"We had two other amplifiers with a good reputation, Riviera's 10C and Viva's 2A3. All had Immanis connected as a kind of new performance reference. To trained listeners it was clear what level of sound Astraeus represents. The more persistent ones managed to get the opportunity to compare all three amplifiers with the same headphones, interconnects and DAC on their own music via the iBasso DX320 Max Ultimate Mod's line outputs. We enjoyed the sincere reactions of the listeners and their compliments. We showed how to replace the tube of Astraeus which is very simple. You should have seen those reactions. It was worth all the effort and suffering during the 12 months we spent constructing our first Astraeus." In another post, "via a number of people I communicate with, I see that the amorphous voluminous midrange of the 300B is slowly going out of fashion. People are increasingly missing the natural echo of the room, the clear sigh of the vocals, the ethereal flaps of the saxophone keys. These details difficult to reproduce are increasingly gaining primacy relative to the primary midrange without which the third dimension looks like a smooth grey moon rock without life. These details give sparkle and life to the sound, provided it is without the edges of a samurai sword. That part of the conversion to high class is provided by the tube."

Dragan with two Chinese distributors. Clearly Astraeus isn't a small amplifier.

One hybrid, one pure valve amp as comparators.

With Simone having recently pivoted from exclusive headfi to more speaker listening compliments of his new Diesis Aura SE open-baffle speakers, he's perfectly positioned to explore Astraeus' twin nature of headphone and speaker amp. That's my cue to sign off this intro. Simone, your turn. – Ed.