VIDEOHIFI 30

Spanish hi-fi products? Almost unknown, down here. Yes, the Beyma loudspeakers are known, in the professional and DIY milieu, as products sporting a very good price-performance ratio. But I cn't remember nything else, at least in this moment. I am sure there's something else (at least a loudspeakers manufacturer, but I can't remember its name right now...), but for some reason it seems that no audio product is coming out from the land of the (well deserved!) European football champions. What's surprising is that it is a country with a long and established musical tradition, and that it is not a small country - I don't understand. Maybe something will come out in the next years. I would be surprised if that won't be the case.

For the time being, there's this one. As I understand, quite a typical story: a music lover and DIYer (he earns a living doing something unrelated, if I am well informed) builds an amp for himself; friends listen to what it does, and ask him for one for themselves; in some years building amps becomes a second, part-time job (the manufacturer keeps his foot firmly in the real world and doesn't quit his day job, which, as a side effect, means you have to wait months to have an amp, as he builds them himself). The story has a twist: someone mentions the amplifier (there are a few variants, now, but the design is fundamentally one) to Merlin Music's Bobby Palkovich, who finds the amp has a great potential and matches well with his speakers and, after a few optimizations on one of the variants, starts to demo the amp at shows and distributes it worldwide (Europe excluded, here the manufacturer is the distributor). This is a somewhat - but not overly - simplified description of how it got here.

What the designer (via Bobby Palkovich) tells us is that a particular output stage configuration is used (“a special screen-grid regulated pentode circuit with auto-regulated polarization”, I am quoting the official literature: I have the feeling that it's not an ultralinear configuration, and that it isn't a pseudo-triode one; something similar to the McIntosh classical connection? for sure the amp is self-biasing); that the 5814A are used as driver and phase-inverter stages, and that the E88CC is the preamplifier stage.
Some of the caps - I understand all the stage couplings - are the Hovlands, so dear to Bobby Palkovich too; the rest of the components is "audiophile quality" (Aerovox, Elna, Panasonic, Wima, Philips capacitors; 1% resistors; 0.5% resistors on the power tubes cathodes and on the signal path). The transformers are custom, the oputput ones are selected with a 0.5% tolerance. The PSU is solid-state rectified and the regulated lines are separate for each voltage tension.
Rated power is 30 watts, about 22 watts are class A. Overall negative feedback is limited to about 6 dB. The construction is part PCB, part air-cabled. The volume pot is an Alps Blue Velvet.
The tubes - which are "rolled", not just there by chance or for convenience - are JJ (the EL34 and the E88CC) and JAN Philips (the 5814A). The power tubes are selected within a 2% "window" compared to a reference, I think after a pre-burn in period, as this assures consistent (or more consistent) performances over time.
The chassis is, as I said, elegant and really well finished. The elegance is to ascribe, at least in part, to the compact dimensions: it seems to suggest it's big enough, nothing more. The amp is not screaming "hey, I am here", it doesn't need to affirm its presence; it's just there to discretely, silently and politely - beautifully... - do its job.

The manufacturer's attention to optimization (but I think Bobby Palkovich had his hands here) is confirmed again by the fact that a Cardas Golden Reference power cord is included in the box. I have tried to use something else, just to conclude that, of the cables I have at hand, some of them more expensive than the Cardas (and better performing, with other amps), the GR was the best, here.

The user manual is in English, and it is very well done. It includes a somewhat disquieting note not to switch on the amp without a load attached to its output connectors, as it will blow (what if I make a mistake when I connect the speakers? oh, well...). I understand the amp is optimized for 8-ohm loads; there are no multiple secondaries on the output transformers. I don't think it's the ideal amp for notoriously difficult loudspeakers; my Merlins were perfect for the job, but I don't think Apogee Scintillas are the idea. I cannot guarantee that the results I had can be repeated with difficult loudspeakers. I would say that the Ars Sonum drives you in your choice of loudspeakers. Is it worth it? Well, go on reading after the bonus.

The place seems just right for an addendum to my previous Merlin VSM MMe review, as the Italian dealer is the same and since, in a sense, the Filarmonia is "their" amplifier. Some months ago I decided that the MMe were here to stay, but soon after I had the chance to trade them, without adding a fortune, for a pair of MXe (the finish was marred in transit). As soon as I had the OK from my partner (a pair of red loudspeakers don't go unnoticed...), I took the plunge. Was it worth it? Well, let's see...

The VSM MXe are at the top of the Merlin lineup. There doesn't seem to be any different, finish aside, between these and the less expensive MMe model. It seems that things are slightly different than they appear; the finish (a beauty to behold) and the treatment of the cabinet allow, thanks to the fact that the outcome is slightly more rigid (at least, that's how I got it), some adjustments in the damping networks, some more cryogenically treated components in the crossover and some other different details. I think I could alternatively say that there is a mutual influence between the finish and the tunig of the speakers (an hypothesis might be that, the cabinet being more rigid, some resonance is higher in frequency, so the network to damp that resonance is also different. I don't know for sure. Bobby Palkovich won't disclose so much details, obviously).

The differences are, apparently, of little significance: the cabinet is the same (I had the feeling that the MXe is slightly heavier, but it might be that I was tired when I moved them...), the drivers are the same, as are the binding posts and the footers. Same crossover design, too. If we are to give credit to standard engineering concepts, it should be difficult to tell one model from the other one.

Not so. In my case, the speakers were swapped in a very short time. The MMe were playing until very litttle time before; the MXe were fired up with the same record. Some differences were apparent from the beginning: the MXe are slightly more stable (they are, to borrow a word form another reviewer, a bit more unflappable), they are somewhat more resolute and maybe they have a small bit less distortion. They sound a bit sweeter and more open at the same time (nice trick!). The bass is maybe a bit more (another bit!) damped. Maybe the mid-bass is more solid. At the same time, there seems to be some more energy in the midrange and probably a tad less nasality (not that the MMe are nasal in any way, it's just that the MXe seem to be even a little less nasal, less than anything else in my experience...). The MXe seem to be more "silent" between the notes; the sound seems to be more contrasted (more resolved...). Maybe, with the wrong amplification, the MXe can become somewhat thinner than life or "breathy" (maybe they will just be showing the amp for what it is...). With the right amplification, the MXe are the better loudspeaker, I have no doubt about it.

How much better? In a significant way, to me. It's as if the MMe are engineered to be a little bit easier to partner and to live with. I think that all the MXe resolution and optimization expose what's before them in a way which can be not particularly pleasant, if there is something even slightly wrong upstream. The MMe will probably perform well in a larger number of circumstances. But notice the number of "a bit" in the description above.

It might be a challenge, though, to get that bit. I like challenges. They seem to be even more of an open window then the MMe, I feel they can give me more of an easy life in judging components. I like to think of the MXe as a perfectly focused picture, terse as they are; the MMe are ever so slightly de-focused and they probably can be easier on the slight imperfections of the subject, as in portrait photography.
The MXe require a more expert hand, or ear, to get the best they can do, to perform better than the MMe overall. I don't think they can be partnered easily with the kind of hyper-transparent solid state amplifiers some audiophiles like, while the MMe might succeed with those.
I think both speakers are a perfectly valid choice. The MXe are, to me, superior enough to justify their higher price, in my system and for my priorities. At the end of the day, though, they are the same design; I think I could have lived, perfectly happy, with the MMe. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the MXe are a sure upgrade in any system: the level of attention to the choices upstream needed here is even higher.

Anyway, this amp may be defined an open sounding one. It's not round ad a bit shut in, as a classically sounding, vintage-like tube amp. You won't believe you are listening to a solid state amp, that's sure, but it is firmly in the modern sounding school of tube amplification; it doesn't try to reach sweetness and "magic" by skimping on detail and by concentrating on the midrange, leaving the frequency extremes as an afterthought. It is beatifully coherent and commendably neutral sounding, compact, almost grainless.

I was surprised by the detail and the micro-dynamics of this amp. Theres' a wealth of detail, the ability to make you jump on your chair with microdetail, if that's your thing. If you are not into that, tough, and this is a feature which is impossible to find in solid state amps at near-affordable prices, if you are willing to kick back and drown in the music flow, the Filarmonia obliges. The detail isn't thrown in your face, it's not detail for the sake of it, the music comes always first. And all of this ability to produce detail doesn't come as a side effect of a macrodynamic compression: the amp is as dynamic as its rating allows (and it can surprise you, as it did for me, how far a 30W amp can go with an easy-to-drive, inherently neutral speaker as the VSMs are).

The lack of grain, the liquidity, are world class, as far as I can judge. I would say that, if you want to find something in the way of a characterization, this would be a choice of refinement instead of force. It is a cultivated, tasty, delicate amp: a very intelligent choice if you are making a 30 watt amp which aspires to drive real world loudspeakers (and not only high-efficiency ones).

What's more surprising, in this context, which is one of class and elegance, is the authority this amp seems to pack. It doesn't get there via a vice-like grip on bass and midbass (I think it couldn't, it's a 30W tube amp...), but via an absolute dynamic confidence and a wonderful soundstage precision. There is something really surprising in the way a guitar or a human voice are precisely placed, with their right sizes, sharply focused and, to simplify, with a realism I am not hearing in any other amp I have at home in this moment (some of them are expensive pre-power combos; maybe the one which comes nearest to equal it is a SET 845 amp, maybe).
The size of the soundstage the Ars Sonum reproduces is excellent. The width is quite incredible; furthermore, the amp seems to preserve the dimensionality and the focus of the performers and the instruments even when it is placing them outside the loudspeakers (another neat trick!).

And then there's that magic. I think my rational part has identified where it comes from, this time. In a context of excellence, the exceptional feature of the Ars Sonum is a specific frequency range, which, with the Merlin speakers, is an absolute wonder, something I have never heard before, an that's the difficult transition between the midrange and the high frequencies. I almost always detect, elsewhere, something forced in this range, as if someone is sculpting the sound in real time: it might be fascinating, but realistic it ain't. In this case, there's an incredible liquidity, something I couldn't even detect consciously at first. I had to listen again and again to be sure that this is a consistent quality of this pairing. It is worth a listening experience alone. Most of the instruments acquire a smoothness (which is not a systematic sweetness, in my vocabulary) which makes them more realistic, without losing their individul colors and their liveliness, their roughness if they have it and it was recorded; at the same time, the high frequencies are precise, airy and extended in a surprising way (don't forget this is a near-affordable tube amp, which comes with an aura of "vintage homage"...).
Limitations? Well, it's a 30 watt amp. Furthermore, the bass can't have the impact (and maybe the extension, but we are really close...) of a reference solid state amp. It's a musical, not a systematically percussive bass, I would say. By the way, pay attention to this range: at a specific time, I was under the impression that the bass range was somewhat disconnected from the rest, but it probably was a run-in artifact, or I could have been using the wrong cables; later on, the impression completely disappeared. Getting back to the limitations, the Filarmonia won't probably be the ideal amplifier for those who need to be constantly startled with a reproduction based on force and impact: it is much too a refined guy for this, even with its microdynamics and its sculptural quality can be absolutely satisfying even with rock and pop music.
One last thing: the run-in procedure is something of a nightmare, three hours of music, then one hour of silence with the amp fully off for the first 50 hours. Luckily my sample had been run-in by the dealer/distributor, I think I could go mad doing that myself.

As a conclusion of sorts, I have to say that to me, with my speakers, the Ars Sonum is, on a significant number of parameters, the best I have heard. I haven't bought it because the reviewing activity forces me to have a pre-power combo and because I can't afford another amp at this time. Probably, as soon as I will be able to get one (I am moving to a new house while I am writing...), I will send a check to the distributor. It's that good. If you are going for a "big" system, think of this amp as something of a a gift, allowing you to spend more on the right speakers and the right source to build it.