AGD Duet Review

I spent a week or so with the AGD Duet mono amplifiers and this is my impression of them. I have owned the AGD Audion for 4 years and am very familiar with their sound, so I will be comparing the two. I have reviewed them here. The Duet seems to be cut from the same cloth as the Audion in terms of musicality and transparency, they are definitely brothers, albeit the Duet is the big brother at 150 Watts/8 ohms versus the Audion clocking at 100 Watts/8 ohms. Physically, the Duet is small (just about 3 lbs. more than the diminutive Audion). However, unlike the Audion, they come with everything you would find with any full chassis amplifier including Standby button and 12-Volt remote trigger which are both absent in the smaller sibling. But after living with the Audion (and other class D designs) for a while, I came to realize that these features were actually not essential. Because this class of amplifiers consumes so little power and generates so little heat, there is nary any need to put them on standby. I run mine 24/7.  

The Duets are much more attractive than they look in pictures. Most people would marvel how so much purity of sound can come from such an unassuming little box. Track after track they deliver the music effortlessly and unedited. Miles Davis' Teo from the album Someday My Prince Will Come came out in all its glory. There is nothing missing. When compared to the Audion MKIII with the volume levels matched, I have to admit I would be hard pressed to know which one is playing. I have read that the Duets control the bass better than the Audions, but in my system, with 4 powered subs, I don’t rely much on my main amplifiers to control the bass. I also compared the Duets with another class D mono set that I had at hand: the Nuprime AMG One. The Nuprime is a serious amplifier pushing 170 Watts at 8 ohms. With levels matched, one can hear a little more refinement with the AGD designs in the upper frequencies. When it comes to musicality, the Nuprime held its own. It goes toe to toe with the AGDs.

The Duets are a logical and natural upgrade path from the Audions. If your speakers have less than 87db efficiency, start with the Duets. The extra power will be beneficial. If you have very efficient speakers (90db+), you cannot go wrong with either one.

For context, the rest of my system consists of:

Music Server: Melco N1Z EX S40

DAC: MSB Premier with Pro ISL Input

Speakers: Raidho td1.2

Speaker cable: Silversmith Fidelium

Power cables: Neardost Gold

Interconnects: Neardost Gold

Power conditioner: Synergistic Research Powercell 12UEF

DSP: BACCH4MAC + ORC.