AMAZING. This is the first and last word I had in my mind when I entered the Aries Cerat lab and factory this last weekend. but i'm starting backward.
I knew Stavros Danos for a long time, every Munich show he performed, I was there in his Room, daydreaming about his equipment, speakers and his signature sound of his amazing stuff.
but, it was unreached to say the least, so i was satisfied by sitting there for an half hour, saying hello, and wish him the best in the most friendly way. and that was it, till a month ago when some news and bit and pieces were accrued, i was reaching Stavros by email for the purpose of me to visit him at the AC HQ. mainly to hear his stuff in a more controlled environment, comparing the new Triod-fet tech to his all Tube ones, and more...
Stavros and his workers are F#$%^ busy with a waiting list for almost every unit they got in their line, especially speakers that will consume man hours out of the wazoo. so foreign visitors and non business partners (yet for my arrival) especially, are not so much in his schedules. but Stavros recognized my name from the numerous Munich shows we met before, and was happy (i hope so at least) to clear 48 hours for me.
I live in Israel, so a 45 minutes flight to Cyprus and 45min taxi from the airport is almost nothing for us to meet in person and do it well.
I went straight from the airport to his main Lab and office, he was welcoming me open arms and a BIG smile with a warm feeling!
This is Very important to us mediterranean guys, and it paves the way to a lot easier for us to connect.
I was led through a bunch of workbenches, wood, wires, tubes and transformers everywhere to stavros (very modest) office. You can see they are BUSY. coffee, beverages and a very long talk about Aries cerat and overall world markets.
after two hours i was in line and rested from the journey, we went upstairs where They demo almost every unit they get, burn in every unit that gets out the door to consumers and fine tune/design their new stuff.
Aries cerat are the kind of brands that are never resting, Stavros have so much in his head and always make better and new equipment, but the most important is he find how to improve his own initial designs, come up with new parts and test everything that will perform even better and higher then before.
i'm the kind of audiophile and music lover that doesn't concern with topology.
I had it all: low watt tube, single ended, parallel SET, class D, almost every SS there is and much more, but I came to realize that the bottom line is the most important thing. the whole system needs to sound right! un fatigue and musical to my ears. and of course to compliment each other, speakers room and backward up to the electrical box inside the house. audio is a marathon not a sprint and if you take the wrong way, sometimes you'll find yourself 5K in the other direction.
The Holistic approach that Stavros talks about when setting up a system sits with my idea perfectly! and this is what i heard for 48 hours almost every minute i spend time with his bigger than life not so much reality audio system when i visited.
we began with the "entry Level" Aries Cerat have to offer, the new "protos" amp
(triode fet topology) integrated with Helene dac and a laptop connected in USB
playing through the big Contendos speakers.
That was fabulous. just music, everything in place, texture, details, energy, dynamics, black background, but most of all, just a relaxed presentation with one of the most awesome speaker sets i ever heard. you can all say. Sure, these speakers are from another world, but with this complexity and 110db sensitivity EVERYTHING needs to be Just right! and that "cheap" first entry to Aries cerat equipment does it sooo good already, i was excited to hear what we will have next. im not going to write and put out on text everything we heard on those two days, sufficient to say that i heard almost everything i saw laying over there in the lab! amps. dacs. phono stages, pre amps, you name it! there was times i just raised my arms in the air and whisper "fuck you stav", this system ruin my perspective for this industry! it's that good.
i think its also the first time that i am comparing dac's, phono stages, pre amps etc.. from the same brand and actually hear huge percentage of improvement! this is almost unbelievable. from experience not all brands can bring that kind of jump between models. Although they have very large differences in prices. ok, most of them don't!
some of the best things i heard over at Stavros, was ITHAKA the new DAC from the Ianos series... this DAC is just mind blowing and i could not believe my ears!!!
the other thing was his analog part - stavros Phono stages are just Amazing!
so quiet, so thought after, every part, every detail, every design is just art.
In the last hour I had at his lab on the second day I also had the opportunity to hear the 4 boxes Zephyrus phono stage, right after a 82.000eu "lower" one, and I just dropped! This was the most clear and dynamic presentation I heard from a record period! this one will be in my dreams for a long long time (unfortunately)
My experience with Aries Cerart amplification was with the same feelings I had with his sources. This technology is just something else entirely. The capability he got for us to "move" in a different plane with sound - from the Triod fet series is just mind boggling. we had clear and crystal presentation with full gravity and punch like the best SS on the world, and 5 second after with two knobs that you can turned we changed the sound to the most velvety, three dimension and texture you can get from the very best SET out there, but without compromise the heft and bass control one bit, this is like heaven to suit whatever you want to hear for every speaker out there!
Now I understand why stavros says it's the next best thing he ever did! This series is just plain "perfect", from the little protos, to the Impera integrated through the monoblocks+pre. amazing.
I would like to thank Stavros from the bottom of my heart having me, taking me to dinners, lunch and everything in between, being my friend and showing me what is a real LOVE for what he is doing. Aries Cerat it's not just "another '' brand. they are in a different league from any aspect I can think of. This trip just gave me the ultimate OK. I want to join his Family and it's my honor to be the new Aries Cerat distributor locally. I hope my new order will be in our showroom soon enough.
i can't wait!
here is some picture for youall
I knew Stavros Danos for a long time, every Munich show he performed, I was there in his Room, daydreaming about his equipment, speakers and his signature sound of his amazing stuff.
but, it was unreached to say the least, so i was satisfied by sitting there for an half hour, saying hello, and wish him the best in the most friendly way. and that was it, till a month ago when some news and bit and pieces were accrued, i was reaching Stavros by email for the purpose of me to visit him at the AC HQ. mainly to hear his stuff in a more controlled environment, comparing the new Triod-fet tech to his all Tube ones, and more...
Stavros and his workers are F#$%^ busy with a waiting list for almost every unit they got in their line, especially speakers that will consume man hours out of the wazoo. so foreign visitors and non business partners (yet for my arrival) especially, are not so much in his schedules. but Stavros recognized my name from the numerous Munich shows we met before, and was happy (i hope so at least) to clear 48 hours for me.
I live in Israel, so a 45 minutes flight to Cyprus and 45min taxi from the airport is almost nothing for us to meet in person and do it well.
I went straight from the airport to his main Lab and office, he was welcoming me open arms and a BIG smile with a warm feeling!
This is Very important to us mediterranean guys, and it paves the way to a lot easier for us to connect.
I was led through a bunch of workbenches, wood, wires, tubes and transformers everywhere to stavros (very modest) office. You can see they are BUSY. coffee, beverages and a very long talk about Aries cerat and overall world markets.
after two hours i was in line and rested from the journey, we went upstairs where They demo almost every unit they get, burn in every unit that gets out the door to consumers and fine tune/design their new stuff.
Aries cerat are the kind of brands that are never resting, Stavros have so much in his head and always make better and new equipment, but the most important is he find how to improve his own initial designs, come up with new parts and test everything that will perform even better and higher then before.
i'm the kind of audiophile and music lover that doesn't concern with topology.
I had it all: low watt tube, single ended, parallel SET, class D, almost every SS there is and much more, but I came to realize that the bottom line is the most important thing. the whole system needs to sound right! un fatigue and musical to my ears. and of course to compliment each other, speakers room and backward up to the electrical box inside the house. audio is a marathon not a sprint and if you take the wrong way, sometimes you'll find yourself 5K in the other direction.
The Holistic approach that Stavros talks about when setting up a system sits with my idea perfectly! and this is what i heard for 48 hours almost every minute i spend time with his bigger than life not so much reality audio system when i visited.
we began with the "entry Level" Aries Cerat have to offer, the new "protos" amp
(triode fet topology) integrated with Helene dac and a laptop connected in USB
playing through the big Contendos speakers.
That was fabulous. just music, everything in place, texture, details, energy, dynamics, black background, but most of all, just a relaxed presentation with one of the most awesome speaker sets i ever heard. you can all say. Sure, these speakers are from another world, but with this complexity and 110db sensitivity EVERYTHING needs to be Just right! and that "cheap" first entry to Aries cerat equipment does it sooo good already, i was excited to hear what we will have next. im not going to write and put out on text everything we heard on those two days, sufficient to say that i heard almost everything i saw laying over there in the lab! amps. dacs. phono stages, pre amps, you name it! there was times i just raised my arms in the air and whisper "fuck you stav", this system ruin my perspective for this industry! it's that good.
i think its also the first time that i am comparing dac's, phono stages, pre amps etc.. from the same brand and actually hear huge percentage of improvement! this is almost unbelievable. from experience not all brands can bring that kind of jump between models. Although they have very large differences in prices. ok, most of them don't!
some of the best things i heard over at Stavros, was ITHAKA the new DAC from the Ianos series... this DAC is just mind blowing and i could not believe my ears!!!
the other thing was his analog part - stavros Phono stages are just Amazing!
so quiet, so thought after, every part, every detail, every design is just art.
In the last hour I had at his lab on the second day I also had the opportunity to hear the 4 boxes Zephyrus phono stage, right after a 82.000eu "lower" one, and I just dropped! This was the most clear and dynamic presentation I heard from a record period! this one will be in my dreams for a long long time (unfortunately)
My experience with Aries Cerart amplification was with the same feelings I had with his sources. This technology is just something else entirely. The capability he got for us to "move" in a different plane with sound - from the Triod fet series is just mind boggling. we had clear and crystal presentation with full gravity and punch like the best SS on the world, and 5 second after with two knobs that you can turned we changed the sound to the most velvety, three dimension and texture you can get from the very best SET out there, but without compromise the heft and bass control one bit, this is like heaven to suit whatever you want to hear for every speaker out there!
Now I understand why stavros says it's the next best thing he ever did! This series is just plain "perfect", from the little protos, to the Impera integrated through the monoblocks+pre. amazing.
I would like to thank Stavros from the bottom of my heart having me, taking me to dinners, lunch and everything in between, being my friend and showing me what is a real LOVE for what he is doing. Aries Cerat it's not just "another '' brand. they are in a different league from any aspect I can think of. This trip just gave me the ultimate OK. I want to join his Family and it's my honor to be the new Aries Cerat distributor locally. I hope my new order will be in our showroom soon enough.
i can't wait!
here is some picture for youall
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