Guys,
Last Friday I made a detour on a return business trip from Brisbane and spent a very pleasant couple of hours with Mohan Varkey in Bayswater, Melbourne. Mohan produces his amplifiers under the Varkeylabs badge.
Mohan is a wonderful gentlemen with great experience and skills, he has done a lot with Lowther drivers over the years and his amps are targeted toward high efficiency users. We listened to his 5W single ended design using Russian tubes and driven by his prototype pre amplifier, the speakers were Alfredo horns with Lowther drivers.
It was a great experience, I am no golden eared audio guy but my impressions were very positive. The system was extremely quiet with only a tiny bit of tube rush with an ear at the driver. The music reproduction was detailed, fast and dynamic, capable of realistic imaging the 5W power delivery certainly didn't impede satisfying volume levels. It really hit its straps for me with well recorded live tracks and was pretty ruthless on poorly engineered studio tracks.
My only reservation was that I am used to a deeper and weightier bass than the Alfredos deliver.
At this point his amp is under serious consideration for my next upgrade and I would recommend an audition for anyone with similar needs.
As always YMMV.
Cheers,
Ken
