In which our hero meditates…
The Audionet HEISENBERG Monoblock Amplifiers, bi-amped, with the YG Acoustics Sonja XV Loudspeakers and Kubala-Sosna Realization cables.
In the fall of 2016 I reported on an extraordinary time that I had when I flew to Newark, NJ, and visited Bill Parish of GTT Audio for the launch of the brilliant YG Acoustics Sonja XV Loudspeakers. (You'll find that article HERE.) They were presented with what was at the time the Audionet reference electronics…the Audionet PAM G2 Phono Amp with EPX Power Supply, the Audionet Pre G2 Preamp, and a set of four of the Audionet MAX Monoblock Amplifiers. These were fed by the KRONOS Pro LE turntable with the new SCPS Power Supply, Black Beauty Tonearm, and the Air Tight Opus 1 MC, all connected with Kubala-Sosna Elation! interconnects and speaker cables, and Elation! power cables. The listening room itself was phenomenal, and contributed mightily to the results. It was a transformative listening session, one that recalibrated my sense of audio possibilities. That sort of thing is all too rare in the world of fine audio…it's only happened to me a few times over the past 30 years.
My visit to Bill Parish and GTT Audio, 2016: An earlier mountaintop…
I should mention in passing that Bill's large reference room is not the only space in his enterprise at GTT Audio.
Here's one of the GTT rooms with an impressive collection of Audionet, KRONOS, Kubala-Sosna, Mola Mola, and PS Audio components.
Lucy and Bill: A portrait. Newark, NJ, 2017. Photograph by David W. Robinson
Bill also has a home theater system to die for, amigos. GTT Audio does complete home theater systems, in case you weren't aware. We spent a while in between major listening sessions in the large room catching some of the new 4K movies on GTT's reference projection system. This is one of the very best home theaters that I've ever seen and heard. I'm quite envious!
But wait! There's more!
Bill Parish at work: A portrait. Photograph by David W. Robinson.
In October of 2017, I returned to Newark and GTT Audio to hear a major enhancement to Bill's reference system. This time around, the Sonja XV were as before, as was the KRONOS turntable system, but there were two major changes elsewhere.
The electronics were the smashing, brilliant new Audionet reference line: The STERN Preamp, and the HEISENBERG Monoblock Amplifiers.
The amazing Audionet STERN Preamp: Reference with style!
The specifications on the STERN were extraordinary; from the Audionet Web site:
Technical Data
- Frequency response: 0–2,200,000 Hz (-3 dB), DC coupled, 0.3–2,200,000 Hz (-3 dB), AC coupled
- THD+N: <-104 dB @ 20 kHz, <-116 dB @ 1 kHz
- SNR: > 123 dB, 4 VRMS
- Channel separation: >144 dB, 20–20,000 Hz
- Output impedance: 24 Ω real (Cinch line), 48 Ω real (XLR)
- Output current: max. 60 mA
- Power consumption: < 0.5 W stand by, typ. 100 W
- Mains: 220..240 V or 110..120 V, 50..60 Hz, Rhodium (Furutech)
- Dimensions: (Vertical) Width 270 mm, Height 500 mm, Depth 505 mm. (Horizontal) Width 450 mm, Height 320 mm, Depth 505 mm
- Weight: 50 kg
The mighty Audionet HEISENBERG Monoblock Amplifiers: Beautiful Beasts!
Likewise, the HEISENBERG Monoblock Amps were remarkable in their specs…again, from the Audionet Web site:
Technical Data
- Output power: 530 W into 8 Ω, 1,050 W into 4 Ω, 2,100 W into 2 Ω
- Frequency response: 0–700,000 Hz (-3 dB)
- Damping factor: > 1,800 @ 10kHz, > 10,000 @ 100Hz
- Harmonic distortion: k2 typ. -117dB for 25 W into 4 Ω, k3 typ. -123dB for 25 W into 4 Ω
- Intermodulation: < -110dB SMPTE 100 Hz : 20kHz, 4 : 1, 50 W into 4 Ω
- THD + N: > -106 dB @ 1 kHz, 25 W to 700 W into 4 Ω
- SNR: > 125 dB
- Filtering capacitance: 200,000 µF
- Input impedance: Line input: 50 kΩ, 33 pF, XLR input: 7 kΩ 66 pF (line to line)
- Power consumption: max. 2,400 W
- Mains: 220..240 V or 110..120 V, 50..60 Hz
- Dimensions: Width 270 mm, Height 500 mm, Depth 490 mm
- Weight: 70 kg
The specs alone would put the STERN and HEISENBERG in the very first rank of audiophile reference products; they're bloody impressive! I had been hearing about them since CES 2017…but actually hearing them was the reason for this return to GTT Audio's big room.
The new Kubala-Sosna Realization interconnects and speaker cables in place on a pair of HEISENBERG monoblock amps. Note the Furutech ratcheting speaker clamps in place; these are the best speaker posts that I've ever seen and used (we have them here at PF Central, as well.)
Kubala-Sosna also provided a complete major upgrade: their new ne plus ultra reference cables, the Realization line of interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords. I had heard only the Realization USB cable previously, which is a stunner. But now I would hear all the rest of their line in a world-class space.
Excellent.
Sonic Boom!
A pair of the Audionet HEISENBERG monoblocks, cabled to the YG Acoustics Sonja XV Loudspeakers via Kubala-Sosna Realization.
Bill ushered me into his large listening room for this evaluation of the new setup. As always, this room is done to the absolute nines, with an exceptional combination of room size and configuration, attention to detail (including power feeds and lighting), and wondrous components. The seating is comfortable, and there was plenty of espresso and fine drink to turbocharge the listening sessions. We focused on listening to LPs only via the KRONOS Pro LE turntable system, a very well-known source in my experiences, both here and at shows.
The view from the speaker side of the GTT Audio reference listening room, looking back at the listening position. Bill Parish is at his desk in the back of the space, at his desk in front of some of his LP cabinets. The quite comfortable listening couches are in place right in front of his desk.
Bring it on!
Audionet STERN: The Big Turn-On…
First of all, I have to say that the visual effect of the STERN and HEISENBERG was truly stunning. Are these the most striking audio designs that I've seen? Well, I've seen a lot of the very best work, but I don't remember ever being quite this taken with the look and feel of audio components. I was sucker-punched by the elegant lines, the clarity, and the seductive presence of both the preamp and the amps. (Four amps! Over 2000 watts per channel at this nominal impedance?! Holy Hannah of Botswana!)
The control interface on the STERN Preamp is exemplary: complete, clean, clear, attractive, and easy to use.
There's no denying that the design was museum-quality, audio art of the highest quality. It struck me the way that a fine sculpture would do: as the spiritual carved into the visible.
The KRONOS Pro LE with SCPS Power Supply, Black Beauty Tonearm, and Air Tight Opus 1: Ready for action!
But once Bill dropped the styles of the Air Tight Opus 1 into the first groove, the visual elements were overwhelmed by the aural tsunami of the new combination of components. I was completely gobsmacked by what I was hearing. As good as last year had been…and it had represented an extremely rare mountaintop event for me…the Audionet STERN and HEISENBERG plus the Kubala-Sosna Realization cables fed by the KRONOS system and in turn driving the Sonja XV loudspeakers had taken me to a whole new level.
GTT Audio's Bill Parish with some of his LP collection. Soul brother!
It turned out that…like visitors traveling into to the Himalayas for the first time…their first impressions didn't reflect all that is. There really was a greater mountain beyond the first one that they had seen, hidden in the clouds, and only revealed by further climbing as time passed.
It may be frustrating for readers to read…"What?! Another level?! Another veil?!"…but the fact is that advances do show what more there is to be known, to be heard. Further up; further in. The more we know, the more we know; as the audio arts advance, new possibilities are shown to us. I offer no apology for truth of the universe; I just calls 'em like I hears 'em.
Going back: The ease and naturalness of the music with the new Audionet components were astounding. I attribute this to the complete authority of the immense power reserves that the HEISENBERGs possess. The stratospheric bandwidth and clarity of signal with the STERN made the level of detail and sense of transparency of the highest order, which was conveyed by the Realization cabling in a way that…well…stayed out of the way.
The STERN on the Audionet source rack, next to the KRONOS Pro LE stand.
Hours went by. Bill and I voyaged from album to album: Jazz, to female vocals, to rock, to classical…a lot of Analogue Productions reissues here. (And rightly so.) It wasn't like being in a listening room. It was more like being in the studio, or at live events. The equipment was there…I could see it…but the organic integrity, the effortless performance, made the equipment disappear. If I closed my eyes, there was only the music, floating in space, and enveloping me in the ecstasy of res ipsa: the thing itself.
This system did that rarest of all things audio to me: It literally put me into a trance.
That's only happened a very few times to me over the decades. I was shocked and delighted that it was happening to me again!
The KRONOS side of the equation, together with some of the LPs that Bill Parish and I listened to.
For the entire day, I was blessed and privileged to hear this signal accomplishment, with Bill and I smiling and high-fiving the results.
Another peak; another set of veils gone; another climb to higher ground.
The king being dead, love live the king!
Conclusion
Flying, by Dan Zimmerman
So, where does this leave me?
Well, that's a bloody good question.
Beyond a certain point, the world of fine audio converges on a handful of companies and designs that really do represent the best that we are doing at that point in time. State-of-the-art achievements; the best of the best.
Ne plus ultra, as the French would say.
I've gotten to hear a number of fine rooms and systems over the years, and have educated and honed my sensibilities to allow me to recognize the difference between real audio greatness and the less-so.
"Buddha Bill," Newark, NJ, 2017. A portrait by David W. Robinson.
In 2016, the experience at GTT Audio took me to a sonic mountaintop nestled among the clouds.
In 2017, though, the addition of the Audionet STERN preamp and HEISENBERG monoblocks pulled back those earlier clouds, and showed me that there was an even higher mountaintop that I had not even known existed. As I said earlier, the realization was astonishing, though it may frustrate some readers.
"When will it ever stop?!" some cry.
"Never, I hope!!" say I.
What was it that C. S. Lewis wrote in the volume The Last Battle, in The Chronicles of Narnia?
"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!"
That is the realm, this is the level of amazement that the combination of the Audionet STERN preamp and HEISENBERG monoblocks, plus YG Acoustics Sonja XV, plus Kubala-Sosna Realization cables, plus KRONOS Pro LE/SCPS/Black Beauty/Air Tight Opus 1, in that reference listening room at GTT Audio, created in me. Utter emotional connection with the music, and complete soulish joy. Transcendent audio experience.
A sense of wonder.
Right now, I know no better, and can say no more.
But no, it is not the end…
Contact Bill Parish of GTT Audio for information, pricing, and availability of all products mentioned in this photo essay.
GTT Audio (BY APPOINTMENT ONLY)
Monday - Saturday
Call to schedule a demonstration: 908.850.3092
356 Naughright Road
Long Valley, NJ 07853
Phone & Hours
908.850.3092
Monday - Friday: 8:30AM - 6:30PM
Saturday & Sunday: No Phone Hours
(Photographs and processing by Robinson; portrait of David W. Robinson by John Robinson; oil painting by Dan Zimmerman; drawing of Alice in Wonderland by Sir John Tenniel, in the public domain.)
