Then there’s the small matter of price: the L1 is going to add around 30,000 clams (or more) to your system cost, be those Euros, US Dollars or good old British Pounds. Not exactly small beer. Adding 30K’s worth of one of the world’s finest line-stages to the equation darned well ought to improve things – and in a very real sense it does. But The Magnifier stands surprisingly tall in this company. Tall enough that given the range of system balances and listener biases that exist, I could see the Thales offering the superior solution in some situations, irrespective of price!
The Magnifier as line-stage…
Of course, these examples are using The Magnifier’s own phono-stage (and to some extent, doubling up on the line-stage when adding the L1). So, not only do they incorporate the signature sound of the phono section itself, they don’t isolate the qualities of the Thales’ line-stage. While it’s unlikely that anybody will be buying The Magnifier as a standalone line-stage, ignoring the phono input element, it still matters how it sounds with line-level sources. More importantly, how does The Magnifier’s line-stage stack up against less exalted competition than the class-leading L1? Time to hook up a digital source and run it through both The Magnifier and the Kora PR140, itself that rarest of beasts, a musically competent line-stage that costs less than €10K.
Hooking up the CH Precision D1.5 CD/SACD player to the line inputs of both The Magnifier and the Kora, in turn, detailed comparison was hardly necessary. As impressive as the PR140 is, the Thales was in a different league. Tonally, the two units are quite similar: the Kora a little more linear top to bottom and with a little more low-end weight and definition; the Thales with greater body, dimensionality and presence. But what really separates the two is the Magnifier’s superior sense of organisation and the coherence of its acoustic presentation. Playing Bach from Italy (Amandine Beyer/Gli Incogniti, Harmonia Mundi HMM 902769.70 – a collection that draws links between Bach’s string music and the works of his Italian contemporaries, Vivaldi, Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello) the Thales not only separates the instruments more clearly in space, with a natural perspective, depth and dimensionality, the shape, structure and architecture of the music was laid bare, with an unforced clarity and undiminished energy. Indeed, The Magnifier absolutely nailed the band’s characteristic verve and vitality.
No surprise then that the riotous drive and focussed energy of Bill Mallonee and the Vigilantes of Love’s Audible Sigh (Compass Records 7 4295 2) is delivered with poise, purpose and a serious dose of musical momentum. Mallonee’s vocals benefit from the tonal warmth, body and spatial separation that come so easily to The Magnifier, yet those same qualities don’t rob the song ‘Resplendent’ of its immediacy, pain and poignance. When Emmylou Harris joins for the chorus, her distinctive voice is just as unmistakable as it should be. The combination of natural tonality and perspective allow greater and easier insight into the performance, while the temporal and spatial organisation bring clarity and a natural sense of pace to the music’s shape and pattern. The Magnifier traverses the convoluted, hitch-kick rhythms of the alt-country music with a catchy confidence that draws you, unresisting, into the more up-beat, danceable numbers.
