Thread: Bladelius ASK Integrated amplifier

Greetings fellow sharks!

A Bladelius ASK landed on my front door step this morning. It's one of these:

Bladelius - ASK Integrated

It is now connected to only three things. My Shunyata Everest. My Magico M3 speakers. And my network router. A power cable. A pair of speaker cables. And a network cable. That is all.

What was connected to my M3's as of an hour ago was a seven box Esoteric Grandioso stack, Halcro reference monoblocks, a plethora of ridiculously expensive cables too many to count, and heavens knows what else. That whole shooting match weighs in at over 300kg and is worth about $300K.

The diminutive Bladelius ASK weighs in at a meager 20kg and is worth about $20K (with the optional DAC module). The weight of it is less than half the weight of the YG rack alone that carries all my other aforementioned electronics.

I eventually worked out how to configure the Bladelius ASK as a Spotify Connect device and now I'm streaming my favorites list on Spotify using an iPhone 6 as the controller. The sound and the simplicity of it is compelling. Actually, it's incredible. You couldn't want for anything more in the audiophile experience. And there is the dilemma. How can this single box possibly compete with the flagship Esoteric at >10 times the price? I'm here to tell you it's close. It's so close I'm in no rush to switch back to the main system. And it's not even their flagship integrated amp.

If you're in the market for a single box that does it all the Bladelius ASK should be on your radar. It's off the price vs performance Richter scale and gets my highest recommendation.

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Very interesting! Have heard the brand in passing but haven't paid much attention.
Just took a look at their website. Are they Swedish? They don't mention an address.

There is a lot to be said IMO on simplifying the chain. I tried the JOB INT integrated several years ago and it was a complete revelation. These new integrateds with digital inputs are like Swiss Army Knives offering a ton of flexibility. Given the huge savings in box count and dollars it does cause one to pause and consider.


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Yep, Swedish. Build quality of the unit is very good and the aesthetics are pleasing, but the volume knob looks a bit unconventional. The remote control is plastic rubbish, lucky I only use it for volume control. The ASK owners manual is very basic and scant on detail. Packaging is quite good with the wooden crate. The simplicity of it is bliss. My A system needs seven power cables to power the boxes that perform the same function as ASK. Plus all the interconnects. The flagship integrated Bladelius Oden Mk2 will debut next month. I tell you what, I reckon Oden Mk2 + Magico S3 will probably slay anything twice the price. ASK has a cheap Raspberry Pi module running the network audio side. I can't imagine how good it might sound if Bladelius put a tricked up Lumin U2 module in there instead.

After seven hours of listening last night I remained very impressed by the sound. But at the end of that the case of the ASK integrated was too hot to touch, which is a worry. My Halcro monoblocks have slightly higher power output rating than ASK integrated, but its heatsinks are about 10+ times the size and get barely warm to the touch.

I've dialed down the Class A bias on ASK from high to low. The chassis temperature has gone from too hot to touch, to comfortably warm to touch. I'm going to keep it there, especially with summer just around the corner.

Why this change in your system, or just an experiment?

I bought Magico A3 and Bladelius ASK as a simple system for my mum. But she didn't want it so I kept it.