AUDIO NOTE  

Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note
           (Copyright © 2011 Malcolm Steward: audio journalist)

    I do not know which I prefer,

    The beauty of inflections

    Or the beauty of innuendoes,

    The black bird whistling

     Or just after.

It is time to attempt a fresh description of the character of Audio Note sound. And lately poet Wallace Stevens' way of expressing it keeps coming back to me.

With Audio Note, the sound often seems to come from behind the notes, some say from inside them. We hear inner rather than outer, reflected light. This is what induces us to attribue to Audio Note a prioritzing of beauty. It is a delicate matter, which is why using somebody else's cable or even a line conditioner can destroy it.  

It is not a popular approach to music reproduction, especially these days. Most other systems favor 'inflections' -- high resolution of timebrel detail, speed, heightened contrast. This is an approach that can be more exciting, at its best captivating. My Blue Circle/Jean Marie Reynaud system frequently reminds me how good this approach can be, especially when natural warmth is preserved. But sometimes it's about 'innuendoes.'

Peter Qvortrup believes that most technological ‘advances’ in audio for the past couple of decades have served to put more between us and the essence of music. By working with established designs significantly predating current high end equipment, his company has designed single-ended tube electronics; filterless and non-oversampling dacs; turntables with several motors and lightweight platters; and broad-fronted, two-way speakers designed to sit in corners, all of which together can seem to take us closer to the essence of music.  Qvortrup's eloquent and complete line of audio equipment often makes us feel that his competition is getting just the shell of the music.

Though they tend to sound best in all-Audio Note systems, some AN equipment travels very well. The CD players, digital transports, and dacs match up extremely well with all other lines of equipment I have heard. AN cable is also very versatile, providing an engaging roundness and refined beauty. I have used it all of my systems, AN, Blue Circle, and Reynaud. AN electronics and speakers have all of the eloquence of their tubed dacs but generally prefer to work with each other, or at least with other tubed gear. Audio Note single-ended triode amplifiers are especially remarkable for the wholeness of their presentation. Most of them are, predictably, low powered and are usually paired with efficient speakers like Audio Note’s own. Together they can do extremely musical things.

Audio Note electronics may be the key to Audio Note's ability to give us the sense we are coming at music more from the inside, resulting in a less robust, but subtler, more refined presentation than Blue Circle electronics, for example. With an SET based, no feedback system, we hear the slightest flutter of low level sound, especially on Audio Note's new HE speakers with hemp woofers. Both Audio Note and Blue Circle approaches are extremely effective, and with most listeners the choice comes down to differences in priorities and taste. Audio Note fans find Blue Circle electronics insufficiently subtle or refined; Blue Circle fans find Audio Note electronics too precious, too beautiful!

Audio Note speakers provide an interesting alternative to Reynauds. Considered by many to be the perfection of the British sound – as appealing as Spendors but more authoritative from top to bottom, as ‘accurate’ as Harbeths but less staid and diplomatic, and as assured in their sense of touch as Quads but both more ‘rounded’ and more liquid in their presentation, AN speakers make friends easily and tend to keep them. Their sound is more refined and less bold and physical than that of Reynauds. With Audio Note speakers we hear everything but are often aware of how clear and beautiful the music sounds. With Reynauds, the instruments are closer and more robust sounding, though interestingly, not at all bright. We are especially aware of their physical presence. I like both speaker lines enormously and enjoy seeing what sorts of listeners are drawn to each.

My journey to Audio Note's digital products, which is how I met the company, began, in its serious stage with a Krell MDT2 & SBP64X, zigged wildly to a Sonic Frontier SFT1 & SFT2-II, zagged partway back to a Naim CDX/XPS and then on to a CDS2, sampling a Meridian, a better Krell, a BAT, an Audio Aero, a Wadia, and an Accuphase along the way! The arrival at Audio Note was a delightful surprise that dramatically altered my expectations and increased my happiness. It is one of the very few digital front ends I have heard that does full justice to both new state of the art recordings and early 60's jazz. And perhaps more important, every AN digital front end I've heard so far outperforms comparable SACD players, comparing separate CD and SACD recordings. Yes, CD's on the AN rigs beat SACD's on the SACD players.

Audio Note Analogue. In the spring of 2004, I was a guest of Peter Qvortrup in England and got to hear a premier Audio Note analogue rig, the first time I had heard LP’s in over ten years. As a result, I installed an old Voyd Reference turntable with an AN arm and Io1 moving coil cartridge and AN-S4 step up transformer in my reference system; and for a long while I also had an AN Turntable Two, Arm Three/AN-Vx, and IQ3 moving magnet cartridge in my "small room" system. Both in an effort to reacquaint myself with the unassuming but utterly convincing power of analogue. My aural memory is not a great one, but based on what I’ve heard so far, I would not have abandoned analogue in 1990, as I did, if I had owned these rigs, which are far from the top of the line. My new Turntable 3 Half-Reference with an IOGold cartridge is stunning. 

Audio Note interconnects and speaker cable – AN-Vx or the far more costly Sogon - used either as digital or regular interconnect, are great. Pallas and Sootto are superb. Lexus speaker cable is so good I used it with AN-E/SPe speakers while I waited for my AN-SPx to arrive and was startled at how good it sounded. It is an all-copper cable with the same structure as the many, many times more expensive Sogon. Lexus is naturally warm and full, SPe and SPx speaker cable are more open sounding and articulate from top to bottom. Sogon speaker cable for the well to do and maximally self-indulgent is nearly beyond belief.

AUDIO NOTE COMPONENTS

Audio Note has enriched its line of digital equipment extensively in the last few years.  Currently there are five transports, four of which use the top loading Philips CD 12 Pro Drive. New to the line are the entry level CDT Zero for under $2500 and a top of the line CDT5 using tubes!

There are now four one-box (integrated) CD players, two of which incorporate the Philips top loading drive. 

Audio Note analogue is the owner’s pride and joy and he is in the process of upgrading his entire turntable line. At the moment there is a TT1 and a TT2, both to have optional external power supplies available soon; the TT3 Reference and now also the Half Reference.

TT2, with Arm 3/AN-Vx and IQ3 moving magnet cartridge. This became my first AN analogue rig when I returned to analogue in late 2004. It dramatically outperformed my long lost Linn LP12/Itok/Kharma outfit, mainly by being airier and more transparent, with no sacrifice in bass authority. It maked my LP12 sound plumy in contrast. This is presumably because of its light-weight platter and dual motors, but I can’t do the audio-physics on this, so I’ll leave it to others. This combination will take you back to analogue in a hurry if you let it. $5050.

TT2, with Arm 3/AN-Vx, IO1 moving coil cartridge, AN-SL4 step-up transformer. If you’re feeling both flush and ambitious, put an I0l moving coil cartridge into the Arm 3, add an Audio Note step-up transformer, and listen to the whole experience go up at least a level – two levels if you go with the SL4. Among the step-ups, the AN-SL3 is excellent, the AN-SL4 a knockout. As always with Audio Note, you don’t notice anything missing until you move up and it arrives! $11,350 with SL4.

TT2 Deluxe. Same as TT2 but in high gloss black or European birch plinth. $3225.

TT Three Half Reference.  Three large 2.0 PHP Papst external flywheel motors but running at lower power with a basic high voltage power supply adding extra torque to increase rotational mass equivalent to 120 kilos, despite the lightweight Lexan platter. One external power supply with integrated controls. I now own this turntable and my first impressions are that it is notably better than the Voyd Reference it has replaced...and has the virtue of being new rather than 20+ years old! I couldn't be happier.

One Box CD Players

CD Zero.  Entry level integrated single chassis front loading CD player in new small Zero chassis. $2275. I have not heard this yet.

CD 1.1x . A one-box player, using a Philips front-loading transport mechanism and DAC with a 6111WA tube and tin foil output capacitors. Non-oversampling and filter-free, of course. Both front controls and remote. Housed in a new full-width chassis, which is not as high or deep as the standard DAC chassis. $2850

CD2.1x II. Like the CD1.1x but with Audio Note tantalum resistors, some Black Gates, and copper foil output capacitors. $4250

CD4.1x. Audio Note’s best one-box player, using the Philips CD Pro top-loading transport mechanism of the CDT 2 II and an improved version of the Dac 2.1. $10,750

Digital Transports

CDT Zero II. New entry level CD transport with front loading Philips mechanism. New small chassis to match Zero level dacs. $2475. More soon.

CDT 1 II. Front loading CD transort, Philips mechanism heavily Black Gated power supply, RCA and XLR outputs with custom Audio Note digital transformers. $3750.

CDT 2 II. The current version of the highly regarded CDT 2 is so good I urge you to consider the seemingly radical idea of putting it at the head of even fairly modest systems, from which its price would seem to exclude it. For example, pairing it with the Dac 1: you won’t know how good the new Dac 1 truly is until you hear it with a CDT 2. The current CDT 2 is significantly more dynamic and open sounding than its predecessor. It unleashes remarkable quantities of clean, authoritative bass, and its treble region has less grain. Like all of the best Audio Note products, this new transport solves audio problems we were not aware we had. A breakthrough product that challenges the notion that the dac is more important than the transport. $6775.

CDT 3. I expected the 3 to be a bit better than the 2, but frankly I was knocked out. I would say the biggest difference is verisimilitude: everything sounds more real and more present. The whole presentation has more dynamic authority. All of my CD’s sound appreciably better, which I have to take into account now when I do CD reviews! The CDT3 demonstrates as well as anything in the Audio Note line what upgrading in a predictable way – better parts mainly but also intelligent implementation – really means. The basic products are so thoughtfully designed that upgrading parts dramatically upgrades performance. The CDT 3 is better at everything the excellent CDT 2 is good at. The improvements at this level are not at all subtle. If you can only afford a CDT 2, relax, you are in good hands. But if you can stretch to the 3, you will hear its benefits throughout your system. I would even consider putting it on an AN dac below its presumed level of performance, just to see if the old saw about source is still true. $10,750.

CDT 4.  Larger (M3) chassis, high level Black Gate caps, M10 style transistorized power supplies for each section, silver wired digital transformers.  $15,850.

Moving from the CDT 2 to the CDT 3, we get more dynamics, a bigger and more authoritative sound. Taking the next step, from the 3 to the 4, we get dramatically more refinement and both ambient and timbrel information -- it feels to me somewhat like moving from the Dac 4.1 Balanced to the 4.1 Signature: everything that matters jumps ahead, giving us a taste of analogue’s principal virtues. For some, money aside -- which of course it seldom is -- it may be the perfect balance of digital’s and analogue’s virtues. We have the penetrating clarity of digital along with some of the ‘tangibility’ and airiness of analogue.

CDT 5. Same larger chassis, tube output buffer. Special heavy aluminum chassis with internal sprung suspension derived from the TT Three Reference. $49,500.

But for those who find analogue The Truth, which is after all the philosophy of Audio Note and what brings many to the whole line, the CDT 5 takes us several giant steps farther toward the ideal. The advance is so considerable it can be exhilarating. For some, it will feel like Arrival. The 5 is by far the smoothest, fullest, most easeful, and airiest -- in sum, the most beautiful sounding transport I’ve ever heard. The sound stage is also expansive, such that these virtues all seem to blend together into a musical world from which, it often seems, all flaws and hints of distortion have been banned. And I’m told, not having it heard with its intended partner, the Dac 5 Fifth Element/Fifth Force, that I’ve yet to hear all it can do! My impressions are based on pairing it with the Dac 4.1 Signature and Blue Circle BC 501ob LOC, both comparably fine dacs.

I listened to the 4 and 5 transports together, back and forth, for a week, pretending I could afford both in an attempt to achieve maximum objectivity. When all is said and done, I lectured myself, every component, ‘better’ or not, has its own sound and that is what the critical listener must attempt to hear and describe.  For example, what does the period instrument ensemble, the Festetics Quartet ‘really’ sound like? On the 5, their characteristic edge is softened, their bitter-sweet sound sweetened, their leanness filled out. On the 4, with its smaller image and leaner, firmer sound, they have a little more savor, less fullness, and are more bitter-sweet. Their sound is more penetrating, less fulsome, which is how I know them. But I have never heard them ‘live,’ so I don’t know what they ‘really’ sound like. Is the 5 truer to life or truer to analogue? Is analogue truer to life than the best digital? Or is the best digital more objective? And that is where the comparison of the CDT 4 and CDT 5 will invariably take you. And it is the 5 that forces the issue: it is so wonderfully analogue in its presentation that it forces the listener, yet again, to face the perennial question.

So wherever you are on this question and whatever your resources, I urge you to hear both of these marvelous transports and make the comparison I’ve had the luxury of making. It will be an education no matter where you come out.

And the CDT 6 just debuted in Milan...

Audio Note CDT 4 and Dac 3.1x Balanced II

Digital Analogue Converters

The Audio Note Dacs are the key to the natural magic of Audio Note digital. I have yet to hear them all but as soon as I have I will augment the notes below.

DAC 1.1x Signature II . The Signature II’s predecessor, the DAC One.1x Signature, was a fine sounding dac, especially given its extremely reasonable price. It captured the middle of notes better than the competition. Paired with a CDT TWO it could sing, boogie, and roar - easily outperforming two $5000 CD/SACD players in my house, making the whole "hi-res" phenomenon a non-issue. The new Signature II is astoundingly better in audible ways. I have used it in my reference system without fear that anything essential would be lost and have not been disappointed. Moving up the Audio Note dac line always brings revelations that justify the added investment. But I expect more and more audiophiles to find the new Dac 1 Sig II good enough. $2850.

DAC 4.1 Balanced. The 4.1 is the Audio Note product that introduced me to whole the Audio Note line and until I heard the Signature version, it was the best single component I'd ever heard of any kind. It still sounds extraordinary to me, even when I come to it from the Signature. My review on Positive-Feedback.com says all I can say. (See Reviews section below.) Compared with the 3.1, it is more open through the middle and on top, firmer and clearer on the bottom, and more refined overall. Where funds allow, it should sit at the head of any ambitious music system. $15,750

4.1 Balanced Signature. The Dac 4.1 Balanced Signature is in another game. To be honest, as much as I love the 4.1 Balanced and could be happy with it forever, the 4.1 Sig is the first DAC I’ve heard that truly does enable digital to compete on an even playing field with very good if not state of the art analogue. While the 4.1 Balanced is great digital and an appropriate goal for all but the most self-indulgent audiophile, the Signature version does seem to cross some sort of invisible (and expensive) threshold and take us to a place where the choice of what to play, CD or LP, can be based, as we once hoped it would be, on the music rather than the medium. It does not emulate analogue’s beguiling softness but offers comparable smoothness in the treble and stunning overall clarity and transparency. It can turn a good system into an extraordinary one all by itself. That it takes this level of investment to get to this point with digital tells us all we need to know about the medium’s difficulties in musical communication relative to analogue, doesn’t it. The 4.1 Balanced Signature is considered by many to be the (not so) poor man's Dac 5. $28,500

DAC 5 Special and Signature . More information and commentary coming someday! $48,500 and $89,750.

Dac 5 Fifth Element - Fifth Force. $140,000.

Amplifiers

OTO SE. Single-ended, EL 84 based, 10 watt integrated amp. Available with or without phono stage. The best amplifier value in the Audio Note line. Likely designed with the Audio Note K’s in mind, it also makes a wonderful match with the 93dB J’s. I have used it with it with both the JMR Twins, predecessors of the Duets, and Arpeggiones, predecessors of the Euterpes, getting from them a more refined presentation than most of us are accustomed to hearing from JMR speakers. The OTO is satisfyingly full, dynamic, and clear, sounding and wonderfully informative through the midrange. An excellent choice for a $10,000-15,000 system with efficient speakers, it is a fine competitor for the Manley Stingray and the Audiomat Arpege, among others. I am sure I have yet to hear all that it can do.  OTO SE Line, $3750. OTO SE Phono, $4250.

OTO SE Signature

OTO SE Signature. The long awaited Signature verision of the classic OTO SE has finally arrived. "Ribbon internal connecting cable has been replaced with silver; Tantalum resistors and foil capacitors have been added in critical locations. Most important, the M4 IE output transformers have been replaced with IHiB double c-core numbers, providing superior magnetic core material in a superior transformer topology for superior results." This should now become the more versatile and all purpose EL 84 integrated amp that owners of E speakers in particular have asked for. As soon as I can get one here, I intend to try it both on my E/SPe HE's and my smaller Reynauds as well. Who knows? I would guess that E's and J's are the new OTO's natural mates, but long to hear it on K/SPx's, if I ever get up the bucks and chutzpa to order one! A worthy alternative to a Meishu is here. OTO SE Signature Line, $5050. OTO SE Signature Phono, $5475.

Soro SE. 18 watt, 6L6G tube based single-ended integrated amplifer with a more robust and fuller presentation than the OTO. Available with or without a phono stage. An ideal mate for Reynaud speakers in particular and a fine contrast to the Blue Circle integrateds for those who prefer the flavor of tubes. I ran it with great success on Twins, Cantabiles, and Offrandes, and expect it will also be a good match for the Emeraude, successor to the Evolution 3. Soro Line SE, $5475. Soro Phono SE, $6250.

Meishu, Meishu Silver, Meishu Silver Signature . 9 watt SET, 300B based integrated amplifier. Available with or without phono stage. This is the best way to bring 300B tubes into your system if you’re a prudent rather than self-indulgent audiophile. Naturally, warm, and full sounding, it can be upgraded with NOS tubes to take it pretty much any direction you like. Its natural mates are Audio Note AN-J’s or AN-E’s. Its three different models parallel the Quest monoblocks amplifiers below in its internal components. The Meishu Silver is a great upgrade. Meishu Line, $7500. Meishu Silver Line, $9900. Meishu Line Silver Signature, $15,750. 

M3 single-ended, tubed preamplifier. Available with or without phono stage. With its improved power supplies, whose technology has trickled down from the M10, the current iteration of the M3 has made it the great preamplifier value in the line. Dave Cope and I agree it sounds miles ahead of its predecessor. A natural match with a P3, P4, Quests, or Conquests. M3 Line, $7950. M3 Phono, $9875.

M6 single-ended, tubed preamplifier. Available with or without phono stage. The M6, which has also acquired new power supplies derived from those in the M10, is the finest preamplifier I have heard at what it does. I consider it a reference component. It is the perfection of the M3 school of preamps. M6 Line, $15,850. M6 Phono, $19,250.

Quest. The Quest amplifier is a 9 watt SET monoblock amplifier, which gives us the rich glory of the 300B tube. It comes in standard, Silver, and Silver Signature models. As the Conquest, it offers us 18 watts with paralleled 300B's. Quest, $7450. Quest Silver, $10,500. Quest Silver Signature, $18,750.

Conquest Silver Signatures
Conquest . 18 watt SET monoblocks amplifier. More information and commentary coming. Conquest, $12,500. Conquest Silver, $15,500. Conquest Silver Signature, $22,750.

P3 and P4 stereo amps. 9 watts, 22 watts. The Quest and Conquest monoblock amplifiers are also available (for less money) in single chassis as the P series. My principal Audio Note demo amp is a P3 Silver Signature, and I’ll have to say, coupled with my M6 Phono preamp, it’s superb. My aural memory of Quest Silver Signatures, which visited briefly some 5-6 years ago, albeit with less ambitious cabling that I have here now, is that this P3 version is at least as good, conceivably better. There may be technical advantages to a single chassis amp I know not of.  I have not heard the P4 amps, with the exception of P4 Balanced below, which is a whole other animal. P3, $6725. P3 Silver, $8900. P3 Silver Signature, $13, 875. P4, $14,250. P4 Silver, $16,975. P4 Silver Signature, $24,500.

Neiro. 8 watt SET monoblock amplifier. A pair of Neiros offers the passion, penetration, and deeply saturated colors of parallel 2A3's coupled with a C-core transformer with copper primary and silver secondary windings. More elegant, informative, and possessed of firmer and clearer bass than the 300B based Quests and Meishus in the line, the 2A3 Neiros are also a bit less meaty and sensuous. They sound startlingly more powerful than their meager eight watt rating suggests. In conjunction with the M6 preamplifier and a DAC 4.1 Balanced, they soundstage wonderfully with depth and air, putting a natural finish on notes that is strikingly real. $28,500.

Shinri. 10 watt monoblock amplifier, identical to the Neiros, but with a single 300B output tube in place of parallel 2A3’s to provide a more nuanced, disciplined, and refined perspective than their 2A3 brothers. They are Mozart to the Neiro’s Beethoven. Great sense of control on harpsichords and pianos. Remarkable delicacy and suavity overall. Where the Neiros are notable for drama and contrast, the Shinris lead with poise and control. $28,875.

P4 Balanced. While clearly related to the Quest/Conquest line of 300B amps, the P4B’s with their interstage transformers take us into another sound and musical world. Far better bass, a huge soundscape, increased spatial presence, with a degree of clarity that leaves its less ambitious siblings in the dust. I feared their copper wound transformers might mean too much warmth but after just one day of play, that demon retreated. Warmer than Neiros but far more transparent than the Quests and Conquests. I drove my demos with an M6 but Audio Note says they’ll respond well to an M3 as well. If the price tag is beyond your means, try to hear  its integrated cousin, the Jinro at the next audio show. $31,000.

Jinro. 20 watt SET integrated amplifier with Chinese 211 tubes. Debuted at CES in 2010. More information and commentary coming soon. $24,000.

Tomei. 25 watt SET integrated amplifier with 211 tubes. More information and commentary coming. $44,750.

Ongaku. 25 watt single-ended integrated amplier with VT4-C tubes. Information and commentary forthcoming. $111,000

A note on 300B Tubes

I have not had a varied experience with 300B tubes. I find the stock 300B’s that come with Audio Note amps conservative, meaning they don’t seem to make any particular sonic statement of their own. That should be considered a virtue, especially as a starting point.

I have recently explored a more up-market tube, the latest from Sophia Electric, the Royal Princess, which is considerably more ambitious. To begin with, it sounds big, dynamic, spatially deep, and warm. The warmth does not appear to come at the cost of clarity but does set the musicians in a deeper, more ambient context. Its presentation is smooth and harmonically rich. Edges are slightly rounded rather than sharply defined. Bass is fulsome and impactful but resonant rather than tight, which some will find more natural. The overall impression I get is beauty as heard in an older concert hall, with lots of wood, upholstered seats, and plaster. With 300B’s the goal is generally beauty and emotional warmth, in contrast say with a comparable 2A3 that favors a trimmer, tighter sound. And a tube as ambitious as the Royal Princess makes that clear. It asks you to put away your measuring instruments and just let their rich magic flow over you, which it does.

I suppose this begs the question of whether a tube should have some character as opposed to none, though I’ll have to say that listening to these tubes over time and then temporarily switching back to the stock 300B’s, I prefer the Royal Princesses’ character to the stock tube’s none. I can imagine a tube with character of a different sort that might appeal to those who favor inflection over innuendo. But that’s the thing about character, isn’t it!

 
SPEAKERS 

Audio Note’s are the only speakers I have yet to hear that present a truly viable different perspective than Reynaud’s. Peter Qvortrup says they are "correct and accurate to the recording," an argument I have heard in favor of a great many speakers I admire but am not (any longer) drawn to. Harbeths, for example. But Audio Note speakers are extremely persuasive, whatever the philosophy behind them. Perhaps Peter has sprinkled some fairy dust on them and not told us.

They did not take me by storm. I expect this is mainly because they don’t sound at all like Reynauds, which is the speaker voice that had occupied my head for the previous few years. Reynauds generate a sense of almost palpable emotional atmosphere about them: they are wonderfully breathy, naturally warm, and full of physical musical presence. They are so effective at this that they can make other, quite excellent, speakers sound light or lean in direct contrast. Which is exactly what they did to a pair of AN E/SPe’s the first few weeks I had them here.

Though, being two ways, they do not convey as much weight and mass, Audio Note speakers are neither light nor lean, they are as clear as a New England fall day, exhilaratingly open and gloriously transparent. Violins in particular are transcendent. Human voices are strikingly clear, instrumental voices remarkably lifelike. Unlike Reynauds, they are not especially indulgent of bad digital transfers. But to most of mine, and I have a great many, they sound fine and are full of nice surprises. I have never much enjoyed the sound of Chandos CD’s for example, and they sound very good on AN speakers. They seem to give all decent recordings more than a fair chance to show what they’ve got. The best recordings sound extraordinary. Every recording sounds distinct from every other recording, which is their designer’s criterion for excellence and has become mine.

Like Audio Note electronics, they are eloquent rather than ingratiating. This seems to have a great deal to do with their speed, their responsiveness to an audio signal. I have never quite understood the importance of this attribute until now, and I expect it has a great deal to do with the simplicity of the signal path. It seems to be what gives AN speakers their extraordinary verisimilitude. Music coming through them sounds a great deal like what I heard in the spring of 2004 at the Aldeburgh Festival in Norfolk, England. (http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue14/festival.htm) Notes break the air with great speed and little effort. 

All Audio Note speakers are designed to occupy the corners of the room, toed in such that their ‘lines’ cross about a meter in front of the listening position. This said, I have found that most AN speakers work fine out in the room, especially the K’s; so the fact that your room has no useable corners does not rule them out. My main listening room’s corners are eighteen feet (!) apart, so the toe-in here is absolutely essential. Set up properly, Audio Note speakers create a very broad sweet spot. Peter Qvortrup likes to demonstrate this attribute of his speakers by pointing out to visitors that his accustomed listening position is to the far right! They love low-powered SET’s. Once I got my demo E’s (and J’s) snugged back into the corners, the full length drapes (behind them and in front of my floor to ceiling glass wall) drawn a couple of feet past them (to take the glass out of the equation) and pulled away from their rear-firing ports, they began to have their way with me. I drive mine with 300B based amps, of which Audio Note makes a great many.

The sonic universe that Audio Note speakers propose can take me over. Their openness and clarity throughout their surprising range can be magic, and you don't need to go 'up range' in the product line to hear it.  As with the OTO integrated amplifier and Dac 1.1x Signature II, the magic is there from the beginning. One of my favorites is the modest K/SPe, though I'll confess I have daydreamed of indulging in legendary K/SPx SE's to give myself a present!

All of the Audio Note speakers are based on classic Snell designs, improved upon by Audio Note designers. They are available in an extraordinary variety of finishes and degrees of technical refinement. The notes below refer to the SPe models which strike many of us as the best AN speaker values.

AN-K/SPe While there are speakers, (notably Audio Note J’s and E’s) that go lower and higher with more ease, and make a bigger and arguably more accurate impression, the 90 dB, 8 ohm K’s have a special quality that larger, more effortlessly full-range speakers generally lack. Those who remember with fondness the KLH Six (compared with the Five and Twelve), the larger Advent, and the Celestion SL6 will know what I’m talking about. The K/SPe’s are better speakers than any of those classics; but they share their appeal, their ability to speak incisively and almost personally through the essential midrange, which, because of the K’s lighter low end, is where their balance is centered. They have an immediacy, a presence, exciting leading edge behavior, and tactile musical excitement, along with a beguiling hint of opacity (!), just as their predecessors had. The smaller Reynauds have some of this strange blend of tactile immediacy and opacity. The K’s have sealed cabinets, which clearly account for some of their sonic quality. The KLH, Advent, and Celestion were all sealed; the Reynauds (and Audio Note J’s and E’s) are ported. A substantial benefit of the K’s is that they perform superbly on the modest OTO integrated amp. Designed with smaller rooms in mind, they also sound excellent in my 18’ and 28’ living room. $3500

AN-J/SPe The considerably larger, ported J’s are unquestionably "better" speakers than their little brothers, in the sense that they go lower with more authority, go higher with more ease – they are smoother and more open sounding; and they create a larger image. They have less ‘personality’ than the K’s (as KLH Fives and Twelves had less than the Sixes) because they make fewer compromises (cabinet size mainly, which means the smaller speakers have to work harder to cover the spectrum) – and it is compromises that bring personality to a speaker, for better and for worse. The J’s bass comes remarkably close to that of their big brother E’s. In small and large rooms alike, with their 93 dB sensitivity, they are quite happy on the OTO. Actually, the OTO/J-SPe combination is one of my most popular. $5500

E/SPe HE

AN-E/SPe.The E was the first Audio Note speaker I heard and as much as I like the J and K, if you have the room for it, the E is the speaker to have. Its additional half-octave on the low end clarifies the low bass fairly dramatically. It also gives the impression of being more open and easeful from top to bottom, likely the result also of the clearer low end. The E’s like a bit of space, but seemed just fine in Peter Qvortrup’s approximately 12’ x 16’ study. Most folks put at least a Meishu or M3/P3 on E’s. $6900

AN-E/SPe HE. An AN-E/SPe with hemp High Efficiency woofers taking them to 98 dB! A great upgrade which makes possible use of ultra low powered 45 or 2A3 based amps. That said, the speed of the hemp woofers seems to make these E's demonstrably more exciting on the same amps you'd use with the standard E/SPe's. They have already become my favorite Audio Note speaker. They strike me now as the sweet spot in the line. Not as absolutely resolving and refined as the more than two and three times as expensive E/SPe SE's and E/SPx SE's, but a bit sweeter and absolutely endearing. No wonder Art Dudley fell for them. $8475.

AN-E/LX Signature. A copper wired AN-E with the High Efficiency woofers and external, separately boxed crossovers using solid copper wired inductors with Audio Note copper foil capacitors. Wired with Lexus cable. Excellent review of the E/LX Signatures by Art Dudley in Stereophile...written before he heard the E/Spe HE's...http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/506an/index1.html For those who love copper wired speakers or whose overly bright listening rooms require them, these are jewels. $16,750.

AN-E/SPe Signature.   With silver wired inductors in the external crossovers, this beauty is the first of the upscale silver wired E models. More resolving and thus more articulate across its entire range, it can be stunning with the Level 4 electronics it invites. Audio Note afficionados will insist on this level of refinement. The rest of us will find great satisfaction with E/SPe HE's. $18,250.

AUDIO NOTE CABLE 

Audio Note cabling is the best I know of. It is the most naturally revealing cable I’ve heard in my house. As interconnect and speaker cables - and now as power cables as well - it can compound the virtues of both AN and non-AN systems. 

Modestly priced copper Lexus is terrific in a modest system, offering a naturally warm, detailed, and full presentation. As an interconnect, I prefer it to the less weighty sounding, silver-based AN-v and in Reynaud-based systems, I even prefer it to SPe speaker cable. And it is cheaper than both. When you get to AN-Vx, the interconnect game begins to change: everything begins to open up without any loss of the Lexus solidity or smoothness. With speaker cable, in most cases you have to get all the way to SPx before things get noticeably better than Lexus. Sogon interconnects, with twice as many strands of silver as Vx, is simply astonishing in its clarity and sweetness. And the new Sootto, with twice as many strands as Sogon (!) can take your breath away. Big, hugely present, and still beautiful. It clearly crosses a line into territory where adjectives flail and reality seems to begin. Sogon speaker cable, prohibitively expensive for most unless you bi-wire by splitting the 96 strands cables to 48, is the finest speaker cable I’ve yet to hear. 

The strategy, unless you're rich, is to put the best cable you can afford at the head of the system chain, say between a digital transport and dac or between a CDP and amp: that way its advantages get passed along. Even putting a single run of Sogon, or better yet, the new Pallas, between the transport and dac in a system with all Lexus delivers a dramatic improvement.

Upgrading from Vx to Sogon to Sootto interconnects is like opening sonic doors. At each step we feel we are hearing it all and then suddenly, in each case, there is more. More instrumental and spatial detail, more pure physicality and presence, more beauty, and more shear excitement. This is directly attributable to the near doubling of strands of silver, the doubling of channels through which musical information can travel:  it is as if twice as much on a recording is being unleashed. I can't tell you now exhilarating it is to hear more of a cello than you've been accustomed to thinking there is: the prodigious sound of its physicality accompanied by the stunning beauty of true timbre. This is what this whole enterprise we are involved in truly is.

With Audio Note cable, every step of the progression is a revelation, so there is no need to complete the journey through the last door. But I promise you there is no other way to get it all. If all of the musical information can't get into your system, it ain't going to come out!

LEXUS interconnects. All-copper 50 strand interconnect with the same architecture as Sogon. Probably the best buy in IC’s around. Full and smooth sounding, it has more clarity than we usually find in copper cable. One meter pair, RCA's, $245.

AN-V interconnects. 99.99% pure silver, 15 strand litz wire symmetrical, copper screen. A respectable interconnect for modest high end systems for those who have to have silver but can't afford AN-Vx. I heard it between a CDT 2 transport and Dac 1.1x Signature II dac and between the dac and an OTO integrated. Less full sounding than copper Lexus but just enough silver to throw a bit of natural light over everything. One meter pair, RCA's, $685.

AN-Vx inteconnects. 99.99% pure silver, 27 strand litz wire symmetrical, copper screen. A significant jump in openness and refinement from AN-V, this is the interconnect of choice in most reasonably priced systems. No need to go beyond AN-Vx unless you’re truly ambitious but definitely worth stretching to from AN-v and from Lexus if you can. A good choice in even a perfectionist’s system that requires a long run, say to mono-blocks. One meter pair, RCA's, $1525.

SOGON interconnects. 99.99% pure silver, 50 strand litz wire symmetrical, copper screen. Wide open and noticeably refined.  A great cable to run from a transport to a dac to give a Vx based system a great start. More and more listeners are considering this option even in modest systems because of the startling degree of improvement it provides. One meter pair, RCA's, $4575. Single run as digital interconnect, 2287.50.

PALLAS interconnect. An even more dramatic improvement in the run from the digital transport to the dac. Better than Sogon in this role, if those of you who have heard Sogon can believe it. One meter, single run for digital IC, RCA's, $2362.50.

SOOTTO interconnects. 99.99% pure silver in 110 strands. Big, bold, clear, and still beautiful. Arguably the most 'real' sounding AN cable. Head to head with Sogon, it sounds less refined and less sweet because it is holding absolutely nothing back. Not at all clinical, just stunningly present. Scary good stuff. Even just one pair near the head end of a system can be an existential joy. In my current reference system, I run from Pallas to Sootto and then on to biwired (split) Sogon speaker cable. One meter pair, RCA's, $8300.

Lexus XL speaker cable. Pure copper 50 strand Lexus is all a modest system will ever need and also my  first choice for Reynaud Blisses, Cantabiles, Emeraudes, and even Offrandes. Way better sounding than it has any right to be. A great cable value. An all-copper wire but built with the same architecture as Sogon, so it offers the classic warmth with detail. $300 per meter single wired plus $130 for termination. Biwired, $600 plus $185. 

AN-SPe speaker cable. 99.99% pure silver litz conductor, 17 strands. SPe is comparable to an interconnect halfway between AN-V and AN-Vx: a great sounding cable that will satisfy most audiophiles. Ideal for K/SPe's, J/SPe's, and E/SPe's. $1200 per meter single wired plus $95 for termination. Biwired, $2400 plus $130.

AN-SPx speaker cable. 99.99% pure silver litz conductor, 27 strands. Weightier sounding overall and more brilliant in the upper midrange. Good match for JMR Orfeos and Concordes. $2920 per single meter single wired plus $95 for termination; $5840 plus $130 biwired.

SOGON LX 96 speaker cable. 99.99 pure silver conductor, now 96 strands. Probably the best there is and single cables can be split rather than doubled for biwiring, resulting in 48 strands, close to what Sogon was for years. Even in that configuration, it is gorgeous. Sogon 96 is $14,600 per single meter single wired plus $135 for termination. $29,000 Plus $130 for full biwiring.

SOGON AC CABLE. A new product entering the market in the summer of 2010, offering a chance to run with a full AN cabled system.  Sogon AC cables used judiciously (you don't need them on all components) complete the chain and unleash a system's full potential. We have the sense that sound is extended farther up and down the audio spectrum; through to the world where tiny details live; and out into the physical space where the music was recorded. Everything feels more 'live' and present. Instruments sounds like better versions of themselves, human voices are more emotionally affecting. Both inflections and innuendos are more noticeable. Even if you’re used to extremely high end power cables, these new Sogon cords need to be heard. In my system, using cables on just the dac and preamp, replacing very good custom cords designed by Audio Note and built by Dave Cope of Triode and Company, it was like opening a flood gate: more of everything came into the room. 

JM REYNAUD 

Jean Marie Reynaud, master designer and builder of some of the most musically compelling loudspeakers in the world, died on March 31, 2011, after a long illness. He was seventy-two. He is succeeded by his son, Jean Claude, who has worked at his side, involved in both design and management, for the past few years. The audio world mourns the passing of this great man and extends best wishes to Jean Claude, who pledged to his father to "continue his brand and business respecting his philosophy and sound."

Jean Claude Reynaud and the late Jean Marie Reynaud.

JM Reynaud speakers pursue the natural warmth, body, and immediacy that give many listeners their chief emotional charge from music. They are warm and robust but there is also, especially with the latest generation of Reynauds, greater transparency and spatial magic with no loss of warmth. 

Reynaud speakers have a way of providing the perfect marriage of sonic information and musical expressiveness that seems to elude so many other designs. The zig-zag to Reynaud began with Kefs, proceeded to Meridian M-2 actives, Linn Saras and DMS Isobariks, B&W Matrix speakers, Spendors (BC1's and 1/2's), and on to Harbeths. The arrival at Reynaud was both satisfying and definitive. No speaker I have heard does as well at getting the elemental emotional feel of a live musical performance into our living room, which is their designer's express goal. In contrast to the vivid kind of clarity that distinguishes some of the most popular contemporary ‘for a clear day you can hear forever' speakers, Reynauds offer a naturally warm but also spirited and energetic version of transparency, resulting in a physical immediacy that can take your breath away. To my ears, had the Spendor BC-1 evolved in a straight line rather than thinning out its heritage into the current Classic line, it would have turned into a Reynaud.

JEAN MARIE REYNAUD LOUDSPEAKERS

Again, for more detail and a look at the full JMR line, go to the manufacturer's website, http://www.jm-reynaud.com. All JMR equipment is available through Amherst Audio. Amherst Audio is the North American sales agent for JMR as well as a retail dealer.  A current list of U.S. dealers appears at the end of the JM Reynaud section. 

Below are subjective descriptions of my favorite Reynauds. Amherst Audio offers the full line of Reynaud speakers.

The Bliss (formerly called the Duet). 

After thirteen years and four different versions, JMR decided it was time for the famous rustic & romantic Twin to retire to make room for something altogether new. Well, not absolutely altogether. The drivers are the same and the enclosure is almost the same --slightly smaller in volume (2 inches shallower, 1 inch wider). But the interior of the enclosure has been completely re-engineered to take advantage of what was learned from creating the Offrande Signature. There is a new crossover.  And the sound! Still naturally JMR warm and expressive but much more immediate, with chest rattling bass. These are more passionate and physical speakers than their predecessors. They are not as open and smooth on top as Bliss Silvers nor as refined as Offrandes and Orféos; I would call them natural cane sugar speakers a physical quality in the midrange and upper bass that is unique to them, a voice that loves jazz in particular. 

The ideal for JMR has always been that elusive marriage of warmth and clarity we hear in the concert hall and jazz venue and that has eluded speaker designers for years. Over the half-dozen or so years that I have been listening to Reynauds father and son have steadily and conspicuously moved closer to this goal. But in the latest speaker iterations they have taken a giant step - and with the new Bliss they have brought this level of improvement to the entry-level speaker. I loved the MK III Twins, I loved and admired the Twin Signatures. But the Blisses really are a new ball game.  Again, the most dramatic improvements are in the immediacy of the midrange and authority of the bass. Where the Twins used to seduce with a degree of beguiling opacity, the Blisses amaze with the warmth, speed, and immediacy of a 'live' performance. And where the Twins sometimes wanted a subwoofer to fill them out, the Blisses often sound as if they are already subs somewhere in the room. Still no hint of the brightness or over-assertiveness that often accompany great presence. Just there-ness. The Blisses are warm, immediate, passionate, and fast. What they do for saxes and cellos will amaze.

They strike me as more versatile than the Twins. Within reason, you can get almost any sound out of them you like. My favorite combination has them with the new Blue Circle 6922 based FtTH 2 hybrid integrated, which brings out their dynamic capacity and phenomenal low end; music has great weight and body through this amp. The 6SN7 based Blue Circle DAR integrated also performs well with the Blisses, bringing out their latent romanticism: a fuller and more blended sound, a more fluid midrange, increased holography & deep sound stage, and lots of energy, all at the cost of some authority and tightness in the low end and some overall definition.

I am getting the sense it will take me quite a while to discover all that these little miracles can perform, especially on the JMR Magic Stands. More than even their predecessors, the Blisses are the kings of the under $2000 speaker market.  $1995.

Review of Duets [Blisses]  on Positive-Feedback

Bliss Silver.

A new Bliss Silver has been added to the line, introducing a new woofer suspension technology that is now moving up the speaker line. Not a replacement for Bliss, which remains happily in the line, it is in essence a refined and fairly dramatically upgraded Bliss. 

These are among the clearest sounding speakers I’ve ever heard. Overall definition is outstanding. The midrange is among the very best I’ve heard: as clear as the Harbeth Radial but sweeter. Suggestive of a Spendor midrange with all of its appeal but more definition. An overall natural warmth with a surprising sense of ease for a stand mounted speaker. Not a hint of brightness or assertiveness. Listening to a cello and piano duo: the two instruments are each perfectly and separately realized. Treble range is clear and smooth, midrange present, savory, and clear. Bass is solid with good body, tight, and extremely well defined. Clearly it’s stand-mount bass, but the absence of low end authority is not conspicuous because what is there is so well defined.  Most interesting - and this is a feature I am hearing in all of the Reynauds which use the new technology - there is a dramatic increase in sense of space and imaging.

They are the most musically accurate speakers under $5000 I’ve heard, an enormous upgrade over the Bliss for $800.

The US price is slightly less than the Euterpe, floor-standing version of the Bliss, at $2695.

Euterpe. Floor-standing version of the Bliss, replacing the Arpeggione Signatures. They use the same drivers as as their little siblings, but with more space for the woofers to work with, they provide an additional 5 Hertz on the low end. And no need for stands! $3500.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Emeraude.   These replacements for the extremely popular Evolution 3’s may be the most overtly appealing speakers in the Reynaud line by virtue of their Spendor-like midrange. And unlike those lovable British Classics, the Emeraudes have commanding bass. So if this sounds like your game, this may be your ideal speakers.  Reynaud is using a new fabric tweeter (still top-mounted) for this model which has a neodymium magnet with a "w" shaped suspension: it is likely responsible for the wonderfully clear and smooth quality of the Emeraude's treble range.

 

Offrande Supreme, V2. 

Orféo Supreme.  Now move back another 8-10 rows, where the instruments begin to blend, where immediacy is down around 10%, beauty, fullness, and air up 20%. You are now listening to the new Supreme version of the Orféo, successor to the much loved and lauded Orféo II. The Orféo II’s were the perfect complement to the Offrande Supreme; the new Orféo Supremes are the perfect complement to the new Offrandes. All of the Orféo II’s virtues are present but also the ability of the Offrande Supreme V2’s to disappear. The warmth, fullness, and most important to me, the speed and jump are all there; but there is new magic. The woofer tension system, meticulous balancing of parts, and silver capacitors do as much for the Orféos as they do for the Offrande Supreme V2’s, most dramatically in the area of imaging, which is startlinglly good. Some will hear these floorstanders as Offranded Orfeos. 

My favorite seat in the hall is around Row M or N, fourteen rows or so from the stage. I want to relish the timbre of each instrument but I want a bit of the hall too: I want the coherence and weight of an orchestra. And finally, I want a hint of the sweetness that the air adds to sound as it travels those extra ten rows. To my particular ears, the Orféos achieve the perfect balance of ‘live’ music’s wonders. They may well have the best overall balance I've ever heard. They are not as immediate, edgy, and exciting as Offrandes; they are not as grand, full, easeful, and authoritative as the Concordes. (Stay tuned.) They give away a little of both perspectives to give us the savor of everything. They are not a compromise. If anything, they are, or will be for many of you, the golden mean, the possible best of all worlds.

This year Orféo II's became the reference speaker for David Elrod of Elrod Power Systems: “To me, the Orfeo II’s are far more than a well designed loudspeaker. They are a finely tuned musical instrument that will thrill and astonish you. They are a masterpiece.” Wait ‘til he hears the Supremes.

4 Ohms, 92 dB. While you can run Orféos on as modest and versatile as amp as the 95 watt FtTH integrated, they give you much more on separates. I am currently running mine on a Blue Circle BC3000II GZpz and BC204, 150 watt hybrid amp, and they’re all I’ll ever want. $8500.

Great review of the II's from Tom Campbell on Positive Feedback.

Concorde Supreme.  With the Concordes we are moved still farther back,  farther still if you lower the volume. We are in the rear of the orchestra section, nearing mid-hall. Everything on the stage is marvelously clear but so is the room. There is ‘room presence’ not just musician and instrument presence. We are as much aware of what is around us as before us. And there is an ease to the proceedings as suits their perspective, the gift of a true three-way speaker design with a dedicated midrange driver. With Offrandes and somewhat with Orfeos, there is the greater intensity that comes from their closer perspectives. With the Concordes, there is more ease, fullness, and authority.

Authority. While the Concordes have essentially the same bandwidth as the Offrandes and Orfeos, their presentation is weightier, more impactful, and fuller: there are three large drivers to move more air and the cabinets are considerably larger (over one and a half times as much volume as Orféos) and heavier (nearly twice as heavy as the Orféos). We are acutely aware of the physicality, the body of instruments, and of orchestras. And everything feels as if it’s life-size. What keeps this quality in natural balance is the dedicated midrange driver at exactly ear-height assuring a marvelous clarity to the territory where cellos and human voices live. I hear things in women’s voices especially I’ve not heard before, tiny but essential inflections. The new midrange and woofer suspension technology and silver capacitors, here appearing in the Concordes for the first time, also contribute to the clarity in the midrange; but in addition improve the accuracy of sound-staging and the tightness of bass. Concordes can now work well in smaller rooms than before, though the height of the ribbon tweeter assembly (around six inches higher than on the Orféos) rules out nearfield listening. I find that around 12-13 feet is an ideal listening distance: at that distance, treble/bass balance is ideal and instruments begin to float free of the speakers -- another contribution from the new technology!

I expected these speakers to present a spectacular listening experience, which is why I leapt at the opportunity to hear them. They do not do that. Rather, and this may be the most important thing to say about them, they offer an utterly natural and whole presentation. Everything is just effortlessly there, solid and in its place. Everything. There. Nothing is projected or emphasized. The Concorde Supremes are not sensational or overwhelming, they are simply true to the experience of live music heard from what many listeners, especially those who favor orchestral music, consider the perfect location.

The Concordes are 4 ohms, 93 dB, providing an easy load to amplifiers. That said, the Reynauds urge us not to scrimp on power or current in order to let these speakers do all they can do. I drive mine happily with a Blue Circle 150 watt hybrid BC 204. $14,000.

I have always considered the words ‘neutral’ and ‘uncolored’ too puritanical to characterize the sound of those surprisingly few components that let the sound of instruments come across to us with absolute, uncoated, unenriched directness, which trust the information they receive absolutely. Their sound is simply too satisfying for joyless adjectives.

Audio Note audio cable, while not entirely innocent, enables Audio Note components to deliver the refined and beautiful Audio Note signature sound that many of us love and admire. I have learned that it’s something most folks don’t want to mess with. Even otherwise first rate line conditioners can screw it up. AN cable also gets fine sound out of Blue Circle electronics and Reynaud speakers, as I’ve said all along, such that until lately I have allowed no other cable in my house. But for Blue Circle and Reynaud, I have found a cable that reveals different virtues. I say a cable, not a line of cable because there is only one ‘model’ and the speaker cable and interconnects come off the same reel: they are identical except for termination. I find that encouraging.

Crimson cable, made in the UK (but not by Chord), alters my BC/JMR systems’ personality: I have the sense that I am hearing the quality of instruments more clearly. Apparently that's the kind of thing people who are new to Crimson say about it, whatever gear they're using it on and whatever cable they come to it from. The tactile quality of the sound, an almost visible sense of timbre, flies out of my Reynauds. Clarity is too modest a term to describe what we hear. Initially I thought it was a tad light-weight, that the Crimson might be trading off weight for clarity -- another thing newcomers to Crimson say about it, for a little while. And then we realize, as we've learned before, that the clearer bass gets, the lighter it initially seems. A double bass is plucked, a bass drum thwacked, and suddenly it's all there. It's just not there when it's not there. The air around the instruments is clear rather than thick; it's clear and charged with energy as it is in a great listening venue.

This is cable that seems to understand better where BC and JMR in particular want to go; and it lets them go there as I've never heard before. John Geisen of Wellington Audio, my newest JMR dealer, who introduced me to Crimson and who also sells Audio Note (and Quad, Naim, and some other lines), tells me it has the same effect on all of his other non Audio Note gear as well. He too is reluctant to mess with his Audio Note system.

I would say, now that I've been living with Crimson in my BC/JMR systems for a while (including use as a digital interconnect) and comparing it with Audio Note Pallas, Lexus, Sootto and Sogon, that where Audio Note cables tend to be more fulsome and weighty (Lexus), more refined and liquid (Pallas, Sogon, Sootto), and harmonically richer (all four), Crimson is clear, fast, immediate, tactile, trim, direct, ‘naturally warm,' and airy.  As I've said somewhere else, Audio Note cable sometimes gives us the sense we are coming to music from the inside; Crimson comes from the outside, capturing the color, details, and textures that live on the surface of instrumental sound, enabling us to recognize them. Crimson is also wonderfully dynamic.

I could not have characterized Audio Note cable as especially rich and refined had I not heard Crimson. Audio can be like that. Through contrast, differences can reveal character, though, alas, it is always relative character! The difference between Audio Note and Crimson is something you really have to hear and you really should hear. As I often say about differences of this kind, which you prefer will tell you more about who you are than what ‘the truth’ is. My ears tell me Audio Note cable is the appropriate cable in an AN system if you prefer the traditional sound of that marque and don’t want to risk changing it. But I urge you to at least consider trying some Crimson there, if only to discover what else Audio Note gear can do. And while I still like Audio Note cable with my Blue Circle and JMR gear just fine, it no longer strikes me as the preferred or only way to go in a BC/JMR system. It is a good way to go if its priorities are yours.

Interconnects (prices are for a pair of cables and include termination)

 1.0  meter, single ended, $360.  XLR $537
 1.5  meters.......................$400. XLR $617
 2.0  meters.......................$440  XLR $697

Speaker cable (Prices are for stereo pairs, double price for biwired)

  8 feet               $535
10 feet               $584
12 feet               $633
15 feet               $706
20 feet               $828
25 feet               $960

A Brief Essay on Digital and Analogue Sound

Digital

Digital, since the ballyhoo and bravado of its introduction in the late 1980’s, has spent most of its twenty plus year history, at least in the world of high end audio, fighting (or defending itself from) what many analogue fans characterize as ‘the problem of digital.’ Most agree that even at its best, which can be very good indeed, digital CD’s take somewhat of an analytic or clinical slant on things. If we like it, we hear it as stunning clarity and transparency and are drawn to the crispness of its leading edges. We admire its speed and transient response. Its fans call all of this "accuracy to source." Its critics hear instead a relative starkness, a lack of roundness and fullness; a sense that instruments have had some of their rich timbre stripped away. At its worst, which is rare these days, it comes through as edginess and/or glare. Those who speak of digital’s presentation as having a ‘problem’ attribute it to many things – too low a sampling rate and jitter chief among them. Based on my experience with some extremely good CDR’s made by recording engineer Da-Hong Seetoo, I have come to believe that what the critics of digital are talking about can be attributed at least in part to the manufacturing process, which is why so many tweak treatments to CD’s are at least to some degree effective. Recording engineers are frequently dismayed by the degeneration in quality from their masters to the CD’s we buy. Optrix, Auric Illumiunator, Vivid, Bedini’s Clarifier, even copying commercial discs onto CDR’s all seem in varying degrees to relieve edginess and glare, softening things up a bit and rounding them off appealingly. Upsampling, noise-shaping, and more radical nostrums aimed at CD’s allegedly too modest sampling rate strike me as less successful. Having heard redbook CD’s sound extremely good without any of this (and somewhat artificial with it) persuades me they are dead ends. Filtering, in both the analogue and digital domains on the premise that distortion is the root of ‘the problem’ have also demonstrated to me, through its absence in Audio Note dacs, that it too is a false path.

Audio Note and Blue Circle dacs are are virtually free of most of the qualities critics object to in the medium. And on truly good CD’s, treated with one of the elixirs – my latest find is Nanotec Systems’ Intro Project 8500 CD-DVD Coating Liquid - the ‘problem of digital’ can sometimes seem no problem at all.

Analogue

The truth behind the truism ‘if you have to ask yourself whether or not you’re in love, you’re not,’ is that, like grace to which it often likened, love comes unbidden. This is the kind of talk we frequently hear in talk about vinyl. It is true that with CD’s, we sometimes find ourselves reaching out with a willful effort at belief. The music itself can sometimes seem to have a forced quality about it. Less with Audio Note and Blue Circle digital but still some. With most vinyl, we more often find ourselves in a passive mode of acceptance. There is a perceptible ease about the proceedings and the issue of ‘belief’ seldom comes up. What does come up is a tendency to talk like this!

This lack in CD’s of ease and solicitousness, what some call appropriately "liquidity" in contrast to the somewhat dry sound they attribute to digital comes across to digital fans – to repeat myself – as objectivity or transparency. It can sometimes sound like that. But extended time spent listening to live music tends to challenge this belief. CD’s almost deathly silence and uncanny separation of instruments can sometimes give digital reproduction a distant, unorganic, unworldly, astral character. Especially on pianos and most especially on harpsichords. It takes one hell of a good digital front end to handle, let alone capture the beauty of, a harpsichord. And then there is the difference between hearing the initial breaking of silence by an instrument – the first vibrations of the air which precede the impact – and the last vibrations fading away; and not hearing them. Coming to an analogue LP from a CD, this first arrival and final departure can sound like touches of softness, for which vinyl is both praised and criticized. Because CD’s generally don’t capture either of these as well as vinyl, dithering notwithstanding, they deliver a crispness, for which they are both praised and criticized. A clarinet’s reed must start out at very few milli-Bell, even if it only remains there for a millisecond. That is part of why we find even the most raucous clarinet appealing – it enters on a cloud. We notice that. We sometimes call it "air." Digital adherents call it euphony or color. Its adherents tell us it is actually the difference between what a real clarinet (or violin) sounds like contrasted with a brilliant but incomplete imitation of one. This aspect of real sound reproduction can be mimicked by playing with output curves, filtering, up- and over-sampling, richer and softer output devices. But once you grow accustomed to the real thing or an excellent analogue of it, the vinyl fans tell us, you will not be fooled.

And then there is the sheer physicality that many of us hear in analogue sound. Peter Qvortrup calls it "the medium." Music coming from an analogue recording has avoirdupois, a substance, a body, a roundness that we generally miss in digital.

Closely related to this physicality and the entry and exit quality I spoke of above and perhaps drawing on them both, is beauty – not prettiness but the savor, the quality of the sound of musical instruments that we respond to immediately at concerts of live music. This is the aspect of sound that makes even the raucous clarinet appealing in the midst of its rancor. It is what audiophiles are referring to when they praise an audio system for being ‘engaging’ or ‘involving.’ It is a feeling of satisfaction. Exceptional digital recordings can get some of this quality. I have heard it in some of the record engineering of Tony Faulkner and Da-Hong Seetoo. Good analogue recordings do seem to get it as a matter of course. It is, in the end, what music lovers come to analogue for.

Bad vinyl? Some LP’s can have a peculiar brittleness or dryness and also a hemmed in quality that reminds me of bad digital actually, though without bad digital’s excessive assertiveness or brightness. Only the most radically sentimental of audiophiles will deny that there is such a thing as bad vinyl. Vinyl is not a holy material: even analogue recording requires good engineering.

Gear? I have heard very few analogue rigs. My own of a generation ago was a Linn LP12 with an Itok arm and Kharma cartridge. I loved it at the time, or rather took it for granted. It had a seemingly natural warmth we all raved about. Next was an Audio Note TT2 with an Arm3/Vx, S-4 step-up and IO1 moving coil cartridge. Great rig, great value. Then a 20 year old Voyd Reference with a new Audio Note AN-1s/ANSgon arm mounted on it with an IO Gold cartridge. Twice as good. Both the TT2 and the Voyd sounded better to me than (my aural memory of) the Linn, mainly in seeming faster and more resolving. I am now enjoying an Audio Note TT3 Half Reference, broadly based on the Voyd layout, but with better suspension. Glorious.

All of this said, I will not be giving up my Audio Note transport and Audio Note and Blue Circle dacs in this lifetime. There is a great deal of music, mainly by contemporary musicians and composers, which is simply not available on vinyl. Also, unless I am in super critical A/B mode, digital in my house is so good at minimizing the ‘problem of digital,’ I am only occasionally aware of it. I wonder what a CDT5 sounds like...

SYNERGY and UPGRADING

SYNERGY

Granted all of my talk about individual designers and designs, AMHERST AUDIO is more and more about system synergy. The search I have carried out over the past decade has been for the most natural and emotionally convincing sounding components but, increasingly, also, for the combination of components that expresses the most natural and whole sound.

Synergy outside of audio means the process whereby two or more substances work together to achieve an effect of which each is individually incapable. Its root means literally ‘working together:’ from son or syn and ergon. In audio, the term has come to mean something like energy or work moving in the same direction, toward the same ends. And presumably achieving them more effectively because of this shared effort. Some systems achieve satisfactory results by having components working against each other, by achieving some sort of balance of opposing forces, usually with the help of ‘corrective’ cabling. I have owned several and heard many of these systems; and as exciting as some of them have been, they lack the ease and confidence of systems whose components are all going in the same direction. Unanimity in preference to debate.

Most of the components I sell will, used wisely, sound quite good in many other systems. Blue Circle's tubed preamps, for example, are legendary for breathing musical life into systems with other people's all-solid-state amps. I know for a fact that Reynauds perform well with Audiomat integrated tube amps, and even with Plinius and Bryston solid state separates. Audio Note front ends appear to be the sort of beginning that no system can foul up. And Audio Note cable is legendary for bringing peace on earth and good will wherever it goes. But. But if you were to assemble a system from these same components, with an eye to synergy rather than peace-keeping, I suspect you would emerge much happier.

For example, while one could mate Audio Note electronics with Reynaud speakers satisfactorily, it soon becomes apparent that whereas the Audio Note gear is working toward grace, eloquence, and refinement, the Reynaud speakers want to break out, kick up the dust. They feel unnaturally tamed, held back. You are hearing a workable marriage but not a particularly happy or peaceful one. Then you hook up a Blue Circle amp and everything changes: the Reynauds break free, together with the BC amp they commence to dance, and the whole room rocks joyfully. Even string quartets through a Blue Circle/Reynaud combination have a more robust quality that feels like a shared point of view about music rather than a compromise or decision by committee. Jean Marie and now Jean Claude Reynaud and Gilbert Yeung clearly understand music reproduction in similar ways.

A comparable ‘situation’ arises when you (as I did) put a splendidly eloquent Audio Note M6 preamp on powerful, incisive Blue Circle AG8000 hybrid monoblock amps. Initially everything sounds terrific: we have both grace and power – all of that iron fist in the velvet glove baloney. And then, gradually, sure enough you can hear the dissension. The two components are working against each other, producing a dramatic but not a natural result. We have sonic not musical drama, an artificial construct. The initial excitement pales before an instinct to call in a referee. Some may prefer an Audio Note M6 preamp to a Blue Circle AG3000 preamp or vice versa, just as some prefer Apollo, some Dionysus. But making the god dance with the faun does not enable either to perform to its advantage.

Audio synergy is achieved when a system is made up of components informed by the same view of what reproduced music ought to sound like, components that are the result of the same design philosophy, such that neither iron nor velvet is required. The supreme example of this phenomenon in my experience is Audio Note, primarily because the same design team controls every link in the audio chain. Every component, beginning with both analogue and digital front ends, through cabling to electronics, and on to the speakers flows from a single approach to musical reproduction. The approach or philosophy if you prefer, is a belief that the simplicity and purity of the signal path so as to maintain the integrity of the information, is the best route to whole musical truth. The DAC’s do not alter the signal they receive: neither do they up-sample nor filter. The turntables use several strong motors driving light platters because heavy platters store energy thereby restricting dynamic energy and clarity. The electronics are single-ended, run in Class A, use directly heated triodes, use tube rectifiers, and use no feedback – in a coordinated effort to keep the signal whole and unaltered. There is no wave reconstruction involved, as there is in push-pull designs. The speakers are two-ways with broad front baffles, which, the designer of the Snell speaker on which they are based discovered, offer the truest reinforcement of speaker output. Setting a modest-sized Audio Note two-way speaker in a corner, so that both the walls of the room and the speakers own front baffle naturally reinforce the bass, results in astonishingly deep and clear bass.

Improvement (upgrading) very simply involves better parts and more pure materials, namely silver and better materials used as windings in the transformers, not new design wrinkles. The most expensive Audio Note E speaker is visually indistinguishable from the least expensive E. The only differences are inside. From the M3 to the M6 preamp, the cabinets and controls are identical. Again, as Emily Dickinson tells us, the inside is where the meaning is. One can put an Audio Note front end into a non-Audio Note system and also use Audio Note cable judiciously in such systems. But when you insert Audio Note gear farther down the chain of a system composed of other gear, something fundamental is lost. The synergistic chain is broken. Unanimity is gone and debate begins.

Blue Circle’s Gilbert Yeung understands that controlling the entire audio chain is the only sure route to synergy and so, among other ventures, he has already designed and marketed three DACs to complement his electronics and is hard at work dreaming up an even more ambitious one as I write. It will be interesting to hear what happens when that young genius perfects this move. There are also Blue Circle speakers emerging from the Innerkip design room.  Jean Marie Reynaud seems content making speakers. So at the moment achieving synergy with Blue Circle, and Reynaud, is up to you all. It is worth the effort, especially if the Audio Note presentation is too civilized for you!

 

UPGRADING

The Hyperbola

The key to improving a synergistic audio system that has ‘your sound,’ the presentation of music that seems most real and most satisfying to you, is not changing it but making it better at what it already does well. This route will not produce dramatic alteration but incremental improvement. That is because the direction of improvement in audio is not up so much as over: you are trying to get closer and closer to the sound of live music, which you are already approximating. You are, to borrow an apt image from mathematics, moving closer to the y-axis. Your trajectory is a hyperbola. This truth is disappointing to the kind of audiophile who is in it for sonic thrills, who wants to hear something startlingly new for every new dollar spent. But it will ultimately be more satisfying to those of you in it for the sound of music. Getting ever closer to the real thing can be musically thrilling. Getting 15% closer to the real sound of a violin – more of the resonance of the instrument’s wooden body, of the almost physical sensation of the bow on the strings – gets up into our sinuses with pleasure. Getting more thwack of the bow on the strings of an acoustic bass rather than a slightly vague thrum can seem like all the world when the musical passage depends on it for impact. This is what genuine upgrades give us: more violin, more bass, more sax. And more Anita O’Day!

Another valuable piece of the synergy and upgrading puzzle is that one needs to maintain balance across a system to make genuine progress. Upgrading electronics to the extent that they get ahead of your source (turntable, digital transport, dac) will not improve the system. It will generally not sound better. The new amplifier will simply give you a clearer view into the relative shortcomings of your source. It will be doing its proper job. Likewise, improving your speakers beyond the capability of your amplifier to drive them effectively and without distortion will almost invariably make your system sound worse. If you can’t upgrade your system as a whole at one time, it is generally best to begin with the source, so that the improvements can be passed down the chain. And the same holds for upgrading cable: begin at the source. You’d be amazed at what a little bit of Sogon silver interconnect between a transport and dac can do; and appalled at what it will do if introduced farther down the chain first.

This makes perfect sense but it not generally how audiophiles proceed. They tend to favor speaker upgrades first, which are admittedly sexier, But if the speakers are truly better rather than just different, starting with them will likely prove a disappointment. They can, after all, only reproduce what they’re fed.

Another kind of balance is achieved by keeping the treble, midrange, and bass levels of a system from getting ahead of one another. An economical system that is in sonic balance will outperform one that has extraordinary treble but an overly solicitous midrange or punchy but unclear bass. The best demonstration of this I know is listening to a very good FM station playing classical music. If the equipment in use is sonically balanced, the results can be surprisingly satisfying, more so than from an expensive home music system that’s out of balance. ‘Live’ music, unless the hall is screwed up, has perfect sonic balance: that is our standard. It is neither bright nor dark, cool nor warm, standoffish nor cloyingly charming. If your music system has something approaching perfect balance, you’re halfway there, maybe more than halfway. If you can apply adjectives of color, relative temperature, or emotion to your system, it’s likely out of balance. You may well like it out of balance: most systems lean one (or two) ways because we are drawn to their resultant personalities. We are, after all, human beings with our human preferences. But it’s probably a good idea to know what they are. The unexamined life and all that.

System 1: Audio Note, Blue Circle, JM Reynaud 

AN CDT Zero or CDT 1/II and Blue Circle BC507 dac
Blue Circle DAR (with active gain and Shallco volume control)
JM Reynaud Bliss Silvers on JMR Magic Stands
Crimson interconnect and speaker cable

$13,000 - $14,000

System 2: All Audio Note
 
AN CDT 2 II transport & Dac 1.1x Signature II or Dac 2.1 Signature
AN OTO SE integrated amplifier
AN K/Spe’s or J/SPe’s with Audio Note stands
AN Sogon digital interconnct, Vx interconnect, SPe speaker cable

$30,000 - $42,000
 
 System 3: Audio Note/Blue Circle/Reynaud
 
AN CDT 2 II & BC 505 dac
FtTH 2 hybrid integrated amplifier
JMR Bliss Silvers  on Magic Stands
Crimson interconnects and speaker cable

$21,000
 
System 4: Audio Note/Blue Circle/Reynaud
 
AN CDT 3 transport & BC Dac 501ob
BC FtTH 2 KQ
JMR Offrande Supremes, V2 
Crimson interconnect and speaker cable

$38,000 
 
System 5: All Audio Note
 
AN CDT 3 & Dac 3.1 Balanced or 4.1 Balanced
AN M3 & P3 Silver or P3 Silver Sig
AN E/SPe HE’s and Audio Note stands
AN Sogon digital interconnect, (2) Vx interconnects, SPe speaker cable

$49,000 - 62,000
 
System 6: Audio Note/Blue Circle/Reynaud
 
AN CDT 3 or CDT 4 & BC 501ob LOC
BC 3000 II or 3000 II GZpz preamplifier
BC 204 or 204 KQ hybrid stereo amplifier
JMR Orfeo Supremes or Concorde Supremes 
Crimson inteconnects and speaker  cable

$58,000 - $69,000
 

REVIEWS

Equipment Reviews

As many of you know, the journey to Audio Note, Blue Circle, and Reynaud is chronicled in reviews on Enjoy the Music and Positive-Feedback, among others. I have attached links to the relevant reviews below.

Blue Circle AG3000 and AG8000: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/archives/
Blue Circle Music Rings: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/archives/
Blue Circle CS: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue10/system.htm  
Reynaud Offrandes, 1st Review: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/archives/
Reynaud Offrandes, 2nd Review: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue6/offrandes.htm  
Reynaud Twins: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue4/reynaudtwin.htm  
Reynaud Trentes: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue5/trente.htm  
Reynaud Concordes: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue7/concordes.htm  
Reynaud Arpeggiones: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue10/system.htm
Audio Note CDT TWO and DAC 4.1 balanced: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue8/audionote.htm  
Audio Note CDT ONE and DAC 1.1x Signature: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue10/system.htm  
Elrod Power Systems Signature power cord: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue5/elrodeps.htm  
Elrod Power Systems Statement power cord: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue9/elrod.htm
Audience Au 24 speaker cable: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue3/audienceau24.htm
Audience modified Sony NV999 CD/SACD player: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue6/audiencecd.htm  
TG Labs HSR speaker cable: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue4/hsr.htm
TG Lab 688 power cord: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue10/system.htm
TG Lab SLVR power cord: http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/archives/  
Audience modified Sony NV999 CD/SACD player, upgraded model: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue12/sacd.htm
Audio Note CDT TWO transport with DAC One.1x Signature: http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue12/sacd.htm

Music Reviews

Over the past few years, I have of necessity given up equipment reviewing (confluence of interest!) and taken up music reviewing instead. I bring to this writing more enthusiasm than musical knowledge and so offer it up mainly as news about current offerings in the mainly classical music recording world.

SPECIALS

I generally have some used and demo equipment available at deeper discounts.

Current stock: 

Audio Note Sogon AC cable (1 meter) with Oyaide M1 and F1 premium connectors. Very light use as demo, under 20 hours. $1850 shipped. (New retail $3115)

Audio Note VX interconnects. 4 meter pair RCA/RCA. 20 strands. $2000 shipped. ($5275 for new Vx).

Sofia Royal Princess 300B tubes (matched pair), under 50 hours. $750 shipped. ($1200 new retail).

Here is Jeff Day’s description in Positive Feedback as he gives these tubes a Writer’s Choice Award for 2011:

Hands down, my favorite component of 2011 was the $1200 per pair Sophia Electric Royal Princess 300B vacuum tubes that I wrote about in Issue 57. I like the Royal Princess 300B vacuum tubes better than any other 300B I've encountered. The Royal Princess' particular combination of spectacular sonic performance and intense musicality makes it totally unique in my experience. Usually you just get one or the other: the musicality of the ye olde Western Electric benchmark, or the linear 'clean' sonics of the various neo-300B tubes on the market. With the Royal Princess you get both superior sonics and superior musicality in one package. The Royal Princess is a new production vacuum tube that has vintage-like mid-range magic comparable to the original Western Electric 300B, yet betters that fabled benchmark in the highs and lows.

The sort of musical realism and dynamic truths that the Sophia Electric Royal Princess 300B vacuum tubes brought to my Hi-Fi system always thrilled and edified me. Its overall presentation leans to the dark, warm, and musical side of life. It is also sonically very spectacular, being detailed, extremely dynamic, providing a huge sense of space, solid & vivid imaging, and a wide and deep soundstage. Usually you don't find dark, warm, and musical combined with spectacular sonics, but in the Royal Princess you do.

These sonic and musical traits combine in the Royal Princess to deliver a breathtaking musical realism to recorded performances, with instruments displaying rich and detailed timbral textures, deeply infused tonal colors, and an overall sense of drama that kept me on the edge of my seat, listening into the music with anticipation for what was to come next.

The build quality of the Sophia Electric Royal Princess 300B vacuum tubes is impressive, and to see & touch them is to want them. The collaboration of Mr. Richard Wugang and Mr. Zhe Sheng Liu on the Royal Princess 300B has yielded a vacuum tube with stunning sonic and musical performance, and I tip my hat in respect to them both for a job well done! $1200/pair.

Sales Policy

Most items sold by Amherst Audio are made to order. This means that orders once made cannot be cancelled after 48 hours; and that goods are not returnable unless defective. Defective items can be returned at the expense of Amherst Audio and payment will be refunded in full. Items damaged in shipping will be dealt with on a case by case basis in whatever way seems most sensible to both buyer and Amherst Audio. All equipment is shipped by Amherst Audio insured. Visa and Mastercard accepted.