The build quality of the finish far surpassed. The Integrated Zero, which puts out 8W per channel (class A/B) with 4 ECL 82 triodes, came out first, in black acrylic with well weighted bling golden knobs. I asked Chaisson: What’s the most frequent comment he hears from visitors to the Audio Note room? His reply: “This is the most natural sounding system. AudioNote's rooms are most always a haven for beautiful listening and always a favorite stop. Aernoud, the Mumbai distributor/dealer of Audio Note considerately helped me unpack the well packed system that arrived at my place. Johnny Cash singing “Lucky Old Sun” from American III: Solitary Man (American Recordings 0600753441701), was similarly robust with effortless dynamics and room-filling solidity. Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerti Pour Hautbois, Basson Et Cordes, performed by a septet (Astrée Auvidis E 8537), was a low-key revelation: the oboe was reproduced with pungent weight, the septet with surprising scale and energy. You can use your current preamplifier or integrated amplifier to control the volume. Two sets of analog outputs are provided for connection to your amplifier. The Audio Note rig did scale, tone, depth, and dynamics. Audio Note quite aptly keeps their CD player designs simple and they concede that this is how they want it. The front wall was treated with Acupanel. The rest of the equipment stood (or sat) on a Salamander Barcelona Audio Rack ($2199). The speakers sat (or stood) atop Audio Note An-E Signature Stands ($2923.54). Both analog and digital signals flowed through Audio Note AN-V interconnects ($1171.33/meter) into the recently introduced Audio Note Meishu Phono 300B Tonmeister Silver integrated amplifier ($12,453.12, 8Wpc into 4 or 8 ohms), which was attached by Audio Note SPe 3M biwire cable to Audio Note AN-E SPe HE Speakers ($12,453.12/pair, 98dB into 8 ohms).
CDs were played on the Audio Note CD 5.1x ($30,849).
#Audionote review upgrade
Spinning vinyl was an Audio Note TT-3 turntable with the power supply upgrade ($9412.89), with an Audio Note Arm 3 ($2465.52) and the Audio Note IQ3 Cartridge with Pocon body ($1248.56). Hosted this year by local dealer Déjà Vu Audio and chief technician, Pierse Chaisson, Audio Note played CDs by Vivaldi and vinyl from Johnny Cash, leaving me feeling blissed out and satisfied,a meditative sonic peace injection. Nothing soothes the frayed nerves of this CAF reporter like an Audio Note UK system, which consistently provide some of the most human, sweet, natural sounding hi-fi equipment at shows year in and year out. Offering a level of performance that was previously considered unthinkable for an amplifier of such diminutive size and price, the IZero really is something.