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Power Amplifiers above £2,500.
Back to Power Amplifiers below £2,499
Audion Silver Night 300B Single Ended
The Silver Night is a delightful sounding amplifier -
It uses a single 300B output valve per channel with zero feedback and uses a 6h23/6922 driver valve per channel. They come with a volume control on the fascia (so it can be used to as a single input ‘integrated’ amplifier (or simply to reduce gain when used with high output pre amplifiers of extraordinarily efficient speakers) but this can be deleted if preferred.
The Anniversary is hard wired, features a large choke filtered power supply, high grade audio components and a very serious pair of output transformers -
Audion Silver Night 300B Anniversary power amplifier: £3,150
Audio Note Conqueror
The Conqueror is a classic Audio Note design, which follows many of the criteria that they have always championed.
It features a Copper topped chassis and a zero feedback single ended 300B output stage which is driven via a paper in oil capacitor coupled 6SN7 (or 6J5 in the low gain model). The power supply uses choke smoothed valve rectification (a 5U4G).
The result is an amplifier that sounds tonally accurate with great dynamics and refinement which particularly excels with high efficiency speakers.
The low gain version offers improved sound quality and lower noise, especially useful when using higher efficiency speakers. The amplifier is also available as a Silver and Silver Signature model, both of which feature improved components and sound quality.
Audio Note Conqueror: £POA at manufacturers request
Audio Note Conqueror Low Gain: £POA at manufacturers request
Audio Note Conqueror Silver: £POA at manufacturers request
Audio Note Conqueror Silver Low Gain: £POA at manufacturers request
Audio Note Conqueror Silver Signature: £POA at manufacturers request
Audio Note Conqueror Silver Signature Low Gain: £POA at manufacturers request
Audion Silver Night 2A3
As owners of high efficiency speakers know, finding a very high quality power amplifier can be a difficult and expensive task, and it was with this in mind when we asked Audion to develop an extremely high quality power amplifier optimised for such systems. The basic design choices were simple, it had to be a feedback free valve design using single ended topology. The 2A3 valves effortless resolution and dynamic prowess made it the obvious choice and so the Silver Note amplifier was born.
The Silver Night 2A3 is completely hand made and hard wired with pure silver wire in selected parts of the audio stage. Only high quality components are used to ensure the finest sound and non ferrous (military grade aluminium) casework is used for both sonic and cosmetic reasons. A combination of 5687 and 6922 valves are used to feed the wonderful mono plate Sovtek 2A3 output valve, and the design produces 4 watts per channel (6dBW).
This amplifier is an ideal partner to very high speaker systems such as Avantgarde, Vitavox, Fostex, Supravox or Lowther based systems, as it has the dynamic realism and low noise to work under this kind of magnification. Its low power output precludes its use with some inefficient designs, however most people that listen in small rooms and don’t listen at particularly high volumes are amazed at what it can do even with a well designed 90dB sensitive speaker.
Audion Silver Note One: £3,399.00
The Duo is a very interesting single ended amplifier. It has been designed to work with both the 2A3 and 300B valves and comes supplied with a pair of each. This means you can easily switch between two very fine directly heated triodes dependent on preferences and power required. The 300B will produce 7 watts and the 2A3 4 watts, making this amplifier ideal for someone who enjoys being able to choose between different output valves or who has both high and average efficiency speakers and wishes to get the best out of both.
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Audion Silver Night 300B SE Special Edition
The Special Edition takes the concept of the Silver Night Anniversary (featured above) a step or two further. First, most noticeably, is fresh new case appearance, the work of leading designer Marko Schregardus, which has a cleaner look than the traditional Audion half width chassis and a light Gold finish to the fascia and transformer box with contrasting Black sides and Stainless trim (an all black/stainless version is also available for those with less adventurous tastes).
Feature wise it remains the same, the volume control means that a single input can be used directly, or it can be used to trim the level from a pre amplifier if required (or it can be deleted completely if preferred). An integrated amplifier version with 5 line level inputs is also available, please see here.
Naturally what really concerns us is the sound, and thanks to all the internal hook up wire being pure Silver, some upgraded parts and a pair of very serious output transformers, the improvements over the already stunning Anniversary are very worthwhile. There is a good percentage more of everything -
Hifi Choice have rated this amplifier very highly, a pdf can be seen here (opens in new window)
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Audio Note Quest
The Quest amplifiers are the next level up from the Audio Note Conqueror. They are monoblocks so naturally have independent power supplies per channel, which as is customary with Audio Note are valve rectified (with a 5U4G tube) and choke smoothed.
Various different versions are available, the major changes are as follows: the Quest comes with copper foil paper in oil capacitors and Beyschlag resistors, on the Quest Silver you get uprated output transformers (C-
All models are available with silver aluminium or black acrylic fascias.
There is a low gain version available for each model which replaces the 6SN7 input valves with 6J5 valves, these are especially recommended for use with active pre amplifiers or efficient speakers, where the high gain of the standard version is too much and where noise needs to be reduced to a minimum. There is no difference in price between the High and Low gain versions.
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Audion Silver Night 300B PSE Anniversary
These awesome monoblock amplifiers use a pair of 300B valves in a parallel single ended configuration which gives a fantastic combination of the usual single ended strengths of speed, dynamics and mid band realism with a rather well endowed power output of 18wpc which enables the majority of speakers on the market today to be driven superbly. These amplifiers are a particular joy with wide bandwidth speakers and many that are considered a bit too difficult to drive by other low powered amplification.
The Anniversary specification means they feature high quality parts throughout the signal path and are point to point wired for the best performance.
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Audion Silver Night 300B PSE Special Edition
The Special Edition Silver Night 300B PSE monoblocks are an evolved version of the Anniversary version featured above. Rather than repeat myself, these are very similar in design as the Anniversary model but with all the benefits their ‘Special Edition’ nomenclature designation brings -
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Audio Note Conquest
The Conquest is effectively a parallel single ended version of the Quest, featured above, which produces more power (18 watts, up from the 8 of the Conqueror).
Various different versions are available, the major changes are as follows: the Conquest comes with copper foil paper in oil capacitors and Beyschlag resistors, on the Conquest Silver you get uprated output transformers (C-
All models are available with silver aluminium or black acrylic fascias.
There is a low gain version available for each model which replaces the 6SN7 input valves with 6J5 valves, these are especially recommended for use with active pre amplifiers or efficient speakers, where the high gain of the standard version is too much and where noise needs to be reduced to a minimum. There is no difference in price between the High and Low gain versions.
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The Black Shadow monoblocks feature the mighty 845 output valve in our favourite circuit topology -
These amplifiers are incredibly time consuming to produce, with each pair taking 40 hours to build from scratch. They can be ordered in several guises, the standard specification (called level 5) uses a wide range of high quality parts, the ultimate specification (level 9) includes a completely silver wired signal path, even including the output transformers and no compromise parts selection. What’s more the amplifiers can be upgraded as your system grows in stages, so you never need buy another amplifier!
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The Golden Dream is Audion's statement 300B mono block amplifier. These amplifiers are a labour of love, and are hugely time consuming to produce, taking dozens of hours each to assemble. They feature very high quality components throughout, all housed in their substantial aluminium and polished stainless steel casework. The amplifiers have a volume control on the front (can be deleted if required) to allow gain adjustment for the wide variety of systems they work well with -
They use two 300B valves per channel run in zero feedback parallel single ended and produce a claimed 25 watts per channel. Their sound is quite superb, put simply they are extremely transparent and it makes it very difficult to pin point their sound, there are seemingly no flaws to the performance. As you’d expect with a great single ended amplifier their dynamics and speed are second to none, the 300B valves bring a tactility to the sound that larger triodes struggle to match and are just as at home with the reproducing the subtlest of guitar fret work as they are an orchestra at full tilt.
Like all of the statement products from Audion they are available in different levels, the standard version (level 5) is featured here, the ultimate spec version, Level 9, features fully silver wired output transformers and no compromise parts selection (price on application).
Audion Golden Dream: from £11,599 pair
Audio Note Gaku-
The Gaku-
The input valve is a NOS VT25/10Y and as you’d expect the component quality is no compromise, Audio Notes largest Tantalum resistors and Black Gate capacitors are used throughout. The choke smoothed power supply is rectified by two NOS 5R4WGB rectifiers.
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