Country of Origin
This review first appeared in July 2025 on fairaudio.de. By request of the manufacturer and permission of the author, it is hereby syndicated from the German original to reach a broader English audience. Ed.
Reviewer: Stefan Gawlick
Analogue sources: Drive: Transrotor Apollon Tonearm: SME V Pickup: SME 3012, Linn Ittok, Ortofon Venice, Denon DL103, Van den Hul Frog
Digital sources: D/A converter: Crane Song Avocet, Merging Anubis and Hapi; CDP: Mark Levinson N°390S
Integrated amplifiers: Musical Fidelity A1, Accuphase E-213, Rega Elicit
Preamplifiers: Crane Song Avocet Phono: iFi iPhono, Trigon Advance
Power amplifiers: Abacus 60-120D Dolifet & Ampollo Dolifet
Speakers: Sky Audio Verdade 2.2, Spendor LS 3/5A & S3/5SE, Wharfdale Super Linton
Cables: Vovox Excelsus drive & Textura & Sonorus Protect, Audioquest Sky, Cardas Clear Sky
Cords: TCI Emerald Constrictor, Ensemble, Phonosophie Power Cord
Power strip: TCI Emerald Constrictor, Phonosphie, Ensemble Power Link Silver
Rack: Phonosophie Classic Rack
Room size: 28m² treated to ARD standard, 35m² lightly treated
Review component retail: €5'500
The language of beauty. "With Puccini, beauty is never an end unto itself, always part of the overall concept." Thus spoke Kirill Petrenko, chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, of Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. And indeed, are there other operas more lush, sensitive, aching, emotional and profound? After a Tosca performance, the theatre stands as it always has but the audience released back into the world has changed. For them nothing is as it was. The longing to remain in the world of music is written all over everyone's face. So it's no coincidence that Audio Analogue's Puccini Anniversary bears his name and none other. This integrated amplifier too can change our state; at least a little.
Beauty first. There it sits in my rack, the small integrated amplifier from Audio Analogue whose elegant design can't deny its Italian DNA. A large rotary dial that we can also press on, a few LED on the brushed aluminium fascia – that's about it for the frontal details. Perhaps beauty has been given a little too much emphasis over raw convenience? After all, operation entirely by single encoder isn't immediately obvious even to the experienced user. Here the wonderfully elegant but solid remote control is a real boon when in doubt. To fully utilize the capabilities of the Audio Analogue Puccini Anniversary, you'll certainly want to consult the manual.
Unusual feature. In addition to personally less important options like LED brightness or channel balance adjustments, there's an exciting volume-control feature. We can choose between linear mode or customized tapers. If for example we run Puccini with high-efficiency speakers, there is a lazier taper to broaden useful volume steps across the lower range. Four different attenuation slopes support a variety of speaker and listener types. A quick warning about "Direct Mode" available also from the remote. It bypasses the attenuator to turn Puccini into a full-gain power amp. It has nothing to do with the usual 'direct' modes which bypass tone controls or other processors for the purest signal path. So be careful!
Self-explanatory. The rear presents no mystery with its four unbalanced and one balanced input. Extremely sturdy easy-to-use propeller posts for speaker cables and of course a power inlet complete the picture. Everything is of good quality and without issue as we'd expect in this price range. Components and chassis walls secure with numerous fasteners, the front panel is a bit thicker than usual and the central rotary turns smoothly without any clicks or chafing.
Inner values. The interior is so beautiful that one could almost wish for a glass lid. It's tidy, with a truly beautiful technically consistent dual-mono layout except the transformer and elegant black circuit boards. The specs reveal that this isn't vanity. 2 x 80 watts into 8 ohms, 160wpc/4Ω, a whopping 300 watts into 2 ohms don't reflect extreme power but solid load stability. This probably explains Puccini's attack happiness and imperturbability. It behaves pretty much load agnostic. At least all of the speakers I used sounded extremely relaxed, even the finicky LS 3/5A which has some amps break out in sweat. The super-quiet 700VA power toroid must play its role. When asked for a speaker recommendation, Audio Analogue simply invoked space and taste. Puccini has sufficient power for all occasions. Its preamp stage is symmetrical to process the XLR input natively but the signal subsequently desymmetrizes before reaching the push/pull output stage of complementary OnSemi MJL3281A/1302A bipolar transistors. Between the pre/power stages operate two cascaded AD-7376 digital attenuators for which product manager Stefano Blanda claims optimal channel matching and stable imaging. To ensure that the chips' digital controller can't interfere with the delicate analogue music signal, there's an optocoupler barrier. The advantage of digital control isn't just superior precision but the variable taper feature.
30 volts operation within the usual range.
The Special One. Our Tuscan team are particularly proud of Puccini Anniversary because it's their first integrated without overall negative feedback. They also kept its circuitry as minimalist as possible. Voltage conversion takes place immediately after the input, allowing a single gain stage to operate in the current not voltage domain. Audio Analogue cite a significant reduction in distortion which mandated special consideration to achieve without NFB. The ultimate goal was a particularly "deep and focused sound as well as a relaxed listening experience." With my intro quote, I already showed my hand to preview where this would be headed. Puccini doesn't care much for sober nit-picking but rather prefers to plunge into the fullness of life with exuberance.
