Hands up, who liked Audiolab's 8200 series? If feedback is to be believed (and it always is!) the 8200 series was incredibly popular, so the odds are it's quite a lot of you! Â Well, the bad news is: the 8200 series and all of its wonderful separates are being discontinued. But the good news is, it's all being replaced by something that moves everything up a scale: the 8300 series! we've already talked about the rather amazing new M-DAC+ (a continuation of the rather legendary M-DAC) so now it's the 8300A (the integrated amp)'s turn to shine!
Available in both black and silver (separately listed, just in case you're interested!) Â this is to be the only integrated amp in the series, so you know it's going to be good. It has been completely redesigned from scratch, but boasts a lineage that goes all the way back to the original 8000A.
"[The 8300A is]miles ahead of what was already an industry-leader. Higher power, an additional phono stage and new Audiolab styling means the amplifier is more stylish and more versatile than ever. Most importantly it's new, ultra-efficient circuitry and streamlined components create a listening experience which brings new definition to your favourite music." ~ Audiolab
It seems that Audiolab really did listen to the needs and wants of bonefide audiophiles when designing this amp. It's powerful, delivering 2 x 70 watts of power into 8 ohms. It also features five line-level inputs, a phono input (and a brand new phono stage) one balanced XLR input and a direct input to use the 8300A as a power amplifier give you a great variety of connection options. Two pre-outputs can be connected to power amplifiers for bi-amping, whilst twin sets of speaker terminals in parallel can easily handle bi-wiring speakers.
So yeah. It's pretty impressive. And now we can't wait to get our hands on the next separate in this range: the 8300CD!
Interesting in experiencing the most recent integrated amp to blow us away? Give us a shout! We can't wait to show it off.
I wonder how this system would sound: Audiolab 8300a, (with M-DAC), Pro-ject Xperience Basic+ turntable (not sure about pu cartridge), Marantz UD 7007 universal blu ray player and Roksan K2 TR-5 speakers. Any thoughts would be most welcome.