In layman’s terms, a SE amp does not break up the signal into 2 parts and then reassemble it again. And just in case you happened to re-join civilization after a 20-year solo research stint in the Antarctic, a single-ended tube amplifier is one, and I quote from Wikipedia since I cannot do better, “ that uses a single tube to produce an output, in contrast to a push-pull amplifier which uses a pair of devices with antiphase inputs to generate an output ”. The “SE” in the nomenclature, for those who skipped the introduction, stands for Single-Ended. The word Barrister describes an individual who has been called TO the Bar, and is not to be confused with the word “Barista” which describes someone working AT the bar, usually (but not exclusively) that of Starbucks or your local watering hole. Hence, the person who undergoes such an activity is called a “pupil”. “Pupillage”, for those who are not exposed to the British-based common law system of legal training, is the name given to the activity which a person, fresh from being called to the Bar, has to undertake before he can become a full-fledged Barrister-at-law. Which means I don’t have to apologize nor explain too much when I tell you that the Audio Note (UK) P1 SE is definitely an amplifier that benefits from and is a product of these last 20 years’ worth of audio progress. I like the fact that audiophiles as a whole are better informed, and more accepting of each other’s different preferences. I like the fact that we have choices now, and we don’t all have to fill our lives with big sand amps (not everybody kvells for Krells) and big hard-to-drive speakers. Tell someone that you are using an 8-watt amp of whatever persuasion, and instead of shocked derision, you may get a nod of understanding and a question about the kind of speaker you are using with it. Single end directly heated triode technology is so mainstream now it’s almost passe. Skip forward to 2015, which is exactly 20 years later. Thank you for your prescience Alan, wherever you are. But life has a funny way of making old things new and relevant again. UK audiophiles, on the other hand, were a little more, shall we say, spiritually in tune with their Japanese counterparts, and it took a little article written by a certain Alan Sircom for a small magazine called “Hi Fi Choice” to educate me about the virtues of this arcane technology using a forgotten valve (Brit-speak for tubes) which should really have been relegated to the pages of audio history since the 1940s.

The widespread use of power hungry speakers at the time, such as Apogees and Avalons, would have precluded the use of these kind of flea-powered amps. Most Americans would have scoffed at and dismissed the 300B tube as a toy or a quaint relic of a bygone era, not to be taken seriously. In 1995, not many American audiophiles would have heard of a single-ended directly-heated 300B amplifier, the virtues of which were rediscovered in the late 80s by discerning Japanese audiophiles such as Jean Hiraga (okay, he was also part French). To me, the Audio Note Kit One was a dream come true and I cherished every moment I spent with it. It was, at that time (which was 1995 to be precise) my first audiophile amplifier, not counting a Rotel 965BX which was all I could afford on my pupil’s salary. My first introduction to single-ended tubed amplifiers came via the auspices of an Audio Note Kit One using a pair of 300B tubes.

Audio note kit 4