From Janus To Signature, Aesthetix Janus Signature Preamp

The Aesthetix Janus comes in three performance levels, the basic(which is un-named), Signature, and then lastly the Eclipse, for ultimate performance 

I've had a long love affair with the Aesthetix Janus preamp. I first started with the review of Calypso a couple of years ago. You see, the Janus and the Calypso are basically the same thing, sans the phono stage, in which the Calypso does not have. As per my review of the Calypso here a couple of years ago, I just grab the Janus without even an audition when it became available here as used buy.

Every little thing I loved about the Calypso is also here on the Janus, the slightly bloomed seductive mid range, the slamming bass an the all round detailed sound. But what I didn't like so much on the Calypso, is also present on the Janus, such as that slightly whitish noise floor, and that slightly grainy top end texture. Many guys who came to listen to my system always point out that slightly grainy top end texture to my ATI Reference 6004 power as the culprit. I had some how suspected it to be too. That's the power of persuasion, if one guy said it, you wouldn't think much of it. When the second guy says it, you start to really notice. But when the third guy says the same, it must be confirmed then, that all of them are somehow right, even if you didn't want to believe at first! By the way, that's how advertising works too, repeat the message often enough, to the listener or viewer, it becomes just that bit more convincing with each passing repeat.........   

Here is a side by side comparison between the Calypso preamp at it's most basic(left), vs the Signature(right). Immediately obvious are the yellow cap vs the red caps on the Signature. There some other minor parts change, but mostly the Signature also uses better grade, lower noise floor, match pair tubes. Lastly, one upgrade on the Signature you do not see is the 4 pieces Walker Audio feet located at the bottom. These were specifically designed for the resonance properties of the Aesthetix chassis. The regular or basic version gets 5 pieces of rubber feet at the bottom.

And so the day came when I could do a part exchange plus top up to get an equally used Aesthetix Janus Signature, it got me thinking again, Hmm............

I asked for an A/B comparison between my regular Janus & the Signature, but the seller was not keen. He told me to just make that leap of faith, but after much back & forth negotiations, in the end he just said "save your $$$ as it probably won't make so big a difference that you can hear it straight away!" And since we parted on that terms I was glad the seller was honest and I could save my $$$ for something else.

Months went by and I never think about the event, until I was involved in  an audio forum on the web in which I participated, which had Jim White(boss & designer of Aesthetix products) on line as well. After the forum on the side lines, I checked with him if it was worth doing the upgrade from Janus to to Signature? His reply was not what I expected, he said "why stop at Signature? Go all the way to Eclipse!".  I asked what Eclipse? Jim said "it's the last preamp you'll ever wanna buy!, unless you want the absolute best, that is the Calisto" You see, in the world of Aesthetix, you start at the bottom with just the:

a) Basic or regular product

b) Signature

c) Eclipse

d) SOTA! 

With each move up, you need to double your budget!

I told Jim budgetary issues aside, the Signature is available to me in a trade swap, then Jim asked "What are ya waiting for?" And Jim went on about in detail how the Signature is so much better in the next 20 minutes! By the end of the Skype call, I was completely & utterly sold.

I called the seller again, the item in question still available, and proceed to make the leap of faith.

The innards of the Aesthetix Janus preamp & phono stage. The built in 4 tube phono stage is very well designed and not some after thought freebie thrown in. Also note the front face control board & power supply section is fully covered  to prevent EFI/RFI leakage in to the audio circuitry. Going one step, by copper coated chassis would be nice too, but I know.......... that is only a very Japanese thing!

By the following day, the Aesthetix Janus Signature was in my man cave and from the moment of first sound, the difference was obvious. First, the noise floor, or rather the total lack of it! The whole musical background was eerily silent, just pitch black, no tube hash a.k.a. white noise what so ever! Next notice able thing was the top end, where there was slightly grainy texture before, it's now no more....... just smooth airiness on the high hats and cymbals. It goes TIZZzzz.......and decays in to a dark nothingness. My last experience hearing and feeling top end like this was the review of the Audio Research Reference 3 preamp! However, that ARC Ref 3(as it's affectionately called) does it with a slight haze of tube hash! 

Next the strong seductive mid range presence and that slamming bass is still there with the Signature. However, only now that slamming bass has layers & layers of texture built in. I could hear so much more going on in those low notes. The start-stop of bass lines is super tight, without loose end to say the least. And lastly, without the noise floor in the back ground, the whole sound stage in flushed out in to the staging wall of my man cave and beyond, complete with spatial cues if the recording captured it. You can say the projected sound stage is almost close to 3D, there in my room and beyond it's borders.

This gives the overall feeling of music as an event, rather then trying to do a reproduction via 2 speakers. That is the total satisfaction of this well decided upgrade! by the end of the day, I was kicking my self for not doing it sooner! You know, for a balding middle age fatty, life's too short for boring hifi!   

And if $$$ is not an issue, why not go for the Aesthetix Janus Eclipse? Again, as you can see the differentiation here is the caps and even lower noise floor tube selection. In Eclipse level, even if you don't see it as it hidden undercover, Jim tells me the power supply transformers are also up graded.  

Many of you who have been following my hifi escapes on this blog will probably know my lusting for the a fore mentioned Audio Research Reference 3 preamp. This Aesthetix Signature up grade have me dispel of that dream. But if you asked me, that ARC Ref 3 preamp is still one heck of a reference, that while the later Ref 5 and Ref 5 SE could not match at all, despite being the more technically correct representation. You could say that post Ref 3, ARC made technical improvements on noise floor and super transparency, but along the way, just lost the soul of music. The Aesthetix Janus Signature did not commit that very same sin. All that technical improvements described above, was accompanied by real soul of the music. Soul of music, it's something you feel with the music, the emotions that carries the music. Not many high end  hifi components can bring out the soul and emotion that is in the music these days. For me, that is a major failure of many high end hifi manufacturers theses days. Technical supremacy means nothing if it fails to connect the listener's soul to the emotions that carries the music.

Jim White is THE phono stage & preamp designer to be celebrated today!   

Also with this posting, I wanna tell so many of the guys who listened to my system previously and faulted the ATI Reference 6004 power amp, that your assumption(and to some degree mine too) has being wrong! The ATI Reference power amp deserves way more credit than the general perception.