Audio Matiere Quilber

Proud owner of an Equilibre here...it's my 10th amp in the past 5 years and I'm truly smitten. I have not owned it for too long but so far no problems. I had the same concerns as you but the sound can't be beat anywhere near that price range by an amp capable of driving most speakers. It is indeed has evolved into the AA Capitole amp and as already mentioned I'd imagine anyone who services AA could repair this amp. If you went ahead with this, I highly doubt you'd be dissapointed with it's performance. I don't plan on selling mine for a long, long time. Not well known, but from what I gather these are quite appreciated by those who own them...feel free to email me if you have any questions...audionut@rogers.com

Audio Matiere was designed by the same person who now designs the Audio Aero equipment (and I believe he also was involved with Jadis years ago); the Equilibre is basically the same design as the similarly-powered Audio Aero amplifier, maybe a little better sounding because of the hand-wound transformers. It is a very good-sounding unit, although some of the aftermarket "upgrades" that were done to them reportedly may have improved their measured performance but caused them to lose some of their distinctive "sound". The Audio Matiere equipment is, in my view, of a similar type as Jadis, in that it gets out of the way of the music and sounds quite natural, the antithesis of hi-fi sound. They are one of the few amplifier lines, along with Lamm, that have tempted me to replace my Jadis amps. Getting them serviced would not be easy and is a legitimate concern; I think there's someone in the Philadelphia area who can repair them (I was considering a pair of their Ultimas at one time, and the owner advised me of this), but I know little otherwise; perhaps a person who can service the Aero Audio equipment could service Audio Matiere as well. Wish I could help more--maybe some owners can tell where they get their units serviced.

I believe Audio Matiere morphed in Audio Aero. I remember hearing some of their product at the very last Chicago CES. I don't remember which model, but it sounding very fine playing Branford Marsalis's "Trio Jeepy".