Doing the math. When judged by the company they keep, SAEQ at the UK's Elise Audio boutique rub shoulders with an elite bunch. Dragan's brand seems to be going places. Of course that's for dealers and their clients to decide. Reviewers just offer snapshots of a component's showing in their system/s. Based on our reports, resellers might take a closer look. If so inclined, they now must invest in stock which pays the hopeful manufacturer. But it's end users who either buy up stock in a timely manner so the middlemen make a profit to buy more inventory; or who buy something else far more mundane like food and gas. The generic explanation says that "the market decides". How about forces beyond the market's control? We had Brexit and Covid. We still have the conflicts in Palestine and the Ukraine, the 2024 US elections, the escalating impact of global warming. It all influences discretionary income and people's willingness to spend on luxuries. When faced by grave uncertainties, self indulgence tends to slip way down the importance ladder. Thankfully reviewers aren't expected to weigh any of that. We're allowed the very small view on tech, functionality, build, price, performance and competitiveness. Where does that small view leave us today?

Just like that of regular hifi fans, sheer chance shapes the path of a reviewer. For every piece of kit we hear, there's far more which we don't; if we even know it exists. Dictated by chance-driven exposure to what's available to us educates our taste. Over time that can define so precisely that little meets its mark. We know exactly what we like. That's not about an absolute sound. It's about ever more perfect overlay with personal taste as enshrined in a reviewer's hardware collection. Aside from its utility to review, it represents the closest examples of hardware/taste matching that a critic could afford to own. There's no broader endorsement in it other than serving the mundane toolbox purpose of working for a living whilst suiting that individual's preferences. On that score our 'archives by writer' document my exposure whilst today's review already name-dropped my HeadFi references. In those terms SAEQ's Hyperion Ge sidles right up against Enleum's AMP-23R on my now two-strong peak of primary headphone and secondary speaker amp. At this juncture I hadn't yet heard Armageddon for its extra $1'800. Other than speaker drive increased to 20/30wpc 8/4Ω, we expect it to shine up our skull candy even more. And perhaps that really is the End Times amp. But one must draw a line somewhere or never take a stand. For my purposes, Hyperion Ge is a true endgame amp. My only real niggle is its rear-mounted power mains. That should relocate to the front or behind the lower frontal edge. I'm certain that Dragan had his reasons. At 69 years of maturity, experience is very much on his side. Just so, my inner consumer would prefer a power switch within easy reach regardless of install. That's my only sour grape.

The G spot. Using basic triangulations, I heard what must have been the Ge.ez effect in the circuit's rapidly tapped dynamic cauldron; in its refusal to default into electronic edge or glare whilst daring to bare more recorded heat than most sophisticated solid-state designers allow themselves. That's back at Dragan's credo of an honest live sound. We'll obviously never match the live experience. Replay is its own artform and reality. But compared to my Cen.Grand, COS, Enleum, iFi and Kinki headphone amps plus a Linear Tube Audio and Soundaware on hand, the SAEQ struck me as being closest to that aim. In that same vein, it's surely no coincidence that Aleksandar Radisavljevic of Raal-Requisite selected Dragan Domanovic as the designer of the original Raal ribbon-drive amplifiers. These two men clearly share more than just convenient Serbian nationality to be countrymen. Their sonic ideals overlap as well. With my very public enthusiasm for already Alex's original SR1a ribbons and now the twin-ribbon Magna and triple-ribbon Immanis models which I happen to think sit at the very edge of the current headphone art, it should have been no surprise that I'd get on so well with Hyperion Ge. Hindsight. It can explain everything with our wits intact.

Germanium. Now that I heard it, it wasn't as expected. I'd nursed 'soft like tubes' notions to anticipate a warmer more opaque comfort sound. Instead I got what Laiv Audio embed so cleverly in their name: a livelier sound with more emphatic dynamic energies and more percussive purity intact. Managing that without the usual tax in tone density and colour saturation is today's special achievement. It's apparently down to mixing Germanium with classic silicon-based Mosfet and bipolar transistors. Salt on the rim, a sour cherry on top. If you know your ingredients, their ideal percentages and which device should amplify which other, in what precise sequence – then an experienced designer can deliver a sonic cocktail beyond the norm.

Beyond the norm is precisely what my award is for. Entirely independent though presenting in fortuitous tandem is its timing. The cosmetic unification of SAEQ's catalogue just occurred a few weeks ago. Now the brand feels poised to go global. That's merely contingent on the right people responding whose portfolios have room to take on equipment of this calibre. In the detached sense, branding is like a washing-instruction label which we cut off from a polo shirt's inside seam. Removing it doesn't alter utility or quality. In the commercial realm meanwhile, the colour-stitched small logos on the left breast of designer shirts—a polo player, crossed oars, a crocodile, elephant or moose—are permanent. They're an intrinsic part of the item's perceived value and allure. The proudly raised shiny new decal of SAEQ's revitalized range is all about that. It's a flag firmly planted. "Take note" it says. "We mean business. One day we might be collectibles."

Now the market must respond. It always does; one way or the other. How is the unpredictable part far beyond any reviewer's ken…

SAEQ respond: "Dear Srajan, first I want to thank you for the warmth and energy that was present in you while writing this review. It is a beautiful journey through the history of hifi, a journey through changing your perception of Germanium sound and the immediacy of a man's discovery of new experiences. Everything has a nice aura of exoticism. Very likeable and really unusual. I am sorry that my handicap with the English language prevents me from experiencing the full radiance of your phrases and sentences and a large number of associations. I feel them though. The wealth of colors of the numerous images and pictures make me feel like a child looking through a kaleidoscope while reading this review. I am always happy when I feel that I've caused another smile of satisfaction. Even my journey through new sound perceptions gained more light with this review. The path is clearer and more pleasant. I will try to convey the clearest possible reflection of the sound presentation to the music lovers. It is perhaps the shortest way. Simply thank you. All the best, Dragan

Publisher's addendum September 7th: The arrival of Voxativ's new Hagen2—in two pairs with different drive units—reiterated a basic truism. High-efficiency widebanders with excellent self damping don't like low amplifier output impedance. They overdamp to suffer premature bass expiry and reduced bloom. Whilst Hyperion Ge's gain and absence of noise were ideal, its 5mΩ Z-out was the opposite. The 0.5Ω of Enleum's AMP-23R was far better. Outright ideal was the 4Ω of FirstWatt's SIT4 for an effective damping factor of 1.

The SAEQ's overdamping injected far too much white, over-edged transients and eliminated bass and its impact on overall tonal balance, colour and texture. The takeaway is clear. Whilst its 300B SET power rating suggests special suitability for this type transducer, Hyperion Ge's low Z-out works strictly against it. For such speakers this is not the right amp. One single but decisive spec—of low output impedance otherwise so desirable for regular speakers—is very far off. Here it wants to be magnitudes higher. One size does not fit all!