AGD Production Andante MKII

Design Philosophy

The “ANDANTE MKII” is an important evolution of our first Reference Analog-Digital preamplifier, the Andante.

Crafted with the same care and dedication as all AGD products, the “ANDANTE MKII” has now an new and improved 100% discrete R2R DAC, with unprecedented clock stability and with a fully galvanic isolation electrical design.

The passive ladder stage is now totally silent and characterized by improved linearity and higher overall gain. We further enhanced the performance of the phono stage, by reducing noise and increasing the dynamic of the analog stage.

The Andante MKII is a superior musical preamplifier that combines the best of the analog world and the top leading-edge digital technology available today. It took a long time to merge harmonically the two worlds into a single unit, delivering all the musicality required for a world class audio system.

The AGD Andante MKII is the result of couple of years of development aimed to optimize and improve upon the performances of the digital and analog sections created at the time of the release of the first version of the Andante, introduced 2020

With the Andante MKII we have retained the same single billet CNC crafted chassis designed for the MKI model. This chassis design, although optimized in small details aimed to , it really did not need further improvement, it sturdiness, perfect machine finishing and vibration free is the pinnacle of durability and strength.

Both the analog and Digital boards have received and overall redesigned, aimed to deploy not only the technical improvement available by a more advanced design, but most importantly, we captured and implemented key suggestions and recommendations we received by the customers of our original ANDANTE. We are proud to listen to our customers.

The AGD Andante MKII maintains the fully balanced analog design with four analog inputs and three analog outputs. The redesigned MM/MC phono stage input, with 6dB noise improvement, has now a menu programmable impedance.

The redesigned analog and digital  sections are galvanically by means a couple of hi-end manually winded isolated transformers. The digital board, is now characterized by a 100% discrete based R2R DAC. 

The volume control is now based on a high precision fully balanced ladder IC coupled with a dedicated high-dynamic ultra low noise professional grade instrumentation amplifiers buffer stage, delivering the smoothness and noiseless control of the output signal amplitude. With the new buffer stage we also increased the overall gain by additional 6dB.

The Andante MKII has full HD Streaming Capability (DLNA, UPNP, AirPlay, AUDIRVANA) via an Ethernet port and has a new upgraded HD AptX-Bluetooth compliance functionality.

With a state-of-the-art USB module based on the most updated XMOS chipset that can decode any audio format and its new improved R2R DAC, the AGD “ANDANTE MKII” is a complete audiophile Analog and Digital Reference Preamplifier that delivers a unique set of features capable of meeting the utmost musical standards of any demanding audiophile.

Analog and Digital signal FFT Spectrum analysis

The improved analog and digital front-end and output buffer performances are evident by the cleanness of the FFT spectrums 

Analog Outputs with Analog inputs 

(all Line input superimposed)

Analog Outputs with Digital inputs

Cabinet: front view

• The AGD “ANDANTE MKII” front panel is unchanged, simple and minimalistic.
• Dimensionally, the ANDANTE MKII is identical to the Gran Vivace and Vivace chassis, and has the same width of the AGD Tempo MKIII.
• An Apple type (aluminum grade) remote control allows the access to all menu functions. The Andante MKII has now a new “teaching” mode that enables the remote functionality with different type of remote controllers.
• A Home Theater by-pass is now standard, to enable easy integration with HT systems.

Cabinet: Back View

The AGD “ANDANTE MKII” back panel configuration retains the same design of the Andante MKI, with 3+1 analog inputs and 3 analog outputs.
The third output can be customized as Subwoofer or as and high-pass filter output with a cut/off frequency at 120Hz -3dB (6dB octave slope).
All connectors are CARDAS for all the single ended inputs and professional grade Neutrik models for the balanced XLR I/O.
The Ethernet port has functional LEDs to monitor the communication stream over the network