quanti88

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.50 of 5, 8.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Awesome SET integrated tube amp with plenty of power, finesse, transparency, 3D imaging, speed, dynamic and good solid bass. A superb all rounder that’s sounds absolutely fabulous with all kinds of music, jazz, rock, classical and especially acoustic/vocal. No problems driving my Yamaha Ns1000M (match made in heaven!) or Ls35a speakers. If you like pure, natural lifelike tube sounds with good drive, bass, detail, open/wide soundstage, delicacy and finesse then this is the amp to go for! This is one of the best amp I have owned/heard regardless of price. An excellent alternative to costly hyped 300B design SET amp (weak bass, expensive tubes, limited drive/power).This amp has been reviewed by Ken Kessler,Hi Fi News and he described it as a cut-price version of the legendary Audionote £50,000 Ongaku! I definitely agree!

Strengths:
Lifelike 3D imaging, soundstage,dynamic,good solid bass,finese,drive and power.

Weaknesses:
weighs 35kg, Hot tubes not children friendly!

Summary:
This one is really good. Has enough power to drive most speakers. An ideal integrated SET.

Strengths:
Drive. Soudstage. Transparency. Musicality.

Weaknesses:
Big and heavy(36 kg!). Produces a lot of heat.

Similar Products Used:
A lot.

Summary:
Outstanding!

Summary:
I changed all the input tubes for Telefunken ECC82 and ECC83 Diamond marked (). WHAT A REVELATION!!The sound improves DRAMATICALLY. It´s like a new amp. I can´t say what part of the sound improves cause EVERYTHING is better.
If you find these (hard to find) tubes (remember, with the mark at the bottom) and you own this marvelous amp, buy it!
For these tubes, and with this amp, maybe one hundred stars is not enough!

Summary:
This is one of the very best amplifiers that I´ve heard. My previous amps were Smart 845 monoblocks and this integrated beat the Smarts in every area. I think that the Simply 845 sounds better cause have a passive pre-amp stage and it´s a true zero feedback design (the Smart 845 has 6dB of feedback, no matter what dealers says) not to mention the integrated nature of the electronics (less cables, more simplicity, etc).The sound is very powerful (heard it to believe what 24W of direct heated single-ended triode power can do with your insensitive speakers is a revelation), clean, transparent, dinamic, and VERY 3D. Vocals has the usual presence and naturalness that it´s the SET halmark. It´s the dream amp for the Jazz lovers and, because has deep bass, sounds very powerful with Reegae and Rap.It´s very well build amp (35 Kg.) with a gorgeous look (Real wood and Black iron) and has an uncommon kind of output transformers (toroidals instead EI). This amp sounds wonderful with Spendor SP-100, ProAC response 2.5, Sonus Faber Guarneri Homage and above all, sounds AMAZING with the Tannoy GRF Memory TW that I own.
This amp has two ECC83 for the input stage and two ECC82 for the driver Stage, and, of course, two big 845 as power output tubes. After many changes I replaced the ECC83 for the lower gain equivalent General Electric 5751 and the ECC82 for the RFT ECC82.
Don´t be afraid of the output power of this amp, this is a VERY powerful and delicate amp.
I STRONGLY recommend this amp to any serious music lover.

For looks, sound and build quality FIVE STARS (no doubt).