GrandHigh A280 Dual Mono Class A Integrated Amplifier

[Phonautograph]

I have stumbled over one of these in a flea market , and all i know about the product from google that it used to retail for 7300$ i have found it for less than 900$ and in perfect working and cosmetic condition with box and manuals the unit weighs about 50kgs and is built like a tank

but I couldn't find any other info on it online not even a single review , what do you think would this be a good buy for the asking price ?

[Phonautograph]

yeah it does look suspicious 

http://www.audio160.com/factory/GrandHigh/

 

this is the only thing i have found about the manufacturing company had to translate from google , its a Chinese company that references a merger with a non existent american company in Nevada , their website isn't  even working anymore 

[leggoslave]

I have one. It's a very well built amp and an equally good sounding one.

 

It's a Pure Class A amplifier and does about 120W into 4Ω and slightly more than half that into 8Ω.

 

Being Class A it takes a few hours to get to optimal levels and draws about 300W (8Ω) of power - so yeah it wastes a bit.

 

The heat sinks are large and quite effective at dissipating heat though. In normal room temperature it runs about as warm as most Class A amps. I have never cranked it far enough to engage the cooling fan though.

 

In comparison to other Class As I have on hand, Almarro and Line Magnetic (SET Valves) and a Sugden, it's got a fair amount more heft to the lower end than all of those, not as liquid as the triodes in the midrange, but can image as well as either of them and much better than the Sugden. The soundstage it produces is quite large but slightly recessed. It's definitely got all the qualities of a quality Class A amp - getting close to the music while still sounding relaxed.

 

From what I understand GrandHigh is an obscure high-end manufacturer that hasn't developed any distributors/dealerships overseas. So there's limited info out there about their products. Check out their speaker range for over-engineered, exceptionally finished floor-standers as well.

 

As for the price - I think that's about right for a second-hand one. I'd put it on par with my other amps costing about 2-3K.

 

PM if you need more info OP.

 

[Phonautograph]

On 7/10/2018 at 3:20 AM, JDRodrigues said:

Easy to msg him on FB to find out his story. I am now curious how good the thing is.
Update the thread with what you find out please.

 

Leggoslave saved me the trouble  Many thanks Leggoslave 

 

On 7/12/2018 at 2:05 PM, leggoslave said:

I have one. It's a very well built amp and an equally good sounding one.

 

 

PM if you need more info OP.

 

how would you describe the amp sound , what kind of pre amp and studio monitors would it be a best match with ?

[leggoslave]

No worries Phonautograph.

 

Well as to the sound of the A280, I sort of attempted to do that in my last post. I suppose if you haven't heard the amps I've compared it to then you'd naturally have no reference.

 

So I'll have to broaden that characterization by saying that it's generally a well balanced sounding amplifier - nothing is particularly highlighted but everything's there.

 

It's also quite revealing of sources upstream - which is usually a sign of a well designed amp. I have tried a couple of different DACs with it and was easily able to tell the differences between the two. Cable swaps were also qualitatively discernible.

 

I haven't tried a pre-amp in front of it though. Although you could use the regular line-stage inputs the amp also has a single RCA in ie. for the amp to be used as a monoblock. A real shame it doesn't have a stereo set to completely bypass its pre-amp section.

 

As to speakers? Perhaps something of the order of >86db efficiency for starters. I've currently got it hooked up to some ProAc three-way floor standers and it's driving them nicely. I've also had it paired with some Rogers LS 2A book-shelves and it seemed to do fine there as well - although naturally lacking that low-end extension compared to larger speakers. Both of those speakers have that slightly warm and laid back British sound.

However, I don't think you can go particularly wrong with 95 percent of the speakers out there.

 

If you don't mind a bit of heat dissipation and waiting some while for it to get up to temp then this amp will not disappoint you sound wise.