This review page is supported in part by the sponsors whose ad banners are displayed below

Without getting judgmental about it, modern hifi routinely exceeds live music on raw resolution. That's primarily because so many of our recordings placed their microphones far closer than our ears would ever get; and used far more than just two 'ears'. Gear of extreme resolution parlays that unnatural perspective—on the strings, inside the piano, nearly touching a singer's lips whilst staring down the throat—and the strange multiplicity of close-up focus without any normal depth-of-field losses. By not pursuing equally extreme translation of such practices, the Auris Audio monos create a more natural sound. That lower resolution can lead to a more relaxed easier sound closer to live seems perverse only before you think things through.

That you might fancy a hyper-focused close-up sound more is another matter altogether. Such comments are never about prescribing a one-size-fits-all approach to playback. They're about depicting sonic or presentational flavours in words so you may relate and imagine things accurately without hearing them for yourself. Comparing the €4'250 Crayon to the €14'000/pr Auris Audio amps demonstrated a few things. One, three times the money here wouldn't buy better, just more power and different output devices as well as a rather different sound. Two, at low volumes where higher separation delays the onset of clouding over, the Crayon had the advantage. Three, it also had the advantage on presence as a more holographically extricated grasp on the virtual performers.


Four, on presence as a sense of materialism which counters the ghostliness of see-through transparency, the valve monos came out ahead. By softening the mix of transients and bloom in favour of the latter, they suggested a listener position a few rows farther back without altering overall scale. Five, their slightly looser grip on focus made things sound a bit bigger. Six, beginning at medium levels, the dynamic reach of the 6550s exceeded the transistors. Seven, recordings with built-in glare were less objectionable.


Moving on to my 93dB-efficient soundkaos Wave 40 tonewood speakers betrayed clear steady-state power supply noise audible from the listening seats. Most people of course wouldn't mate 100-watt amps to such speakers. Still, my 130-watt Octave monos never suffered any noise at all. Not being of the ultra lightweight cone type nor feeling overdamped by ultra-low output impedance such as they would with many transistor amps, the Swiss two-ways responded most favourably to this power injection particularly on dynamics, colour temperature and bass impact. Whilst a more common recipe would go after low-power single-ended direct-heated triodes particularly and justifiably for the 100dB Voxativ, Rethm and Lowther widebander types, I actually thought that the punch, current and lower 2nd-order signature of the 6550s here made for a superior match than a typical 300B equivalent.

To not mince words, this was a tone orgy fit for a monarch. This was the polar opposite of pinched and pale. This was fully developed intense colour combined with a very chunky boisterous vibe and maximal bass power. Had it not been for the reminder of noise between tracks, I'd have singled out this combination for a special mention and entry in my little black book of unexpected but fortuitous matches. Of course lovers of direct-heated no-feedback triodes are often no strangers to system noise and in fact nearly accept it as a badge of honour to their club. To suppress it here meant my Boenicke Audio W5 whose lower efficiency worked in its favour.

Just so, the Auris/soundkaos combination maximized the virtues of Martin Gateley's involved tonewood construction in a way which seemed to roast one of exotic hifi's sacred cows to a crisp. Those who view the 6550 as a crude guitar slinger's tool; push/pull as inferior to single-ended; and high power as a sign of silly speakers being too hard of hearing... such folks would have had a hard time correlating those notions with the actual performance on hand which played in the heart of Harbeth country. Not as fine-boned as my FirstWatt SIT1 ballerinas and invoking rather more of two red-cheeked plump strong gals from the farm, the monos from Serbia's Morava river repeated their Munich HighEnd 2014 showing. That hadn't been a fluke but was clearly repeatable.

WIth my solid-wood speakers from soundkaos and Boenicke, the Auris monos took the sound from clear broth to chunky stew. It was all about substance, richly delivered colours and an insistent robust here, not there. This was a bottom-up sound built on big bass, voluptuous image density and dynamic reserves most happy to be tapped. With simple good looks, confidence-inspiring relay clicks upon turn-on and apparently solid no-nonsense construction whilst asking an ambitious €14'000, these 6550 Forte monos are a serious proposition for listeners with big appetites.
Auris Audio website