This month’s Audiograde.uk team outing took us to into deepest West Sussex, the home of Audio Note (UK). Set up in 1991, Audio Note UK released its Oto PP amplifier over three decades ago, and George has just spent the past month in the company of its latest iteration, the Oto 35 SE, which will be the subject of a dedicated review in the near future.
Chatting to yours truly – Peter remains just as dedicated to his audio art as he was when when he set the company up over four decades ago
Audio Note resides on the Star Trading Estate in Horsham, a rather nice part of the world, in a small number of industrial units spanning 18,000sqm. Myself and Editor Simpson were greeted by UK Sales Manager Micky Seaton, our chaperone for the visit, and Company Founder Peter Qvortrup. Keen as custard, George was already there upon our arrival putting the world to rights with Peter.
The Head Chef
Before we got going on the tour proper a quick catch up with Peter proved fascinating, spanning topics from current affairs to political theory, global economics and vintage Mercs – if you’ve met Peter you’ll know he’s a man of many passions..
Audio Note is famous for its anachronistic approach to high fidelity, which includes its ongoing use of British manufacturing, eschewing the route adopted by many brands which design in the UK and then outsource manufacturing overseas. Is this a good idea? Almost certainly not, according to many bean-counters. Peter should be saluted in this respect for supporting UK PLC rather than chasing the fast-buck.
Serendipitously, we had arrived on the morning that Audio Note had announced its new discrete ladder DAC Module, the Izvor, and there was a real buzz throughout the factory about what this means for the brand and its products.
Peter points to Audio Note’s digital future via its all new Izvor DAC board
Peter was proud to explain that Audio Note has NO advertising budget, you can imagine how disappointed we were! Instead all the money it generates is sunk into R&D for new products. Materials form a large part of the experimentation that the company carries out, and this goes far beyond simply copper versus silver (although Peter mentioned how they had made transformers from both) which, coincidentally, measure pretty much identically, but sound very different.
The Audio Note team is bustling with some forty strong staff boasting a range of technical excellence and engineering experience. They’re also long-serving, and this institutional knowledge is critical.
The recipe
The company not only does comparison by reference, but also by difference. Does your system allow you to hear the difference between piano manufacturers and types for instance? Between the great tenor and the proficient? Peter’s contention is that the world may not have progressed as much as some would like us to believe. His Decline of the Decades article, penned a few years back, explores this in more detail and is well worth a read.
What makes a great recording? And is digital or analogue better in this respect? Having advised a number of recording companies and conductors – Peter has plenty to say on this, with anecdotes to back up his thinking. On one occasion he arrived at a venue armed with just two valve microphones and a recorder. The venue was festooned with solid-state mics in a multi-tracked mayhem which was managed through a desk and overseen by a large label producer. Later the recordings were compared and the result? The Conductor was both shocked and bowled over by the quality of the simpler Audio Note solution. In part, this was due to timing. The stereo set-up had captured the expert musicians playing together as a cohesive ensemble, reacting to one-another in the moment. Somehow the digital system had divided the parts, and in a way that refused to knit back together the sound that truly reflected the performance.
A rare Audio Note idler drive prototype deck, that is also put to good use transcribing 78s, one of Peter’s personal passions
Peter’s view is that while modern techniques and journalists emphasise silence, detail and raw dynamics, much information has also been lost, in part through the use of smaller surface area microphones, and perhaps by majoring on the claimed strengths of digital.
Audio Note’s dedicated listening room is deliberately typical of most home environments, with a mouthwatering medley of AN gear
We now started on a tour of Audio Note’s facilities proper, starting with its listening room. This sports the brands CDT 3 CD Transport playing into its new Izvor DAC4.1 x Balanced Signature, and M3 Phono preamp Conqueror Silver power amp, and a pair of SP-E speakers, with 3m of bi-wire speaker cable (more on this system’s sound later).
Getting a personal tour of Audio Note’s factory really brings to life all that this company does in house, from making its own caps to winding its own transformers, flying the flag British audio engineering
The ingredients
First stop, the capacitor production room where AN’s own caps are wound, polished, printed and soldered. Even more importantly, this is where new ideas are prototyped. This was to be a theme. Peter is proud of the time and encouragement his team are afforded to test ideas and thanks to its facilities all being in-house, this means they can prototype at speed, test and listen. And it’s not just about technical specifications, as the process explores how different materials and techniques are trialled, through which Audio Note learns and improves. Heurism in action.
Audio Note’s Ashley proudly holds an in-house capacitor that’s ready for fitting
Audio Note is famous for using Black Gate capacitors. These were produced in Japan, unfortunately the company that made them gained great kudos for their quality, but lost money. Fifteen years ago, when the older generation of owners were replaced by their children, the decision was made that the kudos was insufficient recompense. With a wise eye on longterm investment, Peter snapped up the remaining stock. He is hopeful modern experiments will lead to a replacement, but using different materials.
And thankfully until then, due to his foresight over a decade ago, AN still has stocks to call upon.
A little garnish?
Throughout the tour Peter pointed out many materials AN has a preference for and their uses, from rare metals to beeswax. Whether this was in conductors, transformers, wire or resistors, each offers something unique that adds to that Audio Note sound. This perhaps illustrates the company’s acute attention to detail, which is monumental.
The Mechanical Room is where Audio Note transformers are made, from winding to testing, all carried out under AN’s roof for consistent quality, and again, quick prototyping. This also means that stock Audio Note has to hand stand is in sharp contrast to the pervasive just-in-time manufacturing that is widespread today, the same paradigm that discourages experimentation, learning and progress. It also means servicing and updating old gear for a lifetime of ownership is prioritised, hence why AN’s customer base remains so loyal.
Here’s Alfie, hard at work building a transformer and loving it!
Audio Note continues to invest not just in its staff, but also the production machines that will add more power to its elbow, ranging from sequential lathes to laser cutters and specialist CNC machines. And it’s not stopping here, with plans to expand its West Sussex premises by a further 15,000sqm.
The experienced hand of Audio Note’s Barry, holding an example of its smallest production transformer
The factory floor is filled with racks populated with stores, parts, partially completed units and their components, all ready to be fitted to exacting specifications, including bespoke builds.
Rack ’em up…AN gear awaiting assembly
At this point in the tour Peter and Micky pointed at a shelves of drive unit housings. Again, they had been subjected to a heuristic exercise, to the point of seeking the expertise of a highly specialised metallurgist who advised on the metal used and its properties for efficiency gains in its performance.
Precious metal – each of Audio Note’s field coil housings are pair matched and tested
To emphasise the company’s painstaking attention to detail, Peter explained the various glues the company selects and why, including an organic variant within its speaker cabinets that gives a preferred acoustic performance over its synthetic counterpart.
On to the General Assembly area, populated by folks assembling everything from one-off amps with XLR headphone outputs to AN’s 4.1 DACs with new Izvor modules. Each member of staff completes the unit they are working upon, using circuit-cards that were made by particular colleagues, all with obvious pride.
Proper board – mil spec and individually populated, ready for fitting
Other delights to experience included a new volume control aboard an Oto amp which is now CNC machined using oil-free metal. The feel is first rate and, as important, it’s also been designed and tested to last. Quality in action.
CNC parts fresh from production
Speaking to those making the products was a real treat, including folks populating the new Izvor cards. There are two types of these, silver and copper based, with the former intended for Level 5 products, the latter for Level 4. Peter told us that this technology will be trickled down through other ranges, although for Level 2 this may mean using surface mount components.
All the way from Vancouver, here’s Nate building a DAC 4.1, that will be loaded with Izvor card
We now entered the Test Suite, the lair of AN’s digital guru Darko who took time out to talk us through his design process, including the unique software that developed and tests the Izvor Module. His aim was to bring the best of analogue to Audio Note’s digital offerings, “to put even more meat back on the bones” and offer customers an experience that captures the best available for any given recording.
The Izvor Module is an 18-bit unit, something which Darko had ongoing discussions with Peter about, who was campaigning for something closer to 14-bit! At this point George and Darko got deep into the tech, as me and Andrew nodded along in the background.
Darko explains the merits of an idler drive based CD transport to George, a future product range perhaps?
Proof of the pudding
Time to return to the listening room and hear what the Audio Note team had achieved. The room is small as hinted at earlier, measuring approximately 12′ x 18′.
First up was John Michel Jarre’s Oxygene II. The words I jotted down were, TONE and TIMBRE. Yes, I capitalised them. The meat was very definitely on the bone.
A twinkle appeared in Darko’s eye as he opened the DAC 4.1 and tinkered with the unit before replaying the track. The resulting bass was a touch better resolved, and the top-end was a tad sharper. Which was better? Differing views were expressed, as here is a small example of the process that Audio Note uses to refine its products, which we experienced via classical, jazz and tracks with vocal emphasis – all of which sounding captivating.
Darko mid-demo, the smile says it all
I have been the weakest member of a number of choirs, and so I do know how natural voices sound. A singing voice may be flat, sharp or natural, but it should never be piercing. This is a trick that so many recordings and systems pull off with alacrity, but certainly not here. Furthermore, instruments produce wonderful harmonic tones, frequently reverberating through a re-enforcing body. Many recordings and systems minimise this richness. Not Audio Note though, as this is where its homogeneous approach excels.
This triple-motored flagship TT-Three Reference has seen plenty of vinyl action, and remains a high-end treasure
In our initial conversation, Peter emphasised the difference between the techniques used for capturing old recordings vs more modern ones, including the size of the microphone diaphragms used in the former. These may have obvious faults in terms of inherent noise, but they also offer qualities that many modern systems fail to replicate. And many of these are historically important.
A final digestif
Peter and his team are investing time into saving these recordings in 78 format and Audio Note makes systems that will allow a new generation to access the excellence they contain.
The fact is that Audio Note has its own approach to music making. A path that today is seldom trod. It is not laser focussed on detail or other technical considerations while prioritising emotional connection. I could have listened to this demo system with great enjoyment for many hours, but alas, our time was up.
Father and son, Peter and Daniel Qvortrup, flying the Audio Note UK flag
Or so we thought.
As before we could protest Peter bundled us into his workhorse Mercedes W124 (with over half a million miles on the clock, a metaphor perhaps for his belief in longterm ownership) and drove us to another nearby building. In here he showed us the Audio Note Vacuum Impregnation Machine, used to infuse its transformers with a specially formulated compound and is one of only two in the UK (the other is still in the importer’s warehouse).
Audio Note is an active demonstration of why manufacturing, and the associated R&D, are key to building a successful business, and keeping it alive with local investment, despite the challenges in terms of domestic property and energy costs.
Audio Note is investing in its company, in UK PLC, in its staff and in our ability to access music, old and new. And for this its should be celebrated. Bravo.
Even the mice are looked after
A huge thanks Peter, Daniel and the Audio Note team for a day to remember.
