When tweaks descend into the dungeons of hideous subtlety, a reviewer finds his most valuable limbs stretched thin between twain and very resilient posts - of wanting to prove superior hearing acuity (divining the tiniest of alterations with the precision of a radioactive probe that measures sub-atomic half life decays); and honesty, of not hearing any difference whatsoever. In other words, he's being tortured by the mistress whose whip asks: "Fact or imagination, caresses or cuts?"

If you like pain, you ask for more. If you're normal, you opt out. Did you notice how I just painted myself into the normal corner? Actually, the mistress was made of sterner stuff than yours truly. I had entered hair-splitting territory and wanted to leave. She wasn't ready to quit her game yet. I quickly concluded that if I was to have any chance of surviving this encounter, I'd have to go for well-recorded human voice, slip inside it and explore the finest nuances of surf-like white noise behind the vocal cords; the fine shifts of the tonal center, from high throat to roof of mouth, from deep esophagus to center of skull. Could I hear anything different at all, except to enjoy my newfound facility of digital phase? To be honest, fixing proper phase from recording to recording proved of more reliable virtue. With the DR-3000's filter, I couldn't figure what I was supposed to listen for. Decays? Air? Timbre? Dynamics? Leading edges? Harmonics?


Was the Zanden DAC oblivious to the need for a "pre-cooked" signal? Was my hearing shot? Was the system of insufficient resolution to cotton to this elusive magic? At times, I thought that I actually preferred the DR-3000 out of the loop. It seemed to add a shadow of etched sharpness, to overlay the music with a hint of grain. However, before I could convince myself that I had finally nailed the dirty bastard to call him a faint form of coloration, he'd slipped my grasp again. Greasy weasel. I could stretch this chase ad infinitum and entertain you with further anecdotes of defeat. But why burn up pixels? One inescapable fact remained - this device was clearly intended for pointier ears than the good fairy bestowed on this listener. Thankfully, the Analogue Reconstructor proved far less elusive though with quite different fringe benefits between Cairn and Zanden.

On the Model 5000, I was shocked to note, using it again in direct mode, that going through the AR-2000 was appreciably more immediate, more open, as though a thin layer of haze had been wiped off the soundstage. This wasn't at all what I expected. Going through additional circuitry more direct? Somebody was f**king with my head. Still, this proved repeatable from CD to CD, immediately audible without a doubt. I soon hated to disconnect this mysterious box from the signal path. Now here's a very strange thing. On the Cairn, the same device imparted a becoming sense of softness, as though buffing away a few imperfections on the surface of each note, the kind that make things sound a bit hard, not too organic. By virtue of zero up- or oversampling but rather, its own tubed power supply, patented analog reconstruction filter and triode output stage, the Zanden is arguably already the creamiest (low-fat!) DAC on the scene.


Is that why the "polishing" action of the AR-2000 didn't elicit any further surface glow, every note already being spit-shined to inspection perfection? I'd have predicted that this would condemn the added box as purely redundant, capable only of mucking things up with further circuitry and added interconnects. Not. Without adding gain, frequency response contouring or tailored harmonic distortion, the AR-2000/Zanden combo underwent the proverbial window cleaning - more clarity and openess, by virtue of removing something else that heretofore had acted as a mild while actively opaque filter. Until Hideo Kitazawa needs it back, this unorthodox Ortho box stays in the system. Simple as that. Now - would I purchase it when the time came?


Personally, at this late stage of my end-times game, and all other things considered? Yes - unequivocally. Shy of upgrading the transport to something monstrously molto bene -- like perhaps the Orpheus Labs Zero or MBL 1621 -- there's precious little left that I expect would improve the system's overall performance to any appreciable extent, in fair trade between money and audible return. At $1,100 (inclusive of a flat courier fee from Singapore/Japan to the US), how Akiba-San's device nudged my total enjoyment closer to bliss was more than in balance and likely not replicable by spending the same amount elsewhere - say on cabling. Never mind electronics or speakers. Those would take obscenely more to upgrade.
However. Anyone with a less "mature" system will reap larger, far more important and substantial dividends by first attending proper power delivery and resonance control. Don't mistake this for a blanket recommendation then. It isn't. Analog reconstruction becomes the equivalent of the rakish rose in the buttonhole, the crowning touch. Don't bother if the suit is poorly cut, the wearer badly groomed. Get the basics right first! Should you feel at the place where monogrammed cuff links and tie chains became appropriate? Now the Ortho Spectrum AR-2000 is a viable consideration. Be advised however that, due to its rather different performances with my two DACs (one internal, one external), I can't exactly predict what flavor its contribution to your system might turn out to be - the more organic, "analogue" softening kind; the removal of the window tinting; or a yet unforeseen encounter of a third kind. Either way, I suspect it'd be very desirable.
Global distributor's website