When Elekit, supplier of high-end kits to audiophiles of taste and style, decided to sell a ready made valve-amp, it turned to Japanese designer Koichi Futatsumata. The result is this beautifully minimal amplifier hewn from aluminum.
Normally a valve amp leaves its components exposed to aid cooling of the hot vacuum tubes, but Futatsumata’s design encases everything in a smooth metal heat-sink — even the dials are aluminum disks. The simple aesthetic carries through to the controls: All you get is volume and tone. No input selectors, no jiggly sound-boosting nonsense, nothing, just like amps from the good old days.
You don’t get an iPod dock, and neither do you get house-shaking sound, as the amp puts out just 10 Watts per channel. It is, instead, all about the quality, with a frequency response of 5Hz ~ 50kHz: enough to outfox even the best of human ears. The release date is disappointingly “TBA”. I want one, but i have a feeling that pumping MP3 files into this thing will be a little like going to the French Laundry and asking them to order me a Big Mac.
Product page [Case Real via
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