stereophile said
"But not as silly as ignoring the Cadenza if you're shopping in that exalted neighborhood. This is a fantastic preamp, as good as any I've heard—and one that sent me scuttling through my music collection for forgotten gems and new discoveries alike. If you're thinking about buying the "best" preamp out there, you'll be selling yourself short if you don't check out this one."
All of the Cadenza’s amplification stages are fully balanced and are constructed as modules using discrete components. High precision (0.1%) thin film resistors are used to minimize noise. The modules plug into the motherboard, which allows for easy upgrading should improved versions become available in the future and also facilitates servicing. The input section has been designed to have an input impedance of one Mohm. This has three major benefits:
- It preserves the balanced input’s ability to reject interference if the output impedances of the signal source are not perfectly matched.
- Errors are reduced at connector contact junctions.
- It conserves the source unit’s output drive current, so that more output current is available to drive the capacitance of the interconnecting cables, thus improving the high frequency performance and transient response.
Each channel has an 11 position stepped gain switch for controlling channel balance. These switches can also be used to “range” input sources with atypical output levels. They are located in the inverse feedback loop for minimum noise. The volume control is a custom made 59 position stepped attenuator with 1dB steps. It uses 0.1% Vishay film resistors and the contact material is a high gold content alloy, containing platinum, silver and copper. Careful design ensures that external vibrations do not modulate the wiper contact pressure, which would otherwise degrade the sound quality. To prevent ground loops between signal ended source units, all RCA inputs are completely isolated when not in use. Heavy oxygen free copper bus bars enhance the efficiency of power distribution within the preamplifier.
Low Noise Power Supply
The Cadenza uses a separate choke input filter type power supply. This produces far less electromagnetic interference than the capacitor input designs most often used. It also places less stress on the power supply components, leading to higher reliability and longer life. In addition, the Cadenza’s power supply design completely avoids the high frequency noise that occurs with switch mode power supplies. The Cadenza’s power supply design also virtually eliminates high peak ripple currents, minimizing intermodulation distortion on the power supply rails and ground returns. This further enhances the sound quality by reducing both noise and distortion.
