Leave it to Tim de Paravicini to come up with something so deliciously twisted that no tube crazy can resist it. The new E.A.R. V20 integrated amplifier, despite costing a not-unreasonable-by-today's-standards £2495, looks like nothing else and sports a quantity of tubes rivalled by few. Hell, the only items I can think of off-hand with similar numerical appeal - i.e. more tubes than any sane person would deem necessary - are high-enders like the GRAAF GM200OTL with its 16 output tubes per channel, and the recent Silvaweld design with 48 per monoblock.

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Now the V20 isn't quite up in that league in tube count, but neither is it in price. Better still, its profusion of glassware is of the common-as-muck variety, so here's a rare chance to have a plethora of tubes without living in fear of the cost of re-valving the beast. That's because Tim has chosen to use ten ECC83s per channel - hence the model number.

Actually, the name 'V20' was inspired by Tim's passion for cars (he is known to drive in a 'spirited' fashion), in particular the V12 Jaguar engine. The original prototype had a dozen output valves, and the company was tempted to call it the V12 Amplifier Engine. However, Tim decided to uprate the project the present V20 specification, with no less than twenty output valves. But then it's also known in-house and among cultists as 'Mickey Mouse' because, when viewed from the front at eye-level, its volume and source controls look like a pair of eyes, with the half-cylindrical tube covers looking like that famed rodent's ears. Or, E.A.R.s, if you prefer.

And it's a gorgeous, covetable little thing, measuring a tidy 427x426x139mm (WDH), weighing a chunky 20kg, and sporting steam-punk looks through a mix of materials. It's that Victorian Modernist vision which makes this look like a prop from Nemo's Nautilus, gold-plated knobs and connectors, chromed fascia and transformer caps, black cages over the tubes and wooden end-pieces in what looks like a very dark rosewood. The left-hand knob selects one of five inputs, the right takes care of level, while at the extreme right-hand 'point' is a large on-off button which glows orange-y yellow, as per earlier Yoshino products.

Neat touches abound, like a chrome rail protecting the CE-approved, yet multi-way binding posts mounted on the top, at the back of the row of transformers. Deft use of a screwdriver removes the safety caps for those who still use banana plugs, in defiance of the cretins in Brussels. Output terminals are provided for 4, 8 or 16 ohm loudspeakers, and you'll want to optimise the impedance matching because this is, after all, a mere 24-watter. The rear panel itself contains gold-plated binding posts for the five line level sources and tape-output.

Part of the Yoshino DNA chain, the V20 amplifier is a break away from what Tim describes as 'the currently fashionable approaches of pentodes and tetrodes in ultralinear configuration and of large direct-heated triodes'; remember, though, that Tim was one of the first in the West to get involved with the S.E.T. revival. Instead, it uses parallel-connected ECC83 (a.k.a.12AX7) indirectly-heated double triodes in the output stage. Now most of us think of these only as pre-amp tubes, or drivers, or other considerations where sheer power isn't an issue. Even so, Tim set them up to deliver just under 2.5W each, for an integrated amplifier rated at 24W/ch, in push-pull, pure Class-A mode. A further five tubes per channel complete the line-up, including three more ECC83s for the input drive and a pair of ECC82 driver tubes. Again, I wish to repeat: this amp ain't gonna break its owners when re-tubing time comes around.

For those of you who recognise the Yoshino line as a source of iconoclastic treasures, the V20 will prove to be as much fun and as much of a challenge as the still-hard-to-beat E.A.R. 859. That 13W single-ended triode design will be looked upon by anachrophiles of the year 2025 as the same calibre of pioneer in its genre as the Krell KAV300i and the Audio Research CA-50 are regarded in theirs. This whole back-to-integrateds revolution is far from over; what's so refreshing is that it has yet to impose design limitations, especially in terms of overall topology, enabling a firebrand like Tim to come up with such dazzling, innovative gems.

And a gem it is, a bijoux which confuses you thusly: does one take it po-faced seriously, or treat it as one would the EarMax or an X-Series module - as a source of grinning-ear-to-ear fun? However funky the styling, however much you want to cuddle it and give it a nickname and festoon it with white gloves, yellow shoes and a girlfriend named Minnie, something keeps telling you that you're in the presence of a radical new listening tool. And that something is a freedom from coloration, nastiness and grunge which you simply do not associate with 20 tubes of the most blindingly ordinary variety.

That car analogy of Tim's is perfect, because the way he's transformed the ECC83 into an output tube of note recalls a point raised in Richard Williams' stunning story of Damon Hill's championship year, (Penguin paperback, £7.99). Williams reminded the reader of geniuses such as Colin Chapman, who took a complete piece of shit - the ludicrous and overrated-by-jingoists Austin 7 - and turned it into a world-beater. Not that the conditions are the same here: Chapman was working in shortage-riddled post-war Britain, whereas Tim and other modern tube designers are now spoiled for choice. Hell, they can even buy brand-new 300Bs made by Western Electric if they so desire. But nearly the same spirit which inspired Chapman has been employed by de Paravicini, that of turning something intrinsically common and cheap into something truly wonderful.