McINTOSH MC1502 VACUUM TUBE AMPLIFIER

As any audiophile knows, if you want super-lush sound out of your system, you’ve got to pair it with a decent valve amp. And decent doesn’t even come close to covering McIntosh’s MC1502 Vacuum Tube Amplifier. Inspired by the awardwinning, limited-edition MC2152 – itself released in celebration of the company’s 70th anniversary last year – this amp can deliver a whopping 150 Watts to almost any speaker pair, thanks to McIntosh’s Unity Coupled Circuit output transformer technology. It also pumps out seriously clear sound, thanks to a signal-to-noise ratio of 112dB. Finally, it’s beautifully built: its vacuum tubes are set into a stainless steel chassis polished to a mirror finish, while their sockets include Air-Pipe cooling to boost the length of its service life.

£13,995, mcintoshlabs.com