[mcgsxr]

I had been using a Monarchy SM70 Pro I picked up here on AC.

With my Focal's the Monarchy did in fact produce a nice smooth midrange, and I liked it very much.  For me they did not produce the best bass I have heard from my Electra's.  Could be the lower power output, could be my room, could be my ears who knows.

In the end I sold it along, and with $ in my pocket was trolling Canuck Audio Mart for something local and interesting.

I have long wanted a crack at an Audio Refinement integrated after hearing them at various stores over the past 10 years or so.  I had seen the related HT gear, but did not ever think about buying any of it.  The Multi 2 amp ran about $1600 Canadian when they were new.  Way out of what I like to spend for amps.

I noticed a guy about 10 miles from me with a pair of Multi 2's for sale.  They are beefier than the Complete integrated, and are rated at 130wpc into 8 ohm vs the Complete's 50wpc. 

I did a ton of research on the AR Multi's and discovered they had a decent reputation for good sound as well as delivering good power.  The Multi 3 was 3 amps in the same chassis as my Multi 2.  The Multi 5 was a bigger version with 5 amps and 2 toroids.  I figured the Multi 2 would be well served with only 2 amps and the same transformer as the Multi 3.

Amps weigh around 25 lbs, and appear to be well built.  I know the connection between YBA (French built) and Audio Refinement (Taiwan built).  I forget if Audio Refinement survived the YBA purchase by Shanling, but I figured since the Multi 2 uses many YBA parts internally it would be worth a try.

Have 1 setup in stereo now, fed by my NuForce preamp and am enjoying the experience as the AR warms up.  Bass feels very well controlled, and I am hearing excellent soundstaging.

Good fun.

[srb]

I owned a Multi-5 and although it was a bit expensive for its power output (MSRP $2495 USD), it was a good buy to find a nearly new mint one for ~ $1000.  All of the Audio Refinement power amplifiers are somewhat rare on the used market and I ended up selling it to a guy in Taiwan who took care of all the shipping and customs expenses on his end with a commercial shipping account (He had been searching for one and finally found it!).

I thought it sounded great and although I had read many references to the "MOSFET Mist", it seemed to reveal all the detail I wanted yet had an organic smoothness.  As they get older, I do wonder about the possibility of electrolytic capacitors maybe needing replacement, but they're easily obtainable standard parts and the layout looks serviceable.

I did previously own a Complete integrated, but for the mid-sensitivity speakers I used, it was a little underpowered when I turned it up, and the 130W@8Ω / 200W@4Ω of the Multi made a big difference.

I also used it to passively bi-amp main speakers, and although I generally find passive bi-amping to fall short of a more powerful amplifier, the small but noticeable improvement was preferred over using those two channels for HT rear speakers that really couldn't take full advantage of the power and quality.

Steve

[mcgsxr]

Things are warming up nicely.

Here are some shots of the spare.  Appears to be very solid build quality.  Big transformer (5 1/4 inch diameter) that actually sticks proud of the bottom of the case - never seen that before.