Electrocompaniet is far from yesterday's news going by the launch of its thrilling new ECI-3 integrated amplifier.

The company has been making serious hi-fi for well over forty years and used to have a high profile in the UK, something it appears to be trying to re-establish now.

It makes a substantial range of largely two-channel equipment for both domestic and professional markets.

The classic range – of which the ECI-3 is the most affordable amplifier – has no fewer than five CD players, two integrated amps, three preamps, three stereo and three monoblock power amps, and a phono stage!

That's a substantial range – and it's not the only one in the portfolio. It's got to be one of the largest product ranges we've seen in the two-channel arena for some time.

Electrocompaniet claims that this amp is built with the same quality components as its most prestigious models – presumably there are fewer of them as this is also the least powerful amp on the roster.

Electrocompaniet prides itself in fully balanced, DC coupled operation, so this integrated amp has XLR in and outputs to make full use of the balanced circuitry. Balanced configuration is usually chosen because it has the potential to result in lower noise, something that's not always apparent in domestic set-ups where you don't tend to use miles of cabling.

The front panel has a distinctive appearance, devoid of knobs. With a mere five buttons it is both minimalist and initially confusing. However, it's actually intuitive: when the light on the motorised volume pot behind the panel moves, you know that you've found the north/south volume buttons, for example.

The west/east buttons change input, illuminating names in the 'navigator window' on the left of the facia as the relays click. A relatively conventional multiproduct remote is also supplied, adding mute to the small roster of functions, effectively putting the amp into standby.

Inside the substantial acrylic-fronted box, one of Electrocompaniet's floating transformer technology power supplies can be found. This is said to be capable of delivering twice as much current as conventional designs.

The company backs this up by stating that, as with all of its amps, the ECI-3 is stable into loads down to half an ohm. This isn't something that you'd expect it to have to deal with – even the most challenging speakers rarely drop below an ohm – but it's reassuring nonetheless.

Electrocompaniet eci-3 connections

The back panel is pretty straightforward. There's a row of RCA phono inputs and outputs beside balanced versions of the same. You don't get a unity gain input for home cinema systems and neither is there a bus system or software upgrade port, however.

Compare this set-up with the Arcam A38, for example: it has two sets of speaker terminals, a space for optional phono stage, a 12v trigger, remote socket and so on – all of which have to come out of a similar budget. Maybe this is why Electrocompaniet can afford to incorporate fully balanced operation in the ECI-3?

Sound quality

Electrocompaniet is keen that its amplifiers should be used with a source that's capable of delivering a true balanced output and suggested that we use one of its own CD players for the test. This was tempting, but would have complicated the review process.