"I have saved money for almost two years before placing my order and while waiting for them to be built and shipped I never stopped thinking that I could be wrong. Now, they are there, I can tell you with absolutely no trace of regret that they won’t leave my audio den."

A review of the ARIA 350XL HS MONO BLOCKS

Who am I.

I am white-black, I do not mean I am a zebra, that is to say, black and white but something more subtle and refined, a blend of white and black, a mongrel (though I know my father and my ancestors).

I am a hybrid like the president of the USA Mr OBAMA.

In my country, I am too white to be seen as a black and too black to be a white man.
In fact, I am special and so are the ARIA 350 XL HS. A class apart.

I will spare you all the details regarding looks and engineering to focus on music.
Like a beautiful woman you are first attracted by the outside envelope then you wonder if beauty is more than skin-deep. You start beating about the bush. Is she serious or frivolous? Is she made for me? You cannot tailor a woman’s personality to suit your needs or preconceptions but  this amp is like an extraordinary woman: you can tell it to behave the way you want.

There are other hybrid amps on the place like TENOR AUDIO, MOSCODE or more recently ARC and AETHETIX’s ATLAS but The ARIA is totally unique in the fact that you can choose the way you want your music to sound. I chose mine to sound slightly more euphonic but not syrupy. The sound is sweet with muscles. Imagine the above mentioned woman with a strong but sexy handshake.

I am a bad saxophone player because I started too late but I know enough music to understand timbre, rhythm, pace or slam; and my ears are still good so I can hear beyond what is obvious to notice shades, hues and the like.

I have been more than 40 years into the hobby. I have built systems according to my income and owned amps from KRELL, MARK LEVINSON or AUDIO RESEARCH but I can now tell you that my quest is over.

These are my DREAM AMPS.

The ARIA brought together things I have found scattered in other amps: transparency, dynamics, resolution of low level details.

The tiniest details are revealed giving musical images life and body. Subtle tonal and dynamic shadings emerge as well, weaving a rich, complex and articulate sonic tapestry.

Transient edges were clean and precise.

I listened to Al Jarreau singing “I will take my time this time” and Earl Klugh’s guitar playing leapt into the room.

When I received the amps I quickly opened the crates, connected them and let them cook with the stock tubes. I was cleaning the mess around when I suddenly stood my chin resting on the broom wondering how these diminutive boxes could make so much music.

I replaced the Sovtek 6SL7's with GE's and the sound became more lush and romantic; later, I inserted the Tung-Sols and that was it.

All this review was done with them.

The ARIA 350's resolution of details was staggeringly good, as was the retrieval of ambiance cues.

These two traits allowed the ARIA 350 HS XL to draw a realistic portrait of the recording space. Another example of this is heard on Gerry Mulligan meets Ben Webster where during one duet the two jazz giants play apparently the same score. The tenor sax answers or calls the baritone. Though these instruments share the same recording space, the mic placement and the mixing result in a slight discontinuity of the two distinct ambient surroundings. Gerry Mulligan’s Baritone is close, large and  immediate on the left of the soundstage, with little or no space around it. Ben Webster’s tenor sax on the other hand  seems confined to the boundaries of the studio as if he is contributing to enforce Mulligan’s interpretation.

With the ARIA the soundstage was huge and holographically rendered. The co-existence of the two different camps was mesmerizing.

On Kiri Te Kanawa singing Mozart’s aria(ha!) the amp demonstrated other strengths. Dynamic transients were superb. The see-saw motion between quiet and loud passage were bigger, I mean more defined than with the other amps  I mentioned having owned.

The diva and the orchestra moving from ppp to fff effortlessly as their only limits were their respective instruments (e.g: voice and violins) just because the amps were faster and lively.

Alfred Brendel /piano and Dietrich Fischer-Diskau /baritone on Schubert’s aria (again) [Philips Digital Classics] the cut “Abschied” (farewell, in German) shows how the amps handle subtle microdynamic shadings. Brendel‘s piano mimics a horse prancing on the gravel of the way. He, so skilfully,alters the notes you feel like counting stones under the horse’s hooves. This playing contributing significantly to the realism of the situation presented to me.

The combination of voice and piano was in this context a manifesto of precision, delicacy and warmth.

Pace and Timing were beyond excellence.

My turntable sports two arms. I played many LP's using one arm or the other to assess differences in pace, rhythm, and timing. The ARIA never failed to show these qualities with guitar or sax solos. Each beat was rendered as if it was the only one in the music.

You, maybe, have noticed that my main concerns with music lies with mediums and highs but I can tell you that these amps were no slouch in the bass domain and though I am not a bass freak,  I enormously appreciated this part of the music. It was as good as the rest of the music range. Though the bass was not as ponderous as Krell’s, it was not light-hearted or swollen, just right.

I guess you have understood that I love these amps. I can boldly say that they are the best ones I have ever had. A close friend came to listen to the amps. He plans to buy my speakers.

He sat in the sweet spot, listened to a few cuts, turned to me and said: “you will have to sell these amps, too.” I emphatically uttered a loud “no way buddy, go and buy your own!”

They are that good.

I have saved money for almost two years before placing my order and while waiting for them to be built and shipped I never stopped thinking that I could be wrong. Now, they are there, I can tell you with absolutely no trace of regret that they won’t leave my audio den.

Have noticed that you do not see any on the  Audiogon. Their owners must probably be still in love with them.

I have to tell you, Mike, that if you receive orders from Martinique, you will have to reward me (I will accept another pair).

These amps are a Masterpiece.

Patrick E GRIFFITH
Martinique
French West-Indies

PS: Associated Equipment

AVTAC Pasiphae,Passive transformer and router
Ayre C 5-xe universal stereo player,
Alesys Materlink,
TW-Acustic Raven AC with three motors and two tone-arms: Graham Phantom II  with a Dynavector  Te Kaitora Rua, Micro Seiki 505 Mk III with a Satin MC
AESTHETIX Rhea SIGNATURE Phonostage
Magnum Dynalab MD 90.
Cables:Harmonic Technology Magic throughout.
Phono cables are: on the Micro Seiki, Harmonic tech Crystal Silver; on the Graham,Tara Labs the Zero
Speakers are VMPS  RM-x 1 Elixir
Power: Shunyata Hydra 8+Python cables;the amps are powered with Silent Source Reference power cords.
Furniture, cable lifters and amps platforms are home made.
Boston audio Tune blocks under CD Player and Phonostage and Alesys
The room, made from scratch, is 23.12 x 16.40 x 9.77.The walls are reinforced concrete.
Suspended ceiling and floating floor, seven electric lines power the room. A 6KVA UPS controls these lines.

. . .