Seven years ago I had the privilege of demoing the prototype COBRA (built in an OTO chassis) at my last trips as AN’s North American ‘show guy.’ I was somewhere between highly impressed and gobsmacked at its ability to deliver the musical goods.
It only makes sense, then, that a COBRA is the core of my initial order as a (once and future) AN dealer. It will arrive within 2 weeks—then the fun begins!
From the AN UK web site:
Our latest integrated amplifier, producing 28 watts per channel from a pair of EL34 valves operating in Class A push-pull. It is capable of driving a wide variety of ‘speakers thanks to its exceptional double C-core output transformers, which are custom designed and manufactured by Audio Note (UK).
Cobra is equipped with three analogue stereo inputs, and an additional three digital inputs, via the onboard DAC. The digital coax inputs can accept signals up to 24-bit/176.4kHz (native bit-depth for the Philips TDA1543 D/A converter chip is 16bit, so anything above this is truncated down). The Optical SPDIF input can accept signals up to 24-bit/96kHz (see above). The USB input can accept up to 16-bit/48kHz.
Remote controlhandles volume, mute and input selection.
Here are links to a few COBRA reviews: