AstinTrew AT2000 Plus
Astin trew at2000 plus integrated amplifier
PSSSSttt, do you want to know a secret?, there is a really good amplifier out there called the AT2000, it's made by a small UK outfit who go by the name of AstinTrew, and do you know what? Let me tell you, they've just upgraded that top sounding integrated amplifier to turn it in to some that little bit more special, do you want to find out more about it? even better do you want to hear it?
The AstinTrew At2000 is an
integrated amplifier with a solid state preamp section, biased into
class A, and the output stage is that of the At5000 power amp. The
'plus' suffix indicates this has had some tweaking going on under
the hood which results in it sounding even better. The AstinTrew At2000
uses the patented 'never connected' power supplies for all low power
circuits which should make the amplifier very quiet.
The output stage is a hybrid design, using both valve and transistor
devices. Output power is a good 65 watt into 8 ohms and a slightly
higher 85 watt into 4 ohm. The amp can also be split into a separate
pre and power amp, with the power amp input selectable as just another
input, enabling a switch between integrated and separate use at the
push of a button. 
The AstinTrew 'plus' version of the amplifier also contains better coupling capacitors and improved internal wiring. This makes the amplifier sound far more transparent and focused.
Lets take a look and see what AstinTrew have done to the rear of the amplifier. The 'plus' version features better coupling capacitors and better internal wiring. This should give it greater transparency and more focus.
Lets take a look and see what AstinTrew have done to the rear of the amplifier. There are 4 RCA single-ended inputs, two XLR balanced inputs and an RCA subwoofer output. There are also ethernet input and output sockets, allowing multi room application, where music and control data can be sent around the house. And there's even an RS232 serial bus connector. At the front there's a normal and a mini-jack headphone output and a mini-jack ‘MP3' input. There are no tone or balance controls, and neither is there a phono stage included, as that will taken care of by the new AstinTrew At8000 stand alone phono stage.