This amplifier kind of reminds me of really good bread. It doesn’t take a whole lot of ingredients to make it, you simply need the best.
Some things are electric, but they don’t need the Internet. These days, this is no longer a matter of course, not even for toothbrushes and coffee machines. And in the area of exquisite sound components, standards from the consumer sector have found their way in as a matter of course. When you take a look at the Alluxity Int One mkII, you wouldn’t expect puristic circuitry behind the display, but rather a filigreed computing brain. In actuality, though, this device doesn’t even have Bluetooth. After all, you don’t really need it anyway …
The Alluxity is spectacular to look at and not only available in black and gray. There is also a white or orange finish, and if you want to go beyond that in your living room, you can have the manufacturer apply a different powder coating. The device comes from Denmark, but its design is Scandinavian at best insofar as it has a certain simplicity. The lettering milled into the upper side, the oval slots on the sides and the touch display as the only recognizable control element create a futuristic impression.
However, its puristic character is revealed on the back. We are looking at: two XLR and three RCA cinch inputs, one pair of loudspeakers can be connected to the terminal, a power cord, and that’s it. There’s also a network connection, but you don’t need that – or only once in a blue moon when you want to install a firmware update. In fact, the distributor included a dongle from the Japanese accessory manufacturer Acoustic Revive with the test device, which can be used to electrically shut down the port. Anything that is not essential for operation is potentially sound degrading – and such sockets have the unpleasant property that they are operated continuously, even when nothing is present.
So what are we dealing with? The Alluxity is an integrated amplifier in a classic AB circuit. And a splendid one at that! You start to get an idea of what it’s made of when you heave the 17.5 kilograms to their destination and notice that there are no screws on the housing, but the finest angular ridges are visible. At the latest when connecting the cables, the dignified haptic experience offered by the Furutech jacks makes it clear: this is quality of the uncompromising kind.
And it quickly becomes clear why: Alluxity was conceived by Alexander Vitus Mogensen, the son of Hans Ole Vitus. And he, being the CEO of Vitus Audio, is anything but a nobody in high end audio: His designs, some of which enjoy legendary status, are absolute high-end, coming with a price tag four to many times the asking price of our candidate. His son has always been active in the company; during his school days he soldered SMD components onto the circuit boards in painstaking detail work, for whose topology he continues to be responsible at Vitus Audio. With the company AVM-TEC, he went into business for himself in 2010 as an OEM manufacturer in the high-end sector – and under the name Alluxity, he began to develop his own devices shortly thereafter: There is already a preamplifier and a power amplifier, as well as an amplifier solution in mono and a DAC preamplifier.
Within this family, the mkII follows the first integrated amplifier, the Int One, which achieved the feat of combining the Pre One preamplifier and the Power One power amplifier in the same space. As with its predecessor (which delivered slightly less gain), a custom toroidal transformer found its place, and the subsequent circuitry, with Alluxity’s own circuit boards and power transistors from Sanken Electric, is discrete balanced, which required a redesign of the preamp. The assemblies are designed modularly, which can be seen well in the clear arrangement of the interior. It’s all housed in a case milled from a block of aluminum. So it’s obvious not to want to drill holes for screws or control knobs. Nothing vibrates, and you’ll notice that the heat dissipation is secured when you put your hand on it: The Alluxity heats up quite a bit during operation due to the circuitry.
The Alluxity Int One mkII is operated via self-explanatory icons on the touchscreen display: The volume is controlled via a plus and a minus button as well as a mute function, the inputs can be switched and the device can be booted from standby and put back there again. A gear icon leads us to expect that you can get into a setup menu and possibly get lost there. In fact, it only hides settings for the display’s brightness – and the option to select a color in which the respective input is visually marked. The selected volume is displayed in the center in values between -70 and +13 decibels – a range that is scaled in steps of one.
But these are all details that you soon can’t and don’t want to think about anymore. Because the musical performance is – and this is really the only way I can put it – sen-sa-tio-nal. Well, the Alluxity is not low-cost in the strictest sense, so you can expect a lot. But the resulting sound clearly exceeds every expectation: The way the voices are placed in the room! The three-dimensionality of the soundstage layering! The bass control! The details! Everything is just right – and that is normally not possible: Either an amplifier is resolving, neutral and unforgiving or pleasing, powerful and good-natured. The amplifier succeeds in resolving this paradox; you soon don’t want to hear anything else – it is that good.
Let’s start harmlessly: with the Temptations and “War”, thematically not out of date, but certainly not an insurmountable sonic task. “One, two, three, four,” Melvin Franklin speaks the beat in his characteristic voice in the absence of a drum kit. But what is it? The “1” is slightly emphasized because of its military character – and the Alluxity traces the dynamics so quickly that one is really and truly startled and stands at attention in the listening chair.
Let’s look into this, but leave the percussion records in the closet for a bit, because it can be guessed that the Alluxity Int One mkII will effortlessly unravel even the densest polyrhythms. How about this: The Kyogo remix of Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” employs an extreme sidechaining compressor, which on a boombox or club P.A. causes the overall mix to cut back on bass drum hits so that it pops all the more noticeably in the low end. The amp passes this effect along with a razor sharpness so delay-free that the track sounds like the phase is skewed.
No matter what demands are made, the Alluxity always stays in control. At low listening volumes, no detail is missing; when it gets loud (and it does have power), everything remains clear, transparent and distortion-free. Sabine Meyer’s clarinet completely detaches itself from the transducers during Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto under conductor Hans Vonk, the entire Staatskapelle Dresden meticulously takes up position in the living room and the world shines in a bright, round A major. The mkII also masters the test run in terms of deep bass control with flying colors: on the trap precursor “Yeezus” by Kanye West, even deep sinus tone-based synth runs are hemmed in with downright “British” sophistication, oomph is all there when it belongs – not necessarily in the bass drum, but in the deeply pitched effect vocals on “I Am A God”, which indeed comes across as hella threatening and awe inspiring. The often overloaded album is actually not easy to listen to, but the Alluxity breaks down the “Wall of Sound” into its component parts without diminishing the massive overall impression.
It may sound exaggerated: The Alluxity Int One mkII is, especially considering its impressive sound, one of the most outstanding amplifiers you can buy for, well: manageable money. You don’t get a battleship with “featuritis”, but sophisticated technology that is always at the service of the one thing: the music.
Accompanying Equipment
CD-Player: Creek Evo 2 | Amplifier: Creek Evo IA | Loudspeakers: Neat Momentum 4i, Bryston Mini A, Focal Alpha 80
Integrated Amplifier
Alluxity Int One mkII
Concept: No-frills Class AB integrated amplifier | Rated power (8/4/2 Ω): 200 W/400 W/800 W | Inputs: 3 x single ended (RCA), 2 x balanced (XLR) | Outputs: 1 x RCA (Pre-Out) | Special features: switchable display colors | Finishes: Black, White, Grey, Orange; more colors upon request | Dimensions (W/H/D): 44/11/34 cm | Weight: 17,5 kg | Warranty period: 2 years | Price: around 8350 €
SoReal Audio
Aresinger Straße 36
86561 Unterweilenbach
Telefon +49 8445 2670030