Basking in the glow of Hi-Fi…..
One of the fundamental truths of Hi-Fi is that it can be tested to a very fine level. We are dealing with equipment and even individual components that can quite literally be put under a microscope, or attached to appropriate equipment that will precisely measure performance against function. Indeed, manufacturers will spend many hours doing exactly this as part of the research and development that should mean that you or I never really need to think about, never mind truly understand how or why something works. Or, that that is at least optional.
There is also the experience of those who have gone before and the ideas, papers and more on which, any number of theoretical approaches to building amplifiers, speakers and so forth can be based. Often stemming from a common route, those theories can diverge in all sorts of ways. There are the innovators, the dogmatists, the tweakers, the back to basics brigade, and the copyists all offering different routes to building Hi-Fi in a quest to reach a sort of musical replay nirvana.
It's also fundamental that this comes with some considerable weight of opinion attached. Not only are there the creators themselves, but also the documenters, reviewers, writers and commentators who seek to inform and influence us, persuade us, suggesting the relative merits of one approach and one product over another. Magazines, blogs, forums, videos and more proliferate to create the landing strip on which most customers alight on their route to the Hi-Fi shop to make the purchase that they hope will enlighten and enliven their musical experience.
As retailers we try to sit astride all of the above to escort the recently disembarked customer towards the choices that we hope they will make that will keep them and ourselves, (naturally), happy. But then part of the happiness for the retailer is the chance to express our own opinions in the hope that we might prove able to meet expectations. Our experience is brought to bear, as frankly, we do get to play with the kit for a lot longer than most.
This is where the true pleasure lies, as every now and then something comes our way that has that little bit of magic built in, the earth might shift slightly as a sound and a feeling take hold and the noble path reveals itself. It is here that I should reveal my own shining light to be the vacuum tube and my debt of gratitude is to two manufacturers and suppliers who have given me a taste of the end goal and enlightened state.
Firstly, the combination of English Acoustics Downton pre-amp and 41c power amp has proved to be everything I hoped for. The reviews have been almost universally ecstatic in their praise and the specifications seem to have genuine real world implications. Be it the transformers, custom wound to cover the full frequency range with even power, or the phono stage that sticks so closely to the RIAA curve to be called a match, the exemplary build and finish, the combination is so obviously more than the sum of its parts. At 30 watts it may sound modest, but has all of the drive you will need and more, even with modestly efficient loudspeakers.
It looks good, but sounds utterly beguiling, holding accompanying speakers in a tender grip and coaxing any source that we have tried to find its inner beauty and best version of itself. Music breathes. It’s almost as if the circuits are pumping blood rather than
electricity, as the intimate character of music and its very human creation hang in time and space. No fuss. No stress. Just music. More music and more music.
As sublime as this combination is, I am also indebted to Signature Sound Systems for the loan of a Vac Sigma 170i. If nothing else this shows how different two approaches to the same thing can be. Make no mistake this is a big hearted and rated at 85watts into any load. It is powerful and muscular in appearance and yet in performance it is fleet, stealthy and wins with gentle, compelling persuasion over brute force. It adds moving coil to the phono stage, has inputs a plenty and weighs enough to phone a friend to get it in situ. But once it is going the delivery of voice and instrumental timbre, as with the E. A. above, is the stuff of dreams.
The two amplifiers may suggest beauty and the beast yet share more in common than is immediately obvious. Two peas in a pod, one bigger than the other, but both sweet and packed with flavour. You can read the specifications, discuss the circuit diagrams, build quality and debate the effect that valves have on audio equipment and why that is so. But in that particular quandary, it is probably best just to surrender logic and listen, as it is the only way to tell. Do you hear it? I have fallen under a spell you may too.
If curiosity has the better of you, pop in and give them a go for yourself. Book yourself a demo. These aren’t the only things we sell, but they are the ones that have my attention right now. There are many great solid-state options in the shop as well and the valve does nothing that the transistor cannot do far more efficiently anyway. If musical nirvana is the aim, there are many paths to get there and as always, agreement with the author remains optional.
S.H.
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