in this issue

a bit, but it doesn’t. Indeed, you’d be
hard put to distinguish the LP2 from its
transistorized partner—it sounds so little
like tubes. As noted, right out of the
box it doesn’t sound particularly distinguished,
either.
A friend and former employer of
mine, Jerry Gladstein, once told me that
the keys to getting the most out of the
LP2 were time and patience. He was
right. It takes a good six months of constant
play to start to get the LP2 to
straighten up and walk right. Even then
it still sounds the slightest bit dark,
overly controlled, and lacking in bloom
compared to something like the
Aesthetix Io. But even before it fully
loosens up, its clarity will impress you,
and when it finally does break in...folks,
you ain’t heard nothing yet until you’ve
heard this preamp with a truly high-resolution
cartridge like the Titanium. It
passes everything through, uncolored
and unedited (save for that slight persistent
darkness and reduction in bloom),
making for what may be the most transparent
source component I’ve yet heard.
With the LP2, what you get from the
cartridge is essentially what you get from
the Lamm unit’s outputs, which is why
very different preamp/amp combos like
the MBL 6010/9011 or 5010/9008 or the
ARC Reference 3/210 or the Edge
1.1/12.5 not only sound markedly different
but bring entirely different details of
the recording to life. The LP2 just transmits
the information, letting the preamps
and amps pick and choose the emphases.
As different-sounding as they are, the
presentations of all these preamp/amp
combos do have certain things in common
that are attributable to the LP2.
First, as noted, low-level transient
and harmonic details are exceptionally
clear, making attacks and decays more
lifelike and producing the best reproduction
of the duration of notes I’ve yet
heard. With the right recordings, such as
Viktor Kalabis’ Sonata for Violin and
Piano [Panton], you not only get the
whole note you get the whole mechanism
by which that note was sounded.
The LP2 (with the Titanium and
Walker) positively illuminates the action
of pianist Milian Langer’s piano, so that
you can “hear” the depression of the keys,
the felts of the hammers, the movements
of the balanciers and the jacks. These are
the kinds of detail that, as Robert Harley
noted in our last issue, contribute to the
“realistic” presence of an instrument and
instrumentalist, and the LP2 gives them
to you, to quote Sallie Reynolds, in
spades and diamonds.
Second, bass is unusually welldefined
and extended. As noted, the LP2
won’t give you CD definition and thwack
on Japanese drums or bass synth, but as
phonostages go it comes mighty close
18 THE ABSOLUTE SOUND ■ APRIL/MAY 2006