"Absolute vs nothing is a question often on our minds, just not as anything pretentious since all our human concepts are limited. We're simply very conscious about not spreading ourselves thin to retain the purity about who we are and what we do; which is actually one and the same." It's one more Nathalie quote from another review. It tersely explains why Kallyste's portfolio remains compact. Doing something correct the first time then adds why their models don't undergo regular MkII-VI revisits. Once Pascal has identified the best circuit for a given job then taken his time to perfect its execution, there's nothing left to add or change once it's in production. For an honest engineer if possibly a poor marketeer, this nixes the usual incentive to bamboozle buyers with the newer-is-better game that virtually all brands feel compelled to play by refreshing their catalogues on a regular basis. What many forget to question is why a truly qualified designer would change a circuit every few years. Didn't he do a proper job the first time? If so, why trust that he'll nail it on the second attempt when from his established brand behaviour we know that a year from now will come another update? This reflects retail's apathy to selling 'old stuff'. Retail leans on its suppliers to keep changing things up even if just for the sake of change. Apparent freshness breeds desirability. It's easy to see why many retailers would shun brands like Kallyste which play by a different set of rules. The UK's Hifonix however appreciate Kallyste's approach and for Amethyste specify 15Hz to 150kHz bandwidth and 1μs/1kHz risetime in preamp mode, 1Hz to 100kHz and 2μs for the headphone outputs. For a 2nd opinion on Amethyste's build, pricing and performance in YouTube format, there's Cameron Oatley's Golden Sound review sponsored by retailer headphones.com.

A rarity amongst owner's manuals but in keeping with Pascal's engineering focus, his included schematics for the power supply and head unit. Should years down the line Amethyste require service whilst you live far away from France, a qualified technician will be able to service it. The two screw-lock umbilicals are just long enough to go cheek to cheek or double decker. I left the included spike footers with tiny disc protectors in the shipping box. For my first desktop trial I had Hifistay rubber-spring suspension footers, then cleared the control unit for proper ventilation with tall flat rubber footers I'd much earlier taken off my upstairs Dynaudio sub to replace with the sound|kaos Vibra 68 wire-suspension isolators. As a reviewer with constantly revolving loaner doors, I hate spikes for the potential damage they do to shelves, flooring and other kit.

Because my iFi iDSD Pro Signature DAC here outputs 5.9/11.7V RCA/XLR in fixed mode, I set it to variable then its own attenuator to 10 o'clock. On my usual Final D8000 planars, Amethyste in low-impedance mode also sat at ~10 o'clock so with gain to spare. As the photos show, the head unit is about three fingers shallower than the power supply. Were Kallyste headed by a marketing manager, I'd guarantee that s/he would have insisted on matching footprints, never mind the resultant empty real estate inside the control unit. Pascal meanwhile determined ideal packing dimensions for his circuit which then set the casework dimensions. Lid tappers won't fail to comment on how these covers ring when pinged. Once stacked, only the upper one remains undamped. Should that bother, add your mass loader of choice. The one choice Pascal made which could displease certain owners is the super-wedged placement of his rectifier tubes. They're not user replaceable to need a technician's intervention.

This signal path is an HP Win10/64 workstation's USB output into a Singxer SU-2 USB bridge via iFi USB 3.0 cable, then AES/EBU out into the iFi DAC which usually feeds the Enleum AMP-23 on the EnigmAcoustics M1 monitors or Final headfi. Audirvana Studio in extreme hog mode serves up local files or Qobuz Sublime in 176.4/192 mode via its embedded SoX upsampler whilst the iFi upsamples x 4 more with its Gibbs Transient Optimized filter. A LHY OCK-2 masterclock syncs both Singxer and iFi to the same 10MHz pulse. This office setup would contrast Amethyste and AMP-23R.