Soulnote A-1 integrated amplifier
The story behind Soulnote’s rise to success is bound up with chief engineer Hideki Kato’s youth. At that time he loved music but couldn’t afford to buy a decent amplifier so built one himself and managed to create something that sounded better than the alternatives he compared it with. Later on he acquired some measurement equipment and discovered “When I measured it, it was terrible.” So he set about building an amp that looked good on the test bench only to discover that “Listening to music with it is completely boring.”
Kato went on to work with Marantz for many years before joining Soulnote parent company CSR and ascending to the position of chief engineer in 2016. Since then he has been developing electronics on the basis of sound quality rather than specifications and describes his methods at length in the philosophy section of the Soulnote website. His aim is to create products that bring out the life in music, their aim being to revive the soul of sound by “a method of designing products [that] is 100% based on actual sense of hearing…, which brings out the ‘soul’ that lives in the sound source. Soulnote won’t create any sound, but revive the soul of music by ‘liveliness of sound’ that can be accomplished by thoroughly eliminating any bottlenecks in designing at the development stage.”
It’s an admirable philosophy for a company lead by a man with a background in mass market audio electronics and one whose products tend to deliver the musical goods in practice as well, in other words it’s not just marketing, the work has been done and done well. Soulnote make a wide range of electronics most of which incorporate some key technologies that are considered beneficial, one of the most fundamental is negative feedback and the avoidance thereof. As Kato puts it, the more negative feedback is used in an amplifier circuit the better it measures in static tests, hence its popularity in the majority of transistor amplifiers. But he feels that negative feedback reduces the life force in the music and makes it sound boring. Avoiding negative feedback has long been a popular approach in tube amp design but few solid state engineers mention it. According to Kato most do not use as much negative feedback as used to the be case because more engineers have come to appreciate this issue.
The A-1 is Soulnote’s entry level integrated amplifier in a range of three, it’s a pure analogue design with line level inputs only, so no phono stage or digital connections, Bluetooth is obviously not on the menu and those looking for a headphone socket are likewise out of luck. To incorporate such facilities would no doubt be possible for Soulnote but they would likely compromise sound quality and double price, these amps are built in Japan for the same sort of money that Rega and Naim make similar products in the UK, albeit the latter have more features.
Build quality is high but not over the top, the front panel is a chunky slab of aluminium with attractive machining and contrasting control knobs if you have the black option at least, I see that the silver version does not have black knobs. I like the chrome plated badge and straightforward volume and input selection knobs, I also like the fact that the A-1 is supplied with a system remote that can adjust both without too much squinting. The display with its red LEDs is distinctly old school but clear enough so long as you’re not looking from above when the numbers are reflected and inverted by the glass over the display.
Volume is controlled with relays rather than a potentiometer which is established as the best sounding approach to attenuation but does result in a clicking sound whenever level is changed. The range of volume settings is a little coarse, each step must be around 2dB, which isn’t an issue in most situaitons but could prove a little big at low levels with high sensitivity speakers. The A-1 has three feet that are metal and smaller than usual, more like little legs. Spikes are supplied to fit into them but they come with flat metal tips which I stuck with, one is fitted directly into the centre of the power transformer in order for vibration to be drained into the supporting shelf. How effective this will be depends on what that shelf is made of, with heavier materials probably being the best, I would recommend avoiding glass at all costs.
Input wise the A-1 has three pairs of RCAs and one of XLRs to choose from, that’s your lot, no 12v triggers, no bus connections just plain and simple analogue audio. Speaker cables connect to two pairs of 5-way terminals that accept the usual plugs and spades. Output is rated at 80 Watts into 8 Ohms and 120W into 4 Ohms, so powerful enough but not musclebound. The casework is steel with rigidity enhancing ridges in the base, Soulnote agree with most on this front when it comes to the benefits of a rigid chassis. It was interesting to note that they supported their new M3X power amps on sprung bases at the last High End show, not many manufacturers appear to appreciate that springs make better isolators than spikes.
Sound quality
I used the A-1 with three different loudspeakers and found that the sense of life of which they talk was abundant with all of them. This characteristic is not dissimilar to the Rega sound, it’s all about the music and the energy within it and fundamentally comes down to time domain accuracy. When you get the timing right everything seems to fall into place and the music becomes totally engaging, exciting even. The A-1 is a very spritely and entertaining amplifier, one that picks up on the energy level of whatever you play and invites the listener to become involved.
The tonal balance is on the lean side of neutral which means that the more relaxed loudspeakers are likely to make the best partners, I tried the Elipson 402 Tribute, PMC twenty5.26i and Vivid Kaya S12 and found that the last had the best balanced for the job. That said I enjoyed everything I played via all three speakers because the A-1 is just so enthusiastic/brought out my enthusiasm for the music. Makaya McCraven’s In The Moment is an album of laid back live improvisation which has a slightly thick sound but contains some fine playing. The A-1 picks up the driving bass and drums and delivers it in fast and vibrant form, with plenty of kick in the heavier beats which are weighty yet immediate.
The A-1 is particularly good with voice, here the transparency of Soulnote’s music first approach is obvious and you get an added degree of emotional connection for your money. Ditto instruments like guitar and saxophone, which suggests a midrange emphasis but really only reflects the fact that this is where music communicates to us most effectively. Highs are beautiful and lows are physically involving but the mid is where the message is usually to be found.
The Soulnote A-1 is a vivid sounding amplifier so it is perhaps not surprising that it works so well with Vivid loudspeakers, these revealed its imaging skills better than most producing strong, three dimensional sonic projection from a variety of recordings. This pairing also proved to be extremely articulate, untangling the densest of musical passages and letting me hear into what was going on; making the musical message clear. I really enjoyed the directness of sound that the A-1 provides, this makes it less forgiving of bright sounding recordings but totally electric with the better ones. A good example being Keith Jarrett’s New York trio playing live, this band are so good at listening to one another, so intuitively synched that they appear to have gone beyond conventional musical interaction and play as one. That much and the fact that Jarrett can be such an inspirational player was made obvious by the A-1/S12 combination.
Conclusion
If this is what Soulnote can do in their entry level amplifier I am even more keen to hear their most ambitious models, the phono stages also look fascinating. As it is the A-1 is a thoroughly enjoyable and musically powerful amplifier, what it lacks in inputs it more than makes up for with a sound that brings all manner of music to life, it really does do what it says on the tin (website). Music lovers rejoice, your dreams can come true for less than a small fortune.
