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To comply with EU regulations—the same which have given us those plastic-shrouded speaker terminals—the Pro 88 comes with a removable gloss-black metal tube cage. Unless you have toddlers, you'll most likely never use it to instead enjoy looking at the deck of ten glow bottles directly. With four RCA inputs but no output, subwoofer hounds will parallel up on the speaker connections which here sport the usual 8/4-ohm option. The power mains is on the left cheek ahead of its bias trim pots. Aside from volume and source selection controls, the fascia is blessedly free of buttons and only adds a low orange power LED and above it the infra-red eye for the volume up/down and mute remote wand. The 6BA11 are original RCA issue, the XF184 Mullard. Only the KT88 are current Shuguang production.


Cosmetically the Pro 88 continues the established Melody theme of timeless elegance rather than steam punk. And it stays clear entirely of the garish blue lights and odes to CNC chops run rampant which accompanied early Shanling and Raysonic. On price it's a very aggressive competitor to the Serbs at Trafomatic and Auris, to the Italians of MasterSound and Unison Research, to the Germans of MF Electronics and Octave, to the French at Jadis and so forth. Good value has always been a hallmark of the Melody brand.

In their catalogue, KT88 amps have figured for years. The Dark Power KT88-4 monos below right ran on a quad of kinkless tetrodes—that's what KT stands for—driven by four 12AU7. The matching KT88-2 monos at left which we reviewed 8 years ago got 6SN7 drivers instead. The half-width Dark KT88 Esprit integrated not shown stuck to 6SN7 whilst the integrated called just KT88 below left added a 101D direct-heated triode to the recipe. It seems fair to say that Allen S.H. Wang has had considerable time and opportunity to explore various tube combinations and circuit refinements around the KT88. Presumably his latest move to exotic new-old-stock bulbs signifies a highlight along this well-traveled route.

For parts accompanying their various KT88 models, Melody traditionally relied on Mundorf M-Cap Supreme silver oil-filled capacitors plus Nichicon Gold Tune and Solen Gold Label units plus Mundorf M-Resist resistors. Their attenuators for integrated and preamp models were their own stepped resistor-ladder assemblies but with today's model's remote control, that item has become a motorized Alps. I asked Nadia for the small print on the Pro 88's internal tech as well as what mode its three different tube types operate in.