Amplificatore Integrato MOON i-1

Design 
The Canadian-made Moon i-1 is a full-functioned integrated amplifier with remote control. It has six line-level inputs—including one front-mounted mini-jack for personal media players—and a headphone jack. It also has a RS-232 port for fully bidirectional feedback in custom-installed systems and firmware updates, as well as an infrared input for external control. The remote control is designed to control other Simaudio products (eg, CD players) as well. The i-1 has aseparate Preamp Out to enable its preamp section to drive external power amplifiers.

The Moon i-1 is claimed to output 50Wpc into 8 ohms or 100Wpc into 4 ohms, and the bipolar output devices are biased into providing class-A output up to 5W. Its oversize power supply uses a custom-designed toroidal transformer—the largest I've ever seen in an integrated amp. Looking at it gave me a hankering for a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. The circuit-board traces, of pure copper with gold plating, are designed for low-impedance characteristics. The all-aluminum case is rigidly built to minimize external vibrations, but there are no external heatsinks—the i-1 is designed to be left on at all times for optimal performance. Simaudio claims that its low operating temperature will make it last longer. I left my review sample on all the time; the chassis barely rose above room temperature.

I tested the i-1 in my affordable reference system, using as reference speakers the Monitor Audio Silver RS6s. The Simaudio lacks a phono stage, so I spun vinyl using the Creek Destiny phono stage into one of the i-1's Aux inputs via a pair of MIT interconnects.

Sound 
Immediately, the Moon i-1's rich, holographic, detailed, lifelike midrange made me want to mine my collection of vocal LPs. "Eli's Coming," from Laura Nyro's Eli and the Thirteenth Confession(LP, Columbia CS 9626), revealed her tremendous range, as the Moon rendered her soaring, silky voice with vibrant verisimilitude. Similarly, Frank Sinatra's rendition of "My Funny Valentine," from Swinging Easy: Songs for Lovers (LP, Capitol W587), revealed the rich lower midrange of the bottom end of Ol' Blue Eyes' range with an articulation of low-level dynamics that was reminiscent of expensive tube electronics. From my notes: "Are you sure there are no tubes in this thing?" The Moon unraveled inner-midrange detail unlike any piece of electronics I've heard in its price range. Throughout all of the coherent, tactile, dirty mess in the mix of Tom Waits' Real Gone (CD, Anti- 86678-2), I was able to follow the discrete portrayal on each track of guitarist Mark Ribot's delicately picked textures.

Description: Solid-state, class-AB, remote-controlled integrated amplifier. Power-supply transformer: 320VA. Power-supply capacitance: 20,000µF. Inputs: 5 pairs single-ended (RCA). Input device types (preamp): J-FET. Maximum output power: 50Wpc into 8 ohms (17dBW), 100Wpc into 4 ohms (17dBW). Maximum output: 22V. Slew rate: 20V/µs. Maximum current: 15A peak, 9A continuous. Dynamic headroom: 3dB. Input sensitivity: 370mV–3.0V RMS. Input impedance: 11k ohms. Output impedance: 0.04 ohm. Damping factor: >200. Gain: 37dB. Signal/noise: 101dB at full power. Frequency response: 10Hz–100kHz, +0/–3dB. Crosstalk at 1kHz: –78dB. IMD: <0.05%. THD: <0.015% (20Hz–20kHz at 1W), <l0.02% (20Hz–20kHz at 50W).
Dimensions: 16.9" (430mm) W by 3" (76mm) H by 12.75" (324mm) D. Shipping weight: 22 lbs (10kg).
Serial Number Of Unit Reviewed: I602999.

D.G.