Plenty of bottom,priced right

These little Llano Design A-50s really surprised me. I bought them to use in my smaller system and I learned that even though they are rated at 50 watts per channel they will hold their own with an older 100watt Adcom amp I have. These little black beuties are small enough to place directly behind my speakers. That is an advantage plus they have plenty of bottom on 12" wolfers. They are warm, liquid and are priced right. I was told they can be purchased in a 10 watt or 25 watt version as well.

These little Llano Design Group A-50 Mini Monos are a pleasent surprise. I bought them to put in my smaller system and they do a great Job. They have a lot of bottom even on 12" wolfers. These little black beauties are clean and warm. Do not let the 50 watt rating fool you they will hold their own with my older Adcom 100 watt amp. The fact that they are small enough to put directly behind my speakers is an advantage.The price is right for the bang and you can get them in 10 watts, or 25 watts if have horn speakers or you are into home theater.

I initially started looking for a new amp when I was suffering from "ear fatigue" while listening to digital. Well, it is almost 3 years later and my sound is now so different I cannot believe the difference. I reached a point
where I had learned that what I had was transparent, and neutral. So after
saving for these monoblocks for quite a while, I finally got them after much
research. There were lots of others I wanted to try like Krell, Classe', Pass
McCormack, to mention a few. Cost, and performance were a major dilema for me
for a while. I finally realized that most of the stuff I liked was way to much
for me, even used. And I did want to get something in a Class A. Having heard
good things about the LLano amps, I committed to getting them, so that so I could buy new and have a 15 day trial, and also a 5 year warranty.
I was worried that there might not be enough power, as I often run multiple
pairs of speakers. I bi-amp, using an Active X-over. Let me say, these little
boxes seem every bit as powerful as my Forte' 6, which has around 200 watts.
I very rarely ever turn up my volume over 10:00, nor do I ever find the need to.
I have much headroom, and a very dynamic system. I usually run about 4-12" subs,
and right now, the LLano's are running all 4 with ease. I could swear the house
shook a little more with the LLano's- very deep, fast, controlled bass.
Running the high end with it made me aware of much more detail with it.
My high end speakers are a combination of Fried, which use Dynaudio drivers,
and some rebuilt DCM 2 ways, that I got a garage sale for $15.
If you look at all the speakers I have, Kef, Dynaudio, ScanSpeak you would hardly believe that I only have about $500 in speakers. But I have built all of them myself. I have heard Martin Logans, Magnepans and Acoustat's on amps that
that cost much more, and feel that in the highs, and in midrange that the sound
was comparable. Where my system has excelled better than those I have heard is
always in the bass. Mine easily has them all beat.
So, all in all I feel that I have a system that easily outperforms a lot of $10,000 plus systems, while I have maybe $3000 invested in mine. I have proved
it is possible to achieve a "world class" system on a "married guy's" budget.
Yeah, one of these days I will get a tube amp, and try that but I'm very content
right now because I feel I am getting very accurate sound reproduction.
I have always had like "the best sounding stereo", but I am finally feel that it
now sounds like the actual "event", which is a big accomplishment I think.
It sounds realistic with virtually all the things I play, and that's a lot of
variety, u name it, trains, t-storms, rain, stampede's, and virtually every inst
rument you can think of: fiddles, guitars, drums, triangle, choirs, vocals of any kind, all seem "right" and "believable".

These are fantastic little amps. They are absolutely thecleanest-sounding amps at this price. Fantastic extension
in both directions, very well balanced, and accurate. The
fact that they come as an aesthetically pleasing pair of
little monoblocks that can be placed directly behind the
speakers is a definite plus. I ended up selling mine to a
speaker manufacturer who loved them and used them to test
his speakers. I don't expect to replace the level of sonics
they offered without spending much more money.

Recently I had the chance to audition a friend's A-50's and compare them to my current amp (DIA 100 MkII). SO, I hooked them up after playing a few favorite tracks and noted that the Llano's have: excellent top and bottom extension, lots of slam, a fairly neutral bandwidth, a slight warm and "liquid" sound without sacrificing any resolution or detail. The A-50's seemed to breathe more life into the sound of my system over the DIA (being a tad too neutral and dry). These little black boxes made me realize that my tube lust could be well satisfied by the gorgeous sound of these hexfets. For a kilobuck it couldn't get much better. (P.S. If the kilobuck is not a problem--plan on having lots of patience as my friend waited 8 weeks for his.)

I have held off a while posting, to really let the "wow" factor wear off, andnot post a "initial impression".
What I notice most about these little jewels is the amount of detail they provide. Very linear in operation. Don't be mislead by the 50 watt rating, these
have all the balls of a 200 watt amp. I have tons of headroom, and I run multiple sets of speakers. For the heck of it, I tried them running 4-12" subs,
again very clean, robust and fast. I saved a long time to get these, as I am married and couldn't afford "the big boys" (Krell,Pass,CJ,YBA,etc,etc).
I feel they are transparent, and neutral. They are very easy to listen to, and
provide a "lifelike" presentation of any source material, and I think many people would be happy with these solid, well built units.