At this juncture we shouted out a big huzzah, for the PTP chip amp getting so close to such desirable tube sound. Translation: just enough warmth at the lower end with a silky top. With the Meishu’s usual spot vacant and power lifting not our most loved activity, we took the opportunity to embed the Blok20 in another system. Here the input signals came via the La Rosita Beta streamer/DAC or our Dr. Feickert Blackbird MKII in combination with the Trafomatic Reference Phono One. Speakers were Sounddeco Alpha F3. Cabling was a mix of AudioMica and Nanotec. With a rated sensitivity of 92dB, it was clear that the PTP amplifier would have to work rather harder than before. Still, a rating better than 90dB was still very reasonable. On the other hand, the impedance of a nominal 4Ω would cause more current to flow and things to perhaps heat up.

Alas, no such issues in our now all-white rig. The back plate of the Blok20 refused to get warm to the touch. It stayed nicely tepid. As expected, the volume knob had to be turned more to the right. With a ported 4-driver 3-way design and thus the need for a crossover, the sound of course differed from the widebander-based horn system. Still, the slightly warm character of the mid and lower bands and the silky treble were preserved. When we turned to vinyl, the Blok20 was perhaps even more in its comfort zone. The combination of Trafomatic’s passive RIAA network and two EF806 low-noise/low-hum pentodes per channel which also share one half each of a single 6H6-EV double triode already deliver a very massaged input signal which the chip amp could dig into further to do its magic.

In turn we played a massive amount of vinyl across all different kinds of genres. Small Jazz combos were digested just as easily and satisfying as the occasional opera. Of course a good dose of Frank Zappa came by and our latest acquisition of Puttin' on the Ritz—all eight sides of it!—made it to the turntable twice.

We never felt the Block20 to run out of breath. We had ample juice on tap to fill our room with very pleasurable sound at decent SPL. For true party volumes the Alpha F3/Block20 combo of course wouldn’t be ideal but for day-to-day normal use even that was perfectly adequate.

In every setup we tried the Blok20 in, there was enough gusto and space for emotional development to get to us as the listeners. That also meant the Blok20 was no proverbial straight wire with gain. It had a definite character of its own. As it happens, that was a very pleasant character which clearly cared for the music it was tasked to handle without overdoing it with unwanted mollycoddling. So we bought the review sample, signed like all others by Peter as the work of art it is. Ours is #3.

PTP Audio website