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Conclusion. This amp is not for everyone. I know how that's not the best way to recommend a machine. I simply want to save you disappointment. Audio is not about foisting the same product on everybody. Audio is the art of choosing. The V110 won't appeal to those looking for speed and transparency with a well-defined angular bass or precise clearly sorted soundstaging. Those things the Octave amplifier doesn't specialize in. Here the emphasis is on continuity and maturity which integrates resolution and selectivity. Hooking up the outboard power supply improves most aspects but does not change this central character.


I don’t know how Andreas Hoffman did it but in my opinion he is one of the few designers to have mastered the KT120. I know a lot of other amplifiers based on them. Some like the Leben CS-1000P or Audio Research REF 75 are excellent and will be a perfect complement to many systems. The V110 however is not only an integrated which frees us from having to buy an external preamp, it successfully demonstrates what can be done with the high power of the KT120 without exposing its weaknesses. Earlier only the Jadis I-35 was able to do something similar. The Octave combines the stereotypical sound of tubes like warmth, softness and vividness with a modern understanding of definition, continuity and coherence. This is a strong versatile very functional amplifier that can be upgraded with an outboard power supply and optional phono board. Fans of other tubes from the KT and EL families will have fun rolling. There's even a 'Front Ch' input for home theater bypass. For me it worked best as integrated but your mileage may vary. In any case there are plenty of options. What's most important happens already when we listening to the first two or three albums over the RCA input with the stock tubes and no outboard power supply. It will be sheer magic.


Review methodology. The test was an A/B comparison with A and B known. The amplifier comes equipped with rubber feet to beg for some high-quality anti-vibration accessories. I had recently received a few sets of Franc Audio Accessories ceramic discs whose ball interface similar to Finite Elemente works great. The amplifier thus sat on three ceramic disc footers, two in the back where it is heavier and one in front. The feet in turn were placed on the Acoustic Revive RAF-48H pneumatic anti-vibration platform. The amplifier was powered from a Harmonix X-DC350M2R Improved Version power cord. Typically to connect amplifiers to my reference CD player I use Acrolink's Mexcel 7N-DA6300 RCA interconnect. In this case I also wanted to try the XLR input but have no such Acrolink. For RCA and XLR I thus used Acoustic Revive RCA-1.0PA and XLR-1.0PA II plus their SPC-PA speaker cables. The audition was conducted with the player connected via RCA input and no external power supply. After the main audition I checked how it sounded with the Super Black Box.


Design. Each manufacturer aims to develop their own recognizable style. If they make functional objects, this involves the industrial design, lettering and logo. With tube amps this becomes difficult. Their appearance has been greatly influenced by McIntosh and Quad on the one hand (currently mostly abandoned except perhaps for Japan – see U-Bros amplifiers) and by Audio Research on the other which resemble enclosed solid-state amplifiers. Currently the most frequent look has exposed tubes in the front, encased transformers in the back. This is pursued by a vast army of manufacturers who turn disadvantages into advantages. Octave belong to this camp.

Looking from the back we first see a large casing covering the power and output transformers. The latter are mounted atop the printed circuit board and isolated from other components. Since they are close to the rear panel, the connections to the speaker terminals are very short. The output tubes come next separated by an aluminium shielding plate (the entire housing is made of aluminium, a non-magnetic material much better than steel). This layout eliminates the need for long flying leads between tubes and output iron. The small-signal tubes mount in one row at the front - one input ECC83 dual triode, an NOS Sovtek long-anode 12AX7LPS; and two Electro-Harmonix ECC81s as drivers/phase splitters. Typically small input tubes are exposed on deck like output tubes but here they are submerged into the housing. That’s good as input tubes are particularly susceptible to interference to prefer shielding. Finally the front panel is comparatively tall due to the fact that the input tubes are hidden.

The front sports two large aluminium knobs, one input selector and a volume control. The inputs are indicated by LEDs (blue in the silver version) mounted behind a mid-sized transparent window. They are soldered onto the circuit board with other parts visible through this window. It looks really interesting and stylistically similar though not as extreme as the designs from German manufacturer ASR. The display could do with some added lines as it’s not readily visible which input is selected, the more so since the input selector knob has two more positions indicated by LEDs elsewhere on the display. One selects the power-tube bias mode, the other activates the main-in 'Front Ch.', bypassing the input tubes and potentiometer. The volume setting is not too visible either. An alphanumeric display might be a solution. The power switch is located on the front left cheek.
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On the rear are high-quality very convenient speaker terminals optimized for 4Ω loads exactly as Berlin-based Burmester use them for their speakers and electronics. The input connectors are lined up in one row except for Aux 2 which can be changed by adding the optional MC or MM phono module. Next to the IEC mains socket we see a very solid 3-pin gold-plated screw-on connector for the Black Box or Super Black Box outboard power supply. To the far left side we find a small switch activating EcoMode.
Specification according to the manufacturer:
Output Power: 2 x 110W (4Ω)
Frequency response: 5Hz - 70kHz (10W, -0/-2dB)
Total harmonic distortion: 0.1% (10W/4Ω)
S/N ratio: -110dB/90 W
Input sensitivity 220 mV
Minimum speaker impedance: 2Ω
Connections
Inputs: 5 x line RCA, 1 x XLR; main-in to the power amplifier
Outputs: 1 x Tape, pre-out from the preamplifier
Power consumption: 160W idle; 500W full power
Weight: 23kg
opinia @ highfidelity.pl
Octave website