Looking remarkably like the Fatman valve amp range launched to great plaudits a year or so ago, high-end specialist Roth Audio has launched the Music Cocoon MC8 vacuum tube amp. And it comes with an almighty price tag considering it's designed specifically for your iPod.
The £2,000 MC8 is Roth's flagship amplifier, described in the press release as 'intoxicating', it represents the manifestation of Roth's 'rational yet wonderful world'. But with all the rhetoric and guff removed, what are we looking at here apart from a big old hole in the wallet?
The MC8 features a single-end Class-A all-tube amp with a brace of 845 vacuum tubes (widely acknowledged as the 'President' of two-channel tubes), plus a further four premium valve units. The result is an amp capable of producing 35 watts per channel.
On top of the centrally-located iPod mount, there are no less than four line inputs for hooking all sorts of sonic peripherals, a full function remote control, choice of output impedance and, we quote, 'Roth Audio's pledge of grin-inducing sound quality'.
James Roth comments, 'What we have here is a labour of love… The key is not just using vacuum tubes, but using them properly. And the MC8 is proper'. Well said indeed.
The Music Cocoon MC8 is available now for around £2,000 (in case you'd forgotten).
www.rothaudio.co.uk
