Amplifiers

Hitachi’s discovery and production of MOSFETs (Metal Oxide Silicon Field Effect Transistor) had a major role in the hi-fi world that was just around the corner in the mid-1970s. The world had only been in solid-state for fifteen years and was still on a long and steep learning curve. However, Hitachi’s new power MOSFET output […]

This would have been great if NAD had built a tube amplifier. It shared a lot of DNA with the ubiquitous 3020, having been designed by Peter Bath (who worked for Dolby, AR, and even NAD), and built by IEEE in Taipei (who used to build Cambridge Audio, Luxman, Proton, and NAD devices). While the

Despite being the company’s best-selling and possibly most-loved legacy product, few audiophiles in the United Kingdom paid attention to the launch of the Audio Research SP9 in 1987. It was a powerful – and technically creative – preamplifier that appealed to a British audience that was enamored with other trends at the time. If we’re

Creek has long been the king of low-cost British integrated amplifiers. The CAS4040, for example, is a delightful listen and one of the nicest things any wannabe audiophile could afford back in the day. It featured a rich, gripping sound that was detailed and melodic, and it delivered a lot of bang for your buck.

This monstrous integrated amplifier, which cost £3,499 when it was first released a decade ago, was a Sugden A21a on steroids. The IA-4 set out to provide that crystalline Class A sound to a larger audience, with significantly increased power and additional features. The biggest difference between it and its smaller A21a S2 sibling was

Sony CEO Akio Morita travelled to the United States in the early 1960s in an attempt to persuade Americans to listen to little transistor radios, as he relates in his brilliant autobiography Made In Japan. The consumer electronics business in the United States was initially skeptical that anyone would want to listen to something smaller

This Tellurium Q power amplifier, another example of a great British hi-fi ‘what-if,’ debuted on the scene in 2012, promising so much. This newish British startup isn’t prone to exaggeration; rather, the excitement sprang from the fact that it was designed by Colin Wonfor, formerly of Inca Tech and one of the industry’s many eccentric

Pioneer is one of the more intriguing Japanese brands, as well as one of the most impressive in terms of product quality over time. It has never failed to innovate in consumer electronics since it was founded in 1937 by Japanese engineer Nozomu Matsumoto. The golden years of hi-fi, according to neutral observers, were from

Quad was a one-man band in the mid-1960s who could do no wrong. Its recently released ESL-57 electrostatic loudspeaker was revolutionary and widely regarded as one of the best designs in the world. Its Quad II valve power amplifiers were also of high quality, and they had garnered a lot of fans. This made it

Quad has typically catered to rich, (small c) conservative people who value quality but aren’t willing to spend exorbitant prices for it. Perhaps this explains why the 909 power amplifier is essentially a gently revised and rehoused 405 – the company’s award-winning, high-capacity transistor power amplifier that was introduced in 1975. There’s nothing wrong with