For many years now I have wanted to see how good the 300B tube amplifier design actually is and to see how far this design can be pushed to extract every last drop of it's acclaimed holographic presentation and musicality.

The Masterpiece edition 300B integrated amplifier has more than exceeded my expectations in terms of sheer enjoyment from music, especially live recordings where it exhibits a beautifully "real" sound where musicians and instruments are visible in time and space as a truly cohesive field.

At only 7W output, it is a little low for many low sensitivity loudspeakers and care here is needed to match this amplifier with anything below 90dB how-ever I have also been surprised at how well this amplifier copes with large loudspeakers such as the Voltaire lll which as it happens has  very tube friendly impedance characteristics and easily driven by this amplifier and at high volumes which I generally like to listen to. Also of note is it's ability to deliver a very precise and extended bass rendition without the often terrible bass control of other tube amplifiers. High frequencies shimmer and vocals are simply exquisite with imaging of pin point accuracy and definition.

Having a very high input impedance negates the need of a separate pre-amplifier and the first pre-buffer stage is taken care of by a matched pair of Psvane 6SN7 vacuum tubes. Having tested many 300B tubes I still prefer the Golden Lion version and although the differences are quite small, I have decided the masterpiece edition needed to sound as good as possible.

Output transformers are another very long and difficult subject and after long discussions with NP Acoustics from Vietnam who are passionate about their transformer product, I  am now using them exclusively for both power output transformers and also pre-amplifier transformers and will soon be making a reference pre-amplifier to add to the masterpiece collection. These beautifully made transformers sound amazing and a step up from many other brands that get great reviews.

Internal wiring is again from Duelund Audio both with solid silver foil on outputs and signal cable. This is a design that loves silver especially the very high grade and pure silver!

Encased in a solid burr Elm and a 3mm brass cabinet including dampened standoff material and transformer dampening to ensure the whole structure is virtually free of extraneous vibrations and external spurious emissions. This amplifier is very quiet and has an inky black background during playback.

Having spent the last few years developing headphone amplifiers based around the HiFiMan Susvara Ref headphones, it soon became apparent that this design is also an incredibly good match with high end headphones and using a switched attenuator can also partner with high sensitivity headphones. This is now my reference headphone amplifier and can also be built purly for this purpose for the discerning audiophile headphone fan. 

Please contact me to discuss this product 

Price   £5000.00 - SOLD