JBL SA550 Classic

JBL's retro-looking stereo amplifier sounds as warm and inviting as it looks

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The SA550's attractive retro styling is intended to make it a perfect match for JBL's Classic or Studio Monitor speakers. Even if you're not planning on pairing two JBL products together in your system, we think the SA550 Classic looks standout and charming in its own right.

The front panel's contrasting brushed fascia gives it a bit of an edge, while the warm glow of the exclamation point from the JBL logo gives it a bit of character. It's a solid, chunky-looking unit which we think has a great deal of rack presence.

On the front are rotary dials for volume and switching input, with four buttons that give you access to the amp's menus, digital filters, display options and mute. The arrangement is neat and nicely spaced out, while the controls are solid, responsive and generally nice to use.

On the front is an auxiliary input and headphone socket, with a good assortment of connectivity options round the back. There's a single set of speaker terminals, four analogue inputs, including an MM phono stage, and three digital inputs which work with the amp's hires ESS ES9038K2M DAC chip. You have three coaxial and one optical, but no USB input, which we are slightly surprised to see omitted. There is Bluetooth connectivity with support for aptX Adaptive, though.