Dared 2A3C Tube Amplifier

Dared 2A3C

I spotted this little gem while hunting for a tube amplifier in Guangzhou. It looks small but weighs a massive 17 kgs! The Chinese salesman took time to show me this tube and I had a good listening test with a number of high end Chinese speakers and a pair of Sonus Faber thrown in. The chinese speakers are not known to be easy to drive and yet at five (5) watts RMS, the little fella pumped out a lot of gusto. When I heard it paired with the Sonus Faber, I knew I have to have it. It's just great stuff. If if it works well with the Sonus Faber, it has to do even better with my Klipsch flagship bearing in mind, the Klipsch needs only 1watt to produce 100 dB.

It took me four days to await the arrival of the 2A3C having sent it through the Hong Kong International Airport Post Office. When it arrived at my place, I was impressed by the meticulous packaging, two hard boxes and polysterene foam, plus a pair of white gloves. The gloves were meant to be worn so that you won't foul the two big 2A3C vacuum tubes. The chrome casing was incredible beautiful and the build quality, in one word, superb.

Installation was pretty simple once you have the interconnects and the speaker wires in place. The first piece of CD was an XRCD by Tongli. Her vocal came across like she was right in front of you. You can literally hear her breath and dynamics. 5 watts were all it takes to produce shattering bass. Mind you, in my opinion, bass are meant to be felt not heard. The placement of the musical instruments and transparency are crystal clear. Credit must go to the horn tweeters of the Klipsch for the clarity in music reproduction.

Qinpu A800 Mk II

For the last couple of years, I have been using the heavyweight, Qinpu A8000 MkII. 100 watts per channel AB class and the difference between this brute and the 2A3C is stark and astounding. The latter came across as warmth, typically of tube, and more detailed and refined. The 2A3C is a 5 watt per channel SET with Class A amplification. As the Klispch is notoriously high efficient, the pure 5 clean watts are all it takes to create a live shattering performance. It's not over yet as I have been told that the ultimate performance comes in after the amp has run-in for 100 hours. I am already sold on the 2A3C's virtues and I reckoned I have to decommission my Qinpu for early retirement.

My advice is if you own a pair of Klipsch loudspeakers the 2A3C is your best bet in amplification. You don't need more than 5 watts to drive them. The 2A3C is highly recommended if you are looking for a great tube amplifier.