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Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial Interests: click here
Source: 2TB iMac 27" quad-core with 16GB of RAM (AIFF) running OSX 10.6.7 and PureMusic 1.84 in hybrid memory play with pre-allocated RAM, April Music Eximus DP1, Esoteric /APL Hifi UX1/NWO-M
Preamplifier: Bent Audio Tap-X (remote-controlled AVC passive), Esoteric C-03 (transistor), ModWright LS100 with Synergy Hifi valves
Amplifier: FirstWatt SIT-2, Trafomatic Audio Kaivalya, ModWright KWA-100 SE
Loudspeakers: Aries Cerat Gladius, Boenicke B10, Voxativ Ampeggio
Cables: Complete Zu Event loom,
Stands: 2 x ASI HeartSong 3-tier, 2 x ASI HeartSong amp stand
Powerline conditioning: 1 x GigaWatt LF-2, 1 x Furutech RTP6
Sundry accessories: Extensive use of Acoustic System Resonators, noise filters and phase inverters
Room size:5m x 11.5m W x D, 2.6m ceiling with exposed wooden cross beams every 60cm, plaster over brick walls, suspended wood floor with Tatami-type throw rugs. The listening space opens into the second storey via a staircase and the kitchen/dining room are behind the main listening chair. The latter is thus positioned in the middle of this open floor plan without the usual nearby back wall.
Review Component Retail: €60.000/pr
Pre-production prototype at Audiopax Lab Brazil
Audiopax showroom, Rio de Janeiro
At €60.000/pr, the Audiopax Maggiore 100 monos are stratospherically priced and thrice the previous best of Brazilian audio auteur Eduardo de Lima. Over the proven 100dB+ hornspeaker darlings of the Model 88 at left—his heavily awarded breakout model which cloned triode curves from two single-ended tetrode-as-triode amps per chassis coupling in series through asymmetrical output transformers—the Maggiores offer a 3-4dB lower noise floor. Then they increase power delivery by a factor of 3 plus (100 watts in class A1 triode from KT88, 130 watts from KT120). They are precision crafted by a former Swiss watch maker who since has become the creator of a famous turntable and tone arm to also offer consulting services as mechanical contract engineer and OEM fabricator for a number of upscale hifi brands.

Wildly prohibitive to any but the happiest of bank accounts, the Maggiore 100 amplifiers by January 2011 existed only as a theoretical abstract of mathematical formulas in the designer's head. As our interview chronicles, a CES decision to join his Norwegian importer at the Munich show five months later became the necessary life-giving spark.

Upon his return to Rio de Janeiro from Las Vegas de Lima finally built up a proof-of-concept prototype. Nonchalantly without even one revision, the mockup performed well beyond what his theories on distortion management and the ideal behavior of a cloned high-power über triode had predicted. de Lima now decided to throw all caution to the wind. For his super amps he'd materialize the state-of-the-art mechanics and finish his company's low-volume operations had never been able to realize in his native Brazil. Swiss manufacture under the aegis of a proven precision fanatic became the very expensive dream.


As my brief show notes reported, by May 2011 that dream had had its first public preview. Though Swiss production wasn't scheduled for first final units until August, in Munich a sonically identical though cosmetically only approximate Brazilian pair powered Audiopax's top Arpeggione three-way speakers. There was the matching Model 5 preamp and an Audioaéro La Source player, all cabling by Stealth Audio's Serguei Timachev.
Prelim Swiss rendering


Two months later de Lima was back in Switzerland to check on progress for his first four golden samples. Unlike the Brazilian show units, these would be built from superbly finished 12mm aluminum stock without any visible fasteners. Internally there'd be machined metal braces, couplers, wire routing channels, Teflon bushings and other assorted custom bits for complete mechanical integrity and resonance control. The proprietary output transformers would meanwhile remain under de Lima's control in Brazil.
On July 13th Eduardo drove down to Villeneuve to talk about the gestation of this ambitious project and demonstrate his Brazilian samples. I needed to know whether their performance in my system was as shocking as their stickers. To proceed they had to make me forget. Diminishing returns notwithstanding, there ought to be a fundamental audible revelation to justify such expense. Often the delta of performance is too narrow. I've occupied my publisher's chair for nine very busy years. Encounters of the super kind remain far and few between. While other reviewers seem to have them monthly, I rarely do. I've come across and acquired a few impressive value performers. They keep things real. They put a heavy burden of proof on challengers with glittering tags where cost is no object(ion).

 
Prelim Swiss rendering 2
To name but a few, there's Nelson Pass' FirstWatt SIT-2, Dan Wright's ModWright KWA-100SE, Simon Lee's Eximus DP1, Sasa Cokic's Trafomatic Kaivalya monos, John Chapman's Bent Audio Tap-X and Clayton Shaw's Spatial software/service package. Multiplying their stickers by a factor of 10 or beyond should insist on very demonstrable and significant audible advances. By now you realize that the Maggiore 100 passed this reality check. From my €5.500/pr Serbian Kaivalya monos to the CHF24.7000/pr Swiss Colotube 300B equivalents to these €60.000 Swiss/Brazilians, there were peaks, taller peaks and peaks yet more majestic. The third kind happens very rarely. When it does it's time to pay attention. Then price stops factoring. What's left is a focus on what's sonically possible.

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