As DAC/preamp. Here a remote control would have been the cat's meow. I'm told the costlier balanced version might just get one if the bill of materials works out in its favor. With our outdoors just then wearing typical Irish gloom, I wanted a taste of the Eastern Med. So I spun up a glistening miniature piece by Baki Kemanci called "To Yelasto Pedi". Its mood reminds me of the simple fish tavernas in Cyprus and our lazy afternoons in the hot sun of Chrysochou Bay.

With this simple system, the rich violin tone tipping between fundamental and occasional flageolet overtone to linger on the edge of wistful melancholia flooded my room—which looks out over Eire's holy mountain Croagh Patrick and pastures filled with craggy sheep—with the sweet aroma of a very different place. Psychic dislocation is a peculiar result of a good hifi. This one did it. If I had to pin its 'why' or 'how' for said transportation on a single attribute, I'd call it tone.

Like it had over headphones, íntimo produced fulsome fleshy tone of convincing juiciness also in this application. That's why I like this short track. It becomes perfectly circular when looped. It spells out very quickly whether a system delves fully into tone or stops short to focus on other aspects. If smell is the human sense which most quickly recalls for us another place and time, tone as an aroma that distills location ambiance must be its hifi equivalent.

With that transporter key in hand, I next opened a door into Uwaga!'s alternate reality of Mozartovic which has Amadeus hit the Balkans, here with an inspired riff on the "Lacrimosa" movement from his famous Requiem in D Minor. If you appreciate gypsified treatments, also try out the following "Alla Turca" where monster accordionist Petar Ralchev does quite the number before a violin revs everyone up into double time. I wonder what our Irish sheep would make of it? Their Romanian relative on the album cover certainly seems perfectly fine.

The point is this: when a hifi invites you to get more adventurous, you've made wise component choices. With íntimo's adeptness at a fleshy midrange, strong power region, high dynamics and that very practical Langzeittauglichkeit we stole from the Germans, the sense of place—the feel of very different places—becomes tangible. Now long journeys are the norm not exception. Whether you travel by headphone or loudspeaker doesn't matter. The same ticket applies.

In short, íntimo is well named. It really does get you intimate with your tunes!