the first thing that struck me upon taking it from the box was the very solid feel of the case work , no creeks or case work flexing here ! its also very small , half the size of my trough line tuner .
all the connections on the rear panel are of very high quality , this instils huge confidence that you wont ever be back on the phone to the dealer to arrange to have a damaged solder joint on one of the phono sockets fixed , speaker binding posts too are a pleasure to use , this is an amp for life !!.
the control knobs on this early sample were a bit less than ideal as they had a bit of play however this sample has been around the reviewers block a few times so lord knows how much abuse its had on its travels .
criticisms ? 3 inputs on a modern integrated at this price point does eliminate it from consideration by many and i feel this must be addressed , it also has no pre outs ! at this price point they are simply essential as speaker likely to be used with it wont have the bass extension that a good budget sub can add , also the ability to add one of the matching power amps to allow bi-amping makes sense to me . its all costs and if all my requirements were added i am not sure it would be such great value . maybe use slightly thinner alloy case work and turn the savings into making it more practical perhaps ?
a possible future option of an on board phono stage would be a good idea as a tiny amp is great until you have to add three other boxes to get it to work with your system , perhaps call it the 25i-P
I am no reviewer , i am auditioning the 25i with a view to purchasing one , the following comments are notes and observations based on putting the amp straight into my system which comprises a garrard 401 with various arms and carts , Leak trough line II via off board stereo decoder , nakamichi ca5e pre and a pair of cambridge p500 power amps , cable is Tellurium Q black ic and green speaker cable running to sony ss-x70 ED , i also used the 25i in my other system , incatech claymore , rega p3/2000 (modded), quad fm3 ,Leak 2060 speakers , cables are various cheaper items from ecosse reference , QED and cambridge audio .
initial listening was done via the Leak tuner , i found the 25i to be very good , ok so it was less than happy driving the sony speakers as they are a pig of a load ,especially in the bass , to be honest i was expecting this and , lets face it, this amp is rarely going to be used with with such devices , still a good test of its strength though , the old claymore amp can drive the sony's but has had its power supply updated and uprated !
across the board the little 25i punches way above its weight ,size and price bracket(in context of new amps) , it has a nice clean sound and good punch to the bass although doesn't quite communicate the 'tune' quite so well , its all still there and easy to follow but seems to prioritise the weight and punch of a kick drum over the dynamics of the double bass , almost as if the mixing engineer has pulled down the level of the double bass a touch. not a bad thing, just different to what i am used to .
it does convey the whole upper range well , lots of detail is well laid out for the listener in a fine wide soundstage that has a good impression of depth , for the price it is very good in this respect , it does lack the communication of expression that the old claymore has , this is a major issue for me with respect to me purchasing the amp , its all there as far as technicalities go but when it comes to just listening to music i felt quite disconnected , not engaged with the music but still amazed at the presentation , this has been my experience of all class D amps , technically great but just not able to offer the most important aspect of any component at any price , engagement with and communication of 'The Music' , this became screamingly frustrating with the 401 spinning , to my ear it was like my TT had been replaced by a mediocre CD player . With this in mind i dug out an old sony CD player and borrowed a DAC to connect my laptop to see what this amp can do with digital , far better !
can it be possible that this little amp works better with digital ? , it would seem so , it still lacked the connection to the music i mentioned earlier but to my ear/brain thats what digital reproduction does , for some people this amp will be amazing , a true revelation in fact , it really is that good for those that enjoy digitally reproduced music. pair it with a DAC with a warmer tonal balance and some fast and open speakers with a fairly benign load and you will have a pretty high end sound for not a lot of money , for me though its just not what i need or want ,at this moment i would prefer to find another old claymore and spend the change having it fully updated which ,all in, would take the price to ,as near as damn it, the same as the clones but with more than double the power , a great mm/mc phono stage and more input flexibility .
as with all things in 'Hi Fi' , the listener must choose , i have only had it running for a few hours so i will use it a bit more before i give up on it as it hints at greatness . more soon.
This only bodes well for the Clones , but how long will it be before we see some tweekery take it up to a techno arm of an amp?
cost ! at £500ish UKP its not exactly expensive but as i mentioned earlier it puts this amp right into the, 'buy a second hand classic for £100 and spend £400 having it rejuvenated' territory . as i have such a device(which is only half way way revived ) in the old claymore amp and also just sold my old audiolab 8000 mk1 amp, i will say that the old claymore has it with ease if you want that more rounded and complete picture, but, for those that like a more sterile sound the audiolab and clones are the boys for you , speaking of the 8000a , if i had to say what the clones reminds me of in tonal balance and presentation it is the audiolab , however the audiolab has a great phono stage and lots of flexibility and gives a bigger presentation than the clones .
another amp is the ariand fv34b , 25 watt push pull valve integrated at around £500 , its mid/top range performance crushes every amp i have heard under £1000 but just couldnt do the bass the clones has so again horses for courses .
at this end of the market we will only ever be trading off certain capabilities from any amp, the 25i is all the way up there in the ranks but is of 'a type' for a certain customer . it is with some sadness that i wont be keeping it as it has many things to like .
again this blabber is all just my impression of the 25i in the context of my systems , NEVER EVER BUY A HI FI PRODUCT ON THE STRENGTH OF ONE PERSONS OPINIONS WITHOUT TRYING IT FOR YOUR SELF FIRST ! ,with the fantastic service from Clones audio (http://www.clonesaudio.com/ ) and Timbertone Audio ( http://www.timbertoneaudio.com/ ) it was certainly worth a listen .
