A Visit at Hifi Guru

by Keijo Tanskanen

Foreword

I’ve known Hifiguru as a trusted audio equipment importer for a long time. I think it was just in the beginning of the 1990’s when I visited Hifiguru first time and listened to Magneplanar 1.4 speakers, which actually were to become my very first magnetostatic speakers. I remember it being quite an experience although I already had a relatively good Hifi system those days. Since that I’ve been visiting Hifiguru regularly especially when something new and interesting has been presented. This time the main reasons that attracted my attention were a new cable brand Bertram and Burmester’s top of the line CD player.

My previous visits in Hifiguru have always been positive and I’ve never been really disappointed by the sound presented there. This may well be because of the professionalism of the hosts and/or because of the similarities in our preferences. Reflecting on this, I could already imagine what was coming up, or could I? Actually not exactly! I was prepared to be even more critical than before, but from the very first listening moments the sound began to disarm me! I was trounced in a very positive way, and these very first positive feelings also changed the direction of my writing: it was deservedly becoming more speaker-focused!

Setup and some background

The system I listened to consisted of Sonus Faber Amati Anniversario speakers, Burmester CD player and amplification, and Clearaudio vinyl equipment. Interconnects and speaker cables were by Bertram, but the phono stage had Transparent interconnects. The whole setup with prices has been listed at the end of this article.

The listening room was the same as always before: approximately 45 square meters, quite complex and having moderate acoustic treatment. I did not try to change speaker or listening chair locations, because they seemed to be located very well and because my very first listening experiences were better than I expected them to be.

All the presented audio brands with the likely exception of Bertram are very well known among audiophiles. Bertram is a Danish audio cable manufacturer. Their homepage does not tell a lot about the company, but the product information is fortunately quite good.

Bertram’s product family covers interconnect cables, speaker cables, digital cables and power cords. Interconnect cables are available in silver, gold, or copper, depending on your personal preferences. The LASER-welding ensures a precise signal-path, which is said to result in an extended frequency range and leads to ultra-pure high resolution. Bertram claims their cables to be designed to pull out every detail, every whisper, every dynamic structure, even the most subtle ones. Also they are explained to have an astonishing naturalness and atmosphere. Bertram cables have a total square of 3 AWG in either 99,999+% silver or oxygen-free copper.

A link to Bertram’s homepage: http://www.audiokabel.dk/

Sonus Faber is a highly respected and well known speaker brand among audiophiles and audio enthusiasts. It has a long and successful history as well as focused and suitably personalised aims. The Homage range is their top of the line, and Amati Anniversarios are in the middle of this range. With the Amati Anniversarios Sonus Faber celebrates the birth of Andrea Amati, the great maestro of stringed instrument making. And how they do it?! The speakers are the most beautiful High-End speakers I’ve ever encountered. So, in addition to their excellent sound production, they are true masterpieces of art in every aspect!

Listening session

We began the session by listening to Masekela’s Stimela (Sheridan Square Records 2004) on the plate of the Clearaudio vinyl player. Immediately I noticed that this time, the Sonus Faber-supported system could offer something special. I’ve listened to Sonus Faber Stradivari Homages several times in two kinds of listening rooms (the first one was this room) with different kinds of front end systems. Every time I’ve been very impressed by the coherency, balance and especially by the tonality of the sound, but also missed some small but important things (at least for me). Speed, authenticity, soundstaging and focussing features seemed to be slightly restricted when compared to other reference speakers. This time Sonus Faber speakers seemed to offer a bit more clarity and micro details! The overall presentation was extremely airy and clear, and soundstaging was very good which I found somewhat surprising! But naturally all these very positive first impressions needed to be verified! The second vinyl sample was Hans Theeslink & Gary Evans: Vision (Blue Groove 2008). My goodness this was a fabulously live-like sample! Transparency was at a level which will be extremely hard to overcome. This was a very enjoyable moment and proved that Clearaudio’s extremely expensive analog source equipment with Transparent interconnects worked and sounded like perfection!

Bertram Interconnects in the sunshine – like jewels shining in them!

It was time to go for my test CDs. Pink Floyd’s The Wall Live showed that the previous success with vinyls was no coincidence. Although the sound was not quite as sharp, authentic and dynamic as in my own reference system, the presentation was very, very sparkling and transparent. The second CD, Deep Purple: Purple Hits (a Finnish collection which beats every other Deep Purple collection!) was quite enjoyable as well. This presentation sent gold shivers of enjoyment down my spine and that happens very rarely outside my own listening room, and only when the set-up is some way a special one. Then I played my long time test CD George Duke: After Hours. Again the sound was clearly airier than ever before in my listening experience with Sonus Faber speakers. Only a hint of extra roundness and softness in the bass and midrange was booked as a con. Then it was time to dig out true tonality and dynamic abilities of the system, and Reference Records’ Respighi was inserted into the CD player. The recording space was again created very impressively in the listening room. On the other hand, the impressions that Amati Anniversarios could not quite achieve the level of coherency, balance and neutrality of the instruments which for example Stradivari Homages can do, was verified. Despite of their excellent performance, even Amati Anniversario Homages can’t do everything! Then I returned to Jazz and listened to Diana Krall’s Love Scenes. It was quite a killer presentation! An extremely plain presentation showing clearly the nature of Krall’s piano as a classical and demanding instrument. The session was ended by playing several extra CDs and they could only inspire more confidence for the sonical features of this very special audio system.

Conclusion

My visit took two and half hours and I think this was enough to make a solid evaluation of the sound and audio system. I’ve listened to Stradivari Homage, Amati Anniversario Homage and Elipsa several times during different kind of events and visits. Naturally this also gave me a good base for the evaluation.

The front end was monster-like and clearly from the top of the audio world, but also carefully selected and very well suited to speakers! Even the fairly typical but more or less subtle and subjective weaknesses of Sonus Faber speakers seemed to be quite nonexistent. I think this showed only that the front end with Bertram’s signal cables constituted a very good match, but also that Amati Anniversarios can offer tremendous listening experiences when enough care (and money?!) is concentrated on the setup and listening room. In other words, the true potential of the speakers was unlocked!

Amati Anniversarios are not Stradivaries, neither are they like any other top quality speaker of numerous High-End speaker brands. Although they are not perfect and they still lack of the performance presented by the other reference speakers, they can offer a lot of goodies. I must say this again: Amati Anniversarios are the most beautiful speakers I’ve seen so far! They offer the typical benefits of Sonus Faber Homage series speakers; marvellous tonal richness, but also something extra which is not available in any other SF speakers I’ve heard so far: slightly more authenticity, airiness and micro resolution. Those features may well be very valuable for you as well. So, what I got from this visit was a truly unexpected but memorable audio experience!