Audiolab 8200A WHF review?

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Im literally frothing at the mouth for a review for this amp and seeing as though there are no other reviews at all, nothing on any forums about it it would be great to read something. Any ideas when we will be seeing a review??
 
If you are literally frothing at the mouth, I suggest you seek some medical help; AFAIK the 8200A has been requested, but as yet we have not received a review sample.
 
Andrew Everard said:
If you are literally frothing at the mouth, I suggest you seek some medical help

smiley-tongue-out.gif
 
It most certainly has been repeatedly requested....

You'd think after its matching CD player winning a Product of the Year Award, they'd be keen to get us the amp, wouldn't you?

May have to run out of patience and just buy/borrow one!
 
It's amazing, very well built, sounds great, and if i have to say it....and hard for me to do so....its better than the original 8000A.
 
I'm not going to go as far as to say it's better than the 8000A (although it probably is), but I actually think it's a shame they didn't retain the original's tone controls. I, and I'm sure many others, have found them very useful, and they work very well when wanting to subtlety change the tonal balance of what you're listening to. Other than budget amps at the £250-350 price point, I think it'll be the most popular amplifier under £1k.
 
FrankHarveyHiFi said:
I'm not going to go as far as to say it's better than the 8000A (although it probably is), but I actually think it's a shame they didn't retain the original's tone controls. I, and I'm sure many others, have found them very useful, and they work very well when wanting to subtlety change the tonal balance of what you're listening to. Other than budget amps at the £250-350 price point, I think it'll be the most popular amplifier under £1k.

Tone controls is a must at this price point imo. I just dont understand the logic of these companies in making an amp with no tone controls?

what also baffels me is noone else has one, noone has reviewed one and barely anybody has demo'd one (apart from the people that work in shops). Hasnt this amp been out for months now? Seems a bit strange to me that there is nothing about it anywhere on the internet.
 
This really worries me, it is the middle of May 2011 and I can not find any official reviews of the 8200a. We must ask the question to why Audiolab have have not sent you and seemingly others a review sample after such kind words regarding it's partnering CD player? This makes me suspicious to say the least.

I'm fortunate enough to have 3k to spend (Thanks credit card and interest free period) on replacing my tired Arcam and Mission setup next Saturday. I think I'm going with a Cyrus and ProAc combination, but as Vickers in York also stock Audiolab I'm going to try and have a listen out of curiosity and get their feedback on the duo.

I will report back on my experience soon 😱)
 
As well as waiting for an 8200A review, it would be really interesting to find out how the 8200CDQ and 8200P work together and how they compare to the similarly priced 8200CD/8200A.
 
not much longer to wait! Delighted to say there will be a review of the Audiolab 8200A in our next (July) issue - on sale first week in June.
 
Thanks Clare! I've just picked up the July WHF issue and noted with great interest that the Audiolab 8200A has received a 4 star rating (page 12).
 
Why does everyone think that the original 8000A was so good!!???

I owned one and found it to be reasonably detailed, but musically and dynamically a very bland amp!

Even if the 8200 outperforms it, who cares?

Hysteria about 8000A should have died off when the original Audiolab company did...next we'll be seeing Pioneer re-hash a "new" A-400 and people will go loopy over that!
 
adskesson said:
As well as waiting for an 8200A review, it would be really interesting to find out how the 8200CDQ and 8200P work together and how they compare to the similarly priced 8200CD/8200A.

Any chance this might be on the drawing board any time soon?
 
MWHarmsworth said:
Why does everyone think that the original 8000A was so good!!???

I owned one and found it to be reasonably detailed, but musically and dynamically a very bland amp!

Even if the 8200 outperforms it, who cares?

Hysteria about 8000A should have died off when the original Audiolab company did...next we'll be seeing Pioneer re-hash a "new" A-400 and people will go loopy over that!

Why the negative waves? I heard the original 8000 from the 90s and it was a very good amp. One can only assume that Audiolab like to stick to winning formula and just tweak the 8200 both sonically and feature-wise.

You're asking "who cares?" Anyone who is interested in buying a new amp and/or likes the brand.
 
Interesting review. I seem to remember the previous incarnation suffered from a "clinical" sound.

If I was in the market for a new amp I'd certainly listen to it as an alternative. The only personal experience over recent times with Audiolab is the 8200 cdp. To me that sounded 'crisp' bordering on the 'antiseptic', albeit I only heard the cd section and not downloads.

What speakers and/or CDP alternatives would WHFI recommend (apart from 8200 CDP)?
 
Hi,

When I started looking for new amp/cd I fully expected to get the audiolab pair but the demo's proved not so.

The first 8200a set fire to itself, didn't sound too good after that but made for a differnt experience.

Tried again a month later and thought as a pair the audiolab had great detail but no warmth, glad someone else felt the same.
I much prefered the Kandy pairing and also the Naim 5i pair knocked the socks off it .

Couldn't advise best speaker pairing but on my demo's was listening with RX 6 and B&W 685, maybe not ideal.
 
Shanka said:
Hi, When I started looking for new amp/cd I fully expected to get the audiolab pair but the demo's proved not so. The first 8200a set fire to itself, didn't sound too good after that but made for a differnt experience. Tried again a month later and thought as a pair the audiolab had great detail but no warmth, glad someone else felt the same. I much prefered the Kandy pairing and also the Naim 5i pair knocked the socks off it . Couldn't advise best speaker pairing but on my demo's was listening with RX 6 and B&W 685, maybe not ideal.

I think the lack of warmth is the Audiolabs achilles heel. I think, based on the review, a good pairing would be Arcam CDP and PMC DB1i. To power the Audiolab through "over ripe" speakers such as MA Silver would provoke the 'clinical' aspect.
 
Hi,

I talked to one hifi shop and they didnt stock the audiolab 8200cd as they preferred the rega apollo saying it was more musically involving than the audiolab.

Cheers

Steve.
 

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