Densen debuts its most powerful amplifier

Danish company Densen has announced a range-topping integrated amplifier, the most powerful model the company has ever made.

The £6800 B-175 delivers 125W per channel into 8ohms, doubling that output into a 4ohm load, and is said to draw heavily on the range-topping B-250 preamplifier and B-350 monobloc power amps.

In fact, even the exterior design is taken from those components: Densen says that the new amp "has the fascia of the B-250 preamp, and combines this with the brute and forceful cabinet of the B-350 monobloc with its recessed heat sinks".

With typical candour the company admits that some corners have been cut to shoehorn the amps into a single case and achieve the price, but it says the sound quality has remained a paramount consideration throughout the design process.

The power supply uses an encapsulated toroidal transformer, with separate outputs for each section of the amp, and custom-made capacitors are used throughout, including Densen's own film capacitors, tailor-made for the company's designs.

The recessed heatsinks allow the amplifier to be run in Class A for most of the power delivered for normal listening, and the internal wiring from the amplifier to the speaker terminals uses custom-made silver-coated wiring.

Volume adjustment is via a microprocessor-controlled attenuator, giving 0.5dB steps of increase and decrease using Vishay laser-trimmed resistors.

Options include a board to turn the preamp section into a 7.1-channel analogue pre, a dedicated MM or MC phono stage, Densen's DNRG external power supply and the company's SAXO active crossover, allowing the B-175 to be run with several power amps to drive suitable speakers.