Value amplifiers? Filterless digital?
Hemp drivers? It can only be an Audio Note system.
The last Beautiful System to pass through
featured the somewhat arresting power output of seven hundred watts. Variety
being the spice of life, this one has an output at full tilt of slightly over
one percent of that. Believe it or not, this is one of the more normal parts of
this ensemble…
Hove-based Audio Note has never been a
company to follow convention. The entire philosophy of the brand is based
around vacuum tube amplification. Although there is nothing to prevent value
amplifiers being made in relatively powerful configurations, the Audio Note
ethos has always preferred the simplest implementation which is a small number
of output values in a single-ended configuration. Fans of these amplifiers
claim that no other design can equal the tonal sweetness and lucidity of a good
single-ended amplifier, but there are drawbacks to this approach. Most of these
amps are less than twenty watts in output and many of Audio Note’s designs are
in the low single figures.
Audio
Note CD4.1 x CD player
Fans of these amplifiers claim that
no other design can equal the tonal sweetness and lucidity of a good
single-ended circuit…
Signature style
Representing this philosophy in this system
is an OTO SE Signature integrated amplifier. The OTO is a classic example of
the Audio Note product philosophy in that it has been around for many years and
exists in number of different versions all based around a quartet of EL84
values. The Signature is the top of the tree with trademark Audio Note
wizardry, such as tantalum resistors and copper foil capacitors in key
locations and a single-ended configuration producing ten watts flat out.
To do anything useful with an output that
low, you need sensitive speakers. This is the second area of Audio Note
specialization. Audio Note speakers are quite unlike the vast majority of
speakers on sale today. They are a shape that is depending on your viewpoint –
almost willfully anachronistic or rather fabulous in its lack of compromise.
All Audio Note speakers are impressively sensitive and can generate outputs of
90dB or more from a single watt of power, but when you have amps with only two
or three of those watts to begin with, ‘sensitive’ alone won’t cut it.
Audio
Note OTO SE Signature integrated amplifier
Step forward the AN-E. Like the OTO, this
is available in numerous versions but the ones supplied for this system are in
HE spec. This substitutes the conventional paper driver for the rather striking
looking blue examples which are made from hemp fiber and give this variant of
the AN-E a claimed sensitivity of a staggering 97dB/w. All of a sudden, those
ten watts from the OTO will go a long way! Of course hemp by-product has been
helping some people appreciate music for some time, but this time they don’t
have to ingest it [boom boom – Ed.]!
The final piece in the puzzle is the way
Audio Note approaches digital. Audio Note CD players and DACs are all designed
with no oversampling, no digital filters and a value output. Representing this
philosophy is the CD4.1x, the flagship Audio Note on box CD player (although be
aware that when the transport and DAC combinations are taken into account,
we’re very much playing in the shallow end of the Audio Note range here).
This trio of units combines into a system
that can only be one from Audio Note. The system looks fairly impressive too.
There system looks fairly impressive too. There is no escaping the 4.1 CD player
is a big lad, but the OTO Signature is wonderfully understated and the AN-Es in
their wedge veneer set off by their blue drivers are rather lovely in the flesh
too. Unusually for a Beautiful System, the whole ensemble is genuinely an Audio
Note ‘system’ from the specialized stands for the AN-Es ($600 per pair) to the
ISIS LX 168 speaker cable ($6,105 per pair) and ISIS interconnects ($739.5 per
pair) that connect it all together; this genuinely is a one stop shop where
everything except the CD you spin in the 4.1 comes from the same place. You
need not spend this much for this to apply either. Audio Note makes systems
that go from considerably less than this all the way up to an ensemble they
demonstrated at Milan earlier this year that would buy a house of significant
dimensions in central London. Be under no illusions that your potential upgrade
‘path’ is more akin to the Appalachian trail in this case.
Audio
Note AN-E/LX HE loudspeaker
For many listeners though, climbing as far
as they can up this path will feature heavily in their thoughts after hearing
this system. Firstly, forget any notions that the power output is remotely
constraining. As the AN-Es are so sensitive, there are few instances I can ever
see you troubling the maximum headroom this system offers. Secondly forget any
idea of this system conforming to a single stereotype that people apple to
valve based systems.
