History

Sweet Talking

Commenting on the 8000A, Hi-Fi Answers reviewer David Prakel said ‘the sound is characterised by a true effortless dynamic capability.’ He went on to praise the amp’s power and control characteristics usually only found in esoteric equipment: ‘You’d be looking at the sharp end of £3000 to better this performance.’

A year later Prakel was testing the company’s first preamp/ power amp combination, the 8000C and 8000P, and saying it was ‘madenningly faithful to the source across a wide range of levels and ancillary equipment.’

It seems he liked it!

Bursting into the 90’s

Fast-forward a few years and an investment by 3i to fund expansions, and the Audiolab 8000A had been upgraded, the monobloc 8000M power amps added and the time was right for a spurt of activity.

What was retained was the excellent design of the products-  in a 1991 review of the latest version of the 8000A, Audiophile editor Jonathan Kettle said ‘Over the years many have tried to emulate Audiolab’s ergonomics. None has lasted the course’- and of course the performance.

Now the brand gained a high-tech digital to analogue converter, the 8000DAC, later joined by a matching disc transport, the 8000CDM. What Hi-Fi? Reviewed the pair, commenting they were ‘highly musical – not just attention-grabbing but enthralling’.

Around the same time came the 8000T tuner, the result of many years of intensive development by Scotland, Swift and their team: rather than buying in the building blocks of the unit, the company came up with everything itself, and came up with a classic, as impressive on AM as it was with stereo FM, and still much-loved to this day.