ALLEGRO FLOW TWO AMPLIFIER REVIEW

A look at the Hungarian brand’s €8390 FLOW 2 integrated amplifier.

I reviewed the €13,00 Flow One from Hungarian brand Allegro some time ago and I really loved its concept and its performance. From memory pretty much my only criticism was that it didn’t have the capacity to be connected by XLR, something the guys at Allegro addressed immediately and added to subsequent models. At that time the company was pretty much unknown outside of their home country, but Andrea Ohár and Béla Teleki (both lovely people, by the way) have done a great job of getting the message about the brand out to the wider audiophile and music-loving world.

Allegro and the people behind the brand represented brands such as Chario, Rega, and WBT in Hungary and Béla has been involved in HiFi retailing since 1998 with his first company being Agria Audio and his first own showroom using the Allegro Audio name opened in Eger in 2015 with a showroom opening in Budapest in 2018. FLOW by Allegro as a product brand has existed since 2017, and it was then that its carefully designed amplifier line gained its present, final form through a lot of research, experiments, trials, and tests. Product development has been in progress during this time and in the meantime, Béla’s wife, Andrea Ohár joined the family business full-time in 2016.

FLOW TWO comes in the middle of the Allegro range of amps and when I asked what the main differences were the response was “FLOW TWO has lower power, lower resolution, and fewer final-stage transistors. The switching is the same, but the volume control system has weaker resistors. The toroidal transformer has a slightly lower power. FLOW ONE contains higher-quality components, and its sound is more refined.”

BUILD AND FEATURES OF FLOW TWO BY ALLEGRO

In essence FLOW TWO looks a lot like a FLOW ONE that’s been on I diet. It’s the same width but less high by 50mm;  W 440 x H 150 x D 430mm as opposed to W 440 x H 200 x D 430mm. The TWO still has that highly distinctive wavy front panel and in the same glossy wood panel that is also available in high-gloss black for a premium. It weighs 22Kg.

Overall build quality and finish of the FLOW TWO are excellent and the input sockets and speaker binding posts are of very nice quality. It feels and looks like a luxury product and I like the handwritten “By Allegro” on the top panel next to the very nicely cut-out FLOW TWO branding that it sits next to.

Four RCA inputs and nice binding posts around the back of the FLOW TWO

The remote is the same lovely looking and feeling wooden affair that came with the FLOW ONE and I love it. The remote covers all you need it to (Input, Volume, and Mute), and nothing superfluous is included – I like this. Again I will emphasise that the remote is the bit of any product that a person is likely to interact with most and so a good one is a real bonus! My only two criticisms of the remote are that the four buttons are a bit plasticky and I think I would have preferred to have rubberised buttons and I’d like to see it finished in the same high gloss finish as the front panel of FLOW TWO. Some users of the FLOW amps will miss the option to have physical controls on the front of the amplifier and I do get that from an aesthetic perspective the clean lines of the front panel devoid of knobs and dials is an agreeable thing, but what happens when you run out of batteries on a Sunday afternoon and you want to listen to some tunes.

I’d like better buttons and a polished finish to the remote that matches the gloriously finished front panel

Around the back of the amp are four RCA inputs and one pair of speaker binding posts. All are of excellent quality, as I mentioned. However, there is no provision for XLR inputs which I prefer BUT Allegro has made the excellent decision to allow purchasers of the TWO to specify the addition of an XLR at the time of order, though this adds an extra €250 to the purchase price. This stops the first RCA input from being used and I actually think it is a good decision to offer this as an option rather than adding it as a standard feature – YMMV.

Inside FLOW 2 you are getting a Class AB MOSFET-based device that is solid-state throughout. There’s one transformer of a good size and there is negative feedback-loop protection built in.

Specification-wise output power is 50W at 8 ohms and 60W at 4 ohms and this should be plenty to drive most speakers at the kind of price point relevant to people likely to buy the FLOW TWO.

SOUND OF THE ALLEGRO FLOW 2

As is my want when I begin reviewing a new amp I often connect it up to our Diptyque dp77 Anniversary loudspeakers that I reviewed here. These are a pretty difficult speaker to drive efficiently and they represent a bit of a baptism by fire for an amplifier; if an amplifier can drive these they should be pretty good to go with most regular speakers. For whatever reason, I didn’t think this amp would work with these speakers but they did – funny how you have preconceptions about products that come in for review and then have them turned on their head once you start to listen to said product, though that’s not always the case, it has to be said. Poorer amplifiers than the FLOW 2 tend to have very poor control of these speakers, particularly in the bass which ends up being wool, flabby, and all the things I don’t like to listen to. However, the FLOW 2 did well, even on the initial few albums of bass heavy techno in the form of the Annex albums from Tresor. Actually, and without going in to asses of detail here, the FLOW 2 and Diptyques appear to be a rather splendid match, though the amp doesn’t have the overall vice-like grip of our Krell amp. What it dod have on these records, though, was a really nice and relaxed delivery that spread the soundscape and mix out before me and with individual sounds placed in the three-dimensional image. Where the FLOW 2 scored better than the Krell was that it was absolutely dead quiet between tracks. With what Allegro had sent me and I quoted above, about lower resolution than the FLOW ONE, I had been expecting a bit of a lack-lustre performance but was rather pleasantly surprised and I actually found the amplifier to be rather refined in its presentation. I suppose given the price of over €8000, it really should be a very polished performer!

I threw a lot of electronic music at this amplifier and found it to be highly detailed but without being clinical in its presentation. This is a good thing in my book and I’d suggest that it is an amplifier that has been designed by someone with a good ear for what is accurate but not exaggerated. It’s that feeling of the amp sounding “right”, whatever that is.

Playing Chic’s Le Freak and pushing the volume the amp does run out of steam eventually, but not until you get to volumes that are uncomfortable to listen to for any length of time. Basslines are tight and funky with great timing, but what I pulled out when listening to this track was that the FLOW 2 is a very nicely balanced amplifier with nothing in the mix jumping out as being pushed too far to the front. This suggests to me a designer who is confident in their amplifier’s ability and who doesn’t feel the need to emphasise a particular frequency to give an initial impression of quality that often quickly fades. The track Savoir Faire comes across as poised and relaxed, with, particularly, the tone of the guitar solo shining through the track. The guitar does dominate on this mix, but the FLOW 2 doesn’t push it overly to the fore and it sits well with the rest of the instrumentation that is itself also easy to follow and enjoy. Timing and coherency are excellent with the FLOW 2!

Paris’ Geurrilla Funk is a thick slice of West Coast G-Funk that has a fierce and distorted bassline that can sometimes come across as a bit of a homogenous fart, but the FLOW 2 brings this bassline to life whilst managing to keep it tight and low. Again, the amp feels in full control of these speakers in the bass and the bass drum kicks also manage to cut through. The sound is layered and what I would consider true to the mix of the recording. Actually, I’m really impressed with how this amplifier plays this kind of music. There’s life in this amp and a sense of it feeling competent and really good fun to listen to. Yes it’s detailed, but again I would stress that this detail is not artificial sounding or me having the feeling that the mids and tops are being pushed. Again, balanced is the word I wrote in my notes.

Changing tempo I play Empyrean Isles by Herbie Hancock by way of getting a feel for the amplifier when presented with a less “studio” kind of production style. This is a much more “live” kind of record and I’m pleased to report that the FLOW 2 gets this across very well. Piano takes centre-stage sounds in the room real and the trumpet cuts through nicely from the left of the stage, whilst drums are panned to the right. All this is communicated towards the listening chair really well and with a sense of realness and that I am listening to a group of real musicians. Details of the contrabass at the end of the track are easy to hear with plucks and movement on the fingerboard being easy to hear. However, whilst I’m listening intently to this track (I’m trying to listen critically) what becomes apparent is that I just want to listen to the tune without getting all analytic and whatnot. Cantaloupe Island plays and I just enjoy the track for what it is, though I am particularly drawn by the rasp and detail of the cornet.

This latter point of being able to sit and enjoy the music is a good thing in my book and suggests to me an amplifier that connects the listener with the music they are listening to. And that’s what I got throughout my time with the FLOW 2; a sense that I was listening to a very nice bit of kit but without wanting to do anything but listen to the tunes.

Now, I think that Allegro may well have hit a very clever or very silly point with FLOW 2. It is five grand or so cheaper than the FLOW ONE I reviewed a while back, and it apparently doesn’t have the same quality of components inside it, but it does sound bloody good! I can’t recall the sonic intricacies of FLOW ONE other than remembering really enjoying it, but I can’t see that the FLOW TWO is five thousand euros less better. No, it doesn’t have the same power as the FLOW ONE, but if you can do without that then my suggestion is that the FLOW TWO would be the amplifier to buy and you can spend the remaining dosh on whatever your vice may be.

FLOW TWO has a beautiful finish just like FLOW ONE

QUIBBLES

The buttons on the remote feel cheap and plastic and do not echo the finish elsewhere on the amp – I’m guessing they are 3D printed.

No controls on the front make for an elegant-looking amplifier, but you are going to be buggered if the remote fails.

The amp does run out of steam eventually when pushed.

I’d like the XLR input to be a standard feature and not an extra and not a €250 add-on.

CONCLUSION

FLOW TWO by Allegro is a very good amplifier and perhaps so good it may affect the sales of FLOW ONE for this Hungarian company. However, there are a few quibbles that don’t allow me to award it our highest award. With that said, sonically, FLOW 2 is an excellent amplifier and I’m aware I’ve been pretty harsh.

FLOW TWO is a transparent amp that allows the music to (sorry) flow in a natural and unforced manner and this in turn allows the listener to relax into the music and not obsess about the kit they are using. I really enjoyed the amp on literally everything I played on it, and I did play a very wide selection of music, most of which isn’t documented here.

Bass on the amp is controlled and tight and whilst being a truly full-frequency product I didn’t feel that the amplifier had been voiced to push a particular frequency and it felt balanced and natural sounding.

If I was asked to say where it fell with regards to the other amplifiers we have to hand, I’d say that it is a nicer sounding (read more natural) than our Krell KST 100 (fully recapped, etc) and yet almost as transparent as our Merrill Thor Class D amplifiers.

The remote looks nice but the buttons are a bit crap and should be changed for more tactile buttons. I also think that there should be some kind of manual control on the amplifier, but that’s just me being a bit of a moaner and worrying too much.

I don’t like paying for extras when buying anything; I like things to be included in a standard version and I think an XLR input should be a no-cost standard at this kind of price point. With that said, not everyone is going to want or indeed need an XLR input and so those people could potentially say that they are paying extra for something they are never likely to use.

The amp looks good to me, but some will not like its aesthetic, I’m sure.

Sonically this amp is really excellent. For me the package is let down by a couple of small and easily fixable niggles; the buttons on the remote and the XLR input being an extra cost.

Would I still go out and spend my hard-earned on this amp? Yes, I would, and in a heartbeat; it sounds very, very good!

AT A GLANCE

Build Quality:

Looks good and is very nicely put together

Quality binding posts

Nice looking remote that feels and looks excellent but is let down by hard plastic buttons that feel cheap

No controls on the front panel

That front panel is really gorgeous and beautifully finished

Sound Quality:

Transparent and well voiced

Natural across the frequency range

Plenty of grunt for most situations

Value For Money:

FLOW 2 is not cheap, but it is a boutique-style amplifier made in small numbers and you do pay for this privilege. However, I do genuinely believe that it offers good value for money from a sonic perspective!

We Loved:

The looks

Transparent and natural sound

Really detailed sound without feeling artificial

Enough power to satisfy most situations

We Didn’t Love So much:

Remote buttons

Added price of XLR input

Elevator Pitch Review: The £8390 FLOW TWO integrated amplifier from Hungarian brand Allegro is a superb and natural sounding amplifier that has clearly been voiced by someone who understands music. It’s a lovely looking thing and is only let down by a couple of relatively minor quibbles on my part – if Allegro sort these then they have an Editors Choice product for sure!

Price: €8390 with an extra €400 for a high-gloss front panel. XLR socket is an extra €250

SUPPLIED BY ALLEGRO

Stuart Smith