[Thelonious Monk]

http://www.glow-audio.com/home.html

Interesting integrated tube amp with USB DAC, selling for $480. Anybody here heard one? It's a single ended class A pentode design, using EL84s driven by 6N3s. RCA or USB input, has both 1/4" headphone output and binding posts. Looks like a good deal -- I'll email them to ask about the headphone amplifier circuit, as I'm sure that's the part that interests most here.

 

[Dash]

Looks very interesting.

 

[bobloblaw]

Looks very nice, indeed. I'm looking for something solid at right around this price range, and if the DAC is any good, that would be a huge plus.

 

[Bozz_Keren]

they look great, solid build, i like the glowing led from the volume knob, giving me the feel of Raptor

 

[delaril]

Well, at least they LOOK fantastic. It would be interesting indeed to learn how they sound!

 

[Killercrush]

Only by reading their description, it all seems like audiophile magic talk bullshi* to me.

No infos on the DAC itself... what a bummer.

Minimum negative feedback.... oh what's that minimum again ?!

I never take seriously a company that their slogan is :

Tube Amplifiers and Loudspeakers that Sound as Good as they Look.

 

[jgonino]

Is it just me, or does this amp look a LOT like the ones that Woo-Audio makes?

 

[Thelonious Monk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Killercrush /img/forum/go_quote.gif Only by reading their description, it all seems like audiophile magic talk bullshi* to me. No infos on the DAC itself... what a bummer. Minimum negative feedback.... oh what's that minimum again ?! I never take seriously a company that their slogan is : Tube Amplifiers and Loudspeakers that Sound as Good as they Look.

That's the part that worries me. Comes off like an Apple commercial. And the "HIDDEN" keywords at the bottom...

 

[Capunk]

Is this Chinese made amplifier?
The "On/Off" button font is similar with any alphabetical character in Chinese fonts.

How do I know this? this happen when you're in graphic design class and the rest of your class are Chinese students.

Edit: They're Chinese made amp, and the web itself clearly stated that

Sorry for the "detective" ish comments.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The DAC is 16bit, or at least it says it has a 16 bit USB sound decoder.

It is a pretty slick looking device (as is their site). You do have to hand one thing to some of these Chinese amp makers, they're learning quickly at how to design and build some decent, even good amps that also look not bad at all. Both Little Dot and Darkvoice have made big strides in both departments. This company seems to have focused a bit more on the appearance out of the gate. That and they've loaded it up with a DAC and speaker output as well, so its pretty versatile. Of course none of that matters if it doesn't sound good, but if it does then they've got a winner.

I see they also have some speakers, that have full range drivers with bamboo fiber cones. They don't look too big, I wonder if there's any similarity between them and those used in the Logitech Z-5500s (which were derived from some apparently pretty decent ones from another company or something).

 

[iviythos]

Doesn't seem like you can go too wrong with it. It might be a mite expensive at $500, or it might not, depending on how it sounds.. but I doubt you'd be severely disappointed.

I'm curious about the DAC too though - anyone have any additional information (or have one)? Will it let me down if I use it with lossless audio?

If anyone can suggest a better combo of (separate or combined) headphone amp, dac, and speaker amp (tripath or tube) at less than 500, please share!

EDit: Good review of the product at 6moons.com, thought with the usual audiophile bulls***

EDIT2: Yes, as a previous poster pointed out, the website is a mite fishy, but the product looks decent and really - I'm not interested in the Company's web-site-designing or marketing skills, but in their amp-making skills... Just because they didn't spend money to improve their marketing doesn't necessarily reflect badly on the product.

 

[mrarroyo]

Looks very similar to a Jasmine T200 I had about 3 years ago. http://www.jasmineaudio.net/T200Brochure.pdf

 

[Skylab]

Indeed, Miguel, it looks VERY similar to that amp, which IIRC was less than half the price. I actually just picked one of those Jasmine amps up used for my Dad for like $150. It's fine, but nothing special.

It certainly does not appear (from the pics) that this amp is as well made as the WooAudio 3, and it's considerably more expensive than some LD amps, the Darkvoice 336i, and the Eddie Current Lunchbox II. In fact, it's only $90 less than the excellent sounding Ming Da MC 84C07, which has tube rectification, and is much nicer looking and extremely well made.

Yes, it includes a USB DAC, but unless that was really important, I'd be very wary that this is just a new faceplate on an older design that was kind of mediocre.

 

[LordofDoom]

Those speakers look pretty nice too, actually really nice

 

[tfarney]

I did a little research on this the other day as I have some interest in a tube amp with a built-in dac. I even wrote the manufacturer. First of all, for those who are afraid it might be all marketing, or that it might just be a re-badged version of something else, here's a review from 6 moons:

6moons audio reviews: Glow Audio Amp One

The review is glowing, if you'll excuse the pun, though they didn't spend much time using the dac, so, like I said, I wrote the manufacturer, got a prompt reply that said:

Quote:

We use the tried and true C-Media CM102S 16 bit DAC from Taiwan. We chose this particular DAC because of its excellent reliability and because we think it sounds great.

But this still doesn't tell me much, as I'm not familiar with that product, and though I've asked about it on a few boards and Googled for it, I haven't come up with much.

I think it's a beautiful amp, though, and 6 Moons thought it performed WAY above its price.

The Ming Da does look nice, but all else being equal, I'd take lossless files out of my computer into a good 16 bit DAC over the dac in my iPod any day.

Tim