Engstrom is a small family-run company from Stockholm Sweden. The EE emblem represents the two founding partners, Lars & Timo Engstrom, who are a unique uncle and nephew duo. They embody a balanced and "less is more" approach to design and engineering that is central to the company's identity. Lars Engstrom was born in the small town of Landesberg in central Sweden's mining district to an engineering father and fine artist mother. At the early age of twelve he built his first amplifier. After a long engineering career, designing radios, navigation equipment, microcomputer systems and, most recently, railway signalling systems. Lars returned to his true passion in 2001 when he started work on a new tube amplifier that would become the critically acclaimed LARS. His nephew, Timo Engstrom is an industrial designer responsible for the Scandinavian exterior of Engstrom products. He also handles sales and marketing, and public relations. Inspired by Scandinavian radio furniture design of the 60's and 70's, Timo brings an elegantly functional aesthetic to his designs that makes the amplifiers unique in the industry.
I met Lars and Timo about sixteen years go at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. They debuted the critically acclaimed "LARS Type 1" integrated amplifier and I remember that had a fabulous sound. It uses a pair of 300B directly heated triodes per channel, Class-A in push-pull configuration. For the past sixteen years I have kept in close contact and often met them at trade shows. At the 2025 Munich High-end show, I was given the opportunity to review their Arne Mk2 integrated amplifier. The Arne is named after Arne Domnerus (1924-2008), who was a Swedish jazz saxophonist and clarinetist best known in audiophile circles for playing alto sax in the 1977 Proprius Records Classic Jazz At The Pawnshop.
At last, I received the Arne Mk2 in middle of June. It came in a huge wooden crate, but I was so anxious that I managed to unpack it by myself (An extra hand would've been nicer as it weighs close to 85 pounds). The Arne Mk2 is a minimalist design, constructed meticulously and hand made in Sweden. All of their products, like the Arne Mk2, are built using the best and highest quality components. The Arne Mk2 uses a thick and massive aluminum chassis with adjustable feet (with ceramic balls inside) to root the amplifier to the supporting surface. (Four years of intensive R&D since its 2018 launch has seen it evolve into the Arne Mk2 in production today). Its available in a classic all-silver, all-black or all-white finish, with a choice of clear or smoked glass. The review sample was finished in a classic all-silver with a clear glass cover. Elegantly, it comes with a half-glass cover which showcases the front section of the Arne. It reminds me of an industrial artwork piece. On the front there are two rotary knobs, one small one for the input selector and a larger one to the right for the volume control. The Arne MK2 is equipped with a high quality 48-stepped volume control. Brilliantly, it comes with a volume remote control which operates both volume and mute. You can make fine adjustments of the volume at your fingertips. (I wished my Ongaku offered a volume remote control). There are two pairs of balanced and single-ended connections at the rear speaker binding posts and next to it the IEC and power on/off switch. The Arne MK2 is a fully balanced 300B integrated stereo amplifier. The Arne produces a powerful 30-watts per channel and operates in push-pull configuration using two 300B output tubes per channel. It uses four D3a tubes as driver tube. It uses DC couplings, between the driver and the power tubes. The driver stage has a symmetrical positive and negative power supply. The DC level on the output of the driver is zero, making it possible to connect the driver stage directly to the grids of the power tubes which have individual cathode bias. This unique circuitry allows for fast transient performance, and extending headroom while reducing distortion.
The installation and set-up were an easy task. The beauty of having a high-end integrated amplifier is its simplicity. There are fewer boxes and cables and of course it produces superlative sound. The Arne Mk2 sounded as if I were listening to separates. I use the Audio Note Kondo Ongaku as one of my references so I know how good it gets. Owning tube gear can be very rewarding and fun. When ordering, you can choose from several types of power tubes. The review unit came with the Emission Labs EML 300B and the Siemens D3a. It produced wonderful sound that would be pleasing to any audiophiles. However, I had on my hand my favorite tube made by Western Electric. As a good as the Emission Labs EML 300B is, I preferred it with the Western Electric tubes. As I suspected they rendered music with more emotion, realism, and moved me closer to listening to a live venue. Impressively, the Arne Mk2 was dead quiet. I put my ears right against the LM1 (96dB) speaker drivers and didn't hear anything, not a trace of hum or hiss. For this review, I used my new reference Aries Cerat Iaunus Ithaka DAC (HERE) with the new Aurender N50 as my digital source with both units, it is truly music to my ears.
After setting up the Arne Mk2 in my system, I was finally ready for some preliminary listening. After half an hour or so warm up, it began. Right out of the gate I was impressed with the gorgeous midrange that one expects (especially from a 300B integrated amplifier); it was neither euphonic nor syrupy and produced the rich harmonic structure. The music flowed effortlessly; it was pure, open, and the sounds of voices and instruments had believable colors, texture, and presence with a weight and solidity that was remarkably natural. In my experience, if the amplifier is designed well, it will sound excellent regardless of the type of output tube that is used. However, I've used many amplifiers with different families of tubes, and what you hear will be influenced by the type and make of the tubes you're using. The Arne Mk2 produced the rich harmonic palette expected from tubes, while it delivers an excellent transparent window and purity.
I enjoy listening to chamber music. I put on a beautiful recording of Mozart's String Quintet in D Major, KV593 Larghetto performed by Talich Quartet and the Arne Mk2 conveyed the masterpiece spectacularly. String tones throughout were lusciously textured and colorful, beautiful and faithful. The strings were reproduced very naturally with an organic sound without having to be too polite; they were very transparent, revealing layers of details and each instrument is displayed with a rich and full harmonic structure with palpable strings that were captivating.
The Arne Mk2 renders voices with a natural, palpable, organic quality. The sound was consistently involving. The Arne MK2's naturalness in conveying a timbre was also excellent. Listening to Annie Lennox's recording of "Summertime" from Nostalgia (Qobuz) was a treat. Her voice was reproduced strikingly as were her emotions. I put on Youn Sun Nah's gorgeous recording of "My Favorite Things" from Same Girl (Qobuz). I was startled by the intense level of purity, immediacy and solidity of her voice. My Lorenzo Audio LM1 loudspeakers projected her as if she were in the room.
The Arne Mk2's effect on my system's spatial performance was impressive. Listening to Anne Sophie Mutter on Pable De Sarasate's Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20 (Tidal MAX), maestro James Levine conducting the Weiner Philharmoniker, was moving and powerful. The Arne Mk2 captures the full sweetness, warmth, and complexity of the orchestra's dynamic range. The soundstage was stunningly lifelike; it produced a three-dimensional and picturesque staging. It was big, wide and deep, an enormous size stretching beyond my loudspeakers which gave me a sense that my listening space was bigger than it actually is. The Arne Mk2 drove the Lorenzo Audio LM1s with power and authority without losing any of the integrity of the music and it was able to scale with realistic dynamic swings. From pianissimo to fortissimo, the system handled it all with exceptional realism. However, I noticed when I used the Canary Audio M3000 (at 120-watts per side) on symphonies, it did control the Lorenzo Audio LM1 a touch better in bass and scale the orchestra dynamic range. But the Arne Mk2 performed very impressively for a tubed integrated amplifier with 30-watts.
The Arne Mk2 performed flawlessly for the six months that I had it. It is a super quiet integrated amplifier. There is no hum or hiss or any tube noise to speak of without any hiccups. I really enjoyed my time with the Arne Mk2. It was simple to use with auto biasing and a volume remote control; it made it easier for me to enjoy the music. As I have said, the Arne Mk2 sounded as if I were listening to separates. When one box integrated amplifier sounds this good, you say to yourself "do I really need the separates?" If you're in the market for separates, you should give a listen to the Engstrom Arne Mk2 integrated amplifier. Its' that good.
Arne Mk2 Integrated Amplifier
Retail: $40,000
Engstrom & Engstrom AB
Spanehusvagen 69
21439 Malmo
Sweden
46 (0) 733 70 51 51
