Audio Space

AUDIO SPACE AS-8i 

When I first saw this massive block of beauty, I thought to myself, it must have been carefully and painstakingly crafted to achieve such aesthetic appeal, especially the front panel which has a gold finish. The other parts of the amp looks standard, with a chrome body and three huge black transformers surrounded by vacuum tubes. Nevertheless, it takes more than looks to impress audiophiles.

The AS-8i has four KT88 pentodes, one 12AX7 and four 12AU7 triodes. The front panel consist of the power switch, a triode-ultralinear switch selector, volume knob and a source selector. On the right side are four inputs. The back consist of the output binding posts with a choice of 4 or 8 Ohms. There is also a fuse near the AC power connector.

The output for this Hong Kong made integrated tube amp is 55 watts per channel in ultralinear mode, dropping to 28 watts in triode mode. In this review, the amp is connected to a Marantz CD 6311 KI-S player, Parasound P-PHP-850 preamp and Focus Audio FR6 Reference Series speakers. Cables: Cardas Crosslink S1. Interconnects: QED Qunex2 with gold plated RCA connectors.

In my first audition, I felt that the amp lacked bass and tried to introduce a sub-woofer to enhance it which made it worse. Finally, I decided on the pre-amp and that did the trick. The AS-8i handles most jazz and slow rock superbly. It is able to deliver the detailed notes of Miles with ease, you could practically hear his breath. Grover Washington Jr’s Take Five is brilliant as the amp manages to capture the high and low notes together without any distortion.The vocals by the Corrs is absolutely breath taking with amazing soundstage.

In conclusion, the amp is a good amp and is able to deliver beyond expectations. The drawback is, I reckon as with most valve amplifiers, rock and heavy metal is not its forte.