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Melody AN300B MAX

Melody AN300B MAX

Back in the day when valve amps had fallen out of fashion and only a few stalwarts were persevering with this ancient yet revered technology, the 300B was something of a holy grail valve. For a long time this low-powered triode from the 1930s had been out of production so those in the know (largely in Japan) bought up as much of the unused old stock examples that they could find. Eventually, word got out and demand increased to the point where Chinese companies started to make the 300B again; even a revived Western Electric (the original manufacturer) started to make them as well.

Traditionally used in single-ended form with one valve per channel, the 300B is not a very powerful triode, producing only seven Watts albeit in particularly transparent form when run in Class A. It has a very appealing character that overcomes its low power limitations if you choose your speakers carefully. Realising that few of us have the space or money for the size of speaker that will happily work with such a meagre wattage, the Melody AN300B MAX takes a different approach by using a pair of 300Bs in a push-pull arrangement which produce a quoted 21 Watts per channel in Class AB1 (Class AB1 is one of two ways to use a valve in Class AB2 and the preferred mode for a triode).

Melody is an Australian company which manufactures in Shenzhen near Hong Kong, a popular place among western audio brands with the likes of Cambridge Audio and Quad formerly building its products and still having a research facility in the ever-growing city. Melody produces a range of valve amplifiers totalling 16 integrated and power amp models with the AN300B MAX chassis used for seven of them. Melody uses point-to-point wiring in the classic valve style and incorporates Mundorf capacitors in this model.

Tapping out

The AN300B Max is a well finished unit with matte silver metalwork and wooden side cheeks flanking a substantial chassis that tips the scales at a more than adequate 33 kilos. More than adequate to discourage moving it too often that’s for sure. The VU meters on the front show power output in normal operation but also function as ampere meters for adjusting bias via the ports either side. Bias is often automatically adjusted but in situations where it isn’t setting this key aspect of valve operation is pretty straightforward, especially when the maker provides instructions and a tool to do the job with, as is the case here.

Melody AN300B MAX

The 300B valves supplied on the AN300B MAX are made by Psvane albeit branded Melody; there is a rather more pricey version of this amp available from the UK distributor VAL Hi-Fi that comes equipped with Western Electric output valves if you are after the real deal. The four XF184 triode valves form the preamplifier gain stage while the WE407 is a rectifier.

Connection-wise, this amplifier has four pairs of RCA phono inputs and a single pair on XLRs marked balanced, it’s not clear whether they are actually balanced as this mode of operation is quite rare in valve amplifiers. It requires extra transformers to be done and space doesn’t usually permit this in integrated designs. There are no line level outputs just speaker terminals with four and eight-ohm tappings to the output transformers. This is quite a common method of giving the amplifier the best chance of driving a speaker optimally and establishing which works best is essentially a case of trying both and listening to the results.

Thankfully the Melody is supplied with a remote control. it’s limited to input selection and volume control but that’s more than enough to keep you on the couch most of the time. The handset has a ‘stop’ button too which turns the motorised volume pot to minimum, so it’s a bit like a mute but can’t be used to return to the original level. Operationally the AN300B MAX reduces volume to zero when it’s turned on which did lead to mild puzzlement at the lack of any sound before I realised what was happening. It takes 30 seconds to soft start and the volume won’t move until that time has elapsed, again you get used to it. As is very common with valve designs it has a lot of gain and I rarely had the volume pushed as far as the a nine o’clock position even with not particularly sensitive speakers. I do recall quizzing a valve amp engineer about this once and the gist of his response was that’s the way valve circuits are and it’s difficult/compromising to have them function any other way. So at least we know that this is a fairly purist design.

Valve friendly?

The most valve friendly speakers I have in my small armoury are PMC twenty5.26i floorstanders; their 86dB 1W/1m sensitivity is not particularly high but the load they offer to amplifiers seems more friendly than most and I’ve had good results with lower powered amps than this Melody. What struck me initially and continued to make itself heard throughout the time I spent with this amp is its enthusiastic rhythmic drive; valve amps frequently have good timing but here this quality was more evident than usual and it really made the listening an engaging experience. It’s also adept at reflecting the scale of whatever is being reproduced, in this instance it was ‘Penguin in Bondage’ from Frank Zappa and band’s tenure at the Roxy Theatre in 1973. This sounded detailed yet relaxed with fulsome upper bass and a lot of analogue character despite it streaming from a digital source. What really hit home was the degree of live energy presented in the context of a sound that has no leading edge grain. This is a classic valve sound but one with more oomph than is normally achieved using low powered triodes.

Essentially there is some sweetening and smoothing of the mids and highs compared to a Class AB transistor amp, and there is a loss of grip in the bass, but the latter is replaced by a tunefulness and flow that more than makes up for the absence of gut churning. The Engegard Quartet’s rendition of Haydn Quartets was full of vim and expression, the image is not as precisely rendered as it might be but the drama of the music is served with gusto, making the music highly engaging. A rather different live performance from Kraftwerk, ‘Radioactivity’, comes across in full effect albeit with a curtailing of the bone crunching potential in the bass being replaced with an easier listen. So long as you don’t listen too closely to the spoken lyrics “Sellafield 2 will release the same amount of radioactivity into the environment as Chernobyl every four and a half years” it’s top light entertainment, but also not hard to see why the Germans have given up on nuclear power.

Melody AN300B MAX

As there are two transformer tappings of the Melody I decided to try the four-ohm option instead of the eight-ohm used to produce the results above. This reduced the volume slightly and brought a degree of focus that while it made the amp sound less valvey did deliver better bass control and more precise imaging. The eight-ohm option created a bit of a halo effect through the PMCs while the four-ohm tapping was closer to a solid state presentation.

 

Tube goodness!

It’s still full of vacuum tube goodness however, removing the graininess of solid state and replacing it with relaxed tonal beauty and fabulous timing. The AN300B MAX isn’t quite as transparent as a single ended 300B amplifier but it has a lot more power which comes in handy with this speaker and the KEF Reference 5 Metas that I tried. These were also best suited to the four-ohm output and produced a quietly engaging sound that proved hard to put down, especially when I stuck Dylan’s ‘You Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine)’ on the turntable. This came through full of life with a lovely groove and all the instruments and voice sounding vital and energetic. If you want to get that ‘in the studio’ vibe going this amplifier is a fabulous device for the purpose. It’s one of those products that makes you want to keep listening. One track will never do if the album is familiar, it puts paid to playlists and has you seeking out the original, or at least it does if the original is Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs.

Melody’s AN300B MAX is a rather attractive package, it doesn’t offer digital or phono inputs but concentrates on delivering a lot of what’s lovely about triode amplification without the limitations of low power. Build quality appears to be high and musicality even higher, all in all it’s a beauty.

Technical specifications

  • Type 2-channel integrated valve amplifier
  • Analogue inputs Four single-ended line-level inputs (via RCA jacks), one balanced input (via XLR connectors)
  • Digital inputs None
  • Analogue outputs None
  • Supported sample rates N/A
  • Input impedance 100kOhms
  • Output impedance (preamp) N/A
  • Headphone Loads N/A
  • Power Output 21Wpc @ 8 & 4 Ohms
  • Bandwidth Not specified
  • Distortion THD 1%
  • Signal to Noise Ratio 85dB
  • Dimensions (H×W×D) 245 × 475 × 390mm
  • Weight 33kg
  • Price £5,495

 

Manufacturer

Melody Hifi Europe

melodyhifi.eu

+31 (0)36 3333330

UK Distributor

VAL HiFi

valhifi.co.uk

+44(0)333 577 2005

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Tags: INTEGRATED VALVE AMPLIFIER MELODY AN300B MAX

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