At the same time everything was under full control, yet nothing was restrained. Still I had the feeling that the amp will never go overboard and sound too thin or brittle. And this is a trait that is not often true, even with many hi-end amplification. Because when there are some devices that never go too bright, they at the same time often sound too calm in the climaxes and seem to get everything to one common denominator. Yet in the case of the Polish flagship amplifier, we have great differentiating abilities and the very good transparency when it comes to the timbre of every recording. And also, the ability to discern the changes in that timbre when it comes to both the micro and the macro scale. Moreover, I would like to emphasize once again that you can feel in this sound that its completely devoid of a certain distortion mechanism that (too) often shows itself in other amplifying equipment. As for the timbre itself, it’s natural on one hand, yet it’s also on the warmer side of the things. But its not the warmth that can be understand stereotypically. Because when we change what’s playing to something much crazier that the American singer discography, we can get to even more interesting conclusions.
On the “Electro Glide in Blue” album by the Apollo 440 band, and precisely on the “Ain’t Talking Bout Dub” track the AMP-05 showed its other interesting traits. The first one was that contrary to its theoretically warm character it was able to show that this is an older recording, meaning that the ability of showing how something was actually done mixing and mastering-wise was top notch. With a proper selection of the ancillaries (we will get to this soon), the level of to which degree we can get into the recording was really high. Yet still, I never had any king of a feeling that there was too much analysis and the amp would have a tendency to split a hair into few pieces. At the same time, while its timbre can perhaps go into the lush and creamy side, then going from one recording to another it suddenly turned out that everything just sounds different. And that this amplifier invites us to listen to every that from its beginning to an end. It actually makes music in such a manner that delving into how the midrange, or the bass or treble sound seems really unnecessary.
Because when I thought that it may be somehow constrained dynamically, the dynamic swing on the Moby “Flower” changed my understanding of it completely. The same is with the soundstage projection – while it may be lush and rich sounding and may seem to get everything closer to the listener, it also can play something that is far away with ease and clarity. The same is with the soundstage projection – while it may be lush and rich sounding and may seem to get everything closer to the listener, it also can project the soundstage with true depth. And in spite of having an intimate first layers of sound, it also projects lots of quiet details that are embedded into the presentation with real ease. And even if we need to talk about the objective qualities, then for example it has no problems with the bass control whatsoever. The lower registers on the “Rush” soundtrack were taut and precise. Especially the synthetic impulses on the Hans Zimmer’s “Budgie” were both palpable and had the reference quality of texture as well. The same was with the almost subsonic frequencies on the AES Dana “Inks” also made a lasting impression.
The thing with this amplifier is, however, not only about its isolated objective qualities, but rather its sonic presentation as a whole. Because what impressed me the most was simply its overall audio quality as a whole. At the forefront of all this is of course very good timbre that is both saturated, refined and sensitive to what’s going on in the recording. Moreover, in the case of the Divaldi amplifier, we also have unforced transparency combined with great enthusiasm for playing every kind of repertoire. On the Nils Frahm’s “Spaces” album the Polish amplifier showed great class. It brilliantly conveyed not only the aura of tracks such as “Says”, but also reproduced every subtle detail with unforced naturalness and ease. And it did it completely unforced, effortlessly and without trying to get overly analytical. Because here the ability to render subtle chromatic changes translates precisely into a seamless projection of details as well. They are, so to speak, naturally woven into the recording here, never interfering with the way it conveys the music, yet with great definition that is perfectly natural.
Divaldi AMP-05 SE – conclusion
Summing up, what we get here is an amplifier that is sonically complete. First things first, it simply wins the listener over with the combination of great timbre and finesse. Even more, all the objective qualities are on really high level. Actually high enough to justify its a bit steep price. Obviously, we need to consider the lack of the XLR inputs, but I would not see this as a serious problem. Because we have two balanced outputs that do the job. What I would consider would be pairing it with really good source. One that would show its true qualities. As for its size, I’d rather see it as a virtue in today’s world. This is a unique amplifier, one that may not be necessarily cheap, yet it defends itself with what is most important – the sound. Therefore, a strong recommendation from my side.
Adam Kiryszewski
Manufacturer: Divaldi https://divaldi.pl/
Price: 11800 PLN (around 2500 Euro)