MrT

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Price Paid:  $850.00 from private seller

Summary:
This is for the combo audiolab 8000C & 8000P bought used. A few years ago I ,after trying out and owning a nice bunch of amps (many of them british), got my hands om an 8000A mkII, wich then absolutely blew my mind. In my opinion a true performer with excellent clear sound and nice "slam" - given it's price. A few moths ago I decided to upgrade, this despite my opinion that the 8000A managed to drive my NHT 2.5i's with a fair amount of control. After searching for a few months a got my hands on 8000C & 8000P (made in the UK). Got my mind blown once again by audiolab. The soundstage and 3D imaging is simply amazing and the neutrality is unlike I've ever heard in the price range. Sound is crystal clear and the bass is deep, controlled and has the real slam to it that I prefer, though without sounding "loudness". The extra watts/amperes makes a noticable difference compared to the 8000A, especially at high sound levels. The main thing about this amp is in my opinon NEUTRALITY. Therefore I can't enough point out the importance of choice of signal source. I went with a mid range Cambridge Azur cd player that has a good amount of "attack" and a quite coloured sound to it. For the best sound out of the 8000p - go for modern D/A conversion with a broad soundstage! And always play it with tone controls off (flat)! The phonostage deserves special mention, since it has a nice warm sound to it.

Strengths:
Plenty of power. Bass with SLAM, wide and deep 3D soundstage, crystal clear highs, balanced mids, phonostage, build quality (can it go forever?). Got to be 5 stars!

Weaknesses:
The 8000C lacks remote
NEEDS to be paired with quality CD (source) that is on the "coloured" side and has modern D/A conversion - nothing else will do the 8000P & 8000C justice. Don´t even think about connecting these babies to some old flat sounding cd player or cheap DVD.

Similar Products Used:
Owned by me in the past: 8000C & 8000P , Arcam A65+, Arcam A90, Rega Mira 3, Naim Nait, Linn LK1-2, Linn Intek, Sansui Au-9500, Acurus DIA-100, Yamaha M-50 /C-50 (great), Accuphase E-204, Yamaha A-900, Thule IA 150 and maybe 20 more=)

Huck-L.Berry

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Price Paid:  $999.00 from mw-audio, Munich

Summary:
Bought a audiolab combo 8000q+p at € 999 + 649 to replace my burnt out Musical Fidelity A2 after a lot of auditioning and comparing (see similar products) in the pricerange up to € 1650,-.
Sonically I found them to be just fine, really fine, balanced and neutral, with good bass and fine treble, not tiring even after hours and hours of listening. Wide stage. Lots of power. BUT:
I had auditioned 2006 models. They were all good. When the new ones arrived I was absolutely shocked by build/component quality. On the 8000q volume pot and all controls feelwise are cheapest (e.g. lots (I mean LOTS) of play), muting didn't work properly (a blop from the left channel at every switching), reaction to rc bad for volume and input. Nastily cheap speaker posts and feet. I have not ever seen any amp made so badly, at no price. The 8000p has a strong hum from within the cabinet, not from the speakers. Negligible, but worth mentioning.
An attempt by distribution to find a replacement at least for the pot produced nothing.
I handed them back.
Am I too much into build quality and touch-feel with items sitting in a prominet place in the living room? Certainly all the other amps audtioned were perfect buildwise, so why should this not be possible for audiolab?!?!

Strengths:
Sound is really fine, balanced, neutral, good bass and fine treble, not tiring even after hours and hours of listening. Wide stage. Lots of power.
Buy if you don't care about anything else.
Dont buy if you're into marked quality.

Weaknesses:
Touch-feel totally off-putting to me.
Cheapest pot, switches, posts, feet.

Similar Products Used:
Musical Fidelity A2, Lyngdorf sdai 2175, Primare i21, Cambridge Azur 740+840v2, Densen B110, Myryad MXI 2080

Price Paid:  $400.00 from PJ Hifi Guildford

Summary:
When my Quad 33 pre-amp died I was forced to hunt for something that would work with my Quad 303 power amp and my beloved BBC LS3/5a speakers. After a trek that would make Frodo look like a slouch I came across the Audiolab series at UK£400. I now have the 8000C which, IMHO, easily outperforms the Quad 33. It's clear, uncluttered and (after burning in, placing in the right room and sacrificing a goat or whatever you have to do to make your hifi sound superb) performs nicely. Orders-of-magnitude better than the Audiolab integrated pre/power amp.

Strengths:
Soundstage, neutrality.

Weaknesses:
As others have said, not the last word in clarity (or attack), and not the cheapest preamp on the market. Needs a GOOD power amp - not to mention a clean mains supply - to bring out its best.

Similar Products Used:
Rest of system described in review.

Price Paid:  $900.00 from Artech

Summary:
I moved from am Audiolab Integrated to an Audiolab 8000Q to power my Odyssey Audio Stratos. What a miraculous difference. The amount of additional gain the 8000Q provides turned my system into a true work of art. Excellent features, as well as a sensitive volume control. Very low noise floor, with transparency and exellent soundstaging. The Dynaudio A50s I use aren't the best in the soundstage area, or transparency, but this preamp truly brought them to life. It gave them the energy to dig deep into the music to obtain every last note. Possibly one of the best buys in audio.

Strengths:
Transparency, gobs of gain, and soudnstaging.

Weaknesses:
That I don't need another. I may get one more just to protect myself from having to buy anything else if this one ever dies. It's perfect.

Similar Products Used:
Rotel 972, Classe CP35

Price Paid:  $600.00 from 6th Avenue Audio

Summary:
This was my first higher end pre-amp. It followed up a Vector Research receiver that was quite good, but the Audiolab was a big improvement. Ultimately I used with with a pair of Dynaco ST70 IIs driving ProAc Response 2 2s in a bi-amp configuration. This was a killer rig, which I later upgraded into the big bucks and gave the Audiolab 8k to a friend who uses it with a 100wpc Nikko amp and some better Bose speakers. That's the history.

How did it fare when driving those Dynacos into truly high-end speakers? Quite good, thank you. This is an excellent value for the price. It has silky smooth knobs, which are large and easy to grasp. The front panel is elegantly understated and modern in appearance. It has excellent bypassable tone controls. I found these tone controls unusually transparent and useful - pretty unusual. My model had a phono stage that was quite useable with good Grado moving magnet type cartridges.

When I decided to move up to a killer turntable with a moving coil cartridge I knew I'd have to move on. I began a long audition period looking at high end pre-amps. This search revealed that the Audiolab 8k was a little euphonic and glazed. It didn't quite have the dynamics or the transparency of the very best. Keep in mind I'm talking about gear costing 5 times as much here. If you've got to lose dynamics and transparency to some extent, at least replace it with nice warm euphonic glaze. The Audiolab did little damage to the music and really is an excellent value for the money.

After a few years, the right channel disappeared. It cost a hundred$ to fix but has been solid ever since. Internally the whole thing is one thick beautiful blue green epoxy board with nice fat tracings and lots of nice chunky looking discrete components including decent caps. I have no problem recommending these to anyone on the used market.

Strengths:
Excellent neutrality for the price. Phono section quite decent, but no moving coil support (not surpising at the price). Great tone controls, bypassable.

Weaknesses:
Blew a channel after 3 years. Not the last word in dynamics or transparency.

Similar Products Used:
AR SP14.