Melody 101D Pure Black* Preamplifier (GBP 3295.00)

(* previously known as the 1688 II)

Melody is a relatively new name to the UK, but in fact the first incarnation of the company was formed in China in 1987, so they have "history", as it were! The current Melody Valve Hifi Pty is now an Australian company, albeit owned by a Chinese gentleman, and product is manufactured in China, hence the superb value for money of the products.

The 101D Pure Black (deriving its name from the unique 101D tubes, those weird spherical looking thingies) is probably the best known of their products and (under the original 1688 name) attracted huge interest in the Far East, and some superb reviews. Any Far Eastern product which gets a cult following in its own market just has to be special - this is a discerning market with a lot of home grown products to choose from. In the West, the 1688 / 101D also has a cult following in the US, another good sign.

Essentially, the 101D has a very purist design approach, with a lot of point to point wiring, very careful circuit design, and has a veritable cornucopia of audiophile grade components (Aerovox, Jensen etc) within. Inputs and outputs include single ended and balanced, making the unit very flexible for what is essentially a "hard core" audiophile design, and the attenuator is a 22 position fixed resistor stepped design, for the best possible sound quality and channel matching at all volume levels.

Sonically, this is traditional valve fare, in the sense of being incredibly natural and musical sounding, something that can't easily be explained in words, you will just have to listen for yourself and you will immediately know what I mean! We are very happy to be able to offer the Melody for demonstration, it is a taste of exotic, very expensive, audiophilia at what is really a very reasonable price indeed!

Basic specs:
Valves - 2*101D, 4*6SN7, 5Z3
Freq response: 3Hz - 100kHz
Input imp: 250kOhms
THD: <0.02% at 1kHz

Melody SP3 Integrated Amp (GBP 875.00)

This is the baby of the Melody range, but in name only - the performance is very grown up indeed. I'm afraid my rather substandard scan (courtesy of Hifi Plus, our own amp was out of the shop at the time) doesn't do the constructional quality justice, this is a substantially built little gem, with a solid brick like feel, featuring a very solid aluminium front panel. This is a very purist design for the price, with only two inputs, something which will either please you or put you right off! The attenuator (volume control) is a genuine 24 step switched discrete resistor design, rather than the cheap imitations (standard pot with mechanical clicks) you find on inferior makes. Internally, some of the circuitry is PCB based whilst the critical bits are point to point wired, something I approve of. Even the output from the 5881 tubes (similar to the 6L6) is a healthy 38W/ch, so very sensitive speakers are not a prerequisite.

This is a lovely sounding little amp, with typical valve attributes of openess and transparency, but not lacking muscle when the occasion arises - as I said at the start, a very grown up performance for a very minimal outlay. Now, if only they could see their way clear to fitting another input or two... No, really shouldn't complain! On demo now.

Basic specs:
Valves: 4*5881, 2*12AX7, 2*12AU7, 2*6922
Freq response: 20Hz - 20kHz
Input imp / sensitivity: 250kOhm / 380mV
Output imp: 4 or 8 Ohms
S/N: 90dB
THD: <1%