Form and fun(ction).
More than the majority of integrated amplifiers that have come through the Barn, Enleum’s AMP-54R is a sculpted sound-making machine. Interacting directly with the AMP-54R makes adjusting volume feel like some much more important function akin to firing up the engines on an alien craft. You simply cannot ignore, nor should you, the thought and artistry that has gone into every aspect of its design from the ground up.
In terms of sound, the AMP-54R is to a great degree transparent offering little hint of its sonic presence in a system other than delivering the required energy and associated movement from the attached speaker. What sonic character there was came through as a fluid rich clarity that seemed neither warm nor cool. Neutral. As you might imagine writing about such an amp is kinda like writing about a ghost, an apparition, where a focus on the energy it creates in room, or in Barn, and the things we can hear through it is about the best we can do. To put it another way, I kept forgetting to listen to the AMP-54R as I just kept listening right through it.
What I can say about the AMP-54R is it powered each of the three speakers in Barn as if it had become part of the speaker system, a mutually beneficial symbioses in sound and energy. These included the review pair of Perlisten S7t Black Edition speakers (more info), the Fyne F501S (more info), and the Barn resident DeVore Fidelity O/96 (review).
The AMP-54R also elicited sound images unrestrained and unattached to the speakers in play, making a mockery of the Barn’s dimensions as music expanded beyond their seemingly ineffectual barriers. Control reached from each speaker’s lowest end on up with seamless clarity giving the impression that the Enleum had somehow become part of a fully active system. If you think about it, amplifiers complete speakers and speakers complete amplifiers as one without the other turns each into a silent sculpture. One night late into listening I thought I heard something say, ”You complete me,” but that may have been the Barn mice (they’re big Tom Cruise fans).
The AMP-54R offers two operating modes—High Voltage Mode and High Current Mode. I’ll let Enleum explain the difference:
HV (High Voltage) Mode delivers the full output power of the amplifier, providing 115 watts at 8 ohms or 200 watts at 4 ohms. In this mode, you get maximum power delivery, making it suitable for speakers that require higher voltage to achieve desired sound pressure levels – providing a more “open and dynamic” sound quality.
HC (High Current) Mode reduces the output power to 50 watts at 8 ohms and 100 watts at 4 ohms, but in return, it increases the output bias current much higher than the HV mode. This mode provides enhanced control for higher efficiency loudspeakers, improving dynamic response and transient handling – providing a more “intimate” sound quality.
This gets us back to the notion of symbioses as the AMP-54R offers these modes to allow for greater synergy no matter the needs of the attached speaker. These modes certainly came in handy with the Perlisten Black appreciating the maximum power of High Voltage Mode while the easier to drive Fyne and DeVore speakers were happier with High Current.
The Enleum’s operating mode is also worth highlighting. I’ll hand over the words Enleum again:
The JET3 bias algorithm makes the output transistors not turn off, in a similar way to what we in traditional terms call “Class A”, but in a much more efficient way. As the algorithm always tracks and adjusts the output bias in real time to turn on the transistors, the circuit isn’t continuously run “on” – which is such an inefficient way, and therefore operates closer to conventional “Class AB”. In sum, the AMP-54R runs like Class A, but with efficiency like Class AB – and we call this innovative operation mode “Class SA” for “Smart A” or “Super A”.
I would have to assume that this “Smart” or “Super” Class A mode helps account for the AMP-54R’s inherent richness that trickles all the way down into the subtlest of sounds like blood flow through a living organism. Some amplifiers, and in my experience many of them are of the Class A/B and Class D variety, can strip away some of that vital richness, cut off the blood supply, from micro details resulting in a hollowed out sound. Kinda lifeless but really powerful.
The ins and outs are tucked away in a cavity around back and include two RCA analog inputs and two Enlink BNC inputs (for use when connecting future Enleum source components) as well as a clever Current-Based MC Phono input.
Here’s Enleum on that MC Phono stage:
The MC input operates with any low voltage MC cartridges, anywhere between 0.2 to 0.5mV and 5 to 20 ohms impedance. As it takes the output current of the MC cartridges, there is no loading calculation necessary. It just “simply” works.
I like things that work simply. The speaker binding posts also live in that setback space making banana-terminated speaker cables friendlier than spades (come to think of it, I think banana-terminated cables are friendlier than spades in general). Enleum sent along a very cool 3D printed tool for tightening those post when using spade-terminated cables or (gasp!) bare wire but my beefy spade-terminated speaker cables took one look at that tight space the way I look at people in movies crawling through impossibly tight tunnels—no way, not going there.
The included remote matches the AMP-54R aesthetic perfectly—simple, stylish, and a pleasure to use. In addition to power, volume control, mute, and input switching, a press and hold for 5 seconds on the input select button will restart the amp in the other operating mode so if you’re running in High Current Mode the amp will restart in High Voltage Mode. The operating mode in use will light up on the “floating display”.
To my eyes, this floating display brings to mind the control panel for some kind of spacecraft but visual references are subjective, based on our visual vocabulary. Believe you me, I’ve opened more than my fair share of pizza boxes and I never once thought about a pizza box when using the AMP-54R during its 2-month+ Barn stay. Pizza yes, the box, no.
Moving beyond surface slights, interacting with the AMP-54R through the hidden ‘gain control and input knobs that lives on the underside of the main chassis stage right and left respectively offer real tactile pleasure, something like petting a pet but instead of coaxing a purr or soft woof, the AMP-54R responds by making your music better. I mean louder. Gain level is represented by those slivers of LEDs that change along with the level. A short press on the remote volume button initiates a step up or down while a longer press and hold performs a continuous adjustment. On a personal note, I never wear my glasses when I sit to listen to music which means I can’t see any details of the things sitting on my Box Furniture rack which means I do not rely on a visual display for adjusting volume. That’s why we have ears.
The AMP-54’s main chassis also floats on a fluted column base, the fluting repeats on the heat sinks, a clever way of accommodating the transformer’s depth.
The AMP-54R ships in a flight case which is a very nice way to ship an amp.
The AMP-54R mainly lived on the Barn’s B-Side where it spent time driving the Fyne F501S and DeVore O/96. I employed the Barn resident Holo Audio Red streamer (review)/totaldac D1-unity (review) for digital and enlisted my 1970’s era Technics SP-15 and Zu Audio Zu/DL-103 Mk.II MC cartridge to spin records. All cables came courtesy of AudioQuest and included the impressive (banana-terminated) Brave Heart Speaker Cables, Thunderbird interconnects, Carbon AES cable, and Monsoon and NRG-Z3 power cables all running into a AQ Niagara 3000 (see full Barn details).
She Came Through the Window to Stand by the Door by Natalia Beylis & Eimear Reidy, released in 2023, consists of songs for cello and church organ, specifically a William Telford Organ built in 1846 in St. George’s Church, Carrick On Shannon, “reputed to be the second oldest organ in Ireland.”
From the liner notes:
When Natalia & Eimear began working on these pieces in the cold January, the Telford, which seemed like it had been sitting quietly for quite some time, shook and trembled as its insides were awoken. ‘The Whistling Dust’ speaks to the moment when the instrument moved alive, every opened stop knob of the pipes bringing the feel of the microsounds of the machine closer and closer as the cello offers utterances of encouragement.
This record, I bought the LP and am impatiently awaiting delivery, hits a very big sweet spot in my listening likes with its drone-like movement, church-sized sound, and the lovely interplay between two voices offering simplicity and complexity simultaneously. Tones, overtones, textures, rumbling deep bass, and the air and space of St Georges Church, Carrick On Shannon. I’m not so sure you listen to this music as much as breathe it in. She Came Through the Window… also perfectly highlights the Enleum AMP-54R’s reach that lets it reproduce the subtlest sounds with rich clarity, the deepest rumbles and soaring harmonics that fly from Reidy’s cello like sparks from a blaze.
Of equal importance is the AMP-54R reproduces the breath, air, space, and silence of this lovely recording with a delicate and convincing touch, never sounding too hard or too brittle making the album’s 42 minutes pass in a forever instant.
Let’s stick around Ireland for one more record, this one from Dublin-based singer and composer Rachael Lavelle and her 2023 debut Big Dreams. Album opener “Travel Size” offers more than hints of Laurie Anderson with Lavelle’s spoke/sung vocals and mechanical metronomic movements, something the AMP-54R seems to enjoy playing as it keeps perfect pace with effortless dynamics as fluid or staccato as the music demands. Big Dreams is also richly produced, far from the two instrument interplay of She Came Through the Window to Stand by the Door and the AMP-54R proved itself more than up to the task of describing each voice, every element big and small with dexterity, richness, and scale reaching well beyond the boundaries of the O/96 and the Barn’s dimensions. Nice.
It seems nearly gratuitous to note that Lavelle also worked as a singer in a funeral parlor during the 10-year span she took to make this record but there you have it. Acoustic and electronic voices join found and manipulated sounds and voices in creating this otherworldly world that feels dreamlike yet moored to a reality it’s trying to rise above. Big ideas and grand movements all portrayed with the same rich grip on the micro to macro allowing the drama of Big Dreams to fill the Barn and beyond.
Listening to records remains nearly all pleasure with little real work attached, an intentional choice to help separate my work from play. That being said, the AMP-54R’s current-based MC Phono input pulled me back in. I’ll highlight the record portion of our show with a highlight among records—Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps performed by Daniel Barenboim, Luben Yordanoff, Albert Tétard, and Claude Desurmont. I’ll spare you the details behind the composition as I’m sure you already know the harrowing story. Here on the stunning remaster from the label’s Original Source Series, the voices of clarinet, piano, violin, and violincello are perfectly formed and powerfully moving with a degree of clarity and precision that was, in a word, breathtaking.
With the AMP-54R lighting up the DeVore O/96, I felt as if I was in the presence of these voices, just me and this deeply moving music as if the entire apparatus responsible for making it sing out in Barn was immaterial. All to say, I could easily live with the AMP-54R’s MC phono stage.
There’s plenty of serious competition in and around the Enleum’s $25k asking price including the visually similar Devialet Astra integrated amp (more info) that’s just arrived for review. Too recent for me to offer any comparisons here but that will happen the Devialet review.
Other notable integrated amplifiers, notable in that they are among my Favorites, include the recently reviewed Orpheus Lab Absolute Integrated at $23,500 (review) and the Gryphon Diablo 333 (review) that starts at $27,800. On a purely sonic level, the Orpheus Lab integrated offers a very compelling sound that is at once rich, resolving, and silky smooth with plenty of power (200 Watts per channel into 8 Ohms) to drive most speakers. I would also say the Orpheus Lab offers a weightier sound as compared to the Enleum, a density that made music feel more physical. But if it’s weighty you want, along with grace and effortless power (333 wpc into 8 Ohms) the Gryphon Diablo 333 is my heavyweight champ.
The Enleum seemed to dig deeper into the micro level as compared to the Orpheus Lab or Gryphon but I would need to compare all three of these fine amps side-by-side to really dig into that level of fine-grained comparative detail. But my sense is most people attracted to the AMP-54R will not be as interested in big heavy and more tradition looking integrated amplifiers seeing as the AMP-54R has many sonic strengths to more than carry its own recommendation. When you get down to it, most of us don’t spend our lives comparing gear when listening for pleasure so comparative differences, especially subtle ones, join a long list of other factors. Like looks, fit, and feel.
The AMP-54R proved to be a lovely marriage of form and function, merging original industrial design with original amplifier design in one slim square and appealing package. In terms of sound quality, all of that design steps aside by offering performance that is as transparent as I’ve heard in Barn while retaining music’s rich life blood down to the tiniest details. If we take into account the AMP-54’s operating modes and its easy to enjoy MC phono stage, the Enleum offers a rare combination of strengths both inside and out.
Enleum AMP-54R Integrated Amplifier
Price: $25,000
Company Website: Enleum
Specifications
Power (High Voltage Mode): 115 watts (8 Ω, 1 kHz) | 200 watts (4 Ω, 1 kHz)
Power (High Current Mode): 50 watts (8 Ω, 1 kHz) | 100 watts (4 Ω, 1 kHz)
Frequency Response: 10 Hz ~ 100 kHz
Input Impedance: 100 kΩ (Voltage) | 10 Ω (ENLINK) | 10 Ω (MC)
Input: 2 Voltage (RCA) | 1 ENLINK (BNC) | 1 MC Current (RCA)
Power Consumption: 65 watts (Idle) | 800 watts (Max)
Dimensions: 400 mm (W) x 400 mm (D) x 70 mm (H)
Weight: 16.5 kg (net) | 24 kg (shipping)