Analog Corner

Smooth Sound: The Firebird's sound gave me a sensation of gliding smoothness and a sophistication of leading-edge transients. It avoided rough, hard edges as well as oversmoothed transients, but it definitely leaned toward the latter.

Tonally, the Firebird had a pleasing neutrality, and excelled in the midrange, which was particularly rich and full bodied. High- and low-frequency extension were very good, but in my opinion, well-damped metal platters produce more crystalline, more precisely drawn highs, and a more concentrated and impactful bottom end, with decays that plunge faster into "black." While POM isn't exactly acrylic, it's similar enough to produce acrylic's pleasingly smooth but somewhat soft overall sound, which is less than dynamically punchy, but which many listeners prefer.

If you mostly listen to small-ensemble classical music or acoustic jazz, the Firebird's strong suits will carry the day—you'll have to look hard to find sweeter tone and suppleness in massed strings. But if you're a rocker or mostly listen to large-scale symphonic works, you'll find that greater dynamic slam, low-frequency punch, and fireworks-like transients can be had elsewhere for about the same price.

Conclusions: The Firebird's strong suits were tonal neutrality from top to bottom, and an especially smooth, lush, delicately drawn midrange. Its speeds remained precisely correct during the review period, with fluctuations that were small, consistent, and symmetrical. No wonder it achieved such a pleasing textural smoothness and was so free from etch and grain.

In terms of attack, sustain, and decay, the Firebird's overall sound indicates careful design that has avoided the sonic thickness and loss of control that, respectively, can be caused by over- or underdamping.

While the Firebird takes Christian Feickert's design concepts to their extremes of performance and price, I suspect that the sweet spot of performance for price in the Dr. Feickert Analogue turntable line is the redesigned Blackbird—especially if you enjoy its overall sound and plan on sticking with one or even two 9" tonearms. If you do, paying for the Firebird's extra real estate won't make sense.

But if you're looking for an all-in-one turntable that avoids the hassles of outboard tonearm and motor pods and can accommodate two or more 12" arms, the Firebird is well worth considering. I greatly enjoyed my months of listening with it.

From Italy, Viva Audio's Luxurious Fono MC phono preamplifier
Viva Audio (footnote 2) was founded in 1996, and their Fono moving-coil phono preamplifier is not a new product. Rather, it's one that has stood the test of time, and for years, readers have implored me to review it. Usually, when I ask, "What's so special about it?," all I get are an orgasmic look and groan. So last May, when I visited Viva Audio's display at High End 2015, in Munich, I arranged with Viva's Amedeo Schembri and Sergey Porotsky to have a Fono sent to me. They were happy to oblige.

The Fono is a two-box, all-tube phono preamplifier with built-in custom moving-coil step-up transformers. It is a single-ended, moving-coil–only design wired point to point, with RCA inputs and outputs, and an additional pair of RCA jacks for adding resistive loading to the transformer primary, if owners feel it necessary.

The Fono's large, heavy, enclosures both measure 16" square, and are made of stylishly curved aluminum that can be painted in what Viva calls "a virtually unlimited array" of automotive lacquers. The signal box is 7.2" high and weighs 26.4 lb; the power supply is an inch taller and weighs 33lb. Protruding from the top of each case are tubes: for the power supply, two 2A3 or 300B tubes; for the signal-handling box, pairs of dual-triode 12AX7s and single-triode 6C45Ps.

At $15,900, the Viva Fono is by far the most expensive 12AX7-based MC phono preamp I've heard. It was also the best sounding—or, at least, the lushest, the best-controlled, the most extended, and the least bloomy on the bottom end. It was also incredibly quiet, with enough gain (60dB) for MC cartridges of relatively low output.

I suspect that what earns orgasmic groans from the Fono's fans is its spooky midrange transparency and generous overall sustain. The sense of there was fully there. If you wish to own but one Broadway original-cast recording, make it the new reissue of West Side Story, cut by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound using the original three-track master tape (2 LPs, Analog Spark/Razor & Tie). Analog Spark, a vinyl-reissue label and the brainchild of Razor &Tie's Mark Piro, is doing it right: These two discs are enclosed in a gatefold "Tip-on" jacket whose inner spread features rarely seen photos of the recording sessions.

The Columbia original, produced by Goddard Lieberson and released in mono in 1957 and in stereo in 1961, sounded spectacular. Engineer Roy Halee told me that Fred Plaut probably engineered it, at the famed 30th Street Studio. The stereo "action" was intended to reproduce in some ways the sensation of attending the live stage show, and the album's presentation of space feels enormous in every dimension. Oh, and the lyrics and music, by Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, are pretty good.

In terms of transient precision, transparency, and reproduction of space, the Fono's rendering of this kind of orchestral recording—or of any kind of acoustic music—was among the best I've heard from any phono preamp I've reviewed. The Fono didn't at all sound grossly "tubey," but had fully extended highs and well-extended and -controlled lows. If there was anything tubey about its sound, it was in its generosity of sustain. It just kept going and going. You could even say it glows . . . but not in an overblown way. The only thing negative I could say about the Fono is that when I turned up the volume too high, it could get somewhat glary. So I didn't.

Image three-dimensionality and solidity were also notable. Through the Fono, the finger cymbals in "Maria" had the ring of reality, from the visceral initial clash through the glistening sustain and the long, graceful decay.

Another record that produced orgasmic groans from me when I listened to it through the Fono was Cousins: Polkas, Waltzes & Other Entertainments for Cornet & Trombone, for various combinations of cornets, trombones, and piano, including the young Gerard Schwarz on cornet (LP, Nonesuch H-71341), recorded in 1977 by the great Marc Aubort, and mastered by Bob Ludwig.

The Fono excelled with classical music and jazz, but I felt it lacked the necessary bottom-end grunt and gravitas for electric bass; I found its overall ethereal sound better suited to acoustic music. If you listen mostly or exclusively to classical and/or jazz and can spend $15,900 on a phono preamp, the Fono should be on your very short list. Having it here for over a month had me listening to classical and jazz long into many evenings.

Two Single-Ended Interconnects: AcroLink 7N-DA2090 Speciale & Fono Acustica Virtuoso
The smooth-sounding combination of Dr. Feickert Analogue Firebird turntable, Reed 3P tonearm with wooden armtube, Lyra Etna cartridge, and Viva Audio Fono phono preamp had me swapping out my reference TARA Labs Zero Evolution interconnect linking the phono preamp to my darTZeel NHB-18NS preamp, to hear what other links might offer. (And lest you think the Firebird's smooth character was the work of the Viva Fono, I also ran all of the arms I used with it through my reference Ypsilon MC-10L/VPS-100 combo and Pure Audio's solid-state Vinyl phono preamp.)

I had on hand what turned out to be two cables with diametrically opposed sounds: the AcroLink 7N-DA2090 Speciale ($2375/1.5m pair, above; footnote 3), and Fono Acustica's flagship model, the Virtuoso ($20,384/1.5m pair, below; footnote 4).

The 7N-DA2090 Speciale is made of 99.99999% pure multistrand copper in what AcroLink calls a "balanced twin core structure." There's not enough space here to go into AcroLink's impressive noise-reduction technology (including magnetic-alloy films developed by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone), but their specifying of this product's resistance (18 milliohms/meter) and electrostatic capacitance (56pF/meter) is something all cable manufacturers should do.

The pricey Fono Acustica is not only hand-terminated but hand-built, of proprietary conductors drawn from Canadian-sourced solid-core silver/gold alloy, with conductors enclosed in silicon sleeves, air-spaced Teflon insulation, and a host of other features you can read about online. The look is Spanish Cowboy Baroque.

Those who deny, because they "know," that the material a conductor is made of can affect the sound, simply haven't listened. Substituting the AcroLink 7N-DA2090 Speciale for the TARA Zero Evolution—which, at $18,000/1m pair, costs even more than the Fono Acustica—produced sharper but not unnaturally defined transients, shorter sustain and decay, and an overall well-detailed and more speedy sound. It generated notable rhythmic excitement that in some ways benefited the Viva Fono's long sustain. The AcroLink's sharply drawn top end worked well with the Fono, as did its somewhat punchier bottom.

Substituting the Fono Acustica Virtuoso for the AcroLink completely changed the sound, which now was far richer overall, with more graceful, almost cautious, romantic, but somehow still precise and well-detailed attacks, and long, long sustains that let the Viva Fono fully express itself. But because the Fono Acustica sounded warmer and darker in the mids, it tamed the Viva Fono's glare at higher volumes, which also made it an ideal match for the Viva in the mids. However, this very pricey interconnect—it costs even more than the Viva Fono!—also somewhat muted the very top end, producing that romantic sound that some crave.

When I went back to my reference TARA Labs interconnect, which has solid-copper cores, the TARA produced an ideal balance of transient speed and detail, generous sustain, and high-frequency extension. Did I miss elements of the AcroLink's and Fono Acustica's sound? Yes—but you can't have everything!

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Footnote 2: Viva Audio, R&D Facility: Camisano, Veneto, Italy. Web: www.vivaaudio.com. Legal Address: Bergs Bazaar Center, Marijas Street 13/IV, Riga LV-1050, Latvia. Tel: (371) 67288810. Viva products are available in the US from Earsnova in New York, NY, Profundo in Round Rock, TX, and Blackbird Audio Gallery in San Diego, CA.

Footnote 3: AcroLink, AcroJapan Corporation, 21-9 Ichigayadaimachi, Shinjuku-Ku Tokyo 162-0066, Japan. Fax: (81) 3-5369-2475, Web: www.acrolink.jp. US distributor: The Cable Company. Tel: (800) 328-9973, (215) 862-4870. Fax: (215) 862-4871. Web: www.thecableco.com

Footnote 4: Fono Acustica, Seville, Andalusia, Spain. Web: www.fono-acustica.com. US distributor: Eastwind Import, 2477 Paseo Circulo, Tustin, CA 92782. Tel: (714) 334-0759. Web: www.eastwindimport.com