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| 6SN7 SET|ECC88 p/p. My review system of Antelope Audio Zodiac Gold/Voltikus, FirstWatt F5 and Mark+Daniel Fantasia S was deliberately picked for speed, transparency and neutrality to give the ModWright and Fonel preamps the most room to make their respective cases for valvular virtues. To add further gravitas to their argument, I kicked off with Carmen Lundy's "'Round Midnight" from her xrcd JVC release Self Portrait. Whilst obviously a classic standard, I first met it with Carmen on my arm. Ever since it's become my personal reference. No other performer's interpretation or version has come close to dethrone it. That's how it goes with first loves and crushes. A very luscious string arrangement with solo oboe and superb production values merely add to the allure. If tubes didn't press the flesh with female jazz vocals, where else would they? |
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The 6SN7's performer outlines were a bit fuzzier and bigger, textures smokier and fluffier like cotton balls. The ECC88s were more firmly focused. The previously mentioned wall-of-soundness factored even stronger for the ModWright than it did for the Fonel. Speaking in broad terms for clarity if not actual distance, the German maintained more multi-mic'd separation between the massed violins as individuals.
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The American applied a more omni-mic'd ensemble perspective. This trickled down into a minor divergence of sharp and soft. The 6SN7s were softer, the ECC88 sharper. Whether that was due to circuit-based THD distribution or intrinsic to the tubes themselves I of course couldn't determine.
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In matter of vocal sex—whatever pink term you pick, triode lovers around the globe know the significance—the ModWright went farther. Whilst one could argue that it's an effect rather than textbook honesty, particularly on this type of fare it's inarguably very attractive. Charbel Rouhana's "Sleepless Nights" from his Dangerous disc sports his gravelly Cohen-style pipes which are octave-doubled by a second singer against a lilting bossa-flavored rhythm that's occasionally punctuated by Charbel's Lebanese oud. The 6SN7s rendered the guttural growly facets of the main voice richer and more pronounced. On Claude Chalhoub's elegiac and classicist string orchestra of Diwan, the 6SN7 was sweeter and more burnished, the ECC8 more rosiny for a subtle shift between wood and metal elements. The upshot of this juxtaposition was more overt valve action for the ModWright. |
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Practically speaking, if I owned just one preamp I'd pick the Fonel for combining passive-reminiscent neutrality with a lighter dose of tube glow. As someone who insolently justifies owning multiples in every component category as office equipment—my sound room really is my office and even the taxman agrees—I decided to own both a passive for absolute neutrality and the ModWright as a more obvious tube operator. This spreads out the flavor variations I can achieve. There's little sense in duplication. Variety is the spice of life. Esoteric's C-03 covers transistors from zero to 24dB of voltage gain. Civilians meanwhile must be far more practical. For them the Renaissance quite cannily splits the sand/glass bill.
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Convertering: Leashing the S/PDIF-out of the Zodiac Gold converter to the S/PDIF-in of the Fonel whilst running also an analog IC between the two allowed for convenient switching between DACs. Naturally it also dumped charge for USB-to-S/PDIF conversion on Igor Levin's proprietary async 32/384 USB interface. The Bulgarian digital had more top-end air. This added white to the color palette to de-clump subtle textures. It had more illumination of audible space and a more set-back expansive spatial presentation. Fonel's built-in converter sounded more robust, forward, solid and compact. On sophistication, subjective magnification power of micro detail and ambient retrieval the Antelope machine had the clear edge. |
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Even so the performance delta was quite narrow. That's how it goes with quality digital these days. Fonel's implementation is far more than stop gap and probably on par with units like Wyred4Sound's DAC1. The 24/192 async USB port built on the proven M2Tech module is a lovely bonus. It avoids having to go offboard while conforming with all current hi-resolution streaming requirements in master rather than slave-mode transmission protocol.
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Headfi-ing: Many audiophiles don't do headphones. I'm very much into them and have quite the collection to support the habit. As was the case already with the LS-100's 6.3mm socket, the Renaissance ¼" port is headline act rather than fluff feature. With stout gain, push/pull noise cancellation in the absence of global feedback and obvious drive the Fonel would be a superb but expensive and colossally over-featured headphone amp if used in that function only. As a preamp meanwhile whose butch power supply and output stage is simply double-tapped to also fire up from efficient to seriously lazy cans like HifiMan's HE-6, the Renaissance becomes a killer destination. It's fully equal to Schiit's mighty Lyr in performance if not raw gain. With the HE6 the Fonel goes plenty loud for my pink bits but the Lyr could wilt them to charcoal. The Renaissance cannot. Anything less than the 6s however and despite its cultured name the Fonel can turn fierce head banger. Sonics fully mirror those of the speaker-level outputs. Where the ModWright's hybrid solution is a virtual stand-in for my fully optioned-out Woo Audio Model 5 with Synergy Hifi glass, the Fonel was sonically far closer to the Lyr fitted with 6N1Ps.
2nd full-feature opinion: Rather than brief sidebar, Jörg Dames' full-length review offers a comprehensive second take for those who want to circle the wagon once more. As a digital-only type I've obviously not commented on the phono performance. If it's anything like the DAC—whose entire module is put in sleep mode whenever phono is selected—it should be more than respectable.
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Tausendsassa? Jawohl. As my first encounter with the brand, the Renaissance's no-nonsense build, generous featurization and competitive sonics made a very good impression. Whilst for that clean look the many command buttons on the fascia are deliberately small and their identifiers hard to read, being duplicated on the luxo wooden remote makes that a mostly academic complaint. The motor-driven Alps pot moves pleasantly slow. Hitting the desired level never overshoots as it can with more nervous implementations. Potential tube noise is a complete non-issue. The compact dimensions and thick steel enclosure make for surprising material density. The small light diodes for source, headphone and volume indication are attractive for both low-key intensity and yellow/orange tube-glow tint (volume blinks for mute). Various wood trim choices and black or silver case work add designer options. This definitely is a very packed proposition.
But multi-tasking here doesn't imply compromised. Instead it's integrationist smarts. Sonically the Renaissance approaches the walk-in lucidity, bandwidth and low noise of superior passives for massive soundstaging with the dynamically responsive voltage-swing happiness and bottom-end weight of actives for impact and density. Then it adds a very fine dose of tone texturing. It's distinctly more a transistor sound with just a dash of thermionic flavoring. All-tube fanciers might want more overt glow, tonal generosity and fluffy fluidity. Those into hybrid circuits of tube drivers with transistor current gain that produce tauter control, more incisive separation and higher innate musical tension should feel right at home. They are the core audience which Fonel's Renaissance would seem to target if my assessment is on target... |
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Quality of packing: Very good.
Reusability of packing: A few times.
Ease of unpacking/repacking: A cinch.
Condition of component received: Flawless.
Completeness of delivery: Perfect. Includes wooden remote and a special Fonel power cord several cuts above the usual generics.
Human interactions: Good.
Pricing: Semi expensive per se but quite the value when the phono, DAC and headphone functions are added in.
Final comments & suggestions: None. This is a mature product. |
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