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Now let’s forward music history by 12 years to Tabula Rasa on which Einstürzende Neubauten premiered their gentler side. "Blume" is a cut of high interest both musically and aural/technically. Aussie singer Anita Lane provides her nearly impossibly erotic voice. If her hushed delivery of "…for you I am a chrysanthemum supernova, urgent star" doesn’t raise goose bumps and blood pressure, you’re in Elysium already.

This elfin magic is underscored by triplet guitar flageolet, the saucy talk-song of Blixa Bargeld, mysterious sibilants, deep bass reverb and the Neubauten’s signature subliminal growl. How did the pre/power combo fare? As commanded. My notes say "clear, intelligible, complete, obvious". This impression continued with Lloyd Cole’s newest release where "If I were song" is exemplary. The plucked acoustic guitars, the refreshingly unadorned voice of Cole, the softly rocking lap steel guitar and pleasantly held-back drums all were dispatched with nonchalance, neither too much nor too little.

Contrasts & surprises: For contrast I cued up Smashing Pumpkins’ Machina/The Machines Of God. Upon first encounter, the opening cut "The Everlasting Gaze" is a very unpleasant spry affair with brutally distorted guitar riff and a drum treatment that suggests a mean person tearing away impatiently at stuck silverware drawers. It’s anything but pacifist and in fact plain ugly. Up to the refrain. Then amidst all the brutality a tiny door cracks open to reveal a broadly lit space which despite the mayhem all around it suddenly begins to glow. It’s hard to describe. Best hear it. Here I thought the academic twosome could have delivered somewhat greater punch. I considered it a bit distanced instead.


On the surface, nothing was lacking. Neutrality across the board prevailed. And yet, this type of fare at least for my tastes requires more oomph. Such sonic chaos relies on a centering mechanism. This could be more substantial bass pressure like my Myryad MXA2150 amp delivered. Or it could be a more incisive crash cymbal becoming pervasive life beat as Yamaha’s A-S2000 integrated had it. To identify probable cause, I switched to Jamiroquai’s "Driftin‘ Along", a pure Reggae number with quintessentially low pumping bass.


Over the academics that groove emerged somewhat gemütlich. Besides timing, the name of the game here is absolute extension. With dub-reggae beats, I logically expect reach, attack and sufficiently powerful sustain on standing notes. To call the HiFiAkademie version shy would be unfairly critical but I did want for a bit more substance and speed. To qualify this, a comparator combo of Funk preamp and Myryad amp delivered greater pressure, firmer transients and general bigger staying power down low. It also had the more deeply layered, dimensionally more expansive and less speaker-specific soundstage. It also was priced double.

Now for the surprise. After a long satisfied day of extensive cycling through Pop, Rock, Noise and Jazz, I planned on merely touching classical for completeness’ sake. Mahler’s Sinfonie N°.2 sat in the SACD player and I was curious how the combo would deal with the occasionally drastic voltage swings of the first movement where Mahler digs real deep. Brass chorus emerges from nothing into thunder, is ringed by percussion, then followed by dewy violins and violas, those again by massive percussion melée. Who woulda thunk? This had the academics at their finest. They managed a highly realistic concert hall atmosphere whilst presenting the orchestra itself very believably.

By believable I mean very structured clean staging which—though neither extremely wide nor deep—remained exceptionally sorted even outside the sweet spot. Other amps that I drafted for comparison might have ‘gifted’ me with more raw space but also underplayed this localization precision. Though I admittedly missed some bass substance higher up on the page, on massive symphonic forces nothing lacked. Even big kettle drums had all the impact and gloom the composer must have intended. Strange but efficacious as it says on the Ayre break-in CD.