Best integrated ever made ?


I heard the new Audio Analogue Maestro Integrated yesterday morning at a local dealer. I bought it yesterday evening, and i am currently selling all my audio gear...

Im curious to know what others who have heard it think of it and its future. The press here in France is saying its going to eat up the competition and cause a major stir in the industry.

As its been out for about two months and i havent seen anything on the internet about it, i was kinda curious.

Cheers
badwisdom
There is a review of the AA Maestro in the most recent HiFi+. They basically liked it, stating that while powerful, it does not behave like a 'muscle amp', rather "its strengths lie more in the delicacy and natural presentation, normally the domain of much lower powered designs - the difference being that it will achieve this performance at realistic levels into almost any loudspeaker." Their main quibble was the fixed 100 ohm load on the MC stage, which can leave some cartridges sounding lifeless (they noted the Helikon). But, with the right cartridge, they said it sounded great. You should check out the write up.
Below is a link to review of the AA Maestro, I scanned thru it. As with most reviews, they had good things to say about it, but I didn't sense it was going to set the audio world on end. (It's price appears to be a good buy.)

http://www.hifiplus.com/t-rev12-1.html
Just read the review of the AA Maestro in HiFi+ mentioned above by Brian -- certainly a mixed review at best, and maybe even lukewarm. HiFi+ had a recent review (Issue 10) of the Lavardin IS integrated amp, a French product, which the reviewer described in nearly ecstatic terms. The Lavardin sells for considerably less than the Audio Analogue Maestro integrated, although it has less power, but the reviewer concluded the review of the Lavardin by saying: "If one day you are fortunate to hear one, the sheer scale, power, and beauty of its performance will impress itself into your memory, and it will remain there for the rest of your life!" Weighing the rave for the Lavardin against the qualified commentary for the AA Maestro leaves me wanting to see a second opinion on the Maestro.
I'm using a Gryphon Callisto 2200 integrated amplifier. It makes my Dynaudio Confidence 5 fly. You can finde reviews in the Gryphon web place

www.gryphon-audio.dk