Dawid Grzyb has covered five AGD products over the years, including the Audion Vivace monoblocks, which earned HiFi Knights’ rare Victor distinction. His verdict on the Allegro: it earns that same badge, and it might be the most surprising review yet.
Grzyb went in with reservations. All-in-one components, he writes, are usually judged as convenient compromises — solid, sensible, never spoken of in the same breath as costly separates. The Allegro didn’t just meet that bar. It replaced nearly his entire reference system — a front end roughly nine times its price, built around an Innuos Statement Next-Gen streamer, LampizatOr Horizon360 DAC, and Trilogy 915R/995R electronics — and held its own.
What stood out first was control. Driving the demanding Boenicke W11 SE+ speakers, Allegro’s grip on the low end suggested a damping factor deep into triple digits, outperforming even his reference monoblocks in outright discipline. Paired instead with the notoriously particular sound|kaos Vox monitors — speakers he says only fully open up for a handful of amplifiers — Allegro unlocked a level of image density and spatial presence he didn’t think a Class D design could reach.
The emotional high point came unprompted. Grzyb compares the experience to the FirstWatt SIT-4, one of only two amplifiers he considers the finest he’s ever heard — not because they sound alike, but because Allegro produced that same rare, unmistakable jolt: music that catches you off guard and holds.
His closing line puts it plainly: he knows of no other all-in-one component performing at this level today — and it may hint at where the industry’s benchmark sits a decade from now. Alberto Guerra, he writes, has simply gotten there first.