New Amp in the System--Unison Research S6

I just made another change to our reference system at CCI World Headquarters. I swapped out the Unison Research Sinfonia I've used for the last 18 months for another Unison integrated...the S6. The only reason I made the change was because we sold the Sinfonia as a demo piece to one of our dealers. The S6 I'm now using was the same one John Marks reviewed for Stereophile last month, so it's sort of a celebrity.

The S6 was the first Unison integrated amplifier with which I became familiar once Colleen and I started CCI in July of 2011. Although I've used numerous Unison amps in our home system and at trade shows over the last two plus years, the S6 might just be my overall favorite so far. It's an EL-34 based amplifier instead of a KT-88 based amplifier, such as the Sinfonia, which gives it a slightly more dynamic and modern tube amp sound. The Sinfonia was a warm, slightly lush-sounding tube amp that sounded a bit more old-fashioned than the S6. It was also slightly less powerful (27 wpc vs. the S6's 35 wpc) and yet slightly more expensive--mostly due to the more elaborate use of wood in the chassis and the more complex circuitry designed for the KT88s.

I quickly compared the two amps before I made the switch using a couple of CDs I just received from jazz pianist Todd Hunter (article/review coming soon). The Sinfonia might be slightly more refined and romantic, but the S6 is gutsy and powerful. In my rather large room with fairly sensitive speakers (the 89dB Opera Secondas), Todd's rich and lyrical piano sounded much more forceful and impressive. I have to admit that my new Colorado listening room is so big that some of my speakers are having trouble energizing its boundaries. Deep bass exists, but it doesn't quite hit you viscerally like it should. The S6 has eliminated this issue completely.

So welcome back, S6! I'll really miss the Sinfonia, but the new amp feels like an old friend...one that I've missed a lot.

CCI at the T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach

Colleen Cardas Imports, along with Blackbird Audio/Gallery, will be exhibiting at the upcoming T.H.E. Show in Newport Beach, California on May 31-June 2. Our system will consist of the Unison Research Giro turntable, PureAudio Vinyl phono preamplfier, Unison Research Unico CDE CD player, Unison Research Sinfonia integrated amplfier and Opera Seconda loudspeakers, with all cabling and power management by Furutech. We will be located in Room 525 of the Hilton, so come see us! For more information on the show, please visit the T.H.E. website at http://theshownewport.com/visitors/index.html.

CCI Visits the Arizona Audio Video Club

"Interesting and professional guests!"

That's how Colleen and I were described by the members of the Arizona Audio Video Club after we were the invited guests at their November meeting on the 28th. Both of us thought, "Wow...we've never been called that before." But we'll take it. We've also never attended an event like this before, but I have to admit it was a lot of fun--even though we didn't know what we were going to talk about once we were standing in front of the packed conference room at the Phoenix Airport Marriott. We decided that Colleen would talk about CCI--who we were, how we got started, and what lines we carried--and I would describe the system we brought and play some music. I was warned that there were many engineers in the club so I knew I'd have to be ready to explain all of the technical aspects of the gear we brought. I did a lot of homework.

We kept the system as simple as possible because we knew we'd only have a couple of hours to set-up the system and make it sing in the rather large room. One person seemed surprised that we didn't bring a turntable since I'm a "vinyl guy," but that would have been too much to assemble. Instead, we brought the Unison Research Sinfonia integrated amplifier (27 wpc, single-ended parallel ultralinear pure Class A amplification that uses 6550 valves in the output stage, $6495), the Unison Research CDE CD player ($3895 plus $225 for the optional optical DAC) and the new Secondas from Opera Loudspeakers ($3995 per pair)--finished in a beautiful gloss white. We also had a pair of the new little Opera Mezzas ($1495 per pair) on hand. Both pairs of speakers were the first in the US, so it was a real treat for the members.

The system was wired with Cardas Audio Clear Light speaker cables and interconnects, Cardas Audio Golden Reference power cords, and Audience jumpers for the bi-wireable Secondas. Steve Wooten, president of AAVC, provided a PS Audio line conditioner. The rack was from Quadraspire.

I then played three cuts for the members: "Midnight Sugar" by the Tsuyashi Yamamoto Trio from The TBM Sounds! sampler, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" from Halie Loren's They Oughta Write a Song... and "1 Speed" from Dean Peer's Airborne. The system sounded surprisingly good in such a big room; it's amazing how a group of warm bodies can tame the resonances in a big open space. Then Steve Wooten (pictured here) took over and allowed members to play their music. Bill Coombs of The Sweet Spot, our dealer in Phoenix who helped to put together the event, commented and how quiet and attentive the members were during the demo...much more than usual. Afterward we received several emails from members telling us how nice the system sounded.

Colleen and I would like to thank Bill, Steve (who treated us to a great dinner beforehand) and the members for a wonderful event. Special thanks go to another member, also named Bill, who brought a pumpkin pie cake that was the real hit of the evening. Almost every email we read said, "Great sounding system...and that cake!"

CCI Visiting the Arizona Audio Video Club Next Week

CCI is proud to announce that Colleen and I will be the featured guests at the November 28th meeting of the Arizona Audio Video Club! We are demoing the Unison Research Sinfonia integrated amplifier, the Unison Research Unico CDE CD player and the Opera Secondas (the same white pair that recently received rave reviews in both AV/REV.com and TONEAudio). Guests are welcome as long as they RSVP at wootsmusic@live.com. Event starts at 7pm at the Phoenix Airport Marriott, 1101 N 44th Street in Phoenix. See you there!