Hello all,
MR. Bjorn Mertz vom Einstein left my house a short while ago sadly packing the Einstein the Tube with him. I mean that in a good way. You all know we talk about synergy, well the Einstein synergized with my Octave tube amps, the Aesthetix IO Signature phono and the Krell SACD exceptionally well. We used RCA connections for testing from the phono stage and the SACD since I am using that right now at home, to base the comparison on. I use a subwoofer equalized with the Velodyne SMS-1 sub controller to add some sizzle to bass and equal out the room modes, etc.
We conducted the A/B comparison without the sub active to get a fair baseline sample of the character of each preamp. All audio cables stayed the same (mostly Audioquest Sky's) except we ran XLR from the preamp to the mono amps using some (I forgot the name) cable made in Switzerland.
After a cup of coffee and some small talk, we went to the listening room and listened to the Octave preamp with SACD and vinyl source material, I had been running the equipment all morning in advance and in anticipation of the demo.
I told Mr. Merx, that I prefer natural overtones and not the tizzy sound that you get with some pure silver cables or solid state setups. That being said, Mr. Merx was quiet, and we switched the cables to the Einstein, and played the same sources, this time the last source and song played was the first, Chuck Mangione, 200gram Classic reissue, The Children of Sanchez. I look for three things in this song, one the opening lead in when he is singing and it is very melancholic, but the part of the verse he says "and the strength" and you hear a nice reverberation, well this time it was just amazing. It was like he was really in the studio. The next part, there is the lead in when the drums kick in and the flugel horn starts playing, well I just fell out of my seat as the bass was a lot deeper than my other preamp and I thought I had the subwoofer plugged in, remembering that it was not, I was amazed, I looked at Bjorn and said, Nice. So the bass is gut wrenching deep and the holographic effects of a studio are recreated, now the last thing I listen to on this track is the top hat or triangle, there is a triangle solo about 1/2 way into that song and the triangles resonate as it is being hit. I thought before I had it pretty much nailed, but NO, the Einstein grasped the triangle and made it sparkle, making my preamp sound thinner and lacking energy in that frequency spectrum. The energy of the triangles, cymbals and bass were most definitely pronounced. One other thing I noticed that the background noise was even quieter than before, especially with the phono input, the IO does create low level tube rush, and Bjorn stated that the phono was a little noisy, I said, NO, that is quiet compared to what it was, and that there is an adherent amount of tube rush noise in the IO phono stage, however, I can live with it as long as it goes away at normal listening levels and it does and my music sounds good, and it does.
Finally, I was pulling album after album putting the Tube to the test, Muddy Waters (in which we listened to a master recorded version on vinyl recorded by Herr Einstein from the master tapes- dont ask, but he had the masters to do the recording), the Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and each time, the timber was excellent. Additionally, the soundstage gained a tremendous amount of width, clearly the advantage of the true dual mono design. Normally pinpoint and far reaching instruments played through my other preamp, suddenly occupied the whole stage and in a lifelike presentation whereas before, it was more pinpoint, also good mind you, however the Einstein seemed to capture the whole performance on the stage and the presentation was a lot closer and near to you in comparison, my preamp, portrayed the same staging effects and had pinpoint accuracy but with limited spatial cues.
Overall, a very satisfying listening experience in which case it DID bring me closer to the musician, literally.
You have to ask yourself, how do they do that? The Einstein sounded very natural used in my system and was neither adding or detracting from the music, it just sounded like great music. I know we all hear the same thing whenever someone gets rolled over by such an experience, but this was my experience and I thought I would share it with you. BTW, heat was never an issue.
Next on the list, is to demo the Callisto. So far, the Einstein has brought me the best joy in music playback than any other preamp I demoed to date. I wonder if anyone has had a chance to demo the Callisto against the Einstein yet?
The volume control and remote worked fine with my amps, however, the remote volume's control seem to be about 1db stepped increase and decreases per click on the remote. Mr. Merz, said he thought it was a normal poti. That is all.
V/r
Audioquest4life
MR. Bjorn Mertz vom Einstein left my house a short while ago sadly packing the Einstein the Tube with him. I mean that in a good way. You all know we talk about synergy, well the Einstein synergized with my Octave tube amps, the Aesthetix IO Signature phono and the Krell SACD exceptionally well. We used RCA connections for testing from the phono stage and the SACD since I am using that right now at home, to base the comparison on. I use a subwoofer equalized with the Velodyne SMS-1 sub controller to add some sizzle to bass and equal out the room modes, etc.
We conducted the A/B comparison without the sub active to get a fair baseline sample of the character of each preamp. All audio cables stayed the same (mostly Audioquest Sky's) except we ran XLR from the preamp to the mono amps using some (I forgot the name) cable made in Switzerland.
After a cup of coffee and some small talk, we went to the listening room and listened to the Octave preamp with SACD and vinyl source material, I had been running the equipment all morning in advance and in anticipation of the demo.
I told Mr. Merx, that I prefer natural overtones and not the tizzy sound that you get with some pure silver cables or solid state setups. That being said, Mr. Merx was quiet, and we switched the cables to the Einstein, and played the same sources, this time the last source and song played was the first, Chuck Mangione, 200gram Classic reissue, The Children of Sanchez. I look for three things in this song, one the opening lead in when he is singing and it is very melancholic, but the part of the verse he says "and the strength" and you hear a nice reverberation, well this time it was just amazing. It was like he was really in the studio. The next part, there is the lead in when the drums kick in and the flugel horn starts playing, well I just fell out of my seat as the bass was a lot deeper than my other preamp and I thought I had the subwoofer plugged in, remembering that it was not, I was amazed, I looked at Bjorn and said, Nice. So the bass is gut wrenching deep and the holographic effects of a studio are recreated, now the last thing I listen to on this track is the top hat or triangle, there is a triangle solo about 1/2 way into that song and the triangles resonate as it is being hit. I thought before I had it pretty much nailed, but NO, the Einstein grasped the triangle and made it sparkle, making my preamp sound thinner and lacking energy in that frequency spectrum. The energy of the triangles, cymbals and bass were most definitely pronounced. One other thing I noticed that the background noise was even quieter than before, especially with the phono input, the IO does create low level tube rush, and Bjorn stated that the phono was a little noisy, I said, NO, that is quiet compared to what it was, and that there is an adherent amount of tube rush noise in the IO phono stage, however, I can live with it as long as it goes away at normal listening levels and it does and my music sounds good, and it does.
Finally, I was pulling album after album putting the Tube to the test, Muddy Waters (in which we listened to a master recorded version on vinyl recorded by Herr Einstein from the master tapes- dont ask, but he had the masters to do the recording), the Doobie Brothers, The Eagles, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane and each time, the timber was excellent. Additionally, the soundstage gained a tremendous amount of width, clearly the advantage of the true dual mono design. Normally pinpoint and far reaching instruments played through my other preamp, suddenly occupied the whole stage and in a lifelike presentation whereas before, it was more pinpoint, also good mind you, however the Einstein seemed to capture the whole performance on the stage and the presentation was a lot closer and near to you in comparison, my preamp, portrayed the same staging effects and had pinpoint accuracy but with limited spatial cues.
Overall, a very satisfying listening experience in which case it DID bring me closer to the musician, literally.
You have to ask yourself, how do they do that? The Einstein sounded very natural used in my system and was neither adding or detracting from the music, it just sounded like great music. I know we all hear the same thing whenever someone gets rolled over by such an experience, but this was my experience and I thought I would share it with you. BTW, heat was never an issue.
Next on the list, is to demo the Callisto. So far, the Einstein has brought me the best joy in music playback than any other preamp I demoed to date. I wonder if anyone has had a chance to demo the Callisto against the Einstein yet?
The volume control and remote worked fine with my amps, however, the remote volume's control seem to be about 1db stepped increase and decreases per click on the remote. Mr. Merz, said he thought it was a normal poti. That is all.
V/r
Audioquest4life