Richard from New Zealand has assembled his ultimate home theatre audio system using Perreaux amplifiers and preamps – including two of our reference Prisma 350 stereo power amps and a 6160 six-channel power amp, along with the Prisma SM6 MkII and Audiant DP32 preamps and our Prisma CD1 CD player.

I'll let Richard explain his audio system in his own words...

“Forget attacks in the dark or subtleties or nuances. The reason why I went down the Perreaux path was completely all about the sound. The first time I ever heard a 350 was when I went to audition some JBL Ti-10ks that I saw on Trademe just over a year ago. The seller had bi-wired them with a couple of Accuphase power amps controlling the mids and trebles and the 350 was controlling the woofers. And when I say control I mean full on domination. Grip beyond anything I had ever seen or heard. Normally an amp will have a speaker on a leash but these appeared to be physically joined at the hip. I knew at that moment that my other amps were about to be given the cold shoulder.

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There are a lot of questions, and often confusion, surrounding balanced and unbalanced audio – What is balanced audio? Is balanced better than unbalanced? Why should I use balanced? How will balanced audio affect my system? What differences in sound quality can I expect to hear when using balanced? If balanced is so good, why isn’t everyone using it? …and the list goes on.

What follows is some insight into balanced vs. unbalanced audio in an attempt to answer these questions, ease the confusion, and explain how it is applicable today – particularly as high definition music gains popularity.

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The Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo was recently held in Moscow.  It is Russia's equivalent of CES and covers premium hi-fi as well as mobile & digital, photography, digital TV and audio/video.

Audiomania was in attendance representing Perreaux alongside some of their other lines, such as Waterfall and Penaudio loudspeakers, Nordost cables and Cold Ray vibration control.

On display was our Silhouette SXCD CD player, éloquence CDt transport with 250i integrated amplifier and Prisma 350 power amp.  The setup was mostly static with a lot of the gear not available for demonstration – in any case, it's still excellent exposure in Russia for the brands Audiomania represented at the show.

Audiomania have posted photos of Consumer Electronics & Photo Expo 2011 on Facebook, where you can see photos of their stand as well as coverage of other aspects of the show.

Congratulations Audiomania on what looked like a popular stand at a busy show.

Our room at the recent Shanghai International High-End Hi-Fi Show seemed to be well-received with many audiophiles liking what they heard.

The room was set up with our Prisma line of separates (CD1 CD player, SM6 MkII preamplifier & 350 power amplifier), while the Audiant 80i was used as a DAC for the playback of high-res 24-bit/96kHz material.

Other components used to complement our gear were Wilson Audio Duette loudspeakers, Transparent Audio speaker cables, Siltech interconnects, White Gold power cords and a power conditioner from ExactPower.

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The Prisma SM6 MkII preamplifier and 350 power amplifier have been reviewed by Laurent Thorin in French audio magazine Haute Fidélité.

The SM6 MkII and 350 inspired these words from Laurent:

“Le préamplificateur est assez complet, et facilement pilotable. Quant à l’amplificateur, il propose une puissance colossale, qui permettra d’alimenter sans aucun problème les enceintes les plus gourmandes. Voilà donc des réalisations recommandables, à considérer avec attention.”

Which, thanks again to Google Translate, translates to:

“The preamplifier is quite comprehensive, and easily controllable. As for the amplifier, it provides colossal power, which will supply without any problem the most demanding speakers. These are commendable achievements, worthy of attention.”

Sorry, we don't have an English version of this review, but for those who can read French, the review of the SM6 MkII and 350 is available in it's entirety.

Go back 20 years and all high-quality stereo systems would invariably comprise of separate preamplifier and power amplifier components. In today’s marketplace by comparison, the top-of-the-range products are still separates, however it’s now commonplace to use a high-quality integrated amplifier.

From my experience there are no hard and fast rules to denote that one topology is necessarily better than the other... so let’s take a brief look at both.

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Our Danish distributor Soren Vittrup from AUDIOcompagniet arranged an excellent review, by reputable Danish hi fi magazine High Fidelity, of the Prisma series SM6 MkII Balanced Preamplifier and 350 Stereo Power Amplifier.

If you can read Danish check out the SM6 MkII Preamplifier & 350 Power Amplifier review (1.38MB) in it's entirety.

Recently, long-time audio enthusiast, Philip G made the sound decision to invest in an all New Zealand hi fi audio system. Consisting of Image loudspeakers, Slinkylinks cables and Perreaux electronics.

Philip writes:

“I have four modes of listening to music. The first is sadly, when it is in the back ground – filling in the spaces around what else I am doing. Lets not talk about that mode, we all do it but there is no heart in it.

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The latest, Issue 75, from German magazine 'Image HiFi' featured a review by Michael Vrzal of the Prisma SM6 MkII Balanced Stereo Preamplifier and 350 Stereo Power Amplifier.

Michael had this to say about the Prisma combo:

“Kann es sein, dass Perreaux gerade mächtig durchstartet? ...und sich dort etabliert hat, wo es hingehört: unter den Besten der Transistorzunft.”

“Perreaux is established, where it belongs: as one of the best solid-state products.”

Read the SM6 MkII & 350 Review in english.