Quantitatively, the treble too offered more than the price tag promised. The general tendency here is for textbook analytics. That left no doubt about even the tiniest detail embedded in Felix Laband's exceptional synth games of Dark Days Exit's "Dirty Nightgown". Those presented finely teased out without any evidence of crystalline hardness. It shouldn't require stressing that this didn't involve any treble emphasis. True, the twice-priced ASR Mini Basis does that too and possibly a tad silkier but then gets overshadowed when the Limetree enters the high treble whose unbelievable airiness and energy kicks open the virtual sky lights above the stage. This oxygen-rich love of detail I even saw when listening to the Pawnshop album sitting on the floor. It nearly fooled me into thinking that I heard a live ensemble one room over. Was this solely because of how well the Limetree handled the upper registers?

Not. Enter Transients & Co. Still more important for that live frisson than electrified airiness was the Phono II's lightning-quick impulse response and attack reflex. Was this due to rapidly charge-cycling capacitors? Possibly. Be that as it may, the Limetree had no issue blasting the attacks of drum sticks on tom skins, hammer falls of a piano's far-right register or aggressive squawks of a saxophone in class-leading quality. That my LinnenberG can get still more steely and cutting didn't dilute my musical fun in the least.

Clear, elegantly sparkling and precisely differentiated. That's how Byron Janis' fingers rushed across the keys of a concert grand when Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto N°3 with the London Symphony under Antal Dorati demanded the very best from a Mercury Living Presence masterpiece of the recording arts. In tandem with such zero-gravity ease of attacks came exceptional microdynamics. Those I thought came awfully close to what the Neukomm manages. I suspect Norbert Lindemann's insistence on short signal paths really does tie directly to higher speed and detail.

On explosive massive bass attacks meanwhile, the ASR Mini Basis trumped the petite Limetree on sheer shove. The Neukomm and particularly LinnenberG then shifted into still higher gear. Loud low transients simply cracked harder. Still, the mini from Wörthsee crossed off the 'hit it' box with honors.

That was confirmed with well-timed punctuality on Yello's "Dialectical Kid" from their popular Toy album. The Limetree downshifts for added acceleration upward of the mid bass where violin and brasses transition from pianissimo to fortissimo on a dime without ever suggesting that they might run out of power – more fuel-injected inline six than turbo diesel.