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APL DSD-S digital converter

Comparatively little known outside its native Bulgaria, APL Hi-Fi, Ltd has actually been around since 1988. The company’s chief designer, Alex Peychev, exploits his decades working in professional and broadcast electronics to create a comprehensive line of audio equipment, spanning digital front-ends, phono stages, amplifiers, and even loudspeakers. APL is also no stranger to either hollow or solid-state technology, with designs that include both valve and transistor devices.

We focused on APL’s digital side and the middle of three DACs made by the company: the DSD-S from the company’s ‘Illumi-Fi’ series. This is a more full-function converter than the USB only, 24/192 DAC-X (currently the only product in API’s ‘Hi-Fi’ range) but lacking the tube output stage and the considerably higher price of the ‘Illumi-Fi Reference’ DSD-M digital converter. I’ve not had chance to audition either of the other DACs in the APL range, but the smart money from those in the know is thet the DSD-S is in something of a sweet spot in the line.

This is a carriage-built design, truly boutique in outlook and handmade to order: an ambitious concept when it comes to making a DSD-based DAC, because that usually requires a lot of engineering teams. But that’s not the case here; it really is bespoke. Open the player up and you are met with six separate APL-designed PCBs: power supply filtration, power distribution, input block, digital conversion, output block, and display. The digital input block sports the popular XMOS transceiver for USB and some useful crystal clocking circuitry, but the real story on the inside is the use of some classic components inside both the DAC and output stages. The DAC itself is made up of a quartet of Cirrus Logic DSD-chummy chips that are no longer available.

This DAC is controlled by custom code written into an FPGA. Similarly, in the output stage board, the main output MOSFETs are the highly desirable – and long discontinued – Toshiba designs. These are some of the best sounding output devices ever made, and are still used today by companies like Constellation Audio because nothing made this millennia comes close. The board also sports two classic Lundahl coupling transformers, and the closer you get to the output stage, the more the PCBs move from surface mount devices to classic hand-soldered resistors, capacitors, and transistors. It’s not all pre-millennial technology though; alongside that USB input, there are special relay-controlled DC servos in the actual amp stage. Nevertheless, this is a DAC built by someone who knows his way around quality components.

Principally, however, APL is a company that has a terrific amount of skill in analogue audio design, while also knowing what goes into making a good DAC. This seems like a better way of making a good bespoke converter than the digital engineer who thinks analogue output stages are ‘easy’ and then botches the bit of the electronics that connects their masterwork to the outside world. However, the key element is being able to get both parts right. Peychev’s skills lie in building and modifying the output stages and key digital modules in classic CD and SACD players, as well as a great deal of work on analogue circuit design in all kinds of audio components. This is the true art of the bespoke maker in audio – not making a more expensive version of a standard product that can be purchased for less from mass-market rivals, but producing a pure artisan product that by its very nature is the produce of years of audio hot-rodding. The downside to this is sometimes the result is only pleasing to the designer and his immediate family, while the rest of the world beats a path to any other door. However, when they get it right – as is the case in Peychev’s APL products, based on this model – it can sound extremely good, and completely unlike anything else made in modern audio.

The audio press loves a good analogy, but will happily settle for a mediocre one. We are all keen to compare audio to bikes, cars, cameras, watches… basically any middle-aged adult-male plaything that doesn’t land the writer in jail or the divorce court. I am not one to break with tradition, but at least I can add a bit of a twist. So if I can liken the audio world to a 1980s Coming of Age movie – and I think I can – then many audio companies are like the decorative, yet vacuous cheerleader the protagonist spends the first reel lusting after at a distance. A few are the bookish, more intellectual and interesting love interest that is completely forgotten about until their makeover in the final reel. And that sums up the APL DSD-S: it’s Ally Sheedy at the end of The Breakfast Club.

Where I’m going with this rapidly self-destructing analogy is there are many products that deliver an immediate, yet ultimately unrewarding experience, but the ones that take time to divulge their inner beauty are the ones you want to spend the longest time listening to. And that perfectly describes the APL DSD-S. This is not a race through your music collection, this is a smooth, satisfying ramble around your musical tastes, and a ramble that sustains as well.

Sophistication seems to be a word that is fast falling out of fashion in the audio world. Instead, products look great and sound shiny, bright, and forward. The APL DSD-S resolutely refuses to play that game, instead making a sound that is as inviting as it is insightful and detailed. Moreover, rather than opting for the big and impressive soundstage, this DAC produces a tighter, more natural-sounding soundstage that sits in the room between the loudspeakers. This invites you to explore the elements of that soundstage, rather than let tingit wash over you. With big soundstages (Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, played by Solti and the Chicago SO on Decca), the soundstage is still large, but not exaggerated or over-extended. It’s just ‘right’ sounding.

Removing the bright, forward sound intrinsic to many digital devices today does an odd thing: it makes the music sound more detailed. There is a mistaken idea that bright sounding equipment is supposed to appear ‘detailed’, and the APL DAC exposes this as nonsense. It is extraordinarily detailed. I played Donny Hathaway’s cover of ‘Misty’ on his 1972 album Everything is Everything [Atco] – not necessarily one of my reviewing test discs, but a fine album featuring a brilliant, fractured man with the voice of an angel. I know this album backwards, and yet I was hearing subtle new sounds within the recording that can be heard on a good pressing of the record, but typically aren’t there on the digital file. The APL cut through all to make these spring to life. Brilliant!

All this being said, I don’t think the DAC is completely tonally neutral, as there is a slight bloom in the mid-bass. It’s hard to detect; it’s the sound of a tenor, only slightly more full and expressive. That’s not needed with someone like Domingo singing arias on Opern-Gala [DG], but fortunately the APL stays just the right side of ‘warming the sound up’ to make this seem over-rich. Think instead, ‘consistently musically delightful’, which is what the APL is (and does).

The APL DSD-S isn’t for everyone, so deep runs the clarion call of forward sounding electronics and a bright sound. However, if you are seeking the mature and sophisticated digital choice, rather than the immediate gratification of some players, I urge you to try the APL DSD-S. In fact, try it for a few days and then switch back. If your digital files now sound ‘thin’ and ‘forward’, the DSD-S has you in its sights. Recommended if you are willing to nurture your musical experience!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Digital to analogue converter
Digital Inputs: Two S/PDIF Coaxial digital inputs with WBT RCA connectors. One Toslink S/PDIF connection. AES/EBU professional standard balanced digital input. USB B. Proprietary DTR input for APL digital transport.
Analogue Outputs: 2× single-ended WBT RCA sockets
Output impedance: approx. 15Ω
Digital formats supported: (S/PDIF) PCM up to 24-bit, 192kHz. (USB and DTR) PCM up to 32-bit, 384kHz, DSD64 and DSD128. All PCM formats upsampled to DSD64 or DSD128, user selectable
Attenuation: Analogue, in 0.5dB steps
Frequency response: not specified
THD+N: not specified
Signal to noise ratio: not specified
Dimensions (W×D×H): 45×28×11cm
Weight: 8.5kg
Price: £6,500

Manufactured by: APL Hi-Fi, Ltd

URL: www.aplhifi.com

Distributed in the UK by: Epicurean Audio

URL: www.epicureanaudio.com

Tel: +44(0)780 556 7630

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Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated amplifier

The Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum Integrated amplifier is effectively two boxes in one. The lower, base chassis doubles up as the power supply, and a short, green, braided, four-pin connector cable connects this to the main amplifier stage. The amplifier itself sits on this baseboard supply using four sharp screw-in spikes. And the reason for the bluff introduction instead of some florid prose is because the amplifier is so powerfully built it needs no such flummery. It’s a ‘get on with it’ amplifier. So we will!

There are six colour-coded inputs (both as push-buttons on the front panel, and replicated on the unique round remote control handset) and these are all balanced inputs, fed by a central sextet of XLRs inset into the centre of the rear panel. It also features fully defeatable bass and treble controls. There is also a rear mounted headphone jack alongside the solid multi-way speaker terminals (not WBTs, as anything plastic-jacketed is just not ‘deep time’ enough for the D’Agostino). There’s even an RS232 port and a mini-jack for the well-machined IR extender supplied in the box. Although ‘box’ actually means ‘velvet-lined aluminium flight case complete with rolling luggage wheels and handle’ – it’s that kind of product.

We’re dancing round the subject here. It’s the look and the build quality that makes the biggest impression. In silver or black (as per the review sample) with those contrasting copper heatsink bands, this product is machined to look the part. It’s fearsomely heavy for a relatively small box (54.4kg for the two boxes) and runs very warm, but you won’t care. This is one of the most distinctive and powerfully designed amplifiers out there. The green glowing central volume display (inspired by watchmaker Breuget) is a talking point, as is the volume control wheel that flanks this display. This dial supposedly took an age for D’Agostino to get right, but it immediately pays off in ‘engineered quality’ the first time you use it.

Beneath the elegant casework, the amplifier is a discreet, fully balanced very wide bandwidth Class AB design delivering a healthy 200W into eight ohms that perfectly doubles its load to 400W into four ohms and again, delivering 800W into two ohms. This is a useful indicator of the amplifier’s power supply design, as a less ‘stiff’ power supply will never be able to double its power into the lower impedance load. This also helps it to drive tougher loudspeaker loads without effort. Our sample arrived with many miles on the clock, so any questions about running in began and ended long before we took delivery. As a consequence, the Momentum Integrated sounded excellent as soon as we recovered from lifting it out of the case, although a true running in phase may be required.

We had at first intended to review the M-Life – the variant of the Momentum that includes a streamer in place of the tone controls – but events conspired against us (D’Agostino can’t make them fast enough, apparently). But the Momentum Integrated also opens up a new line of ‘system curation’ in the wake of distributor Absolute Sounds taking on UK digital experts dCS because the combination of D’Agostino amplification and dCS sources is an internationally popular mix. This is also a good choice because the balanced output of any of the three current dCS digital sources makes a lot more sense than trying to turn a single-ended source pseudo-balanced. Factor in a pair of Wilson Audio loudspeakers and runs of Transparent Audio (plus some Stillpoints equipment supports and a few Tube Traps) and you have a turn-key high-end system that will take on anything the rest of the high-end world can throw at it.

The ‘take on everything’ factor is perhaps the most obvious and immediate fix on the Momentum integrated’s performance: absolute authority. The amplifier’s other sonic benefits (and there are many) resolve out over the first few hours spent in its company, but that first impression is of an amplifier in complete control of its environment. It combines the fast-twitch reading of the audio terrain like a fighter pilot and the ‘the skies are mine’ confidence of the admiral of an aircraft carrier fleet. The result is an amplifier that has no challengers, except for more of the same from D’Agostino’s own preamp and power amplifiers. Even if ultimately you take a different audio direction, you cannot help be a little in awe of that confidence and sheer control over the proceedings the Momentum integrated displays.

This confidence is most notable in the bass, where the D’Agostino has the perfect combination of power, precision, and performance. You could add ‘punch’ there too, because that almost visceral gut-punching force really hits home in the bass making your loudspeakers sound deeper and more powerful than you expected. This isn’t just for dub bass lines or thundering cannons (although it certainly helps make bass-oriented elements take on an authenticity and energy that is refreshing). In fact, it’s the more surprising bass textures, like the way Sam Jones’ upright bass just hangs in the room like the real deal on ‘Love For Sale’ on the classic Cannonball Adderley album Somethin’ Else [Blue Note]. Every pluck of the strings, every finger squeal as he moves around the neck, the precision of his playing is brought perfectly to the fore. This is an album I know backwards, and have used it as a test recording for listening for years. I know the shape and texture of that walking bass line extremely well, and I know how it sounds through tightly controlled amplifiers and amps. Regardless, the D’Agostino Momentum shows new insights.

For all the Momentum’s power, control, and deep bass, D’Agostino also gave this amplifier the kind of temporal precision one might expect of a small, fast British amplifier. Viewing this with a kind of mid-Atlantic balance, the American’s Fear of Timing meets the Englishman’s Fear of the Watt, and often the criticism levelled at more powerful amplifiers is they don’t have the quicksilver temporal precision of a fast-paced sub-100 watter. When you hear what the Momentum Integrated can do with a beat, you realise this temporal precision has nothing to do with power output, but a lot to do with good amplifier design. One of the best recordings to highlight this is one of the worst recordings I have: ‘Addis Black Widow’ by Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics from their Inspiration Information Vol 3 album [Strut]. This Ethopian-based slice of ethno-jazz funk is all about the drumming, featuring some of the most out the pocket and off the wall rhythms you will hear. Think that rhythmically lazy but actually ‘inside the song’ drumming of a young Ringo Star, but seemingly with six arms and four feet. On an amplifier that plays music simply for the size of the soundstage or the precision of the detail, this track sounds like someone is throwing a drum kit down a very long flight of stairs. On the D’Agostino, however, you get a sense of rhythm just kept together to give the track a malevolent undercurrent: precisely what it should be doing.

Couple this ability to tease out the most complex rhythms well with the sheer amount of detail, the precision of the dynamic range (both in resolving small changes within a passage of music, and dealing with those more broad dynamic brushstrokes you get with Bruckner or Mahler), the functionally perfect sense of coherence that makes a string quartet seem almost psychic, and the ‘wide, high, and deep as the record permits’ soundstaging properties, and the D’Agostino is something really special.

We mentioned the M-Life earlier, but having used the Momentum Integrated for some time, I’d actually find it hard to lose the tone controls, because they are possibly more useful than ever. They help tailor the sound of modern recordings, taking some of the edge off bright recordings and a bit of bass boost can help flesh out some of those ‘Mastered for iTunes’ bass-light albums.

The D’Agostino Momentum Integrated is one of those rare products that stands out even among highly-respected rivals. It’s one of those designs where the only thing better than the Momentum is more Momentum; a move to separate preamp and mono amps – even the pre and stereo amp might be a bit of a sideways move rather than a leap forward. If you are looking for what is quite simply the best integrated amplifier out there – and have the shelves to take it – the Momentum Integrated is the heavyweight champion. Very highly recommended!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Integrated balanced operation amplifier
Inputs: six XLR only, RS232 port, 3.5mm jack for IR extender (supplied)
Outputs: five-way loudspeaker terminals, rear-mounted ¼” TRS headphone jack
Power Output: 200W per channel into 8Ω, 400W per channel into 4Ω, 800W per channel into 2Ω
Frequency Response: 0.1Hz-1MHz, -1dB, 20Hz-20kHz ±0dB
Distortion (full output): < 0.1%, 20Hz-20kHz
Signal to Noise ratio: -95dB, unweighted
Power consumption at standby: 20W
Finishes: Silver and black
Dimensions (H×W×D): 10.9×45.7×40.6cm (amplifier), 10.2×45.7×40.6cm (PSU, base)
Weight: 54.4kg
Price: £45,000

Manufactured by: D’Agostino LLC

URL: www.dandagostino.com

Distributed in the UK by: Absolute Sounds

URL: www.absolutesounds.com

Tel: +44(0)20 8971 3909

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T+A Elektroakustik AMP 8 power amplifier

T+A’s awesome HV electronics are mighty beasts, but like most might beasts in audio, they are not exactly ‘cheap’. You do get your money’s worth with the HV series amplifiers, but you still need a lot of money in the first place. In an ideal world, there would be an amplifier that uses a lot of what makes those HV amplifiers so good, at a more affordable level, and that’s precisely where the AMP 8 comes in.

The AMP 8 is part of T+A’s two-strong smaller form factor products, the other component being the DAC 8. It’s logical to think of the two as a pairing, with the DAC 8 as processor and digital preamp hub and the AMP 8 as ‘just’ the power amplifier. Which is why we broke them apart like this. The AMP 8 is pretty far removed from being ‘just’ a power amplifier, and its small case and top line 2× 80W into eight ohms, 110W into four ohms specification might easily make it an afterthought in any review of the pairing. In fact, what the AMP 8 does is provide the perfect ‘straight wire with gain’ style power amplifier for any sophisticated system builder who is not keen on spending tens of thousands on a stereo power amp.

The overall circuit design of the AMP 8 is very similar to the German company’s PA 3000 HV integrated amplifier, in that the input and voltage amplifier stages operate at much higher voltage potentials than usually found in domestic amplifiers. In the case of the AMP 8, the input stage is a cross-coupled J-FET cascode amplifier, while the voltage amplifier stage is a single-ended Class A FET cascode amplifier, of a design first thought up by Dr Malcolm Hawksford, Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Essex. In a high-voltage amp design like this, the output stage is responsible for current amplification, and the AMP 8 sports high performance ‘ThermalTrak’ audio-specific transistors designed for bias point stability and freedom from inertia effects.

Another T+A innovation, the voltage and current amplifier stages are completely separated from one another, even to the point of not sharing the same power supply. This is more than just electronics overkill, it prevents any feedback from the loudspeakers affecting the more sensitive and sonically vital voltage amplifiers. This circuit design is known as an Isolated Current Amplifier (ICA) circuit and has been used by the brand for several years, and was first seen in its R-Series. This inherent isolation of individual stages makes for an amplifier with low circuit track inductance, and a design that doesn’t need high levels of global negative feedback to create a linear, wide bandwidth amplifier, and this is evidenced by the AMP 8 having a bandwidth of more than 200kHz.

The amplifier features an over-specified, low-field leakage toroidal transformer, claimed to generate up to 400W and this, coupled with a large local capacitive reservoir across the output stage acting as buffer, means this relatively small amplifier can deliver a surprisingly powerful sound to surprisingly difficult loudspeaker loads. Naturally, the T+A bristles with high-grade electronics components including non-magnetic Vishay resistors and high quality WIMA and ELNA audio-grade capacitors. There is also a down-firing case fan, which remains silent until needed under duress and even then runs slow and quiet enough for it not to be troublesome for listeners.

In a way, despite the fact the AMP 8 costs about one-seventh the cost of the HV designs, there is a lot of HV gene pool inside this amp. The way it keeps the costs down is more to do with simplifying the design rather than significant compromise, so the AMP 8 places the entire amplifier circuit on a single board instead of the mother/daughter board layout in more upscale designs. Yes, in absolute terms this does slightly compromise ultimate performance, but you would need to be up at the HT level even to hear such compromises, so this is an entirely relevant way of keeping costs down.

The AMP 8 is signal sensing, and very quick to sense a signal, too. So it will sit there perfectly contented until something electrical comes down the phono cables and will then spring to life almost instantly. Unless you are determined to hear that abrupt first opening drumbeat of REM’s ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It’, the AMP 8 will spring to life. It’s sensitive enough to wake up even at the turn of a passive preamplifier, and this combination is something well worth considering. It will power down after 20 seconds of no signal. There are also options for triggering the AMP 8 using an external trigger voltage, or – obviously – the DAC 8.

The amp is small and purposeful looking, yet has provision for both XLR and RCA inputs (don’t be ‘clever’ and use both inputs to try and make one amp serve two masters – the auto-sensing circuit doesn’t take kindly to cheaters) and has a set of very nice WBT style five-way speaker terminals as standard. From the front, though, it’s just three LEDs denoting power on status, play mode, and whether the speakers are receiving signal – a blinking LED at this point denotes either short amp warm up or something darker at play. In fairness, though, this is possibly one of the most unburstable amplifiers out there, so the blinking LED is invariably gain stages warming up for a few seconds.

I’m drawn to the inevitable comparison with classic Quad power amps like the 303. The AMP 8 is a lot more powerful of course, but it has the same intrinsically ‘right’ sound and build quality that keeps the 303 in circulation and still commanding fair prices when they come up for sale. In Quad speak, both amplifiers are attempts at that notional ideal of a ‘straight wire with gain’ although maybe the Hippocratic Oath is more accurate: ‘first, do no harm’. This is exactly what you want from a power amplifier – sources, preamps, loudspeakers, even cables can add a flavour to the sound quality of a system, but a power amplifier should do nothing more than amplify. Of course this is an oversimplification, and if this were the beginning and end of the amplifier quest then valve amps would disappear overnight. But, notionally at least, the power amplifier should influence the sound less than other devices, and this is what the AMP 8 does so well.

An amplifier that does nothing and does it right is not the stuff of exciting reviews, because it’s like writing about the different tastes of spring water. But there are aspects of amplifier performance where many fall short and the AMP 8 shows their limitations. Dynamic range is one of the most noticeable improvements the AMP 8 has over many of its rivals. The amplifier simply has better dynamics than its rivals. Not heaps better, and there’s no sense of ‘inky blackness’ and lowered noise floors. It’s just that, in playing Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony [Haitink, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Decca], the sense of high drama in the opening bars is played more to the limit.

This track also highlights the excellent transient response of the AMP 8. Shostakovich is not something to be taken lightly and any diminishing of the force of the orchestra, whether in terms of leading edge attack or the weight of the playing, undermines the intensity of the piece. The AMP 8 – in the context of an excellent and matching system – retained this energy and the fast attack and decay needed to cope with an orchestra at full stretch made this a welcome addition to the home system. In all other aspects, that ‘first, do no harm’ approach pays off, because in all other perspectives the amplifier is simply doing its job without exaggeration or diminution. This is a good amplifier!

You need to make a considered buying decision when thinking of the T+A AMP 8 as your next power amplifier. Many use a paper-thin excuse of the amplifier ‘getting on in years’ to spark the search for a new amplifier every four or five years. This isn’t that sort of amplifier. It’s built to last and last, and that excuse simply won’t wash. If you buy this amplifier, it’s a decade long commitment to a design that will not age, falter, materially change, or in any other way fall to bits for the next two dozen years at least. To me, that’s a highly attractive prospect, but I know people who change equipment with the seasons and they will find this unbreakable nature challenges their decision making process. Recommended for the long game!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Solid-state stereo power amplifier
Inputs: 2× XLR balanced, 2× RCA single‑ended line inputs, optical ‘CTRL’ input for electrical triggering for DAC 8 use
Outputs: 2× five way speaker terminals
Power output: 80W per channel (8Ω), 110W per channel (4Ω)
Frequency Response: 1Hz-200kHz
Slew rate: 60V/µS
Damping factor: >170
Signal to noise ratio: >103dB
Distortion: < 0.009%
Dimensions (W×H×D): 27×9.5×27cm
Weight: 7kg
Price: £1,632

Manufactured by: T+A Elektroakustik

URL: www.ta-hifi.de

Distributed in the UK by: Kog Audio Ltd

URL: www.kogaudio.com

Tel: +44 (0)24 7722 0650

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WIN! Prism Sound Callia headphone DAC preamplifier worth £1,794!

We have collaborated with the smart people from Cambridgeshire professional digital experts Prism Sound to give one lucky winner the chance to win a fantastic Callia headphone DAC preamplifier.

Alan Sircom reviewed the Callia in issue 139 of Hi-Fi+. He wrote, “In terms of technology, Prism goes with an ARM Cortex digital processor, but relies heavily on Prism Sound’s own circuit architecture and reclocking stages. The last is the deliciously named CleverClox hybrid phase-locked loop to act as clock recovery taken from either local or S/PDIF input.” He concluded the review with, “An honest, solid, and extremely accurate recommendation”.

Prism Sound have been building studio-grade A-D and D-A converters for more than 25 years and have built an enviable reputation for performance and technical excellence. Much of your favourite music and movie scores will have been recorded, mixed or mastered with Prism Sound professional A/D and D/A converters. Now with CALLIA, home users can enjoy true studio sound quality!

Here’s what Elton John’s producer Gus Dudgeon said about Prism Sound’s technology after the first remastering for CD of Elton’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”:

“The very nature of analogue recordings being transferred to vinyl demanded major compromises. With (Prism Sound) digital sound these constraints are removed, and the recordings can be heard much closer to the reproduction we had originally intended.”

The outstanding Callia would normally cost £1,794 including VAT, but thanks to Prism Sound, here’s how you can win your next super headphone DAC preamplifier!

Competition Question

What did Elton John’s producer say after remastering “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” with Prism Sound technology?

A. “Phew!”

B. “Fabulous!”

C. “… the recordings can be heard much closer to the reproduction we had originally intended.”

To answer, please visit Prism Sound’s dedicated competition page at http://www.prismsound.com/hfpcomp Alternatively, send your answer on a postcard (including your name, address, and contact details) to HiFi Plus competition, Prism Sound, The Old School, 49 High Street, Stretham, Ely, Cambridgeshire, CB6 3LD, UK

Competition Rules

The competition will run from December 1st 2016 until February 2nd 2017. The competition is open to everyone, but multiple, automated or bulk entries will be disqualified. The winner will be chosen at random from all valid entries, will be contacted via email (where possible) and their name will be published in the magazine. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into. No cash alternative will be offered. Absolute Multimedia (UK) Ltd. is compliant with the Data Protection Act and UK laws apply. Our policy is such that we will not pass on your details to any third party without your prior consent.

Innuos ZENith MkII music server

Portugal is not a country that gets on the audio map very often so it’s great to find Innuos, a company with a Portuguese founder and an assembly and distribution base in that part of the world. However, in fact, Nuno Vittorio’s company began in the UK in 2009 as LIV Technology Connected and launched the Innuos brand five years later. Now, Innuos makes all things streaming from servers for audio and video through music and media players (renderers) down through hard drives, DACs, network switches, and cables. This is an unusually broad array that suggests an inclination toward the custom installation market, but which has also resulted in a range of three ZEN music servers. These all feature the stealth style casework seen in the top ZENith MkII model that’s the focus of this review. The smallest ZEN Mini starts at £599 for a 1TB HDD while the ZENith starts with a 1TB SSD at £1,999.

At a glance this server is not dissimilar to the Melco N1-A that I use as a reference. Both have a USB output for direct connection to a DAC as well as a dedicated Ethernet output that can be connected to a network player/streamer without the need for a switch. And as computer grade network switches are a source of high frequency noise and mean another pair of Ethernet cables, avoiding them is highly desirable. Effectively the ZENith incorporates a switch with a linear power supply; such things can be achieved outside of a server, but at a cost of over £200 and yet more boxes around the system. Where the Innuos differs from the Melco is that it has a built-in CD ripper that extracts data from CDs and saves that data as uncompressed FLAC files, and more significantly runs an operating system that appears to be based on that developed by Logitech for its much loved Squeezebox products (the network players that got many audio enthusiasts interested in streaming in the first place).

Server application software is what makes or breaks anything to do with network streaming. If the OS doesn’t file your music in a way that makes it easy to find and play then you are not going to want to use it, regardless of sound quality. Linn and Naim figured this out early on and have developed streaming systems that sound good and are easy to use. Sonos maxed out on the easy to use route, which is why it is the byword for network audio: the Hoover of the streaming world. Innuos’ take is to use a web-based music management system that takes most of the complexity out of organising a library. It is effectively an intelligent filing system that, when partnered with one of the control apps that the company recommends, makes music streaming an activity that even allows you to keep your hair intact.

Including a USB output also means that you don’t need a streamer in the system. Instead, you just need to connect the server to the network (wired only) and the DAC, install the appropriate app on your smartphone or tablet and, once you’ve loaded music, you’re away!

The web browser approach to music loading proved less straightforward than it might have done, so I used my computer to put music files into the ZENith’s auto-import folder and went to the webpage for the server (a simple case of typing my.innuos.com into the URL bar) and opted to import from computer, which went smoothly for the most part. It had a bit of trouble with some albums and if I had known to press the report button at the right moment it would have told me exactly what caused this. Essentially, the ZENith uses a series of rules that allow it to identify and categorise all the metadata required and it doesn’t like importing files that break these rules. However, you can copy your music straight onto the ZENith’s unsorted folder and it will be available on the control app. But, because that bypasses its filing system, it can be harder to find the songs you want when it comes to playback. At present, Innuos has not finished its own control app but recommends two that were designed for the Squeezebox: iPeng 9 for iOS and Orange Squeeze for Android. There is also an option for Windows devices. I tried iPeng 9 and found it to be a well thought out and intuitive controller, with good graphics and a lot of functionality. I liked the fact that you can search for radio stations or podcasts, which is still quite a rare facility. You can also stream various music apps directly from the Innuos such as Tidal and Spotify, but I wasn’t able to access my Qobuz account because I got the password wrong and at present the Innuos/Qobuz set up doesn’t spot errors like that. Just like any computer based server system Innuos regularly updates its software and niggles like this are being ironed out on a monthly basis.

When it came to performance, initial listening was done via a Cyrus Stream X renderer between the ZENith and a Primare DAC 30, using the direct Ethernet output. This revealed that the ZENith delivers a highly coherent, vibrant, and engaging sound that hangs together very well indeed. It delivers instrument timbre, reverb, and more importantly does so in such a fashion that it sounds like musicians playing together. This is not something that streaming systems do as a matter of course, or arguably digital audio as a whole for that matter. With Gregorio Paniagua’s La Folia [Atrium Musicae De Madrid, Harmonia Mundi], which combines ancient and contemporary acoustic instruments, the vivacity of the sound was inspiring, the tonal colour rich and varied, and the spirit of the music very much in evidence.

Moving from the networked streamer connection to the USB output and using Vertere’s rather splendid HB USB cable resulted in greater precision combined with a cleaner sound as expected. What caught me by surprise was that it seemed to ‘time’ better as well. This is something of a first in my experience: as a rule Ethernet connections sound more musically coherent because they keep time better, so the USB output on the ZENith must be pretty serious. It comes down to focus; there is less smear which makes for a less diffuse sound that clarifies both spatial and temporal detail. Going back to the Ethernet/streamer/coax to DAC route sounded brasher, louder, and bolder; it was not unappealing in truth but did seem more obviously coloured. On some tracks the Ethernet route seemed to have an advantage but overall best results were achieved with the direct connection. Keith Jarrett’s solo piano on Paris/London – Testament [ECM] rolls along in very convincing fashion, with plenty of the instrument body in evidence and a good solid groove from the left hand. James Blake’s ‘Radio Silence’ [Colour in Anything, Polydor] is revealed to have fabulous spatial dynamics; the production is quite remarkable and as good an indication that modern producers care about sound quality as you will encounter.

I contrasted a rip made on a Naim UnitiServe with one performed on the ZENith to see if there was any difference, and you may not be surprised to hear that it was too close to call. However, the Naim has proved itself superior to my iMac in the past, even when using XLD software, so rips can differ. The playing field was not however very level, the UnitiServe rip was a WAV against the ZENith’s FLAC (this cannot be changed at present), and both were played on the ZENith itself which should favour the native rip. It’s safe to say that this server is capable of making a decent rip and it was clear from the library that identifying the disc in question (La Folia) was not a problem. I did a few others and they also came out well. I also made life difficult by giving it a compilation recorded from vinyl that it wasn’t impressed with, the complete lack of metadata making it too much trouble to identify. That had to be done manually on the Mac.

Library management is a fundamental part of server design and Innuos has gone further than most in its attempts to make this easier. It could, and undoubtedly will, be refined over time, but so long as you let it do the sorting for you – and look at those reports when they come in – the ZENith is capable of making this side of things pretty straightforward. On the sound quality side, it is very capable indeed – clearly more so than the competition I had to hand thanks one presumes to the SSD storage. This does limit absolute capacity, but you can always go for the 2TB option for an extra £500, and even then the ZENith MkII is the least expensive SSD server on the market. All in all, it’s a very hard act to beat for anyone looking to push streaming quality to the max.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Solid-state music server with SSD storage and CD ripper

Storage: Minimum of one 1TB SSD hard drive

Network connection: RJ45 Ethernet

Digital Outputs: RJ45 Ethernet direct, USB 2.0

Back up connection: USB

Formats supported: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, OGG Vorbis, AAC, MP3, DoP (DSD over PCM)

CD rip format: FLAC (zero compression)

Streaming services supported: Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify Premium

User Interface: Web browser, third party control applications

Other Features: UPnP server, DLNA device compatible

Dimensions (H×W×D): 70 × 420 × 320mm

Weight: 9kg

Price: £1,999

Manufacturer: Innuos

Tel: +44(0) 1793 384048

URL: www.innuos.com

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Westone ES60 Custom-Fit In Ear Monitor

When asking non-audiophile friends and colleagues for their impressions, if any, of Westone Laboratories, I have discovered many think the firm focuses primarily on selling components and supplies for the global hearing aid industry. This isn’t too surprising since Westone got its start many years ago by building custom-moulded earpiece shells for the famous hearing aid maker Beltone. Over time, of course, Westone has grown and evolved so that today the firm concentrates its efforts in five separate – but related – areas: custom ear-mould products; audiology supply products; military earpiece products (yes, many fighter pilots and aircraft carrier crewmen wear Westones); digital, industrial, and hearing protection products; and personal and professional music earphones.

Naturally, Westone’s music products division is the one that will most interest Hi-Fi+ readers most and for a very important reason: Westone is arguably the one company most responsible for launching the entire contemporary custom-fit in-ear music monitor movement in the first place. In fact, if you ask around a bit you will find that Westone alumni are now spread throughout the CIEM industry, so that it is fair to say the company has played a huge (albeit understated) role in shaping today’s high-end personal audio marketplace. Out of sheer respect for Westone’s contributions to the field, we felt it was time to review the firm’s flagship ES-60 custom-fit in-ear monitors.

The ES-60 is the brainchild of veteran Westone engineer Karl Cartwright, who has probably forgotten more about music monitoring applications and their specific requirements than most of us will ever know. For insights into Cartwright’s design philosophy, we refer you to an interview he did with Hi-Fi+ that is published in the Hi-Fi+ Guide to Headphones, Earphones & Related Electronics (download your free copy at https://hifiplus.com/buyers_guides/1/). If you read the interview you may find, as we have, that Cartwright appears to live right at the intersection of Expertise Avenue and Humility Lane. In other words, he knows an awful lot about the art and science of in-ear monitor design, but he hasn’t let it go to his head (or ego), which is a refreshing combination, to say the least.

The ES-60 design is based on six balanced armature-type drivers grouped as a three-way array, with two bass drivers, two midrange drivers, and two high-frequency drivers per earpiece, all linked via a passive three-way crossover. These drivers are housed in custom-moulded, mostly acrylic earpiece shells and they deliver sound to the wearer’s ears via dual bores (or sound outlet tubes) embedded within the earpiece. Of this dual bore arrangement Westone says, “high and low frequency sound components are channelled through separate passages in the sound port and sum within your ear canal instead of the earpiece. The result is audibly more natural and provides a more convincing transition between frequency ranges.”

More so than many CIEM manufacturers, Westone consistently ‘sweats the details’ of its products, whether large or small. Hence, the firm has paid considerable attention to the signal cables supplied with the ES-60: namely, a set of proprietary, user-replaceable EPIC cables that Westone says are, “constructed of bifurcated, high-flex, ultra-low resistance tinsel wire, reinforced with a special aramid fibre, and braided for ultimate durability, acoustic transparency, and isolation from mechanical cable noise.”

Of special significance are the distinctive construction materials and techniques Westone uses for the ES-60 earpieces. Most manufacturers choose just one material for their earpieces and stick with it (e.g., acrylic, silicone, stabilised hardwoods, or other materials). Westone, however, deliberately takes a different approach, building the outer portions of its earpiece enclosures from hard, tough, and resilient cold pour acrylic material, but then making the inner portions of the earpieces – those that actually fit into the wearer’s ear canals – from a special temperature-reactive material that is solid and rigid at room temperature, but that becomes flexible as it reaches body temperature. Westone claims the benefits of this ‘Flex Canal’ technology are that the initially firm earpieces are easy to insert, while the subsequent softening process allows “increased comfort and (a superior) acoustic seal for incredible noise isolation.” See what I mean about sweating the details?

This same thoroughness carries over into the accessories provided with the ES-60. The CIEMs ship in a watertight, internally padded carry case moulded of translucent thermoplastic material in Westone’s signature signal orange colour. Within the case are found an owner’s manual, a padded microfibre cleaning cloth, a cleaning tool/brush, a small vial of Oto-Ease fluid (a gentle lubricant users can apply to their earpiece shells), a translucent orange cable-winding spool to help keep signal cables from becoming snarled inside the case, and – get this – a user renewable pod filled with desiccant material to help prevent moisture damage to the CIEMs when they are in storage. Capping things off, the ES-60 case comes with a plastic, credit card-sized user ID card that lists the owner’s name, the model and serial number of the CIEMs, and the monitor’s original production date.

About the only thing missing is a feature some of Westone’s competitors have adopted; specifically, a clearly marked label on the case stating something along these lines: “If found, please return these custom in-ear monitors to the manufacturer for a reward.” I mention this point only because, if one’s prized and expensive CIEMs ever should go missing, it would be nice to have mechanisms in place to help the errant monitors find their way back to their rightful owners.

But now, let’s focus on the thing we all care about most: the ES-60’s sound. As a way of explaining the Westone’s signature sound, let me begin by relating the gist of a conversation with Westone’s Karl Cartwright where I asked about his voicing strategies for the ES-60. He replied that, and I am paraphrasing here, he had tried to give the ES-60 the voicing characteristics he admired in some of the finest studio monitor-type loudspeakers he had heard—especially the sorts of speakers that might be used in mixing facilities, where low colouration and faithfulness to the source material is essential. I can’t say for sure, but I suspect Cartwright might have had in mind something along the lines of a fine pair of upper-tier Bowers & Wilkins Diamond-series floorstanding speakers as heard in a room with good acoustics. I say this because I see sonic parallels between the sound of B&W’s top end models and the sound of Westone’s ES-60 CIEMs.

To expand on this point, let me say that I have generally found B&W’s top models to have qualities of natural and organic warmth, a full-bodied presentation, and a sound that manages to be neutral and transparent without becoming cold, bright, or edgy. It is a sound that is at once revealing and yet almost self-effacing, as if the transducer is bent on honestly and expressively rendering what the music has to offer, yet without drawing undue attention to itself. This description, in a nutshell, also nicely summarises how the ES‑60 CIEMs sound.

The ES-60s offer low-end performance, for instance, that can be deep, powerful, and beautifully weighted, yet that is also quick, agile, and well-defined – never overblown or flabby sounding. Just listen for example, to the punchy bass guitar and incisive kick drum thwacks found on Billy Idol’s iconic ‘Prodigal Blues’ [Prodigal Blues, Chrysalis, CD] through the Westones. The ES-60s manage to catch the weight and depth of these low-pitched instruments, but also to convey their sheer dynamic energy and immediacy, complete with plenty of pitch definition and transient detail. As a result, you both hear and feel the pulse of the song down deep in your bones and the effect is markedly like hearing real instruments performing nearby. The key is that the ES-60s supply just what the music demands, but not more (and certainly not less). With this said, though, I would observe that the Westones probably do incorporate a gentle touch of bass lift, but only insofar as that bass lift helps the monitors mimic the sound of very high quality monitor speakers as played in real-world rooms (where the loudspeakers would themselves have a touch of bass lift owing to the effects of room gain).

The midrange of the ES-60s is likewise evenly balanced, neutrally voiced, well detailed, and uncommonly smooth. As a result, the Westones are faithful conduits for the recordings you choose to play. In practice, this means the ES-60s can either sound as vivid and lifelike or as flat, dull, and lifeless as your recordings themselves do—this in sharp contrast to those sorts of monitors that struggle to make everything sound ‘intense’ or ‘exciting’, regardless of what’s actually captured in the recording. For this reason, the ES-60 is very much a bellwether listening tool; on fine recordings it rewards the listener with delightfully rich, expressive, and engaging sounds, but on severely compressed or crudely made recordings the ES-60s—ever faithful to the sources that feed them—can at times sound a bit diffuse and uninvolving. To be clear, though, the ES-60 happily does not punish the listener when mediocre records are played; rather, it makes the best of what’s at hand, though it typically can’t and won’t make the musical magic happen unless the source material is up to the job.

Ah, but what happens with good material? Then, the Westones serve up musical magic that would make Harry Potter envious. Two recordings that really drove home this point for me were ‘Poesia for Trumpet and Piano’ from classical trumpeter Brian Chin’s Universal Language [Origin Classical, CD] and ‘Timeless’ from John Abercrombie, Badi Assad, and Larry Coryell’s Three Guitars [Chesky, SACD].

On ‘Poesia’, Chin slowly and almost meditatively explores the expressive range of his horn, allowing the instrument to sound quiet, pure, and reflective at first, but then gradually pressing it forward into more powerful and full-throated territory. The Westones accurately and adroitly render these brass mood shifts, so that when Chin puts real force into his notes the burnished, glowing energy of the trumpet swells has real, visceral impact.

In ‘Timeless’, in turn, we hear three master guitarists create an intimate performance that constitutes a gentle, profoundly respectful, but also invigorating musical conversation. The ES-60s made child’s play of revealing subtle differences in texture and timbre between the performers’ guitars, while also rendering differences between the performers’ own senses of touch, technique, and tonality. The thrilling part is that with the revealing ES-60s in play, there is never any question of mistaking one guitarist for the others, so that it becomes comparatively easy to follow along as the threads of their musical conversation unfold. Finally, the Westone’s beautifully re-created the reverberant characteristics of the recording space, providing a believable, real-world acoustic context within which the music takes form.

The only small reservation I might express is that the ES‑60’s typically do not seem to convey quite as much upper midrange/treble ‘air’ and transient information as some other accuracy minded CIEMs I have heard (for example, the Noble Audio Savant or the Ultimate Ears Pro Reference Remastered models). This characteristic is minor enough that it certainly doesn’t rise to the level of perceived high-frequency roll off, but it does mean that, through the Westones, some recordings can sound slightly less transparent, airy, and spacious than one might expect. Still, I can’t help but think that this may be how the ES-60s manage to avoid punishing listeners when mediocre recordings are played. (There is, after all, a fine line between transducers that are revealing and those that are too revealing for their own good…)

Westone’s ES-60 is a beautifully and thoughtfully constructed custom-fit in-ear monitor—one that in every way inspires pride of ownership in those fortunate enough to own it. The ES-60 manages to sound natural and warm, yet uncoloured, revealing and expressive, yet not sterile or cold, and to tell the truth about recordings, yet without making less-than-ideal material become unbearable. In the end, it’s a product whose carefully judged mix of virtues reflects the many decades of hard won listening and design wisdom of the master craftsmen who’ve built it.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Multi-driver custom-fit in-ear monitor.

Driver complement: Six balanced armature-type drivers grouped as two bass drivers, two midrange drivers, and two high frequency drivers. A miniature passive 3-way crossover network is used.

Frequency response: 8 Hz – 20 kHz

Impedance: 46 Ohms @ 1 kHz

Sensitivity: 118 dB SPL @ 1mW

Weight: Not specified. Varies with earpiece materials chosen

Accessories: Watertight Monitor Vault II case, cleaning tool, EPIC MMCX user-replaceable signal cable, cable management right, desiccant pod, cleaning cloth, vial of Oto-Ease fluid (said to facilitate smoother insertion or removal of CIEM earpieces), and users manual.

Prices: £1,099 UK, $1,299 US

Warranty: two years

Manufacturer information: Westone Laboratories

2235 Executive Circle, Colorado Springs, CO 80906

Tel.: (800) 525-5071

URL: www.westone.com

Distributor Information: Custom IEM Company

64 The Maltings, Roydon Road, Stanstead Abbotts, Hertfordshire SG12 8HG, United Kingdom

Tel.: 033 772 0007

URL: www.custom-inearmonitors.co.uk

(The Custom IEM Company also has additional London and regional UK offices)

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Cyrus Audio Phono Reference phono stage and PSX-R2 power supply

Cyrus Audio – home of the ‘singing shoebox’ – is synonymous with good quality audio at a fair price. Occasionally though, it knocks one of its products completely out of the park. That’s what happened with the Phono Signature. This is the best phono stage Cyrus knows how to build, and it’s possibly one of the best phono stages any company knows how to build, irrespective of price. That’s a pretty bold statement, especially from the Editor of a magazine that is not afraid of the upper limit in audio. Still, it stands.

The Cyrus Audio Phono Signature is a discrete, upgradable phono stage, featuring four completely independent inputs, a very highly specified passive RIAA de-emphasis filter with metallised polyester capacitors for the least damage to the sound, a low noise DC power supply as standard (with the chance to upgrade the signal path power feed with a PSX-R₂ separate DC power supply), has the option of moving magnet, or highly adjustable moving coil inputs, and can output to either XLR or RCA line inputs. All in the distinctive cast half-width Cyrus case.

Cyrus has actively made the Phono Signature extremely adjustable in terms of cartridge resistance and capacitance, and amplifier gain. There are 160 different permutations of these three parameters available to the user. What’s more, instead of being accessible from a rear panel DIP switch block, these are user controllable on the fly, to the point where these performance aspects are controlled from the remote control or the front panel. This is an entirely conscious idea on the part of Cyrus, which doesn’t adhere to the idea of ‘fit and forget’ cartridge loading. Instead, Cyrus thinks we should tailor the sound of LP through the cartridge, applying a bit of extra capacitance here to take the edge off too bright a recording, or a bit of resisitance here to bring up the presence region of a recording. And it has done this while eschewing both EQ curves and tone controls, effectively using the cartridge’s relationship with the phono stage as its own combined equaliser and tone stack.

This is, er, odd-ball stuff… but it works. Coming very much from the ‘fuggedaboutit’ school of adjusting the loading and EQ of a cartridge, the idea of using the cartridge to compensate for the iniquities in recordings is about as strange as adjusting the colour balance of your TV set for each programme watched… but it works. Coming from someone who isn’t that bothered about different EQ curves because it effects the grand total of maybe five albums in my collection that I rarely play, this level of LP tweaking should be way beyond my ‘give a crap’ level… but it works.

Although the die-cast chassis looks remain close to the classic Cyrus Audio look of old, that distinctive light, slightly bright sound has all but disappeared. The Cyrus sound is as detailed as it ever was, but where that detail tipped over into brightness and a slightly etched quality that typified the traditional Cyrus sound, it’s now more rounded and even-handed, with more bass depth and authority, and greater dynamic range. This seems to be doubly so in the case of the Phono Signature, and is possibly Cyrus’ long-sought ‘break-out’ product to give the company some traction in the US.

In the Phono Reference, Cyrus has made an outstanding phono stage, one that combines the need for a holographic soundstage and massive amounts of detail, and one that gives a musical, engaging presentation… and all points in between. In its standard one-box guise, there is a slight amount of foreshortening of apparent stage width and depth, but this can be corrected with the addition of the PSX-R₂. At which point, this plucky little two boxer from England can take on some of the real heavyweights. I found it didn’t sound the least bit out of place in the company of Lyra cartridges and D’Agostino integrated amplifiers, despite residing in a system where I think the fuses cost more than the phono stage! That’s punching above its weight.

The dynamic range here is truly effortless. I rolled out the big guns – an early pressing of Led Zep II [Atlantic] to be precise. This is a recording with plenty of vim and vigour, mostly masked by a recording that leaves much to be desired. A few judicious tweaks of the loading, and some of the worst excesses of the recording have been sort of side-stepped. John Paul-Jones’ bass lines and Bonzo’s powerhouse drumming brushed aside the decades and started beating me round the head, and I loved every second of it! The sense of scale and range on ‘Heartbreaker’ pushed me to play this at Def Con 2 levels and the whole thing delivered a very high degree of awesomeness.

Cyrus has made something so much more than just a headbanger’s phono stage here. Swap fast rock for something more layered and complex – ‘America is Waiting’ from Eno and Byrne’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts [Sire], for example – and the way the Phono Reference organises that angular, dense mix of ‘found’ proto-samples, tape loops, and instruments draws you ever deeper into the mix.

The same applied throughout: recordings opened up under the watchful gaze of the Phono Reference with ease, and the gentle tonal adjustment of cartridge loading can bring out the hidden gems within your record collection. It will take you several dozen hours of listening with your own system to determine the right settings to exact a change to the sound of any given LP, but when you get to black belt level here, you can really improve the lot of many otherwise not so inspiring records.

The Phono Reference is not without slight operational idiosyncrasies, but most are design led rather than sonic limitations. The squidgy soft-touch buttons along the front panel are not exactly the most positive feeling buttons around, and that – coupled with a display that gets very hard to read off axis and a modal menu structure that takes a little while to get your head around – can result in a lot of button mashing, especially in the familiarity stages of ownership. The remote too is not ideal, because it’s the Cyrus full system remote and should have more specific loading-related functions if you want the cartridge-loading as tone shaper to become a ‘thing’. In other words, the best way of controlling this phono stage is placing it on a shelf where the display is at a useful height, and you can control it directly. At least at first.

The UK loves a good power supply, but many of our international counterparts aren’t quite so convinced. Rather than bother with the additional expense of an extra box, why not just pay for the thing up-front? The Cyrus Phono Reference goes some way to explaining the ‘why’ of bolt-on power supplies. At its price, the Phono Reference may well end up connecting a good front-end worth a few thousand, or it might end up hooked to one of the very best. If you are going for a more even handed system, the PSX-R₂ power supply is a nice addition that tidies up the performance of the Phono Reference, but is hardly the kind of thing you must buy on pain of death. Making the Phono Reference a great £1,200 phono stage. On the other hand, if you are really going for it and slotting the Cyrus stage into one of those best-of-breed turntable systems, the PSX-R₂ becomes almost mandatory and the resulting £1,900 two-box phono stage is outstanding. Furthermore, if you are either somewhere between these two poles or frantically building a best-of-breed LP system, the Phono Reference is almost unique in being able to grow and improve with your system. In short, it makes good sense. And once experienced, it’s almost impossible to turn back.

The Cyrus Audio Phono Reference surprised me. I expected it to be good. I just didn’t expect it to be this good! Coupled with the PSX-R₂ it’s a true world-beater; dynamically free, detailed, and most of all so damn enjoyable to sit in front of, it’s hard not to play record after record through the system, whatever that system. Yes, there will be those who don’t see the point of any phono stage that only uses a RIAA curve, and there will be many who simply discount the Cyrus Phono Reference for being too small, or even too cheap. More fool them. This is something really special, and comes very highly recommended!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Cyrus Phono Reference

Type: Solid state phono stage with optional DC power supply

Inputs: 4× RCA stereo pairs for individual cartridge inputs, multipin PSX-R2 input

Outputs: XLR balanced and RCA single ended stereo line level outputs, MC-Bus RCA in and out

RIAA filter accuracy: ±0.5dB

MM input sensitivity: 4mV,

MM input impedance: 47kΩ

MC input sensitivity range: 120µV-4mV

MC input impedance values: 11Ω, 16Ω, 33Ω, 47Ω, 100Ω, 150Ω, 333Ω, 500Ω, 1kΩ, 47kΩ

MC capacitive load options: 220pf, 1nF, 2nF, 3nF

Available in: black or silver

Dimensions (W×H×D): 2.5×7.5×36.5cm

Weight: 4.1kg

Price: £1,200

Cyrus PSX-R₂

Type: Optional sensing DC power supply

Supply: ±35.5VDC (integrated amplifier, stereo power amplifier), ±18-30VDC (mono amps), ±21VDC (low level source components)

Dimensions (W×H×D): 2.5×7.5×36.5cm

Weight: 7kg

Price: £695

Manufactured by: Cyrus Audio Ltd

URL: www.cyrusaudio.com

Tel: +44(0)1480 410900

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Aavik U-300 Unity integrated amplifier

When you attend audio shows around the world, you get to see distinct patterns and trends in system matching. When Product X works so well with Product Y and Product Z that they are used together in shows in two or more continents, you can guarantee those products are a good match. But, few of these exercises in international system matching are as consistent as the use of Aavik electronics, with Ansuz cables and system tuning components, and Raidho loudspeakers. If you tour the shows and the demonstration rooms of dealers around the globe, this Nordic triumvirate is almost always seen together.

In no small part, this comes down to the three brands being sub-sets of Dantax A/S, a Danish audio enterprise group. Raidho – like fellow speaker brand Scansonic and TV furniture company Harmony – are intrinsically linked with Dantax, while Aavik and Ansuz are associated with the group. Nevertheless, the three are in lock-step.

You do see Raidho loudspeakers and Ansuz components used in other systems, but it’s rare to see the Aavik U-300 Unity integrated amplifier out in the wild without Ansuz and Raidho in tow. This is understandable, but unfortunate: the Aavik U-300 might get a reputation for being the ‘also ran’ in the line-up, where in reality it’s possibly the star of the show. If you do get to hear it beyond partnering with ‘The Usual Suspects’, it shows precisely what it has to offer, and it offers a heck of a lot! The Aavik U-300 is the amp needed to develop the latest ranges of Raidho loudspeakers, that require a lot of high-grade power, but it’s no engineer’s folly, no development platform, and definitely no slouch!

In fact, the Aavik U-300 Unity started out as the answer to a growing problem in today’s audio world: space management without sonic compromise. Whether it’s due to shrinking room sizes in Europe, or a growing reluctance to invest in a range of electronics boxes, the Aavik is part of a movement that sees turning the DAC, phono stage, preamp, external power supplies and power amplifiers of old into one, very high performance integrated design.

Taken at face value, this is nothing new and audio companies have been making integrated amplifiers since the 1970s. Moreover, even the high-end has moved from dismissal to tolerance, acceptance, and finally enthusiasm toward one-box solutions. Where Aavik scores is it started out with a clean sheet and considered the amplifier as a single unit from the outset.

That ‘clean sheet’ part is pivotal, because Aavik didn’t start the project with any baggage regarding design inside and out. A big part of this (both in terms of industrial and electronic design) is the volume control, mounted in the centre of the elegant matt-black amplifier. The volume control (which also doubles as a source selector and can be used with the three buttons to control aspects of the amp’s functionality) works entirely in the digital domain. It is out of signal until it registers the user adjusting the volume level, only to go back to sleep once the volume adjustment is completed.

It’s also a Class D design. Collectively, we need to get over the bias against Class D, and an increasing group of manufacturers (including Jeff Rowland and Mola-Mola) are making the sonic case for Class D with great eloquence. The Aavik joins this cool-running revolution. The key point in all things Class D seems to be channelling The Fun Boy Three and Bananarama, with their 1982 hit ‘It Ain’t What You Do (It’s The Way That You Do It)’: Class D can sound remarkable, so long as the implementation steps up to the challenge. And it’s here where the Aavik U-300 Unity shows its mettle. The amplifier is designed with careful grounding in mind (understandable given the Ansuz connection) and its clever use of passive components with high performance Class D modules not only spells great sound, but surprising amounts of power delivery. The amplifier can deliver 300W into eight ohms, but – and this is rare for a Class D design – double that power to 600W into a four ohm load.

Back to that ‘volume’ control. Freed from the tyranny of having a legacy of product design to cope with, Aavik went for an elegant solution that combines minimalism with a surprising degree of flexibility. Aside from a power-off switch on the rear of the amplifier, the controls are limited to three push buttons on the top of the centre cylinder, and that volume dial. Meanwhile, the ‘light show’ comprises a set of LEDs flanking the left and right side of the dial and one at the top of the dial to show the amp is switched on (in standby mode, pressing the button in the middle top of the cylinder turns off all the other LEDs and reduces power to this one, so it glows faintly). In typical operation, the display on the right denotes which input is in use, the one of the left shows volume in 80 steps from -100dB to 0dB. The left button on the top operates mute, but press and hold this button to choose one of three gain settings for an individual source, using the main control knob. The right hand button typically controls navigation (source selection), but press and hold this button and you go into remote control pairing mode. Aavik recommends the standard slim Apple remote to control the U-300.

Press and hold both left and right buttons in a three second ‘power chord’ and the amp switches to adjusting the cartridge loading for the built-in phono stage. The steps on the left side of the display denote impedance, ranging from 50Ω at the -80dB setting up to 5kΩ at the 0dB setting. Combine this with the gain setting and you can get a good match with most cartridges, although Aavik makes no differentiation between moving coil and moving magnet. Nevertheless, setting the cartridge loading without the Aavik manual in hand is difficult, because the booklet acts as decoder ring; you would never know that -55dB equates to 400Ω without the manual.

The manual is an eight-page affair that covers all the basic requirements of operating and using the Aavik U-300 Unity. Its rear panel is split between digital and analogue sides, with the power supply inlet at the centre of the rear panel. To the left, there are two RCA S/PDIF digital connectors, then two Toslink optical connecters and a single USB Type B (UAC 2 compliant) input and a further USB for updates. The right side has three RCA line inputs and a RCA phono input pair. A set of five-way fingertip-stripping Delrin speaker terminals per side flank these input blocks. These use the non-standard white and black indications for positive and negative terminals.

The amplifier itself looks remarkable, thanks in part to the Aavik name cut deep into the black anodised aluminium centre cylinder. The heatsinks too are elegant, reminscent of the ventilation holes to the sides of the D’Agostino Momentum designs (see pages 35-38 of this issue), except writ larger and ‘none more black’. The amp is also supplied in a black ABS flight case inside its cardboard box. This exudes a sense of quality and almost menacing mininalism. It sits low on its standard feet, however, in part because the expectation is those feet will be supplemented with Ansuz ‘darkz’ resonance control devices. The only real design ‘flaw’ at this price point is the reliance on a third-party remote, in particular the Apple design. It’s only a trivial thing, but I’d prefer to see something as robust and solid as the amp that also replicates its minimalist design cues. In black, of course!

I can’t really tell how much running in the Aavik U-300 Unity needs, because ours was the well-travelled demonstration sample that had enough air miles on the clock to buy itself its own Airbus. But the amplifier came on song almost immediately when powered up, and certainly it only took a few minutes to get to the right operating temperature. The Aavik runs warm for a Class D design, but not worryingly so. You do, however, need to check those LEDs are glowing as the U-300 has one of those ‘is this thing on?’ noise floors that goes right down into the car park below the sub-basement. In operation, once set-up in terms of cartridge loading and input gain, the Aavik design is one of the most ‘fit and forget’ models in high-end audio.

Cut to the chase, this amp sounds absolutely bloody fantastic, whatever input you choose. The phono input is whisper quiet, so much so if you play a record with little surface noise on the lead-in groove, the tendency to turn things up could leave you with ringing in your ears. The DAC – a from-the-ground-up design for the Aavik, rather than some off-the-shelf ‘application’ board is lively, dynamic, and very musical, and the line inputs make you think you are listening to a very well-crafted pre/power combination rather than an all-in-one.

The problem for a reviewer is this applies with unshaking consistency. Every input has the same exciting, yet even-handed sound, possessed of a fine sense of rhythm, a good ‘bounce’ to that rhythm, plenty of detail, and easy, unforced dynamics. Tonally, the Aavik is fractionally on the warm side, making music sound inviting and a fun thing to listen to, rather than a cold, bland thing one must endure for the sake of neutrality. ‘Warm’ is probably not the right word, as it might make people think the Aavik is somehow ‘soft’ sounding. It isn’t: it sits somewhere between the ‘half a Devialet 800’ I use and the D’Agostino in terms of tonality and timbre. In fact, it sits somewhere between these two points in practically all respects; bass has more drive than the Devialet, but not quite the energy and slam of the D’Agostino. Similarly dynamic range and even detail sit on the same continuum.

This is royally missing the point of the Aavik, though. To try and break down the sound quality into its component parts is to do the Aavik a major injustice, because what it does so well is bring those disparate musical parts together in a way so few amplifiers can do at this price point and beyond. Again the consistency issue makes singling out a piece of music a little bit pointless, because it does this universally. However, I did notice that ‘Royals’ by Lorde [Pure Heroine, Universal], which can sound a little disjointed as the large backbeat seems out of step with the vocals, hung together perfectly. This gives an uncanny sense of listening to performers, instead of listening to a band playing the 365th take of the week. It’s extremely refreshing and highlights just how much information and detail the Aavik passes to the loudspeaker. How much detail? It’s like the Julian Assange of amplifiers, without the self-imposed house arrest tan.

There is also a sublime harmonic structure and order to the sound of the Aavik U-300 Unity. This can get mistaken for ‘warmth’ especially by those who seek out and use amplifiers with a more ‘etched’ sound, and those used to the more stark and etched sound of many systems may find the absence of those traits hard to overcome at first. Stick with it, though, because what you get is a rewarding and truly wonderful sense of musical harmony, allowing you to swim through the themes of something like the Schubert ‘Trout’ Quintet [Amadeus Quartet and Emil Gilels, DG] effortlessly. The sense of naturalness and order extends to the soundstage, too. There is no overwhelming soundstage demand here, it just makes a soundstage large, wide, deep, and accurate. You could walk in and shake the hands of the musicians, but the overall sense is that of an amplifier that cruises through all the usual audiophile tests with no problems whatsoever.

There are few downsides, although they are more niggles and observations. Sonically, the dynamic range of the Aavik, although wide, is not quite as authentic and edge-of-the-seat as some of the best valve amplifiers out there. However, in terms of solid-state designs, the U-300 Unity is hard to beat. Trivially, a balance control would be nice, but might undermine the minimalism of the overall project as it might require its own button. The ability to process high-resolution to 24/192 might prove limiting in an audiophile world obsessed by 32/384 and DSD files – I hope this is not the case, because I’d rather choose an amp that sounded this good over the (often undefined) promise of superior sound quality from ever higher resolutions.

I started this review by saying how the Aavik is not an ‘also ran’ in the Aavik/Ansuz/Raidho combination seen around the world, but even I was slightly taken aback at how good the U-300 Unity can sound, both in and out of that Danish context. This really is one of the best amplifiers money can buy, and – although you likely need a system capable of resolving that, which may well point you in the direction of Ansuz and Raidho – that applies universally. Recently, Aavik also announced a pre-power system for those needing even more power (at around the same time the new Raidho range-topper was announced). But for the majority of audiophiles in the majority of listening rooms and with the majority of loudspeakers, you might not need to go that extra step. The Aavik U-300 Unity is all you need, and comes very highly recommended!

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: integrated amplifier

Inputs: Three line-level single-ended stereo pair RCA analogue inputs, one stereo pair RCA inputs for phono, two S/PDIF Coaxial digital inputs with RCA connectors. One Toslink S/PDIF connection. USB B.

Outputs: Five way loudspeaker terminals

Digital formats supported: (USB and S/PDIF RCA) PCM up to 24-bit, 192kHz. (S/PDIF Toslink) PCM up to 24-bit, 96kHz

Power output: 300W into 8Ω, 600W into 4Ω

Attenuation: 100dB to 0dB in 80 steps

Frequency response: not specified

THD+N: < 0.005% (1-100W, 8Ω)

IMD: 0.0008%

Dimensions (W×D×H): 44×37×10cm

Weight: 16.5kg

Price: £20,000

Manufactured by: Aavik Acoustics

URL: www.aavik-acoustics.com

Tel: +45 40 51 14 31

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Trilogy Audio Systems 931 headphone amplifier

We loved the Trilogy Audio Systems 933 headphone amplifier when we tested it back in issue 94. It is the company’s first ‘serious’ headphone device; a two-box amplifier that can drive anything with ear cups aside from electrostatics. But, it comes at a price – both financial and technologically; although it’s designed to be used at arm’s length, it has to be used with a remote control to adjust volume. Nevertheless, the 933 remains one of the best.

I think, however, many would trade a little of the 933’s uncompromising performance, for a lower price. OK, so you lose the balance control, but I think many would be happy with a headphone amplifier in a single box, with a toggle switch to change inputs, and a more conventional volume knob. So long as the cheaper product gives no quarter to either sound quality or ability to drive any headphone that comes its way, where is the problem? And that brings us to the Trilogy 931.

The Trilogy Audio Systems 931 gives surprisingly little ground to its bigger brother, despite costing half as much as the 933. As suggested, the 931 moves from an external separate power supply to a built-in and oversized linear power supply with a toroidal transformer; however, given that Nic Poulson, Trilogy Audio Systems’ designer, also runs audio power experts ISOL-8 when he’s not making amplifiers, he ‘knows a thing or two’ about power supplies, and the move from external to internal PSU is no great sacrifice. OK, so it doesn’t have the choke input power supply of its bigger brother (virtually unique among solid-state designs) and this does make a difference in terms of dynamic range, but the dynamic range of the 931 is already close to the limits of what many headphones can achieve, anyway.

This is not the only scaled down without compromise product in the Trilogy line-up. The company’s 906 phono stage draws heavily from Trilogy’s top 907 standalone unit. Even the basic casework for both smaller and larger models is similar. And, unlike many brands where the entry-level products are built half a world away, the 931 is built in Trilogy’s London HQ. Despite having a rich audio heritage (including a pre-war Quad, Leak, Beard, Gale, and Garrard) to the best of my knowledge only Trilogy, Roksan, and Vertere still build in ‘The Smoke’ today.

For the 931, the case moves from a machined aluminium clamshell case to a machined aluminium ‘spine’ of front panel and side heatsink, and a lighter aluminium sleeve. This has the advantage of allowing the sleeve to be finished in one of three standard colours (silver, blue, or black) or even its myriad Chameleon Colour System. As with the 933, this is a two line input device, and the circuit is a pure single-ended Class A design, with each channel having its own continually biased output device. As a Class A design, the 931 runs warm to the touch, but not ‘baking hot’: it certainly runs cooler than its bigger brother in use. It has just the one full-sized headphone jack socket, next to a pair of toggle switches (one to power up the device, one to switch inputs); the rest of the front panel is taken up by the volume knob, and a LED power light.

The choice of ALPS volume pot in the 931 against the remote array driven in the 933 is logical, too. It means no more provision for balance control or remote drive, but this cheaper way of attenuating volume allows Trilogy to spend more on getting the best sound out of the 931. The ALPS pot in the 931 is good enough to have been used in some of the world’s best preamplifiers, although cast any thought of using this – or any other Trilogy headphone amplifier – as a preamp in its own right; that’s not the Trilogy way, and you should use a preamplifier for preamp duties. Note that the use of the term ‘other’, which suggests there might be more than the two Trilogy headphone amps in the line-up soon…

Operation is simple in the extreme. Plug it to something line level (such as a good DAC), turn it on, put in the headphones, and… wait about 15 minutes. OK, you can play music after about three seconds of powering the 931 up, but it takes about 15-20 minutes to warm through, at which point it starts to sound like it should. And ‘like it should’ is a combination of valve-like satisfying with solid-state drive and energy irrespective of headphone used. There is a touch of almost British reserve and restraint – in a ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ way, rather than a repressed Remains of the Day manner – but that is coupled with an ability to really play loud when called upon. Besides, you should expect a bit of British reserve from something made in London.

It’s a very well-balanced sound, with a powerful, deep, but not ponderous bass, and a detailed, precise treble. The midrange is extremely natural, liquid, and open, too; this midrange isn’t as obviously emphasised as some systems and that might make it seem a little spatially constricted. I don’t think this is the case at all; the 931 simply goes for the honest approach, and everything seems in correct proportion. It’s perhaps just that the Trilogy 931’s sound borrows more from classic stereo amplifiers than classic headphone amps, and that sense of mid-range directness that you get from many amplifiers even at twice the price simply isn’t there to the same extent. In truth, I prefer it this way; the overall balance is more approachable especially in long-term listening, and you never feel overburdened by the sound. This can become especially great to hear when you are playing some of the more ‘excitable’ headphone designs that can quickly become wearing over time.

It’s easy for a reviewer to fall into the trap of calling something that gets warm to the touch ‘warm’ sounding, especially when Class A amplifiers have a predisposition to generate a harmonically rich, valve-like sound. But the 931 does have a harmonically rich sound. The 931 is a master at teasing out musical harmony and the harmonic structure of instruments, and there’s no sense of making music seem lush and soft-edged here. Instead, the 931 has that full, rich, and approachable sound people crave in good quality amplification, a sound that is all too rare in the headphone space. OK, so if your musical vision involves heavily processed 1980s power ballads played on Yamaha DX7 synths with cut-glass clarity, you might want something more analytical, but one man’s ‘analytical’ is another man’s ‘harsh’.

That smooth and satisfying sound throws out a wide soundstage, too. This is perhaps not quite as precisely defined as some of the really big hitters (including the 931’s bigger brother), but is perfect for giving an orchestra a ‘proper’ sense of scale, and that doesn’t get much bigger than Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony [Kleiber, Vienna Philharmonic Orch, DG]. Although this had all the micro-dynamic interplay craved by audio enthusiasts, the presentation was more about the music, and less about the sound it makes. This drew you further into the recording, even if not into audiophile grade ultimate stereo separation.

The big caveat with the 931 is more an observation than an outright criticism. The 931 has a lot of very clean power on tap; partner it with a pair of reasonably sensitive headphones and crank it up loud and you are more likely to to mistake your ears relaxing between beats for the distortion that isn’t there. Responsible types will know their own limits and keep the volume level on the right side of sanity; sadly, we aren’t all quite so responsible, and my first encounter with the 931 was AC/DC related and so damn loud I was, er, ‘Thunderstruck’ [The Razor’s Edge, Atco].

The ultimate test of any headphone amplifier is its ability to get out of the way and leave you with the difference in headphones as the deciding factor in selecting a system. The amp should simply ‘get out of the way’, but in the real world this is almost impossible. Fortunately, the 931 gets out of the way better than many at the price. It’s capable of playing any headphone you can think of this side of electrostatics, it’s refined and elegant sounding, and it can play really loud if you let it. Trilogy’s 931 is an obvious recommendation.

Technical Specifications

Type: Single-ended Class A headphone amplifier

Inputs: 2× stereo RCA phono socket pairs

Input Impedance: ≥50kΩ

Output: ¼” TRS jack socket

Output Impedance: ≤10Ω

Output Power: 800mW into 60Ω, 200mW into 300Ω

Gain (max): 18dB

Distortion (THD): ≤0.05% 10mW into 300Ω

S/N ratio: ≥85dB A Weighted

Phase: Phase correct (non inverting)

Finishes: Silver, blue, or black as standard, ‘Chameleon’ Colours on request

Size (W×H×D): 14×23.7×5cm

Weight: 1.65kg

Price: £895

Manufactured by: Trilogy Audio Systems

URL: www.trilogyaudio.com

Distributed in the UK by: Symmetry

URL: www.symmetry-systems.co.uk

Tel: +44(0)1727 865488

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conrad-johnson GAT Series 2 preamplifier

For the last decade, high-end audio has been on a seemingly inevitable trajectory, its controls set for the heart of the luxury market sector, propelled by the twin impetus of soaring prices and the influx of Chinese casework and computer technology. Those CNC faceplates that used to be a sure-fire indicator of a quality chassis aren’t quite ten-a-penny these days, but it seems that way, driving flagship products down the path of ever flashier appearance and more ‘imaginative’ facilities, along with the colour configurable displays, wireless connectivity, and control apps that go with them. It’s a trend that has seen audio’s basic raison d’etre risk being swamped in the trappings of style and convenience, yet for every rule there’s also an exception: ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present the conrad-johnson GAT Series II, a preamplifier that wears its performance credentials on its sleeve. And which might very well stand as audio shorthand for “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

When it comes to style, c-j has always ploughed its own, unique furrow; its champagne fascias and black crackle casework as instantly identifiable in their own way as a Mont Blanc pen or a Chanel handbag. Whether the resulting aesthetics compare with those design icons is in the eye of the beholder, but one thing is certain – nobody is going to accuse the GAT of over-egging the stylistic or operational pudding. On paper and in the flesh, the GAT is about as prosaic as a top-flight product can afford to be. Luxuries and fripperies are non-existent and there’s nothing about this product that isn’t strictly business. But then that too is very much a part of c-j’s distinctive, performance orientated ethos. If you are looking for clues, there’s a big one in the title – Series 2. This is an updated version of the original GAT, a fact that hints at c-j’s evolutionary approach. If the GAT’s casework (along with the metalwork shrouding c-j’s other products) has barely changed in the last four decades, the insides – and particularly the individual components – have been through a selection and assessment process that makes Darwin look like a creationist. What other company produces three outwardly identical products (the TEA series phono-stages) with identical facilities and circuits, at vastly different price points – in which the only differences are the type and quality of the components populating the circuit boards? Yet listen and the sonic and musical steps between them more than justify the price hikes. In one sense it’s a truly backward looking policy – the sort of ‘marketing strategy’ that would drive venture capitalists insane with frustration – but in another it recognises an essential fact: things (music) really have stayed the same. What has changed and been refined isn’t the outside of c-j’s products or even the circuits used, but the ability of what’s inside to respond to the challenges with which it’s presented. Don’t be fooled, disappointed, or surprised by the single box, the basic facilities, or lack of up-to-the-minute connectivity you might take for granted in any other product with a £24,500 price-tag, because when it comes to THIS product the real story (the only story) is how it sounds – and how it sounds is remarkable.

Listen to the GAT and it’s impossible to miss its lucid sense of natural clarity, perspective, and separation. There’s an uncluttered quality to music, a lack of the confusion and congestion that passes almost unnoticed (or is tacitly accepted) with other pre-amps. Opening the window onto the performance is an over-used cliché in audio reporting but that’s exactly what the c-j does. In fact, mixing metaphors with motoring, it’s not just like cleaning an insect spattered windscreen, it’s like shifting from the driver’s seat in an original Mini to the elevated perch and expansive vista offered by the latest Range Rover: the sense of being able to see further and see more, to grasp more easily just what is happening, should have school run mums queuing round the block – oh, they are already. But you get the drift: it’s the same view, just clearer and, crucially, more effortless.

That ease is central to what makes the GAT a standout performer. All really great products have at least one standout quality – that one thing that they do. With the GAT, that thing is to pass unnoticed – to pass the signal without adding its own fingerprints or baggage, or shaving off its own musical tax and duty. It’s an ability founded on the combination of a genuinely low noise floor and the lack of additive or subtractive tendency. If you are looking for ‘traditional’ tube sound, redolent with warmth or romance, best look elsewhere: the GAT is musically truthful to a fault, with no padding, no rounding, and no added sweetness. Of course, combine that with the vitality of its micro dynamics (thanks to that low noise floor) and you have a performance that’s delivered without slurring, exaggeration, accent, or undue emphasis. Which means that it’s also a performance of uncanny, almost preternatural coherence and articulation. Instruments and phrases fall into natural patterns, spatially, rhythmically, and expressively as the music’s inner voice emerges, blinking into the daylight. You’ll notice it in the ease with which you can identify individual instruments, appreciate arrangements, and the niceties of production. You’ll notice it in the fluidity and agility of great players, whether it’s the quicksilver bowing of Heifetz in the Mendelssohn concerto, or the poise and perfectly judged restraint of Pollini playing almost anything. But perhaps where you’ll notice it first and most is in vocals. We are more familiar with voices than any instrument and the GAT has an almost spooky ability to capture the diction, articulation, emphasis, and overtones of a singer, the character of their voice, and their individual identity. Again, whether it’s the ultra precision of Zinka Milanov or the more down-home delivery of Neil Young, the words and song take on a new immediacy and directness of communication, sense of identity, and purpose. And it’s not just individual voices: when Young sings ‘Are You Ready For the Country’, Crosby and Stills’ harmony vocals are both beautifully separated and distinctive. It’s clear not just who these singers are, but just how much time they’ve spent singing together. When it comes to the acid test that is vocal delivery, I’ve not heard anything that matches the GAT Series II. This is among the most genuinely natural and is definitely the most neutral pre-amp I’ve ever used – with none of the pinched, lean, or mean associations that term normally evokes.

Saying that the GAT doesn’t deliver traditional tube sound is another way of saying that it confronts and debunks ingrained notions that valves equate to “sweet but slow”. The c-j’s rhythmic grip and drive, elegantly sure-footed sense of musical pace and progress, and utter temporal security will bring a smile to the face of any dyed-in-the-wool ‘PRaT’ advocate – although the equal clarity, transparency, and precision it brings to the soundstage (and just how much that soundstage contributes to the musical event) might give them pause. This isn’t the massive, overblown acoustic space generated by some of the competition, or the larger than life, Michelin-man dimensionality that goes with it. This is a perfectly proportioned and scaled view of events, one that matches the scale of the music itself. What the GAT lacks in terms of physical presence and slam-dunk dynamics, it more than makes up for with intimacy and instrumental texture.

It’s another old adage in audio reviewing that there are those products where it’s all about the musical performance rather than the product itself. “Just listen”, we are implored, “and you’ll understand.” It’s an argument that’s deployed to justify everything from dubious reliability to the complete absence of practicality or domestic acceptability. The conrad-johnson GAT flirts with neither of those extremes: the company builds pre-amps that enjoy a reputation for both reliability and longevity. Nor is it overly large, ridiculously hot, or particularly demanding when it comes to its supporting surface. It offers a sensible remote that controls a sensible range of facilities and a beautifully judged volume law. Physically and operationally, it is almost Franciscan in its modest appearance and absence of embellishment – aesthetic or operational. It doesn’t even run to balanced connections. As sure as I am that these things contribute to the GAT’s stellar musical and sonic performance, they also present it with its greatest single challenge; a genuine flagship performer that has to stand alongside bigger (generally two-chassis), prettier (or at least more ostentatious), and more versatile (more configurable or connectible) competition. The GAT is possibly the most eloquent advocate of the “Just Listen” school I’ve ever enjoyed – and I have seriously enjoyed it. Conrad and Johnson have slowly but surely refined their understanding of their products, their sound, and how they operate to a pinnacle of performance that places the GAT firmly alongside the very best available, offering its own distinct and utterly unexaggerated view of events. I love the GAT. It deserves to be loved by any listener who truly loves music. This is Gielgud’s Shakespeare rather than Olivier’s, a Victoria sponge cake as opposed to Black Forest Gateau.

Truly great preamps are few and far between, confined to those that genuinely manage to put the music first – and this is definitely, unequivocally a great pre-amp. It’s also an endangered species: a product where performance isn’t just the most important consideration… it’s the only consideration. Only time will tell whether – in this changing market – that’s offering enough, but those who ignore the GAT, whether because of the way it looks or what it offers on paper, risk missing out on a pearl beyond price – even if that price is £24,500. Rare in approach and rare in reality, if you are well-healed enough – or committed enough – to consider a pre-amp at this level, c-j’s GAT remains at the top of the audition list.

Technical Panel

Type: Vacuum-tube line-stage

Tube Complement: 2× 6922/ECC88

Inputs: 5× line-level RCA, 2× tape/EPL RCA

Outputs: 2× main outputs RCA, 2× tape/EPL RCA

Output Impedance: Less than 100 Ohms

Absolute Phase: Inverting

Dimensions (W×H×D): 19 × 4.81 × 15.37 inches

Weight: 35 lbs

Price: £24,500

Manufactured by: conrad-johnson design, inc.

URL: www.conradjohnson.com

UK Distributor: Audiofreaks

Tel: +44(0)20 8948 4153

URL: www.audiofreaks.co.uk

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Noble Audio Savant Custom-Fit In-Ear Monitors

In the world of high performance personal audio there can be no more ‘personal’ a product than a fine set of custom-fit in-ear monitors (often abbreviated as ‘CIEMs’). I say this because CIEMs are the only transducers I can think of that are purpose built to address the listening requirements of just one person: you.

As most of you already know, CIEMs are different to universal-fit earphones in that their earpieces are custom-shaped to fit the exact contours of a specific user’s ear canals and outer ears (or pinnae, to use the proper technical term). When executed well, CIEMs provide an extraordinarily precise and comfortable fit, plus an extremely high degree of isolation from external noise. What is more, CIEM earpieces have sufficient internal volume to accommodate surprisingly sophisticated driver arrays that can provide sublime sound quality.

All of this raises a key question: who are today’s best makers of top-tier CIEMs? There are a number of reputable manufacturers in the field, but one that has attracted considerable attention from Hi-Fi+ is the Santa Barbara, California-based firm Noble Audio. We have looked at several Noble CIEMs in the past (the flagship Kaiser 10 reviewed in issue 119, and the neutrally-voiced 4S as reviewed in issue 127). Here, however, we will audition Noble’s newest model, the Savant, which the firm says is arguably the most, “…balanced in-ear monitor (that Noble co-founder and chief designer Dr John Moulton) has designed thus far…”

To explain the comment about balance in context, let me point out that the Kaiser 10 is a very revealing CIEM possessed of deliberately euphonic voicing that adds both a touch of bass lift and a subtle degree of treble roll-off; it offers a luxuriant and downright enchanting sound, but not necessarily neutral voicing. By comparison, Noble’s 4S (which has since been lightly revised to become Noble’s present-day Savanna S model) does strive to provide dead-neutral, what-you-hear-is-what-you-get, monitoring-orientated voicing. The concept behind the new Savant is to seek out a delightful, Goldilocks-like, just-right voicing curve that combines much of the accuracy, detail, and revealing character of the Savanna S with a good measure of the engaging warmth and sheer bass authority of the Kaiser 10. In short, Savant aims to be a best-of-two-worlds design.

Noble Audio has elected to provide very little information on the driver array used in the Savant, although I am told the array is a relatively simple one—at least as compared to the firm’s Kaiser 10 model, which employs no less than ten (!) balanced armature-type drivers per earpiece. But even so the Savant’s sound is, says company co-founder Brannan Mason, every bit as nuanced and sophisticated as that of the flagship model. In fact, many listeners might prefer the sound of the Savant to that of any other Noble model. Noble isn’t being coy in withholding technical information on the driver arrays used in its present models; rather, it hopes to re-direct our attention away from arguably fruitless exercises in ‘driver counting’ and to focus on what really matters: namely, sound quality. As always, the proof comes in the listening.

Potential customers will want to know that the Savant is offered in three basic configurations: as a universal-fit earphone (priced at a very reasonable £420), as a comparatively affordable SLA-series CIEM equipped with 3D printed earpieces (priced at £835), or as a premium-grade CIEM equipped with the firm’s distinctive Prestige-series earpieces (priced at £1,115 and up, depending on the earpiece materials and finishes chosen). At present, Noble offers the Prestige option only for its two top models: the Kaiser 10 and the Savant. Our Savant review samples were built as Prestige models with earpieces fashioned from a gorgeous, stabilised exotic hardwood known as “Snakewood”.

A bit more detail on the Prestige construction process is in order as the process is different to any other construction method I have encountered in the CIEM world. Noble describes its Prestige construction approach in this way: “Instead of beginning with a liquid medium traditionally used to create CIEMs, Prestige pieces are crafted entirely from solid art mediums such as exotic wood and other aesthetically stimulating materials.”

The Prestige construction process is elaborate and labour intensive. First, Noble creates a traditional (but temporary) set of custom acrylic earpieces that are precision scanned to gather machining data used by a CNC machine for the actual earpiece carving process—a process that takes up to 30 hours per earpiece. Then, the interiors of the Prestige earpieces are hollowed-out by hand to make room for driver arrays, sound output bore tubes, signal cable connectors, and so forth. Finally end caps made of the same materials as the earpiece bodies are cut to size, shaped, fitted, and polished to a brilliant shine.

Our Prestige-series Savants offered an unusually good fit that provided terrific noise isolation making for an extremely intimate listening experience, and here is what that listening experience revealed.

First, the Savant, much like the Noble Kaiser 10 and 4S models, provides exceptionally smooth and coherent driver integration—an area where Noble seems to excel vis-à-vis their competitors. The upshot of this is that, through the Savants, soundstages are presented in an uncommonly expansive and well-defined way, with remarkable continuity, meaning that soundscapes stretch from the far left to the far right with absolutely no gaps and no rough, uneven, or threadbare spots in between. As a result, one has the uncanny sense of being immersed in large and internally self-consistent acoustic spaces of the recording engineer’s creation. In this regard, I consider the Savant to be second to none.

Next, there is the matter of tonal balance. Whether listening to classical, jazz, rock, or pop, I found the Savant consistently hewed to a sonically captivating ‘middle path’, neither sounding too soft, syrupy, or dark, nor sounding overly stiff, analytical, or clinical. In short, Savant offered tonal balance that was quite neutral from the upper bass region on up, but that provided a discreet, judicious touch of bass lift that worked in a complementary way with virtually all types of music. Low frequencies are rock solid, but never overblown.

If this ‘judicious touch of bass lift’ comment sounds like audiophile heresy, bear in mind that CIEMs, unlike loudspeakers, do not enjoy bass reinforcement via the mechanism of ‘room gain’. Thus, given that most records are mastered for playback through loudspeakers, one might argue that a small degree of bass elevation can actually make the perceived sound of CIEMs more accurate (or at least more true to the sound of neutrally-voiced loudspeakers as played in typical rooms), even if that sounds like a contradiction in terms.

Third, the Savant offers unusually high resolution and very good sensitivity, which equates to qualities of nuance and dynamic expressiveness. As I listened to the Savant, one recurrent thought I had was that these CIEMs afford a sumptuously detailed listening experience more like the presentation one might hear from superb, full-size, top-tier headphones rather than from typical in-ear devices (even very good ones). It’s this broad, expansive, immersive quality that enables the Savant to surprise and delight listeners, over and over again.

The key, I think, is that the Savant lets you hear inner details in recordings and both large and small scale elements of dynamic expression, in a way that completely belies the CIEM’s diminutive size. Your mind grasps that you are listening through palm-size devices, but your ears (and emotions) react as if you have suddenly been immersed in much larger, and typically quite believable, acoustic spaces.

Good examples of these qualities in action can be heard on the track ‘Who Will Comfort Me’ from Melody Gardot’s My One and Only Thrill [Verve, CD]. On this track, the Savants capture the acoustics of the recording space while deftly tracing the subtlest of inflections in Gardot’s voice. As a result, her vocals sound not so much like “great hi-fi” (although that term certainly applies), but rather more like sitting in on the studio session and hearing Gardot sing from just a few feet away (the quality of intimacy is most impressive). But an even more telling moment arrives near the end of the track, when Gardot suddenly breaks into infectious laughter. The Savants do a fine job of capturing the “as recorded” sound of Gardot’s laugh, but more importantly they also capture the spontaneous sense of mirth behind the laugh. With the Savant, as with other great transducers, the ability to convey emotional content is key.

Is the Savant a true top-tier heavyweight? In a word, yes. I found the Savant was fully competitive with top models from firms such as JH Audio, Ultimate Ears, and Westone. But what sets the Savant apart from its competitors are its uncanny cohesiveness, detail, dynamics, and the rare ability to pull listeners out of their ‘heads’ and into the music. For these reasons and more, the Savant has now become one of my preferred, go-to, in-ear references.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Multi-driver custom-fit in-ear monitor, featuring Prestige-series earpiece machined from exotic solid materials (review samples made of ‘Snakewood’)

Driver complement: Not specified

Frequency response: Not specified. Noble says Savant is, “a detail oriented IEM with a solid low-end and clean highs.”

Impedance: Not specified

Sensitivity: Noble says the Savant is, “sensitive enough for use with smartphones as well as portable amps and DAPs”

Weight: Varies with earpiece materials chosen

Accessories: Detachable signal cable with industry standard two-pin connectors (0.78mm diameter), cleaning tool/brush, velvet carry bag, Noble‑branded elastic carry straps, a carabiner clip, a Pelican watertight hardshell case, a Noble owner’s ID card, and a Noble Prestige-branded outer jack for the Pelican case.

Prices: Savant Classic (universal fit model): £420

Savant SLA (CIEM with 3D-printed earpieces): £835

Savant Prestige (CIEM with exotic Prestige-series earpieces): £1,115 and up, depending on earpiece materials chosen.

Note: Noble offers a special Ownership Transfer Service where, for a $250 fee, it will re-manufacture Noble CIEMs for a second-hand purchaser.

Manufactured by: Noble Audio

Tel: +1 (805) 886-5255

URL: www.nobleaudio.com

UK URL: www.nobleaudio.co.uk

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Questyle Golden Reference DAC/preamp/headphone amp system

Back in Issue 133, we reviewed Questyle’s excellent CMA800R headphone amplifier. At the time, we suggested there would be a follow-up review of a pair of CMA800Rs for balanced operation. But then, an idea was hatched… why not go for the full stack? In fact, why not go for gold?

Questyle’s first electronics stack (not including the company’s clever wireless power amplifiers for loudspeaker users) features the aforementioned CMA800R headphone amplifier – two of them, in fact – the CAS192D DAC, and the CMA800P preamplifier. There have been just two significant changes since these products were released three or so years ago; the CAS192 DAC became the CAS192D model when it began supporting DSD replay, and the changes made between the standard and ‘Golden’ Reference editions. As the name – and the pictures – suggest, the Reference models differentiate themselves externally from their standard siblings through the use of a gold finish. It’s an all-over gold finish, too, right down to the feet. This might be a little ‘bling’ for conservative British tastes, and yes… confronted with the full four-box gold stack, I do feel a sudden, burning desire to drink Cristal from the back seat of a Maybach. Word!

There is more to the Reference Edition than just the gold finish, however. Each model takes the basic circuit design of its standard issue model, replaces the standard components with selected components, and swaps out the standard circuit board for a custom thick film ceramic PCB made by Roberts. The products are still constructed in the Foxconn factory, however. Think of this process like blueprinting for an engine; the standard model is built with some wiggle-room thanks to variations in component value. Questyle’s Reference series products use more carefully selected components throughout, so component values are precisely those laid down in the original circuit design. When you think that each component in a circuit could have as much as a 10% variance on its actual rating, shaving ±5% down to ±0.5% across hundreds of components should make a substantial difference in performance.

This ‘blueprinting’ practice is common in high-end audio, but with a twist; instead of using the right components for the job and hand-selecting the best versions of those right components (which takes time), many companies take the easier option of specifying more expensive components with more precise tolerances (which costs money) from the outset. Typically, this means an expensive product bristling with ‘big name’ components and no real way of determining whether they make the product sound better, because there is no basic version made available. Although Questyle also uses big name components in its construction, the company also gives you the option of the standard and ‘blueprinted’ versions, so you can directly hear if there is a difference and decide for yourself. This is almost unique in the audio world. Each Reference model commands an £800 premium over its base model, and I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone who tried both in quick succession develops a sudden lust for lustre…

Of course, high spec products are as nothing if the basic circuit design is not up to scratch. Fortunately, in each case, these golden products justify their place in the hierarchy extremely well. The core technology in the preamplifier and headphone amps is Questyle’s Current Mode Technology, a four-stage transconductance amplifier circuit, which we discussed in some detail in our Issue 133 review of the standard, solo CMA800R. Essentially, however, this is an amplifier circuit that ends up with extremely low levels of measured distortion and wide bandwidth, using a negative feedback circuit that works at far higher speed than is usually found in audio amplifiers (thereby reducing potential slew rate problems to the infinitesimal). In this setting, the preamp ‘simply’ takes over the gain control and source switching (of sorts; it’s more a balanced one-input active gain control with an optional single-ended input than a full-blown line stage), while the pair of CMA800R take over left and right channel amplification, if you have a pair of headphones (and the right set of cables) that can be driven balanced. This is kind of financially self-balancing, however, because no-one willing to spend over £10,000 on a headphone DAC and amplifier stack is going to use a headphone that cannot be run balanced.

The exception to this current mode drive is the CAS192D, originally a 24-bit, 192kHz upsampling DAC, featuring a Wolfson WM8471 DAC and two independent clocks and asynchronous USB input. The clocks allow digital signals to be ASRC upsampled to either 176.4kHz or 192kHz depending on their base sampling rate. Later and current models added DSD128 support and an additional clock for that stage. Unlike some upsampling designs, this option can be disabled from the front panel, if you decide to run the file at its native resolution. Run in linear PCM mode, the DAC offers the user has the choice of five filter settings, with both finite and infinite impulse response options. I preferred ‘IIR Apodizing’ on balance, with ‘FIR Apodizing’ coming a distant second. There are no filter options for DSD replay.

Where in the amplifiers, the ‘CMA’ suffix means ‘Current Mode Amplifier’, in this case, ‘CAS’ stands for ‘Computer As Source’. Although it has both coaxial and optical S/PDIF digital inputs, the DAC is intended to run USB direct to a computer. Yes, you can run a CD transport into the CAS192D – or maybe even a streamer – but that’s not its intended market. This is a shame, perhaps, because the Toslink is one of the few that genuinely supports 24 bit 192kHz signals.

The only operational quirk – in fact, the only operational quirk to the whole system – is the DSD replay options open to the CAS192D. Where most modern DSD-capable converters rely on DoP (DSD over PCM), Questyle has gone the more ‘honest’ route by accessing the DSD bitstream direct from the computer itself, bypassing the computer’s own audio processing subsystems, and the CAS192D’s own digital filtration. And it does this through USB. Of course, this also means you are locked into programs that support such a direct route (currently, that means JRiver) and the DoP option is the more widespread and easy path to take and there will likely be some gnashing of teeth at the lack of convenience in all this. However, I feel personally uncomfortable in criticising a DAC for doing the right thing, even if that right thing means more hoops for the end user to jump through.

This is one of the easiest reviews to write. Read the original review and multiply it a couple of times over! The CMA800R was already one of the least intrusive sounding headphone amplifiers on the market, and what the full stack offers is a lot less, in all the right ways. It’s dynamic, transparent, detailed, and fundamentally accurate, just like the lone amplifier, only more so. The addition of a second amplifier – especially when fed from a supremely transparent preamplifier and DAC – extends the dynamic range, and lowers the noise floor significantly. This is not a small change; it’s like your headphones stopped driving on public roads and were given a racetrack to show what they can really do. This doesn’t just mean playing loud; in fact, if anything, the great advantage of balanced operation is it lowers the noise floor and that is best heard at lower volume levels, if the headphones are up to the task.

The addition of the DAC tops this off perfectly. It’s as accurate as the rest of the system, and focuses on delicate, fast-paced delivery, with a vast amount of space around the music, and just a hint of midrange richness. These four components all combine to make a truly world-class headphone replay system, one that approaches the music played without prejudice. And this with straight PCM: I played some Led Zep DSD files of ‘interesting’ provenance [Atlantic, I guess] and the sound was as if I had taken a pair of cans off the mixing desk. Every last detail – right down to slight changes in Jimmy Page’s picking dynamics mid way through ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ – were there for the taking. After using really high-quality audio for the longest time, you don’t get many ‘gasp’ moments… but that really hit the spot. I know the track well, having heard it on everything from a mono compact cassette through to well-pressed vinyl, and I know its (very obvious) recording limitations, but this stack just side-stepped that and connected me with the recording in a way that more than justifies all the desktop real estate the Questyle grabs.

In absolute terms, the limits of the system do get exposed at this level, even if ‘exposed’ is probably the wrong term. When going up against some of the very best, the neutrality of the whole system does come with a touch of upper-mid forwardness. That sentence doesn’t contradict itself; the overall balance is neutral, more ‘direct’ than ‘smooth’, and in absolute terms has a slight upper-mid richness. It’s not ‘peaked’ in the upper mids, and the Questyle stack is certainly not exaggerated or underplayed across its whole frequency range. It’s more that the Questyle sound unveils itself to have a slight silken richness in the upper mids. That’s more than acceptable; it’s entertaining.

There’s an additional twist to the tale. Where the CMA800R was born out of frustration in trying to find an ideal headphone amplifier for the Sennheiser HD800, the CMA800P (and matching CAS192D) came about as a result of Questyle being commissioned by Stax to make a front-end for the company’s SR-009 flagship electrostatic earspeakers and matching energiser. Keen-eyed followers of Stax products might notice the company’s energisers already come with a preamp of sorts and a volume control, but such is the potential of the SR-009, Stax wanted a preamp with the kind of linearity and exceptionally low distortion offered by Questyle’s current-mode amplification, to show what its flagship is capable of. Equally keen-eyed readers of Hi-Fi+ will notice there’s one of Stax’ line-up in this issue. It’s almost as if we planned it…

Removing the two CMA800R and substituting them for the Stax SRM353X and hooking the DAC, preamp, and energiser to the new Stax SR-L500 earspeakers was like pressing the turbo button on your inner audiophile. The performance of the Stax combo – already surprisingly good, given the cost of admission – took a massive leap forward. It showed precisely what that new entry point into Stax elestrostatics can do in terms of absolute detail and fidelity to the sound. It was a bit of a ‘good grief, that’s what they can do!’ moment, and made me want to immediately re-evaluate the SR-009; if the baby of the range can be made to sound this good, what kind of headphone is really lurking inside the flagship electrostat?

The best thing about this Questyle quartet is they all go after the same goal of neutrality and accuracy; the performance of one goes with and builds upon the performance of the others, and there’s a sense that is you start with any one device, the others will logically follow. If you have a pair of headphones good enough to warrant a CMA800R, they are good enough to benefit from balanced drive, in which case two CMA800Rs are the logical choice, and that means a CMA800P is the logical choice in driving them, and the DAC is the obvious model to deliver the best signal to that trio. Or, you start with the DAC for its sheer fidelity, then add a CMA800R and go down that route. Or even, you have a Stax energiser and want to hear what its capable of, and wind up with a CAS192D and a CMA800P. And when you compare the gold standard with the regular versions, you’ll probably go for gold at each step along the way. Every way you slice this up, all roads lead to a couple of gold Questyle boxes or more. I’m not saying this is all you ever need in headphone replay because I like to keep in employment and there’s always the option for the next thing to sound even better, but if those Editor powers wore off tomorrow and I wanted the best in headphone replay, I’d have a little pile of gold bricks next to my computer…

Technical Specifications

Questyle CAS192D Golden

Type: Digital to Analogue converter

Inputs: USB, S/PDIF Toslink and RCA

Outputs: Unbalanced RCA and balanced XLR

Precision: from 16/44.1-24/192 PCM and True DSD (DSD128)

Filters: 5 switchable IIR (MP) and FIR (LP)

PCM upsampling: Dual clock integral, defeatable

Core Audio for USB: WASAPI, ASIO, KS

S/N ratio: 115dB (RCA), 116dB (XLR)

THD+N: < 0.005%

Dimensions (W×H×D): 33×33×5.5cm

Price: £2,399

Questyle CMA800P Golden

Type: Pure Class A headphone preamplifier

Inputs: 1x pair XLR, 1x pair RCA

Outputs: 1x pair XLR, 1x pair RCA

S/N ratio: 131dB (XLR)/124dB (RCA)

THD+N: 0.00021% @ 1kHz, 10kΩ (XLR); 0.00023% @ 1kHz, 10kΩ (RCA)

Dimensions (W×H×D): 33×33×5.5cm

Price: £2,899

Questyle CMA800R Golden

Type: Pure Class A current mode headphone amplifier

Inputs: RCA/XLR (stereo mode), XLR (mono mode)

Outputs: dual 6.5mm headphone jacks (stereo) XLR full balance (mono), RCA pair (preamp)

Frequency response: DC-200kHz (+0, -0.3dB)

S/N ratio: 114dB (stereo), 118dB (mono)

THD+N (1kHz, 300Ω): 0.00026% (mono); 0.00038% (stereo)

Gain: 15.5dB

Max output power for 300Ω load: 180mW (stereo), 710mW (balanced)

Dimensions (W×H×D): 34×14.5×5.2cm

Weight: 5kg

Price: £2,399 each

Manufactured by: Questyle

URL: www.questyle.com

Distributed in the UK by: SCV Distribution

URL: www.scvdistribution.com

Tel: +44(0)3301 222500

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TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Manufactured by: APL Hi-Fi, Ltd

Distributed in the UK by: Epicurean Audio

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Manufactured by: D’Agostino LLC

Distributed in the UK by: Absolute Sounds

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Manufactured by: T+A Elektroakustik

Distributed in the UK by: Kog Audio Ltd

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