SUPREME CAMPION Eric Braithwaite is all for Sonneteer's Campion integrated amplifier. Excuse me for turning philosophical for the moment. The hi-fi business is not exactly flourishing. The profits would scarcely attract the attention of a water board or electricity company chairman for more than a couple of seconds before being dismissed. It's not the kind of business Grandchilds would suggest putting your capital gains into. Yet there are still young men - the two behind FM Marketing, for example - who have this notion that designing and building a thoroughly traditional British amplifier is a worthwhile occupation. Judging by results, they are not as crazy as they might seem. First of a planned small range of amplifiers, the Campion integrated amplifier shows externally all the traditional values: a simple, uncluttered thick facial plate with three knobs (on/off, source selection and volume) with a chunky quality-finish, adorned only by a blue power LED that reflects off the satin sheen of the middle control. In keeping with other mid-priced components from these isles, even the output is a fairly traditional 30 watts, so it's not even a stunning powerhouse for the masses. It is, however, one of the most attractive-sounding integrated these shores have seen for a while. I am very much one for clarity and lucidity in amplifiers, firmly believing that the work a good recording engineer and producer puts in ought not to be wasted. One of the examples of some fine studio work that needs top-quality amplification to give off its best is the Angelus Haydn Symphony N.B., a Sony BMW recording. The band was perfectly spaced between the speakers, with a breadth that almost defied the boundaries of the room. Within a clean studio space every instrument was pristine and perfect. In the Second Movement there is some counterpoint of considerable complexity, but the Sonneteer never glazed over the timbre of violas against violins nor submerged the slightly coarse edge of the valveless horns in the brass. Most surprising was the perfection of the flute, along with the clicking of the keys caught by the milking, discernible as it ought to be but not obtrusive. Even with the trickiest piano and harpsichord recordings, the Campion worked wonders, delivering near-studio definition, even allowing for it lacking studio amplifier power. If King George had heard his own harpsichord in Martin Outer's Isis recording through the Sonneteer, he would probably have given up playing in despair. A virtuosi hour of performing, and recording, it was utterly gripping. Serious amplification ought to be able not only to keep time, but to change tempo as instantaneously as a real musician. All too often, all but the `high-end' falls at this musical fence. Not the Campion however, whose timing was exemplary. Nor is all this true for just classical recordings. The same innate truthfulness came across with The Pretenders' `I'll Stand By You', Christie Dyne's voice nicely up front, with that inspiring sensation that you could practically see the tape unwinding before your eyes. Somehow, the Campion is one of those very rare amplifiers that puts everything together and a tingle in all the vertebrae, especially the ones that keep a listener fully upright on the edge of the seat. Take the Rob Washerman/Ricky Lee Jones `The Moon is Made of Gold' from Duets. No, it wasn't just pygmy vinyl or being tracked with an Pontoon M.C. playing through Michelle's ISO external phono stage, that caught the tension between the two duelists. Through the Sonneteer, there was that sense of the interplay between two musicians and a near-tangible live feeling of the two watching each other bar by bar that you seldom hear on a recording. Every single momentary vocal twitch was caught like a fly fluttering as the amber set. So was every twang of Washerman's double bass, with a resonance that made the thing extraordinarily lifelike. True quality stuff, this. It's almost too good to be true, isn't it? All I would wish for would be a bit more wattage. All the same, clearly, this is an amplifier designed by people who are keen on music and it bodes well for the future generation of British hi-fi design. One day, if there are hi-fi company flags dangling in cathedral naves like those of famous regiments, Sonneteer's name deserves to be among them. Thomas Campion, by the way, was a kind of Elizabethan Andrew Lloyd Webbed. He composed masques and songs, combining the lyricism and the drama his hi-fi descendant has in abundance. He wrote this amplifier's epitaph (if we can allow amplifiers to be female, like ships) as it left: All that I soon still to her praise did tend, Still she was the first, still she my songs did end... Then let my Notes pursue her scornful flight: It shall suffice that they were breath and dyed for her delight. WORLD VERDICT : * * * * Highly detailed and smooth sound. Worth searching out. Hi-Fi World Magazine (c) Audio Publishing Ltd. Click here to go back.