David Cope of Old Forge Marketing, and formerly for many years with Audio Note, is now the US importer for PureAudio of New Zealand. At the California Audio Show last month, David was showing off his new babies, the SoundKaos VOX 3f compact 3-way speakers from Switzerland driven by the PureAudio ONE Integrated Amplifier ($10,000).
Every time I hear the PureAudio amps, I can’t believe that they are transistors. The sound is always huge, and it immerses you in the music. My longtime friend, Richard Austin, a reviewer for Dagogo who is from Hong Kong by way of Canada, was giving me a hard time at the show for beating him out to obtain the PureAudio ONE to review. More than once Richard commented that this was the first transistor amp he had ever heard that sounded like music.
About PureAudio
When most Americans hear the name PureAudio they don’t think of a high-end audio company from New Zealand. Many of you may, however, know Plinius Audio. Ten years ago I reviewed the Plinius 9200 Integrated Amplifier, and I thought it was great for the money.
Peter Thomson founded Plinius Audio, and Gary Morrison joined him as a business partner and shareholder in 1987. Gary was responsible for all of the audio electronic design from then until they both left Plinius in 2006. In fact, Gary introduced Ross to Plinius in 2000, and it was Ross who contributed the curved chassis look which they still use today and which has appeared in many forms since across the audio industry.
In fact, Gary, who has worked in the high-end audio industry for 30-years, spent most of those years at Plinius. Ross has worked as an industrial designer for over 25 years and has a particular passion for high-end audio. His resume includes B&W, Perreaux, and Plinius.
The PureAudio amps and preamps of today are a result of Gary’s and Ross’ collaboration designing Plinius products. Over the years, Gary and Ross have developed a close professional and personal friendship, and PureAudio is the result of their shared passion. They love to create simple, innovative and refined designs that focus on the enjoyment of music.
Looks are Deceiving
You may be fooled by your first glance at the ONE, but don’t let the imposing looks of this amp intimidate you as the simple design makes the ONE easy to use. However, it’s no lightweight at 19 inches wide, 15 inches deep and weighing in at 57 pounds.
But, I did say it’s looks are imposing. That skeleton chassis is a bit different. According to PureAudio’s product description, it’s this innovative chassis design that results in an absolutely acoustically transparent platform. It is made of two thick, folded aluminum plates that make up the base and the cover. The upper part has been extensively cut to form a design that makes me think of a Klingon Battle Cruiser, and the remote control reminded me of a hand weapon they would have used.
The result of this design is a framework that is skeletal as the chassis is more like a cage than a box. The open areas are filled with two sizes of stainless steel mesh. And I have to say, the ventilation is dramatically better than any Class A transistor amp that I have ever seen.
Design Simplicity
It’s hard to imagine a much simpler integrated amp with an active linestage than the ONE. It only has one large knob on the front panel, a very comfortable volume knob. A small round keypad on the left enables you to select one of the four line inputs, a direct input for home theater, or simply transform the ONE into a power amplifier.
The rear panel has ten 24-carat gold and rhodium-plated pure copper RCA jacks with Teflon insulation to guarantee a secure connection. You won’t see balanced inputs from PureAudio. You can read an article on their website that explains why.
The amp uses Cardas loudspeaker terminals, which only accept spades, so you must have speaker cables that have spades or adapters. I want to thank John McDonald at Audience for providing me with gold and rhodium adapters so that I could use my Audience FrontRow speaker cables for this review.
All of the PureAudio products, including the ONE are equipped with a fully regulated high current power supply. Also like all of their amps, the ONE is a pure Class A amp. They have designed their amplifiers to automatically switch to a low-power standby mode when not in use. This keeps the room cooler and the electric bill down.
Wrapping Up
One last thing PureAudio says is that the preamplifier section of the ONE is simple. It may be a minimalist design but when it comes to the sound, it is superb. I like the ONE considerably better as an integrated amp than I did as a power amp with my reference preamp. Don’t get me wrong, it was great as a power amp but it is even better as an integrated.
So how does the ONE sound in my system? In Part 2 of this review, I’ll give you the details on how this amp takes listening to the level of being an experience. Watch for Part 2 to be published soon.
Note: Read Part Two of this review here.
