MOON by Simaudio Neo 240i integrated amplifier available
Moon by Simaudio announced their new entry-level offering last year. Now, you can buy the Moon Neo 240i for less than you’d think.
Moon has taken their nifty Neo Ace streaming integrated amp and removed the streaming bit as well as shaving £710 from the Ace’s asking price. The resulting creation was named Neo 240i. More importantly, it’s got everything that most HiFi fans will need.
MOON Neo 240i
The Moon Neo 240i integrated amplifier represents a new entry point for Moon’s integrated amp range, which is topped off by the flagship 2x 175w 700i.
Granted, the 240i is equipped with a more modest 50w of Class A/B power per channel but its quality not quantity here. Furthermore, I happen to know through experience that Moon amps are pretty good at the sound quality game.
It may be the company’s ‘entry level’ offering, but it still won’t leave you much change out of £2k. That said, you will be getting the kind of quality you expect from Moon. Personally, I love the look of their kit – and that’s not just me being a biased Canadian, either.
The uncluttered fascia sports an OLED screen as well as a smattering of controls. There’s also a ¼-inch jack for plugging in your headphones.
Digital audio is handled by the 240i’s asynchronous DAC. This supports hi-res files up to 32-bit/384kHz and DSD256 which are fed via the amp’s USB Type-B port.
16 and 24-bit files go by way of the amp’s four additional digital inputs, evenly split between coaxial and optical. The coaxials are good for up to 192kHz, while the Toslink optical inputs don’t allow anything above 96kHz.
Analogue is taken care of by two pairs of RCA line-level inputs plus a high-quality moving-magnet phono stage. The analogue inputs are configurable to ‘pass-through’ mode for use with a home-theatre processor, allowing its own volume control to be used.
Additionally, there’s a 3.5mm input at the front next to the aforementioned headphone port.
MiND control
MiND (MOON intelligent Network Device) is the company’s way of organising, listening to, and enjoying your digital tunes.
The MiND app (iOS and Android) streams music from your digital music library to your audio system, allowing playback via your amplifier and speakers. Your library can consist of music stored on your computer, on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, or you can simply stream music from a variety of internet sources.
Price and availability
The Moon Neo 240i is available now for £1,990/US$2,100.
For more information visit Simaudio Moon’s website.
