It's been at least a year and a half now of SS amplification (and very decent at that), but yesterday my new Cayin A-70T KT-88 integrated arrived and the Sig 70s were benched for the new guy to take a crack at the Adagios.
Ok, fresh out of the box, 20 minutes of warm up and two passes of bias adjustments and the SACD of Jorma and friends "Blue Mountain Heart" started to spin... OMG!
Tubes are back and they're hear to stay!
Yeah, like any new amp, especially one with brand new current production tubes, things are a bit congested, hazy, and just have that "I'm waking up here" sound, but still, tone, dimensionality, voices, etc. were all just in a completely different league. There is plenty of detail, yet with a warmish touch, and what really took me completely by surprise was the bass... Not only was it there, but it was really there, and even more unbelieveably, it was deeper, smoother, more focused, yet with every bit as much oomph as the Sig 70s. (*That* was not what I was expecting at all, and once the neighbors wake up the NY Rave CD is going to get some play time
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Here's one thing that really struck me -- I was sitting well right of the sweet spot, and although the balance was obviously more tilted to the right speaker, there was still a very decent 3D soundstage. With the SS amps, once out of the sweet spot you lose most of the dimensionality. The speakers had to be moved during the amp swap so where nowhere near critical alignment (which seems to be even more important than normal with the Adagios) and still this great holographic presentation,.
All I can keep thinking of is what all this is going to sound like in the new location (with the speakers further apart and further into the room), the new Mapleshade rack, better power, better tubes, the Grovers, the Modwright mods to the 3910, etc., etc., etc..
Dare I say that this may be end-game audio for me? Certainly there will be tweaks, but in my audio world, the thing that has been hardest for me to find is a great amp/speaker/room synergy, which I have always believed to be the basic foundation on which to build a system. Sources are generally easier to find in whatever flavor you might prefer, and often a lot less hassle to swap, break-in, etc.
I really have to thank Rich for pointing me to this amp as a possibility. I had known about Cayin, but until this recent amp came out they were always further down the short list, but a lot of research into the amps on the list, talking with dealers who sold the amps in question as well as the Adagios, and this one just stood out as something that needed to be tried. Thanks also to Phil Lam who sold me the amp and gave me the straight poop on the combination of it and the Adagios.
Audio is fun again!
-- Jim
