The $79,350 Audio Note ONGAKU Integrated SET amplifier
 
 REVIEW
 
 

Constantine Soo

December, 2006

To help exploit the potential of the Ongaku as much as possible, 47 Laboratory’s PiTracer CD transport served in this review as the reference source in the respective company of Audio Note’s own $65k DAC5 Signature, the $34k DAC5 Special and Wadia’s $10k 27ix v3.0 Decoding Computer. The AN DACs were rotated with the PiTracer from it’s RCA digital output via Combak Harmonix HS-102RCADG “Harmonic-Strings" RCA digital cable, while the Wadia utilized Analysis-Plus’ Silver Oval BNC digital cable via the PiTracer’s BNC output. Audio Note’s own 42-strand, pure silver litz Sogon™ interconnects provided reference interconnection.

Combak Harmonix HS-101 SLC

Furutech e-TP609

Furutech Power Reference III

Combak Harmonix TU-66ZX

Audo Note’s own bi-wired Sogon™ LX speaker cable provided reference speaker cabling, while the Combak Harmonix HS-101 SLC “Sophisticated Listener’s Choice” single-wired cable served single-wiring speakers. CDs providing some of the most revealing listening impressions were by First Impression Music and JVC’s XRCD’s. Furutech’s marvel in AC waveform preservation, the GC-303 compound-embedded e-TP609 AC Director, and two of the Power Reference III AC cables powered the respective DAC’s when either the DAC5 Signature or DAC5 Special was in use.

Deployment of the Combak Harmonix tuning feet took place in the latter half of the review period, during which three of the adjustable TU-66ZX “BeauTone” tuning feet supported each AN DACs.

Audiophile recordings played a pivotal role in my experience of the Ongaku. For just as it is with movies and paintings that seek to show us certain angles of reality or layers in imagery that we don’t see in normal circumstances, the Ongaku’s rendition of meticulously produced music also shows us a level of sound ingrained to instruments that we seldom get to appreciate. Only now that the live instrument along with its surrounding environment is removed from our sensors are we able to focus our waking consciousness onto a particular sensory input; and the textures and tonality of instruments from high-quality recordings as produced by the Ongaku/AN-E SEC Signature hijacked my imagination completely.

Richard Nash, Audio Note’s web guru, is fond of the AN saying that goes, “one watt in one meter can kill you”. He meant to illustrate the ability of Audio Note’s systems of SET amplifiers and high efficiency speakers to play at insanely loud level with no compressions or distortions of any kind. Though an Audio Note speaker user for some time, I have never driven my 95dB, biwired AN-E SEC Silver with heavy-metal music like Peter does to the inhumanly high level during every Show. And he even drove the Ongaku as a power amplifier with the 3-chassis M10 preamp at this past Californian VTV. Peter was of the opinion that a preamplifier was nevertheless essential to supercharge even the Ongaku to reenact full dynamic envelope that is crucial to recreating a musical waveform faithfully; and his M10 became the natural candidate for its level of finesse. It was a sight and experience to behold.

In my listening room, with most loudspeakers positioned no further than 11 feet away from my ears, constant sound pressure arriving at my position during normal listening would reach 88dB+, while dynamic surges might hit 95dB. For loudspeakers with 91dB+ efficiency, a 25Wpc amplifier will drive those speakers to over 95dB with ease. In the particular case of the $12k, 100dB, single-wired MaxxHorn Immersion, even though it is the only pair of speakers being placed 15 feet away, its startling efficiency probably consumed only one or two of the 25 Ongaku-watts to produce the highest dynamic peaks.

Not too dissimilar was the case in which the Ongaku was driving the $19,000, 95dB/8Ω, tri-wired Tannoy Churchill Wideband, producing strikingly dynamic, climactic symphonic passages via its 15-inch Dual-Concentric™ driver.

Thus, by virtue of its shocking efficiency, the Ongaku-compelled MaxxHorn not only attained a new level of dynamic prowess never realized via any other amplification, the 6.5-inch, French PHL 1240TWX-equipped horn Texan produced the most spectacular tonal sophistication yet, and was completely transformed in the company of the AN. This time, the lone Japanese fue amidst a subtle taiko accompaniment in JVC’s Ondekoza XRCD2 in track 6, “Yuki no Ashita” was endowed with a rich texture and a surreal lightness, reinforced by traits of miniscule turbulence within the wooden flute.

The large Tannoy as driven by the Ongaku, on the other hand, revealed both a newfound subtlety as accompanied by such masterly flexing of dynamic muscles that was summarily atypical of what I’ve come to rely upon as the speaker’s performance threshold. The congregating drumming efforts on the quadruplet of taiko’s in the same JVC XRCD2’s first track, “Tou-Tou” (trans. The Pounding Wave) emerged as the most full-bodied to date, resplendent in the spectacular clarity of contrasting pitches as dictated by the varying forces applied by players.

Past coupling of the large Tannoy to various amplifications re-affirmed the degree of driver control as put forth by the seemingly modest-powered Ongaku. For the Tannoy exhibited such unprecedented control of dynamics and scale as I’ve never seen before, that either the Ongaku’s NOS 211 tubes, or its triplet of the 1:2-ratio Audio Note™ silver-wired Perma 50 Nickel HiB double C-core Super-radiometal transformers, or both, were contributable to the superb feat.

Audio Note’s $39,775 AN-E SEC Signature that I reviewed in January 2006, now priced at $43,350, was also driven by the Ongaku for several months following the speaker’s review. Supposedly a mirror image of the impedance curve of Audio Note’s own amplifiers, the AN-E SEC Signature unveiled a tonal palette as driven by the Ongaku with an even higher manifestation of tonal complexity than I had observed in the review. A seemingly methodical and yet lightning-fast excitability attached itself to the suites of instrument harmonics as the speaker’s Sogon LX-hardwired drivers were infused by the Ongaku energy.

Violin solo Giuliano Carmignola and his 1722 Petro Guarneri violin in First Impression Music’s Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons hybrid SACD carried a textural sweetness so suggestive of an actual instrument through the Ongaku-driven AN speaker, that its power of persuasion would compel you to listen to it again and again at increasing volumes.

Perhaps the most impressive feat of the Ongaku/AN speaker in their supposedly perfect matching of impedance was the perfectly compression-free presentation of all music types. The aforementioned Guarneri violin had never sounded so open and

I reckon I was experiencing sounds of instrument that was seemingly more convincing and seductive than the actual thing.

CONCLUSION

Highly personal and subjective a listening impression that mine undoubtedly was, all the esoteric components that Peter put into his $80k integrated amplifier and $42k loudspeakers are intended to achieve the most balanced of component virtues and to produce the highest level of purity in signal reproduction. It follows that attempts at tonal manipulation can only succeed in the incorporation of parts of varying grades, and in the case of the Ongaku, those parts could only result in lower fidelity level, since all the parts Peter put into it are already the best.

Earlier this year (2006), Peter Qvortrup, Audio Note UK proprietor, made arrangements for me to review his top DAC, preamplifier and integrated amplifier together: the $64k DAC5 Signature, the $68k, 3-chassis M10 preamplifier and the $80k Ongaku.

Life got really tough when I wanted to own even just one of them, as the sonic revelation these top gear imparted was clear as the sparkling water, and assimilation by the DAC5 Signature and Ongaku combination for their level of refinement was a very literal and instantaneous process, especially when the DAC5 Signature displayed its sonic superiority so readily over the $34k DAC5 Special of mine.

But the Ongaku represented an even higher stake in the scheme of things.

Integrated amplifier is seldom the top product in most companies’ R&D and marketing portfolio, and to most audiophiles, integrated amplifiers are also the least flexible components, requiring the concurrent arrangement of new preamplifier and amplifier for an assessment of either. Audio Note, on the other hand, is long known for its positioning the Ongaku integrated amplifier as the best amplification device.

Yet, Peter and his engineers created the best amplifier I’ve ever experienced, sparing no effort and finance, and they made it into an integrated design, one that not only puts forth the most consummate suite of sonic properties in an SET, but also one of such competency as to demonstrate a superiority over many other companies’ separate amplification designs.

For me, music-listening as a form of relaxation is much too base a notion to contemplate when the Ongaku takes helm, as a level of mental preparedness would precede each listening session in anticipation of powerful insights that the AN would bring forth from the same music.  From the instance you put the jewel box of the meticulously selected CD in your hands and remove its disc from within, a pure and powerful sensation conjures from within you, one that compels you incessantly to prepare yourself mentally and to absorb the sonic richness put forth by the Ongaku.

I had never been able to forsake the surrounding environment of a concert hall completely as to emulate the concentration-inducing home listening experience; but the Ongaku attained such unprecedented and colossally consummate level of sonic finesse that its music reproduction via the likes of the Tannoy Churchill Wideband and the company’s own AN-E SEC Signature rivals the impact derived from live performances.

PART I: Prologue & Technical Background

REVIEWS OF OTHER EQUIPMENT MENTIONED:

47 Laboratory 4704 PiTracer

CD transport

Audio Note AN-E SEC Signature

loudspeaker

Furutech e-TP609 AC Director

& Power Reference III

MaxxHorn Immersion

horn loudspeaker

Tannoy Churchill Wideband

loudspeaker

ALSO SEE REVIEWS OF THESE CDs:

Dotou Banri by Ondekoza

Antonio Vivaldi: The Four Seasons