I've been listening to music with the ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue amplifier for a while now, while steadily working towards its turn in my review queue. It's been a wonderful experience listening to music with the Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue as it really sings with my Tannoy Westminster Royal loudspeakers, just as it did with Tannoy's statement Kingdom Royal loudspeakers that I reviewed for Positive Feedback Online in Issue 64.

All my review committments that preceded the Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue are now finished up, so now I've started writing the introductory sections for the article that will be published at Positive Feedback Online. I'm also thinking about how best to do the technical section of the article, doing the photo shoots, and gearing up to doing the comparative listening sessions.

I think most of you would be surprised how much behind-the-scenes effort goes into one of these articles (the photo above is of the shipping containers for the Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue and its three (!) external power supplies). The process starts with removing my equipment from my main system, then installing the equipment to be reviewed - the Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue in this case - in its place. Then I optimize my Hi-Fi rig around the review equipment to get the very best performance out of it possible. I play music with it until everything is run-in and sounding stable and I'm enjoying listening to music with it.

For each review I go through a full Jim Smith-style setup regimen to get the very best performance out of the equipment I can. I owe that to the manufacturers, the readers, and to myself, to know that the setup is as good as it can possibly be. That's really important to me, and it can make all the difference in the outcome of a review.

Then I start doing the comparative listening sessions, photo shoots, and the agonizing process of trying to write something articulate, meaningful, interesting, and hopefully somewhat entertaining, to inform you about its performance in a broad enough context for you to have an idea of what it performed like in my system, as well as what you might expect to hear from it in your own system.

It's a lot harder than it sounds. I wish it was as simple as just putting a piece of equipment in the system, having a ball spinning a few records on the turntable & listening to the music, then writing it up. But that's not the way it works, and that's why it takes a while to properly review something.

A lot of music lovers and Hi-Fi enthusiasts have been thinking about the whole 'sonics versus musicality' issue that I wrote about in the previous post about Jim Smith's new project Through the Sound Barrier. For an audio writer & blogger like myself, it's not enough to get a piece of equipment sounding good in my Hi-Fi rig. Rather, I have to transcend that 'sound barrier' - as Jim puts it - by achieving both good sonics and exceptional musicality, for it to be truly meaningful.

If I can't achieve both good sonics and exceptional musicality with a piece of equipment in for review, then you need to know about it, because it probably means that it'll be a tough go for you too. However, the results can sometimes be so gratifying that it resets what you thought you knew about audio and enjoying music reproduction in the home. That's happened to me a number of times over the years, with things as disparate as single ended triode amplifiers, my Leben & Harbeth 'music lover' system, with Acoustic Revive accessories, with Tannoy Westminster Royal SE (and Kingdom Royal) loudspeakers, with Mark Cole's Panatela interconnects & speaker cables, and now with the ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue mains amplifier.

My goal in exploring high-performance audio is to find those rare gems that excel both in delivering good sonics and exceptional musicality to tell you about. The ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue mains amplifier is one of those rare gems. Here's my first cut at a lead-in statement for the review:

"The ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue mains amplifier is the most musically satisfying amplifier I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to – period. In terms of sheer musicality the Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue has bested both the vacuum tube and solid-state amplifiers I have heard. Did that get your attention? The Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue certainly has got my attention!"

Like the title for this post says, the ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue amplifier has broken the sound barrier, and has become my new benchmark for musicality & sonics in one amplifier. Stay tuned as I'll have much more to say here about the ASR Emitter II Exclusive Version Blue amplifier, and in its upcoming review at Positive Feedback Online.