In the bottom plate below the internal heatsinks on each side is a row of rectangular vents parallel to its side panel, for convection cooling. This design creates a unique pattern of interlocking ports that provide ventilation for the internal heatsinks. On each side panel are 9 rows and 22 columns of circular vents, offset from similar holes in a second panel under the first. This functions as a Power/Mute switch and has a single central LED. The only control is a bar that runs most of the width of the front panel. Its matte brushed-aluminum finish is relaxing to the eye and perfectly smooth to the touchexcept for two ridges that gradually emerge from the surface as they ascend the height of the faceplate, then just as gradually disappear into the surface of the top plate as they run from front to back. The minute I heard the Stereo 1.0 play music, I had my answer.įrom the front, the Inspiration Stereo 1.0 is a rectangular block of aluminum 8.5" high by 17 wide by 19" deep it weighs 55 lbs. I wondered if this amplifier would deliver the same excellent sonic qualities I've heard from costlier Constellations. Which brings me to the first audio component I've reviewed in this new room: Constellation Audio's least expensive power amplifier, the 200Wpc Inspiration Stereo 1.0 ($11,000). My California room is less reverberant, with less bass extension and a shallower soundstage, but it's more revealing of instrumental timbres. I now listen to music in a room only 11' by 11.5', with a flat ceiling 8' high. My New York listening room had been big≲5' by 13', with a 12' semi-cathedral ceiling. The question arose soon after I moved from New York to San Rafael, California. Can those latter qualities really be inherent in the recording, or are they colorations produced in the amplifier? I've found that some audio amplifiers have sonic signatures so subtle that they emerge only over weeks of listening yet other amps sound so distinctivemore vivid, more transparent, more dynamicthat their signatures are immediately apparent.