Dan D’Agostino has always had a relentless desire to better his own creations, no matter how flawless they may seem. The Relentless Monoblock amplifier is the latest manifestation of that passion, the result of Dan’s desire for an amplifier that maintains its harmonic integrity and expansive soundstage from 0 watts to 1,500 watts. An amplifier so powerful it can drive any speaker to its best possible performance, no matter how demanding the load it may present.
Dan D’Agostino from Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems: I’m here to speak about the Relentless amplifier. My pursuit is to make the finest peace of audio equipment ever invented. That’s what this amplifier represents for me. The Relentless was designed to play at concert levels but with really microdetail. At very low levels it produces goosebumps. At very high levels it produces goosebumps. It’s made to make music. The idea of the Relentless is to give somebody an unlimited source to how they can play their music. At the front, I’ve put a really large meter, because you can see it move its 250 degrees swing. It’s kind of like a show for someone who like meters. When it gets towards the end, it turns into a peak meter, which means it moves really quickly in the 1.2 – 1.6 kilowatt range. The metal work on the amplifier is made from aircraft aluminum and copper. It’s machined to an exact standard and diamond cut a certain way it kind of gloats. All the devices in the unit are curve traced, so that you get absolute conformity between unit to unit. I even went to the extreme of building a special binding post. When you put big wire in a binding post, they always creep, move and bend. This holds it in place and doesn’t let it move. You’ll be able to conform without bending your binding post. The whole idea of this amplifier is emotion, physical emotion and high power.
With its 5.5-kilowatt power supply feeding roughly 100 output devices, the Relentless Monoblock easily delivers 1,500 watts into 8 ohms—and when connected to a 220-volt outlet, it doubles its output to 3,000 watts into 4 ohms and 6,000 watts into 2 ohms, all while maintaining the same musical composure it offers at a mere 1 watt.
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Inside the Relentless Monoblock
The Relentless uses a genuinely balanced, DC-coupled circuit built around 128 hand-matched output transistors and a 5.5-kilowatt power supply feeding six 100,000-microfarad capacitors, measuring just 0.007% combined distortion. Its 200mm analog meter, styled after the hour-hand of watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, reads on a deliberately non-linear scale — at just 1 watt into 8 ohms, the needle already swings as if the amplifier were delivering 400 watts. Each monoblock weighs roughly 570 pounds.
Relentless as D’Agostino’s flagship
The Relentless line sits above D’Agostino’s Momentum monoblocks as the company’s flagship engineering platform, sharing some power-device architecture but delivering substantially more current. At its 2018 Munich debut, the Relentless was described as the biggest, mightiest and most expensive power amplifier at the show — and D’Agostino has since fed Relentless-derived circuitry back down into upgraded “MxV” Momentum models, including the Momentum MXV shown at High End 2023.
Frequently asked questions
How much power does the Relentless Monoblock deliver?
The Relentless Monoblock delivers 1,500 watts into 8 ohms from a 5.5-kilowatt power supply, and can double its output to 3,000 watts into 4 ohms and 6,000 watts into 2 ohms on a 220-volt supply.
What is distinctive about the Relentless amplifier’s design?
It uses a genuinely balanced, DC-coupled circuit with 128 hand-matched output transistors, a front-panel meter styled after a watchmaker’s hour-hand, and a chassis built from aircraft-grade aluminum and copper.
How does the Relentless relate to D’Agostino’s other amplifiers?
The Relentless sits above D’Agostino’s Momentum monoblocks as the company’s flagship platform — engineering later “trickled down” from Relentless into the upgraded Momentum MxV models.
