I suspect that I would take it over most similarly priced transistor amps. I own one such Perreau amplifier which has quick and decisive bass control. But for music, the AMP-1 serves me very well. I recently went to Tesla EL34LS output tubes from the original Sovteks -- one tube was losing bias. I am getting more image depth and body now. This amp is a good introduction to the tube game and the tube sound is to be savored.

At the price, with some NOS tubes, it gets 4 stars.

Clarity, Imaging

Low Bass could be sharper

I bought this amp used for $900 canadian.
Right now I'm running it from a marantz 7000 receiver, but will be putting a tube preamp in soon.

The Anthem blows away the amps in the reciever, which it should, and has me listening to music again.
This amp is very clear and smooth compared to the Marantz. Even my girlfriend who cares very little for stereo equipment said that it sounds less 'grainy'. She's even asking me to turn it up during movies now when before she always wanted the solid state turned down.

The imaging during movies is good enough to take the center speaker out and listen to vocals through the tube amp. In this case 2 channels are better than 3. Imaging will improve with a better pre amp.(I know because I auditioned the Amp1 with the Pre 1L and it was very sharp)

Music is fun to listen to throught he amp 1 and I won't use a reciever ever again, it's a waste of time. The Amp1 does excellently with everything except low bass (<~50 hz?) mid bass is well defined, but the low bass looses a bit of definition.

You can do better than the Amp 1 by spending more money...
The Power 1 is double the price and sounds twice as good. The P1 has the defined bass that the Amp 1 lacks and is even faster and more accurate - truly high performance.
You get what you pay for in either case.
The Amp 1 is musically satisfying and a good deal on the used market.

4 value stars - great deal
4 overall stars - very good product

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SFS-40, Sonic Frontiers Power 1

Just a quick review of this great inexpensive tube amp. I have used it with ProAcs, Totems and Viennas. right now I own my 2nd Anthem in two years and for the money with my ProAcs (Tab Signatures) this amp is hard to beat, it is very good in evry area of performance, and above all involving and musical. I currently borrowed a CJ Cav 50 integrated and after a few nights with it, conclude it too is a very good, musical SMOOTH amp, the Anthen a touch coarser but more involving and slightlty better at focus and making the ProAcs disappear. Anyway the Anthem has been the best buy for me considering it can be had used for as low as $600.00 (a steal) and it can hold it's own to tubes amps costing much more. (I had Audion Siver Night Monos for a while) much more expensive than the Amp One and better in terms of naturalness and lighting up the stage, but at $4000.00 they should be. Anthem Amp One a great amp, try one with the ProAc Tab 50's for a great inexpensive highly musical match.

I recently bought one of these Amp-1's and put it along with a Pre-1 demo that I had gotten from a local dealer into a new easy listening system. the speakers were B&W CMD1 SE's and the CD was Proceed PDA and PDT3. Man this little combo sounds good. I can't believe how sweet these things sound without any tweaking. I've always liked EL34's and this Amp-1 didn't disappoint. You pay serious money for solid state that sounds this good, and I'm not talking about soft, lush stuff. I talking about honest netural repoduction with no added artifacts.Highly reconmended. Five (5) stars.

Here is a note for all Amp1 owners. I have owned two Amp1's for over a year and did something against logic which greatly improved their sound. I currently own PSB Status Gold's and Magnepan Tympani IVa's. These are officially 4 ohm speakers. However, when I hooked them to the 8 ohm outputs, the sound changed dramatically. The bass was much deeper (stll somewhat mushy, but I found myself enjoying this distortion) and the midrange / highs were much less grainy.
Can other Amp1 owners corroborate this finding ? (you can email me)

BTW, if you own the Pre1, changing the internal gain setting from 16 db to 8 db of gain also improves them dramatically - just turn up the volumn.

I just hooked up the Amp1/Pre1L combination to a pair of B&W302 speakers. WOW! I don't know who said these components sounded like solid state, but they are way off. They bring the best out of the music. Strings sound silky smooth. The midrange is the best area, followed by detailed, but not bright highs. The bass is a little wooly, but deep and full. Soundstaging is very good, with a sense of space and depth around the performers. Live recordings really show the ambience. I've been listening to all sorts of gear recently (BAT, Sonic Frontiers, Audible Illusions, Classe, Berning) and these definitely hold their own--and in many ways are more musically satisfying than some of the more expensive gear. They can be found used at quite a discount--making them a real audiophile bargain. Five stars at their price point--I don't think you could go wrong with this purchase.