An Esoteric T1 Turntable ($80,000), mounted with an Ortofon MC Diamond Cartridge ($9999), fed an Esoteric E1 Phono Preamplifier ($46,000). An Esoteric K1X SE SACD Player ($38,000) handled incoming digital, with an Esoteric PS1 Power Supply ($16,000), Esoteric N1T Network Transport ($28,000), and an Esoteric G1X Master Clock ($27,000).
Amplification featured an Esoteric C1X Preamplifier ($22,500)…
It included ATC’s CDAMKII Preamplifier/CD Player/DAC ($4999) and ATC’s Classic Series SCM50 ASL Active Loudspeakers ($22,499/pair). The latter component (also available as a passive version) employed a 25mm ATC SH25-76S tweeter, 75mm ATC SM75-150S soft dome midrange driver, and 234mm ATC bass driver, which incorporates ATC’s Super Linear Magnet technology.
“Each drive unit in the active model has its own dedicated and individually matched MOS-…
Shinobu Karaki, a 65-year-old electronics designer, is the founder and chief designer of Japan's Aurorasound. A music lover first, an audiophile second, and an aspiring jazz and…
Listening
The HFSA-01 played well with all kinds of music, its forward-motion pacing, exacting clarity, and exceptional coherency making it a fine dance partner regardless of the tune.
For old-world stereo, I played Guem Et Zaka Percussion (1978, Le Chante De Monde LDX 74674), jazz trumpeter Kenny Dorham's Una Mas (1966, Blue Note Liberty BST 84127), Terje Rypdal, Miroslav Vitous, Jack DeJohnette (1978, ECM 1125), and Antal Dorati conducting the London Symphony Orchestra performing The Firebird (1997, Mercury SR90226). Forq's Big Party (GroundUP) brought 2024 stereo action…
Description: Hybrid (tube output/solid state input) push-pull integrated amplifier outputting 14Wpc into 8 ohms (11.46dBW). Tube complement: 4 EL84. Inputs: 3 pairs single-ended (RCA). Outputs: Two pairs loudspeaker output terminals with 4/8 ohm taps; ¼" headphone. Frequency response: 10Hz-40kHz, –3dB. THD+N: 0.08% at 1kHz, 2W, A-weighted. Signal/noise ratio: 93dB, Line in, line out. Damping factor: 4. Gain: Line input to speaker output, 29dB. Phono input to speaker 69dB. Input impedance: 47k ohms, line or phono in. Max. power consumption: 150W. Phono: gain (MM…
Analog sources: Thorens TD 124 turntable with Korf TA-SF9R tonearm, Korf HS-A02 Ceramic Headshell, Kuzma CAR-30 MC cartridge, Rega Nd3 MM.
Digital sources: HoloAudio May DAC, Sonore opticalRendu, Roon Nucleus+, Small Green Computer power supply, TRENDnet switch, Apple iPad mini.
Preamplifiers: Tavish Audio Design Adagio, Manley Chinook (phono); Auditorium 23 and Bob's Devices step-up transformers; Rogue Audio RP-7.
Power amplifier: Rogue Audio Stereo 100.
Integrated amplifiers: PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid, Riviera Labs Levante.
Loudspeakers…
The Aurorasound HFSA-01 was shipped to me with the four Sovtek EL84/6BQ5 tubes installed. I removed the small lid on top of the chassis to make sure the tubes were correctly seated, then performed a complete set of tests with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. To check whether some of the results were due to aging or to out-of-spec tubes, I installed a matched set of new TubeDepot JJ EL84s then repeated the testing.
Looking first at the line inputs, the HFSA-01 preserved polarity from both the 4 ohm and 8 ohm output transformer taps and from the headphone…
To examine the phono input's performance, I connected a wire from the grounding terminal on the amplifier's rear panel to the analyzer's chassis ground to minimize noise. To avoid overdriving the tubed output stage, I mostly did this testing by looking at the headphone output. (The manual says that inserting a plug into the headphone jack turns off the speaker outputs, but I found that rather than muting them completely, it reduced their level by 44dB.)
The 6.5" mid/bass driver includes a "Tuned Mass Damping" rounded surround and a "Neutral Inductance Circuit": a ring between the magnet and voice coil to keep the magnetism at the voice coil uniform throughout its range of movement. Mid/bass and woofer cones are made of Focal's "W" material, a sandwich of foam between two glass-fiber layers, designed to provide the desirable combination of rigidity and damping so that the cone vibrations are "pistonic," the whole cone vibrating at once, responding directly to the electrical signal.
The two 6.5" long-throw woofers on each side of…