Can You Handle the Truth? The Crimson 710 Preamp & 640E-III Monoblocks
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| Crimson Electronics in our room, serving up some serious excitement and music! |
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"We feel most audiophiles are focused on the wrong things ..."
I was calling the friendly folks at Austin Hi Fi after a complimentary email to me about the blog, and we were talking about Crimson Electronics, the pre-eminence of canines in our lives, and Audio Philosophy. And I'd have to say that not only do they have a friendly way about them, but they have some definite ideas about what it takes to weave the illusion of a live performance. Always looking for a fresh approach, and always looking for a new way to look at things, I found it fascinating, that in their way, tonal exactness was a dead end (after a certain point) but pitch definition and transient accuracy was far more important. Having worked very hard to have a realistic sound of brass instruments, I did see where they were coming from, but I was very curious. They, quite out of the blue, offered to send us some cables and electronics ...
One thing to keep in mind about Crimson, is the cables are very reasonably priced, and there is just one model. This is in stark contrast to the typical audiophile cable companies with a variety of performance levels and ever increasing price points. Another contrast is that the cables, while not unattractive, are not typical "audio jewelry" either. Given the casework design of their electronics - all attractive, but functional foremost, you will only be paying for performance, less so audio jewelry. There is something very attractive with this philosophy given the state of the high end.
Additionally, the Crestons both were emphatic that they avoided high priced power cables in favor of well constructed shielded power cables that they didn't actually sell, and in the catalog I found them retailed for around $6 each. SIX DOLLARS. And before I talked to them about anything else, I obtained a couple of them, and tried them out. THey were really good cables - in a definite "just the fact's ma'am" kind of way - neither romantic nor lean - but also allowing a little more in the way of pacing and dynamics through. I was to learn that this was very much in line with the overall Crimson ideals - absolute neutrality with pacing, dynamics and resolution. They had also indicated some ideas surrounding fuses - again fuses they did not sell. We didn't get a chance to try them out as of this review.
After relaying our experience with the power cords, they first sent a loom of Crimson cables to us. (speaker cables, a couple of XLR's and a couple of balanced) so we could try out. When we put them in our system, replacing some Siltech, Crystal and Audioquest cables there, we heard one of those subtle-but significant shifts away from tonal texture and slightly softer transients, towards a very holistic live like sound - the instruments were a shade more realistic sounding (the audiophile term used for this, I think is "palpable" - all fancy for a "you are thereness"), and at the expense of a touch of warmth our system had, but clearly was a little euphonic. One very big impression with them, though, was they were very much in the family of sound encompassing Siltech and Crystal cables. Where the Crystals had a little more bass extension (for a lot more money) - if someone were to have incorrectly told us they were the same company, I would have believed them. After relaying this experience to Creston Funk Sr, he suggested that the 710 preamp + 640E-III monoblocks from Crimson would be a way to see how far Crimson takes the sound, and I was then in contact with Crestin Funk Jr who arranged for a demo set to be sent to us.
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| Crimson cables use high grade copper and their geometry is based upon the impedance control and noise immunity of high performance Ethernet. They sound great, too! |
One of the things that attracts us to the audiophile world is that there is a huge variety of companies all pursuing their take on what makes sound good. While every one is interested in weaving an illusion of reality, and capturing truth, everyone seems to have a different path. Some claim the path is 'truth to recording,' some feel the path to realism is through tonal accuracy, some through pace, rhythm and timing (PRAT), some do something else. Like with a good theatrical performance, there are tons of ways of getting people to suspend disbelief and getting lost in the performance, but it will always involve some sort of trade-off, and in the end what appeals to you might surprise you.
So ... we accepted (gleefully ... I have a terrible poker face) the offer to try out the electronics.
We got the amplifiers, and we set it up following a detailed sequence the Crestons both had detailed and emphasized how important it was to do the right way to avoid problems. But even after following their instructions, after a few hours of warm up, something wasn't quite right about the sound. It was a little flat and undynamic. We figured it was a burn in issue and let it sit for a couple of days playing music softly to "warm up." Still it wasn't quite right, we worried that perhaps our Thiels were too current hungry for th diminutive monoblocks, so a phone call to Austin HiFi cleared it up after telling them how it was hooked up. "It's your power conditioner. It's best to have them plugged directly into the wall." Creston Jr. also said that with 250W on tap, driving the Thiel CS 3.7's should not be an issue.
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| A picture of the monoblocks and preamp from Crimson |
Out came our two power conditioners that resided (and improved the sound) in our reference, and in went an Audioquest powerstrip (nothing but a copper bus). Boy were they right. Immediately it was if a heavy blanket was lifted up off the setup, and with the SACD that was playing (SHM-SACD of Synchronicity for those that are keeping track) and a new dynamic sound was let loose. This led to an impression of a sense of presence to the instruments and song. The cables gave us a taste of the "Crimson experience" but with the amplifier, we can see a full measure of their characteristics of pace, timing, and pitch accuracy.
This brings me to a side-bar: Some components are very fussy about extracting the very best sound out of them. We are completely fine with this, when and only when, there is a high reward when you get it right. High-fuss/High-reward. And the Crimson was this way about power. If we could have run a dedicated line for it, I wonder if it would be better, still? I suspect so, though it was pretty darned good, too, once the power conditioner was removed. Other things like moving the preamp physically away form the monoblocks, and the spacing on the monoblocks didn't yield any further improvement we could detect, and neither did the lay of the speaker cable.
Once we played a few SACD's, we decided to just casually listen to it for a week. But once that week had passed, we got down to work.
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The Sidewinder by Lee Morgan has become a particularly useful reference of ours because of the dominance of brass instruments. We've found that if things are dialed in so that horns sound natural, than many other things will sound natural, too. In the title track "The Sidewinder," there are some very good explosive attacks and delicate decays of the trumpet, some good examples of breathiness and the biting but not harsh sound characteristic of the instrument.
Through the Crimsons, the attack and decay were 100% perfect, and again we got a physical sense of the sound of the trumpets without any exaggeration. Crimson was hitting this one out of the park. You could close your eyes and feel it was very close to what the real instrument sounds like -- the overtones, and "braat" and the initial puff of air was all there.
The SACD had an ever so slight sense of transient softness in our reference compared to the file, was anything but slightly soft with this new amplifier. It was as dialed in as the FLAC played through the DAC - and both has that Crimson aesthetic of accuracy to live.
What we love about this CD is that it is an illustration of how good CD's can sound when everything is done right. The FLAC does the same for computer based audio.
The initial triangle in "Signe" was present without harshness or exaggeration - but also the pluck of the guitar, as well as the presence of Eric Clapton in much of the music that followed was amongst the best we've heard on this CD. And of note was that the Crimson did a better job of unweaving the complexities of the clapping audience to many individual hands applauding rather than a noisy mush as can happen in lesser systems. We also noted that the sense of emotion in "Tears from Heaven" wasn't altered or changed - the way some systems can do when they are doing "audiophile feats and stunts" - Crimson was giving you the performance and the instruments without embellishment or alteration, and the beat, and the pitch was perfect - which gave the bluesy-pop record a sense of momentum when called for, and slow emotional pacing when the song had that.
One of our favorite albums has an older Louis Armstrong and a young Ella Fitzgerald sing - it is a fantastic performance and great music in its own right. Louis' great gravely male voice, and the absolutely spellbinding female voice of Ella Fitzgerald work together in a way that you just don't hear in most duets. Every medium we've sampled this music in had been uniformly good, and we always recommend this music. The fact that it can also help sort "good" from "excellent" when played on a sound system is just a bonus to us.
In the very best reproductions of this records, you get the sense of shifting in the seat in "Isn't it a Lovely Day" - and the wet lip smacking and breath of Louis Armstrong. The Crimson did not disappoint, though this is one recording that benefits from a dollop of romance in the reproduction (The vinyl record played with a Grado Sonata1 cartridge, for instance, is truly a magnificent experience. It still is fantastic using more accurate cartridges or digital, though). Given Crimson is a "just the facts ma'am" style of reproduction - we got a very accurate portrayal, still emotional, still full bodied, but not as good as gear with a small touch of euphonic midrange warmth.
We played Vinyl using our Plinius Koru phonostage - and we liked the vinyl playback more than SACD (The Ortofon Rondo Bronze gives just a touch of warmth that helps this one particular recording, both were very good and we felt quite satisfied).
Overall Impressions
The Crimson 710 and 640E-III pair with Crimson cable loom took everything we threw at it, and presented a very realistic, engaging, pace driven sound. While it wasn't warm at all, it was neither cool, it was dead neutral, but nailing the all important transients and the pitch definition of the instruments. We felt that regardless of medium we threw at it, the Crimsons would bring out a presentation with that all important PRAT intact. And if you weren't up to the electronics, the cable set would take you part way there - and given their relative price compared to their competitors, it is a cable set worth considering in its own right.
A note about Vinyl: We noted the Crimson 710 included a MC/MM phonostage. We're happy, given we're big fans of vinyl, that more and more preamps and integrated amps are again including this once-essential feature. We used it a couple of times to try it out, and found that while it is a fantastic convenience feature, it wasn't a good match to our SOTA/Jelco/Ortofon - though it wasn't terrible. We were delighted it was there, but if you already have a phono preamp, you may want to consider trying both ways out before simplifying to just the preamp. If it does work out, you may end up with a very sleek looking setup.
With a tear in our eye, we boxed back up the equipment that had delighted us so, and shipped it back to Austin Hi-Fi learning a little about another path to convincing audio reproduction. As advertised, the pitch definition was first rate, and we really liked the level of instrument realism. And not for nothing, a set of monoblocks and preamp would fit on a single shelf of a rack, allowing the user to have a no-compromise compact system. on the picture to the right, you can see that it could replace about 50% of the volume in the 5 shelf rack it sits upon that has our reference preamp and amp.
For someone who values pace, rhythm, timing and dead neutrality above all others, this setup should be on your shortlist. Highly Recommended.
Associated Equipment:
Thiel CS3.7 loudspeakers
Dynaudio Exite X-12 loudspeakers
Ayre C-5xeMP SACD/DADA/CD Player
Berkeley Audio DAC-2 DAC
Turntable: SOTA Sapphire with Jelco 750E tonearm, Arche headshell, Ortofon Rondo Bronze MC pickup & Plinius Koru Phonostage
Prices:
Crimson Electronics
Crimson Cables
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