Review
Text by WOJCIECH PACUŁA
images Allegro Audio, „High Fidelity”
No 236
January 1, 2024
˻ PREMIERE ˼
⌈ FLOW BY ALLEGRO is a Hungarian company, founded in 2018, specializing in audio amplifiers. Its founder and designer is Mr. BÉLA TELEKI, but it's a family business - 50% is owned by his wife, Mrs. ANDREA OHÁR. We are testing its smallest amplifier, the FLOW THREE model. ⌋
LOW BY ALLEGRO is a small company based in Budapest, Hungary. It rarely introduces new products, and if it does, only when it is absolutely sure of them. That's why when it unveiled a new Mini amplifier with a transparent front panel and chrome chassis at the Warsaw Audio Video Show last year, I immediately arranged with ANDREA OHÁR and BÉLA TELEKI to test it.
But a year has passed, and the device is still being refined. So in its place came the smallest model to date from this manufacturer, the Flow Three. Let me remind you, that the designer of Flow by Allegro has been retailing audio equipment since 1998. His first company, founded with a colleague, was initially called Agria Audio. However, his first own audio showroom was already established under the name Allegro Audio - it was located in Eger and had been operating since 2015. Since 2016, Allegro Audio operated as a distributor for REGA, Chario and others, and in 2018 a new showroom was opened in Budapest.
But Mr. Teleki wanted something more - he wanted to have his own device. As he said in an interview with us on the occasion of the Flow One test, the idea for an amplifier that could also satisfy his own musical needs had been sitting in his head for many years. Its realization began in 2017, when the Flow by Allegro brand was established. He continued:
It was then that the amplifier took its present form, which I arrived at through a lot of experimentation, research, trials and tests. Development, by the way, is still ongoing - our ambition, mine and my wife's, who has been my partner since 2016, was to create a final "product" that could be marketed and that could begin its international journey.
⸜ WOJCIECH PACUŁA, Flow by Allegro Flow One, „High Fidelity” 212, Dec. 1st. 2021, → HIGHFIDELITY.pl, accessed: 22.11.2023.
The company debuted on the international stage in 2018 at the AUDIO SHOW VIDEO SHOW PRAGUE «PL», and I liked the Flow One amplifier presented at that time so much that we awarded it the BEST SOUND award.
▌ Three
MODEL FLOW THREE is the cheapest amplifier in this Hungarian manufacturer’s range. Above are, as you might have guessed, the Flow Two and Flow One models; we tested the latter in "High Fidelity" exactly two years ago. The Flow Three is a medium-power solid-state amplifier, built using MOS-FET field-effect transistors operating in class AB in a push-pull configuration.
⸜ BÉLA TELEKI, FLOW BY ALLEGRO’S designer
The company's devices share almost the same electronic circuits and a very similar chassis, differing only in height. Also common is the artistic motif of using a wooden, very nicely crafted front panel instead of an aluminum one. The front panel can also be made of hand-polished, semi-matte Brazilian walnut wood or lacquered in a high-gloss finish (for an extra charge).
The front panel is more than a decoration, it is also a declaration of sorts. The company says:
In the long process of product development, our goal was to prepare a family of amplifiers that
would be able to provide not only a unique musical experience - a true state of FLOW - which, due to its distinctive design elements, was to become an integral part of any home environment. The chassis design was inspired by Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi, a well-known psychologist, and his original concept of "flow", as indicated by the wavy lines on the front of the units. In the FLOW by Allegro Audio amplifiers, we wanted to achieve something that would conjure up in the listener's soul that magical phenomenon of flow that good music can create in us.
The company's amplifiers are minimalist devices. I wanted to write that they are reminiscent of what we had to deal with before the streaming era came along, but that wouldn't be entirely true. The competition between purist products and those that included all possible amenities has been going on since the 1970s, when products from Japanese companies began to hit the world markets, in large quantities. The presence of a file player, DAC or Bluetooth connection in 21st century amplifiers is simply an extension of that trend.
The Flow Three is an absolutely classic representative of the minimalist trend in audio. It's a pretty big, but low-profile, integrated amplifier, offering four line inputs on RCA jacks and a pair of speaker outputs. The only convenience-oriented feature is the remote control. A very nice one, by the way, as it is made of wood of the same type as the front panel. There are no buttons nor knobs on the front panel, as the volume control and input selection are controlled from the remote - their status is indicated by a red LED display.
The amplifier outputs 40 watts into an 8 ohm load and 75 watts into a 4 ohm load, which is exactly half that of the company's top model, the Flow One. And it costs quite a bit less than half. The manufacturer's stated frequency response is wide, extending from 8 to 72 kHz, distortion is a nice
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