Audio Analogue’s hefty yet stripped-down audiophile amplifier may not be for everyone, but it is definitely “an amplifier worth hearing,” says Hi-Fi World’s editor Noel Keywood. 

“This stripped down amplifier is a speciality product,” admits Keywood. It’s true that this isn’t an integrated amp you’d call ‘feature-laden’, but that’s rather the point of this purist design.

The Puccini Anniversary (so called because it was launched to mark the brand’s twentieth year) is a fully dual-mono design. The oversized 700VA transformer, together with three pairs of power transistors for each channel, enable it to effortlessly deliver 80W into 8 ohms, rising to 300W into 2 ohms, thus allowing the amp to drive even the most difficult of loads. So it’s no surprise that this is an amp that’s big on both size and weight. It’s also a zero global feedback design “suggesting sound like that of a valve amplifier.”

“This is a very, very, very good sounding amplifier… Whatever I played through the Puccini Anniversary, I was greeted by a powerful yet open sound that was both lovely and exciting at the same time.”

So, while there may be no digital, no phonostage and just a few analogue line inputs, “In sound quality Audio Analogue’s Puccini Anniversary was impressive. This is an amplifier worth hearing: massively powerful bass, fast and tight yet with glorious sound staging.”

Read the full review in the March 2020 issue of Hi-Fi World.

Find out more at www.audioanalogue.com and track down your nearest dealer via UK distributor www.decentaudio.co.uk