Over many years there have been a great many comments from many different sources about this particular amp sounding grey and sterile. When it was released I remember that it was promoted as being an exceptionally competent design. I would be very interested to know what causes the allegedly poor sound, in technical terms. Maybe we need a separate thread (in the DIY room) on this?
If we are talking about the 1980's amp, I have never heard it but I have vague memories of reading reviews where it was criticised as sounding 'clinical' and 'sterile' despite it apparently measuring well and having excellent dynamics, detail etc. I remember that the reviews at the time certainly put me off ever wanting to buy one.
When the Audiolab was first launched it was very well reviewed in a number of UK publications. In fact it was arguably lauded beyond its true capabilities, and for several months after the initial flurry of positive reviews, many dealers had a waiting list.
In its favour: it arrived with a certain amount of goodwill extended to Phillip Swift (now Spendor) and Derek Scotland, who were a design partnership for hire in the mould of Bob Stuart and Alan Boothroyd.
The first Lentek product IIRC was an MC phono amp, which was rather good, especially in combination with the Entre moving coil cartridge. The Lentek integrated amp which followed was also critically acclaimed, not least by Paul Benson in HFA (see the current 'Chris Frankland' thread).
The Lentek amp looked like a motorcycle engine - the look was deliberately different – and, for a British manufacturer, was built to a standard probably never seen outside SME at that time. Fit & finish, feel of control knobs and switches were up to the standard of anything the Japanese could muster.
It managed to dig out a level of detail on records that was very unusual, especially given it was extremely smooth-sounding (but not soporific) and easy to listen to.
Unfortunately, it had two problems, 1] the build quality made it very expensive with a relatively low power output compared to its competitors, and 2] while it worked extremely well in combination with some speakers – I was fond of it in combination with Mordaunt Short's flagship Signifer – there were some systems where it just died on its arse. I do remember one demo where it was hooked up to the then highly acclaimed B&W801 – which I already considered something of a rotting corpse – and that lasted maybe 10 minutes tops.
Anyway, it proved to be something of a Marmite product, and Lentek unfortunately failed in the market.
Our two heroes then re-appeared with the original Audiolab, which retained much of the high quality industrial design and quality knobbery, but at less than half the price of the Lentek. And it made an A&R A60 look like something out of a 1950s council house.
Great moments in bad timing perhaps, whereas the Lentek was tonally vibrant and very dynamic in the right system, the Audiolab was more obviously a budget product. At the time there was a trend emerging among speaker manufacturers which I always think of as 'the Cyrus sound,' all leading edges and detail, but without a lot of body.
So couple a 'best buy' Audiolab with one of the emerging generation of 'best buy' fizzy speakers and you could have done very well as a paracetemol supplier. I was never a huge fan of the Audiolab stuff in general terms – although there were some good combinations – my feeling was that the designers had swung too far the other way in trying to address the Lentek's perceived shortcomings. Most systems I knew based around Audiolab amps were quite fatiguing to listen to. Ironically for a 'futuristic' product, the audiolab probably paired better with old school speakers where the result wasn't quite so relentless.
If it hadn't originally been so hyped, there probably wouldn't have been quite the backlash. FWIW, I sold a lot of Meridian 101/103Ds to disgruntled Audiolab owners.
I think the first Tag McLaren variants of Audiolab products were slightly tweaked versions of the original designs. I did hear a couple and remember thinking they seemed brighter than the originals, which probably doesn't help the Audiolab's reputation.
I assume the IAG models are a different design, but in truth, don't know, don't care, I'd still rather have a Sugden a21 than any of them... does that answer any questions about power cables? ;-)
