Making it rain. In Eire that needs little patience. Again, to give the legs of big amps stretching room—to get them out of first gear—ideally wants ambitious inefficient monitors; or reactive multi-ways with complex filters which show up 'wimpier' amps. I've never been one to buy an amp-eating speaker just to have for the rare such test. I also don't ask to review them. I find the whole amps-for-breakfast speaker notion objectionable engineering; like spiders which devour their mate after sex. So I had no gratuitous ballbusters on hand. All of ours go plenty loud on 25 watts; and at 80Hz high-passed, sorted to the 't'.

That's because a 2021 conversion to 2.1 stereo has me now use monitors + subs. Unlike our ~93dB sound|kaos Vox 3a, Acelec's compound 1st-order Model One at least make the big-amp grade on their 84dB spec. At 85dB, there's Albedo's 1st-order two-way transmission-line Aptica.

Likely the most representative big-boy boxes were the 4-way Audio Physic Codex. They tuck a beefy 10" woofer in an ultra-compact sealed box into the slot-ported main enclosure. I'd run the Perreaux in on our video system's Zu Druid VI. Those enjoy extra bass reach if an amp can bolt it on. I'd then take the visitor's pulse on the big system's 4-driver 3-way stand-mounts. They're its permanent residents after all.

But what I really expected would make it rain cats 'n' dogs were the bigger Codex. For sonic finesse when raw grunt is no must, our resident yardstick is the 25wpc Enleum. That'd be the comparator integrated on the sound|kaos and a potential beauty or beast contest. Once Codex took their place, my preferred resident amps are the 250-watt Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos. With the system's Sonnet Pasithea DAC having supremely capable 16Ω non-lossy variable outputs, the monos would need no extra preamp. The Perreaux would get the DAC's fixed signal instead to keep the keel even. Voilà, my roadmap for this review. Of course real men take no directions. It's why they routinely get lost. The many options of our hardware inventory make that easier than you'd think. Yet it's important to not miss a potentially important match-up due to oversight. The whole purpose of having multiple alternates is to give visiting loaners the best possible conditions. A road map like today's helps me navigate that terrain beforehand.

During prep so before the door bell rang, I found a bigger photo of the 300iX's business end thus details I'd missed. The variable pre-outs to a subwoofer or bi-amp perhaps plus fixed outputs into possibly an über headamp are accompanied by amp inputs. Those bypass the internal linestage and volume control should we have a preamp or variable source we're more partial to. Before you think HT bypass, Perreaux already give us an input that can be configured as one. That's more conveniently switchable and assignable in the menu. Here more niceties live such as programmable levels for mute, start-up and max limit, headphone gain, input naming even deactivation. It really seems that team Dunedin thought of everything and the SPF 100 sun screen. The 300iX isn't just a bad boy and baby face. He's got education, too. Thankfully he's not from Warkworth aka Brokenwood. Just like those of the equally fictitious Midsummer in the UK, its inhabitants are overly prone to unnatural deaths. Perreaux meanwhile built a reputation on virtual indestructibility and longevity. There's that old ad of a Perreaux being tossed off a bridge to live and tell the tale.

Perhaps their early days were a Kiwi response to Dan d'Agostino's Krell? There's also their pro connection to stage and sound reinforcement gear which lives rough to demand superb reliability. "Sorry crowd, we must shut down this concert because our equipment flamed out." It's followed by much trainwreck press, a bill to reimburse 10'000 costly tickets and a demand for immediate hardware replacements whilst the originals get rebuilt and Perreaux's insurance premium triples. Not. To wrap such musings, there's the present Kamahi umbrella which designs firmware, software, apps and hardware for industry, science, sports, agriculture, health, home and consumer. Under their management, Perreaux enjoy far greater brain power than just hifi. In combat sports that's called very high fight IQ. It's when a small audio boutique can tap into a team of 20 engineers. That's a bit Nagra-esque.

Here's more hammy Perreaux pork…

… before we go fully porcine on 300iX guts.