This was a mixed bag. Whilst the delta was clearly bigger and about getting fuller, creamier and more 'settled', the Kinki EX-M7/Aptica pairing wasn't happy. With Tektron's Neptune, a 211 SET from Sicily just packed up, the sound had been ace. With the Chinese 2.5MHz direct-coupled monos, I heard embedded gristle or rust which Aramis made still more acute against greater softness. My stereo spider sense tingled. Did I hear +30kHz breakup from Accuton's inverted dome tweeter which intermodulated the signal because an ultra-bandwidth gain circuit exaggerated its out-of-band behaviour? Hey, when you're drowning, you grab the flimsiest flotation device for an explanation. I'd not tried this amp/speaker mating before. I won't be back.

Here's a look at Akiko's own skinny cable sitting behind white German Physiks HRS-120 2-ways. This amp/speaker combo was muy bueno already on its own which…

… as it turned out…

… again minimized Aramis' action. Why? These are full-bandwidth 360° radiators. An Ohm/Walsh-derivative omni widebander on top hands off to a downfiring slot-loaded woofer at 200Hz. The dispersion pattern and driver choices make this HRS-120 a super 6SN7 big-tone affair. Instead of dry, pixel-pointillist and staccato precise, it's rich, fluid and legato-elegiac. Tone doesn't need even a drop of tube-derived 2nd-harmonic padding. The dispersion pattern takes care of it with mild room reverb. That big-tone slightly voluptuous quality was so dominant or first tier that the noise traps' 4th-tier contributions didn't much register. On Aptica's far drier more punctilious opposite, I'd been very clear about what the Dutchies were doing. The amp/speaker dance had simply stepped on toes to get disqualified. But about the Aramis effect, I began to get the message. Rather than draft in our dipole-down-to-300Hz Qualio IQ…

… my next port of call was upstairs. Here miniature 4" isobaric 2-ways from South Korea hold court tethered to a dual 9½" force-cancelling sealed Dynaudio sub at 70Hz. This system's amp is the stereo version of the downstairs monos. Yes, I have clear amp favourites. The upstairs monitors run external LessLoss Firewall for Speakers passive noise filters. I'd obviously replace those with Aramis. Then I'd compare the relative efficacy between the cheaper Dutch parallel trap and the costlier Lithuanian series filter. The phrasing explains the difference. With LessLoss, the signal from amp to speaker passes through the device, making it a filter. Akiko insert nothing between amp and speaker. They add a low-impedance dead end to the return terminal. That's a trap.