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Additional features of the Aesthetix are its USB input and volume control. It's one of the very few digital players which needs no external preamplifier to sound very good. That's because of its tonality. My version of the Ayon Polaris III reworked by Gerhard Hirt added more richness. But after some time I realized that I didn't need it as the definition wasn't as good as without it. The system without a preamplifier offered better selectivity but not necessarily a less rich sound. I checked with my Soulution 710 and Dan D’Agostino's Momentum Stereo, two very different sounding amplifiers. The USB input was licensed from Gordon Rankin of Wavelength Audio. Gordon's creation called Streamlength asynchronous USB is one of the best to market. Jim White of Aesthetix made good use of the licensed technology based on a programmable XMOS chip. It ensured that Romulus with a computer source delivered a very rich, colorful, dynamic sound even more 3-dimensional than CD and with timbre differences between instruments that were even clearer. On the other hand dynamics and resolution were slightly worse. In general the performance you get from CD vs. USB is the same as long as the latter is properly implemented.


Summary. It didn't take much effort to condense what I thought of Romulus. It was a very simple case really. Its sound was enchanting and involving. Its additional functions complemented the CD player perfectly because the USB input and volume control were cleverly done. It will not suit all systems though. If your system already lacks resolution, selectivity or delivers potent bass I would suggest looking for another player like Ayon's CD-3s. If your system is well balanced or could use a bit of richness and weight, Romulus might be your personal Mount Everest.


Review methodology. The test was an A/B comparison with A and B known. Aesthetix provides five small rubber footers which would seem to invite future owner to replace them with something better. I used three Finite Elemente CeraBalls and then placed everything on an Acoustic Revive RAF-48H platform. I used a Harmonix X-DC350M2R Improved Version power cable. The player ran with an Ayon Audio Polaris III preamplifier but during most sessions it drove directly either a Soulution 710 or Dan D’Agostino Momentum Stereo power amplifier. It performed better without a preamplifier. A Windows 8 computer with 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM and Jplay5 connected to the USB input via Acoustic Revive USB 5.0 PL cable.


Design. Romulus from Aesthetix is a very good example of a fast growing subcategory of digital sources which combine in one box two or three different devices usually sold separately. In this case it's a CD player, D/A converter with USB input and preamplifier. What's missing over Austrian competitor Ayon Audio's CD-3s are analogue inputs. You can order Romulus with or without CD transport. Without it becomes the Pandora. Romulus is quite large and solidly build. Usually CD players and DACs have their insides shielded by all manner of barriers to protect against EM and RF noise. When you look at Romulus you see that the transport, display microprocessor and two power transformers are enclosed in a shielded cage right behind the front but there are large cooling slots in this cage. The outer enclosure is built of thick aluminium panels whilst the cover has grating for better heat dissipation. This also allows you to look through it so the tubes and some circuitry are visible.


The enclosure is quite large and rigid. The looks are a bit different. Usually the front panel is bigger than the casing or of the same size. Here the front panel fits into the shape created by the side panels, cover and bottom. The triangular push buttons are characteristic for Aesthetix and pick up on their triangle logo. In the middle of the fascia is a large blue display with alphanumeric LED modules. It's divided into two sections. The smaller one indicates time info of a CD track or sampling frequency for a digital input. The larger one shows track number or volume. The latter only shows briefly with CD but constantly when a digital input is used. There are more blue LEDs to indicate repeat mode, phase and signal lock with an external transport. I guess these would look better if the shade of blue were the same as the display's. I also think they're too bright. The triangular controls can change inputs, activate mute, switch the display off and operate the CD player. Most of us are used to having the 'open' button next to the drawer. Aesthetix decided to place its 'mute' button there which is a bit counter-intuitive. The remote control also could use some work. It's neither pretty nor very handy though it does control volume, phase and selects which part of the display is active.

The modular back panel divides into slotted sections. On the left are RCA and XLR outputs (this is a fully balanced circuit), in the middle is the power inlet and remote trigger and on the right are the digital inputs . This layout looked like Accuphase to me. There are three slots for digital option boards. My loaner used two of them, one for USB, the other for AES/EBU, coax and Toslink. All handle 24/192. A small switch next to the USB input toggles between driverless 24/96 USB 1 and 24/192 USB 2. With Windows the latter requires a driver. USB works asynchronously which means the signal is buffered in the receiver circuit and reclocked with the DAC's own precision oscillators.

Surprisingly the cover is affixed with Velcro which makes tube rolling child's play. You can also listen with the cover off which slightly changes the sound. The electronic circuit divides into three parts. In the front sits a large can with the TEAC transport mechanism and power supply. The former isn't very quiet and made of plastic but fast and reliable. The rest of the circuit not enclosed in that can divides into two sections separated by vertical shielding. The smaller circuit is for digital inputs, the larger for the D/A converter. The USB input runs on XMOS and Wavelength Audio Streamlength firmware. The circuit mounts on a swappable vertical board that might be upgraded/replaced in the future (possibly with a circuit that processes DSD and PCM 32/384). All other digital inputs route straight to an AKM AK4118 receiver. Coax and AES/EBU are buffered with impedance-matching transformers. These boards install on the larger horizontal motherboard with a large Motorola DSP chip that contains Aesthetix's proprietary digital filters. The CD transport signal ends up here too. Next to this chip sits its dedicated oscillator and there are four more next to the DAC chips.

On the other side of the shield sits the D/A converter section. There is a Burr Brown PCM1792 chip that accepts balanced current signal. Often I/V conversion occurs inside a chip (some companies like Ancient Audio do it passively) because it ensures low distortions and noise. Aesthetix decided to use NOS tubes instead - Telefunken E83CCS cooled and shielded with EAT Cool Dampers. These tubes couple to the next 6922EH Electro-Harmonix stage with parallel REL-CAP capacitors. The same caps at larger values couple the 6922s to the outputs. Between them sits a simple volume control section. So it looks like a quite complex preamplifier with a buffered output. This option mounts to a vertical board plugged in with gold-plated pins. The attenuator is an atypical hybrid chip which executes attenuation in 1dB steps with a precision relay-switched metal resistor ladder. The power supply is quite complex. It works continuously even in standby as indicated by LEDs. Each section has its own regulators and sports a large number of Nichicon caps. There are separate power transformers for the DAC, transport and digital section.

All sections look equally well made except for the transport which performs well but doesn't match the top drives from Philips or Esoteric. Considering that its addition only amounts to 4.000zl, I wouldn't go after an outboard transport with the added digital cable, terminations and their plausible distortions.
opinia @ highfidelity.pl
Aesthetix website