Audiophilepure

https://www.hifinews.com/content/arcam-sa45-streaming-amplifier

Equally, the rough-hewn, boogie vibe of The Doors’ ‘Peace Frog’ [Morrison Hotel, 50th Anniversary Deluxe Ed., Rhino; 192kHz/24-bit] was handled as confidently as the ambient swirls and dub-style basslines of Seefeel’s ‘Moodswing’, from their Pure, Impure EP [Too Pure; CD res.]. On this instrumental, the SA45 again showed off its excellent low-end grip and midband detail.

There isn’t overt softness or warmth to this amp’s sound – tonally it’s generally neutral – but it remains inviting to hear. And the comprehensive connections and app controller make the SA45 ready for many sources. During my listening I spent hours with Radio Paradise via the amp’s Internet Radio, aiming for background music. Soon, though, Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s ‘Lucky Man’, from their debut [Island Records], had me paying attention. There was sparkle to the acoustic guitars, the drums were widely staged, and that Moog synth solo sounded as eerie as ever.

Founder and CEO Alon Wolf launched Magico, LLC, in 2004. Magico today has a 30,000-square-foot factory located in Hayward, California. This state-of-the-art Magico facility includes many advanced tools, including a full CNC shop, a Klippel Near-Field Scanner, a Klippel QC suite, a Polytec PSV-500 scanning laser vibrometer, and a custom listening room designed to provide an absolutely neutral testbed for product development. The current loudspeaker line includes three distinct Series, all with aluminum as a cabinet component: the accessible A Series, the middle-tier S Series, and the flagship, carbon-fiber-based M Series of speakers, and a full line of noise-reducing footers and racks for optimizing a component-based audio system. Magico has garnered universal acclaim for their products, with hundreds of awards from distinguished members of the press worldwide. Magico products are distributed in 34 countries and the company employs approximately 30 employees. Magico continues to innovate in the field of loudspeaker design and manufacture under the leadership of Wolf and with the help of the strong team he has assembled around him. Research and development are relentlessly pursued at Magico, with groundbreaking products under development on a continual basis.

The P14 gives you the option to use a 12V trigger for automatic turn-on, but I chose to place the Turn On Options switch located on the back panel in the manual position. This requires you to press the power button on the front panel to turn on the P14. Once you have pressed the power button on, a blue light comes on and the current meters light up. After that, you simply press the Engage switch and you will be outputting 19V to your Roon Nucleus+ and it’s lights, camera, action time.

The first album I played with the P14 powering my Roon Nucleus+ was Roy Haynes We Three (Qobuz RVG 16/44.1) and it quickly showed the improvement to sound quality the P14 brings to the table.  The song “Reflection” showed the bass was more powerful and more fleshed out. The piano sounds more fleshed out as well in terms of power and dynamics. Roy Haynes’ cymbals have more impact and air around them. There are also more micro dynamics that brings out more subtle shadings of tone. The overall dynamic range of the music is wider now.