Got my NAT Symbiosis SE(T) hybrid
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| Posted on March 14, 2013 at 01:37:00 | ||
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Posts: 9180
Location: switzerland Joined: April 1, 2005 |
And I have to tell you its one beautiful machine...63Kg of integrated bliss. The power transformer is HUGE! The heat sinks are damn big too. As you may know this one of the very rare designs that is single ended hybrid, with tubes for the input and driver and MOSFET output. As far as I know this has only been done commercially by Blue Circle Audio (BC2 and BC2000) and Ypsilon (for big $$$$). Of course some others, especially Nelson Pass, have made purely transistor SE(T)s as well. So what does it sound like? A lot like my former KR Audio VA350i but with even better transparency and bass (the KR is probably the best bass I have ever heard from a SET). The soundstage is superb but perhaps not quite as holographic as the KR. In this sense it is on par with my other previous amp the Einstein "The Absolute Tune". Where it matches the KR and beats out the Einstein is in dynamic "jump". This is what was ultimately disappointing with the Einstein when everything else was truly superb. The KR and the big NAT have a liveliness that allows dynamic recordings to breathe fully. Tone and texture of the NAT are superb but perhaps a shade cooler than the normal top class SET. Slightly warmer though than the Einstein, which I would call two shades cooler (but not at all sterile or cold). We are talking rather subtle degrees here but they are there nonetheless. A friend of mine has 3 pairs of NAT SET monoblocks (all tube) and they are slightly warmer sounding overall to the Symbiosis. My former KR was also not a "warm" sounding SET just transparent to the source and so is the NAT...if the source is good the sound will be good and if its not then you hear the deficiencies in your sources...
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