Richard Austen
Junior Member
So I decided to buy em - About 4 years ago I felt these amps were the best deal in Audio Note's line-up if you could live without a lot of power.
The Empress a Parallel Single Ended monoblock offering 8 watts per channel. They make a DHT single version 3.5 watts per channel called the Vindicator.
Pure Class A operation
Zero Negative Feedback
Single Ended Output Stage
Valve Rectification
Directly Heated Triode operation
20kg each
(Level 3 in Audio Note's 6 level Hierarchy).
Empress Silver adds the following to the regular Empress version:
Audio Note 1 Watt Tantalum film resistors
IHiB C-core output transformers (Upgrade from Ei transformers)
As some of you know I had a problem with a sample I borrowed late last year but the problem was minor and the dealer fixed it in 5 minutes - still I elected for a new pair and pleased to report that it is dead quiet and no hums or hisses of any kind. This is the regular gain version - they do offer a low gain version if you have 110dB horns.
The Empress Silver Monoblocks beside the Mighty Ongaku Integrated.
The Preamp is the Audio Note M3 Phono Balanced.
Level 3 is Audio Note's top of the line Copper wired equipment. Level 4 sees Copper primaries with silver secondaries on the transformers and level 5 is all silver. Level 6- is for Bill Gates
Level 7 (coming) is for Jeff Bezos
The Empress a Parallel Single Ended monoblock offering 8 watts per channel. They make a DHT single version 3.5 watts per channel called the Vindicator.
Pure Class A operation
Zero Negative Feedback
Single Ended Output Stage
Valve Rectification
Directly Heated Triode operation
20kg each
(Level 3 in Audio Note's 6 level Hierarchy).
Empress Silver adds the following to the regular Empress version:
Audio Note 1 Watt Tantalum film resistors
IHiB C-core output transformers (Upgrade from Ei transformers)
As some of you know I had a problem with a sample I borrowed late last year but the problem was minor and the dealer fixed it in 5 minutes - still I elected for a new pair and pleased to report that it is dead quiet and no hums or hisses of any kind. This is the regular gain version - they do offer a low gain version if you have 110dB horns.
The Empress Silver Monoblocks beside the Mighty Ongaku Integrated.
The Preamp is the Audio Note M3 Phono Balanced.
Level 3 is Audio Note's top of the line Copper wired equipment. Level 4 sees Copper primaries with silver secondaries on the transformers and level 5 is all silver. Level 6- is for Bill Gates
Level 7 (coming) is for Jeff Bezos
