Preamplitude. Let's give headfi a break. After all, Dionysus doubles as serious albeit no-wand pre. In my mind given today's coin toss, lack of remote disqualifies it for 'big' rigs unless we manage to sit within reach. Even my €349 Audalytic HP70 offers infrared convenience. Letting Dionysus off the hook needs serious spin. Dog. Wag. Tail. It's first and foremost an end-of-life headamp which on a desktop or other nearfield system operates a side hustle as linestage. Enter heroic tenors like Alireza Ghorbani or Luciano Pavarotti. When they breach their power zone, we should enter goosebump territory. A prerequisite to launch into orbit is expanded dynamic range. We don't just want to hit the proverbial 11. We want to push beyond then fall back maximally low when the breakers subside and our heroes regather their forces. With FangSound, the virtual get-louder pedal had more travel. Where the HP70 hit its stops, Dionysus continued.

This also tracked less heroic circumstances. With Mayte Martín's opening track from her gorgeous Tempo Rubato album, we hear a string quartet then seemingly fragile voice and subdued guitar. Suddenly the 'little nice lady' gets more emphatic with no apparent effort. Soon we wonder just how many more vocal reserves she sits on. The proof of that is not knowing the track. So we set our volume against the mellow opening. Once we rush for the remote to dial back what scales rather louder than expected—if we had a remote—we own the meaning of expanded dynamic range. From Mayte Martín to Eda Karaytuğ—two ladies I tryst with regularly—we focus down this DR effect on still narrower fluctuations. Where some components render this range as mostly steady so equally loud, more accurate dynamic tracking still discerns gradients to tease out amplitude motion, be it the vocals with modal embellishments or Yurdal Tokcan's cümbüş, an Anatolian kin of the banjo of very particular timbre.

As you noticed if you followed my sound links, I embedded more bowed strings to show that if you thought yourself allergic to classical music or late Beethoven string quartets—an acquired taste which takes exposure to develop appreciation for—there's no need to abstain from their gorgeous timbres altogether. Just pursue them in current popular music or movie soundtracks. Get familiar. Multiple bowed strings have the unnerving habit to lay bare hifi shortcomings which electronica or Rock for example overlook completely. If you want to become better at judging sound which then becomes the basis for improving your hifi just as you won't see a doctor unless you know to be sick—being intimate with the hues, textures and harmonic intensity of string orchestras is most helpful.

Of course if they become an exclusive diet, our system could well fall apart on advanced 'drums 'n' bass' fare like this very sophisticated collab between Indian percussion ace Trilok Gurtu and Italian electronic producer Robert Miles simply called Miles_Gurtu. Play this back loud on a well set-up speaker system with holographic imaging and accurate full-range bass. To come off as no mere assault of noises but filigreed tapestry of carefully crafted and placed micro events takes very different qualities than this page's other albums.

Timely driver control without choking, overhang or late stoppages is key to maximizing the baked-in percussive perspicacity. Speedy impulse response against a very low noise floor might be the most applicable tech terms. In more anthromorphic terms, we'd invoke edginess, briskness, vigor even relentlessness. The Germans have a fab word for it: knüppeln. It translates as 'to bludgeon' but unlike the English word, sounds brutal and unpleasant already in the mere sound of it, never mind its meaning of pugilistic violence. We'd rightfully expect all the associated aural ground 'n' pound qualities of MMA from a high-voltage device with fast-recovery switch-mode power and no big capacitors that lazily recharge. You could just shrug this off with a dismissive 'goes without saying' as though waiting for me to tell you something novel. The takeaway is applying also to line-level preamplitude. In this context, the Vagabundo track at right is there only because it's shamelessly pretty and combines the Greek clarinet of Vassili Saleas with an early offshoot of Southern France's Rumba Flamenco by the Gipsy Kings. If you needed a post "Loom" palate cleanser, this should do.

To count our preamp pennies, we see that unlike the class of active preamps whose primary action thickens, fattens, slows downs and comforts—and despite implied name-sake debauchery of too much carnality and ferments— Dionysus busied himself with a boot up the arse of dynamic expression; and shortened the reins on transient snap and LF crack. Its primary role was accelerator and energizer like a modern turbo engine with twin clutch. Time to arm wrestle the Enleum AMP-23R on headphones, with OG Susvara on new Dekoni pads representing grizzly loads. And no, I didn't try 115dB/1mW IEM on a 40wpc amp though Elise Audio say we can. My mindset is that if we don't want to scratch Teflon-lined pans, we should use silicone not metal utensils. Even audiophile extremism should impose limits on silliness. Why pursue extreme power and headroom for ultra-efficient IEM?

Back on Susvara, my sixth spider sense saw a tarantula. A throne was shaking, an usurper banging the door. Just as my suspicions anticipated, Dionysus really did compete head-on with my Enleum. Tonality was a virtual stand-in for a very sweaty standoff. Our faux Greek did play just a bit fresher on leading edges for slightly sharper blister on the virile bulerías from Swedish flamenco ace Robert 'Robi' Svärd called "Te Vienes o No Te Vienes"—come; or don't come—from his 2018 album Alquimia.

To tighten screws on that hypothesis, I cued up a live track between Dorantes and Renaud Garcia-Fons from their Paseo a Dos album called "Molto enrollado". If you didn't think acoustic upright and piano could loosen a few dental fillings during their more heavy-attack hammering 'n' plucking passages played back loud, give this workout a try. Switching ¼" ports, I heard the same minor offset buried within the transient action and tonal follow-up. Dionysus had subtly bluish undertones where the AMP-23R's tint was more golden. This distinction was far more subcutaneous than generic cool/warm descriptors but contained faint echoes thereof.

Rather than strain like a constipated Irishman without his prune juice to produce more difference, it'd only disguise the fact that for all intents and purposes, these two amps were identical twins. Those who know them intimately can still tell them apart. Not so the average casual bloke or bird. It revives my earlier preview. As a far more comprehensively connected and gain-staged head amp with RCA/XLR-out preamp facility for half the coin, Dionysus is an AMP-23R for those not wanting to direct-drive speakers; and who aren't bothered by its lack of remote control. Given that until then the petite Enleum had ruled on my Aluminium Throne, today the usurper took over. Unlike in Game of Thrones, no blood spilled. Nobody bought it on the John or took the Walk of Shame. No dragons were harmed. Still, half the cashet means a current setback in real cachet whereby Enleum have built an enviable rep to assure high resale value when change nears. FangSound are still an unproven newcomer whose current web presence makes no concessions to a global audience. Of course if Alvin Chee at Vinshine Audio could single-handedly launch Denafrips and Kinki Studio for a worldwide audience, why couldn't Elise Audio help establish FangSound from the UK for one half of the globe; and Linsoul from China for the other? I'm not privy to their plans for global exposure. This will depend on distributor interest, consumer response and factory support—none of it my bailiwick. But someone ought to help FangSound with their English-speaking game. Back into my own wheelhouse and headphones; plus two more very intense vocal tracks on completely opposite sides of the track.

On another track, cars get annual tune-ups. With everything freshly lubed, calibrated and refilled, they run better. Mod shops retune engines to go faster. An amp like Enleum's current flagship called AMP-54R underwent a lengthy 2-year fine-tuning period. FangSound themselves mentioned very protracted tuning. Reeking of possibly puffy paper propaganda, hearing Dionysus level up to my prior reference on many different loads strongly suggested that their in-house design team really did drill down deep on the voicing aspects. Such results are no happy accident. They require hard work and carefully applied experience. New this brand may be; but its designers and tuners clearly aren't newbs. That needed saying.