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Back on top, the two 6SN7 are from Electroharmonix, the four 6550 from Tungsol, i.e. all of Russian origin. These tubes ship pre-installed and the power tubes are factory biased for each position.

The back panel sports the vertically aligned WBT terminals, matching RCA input, multi-meter probe points, power IEC with mains fuse and a serial number.

The front is elegantly minimalist with just the recessed non-lit window for the Auris 'A' where other valve amps would put a bias or VU meter.


As you'd expect for their stout €14'000 sticker, the Forte monos proved dead quiet and plenty powerful into my 85dB Albedo Audio Aptica 2-ways set up with auxiliary omni-polar ribbon super tweeters from Elac called 4pi Plus.2 reviewed here and still on hand.

As you'd expect from their design brief of class A push/pull meets 6550 pentodes, their sound wasn't about ethereal wispiness. Nor was it about the nearly holographic slightly spooky presence factor which certain high-voltage triodes can exhibit. This sound majored on gutsy substance, impact and strong colours. For that it also asked to be played just a bit louder than the 1MHz Crayon Audio CFA-1.2 which it replaced to fully come into its own. On raw resolution as predictably confirmed by S/N and phase specs, it's not of the ultra-modern sort—nobody would think so either to make it somewhat of a redundant statement—to belong into a lower slower class.


A very direct way to key into its assets is to invoke the Chalet restaurant across the street from us. It specializes in traditional Swiss fare which is essentially hard-working farmer's food. Order Rösti Vaudoise and you'll get a cast-iron dish of buttered potatoes with Raclette cheese, leeks and thinly sliced sausage served piping hot straight out of the oven on a rustic wooden plate. It must be eaten hot in all its greasy glory. It's a very honest very rich hiker's meal. It won't leave room for desert and is best followed up by an espresso lest you'll feel too lazy in its wake. With that culinary direction pegged for the general idea and as such very distinct from a Mediterranean plate, I made just a few adjustments. Out with the Nagra HD DAC still in from its review. Its everything-DSD treatment is a touch genteel and mellow and in this context was perhaps not the most ideal. In with my battery-powered SOtM USB bridge leashed AES/EBU to my Metrum Hex instead. As hoped for, this injected just the right dose of transient snap. Then I ratcheted up the output of the super tweeters by 2dB on their precision dials to compensate for the 6550s' denser less airy reading. Voilà. Two quick changes later and my musical rösti had bled off a bit of butter in trade for a dash of hot-sauce kick. This confirmed that the Forte's sound hadn't been far off center at all. It could very easily be nudged in a slightly different direction (here everyone has different ideas on what they find most pleasing) without sacrificing its clearly strong points.

Bass was stronger and plumper than the Crayon's if also less wiry and articulated. The latter's far lower output impedance did make itself felt even on these transmission-line loaded small woofers. Where the Austrian's calling card is very high transparency from a lucid-mode approach, the Serbians prioritized a less incisive less sharply focused reading that was heavier on a note's centre between its leading and fading edges. With modern speakers trained for high separation like these ceramics, the valve monos moved back from teasing out the finest threads. They instead approached the task in more intregationist mode such as you'd actually hear it in a live venue (unless you were very close to the stage). Though a common observation, it warrants a paragraph of its own.