I Didn't Think I'd See the Day.

    This came upon me as a complete surprise. After listening to numerous single ended power amplifiers, tubed and solid state alike, l had basically given up on the species. After all, the Blue Circles that some had raved over had little going for them here. The opinions in the BFS listening room, and at Bob O'Neill's in Denver were unanimous - those amps had no life. Then the highly touted and deified Pass Aleph 3 underwhelmed all that heard it. Amp of the year? Not for my dollars.
Then it came in the door, another class A solid state single ended power amplifier, and I had to wonder if the manufacturer didn't mad BFS, or was simply a glutton for punishment. Hadn't he read what I thought about the obvious distortions heard in similar amps? Didn't he know that I consider the whole SE thing a marketing ploy made to sell product and relieve audio consumers of spare cash?
 
    Ready to trash the amps before even plugging them in, I went through the set-up protocol expecting that my time was being wasted. It wasn't-—I've listened to them every day since. This is at Last what a single ended power amplifier is supposed to sound like Dimensional, liquid and articulate; I have a feeling that the review is going to be a crazy one-----it has all the sonic characteristics of being a final amplifier purchase when a budget is in mind. But hey, I've only been listening for a week, my mind could change.

    So far the amp has legend potential written all over it. As much as I've disliked SE amps in the past, (and I've not been quiet about it) this amplifier may have changed my mind completely and forever. I'm not locked into any opinion, and this mini mono amplifier proves it. And it costs less than two thousand dollars for 100 class A watts per channel. Oh! You want to know who makes it? It's from Monarchy.
 
 

Reprinted with permission from:

BOUND FOR SOUND