I have owned the audire forte since 1987 I also have an audio research SP-9 preamp with Mk 11 upgrade and kef 107 speakers and a linn LP-12 turntable with many upgrades this combination is quite nice the audire has plenty of power works very well with all of my other componets

I have recently upgraded from Acoustats to B&W Matrix 803 Series II speakers. Suddenly, I realize what fine amps these Fortes really are. Although I always have liked Audire products, especially for the money, the Acoustats do have sonic issues that are really pronounced in a direct compcparison.
Since getting the new (to me) speakers, I have had to upgrade my CD player and tuner. Even my old Ariston/Signet/Supex/Poco (Audire head amp) sound noticeably better. The Fortes will stay!
I also now use my subs, one of which is powered by the second Forte. The extreme high frequencies, lacking on the Acoustats, are now as crispy clean as can be. I was not absolutely certain the speakers were at fault, but I am now quite certain the Fortes are as fine as any class A/B amp needs to be.
I am looking for a third Forte to biamp my B&Ws, since the 803 Matrix bass is quite light for my quite large listening room. These amps certainly surpass the sound of the much more powerful Classe amps I recently compared (again). Dan Vignau

I have had two of these amplifiers for over 20 years, and they are top-drawer audiophile quality.

I love them, but there is one issue that drove me nuts until I did some modifications; the input impedance is NOT 51K ohms as Julius states on the spec sheet; it is actually only 1.6K ohms. This is very odd, but I verified it on the test bench.

I was having trouble getting them to work with the Vandersteen subwoofers, because the erroneous info on the input impedance caused me to choose the wrong rolloff filter capacitors.

Once I figured it out, I changed the input resistor to increase the input impedance to 5.7 K ohms (this lowered the amp gain), and Used a 0.47uFD film input cap to give the amp a 70 HZ rolloff frequency to work with the subs. Substituting the film cap for the stock electrolytic input cap improved the sound purity markedly.

Gargantuan bass, terribly sweet and detailed mids and highs, extreme reliability. Total separation of the various voices. Runs very cool, even in cabinet with four amps. Clipping indicators allow the sound to be adjusted to maximum without distortion, and save speaker cones. Customer service!

Ugly. Balanced inputs are on sides, requiring a lot of space. Not all are like this. This amp was made for 20 plus years. Julius won't release schematics.

I have two of thee brutes powering Acoustats and could not be happier. Mine are not MOSFETS. They have enough clean power to fill my huge room and are as clean and quick as about anything short of Nelson Pass or John Curl designed Class A amps. In fact, the designer of this amp does have Class A products which easily surpass the others. On my electrostatics, these amps are about perfect. On my B&Ws, the Class A amps might have an imaging advantage. This is not an issue with six foot tall planar speakers. Instruments and voices on all Audire products are distinct from each other, unlike the Adcom, NAD, Carver or Bongiorno designed amps I've used which play loud and clean, but smear the various voices into one.

I have owned Audire products for 25 years. I see no reason to spend more money for anything else.

Customer Service

The Best!

Similar Products Used:

Adcom, Classe, Phase Linear, Ampzilla, NAD, Audio Research.

Massive power supply, plenty to drive the power hungery Magnepan 3.5 speaker without any problems. Very transparent and fast. Mine is now 18 years old and has never given a problem. The fine line of Audire amplifiers and equipment is designed and built by a very helpful and customer satisfaction oriented gentleman in Fountain Valley California.

None that I can site

The Forte is a dual mono design with plenty of clean, transparent power to drive low impedance loads with no problem. The amplifier is conservatively rated at 125 WPC/RMS at 8 ohms and 250 WPC at 4 ohms. The basic design has been in production for almost 20 years, with the mosfet drivers being offered somwhere in the early 90's. Very well made and durable. My Forte has been in use since 1982 without any problems. If I had to replace it today I would use anouther Audire Forte or Otez as I believe Audire offers a very strong quality vs dollar value.

Similar Products Used:

Joule Electra, B&K,