Some of you may have seen Ali Tait's Transcendent Sound Pinnacle build thread but for those unaware TS produce kits to build your very own OTL (output transformer-less) valve amp. Very nice they are to in both appearance and performance.

Fortunately for me it meant he was selling his TS Minibeast and I jumped at the chance to snap it up albeit at the expense of my quad 306 and bte khozmo preamp. Something didn't quite gell with those two. Not sure why but it just left me feeling something was amiss. Maybe the khozmo works better in a active preamp?

It arrived well packaged and I soon went about setting it up. The valves fit very snuggly into their bases and contrary to some owners observations all are sitting perfectly upright probably due mainly to Ali's handywork.

The sound of it is exceptional. I can't hear a thing from on it start up in fact the only way I know it's been switched on is from the glow of the tubes. It portrays music in a way that makes you smile well it does for me anyhow. At only 4wpc you might think it would need to be cranked to 2 or 3 o'clock on the dial but in truth I rarely go past 12, however my speakers are fairly sensitive at 95db.

I originally had it sideways next to my TV but it just didn't look or feel right and with small kids it couldn't stay this way. So I made a shelf out of some spare mdf. Covered it with a wood effect sticky back stuff and it's now up and out of the way.

Can see myself keeping this beauty for a long time.

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