New amplifications seemed rather scarce this year at the Top Audio & Video Show. Who knows, maybe i covered all the major brands in last years show coverage, have been covering too many shows here on the web in the past few years, or the Italians are very smart and do not need new models every other six months in what seems to be the industry standard?

Celebrating their 50 year anniversary, McIntosh is making available a new very limited edition McIntosh MC 2000 stereo amplifier. It uses four KT88/6550 output tubes, two 12ax7 and one 12at7 tube per channel. Inputs include both XLR and RCA while large 5-way gold plated speaker binding posts round out this unit. They are unsure the price and the quantity which will make up this limited edition. Possibly waiting for the Far East response to then gauge their production run accordingly?

No stranger to tubes, Pathos was showing their wide array of drop dead gorgeous products (ok, this digital photo is horrible, i know. Scanned analog photo coming soon i promise). Seen here is their InPower monoblock that uses two dual-triode small-signal tubes input coupled to solid-state output devices to achieve 80 wpc. power. Frequency response is claimed as 5 Hz - 60 kHz (+-0.3db) with a signal to noise ratio of 98db. Pathos also was demonstrating their highly acclaimed TwinTower 35wpc remote controllable integrated unit as well.

Unison Research had many new units at the show starting with their S2 single-ended ultalinear 12 wpc stereo integrated pre/power amplifier. This unit uses one EL34 and one 12AU7 per channel with a total of 10 db feedback loop. Four inputs and tape loop are also provided for while Unison research's usual solid cherry wood front panel and precision machines control knobs round out it's obviously Italian heritage. Their new S8 is basically like the S2 but uses the 845 output tube in triode mode. It also uses one more 12AU7 tube for a grand total of three. There are other upgrades too including the use of pure silver for the electronic circuit board, higher quality parts than the S2 plus other refinements to make this one amazing unit indeed!

Another company that is no stranger to tubes is none other than conrad-johnson. Seen here is their MV-55 stereo vacuum tube amplifier which uses four EL34 output tubes to produce 45 wpc. ultalinear or 22 wpc. in triode mode. two 12AX7 and two 6SN7 tubes round out this design. As for me, i love my personally owned cj CAV-50 amplifier. If you have never heard a cj unit in your system, you might want to run, not walk, and hear these jewels for yourself. How much ink has been spilt on their ART preamplifier alone should convince you of that good ol' cj magic.

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