New toys

Just after Christmas I bought the speakers I had coveted for years. I had always wanted a pair of Monitor Audio G660s ever since I heard them properly. I should qualify this remark. A long time ago I had a pair of GR60s auditioned for me at Seven Oaks hi-fi in Sheffield. The guy auditioning them for me has them set up in a room that was too small, and powered by an amplifier that lacked the puff to make them go as they should. Needless to say I was unimpressed and I had no interest in them.

I later heard the same speakers in a large sitting room powered by a meat-head Musical Fidelity amplifier some time later and the difference was enormous. They sounded like full bandwidth monsters that were as equally at home with delicate acoustic music, as they were slamming out nosebleed techno. I was smitten.

I have my new speakers and I’m very happy with them. Well, mostly happy with them. I have been very aware that I’m not getting the most out of them that I could; in terms of the sound its not quite there. The GR60s employ two bass drivers, a mid/bass driver and a tweeter in a large box. These are speakers that need lots of current to make the go and whilst my existing amplifiers are good, I don’t think they are good enough.

Time to upgrade! I have always been a fan of Audiolab amplifiers. The original British made gear sounded great, but they were eventually bought out by Tag Mclaren (yes, the very same fellows who race formula 1 cars). Tag Mclaren produced some great sounding products but they didn’t last very long. The Audiolab brand was then bought up by IAG (International Audio Group), who own lots of other decent brands (Wharfdale, Quad, Mission, Luxman, and Castle Acoustics to name a few). IAG have kept Tag’s innovations in some of the products, but have completely redesigned others. Whatever else IAG has done, they have brought the scale and manufacturing power of China in on the side of Audiolab.

What Audiolab now offers is incredibly well made products at astonishing prices. Some of their gear is brilliant, some less so, but it is all great value. I love the new Audiolab amplifiers. I bought a 8000P a year or two ago to use with a valve pre-amp and whilst it didn’t work too well with the pre-amp, I did enjoy the sound of the power amp and how it drives pretty much anything with effortless ease. On the strength of that 8000P I bought the 8000A, the Audiolab integrated amplifier. This I was less impressed with.

The 8000A had an excellent power amp stage but the pre-map was dreadful; the tonality of the device changed with the position of the volume control. It sounded very flat and treble light at low volumes and only sounded as it ought to once the wick was wound out a bit.

Anyway, the back of the Monitor Audio GR60s have provision for Tri wiring/ Tri-Amping, and I wanted to exploit the speakers as best I could by Tri-amping them. I would need six channels of amplification. The logical solution to this would be the Audiolab 8000x7. This is a home cinema amp that actually just has seven 100W amplifier modules slapped in a box; the same amplifier modules that are used in the 8000P. I was onboard with this but the only problem was that it cost about £1700. The good news for me is that Audiolab is just changing its range over, and that means that old products are heavily discounted as retailers clear their shelves ready for the new products. A check of my bank account revealed that no matter how I cut it, I couldn’t afford it. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Sometimes though, the people you love will surprise you. My partner and I are inclined to buy gifts for one another on valentines day, which falls between our two birthdays, both of which are in February. This year my partner rolled my two gifts into one and bought me the Audiolab 8000x7. What made this all the more impressive is that I never asked for it, I never dropped any hints or in anyway communicated that I wanted her to buy it for me. My darling partner knew I was lusting after something and so back-tracked through my internet history and found what it was I desired. Its all the more impressive because Vicky isn’t the most technically proficient and when I rattle on about hi-fi, to her, its just one faceless black box after another.

So now I’m the owner of an Audiolab 8000x7, which is a potent monster, all 18kg of it. It thumps out a 100W into seven channels, each capable of dumping up to 42 Amps peak, which is a lot of gravy. It offers the usual DC offset protection, thermal protection and short circuit protection and has options for bridging outputs for five or six channel operation. I have had the 8000x7 running for three weeks now and its beginning to break in. The amp was thin sounding and sharp when it was first out of the box but now the sound stage is expanding and the lower registers are filling out. I think it will take another three weeks before it is fully broken in.

It seems to be a good synergistic match for Monitor Audios GR60s and can supply all the power they need. Each frequency band has its own channel of amplification and in time it may be possible to subtly tailor the tone of each band with different interconnectors between the pre-amp and each amplification channel.