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The Soulution remained transparent yet simultaneously conditioned the signal to produce a better sound than without it. Of course this still wasn’t absolute transparency. A comparison with the even more transparent though a bit more ‘technical’ and a little withdrawn TAD C-600 or my Ayon showed how the Soulution actually has its own character which shapes the sound in a very specific way. Perhaps it is this combination of disappearance and what the 720 adds which creates its very paradoxical 'I disappear yet I can be seen' action which makes this preamp so unique.


If I were to describe its tone color, I would put it closer to the TAD C-600 or direct-coupling of source and power amp than to the Audio Research REF5 SE, Luxman C-1000f, Accuphase C-3810 or ModWright LS 36.5. The tonal balance is very well balanced. There is no impression of extra lightness or added weight. I personally prefer a somewhat fleshier midrange and slightly closer first planes but only my Ayon does that better. The Swiss preamplifier had another amazing property which invites us to crank up the volume every now and then to better hear this or that detail in the music. One can generate very high sound pressure without any weariness, headaches or irritation. The sound is so smooth and so natural at its core that it never intrudes. We don’t need to turn down the volume knob to somehow get away from it.


What helps are the dynamics. They seem totally unrestricted and uncompressed. Everything is so natural that from time to time one gets tricked into hearing a real kick drum, double bass and such. There is no haze in front of the speakers which is present with almost all other preamplifiers. Obviously some credit must go to my Soulution 710 power amp and Harbeth M40.1 speakers by which I am captivated more and more but the 720 perfectly matched this system.


And then that air… I’ve only once heard 3D space this well defined in which instrumental bodies were drawn this keenly – on my friend Janusz’s ultra-purist system which consists of 300B monoblocks with Takatsuki bottles and a CD player with an extremely purist integrated preamp stage (Janusz says there’s no preamp in his system). I refer here to a sense of instrumental detachment from other actions but not the overriding context. Performers were not cut out from the background. Instead there was simply natural differentiation between what was closer, what was further away, above and below. Similarly in the context of a particular instrument. It showed a ‘heavy’ body inside a particular acoustic environment. My Ayon, although excellent in this respect, portrays everything with a little more grease as though the edges were slightly stuck to each other. In comparison with other preamplifiers my preamp is simply stunning and better differentiates these dimensions. Yet the Soulution 720 proved even superior.




Summary. It's easy to quip that the almost most expensive preamp of my most recent survey was best. No need to think or even unbox the piece. Simply equate price with quality. Well, it’s not always that easy. But it is true that good gear is expensive and that the best usually costs the most. To say that the same could be done for half price at home is misleading (I’ll put it more succinctly – it’s bullshit). A DIY prototype is not a commercial product backed by years of research and heaps of R&D expenditures. In fact most DIY products are never as good as top-notch commercial equipment. There are exceptions but those are bloody rare.


The Soulution 720 proves that to speak of the absolute top high-end one must pay - and pay a lot. I went through this process two years ago searching for my next power amp. I ended up with the Soulution 710 costing 140.000 Polish. I really had wanted to spend a lot less. The 720 preamp is exceptionally transparent and resolving without sacrificing texture and fullness. Its tonal balance to me is perfect though it might seem to sound slightly tubey. That’s due to natural edges of attacks without hardening. The bass is very low and splendidly differentiated in time and color although my Ayon sounds a bit fatter and more from the gut which I happen to like. The unit’s design is outstanding with unique engineering backing it. It’s the antithesis of a garage-built device. It’s a hi-tech product with looks to match even though it’s also ‘human’ and not detached from the emotional life. Technology serves us, not the other way around. The 720 proves how at the very top end various technologies get sonically closer to each other and thus the goal of faithfully rendering what has been recorded.