When some folks think of Audio Note, they picture of low fog over English lakes, Earl Grey tea, The House of Commons, and Big Ben. Tubes for sure. Likely, Classical music. Well hold on to your remote control, ’cause this latest sighting of Audio Note, at the Florida Audio Expo, was more drum’n’bass than Dvorák, more techno wampum than Die Walkure.
Owner Peter Qvortrup talked as I considered his English copy of Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth. Audio Note Sales Executive Adrian Ford Crush and Federico Unda of Miami dealership Soundlux Audio worked the hi-fi. I made notes about the surreal techno the pair unleashed, which included on LP “Distant Planets,” from the album Distances by Pablo Bolivar and Nacho Sanchez, and Steven Bambidele’s “Dark Sense of Humor (Farfisa)” from Summing Up, his debut album, which came out last year. I have a soft spot for techno tribalism, so heaven was mine—even more heaven considering the serious kit that was pounding the tunes into my brain, aided by my ears and a freaky light show that turned the equipment various shades of plum.
The analog source was an Audio Note (duh) TT-Three Turntable with one of Audio Note’s three /II arms (not sure which one) and the PSU 3 power supply ($16,500), their IO 1 moving coil cartridge ($5028), and an AN-S8 Step Up Transformer and Pallas output cable ($16,000). When digits flew, it was an Audio Note CDT Four CD Transport ($21,100) that threw them, to an Audio Note DAC 4.1x/II Balanced ($20,740).
The Audio Note M6 Phono preamplifier ($25,000) exchanged electrons with the Jinro Shochu Power Amplifier ($38,000) …
… which in turn sent its watts out to a pair of AN E / SPx Ltd Field Coil Speakers, which looked just like previous AN speakers, yet these use—you guessed it—field-coil drivers in the horns and cost $65,000/pair. Qvortrup says that 30 pairs of the SPx Ltd have already sold.
Audio Note AN SPx Bi-wire speaker cable ($11,826) made the new speakers feel like they were part of the system. AN Vx Pallas Interconnects and ISIS power cords rounded out the high-end accoutrements from the mother country.
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