Sound comparisons between loudspeakers are very popular because, among other things, the differences are so easy to discern. No doubt, differences can be heard and described easily. In most cases this is at least easier than e.g. with amplifiers. Of course, we can track sound differences in amplifiers of various price ranges quite easily, too, but it’s none too easy in the champions league. Therefore it takes time to get a complete picture of an amplifier.

A lot of time which i-fidelity.net has spent with the Synästec Audio Bivium. This preamp costs 26,000 EUR and tips the scale at a hefty 16 kilograms. The power supply weighing six kilograms sits in separate housing. Now if you picture yourself a fatso pre, you’re totally wrong. The Bivium is a pretty compact device whose huge weight can be explained by the choice of materials: The housing is milled from a low-tension, solid 32 kilogram aluminium block. Consequently the knocking test will no longer give an answer – this enclosure is as dead as a dodo.

It takes five hours alone until a five-way CNC milling machine has treated the alu block so that only the Bivium housing remains. After a whole day the threads will then be cleaned, the burrs removed and the housing degreased. After the assembly of the »inner workings« 300 minutes of technical tests are scheduled before a Bivium may leave the factory. Well, in the first place this whole effort is to create preconditions of a mechanical kind which such a super preamp requires. Still missing is the adequate electronics which, of course, must not come from a dabbler.

The shrewd heads behind it

At this point it’s worthwhile taking a look behind the scenes. Who or what is actually Synästec Audio? Synästec Audio was founded in 2005 – a globally operating team of specialists from the IT and mechanical engineering sectors, which in the first place wanted to realise the audiophile dream of the perfect amplifier for themselves. After this goal has been reached, according to their own statement, there are certainly no more objections now against a manufacturing production and the sale, either. That’s the scope of Stefan Stotz, the head of this hightech audio team, who rather excels himself by a courteous degree of modesty instead of stupidly painting the town red.