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The RI-70 was not as transparent as my Orpheus 3M/Wyred4Sound STP-SE combo. The Orpheus Three M pair produces more air and seems to offer better speaker control. Considering the cost of my Swiss amplifiers at twice the price of the French and their huge power supply, this performance difference seemed most reasonable. The Orpheus monos delivered a more ethereal sound whilst the Stormaudio integrated offered more density and depth when the StormFocus control sat at exactly 4.2Ω. Above 8 ohms the soundstage became wider but suffered a noticeable loss in precision and detail. With the Triangles the ideal setting was very clearly 4.2 ohms. I must confess to at first not being completely convinced about the usefulness or applicability of one definitive StormFocus position. The Chesky disc showed me that finally there was an intermediate position (the 4.2Ω) that performed quite ideally across all parameters.

In this setting the RI-70 became very natural, sweet and quite similar to my Hiraga Le Monstre. It simply added further depth, power and precision. Considering the first resolution test of the Chesky CD—Rebecca Pigeon’s "Spanish Harlem"—it's traditionally quite difficult to precisely distinguish the subtle differences between each maracas shake. Here the Stormaudio integrated produced a first-class performance. The naturalness of Rebecca’s voice was tremendous. Sometimes it tends to be too ethereal or too large but with the RI-70 the voice felt very natural and correctly sized.

Next up was Sara K. with "If I Could Sing Your Blues". The RI-70 succeeded to fairly reproduce the relative depth perspective of the various instruments on this track. The difficulty resides in reproducing the gradations between Sara K.’s voice at the front of the stage, the intermediate guitar position and the drums at the back stage. All this proved most coherent. With many systems it is not always easy to precisely localize the guitarist but with the Stormaudio contender it became child’s play. "Played Twice" by The Fred Hersch Trio is the transparency test on the Ultimate Demonstration Disc (the 13th track). The transparency factor was undoubtedly a major assessment factor for the Stormaudio design team. I think this feature responded most delicately to the Z-out adjustments. The ultimate search for very fine transparency should additionally require specific efforts on the wiring loom selection and speakers positioning.


The quality of transients was perfectly illustrated by the percussive nature of the piano. Bass was full and deep but never boomy. The drums helped remarkably to define the acoustics of the recording studio and convey a believable sensation of being there. I thought this track a great help to precisely adjust the StormFocus. On "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Monty Alexander (17th track), the resolution on hand assisted me to distinguish with utmost clarity the various acoustic settings of the two drum kits. The differences between acoustic and electric bass were equally obvious. The incredible dynamics here tracked to very loud levels. At realistic levels and during the horn section forté the Stormaudio amp showed no distress signs of compression or timbre shifts.


Johnny Frigo performing "I Love Paris" is undoubtedly the liveliest track of the Chesky album. The three-dimensional soundstage was stunningly wide with a fine level of separation between each instrument. The room acoustics also gave a good appreciation of depth. The Stormaudio amp had no excessive brightness and delivered realistic tonal shadings in a very accurate stereophonic image. All these aspects combined into an amazingly involving session. On Vivaldi’s "Flute Concerto in D" played by the Connecticut Early Music Festival Ensemble, the precise localization of each instrument's outline was achieved brilliantly. The diversity of timbres fared well too. Each note of John Salomon's flute remained distinct and even the harpsichord resisted blurring against the other stringed instruments.


On "Festival Te Deum" from O Magnum Mysterium (Westminster Choir, Britten), the holographic abilities of the RI-70 gave me the sensation of being in Saint Mary's Cathedral. The machine succeeded in delivering a convincing three-dimensional image of the large chorus. Using the pre-out to connect the Athom Rafale V38s subwoofer, the sense of space grew yet more to provide further realism. Finishing with Stravinsky's "Royal March" extract from the Soldier's Tale, the sudden shifts of dynamics posed no discernable challenges for the RI-70 which delivered the action with clear and powerful transients, tight impact and respectable speed. Such performance caliber is not very frequent in the 4-5K euro zone and the benefits of the present hybrid scheme of current/voltage drive seemed to make a key argument in its own favor


Changing speakers for the smaller Athom GT1 monitors—the Duettos are in fact more comparable to bigger speakers and react in similar fashion to common floorstanders—the StormFocus called for a new human calibration process. Since the Athom bookshelves do not deliver as spacious a soundstage as the Triangles, the StormFocus could be set close to 8Ω. I had less time to fine-tune the GT1 because they entered the game at the end of the review period but even in the exact same room position using the same Triangle stands the StormFocus lock required a clearly higher value than the Triangles.

This time the "Royal March" relinquished some speed but the soundstage remained wide and the quality of timbres unaltered. I think that since my reference system was carefully optimized around a specific pair of speakers, it remains a lengthier process to perfectly accommodate another pair of transducers. I do not mean to suggest that it is impossible but that it would require more attention on my part than I had time for. Swapping speakers nevertheless highlighted the ability of the Stormaudio integrated amp to adjust itself to the global response of each transducer. I believe that I found a quite ideal setting—and one that was decidedly different than zero ohms—for either speaker. This produced improvements in the acoustical delay vs frequency and in the power and transient response. Translated into musical terms I noticed a real point of equilibrium where three-dimensional imaging, timbres, bass and detail accuracy all came into – well, focus.


Conclusion. In my opinion the Stormaudio RI-70’s technical singularity has merit and deserves attention well outside the obvious attempts at market differentiation. But there’s a price to pay. The owner needs to get involved and learn the ropes of the specific sonic aspects the StormFocus control affects to experiment and lock in the optimum setting. Without this mandatory investigation, I’d not predict completely satisfying results that would justify the RI-70's asking price. Once the StormFocus control has been precisely adjusted for the occasion, the RI-70 hardly allowed room for criticism. It then delivered a wide spectrum of qualities rarely combined in a single device. The Stormaudio integrated does not try to impress us with one specific salient feature that would overshadow others. It delivers good if not extraordinary resolution, first-class three-dimensional soundstaging, precise separation of instruments, wide linear bandwidth and a very pleasing and natural gradation of timbres.


The high tone density of this French integrated might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is quite obvious that the StormFocus setting will help adjust its sonic identity to a broader audience of admirers. Once again the design’s main interest seems to be overall accuracy. I consider this Stormaudio integrated amplifier the kind of product that can claim a certain universality and timelessness such as the famous but more modestly priced integrated amps from NAD in the past. The StormFocus concept could also be interesting for widebander addicts focused on solid-state amplification. The idea of current drive for such applications was previously introduced in Nelson Pass' article for the FirstWatt concept. Summing up, the RI-70 appeared me like a component that’s aimed to satisfy the needs of mature audiophiles who are  aware of the key role overall setup attention plays and who are conscious of what kind of sound they want. If you consider the music playback system as a chain and think that every part of the chain need to be carefully optimized, the Stormaudio RI-70 could become one of your best friends.
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