Unison Research Simply Italy Black Edition

Ten watts. One tube per channel. Nothing to hide behind.

The Simply Italy carries a lineage that goes back to the Simply Two — one of the most successful integrated valve amplifiers ever produced, with more than 10,000 units sold over a six-year production run. The Simply Italy carried that philosophy forward, and the Black Edition carries it further: a single KT77 Gold Lion output tube per channel, pure Class A, single-ended ultralinear operation, electronic bias control, and a completely redesigned output transformer.

What Single-Ended Means Here

Single-ended operation with one output tube per channel is not a compromise topology at low power — it's the purest form of tube amplification. No push-pull symmetry means no crossover distortion and no cancellation of the even-order harmonics that give tube amplifiers their characteristic presentation. What you hear is the KT77's voice, the output transformer's character, and the music.

The KT77 is a beam tetrode with a harmonic character that falls between the EL34 and KT88 — more extended in the highs than an EL34, slightly warmer than a KT88 in the midrange. Gold Lion's KT77 is among the best current-production versions available. Unison Research voices the Simply Italy around these specific tubes.

The Output Transformer

The output transformer is the most critical component in a single-ended tube amplifier — it determines the bass extension, the high-frequency bandwidth, and much of the tonal character. Unison Research redesigned the transformer entirely for the Black Edition. The improvement over the previous Simply Italy is audible at the frequency extremes and in the overall coherence of the presentation.

Press Recognition

The Unison Research Simply Italy has been reviewed by Hi-Fi+, Positive Feedback, and Stereophile over its production history. The Black Edition updates have been covered by Hi-Fi+ with particular attention to the transformer redesign and its effect on bass control — traditionally a weakness of 10-watt single-ended amplifiers, notably less so here.

Specifications

• Output power: 10 watts per channel
• Output tube: Single KT77 Gold Lion per channel
• Topology: Single-ended ultralinear, Class A
• Bias: Electronic control
• Output transformer: Completely redesigned for Black Edition
• Origin: Handcrafted in Italy

Authorized Unison Research dealer. Questions about speaker sensitivity requirements for the Simply Italy, or how it compares to the Simply 845? Reach out.