Before I heard the new Soulution 717 monoblocks ($109,975/each), I spoke with Cyrill Hammer, Soulution’s CEO and chief designer, and Cliff Duffey, president of AXISS Audio. The conversation was illuminating. The listening? Something else entirely.
This was certainly one of the most expensive systems at AXPONA. Take the source: a $199,975 Transrotor Artus FMD turntable, fitted with the company's 9" TRA-9 Chrome tonearm ($8795) and 12" TRA-9 Ruthenium tonearm ($9995). On one arm sat a DS Audio Grand Master EX optical phono cartridge ($22,000); on the other, a Transrotor MC Tamino ($19,975). I didn’t hear the J Corder Technics 1500 ($25,000) or the Roon Titan music server, nor was I able to audition the Soulution 760 DAC ($79,975) or the world-premiere 701+ monoblocks ($129,975/each). I did, however, hear the Soulution 727 preamplifier ($89,950), which I’d previously reviewed, as well as the 757 deemphasis preamp ($84,975).
The electronics drove a pair of Gauder Akustik DARC 250 Reference loudspeakers ($249,975/pair). The six Telos products in the system included the Telos Power Station ($50,000), Earth Grounding Station ($40,000), and Active Power Cables ($28,000/each). Also in the mix: Tara Labs cables, including the Grand Master Evolution 1.5m XLR interconnects ($35,695/pair); a custom Beaudioful walnut four-shelf rack system ($20,000); and six Acoustic Grove System products from Nihon Onkyo Engineering. At that point, your allowance—for the day, week, or month—was probably gone.
Duffey cued up a Classic Records 45rpm test pressing of Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's legendary RCA Living Stereo recording of Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. I’ve listened to this performance many times, on LP and SACD, but I’ve never heard timbres this lovely, cellos this gorgeous. That alone wasn’t the revelation—the subtle dynamic shifts and buried details were. I’ve never been enamored of Reiner’s interpretation, because his treatment of the expansive lyrical outpouring that follows the famous opening has always felt perfunctory. But here, it made total musical sense. After listening, I told Duffey that the imaging on the left was solid and well placed, but instruments on the right were projecting unnaturally into the room. He positioned an Acoustic Grove System diffuser in the trouble area and fine-tuned the first-order-reflection panels on the front wall. That did it. Instruments on the left and right now took their proper place in the soundstage. More music, please. As many times as I've heard Billie Holiday’s 1957 studio rendition of "Body and Soul," I was blown away by the naked truth and surprisingly intact beauty of her late-career voice. Ben Webster’s tenor sax was gorgeous and intimate; Harry “Sweet” Edison’s trumpet more colorful and engaging than I’ve ever heard it.
"Colors, colors, colors, so full and warm. Just marvelous." After scribbling those notes, I put down my pen, closed my eyes, and again sank into some of the finest sound I've heard in a long, long time. Watch our exclusive video interview with Cyrill Hammer and Cliff Duffey.
The electronics drove a pair of Gauder Akustik DARC 250 Reference loudspeakers ($249,975/pair). The six Telos products in the system included the Telos Power Station ($50,000), Earth Grounding Station ($40,000), and Active Power Cables ($28,000/each). Also in the mix: Tara Labs cables, including the Grand Master Evolution 1.5m XLR interconnects ($35,695/pair); a custom Beaudioful walnut four-shelf rack system ($20,000); and six Acoustic Grove System products from Nihon Onkyo Engineering. At that point, your allowance—for the day, week, or month—was probably gone.
