Audio Tekne TFA 9501 Preamplifier, TM 8801 Power Amplifiers, and TEA 8695 Phonostage

When in January this year I received an email from Mr Hari Strukelj of Natural Sound asking if I was willing to review one of Audio Tekne's products I had no idea whether this would be a one time gig or maybe I would be given a chance for more encounters with products by this Japanese brand, that had made so much fuss during last two editions of Warsaw Audio Show. Even the first test turned out to be a chance for me to experience two, "entry" level devices: TEA 2000 phonostage and TFM 2000 amplifier (see HERE).

Despite the fact that these were two least expensive products both were absolutely remarkable—TEA 2000 until this day was the best phonostage I had a chance to listen to (and that's not only my opinion, as there were more people who had a chance to audition it). The amplifier, although a push-pull design (as many Readers know I am a huge fan of SET amps), although using a completely unknown to me triode 6AS7G, also offered an astounding performance. To be honest I love this sort of reviews—I receive some very special product for a review, plug it in and then... I don't want to turn it off. I don't need to eat, to sleep, I live feeding from music delivered by such audio device until... until the very sad day comes, when I have to give/send it back. And in this particular case both devices spent quite a long time with me so giving them back was even more painful.

Fortunately for me, and any other brand fans, its distributor, Natural Sound saw a great potential in Polish market and decided to stay here for good. That gave me a chance to ask for some other AT products for next review and here we go. To be honest (again 🙂 ) I hope this is still not the last one...

It so happens in AudioTekne range (but is also true for other high-end products) that the better (more expensive) device the bigger its weight. My and Jacek's backs can attest to that! We had to bring the whole set and than carry it from a car up to my 4th floor apartment.

What did I get this time? Well, this time I got devices closer to the top of the line (one of them actually is top of the line).

TFA 9501

TFA 9501 is Mr Imai's top of the line preamplifier (and the heaviest device in this test—55 kg out of the box!). Why is it so heavy? One of the reasons is a build-in power supply for... the top of the line mono phonostage, TEA 9501. In other words—if you want to buy the latter you don't have a choice—TFA 9501 is also a must. But of course one can buy preamplifier without phonostage.

Solution used for volume control in this preamplifier is quite interesting. The TFM 2000 amplifier, I previously reviewed, sport stepped attenuator that made setting a required level precisely quite difficult. For this preamplifier Mr Imai also used attenuators (and not classic pots) but yes, two of them—a "classic" one for output signal, but it is the second one that makes it interesting because it allows user to adjust input signal from a source. This solution was chosen by Mr Imai for its sonic advantages. It might not be the most convenient volume control I know, but it is quite precise so setting a required volume level isn't a problem anymore. I can assure you that unless you change volume every 5 minutes you shall get used to this system quickly, although it is true that if you need to "mute" system quickly using source selector will do job faster.

Tubes

Mr Imai uses two types of power tubes for his amplifiers—the above mentioned 6AS7G, or the legendary 300B. He prefers the former and uses also the latter only because his customers expected him to. The mono amps that came for test this time use two 300B per channel, of course in push-pull configuration. 'Of course', because that's the only solution our designer utilizes in his amps. Interestingly, despite high price of these devices one won't find any expensive, NOS triodes delivered along. No Western Electric, no other "legendary" brands. What one gets are Russian Electro-Harmonix valves.

It's not about price of such tubes, or their availability. Mr Imai simply does not recognize their special value. What really matters, what makes AT amplifiers sound so good are SuperPermalloy transformers, and to some, much lesser extent, also Carbon elements that damp vibrations. Tubes, as Mr Imai concluded after his experiments, do not influence sound quality significantly, especially over extended period of time. According to him best NOS tubes might at the beginning sound better than regular tubes from current production, but after some, short time, this difference is gone. Therefore there is no use to invest money in usually super-expensive NOS valves.

Usually I don't agree but this test proved me wrong as you will later read. As I own only 2 WE tubes I couldn't really call Mr Imai on his claim. So I did the only thing I could—I accepted Mr Imai's claim as a fact and decided to only assess his claim by what I was about to hear. Also logic told me that Mr Imai knew what he was talking about. Let's be frank—selling his products at prices that he does, the designer could just easily add 5-10% more to the price tag and offer some super-tubes if this could give him an advantage over competitors. Also I am pretty sure he would do it if he believed that it would be sonically beneficial. Spoiler alert! TM 8801 speak for themselves proving that even inexpensive 300B tubes are able to deliver mesmerizing performance. One more interesting thing about this mono amplifiers—they weight "only" 28 kg each—not so much comparing with the other two devices in this test.

TEA 8695

The last piece of this puzzle is a phonostage—the mid-level model TEA 8695 (that weights "only" 43,5 kg). Like other AT phonostages it works only with MC cartridges. The only adjustment available for user is a gain switch that allows one to lower it by 10 dB. There are two inputs for low and high impedance pickups and two analogue outputs (RCA and XLR + a small output selector.

All these devices look more or less the same—Mr Imai consequently uses the same appearance for all his creations—of course one might like it or not. As for me—at the beginning I wasn't trilled with this kind of vintage appeal, but the more time I spent with AT products the more they grew on me. I needed some time to fully accept this aesthetics but as for the sound—I've been in love since the very first session with the first AT product. I could understand those who wouldn't want to put something looking like that in their living room but I wouldn't mind, I wouldn't mind at all!

One more interesting finding common to all these three devices (four if you count two power amps)—each of them sports not only RCA inputs but also XLR ones (preamplifier offers also and XLR output). I had to ask Hari about it and he told me that these were not truly balanced designs but they were equipped with XLR connectors for users' convenience.

It took us a lot of time and effort to bring all these devices to my room and unpack them. After some rest I had to figure out where to place all items as at this time I still had Robert Koda system in my room together with Cessaro Chopin speakers. Finally I decided to use first the phonostage with Koda system, later to listen to full AT setup and finally to try to compare these two remarkable systems.

SOUND

Recordings used for this test (a selection):

AC/DC, Highway to hell, EMI SVLP 325, LP.
Arne Domnerus, Jazz at the Pawnshop, Proprius ATR 003, LP.
Cannonball Adderly, Somethin' else, Classic Records BST 1595-45, LP.
Dead Can Dance, Spiritchaser, 4AD/Mobile Fidelity MOFI 2-002, LP.
Dżem, Detox, DZEM SC 001/91, LP.
Georges Bizet, Carmen, RCA Red Seal SPA 25 064-R/1-3, LP.
John Williams, Star Wars, 20^th Century Records STEC 264/65, LP.
Keith Jarrett, The Koeln Concert, ECM 1064/65 ST, LP.
Lou Donaldson, LD+3, Blue Note MMBST-84012, LP.
Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia CS 8163, LP.
Milt Jackson Ray Brown, It don't mean a thing if you can't tap your foot to it, Pablo Records 2310-909, LP.
Mozart, Cosi Fan Tutte, conducted by Teodor Currentzis, MusicAeterna Orchestra, Sony Classical B00O1AZGD6, LP.
Muddy Waters & The Rolling Stones, Live At The Checkerboard Lounge. Chicago 1981, Eagle Rock Entertainment B0085KGHI6, LP.
Patricia Barber, Companion, Premonition/Mobile Fidelity MFSL 2-45003, 180 g LP.
Pink Floyd, The Endless River, Parlophone Records 825646215478, LP.
Vivaldi, Le Quatro Stagioni, Divox/Cisco CLP7057, LP.

Listening to Koda system with AT phonostage already gave me a taste of what to expect. Replacing my phonostage (ESE Labs Nibiru) with TEA 8695 resulted in a shock, that I already mentioned in my Koda review. Sure, the price difference between these two is gigantic, so the so much more expensive phonostage should easily outperform the cheaper one, but considering the fact that all other elements of the analogue front end (deck+arm+cartridge) remained exactly the same and they should have been a bottleneck preventing AT from presenting its top performance, its absolute supremacy did come as a shock.

The next step—moving to listening to a full AudioTekne setup still with Cessaro Chopin speakers and Jorma cables did not bring that kind of shock anymore—it simply couldn't have as both these systems delivered top-high-end, although different in character, performance. But there was quite a surprise when I heard what Mr Imai did with the sound of 300B valves. I guess at least some of you had a chance to listen to at least one amp build around this triode. Most of such amps offer absolutely captivating midrange but both range extremes seem slightly rolled off. Monoblocks of Italian manufacturer Tektron proved already before that what really decides about final sound is the design rather than tubes themselves. TM 8801 is another prove of this claim.

Star Wars

In terms of dynamics and bass tightness AudioTekne amps equalled Koda's performance, although the latter offered slightly better bass extension and bit more slam. For whatever reason, or maybe I know the reason—the upcoming premiere of The Force Awakens, the first album that landed on Mr Sikora's Basic turntable was a... Star Wars soundtrack. Some years ago I bought from Allegro or eBay some French issue of this album, that I always thought to be not bad, but surely not a particularly good one (assuming that there is any available? I don't know but I heard rumor about upcoming new box edition—I need to talk to Santa about it...). The Audio Tekne system played this record in a way that reminded me robustness and dynamics of a high quality cinema sound system with one important difference—I was the one who decided about volume level. Yup, I played loud but not as loud a they do in cinemas where usually I can't even hear my own thoughts.

Obviously it was also much more refined presentation. I felt shivers going down my spine when I heard The Main theme and later also The Imperial March. The Japanese setup delivered amazingly dynamic, clean, unrestricted performance, refined and coherent too. I also liked bass a lot—powerful, rich, well defined—maybe Koda had a slight advantage here, but still what AT had to offer was simply remarkable. Such a lower end combined with open, airy, amazingly vibrant treble clearly contradicted a common opinion of what 300B tubes had to offer. It seemed that Mr Imai might have listened to his customers and used 300B triodes but he had also done everything in his power to achieve performance "compatible" with his sound philosophy.

I really wish I could write something like: "I didn't like it", or "it's not how 300B is supposed to sound like". I wish I could but I can't. I liked it. Hell! I loved what I heard! As a result this particular album (that before I'd played maybe a year ago or so) was played during this test almost every day and each time it gave me goos bumps and each time I discovered some new details unknown to me up to this moment. And all that with a recording that I had thought to be mediocre at best.

Milt Jackson & Ray Brown

The next album I retrieved from some dark corner was one by Milt Jackson and Ray Brown and again it wasn't some super-duper audiophile edition as it came from Pablo Records. I had not listened to this record when I reviewed the less expensive AT phonostage and after a short while I already wished I had! I didn't think I'd ever heard such an amazingly vibrant, lively Milt Jackson's vibes. I could feel as each sound made my ear drum (and most of the bones in my body) vibrate. It was this type of vibrancy that almost hurt, 'almost" being a key word here, as it meant it sounded, to my delight, very live-like, very real.

I think that even someone who had never heard a vibe before would have known why this instrument was called "vibes". And those who had heard it live would have known that AudioTekne delivered vibes performance in the most "right" way—not playing some smooth, round, gentle sounds but rather balancing on the rough/sharp side of things, and surely also remarkably vibrant—just like AT setup delivered it.

Did I already mention that this was exactly how this AT system sounded like? Yeah, I did. As for Ray Brown's double bass... well—Ray was Ray, even if he just played backup for other great musician. Outstanding selectivity of this system allowed me to follow the play of my favorite bassist at any moment of my choosing—whether he lead or just played in the background. This punctual, tight when needed, rich and tuneful bass totally mesmerized me. Sound was full, meaning with strings and wood conveyed in proper proportions, with fast attack and nice, long sustain—I just could stop listening to Maestro.

Jazz at the Pawnshop

After listening to this album, the next one in line was obvious to me - Jazz at the Pawnshop. I needed to find out whether Lars Erstrand's vibes would sound as convincing as Milt's. Hell yes, it did! Plus there was this extra something that this one of the best ever recorded jazz concerts provided each time (on high quality systems). 300B properly implemented in SET configurations always create amazingly realistic, convincing soundstage especially when playing live music captured in some real locations and not in studio. And there is this thing—ambiance that one can feel around when participating in live concert, the emotions that such an experience involves. I expected Mr Imai's system in this respect to fall, not far but still, a bit behind best SETs I knew but... even though I tried I couldn't really point out any weaknesses of this presentation. It felt like AudioTekne achieved this level of realism effortlessly, like it was the most natural thing in the world and this presentation wasn't in anyway worse than what best SET amps had to offer.

I took maybe 10 seconds for me to completely immerse myself in Arne Domnerus band's music. There was no room for sound or recording quality analyses, for any comparisons and so on. There was only the music and the musicians who had such a fabulous time playing this concert just few meters away from me. I could "see" each of them, I could "feel" each instrument's body—that was a result of great selectivity AT delivered (combined with great recording obviously). I could see them all on this not so big stage, sometimes I even moved in my chair as if I wanted to "look" closer to some instrument hiding behind other one. I did that involuntarily as I forgot that I was still in my room. The presentation was amazingly coherent, well balanced and particularly expressive. Just few amplifiers/system I know were able to involve me in presentation they created in front of me in such a convincing way, or rather transfer me straight to the concert hall. This offered opportunity of something more than just listening to the music—it was about experiencing it and all the emotions it involved. I had so much fan that I could compare it only to the best live experiences.

I had to re-play this album again to even try to analyze what I heard. Vibes sounded fantastic, there was even more air around it and the decay was very natural. An ambiance of a concert was perfectly conveyed, holography of the presentation was remarkable. And all that despite the fact that it wasn't SET producing this sound, that the sound wasn't what "normally" 300B offered. It was different—more powerful, less round, there was no warmth that SET usually added to the sound, and yet it was equally involving, equally convincing and as enjoyable as the best SET amp I knew.

This last element is very important factor for me—I listen to the music several hours everyday, so I simply need an enjoyable, listener-friendly sound, otherwise I get tired already after short time and can't do my job. Audio Tekne offers more "audiophile" sound, I mean it is more "high fidelity" one than most SET amps and yet, despite spending with this system even close to 16 hours a day I felt energized, happy and not worn out. This is very neutral presentation and yet also amazingly natural—these two features extremely rarely come together and when they do the result is simply astonishing!

Rock'n'roll!

When it came to listening to high quality recordings one of the things that attracted my attention were percussion cymbals. Perhaps those who read my previous review of AudioTekne set remember, that at first I thought it sounded rather dark. This time, despite very rich and powerful bass and midrange I didn't think even for a second that it sounded dark. Why? I think, because of this outstanding treble presentation, that was simply better than what most tube amplifiers I knew were able to deliver. First of all it was about this almost painful vibrancy of treble, with "almost" being a key word here—that's what made these cymbals sound so very special. Secondly AT set mastered dynamics and tonality shading, an ability to clearly present slightest changes in both which resulted in fabulous treble differentiation. Add to that lots of air, openness, abundance of details and nuances but presented in an inoffensive way and it all together creates something that tubes typically are not able to offer.

I missed a bit of "sugar", sweetness that most SETs deliver, but not AT, thus treble seemed a bit "tougher", colder than SET's but in fact this was more true, more real-like presentation without any added elements that could make sound nicer. Until this test as a great fan of SET sound I would have said that I preferred such a bit "sugar-coated" presentation. But now I'm not so sure anymore. I simply can not deny that AudioTekne delivered an absolutely outstanding performance and that I loved it!

It turned out that this type of performance served really well also such album as AC/DC's Highway to Hell. Fast, taut, powerful bass with such a precise timing, plus this fabulous sparking, vibrant treble, plus clarity and richness of vocalist voice and these slightly rough electric guitars—that's how Rock'n'roll should be played. I couldn't just sit and listen, I had to play and sing along having so much fun! It was clear that this was no audiophile recording (again—no sugar-coating) but I couldn't care less, it was and endless stream of pure fan, pure energy.

Playing one of Led Zeppelin records granted me similar experience—lots and lots of explosive energy, impressive dynamics and proper dose of this rock "dirt" - it was simply awesome!

Is it better than SET?

So the question is: does AudioTekne system offer a better performance than the best SET amps I know? Well, it's a question worth (almost) a million. What Audio Tekne offers seems a bit more versatile as it is fully capable of delivering astounding performance with rock music, that when played by SET amps is not as convincing. On the other hand I remember how ethereal was the sound, how even more palpable were phantom images when I had listened to live jazz recordings with Kondo Souga.

Obviously it is not just about amplifier—the other elements of the system, especially loudspeakers, play a great role too. Listening to Koda system, that despite having some transistors on board sounded more tube-like for me (or should I say SET-like) and to the AudioTekne rig with Cessaro Chopin speakers I finally concluded that with these speakers I'd rather go with Koda. The Chopin's beryllium tweeters combined with this amazing, so sparking treble delivered by AT that by itself already balanced on a thin line that if crossed would have caused truly painful, tiresome experience, now actually happened to cross this line in some recordings. Koda, that offered bit "softer" (I use this word as no other, better one comes to mind) sound complemented these particular speakers in a bit better way creating an awesome musical spectacle. But when I replaced Cessaro with my Matterhorns (yes, I do realize they are much cheaper, they do not quite match level of performance of any of these two setups, but still sound great 🙂 ) my preference shifted towards AudioTekne. Some say one should start building system from speakers, some say start from amplifier—it doesn't really matter which way one goes as long as all elements of this jigsaw puzzle fit perfectly together.

I could try to compare also the third remarkable system I had a chance to review some time ago—the one with Kondo Kagura but I decided not to. Why? It was too long ago and then I didn't have neither best possible preamplifier, nor source, nor speakers so a comparison wouldn't be fair even if I wanted to. What I can tell you as a fact is that I could happily live with either of these three fantastic systems for the rest of my life and never ever whine about a need of a change. And if I were a (very) rich man I would buy myself all three of them and joggle with all components depending on my mood.

Among these three reviewed systems Audio Tekne is the most complete one with the best phonostage I ever heard as a source, brilliant preamplifier and very unique sounding (but in a very good way) 300B power amps. And yes, there is this synergy effect between them that creates an added value. For two weeks (that somehow felt like much, much shorter time) these components together created a mesmerizing, immersive musical spectacle in my room so I spent there as much time as I only could listening to many, many records from my collection and enjoying each and every one of them. Even with those not-so-perfectly-recorded/pressed I was able to experience music in a very special, unique way.

Summary

I tried to find at least one record that would sound not so good on the AudioTekne system and I failed. High quality, audiophile recordings sounded amazingly well, probably better then ever. When it came to playing records of lesser quality AT setup did not try to sugar-coat their flaws but focused on delivering involving musical experience rich with true emotions. I was simply thrilled listening to Jarrett's concert from Koeln, to Miles on Kind of Blue, to Le nozze di Figaro, Carmen, Patricia Barber and Kate Bush, but I had a lot of fun listening to "regular" quality albums like Detox by Dżem, AC/DC, and, to my surprise, I even enjoyed latest U2 album. This system makes listener focus his attention completely on music, forgetting about sound and its quality. As for tube gear AudioTekne is pretty analytical, precise sounding but these features are there only to support a very realistic, convincing but also involving musical presentation.

Very few tube amplifiers deliver such a great bass definition and control (with proper speakers I mean) and maybe even less of them is able to offer such resolving, clean and vibrant treble. Having such extraordinary range extremes AT does not forget about the key, mid part of the range. Maybe in terms of holography and palpability of the presentation this system could not quite match the best SET amps, but first of all this difference, if any, was a very small one, and secondly AT still provided more tangible, more three-dimensional performance than 99,9% of all tube and solid-state systems. All other aspect of the performance: tonality, timbral accuracy, richness, fluidity, smoothness, openness, differentiation and even dynamics were at top level unreachable for all but a very few top systems.

Does a difference in performance between this system and the other one from AudioTekne I reviewed some months ago justify price difference? No, it does not—it's (unfortunately) not how it works in top-high-end world—5-times the price won't ever give you 5-time better performance. Would I, assuming I could afford it, spend so much more to get such increase in performance as in this case? Hell, yes!

Yes, I also think that spending THAT much money on audio system is crazy but I do also realize that it is a matter of perspective. Considering only the most important (for me) element of this whole hobby—the music—everything that takes me even just one step closer to the emotions comparable to those I can feel when listening to live music is worth any money. This AudioTekne system delivered an amazing amount of emotions that felt very, very close to live-like ones!

DESIGN

Just like in case of all other AudioTekne products information on these products provided by manufacturer are scarce. As all of them also these three use characteristic enclosures placed on carbon anti-vibration feet.

TFA 9501 Preamplifier

Information provided on this top of the line preamplifier, TFA 9501, states that it uses double triodes 5965 or E180CC (either former or latter type). Altogether it uses 6 tubes. Just like in other products Mr Imai makes, these tubes sport carbon anti-vibration "hats". To replace tubes one has to unscrew these pieces of carbon first. Tubes are placed in small spaces between six transformer housings. Transformers use SuperPermalloy cores (Ni79Fe15Mo5). An interesting thing about this design is that when used together with top of the line phonostage, TEA 9501, it acts as a power supply for it.

On the rear panel one finds additional power outlets that, when unused, are secured with metal caps. One uses these to deliver power to TEA 9501 (if used together—TEA 9501 can not be used without TFA 9501). On the front panel there is the main on/off switch with a red indicator light that come on when device is switched on. Next to it sits another big, backlit push-button that turns on and off power supply for phonostage. Next switch turns record out. There are also four gold knobs. Two of them, the one on the left and the one on the right side, allow user to control volume, two inner knobs act as input selectors (the right one allows to select phonostage, the left one all other inputs).

Rear panel sports XLR input and output, 5 linear inputs (RCA), Rec out, and RCA output (plus a small switch to select whether one uses RCA or XLR output). There is also IEC socket and above mentioned power outlets for external phonostage. This preamplifier an exclusive system of transformer sound attenuator called ATT: all transformers on the signal path use Super Permalloy cores, fixed bias, class A push-pull circuits.

TM-8801 Power amplifiers

TM-8801 power amplifiers sport 300B triodes in power stage and CR1006 rectifier. Similar to AudioTekne's preamplifiers also amplifiers use transformers with large Permalloy cores. Each amp uses two 300B tubes working in push-pull configuration in class A. Power tubes and rectifier are placed under protective metal grid fixed with the chassis with long screws. On the side, between transformers' housings manufacturer placed signal tubes with characteristic carbon anti-vibration "hat". Behind transformer, close to the rear edge there are three large capacitors and a soft-start circuitry. Rear panel sports XLR and RCA inputs with a small selector switch between them, ground terminal, IEC socket and inconspicuous but smart speaker posts.

TEA 8695 Phonostage

TEA 8695 is AudioTekne's mid-level phonostage for Moving Coil cartridges. It's also a tube device using 6072A valves. It is equipped with push-pull amplifier stages, coupled with transformer. Transformer sports Super Permalloy Ultra large cores. It uses build-in step-up MC transformers and the RIIA is implemented with the LC topology. This phonostage uses no user-operable adjustments or settings except for a switch that allows to lower gain by 10dB. On the front panel there is a single on/off switch and a red light that comes on when device is switched on. On the rear panel there are two RCA inputs, separate for low and high impedance MC pickups, ground terminal, XLR and RCA outputs with a selector and IEC power inlet.

Specifications (according to manufacturer):

TFA 9501

Inputs: Phono, CD, Tuner, Tape, AV, Aux.

Max output signal Phono, CD, Tuner, Tape, AV, Aux : 3 Vrms

Outputs: Rec Out; Pre Out XLR and RCA

Frequency range: 20 Hz—20 kHz (+/- 1 dB)

Dimensions: 445 x 225 x 346 mm (W x W x D)

Weight: 55 kg

TM-8801

Inputs: RCA and XLR

Input sensitivity/impedance: 1 V/3,3 kΩ

Power: 15 W