It's late saturday/sunday night here in Sweden and I have a few moments to introduce my self a little bit better.
I thought I'd tell why I came to the conclusion to start representing CIAudio's products.
To get interested in CIAudio is not difficult the reviews on almost all products are overvelming. But after a few mails with Dusty he recommended the D-200mk2's for a first audition and this sounded good to me.
Well the first day of listening took place at home. I had a pair of 1500$ monitors at hand so that is where it begun.
The first recording I listened to was Hadouk Trio "Live a fip" which is a reference quality ethno-jazz recording with everything a audiophile could want for and more. Deep bas, dynamic drums and very detailed wind instruments. It sounded as perfect as it is recorded, with a believable soundstage, instruments in place in all the axis. Just to plugg the band as well, Hadouk trio is great stuff! I know ethno-jazz sounds a tad boring, but these guys have a long history all the way back to the Cantenbury progressive eara of the early 70's. So these guys know how to make it interesting. The only thing bad about it, is that it's not avalible on vinyl.
On to some more challenging material. The band Black Sabbath the album Black Sabbath and the song Black Sabbath. An early Vertigo Swirl press of this classical album. A track that is brutal on all form of hifi-shortcomings. It’s bright, dynamic but holds all the signs of a true audiophile classic if its played the right way. With a huge soundstage, very three dimensional, deep toneful bas and Ozzys voice taking up a hugh part of the stage in center. This track was handled with the same perfection as well. And this track can make tube gear sound too bright.
I was sold! There was no use analyzing further, just dig up old treasures from the hdd, cd, & vinyl collection.
But I did do one more test, I brought it over to a buddy with a product of similar style. He uses Tannoy DC10, a very revealing speaker but also very musical. Though his amp is priced much higher it is still a very fine product. The mayor difference was that the other amp sounded more like a 100kg Class A monster than the D-200. But the D-200 still sounded a bit better, it had more resolution, more detail and less saturated in the mids, but at the same time equally musical and dynamic. So we just called it a draw, but we both knew it wasn’t.
Best Regards / In The Air
