I visited Aesthetix today, following up on my visit there in July of 2015, and I once again had lunch with Jim White. I never fail to be astonished at how down-to-earth and humble and normal is Jim White, despite being a titan in the industry, first achieving success as a solid-state designer for Theta Digital, and then achieving fame and world-wide recognition for his tube-based designs as the Founder of Aesthetix.
Jim had a couple of very interesting developments to report. First, the new Metis line stage is in production and is shipping to dealers. A review by a major high-end audio magazine is in the works.
I will not pretend to understand Jim’s innovative Aesthetix Coupling Module (“ACM”), about which he clearly is very proud, so here is the announcement about the design of the Metis line stage:
Jim said that the Metis sounds different than the Callisto, and that he imagines that each line of products will have its ardent fans. Jim believes each line stage sounds special in its own way, having different strengths, and that one system or user will prefer one line stage over the other.
Second, Jim is putting the final touches on the design of a new Aesthetix integrated amplifier. This new integrated amplifier will have a tube input stage, a solid-state output stage, and be very user-friendly even for non-audiophiles.
As part of a discussion about the industry I had the opportunity to ask Jim his thoughts on some of our favorite topics here at WBF.
Isolation Platforms for Tube Electronics: I asked Jim about placing the Io control unit on passive, pneumatic or active isolation platforms. Jim said that early on many Io owners put the control units and the power supplies on Vibraplanes, with excellent results.
Jim said he was not familiar with active isolation platforms such as the Herzan, but when I described to Jim how the Herzan works he said the concept sounded good to him and that it makes good sense to him to try it. (This sealed my interest in placing the Io control unit on a Herzan.)
Expensive Cables: While Jim has heard some expensive cables produce amazing results, Jim does not believe in the philosophy of necessarily using only one brand and model of cable throughout one’s entire system. Just because a cable is expensive doesn't mean it is necessarily the best for a particular location in the system. Judicious cabling yields the best results, says Jim.
Jim said he believes that there will be an optimal cable to use to connect any two components, but that it is not possible to predict in advance, based on input impedance and output impedance, or based on cable resistance/capacitance/inductance characteristics, which cable this will be. Jim suggested trying different cables between each pair of components, and to be largely design agnostic and brand agnostic, and to judge primarily by ear.
Io Input Connection: Even though the first gain stage of the Io is single-ended, Jim continues to suggest using the balanced phono input.
Io Into Callisto: Jim does not have a solid technical reason exactly why this is so but he believes that running the Io into the Callisto yields greater dynamics and overall better sound than deriving all gain from the Io control unit alone. He appreciated that some audiophiles may disagree.
Jim said that the magnitude of the benefit to using the Callisto will depend on the details of the system in question. The sensitivity of the speaker is the dominant factor. For example, Jim thinks that if one is using relatively low-sensitivity loudspeakers the Io + Callisto combination will have a greater margin of overall sonic superiority than if one is using relatively high sensitivity speakers.
Thanks to Jim White for another interesting and wonderful afternoon!
Jim had a couple of very interesting developments to report. First, the new Metis line stage is in production and is shipping to dealers. A review by a major high-end audio magazine is in the works.
I will not pretend to understand Jim’s innovative Aesthetix Coupling Module (“ACM”), about which he clearly is very proud, so here is the announcement about the design of the Metis line stage:
Jim said that the Metis sounds different than the Callisto, and that he imagines that each line of products will have its ardent fans. Jim believes each line stage sounds special in its own way, having different strengths, and that one system or user will prefer one line stage over the other.
Second, Jim is putting the final touches on the design of a new Aesthetix integrated amplifier. This new integrated amplifier will have a tube input stage, a solid-state output stage, and be very user-friendly even for non-audiophiles.
As part of a discussion about the industry I had the opportunity to ask Jim his thoughts on some of our favorite topics here at WBF.
Isolation Platforms for Tube Electronics: I asked Jim about placing the Io control unit on passive, pneumatic or active isolation platforms. Jim said that early on many Io owners put the control units and the power supplies on Vibraplanes, with excellent results.
Jim said he was not familiar with active isolation platforms such as the Herzan, but when I described to Jim how the Herzan works he said the concept sounded good to him and that it makes good sense to him to try it. (This sealed my interest in placing the Io control unit on a Herzan.)
Expensive Cables: While Jim has heard some expensive cables produce amazing results, Jim does not believe in the philosophy of necessarily using only one brand and model of cable throughout one’s entire system. Just because a cable is expensive doesn't mean it is necessarily the best for a particular location in the system. Judicious cabling yields the best results, says Jim.
Jim said he believes that there will be an optimal cable to use to connect any two components, but that it is not possible to predict in advance, based on input impedance and output impedance, or based on cable resistance/capacitance/inductance characteristics, which cable this will be. Jim suggested trying different cables between each pair of components, and to be largely design agnostic and brand agnostic, and to judge primarily by ear.
Io Input Connection: Even though the first gain stage of the Io is single-ended, Jim continues to suggest using the balanced phono input.
Io Into Callisto: Jim does not have a solid technical reason exactly why this is so but he believes that running the Io into the Callisto yields greater dynamics and overall better sound than deriving all gain from the Io control unit alone. He appreciated that some audiophiles may disagree.
Jim said that the magnitude of the benefit to using the Callisto will depend on the details of the system in question. The sensitivity of the speaker is the dominant factor. For example, Jim thinks that if one is using relatively low-sensitivity loudspeakers the Io + Callisto combination will have a greater margin of overall sonic superiority than if one is using relatively high sensitivity speakers.
Thanks to Jim White for another interesting and wonderful afternoon!
