Rogue Sphinx Magnum $2000 (100×2) My favorite integrated amp value just got better! An already classic integrated has been improved in crystalline detail and a more airy top end. Rogue has made the Sphinx v3 ($1700, 100×2 with Skeleton remote) for several years now. It’s a dynamite integrated amp, with MM/MC phono section, outstanding headphone amp and uses two 12AU7 tubes in the preamp stage. The tubes are JJs from the Slovak Republic. Rogue provides a matched pair- vs just grabbing any two out of boxes- to insure you have proper channel balance. Oh, and it’s built in the USA,
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Archives for integrated amp
12.2023
McIntosh MA8950 Integrated Amp: 200×2 McIntosh won’t let dealers post pricing on their higher end gear. That’s their rule and we have to comply. How many players are in the field on a baseball team? Mac is still made in Binghamton, NY, with luscious blue meters. It’s the coolest looking and most reliable gear in our business. Have you heard… we don’t last forever. Let’s have some FUN while we’re on the planet! Of course you could be prudent and boring. You could just buy a Yamaguchi integrated for $500 that will sound as dry as white toast. Hey, if
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08.2023
Tubes! Rogue Sphinx V3 Integrated Amp $1700 With Remote (5h, 17w, 15.5d, 25 lbs, 100×2 into 8 ohms. 200X2 into 4 ohms) One of my favorite integrated amps on the planet is the tube driven Rogue Sphinx V3 (Version 3). When Rogue went from V2 to V3, it incorporated some important changes that made it a much better performer. Rogue insists that you can’t put a DAC or Bluetooth in an integrated or you’ll soil its pristine resolution. It’s easy to buy an outboard DAC or Bluetooth device for modest (to crazy) money. Please don’t disqualify the Sphinx because they
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02.2023
Amphion has introduced a like minded, less expensive brother to its highly touted Argon 1 ($1900pr). We now have Amphion definition and musicality for not a lot over a grand. Helium 510: $1400 Per Pair (Black or White) $1500 Per Pair Walnut (12.44h, 6.3w, 10.43d, 13 lbs, 86 dB, 8 ohms) Helium 510 is the same size as Argon 1. It runs less money because it uses a pulp fiber bass mid driver while Argon 1 uses a linear-piston aluminum driver. While Helium 510 can’t achieve the stunning clarity that Argon 1 does, it IS competitive and charts new territory
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11.2022
McIntosh MA-352 Integrated Amp Back In Stock! This 200×2 integrated comes with tubes in the preamp section and still features luscious Mac power meters. This is a full analog beast that will play as beautifully as anything you can buy. If you order one from anyone you’ll wait six months plus for it. We just got a couple in stock. Why wait? Mac doesn’t permit dealers to post pricing. I’ll just tell ya this amp will put you in 7th heaven. GoldenEar ForceField 30 & 40 Subwoofers GoldenEar has just introduced a couple of new subs to replace its stalwarts,
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09.2022
Magnepan MG 3.7i Back On Dem! $8K Per Pair Magnepan was hit as hard as any of our vendors by Covid 19. Starting in early 2020, any order placed for pans would run six months or more. Six months was just a starting point. Magnepan couldn’t predict accurately for us, so we couldn’t predict accurately for you. Availability was so limited on some models, like 3.7i in particular, that any we could get were sold before they arrived. We literally couldn’t put them on display. All that came in were committed. MG .7 was out of production for over a
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03.2022
Mytek Liberty 2 DAC $1495 Covid 19 has impacted every audio company the last couple of years. Nobody has been disrupted more than Mytek. They have been out of the popular Liberty DAC for well over a year -and Liberty 2 is here- at long last! Liberty 2 steps in as THE best choice as a great cut above DAC- that compares to some of the most expensive on the market. In addition to sounding better on CD and hi-res streaming content, Liberty 2 supports full MQA decoding. If you like Tidal (I do!) you’re gonna love Liberty 2. Liberty
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10.2021
NAD M33 Integrated Amp $5000 (200×2) NAD’s M33 is perhaps THE BEST BUY in a high end integrated amp for a pile of reasons. $5k is a steal for this magnificent integrated amp/streamer. That’s right, it has an on board MQA streamer! NAD’s M33 is among the first products in the world to use the innovative Eigentakt amplifier circuit design. In short, M33 is impedance invariant and will drive ANY speaker you like. Due to Eigentakt, M33 sounds the same from watt one to clipping. Almost every speaker on the market will sound better with more power than less power.
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06.2020
Hegel H-590 Integrated Amp $11,000 (301×2) (6.75h, 17w, 17.6d, 50 lbs) Good gravy, is this integrated a STAR or what?! Rated at 301×2 into 8 ohms, double into 4, and double that into 2, H-590 has a frighteningly fine & powerful amplifier section. 300/600/1200! You also get a state of the art DAC and preamp in the same box. It has Ethernet in for streaming options. H-590 started as a power amp project. Designer Bent Holter went innovative as he dove in and decided he could put these 3 components on one chassis- and save a bundle compared to doing
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02.2020
Hegel H-120 Integrated Amp ($3000, 75×2) (4h, 17.25w, 11.75d, 28 lbs of DYNAMITE!) Hegel’s new integrated will flat out BLOW YOU AWAY for its price point! H-120 is soooo stinkin’ good that I don’t know exactly how to describe it. But try, I will. First of all, I want to make clear that I think the new H-120 achieves a new plateau for its price point. To my ears, H-120 is the least expensive integrated that sends you sailing into the BIG TIME of esoteric audio electronics performance. H-120 will make almost any speaker sound significantly more detailed and refined.
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