Octave MRE 220 SE Monoblock Amplifier

The MRE 220 SE is the current flagship of Octave's push-pull monoblock line — a 2024 revision of the MRE 220 (2013) that adds the SE generation's key innovation: adjustable damping factor. After eleven years of the MRE 220 serving as the 'rock in the surf,' Octave adapted the design to the higher demands of modern loudspeakers through long listening sessions that led to the adjustable damping solution. The MRE 220 SE damping factor can now be flexibly adjusted to suit each loudspeaker via chassis-mounted switches — High (DF 8) or Low (DF 4) — with separate settings for negative feedback.

The MRE series has a two-decade lineage of continuous refinement. The MRE 120 (1994) received critical praise upon its introduction and served for a decade. The MRE 130 (2004) added refinements in the output stage. The MRE 220 (2013), redesigned around the KT 120 power tube, added greater power reserves and wider bandwidth — the MRE 220 became a rock-solid reference across an unusually wide range of loudspeaker combinations, whether in bi-amp configuration with horn systems or driving high-end loudspeakers directly. The MRE 220 SE (2024) takes the series another step further with the damping innovation and continued refinement.

Modern loudspeakers make sharply different demands on an amplifier — on power, on bandwidth, and above all on damping factor, where the right value for one design is the wrong value for another. Octave's answer is to make damping adjustable rather than fixed: set it to the loudspeaker in front of it, and the amplifier stays in its comfort zone regardless of the load. That is what the SE revision buys in practice — control and tonal balance that hold across loudspeakers that would ordinarily call for different amplifiers.

4x KT 88-S4A-Carbon tubes per monoblock standard; optional KT 120 TS or KT 150 TS. 200W High / 140W Low into 4 ohms. Standard Octave Power Management, Soft-Start Electronics, Protection System, Eco Mode, BIAS Setting and Display, Power Selector, and (Super) Black Box Connection. Silver or Black chassis.