Home Review Dion Audio AB300 power amplifier

Review Dion Audio AB300 power amplifier

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Pros

  • Neutral sound
  • Strength and control
  • Good price
  • Widely deployable

Cons

  • No XLR
  • It had to go back...

Price: € 6599

Build quality
Usability
Sound
Price
Dion Audio AB300

Intro

Contents

Dion Audio has added another new amplifier to its collection. This time a powerful stereo amplifier with impressive specifications. At Alpha-Audio we often say that you shouldn’t rely on specifications and let your ears do the talking. Well, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do with the AB300!

Dion Audio. The veteran Alpha-Audio reader knows that we have a special liking on the brand and its founder, Miquel Blaauw.  As a small audio brand it is a tour de force to stay in business for more than ten years already amongst the considerable larger (marketing) budgets of the big brands. Add to that after-sales, service/warranty and product development and the company’s story becomes even more admirable. Dion has built up a loyal client base in the Benelux and Miquel can be proud of that.

Looking at the current Dion Audio product catalogue we see wide array of speakers, amplifiers (integrated, stereo, class A, B, mono blocks, phono stage, headphone amplifier), audio cables, DACs (Dion makes a NOS-DAC!) and streamers. All this can be ordered directly from Dion Audio, without a dealer network.

Dion Audio amps

Although Miquel Blauw started making speakers in 1998, Dion’s amplifier line is the most extensive. There is a wide choice of pre-amp and integrated amplifiers in different technical versions: class A, class A-B, class D and tubes. Mono blocks and stereo. Add to that a phono preamp and a headphone amplifier and we have a more than complete collection (pre)amps.

What is striking is that Miquel Blauw does not choose a specific technology in amplifier design. Brands such as McIntosh make exclusively tube amps and other brands indulge in optimizing class D amplifiers. Dion Audio’s amplifier line up offers a wide range where the customer has the choice between completely different amplifier ‘topologies’.

Dion Audio AB300

It is not difficult to grasp the background of the naming of this amplifier. This is a class A/B amplifier powering 300 Watts. This considerable power is revealed when lifting the AB300; 18 kg. And that doesn’t even make it the heavyweight in the Dion amplifier line up; the AA100 class A amp weighs no less than 40 kg…

The AB300 has completely symmetrical design. Two gigantic toroidal transformers explain the considerable weight of the amplifier. For the rest we see a remarkably empty housing. The electronics are placed on the sides of the amplifier. These completely new circuits developed by Miquel Blauw ensure the highest possible power in class A amplification (high bias). This combined with DC coupling and very little feedback should provide a ‘puristic’ listening experience where speed, purity and transparency stand out. At the back we see a pair of RCA single-ended line inputs and one speaker output per channel.