German Physiks Emperor integrated amplifier

REVIEW
Alan Sircom
Mar 29, 2022

Even if most audio enthusiasts were born in the 20th, we are deep enough into the 21st Century to have adopted a modern mindset, and as such it’s hard not to think of the term ‘Emperor’ without summoning up a degree of bombast; yes, you might envisage Jacques-Louis David’s triumphant ‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps’ painting, but the term today also summons up images of moustache-twirling dictators. However, the Emperor lives up to its name in that it treats the audio system as its empire to rule over, and it rules with a benevolent, yet authoritative, hand. OK, so those who look to an amplifier to be some kind of musical warmth-creator will look elsewhere: Rich – yes. Rose-tinted – no. Otherwise, I’m kind of wondering what – if anything – would fluster the Emperor. Maybe high-resolution, dynamically uncompressed recordings of thunderclaps played at real-world levels.

If there were any justice in the world, there would be a small army of audiophiles, storming the barricades of mediocre sound, shouting cries of ‘For the Emperor!’ at the top of their lungs. Of course, an army of audiophiles would probably take quite a while to storm those barricades, might well get embroiled in a long-winded discussion about the correct tools required for barricade storming, conclude that the old tools were better and would be wearing ear protection to counter all that shouting… but it’s the thought that counts. The Emperor by German Physiks is big, heavy, expensive and outrageously good. That alone makes it worth a spot of Empire-building.