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This all was observed with the Lektor Prime connected directly without preamplifier. Every attempt to insert a preamplifier ended poorly. The sound shrunk, resolution diminished and everything got sharper. The effect was the complete antithesis of what I usually get. Preamplifier results were best with the Polaris II but no preamp was better yet. With other sources like the Accuphase DP-700, the result was different however. There a preamplifier became a necessity. Simply put, the Silver—like other amplifiers— was designed to work optimally with just one preamplifier in the signal path and the Lektor player mounts a second one to its inside.


The amplifier effortlessly handled large floorstanders with good drive and bass (listen to the opening of Missa Criolla with its deep kettle drums). I personally would rather not pair them with 'tube loudspeakers' because it is not worth sacrificing a linear frequency response for superior energy transfer. The bass won't go as low as with good solid-state amps but because the Silvers clip very softly, this matters not. I caught them clipping only once on the Danielsson, Dell i Landgren Salzau Music On The Water which is recorded without any compression and very close to the instruments. The distortion was audible when listening loud not in the bass but midrange.



Stage depth was incredible. Due to the extraordinarily high resolution, virtual sources were drawn in a truly three-dimensional way and placed within a huge but natural space. The depth of any given sound event was so vast that I cannot really compare it to anything. The sound of a real instrument is still more vivid but—attention!—less extracted from the background than over the Ancient Audios. That's how microphones see the event. This is hyper realism but necessary as part of the playback deception which is not supported by vision. At home audio provides no visuals. That's why everything needs to be a bit exaggerated just to make sense and the Grands show it brilliantly.


And, these amplifiers need a perfect supporting cast all around, with the level of Acrolink 7N-AD6300 interconnects, 7N-PC9100 power cords or Tara Labs Omega Onyx loudspeaker cables the optimum. The amplifiers are so transparent—the old keep-it-simple-stupid principle of signal path simplicity— that the higher we reach with the ancillaries, the better the sound gets. The soundstage is extremely developed, fantastically sorted and dense. A similar situation applies to the basic sounds of instruments. It is worth checking how the midrange-bass transition works out with specific loudspeakers. I believe the Ancient amplifiers will fare better with monitors than full-range passive towers not because they lack bass but because their sound is shaped accordingly. With semi-active loudspeakers whose bass level we can adjust, it should be simply perfect.


Descriptions:
We discussed construction basics earlier so here I will plain describe what one sees. The Silver Grand Mono is a tube-based power amplifier with two paralleled directly heated 300B triodes at the output. As the name implies, this amplifier consists of two monoblocks each divided into two parts. The original Silver 300B ran one enclosure per channel, now the power supplies with their two power transformers are separated. They are fairy small in size with acrylic front panels and a mesh cover and dimmed blue LEDs below the mesh. There are no power switches which instead reside on the main units. The power supplies connect to the output stages via a meter long, multi-stranded blue-black Kimber Kable with a DIN plug. Inside we see a battery of filtering capacitors, two toroidal transformers and power stabilizers.


The amplifying modules use a similar construction as Ancient Audio's CD players. The base is a granite plinth to which mounts a metal enclosure from below containing all the circuitry. The output transformer and anode voltage capacitors are placed on top. Behind the metal cover on the granite sits a single pair of WBT loudspeaker terminals. The input is on the back plate next to the heat sink and power IEC. In Janusz’s unit those are top Furutechs which I recommend as being what's also on my Lektor Prime player. Next to those is a power switch which really annoys me. The Silver Grand Mono is a very expensive amplifier. Its handling should be as pleasing as boarding a Lexus but hi-end manufacturers are mostly audiophiles and/or engineers who do not pay enough attention to such 'minor' items. The Silver has two switches, one for each channel placed on the backs close to sharp-edged heat sinks. One switch should do the trick and ideally would be handled from an Ancient CD player as they commonly work together with them.



The front of the main boxes conceals the electronics behind smoked glass where of ten LEDs, 5 to 6 should be lit as the bias current indicator. The 2006 version has automatic bias so this won't interest us. The tubes on deck are a single low-power E88CC triode on the input (in the tester those were NOS Philips SQ or Valvo) and the same kind of tube resides in the power triode control stage. The output sports the Full Music 300B/c with carbon plate. I also heard the mesh plate shown in the photos but the carbon version sounded much better. The amps sit on four gold-plated cone tips.


The insides resemble a half-year project by an eccentric pupil of an electrical college. I was truly taken aback by the foam pieces used to keep the silver ribbons which transfer the signal from the input socket to the input tube at the required distance. The parts used are of very high quality including the very expensive Teflon V-cap capacitors. Those really sound fabulous and this amplifier should be treated as a piece of art, not mass production. But then manufacturing quality should be equally high. Despite the warm place I hold in my heart for Mr. Waszczyszyn and his products and despite being already used to the looks and manufacturing quality of my Lektor Prime spinner, I cannot get around mentioning that the whole looks like a spruced-up DIY project. This has nothing in common with the sublime exterior design and perfect manufacturing signs I would expect from an incredibly expensive high-end product.



Technical data according to the manufacturer:
  • Power: 18W/4-8Ω
  • S/N ratio: >100dBA
  • Input impedance: 500mV
  • Dimensions (WxHxD) : 210 x 180 x 380mm ea.

opinia @ highfidelity.pl

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