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Professional Reviews 92/100
Deliciously Crispy
Sound Quality
94/100
Build Quality
93/100
Value for Money
85/100
Mastersound’s Compact 845 pairs burnished tube richness with unusually muscular SET drive, delivering saturated tone, lifelike instrumental texture and a deeply layered soundstage. The Ear admired its dramatic scale, rhythmic authority and textured bass, while Audiophilepure highlighted its quiet background, transparent mids and natural, emotionally involving presentation.
What Reviewers Are Saying
Pros
Rich, transparent midrange and lifelike harmonic texture give voices and acoustic instruments exceptional emotional presence.
Expansive, precisely layered imaging with generous image scale and a notably deep soundstage.
Unusually capable SET dynamics: it maintains rhythmic grip and textured, weighty bass while accommodating speakers around 90dB sensitivity.
Hand-built presentation includes proprietary hand-wound transformers, versatile line/balanced/direct inputs, 4/8-ohm taps and RF remote volume control.
&
Cons
Treble air and sparkle can be slightly softened versus a reference solid-state amplifier, depending on speaker pairing.
Bass is full and textured rather than especially sinewy or snappy, and tonal balance is more speaker-dependent than with lower-output-impedance designs.
SOUND QUALITY PERFORMANCE 94/100
Reviewers describe an unusually immersive single-ended-triode presentation: richly textured and natural through the midrange, spatially expansive, and far more forceful than the usual low-powered SET stereotype. Its warmly rounded character is a defining attraction, though one reviewer heard slightly less top-end air than their usual reference.
Transparency Resolution
94/100
Audiophilepure heard a black background, open treble, transparent midrange and palpable instrumental textures, also calling the amplifier eerily quiet. The Ear found it especially revealing of the saxophone's harmonic complexity, although it noted a small reduction in air and sparkle versus its reference.
Tonal Balance Musicality
96/100
Both reviews strongly praise the amplifier's musical character. Audiophilepure highlights its burnished tube tone, naturalism and lush, rich midrange, while The Ear calls its rounded, dramatic presentation soul-stirring and finds it brings exceptional harmonic richness to voices and instruments. This is not an overtly lean or neutral presentation; it adds welcome body and maturity to some recordings.
Dynamics
92/100
The Ear reports firm rhythmic punctuation, strong groove and ballsy dynamic punch, saying the Compact 845 avoids the usual pipe-and-slippers SET character. Its useful output also broadens speaker options beyond very high-sensitivity designs. Bass is described as textured and weighty, if less sinewy and snappy than some alternatives.
Soundstage Imaging
95/100
Audiophilepure praises precise vocal and instrumental layering and calls this the deepest, punchiest soundstage it has heard. The Ear likewise hears a wall-removing sense of open space and generous image scaling that makes smaller loudspeakers sound more life-size.
Assessments of Build Quality, Usability, and Overall Propositions.
Build Quality
93/100
The Ear reports that Mastersound builds much of the amplifier in-house, including its hand-wound output transformers, with each unit reportedly handled by no more than three people. The 34kg Class A design uses three substantial transformer assemblies that also assist heat dissipation, while practical provision includes balanced and line inputs, a direct power-amp input, 4/8-ohm taps, and RF remote volume control.
Value for Money
85/100
At roughly $8,990 to $10,495, this is a serious premium valve amplifier, but neither review directly compares its price with competing models. The Ear does point to meaningful practical value in its unusually useful SET power output and compatibility with approximately 90dB-sensitive loudspeakers, while Audiophilepure considers it an amplifier it could happily live with indefinitely.
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Authorized dealers for Mastersound Compact 845
- Acoustic Technologies — online and in-store — Montréal, Québec, Canada (website)
- Ajasom — online and in-store — Amadora, Lisboa, Portugal (website)
- Alta Fedelta — online and in-store — Lombardia, Italy (website)
- Art & Voice — online (website)
- AV Solutions - Italy — online and in-store — Aosta, Valle d'Aosta, Italy (website)
- Broker Audio — in-store — Gorráiz, Navarra, Spain (website)
- Castle Hill — in-store — Stonington, Connecticut, United States (website)
- CLES MUSICALES — in-store — Bordeaux, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France (website)
- EVA Acoustics — in-store — Meppel, Drenthe, Netherlands (website)
- HIFI SOLUTION — in-store — Chandon, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France (website)
and 12 more verified dealers