Official Abrahamsen V2.0UP Amplifier review in HiFiWigwam

[iQ Speakers]

Oh harsh even with those lovely brass knobs! You really don't like the look do you, I could try knocking up a polished wooden front to replace the black glass *preved* Thanks for the support guys and for those who were offended I apologise. I thought it better than just posting a link send peeps to a rival. I was also pretty excited. I really don't think me selling 3-4 amps a month is going to worry Rega.

 

[Andrewjvt]

But i find the more uglier amps more appealing.

Id rather have good electronics under the hood than something that looks like its a style statement.

I think the abrahamsen and the electro amps look really nice.

They are different

 

[jjbomber]

Thanks for the support guys and for those who were offended I apologise. I thought it better than just posting a link send peeps to a rival. I was also pretty excited. I really don't think me selling 3-4 amps a month is going to worry Rega.

It's the fact that you didn't disclose an interest in the article that causes the problem. If you had been honest and upfront it would have been fine. Good luck on the new career.

 

[Andrewjvt]

Self appointed forum prefects

 

[Electro]

But i find the more uglier amps more appealing.

Id rather have good electronics under the hood than something that looks like its a style statement.

I think the abrahamsen and the electro amps look really nice.

They are different

+1 *smile*

 

[drummerman]

Id rather have good electronics under the hood than something that looks like its a style statement.

+1 *smile*

I'd rather have both

Joking aside, I am sure many will find the heft and bulk of the Abrahamsen V20 re-assuring and, dare I mention it ... even n..e

It may look better in the flesh but there is no doubt one will get a lot of amplifier for the money!

I just read a review of the Constellation Audio Inspiration 1.0 Pre and Power. - At £10k (each).

The comment reads; '... so cost savings have been made by building the cases from aluminium slabs rather than solid billets' ... . - Thats at £10'000 each! - They measure well and are reasonably though not overy powerful but internally (or even externally) they look relatively simple and certainly no more elaborate than Cambridge Audio's 800 series of components. There is little 'esoteric' componentry and it even lacks facilities of the top CA (or as it is know now ... Cambridge) series.

Pxxx taking and they are not alone. There are umpteen examples, from cables to every other part of our hobby. It is of course not unique to the industry, my other hobby, cycling, is saturated with over-inflated ego manufacturers too.

I may not be too endeared with the Abrahamsen's line look but they certainly don't seem to fall into the above category for what its worth.

 

[Vladimir]

I just read a review of the Constellation Audio Inspiration 1.0 Pre and Power. - At £10k (each).

The comment reads; '... so cost savings have been made by building the cases from aluminium slabs rather than solid billets' ... . - Thats at £10'000 each! - They measure well and are reasonably though not overy powerful but internally (or even externally) they look relatively simple and certainly no more elaborate than Cambridge Audio's 800 series of components.

Where does the money saved on build quality go to? Let me guess. R&D? Innovation?

 

[Romulus]

I have no doubt that the purpose of this thread was to share the review of the amplifier with other people - to share the love of HiFi. But the free publicity is convenient....

It reminds me when I hear snooker players often say to the interviewer 'its not the money but the winning of the trophy/competition which counts as he receives modestly the £250,000.00 cheque...'

 

[Jota180]

I just read a review of the Constellation Audio Inspiration 1.0 Pre and Power. - At £10k (each).

The comment reads; '... so cost savings have been made by building the cases from aluminium slabs rather than solid billets' ... . - Thats at £10'000 each! - They measure well and are reasonably though not overy powerful but internally (or even externally) they look relatively simple and certainly no more elaborate than Cambridge Audio's 800 series of components.

Where does the money saved on build quality go to? Let me guess. R&D? Innovation?

Big fat profit?

Regarding subjective reviews. What use are they to you? Not you, you Vlad, but you - everyone. Are you the type who reads a glowing review and inside you're all 'I'm wanting one of those', then read a poor review of the same product and the doubt start creeping in? Do you flip flop on the item in question as you go from each positive to negative to positive review?

Or do you have you favourites and find confirmation in positive reviews but negative reviews have you bristling dismissively?

We're talking about things that create sound, some quite different to others, and we all have different tastes so how much importance should we put into subjective reviews? Pepsi, no - Coke, no - Pepsi.

Objective tests will tell you more.

There really is no substitute for doing your own listening preferebly in your own home.

 

[philpot1001]

just out of interest, can the Ab-integrated amp be bi amped with the power unit, or is the power unit only intended for use with the pre-amp?

I can see an RCA output on the integrated but its not clear if thats just a standard RCA or if its possible to use it to connect to the power amp.

 

[mocenigo]

I am not sure this can be done. The pre out is a Tape output and IIRC it is not attenuated, but on order you can have it attenuated as well. So in theory you could use it do drive a power amp but it may have a different output level than the internal "output" of the preamp stage to the power amp gain stage. The reason is that the design is fully balanced, and the unbalanced outputs have usually half of the output voltage ot the balanced ones.

just out of interest, can the Ab-integrated amp be bi amped with the power unit, or is the power unit only intended for use with the pre-amp?

I can see an RCA output on the integrated but its not clear if thats just a standard RCA or if its possible to use it to connect to the power amp.

 

[mocenigo]

Call me snob or superficial, but for that amount of money I demand some level of build quality and outer design uniqueness that may be redundant, call it even useless, and logical order in internal construction that also goes with the price tag. These are aspects I do not see in the picture you posted of the Constellation Audio Inspiration. The exterior is intriguing though (just google it). 10K GBP is not even the lowest price at which I would demand that - I had at home a 2K+ GBP integrated that had a splendid sound, high quality components, but a confused placement of main elements, AC transformer secondary wiring, and flexible case that even acted as an acoustic resonator for the transformer hum. Indeed, it broke during transport. It went back.

Roberto

I just read a review of the Constellation Audio Inspiration 1.0 Pre and Power. - At £10k (each).

The comment reads; '... so cost savings have been made by building the cases from aluminium slabs rather than solid billets' ... . - Thats at £10'000 each! - They measure well and are reasonably though not overy powerful but internally (or even externally) they look relatively simple and certainly no more elaborate than Cambridge Audio's 800 series of components.

Where does the money saved on build quality go to? Let me guess. R&D? Innovation?

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_664715932]

Ohh! How i love this forum.......

 

[NSA_watch_my_toilet]

I read the review and can't really be happy about. You have all the classical things you have in a normal review for a decent product without spcifical flaws with some little crunchy chips of audiophiles thank to the "great massive remote...".

Lots of flaws in the review :
- At first, great problem, we don't know about the testers music tastes. A common mistake, but "what is good for him ?", we don't know.

- After that, no really informations about the testing room. Are we in front of a room that will allow to hear tiny information changes ?

- Eclatant fault, no mesures of anykind was made. He don't even used his cellphone for beeing sure to hear to the same level he had before ? So great mistakes are now allowed to burst in and taint the review (aka. "wow I hear so much details when I'm hearing it 6dB louder duuuuude !!!")

- No compairs on site with another amp was made during the process. He clearly gave us to understand he played it through (20 minutes of warmup then go". There is only 0,1 to 0,2% of humans that will be able to spot a tiny difference between two sounds with accuracy when separed by this timegap. Without making sure the volume is equalized, the amount of humans that will hear differences between two amps is 0.0%. It's a science fact like "apple don't fall on the trees they fall from the trees."

- No critic of the inside nor the components used, not very important, but if we can critic the remote, we should open the bonnet for looking what the inside has to offer. Some brands have "surprise" to offer when you do (Moon by Simaudio, Naim, ect...).

- He used overpriced audio cables for the link. This generally show a bad level of knowledge of the reviewer. I know some reviewers are making it on purpose (one french dude for example), they explain that "they know it's hifi BS, but to make the review accepeted by some groups of audiophiles they had to do it." This is a correct way IMHO to make it.

- Very quickly, he give us the impression that you could have great variations of sounds on different amps of the same music. This show he don't know about audiology OR hifi. Both are problematic. If he would have been completely honnest, he could have said that those differences where triggered by his speakers due to some specific charachters (impendance and power needs)... but he wasn't really clear about that IMHO.

- "one the most analogue sounding cd player I have ever heard" show us, he didn't heard that many cd player in serious conditions. Another hint of a lack of knowledges in hifi.

BUT ALLOW ME : I agree with him on one point. Abrahamsen amplifiers are priced around 900 pounds and they have a serious performance and quality about them. I'm not believing in the "high-end amps sounding better" anymore. The experience I have now forbid me to think that. And in this regard, to spend 900 bucks and having a through to through non criticable amplifier is a great thing. Because every china amp will cost around the same price and Accuphase/McIntosh/Luxman would sell it to you for 3'500. So brands like Abrahamsen are needed in our hobby.

But this is, for me, simply an advertisement that is hidden in a test. Some will be happy with that simply to exist, I would like to have a test where different speakers are used with that amp to finding the best pairing. I would like an AudioPrecision mesure to show us what power he could gave to us at which impedance. This would be a helpful review. To say "this amp make the job" is a thing you will be able to write on 99% good quality amp on the market if paired with the right (...uncritic enough...) speaker.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I read the review and can't really be happy about. You have all the classical things you have in a normal review for a decent product without spcifical flaws with some little crunchy chips of audiophiles thank to the "great massive remote...".

Lots of flaws in the review :- At first, great problem, we don't know about the testers music tastes. A common mistake, but "what is good for him ?", we don't know.

- After that, no really informations about the testing room. Are we in front of a room that will allow to hear tiny information changes ?

- Eclatant fault, no mesures of anykind was made. He don't even used his cellphone for beeing sure to hear to the same level he had before ? So great mistakes are now allowed to burst in and taint the review (aka. "wow I hear so much details when I'm hearing it 6dB louder duuuuude !!!")

- No compairs on site with another amp was made during the process. He clearly gave us to understand he played it through (20 minutes of warmup then go". There is only 0,1 to 0,2% of humans that will be able to spot a tiny difference between two sounds with accuracy when separed by this timegap. Without making sure the volume is equalized, the amount of humans that will hear differences between two amps is 0.0%. It's a science fact like "apple don't fall on the trees they fall from the trees."

- No critic of the inside nor the components used, not very important, but if we can critic the remote, we should open the bonnet for looking what the inside has to offer. Some brands have "surprise" to offer when you do (Moon by Simaudio, Naim, ect...).

- He used overpriced audio cables for the link. This generally show a bad level of knowledge of the reviewer. I know some reviewers are making it on purpose (one french dude for example), they explain that "they know it's hifi BS, but to make the review accepeted by some groups of audiophiles they had to do it." This is a correct way IMHO to make it.

- Very quickly, he give us the impression that you could have great variations of sounds on different amps of the same music. This show he don't know about audiology OR hifi. Both are problematic. If he would have been completely honnest, he could have said that those differences where triggered by his speakers due to some specific charachters (impendance and power needs)... but he wasn't really clear about that IMHO.

- "one the most analogue sounding cd player I have ever heard" show us, he didn't heard that many cd player in serious conditions. Another hint of a lack of knowledges in hifi.

BUT ALLOW ME : I agree with him on one point. Abrahamsen amplifiers are priced around 900 pounds and they have a serious performance and quality about them. I'm not believing in the "high-end amps sounding better" anymore. The experience I have now forbid me to think that. And in this regard, to spend 900 bucks and having a through to through non criticable amplifier is a great thing. Because every china amp will cost around the same price and Accuphase/McIntosh/Luxman would sell it to you for 3'500. So brands like Abrahamsen are needed in our hobby.

But this is, for me, simply an advertisement that is hidden in a test. Some will be happy with that simply to exist, I would like to have a test where different speakers are used with that amp to finding the best pairing. I would like an AudioPrecision mesure to show us what power he could gave to us at which impedance. This would be a helpful review. To say "this amp make the job" is a thing you will be able to write on 99% good quality amp on the market if paired with the right (...uncritic enough...) speaker.

well I am no expert at doing reviews all I can say is I brought one and so glad I did buy one I had a marantz pm8005 before getting the abrahamsen 2up and the abrahamsen is tons better then the marantz the detail and bass control that the abrahamsen gives is very good i have Dali opticons 6 floor standing speakers which cost me £1200 they are a very clean and detail speakers they will keep up with any kind of music I am running my speakers at 8 ohms but they can go to 4 ohms my music taste is classical music - heavy metal a big scope of music really the abrahamsen does everything I was after I wanted better bass control and more detail a bigger sound stage the abrahamsen ticks all of this boxes . I am sorry I can not test this amp in a way your saying and hopefully someone will go to that kind of detail in the future hopefully . I can only say what I think and what my ears think that's as far as I want to go but if the amp was **** I would tell you it was and I would be asking for my money back all I can say is that I am enjoying my music a lot more then I did do but this amp is very well built nothing plastic on this amp at all it's very good value for money it's a shame someone like what Hifi do not do a review on the abrahamsen 2up maybe then people will buy one and see for them selfs

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_664715932]

I read the review and can't really be happy about. You have all the classical things you have in a normal review for a decent product without spcifical flaws with some little crunchy chips of audiophiles thank to the "great massive remote...".

Lots of flaws in the review :- At first, great problem, we don't know about the testers music tastes. A common mistake, but "what is good for him ?", we don't know.

- After that, no really informations about the testing room. Are we in front of a room that will allow to hear tiny information changes ?

- Eclatant fault, no mesures of anykind was made. He don't even used his cellphone for beeing sure to hear to the same level he had before ? So great mistakes are now allowed to burst in and taint the review (aka. "wow I hear so much details when I'm hearing it 6dB louder duuuuude !!!")

- No compairs on site with another amp was made during the process. He clearly gave us to understand he played it through (20 minutes of warmup then go". There is only 0,1 to 0,2% of humans that will be able to spot a tiny difference between two sounds with accuracy when separed by this timegap. Without making sure the volume is equalized, the amount of humans that will hear differences between two amps is 0.0%. It's a science fact like "apple don't fall on the trees they fall from the trees."

- No critic of the inside nor the components used, not very important, but if we can critic the remote, we should open the bonnet for looking what the inside has to offer. Some brands have "surprise" to offer when you do (Moon by Simaudio, Naim, ect...).

- He used overpriced audio cables for the link. This generally show a bad level of knowledge of the reviewer. I know some reviewers are making it on purpose (one french dude for example), they explain that "they know it's hifi BS, but to make the review accepeted by some groups of audiophiles they had to do it." This is a correct way IMHO to make it.

- Very quickly, he give us the impression that you could have great variations of sounds on different amps of the same music. This show he don't know about audiology OR hifi. Both are problematic. If he would have been completely honnest, he could have said that those differences where triggered by his speakers due to some specific charachters (impendance and power needs)... but he wasn't really clear about that IMHO.

- "one the most analogue sounding cd player I have ever heard" show us, he didn't heard that many cd player in serious conditions. Another hint of a lack of knowledges in hifi.

BUT ALLOW ME : I agree with him on one point. Abrahamsen amplifiers are priced around 900 pounds and they have a serious performance and quality about them. I'm not believing in the "high-end amps sounding better" anymore. The experience I have now forbid me to think that. And in this regard, to spend 900 bucks and having a through to through non criticable amplifier is a great thing. Because every china amp will cost around the same price and Accuphase/McIntosh/Luxman would sell it to you for 3'500. So brands like Abrahamsen are needed in our hobby.

But this is, for me, simply an advertisement that is hidden in a test. Some will be happy with that simply to exist, I would like to have a test where different speakers are used with that amp to finding the best pairing. I would like an AudioPrecision mesure to show us what power he could gave to us at which impedance. This would be a helpful review. To say "this amp make the job" is a thing you will be able to write on 99% good quality amp on the market if paired with the right (...uncritic enough...) speaker.

fair point well made.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I am not sure this can be done. The pre out is a Tape output and IIRC it is not attenuated, but on order you can have it attenuated as well. So in theory you could use it do drive a power amp but it may have a different output level than the internal "output" of the preamp stage to the power amp gain stage. The reason is that the design is fully balanced, and the unbalanced outputs have usually half of the output voltage ot the balanced ones.

just out of interest, can the Ab-integrated amp be bi amped with the power unit, or is the power unit only intended for use with the pre-amp?

I can see an RCA output on the integrated but its not clear if thats just a standard RCA or if its possible to use it to connect to the power amp.

perhaps as you started up an old post which Colin did a long time ago you could do a review on abrahamsen as people on here like to pick the bones of a perfectly good product because it deserves some good positive honest reviews

 

[emperor's new clothes]

I am not sure this can be done. The pre out is a Tape output and IIRC it is not attenuated, but on order you can have it attenuated as well. So in theory you could use it do drive a power amp but it may have a different output level than the internal "output" of the preamp stage to the power amp gain stage. The reason is that the design is fully balanced, and the unbalanced outputs have usually half of the output voltage ot the balanced ones.

just out of interest, can the Ab-integrated amp be bi amped with the power unit, or is the power unit only intended for use with the pre-amp?

I can see an RCA output on the integrated but its not clear if thats just a standard RCA or if its possible to use it to connect to the power amp.

perhaps as you started up an old post which Colin did a long time ago you could do a review on abrahamsen as people on here like to pick the bones of a perfectly good product because it deserves some good positive honest reviews

So does the Marantz that you have been dissing. 99% of your time with it was with the speakers out of phase (by your own admission)

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I am not sure this can be done. The pre out is a Tape output and IIRC it is not attenuated, but on order you can have it attenuated as well. So in theory you could use it do drive a power amp but it may have a different output level than the internal "output" of the preamp stage to the power amp gain stage. The reason is that the design is fully balanced, and the unbalanced outputs have usually half of the output voltage ot the balanced ones.

just out of interest, can the Ab-integrated amp be bi amped with the power unit, or is the power unit only intended for use with the pre-amp?

I can see an RCA output on the integrated but its not clear if thats just a standard RCA or if its possible to use it to connect to the power amp.

perhaps as you started up an old post which Colin did a long time ago you could do a review on abrahamsen as people on here like to pick the bones of a perfectly good product because it deserves some good positive honest reviews

So does the Marantz that you have been dissing. 99% of your time with it was with the speakers out of phase (by your own admission)

dissing ? My speakers are ok but at the time I am not sure if it was Dali who put the positive screws on 1 of the speakers on the wrong side or it was the shop I got them from as I brought them ex demo but it was only one speaker that was out of phase not both of then but it was hard to notice at first because I had the speakers wide apart it was not until one day I was adjusting there placement I noticed the sound difference

 

[spiny norman]

but it was only one speaker that was out of phase not both of then

If they'd both had the wiring reversed there wouldn't have been a problem.

 

[stevee1966]

I am not sure this can be done. The pre out is a Tape output and IIRC it is not attenuated, but on order you can have it attenuated as well. So in theory you could use it do drive a power amp but it may have a different output level than the internal "output" of the preamp stage to the power amp gain stage. The reason is that the design is fully balanced, and the unbalanced outputs have usually half of the output voltage ot the balanced ones.

just out of interest, can the Ab-integrated amp be bi amped with the power unit, or is the power unit only intended for use with the pre-amp?

I can see an RCA output on the integrated but its not clear if thats just a standard RCA or if its possible to use it to connect to the power amp.

perhaps as you started up an old post which Colin did a long time ago you could do a review on abrahamsen as people on here like to pick the bones of a perfectly good product because it deserves some good positive honest reviews?

So does the Marantz that you have been dissing. 99% of your time with it was with the speakers out of phase (by your own admission)

dissing ? My speakers are ok but at the time I am not sure if it was Dali who put the positive screws on 1 of the speakers on the wrong side or it was the shop I got them from as I brought them ex demo but it was only one speaker that was out of phase not both of then but it was hard to notice at first because I had the speakers wide apart it was not until one day I was adjusting there placement I noticed the sound difference 

The poster said you've been 'dissing' your Marantz, not your speakers. His point being you take offense to someone 'dissing' your Abrahamsen, yet you are happy to 'diss' the Marantz even though the majority of owners think it's an excellent product. Your issue on the Marantz which ran for nearly 300 posts ended up being not an amp issue, but one of you putting cable into the wrong hole.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

I am not sure this can be done. The pre out is a Tape output and IIRC it is not attenuated, but on order you can have it attenuated as well. So in theory you could use it do drive a power amp but it may have a different output level than the internal "output" of the preamp stage to the power amp gain stage. The reason is that the design is fully balanced, and the unbalanced outputs have usually half of the output voltage ot the balanced ones.

just out of interest, can the Ab-integrated amp be bi amped with the power unit, or is the power unit only intended for use with the pre-amp?

I can see an RCA output on the integrated but its not clear if thats just a standard RCA or if its possible to use it to connect to the power amp.

perhaps as you started up an old post which Colin did a long time ago you could do a review on abrahamsen as people on here like to pick the bones of a perfectly good product because it deserves some good positive honest reviews

So does the Marantz that you have been dissing. 99% of your time with it was with the speakers out of phase (by your own admission)

dissing ? My speakers are ok but at the time I am not sure if it was Dali who put the positive screws on 1 of the speakers on the wrong side or it was the shop I got them from as I brought them ex demo but it was only one speaker that was out of phase not both of then but it was hard to notice at first because I had the speakers wide apart it was not until one day I was adjusting there placement I noticed the sound difference

The poster said you've been 'dissing' your Marantz, not your speakers. His point being you take offense to someone 'dissing' your Abrahamsen, yet you are happy to 'diss' the Marantz even though the majority of owners think it's an excellent product. Your issue on the Marantz which ran for nearly 300 posts ended up being not an amp issue, but one of you putting cable into the wrong hole.

no if you see the other posts i have never said i did not like the the marantz there just a differnce between the abrahamsen & marantz that is what i was trying to point out in sound check the older posts on upgrading the marantz to the abrahamsen your see

 

[iQ Speakers]

Dissing! Such a emotive word. I think BS is just giving his honest opinion the fact that he is so open and honest about his mistakes, that we have all made, is comenable. Dont see it at him downing the Marantz, just that he has found somthing better. That why we all do this after all. If not we would all be listening to.....

 

[spiny norman]

That why we all do this after all. If not we would all be listening to.....
iQ Speakers, Nord Hypex Amplifiers, Abrahamsen Audio and IPL Acoustic Speakers.

ROFL.

 

[Blacksabbath25]

Dissing! Such a emotive word. I think BS is just giving his honest opinion the fact that he is so open and honest about his mistakes, that we have all made, is comenable. Dont see it at him downing the Marantz, just that he has found somthing better. That why we all do this after all. If not we would all be listening to.....

thank you fed up keep explaining ..... never said the marantz was rubbish just that the abrahamsen sounds better