Perreaux Audiant 80i Integrated Amplifier (TAS 213)

The Right Amp at the Right Time

Perreaux electronics sightings in North America have been infrequent in recent years. A sign of the times to be sure. But as Dylan sang, the times they are a changin’. Perreaux, based in New Zealand, has recently acquired a capable new distributor in Fidelis A/V. But more importantly it’s launched a new amp. And the Audiant 80i integrated amplifier is, in my view, the right amp at the right time. Admittedly, assessing trends in a roiling marketplace is a lot like predicting the weather—I mean, who really knew LPs would be cool again and that downloads would bury the compact disc? But Perreaux has carefully tapped the market’s pulse and come up with more than just another face in the crowd. The $2995 Audiant 80i is a refreshing mix of old-school cred and cool shout-outs to the current zeitgeist.

There are two key factors that distinguish the Audiant from its competition. First, it’s a true “hub” integrated, enriched with an abundance of inputs to support three generations of formats—analog, compact disc and hard drive (an arrangement that should become more prevalent given contemporary server/streaming reality). Specifically there’s a phonostage for moving-magnet cartridges, an input for a CD player, optical and coaxial digital inputs for satellite receiver or other digital source, and an upsampling USB DAC for music stored on a computer. The back panel offers a line out (once known as a tape out, alas) for recording from a selected source plus a selectable home-theater input. A full-function remote control is standard and, for the energy conscious, in Standby mode power consumption is less than a watt.

The second factor is the integrity of its visual design. Taking its cue from the smart phone/tablet market it sports a touch-control interface, whereby power and inputs use dimmable LED back-lighting across the bottom half of the split front panel, leaving only smooth surfaces below and a big-boy volume control above. The input indicator glows bright when selected and gently pulsates in intensity when muted. With Perreaux’s logo deeply engraved on top of the chassis, the Audiant looks similar to the aluminum laptop case of a MacBook Pro, its Apple icon glowing proudly.

On the technical side, the 80i outputs 80Wpc into 8 ohms (130W into 4 ohms) and features a custom-designed 400VA toroidal power transformer. The compact chassis is rigid and, at 25 pounds, heavy for an integrated in this range. Perreaux goes a step further by producing a massive top plate and front panel as a single six-and-a-half-pound extrusion of aluminum. This extrusion acts as a heat sink with all the critical internals mounted upside-down beneath the top plate. (Would that mean right-side up in New Zealand? Never mind.)

For the techno-phobic it’s worth mentioning that Perreaux’s USB input is operationally a breeze to use. It was instantly identified by name within the Settings menu of my MacBook, and I was off and running. Although it upsamples in the D/A conversion stage, its input is restricted to a native rate of 16-bit/48.1kHz. While this might jibe with Perreaux’s mainstream approach, I think it’s a bit near-sighted given the number of high-resolution downloads coming on line.

My sonic expectations for Perreaux gear runs high. The company is an old hand around the high end. Historically its sound tends to be balanced, rock-solid, and high impact. Like they say down-under, “No worries, Mate.” The Audiant 80i reproduced music with a sense of ease and honesty, throwing its full focus on midrange saturation. Essentially neutral, as most competently designed solid-state amps tend to be, it has a subtle yet unmistakably darkly romantic side—thus transient information and presence aren’t filed to a hard gleaming edge, distinct from the overall presentation. Rather percussive attack and other upper harmonic minutiae have a more rounded, softer dimension.

Symphonic perspective is naturalistic, neither overly laid-back nor aggressively forward. Images simply exist as a part of the whole body of sound, distinct yet united to the performance. Large-scale dynamics derived from dense groupings of images have vitality and drive. And vocals in particular are full-bodied. Especially enthralling were the expressive personalities and cavernous vibratos of The Fairfield Four vocalists and their talk-singing intro to Natalie Merchant’s “Peppery Man” [Nonesuch]. There are moments on this recording of such jarring realism that it creates the (eerie) sense of musicians actually sitting in the room. With some amps, the harmonics of female voice can reveal small bursts of upper-frequency grain or harshness, but for the Audiant 80i treble reproduction is smooth and grain-free. Yes, I could wish for a little more upper-octave air, push, and extension, but all things considered this was a good balance to achieve in this price range.