The Aesthetix IO Signature with one power supply. I have listened to Pass XOno, ASR Exclusive, Einstein and BAT products.
These are all great products but I decided to keep the IO. Tube rush, I had minimal at first, can be addressed with tube matching. No tube rush, no electrical interferences or other issues for almost 5 years now and I play my music loud sometimes.
The factors that I like about the IO are that in deep listening with music, sometime I swear as if I am hearing other artifacts in my room such as a sounds coming from behind me, sounds like a door knock sometimes (no, not inside my head, ha) or voices jumping from deep backgrounds that startle you; it is this essence that I realize that the IO is giving me the pretty much all I would ever want from music. The IO gives me a deep and wide soundstage with the ability to draw you into the music emotionally.
The bass is very deep and hits with a solid thwack, the mid frequencies and highs are balanced just right with no accentuation from any of the frequencies, only from what is on the music. When I play an LP, I hear pretty much all of the details of what is in the grooves. Should an LP be a crappy recording, I will know it, if it is a good one; you will know it as well. You can discern the differences in the quality of recordings and best of all, recordings that you thought were mediocre before might end up sounding better because that information is being captured better by the IO, but a real crappy recording will always sound crappy, no matter how good the system. Voices are just incredible, I hear the breathing patterns and opening and closing of musicians lips as they sing into the microphone or hear the breathing patterns of trumpeters as they start to blow into the trumpet and experience the process of embouchure with the trumpet players. With the brass, lots of times I hear the brass player moving on stage and can visualize where he is moving as he plays. This is incredibly unbelievable as I never experienced that before.
Piano hits are startling as well and the ability to see a portrait of multiple pianists in the soundstage is incredible. What gets me going about pianos is that on some LPs you can hear two distinct pianos or one piano and one keyboard but they are in their own time and space on the soundstage and when you hear one piano playing the keys rowing from upper left to lower right, then you feel as if the piano is actually right there situated in that space. Many of these so called ah moments have occurred with the IO. Those have become my standards in listening to music. I know now because I have experienced it for myself.
Like one of the previous posts above, deciding if I should even take it to the next level with the IO Eclipse upgrade.
I am using the Benz LP with the settings at 62 db gain, 1000 ohm and all tube front end, (pre and mono amps) system from Octave electronics in Germany driving B&W N800's. Music has never sounded better to my wifes or mine ears.
Ciao,
Audioquest4life
