Built to Serve for Decades: Swedish-Made Moonriver Model 404 Plays with Fantastic Control, Clarity, and Balance – And Features Five Power Supplies, Ace Connectivity, and Modular Design 

With the Moonriver Model 404 integrated amplifier anchoring your audio system, you’ll be listening in style. Hand-assembled in Sweden and designed to reproduce even the faintest nuances of any style of music with tonal balance and effortless ease, Model 404 is a throwback to the days when nearly all high-end audio components were built to last decades and operate with reliability, stability, and ease.

Outputting a very conservatively rated 50Wpc into eight ohms and boasting a total of 57000uf capacitance, the modular 26.45-pound unit can handle both analog and digital sources — and thereby transmit what’s on your discs, streams, files, and LPs with smile-inducing detail, dynamics, purity, and clarity. And when it comes to driving speakers, look out, and don't shy away from that 50Wpc figure. We've pushed extremely difficult models (such as ATC speakers) to their limits with this world-class amp.

Incorporating a total of five separate power supplies, each with overload protection, Model 404 acts as a powerhouse on intimate terms with driving loudspeakers to satisfying levels. A fully discrete preamplifier section, high-output stage optimized for wide bandwidth and ultra-low distortion, and hand-selected parts — including a blue ALPS volume pot, relay signal switches, a 30A relay soft-start circuit that even covers the longevity of the on/off switch — all translate to stunning neutrality, fast transient speed, and black backgrounds. Notably, Model 404 doesn’t use any surface-mount devices in its analog circuitry, instead opting for more expensive and labor-intensive through-hole architecture. 

Just as important, Model 404 touts a few very practical features many modern integrated amplifiers now lack. For starters, you’ll get an in-parallel-implemented balance control that helps you dial in an exacting soundstage with your speakers no matter your room boundaries, furniture array, or wall locations. And you’ll also enjoy the return of a tape monitor loop, which not only provides its fundamental purpose — real-time monitoring of the difference between recorded and source material — but invites you to add a digital or analog room-correction device, buffer, noise-reduction system, or similar component any time you desire. Finally, a stereo/mono switch means you can enjoy your mono recordings as they are meant to be experienced. 

Plus, the 5.3 x 16.9 x 15.4-inch (HWD) Model 404 when it comes to connectivity. Four pairs of RCA line-level inputs, a USB input, and two pairs of preamplifier outputs accompany the aforementioned tape in/output and a phono ground. If you want to easy-to-access phono preamplifier and/or DAC functionality, just add one of the optional Moonriver phono and DAC modules. 

The elegant front panel on Model 404 hosts four robust aluminum knobs and two switches, all of which just feel good turning and flicking. A vibration-dampening enclosure complete with solid walnut side panels — and a three-year manufacturer warranty — completes an integrated that serves as a literal and figurative model for others to follow. 

If fortune or fate has brought you to Model 404, take the next step and arrange for a risk-free in-home audition. Contact a Music Direct audio consultant at 312-433-0200 for more information. 

“It was shockingly good but also incredibly charming in its musical style. Tonally, its balance is about perfect. It is both fast and slow as the need arises but the one thing that shines out is the feeling of musical textures that it brings into the room plus the way it allows the music to unfold time-wise without ever sounding rushed or stressed.”
—Hi-Fi+, Amplifier of the Year Award (2021)

“Everything I played felt like a live performance, and gave me another level of emotional connection to the music. [I] really felt that I was hearing deep into the recordings, with every instrument in its rightful place.”
—Chris Kelly, The Ear, Editor’s Choice Award

“Absolutely fantastic with full control in the base and with an almost overwhelming musicality. It plays music in an open and transparent way, allowing for full insight into a well-defined three-dimensional soundscape. The Moonriver amplifier is incredibly nimble and precise, and has a transient response that makes your favorite music a festive moment.”
—Stereo+ 

“We were amazed by its clarity, and its ability to highlight a considerable amount of micro-information and small details. Your records will seem much more supplied, detailed, and rich than usual. Acoustic instruments take on an almost physical posture, as the 404 seems capable of eradicating the coloration to deliver us only their essential marrow.”
—VU Metre 

“It is full of temperament and has no intention of playing second fiddle. It plays big with balls and is not at all ashamed of it. In addition, there is transparency and refinement to the point where we get a very complete reproduction. It brings every piece of music regardless of genre with conviction and gusto.”
— Alpha Audio 

“The 404 plays incredibly direct and doesn't give much the idea of the typical high-end sound. It sounds fresh and out of the box. The sound stage is wide, but has a particularly important effect in depth and height and sounds pleasantly lush. The retro style goes beyond the look. It is a device to touch, but most of all to listen to music, because of its direct and energetic sound which is the actual charm of the amplifier.”
—HiFi Test

"Overall, the amplifier turned out to offer a colorful, atmospheric and well-saturated sound, it was also able to reproduce spatial effects, especially holography and reverbs. It doesn't hide the naturalness of the vocals, it was able to create a deep stage, immersing the listener in the music, allowing him to enjoy it. The most important here was the atmosphere, it was a reference to the sound from tubes.”
— HiFi Philosophy 

“Moonriver 404 is one of the few exceptions of which you can sit down and immediately stop asking questions as both a music lover and an audiophile. It has not often happened in my work as an audio columnist that a device forces me to put aside my analysis mode and simply let myself be immersed in the music.”
— TED 

“The Model 404 can make music sound warmer, smoother, and more intimate, while not suppressing the liveliness that should be present in music performance. It can fully demonstrate the openness of the music, and can also reveal the micro and macro dynamics very clearly.”
— Audio Art