einstein The Poweramp:

                    100% As new in the factory box and less than 500 hours.

It is one of the finest sounding amplifiers I've ever heard!!! 

It has a resolved and and true Reference sound that is a TOP REFERENCE and even sound stages and drives far better than anything in it's power or price range !!!

Do your self a favor & read the Positive Feedback review and come in and hear it for your self it is SCARY GOOD and a true reference.

                                       Positive Feedback rated it A+++

                          A serious family illness forced sale creating this opportunity.

Also available from Weinhart Design, is the Einstein "The PreAmp" & "The Turntables Choice Balanced Phono Stage" and lots of other fine pre owned, new and demo's representing the best of what is available, it is best to call for details.

Positive Feedback ISSUE 72

march/april 2014:

As reviewed by Danny Kaey:

For me there are two, possibly three types
of audio, nay, high-end audio companies: there are your traditional,
single focus minded guys and gals who come out with a product now and
then, or, really only when it make sense. The temptation to resist what
I label "gadgetization", "gadgetizationalitis" must, in 2014, indeed be
a difficult one to resist. Imagine Spectral launching a new poweramp
every year (at CES). Imagine the outcry. See what I mean? Let's
face it: Spectral isn't in business to monetize the latest and greatest
feature set every 2-3 months (or even years), after all, this isn't the
handset business, otherwise known as Android.

Next, you have the guys who are somewhere in
between. Let's add a feature here, a sparkle there, maybe add a ¼" of
copper to a 'table's platter and voila, we have ourselves a new and
improved something-or-another. Think Clear Audio, Transrotor, TW
Acustic, etc. The question that invariably rears its head here is, of
course, the dreaded (especially for the reviewer who's tasked to
objectively form an opinion) "Yes that's great, but is it really
better?" Doubtful in any real, significant terms; alas, business
is business, and so more power to you for being able to pull that sort
of thang off the ground. Clearly this sort of approach works for
some; obviously the market accepts it and sales are being generated.

The third such audio company is your typical
big-box retail focused endeavor (I suppose it's debatable if this
category falls into the classical mold that is high-end audio, alas, you
get my point). The bigger, the better, grab the microsecond attention
span of your traditional Best Buy customer and go for the gold. Shiny
new toys, mostly for boys. Sounds like a solid proposition to me. Get
'em in there, rack 'em, stack 'em. Think Boilerroom for audio. Hey,
we've all seen the kind; heck, sometimes you do fall for that,
what with all the glitz and glamor, who could resist.

EINSTEIN Audio, of course, is no such
company—heaven forbid. EINSTEIN is clearly part of the first category:
new amp every year? Right. Think again. Heck, EINSTEIN's
portfolio has probably been turned no more than twice in the company's
26 year history and that's saying something. Longevity. Reliability.
Exclusivity. Here's the way I look at this: if something is designed
from the ground up to be right, then really no amount of futzing
will change that downstream. And so, only—and that's to be appreciated
more than you think or know—when and if better technologies come along
does a new product get announced and set free.

Such is the case with EINSTEIN's latest
amplifier, aptly named The Poweramp. Replacing the previous version, The
Light In The Dark Limited Edition (there's a handful!), The Poweramp
continues EINSTEIN's tradition of offering up genuinely different
and unique technology in an attractive and stylish package. More or less
based on the company's celebrated OTL reference mono block amplifiers,
The Silver Bullet, The Poweramp continues the tradition of unique
amplification design. As Volker Bohlmeier (EINSTEIN's principal) says,
"Our goal with The Poweramp was to essentially recreate the topology of
our OTL amplifier in a more compact stereo chassis utilzing integrated
circuits instead." And recreate their OTL amplifier they did.

Utilizing the same strict adherence to a
fully balanced design, The Poweramp is in effect two mono amplifiers in
a single chassis. Capitalizing on each design's strengths, the input
section is built around double triode PCC88 tubes which help produce the
extreme linearity The Poweramp is capable of. The output stage uses two
identical ICs per channel, which according to Volker, really is the
equivalent of the OTLs massive output tubes. Greatly upgraded power
supplies compliment the package, thus giving The Poweramp the ability to
drive virtually any speaker to maddening ear-bleed levels with the
utmost in control, finesse, dynamic range, and speed. Needless to say,
Volker is of the persuasion that less power yields dramatically better
sound, really claiming that 90W is more than plenty to accommodate most
speakers and most rooms without any issues.

Practically speaking, The Poweramp simply
looks more ballsy in real and absolute terms. The chassis, now
cut from a solid block of aluminum, seems substantially beefier (the old
one wasn't a slouch either!) while the dramatically larger power supply
transformers (one per channel) add to the overall heft of the amplifier.
The previous model's power and standby switches are now gone too,
replaced by a simple on/off switch as is customary with EINSTEIN
underneath the chassis. The omission of the two switches leaves in
place the clean, beveled high-gloss black front plate that now looks
quite more striking. Cleverly solved gain switching (outside the signal
path of course!) is done via plug-in resistors that can be added and
removed on the back of the amplifier. All in all, a seemingly
substantial upgrade then, worthy of a new product – see category 1.

Arriving in EINSTEIN's typical, double-boxed
wooden crate, unboxing of The Poweramp becomes an easy, if weighty task.
Compared to most other high-end components, even something as mundane as
packaging, EINSTEIN manages to stand out from the rest. Nice touch.
Given the $27,300 US retail price from EINSTEIN's freshly minted US
distributor, the ever affable, clever Irish man otherwise known as
Philip O'Hanlon of On A Higher Note, The Poweramp joins an altogether
exclusive, supreme club of high price, high performance audio. Certainly
compared to the typical cookie-cutter massive jewel box amplifiers of
that region, The Poweramp manages to stand out: classy, sassy, and
stylish are words that frequently get thrown around when friends and
folk come to casa K for a visit.

Going from the already damned good
The Light In The Dark Limited Edition to this new guy was as easy
as unplugging one, replacing it with the other, and turning the power
on. Now, speaking of power: EINSTEIN was also kind enough to send along
their latest power strip, The Octopus, aptly named for its 8 power
outlets. Not really any sort of power "conditioning" unit per se, The
Octopus (US $2990) is a really, really, really great power strip,
with a few value add twists that are well, let's call it typical
EINSTEIN. For starters, the triangulated case is laser cut and laser
welded from solid steel. Turns out that a large German
industrialist specialty manufacturer in close proximity to Bochum
(Germany, EINSTEIN's place of birth), is also an avid Hi-Fi
connoisseur and thusly offered plans to manufacture The Octopus in small
batches for a price that no other mortal would have been able to get
this side of commercial manufacturing sanity.

Not merely being satisfied with standard
fare power strip stuff, The Octopus utilizes a specially sourced
industrial grade 16A power input connector; 4 of the 8 outlets are
equipped with an industrial grade RF filter used in high-end RF
applications. Surge protection, phase detection, and a nicely made
voltage indicator (with cool blue LED display) round out the feature set
of this power strip, EINSTEIN style. While in general I have not
been a proponent of power filtration / regeneration / etc. systems
(other than the Nordost system I am presently using, which goes markedly
against the grain of my perception), The Octopus clearly isn't playing
for keeps in that field and realm; no, The Octopus (I bet had
they called it "Octopussy", the Broccoli family of James Bond 007 fame
and fortune would have gone after them like mad…) is your traditional 8
outlet powerstrip with the aforementioned EINSTEIN twist of superior
quality, execution and let's not forget, it's, it's supremo-stylish
to boot. Alas, more on my sonic impressions with this lil' darlin'
later on.

Now on those EINSTEIN power ratings:
rated—conservatively—at 90W of power on an 8 Ohm load (going up to 140 @
4) some of my usual DK posse let loose that they feared those
numbers to be on the low side for such a reference level amplifier
design. While in this day and age, mega-watt, mega-buck amplifiers
appear to be the norm (select manufacturers seeking to stay out of the
race for obvious reasons), I assure you that under normal conditions,
90W of output power are actually rather sufficient for even the
most demanding of listening sessions. Having exposed the previous champ,
The Light In The Dark Limited, rated at 80W, to various speaker loads
from around 87 to 101 db efficiency, I never once ran out of juice, even
though—at times—I cranked the volume to 11. After all, music has
to be felt, not merely heard. Provocateur Srajan Ebaen of
6Moons recently opined about this very topic on DAR (the affable
opposite, John Darko, whose clever digs I dig) and surmises what most
sane people already know: power ain't everything. Alas, take a
look for yourself

here.

My thoughts on the mega-power
rat-race are such that I feel it has a certain kinship with the
mega-pixel race of year's past: more, more, more somehow equals
better. While giving you an apparently far larger canvas from
which you can crop yourself to death, you end up obscuring detail, fine
color grading and overall appear to add layers of haze and digital
schmutz. I think that—in broad audio terms—similar characteristics
can be found: again, it is fairly well accepted knowledge that in
general lower powered amplifiers do in fact sound better. Going back to
even the days of tubes, your typical vintage McIntosh MC30 will in fact
sound better than 'tosh's MC75. More amplification = more grit and crud.
Who knows, I'm not a circuit designer, merely one who pretends to know
what's going on.

Thus, within minutes of playing, The
Poweramp at 90 felt right at home. These EINSTEIN guys know what they
are doing. Cueing up the usual faire of DK specials, this amp sang like
a champ. At once, it became evident that the new model, whilst nominally
gaining only a handful of Watts in output power, sounded far more
powerful overall. Call it stage presence, soundstage, bandwidth,
resolution, The Poweramp is a significant upgrade to its brother's
sonics. Electronica, say, Kraftwerk, Trentemōller, Bebel Gilberto, etc.
all sounded more impactful and exploded with greater power, depth, and
overall resolving power. Watts are Watts, at least that's what they
say—assuming this to be true, then clearly Volker and company have added
to the sonic picture of The Poweramp by ways of cleverly extracting that
much more sonic bliss from components found elsewhere.

Take for example Dean Martin's latest hi-res
reissues, recently remastered by guru Vic Anesini from "the best
possible sources," available for download at Chad Kassem's newest digs,
SuperHiRez. Dream With Dean, perhaps considered to be his
most evocative and stimulating album (though I could name at least a
dozen more, the Dino aficionado that I am), was given the royal
treatment by Vic. And I do mean royal. Most familiar am I with
this album, as three copies of various and dubious quality levels
grace my record shelves. To say that I am intimately familiar with this
album is to make it an understatement of royally epic proportions.
Harrumph, harrumph! (Hey, I didn't get a harrumph out of that guy!)
Expertly produced by Jimmy Bowen, this is a closely mic'd, warm and
lush sounding release with such legends as Ken Lane (piano), Barney
Kessel (guitars), and Red Mitchell (bass), all in tuneful arrangements
around Mr. Crooner himself. "Everybody Loves Somebody,"
originally released as the hit single (which, btw, was in fact the first
single to take the Beatles off their No. 1 spot), is completely
rearranged and redone in this recording. Trust me on this one;
you want to go and grab the download, and the (clean) LP! PS:
rumor has it someone somewhere is working on a 45 rpm vinyl and DSD
release… Might be Chad himself for all I know. But I digress.

A quaint piano, a bit of guitar work there,
rarely any bass to speak of, this is in fact the version that
should have been the hit single. Following this track via my vinyl
vault, when all planets are in proper alignment, read: your stylus, is
set at the correct VTA, azimuth, etc., then you'll be in for a treat
(provided you, as I, have found a nice and clean copy), as the album's
sonics are quite simply spectacular. Dean is projected into your room
with proper physical attributes of his voice; the soft piano adding
simple touches to the blissful tune that is Dean Martin doing what he
does best: crooning. Lesser presentations seem to miss the focus points
and overall presentation in favor of a more blasé sounding vocal
performance. Switching over to the freshly minted and aforementioned
hi-res version, and comparing the Light In The Dark Limited to the new
kid on the block, The Poweramp opens up the world of Dean Martin even
more. No matter the speaker, Zu's fabulous Druid V (review forthcoming)
or Wilson Audio's smashing Alexia (review forthcoming), The Poweramp
projected more authority, articulation, and presence to the performance
while also cleaning up last bits of hash and miniscule amounts of
top-end glare from the previous dude.

The tonal balance is decidedly neutral, with
no signs of haze or distortion anywhere in the frequency band. Bass
(perhaps the clearest indicator of an amp's power rating) is
tight, well extended and goes even deeper than its predecessor. Midrange
presence is where the new guy shines the most: void from any noise or
glare, the amp's resolving power is magical indeed. Don't get me wrong:
without having the new kid on hand to directly compare, the former isn't
a slouch by any means; its just that the obvious becomes that much more
apparent when making the swap.

EINSTEIN has, over the years, produced some
very fine equipment indeed. Most admirable of them is the fact that
unlike so many others, new stuff doesn't just happen all so
often: in fact, only when the new product can really outshine the old
one and lay the foundation for a next generation. I recall speaking with
Volker Bohlmeier about this fact just this last summer, where he
casually mentioned that in fact most of their products, going
back to the original launches some 26 years ago, are still in
circulation being used and listened to by Hi-Fi fans all over the world.

Take it for what it's worth: The Poweramp is
a stellar performer, worthy of being the crown jewel to any system you
pair it up with. Neutral, powerful, with incredible clarity and slam,
I'd say this one is a safe bet for even the most discerning of
audiophiles. Considering its topology is similar to EINSTEIN's
reference, their OTL Silver Bullet amplifier, you simply must give this
one a listen. Most highly recommended, A+++.

PS: The Octopus power strip is one of those
devices that you seemingly could live without, until you actually have
one in your system and you realize that you really shouldn't live
without it. While in and of itself, the power strip doesn't perform any
magic onto the incoming AC signal, it seems to somehow add a certain
level of cohesion and refinement to the overall EINSTEIN system. Small
as these refinements seem as a whole, you do realize that something is
in fact missing from the presentation when The Octopus is taken out
of the system.

To boot, you have the benefit of, at a
glance, being able to spot check phase and the incoming voltage whilst
also protecting your entire system from dreaded black- or brown- outs,
and it quickly becomes obvious that this is one of those must
haves for really any system, EINSTEIN sourced or not. Similar to
EINSTEIN's cable line, The Flash and The Thunder, The Octopus performs
its task in the quiet: it delivers a bunch of performance that is
definitely noticeable and real. Even if all you needed was simply
a proper power strip to connect all your Hi-Fi to, this one would be
something I'd look into.

In this case, like all of EINSTEIN's products,
gorgeous looks and stunning build quality go much further than just
that. Must have. A+++. Danny Kaey

The Poweramp

Retail: $27,500

The Octopus

Retail: $2990

EINSTEIN

http://einstein-audio.de/en

Weinhart Design has
lots of other items new and used and if you’re in Los Angeles or

visiting please accept my invitation to experience our World Class Audio
Showroom by appointment and please visit our web site www.weinhartdesign.com

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are always interested in purchasing quality Audio items, LP
collections, specialists buying Audio Estates and most quality trades
are welcomed.

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your new and pre owned needs.

  Making better Sound

 One system at at a time,

 

David Weinhart
Weinhart Design, Inc.
President & CEO

The Audio and Video Expert
e: [email protected]
www.weinhartdesign.com

2337 Roscomare Road, Studio #1
Los Angeles, California 90077

Showroom) 310-472-8880
Cell) 310-927-2260