Myths and realities of the most beloved and controversial class of audio amplification.

In a period where the programmed obsolescence seems an ineluctable necessity, it is nice to bump into an amplifier that has been resisting for almost ten years in the catalogue of its manufacturer.

A very well made amplifier that plays wonderfully: a great exercise of style.

Finally, a deep listening test of an amp with the EL34 tubes. With this apparatus, Mauro Scarabotti by AAAVT has largely confirmed my expectations.

A headphone amp that goes beyond its purposes, provided with one of the more innovative circuitries made for the vacuum tubes: is this a High-End revolution?

I am currently moving towards moderate price devices, but with great sound. An itinerary that someone calls a downgrade.

The advantages of the class-A are undeniable. The power of an amplifier is not all, indeed! And there is another extreme, absolutely not secondary…

I will be forgiven by who, reasonably, will consider the term esoteric very overused in our field, but for this solid German integrated amp, I just have to use it...

Four typologies of tube integrated amplifiers in one device only: a listening experience that worth its price.

A powerful but refined tube amplifier to enjoy all kind of music.

A full optional single ended transistor integrated amp – phono stage excluded – that inserts itself in a very hard-fought category and level: the new reference products of the Middleweight market.

An 80 watts integrated amplifier that includes, as common use for the noteworthy amplifiers, an internal digital converter in addition to a MM phono stage of great value.

DAC, headphone amplifier and speaker into a small cube of six centimeters. To bring someone closer to a first musical listening nothing comes to my mind that could be easier, accessible and performing than this portable system.

A compact integrated amplifier, designed to target the users of streaming music, worthy and advanced exponent of the recent progeny of class-D amps.

Innovative circuitry, soon with an international patent, for a musicality that joins the best of the tubes with the best of the solid-state amps. With these amazing credentials, BFA Tulip introduces itself beyond the frontiers of the common audio circuits.

A superior quality in manufacture and musical refinement for a monotriode made around a tube that is unique in the world and comes from a brand that has shaped the history of the tube productions worldwide.

I have tested the KingRex T20U both with the standard switching PSU and the partnering PSU MKII, which promises to make it reach primacy in the listening quality: a development of the T-Amp?

The RI-100 has the inborn capacity of preserving every single instrument, almost guiding it into a precise, marked and correctly recreated scenic context. It is easy to read also the instruments in the background hidden inside the instrumental amalgam.

An integrated amp, a dedicated headphone amp and a tube preamplifier in a small gear at an entry-level price. Such products open the market to new categories of lovers of the good sound.

Delightfully, this historic brand of amplification makes a comeback in the limelight of the great sound: when British sound, Chinese production and Italian intuition give their best.

The resolution of making at home the transformers has been a forced choice for Trafomatic, so I warn you: if you opt for Trafomatic, you are going to choose a unique amplification. The same thing arose a couple of years ago when you had to decide for expensive Japanese amplifications.

Hirtel's brand has been recognized and praised by Saul Marantz who said, after having visited the factory, that Hirtel is at the same level of the most qualified American and Japanese production.

Designing an OTL that works, and good, it is not that simple. The S.I. Audio Cult/I amp shows how much can be made with clear ideas.

I find this amplifier very interesting from a listening point of view. It has shown a great synergy with the other components of my home system and without requiring any change in the set-up.

I think that the OTL technology, if properly made, can put together the purity and the transparency of the single-ended triodes with the power of the transistors, and the result is a splendid blending between dynamic force and naturalness in the emission.

It is quite impossible to find at the same price products with the same sound quality of the P88i.