Right about then, Stuart Smith's review on a pair of Nemo hit on HifiPig appended with his Editor's Choice award. On his Audiovector R6 3½-way speakers with compound/isobaric bass, "playing the same tracks with just one amplifier isn't all that much different from having two if I'm honest, though there are small differences in overall control and dynamics. Most won't notice or care and will enjoy their music either way!" In my book 'most won't care' is zero praise for an extra €20K to go mono on non-brutal loads. It made me feel rather smug for asking to do Nemo in stereo. When Raidho's DHL Freight delivery took longer than expected, I substituted with another example for how large amps big up little speakers. It's a truism as old as Hoffman's Iron Law on the interdependence of bass reach, sensitivity and enclosure size where we can have any two items on the list but never all three. Here my transmission-line Albedo Audio Aptica 5¼" 2-ways are good for ~35Hz and enviably slim and dressy for a floorstander but only ~84/85dB.

Nemo in full submarine stealth mode which turns off the backlight on both logo and power button.

At first I thought their ceramic Accuton membranes too cool for DAC-direct drive. That simply proved misjudged after half an hour's worth of warm-up. After all, these beauts had sat on the sidelines for many months to feel frosty from neglect. We even had rare snow outside. How did pashas of old ever manage their harems? Once the ceramic drivers were on song, I had the expected proof. Once again the core attraction was a resolute bottom-up perspective whereby stout current delivery optimized the design's innately surprising LF grounding. Unexpected only in hindsight was different HF behavior from a now direct-radiating not dipole hard concave dome tweeter. While I still wouldn't call Nemo overtly turned up on top, these Accutons certainly had more silvery sparkly undertones than the folded Mundorf units of Qualio's IQ. The main point of this exercise had simply been the big-amp/small-speaker encounter which proved out once again. If you have a premium compact speaker that fits your room just so, don't think you'll overegg its custard if you leash up a counterintuitively ballsy amp whose power rating seems silly excess. It's not about loudness orgies or wasteful wattage whammies but ultimate current control. That extends low-down reach and mass to inject blackness and saturation into the color palette. Rather than more uptight and unnaturally shredded like a dehydrated bodybuilder on a photo shoot, the sonic gestalt will relax to feel demonstrably more at ease.

In a perfect world, it'd be summertime always. The cotton would be high, the fish jumping, I rich and handsome. Nemo would be half size, weight and price. Even Raidho's X2t would have shown up on time. In this world, I already had more than enough to know Nemo to probably be the best amp I did ever host. It reset my mind on what many more now bipolar transistors of very high power can do atop the direct-coupled ultra bandwidth I already enjoy. Old Hippocrates' credo of first do no harm ruled self noise, reflexes and resolution. Those are aspects which this type amp might be expected to harm to ham up its spec fat. Not here. The first watt sounded as good as the 30th. That's probably what I tapped when things got loud. Rather than view the 270-watt remainder as silly excess sitting idle, I saw a very active current buffer expressing itself clearly at all levels I did use. My less-is-more brain had been steam cleaned of prejudice. I now appreciate the rationale and appeal of massive transistor banks managed immaculately. I even accept the almost certitude that rather than balloon spec fat to hyper porkiness, going dual mono would tack on even more dynamic contrast. Back in the perfect world I'd investigate that next. In this world where backs ache and wallets shrivel like raisins, I don't have to. I now understand the attendant math. I'm au courant on current and bagging a whale. Please, no one-legged Cap'n Ahab jokes.

Back in the perfect world I'd aspire to Nemo or even its far more manageable A-180 mono mates if vis-à-vis my Kinki Studio EX-B7 those were to book similar advances. In this world my aversion to black hifi won't give any of it a second thought. Alas, I've certainly heard what the next level sounds like beyond my best amps. I also note that it takes a four-times deeper wallet to get there. My inner enthusiast actually finds that less sobering than this sonic assurance of what awaits beyond. "Can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen." That also applies to reviewing. Which leaves my outro with these final thoughts. Electrocompanient's Nemo AW800M wrapped up two things with a bow. One, my call for DC-coupled ultra-bandwidth amplifiers stands taller than ever. Cue self-congratulatory slaps on the back. Two, if like here a designer knows how to scale up current delivery without causing demerits on speed and micro resolution, that's where I'll have to shop next. Cue separation anxiety. For now I dream on as I watch Nemo's flipping big tail move majestically down the Shannon river back to Scotland's Elite Audio UK showroom. Hearing it within my own four walls has been an object lesson on what lies beyond.

The grass really is greener over yonder in Norway. For a man on Ireland's Emerald Isle, that was a tough admission to make…

PS: As Electrocompaniet's sales & marketing director Lasse Danielsen pointed out post publication, the 'Nemo' nick applied only to the since decommissioned AW600. The successor thus is Nemo 2 proper; or better yet, just AW800M. With my embedded nautical and cetacean references, a simple 'replace all' would have ruined the narrative. So this brief postscript sets the record straight instead.