Art Audio Carissa Single Ended 845

The 845 is a tube that it took me a long time to come around to. Expensive, hot, and operating at lethal voltages make it a difficult solution to embrace, but the reward is of course 18 or so watts of clean and pure single ended triode sound. After spending a few months with my first 845 experience, the Mr. Liang version 3, a big metal Hulk of an amplifier that I have come to really love, I came across an Art Audio Carissa 845 being sold by an audiophile I knew a few hours drive away. After making the trip to pick up this beast, hooking it up and running it into my Lii Audio 18 speakers was certainly a “Wow” moment! Right away I knew this was a winner.

The Art Audio Carissa is a musical tour de force. An extremely intimate sounding amp, the Carissa is taut, tight, and crisply alive feeling. This is an amplifier that really grips the speaker. Even my teenage daughter passing by the listening room that first evening had to stop and sit down for a few minutes to hear it. It sounds breathtakingly present, but at the same time is quiet and demure when appropriate. The Carissa has a pace and drive that is simply incredible and it seems to eat up the music like some kind of turbo charged PacMan. Parts that should jump out of the music jump WAY out, and overall this is one of the bigger sounding amps I’ve yet had the pleasure of hearing.

Being an Art Audio piece, this one has a good bit of chrome, but overall has a subdued look and is not entirely shiny metal like my PX25 amp was. But it sports one feature set that I’m sure must have been controversial in the design lab. That being the glass “chimneys” and the under chassis LED lighting. I eventually got used to the rather unconventional look, and the glass chimneys do channel the 845’s heat up and away quite effectively, but the LED lighting is just tacky in my opinion. It is what it is. I wish there was a switch to disable that feature, but alas…

Aesthetics aside, the Carissa is an amp that really boogies. On most of the program material that I fed it, the somewhat exaggerated big and bold sonic character was fun and overtly engaging, and like a good BBQ rub or a dash of Cayenne, the experience was enhanced with a little spice. On a track like The Walker’s version of Tangled Up In Blue, the bass moves across the room so nicely, big and bold. The grizzled, pleading voice has emotion and depth. Guitar sounds very sweet, almost dripping maple syrup. Donovan’s Hurdy Gurdy Man “vibrates” just right. However, sometimes too much is too much, and things can occasionally sound too driven and bright, like an over inflated balloon. But for most material, the Carissa was a thrilling ride and I enjoyed it’s somewhat over the top presentation.

With 6922 inputs, there are wide range of flavors for the driver, and of course the sky’s the limit in the 845 world. I was lucky to have a few very good choices on hand for all of the tube slots, with some of the best modern 845 and vintage 6922 available. Overall I most liked the “Western Electric” 845s driven by the amazing CCa; truly excellent tubes. But even with budget tubes the Carissa makes amazing music and is a crowd pleaser. The odd look definitely makes for a conversation starter, and like so many things featured on this site, no one who visits your home will have ever seen anything like it.

In the world of 845 amps I have direct experience with only two examples, the elegantly refined Carissa and the somewhat more utilitarian Mr. Liang. Of the pair, I prefer the Mr. Liang; mostly because of it’s built-in volume control, switchable source input and the ability to dial in the voltage, allowing the use of a very wide variety of 845 examples. But from a fidelity standpoint, the Art Audio Carissa is in another league above and offers the user a thrilling experience that puts you right in the middle of the action. I have rarely heard music reproduced with such startling authority and presence before. On the right speaker the Carissa sounds elegant and powerful, and everything you imagine the 845 to be. I don't think these have been made in quite a long time, but highly recommended if you can find one.

Overall the Art Audio Carissa is a very elegant looking amplifier.

The heat sinks on the rear of the amp are a bit odd. I think they may have been part of an upgrade over the basic Carissa amp, but am not sure. I haven’t seen too many of these on tube amplifiers before.

CCa is of course spectacular. One note about CCa, it is now very, very expensive. I own a few that I was able to trade for many years ago, and I was skeptical then. But I’m so happy I did acquire them because prices will exceed $1000 a pair for these in a few years. But. No other 9 pin tube of any kind that I can think of has the immediate “hit” of clarity that these tubes inject into the presentation. Clear. Yes that does mean a little bright, but CCa is gracefully bright. In practice, this tube reveals all of the little cues that are often hidden, and bringing those little nuances out into the light is what separates the magical from the merely hifi. In a good recording, if the voice is smiling even a little, you hear it. If they turn their head a little, you hear it. All of the voice becomes very nuanced and easy to read and discern with a CCa in the right place. My understanding is that it was made for long distance telephone, sold only to the German Post, and it is very effective at what it does. But many will feel it is bright, and in the beginning might also hear that rush of clarity as an apparent increase in perceived volume.

The glass chimneys and the under chassis LED lighting are certainly unconventional, but may be just the thing for the right owner. To each his own. I felt it was tacky, but can’t argue that the chimneys are effective at dispersing the heat. Unlike the Mr. Liang amplifier, getting close to the Carissa when it is running is a cooler experience.

Two sensational 845 amplifiers, side by side. What a treat to demo these fine amplifiers back to back.