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Audion Golden Dream 300B PSET Vacuum Tube Monoblock Power Amplifiers

Updated Nov 7, 2006

1st to recommend

Description

You can buy more powerful audio amplifiers. Quieter ones too. Even cheaper on both counts. But you cannot today exceed the sheer tonal richness and emotive density attainable from the Audion Golden Dream 300B SET amplifier (monoblock pair needed for stereo). If you have the combination of speaker efficiency, room size, and habits to live your audio life within 28 watts per channel, this is as far as you need to look for landmark multi-decade sound.

The equivalent of alt- or indie music in the audiophile realm is "SET," Single-Ended Triode amplification. SET is embraced and admired by what the Best Buy and Magnolia crowd thinks of as the lunatric fringe of hifi, for its beautiful, holistic, liquid tone, honest presentation, and achingly emotive fidelity to the original music. In an SET amp, there is no splitting of the positive and negative waveforms during amplification, as there is in the more common "Push-Pull" topology. The price of having one tube (or a pair in parallel) do all the work is inefficiency. On a per-dollar basis, you don't get much power in conventional terms, but you do get heat. But well-executed, an SET amp can deliver uniquely glorious sound.

The Golden Dream uses a pair of legendary 300B triode power tubes in each monoblock in a "PSET," Parallel Single-Ended Triode configuration, to coax 28 watts from a pair of tubes that normally will only deliver 7 watts each in SET mode alone. Audion also trimmed out the bass bloat all too typical of 300B SET amps, so you get the bass depth and linearity of a pentode below 100Hz, instead of euphonic harmonic distortion down low. Like its brother the Elite 845 amp, the Golden Dream is loaded with silver in the signal path and in the transformer secondary windings. Parts quality is uniformly high and components are hand-matched during assembly.

Even on speakers much less expensive than the $16,000/pr. cost of the Golden Dream, a pair of these amps plainly exhibit their unrivalled midrange magic of human tone. Nothing screams fraud like a reproduced human voice missing its expression and humanity. The Golden Dream seemingly reconstructs convincing tone from shards of fidelity left unmolested on your CDs and even tone-barren MP3s. Vinyl through these amps just plain kills.

The 845 tube Elite has a little more jaw-busting drive, while the Golden Dream bests it in refinement, grace and sheer emotive tone. As with its younger brother, the Golden Dream monoblocks include input level controls and the input sensitivity to be driven by a disc player directly. Still, the right preamp makes the sound whole. If you have the beans to pair these up with the Audion Quattro preamp, you'll be immersed in the deep-water music expression only reachable in the context of aurally holographic fidelity.

Short on Benjamins but want as much of the same sound as you can possibly afford? Check out Audion's more affordable 300B, KT88 and EL34 tube amps in their Silver Night, Golden Night and Sterling ranges. The title link goes to the US distributor, while the link below leads to Audion's UK international site. (via Audion)

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Audion Elite 845 3-box SET Vacuum Tube Stereo Power Amplifier

Updated Nov 7, 2006

1st to recommend

Description

The equivalent of alt- or indie music in the audiophile realm is "SET," Single-Ended Triode amplification. SET is embraced and admired by what the Best Buy and Magnolia crowd thinks of as the lunatric fringe of hifi, for its beautiful, holistic, liquid tone, honest presentation, and achingly emotive fidelity to the original music. In an SET amp, there is no splitting of the positive and negative waveforms during amplification, as there is in the more common "Push-Pull" topology. The price of having one tube (or a pair in parallel) do all the work is inefficiency. On a per-dollar basis, you don't get much power in conventional terms, but you do get heat. But well-executed, an SET amp can deliver uniquely glorious sound.

The trouble with most SET amps is deficient power. You need hyper-efficient speakers to get satisfying volume and dynamics from two to seven watts per channel. Zu speakers have the efficiency to make those watts go a long way, but not everyone has Zu. Nor a small room to limit the challenge of filling it with satisfying music. The answer is the Audion Elite, the best 845 tube amp going.

Built around the big, sexy, retro, illuminating, Fritz-Lang-meets-Tesla vibe of the fistful-of-glass 845 triode, the Audion Elite pumps out 24 honest watts per channel with enough drive to sound like 3 times that into real speaker loads, while keeping that heavenly triode tone intact. A simple 3-tube circuit per side, this 3-box stereo amp is inexpensive to own and maintain, thanks to robust build and good contemporary Chinese tubes that sound great in this circuit. The Audion Elite amplifier has a big-toned dynamic sound that's also refined, subtle and fresh.

The sonic, tonal and drive match with Zu speakers is sensationally synergistic, but in most rooms, this amp has the muscle to pump triode tone at satisfying level through any speaker with at least 88db/w/m efficiency. Unlike most euphonic triode amps with round sound that also seem a trifle slow, all of Audion's amps have their trademark transient speed, transperancy and definition, including the big-tube Elite.

Most digital disk players can drive the Elite inputs directly, and each channel has a level control so a single-source system can get by nicely without a preamp. Still, tone is even more truthful with a preamp, so if you have the eggs, mate the Audion Quattro preamp with the Elite power amp for an experience at the very top echelon of musicality in audio gear today. There are a ton of decent SET 845 tube amps around right now, thanks to an explosion of discerning music loving EEs in China, the US and Europe. Hard to go wrong with any of them, but this one is the best so far, making everything from Government Mule to Drive-By Truckers, to Tom Waits to Rosa Passos to Shostakovich sound convincing, penetrating and true. (via Audion)

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Audion Premier Quattro 2 and 4 Box Pre-Amp

Updated Nov 7, 2006

1st to recommend

Description

What's the best car? The best guitar? The best wine? The best loudspeaker? The best watch? In most categories, there is no "best," just contenders. In high-end audio preamps, however, this is the best, right now in 2006 and probably next year too: The Audion Quattro in 4 box or 2 box configuration. Preamps are troublesome components, having to accept a small magnitude and delicate signal and amplify its voltage so that same signal can inform the muscle needed from the power amp. Along the way, there are sockets, switches, volume and balance controls, and myriad solder connections to degrade that signal and, by extension, your sound. Then there's noise to be dodged, various amplifier input impedances to be mated to, and the circuit has to make as little imprint of its own on the sound as is possible in an imperfect world. At the end of the chain before hand-off to the power amp, the original signal must maintain its fidelity and meaty tone. All this is why many audiophiles are frequently heard declaring, "Preamps suck!"

Well, they don't. There are always a few good ones and while nothing outward about an Audion Quattro suggests why it is the best preamp, it nevertheless is.

From their first preamp well over a decade ago, Audion has consistently demonstrated special insight about preamp circuits. Using vacuum tubes, their circuits combine speedy transient response with seamless, fluid tone that preserves the emotion and expressiveness in any music you play. If you play vinyl, Audion phono sections have always excelled as well. The new generation Quattro delivers these qualities same as before, but just more so. Even driving other manufacturers' power amplifiers, the full-bodied holistic tonal fidelity of the Quattro preamp informs the performance of everything downstream from it.

Not the last word in convenience, the Audion Quattro is a multi-decade purchase with dual-mono construction, so yes you have separate switching and volume controls for each channel in a stereo system, but effort is low and the rotary volume switch makes channel-to-channel matching quick and repeatable. No, there isn't a remote control option either, at least not yet.

I've owned or heard every preamp worth mentioning in high-end audio for the past 40 years and owned several during that time. This preamp will place more tonal realism and impactful emotion in your system than any competing preamp you can buy.

If you look through my list here on ThisNext, you're probably getting the idea that an Audion + Zu soundchain is something you ought to be playing your music through. Americans can contact Ray of Sound at the link, to find a US retalier. Everyone else can find what they need at Audion's UK web site, below. (via Audion)

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Zu Audio Definition loudspeaker

Updated Jul 12, 2006

1st to recommend

Description

The most musical fidelity anyone has ever put into one square foot of floor space devoted to a loudspeaker. And they look great, elegant and pugnacious at the same time. The Zu Definition, like everything Zu produces, is a breakthrough. From 16 Hz subterranean bass to 25 kHz harmonics, this is the speaker that will convince you 2 channels are enough for home theater, and it really is possible to put a full orchestra or a single performer in your room without compromising either. Like all Zu speakers, there are no crossovers to choke dynamic life from the sound, thanks to Zu's proprietary full range driver (FRD) at the heart of the system, good for even response from 40 Hz - 12 kHz where 90% of tonal information originates. Deep bass is handled by a powered sub-bass array rolled in on a simple low-pass filter, and a supertweeter rolled in above the FRD fade point on a simple high-pass filter at 12 kHz handles harmonics to ultrasonics. Superefficient at 101 db/w/m yet absent of "shout" or the limited range of other efficient designs, the Definition thrives on triode tube amps, the new generation chip and digital amps, and yet has no fear of McIntosh heavy metal in the form of MC1201 monoblocks pushing over 1200 watts each. In a world of bafflingly foul-sounding "statement" speakers that cost six figures, will rip your ears off and jelly your brain, the Zu Definition is unfailingly relaxing, revealing, clean, musical, communicative and real, with sparky dynamics and energetic scale. For music or movies, you'll be in the realm of The Best for $9,000 pair, factory direct. Definitions could easily be your last loudspeakers, ever. The 3 dimensional soundstage will scale to your room, with excellent spatial projection, uncanny tonal accuracy, aural realism and such superb definition you will hear new details on every disc you own.

Zu says, "...there is no other loudspeaker able to provide the resolution, dynamic contrast or phase accuracy of the Definition. Its well balanced tone, distortion free dynamic range, perfect time-alignment--even in the low frequency range -- combine for the next state of playback art...." And they're right. This is a lasting value loudspeaker worth building a long-term system around.

Pair them with Vinnie Rossi's surprising Red Wine Audio pocket money chip amps or spring for a handcrafted tube amp built around the lighthouse-like 845, or throw a set-and-forget transistor amp, like a McIntosh or Lavardin, at them. 6 watts, 60 or 600, you'll have scalable, convincing music without the complications, cables and clutter of subwoofers nor huge boxes out of place in your room. 1' x 1' x 50" tall, you can get them in standard satin black or grey finishes, or pony up for an automotive finish. Mine are Maserati Blue Nettuno. Lots of details on the Zu Audio web site or just call them on the phone. Zu sells direct with a liberal 60 day money-back trial. Check out the reviews on the web, especially at 6moons.com, where as with the smaller Druid, Srajan gets it right. These speakers sound as he describes. Largely hand-made in Utah, USA. (via Six Moons)

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NAD Master Series M55 Universal Disc Player

Updated Jul 12, 2006

1st to recommend

Description

The MP3 music format has started to make CDs sound good by comparison, but let's face it -- really good, engaging digital sound is hard to find. The music you want and own is on CD. But SACD and DVD-Audio, new generation high-resolution disc formats are audibly more satisfying to hear. And then there's your DVD video collection. You only have space for one sound system and it has to double for movies and TV, right? So buy whatever format you want -- all your music and movies can be played on one machine if you get a Universal Disc Player.

Trouble is, Sony's decks won't play DVD-Audio, and many others won't play Sony's SACD. And the players that play everything and still get CD sound right can fetch well north of $5,000! This NAD Master Series M55 universal player is the answer. At $1799 retail, it's worth its price just on the quality of standard Redbook CD format alone. Which is unusual. But its video performance is competitive with $2,000 DVD players, and SACD/DVD-Audio sound are top echelon among universal decks.

The Master Series is new for NAD and a serious cosmetic and engineering upgrade from their long-standing bang-for-buck budget agenda. It won't look like you cheaped out when you sprang for your disc player and the sound will say you went for the best. Unfailingly smooth, musical, revealing, communicative of expression and emotion, the NAD M55 will even have you pulling out those 80s discs you still love, from the early days of inept digital (mis)-mastering.

Looking elsewhere in my picks, it doesn't take long to figure out that a pair of Zu Druid speakers with this NAD M55 universal player running through a few hundred dollars' worth of clean integrated amp makes an unbeatable, compact, stylish, satisfying $5,000 music and movie-sound stereo system. (via NAD Electronics)

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Zu Audio Druid loudspeaker

Updated Jul 12, 2006

1st to recommend

Description

HiFi the way it was meant to be and once was: able to project musical expression into your home. Zu's speaker designs are an unprecedented value in sheer fidelity and emotional projection. Largely hand-made in Utah, USA, the Zu Druid, its little brother Tone and big brother Definition all blend vintage research and lost knowledge with modern engineering, physics, materials and manufacturing to deliver the long-absent combination of tonal accuracy and crackling dynamic life to reproduced music. Druid is the value point in the Zu line. $2800/pair direct from the factory, and a little more if you want a special finish. You can drive Druids with 3 watts of super-romantic vacuum tube Zen triode power, or 300+ watts of rockin' heavyweight American iron. No customer has ever blown a Zu driver, at least not yet. Able to make a $300 receiver sing, Druids can fully reveal what can be good about a $30,000 amp. Druids are within reach for a starter hifi, and can earn their continuing role in your system if you upgrade everything else.

Each slender 50" tall column is only a foot wide and 6" deep. Druids take up no more floor space than a pair of small monitors on stands, yet look much more elegant while uncorking your sound. Spousal Acceptance Factor is high, and Druids can be used close to walls. You get a design statement and great value with no compromise to music expression and fidelity. Mine are gloss red and room-filling on 25 watts of tube triode power.

Check the review on 6moons.com. Srajan nails it. (via Six Moons)

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