It looks like tubes are gaining more and more adepts, at least among guitar players and audiophiles; as far as the audiophiles are concerned, new American amp manufacturers, Glow, have just declared: "Maybe because of the favorable exchange rate, maybe because tubes are widely accepted among audiophiles in Asia and Europe, but we've received a lot of interest from overseas." Well, it's time to introduce Glow to you, a new name in the high-end audio industry, but looking like they've passed the initial newbie stage as their (so far) only product sells extremely well.

The first Glow-branded amp is the Amp One - not quite an original name, that's true, but there are other things which have raised the interest on this particular piece of tech.

Above all, we're talking a tube amplifier and this is already something different form your CD-player at home: this single-ended pentode amp runs on EL84 self-biasing power valves and this means you'll never have to worry about "tuning" it. The minimal negative feedback ensures exceptional sound reproduction with the exact naturalness you'd expect from any other high-end amplifier.

Another cool thing about the Glow Amp One is that it runs on RCA inputs as well as USB and this means you can have it running with your desktop computer or laptop without having to buy and adapt a heap of cables. This amp also sports a headphone output and an backlit ALPS volume knob for perfect level trimming and exceptional, long-time operation. The valves can be protected by means of a removable metal cage with magnetic hook-up for conveniently covering the amp's most fragile parts. The steel chassis is finished in a high-gloss enamel paint coming in red, silver, pearl, white, yellow, black and black-on-black colors.

Finally, the best piece of news about Glow's Amp One relates to pricing: this cool all-tube amplifier sells for under $500, making it an extremely alluring option in case you're looking for audiophile gear but are on a budget. And yes, they come with 30-day satisfaction guarantee.

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