LARS & MONICA • Review by Roy Gregory
“… their considerable strengths lie at the more intimate and intricate end of the musical spectrum. But I never cease to be amazed by how capable they are when you ask them to roll up their sleeves and shovel some serious coal.”
… Boy, do these amps perform. In a field where performance really is the only justification for the prices being charged, there’s actually something rather (if slightly bizarrely) refreshing about the Engströms’ prosaic appearance and matter-of-fact approach. The longer I’ve lived with them -- and I’ve lived with them for a good, long time -- the more I’ve come to like the simple, polished, no-nonsense face they present to the world, not least because it seems to say, "Go on… go on. Play me. You know I’m not going to impress anybody by just sitting here." And ain’t that the truth.
The Engström products look decidedly different -- stylish or odd depending on your point of view and just how conservative you are when it comes to aesthetics. The Lars amps are essentially 10" cubes with the tubes housed in the top plate, an arrangement that stretches their proportions upwards and then reinforces that impression with a pair of plate-glass housings that add physical (if ephemeral) bulk and a chimney effect to help maintain a constant operating temperature. They also protect both the tubes and any inquisitive fingers that might explore them. In a review context, the glasswork makes the amps bigger, heavier and demanding of far more careful handling, so I tended to use the chassis naked and actually came to admire the compact dimensions and clean looks -- as well as a footprint that allows two amps to stand side by side on a single large shelf. In classic Scandinavian tradition, the chassis walls are built from a single piece of laminated wood, a corresponding chromed metal plate providing the top, rear and bottom surfaces -- and a stark visual contrast with the piano-black lacquer of the front and side panels. Cylindrical chromed feet support both the chassis and one half of the glass casing, the other half being bolted to spacers on the back panel. All switches and connections are around the back, leaving the frontal aspect crisp and clean…