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

I’m very pleased to say that my new AN TT2, Arm 1/2, Hana ML and TTPSU arrived yesterday. I’d been waiting since July so I was very eager to play my treasured vinyl!

The Isis mains leads and ANV interconnects are new too. I also think the Hana will reveal more once its done a few hours.

It was easy to set up, I love the rosewood finish and whilst, it’s too early to make insightful comments, I love how it sounds - plenty detail, a very open and natural sound, and through my HD800s, it presents a wide and deep soundstage full of texture and nuance.

 

Very nice! It really is a superb deck. I wish you many hours of enthralled listening.

 

Thank you

 

beautiful ... the Rosewood is really quite something isn't it ... it has a much deeper finish IRL. silver badge is a nice touch!

 

Yes, the rosewood finish has surpassed my expectations, and I wanted the badge to match the PSU Thanks

 

Lovely looking TT2 Alan- congrats!

Please do keep us informed, break in etc.( IF you believe in it that is.)

The AN finishes really are on another level!

 

Thanks Andy, yes, I'll add more comments over the next few weeks. IME cartridges tend to improve with a few hours on them.
I'm really pleased I went for the deluxe finish

 

Thanks Larry. Good/interesting to hear, especially re the J-2 comparison. No-one seems to have a bad thing to say about FW amps if matched correctly. I really admire his ethos as a designer too - sharing schematics etc.

Yep I had a Class D (Ncore-based) with my Es for a while. Eventually I wanted some more richness back, but on the whole it worked well and with some music in particular it could sound quite incredible.

 

So in what seems like an inexorable path towards tubes and Audio Note we borrowed a Line Magnetic 508ia for a few days last week while we wait for the shipment of AN amps to arrive at our dealer. Since neither of us had spent any time with a tube amp it was an opportunity to hear the differences between it and our SS Moon 600i - it was interesting to say the least. To cut a long story short, it wasn’t the sound we were expecting - I thought I was going to hear a fat, very warm colouration to the music. The bottom end was stronger (no surprise) but it was also tighter and more detailed (less prone to ‘drone’). There was more separation between the instruments / voices and the highs had lost an edge that I’d always thought of as detail but now sounded more like a touch of harshness.


Because we are playing FLAC digital files from a server through a Moon Mind streamer and an AN tube DAC it might not be the same for everybody, but there wasn’t a night and day difference between the LM and the Moon. It was just a bit better all round and I don’t know if that’s how well the Moon is performing, the effect of the DAC or what, but when the Oto SE sig and Soro SE sig finally make it to our dealer at least we’ll have heard how another well respected tube amp performs in our system and be able to compare like with like. I didn’t feel the improvements in sound justified the crazy heat, the behemoth size and the hum it generated though our speakers. After we returned the LM we ended up fitting some Auditorium 23 speaker cables which took the system a step towards that “tube sound” without the heat/weight/size downsides.


Now looking forward even more to hearing an AN amp in our system...

 

Yeah, good SS is not that bad. See my previous post: Strictly for fans of Audio Note UK..

 

Thanks, I missed that post. Yes, you put it more eloquently than me - it just touches the soul more!

 

Beautiful E's. What veneer is that?

 

Palisander

 

Pallisander rules!

 

Well this is just a bit out of the blue. I guess they will work in a large room after all. Large enough for ya?

 

Cool. Edinburgh museum - heard a lovely violinist play there this year, quite a lively acoustic space!

 

@Richard Austen that is cool- thanks for posting.

 

Shiver,

I really liked the overall presentation of the First Watt J-2--big, enveloping soundstage (more like a tube amp in this respect than most solid state amps), lively sounding at low volume (again more like a typical tube amp than a solid state amp), and not as pronounced and artificially sharp edge to the initial attack of the note. But, I would not say that it is a particularly warm sounding amp, if that is what you are looking for from the amp. It did not sound much different, tonally, from my Audio Note Kageki, but, the Kageki is not as warm as many other Audio Note amps, and I have made mine even less warm sounding by using different tubes than the ones that came with the amp. I don't want you to get the impression that the J-2 is tonally very warm.

To me, the AN-E's have such an easy, inviting sound that they would work well with just about anything. But, on the other hand, they are so good sounding that they deserve the best possible amps.

 

Nice to see J's getting some love!

 

I just pulled my Snell J’s out of half a year or so storage. They’re my favorite speakers I’ve owned. If I ever move to a solid wall home, I’ll be looking at the AN-J’s.

 

This is my review for the AN E/SPx AlNiCo

Audio Note UK AN-E/SPx AlNiCo Loudspeakers Review

 

One small clarification needed, it's a stream powered factory in Austria. Powered by a turbine immersed in the flowing water stream. Steam driven not. Cheers.

 

I wrote stream - I guess the editor edited me. Thanks - I'll let them know.

 

I proof read a lot of my wife's writings, presentations and documentation so I'm used to reading every word rather than skim read. Habit rather than picky.
Gerhard will appreciate he is not part of a "Dickensien" return to Victorian era work practices or how some detractors once thought of AN assembly work done by badgers under gaslight.

 

My preference is to send my review to the editor then send a copy at the same time to the manufacturer so that they can correct wrong information. But I follow just the rules.