Perhaps this dichotomy between musical integrity and instrumental detail is best captured by the delicacy and space of the lullaby, ‘Mareta n’om faces plorar’, sung by Montserrat Figueras and daughter Arianna Savall (from Ninna Nanna, AliaVox AV9826). The Solen captures the lute’s plangent melody perfectly, as it does the two voices, their separate characters and close harmony. The gentle, languid tempo never lags, the air and space add to the fragility of the performance. All good, you might think, but – and it’s a BIG but – the tinkling finger bells that punctuate proceedings, almost inaudible on some systems, are here smudged over, the cascade of chimes almost becoming a single, homogenous sound. In this instance, the failing is a combination of top-end roll-off and a loss of resolution. Work further down the range and that lack of leading-edge resolution on quieter instruments is still there. Play ‘Did I Hurt You’ from Eleanor McEvoy’s Yola (Mosco EMSACD1) and the strummed rhythm guitar does its job, setting the track’s pace, but it is also softened and smudged – a stark contrast to the clarity and directness of the piano and vocals.
There’s little doubt that you can find an equivalently priced solid-state device that will provide greater low-level, background resolution. But the presence of detail isn’t the point. Detail only becomes information when it starts to make sense – which means, when it occurs at the right time and in the right place. Detail that isn’t bound to the musical thread resides somewhere between distraction and irritation: musically speaking, you are actually better off without it. Whether it’s the rhythm guitar on Yola, or those finger bells on Ninna Nanna, the CV40 gets their contribution and energy in the right place and at the right time, adding to rather than distracting from the musical whole. Which brings us full circle, back to the question of musical integrity. By concentrating on the music’s core components and the energy spectrum as a whole, rather than in parts, the Solen amp puts the musical performance and performers firmly front and centre.
Back in the real world, where any system that even approaches the goal of doing everything is inevitably large, critical and costly, the Solen CV40-EL84 occupies an attractive, fuss-free niche at the more affordable end of the market. It’s in that spirit that I’ve approached this review – at least, to date. The Solen is a superb, plug-n-play musical performer and, I suspect, that’s exactly the way many happy owners are going to be using it. However, if you are prepared to invest in a minimal amount of audio ‘fuss’, you can, not so much improve its (already outstanding) musicality as mitigate its shortcomings. It’s all hi-fi common sense, but even so… Be careful where you site the CV40: what you sit it on matters. If you’ve sited it sensibly, you can improve the amp’s resolution by using a trio of wood blocks (bamboo, maple or the CFM risers) to couple it directly to the supporting surface. Adding an HRS damping plate to the top of the chassis will improve things still further, albeit at a price, as will using a parallel ground connection to the chassis. Do those things and those finger bells start to emerge, as does the piano’s action, the complexity of its harmonics and note weight and attack: all worthwhile improvements – but I suspect that they rather miss the point.
