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Notice, of course, The Wall of Bitchin' Amps and Cabinets (WBAC). "Sometimes we reach some really mind-boggling volumes in here," John said.
Finally, John gave me a chance to demo the latest iteration of The Nines.
The system we used to demo the prototype Nines was made of a Solen Solo integrated amp and a California Audio Labs Delta and Alpha combination CD player.
The Solo, John told me, "immediately became the Ensemble B-50 Tiger integrated amp when Solen of Canada objected to sharing its name. Only a few were made under the old name, and I'm fairly sure nothing was changed beyond the name. As the Ensemble Tiger it gathered a great reputation and helped launch Ensemble in the US. It's a little 50 watt hybrid using tubes in the preamp section and transistors in the power amp section."