Cessaro Air two Power Amplifier ultimate NEW. Official release plus info:
Cessaro Air two ultimate Power Amplifier official release plus info:
http://www.monoandstereo.com/2015/07/cessaro-air-two-power-amplifier.html
http://www.monoandstereo.com/2015/07/cessaro-air-two-power-amplifier.html
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hehe
The whole family also enjoyed a very nice evening dining out in an Italian restaurant nearby which set a very good start for our vacation!! Thank you Ralph and Tina for the hospitality!!
Back to the A1 & A2 combo. Before we played any music, the amp is absolutely quiet under the highly sensitive Beethoven without any tube, hiss sound whatsoever. Ralph uses essentially a vinyl system and does not have a CD/CAS source. He does not have a lot of the crazy power supplies, cables, ground boxes at all. We started with some vocals, then classical music followed by more complex music with drums, horn, electronics, etc. The overall performance of the system is one of the best rivaling undoubtedly the reference quality in AE showroom. The edge of the system in Ralph place is the music is not 'congested' by the physical space, music can flow out with much greater breathing space. In HK, we may have a high performance system but constrained by the space. Ralph shared with me, one of his friends in HK also told him, it is more expensive to get the space to house the system than to own the system.
A1/A2 together with Beethoven, thrown out a huge soundstage (physically!!) with scales, weight and 3-dimensionality. Control by the preamp and power amp on the extreme surge in the treble extension and the deep diving in the the sub-bass is exceedingly well!! I discussed at length with Ralph on how his preamp can manage to do this without connecting to a power. Before visiting Ralph, my biggest question is all passive preamps I heard of do not have much dynamic headrooms and control would tend to be loose. After the audition, all my previous doubts have 'Gone with the Music' that we listened especially a few vocals and the drum music. The coherence and resourcefulness of the amps really drive out the passion and 'sweat' with slamming speed and dynamite!! For anyone who is a great fans of horn speakers, this is an amplification system which deserves a serious consideration!! For me, being a preamp freak, I see it is coming to my way!!
Once again, my thanks to Ralph!!
Marvel
Thanks for the "on site" report of Cessaro electronics. I always have reservation on passive preamp's control ability. But if you experienced otherwise, it must be more quiet than active preamp for certainty.
In your opinion, would a side by side comparison between Cessaro Air One and Monica/K15/Dalby D7SE in a less efficient Cessaro speakers tell us more about the comparative static between passive and active preamp? The Beethoven is close to 110db sensitivity. If we compare them with a 98db sensitivity speakers, would passive preamp edge out the active group?
I am sure Ralph's has done his homework.
The Cessearo Air One passive preamp and Ypsilon Electronics passive preamp are autoformer-based.
Autoformer-based preamps are the best kept secret amongst hifi manufacturers. They have unbelievable speed and dynamics, better even than the top passive preamps of MFA and Bespoke Audio which are transformer-based.
Dear Ralph,
Am I correct?
I had followed your comment during your german trip and as everybody at AE know you are crazy for any kind of top of the Line
Premamps, you should be quit experienced with those units after so many slide in and out from your Rack.
Very intresting that a man like you gave that silver wire transformbased preamp such a high score. That means there must be
a real reason for it.
I wait to here more from you after one unit enter your place. Keep us updated.
The intention of Ralph's inventing A1/A2 is probably not for matching with an speakers, be them high or low efficiency. Selfishly, I think Ralph is more for inventing an amplification system which can maximise the value and mate perfectly well with his Cessaro speakers. It is definitely not for selling like hot cakes if I gathered correctly from Ralph.
Having said, I think the A1 preamp, side by side with the top notch active preamps would not be easily eclipsed by its fellow contestors on all fronts, depending on how well it matches with the power amp instead of the speaker. The correlation between 2 components will be significantly impacted by any component in-between. Meaning, if there is no component between, eg. preamp to power amp, power amp to speaker, the correlation is closer than a preamp to speaker or a phono stage to a power amp. Using Cessaro as reference, I am sure it is not a clear winner among Cessaro amps, Lars amps, Zanden amps and Takumi amps....
To Analog Dinosaurs, this A1 preamp is really something and it is not just 'quiet', it can deliver all the flares and transient attacks with a wide dynamic headroom. The size of the transformer inside the preamp and power amp is enormous. That gives the stability and steadiness at any energy loading.
Marvel
Thanks for the report during vacation. I called Ralph last evening and had a long chat. The fact that the huge transformer inside (larger than the one inside kondo gakuon mono amp) with FINEMET core wired with silver wires makes it truly exotic. I like the fact that Ralph invents them for Cessaro speakers users only. They are made to maximise the speaker potential of Cessaro horn.
Ralph says there will be one shipping to Hong Kong next week, followed by another one in two weeks. I was told they will respectively go to David and Marvel. It looks like a demo at AE is not possible until September.
What about Yusuf, Douglas and myself?
After talking to Ralph, I have no more reservation on dynamics capability. Because I heard it via the phone when Ralph was playing a jazz track. I am also convinced there are no other manufacturers in the world that can test their electronics with a 110db sensitivity horn speakers to claim how quiet is their electronics.
So far, only Dietmar's trinity amplifier has absolutely zero noises of whatever sort coming out from the mid range horn even if I put my ear on the mouth of the horn.
Dear Chris : Did you have a short audition of it before delivery to Dave?