Audiophilepure

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“The constant connection to the music and outstanding level of enjoyment that is felt with the Valvet E2 can cause a complete rethink of your system, especially your speakers. After hearing what the E2 can do, it will seem unwise to have inefficient speakers that require gobs of inferior power. This is so obvious. No, you won’t be forced to replace your favorite speakers with huge horns that offer >100 dB efficiency. But speakers with sensitivities in the upper 80 to low-mid 90 dB range could be considered. As more audiophiles understand how great this and maybe other single-ended amplifiers are and demand higher efficiency speakers, speaker manufacturers will focus on developing more sensitive speakers. There are already some good options available today. The old wisdom of first buying speakers and then choosing an amplifier to drive them has a serious flaw. There are many good speakers, but very few amplifiers are on par with this Valvet E2. The sound system for the Orgasmatron will surely use this amplifier!”

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Still, the inner devil is going to emerge. You don’t buy an amp and speakers like the WAMMs to sit around drinking out of porcelain cups in the sonic equivalent of a dainty tea party. There come moments when it’s time to put on your big-boy pants, crank the dial, and get those air molecules vibrating. So I plopped on an SACD of Monty Alexander—actually, Sir Monty—playing Bob Marley tunes, and gave the volume ring of the Momentum preamplifier a healthy twist. Yeah, baby! On cuts such as “Running Away,” I defy you to hear more realistic instruments than what I heard emanating via the Momentums—a robust, resonant, life-sized trombone backed by an emphatic rhythm section. The scale of the soundstage wasn’t big; it was cavernous.”

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“Change speakers, or speaker position, and the preference for one or the other tube type based on tonality may change. I found that with the speakers positioned such that the room supported their bass by means of a sympathetic room-mode, resulting in a bass-heavy sound, the EL34’s sounded best but with the speakers placed such that the room contributed as little as possible, resulting in a clean and non-coloured sound, the KT150’s sounded better.”

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“There are many amplifiers with remarkable resolution and an ability to draw and resolve the finest of filigree detail from the recordings and there are also many that have enormous control, impact, and command from the big to the infinitesimally smallest of things. The Vitus certainly is supremely capable in these areas but there is something rather wonderful about the way it moves the music through time. This is where the flowing water analogy came from. Tempo, timing, and musical phrasing are all massive weapons in any musician’s list of gifts and I think that appreciating them lies at the very core of our emotional relationship with the music we love to listen to. Every musician aspires towards expression regardless of technical ability. Few amplifiers can swing like a Vitus in full flow and the SS‑103 seems to have gained an extra edge of speed here. It is enormously articulate at its leading dynamic edge but also in its recovery, so the amplifier can utilise its considerable assets to full rhythmic effect whether the tempo itself is high and percussive, gentle and slow, or anywhere between.”

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“The mellow voices of the women of Trio Medi’val in “St. Birgitta Hymn: Rosa Rorans Bonitatem,” from Rímur, their album with trumpeter Arve Henriksen (24/96 WAV, ECM New Series 2520/HDtracks), sounded extremely natural—gorgeous, really. Ditto the trumpet’s timbre in this track, though the last iota of spaciousness was absent. The low, midrange-strong rasp of Sarah Vaughan singing the title track of her Send in the Clowns, with the Count Basie Orchestra (CD, JVC/XRCD 60246), was toned down, and the sound was to die for.”

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“There is an old platitude often used in high-end audio: the perfect amplifier would have the best of both worlds–the beautiful colors, lack of grain, and space/imaging of a great tube amplifier and the dead quiet nature, rock-bottom/tight bass, and transient speed of a great solid-state amplifier. In my 30 years of listening to great amplifiers from Threshold/Pass Labs, I believe that Nelson Pass and his team have come closest to this utopian ideal with the new XA25 amplifier than ever before in their long and illustrious history.”