John Darko
Fresh from its sale by The McIntosh Group to TWS Enterprises, legendary American amplifier manufacturer Audio Research is moving with the times to bring us a more ‘affordable’ power amplifier.
The Minneapolis-based company has taken its Reference 160S – its industrial design, all-aluminium chassis, GhostMeters® (VU meters that float inside a dual-layer glass window), auto-biasing circuit, tube monitoring system (that tracks lifespan), high current delivery and fully balanced topology – to remove 1) a quad of KT150 tubes, 2) 60wpc from the resulting power output and 3) several thousand dollars from the asking price to produce the all-new Reference 80S: 4 x KT150 tubes, 80wpc, £14,998.
From the (very succinctly written) press release: “Outwardly, the 80S shares the same dimensions as the 160M. A single shallow whisper fan is built into the bottom plate. Flexibility is built-in, too, with XLR and SE inputs, 4-8-16 ohm output taps, 12V input and output triggers, RS232 input, tube hour meter, switchable fan speeds, and defeatable auto-off function. A four-layer circuit board is used to provide a separate ground plane, better circuit layout, and fewer noise-inducing point-to-point connections.”
With each amplifier hand made at Audio Research’s Maple Grove facility, shipping on the Reference 80S begins now.
Further information: Audio Research
