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STEREO • MUSIC
AUDIO ELECTRONICS
Sponsored by
Music Direct
GUIDE to
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Contents
|
Features
|
Integrated Amps & All-In-one Systems
|
Preamps & Power Amps
|
golden Ear Awards
|
Editors' Choice
Contents
Features
• From the Editor
• On the Horizon:
Great New Products
Coming Your Way
• How to Choose Just
the Right Amount of
Amplifier Power
• 12 Most Significant
Preamplifiers
• 10 Most Significant
Power Amplifiers
• Amplifier Designer
Roundtable
Integrated Amps Preamps &
Power Amps
& All-In-One
Systems
• AVA Transcendence Eight+/
• Marantz PM8004
• Rotel RCX-1500CD
• NAD 390DD
• Micromega AS-400
• Naim SuperUniti
• AVM Inspiration
• VItus SIA—025
FET Valve 600R
• PrimaLuna DiaLogue 3
• T+A P 1260R and A 1560R
• NuForce Reference 18
• Zesto Andros
• Hegel H30
• Constellation Virgo,
Centaur, Perseus
• Pass Labs XP-30
Golden Ear
Awards
• Electronics Golden Ear Award
Winners from 2011 and 2012
Editors' Choice
Electronics
• Preamplifiers
• Power Amplifiers
• Integrated Amplifiers
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STEREO • MUSIC
aUDIO ELECTRONICS
publisher.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Hannon
editor-in-chief
. . . . . . . . . . . Robert Harley
executive editor
. . . . . . . . . Jonathan Valin
acquisitions manager
and associate editor
. . . . . Neil Gader
music editor
. . . . . . . . . . . . Mark Lehman
creative director
. . . . . . . . Torquil Dewar
art director
. . . . . . . . . . . . . Shelley Lai
founder/editor emeritus
. . Harry Pearson
senior writers
. . . . . . . . . . . Anthony H. Cordesman
Wayne Garcia
Robert E. Greene
Chris Martens
Tom Martin
Dick Olsher
Andrew Quint
Paul Seydor
Steven Stone
Alan Taffel
reviewers &
contributing writers
. . . . . Duck Baker, Greg
Cahill, Stephen Estep,
Jacob Heilbrunn,
Sherri Lehman,
Ted Libbey, David
McGee, Kirk Midtskog,
Bill Milkowski, Derk
Richardson, Jeff Wilson
nextscreen, LLC
chairman and ceo
. . . . . . . Tom Martin
vp/group publisher
. . . . . . Jim Hannon
advertising reps
. . . . . . . . Cheryl Smith
(512) 891-7775
Marvin Lewis
MTM Sales
(718) 225-8803
To sign up for Buyer’s Guides
alerts, click here
Address letters to the Editor:
The Absolute Sound,
8868 Research Blvd., Austin, TX 78758 or
rharley@nextscreen.com
©2011 NextScreen, LLC
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FROM THE
Editor
Welcome to our latest Buyer’s guide, this one covering preamplifiers, power
amplifiers, and integrated amplifiers. We bring you full reviews of 18 products
ranging in price from the amazingly great $999 Marantz pM8004 integrated to the
stratospherically priced—and stratospherically wonderful-sounding—Constellation
virgo, Centaur, and perseus separates.
The new products in this year’s Buyer’s Guide reflect the rapidly changing way we access music. It’s
amazing how much the landscape has evolved in just 12 months. We’ve got a review of the Micromega
AS-400 integrated amp that offers a DAC with wireless streaming capability. Then there’s Naim’s
remarkable SuperUniti, a product that combines an 80Wpc integrated amplifier with built-in wireless
UPnP (Universal Plug ’n’ Play) network streaming, a USB DAC, iPhone and iPod dock, Internet radio,
DAB radio, FM radio, and a preamplifier with ten inputs. And let’s not forget NAD’s C 390DD, a “Direct
Digital Amplifier” that converts digital data from a music server or other source directly into the signal
that powers your loudspeakers. Just connect your music server to one of the C 390DD’s digital inputs
(which are on removable cards to accommodate future technologies) and a pair of loudspeakers to the
NAD’s output and you’ve got a complete, highly advanced, high-resolution music-playback system.
Traditionalists will also find much to enjoy in this Guide, from the pure tubed PrimaLuna DiaLogue 3
preamplifier and Zesto Andros phonostage to the tube/transistor hybrid Fet Valve 600R from Audio by
Van Alstine. The high-power brigade is well represented by the mighty NuForce Reference 18 amplifiers
to the 375Wpc Hegel H30 from Norway. And if you’ve ever wondered what one-thousand-dollars-per-
watt sounds like, check out our review of the $25,000, 25 watt-per-channel Class A SIA-25 integrated
amplifier from Vitus.
We’ve also included in this special issue the Golden Ear Award winners
in preamplifiers, power amplifiers, and integrated amplifiers from 2011 and
2012. These are our individual editors’ and writers’ personal favorites. One
of our most popular features is the “Most Significant” products of all time.
We reprint here “The 12 Most Significant Preamplifiers of All Time” along
with “The 10 Most Significant Power Amplifiers of All Time.” Did your
favorites make our select list?
To provide you with the background you need for choosing a power
amplifier or integrated amp, this Guide includes an excerpt from my book
The Complete Guide to High-End Audio
(fourth edition). This excerpt not
only tells you how to match an amplifier’s output power to a loudspeaker’s
sensitivity, it also might change the way you think about just how
important those amplifier watts really are.
Robert Harley
C li ck here to tu rn th e p ag e.
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Hot New Electronics
Coming Your Way
Neil gader
oN tHE HoRIZoN
Musical Fidelity M1PWR Amplifier
The M1PWR uses a proprietary, Musical Fidelity-designed hybrid PWM amplifier topology
in a half-width compact chassis. In stereo mode it delivers 60Wpc into 8 ohms, and power
doubles into 4 ohms. The rear panel is selectable for monoblock operation for 100W
into 8 ohms or 200W into 4 ohms, with exceedingly low distortion of 0.05% and great
phase integrity, linear frequency response, and superb signal-to-noise ratio and stereo
separation. Like all other Musical Fidelity power amplifiers, M1PWR will drive a huge range
of loads with ease. Powerful yet nuanced, clear yet sweet, and uncolored yet textured, it is
definitely not your average high-efficiency amplifier.
price:
$1299. tempohighfidelity.com
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