So here comes Vorzuge proudly stating they are a boutique company, hail out of Germany and preaching the kind of workmanship and attention to detail that I normally associate with the more established players in the amp market. Taking the VorzAMP Duo out of its well crafted little black box and the first comment everyone has mentioned right away is ‘great build quality’. It hard to describe just how well this is built from the pictures or even from a distance. You have to have it actually in your hand. It is that combination of solidity, quality materials and form factor that makes this amp a really well built amp for me. It almost ranks up there with Just Audio for clean builds and light years ahead of some other brands I have come across in the last few years.
Even the tiny bass and treble hard EQ switches on the front plate feel solid and look expensive and the machine cut plates and intricate recessing around the switches smack of thoughtfulness. It maybe physically small but it doesn’t feel in any way cramped. Now that doesn’t mean it defies physics, slim plugs are preferable such as the Rean plug IC that comes as standard with the DuoAmp or the snazzy Black & Gold range from Just Audio. Any fat plugs and you might find everything largely inaccessible even if you do get a fit. Those with a taste for after market cables might wish to find some shorter cables than the Vorzkabel that came supplied purely to further reduce the footprint of your rig which is a little bit long. Something like 1-2″ in length would work perfectly.
One thing to note the battery on the VorzAMP Duo is a very healthy 25 hours on the go. That is about double similar priced amps such as the International and almost 3 times the Continental v2 and sits in there with the Cypher Labs Theorem 720 for staying power. You have to admit thats pretty darn good for 2 x1000mah lithium batteries and considering most audiophile DAP’s these days are struggling to go beyond 20 hours with the perfectly physically matched AK100 topping out around 16 hours then the VorzAMP Duo’s power is probably one less thing to worry about when out and about.
Added to this the package comes with a rather higher than normal quality cloth pouch which allowed me to squeeze an AK100/Duo stack in nicely, the aforementioned Vorzkabel, charger and mini-usb cable and a neat and tidy little black box.
At the time of writing Vorzuge are stating this is the 3rd revision of the VorzAMP Duo since initially it came to the market. This amp is good to go functionality wise and unless they review the actual gain amounts on the switches I am not sure what more can be done to improve it. And just in case you are not a fan of hard EQ, i.e. the treble and bass switches then you can grab the “Pure” version of the amp without the switches for $430 and it is the exact same amp in terms of stock sound.
Click next page for sound impressions…
