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For placement honours, the Galan 9 moved where the Aurum Megan VIII had sat, happy regulars in our digs. An Abacus 60-120D Dolifet integrated did the heavy lifting, with either a Burson Conductor Air DAC or Denon DCD 50 player as source. Even a friend's Antique Sound Lab AQ-1001 on return from a repair made a short-lived appearance. Already during break-in my daughter was very keen to share a recent acquisition not just with me but Quadral's Galan 9: Symphoniacs, a project of classical musicians who, with the addition of synth bass, pursue new audiences for classic music and the instruments which perform it. It's not entirely to my taste but possessed of a certain charm. The music is quick, impulsive, dynamic and, yes, danceable. Important to me was how the Galan 9 cottoned perfectly to this album's enormous energy potential and, in high fidelity to recorded truth, clearly differentiated between unplugged and synth timbres. The massed strings weren't artificially smoothed over but exhibited realistic brilliance and bite; the double basses expressed all their harmonics above very solid fundamentals. The violin/viola pizzicatos on "Animals" timed perfectly to showcase true professionals: both relative to the musicians and the speakers which could translate such expert timing. Finally the synth bass reached a lot lower than a 15cm mid/woofer would have suggested. |