Here we see one half of the Pascal module

… followed by the other.

With no visible fixings—the four lone bolts securing the footers also secure the bottom plate—and the master controller switchable between volume and source selector to minimize the buttonry…

… Aavik's U-380 is one very sleek slick operator. Where Italian design can get a bit baroque, Scandinavian design is all about the purity of simplicity.

For first proof of life, the U-380 moved upstairs where Node Audio's breakout Hylixa speakers had just settled down for more rare stylishness in hifi.

As it turned out, Hylixa's warmer bloomier signature from combining direct and time-delayed bass output in a point-source array played rather snappier and more exciting over our Bakoon. Given the U-380's upscale sticker and implied ambition to compete with more illustrious hardware than we run upstairs, hitting the downstairs system afterwards was a mere matter of finishing up earlier assignments.