Three days spent with an early production model were very pleasant. Would be the full-blown test be as great?

Over the years we have seen this once small Canadian company get better and better at what it does: produce highly desirable audiophile amplifiers at prices the competition can't match. The company is still small by industrial standards, though it dwarfs many well-known high-end companies. One goal long eluded its designers: making an integrated amplifier that sounded as though it belonged in the same brochure as the separate amps and preamps.
     Its initial failure was no doubt frustrating, because in the meantime other companies were succeeding where it had not. Indeed, the integrated amplifier, once the sort of product you'd buy if you just couldn't afford better, became the respectable heart of a high-end system. Companies known for beefy separates, such as Krell and Bryston, joined in. And finally so has SimAudio.
     The I-5 is a remote-controlled amplifier in a handsome blue-panelled box that is similar to that of the P-5 preamplifier, also part of the company's top-of-the-line Moon series. Like other amplifiers in the line, such as the W-3 and the W-5 (the latter used in our Omega reference system), it contains the "Renaissance" circuit that has made the company's reputation, with no overall feedback (though there is local feedback in individual stages). A microprocessor runs the control system, with sealed relays and an array of high quality fixed resistors as a volume control. All the functions are accessible from the front panel, which is just as well because the factory was short of remotes to lend us. There are buttons for power-on, input selection and the tape loop, and a large knob for volume (to control the microprocessor, not the actual audio circuit). The remote has the same functions plus a balance control. Balance is not a separate function in this case; it is accomplished by the neat trick of simply telling the on-board computer to assign different volume settings to the left and right channels. Simple and elegant.
     The bright red LED readout shows the input chosen if that's the function you used last (either CD, tape, or one of the four other high-level functions, identified only by number). If you change the volume, the screen will then show the relative volume level, calibrated in decibels (separately for each channel). The mute button (available on the remote) temporarily drops volume to zero, and returns to the previously-selected volume when it is pushed again.
     If the front panel is handsome, the rear is impressive too. The back panel is oval, like the chassis (which is hidden by the front panel, a rounded rectangle). The jacks are beautiful, gold-plated with Teflon insulation, as in most other SimAudio components. The output posts are from WBT, identical to those on other units of the Moon series. This is easily the best-looking of the amplifiers in this test series, and the beauty is more than skin-deep.
     Among the inputs is the one labelled "video," which has a special role. You can't use it with most components, because it completely bypasses the volume control. It's meant to take the left and right front outputs of a video processor. It's an important feature, because you can use it to set up a DVD-based five-channel system, whose video gear can be switched out when you want to hear music.
     So much for features. A first listen, some months ago, had made us suppose that SimAudio had finally succeeded in building a first-rate integrated amplifier. This much longer listening session would confirm it...

Would you like to read the full text, with illustrations, of The Video Revolution? Click here to order the print edition of UHF No. 56.