Quite the opposite, the Mira is probably the most user friendly integrated amp I've ever come across. Ribbed for our pleasure it seems, the box features deep corrugated grooves along its top and bottom, a design which not only lends the amp a distinctive look but no doubt aids in the dissipation of heat. Examining the additional connections, however, belies the Mira's versatility. Although not quite the audio Swiss Army Knife that is the Audiolab 8000s, the Mira does include both a pre amp out and a power amp in, allowing it to be used as a stand alone power amp or preamp. As with the 8000s this kind of versatility makes the Mira amenable to a variety of system upgrade scenarios, allowing it to be a key player in your system for at least the life-span of a digital format or two.
Speaker terminals are fairly standard posts with plastic nuts.
The spacing of these terminals, however, is less standard as they are more widely spaced than most I've come across. Combine this with the already limited height of the Mira, and the need to accommodate all the inputs and outputs, and you've got a pretty tight workspace back there. Listening to CDs through the Planet and Mira made for some excellent sounding music indeed. With the right front end the Newform ribbons are capable of very high resolution, not to mention extraordinary imaging and soundstating. A testament to its resolving power the Mira made CD player comparisons much easier than I'm used to, revealing much more quickly the flaws of one and the strengths of another than my reference system did.