Axxess Streaming Amplifiers: Overview of Forté 1, 2 and 3

Axxess is the youngest name under the Audio Group Denmark umbrella, sitting alongside Aavik, Ansuz and Børresen. Where those three brands operate at genuinely high-end price points, Axxess was created to bring the same engineering thinking into a more attainable product, and its entire electronics catalogue currently consists of one family: the Forté streaming integrated amplifiers.

There are three of them, numbered 1, 2 and 3, and they present buyers with an unusual proposition. They share the same chassis, the same power output, the same DAC, the same streamer module and the same connectivity. What separates them is the quantity of noise-reduction circuitry inside. That runs contrary to how most manufacturers structure a range, where more money usually buys more watts or more inputs, so it is worth understanding what you are actually paying for before you decide where to enter.

This article covers the technology shared across the three models, explains what changes as you move up, and sets out which one makes sense for which kind of system.

What all three models share

Each Forté is a single box containing four things: a network streamer, a digital-to-analogue converter, an integrated amplifier and a headphone amplifier. In practical terms, a pair of speakers and a network connection are all you need to have a complete system running.

Amplification. The power stage uses a Class D module, which Axxess refers to as UMAC technology, rated at 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms. Class D is chosen here for its efficiency and thermal stability rather than as a cost measure. The module is treated as the starting point rather than the finished product, with Audio Group Denmark building its own supporting circuitry around it.

Power supply. Rather than the conventional linear supply with a large toroidal transformer, the Forté uses a resonant mode switching supply derived from Aavik’s work. The reasoning is about speed: music makes constantly varying demands on an amplifier, and a supply running at a high operating frequency can respond to transient peaks without the lag that a 50 Hz mains-locked supply introduces. The trade-off with switching supplies is usually noise, which is precisely where the rest of the design effort goes.

Digital conversion. The DAC section utilises a 1-bit circuit developed in-house. Conventional multi-bit conversion has to manage noise contamination and timing error across many parallel bit paths, and the audible result is what Audio Group Denmark describes as a digital signature. A 1-bit approach sidesteps that particular problem, and the stated aim is an analogue character with fast data handling and low sensitivity to noise.

Streaming. The streamer module is a scaled-down version of the one used in Aavik’s dedicated streamers. It is built as a discrete audio unit with high-quality capacitors and no microcomputers in the signal path, which keeps processing noise out of the digital front end.

Headphone output. All three carry a non-switching Class A headphone stage, giving high gain and low distortion. This is a proper amplifier section rather than an op-amp tapped off the pre-out, and it makes the Forté a credible one-box solution for someone who listens through headphones as often as through speakers.

How the three models actually differ

The differentiator is Ansuz Tesla coil and dither technology, in use across Audio Group Denmark products since 2011.

A Tesla coil in this context is a matched pair of windings, wound in opposite directions and placed in close proximity. When one leg encounters a voltage spike, the other generates an opposing spike and cancels it. They exist in several forms inside the Forté: active coils on their own circuit boards, square coils etched into the board surface, and zirconium coils used on internal wiring runs. Dither circuits work differently, injecting precisely defined square-wave frequencies into the ground plane to modulate the noise floor into something more even and less intrusive.

The counts scale directly with the model number:

• Forté 1: 36 active Tesla coils, 72 active square Tesla coils, 3 dither circuits
• Forté 2: 72 active Tesla coils, 144 square Tesla coils, 6 dither circuits, plus 4 zirconium Tesla coils on the internal wiring between the power stage and the speaker terminals
• Forté 3: 108 active Tesla coils, 216 square Tesla coils, 9 dither circuits, the 4 zirconium coils, plus an internal copper bottom plate

The coils and dither components are wound and soldered by hand in Aalborg, which is where the price differences originate. The weight figures track the same progression, from 7.9 kg to 9.0 kg, as the additional boards and the copper plate go in.

What this means sonically is a change in noise floor rather than a change in character. The three models sound recognisably like each other. Moving up the range does not add drive or extension, it lowers the level of the background against which the music sits, and the audible consequences are in the areas that noise tends to obscure first: low-level detail, the decay of notes, and the spatial cues that tell you something about the room a recording was made in.

Axxess Forté 1

The Axxess Forté 1 is the entry point, and worth understanding on its own terms rather than as a compromised version of the models above it. It has the same amplifier platform, the same 100 watts per channel, the same 1-bit DAC and the same Class A headphone stage as the Forté 3. Nothing has been removed on the functional side.

At this level, the Tesla coil and dither count is already substantial by the standards of any other manufacturer, since almost nobody else fits this kind of circuitry at all. If you are unconvinced by the noise-reduction argument, the Forté 1 is the logical choice, because you are not paying for the part of the proposition you are sceptical about while still getting the full amplifier, DAC and streamer.

Key features:

• Class D power stage, 100 W per channel into 8 ohms
• In-house 1-bit DAC circuit
• Aavik-derived streamer module with no microcomputers in the signal path
• Non-switching Class A headphone amplifier
• Resonant mode switching power supply
• 36 active Tesla coils, 72 square Tesla coils, 3 dither circuits
• 7.9 kg

Buy the Axxess Forté 1 at Premium Sound — £4,999

Axxess Forté 2

The Axxess Forté 2 doubles the active and square coil counts, doubles the dither circuits from three to six, and introduces the four zirconium Tesla coils on the wiring between the power stage and the speaker terminals. That last detail matters more than the number suggests, since it treats the signal at the point where it leaves the amplifier and heads for the loudspeaker.

This is the model that answers the question of whether the noise-reduction argument holds. Reviewers who have compared the 1 and the 2 back to back with identical cabling and matched levels consistently report that the fundamental character does not shift, but that the additional circuitry resolves more low-level information. If you are running speakers that are genuinely revealing, the Forté 2 is where the range starts to justify the step in price.

The specification also lists two USB-A ports for attached storage of up to 2 TB, which suits anyone maintaining a local library alongside streaming services.

Key features:

• Class D power stage, 100 W per channel into 8 ohms
• In-house 1-bit DAC circuit
• Aavik-derived streamer module with no microcomputers in the signal path
• Resonant mode switching power supply
• 72 active Tesla coils, 144 square Tesla coils, 6 dither circuits
• 4 zirconium Tesla coils on the internal speaker wiring
• 2x USB-A inputs for local storage up to 2 TB
• 8.1 kg

Buy the Axxess Forté 2 at Premium Sound — £7,499

Axxess Forté 3

The Axxess Forté 3 takes the counts to their maximum: 108 active Tesla coils, 216 square coils and 9 dither circuits, retaining the zirconium coils and adding a copper bottom plate to the chassis. The copper serves as both a resonance control measure and a low-impedance reference surface, and it accounts for a good part of the extra weight.

It produces the same 100 watts as the Forté 1 and costs twice as much, which is only illogical if you assume power output is what determines an amplifier’s ceiling. In practice, the limiting factor in most systems is noise rather than watts, and the Forté 3 is Audio Group Denmark’s argument taken to its conclusion within this platform. It makes most sense at the end of a resolving system, paired with speakers and cabling capable of showing what has been removed rather than what has been added.

Key features:

• Class D power stage, 100 W per channel into 8 ohms
• In-house 1-bit DAC circuit
• Aavik-derived streamer module with no microcomputers in the signal path
• Non-switching Class A headphone amplifier
• 108 active Tesla coils, 216 square Tesla coils, 9 dither circuits
• 4 zirconium Tesla coils on the internal speaker wiring
• Internal copper bottom plate
• 2x USB-A inputs for local storage
• 9.0 kg

Buy the Axxess Forté 3 at Premium Sound — £9,999