When introducing the label »Made in Germany« by the end of the 19th century, the British industry wanted to protect itself and the English consumers against the allegedly poor quality of German merchandises. But as history has shown, this stigmatisation was a real barrel burst. For German goods developed into the quality standard which over a very long time was – and still is – a hard nut to crack, not only for the British industry. The devices by Vincent presented here may carry the quality seal »Made in Germany« in its finest manifestation quite rightly and swollen with pride. Solidity both in construction and material selection as well as the quality of workmanship are nothing but excellent.

The SP-T700 mono power amps, which come along in the half-wide hi-fi format of 21 centimetres, yet with a stately height of more than 26 centimetres, put forward a fighting weight of 16 kilogrammes which is not something you can just tuck under your arm for transport. These are hybrid amps with a valve-loaded input stage and a transistor power section. This almost classical approach combines the virtues of valves, which leave the acoustic fingerprint, with the power of a solid-state design. And these babies do have some power. With 180 watts into 8 ohms or 300 watts into 4 ohms, measured in our laboratory, they provide enough power even for watt-hungry loudspeakers. Moreover, until 10 watts into 8 ohms the monos will run in the sound-enhancing class A mode.

For being able to make this power available under all circumstances, the SP-T700 blocks are equipped with a high-performance transformer, which – together with the housing of a decent wall thickness – contributes its share to the amps’ hunky weight. One of the valves is showcased to the listener in a »shop window«, and to make this also look smashing, this display window may be illuminated in three brightness levels. At first I was shaking my head about this, but then enjoyed the glowing valve illuminated at level 1 during the listening session. The monos have two pairs of speaker terminals, which may also be switched separately, plus two 3.5 millimetre mini jack sockets labelled »Power Control« to allow the remote turn-on via the preamp.