“So explain to me again why I need two of these?” my neighbor Rob asked as we installed a full, top-of-the-line NAD Masters system in his living room. The components included an M66 streaming preamplifier and two M23 V2 power amplifiers, which we borrowed specifically to drive the PMC MB2 SE loudspeakers. I’d already explained to Rob why, exactly, we needed 700Wpc, which the two M23s bridged to mono can deliver. I admit that we didn’t really need all those watts, but there was no harm in having more than necessary, right?
But this two-amp thing. As audiophiles, we just know monoblocks are better than a single stereo amp. It’s a given. There are two main reasons why monoblocks evoke this response. The first, most important, most obvious reason is technical. Separating amplification duties into one discrete amplifier per channel offers several advantages.
To start with, there’s zero crosstalk between channels. The signal from one channel has no chance to bleed into the other, so stereo separation is theoretically superior with monoblocks. Next, you can place the amp closer to the speaker it’s driving, which means shorter speaker cables—there are cost savings here, I suppose, but more importantly, resistance is lower. Finally, independent power supplies, right from the power cable onward, ensure that current demands on one channel won’t limit headroom on the other.
Those are all quantifiable advantages, but also important is the gee-whiz factor. More boxes! Having a separate amp for each channel adds symmetry to the system. It looks impressive, and in the world of diminishing returns for each additional dollar you throw at your system, a solid dose of cool is (to me, anyway) a tangible benefit.
It pleased me to no end the other day when I heard Rob explaining the advantages of the bridged NAD M23 V2 amps to another neighbor. I relate the Rob-monoblock story because my reference system is moving toward a serious amplifier upgrade.
I first met Electrocompaniet’s Lasse Danielsen back at Munich’s High End 2024 show. At the time, Danielsen was showing off the insides of Electrocompaniet’s statement-level EC 5 preamplifier. This was also where I met Geir Svihus, Electrocompaniet’s chief product designer. “We are really excited about this preamp,” I recall Danielsen saying. “We have work to do on the volume control, which is very ambitious,” added Svihus. The EC 5 certainly looked the business, with the company’s trademark acrylic front panel adding a luxurious sense of depth.
Electrocompaniet is an interesting company. Based in Tau, Norway, it’s a small audiophile-driven enterprise that has the backing of a larger company. Westcontrol, a Norwegian electronics-manufacturing and system-engineering company, is the owner, but it’s one of those partnerships that works both ways. Electrocompaniet makes use of the economy of scale provided by the larger company. All of Electrocompaniet’s circuit boards are manufactured and populated by Westcontrol, and the private ownership concerns stay out of the way of the smaller company so that it can pursue its single-minded goal of great sound.
For more information I suggest you watch this SoundStage! Network video, which provides an in-depth look at the origins of Electrocompaniet and its company structure.
Electrocompaniet at Audio Video Show 2025
The next time Danielsen and I crossed paths was Audio Video Show 2025 in Warsaw. The EC 5 made another appearance there, but this time it was actually playing music. Doug Schneider wrote about this system, which was being fronted by a pair of Rockport Lyra speakers. “Best sound of the show,” he proclaimed, and I had no problem with that assessment. In 2024, and again in 2025, I looked Danielsen in the eye and asked him to put my name down for a review sample.
Flash forward to 2026. Doug had just returned from Norway, where he’d visited Electrocompaniet. Doug and I chat on the regular, and he called me from the Ottawa airport: “Electrocompaniet is shipping the EC 5—yours will be here next week.” In a follow-up email, Danielsen suggested that they should send a set of amplifiers so that I could evaluate the EC 5 in the context of a full Electrocompaniet amplifier chain.
I was game, of course. I responded that I’d be thrilled to evaluate their preamplifier with their AW 300 M amps—the same ones Phil Gold had reviewed last year. But Danielsen had other ideas. “We are sending the AW 800 M Reference amplifiers,” he wrote. Well then. At that point, I’d spent time investigating the EC 5 and then taking a look at the AW 300 M, given how Phil had reviewed it and that was the model I figured would be shipping. I honestly hadn’t been aware of the big brother, since it was a fairly new product. But I pivoted, loading up the AW 800 M’s webpage. The first specification that caught my eye was the weight: 122 pounds. I would be needing neighbor Rob’s help to huck this into my listening room.
Of course, the EC 5 would be the main event here, given that Electrocompaniet literally put years of work into building it, but the AW 800 M (US$23,750) intrigued me. Digging deeper, I unearthed a more startling number. The AW 800 M is specified to generate 800W into 8 ohms mono and—get this—2200W into 2 ohms mono. Those are massive numbers.
So a week later, the two AW 800 M amplifiers and the EC 5 preamp arrived in Ottawa. Doug delivered one amp and the preamp to Diego Estan, who manages our measurements lab, and hoicked one amp to me here in Toronto. One amp. I wasn’t worried, because I’d discovered, via back-and-forth emails with Danielsen, that the AW 800 M can run as either a stereo or mono amp. In its two-channel configuration, the numbers are still impressive—300Wpc into 8 ohms.
I used my dolly to drag the amp into the garage. Later that evening, neighbors Ron and Rob came by to help me move it into my listening room. “We should use the dolly to get the box inside, and decant it there,” I suggested. But Rob had other ideas.
Jason Thorpe with one amplifier
“Open the box here so we can take a look at it,” he said. Once the box was open, Rob pulled off the top layer of Styrofoam, reached in, and lifted out the amp. “Open the door for me, if you don’t mind,” he added, sounding a bit winded. It all happened so fast I forgot to bang off a photo.
I moved my Hegel H30A amplifier off to the side, and we placed the AW 800 M just to the left side of my equipment rack. I configured it to stereo using the rear-panel toggle. All of the cables I had in the system reached the AW 800 M just fine, so hookup was simple. Balanced XLRs in, speaker cables out, power in. My Aurelia XO Cerica XL speakers were already in place. A simple configuration, and we stood back to take a look and give it a listen.
The AW 800 M is a looker. That acrylic front plate gives the amp dimensionality and a feeling of luxury. The illuminated lowercase e shines nicely and adds a stylish touch. Immediately I settled into the sound. Despite being brand new, the amp sounded lush and engaging.
Lately I’d been fussing with my EAT Fortissimo S turntable, which needed new belts (on my return from Denmark I found that one of the belts had snapped), and as part of the laying-on-hands process, I waxed the ebony veneer and polished up the chrome F‑Note tonearm. This is my turntable. There are many like it, but this one is mine. Waxed, polished, and oiled. Reliable and functional.
I’d been listening to Duke Ellington’s Piano in the Background (LP, Classic Records, CS 8346) as I tuned up the alignment of the Ortofon MC 90X I was about to review. Olde tyme big-band music, especially the late-’50s Columbia stuff, is great for evaluating a vinyl system’s performance, given its natural room sound fighting against the hard-left, hard-right, huge-center imaging.
Lush and engaging. I think I’ll find myself coming back to that description. While the AW 800 M had all the archetypal characteristics that I’ve come to expect from a good solid-state amp—extended, clean highs, a tight, whomping low end, a neutral midrange—it added in a creamy sense of ease. The highs on the massed brass shone out with the requisite crispness, but with a lack of edge and grit that immediately endeared this amp to me.
And that center image! The AW 800 M presented a fully fleshed-out representation of Sam Woodyard’s drums smack in the middle of all the goings-on—rock solid and appropriately sized, with more dimensionality, more wraparound depth than I’m used to. Ellington’s piano also shares that same center stage. “Take the ‘A’ Train” was a favorite of both my parents, and I’ve inherited the big-band gene from them. Listening to Ellington’s piano, I experienced a startling contradiction. That piano moved forward in the soundstage, the AW 800 M representing it as directly in front of the band, with a vivid semicircle of instruments forming a crescent around Ellington. And that image of the piano was magnificent—slightly larger than life, but with superb front-to-back depth, so clear that I could almost see how it was turned to the side, with the left hand further to the rear. Superb, I say.
Keep in mind that there’s another one of these things coming my way in a couple of weeks, which means I’ve had to consider how best to actually evaluate the AW 800 M. It’s two, two, two amps in one. As I’ve found out over the last two weeks, the AW 800 M is a great-sounding, elegant stereo power amp. But Electrocompaniet bills the AW 800 M as a monoblock, so it wouldn’t be fair to just straight-up review it as a stereo amp. I say let’s consider this editorial as a preview of the pair, a get-acquainted how’s-it-going.
My main Electrocompaniet event is and has always been the freshly baked EC 5 preamplifier, so the first order of business will be to listen to and write up a review of that component. Once that’s done I’ll have had sufficient time with the pair of AW 800 Ms to allow me to pinch out a review that will serve as a follow-up to this editorial.
It’s a busy month ahead. October 23 is the first day of Audio Video Show 2026, and Doug and I will be jetting over to Poland to cover it for SoundStage! Global. Joining us will be young gun Matt Bonaccio, so please be sure to check out our coverage, as Matt’s far better looking than Doug and me, and he’s a damn good writer too.
. . . Jason Thorpe
jasont@soundstagenetwork.com
