Tubes for the input stage, solid state for the output. The best of both worlds? Take Michael Elliott's conceptual brief for his Aria Audio Ltd. WT100LS XL 100wpc hybrid power amplifier. It points at a rarely attempted interracial marriage of tubes' timbral "rightness" -- hence the WT Whole Tone moniker -- with the reliability, control and load-impedance invariance of transistors inside a single amplifier. |
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Actually, I played the amp for 1.5 weeks as nonstop as living logistics allowed before taking notes and letting the amp out of my self-imposed prison of background duty. Liberated
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The recording quality on this Sony Records release is stupendous, the music's caloric value triple chocolate. The intricate juxtaposition of poetry recitals against ocean surf, flamenco guitar wizardry by a master musician whom many connoisseurs believe to be Paco de Lucia's unofficial successor, the full symphony orchestra of Cordoba under the able baton of conductor/orchestrator Leo Brouwer, the incisive Flamenco percussion of Tino di Geraldo and Luis Dulzaides and the bloodcurdling vocals of Jose Parra all combine into a broadly stretched canvas of dynamics, timbres and complex image localization that will challenge the finest amplifier. |
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Instant asset
From the first words of Miguel Bosé's reading of Rafael Alberti's opening poetry, the redolent perfume of palpable tubular presence caressed the senses. The saturated timbre of the solo oboe was pellucidly aglow, and so were the massed strings. The soundstage obliterated the front wall and layered far into the distance as you expect of a symphony orchestra but not that many solid state amps. |
Instances of acid?
However, I also noted a subtly reticent top-end that sublimated the bite from the trumpets and the metallic shimmer on the rapid guitar tremolos. A nagging suspicion of "aquatic drag" then arose that filtered a sense of excitement, the energetic immediacy that's such a powerful and addictive part of the percussion and palmas interludes, of the singer's raspy wildness, of the massive syncopated orchestral attempts to keep up with the guitar and machine-gun fire cajon percussion. |
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Opposing notions Envision observing an underwater kelp forest as you would from behind the 3-story glass wall of the Monterey aquarium. It's directly connected to the sea for that perpetual dance of surface motion. However, surrounded by the sheer mass of cubic tons of salty liquid, these surface waves translate into a gentle slow-motion ballet of the kelp, its swaying modulated and buffered by the water. Speed as a function of communicativeness It seems the Aria's valve-preceeded push-pull circuitry doesn't quite harness the obvious speed of my two reference amps. By speed I mean incisive rhythmic precision, transient attack with dangerous rather than bullnosed edges - a propulsive sense of directness that jumps at you, not in any sense of tonal but energetic forwardness, what I think of as projection or communicativeness and also tend to equate with single-stage single-ended circuits done right. But what speaks to you may be Spanish to me: Olé ! It's how I have tuned my system to reflect traits I value most: Listener bias meets system synergy. Inserting an amplifier like today's pale silver/gold Aria gem into this recipe is bound to wreck havoc unless it so happened to wear the same colors and dovetail neatly into the vacancy of its resident predecessor. This is a dilemma. While I can tell you -- exactly --what the insertion accomplished, I'm not in an equally strong position to determine how the newcomer's respective traits could be shifted or tuned to alleviate or soften the present criticism - which, to keep perspective, might be a criticism only from my chair. To you, it may be nothing more than an interesting observation. One that distracts from other performance characteristics far more important to you - such as ... Grandeur and macro-dynamics
A litmus test for these qualities are large-scale symphonic works. I had just the right programme to enjoy profound substance and audiophile effects. For dynamic envelope, endless crescendoesque scaling and massed strings beauty that should enchant like lunar rays dancing on wafting gossamer - the Adagio of Prokofiev's 5th with Neeme Järvi directing the Scottish National Orchestra [Chandos 8450]. |
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For grace (or lack thereof) under extreme duress, the last two minutes of the concluding Allegro giocoso, a most challenging bacchanal of brass roaring like bucks in heat, massive kettle drums interfering with complex syncopations of large orchestral sections, piccolos at ear-clipping intensity, and unexpected momentary retreats into orchestral whispers.
I needed to settle, out of the four pairs supplied, on one tube for the remainder of the audition. I had already written off the Sylvania VT-231 as the sauce Alfredo doom of a cholesterol-critical heart patient. Sumptuously midrangey but also thick and ponderous - fat coagulating in the veins and choking life force. |
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The Sovteks buckled under Prokofiev's friendly Russian fire. Though possibly exhibiting the most extended treble of the four, they turned steely and bright under heavy attack. They also couldn't equal the RCAs and Philips' for their preternatural deep silence and suave smoothness under less strenuous conditions. |
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