More powerful and grippy-sounding pure solid-state amps will give the latter more drive and urgency, but also tend not to have the transparency on offer here, a transparency that means the better recordings in our record collection are very easy to appreciate indeed.

Realistic performance

The AT2000 has been priced to compete with the likes of Arcam's A38 (now £1,300). The A38 fared very well in a recent test, so we pulled it in for comparison with the Astin Trew – and we have to say that the newcomer comfortably held its own.

While the Arcam has a beefier bottom end, it's not able to resolve fine detail with the clarity of the AT, although both have a similar grip on timing. However, if you appreciate instrumental and vocal timbre or just want a more realistic sound, then the AT definitely has the edge. At least, it does with Guru QM10 loudspeakers, which are, perhaps, not a typical partnership choice, even if they are remarkably musical.

We brought in the PMc GB1i floorstander (£1,330) to act as a more realistic partner, and its more open and relaxed style revealed more of the AT's own openness and low-level resolving powers.

Flexible amp

With a more appropriate source than our reference Resolution Audio opus 21 – namely the Cambridge Audio 840c – things went well so long as we stuck with refined software. Barb Jungr was as dynamic and three-dimensional as ever, but putting on the more challenging Third World Love, with their trumpet-led jazz vibes, did reveal the CD player's relatively coarse top end.

This is a difficult album to get enjoyable results from, and the amplifier's transparency did reveal why. Although very competent, the Cambridge isn't a match for dearer machines in a revealing context such as this.

It's the sort of amp that will work extremely well with vinyl, where the smooth top end combined with great dynamics will exploit its skills. There's no phono input, sadly, but that's what standalone phono stages were made for.

With the AT2000, Astin Trew is offering a genuine alternative to the majority of integrated models in this price range. It's a design of such subtlety and finesse that it rivals Sugden's classic A21 amp, but without the thermal and power challenges of that model. The fact that it offers so much flexibility is the icing on a highly musical cake.