Integrated amplifier

Focus on Features
Available in satin silver and black finishes, the PA 1100 E also shares the same casework with its supremely understated industrial design, exceptional build, and finish quality. As an ambassador for Westphalia, T+A proves that 'Made in Germany' still stands for something! Rated at 2x140W/8ohm, this is a two-channel amp offering four single-ended line inputs, one of which can be configured for vinyl replay by specifying T+A's optional MM/MC phono module, a balanced XLR input and tape loop. Two coaxial and two optical inputs take digital sources up to 192kHz/24-bit, alongside a USB-B input for connection to a PC (up to 384kHz/32-bit and DSD256).

Filter Tips
There are also ancillary features such as a tape record monitor and a selector for switching between speakers and headphones. Another button when briefly pressed turns the bass and treble controls on or off while a longer press switches the loudness function on or off. Finally, the button labelled 'OVS' switches between just two of the four digital filter options typically incorporated on T+A's costlier offerings [HFN Oct '19]. The default is a standard linear phase FIR filter with a steep roll-off and the other is T+A's familiar Bezier-style IIR filter. The latter offers reduced time-domain distortion at the expense of an early treble roll-off and poor alias rejection – it's best used with 96kHz (and higher) digital inputs.

Striking It Rich
The PA 1100 E was used in my reference system of Naim NDX network streamer and NAC82/NAP250 amps driving ATC SCM40 loudspeakers. Its USB input was tested by connecting it to a PC streaming hi-res files from my network server using foobar2000. gs