Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
The final destination of Simply 4 is my wife’s office, driving a pair of Ensemble Animata. Simply 4 and Ensemble are better match as Animata are more efficient than LS3/5a and have more extended treble. Simply 4 makes Animata sound warmer and more “romantic”. For LS3/5a, however, I think that Audion Silvernight (24W 300B push-pull) matches better. 300B improves the somewhat closed-in treble of LS3/5a, and has better control over the speaker, though the rated power of Simply 4 and Silvernight are about the same (24W). With this re-arrangement, I am satisfied and can enjoy the music for a long time.

Similar Products Used:
Audion Silvernight

Price Paid:  $1800.00 from Taiwan

Summary:
I sold all the audio gears in my office (mediocre tube preamp/amp and Thiel CS2). Got one trade-in Rogers 3/5a, and need a appropraite amp to match. As tube nut, I have one pair of vintage RCA theater tube amps (150W, 6550*4 per side) driving Extrema in my master bedroom, one pair of Audion Silver Night (24W, 2*300B per side) driving Ensemble Animata in my wife's office. The only other tube power amps I want to won is ehter EL34 or 6L6. I make up my mind immediately -- it got to be Unison Simply Four, and find a demo unit in another city here in Taiwan. Very elegant and mucical, and a beauty to llo on. It cannot push bass out of LS3/5a like my vintage RCA amps. But for enjoying the music, it is enough. But if you are more of hi-fi type of audiophile, you should look for 6550 based amps from Audio Research or Conrad Johnson. Unison is for mucsic lover only. I have not tried to compare Audion Silver Night with Simply 4. Eventually I will do the comparison and report the result here.

Strengths:
musicality, elegance

Weaknesses:
not ver powerful, cannot push bass out of inefficient speakers (you should never expcet it to do so)

Similar Products Used:
Audion Silver Night, various "powerful" tube amps.

Price Paid:  $2000.00

Summary:
This is very good amp for classical, jazz and vocal. It's beautiful to look at. In term of the original tubes, the Sovtek EL34 do not really match well with this amp. A nice upgrade would be Svetlana EL34s and Tesla E34Ls; both are at an affordable price. The ultimate upgrade would be the Siemens which I have not done yet. For the ECC82,try the 12AU7WA/E82CC from CIFTE(France) or the Philips ECG 5814A/12AU7A Tube. A very nice upgrade at an affordable price.

The nice thing about a tube amp is you can upgrade you tubes before you change your whole amp and the price of the tubes are much cheaper than replacing the whole amp.

The rest of my system:
Meridian 500/566.20 connect with TaraLabs RSC Air Digital 110
Thorens TSP-40 bookshelf Speakers
TaraLabs RSC Prime 500 Speaker Cables
Acrotec 6N-A2050 RCA inteerconnect

Strengths:
Very sweeet sound, can be used as a heater in the winter time

Weaknesses:
No remote control, comes with cheap tubes

Price Paid:  $1200.00 from Used

Summary:
I have been using this integrated as part of my main system for at least three years now and the upgrade bug is still dormant. The presence and impact of the very deep soundstage produced by the Simply Four lures you like a siren. Particularly good with vocals and small ensembles and very impressive with any carefully recorded source (e.g. almost anything by Clarity Records).

I would not choose this amp to play Wagner's Ring or Led Zeppelin, I think their 24w/ch preclude doing a very good job there unless paired with the most efficient of speakers. If your tastes, however, drift more towards jazz, soft rock and less demanding classical fare, this tube amp definitely deserves a listen.

The rest of my system:

CD Player - JVC XLZ-1050tn
Interconnect - Kimber Silver Streak
Speakers - B&W Matrix 805

Strengths:
Overall musicality and ability to engage the listener. Combined with the right speakers, can project great soundstage depth.

Weaknesses:
Very low-end bass definition... and not much else.

Similar Products Used:
Unison Simply Two