It was Sunday afternoon, and Doug and I were strolling around one of the halls with a whole bunch of prefab listening rooms. We were trying to think about what we might have missed and wandering somewhat aimlessly.
I looked into the window of one of the larger rooms (still somewhat small though) and almost fell over my feet. I was stunned. The room was dominated by two massive amplifiers, with two components in the window that looked like they should be on some kind of interstellar ship. “Doug, what the hell is this?”
Doug proclaimed, “Dammit—we almost missed this! It’s Abbingdon Music Research, the resurrection of the brand that spawned iFi. Good catch!”
The clock was ticking, so we barged our way into the room, despite the private session note taped to the door. I know the photos tell much of the story, but I don’t think they can really convey just how impressive the guts of the Luna Ingeniii streaming DAC and Luna Medii preamp really are. There’s a level of precision, detail, and symmetry to the construction and layout of these components that surpasses any product I’ve yet experienced.
And then there are those two-chassis Luna Procellarum monoblock amplifiers. Huge, large, beautiful, obviously very heavy. Classical yet futuristic, with an extremely responsive, informative display that kept capturing my attention. The backdrop behind the system was most appropriate—a sparse moonscape that perfectly suited the science-fiction vibe of these components. Entirely appropriate, actually, since these products are named after three of the large lunar seas on our moon.
Some background. Abingdon Music Research is the parent company of iFi Audio, the manufacturers of small, ingenious components like micro-DACs and headphone amps. Before forming iFi, AMR was kinda what they are now, a company focused on building full-size, high-performance audio equipment. iFi’s success put the expensive stuff on the back burner, which certainly makes sense from a financial standpoint.
But the founders of these two companies never forgot their roots and always planned to return to the high-end market with products that would be startling and groundbreaking. So a few years back, AMR brought on audio legend John Curl and gave him total freedom to design whatever he wanted. What he wanted was startling and groundbreaking. The Procellarum amplifier employs a four-quadrant output stage that actively controls the loudspeaker driver during both positive and negative excursions. Rather than merely delivering energy to the driver, the amplifier can both source and sink current, maintaining control of the voice coil throughout the waveform.
In practical terms, the amplifier actively drives the cone forward during the positive portion of the signal and actively drives it backward during the negative portion. This continuous bidirectional control can improve damping and reduce unwanted driver motion, allowing the amplifier to exert tighter control over the loudspeaker’s behavior. The Luna Procellarum cranks out 1200 watts into 4 ohms and retails for US$236,000 per pair.
The Luna Ingeniii streaming DAC (US$115,000) offers true, start-to-finish 32-bit processing, with separate processing for PCM and DSD data. For PCM, the ladder DAC offloads the least-significant bits to a second set of Analog Devices chips, while the main Philips chip does the meat of the processing. The balance of this process can be adjusted in real time via the system’s informative, highly detailed touchscreen or the sexy metal remote.
Like the Ingeniii, the Luna Medii preamplifier (US$87,000) is a solid-state/tube hybrid. AMR’s intention was to build the world’s quietest tube preamp. The power supply for the tubes employs active noise cancellation via phase reversal. Its AirLock power supply emulates an off-grid design, with one set of capacitors charging another set that powers the circuitry.
About the sound: it was splendid. Playing through a pair Marten Mingus Quintet speakers, I expected nothing less, and this was a system that played to the Martens’ strengths. Koby Israelite’s rendition of John Zorn’s “Rampel,” which has shit flying all over the place, sounded magnificent—crisp, precise, utterly free of artifacts. I look forward to hearing this system in a more relaxed environment in the near future.
The Luna products are in full production and will be available this September.
Jason Thorpe
Senior Editor, SoundStage!
