Line
Magnetic Audio LM-211IA
(Taken
from http://www.witchdoctor.co.nz/,
review by Andrew baker)
Build
& Features
The
LM-211IA is second from the bottom in the amplifier
range (there is a little 3wpc mini amp which comes in
below) and it looks and feels just as beautiful and
well built as its more expensive family members. It’s
fairly compact, measuring 376 x 345 x 191.5mm, and will
of course require plenty of ventilation because those
valves do get hot (though admittedly not as hot as some).
Weighing around 20kg, this all-valve integrated uses
four EL34s for class AB push-pull amplification, with
two 12AX7s and two 12AU7s in the input/pre-amp stage
– great news for tube rollers, though the stock
tubes sounded wonderful so I wouldn’t be rushing
out to get anything new straight away.
A chunky,
boxy but attractive cover is supplied to protect the
valves, though I preferred to keep it off. There are
two wide bandwidth output transformers and a specially
designed power supply transformer situated behind the
valves. The amp is switchable between ultra-linear mode,
where it gives a respectable 32 watts per channel, and
triode mode, where you’ll get 15 watts. There
are four linestage inputs – no in-built phonostage
– and speaker taps for 4 and 8 ohm speakers. Bias
adjustment is manual and very easy – just have
your own flathead screwdriver at hand. The fine-looking
ALPS volume control and source selector are machined
from aluminium and the matching feet are padded with
felt so the amp can easily be pushed around. The power
on/off switch is located along the left side panel and
the amp has a soft-start/time delay circuit, so when
you turn it on the indicator next to the volume control
will flash orange for 30 seconds before staying on to
indicate normal function (let the valves warm up for
at least 15 – 30 minutes before serious listening).
The indicator will also flash when in mute, which is
operated via the lovely little aluminium remote which
also operates volume up and down and nothing else.
It’s
worth mentioning that the amplifier is hand constructed
and features the “finest point to point wiring”
and I really believe that a lot of love has gone into
its production. It really is a work of art, and who
but the staunchest of solid state enthusiasts can’t
love a full ensemble of hot glowing valves?
Sound
Quality
Most of us
accept that a new component – whether it is an
amplifier, phono cartridge or speakers – will
need some amount of run-in before sounding its best,
and while the LM-211IA was no exception, it certainly
grabbed my attention straight out of the box. As I had
the new Mission SX5 floorstanders (review on the way)
running in my main room at the time, I set the LM up
with my Spendors elsewhere in the house with an old
iPod Nano followed by an even older Sony PS1 (with the
appropriate CD player mods) running full time on burn-in
duty. Every time I walked into the room I found myself
sitting down, drawn in by what I was hearing, unable
to tear myself away. The sound was big, rich and golden
– the perfect antidote to a crappy day at work
or any other of life’s stresses. Considering this
was using far less than ideal source components, you
might well imagine I couldn’t wait to get something
more appropriate providing a signal. I suppose I gave
the LM around 20 hours of run-in, but you could expect
a good 50 – 100 hours to really get everything
settled in.
So the Line
Magnetic, along with the Spendors, was installed in
the main room with my Well Tempered for listening to
vinyl, while my Rotel DAC provided standard- and high-res
digital music. At around 88dB into 8ohms and a recommended
starting point of about 30wpc, the Spendors aren’t
a particularly heavy load for the Line Magnetic, but
more sensitive speakers could be worth considering.
The majority of listening was done in ultralinear mode.
I found that
the 211IA was very quiet in terms of noise floor, which
could well account for the great sense of transparency
and tonal quality I experienced. It presented a nice
big soundstage with a great depth of field in which
performers occupied their own space.
I
started off by listening to Ryan Adams and the Cardinals’
‘Withering Heights’ from Jacksonville City
Nights, Nils Lofgren’s ‘Keith Don’t
Go’ (perhaps a little too obvious, but I couldn’t
resist) from Acoustic Live and Kings Of Leon’s
‘Dusty’ from Youth And Young Manhood (can’t
believe that album is ten years old already). What these
songs demonstrated was the amp’s striking ability
to give the listener a great impression of the recording
environment, as well as somehow seeming to illuminate
the space between and around the performers. I could
almost feel the venue in my living room on ‘Keith
Don’t Go’; the reverent hush of the audience
followed by their enthusiastic applause sounding so
authentic. My room was lit up by the sparkling guitar
sound and Lofgren’s vocal was grippingly natural,
albeit with a slight tendency to be a bit bright as
it reached the upper regions of the frequency range,
something I did notice from time to time, though it
never became unpleasant or fatiguing. I’d wager
that further running-in may alleviate this and of course
tube rolling could help too.
The drumming
and particularly the metal brushes striking and caressing
the cymbals sounded amazing on the Ryan Adams and Kings
Of Leon tracks. There was a great sense of perspective
with the performers firmly placed in position, from
well behind the speakers and out in front and there
was a clear distinction between Adams’ and the
female backing vocalist’s voices – both
of which sounded superbly clear. The piano sounded full
bodied and natural and the percussive sounds of the
individual keys being struck were fully evident. I’m
not sure where or how ‘Withering Heights’
was recorded but it seemed to be coming from a vast,
dark and quiet theatre, and this was despite the slightly
annoying tape hiss which is present on and throughout
the album. I was a little concerned that the last part
of this song would sound messy and overbearing, especially
at high volume which is how I like to listen to it,
but despite that little bit of brightness, the Line
Magnetic delivered it superbly, literally giving me
goosebumps as a result of the stunning scale and realistic
soundscape.
As I expected,
jazz sounded great, with the LM 211IA presenting plenty
of layers and textures for the ears to explore with
an excellent range of tonal colours which brought recordings
to life. Detail retrieval was some of the best I’ve
heard at this price while the amp was even-handed across
the frequency range. Nina Simone’s ‘Sinnerman’
from her 1965 album Pastel Blues had a great natural
drum and piano sound with crisp cymbals, meaty hand
claps and spectacularly rousing vocals, though at higher
volumes the sound did become a little too intense in
terms of cohesion, each instrument becoming slightly
overwhelming as they reached climax-like heights. I
suspect this was probably the intention of the artists,
however, such is the nature of the song. At normal,
family friendly listening levels, the song was rich,
smooth and fiery – a real pleasure.
An album
that has recently gained favour around the Witchdoctor
castle is Om’s Advaitic Songs, and I was keen
to hear how the 211IA would handle heavier sounding
music. Best described (by me at least) as a melding
of drone-metal and stoner rock with Arabic tendencies,
I highly recommend getting this album – the band’s
fifth – on vinyl. It’s a handsome package
with the music pressed on two 45rpm 12-inch discs, and
to say the recording is very good is an understatement.
My favourite track is ‘Gethsemane’ which
features powerful full-scale drumming and a driving,
rhythmic bassline along with some good heavy riffing.
It’s reminiscent of certain work by mighty New
Zealand bands HDU and Dimmer. I wondered if maybe I
was expecting too much of the wee valve amp but when
the track kicked in after its long intro, the soundstage
was huge with exceptional channel separation, quick
transient response and surprisingly solid, tuneful bass
. The guitar was suitably meaty, riffing along hard
and giving rise to unfortunate munter-like urges. Sure,
I couldn’t feel the bass or the hard hitting drums
vibrating through the floorboards or damaging my internal
organs, and I didn’t feel quite the same level
of excitement swelling within the depths of my beer
gut as I usually do but the performance was impressive
nonetheless, especially at this price point. Although
the LM held it together quite nicely at higher volumes,
hints of brightness could creep in, as mentioned earlier,
but this never detracted from my enjoyment of the music
in any major way. I didn’t rush to turn the volume
down; it was just something I noticed from time to time.
What I soon
realised about the Line Magnetic was that it is very
much a music lover’s amp. By this I mean that,
while I could sit down with one of my more “audiophile
approved” recordings and marvel at such things
as the air between performers, the lifelike dynamics
and so forth, I could also switch to less than perfect
records and still get the same level of enjoyment. Songs,
such as ‘The Classical’, ‘Hip Priest’
and ‘The Man Whose Head Expanded’ by The
Fall – not to mention my personal favourite ‘No
Bulbs’ – may sound a bit cacophonous to
some ears but the LM managed to maintain a sense of
order, allowing me to fully enjoy the eccentricities
of the irascible Mr. Mark E. Smith. Likewise with The
Clean’s catchy and exalted ‘Anything Could
Happen’ which, incidentally, was recorded by Chris
Knox on a Teac four-track (and it shows) in a small
wooden hall. The music was fun, fast and thoroughly
enjoyable, which is entirely the point. The beautifully
full-bodied acoustic guitar intro was suitably jangly,
and the drums and bass kicked in with a satisfying flurry.
The vocal was a little thin but this was definitely
down to the recording and besides, that’s the
character of the era/scene we know and love and I wouldn’t
want it any other way. This is an amp that will let
you play whatever you like without being too fussy or
pedantic about your record collection.
If you’ve
ever read any of my other reviews then you may think
that by now I should be well sick of Pitch Black’s
Rhythm, Sound and Movement album but in fact the opposite
is true. Every time I hear this ridiculously good electronic/dance
album in a different system, I seem to hear things in
slightly different ways – details I hadn’t
heard before or more emphasis on different areas of
the music. What I like about Pitch Black recordings
is that they don’t seem to have been made in someone’s
bedroom on a laptop. Rather, they sound like they have
been created and recorded via a massive PA system in
a large nightclub, which makes a lot of sense to me.
So while few, if any home audio systems are likely to
be able to entirely reproduce the sound of a nightclub
environment cranking at full volume, you should be able
to get a good impression of what is going on using any
half decent stereo. The 211IA certainly gave the album
a good and enjoyable crack. The all-important bass was
swift and clear, if not entirely rib-rattling and the
listening room was full to the brim with glorious sound.
I seemed to be able to pick out little details –
blips and percussion sounds and the like – and
indeed heard a few things I hadn’t managed to
focus my attention on in other systems. It was very
hard to tear myself away to perform more domestic and
sociable tasks.
While Triode
mode lacked the raw power and punch of Ultralinear,
it sounded somehow smoother; more silky and relaxing.
Obviously there wasn’t really enough power to
properly drive the Spendors, but I got a reasonably
good impression none the less. Although the bass seemed
a little looser – in that there wasn’t the
same control of the lower frequencies as before –
the sound was still pretty punchy and the finer subtleties
of the music were in no way lacking, and there seemed
to be more of that archetypal lovely golden lushness
one would normally associate with valve amplification.
In fact the 211IAs Triode mode almost made Ultralinear
sound solid state, and I would’ve liked to have
had some more efficient speakers on hand as I felt I
could really spend a lot of time with it.
Conclusion
What a pleasure
the LM-211IA was to come home to after a day of slaving.
It is, at least in my humble opinion, a thing of real
beauty – pride of ownership is very high –
and fortunately it delivers in sound quality, too. Sure
you could get better resolution, greater detail retrieval
or better bass response, but this amplifier has so many
other charms going for it for such a reasonable price
that it must be worth an audition. A phonostage might
have been nice, but as most enthusiasts usually like
to have separates anyway, it isn’t much of an
issue.
The LM delivers
a fairly well balanced sound and what it may lack in
some areas, it makes up for in others, yet it’s
a good honest all-rounder in terms of presenting different
music genres. I will say that if you live on a solid
diet of rock and metal then you may wish to look elsewhere
for that hard hitting rock experience, but if you have
more diverse tastes, as I do, then I think you’ll
be extremely happy; a bit of jazz, a bit of stoner-doom,
a bit of electronica, you can’t go wrong. Conversely,
if you live on, say, a jazz or acoustic staple and your
budget falls within the $2k – 3k range then this
has to be an amp for you to seriously consider.
The stock
valves actually sound really nice, but the beauty of
these things is that individuals can tune the amplifier
to their own tastes by introducing different valves
– and there is a plethora to choose from.
I really
struggled to find anything seriously wrong with the
Line Magnetic and I often forgot that I was supposed
to be reviewing it; it was such a delight to listen
to. But surely that’s the sign of something really
good? So would I have one? You bet I would. ANDREW BAKER
Price
:
(including VAT)
Line
Magnetic Audio LM-211IA
|
€
1800.00
|
|
|