STEREO AMPLIFIERS
The heart of a great hi-fi system. If you’re serious about your amplifiers, we’ve rounded up five serious contenders
No part of your hi-fi system has a better claim to being its beating heart than your amplifier. Fed by your music source, it sends that music pumping around the rest of your hi-fi – so, just like your heart (bear with us here), it’s what gives your system life. If you’re serious about your stereo sound, simply put, you need to take your amplifier seriously. And over the next few pages we’ve picked out five serious amps that will fit right in with any considered music set-up.
These are premium-level integrated amplifiers at around the £3000-£4000 mark. All garner five stars from us, so you can trust they’ll get get your music sounding the best it can.
Integrated amplifiers combine the functions of a preamp (volume control, balance, tone etc) and a power amp into one neat box. More than this, with laptops, smartphones and streaming services becoming ever-more popular music sources, the integrated amplifier has moved with the times and now contains built-in digital-to-analogue converters (DACS), phono stages for turntables, USB connections for laptops and hard-drives, Bluetooth and more.
Of course, any amplifier is only as good as its partners, but match with a bit of care (which, let’s face it, is something you should be doing at this level), and you’ll better appreciate the levels of finesse and sonic sophistication that can be achieved with these amps. This month we’ve already rounded up the best pairs of stereo speakers around the £500 sweet spot (p32), and now it’s time for our pick of the best integrated amplifiers to drive them.
All about the music
What all of these amps will bring to your hi-fi is an assured performance and attention to detail that puts the emphasis firmly on the music, which is after all the main reason you’re here. If you’ve got the budget, these amps will sound right at home in the system of your choosing. So turn it up, turn the page and read on...