Greetings friends, I hope you are well! 🙂

It's getting cold here as Fall settles in, and I got in what was probably my last top-down adventure in the Miata. It was a bit chilly as the stocking cap attests to. I had more Miata adventures planned, but I ran out of good weather and time. Next year - it's all good!

Now it's time to settle in and focus on the HiFi Season! What a fun HiFi Season it's turning into with all kinds of cool HiFi kit to evaluate and tell you about here at Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback.

Audio Note (UK) Update 

If you've been following along, you know I've been listening to the mind bending Audio Note (UK) Level Five Ongaku 211 SET integrated amplifier (review HERE), M8 RIAA phono pre (review HERE), and the exotic and top-of-the-line Io Ltd. field-coil cartridge with its power supply and the AN-S9 SUT - review in progress - on my Duelund crossovers equipped Tannoy Westminster Royale SE loudspeakers.

Photo above: the "Big" West's system with the Level Five Audio Note (UK) kit.  

The performance level is so high with this Level Five selection of Audio Note (UK) kit, it's hard to imagine it being surpassed. Every time I listen to it, it puts me into a state of shock & awe at what it's capable of, just like the first time I had it up and running.

You'd think that by now I'd be more used to it, but no, every time I spin an LP it just blows me away.

Photo above: Top-of-the-line Audio Note (UK) Io Ltd. field-coil moving-coil phonograph cartridge.

Photo Above: Top-of-the-line Audio Note (UK) AN-S9 step-up transformer (left) and field-coil power supply (right).

I'm in the process of writing the review for the Io Ltd. field-coil moving-coil phonograph cartridge along with its field-coil power supply and the AN-S9 SUT. 

I've been debating in my mind how to best write about this impressive combo, and I think the best approach is to write it up as a single entity, as that's how it is intended to be used. 

I had thought I'd compare the AN-S9 SUT to the AN-S8 SUT, and the Io I moving-coil to the Io Ltd. moving-coil, but I'm coming to the conclusion that doesn't offer much benefit to you as what their performance is all about.

One thing I've learned during the series I've been writing here at Jeff's Place and Positive Feedback about Audio Note (UK) components, is that you can bank on what Peter Qvortrup says about their performance as you ascend the performance levels, and how to combine those components for a synergistic boost in performance.

Basically, as you go up through the performance levels it's not just subtle refinements I hear, it's more like "Oh my God, how did they do that?" Big differences. 

Each successive level I've gone up I've heard BIG increases in performance. Everything improves, both sound quality and visuospatial performance, everything sounds more refined, more naturally "flesh and blood," there's less electronic artifice present in recordings, and much more music is revealed. 

Part of the secret is in the high-performance circuits chosen for the amplifiers and phono stages, the comparison-by-contrast voicing process, and of course the superb components that populate the circuits of each level. When you get to Level Five the components used to populate the circuits are custom-made to deliver the highest performance possible at each position in the circuit, and boy do they. I just don't think it is possible to get that level of performance without those specific components, as it is the combination of components that populate the circuits that determines the ultimate level of performance. 

However, all that potential performance in the amplification is dependent upon the front-end, the source, where extracting as much musical information as possible from an album is key to realizing the performance level of the rest of the audio components in an audio system.

There's a lot more information lurking in that album and waiting to be revealed than one would think, and the more musical information you deliver from the source to the phono preamplifier and amplifier, the greater their level of performance will be revealed. 

What happens is this: as the performance level keeps increasing, even though sound quality and visuospatial performance increase dramatically, the sense that you are listening to really good HiFi decreases, and the sense that you are listening to really good music increases a lot.

It's like listening to a great HiFi system and appreciating its sound quality, and then listening to the musicians playing right in front of you. The difference is not subtle. 

When I listen to an album, for a moment or two I'm amazed by the sound quality, the visuospatial performance, but then my thoughts go to how amazing those musicians playing their music were, how artful the recording team was in capturing their music, and what a remarkable musical document they created in the collaboration between the musicians and the recording engineers. Next level. 

That's where the Io Ltd. fielding-coil moving-coil phonograph cartridge, its field-coil power supply, and the AN-S9 SUT come into play: they deliver more musical information to the phono pre and amplifier, much more. 

Infineon GaN Class D Amplifier Update

Let me clear up a little confusion that some of you have mentioned to me. The amplifier shown in the photo above is not a commercial product produced by Infineon, rather it was a demo amplifier built by Mr. Jun Honda, the audio engineer that developed the GaN Class D amplification board at Infineon that is used in this amplifier, to demonstrate the potential of this new amplification technology. 

The Infineon GaN Class D board incorporated into various amplifiers is what wowed the attendees at the OTOTEN 2026 HiFi festival in Tokyo, and got unprecedented coverage in the latest issue of the prestigious MJ Audio Technology magazine in Japan.

Over time, this Infineon GaN Class D board will be incorporated in a number of companies’ flagship amplifiers, and if I understand correctly, the board will also be available to DIY enthusiasts who want to build their own amplifier. 

You can read more about how this all came about at the following links:

Exciting news: "... a landmark development in the century-long history of amplifiers." HERE

"World Premiere" of the Infineon GaN Class D amplifier technology! A new "SET" for the 21st Century? HERE

First Impressions: Jun-san's Infineon GaN amplifier! Is this the end of a 100-year era in audio amplifiers, and the beginning of a new one? HERE

Above photo: my audio-visual system based on vintage Altec A5 Voice of the Theatre loudspeakers.

As is my custom, new amplifier arrivals get installed in my audio-visual system for some run-in time, and in this case it was Jun-san's Infineon GaN Class D demo amplifier. 

Above photo: Pass Labs XP-12 line-level preamplifier (left) and Jun-san's Infineon GaN Class D demo amplifier (right).

I've tried a couple of different preamplifiers with the Infineon GaN Class D demo amp, and I found the Pass Labs XP-12 to be the most synergistic match to it. Did I mention that the XP-12 is my favorite solid-state line-level preamp? It is. 

I am impressed with Jun-san's amplifier, and my first impressions are that it sounds very much like a triode vacuum tube amplifier. A triode amplifier that puts out 100 watts into my 16-ohm Altec speakers, or 200 watts into 8-ohm loudspeakers.

Jun-san's demo amp also runs cool compared to vacuum tube amplifiers, which comes in handy as Planet Earth heats up like its been doing lately, so you don't bake while you're listening to music. 

Above Photo: SPEC RSA-M3 EX Real Sound Amplifier.

I thought I'd try to bracket the GaN Class D demo amp's performance by comparing it to some other solid-state amplifiers, like the SPEC RSA-M3 amplifier shown above.

Photo above: First Watt SIT-3 amplifier.

Nelson Pass's First Watt SIT-3 amplifier is an exceptional amplifier that also channels triode-like sound quality, and I thought it would make for an excellent comparator as well.

Above photo: Pass Labs XA25 amplifier.

I thought I'd also compare to another very fine-sounding amplifier, the Pass Labs XA25 amplifier.

So lots of fun coming up on the solid-state front!

Above photo: inside the Infineon GaN Class D demo amplifier. 

My first impressions about the Infineon GaN Class D demo amplifier that Jun-san built are very positive. It sounds very triode-like, recovers a ton of recorded nuance, and presents a big soundscape to me as a listener. 

Stay tuned, much more to come!

Leben HiFi Stereo Company Update

Photo above: the new Leben CS-300XO "Hugs & Kisses" vacuum tube integrated amplifier.

Photo above: the new Leben CS-60T step-up transformer for moving-coil phonograph cartridges.

I've been putting the Leben CS-300XO integrated amplifier & CS-60T SUT through the paces in my office system, where they have been performing admirably.

Above photo: my office system with vintage Thorens TD-124 turntable and vintage Altecs built for Leopold Stokowski way back when.

I really like the Leben CS-60T SUT with the exotic Sumile moving-coil phonograph cartridge that is mounted on the Schick tonearm of my Thorens TD-124.

Above photo: Murasakino Musique Analogue ‘Sumile’ MC phonograph cartridge mounted on artisanal Acoustic Revive RHS-1 headshell.

The Sumile moving-coil phonograph cartridge sends the audio signal to the Leben CS-60T SUT, then to the Leben RS-30EQ phono preamplifier. 

Above photo: new Leben CS-60T step-up transformer (left) with my Leben RS-30EQ phono preamplifier (right).

There's real synergy when you combine components voiced to complement each other, and I can hear that synergy with Leben CS-60T SUT and Leben RS-30EQ phono equalizer providing the juice to the Leben CS-300XO EL84 integrated amplifier.

Above photo: Leben CS-300XO EL84 integrated amplifier. 

This combination of the Sumile MC, the Leben CS-60T SUT, the Leben RS-30EQ, and the Leben CS-300XO integrated amplifier is beautiful to look at, and beautiful to listen to. 

So you can tell it is a busy time, but a fun time, with all these listening adventures going on.

Much more to come about all of these!

As always, thanks for stopping by, and may the tone be with you!