Integrated Amp Reviews

After I reviewed NAD's Masters Series M10 streaming integrated amplifier in January 2020, I bought the review sample to use as my daily driver . . . In 2022, NAD replaced it with a revised version, the M10 V2 . . . I never tried the V2, but when NAD introduced the M10 V3 ($2999) in late 2024, I felt a follow-up review was appropriate.

My first response, upon being offered for review the new Burmester 232 Classic Line modular class-AB dual-mono integrated amplifier ($25,000), was apprehension—but not because of the product itself, and certainly not because of the Burmester brand. I had already been won over by the pair of Burmester 218 Top Line stereo power amplifiers ($50,000/each) I reviewed in the October 2024 issue.

There are craftspeople and companies in high-end audio doing admirable work. Those at the cost-no-object end of the business are pushing performance limits and doing new and better things with new and better materials. The ones I especially admire, though, are in the high-value end of the business, making extraordinary equipment at approachable prices.

I first heard about Devialet and their inaugural product, the D-Premier integrated amplifier, in show reports from the 2009 Salon Haute Fidélité Paris show. Fascinated by its idiosyncratic design and ignorant of the boundaries of my own comprehension, I looked up the patents. Devialet's flag was planted in my consciousness.

I'm known as an unrepentant tube-amplifier devotee and turntable missionary. I spin vinyl in listening spaces, make jazz-vinyl videos, and review turntables, cartridges, and record cleaning machines. I'm a semi-Luddite for whom streaming is a last resort rather than a daily need. I prefer the analog-playback setup gauntlet to the setup gauntlet that comes with streaming amplifiers and network bridges.