System Details
| Integrated Amplifier | Ypsilon Phaethon SE |
|---|---|
| Speakers | Cessaro Opus 1 |
| Bass Augmentation | Cessaro Opus Subwoofer |
| Cables | Sage III Concepts Gorgon & Medusa |
How does it sound?
At Nirvana we are fortunate to have some very discerning customers. Seasoned audiophile personalities who have been around the traps and over the years have heard just about everything going around. You may even say that they have developed a bit of a cynical view. It takes a lot to impress these types of clients and we cherish them dearly because they help us to be at our best. One of these gentlemen spent some time expressing to us why he finds a lot of what he hears to be ‘uninteresting’ and ‘not like real life’.
The journey began with a search for an integrated amplifier that simply did not have any sonic compromises. With such an experienced audiophile, we needed to find something exceptional that had a great balance of virtues and was not lacking in any area. After auditioning the Ypsilon Phaethon SE, he turned and said “I have found my soul mate”. This got us thinking about how to create a system for an experienced ear, a person who has lived through the trends and flavours of the month. A person who never reads reviews, doesn’t buy into hype, doesn’t trust another opinion until they hear it for themselves. A person who hates ‘the fluff’, has no time for ‘brochurish’ language and doesn’t tolerate fools. This journey led us to discover this wonderful system combination.
We have since come to describe it as a ‘mature’ sound. Not mature as in old man who’s losing his hearing and only listens to Baroque ensembles. No no no… We mean mature as in a highly experienced listener who wants to cut out the special effects and simply hear music in an unadulterated, pure, uncorrupted form. Listen to the source, the intended message and for it to sound like it is being created by real living beings.
So this system has a purity and a natural tone. It blends the old with the new. Old school tone, rhythm, timing & flow with the new, aspects like resolution without brightness, detail without fatigue and precision timing. All in all, this is a great system for those who have tried many different systems over the years and are tired of having a sonic presentation that emphasises one or two aspects of the sound while sacrificing other aspects. This system does not have a bag of tricks, it’s not a system that you want to play ten second samples of audiophile fizz-bang noises & solo drum beats. This is a system that you can sink into and enjoy for hours.
Another way of describing it is that it has this absolutely magnetic engagement. When the music starts, you simply cannot continue with your conversation. You cannot work on a computer and listen to music at the same time. You can’t read a book while the music is playing. It demands total attention. It reminded me of a time when I was walking down a street in Austin (USA) where there’s a vibrant live music scene. As you walk past one bar, there’s a moment where the music snaps into focus and you stop to absorb it. Then you move on and further down the street, the music from the next venue images perfectly for a moment and captivates you. There’s a type of focus and absorption that this system conjures up that is ‘live’. There’s simply nothing conventional about this experience – it is rare and for those that are willing to make the investment both in the rarity of the components and the cost, there’s nothing at this price range that can hold a candle to this system.
Perhaps a useful way to explain it is to describe an afternoon we spent sitting in front of this system. We played a crazy range of different genres, artists and styles, often going in one musical direction quite deeply and then tacking into another musical direction and exploring another rabbit hole. In between tracks, we laughed, debated, talked about serious topics, silly topics, politics, shared inspirational stories that the music reminded us about and nibbled on tasty food. Yet when the music started, the talking stopped and there was silence, total immersion in the music. A few hours later, we all felt that we had experienced one of the best days ever. That’s what we mean by mature.
Why does it work so well?
The Phaethon integrated amplifier is the only integrated amplifier that we are aware of in the world that incorporates an in-house custom made high quality transformer attenuator (volume control), only three gain stages and a unique “bridged single-ended” output stage biased in class A. This unique topology results in a highly open, transparent sound, free from any mechanical sounding artefacts. There is a palpable clarity & purity of sound and an immediacy, direct emotional connection.
The SE version incorporates transformers with pure silver windings and some other upgrades. Do you know why there are so few amplifiers using transformer gain stages? One reason is the cost, but the main reason is because you just cannot obtain transformers of the type and quality needed to use them in this application. There are virtually no companies that sell this level of transformer so you have to know how to make them yourself. Who has those skills? Apparently very few people indeed. Fanis Lagadinos is one of those very few people and is renowned for not only making them for his company Ypsilon but also providing his special creations for other extreme audio projects around the world. The know-how to make these items is rare and that is one of the advantages of the Phaethon – there’s simply nothing else in the market like it. It cannot even be copied because… where are they going to get the transformers?
In the case of the SE version, the transformers are hand wound with a type of silver that can only be sourced from one company in Switzerland. If there are any kinks, imperfections or breaks during the winding process, it has to be re-melted and re-drawn. These transformers are uber-rare and uber expensive, hence the price of this amplifier. Is the high cost for this improvement to SE status worth it, considering the fact that the Phaethon is already a reference level product and so enjoyable? Perhaps for most people, it may not be justifiable but for those who desire to experience just what is possible in integrated amplifier performance, the Phaethon SE is worth every dime. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, heirloom piece of musical pleasure exotica.
All of this effort and cost focussed on a one-box integrated amp results in a purity and naturalness that once experienced, shows you how much of the sound of a ‘normal’ amplifier contains elements that sound mechanical or artificial. This is no more obvious than when you play a single violin or piano – goose bump inducing purity. So this system has an unfair advantage by having the Phaethon SE at its heart, but what a waste that would be if downstream was a ‘normal’ speaker. We believe that the Cessaro Horn Acoustics Opus-1 may be an even greater contributor to the sound of this system than even the Phaethon – it is that special!
To get some perspective here, you have to ask who is Cessaro? For those that have heard about this brand, they will tell you that Cessaro manufacture the world’s most uncompromised, most high performing, most expensive horn speaker systems. They will tell you that these rare speaker systems are the very definition of high end audio sonically and visually. But what you may not know is that Cessaro is the brainchild of Ralph Krebs and Ralph is the very epitome of ‘OCD perfectionist’. He has been obsessed by the mission of building the best possible horn speaker possible – no compromise – no cutting corners – always using the best materials and technologies no matter what the cost. Ralph discovered that building serious horn speakers for larger listening spaces was possible but building a speaker that was physically compact and could deliver that magical Cessaro sound into a smaller listening space was VERY difficult. In fact, he had been working on this challenge for many years and was never happy with the results until in 2022, he finally created a compact speaker that he was impressed with. If you know Ralph, you know that if he’s happy with a speaker, then it’s by definition exceptional.
In order to produce this extreme level of sound quality, a unique combination of drivers are implemented. Part of the magic comes from the new Cessaro 1” Beryllium compression driver matched with a CNC-milled horn. Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you – a Beryllium compression driver on a speaker at this price level! This is paired with Cessaro’s acclaimed 8” Alnico magnet bass driver, considered to be one of the very top drivers of its kind that money can buy. The cabinet consists of the same special composite material as their larger flagship speakers and is hand polished to a high gloss finish. The cabinet also features an innovative port construction at its rear side. We think that the horn component of this speaker is magical. Integrated perfectly with the midrange driver, it projects a sound that is effortless and uncompressed. From the first moment the music plays, this lack of compression feels like this otherworldly openness, which we refer to as the ‘Cessaro sound’ and you are transported mentally to a live venue.
This is a great example of quality of drivers and quality of build being superior to quantity of drivers and large cabinets made of inferior resonating material. The sound is fast, articulate, open and immediate. The soundstage is wide and deep with realistic proportions. The tonality is natural and the speaker is so revealing, it will immediately communicate small changes in system composition – change one interconnect cable and you hear it immediately. This level of communication means that when you match this speaker with high quality electronics, you will hear exactly what those components can do. As a result, we have noticed that this is one of the few speakers that owners match with components that cost many multiples of the speaker cost. The bass performance is OK but this speaker was designed from the beginning to be part of a system which included the specifically designed Opus Subwoofer, which in its own right is an incredible piece of equipment. It’s tunability means that it not only adds bass depth, weight and energy but you can tune it to the room, which is a significant advantage.
Connecting this extraordinary amplifier and speaker system is a cable that needs to be equally special. We talk about the various parts of the system but in truth, the system should be considered as a whole because all of these components connect and work together. What would be the point of curating such a special amplifier with rare silver transformers to preserve the purity of the musical information so meticulously, adding a speaker system with Beryllium compression drivers able to take the smallest musical nuances and project them with an effortless lack of compression when in between, the signal is subjected to information losses, phase anomalies, various distortions and added interferences?? You simply need a super-high performing cable to facilitate the signal with care and a minimum of those nasties. The Stage III Concepts Gorgon interconnects and Medusa speaker cables are the perfect companions in this mix of strange bedfellows. Intelligent conductor composition & geometry coupled with rare dialectic, insulation and termination technologies do not come cheap, but this system is not about cutting corners. This system is designed to please those with the experience that makes them difficult to please. The Stage III Concepts cabling also has this attribute of releasing the energy of a performance, or more accurately, not getting in the way and removing/absorbing any of the energy that is in the original recording. This gives a sense of realism and ‘live’ to the musical event.
This system is special in a way that is not just ‘great compared to others’. It just doesn’t sound like it’s part of normal convention, not part of the normal trajectory. It has a totally different sound, a unique vibe and once you get a chance to heard these rare components singing together, it is difficult to remove the experience from your memory. In some ways, it a real music lover’s system because what it does transcends audiophile language immediately. You literally never think about imaging, soundstage, etc. You hear Coltrane’s saxophone materialise in front of you and the hair stands up in the back of your neck. Purity in motion.
What changes could you make to the system?
If you wanted to save money, but maintain the sonic qualities and synergy of this system, you can try:
- Implementing Stage III Typhon cables.
- Replacing the Phaethon SE with a Phaethon.
If your budget extended a bit further and you wanted to upscale this system, you can try:
- Implementing Stage III Ckahron and Cerberus cables. Wow!
Why Buenos Aires?
Strongly influenced by European culture, Buenos Aires is sometimes referred to as the ‘Paris of South America’. The Argentinian city is a multicultural, progressive hub of activity. It has the busiest live theatre industry in Latin America, with scores of theatres and productions. In fact, every weekend, there are about 300 active theatres with plays, a number that places the city as 1st worldwide, more than either London, New York or Paris.
The residents have a reputation as being night owls with the city having distinctly different day night vibes. The city is cultured and the inhabitants are talkative, uninhibited, sensitive and nostalgic. They are well aware of recent historical and economic events and they LOVE a good debate, or argument!
They are observant, maybe a touch arrogant. There’s an ego but at the same time a healthy level of self-criticism, not afraid to express themselves. This is a city with a rich culture of art, music and theatre and an intricate blend of the old and the new. Just like this system.
