"The transmission of the audio signal is, essentially, the bearing signal’s electron flow through short or long wires between components. But in fact, even in the case of very expensive equipment, the interior connecting wires and the traces on the circuit board are not at all ‘expensive’. They often contain impurities and are insufficiently smooth, meanwhile the impedance as a working transmission line is barely matched. The impurities and rough surfaces seriously impede the transmission of weak signal. The sound signal will be reflected at all the impedance mismatch points. To illustrate this further, the audio signal input into the equipment can be viewed as a long string of electron balls which jump along with the music. They must go through a small maze-like path where these impurities become stumbling blocks, the rough uneven patches valleys and the impedance-mismatch sites energy-sapping hurdles blocking the way. Now imagine what happens when these tiny audio signals go through such a maze? What is worse is that due to the skin effect, high-frequency signal transmits along the rough surface filled with impurities and is also absorbed by the insulating medium covering the wires and the material of the circuit boards (common material: FR4 εr of 4.2-4.7).


"We won't tolerate the loss of any detail and our Signal-Express technology reduces transmission loss to a minimum, allowing the playback of music to be richer in detail.
1．The layout of all the parts along the signal path has been calculated and optimized for the shortest path with a precision of 0.001mm to ensure that the wiring length on the printed circuit board is strictly the shortest possible.
2．Construct a perfect impedance-matched trace/wire network. The impedance matching line of the wire is principally used in the pioneering technology field for reducing transmission loss. [The image at right shows a two-port network with incident waves and reflected waves. Return loss=S11=b1/a1 where return loss is the loss of power in the signal reflected by an impedance mismatch in a transmission line.]"


"Leaving theory to one side, can we hear the benefits of a proper transmission line? When we put it to the test, comparing the sound quality of a standard 50Ω transmission line 50RG142B/U with several much higher-priced audio cables, it was possible to hear more detail, more dynamics and a more authentic sound with the impedance-matched structure. During the original design stage, we believed that using high-purity copper could help us achieve better sound quality but back then it was impossible for ultra-high purity copper to be used in the audio field. Thanks to advances in technology, we can now use expensive high-purity OCC (Ohno Continuous Cast) copper or silver for our signal lines which has an extremely smooth surface and comes with the world's best insulation of Teflon. In the playback field, Signal-Express is a real improvement which led us on a journey that would re-examine all current playback devices and work with our designers to explore our ideal of 'Real Emotion'. The Spring 1 was designed to be a 4-stage discrete BJT amplifier with an input buffer stage, two gain stages and an output buffer which operates in pure Class A without negative feedback. Frequency response is from 10Hz to 250KHz, input impedance is about 10K."

This discourse reminded me of Hemingway’s thoughts on Faulkner: "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them alright. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use." Seemingly, Cembalolab want to keep out of the signal’s way without using 'big words' which in this case would mean unnecessary components and too long a signal path to create their big emotions. What would the final effect of their addresses be on their sound reproduction? Let’s find out. Fabio Biondi and his Baroque ensemble L'Europa Galante's Vivaldi's Four Seasons is one of my references of this work. In this performance, his sensational violin glowed and L'Europa Galante didn't fall far behind. For me, this is the version to have if you’re only having one. As soon as "Concerto N°1 in E major La Primavera" aka Spring's first movement started, there was subtle treble emphasis on Paola Poncet’s cembalo. Biondi's violin too had excess energy in its upper frequencies; perhaps too much for my Sennheiser HD800. It made me change to the Audeze LCD-2. This darker headphone was better suited to the amp's treble enthusiasm.
Spohr followed Vivaldi. Louis Spohr was not only a prolific composer of the 19th century, he was a talented violin virtuoso as well. He composed around 300 works, which include eighteen violin concerti. After I had heard Hilary Hahn's Violin Concerto N°8 play, I rummaged for more of Spohr's violin pieces. My hunt settled down with Ulf Hölscher's reading of Complete Violin Concertos. His Spohr is still the apple of my classical music collection's eye. In his Violin Concerto N°6, the Spirit 1 rendered the texture of Hölscher's violin with subtle definition. In the first "Allegro", from the upper registers to the lower mid register, Hölscher's sound was quite detailed. Nothing fancy here but warm violin timbre.
Moving on to some Jazz, last year proved heartrending to its lovers. We've lost Charlie Haden, Horace Silver, Ornette Coleman and Clark Terry. Haden's studio album Nocturne is still my go-to for nocturnal sessions. Here we have beautiful Latin Jazz ballads with contributions from Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Ignacio Berroa and Jazz cats like Joe Lovano and Pat Metheny. The Cembalolab reproduced Haden's bass cleanly and articulated, without unnecessary bass reach or earth-shaking pressure. Likewise, there were enjoyable moments with Pat Metheny on "Noche de Ronda". His guitar strings were smooth and not lush but exhibited a hint of sweetness.
These midrange textures made me wonder about the Cembalolab's vocal performance. Some vocal Jazz might have suited well but I was in a mood for Bryn Terfel's Bad Boys. With his bad-ass bully face on the cover, the Welshman's Bad Boys isn't just another powerful bass/baritone album. It has more than just brute force. These songs were picked carefully and elegantly covered. Weill's "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" is followed by Gershwin's "It ain't necessarily so" or, shortly after Sullivan's "When the night wind howls", one encounters Sondheim's "Epiphany from Sweeney Todd". What pleasures for the discriminating listener. The Spring 1 provided a natural and articulated midrange without exaggeration. Terfel's voice vibrated undisturbed, clean, clear and not in your face.