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[christoph]

Christoph, felt the Animas on Traformatic were poor on rock that year.

Still the best I have heard the Animas...
Btw. 2016 was also the year I ultimately fell in love with the hORNS Universums

 

[bonzo75]

Still the best I have heard the Animas...
Btw. 2016 was also the year I ultimately fell in love with the hORNS Universums

2016 was with Anima, and then they had it with Avaton later as well. But yes the 2016 one was the Anime I heard at its best. And yes everyone I know who heard the Universum that year seemed to love them.

The Eimac tubes of the trafomatic make it happen. And he is known for his transformers which he designs himself for various specs. The only other Eimac I have heard was the silvercore 304 TL. Trafomatic is the 450 TL I think. With such Eimac tubes you get SETs sweetness in class A for much more power.

 

[shakti]

In 2018 I visited Trafomatic and NAT in Serbia, joining the German Distributor of both brands .
Both companies have a very good relationship and celebrate their "competition",
Sometimes they even work together on various projects.
Both are able to develop and produce their own Transformers .
The Belgrad "Tesla" university is well known for their competence in this regard.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Shakti, I remain a big fan of my Nat gear and would love to consider Magnetostat and Magma New. Interesting that AQ has moved from maybe a cooler Alieno OTL sound to warmer Traformatic SET one.

 

[Taiko Audio]

@spiritofmusic

Shakti, I remain a big fan of my Nat gear and would love to consider Magnetostat and Magma New. Interesting that AQ has moved from maybe a cooler Alieno OTL sound to warmer Traformatic SET one.

There’s no cooler / warmer, the Trafomatic Elysium does a better job at 3 dimensional imaging and texture rendering in exchange for perhaps a small reduction in dynamics. Its presentation is alltogether more believable.

 

[Ron Resnick]

In 2018 I visited Trafomatic and NAT in Serbia, joining the German Distributor of both brands .
Both companies have a very good relationship and celebrate their "competition",
Sometimes they even work together on various projects.
Both are able to develop and produce their own Transformers .
The Belgrad "Tesla" university is well known for their competence in this regard.

That is very interesting!

What is Sasa like?

Do you have a sense of how their (Sasa and Dejan) design philosophies are similar or different?

 

[Golum]

The Eimac tubes of the trafomatic make it happen. And he is known for his transformers which he designs himself for various specs.

Actually core business of Trafomatic is/was production of transformers so they can produce whatever they want and need in desirable top notch quality...On top Sasa Cokic is really a tube "guru"

 

[Ron Resnick]

. . .
Interesting that AQ has moved from maybe a cooler Alieno OTL sound to warmer Traformatic SET one.

That is not what is going on here. Nothing I heard supports your assumption.

The Alieno was not cooler, and the ElySium is not warmer. The ElySium is more transparent than the Alieno, and that is saying a lot!

I think audioquattr believes that the secret sauce of the Elysium is a combination of 1) the linearity of that particular RF tube, and 2) the custom transformer which affords extremely wide bandwidth.

 

[spiritofmusic]

That's why I said "maybe".

 

[Fred Crane]

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I just enjoyed three days of extensive listening to audioquattr's current system. Tinka and I visited audioquatter and his wonderful family exactly one year ago.

Since that visit audioquattr made two very large changes to the system: 1) the repositioning of the openings of the basshorns in front of the speakers and deep into the sidewalls, and 2) the replacing of the Alieno amplifier with the visually and sonically stunning Trafomatic ElySium direct-heated SET monoaural amplifiers.


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For aficionados of SET amplifiers these things are almost mesmerizing. It's like looking into the sun!


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But even more than these major changes to the system I think I truly was the most impressed with Jeroen himself: The way in which he patiently measures and tests and analyzes, and measures and tests and analyzes again, and over and over and over, different aspects of the system, and gradually and iteratively fine-tunes the system to his ears' perfection. I think it is a combination of Jeroen's engineering experience and talent, combined with seemingly infinite patience, which has allowed him to take his individual components, and the system as a whole, to a higher level of sonic achievement than even the designers of some of those components ever anticipated or ever heard themselves.

Any wealthy audiophile can checkbook engineer an elaborate system into existence. Very few audiophiles have the background experience, and the patience, tenacity, presence of mind and singularity of objective to elevate by gradual and painstaking optimization a group of selected components into a state-of-the-art high-performance system. (I do not presently consider myself to be among those who have the patience and tenacity and proven results to be members of this exaulted group.)

Tracks:

"Bird on a Wire,” “Famous Blue Raincoat,” and "First We Take Manhattan,” by Jennifer Warnes, Famous Blue Raincoat (Rock the House Records/Classic Records)

”I’ve Got the Music in Me" by Thelma Houston, I've Got the Music in Me (Sheffield Lab 2)

"Landslide" and "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac (MFSL)

“Pictures at an Exhibition” on The Power of the Orchestra, Rene Leibowitz, RPO, Chesky RC30

. . . among many other pop, rock and jazz tracks.

I have heard Stevie Nicks' "Landslide" hundreds of times, and I think I heard on this system with the van den Hul Grand Cru instrument separation and details I have never heard before.

The system projects a very big sound, and gives you the sense of unlimited, inertia-less power instantaneously available at any frequency and at all frequencies. The system provides a life-like energy and presence and aliveness I think I have never heard before.

Great Gate of Kiev on "Pictures at an Exhibition" rivaled the rendition I heard from MikeL's system. With the Zetas I felt like I was in the front row; and, if I remember correctly, which I may very well not, I felt a little bit further back in MikeL's system. MikeL's system provided a wider soundstage, while audioquattr's system was a bit more energetic and "alive." It is fascinating how two of the very best systems in the entire world offer slightly different presentations of the exact same musical event.

Among the ElySiums and the Alieno line stage preamplifier and the Thomas Mayer phono stage and the Grand Cru I think Jeroen's system is the most transparent and the highest resolution system I've ever heard. Virtually all, if not exactly all, of the reservation I have had about the Zetas (and every other speaker topology) not achieving the transparency of Martin-Logan electrostatic speakers is vanquished.

There is no way to compare, so this observation means little, but the transparency of the system, especially with the Grand Cru, is so striking that I would have believed the amplifiers are OTLs. Also, the sound is not obviously identifiable as being generated by horn loudspeakers.

With eight drivers per side, including two 16" drivers in each basshorn, one might think driver integration would be an issue. I am not terribly sensitive to driver discontinuity, but I did not hear any coherency issue whatsoever.

Just for fun I took over the iPad and played a couple of dozen of my favorite 1970s, 1980s and current rock and pop songs. It was incredibly fun to hear Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" and Meatloaf's "Bat out of Hell" and The Killers' "Tyson versus Douglas" and X-Ambassadors' "Unsteady" and ABC's "The Look of Love," and Bob Dylan's "Tangled up in Blue," and Suzanne Vega's An Evening of New York Songs and Stories and The Chainsmoker's "Something Just Like This" and Lewis Capaldi's Divinely Inspired to a Hellish Extent on this incredibly high resolution and dynamic system!

I am persuaded of the sonic efficacy of the digital playback by SGM Extreme streamer + Lampizator Pacific DAC (with specially-selected tubes) on both analog and digital recordings. This combination seems to make 1) poor and average quality analog recordings sound on digital almost as good as they sound on vinyl, and 2) all but the best digital recordings sound better on digital than on vinyl (e.g., Lewis Capaldi's Divinely Inspired to a Hellish Extent, The Killers' Wonderful, Wonderful and Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing). Very interestingly when the original digital recording is extremely good I still preferred the vinyl version (e.g., Famous Blue Raincoat, Suzanne Vega's An Evening of New York Songs and Stories).

A huge and warm thanks to audioquattr for an amazing three days of equipment exploration and music listening and friendship!

A stunning system. There is also a Drina amplifier from Trafomatic. It utilizes the even larger 450tl tube from Eimac. The voltage on the rails is not for the feint of heart. For Sasa Cokic, it wasn't about using the largest, but to his ears the best sounding powerful SET tube. Quite an exercise, it was in development for 2-3 years. Then there's the Trafomatic Collins phono stage, named for the scientist on whose discoveries the circuit rests. The top tier of Trafomatic is stunning. A shame that more have not heard it. Though they seem to be garnering more of a following in some small circles in Europe and Russia.

 

[Golum]

A shame that more have not heard it.

Pity indeed as they do have something to show

 

[spiritofmusic]

ElySium/Drina...are they self biasing? What's the ongoing supply like for the tubes used by them?

 

[Golum]

What is Sasa like?

Do you have a sense of how their (Sasa and Dejan) design philosophies are similar or different?

Maybe this answers your questions a bit

 

[spiritofmusic]

Is that both of them?
I know Dejan of Nat developed his Utopia preamp (that I own) in Belgrade as his Masters project, while bombs were flying in the Kosovo War. And he voices his amps while listening to Prog Rock at 3am!
How could I not buy his amps?! Lol

 

[Golum]

Is that both of them?
I know Dejan of Nat developed his Utopia preamp (that I own) as his Masters project, while bombs were flying in the Kosovo War. And he voices his amps while listening to Prog Rock at 3am!1+
How could I not buy his amps?! Lol

Sasa is the one playing the guitar
Agree fully with your logic regarding the NAT

 

[Audiophile Bill]

In 2018 I visited Trafomatic and NAT in Serbia, joining the German Distributor of both brands .
Both companies have a very good relationship and celebrate their "competition",
Sometimes they even work together on various projects.
Both are able to develop and produce their own Transformers .
The Belgrad "Tesla" university is well known for their competence in this regard.

Hi Shakti,

Did you try any high power tube amp (SET or PP) on the Universum before you moved them on?

Best.

 

[shakti]

Actually core business of Trafomatic is/was production of transformers so they can produce whatever they want and need in desirable top notch quality...On top Sasa Cokic is really a tube "guru"

You can say the same for Dejan Nikic. Tube collector as well. And they can produce and develop their transformers as well.
If you have a cafe with them, you will see the obvious familiarity of their knowledge, but also their different approaches to meet the task. I like both companies and products.

 

[shakti]

Hi Shakti,

Did you try any high power tube amp (SET or PP) on the Universum before you moved them on?

Best.

Yes, I tried the VTL S 400 amp.

 

[Audiophile Bill]

Congrats to Jeroen on an amazing system. What TT did you listen to, Ron?

Best.

 

[spiritofmusic]

You can say the same for Dejan Nikic. Tube collector as well. And they can produce and develop their transformers as well.
If you have a cafe with them, you will see the obvious familiarity of their knowledge, but also their different approaches to meet the task. I like both companies and products.

What are these different approaches? I lived w BAT tube gear for a while, and owned Audion triodes/4-box tube pre for just over a year, incl upgrade to Elrog 845s. Neither could quite compare to the Nat gear I've now owned happily (despite some teething operational issues) for six years.
How are Nat and Trafomatic comparing and contrasting?