The designer of a truly eclectic, yet world class, product once told me that he spent five years designing it, but made all his real progress in the last nine months - when he stopped cherry picking other people's ideas. In a world increasingly filled with me-too identi-kit designs of dubious merit, one thing I can guarantee is that Final haven't copied anyone! I can't remember a single product which has been so unashamedly different, and flown so resolutely in the face of fashion. In fact, the Final amplifiers are so different that it would be easy to dismiss them as downright weird.

For a start, the units themselves are tiny and devoid of fancy casework, expensively machined, tactile knobs or remote control. They're solid state but boast all of ten watts a side, the kind of output power more commonly associated with single-ended triodes. There's a grand total of three line level inputs and a single set of outputs. Tape loop? No. Multiple binding posts for easy bi-wiring? No. Balanced connection? Now you're having a laugh! Oh, and they run off torch batteries. No lead-acid rechargeables. No Duracells. Just good old-fashioned dry cells like the ones that used to rot in my bike lights before I could drive. And not an IEC socket in sight.

Having told you what they're not, I guess it's time to spill the beans on what they are. The Final amps are an ultra straight line, thoroughly thought through solution to getting the best possible sound out of high efficiency speakers (which Final also happen to make). The units are hard wired, and offer the bare minimum of facilities. This is not the problem that it might seem, as anybody who has taken the trouble to seek out and accommodate high efficiency speakers is going to be a purist anyway. The circuits are based on op-amps, which keeps the wiring manageable and the number of (ultra high quality) passive parts to a minimum. Besides the three inputs and the battery level meter the line-stage offers a pair of output level controls, vital to match system gain to speakers that might vary from 95dB to 110! They also provide a balance facility which again comes into its own when your speakers are going to make the most of any imbalance.

On the power-amp, and a solid-state first as far as I'm aware, is a control to vary the unit's damping factor. Again, this comes into its own as speaker efficiency rises, particularly with horn speakers whose mechanically damped low frequencies don't need any help from the amp. Other than that it's in, out and mute.

Now, battery powered pre-amps aren't that rare. They may not be common, but there are always a few around. What sets the Final apart is its battery driven power amp, and the fact that the designer rejects rechargeable or long life batteries in favour of low-tech dry cells. This may not seem much of a deal until you realise just how many batteries we're talking about.

Contained in separate 'battery boxes', the pre-amp is driven by 28 AA's, while the power-amp takes 36 C size cells. Which is about £30 worth when replacement time comes round. How soon that is depends on how much you use the amps, how efficient your speakers are, what sort of load they present, and how loud you play them. Meters on the amps tell you when the bad news is due, but with a sensible speaker (95dB minimum and an easy load) a set of cells should last between two and three months.

Not being sensible at all, the first thing I did was stick the amps into the existing system, just to check that everything was okay. This involved the small but perfectly formed Ars Acoustica Diva speakers -90 dB if we're being generous, and a 5ohm load. As far as the Finals go, this should be grounds for instant divorce, and I only meant to make sure they'd arrived intact. But I wasn't ready for the results. Maximum level wasn't up to much, but the Divas are designed to be convincing when you play them quietly. They are also really well damped. With the power-amp's damping control a notch off minimum, the results were absolutely magical. We ended up listening to the combination for the entire afternoon and evening, which turned out to be both a fascinating and salutary experience. Reference to the sagging battery level meters showed the cost of such ill advised indulgence.

Changing to the altogether more appropriate Living Voice Auditorium Avatar (an upgraded version of the standard Auditorium with better drivers, a better plinth system, and an extra 2 dB of efficiency) confirmed my first impressions, without the dramatic drain on the available voltage. These little amplifiers are very special indeed. That first afternoon I simply played one album after another, and the qualities that kept me listening became even more apparent with more efficient speakers.

I suppose I'm going to have to break down the performance in normal hi-fi fashion, but before I do I just want to try and communicate some of the natural, seamless beauty of music when it's played on these amps. It all suddenly makes so much sense, a coherent whole that contains not just the notes, but the musicians' intent. Notes are placed and shaped so precisely and against such a silent background that the life and thrust of the music takes on a new power, the acoustic energy a natural result of the performers' actions. The Finals sound less like a hi-fi system than anything I've used for a long, long time. Does that make them sound more like real life? I wish it were that simple.

The fact is ,that the Final amplifiers eliminate certain facets of the system's performance that we've come to identify as 'hi-fi' as opposed to 'life'. It's almost as if all hi-fl systems carry a fingerprint which the brain instantly recognises. Devoid of the evils of mains power, the Finals carry an entirely different signature. Suddenly we no longer recognise the labels that categorise what we are hearing. It no longer fits the pigeon hole. It still doesn't sound real, but the absence of familiar flaws confuses the critical faculties. Is it a case of different rather than better? I don't think so. Put them in the right system and it could easily be a case of different and better. But either way be prepared to be bowled over while your poor brain tries to adjust to a new set of rules.

Having lived with them, I think the Final's advantages lie in three specific and inter-related areas. The real clue is to be found in the amplifiers' independence of absolute level. You start by trying to play them at 'normal' levels, but you soon start turning them down. And unlike most amps, your ear adapts almost immediately to the new level. Change it between records and an unsuspecting listener can miss it altogether! Which suggests to me an extremely well developed and coherent dynamic range coupled to an incredibly low noise floor. Indeed, even at low levels, dynamics can startle, and music has an incredible sense of vitality.

The amazing dynamics extend to the sense of timing. But I'm talking about something much more sophisticated than the 'does it make your toes tap?' school of metronomic rhythmic 'integrity'. The Final's make your toes tap, but they make sense of even the most convoluted rhythmic relationships, allowing musicians to bend and stretch their playing within easily discernible rhythmic boundaries. On all but the most articulate amps, the Count's piano intro to 'Beaver Junction' (Farmers Market Barbeque Analogue Productions APJ 023) sounds clumsy with disjointed notes tripping over each other. The Final's make perfect sense of it, revealing it as a masterpiece of sustained and restrained notes, offset against carefully weighted chords, the whole thing tied by a loosely held but perfectly paced tempo. They transformed a scattering of unconnected notes into a little moment of musical genius which perfectly sums up Basies ability to make even the most complex music seem easy.

And they don't just do the delicacy thing either. Pile driver rhythm sections like the one that propels Lloyd Cole's 'Forest Fire' (Rattlesnakes, Polydor LCLP1) come across with thunderous intent. You want searing guitars, you got 'em. And full orchestral crescendos have a weight, solidity and complexity that is exhilarating.

At the other end of the scale, harmonics and musical textures survive beautifully intact, giving voices in particular, an instantly recognisable and wonderfully communicative quality. On a disc like the DCC Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook there are so many tracks that often you find yourself skipping through to your favourites. With the Final's you listen straight through, as each song reveals Ella's amazing tone, control and phrasing.

The Final amplifiers are devoid of the grain, noise and tonal bleaching that afflicts almost all other amps. They avoid the dynamic clumsiness and lack of rhythmic sophistication that bedevils large solid-state designs, and the veiled softness and lack of coherence that typifies so many single ended triodes. They are, in every sense of the word, a revelation. Their musical clarity and the ease with which you can isolate instruments, from deep bass to piccolo, makes listening to hi-fi a far more rewarding experience. They demonstrate conclusively why the mains supply (and its failings) is fast rising to the top of so many peoples priorities.

But against these stellar accomplishments must be balanced the extreme limitations placed on accompanying speakers, the cost of running the amps, and their own particular character. Let's start with the money £30 every couple of months is a fairly hefty dent, but bear in mind that other amps have costs as well, albeit not quite as obvious. Class A behemoths gobble electricity like my nephews at a Pizza Hut ice cream factory and at about the same cost. And the price of replacement tubes is spiralling ever higher, with high power output triodes well into three figures. And remember, for the performance on offer, the Final's are an absolute bargain. The money you save by not buying those 300B monoblocks will buy a lot of batteries.

Which brings us to the question of speaker matching and sonic shortcomings. Final have designed these amps to a narrow and clearly defined brief, and you have to respect those limitations. The speakers I had available were all at the lower edge of acceptability in terms of efficiency and load. The sound was stunning, but it lacked immediacy. The slightly distant perspective was not unpleasant, and acoustic recordings had a beautifully floated sense of space and atmosphere, but soundstage boundaries were indistinct, and you never sat in the same acoustic space as the musicians. A little like having balcony seats at a concert. For Bruno Walter's Brahms 4 (Classic MS61 13) that's absolutely wonderful. For solo piano or a string quartet it tends to rob the music of bite.

This could well be down to the speaker's Iow (!) sensitivity and I'd love to hear these amps on something really efficient, like the Avant Garde Trios or the Living Voice Tone Scouts. Until that happens, final judgements must wait. In the meantime, you should try to hear these amps. But be warned, whilst they are not that expensive, matching speakers might be a different matter, The Finals could be a costly habit to acquire. Effortlessly natural, the Final Music 5 and 6 deliver on the broken promises of so many single-ended triodes. They restore the beauty to music which so much hi-fl strips away and they do it without the emasculating slush that has become the natural counterpoint to clinical purity.

For many of us, these amps will remain a fascinating curio, but it would be a huge mistake to ignore their wider implications, and especially the accusing finger they point at the mains supply The Finals reveal the true extent of its all pervasive pollution. On the other hand, if you're a music lover rather than a hi-fi buff, and you've already got the speakers, don't even hesitate. There's no denying the addictive qualities of mains free music, and for the lucky few, the Finals offer a short step to musical nirvana.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Music -5
GAIN: 30dB
Input impedance: 50 Kg
Output impedance: 60 Ohms
Power supply: Battery drive DC ±21V
Dimensions: W 230 x H 43 X D 160 / W 230 x H 43 x D 160 (Battery box)
Including RIAA amp input
Price £1500

Music -6
Maximum output: 10w
Frequency response: 0Hz - 100KHz
Power supply: Battery drive DC ±27V
Dimensions: W 230 x H 43 x D 160 / W 230 x H 88 x D 320 (Battery box) Including RIAA amp input
Price: £1500

Manufacturer
Final Laboratories Japan
web: www.finallab.com

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