Electrocompaniet has a five decade-long history of manufacturing powerful, high-end amplifiers for people with cost-no-object systems. What a coincidence, then, that its country of birth – Norway – is also the home of modern Black Metal? As a teenager in the nineteen nineties, I regularly read about Norwegian bands such as Darkthrone, Burzum, Satyricon, Mayhem, and Emperor. Like the behemoth that is the AW 300 M, these bands go seriously loud!

When the company demonstrated its new AW 800 M stereo power amplifier at the Munich High End Show earlier this year, there were many nods of approval. These related to the sound quality rather than the product's ease of use. It is huge and heavy for a reason: because you lift the lid, you'll see a pair of more slender mono amps hiding inside. These form – to all intents and purposes – the guts of AW 300 M reviewed here.

The latter is basically the business end of the former's bridgeable amplification layout. Granted, two 300s cost a little more than the large single 800, but there are some benefits – not least the reduction in chiropractor costs and the fact that with monoblocks, you can have shorter speaker cable runs. The price bump will be partly due to the extra casework required for the two amps, but the AW 300 M shares much of the AW 800 M's styling and internals. Electrocompaniet's Lasse Danielsen says, "it's designed as a bridged monoblock with stereo capabilities, whereas the AW 300 M is a pure monoblock".

This amplifier output stages run in pure Class A up to 10 W and then switches to A/B. According to the manufacturer, it is rated at 300W into 8 ohms and doubles into 4 ohms. It is mounted in its own enclosure with abundant heatsinks on either side, wrapped in matt black casework. The all-steel, vibration-controlled chassis is well-braced, providing further rigidity. Here, the company's direct coupled, wide bandwidth open-loop circuitry with a very short feedback loop around the output section utilises JFET and bipolar transistors, low-noise metal film resistors and film capacitors.

It boasts an upgraded output stage that shields internal input and driver stages from the load, meaning the feedback loop does less work. Electrocompaniet says this gives "a stiffer output with improved bass control and imaging, without changing the midrange and high-frequency qualities that is renowned for". An upgraded ground reference is used, along with abundant local supply regulation in the sensitive input circuitry. The power supply for the output stages features a magnetically shielded 800VA toroidal transformer coupled with lots of filtering capacitance for better low-level detail. The company quotes a high 120dB signal-to-noise ratio (at full power output, 20Hz-20kHz), a very low 0.0006% THD+N figure, and a claimed >1,000 damping factor on an 8 ohm load.

GETTING GOING

I found these monoblocks relatively painless to move onto my amp stand, but moving my reference Gryphon Essence out, less so! It also struck me how easy it would be to move the amps behind my reference Audiovector R 6 Arrete speakers. These mono amps measure 292x212x488mm [HxWxD] each and so can be squirrelled away, but why would you? If you don't have an amp stand, the AW 300 M can be placed on the floor, sitting on its trio of non-marking Soundcare SuperSpikes by SEAS.

Although understated, the AW 300 M looks classy in its gloss black finish and gold accents. The fascia power button goes from red to blue, and that's about how shouty the styling gets. The illumination can be turned off via a button underneath the front of the amp, alongside a second button that toggles a signal-sensing auto standby function, which operates after thirty minutes of no input. This also overrides 12V trigger connections from the preamplifier if you use them. Two sets of speaker terminals are fitted for bi-wiring, and you even can daisy-chain amplifiers via the LINK XLR output on one and the INPUT on the other.

For the purposes of this review, I used my aforementioned pair of Audiovector loudspeakers on one end and a Gryphon Essence preamp on the other. Streaming was dealt with by a MOON 680 DAC, Roon and a NAS, while my analogue needs were served by a VPI Prime turntable sporting an an Aidas Cartridges Malachite Silver MC, going through a YBA PH1 phono stage.

THE LISTENING

Electrocompaniet's Lasse Danielsen says he thinks of the company's house sound as being "relaxed" because he never gets tired of listening. That's fair enough, but don't mistake this for laziness – as a pair of AW 300 Ms sure can mete out serious power and punch when called upon to do so. It certainly gave my reference Gryphon power amp cause for concern when playing Gojira's Amazonia.

This track, to me, has a similar delivery to classic Killing Joke sprinkled with essence of Sepultura – its dense, pummelling rhythm and growled vocals are supported by subtleties that could easily be missed by less able components. However, elements such as the jaws harp, digeridoo, indigenous instruments, and Adriana Varella's additional vocals are woven into this song and made easily discernable. Jean-Michel Labadie's bass line adds to the tribalistic drumming through slides and matching string bends with Joe Duplantier's guitar. The Electrocompaniet beamed all of this directly to my loudspeakers, controlling their AMT high-frequency units with rifle bolt precision. A crystalline clarity cut through the track's dense mix in an effortlessly natural way – there was a complete absence of brashness, brittleness or artificial edge.

A pair of these monoblock amplifiers reproduce scale brilliantly, no matter if it's the symphonic metal pomp of Nightwish's Nemo or something more classical such as Peer Gynt, Op. 28, Suite No. 1 composed by Harald Saeverud to accompany Henrik Ibsen's play (as also did Edvard Grieg). All of these men were Norwegian, of course, as this is a satirisation of their culture after all. The particular version of the latter was performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Bjarte Engeset.

As much as I enjoyed Tarja Turunen's vocals and the musical delivery of the Nightwish ensemble, it was the clarity of the wood blocks, wind, strings and percussion during The Devil's Five-Hop – punctuated by the brass section – that gave such a sense of space and drama to the Saeverud piece and demanded my attention. Moreover, the dynamics throughout Mixed Company from the same suite showed that the Electrocompaniet amps can deliver with snap and extension without overhang. Homeless from Paul Simon's Graceland LP highlighted another skill of this amplifier. The timbre of the grouped voices was reproduced so naturally that it was a 'raising the hairs on the back of your neck' moment – we all crave a special connection to our chosen music, and this delivered it.

It isn't all auditory fireworks from the AW 300 M, however, as it can also kick back and relax with dreamy music like Nine Horses' Atom and Cell – which oozed syrupy smoothness. Set to a wonderfully rich musical backdrop of sparse synths, percussion and David Sylvian-led harmonised vocals, it is interspersed with saxophone and interwoven with Ryuichi Sakamoto's piano work. This is music to get lost in, and it proved that the big Electrocompaniet can do delicacy as well as it does bombast. All the same, it's large-scale music with punch, power and dynamics that really showcases what the AW 300 M does best. Play TOOL's Fear Inoculum or Rush's Moving Pictures albums at serious sound levels, for example, and you won't forget what you heard in a hurry.

THE VERDICT

Electrocompaniet's new AW 300 M ticks all the boxes for those seeking a pair of very gutsy monoblock power amps that offer poise as well as power. If you are looking for the performance of the AW 800 M in stereo mode in a more convenient form factor, it recommends itself. The Norwegian company's time-honoured engineering know-how shines through – and the result is as much power as most people will ever need, neatly packaged and expertly built. If you're in the happy position to be able to afford a pair, then they're an essential audition.

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