Audio Note gave a special presentation of debut products at the High End, according to importer/distributor Mafico.
Audio Note presented its new products during the unfortunately already passed High End Munich as some time at a ‘side show’ at the Mariott Hotel in the same city. ‘At this ‘hifideluxe’ this year they showed their new ‘Field Coil’ AN-E SPx Ltd loudspeakers and an experimental ladder DAC of the ultimate kind,’ Dutch Mafico reports.
Perhaps the term ‘Field Coil’ does not immediately ring a bell with you, so some explanation! A field coil speaker uses an electromagnet instead of a permanent magnet to create the magnetic field that enables the movement of the voice coil. This should prevent many of the negative effects of “counter-EMKs” (the movement of a voice coil itself creates a magnetic field that interferes with that of the permanent magnet) and quantized magnetization/demagnetization effects (hysteresis). Mafico: ‘This results in a sound with more information in tonality, texture and atmosphere. Because the field is actively generated, the speaker comes with an external power supply to provide a very accurate DC voltage that does not fluctuate with the music. The crossover and cabinet construction (due to the heavier drivers) also had to be completely redesigned‘.
Ladder DAC
Another development making its debut at High End Munich was the R/2R ladder DAC (pictured), developed entirely by Audio Note themselves. ‘Obviously developed in their own way, the 16 resistors per channel were clearly visible. As far as could be gathered from the complete setup, this DAC offered an obviousness in dynamics and flow that certainly justified its undoubtedly high price for true fans. The rest of the system consisted of the Meishu Phono 300B ‘Konzertmeister’ integrated amplifier, TT-Three/Arm Three/IO Gold turntable with ANS 9 step-up transformer and CDT Three CD Transport,’ according to the importer/distributor.
Vincent Belanger playing live
Mafico continued: ‘Martin Grennal demonstrated with audiophile very politically incorrect music and had everyone going wild with his choices. It was clear that the extreme dynamics and absence of smearing in the speakers were an absolute advance in reality reproduction. To underscore this, brand ambassador and professional cello player Vincent Belanger played live music reproduced by the system. It was wondrous how here live and reproduced completely merged in sound experience. See the performance on Youtube!’