![]() ![]() Questions, comments, feel free to ask but obvious troll posts will be removed. If you have the bread and want something really special, this is it. What can I say after that? This is my simple review, the M9 is the best preamp and best phono section I've ever heard and hardly anyone can afford. Shortest review in history: On the Audio Note M9 preamp, every one of these well-heard titles sounded new to me, less electronic, more natural, more ambiance, more 3D, more lifelike, more of that "I've heard these 1,000 times but this is the best yet" sound quality. The Bachelors "Charmaine" London/Decca, British stereo cutting, American sleeveĪnd finally, my test lacquer of "Cherokee Maiden" by Merle Haggard & The Texas Playboys from 1976, 30 ips stereo tape to lacquer cut by Kevin Gray at LRS, Burbank (I have three versions on the test lacquer, each with increasing amounts of EQ, good for testing many things, including inner groove distortion.) The Cotton Club Soundtrack "A full digital Recording", Geffen ![]() Lee Erwin/Fox-Capitol Theater Wurlitzer pipe organ "Rosebud" The Music Of Scott Joplin, EMI/Angel We switched to vinyl and I used my old standby albums that test a bunch of stuff so well: Warren looked at me and said, "so THAT'S what the M9 sounds like." When he sings "I bid you good night" and the bass drum hits, the reverb trail enveloped up and made it's way out of the room in front of us, like real music. Between Warren and I we must have heard this track hundreds of times at home and at various shows but nothing like this. This simple song sounded so lifelike and so "right" that we both sat mesmerized. Now, I had played this a few days ago as sort of a (funny to me) audiophile show music farewell to the M6 preamp which served me well but when I played it on the new M9 after a little warm up we were both stunned, and I don't use that word lightly. I've heard this song at many high end shows and when it sounds good in a room it sounds good but when the system or room isn't right it can sound really terrible so I was curious. Engineered by the legendary George Massenburg, inventor of the parametric EQ. I pulled out some CD stuff first, mainly that old audiophile standby " I Bid You Goodnight" by Aaron Neville from 1991. What the heck does this M9 sound like compared to the Audio Note M6 that I had been using up until the beginning of the week? The AN info page on the M9 is still pretty accurate though my unit was kindly upgraded by its creator (Andy Grove) in the UK. First I've ever seen on any AN gear and really needed if playing mono vinyl. The three controls are "source", "volume" and (surprisingly but very, very welcome) and stereo/mono knob. The M9 units have black faces and the preamp section has the lovely gold knobs. Honored to have it all for a long-term loan. That's a lot of Audio Note gear, more than I've ever seen in one place, actually. cartridge (on the VPI) with Music First Audio step-up, Audio Note UK IQIII MM and UK IO-1 for the AN turntables with MC3 ohm step-up AN S9L/Pallas cables. Phono section was Audio Note UK TT-2 Deluxe/Arm 3 v1 (I use two of them, one with MM cart, one with MC cart)Ĭarts: Kiseki Purple Heart N. If one has the money, one doesn't really need to worry about price.Īudio Note UK Ginrei 211 balanced monoblocksĪudio Note UK AN-E/SPx HE Alnico hemp speakersĪudio Note UK DAC4.1X Balanced D to A converter & CD Transport 3Īudio Note UK Sogon 50 RCA & XLR interconnects, Sogon LX 96 bi-wire for speakers. That's 75 grand a box, dudes, way out of my price range for a preamp, but some people I know spend that on a two week vacation or a party so everything is relative, I guess. We really had no idea what to expect, after all the M9 retails in the USA for something like $150,00.00 or so. Neither one of us had heard it before so it was very interesting. Warren Jarrett brought over the two sealed boxes of the Audio Note M9 balanced phono preamplifier and we unboxed it here, hooked it up and after about 1 hour warm up, gave a listen. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |