Dan D’Agostino Relentless Epic 1600 Monoblock Amplifier

The Relentless Epic 1600 Monoblock is the current flagship of the Relentless line — a substantial upgrade over the original Relentless Monoblock, combining new circuit sections and components into the amplifier that sits at the very top of the Dan D'Agostino catalogue. Just as no audio designer has been more relentless than Dan D'Agostino in the pursuit of perfection, no power amplifier has been designed and built to a higher standard.

The engineering is stated plainly in the numbers. A 5.5-kVA potted and shielded transformer stands behind a 600,000-µF capacitor bank, feeding 112 individually matched output transistors mounted to copper heatsinks with dual stainless fasteners. The fully complementary front end is built on current-mirror circuitry that derives symmetrical positive and negative rails from a single topology — so distortion artifacts on one half of the signal cancel against the other — and new input-stage devices deliver a 300% increase in current, extending both frequency extremes. There is no global negative feedback anywhere; the open-loop linearity makes it unnecessary.

What that buys: 1,600 watts into 8 ohms, doubling to 3,200 into 4 and 6,400 into 2 with adequate mains — a damping factor above 267 across the audio band, a 100 V/µs slew rate, and response flat within ±0.1 dB. The chassis is machined from solid aluminum around the signature 8-inch copper-and-glass meter, which ranges itself automatically to the signal. Five hundred seventy pounds per channel is simply what four decades of amplifier engineering without compromise weighs.

This is the amplifier for loudspeakers with no practical limit — and at LMC, the Relentless line is not an abstraction: it anchors the Scottsdale WAMM Room, where Relentless amplification does the most demanding job in the building. An Epic 1600 audition is built around the loudspeaker it will drive; bring the question, and we will assemble the demonstration. Silver or black, to order.