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This is the 29th in a series of reviews dedicated to the concept of 32Ohm Audio as embodied by the store of that name in downtown Portland/Oregon and described here - Ed.

Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen Financial Interests: click here Source: Apple iMac 1TB with AIFF files up to 24/192, PureMusic 1.73 in memory play with preallocated RAM, Burson Audio HA160D, Weiss DAC2, iPod Classic 160GB (AIFF), Sieben Technology analog dock, Onkyo ND-S1 digital dock Headphones: ALO Audio recabled Audeze LCD-2, Sennheiser HD800, beyerdynamic T1 and AKG K-702; stock audio-technica W5000 and Grado PS-1000; HifiMan HE5LE with optional silver wiring and grill mod; stock HifiMan HE-6 [on loan]; Ortofon EQ7 (117dB IEM) Headphone amps: Trafomatic Audio Head One; Woo Audio Model 5; Burson Audio HA-160D; Meier Audio Corda Concert] Preamps: Bent Audio Tap X Amplifiers: Trafomatic Audio Kaivalya, Yamamoto A-09S Speakers: ASI Tango R, Zu Essence, Boenicke B10 passive Cables: Complete loom of ASI Liveline, Furutech GT2 and WireWorld Starlight 5² USB A-to-mini-B cables [on loan], LaCie and Entreq Firewire 800 cables, Entreq USB cable, Black Cat Cable Veloce S/PDIF cable [on loan] Stands: 2 x ASI HeartSong 3-tier, 2 x ASI HeartSong amp stand Powerline conditioning: 1 x GigaWatt PF-2, 1 x Furutech RTP-6 Sundry accessories: Extensive use of Acoustic System Resonators, noise filters and phase inverters Room size: 5m x 11.5m W x D, 2.6m ceiling with exposed wooden cross beams every 60cm, plaster over brick walls, suspended wood floor with Tatami-type throw rugs. The listening space opens into the second storey via a staircase and the kitchen/dining room are behind the main listening chair. The latter is thus positioned in the middle of this open floor plan without the usual nearby back wall. Review Component Retail: €3.000

Named for the Korean word sea, the new Ara integrated is Emillé Labs' first crossover model. Usually a purveyor of decidedly upscale valve gear—integrated amplifiers, preamps and power amps—the Ara moves the company's catalogue down-market into greater affordability. Next it broadens the target focus. First there is a 6.3mm headphone jack for the headphone crowd. That sockets runs off dedicated output transformer secondaries, not an inferior load resistor on the main speaker tabs. Second there are coaxial and USB 16-bit/44.1kkHz digital inputs. Those couple via Cirrus Logic CS8416 S/PDIF receiver and I²S protocol to four paralleled non-oversampling dual 16-bit Philips TDA 1543 converters. I/V conversion is passive via precision resistors and the output buffer is an op amp with film coupling cap. Hello streaming audio. Add this up and we arrive at tubes; speaker and headphone drive; a PC-ready internal D/A converter for music files; and what for Emillé Labs are an entry-level prize and size. Hence the Ara is a full-fledged crossover model. It does more with just one single box. Even so one very easy feature was quite inexplicably forgotten. There are no fixed or variable outputs. Those would have allowed conversion of the Ara into a preamp or standalone DAC. That would have expanded its present 3-in-1 functionality into full 5-way multi tasking like a Peachtree Audio Decco2. It would also have opened a line-level path to an active subwoofer, often a welcome adjunct to compact speakers. As is a subwoofer will have to connect speaker level.

The Ara desktop concept brings to mind a conversation I had with Vital Gbezo, Emillé's Western ambassador at large. Over some healthy Turkish grub during a lunch break at the Athens Hifi Show 2009, their marketing manager asked me what I thought an interesting future product for Emillé might be. Formally petitioned to dream the impossible, I riffed about an integrated amplifier with a superior headphone output; an integral USB DAC of at least 24/96 data happiness; a more compact form factor than the firm's usual; and a sell price of ca. €3.000. Against Emillé's catalogue and established way of doing things, such a price had seemed achievable if perhaps barely so. With the faintest of grins, Vital then had merely nodded his head. Some time later the above concept rendering arrived by email. It was proof positive. Their team had already been working on it. Had Vital just tested me? If so, I should have made a bigger noise about those pre-outs.

The Ara's auto-bias push/pull circuit makes 22wpc from a quartet of 7591A pentodes driven from a quartet of 6922. The power bottles are available in current manufacture from both Electro-Harmonix (Russia) and JJ (Slovak Republic).

In keeping with the desktop concept, input sensitivity is a high 0.4V RMS. Even an analog iPod dock will drive this amp to full output. Speaker tabs are the usual 4 and 8 ohms while the headphone output is optimized for 32-ohm loads. Serious dimensions of 420 x 425 x 166mm WxDxH reflect in a very substantial 24kg. Instead of Emillé's signature Acrylic treatment, the Ara gets a cleverly disguised tube cage which (competitors take note) is fully integrated to shed zero tears over the usual cosmetic grief. Huzzah!

To illustrate how, here is the Ara with and without cover. It really works equally well either way.

Topless or not, the Ara is thus quite the looker. That's assisted by an unencumbered clean design, a mostly symmetrical layout of the relatively minimalist front cover and a cannily balanced mix of curves, circles and straights. Note how the arched fascia detail, the cylindrical corner stanchions and the circular top-cover vent play off against the square foot print and rectangular transformer cover. If we compare final cosmetics to the concept rendering, it's clear just how committed Emillé was to nailing the visuals. All their existing models and this newest one demonstrate that this team values appearance. Do you shrug that off with a cavalier so what? Such an attitude toward aesthetics would be crippling. Performance hifi must roar on all cylinders. How else is it to become part of the life styles of average folk? Must it remain a fringe pursuit of hardware geeks and misguided puritans whose insistence that only the sound matters condones appliance-level blandness as though it were a sacred pursuit?

I say that if we don't include fine appearance on our list of important hifi engineering aspects, we let the engineers off the hook too easy. There's no good reason why ear pleasure shouldn't be accompanied by eye pleasure. Only geeks don't think it perverse but intuitive that fine Bang & Olufsen-type industrial design ought to equate with mediocre performance.

Emillé at trade shows with Rethm, Triangle and Metal Sound Design loudspeakers

If the Ara were an ugly car, she wouldn't sell. But enough of that. Even if she were a pretty car—and she is a very pretty amp—prospective buyers still would want to check under the bonnet, then take her for a joy ride. Or test drive.