Outboard DACs

And then there were three: having redesigned its mainstream amplifiers into 'Anniversary' editions in 2015 to mark the 20th year of its founding in Tuscany, Audio Analogue carried through the design – by its stablemate AirTech [see HFN May '17] – into the PureAA line. The range has broadly lived up to that idea of analogue and purity. Even the 100W-rated AAcentro integrated amp, selling for £2999, with its three unbalanced line inputs, one XLR balanced input, and a MM/MC phono stage, uses a digitally-governed but analogue volume control with a choice of four selectable scales to allow matching with different sources and speakers. Phono capability also plays a big part in the company's thinking, and next out of the traps was the AAphono, at £1599 and housed in the same half-width casework as the AAdac. It uses a two-stage gain and RIAA eq with a subsonic filter inbetween. Switches on the underside allow for adjustment of capacitance and resistance loading for MM cartridges, and lower impedance options for MCs. And, just like the AAdac, no fewer than three toroidal transformers are used for its multiple, independently regulated L/R PSUs.