This is the stable, organised and unobtrusive patterns of the TMA – but with added clarity, colour and impact. The HQA jumps quicker and higher than the integrated, tracking dynamic demands more faithfully, be they the subtle shaping of a lyrical phrase or the percussive detonation that punctuate orchestral works. Just like the TMA, the HQA never leaves any doubt as to what is being played. Just like the TMA it is musically unobtrusive. But it does an even better job of mapping musical intent and moves the listener much closer to the sense and presence of the performers captured in the recording. Anastasia Kobekina’s cello (Ellipses, Mirare MIR604) is more solid and dimensional, her bowing more vivid, her musical commitment more apparent. It transmits the deeply personal nature of her ‘encore piece’, Gallardo, written by her father, the ‘why’ as well as the ‘what’ that she is playing. The TMA is a great, integrated amp and you can build a really musically rewarding system around it. But the HQA elevates things to a whole different level, simply by moving you that much closer to the original performance – and allowing the rest of the system to move in the same direction.
Use the HQA in almost any context and it’s an impressively musical and capable performer. Exert a little care in choosing the matching speaker and, especially if you add a second HQA in bi-amp mode, it suddenly becomes quite exceptional. As good as a single HQA most certainly is, a pair delivers more than twice the musical and emotional impact. Although I spent a lot of time listening to a single HQA driven by The Vibe line-stage, it ultimately found its way into a bi-amped system, driving the Living Voice OBX-RW4 and fed by the CH Precision L1/X1 – with spectacular results. This is where those balanced XLR inputs come in, positively encouraging you to pair this apparently modest amplifier with far more expensive front-end components. It isn’t necessary. The Vibe proved an able, high-value partner that delivered plenty of musical bang for your bucks. But when the HQA emigrates to audio La La Land, things get really interesting. Partnering it with the likes of the CH Precision moves the HQA into a completely different market sector, but it’s a market sector where it sits extremely comfortably.
As impressive as Kobekina’s Gallardo is through one HQA driving the OBX-RW4s, adding a second amp injects so much life, substance and energy into proceedings that it moves beyond intent into almost physical presence. But it’s another ‘difficult’ recording that really shows up the step change in musical performance. Read the OBX-RW4 review (https://gy8.eu/review/living-with-the-living-voice-obx-rw4/ – which also features the bi-amped HQA set up) and you’ll see what this system did for the Pike/Davis Sibelius Violin Concerto (Chandos CHSA 5134). The results were so impressive that it encouraged me to dig out the Sayaka Shoji recording of the same piece (coupled with the Beethoven, accompanied by Temirkanov and the St. Petersburg – DGG UCCG-1811, a Japanese pressed SHM-CD). Shoji is one of my favourite live performers, the power and intensity of her playing belying her diminutive stature. The very fact that she performs with Temirkanov pretty much says it all. Yet, like many a great live performer, she is poorly served by recordings, by discs that struggle to capture the incredible, almost physical intensity and authority in her playing…
Double the fun…
This disc is definitely one of the better attempts. It opens with the Beethoven, which is played with considerable zest and authority by both the soloist and orchestra. Listening with a single amp driving the speakers, the performance is impressively present and articulate, lending explicit shape to Shoji’s phrasing, capturing the carefully paced and weighted accompaniment. This is very nice indeed, if maybe not quite front rank. But moving on to the Sibelius, things start to fall apart. There’s a fineness to the opening line, but musically it lacks drama and tension. The §orchestral playing seems detached and out of line, the recording flat and uninvolving. It would be easy to conclude either the performance, the recording or neither is up to the standard of the Beethoven. But having played this disc on bigger and more capable system, I know what it can do – and that it wasn’t doing it here.
