In my enthusiasm for Innuos’s new Statement Server, it seems that I ignored a part of Audiophile errr folklore that has it that Mundorf Capacitors take an age to break in and sound their best.
During the optimization of my network I installed several Sean Jacobs designed and built DC3 LPSs, which contain a bunch of Mundorfs and the break-in period was always exactly the same. The system started sounding great, then went on a roller coaster ride of frequency extreme exaggeration followed by integration and improvement. The sound would change day to day until finally it settles down and sounds great over a couple of weeks ...until it suddenly doesn’t, giving you a final WTF couple of days before emerging into the sonic butterfly its promised to be but never quite fulfilled until its absolutely ready.
I obviously wrote the Statement review during that final lull in the break-in period, because not long after writing it I had a few days where doubts crept in. Nothing specific that you could put your finger on, just somehow less beguiling, less ‘soul connecting’, less ‘perfect’.....that “I’m sure it was sounding better” feeling.
So with that, I decided to give it a final little kick up its ass and left it playing music undisturbed and unlistenedto to 48 hours. The result? Hoo boy!
The first thing I noticed is that the system is considerably more enjoyable to listen to...so what got better? Hard to say....everything as far as I can hear. The system has a sense of ease, of rightness and it produces music ‘with great enthusiam’ . For example, I’ve never heard Van Morrison sound so expressive. The music has a pureness and clarity the level of which I’ve never heard before. No detail is masked, in fact there’s no masking or blurring at all....notes sound highly complex. Take horns for example. For a horn to sound live the dynamic shape of the note must be just right because its the dynamics that make horns sound like horns. Then there’s the tonality....horns have a curious blend of stridency and mellowness...get the combination just right and they’ll sound both exhilarating and gorgeous. Piano is another area where dynamics are key...tha hammer strike, the bloom of the note, the recording room’s response then the decay, sustained or not....get all that right and it really sounds like a live piano.
But talking about the music is one thing....listening to it via a Statement another thing entirely. Firstly tick the expectation box that says [Should sound better than anything I’ve ever heard before]. It does. In spades. Listening to a well set up Statement is like a ride in a Ferrari. Memorable....with dynamics and timing to die for. When you listen to the Statement you’ll realise that its the dynamics of the music that give it its emotion, its drive, its character and a lot of its pleasure. The clarity I’ve spoken about is realised in terms of tone, time and space, while the dynamic accuracy ensures the perfect, indeed sometimes magical rhythmic integration that the finest musicians achieve.
I play a lot of well known songs via the Statement and what always strikes me is how much better they all sound and how much more expressive they all are. Again an example, I’d never before realized what an absolute talent JJ Cale was when it came to laying down a laid back but incredibly rhythmical and engaging track. Ditto Van Morrison.
Downsides? Only one...but its fairly major. If I’m not careful the Statement will give me acid reflux from all the hours bouncing up and down in my listening chair.