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Some of the music listened to while evaluating the Femto included a pair of awesome deals (under €10 each!) which I downloaded from Qobuz; an underrated yet wonderful set of all nine Beethoven symphonies with Andre Cluytens conducting the Berlin Philharmonic recorded before Herbie the K turned it into his sleek polished smooth-riding machine [EMI 16-bit/44.1kHz]; Samson Francois’s idiosyncratic readings of Debussy’s piano works [EMI 16-bit/44.1kHz]; Per Norgard’s otherworldly 3rd & 7th Symphonies [Da Capo 24-bit 96kHz]...
...long-time audio review reference and just plain fun Live at Fip from The Hadouk Trio [Melodie 16/44]; the 1990’s Screamadelica classic from Primal Scream; John Corigliano’s The Red Violin concerto [Naxos 24/96 WAV] and Jason Moran’s Ten [16/44].
The Femto had a laidback not-on-my-lap presentation. It possessed an exceptionally clean clear neutral tonal balance and was wonderfully revealing of musical nuance and micro detail. There wasn’t even a hint of glare or the glassy hardness one usually associates with digital.
I could hear the overall musical line in those Beethoven symphonies mentioned above as well as the tension and release behind the notes. Regardless of genre or complexity of the music, the notes made sense and flowed naturally. Quite often digital missteps in this regard by chopping up the line or flow like a rapidly alternating stop/go effect.
The top end was sweet, airy and downright silky minus all traces of etch or brittleness. Nor was it rolled off. Bass weight, impact and articulation were superb and quite possibly the best I have yet heard from a DAC. Vocal and instrumental timbres were spot on. Images were sharper, more defined and fleshed out and perfectly integrated in the recorded ambiance. Thus playback came across coherent and real and less as an electronic illusion.
While I no longer had Calyx’s 24/192 DAC on hand, it was evident that it and the Femto were cut from the same sonic cloth. The overall balance, tonal neutrality and freedom from digitalitis were identical but the more expensive piece went even further.
The Femto surged ahead with a far wider deeper and more layered soundstage. And I mean huge. Granted, soundstaging or dimensionality aren’t exactly at the top of my playback priority list but I was certainly impressed and it only heightened the easy natural vibe of this DAC.
Little things like leading edges of notes and their subsequent decays were more apparent as were the dynamic gradations from soft to loud. Venue information if present was amazingly real and present. Clearly the Femto was resolving far more information than the 24/192. In fact its low-level resolution and the manner in which information is presented has to be experienced to be appreciated. It isn’t something I think will be readily noticeable in quick A/B comparisons. Instead it stealthily infiltrates your psyche like some audiophile fifth column. Give it a day or two and you’ll be completely subverted. On top of that I was experiencing a new plateau of ease and propulsion - what some refer to as PraT or pace, rhythm and timing. The Femto simply flowed. And at the risk of drawing death threats from some quarters; the Femto displayed a good deal of the forward momentum and sense of musical purpose of analog.
All things considered, listening to music through the Femto was easy relaxing and natural yet also compelling and exciting. Fatigue was never an issue. The Femto’s exceptional prowess in mining the depths of my recordings also meant that the lousy ones had nowhere to hide. This is what one should expect from a high-resolution component. You want the truth? Not to get all Jack Nicholson on you but I hope you can handle the truth the Femto will most certainly give to you. There was no soft Hollywood camera focus to hide sonic blemishes or wrinkles. Really gawd-awful recordings (the Stones’ Some Girls hi-rez remaster will do) still sounded like hammered shit but at least the Femto could salvage something musically useful and interesting out of such sonic excrement. I’m sure this is testament to what is probably a remarkably low noise floor and miniscule distortion.
