Skipping the beat

Letter from Hungary (21-01) by Dexler Poppe

Replan, reset, restart

About a year ago I had the idea to the share the process of building and finetuning a second system. I’ve figured that it would be entertaining and possibly even beneficial to read about my thought process, missteps and eventual successful moves.

The opportunity for building a second system arose when we moved to a new house at the beginning of 2020. In the new house I had a tiny room for myself with the total freedom of running cables across the floor, placing speakers exactly where they performed best, setting up multiple componets for testing, etc. When we moved in, I’d already had about 50% of a second system, including a pair of Pass ACA monos and a pair of small speakers built around Parc Audio DCU-F121W widebanders. In fact, these wideband speakers, which were a generous and kind gift from a Japanese friend of mine, were the genesis of the second system.

Anyway, I needed a DAC – this was meant to be a single source system for streaming only – and a decent preamp. I also wanted this to be a cheap and cheerful system, nothing too serious, nothing that would give me audiophile worries. Afterall the leitmotif of this system was to provide background music for the home office days and possibly an hour or so entertainment at the end of workdays, when not in home office.

As summer came, it turned out that I also needed a new amp, because my small room, being directly under the roof and without AC, became way too hot for the Pass amps. They did not malfunction, but I wasn’t comfortable using them as they couldn’t dissipate heat efficiently and their enclosures turned so hot already after 15 minutes of operation that I couldn’t leave my hands on them for more than 1 or 2 seconds.

So I went on the hunt, arranged demos both at dealers and at my home, became obsessive, got side-tracked, slipped into excessive purchasing mode and ended up with two new amps, two preamps, two DACs and a USB-to-SPDIF converter thrown in for good measure. The interesting thing is, I wasn’t even truly enthusiastic about hifi, I just wanted to get the “job” done.

Then came the break-up and I had to move again.

At my new place, to help myself having a fresh start, I started off with buying a pair of speakers. In my defence, I’d been dreaming of the Pylon Audio Diamond Monitor speakers for years and I bought my pair second hand for a good price and in mint condition – they were in fact just run-in. Plus, I desperately wanted factory built, reference speakers since I only had my own DIY builds at the time. My plan was to put together the absolute best system around these speakers, that I can by using components that I _already_ own. I started with my latest acquisitions which I did prefer at my – now – old place as part of my second system. I hooked up my EAR 834L preamp with a pair of IOTAVX PA3 amps running in bridged mono as well as my Lite DAC-AH and my Pioneer PLX-1000 turntable with Puresound P10 phono stage.

I listened and I was happy. The new speakers offered me a level freedom with my musical selection that I hadn’t experienced for years while using various widebander plus subwoofer setups. The thing with widebanders is that they can get along with any kind of music (with an added sub!) because they always get the groove. But there’s a fine line dividing music with which widebanders positively cruise and music that simply makes them do a decent job. And when they were in the “decent job” operational mode, I always felt a bit worried: will they get this truly right, will they survive the next bass drop, can I really push them just a little more, etc, etc. No such worries with the Pylons. And they still get the groove. And that’s the most important, because it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing. For me at least.

However, I still wanted to experiment with speaker and especially subwoofer placement, so one day I pushed the equipment rack with the turntable, phono stage and cd player to the side to have some space available for trying out now configurations. Then it hit me: I could also try my “old” components, which were previously part of my so-called downstairs system, such as my 47 Labs Model 4717 (aka Shigaraki) amp and my iFi macro iDSD Black Label DAC with iUSB 3.0 reclocker which I consider an integral part of the DAC, not just an accessory.

Now, ever since I turned this system on, my audiophile me have been practically frozen in the awe of that moment.

Falling in love with 47 Labs all over again

But before sound there were visuals. I love simplicity and I must admit that replacing a preamp + monos setup with a single integrated was a relief. Especially in this single source configuration the whole system looks beautifully understated. All else being equal, I would choose an integrated over a set of separates any day, and in fact, the smaller the integrated, the better. The latter doesn't stem from some sort of hifi belief, I simply like small, even a little bit toy-like hifi electronics.

I’ve had the Shigaraki (yes, I know that’s actually the name of ceramics, not the amp, but the phrase Model 4717 doesn’t quite roll off the tongue) for 3 years, listened to it with 3 different sets of speakers extensively (the Pylons being the fourth) and I always really liked it, but this time it was different. I was mesmerized.

At this point, I really would like to tell you why but I’m struggling to find the right words. And it’s not just because English is not my first language, it’s also because the sound kind of refuses to have adjectives hanged onto it. In my internal monologues I often refer to this hard-to-grasp characteristic as the Shigaraki-touch. It’s perfectly clear to me, what I mean by that, but I try to elaborate on it so that you have an idea too.

First of all, it’s not a spectacular sound. It won’t impress with detail extravaganza, soundstage size or thrilling dynamics. It’s not exceptional in any of the usual audiophile performance categories. To my ears it also sounds pretty much neutral. From a distance, it may seem like the scene is perfectly set for boredom.

But it’s not. On the contrary. If there’s one particular characteristic that aptly describes this system and especially the contribution of the 47 Lab amp to the sound, that’s the sky-high engagement factor. But again, I have difficulties with the root cause analysis here. If you read other reviews about this amp (and for that matter, 47 Lab gear in general), purity and directness are often mentioned. And while I fully agree with these descriptors, they might give the impression of a twitchy character.

However, that’s not the case. In fact, there’s a certain elegance and grace and lightness of touch to the way it plays music that is quite unique, I think. The "freshness of sound", which Kimura-san talks about, is wonderful to experience: it feels as if music just happens and hangs mid-air, not pushed out of the speakers by an electromotive force. Now when you add up purity and elegance, you may conclude that this is a sissy amp for solo flute and rotwein jazz. Again, this conclusion is wrong, because this amp can kick, hit and bite if my techno, noise and metal records require that. And without that strange pretentiousness that I sometimes hear in the presentation of über-high-end systems with this type of music. But even during the most vehement kicking and hitting and biting session, there’s always a sense that it is not simply about setting free a relentless destructive force; it’s also about the expression of the human condition. As odd as it may sound, that “humanness” is even there in the most alienated sounds of harsh noise or the most violent saxophone burst-outs of Mats Gustafsson. In essence, the sound of Shigaraki in the context of my system is best described with pairs of opposites. However, as opposites usually cancel each other out, what you end up with is – almost – nothing. What little is left is the umami of sound.

And now I’m under the spell of its taste. So much so that I’ve seriously considered stopping here for good. Because why bother if I can sit down in front of my system any time of the day, put on any music, and get involved and emotionally engaged within seconds after hitting play? Where else to go? And what would be the merit? Would there be any at all?