What, if anything, might those extra 260Wpc—and those extra pounds of transformer and heat-dissipating metal—mean sonically in my moderately sized listening room? I was determined to find out.
Rock the joint
“I listen mainly to rock and a few classical tracks—for example, The Planets,” AMP V designer Sebastian Ruland told me during a WhatsApp chat that also included Hans-Joachim “Jochen” Voss, the owner of Accustic Arts. “This is the main thing I was thinking about musically when I was designing.”
“We wanted sound that’s authentic and natural,” Voss added. “Some electronics sound overly analytical. We have tried to make the AMP V sound as natural as live music, from the bass to the heights, without overdoing the bass. Our goal is to produce really solid, good-sounding music that works with all good loudspeakers. For example, we’ve been at AXPONA with Magico and Van den Hul.”
The AMP V is the successor of the AMP III,2 but almost everything about the AMP V is new. “The AMP III, which was in production from 2011 to 2016, was taller and looked more like a cube. It also lacked sufficient space inside,” Ruland said. With no concern for designing to a price point, Accustic Arts “did what we needed to do [as we] created our biggest stereo amp, with a 30% price increase from the AMP III.”
This story is from the January 2022 edition of Stereophile.
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This story is from the January 2022 edition of Stereophile.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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