Description

I regularly attend live acoustic concerts (mainly classical), so I want my system to sound natural and lifelike (no 'hifi' sound).
Aries Cerat outstanding electronics and excellent Analysis ribbon panels both fit my (very high) requirements.
Click on the Toggle details button!
NB: the photos are not from my system. I will post some later.
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Components Toggle details

    • YBA CD1 Delta double power supply
    An exquisitely fine-sounding 3 chassis "vintage" power station.
    Is still a serious contender for many high-end modern players.
    • Aries Cerat Incito
    World-class triode tube preamplifier, with zero-feedback and transistor-like figures.
    Favorably replaced my YBA 1 preamp. Two other guys choosed the Incito to replace their YBA Signature classic preamp (6 chassis).
    The only preamp that decided passive preamp owners to get back to an active preamp.
    That thing is not of this world: big and heavy (75lbs !!), 3 chokes, can drive loads as low as 250 Ohms, and holds the extreme low end (no other zero feedback triode preamp can) !

    _____________________-
    DETAILS over its SOUND:

    As far the listening is concerned, I was not prepared for such a !!! SHOCK !!!
    After only 30 min of warming up, the Aries Cerat Incito had conquered me after 2 tracks.
    To sum up, in comparison with my YBA 1 preamp:
    - Much wider stage
    - significantly deeper stage
    - more transparent (YES!!! more transparent than a YBA 1!!!). But only slightly ;-)
    - more height in the stage (!)
    - MUCH more DYNAMIC (tubes)
    - and the cherry on the cake: timbre, TIMBRES, T-I-M-B-R-E-S !!! TIMBRES !!! Oh My God! MUCH better timbres, singers now sing also with the chest, the wood of the instruments sound much fuller, etc.
    - it does NOT sound like a typical tube (I hate their honey-topping on everything). It is super-fast, transparent and dynamic. Terrifically lifelike.
    - no highs roll-off, with sweet and lifelike treble, extremely well integrated with the mid.
    - can tightly handle extreme low bass (most of tube preamps cannot).
    - Practically speaking, it dos not get warm, tubes last 10.000 H and replacement by Aries Cerat selected and validated tubes cost $150. Peanuts. It reassured me enough to take a leap in the "dark" (even if tubes emit light).
    - remote-controlled with a efficient and silent system. What a comfort ! ( >< YBA 1, full manual).
    - uses a better tube than the ubiquitous 6H30 (they compared, the manufacturer told me).
    - at the heart of the Incito there is a small single ended triode (SET) zero feed-back amplifier, in a single stage, acting as an active preamplifier that could drive any load.
    - Output Impedance : <50 Ohm, so would drive your monoblocks easily.

    My system made a quantum leap forward. The best upgrade ever. I could keep the Incito 1 week at home, and could barely recognized my system...We all know a preamp is important. But such a shock !
    • YBA Signature Classic stereo
    An exquisitely fine-soundig solid state amplifier hand made by YBA.
    Listened and validated by Yves-Bernard André personally.

    DETAILS
    For that Signature Classic range of amplifiers, Yves-Bernard André used to proceed himself to a delicate operation in a laboratory of the École Polytechnique (a kind of French MIT) where he teaches laser-matter interactions: in a helium atmosphere chamber, he opened the bipolar transistors to be used for the amp to apply into them a heat-conducting paste (whose composition is secret).
    • Analysis Audio Epsilon
    Probably the best ribbon panels in the world (after the €75000 Alsvox?).
    Dick Olsher (The Absolute Sound) wrote about the Omega model: "it exceeds the performance of any Apogee I have heard in the past."
    Years ago, I had chosen the smallest model (Omikron) over an Apogee Calliper Signature.
    I now own the Epsilon, intermediate model.
    Outstanding product.

Comments 5

Owner
@jond , thanks for your comment  [and sorry for my English].
- pics won't come any time soon, alas, as the room is a mess ;-)
- Aries Cerat is by very far the best music-conveying gear I have ever heard, in my whole life. I goes well beyond the typical audiophile criteria (even if they better all high-end gear I heard on those criteria). But what they achieve is well beyond. I had quite an hallucination when I once heard a whole Aries Cerat system: my brain could simply not reconcile what it was hearing and what it was seeing: obviously there was a choir in front of me, I was in a concert hall, but what I saw was a system! It deeply destabilized me during approx. 20-30sec to an extent you cannot imagine. It was a real shock. I had NEVER heard such a wonder in my whole audiophile life.

I have listened to dozens of ultra-high end gears, and I regularly attend classical concerts, so I know how it sounds in reality.
As you have Audio Note UK gear, try to listen to an Aries Cerat Helene DAC (expensive, big, but the most affordable though).
I am pretty sure the 25w SET integrated amplifier, the Genus, from Aries Cerat, would be terrific in your system, but it is big and heavy (147 lbs !!); that thing is not of this world. It can even wake up low sensitivity speakers.

What a wonderful hobby!

orfeo_monteverdi

Cool sounding system I would love to see some pics of it! Aries Cerat gear looks very interesting and YBA is one of those brands I've wanted to hear since the 90s and never have.

jond

No sweat, I have a lot of cable spaghetti behind my components!

billheiser

Owner
Thanks @billheiser , the "thermo-conductive pasta" has been corrected to  "a heat-conducting paste"  ;-)  
Sorry for my English.

orfeo_monteverdi

I love thermo conductive pasta!

billheiser

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