Highly musical and smooth. Very seductive highs and mids. A lot of good bass for an SET amp.

(1) Runs very hot (2) The optional tube cages do not fit (3) The stock tubes are better than average, spend more $$$ to get better (4) Very poor resale value

I got this brand new from eAudio.net after a pure leap of faith from reading TAS reviews. I used this monoblocks to drive a pair of Revel F30 which is right (gorgeous mids) and wrong (F30 is hard to drive with most SET). I'd describe the sound is sweet and smooth. You do lose some details in exchange for excellent musicality. IMHO, among the many amps I owned before (CJ, ML, Classe, etc.) only the Mark Levinson monoblocks could compare the exquiste sound quality. But it's not perfect. The optional cages are a total joke because not only they do not fit on the unit, the drilled holes do not even line up. Whoever designed this case needs some serious vision checks. Also, I (was stupid enough that) purchased this amp brand new. It turned out AQ is such an no-name (underrated) that nobody offer to buy mine's until I dropped the price all the way to $1560. We are talking about an $1400 drop after 4 months! Nobody even wanna take trade in for this!

SET sound. Relatively inexpensive.

Runs very hot. Poor resale value. Stock tubes don't sound that great.

This is a review of the latest model which comes with bias meter display. Very nice SET sound. Runs rather hot. Factory tube cage doesn't fit (ahhhh!). 22W class A can't drive low sensivity speakers well. In my case, it struggles badly with the Revel F30 (87db sensitivity) when playing large orchestral work at reasonable volume. Bass is plenty and tight but nothing like an ML #23. Poor resale value: If you wanna get one, get one used. Don't buy new or you will be regretful.

Similar Products Used:

Classe CA2000, Mark Levinson #23, Sonic Frontiers Power 2 & 3, Conrad Johnson 2300.

Smooth, clean, very musical and punchy sound. Can drive any speaker. It's also a looker.

Runs very hot, like a heater in my listening room.

If you are looking for tube sound with lots of punch, detail, and musicality, these amps are perfect. I had used them with B&W 805's Nautilus, B&W P6 and the Soliloquy 5.0. Pre-amp tested was a Modulus 3A from Audible Illusions. A 60 watt per monoblock in triode is quite rare and expensive. Try them.

Similar Products Used:

Plenty.