when you compare them to amps bigger in size, say Gryphon Mephisto and Pass Xs300, you see that it weighs still more than them. Why? Knowing as well that the two competitors are full classA amps operating at very high bias and that the Relentless is AB mode, you even more question its weight, as everyone knows that the power supply is the heaviest component of an amp !! The Gryphon and Pass work at 200W and 300W full classA, while the Relentless only 30W or so!!! Where does the weight come from??? Ah yes, if you look carefully, you will see that the thickness of the whole and yet beautiful metal cover of this amp is enormous all the way. It is actually about 6 to 8 times thicker than the other two, on which you can already easily stand a man of 220 pounds !! If the, say Mephisto amp, had the same thickness of cover/chassis and instead of having an acrylic front panel had it in metal as well, I estimate that it would weigh about 500 pounds each instead of its already hefty 230pounds!! Now when you know that the highly and well respected Bryston 28B3 has over 1,000W AB power (tested at 1,200W actually) for some 45 pounds, you ask yourself what is the correlation of sound quality/weight/power to price. And more particularly, what is the marketing gain or audiophile brain stimulation argument of announcing; hey guys, this amp is 485 pounds and 1,500W and it's so beautiful!! so this is an absolute amp, so it has and absolute price too. Yes, of course, and truly based on what in the end? Sound? Irrational passion? pride of ownership? All in all, if it does not beat the Mephisto and/or the Xs300 in sound quality, it would clearly not be worth a quarter of its price. Honest reviewer urgently required please... to honestly assess sound, not the object.
