Override. That became my word du jour after a good hour of steadily heating musical chairs. Whatever minor sonic differences there may have existed between these two data streams were utterly overridden by Zena's exploded bandwidth and how what that informed was amplified hence magnified by the equally endless very fast German amplifiers. Take the evocative closer from Andima. It's a very well-recorded album of violin/accordion duets between Martina Eisenreich and Andreas Hinterseher on the excellent German label GLM. Both artists generate special sound effects to suggest sighs and otherworldly flutters to accompany their haunting cover of that other theme from John Williams' "Schindler's List."

The special qualities Zena brought to the party encompassed tone and radiation intensity. A well-recorded violin in the spotlight is capable of astonishing reach. When enriched with flickering flageolet as here, it loads up even more on upper harmonics where modulations can invoke the gamut from the sweet to strident, from woody hoodedness to gloriously penetrating brilliance. Here Zena took off a lid on tonal compression. She demonstrably expanded the envelope of overtone presence. Because timbre means harmonic signatures, the upshot was richer more authentic tone. Further demonstrator excellence for that came with Reinhold Friedrich's flawless high trumpet on Bach's 2nd Brandenburg Concerto under Claudio Abbado, with the masterful Guiliano Camignola on solo violin and other heroes on their respective instruments in a truly astonishing live reading.

Unlike the thicker orchestrations of romantic symphonies, the leaner forces of a Baroque orchestra expose its musicians far more to make more of them soloists. Here the Zena/Liszt combination became revelatory. It felt as though a fine mist or resistive substance had evaporated for a more electrified direct connection of sound to air to ears. Many designers dispute the benefits of extreme bandwidth due to potential instability issues. I heard none, only very bold sonics emblazoned by rich tone, broad timbre diversity and elevated dynamic impact.

A final classical example for Zena's unusually expansive tonal palette came from Albrecht Mayer's oboe in his rendering of the impressionist Goossens concerto from his Longing for Paradise album on DG. Albert's chosen instrument is another whose complex pungent and reedy timbre many a hifi tends to belittle. Close-mic'd violin, high baroque trumpet, oboe. Contrary to certain concerns borne of inexperience with properly implemented ultra-bandwidth circuits, this sound was the antithesis of zippy or fast-but-furious bright.

Neither had this tonal intensity anything in common with legacy 300B valve aromas and their mechanisms. If anything, it was related to what a superior super tweeter à la Franck Tchang diamond omni or EnigmAcoustics Sopranino adds to an already good system. Timbres blossom from matte and dull into most glossy and vibrant. On that score, pick the most challenging of instruments you enjoy, look for a few good recordings and explore them with Zena followed by an amplifier of equivalent bandwidth and loudspeakers whose tweeters can properly translate and harvest these gains.