From: "Simon G" simong@xxxxco.uk Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 12:19 PM

David - Here is a report on the Stereo 40i Classic which you sent a few weeks ago. The missus loves it - yup, its a classy looker and really does put the Jap boxes to shame. It is smaller than I thought it would be but none the worse for it. Size isn't everything after all. I know it probably hasn't fully burnt in yet but listening so far reveals this to me :

1 - Image, (left and right spread) is massive. Honestly, I am awestruck by the sound stage. I had a Graaf GM50 before and the Icon comprehensivley trounces it.

2 - Depth is the same. It is the first time I have actually heard this effect, previously I just thought it was pretentious Hi Fi reviewers plagiarising wine magazine speak.

3 - OK, it isn't exactly for detail freaks. I once had a Bow Wazoo which was a real engineering gem. Plenty of power and the retrieval of detail was phenomenal. Trouble was that it got really tiring after a while because it was so analytical it became sterile. Anyway, so-called detail from CD, for instance, usually means a load of nasty treble squawks. The Icon extracts what is there but seems to balance it very musically - masterfully on CD.

4 - Bass response is spot on. Controls the ATC drivers with real grip.

5 - Treble is so smooth. Strings sound seductive and real with a sheen which I've not really had before. None of that nasty digital / tranny glare so common with solid state.

6 - It has plenty of power for the ATC's. I haven't had the courage to crank it up to distortion levels yet. Normal listening levels are around 11 o'clock on either setting (triode or linear). It is in a small room and who wants to listen at Def Leppard levels anyway? 45 watts of valve power is indeed ample juice.

7 - Vinyl replay is just fantastic. The Graaf got a lot from my Lps but seemed to miss out on depth. Difficult to explain really but the icon just seems to make LPs sound like LPs, warm , musical, attention grabbing.

8 - Vocals - seductive, especially with girls (I have some Linda Ronstadt jazz albums which are awesome with the icon, you really are there). I've had a lot of amps in my time with Quads (33 / 405 / 44 / 405 / 606) as a good starting point.

They had clout but were ultimately slightly dull and tedious. The Bow Wazoo I have already mentioned. It was followed by a Unison Research SR1 - crappy power output, feeble and always going into clipping despite cited 80w output. Then the Graaf - a real powerhouse (50w from KT90's) but there was something rather clinical about it and it was a ludicrously large case - at least three times the size of the Icon with the same basic components.

Icon - best of the bunch by a mile. Quiet on LP (much more so than any other I had), yes it does tame digital sources (excellent on DVD for instance, nicely tones down the stupid sonic booms of the soundtrack). LP comes through a valve phono stage anyway ( a secondhand Audion Sterling), so double doses of quality glass really does work beautifully. I am very pleased and I think that I've found my answer to amplifiers. I've buggered about for years trying to find a good match for the ATC SCM50's and you had it all along!

If you want to use/paraphrase any comments for your website feel free to do so - more people really do need to know how good this amp is.

Last point - it is a really honest amp and I now know what a valve sound really means - bliss!

Good luck with Icon, a quality product at an amazing price which even her indoors will cherish.

Simon G
Skipton

From: len XXXX Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2005 7:41 PM

Dear Mr Shaw

Dear Mr Shaw

Thank you for your help last Friday with my valve query. Set up amp on Friday evening, and sat for four hours listening to various CDs. My first impressions were the amp was very detailed, fast with expellant dynamics,but sounded a bit thin and voices sounded a bit recessed.

The good news is by Tuesday and having run the amp for around 30 to 40 Hrs the results were brilliant, the amp retained its impressive speed and dynamics revealing a mass of information with sweet treble and a deep tight bass, a wide deep sound stage and much of the warmth of the stereo 40i.

In my opinion the Stereo 60i will beat £2,200 pre power amps of well known manufacturer hands down !

I think you have a winner with this amp with its detail,dynamics, sound stage with no listening fatigue.Keep up the good work.

Yours Faithfully Len XXXX

From: Gary P Sent: Tuesday, June 15, 2004 11:25am

Just thought I'd let you know how I'm getting on with the Stereo 40i I'm trialling.

My first impressions were that the unit was slightly smaller and considerably better looking than I imagined from the photos (although my girlfriend compared it to her granny's two-bar electric heater!).

The sound is truly excellent. The Stereo 40 has the sort of timing, clarity and power I imagined was the preserve of transistor amps.  Even using relatively inefficient speakers (86dB Quad 11Ls) the 40A output is louder and gutsier than I expected - I cannot imagine using the volume control above half way.

Careful comparison with my usual transistor amp and CD player shows that the Stereo 40 makes instruments and voices sound more real and pleasant. The transistor amp seemed rather flat and fake in comparison. With the Stereo 40, flutes sound musical even with very high-pitched notes, whereas the transistor amp makes the high notes sound harsh and unrealistic. Female vocals are smoother and more lifelike and leap out of the speakers - the effect can be quite startling.

Bass is smooth and liquid and tuneful.  At first I thought the bass seemed a little weak. Careful comparison with the transistor amp proved that the bass was just as loud, but the Stereo 40 seemed to be not quite as successful at capturing the initial 'slam' of a bass note - the Stereo 40 seemed to miss off the beginning of bass notes, meaning that the bass sounded a little late compared with the rest of the music. However, more importantly, the bass is creamy and pleasant on the ear, unlike a transistor amp's bass, which can sound annoyingly grainy to my ears. I suspect that any weakness in bass timing may be something to do with some other aspect of my system, rather than a shortcoming of the Stereo 40, and I'm looking into it.

The overall effect is so musical and delightful that I cannot imagine going back to a transistor amp.

Regards

From: Phil M Sent: Friday, July 23, 2004 4:10 PM

David,

Just a quick e-mail to let you know that my Stereo 40i arrived this afternoon, I took the day off work in anticipation as you know. I must thank and congratulate you on such superb sounding kit, it blows my NAD C160/C270 pre and power out of the water musically, and that's straight from the box!

The mid range is far more revealing, the bass is much deeper, yet tuneful, and the treble sweet. I can now hear David Gilmour breath when he plays his acoustic parts at various segments on The Wall LP (I've played it twice this afternoon).

Its also worth mentioning that the little extras you throw in make a difference as well, you can see your company has pride in its products (and so it should).

Let this be testimony to anyone considering making an investment in one of your products or a journey into the world of valves, don't hesitate, just do it.

Once again, thank you,

Mr Phil M

From: Alain, Belgium Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2004 5:58 PM

Hi David

At least, I can listen to good music again, for as long as I like to. The past very cloudy 3 days have brought a great pleasure, since I rediscovered many records I did love 20 or 30 years ago, when I was still living in my parent's home, with their all-tube hi-fi system (Fisher 400cx + Fisher sa1000) at my disposal.

When I moved to my own home, I had to buy my first amplifier. It was the first of a long list of well-known and expensive solid-state amps which gave no real satisfaction. With my brand new "Icon stereo 40i", I'm happy to retrieve the full-bodied, rich, natural sound that I did miss for so long. I really love the sound of the beautiful music of my numerous records and cd's coming out of this small amplifier.

This very positive early impression makes me considering the purchase of a second Stereo 40i, for my vacation home. But, could you argue what good reasons I would have to orientate my choice toward the more expensive Icon system consisting of preamp LA3 + amp MB25 ?
Could I expect a more accurate tone, a crisper definition, or something else expressible with words?

Regards.
Alain.

From: Dr. Bernd H (Berlin, Germany) Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 8:17 PM

>> Dear Bernd
>> Just a quick email to check that the amplifier you purchased from us OK
>> arrived OK.
>> Regards
>> David Shaw.

Dear David

I got the amplifier and I like it very much! The article in Hi-FiNews 2/2004 says everything, specially the depth of the soundstage is very impressing. My wife and I like the Norah Jones CDs played through the amp and hear them over and over again.

There was a tiny occurence: when the amp arrived one of the EL34s was out of its bubbled wrap free floating in the amp. But UPS (or whoever brought it) made obviously a good job, so everything is fine.

Thanks for your help and the amp

Bernd H

From: Nigel M Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 8:40 AM

Dear Dave
Well I've had the unit now for nearly a month and have to say that it's brilliant. At last there is body to the music, clear highs and a midband that is superb with voices, especially female. I'm glad to say it rocks as well ! The bass notes are deep and strong. My congratulations, you have succeeded in producing an excellent music making machine.
The other day I adjusted the bias on the valves, taking my time and getting around about 330mv reading on all four, it seemed to make a difference to the sound. Suddenly everything snapped into focus, the amp is remarkably revealing and there is plenty of air around instruments etc. I would love to hear this on the end of Horns !
I'm hoping that I can bring the COPLAND (part exchange) in to you on Wed 18th Feb if convenient, please let me know if it is'nt.
My very best wishes
Nigel M

From: John F Sent: Monday, February 09, 2004 3:12 AM

David,

Yes, please feel free to use my message, if you wish. Hope it helps you.The more people that know about your products, the better.

The other point I didn't mention in my e-mail was the quality of the amplifier's finish, which I also found to be first class. Who would want a dull old rectangular box of transistors, when they could have something that looks [and sounds] as interesting and classy as one of your amps?

Keep up the good work!

Best Wishes.

John F
----- Original Message -----
From: John F
To: iconaudio@ntlworld.com
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 4:56 PM
Subject: Stereo 40 Amplifier

David,

You may not recall me but I bought a Stereo 40 amplifier from you several months ago. It sounded very good out of the box driving a number of different speakers. However, the improvement over the past few months has been staggering. The amplifier now sounds not simply very good but absolutely outstanding.

I have heard many valve amps over the years and have not always been convinced by the end results. There is often a blandness about the output that has left me feeling that there was something missing particularly at the top end of the audio spectrum. However, the Stereo 40 has led to none of these reservations. It sounded good straight away but now it sound like a world beater!

How come it seems to be such a closely guarded secret?

Best Wishes

John F

From: Kay & Peter Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2004 9:24 AM

Hi David
thanks for your time the other morning, since i returned home the CD player has been pressed into service and in direct comparison to my LP 12 the sound is equally impressive, natural sounding, open, good bass weight and great detail, i would go as far to say that this great product highlights the inadequacy of my current tonearm. Further to this in terms of direct comparison with other digital sources its by far the most impressive product ive heard recently including products from Cyrus, Naim and Arcam, thanks for bringing this great product to the market place.

Regards
Peter

From: Mike @ hotmail.com Sent: Tuesday, July 1, 2003 1:36 PM

Dear david

My one month trial of the stereo 40 is now at an end. I am absolutely delighted with the amp, and clearly will be keeping it. You may be interested to know that auditioned against the top of the range (DELETED BRAND NAME) company model your icon was noticeably superior STRAIGHT FROM THE BOX.

Mike T of Dunstable

From: Mike S Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 11:16 AM

Hi David,

I used some mini speakers with my system to check, thought you'd like to know that even with that limitation there was an obvious improvement over my old pre amp. Your amp works very well when driving a pair of Lumley reference 120 monoblocks,

Regards,
Mike

From: Malc Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2003 9:45 PM

Dear david,

Just to let you know that i have set up my new "new tube reference" no problem i turned it on at 6:00pm yesterday and its not been off since.I've listened to nearly all of my cd collection i've found things on them that i didn't know where there .The wife and I went out for a meal last night and didn't get home until 12:00am but stayed up until 3:00am listening to music she even went out today and bought herself some new cd's she was that impressed with it that in itself is a glowing testimony to how good this cd player is. Thanks for the time that you allowed me and john to spend at your premises 3 and 3/4hrs!! and don't discount me coming back i'm giving the monoblocks some really serious consideration (how much trade in would you give me for a nad c370 and nad c270 both imacc boxed manuals remote etc and a sony xb770 sacd player same thing boxed etc) would you be interested in the above 3 in a straight swop for a stereo 40 long shot i know but thought i'd ask?

Anyway thanks for your patience yesterday and if you want to use my e-mail for advertising please do people in the uk need to know about these players

thanks
malc

From: John H Sent: Friday, May 23, 2003 7:50 AM

Dear David

I had the opportunity to listen to my hi fi last night and moved the speakers around to the optimum position - no mean feat, they're heavy! I am very impressed and will be keeping your Icon LA3 pre-amp. I was so impressed with your after sales service I would like to write a letter to a magasine commending you and your product, but to which one? Perhaps you could let me know which you think is the most appropriate.

From the most discerning customer

John

From: Wiliiam F Sent: Sunday, May 18, 2003 5:10 PM

Hello David

Just a note to thank you again for your help, we received the upsampler and have found it to make a hugh improvement on the performance of the C.D. player.

Best wishes, William & Lynn