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Audio note cobra review12/6/2023 When they were first turned on and the colours would be dim and filled with purple fringes and nothing was quite right, then after awhile the tube would warm up and the picture began to get very good. My analogy would be to that of old tube televisions. I suppose I should do my job and describe sucky. Turn the amplifier on and it’s about 15 seconds before any sound comes out and about 5 solid minutes before it stops sounding completely sucky. And lastly it takes a while to get going. I’d mention the 8 watts but if you’re reading about Audio Note UK you’ve probably overcome endowment issues affecting many males in the audiophile world. I’m sure not coincidentally, Audio Note UK speakers are rated at 6 ohms. Further there is only one set of speaker connectors and according to the manual it appears to be rated for a 6 ohm load, thus no 4 ohm and 8 ohm taps. There is no remote control available and there is no headphone output. First, the amplifier has 4 inputs, none of which includes a phono stage. So let’s start with the negatives as all audio products have them. Transistor amplifiers are listed as a “Minus One.” This might be funny if it were not for the fact that the IZero makes a strong case against the majority of transistor amplifiers and the majority of much more costly transistor amplifiers. Reviewing Audio Note UK’s performance level hierarchy, zero is named for a type of minimum technology that Audio Note feels can properly recreate quality sound. After all Peter did name one of his amplifiers “Jinro”, which is also very famous brand of Korean Soju. Then calling it IZero I began to wonder if Peter had lost his mind and started making iPod attachments, or maybe he is just a huge fan of movies wherein Will Smith fights robots. When you see components called “Zero” it doesn’t exactly inspire much confidence. Before all you pure class A single ended triode readers prepare to have your eyes roll in haughty derision, you may wish to hold your sneers back because if there is a class A/B push pull amp that will change your mind, the IZero is very likely to be it.Īs many of you know Audio Note UK builds systems in a series of levels. The IZero uses four not often used ECL82 triode/pentode tubes and it operates in class A for the first four Watts then switches to Class AB1. Here I sit with the 8 watt per channel IZero integrated amplifier, which is Audio Note UK’s entry level integrated amplifier. Quite simply, they “get it.” They get what music reproduction should be and how to extract music from various sources and mix the elements of truth and beauty to draw you into wanting to continue listening to music even when you should be off doing something else. However, over the years I have come to the conclusion that if I came across the bucks to spend such dollars the first company I would look to would be Audio Note UK. Many of us who live on things called budgets view $100,000+ components as crazy toys for the rich. If you are looking in that price range, it is definitely worth a listen.Audio Note UK often takes flack from the peanut gallery on internet forums for their very high priced audio components. Sure, the higher level AN gear can sound better, but this is a very musical amp that will suck you in. The music is engaging, even at very low levels. The combination of the IZero and the Ks is excellent. That lets me have high quality sources without duplicating boxes. I am taking advantage of the fact that my Meishu Tonmeister is on the other side of a wall in my living room and feeding the Record Out from the Meishu to the IZero’s input. And, at $2500USD there is a lot of competition.īut I have to tell you that once it gets going, it sounds amazing. OK, what marketing department calls a product “Zero”? And many of the other AN constraints are there, too. My friends at True Sound have taken pity on me and lent me the AN entry level IZero integrated amp to use until we can actually hear a Cobra. However, it seems they are still playing with that design and delivery isn’t right around the corner. When AN announced the new Cobra integrated amp, I thought that would be a great match and bring the AN musicality to that room. Strictly background music, which is OK for a dining room. The current amp in that system is nice and has a built in DAC, but has never excited me. Like many of the AN speakers, they are very efficient and play well with most amps. These are not in AN’s top end line, but I have always liked them. In our Dining room I have a ‘secondary’ audio system put together with pieces that became available when an upgrade happened.
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