July 23rd 2012

It is mid summer with heat, heat and more heat. Most of North America is gripped in continuous record breaking temperatures with fires, flash flooding and all manners of weather conditions. It has been so hot, my big rig has not been turned on for almost 3 weeks opting to watch movies in the relative cool of the basement. If there is drawback to owning tube equipment, it’s the added heat that big mono blocks will instill! Speaking of tubes, Jack Roberts of www.dagogo.com had a very nice post of the previously reviewed ALLNIC L3000 and H3000’s. Mr Roberts is currently is listening to our ALLNIC MONOLITH on the very good AMG Viella 12” arm and reports the combo is staggering good. A decision was made to send our Puritas for an audition while the VIELLA remains in his possession along with the new ALLNIC H1201 phono stage and the AUT2000 step up transformer system..

H3000

Here are a few words of Jack’s blog. “Still, if you are someone who values the very best of tubes combined with the very best of solid-state, it will surely be worth the effort. I promise you that you will be rewarded with a truly realistic and emotionally involving musical experience. The second preamp I want to remember is the combination of Kang Su Park’s Allnic Audio L-3000 line stage and H-3000 LCR Reference phono stage. Kang Su Park of South Korea has been a devout lover of valve electronics for a few decades. First he was with Silvaweld, then he started Allnic Audio. Allnic was the company that would give him the opportunity to build equipment that would compete or exceed products from established companies like Audio Note UK, Kondo, Shindo, Wavac, and the like. I promise you, he has not fallen short in these lofty goals. Starting with the build quality of his duo on through the sonics, this combo is simply one of the best in the world regardless of price.

The first couple of things I noticed about this Allnic combo was how incredibly quiet they were and the sense of solidity they add to the music. They have the best way of handling space that I have ever heard. They also breathe incredible air into your room while giving an incredible clarity to voices.

Two words jumped out at me from the very start with the L-3000 preamp: space and transparency. They portray spatial information in a way I have never heard before and it is transparent beyond anything I have ever heard. Having said, that I should also mention it’s very dynamic, reveals the nuances of music beautifully, has great scale, and has this incredible sound stage. Images are very precisely placed, tonal color is very good, and it has a wonderful way with the flow of music. There is no doubt this is a very, very special preamp. This is simply a preamp I will never forget”

Reviews and feedback of our new H1201 phono stage are excellent as well as the new Monolith, a moving coil design mono cartridge. H1201 comments will be posted soon by Chris Chamberlin and David McCallum of Ernie Fisher’s excellent innerearmag.com

Thanks for visiting us at the Hammertone Audio website and hope you will visit us on Facebook. Your patronage is deeply appreciated!

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