Moon i5

The moon i5 is an integrated amplifier rated at 80 watts and is from well respected Canadian manufacturer Moon. It is a really nice looking bit of kit and has build quality to match its handsome good looks. It is priced in the UK at the not inconsiderable sum of £2595, which puts it in the territory of some pretty serious competition, British or otherwise. It is a transistor design and is second in the moon range, there is a cheaper integrated below it and a considerably more expensive one above it.

Sounds?

If you are used to British hifi this will probably sound quite familiar to you. It has the typical pace and timing of a good British integrated. Think Creek or Naim and you would be about right. The coherence from top to bottom is excellent, timing is spot on and it is certainly fast sounding although don't think that it snatches at notes because it does not.

It lets them develop and it also has reasonable tone. It certainly is not bright and if anything it is quite dark and rich sounding although I didn't find it all that smooth. The top end may be refined but it certainly lets all of the information through. Things like fretboard sounds on guitars are clearly heard and probably a bit to prominent for my liking.

I realise when you think of dark sounding equipment you automatically think it will be smooth but that is not the case. It has a haze, a thin cloud over the sound for my ears, I also found that instruments did not sound quite right. Their pitch was good but they were not always totally recognisable, harmonica in particular was not what you hear live.

In terms of sound staging and perspective it is not live sounding and concentrates more on the recording, the sound stage is huge however. Depth is really excellent, width is quite narrow but the instruments do sound as large as life if not larger.

In terms of power it certainly has enough for most people, ok it won't be able to drive really inefficient speakers to head banging levels but for the types of speakers it is likely to be paired with it will be plenty powerful enough.


There is much to recommend this amp, the timing and coherence is superb and as such this amp will appeal to lots of people with British integrated amps looking to upgrade. The main problem I have with this amp is that although it is certainly an upgrade from amps such as the Naim nait and cyrus 8 and any number of creek amps it is not in my opinion worth the £2595 that you would have to spend.

Don't forget in Canada and America it is almost the same price in dollars, this means it is approximately half the price it is in the UK, at that price the moon15 would be in the same competition bracket as machines like the new sugden a21 and arcam fmj integrated, this would be fine.

The moon would certainly stand comparison with those two amps, they offer a different sound but in terms of actual quality there is little to separate. When you compare the Moon to equally priced kit in this country though, it falls far behind.

Conclusion

I was expecting more from the moon especially considering the price. It is a shame that importers of Canadian and American hifi charge the dealers such high prices because the moon amp has a lot going for it, just not at this kind of money.

If it was playing on a level pitch it would stand a chance (Revels are American, they must be the biggest bargain in the states!) it has to hit so far above its weight to stand any kind of hope. Until moon products can come from across the water and compete price wise with everything else, I myself will continue to look else where.

Ebay Alert!

Don't come up very often in Btitain. I would pay about £900 for a good one. By all accounts they have an excellent reliability record and to be fair they are built like tanks!