Strictly for fans of Audio Note UK (all things Audio Note UK)

id agree that I prefer NOS dacs over OS. I have two excellent DAC of each type, schiit yggdrassil (OS) and a ecdesgins mosaic T (NOS) unfiltered at the output and I find the Mosaic T smoother and more musical overall.

 

I am glad to see a lot more companies going to NOS and r2r and filterless designs. The older approaches are coming back.

 

The Jinro Shochu is merely a transformer coupled power amp version of the standard Jinro. It shares no similarity to the Kegon balanced which is a parallel 300b set other than the fact that it is also a transformer coupled power amp as opposed to the 211 tubes used in the Jinro. The Shochu does need a pre amp stage.

 

The Tomei is much closer in sound to the Ongaku than the Jinro. The Empress Silvers will be an excellent match with the M3.

 

Well the M3 Phono Balanced and 0.1x are up and running. My TT2 is out getting the newer spindle mechanism (mine is the cork version) but when I bought it I knew the newer one was on order.

I am using my KingKo KA 101 as a power amp and whenever you stick a bunch of tube gear together my first worry is always - am I going to get a big ole hum. Thankfully, it is all dead quiet. Well it's 30degrees C and 90% humidity so the Air-Con noise can't be helped. My apartment is 700 square feet and I have three air conditioners - HK is brutally humid!

But adding a preamp and a DAC had me scrambling around for ICs.Bunch of cheapos.

So far it's pretty damn good right out of the boxes. Flip on and play. We'll see how it goes over the next while as the equipment (and or my ears) break in. The level of clarity is much better and I had to be careful of the volume. I had it up quite loud but the lack of distortion doesn't give you the warning that it's belting - the KingKo's Meters were well over to the right and still not clipping.

I like the heavy feel of the two volume controls - for each channel than the wishy washy ones out there.

My intention was to buy the M1 Phono as a tide me over until I could afford the M6. Now with the M3 - maybe this will be a tide me over until one day an M8 (skip the 6). LOL Probably need a small lotto win but ...

The DAC is gorgeous so far. The last time I had it here I had $200 Class T amps from Trends audio - back in 2011 and didn't have the system able to let it show. I wasn't expecting it to be this good and now into my third album I am pretty sure my LM 502CA will be sent to the consignment store. The resolution and treble are there. The 502CA is the same price and it does more but the treble always sounded kind of sweet - across every album. It uses tubes as a buffer after OP amps so while nice and sweet it always sounds the same whether you listen to Bach or Madonna. The SS mode was just unlistenable across the board on everything.

I wholeheartedly agree with Andy Whittle - the essence of what is important is there at level zero.

I may now have to look at cables - The AN dealer converted a power bar for me to ISIS but all the power cords are stock. I have one AN V going from DAC to preamp and then dirt cheap RCAs from Preamp to Power amp and a cheapie Coax from CD player to DAC. Uggh more money. LOL.

CD Two/II, Cables, and Empress Monoblocks and will have a complete AN system - getting oh so close. I've been yacking about it for 15 YEARS!

One of the recordings I used at CAS at party time levels.

5th album in (yes this is a long stream of consciousness post) album is Seasaw (Beth Hart/Joe Bonamassa) sounds phenomenal - playing loud - too loud hahaha. It's such a sexy damn song.

 

Congrats Richard, great system. Enjoy.

 

The transformer coupling is what I was referring to. So the Jinro integrated has coupling capacitors, and the Shochu doesn't? What I read was that the Shochu uses the same type of circuit as the P4 Balanced, Kegon Balanced etc., which is pretty much the simplest possible.

 

Great article/video.

 

The improvement to my turntable is just staggering. Two fold improvement to the acrylic spindle over the cork and the M3 Phono Stage. I am impressed by how quiet the background is. I listened for about 8 consecutive hours - where does the time go?

The Dac 0.1x



My TT2 with Audio Note's new series of tone arms (they used to modify Rega 250) Arm 1 and IQ 1 MM cartridge.



M3-MKiii Phono Balanced Preamp

 

As good as the digital side of AN is, when you get good analog through it, that is the stuff that you play for hours and can't get over how vibrant it is!

That M3 Phono is a terrific preamp, especially for Phono. I am loving my M6 Phono! Every record is a treat : )

 

@Richard Austen
Would you mind explaining the different MK's I , II , III. I simply have never seen this with the M3 and I am curious to the different stages. Thanks.

 

Nice. And in the right color The black faceplates w "golden" knobs look pretentious, I think. Something you would find in the home of Mrs. Hyacinth Bucket, sorry 'Bouquet'.

 

Hi Don - As you know I wanted the M6 and you are right - by the time you save for stuff you never get the system built. I would have had to wait until next year for the M6 so for the same money I can get digital, a better cart, a preamp that is still close and Empress Monoblocks sooner than later. Once it's all in place then I can work at upgrades. Plus the DAC 0.1x can go to a second system with KingKo amp and boom two systems. So there is a method to my madness. And remember up until now the only amp I have ever owned from Audio Note is the OTO. So the M3 is still a pretty massive upgrade. The Phono Stage alone seems considerably better!

 

The silver look seems to fit Audio Note since Silver cabling is synonymous with the brand. Though I actually like the Black and Gold.

Personally I love their Yellow on the Ongaku. I kind of wish companies would offer more variety in colours. They offer a a ridiculous number of AN E permutations - and only two colours on the paint job for gear.

Then again this photo implies that in fact you CAN order amps in any finish - hmmm.

 

Actually I would like to know as well. I do know that the previous version had one volume control and one Balance control. The new ones have stepped attenuators for each channel.

I think it is discussed somewhat here Audio Note

 

I like that, too. And although I don't like hifi with black faceplates in general, it is really the faux gold controls that ticks me off. Gold controls in general, actually ...

 

One thing I like is that for the speakers they give you the AN emblem sticker - so you can put them wherever you want or just leave it off.

 

Indeed.

 

I agree. I leave mine off. I did see someone put it on the side which is nice

 

All of that makes a lot of sense. It's hard to enjoy music when you don't have a preamp, because you are saving for it! In the meantime, you can enjoy music at a considerably upgraded level over your OTO. It is also a more balanced way to end up where you want to be.

If you saved up for and bought an M6 Phono, but were using a basic version of the TT-2, that would be a really unbalanced system and it would point out how weak your source was compared to your speakers and preamp.

The best part is that you got your preamp right away. I waited for months and months to get my M6Phono, after they were swamped with pre Brexit orders - all of the prices were going up due to Brexit, so they held their old prices for a while. AN didn't expect such an enormous amount of orders and were overwhelmed for quite a while!

 

Hi Don. Yes so far I am very happy - to be honest I would be very happy with an all level Zero system. I had the OTO and AN J/SPe for 13 years - became a reviewer - heard pretty much the entire rest of the industry and it didn't make me rush out and replace anything. A lot of it I have had in my home to try and then sent away. We don't review everything that comes in because dagogo wants us to review stuff we like.

The sound quality gain to the turntable is staggering so I am very happy I went with the phono stage - Peter being one of the biggest vinyl collectors on the planet that was a fairly easy choice. It also lets me hear my turntable for the first time since buying it last year. Like I said if I keep waiting to be able afford stuff then I never hear the quality of the stuff I have already purchased. But AN does recommend a fairly long burn in time so I will wait through that period.

The DAC 0.1x sounds really special too for the $1450 it retails for. The trick is sometimes not to compare it directly against the higher models - if you don't do that it can often be "good enough" and it frees me up perhaps to upgrade something else such as maybe moving to IC cartridge and SUT or their new turntable when it comes out - in other words more money to vinyl front end and less money on digital front end. And then there are cables.

 

Good stuff Richard.

How are you finding the IQ1? General sound, tracking ability?

 

Yes the IQ1 is terrific - no problem tracking anything so far - not bright or tinny - sounds really good actually. TH who runs the dealer in Hong Kong was going to sell me the IQ3 but he told me to use the IQ1 for a while so I can appreciate what it gives me. And the amp has a 200 hour break in recommendation so why waste the IQ3 doing that. Actually I like the idea so I can then do a review comparing the two cartridges. Further comparisons would be silly - I had a Shure M97Xe but it was on a NAD 533 (Rega P2) and into a lesser amp - so it's unfair to compare to that cart. The IQ1 sounds vastly better but it is on a vastly better tonearm, turntable and phono stage through better speakers - so...

I used to own an IQ3 in my older lesser systems - this sounds better than I got from that - which just illustrates that the rest of my system wasn't up to snuff.

I hear good things about ISIS power cables. (Unfortunate name though). If they are not too pricey I have been somewhat tempted to buy 4-5 of them for all my components. Keep the same signature throughout.

 

The ISIS power cables are a good addition to your system. I just put six of them into my system after selling off the three PS Audio AC-12 cables that I had owned. The PS Audio AC-12s were good, but there is a synergy with the AN power cables, which isn't too much of a surprise. The AN power cables are much more flexible, so easier to install and use and they are more affordable, which is always a good thing. I'm really enjoying them in my system.

I think that your M3 will benefit from up to 400 or 500 hours of burn in, but that is just based on my experience with my M6. I played CDs on repeat at low volume while I went out for the day to speed the process along.

 

Excellent. I heard an IQ3 on demo and really liked it. Wondered how it - or even the 1 and 2, different as they all must be but assuming a similar signature - would fare on my own rig. Appeal being it would be straight to the AN phono stage. (Good apparent match with my arm too). Do share your thoughts if you get to compare the IQ1 and 3.