About Bandwidth Audio
Our goal was simple, to create a zero-compromise tube amplifier with outstanding build quality to last a lifetime. This prototype became the launchpad for Bandwidth Audio's KT88 Class-AB amplifier, the 288.
After our initial prototype in 2011, we were stunned with the performance we had achieved.
In fact, we never planned to go into the business of building amplifiers in the first place. The 2011 prototype was a personal project to answer to the lack of products in the Hi-Fi audio market we felt were worth the asking prices. We felt that many amplifiers were unnecessarily expensive with majority of the cost going into dressing a product up, rather than the things that count. On the other end of the spectrum were amplifiers with good performance but poor construction and quality.
Back in 2011, we took a year-long journey to design, develop, and source components for our first prototype of monophonic high-fidelity vacuum tube amplifiers.
Not only do the 288 amplifiers have superb audio performance, but also they are easy to service through traditional wiring techniques and are designed to last. Unlike most products today that get tossed aside after only a few years of service, our amplifiers are made to last a lifetime and surely will.
Matthew Beardsworth,
Founder & President
When I started Bandwidth Audio, I also wanted to take a different approach to performance testing. I first wanted to clarify testing parameters to remove ambiguity and misleading specifications. Second, I wanted to include more comprehensive tests for better product comparisons for our customers. We weren't going to hide the facts like many of the "elite" brands do. That is why we performance-verify every amplifier we build and include the test results in the box.
I believe these values are what make Bandwidth Audio unique, and we continue to apply them to every product and future products to come.
As a trained Electrical Engineer with a background in the semiconductor industry designing monolithic audio amplifiers, and as a guitar player building tube guitar amplifiers, I decided it was finally time to build my own Hi-Fi audio amplifier from the ground up, the way I wanted, without constraint. The goal was not just to build a great amplifier, but to build an amplifier where most of the cost is spent on things that matter; like the component quality, circuit design, and mechanical ruggedness - the fundamentals of a great sounding product.
I spent over a year designing and testing circuits, optimizing the layout, working on sheet metal design and sourcing components; and in instances where off-the-shelf components wouldn’t do, I worked with vendors to manufacture exclusive custom components to our specification.