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Signs out of the ordinary flagged attention prior to delivery. The announced FedEx arrival failed. Inquiring with Vital as to status, he learned that his paletted shipment was deemed "too heavy" for my local FedEx van. It had been handed over to a trucking company which planned on delivering the day following the online tracker schedule. A single-chassis 300B integrated too heavy for FedEx? Would I need a Brit fry-up breakfast to greet the door? Revolting prospect that. I took my chances and stuck to our usual grub. Then the bell tolled.
At eight on the dot, there was a burly man with a palette jack and a large box on it. The Quaker Oats deity smiled, we heaved and soon I was alone in my basement. From the cardboard outer emerged this audio war chest with sawtooth-joined panels, black metal corners and a Korean push key lock.


Cradled in foam and tucked into a cloth shroud, I soon spied an amp positively huge for 10 stereo watts - not quite as gargantuan as the Greek TruLife Audio machines but not far from it. All Acrylic bits were protected by removable film and the flawless fit and finish underneath would have done the latest Valve Amplification Company components proud.

The usual belly flop gained access to the innards by first unscrewing the adjustable footers inset in the four stanchions, then removing two of the four corner discs and undoing eight bolts. The innards looked equally majestic.

Here's the obligatory view from above.
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Because a front panel control selects between balanced and single-ended inputs, the sighting of two Lundahl LL1545A transformers didn't clearly identify input transformers. Was this unusually small interstage iron? In the absence of any circuit descriptions, I pegged the 6350s as drivers, the 6922s as preamplifiers. This makes the KM-300SE into a bona fide integrated with active input stage rather than a power amp with a passive pot.

With high workmanship and premium parts, Emillé stands tall not on cosmetics and packaging alone.

Capacitor aficionados would most likely applaud many of the choices here purely on recognition.

Cold out of the box, the fixed bias registered high but adjustments were child's play with the included screw driver, frontal trim pots and beautifully backlit bias meters. Those double as power-on indicators in rich orange as befits tube glow, not the trendy but misguided blue found elsewhere. Fixed bias and constant monitoring from Emillé's display solution accomplish three things - higher power than auto bias; piece of mind; and the option for deliberate hot bias should you wish to tweak sonics and not care about ultimate tube life. Altogether, that equals more flexibility.

The big bottles are Full Music issue by the way, with the 274B rectifier of the mesh variety, the 300Bs of the solid plate sort.

If you paid attention during the Q&A spot, you might already entertain an educated guess as to performance. Remember which 300Bs specifically were not recommended; and which are optionally available over the Full Music?