Review: Alchemist Maxim
serge terekhov
Goodsound
Your Online Guide to Finding a Stereo System on a Budget
Alchemist Maxim intregated amp ($750)
by Marlon Feld
The Alchemist Maxim
Alchemist is a British maker of CD players, preamplifiers, power
amplifiers, and integrated amplifiers. The Maxim is one of Alchemist's
least expensive pieces of equipment. Like all integrated amplifiers, it
includes both a power amplifier and a preamplifier. The Maxim has no
"pre-out"s or "power-in"s; therefore, the power amplifier in the Maxim
cannot be used with an external preamplifier, and vice versa.
The Maxim is rated at 30 watts per channel when connected to 8 ohm
loudspeakers, and at 45 watts per channel when connected to 4 ohm
loudspeakers. 6 ohm loudspeakers will produce a level of wattage in
between. (The "ohms" ascribed to a loudspeaker descr ibe its impedance, an
electrical characteristic of the loudspeaker's design.) This relatively low
power level rules out usage by headbangers, but it permits moderately high
listening levels with most speakers. With my 86db-sensitive JosephAudio
RM7Si Signatures ("sensitivity" describes how loud one's speakers will play
with a given wattage, and 86db is on the low side of average), the Maxim
comfortably reached the listening level of a continuous 85 decibels at my
listening chair, which is about 8 feet f rom each speaker.
The Maxim's speaker cable binding posts are very solidly built.
Translucent plastic shields surround them, with gaps on the bottom for
inserting cables. I found that the wide spade lugs terminating my Tara Labs
cables did not fit through the gaps; I had to push one "arm" of the
two-armed spade into each gap. This created a solid connection, but an
ungainly one. I recommend against permanently using spade lugs with the
Maxim, unless they are very slim ones.
The Maxim's controls are limited to a volume control and an input
selector. Inputs include CD (or DAC), tuner, video, auxiliary, tape, and
phono (turntable). The first five inputs are effectively interchangeable:
they all accept "line-level" signals, th e kind produced by CD players,
tuners, and tape decks. A tape output permits recording through the Maxim.
The phono input leads to a separate phono stage, built into the Maxim,
which then leads to the main preamplifier. (A phono stage is a special sort
of preamplifier, which is designed especially to handle the signal from a
turntable.) The Maxim's phono stage accepts input from moving-magnet (MM)
cartridges, the type that includes the vast majority of affordable
turntable cartridges.
The Maxim is 18.5" wide, 3" high, and 10" deep, and weighs 12 pounds. Its
faceplate is brushed aluminum, with gold-tinted knobs and a gold-tinted
raised plate on each side of the controls. The Maxim's sides taper down to
near-points, giving the front pa nel a hexagonal shape. Viewed positively,
the Maxim has the glow of fine jewelry; viewed negatively, it could be
considered somewhat tacky. I found the Maxim a welcome diversion from the
typical chunky black boxes of the audio world.
The reference system
The main system used for this review was my standard reference system,
consisting of:
* California Audio Labs Delta transport
* Sonic Frontiers SFD-1mkII DAC
* JosephAudio RM7Si Signature bookshelf loudspeakers
* Cables by SMR, Tara Labs
I compared the Maxim to my reference combination of the McCormack Micro
Line Drive and the Counterpoint Solid 1, connected by Tributaries
interconnects.
Later in the review process, I replaced the JosephAudios with the Musical
Technology Kestrel SE's, very slim and light floorstanders from England
selling in the U.S. for about $800 per pair. I also introduced the Maxim
into a system consisting of a 1970' s Dual turntable with Grado cartridge,
mid-1980's Onkyo receiver, and Phase Technology 7T floorstanding
loudspeakers.
Leading with the treble
It is often said of a boxer that he leads with his right, his left, or
possibly his chin. The Maxim leads with its treble. No matter what music I
played through the Maxim, the higher pitches contained the most energy, the
most detail, and the most interest. I am unsure whether this is a direct
product of the Maxim's frequency response (the volume at which it produces
different pitches, given inputs of equal strength), or a psychological
result of more subtle tonal features. But ignorance of cause does not imply
obliviousness to effect; in your own listening, you will hear far more than
you have the time or inclination to technically explain.
Despite its musical prominence, the Maxim's treble did not seem shrieky or
shouty; its emphasis was achieved with an even hand, which did not raise it
to irritating levels on the highest notes. Nor was the treble musically
disjunct from the pitches lower down. The soprano voices and clarinet of
the Fairy Song from Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Ozawa/DG,
reprocessed by Audio Alchemy) carried the music along, but they were not
cut off from the deeper-pitched instruments of the orchestra. In
Mendelssohn's Octet, as performed by Hausmusik (EMI), my attention was
drawn to the rapid, virtuosic figuration of the violins, yet the cellos'
deep woodiness came through clearly as well.
There were cases in which the Maxim's treble bias created thinness. Ella
Fitzgerald's voice on "Love is Here to Stay," from Ella Fitzgerald: The
Best of the Song Books (Verve), had a moderate edge on top; the treble had
too much of a life of its o wn, rather than serving as an extension of
Ella's alto. Yet there were also cases in which the treble energized the
entire musical ensemble. "Son of a Preacherman", on the soundtrack to Pulp
Fiction (MCA), was led along by Dusty Springfield's hig h voice and by the
drummer's snare shots.
Smooth as can be
The Maxim's midrange and bass, as well as its treble, are smooth and
entirely grain-free. "Silky" is often used in audio as a sheer superlative,
a term increasing the magnitude of "smooth." But "silky" really applies to
the Maxim as a direct descriptive: the sound has a surface which offers
little resistance to the ear becoming involved, much as silk offers little
resistance to a hand passing over it. The Maxim's sound is very easy on the
ear, without being damped-down or laid-back. This made it possib le for me
to perceive a great deal of musical detail without strain. I enjoyed
following the counterpoint of eight string instruments in Mendelssohn's
Octet, and of two pianos in "An American in Paris," from Gershwin Plays
Gershwin: The Piano Rolls (Elektra Nonesuch). There was a vivid sense on
the latter recording of each note decaying cleanly, as do the notes
produced by live pianos, rather than into grunge.
The Maxim's smoothness also made poor remasterings of older recordings
tolerable. "Cry Baby Cry," from the CD remastering of the Beatles' White
Album (Capitol), was not blanketed or softened, but it was purged of much
ear-splitting hash.
Natural, too
The Maxim's realistic, though treble-biased, portrayal of instrumental
tone and its silky smoothness forward the goal of naturalness. Naturalness
means different things to different listeners; to me, it means not that the
reproduction is worthy of being mistaken for live music, but that there is
no sense of the music having to fight its way out of the equipment.
Graininess and an electronic tone produce the disturbing impression that
the "real" music is somewhere behind what we are hearing, but is being
twisted, painted over, or crushed on its way to us. Another similarly
disturbing characteristic is a difference of character between registers.
The Maxim's midrange and bass receive less emphasis than the treble, but
they are equally light-footed and o pen-sounding; they are neither
compressed to make way for the treble nor generalized in timbre. The
violins, violas, and cellos of the Octet were all quite tonally distinct in
realistic ways. Everything fits within the musical world that the Maxim
sets up.
Showing and telling
Yet what world does the Maxim set up? Not one in which the raw, massive
vibrations of felt and horsehair on strings and of vocal cords are
recreated before us as they are. Portraying the visceral weight of people
and instruments and motion of air is not among the Maxim's strengths. When
I sat back in my chair, and prepared myself for a rich, deep musical world
to suddenly spring up around me, I was disappointed. On "Love is Here to
Stay," the band seemed no more massive than Ella; the contrast between her
solo voice and the big band was weakened, though not lost.
The Maxim is extremely natural in its representation of instruments, but
the representative, rather than recreative, quality was foremost. For all
the clarity of counterpoint, the Octet lacked a sense of real interaction,
of reverberation going back and forth between physically separate
performers. "An American in Paris" lacked the feeling of the great masses
of wood and iron that comprise grand pianos. Listening to the Maxim, I
often felt that I was not so much being shown instruments and voices as bei
ng shown a drawing of them; all was described in loving detail, but was not
viscerally present. I sometimes had the sense that the sound was processed,
not in the sense of distortion but in the sense of conversion into a smooth
facsimile.
The emotional impression that this made upon me depended on my
expectations. When I awaited a cool, suave sound which would let me enjoy
calmly subtleties of detail, the Maxim did not disappoint me. As a listener
who prizes the recreation of visceral mu sical mass, I doubt I could live
happily for the Maxim for all eternity, but I enjoyed listening to it as a
change of pace. For listeners who naturally gravitate to a certain measured
delicacy, the Maxim will provide unending enjoyment.
Matters of weight and depth
For an amplifier that tries to capture the physical presence of
instruments, the lower midrange and bass are of great importance; they are
the harmonic foundations on which higher frequencies balance. With the
Maxim, the balance is reversed: the lower fr equencies are a shadow cast by
the treble, although a harmonically rich shadow. The Maxim's bass is not
soft or weak, but it abdicates the role of prime musical mover to the
treble. The deeper tones of the orchestra in the Fairy Song receded into
the ba ckground of my attention.
When the time comes in the music for a bass-heavy event, such as a bass
drum strike, the Maxim will comfortably oblige so long as the volume is not
at an ear-splitting level. The Maxim's dynamics will not knock you out of
your seat, but they are sufficie nt to avoid the impression that the music
is emasculated.
Physical depth is another feature peripheral to the Maxim's presentation.
Much of the reach-out-and-touch-it sense produced by other amplifiers stems
from the illusion of a space in which to reach out and touch. Although
atmospheric indicators of depth, such as treble ambience, were present with
the Maxim, my impression on most recordings was of a relatively flat sonic
picture, or at least one flatter than through my reference
McCormack/Counterpoint combination. No musical information is lost by this
flatness, nor is there a feeling of compression; in the mode of listening
the Maxim encourages, great physical depth is not essential.
Speakers that match the Maxim
Dan Legum of Royal Music & Cinema Imports, who graciously lent me the
Maxim, also lent me a pair of diminutive floorstanding speakers to use with
it: the Musical Technology Kestrel SE's. Like Alchemist, Musical Technology
is based in England; like the Maxim, the Kestrel SE is slim and somewhat
unusual in its profile. The Kestrel SE's sound also parallels that of the
Maxim: bright, smooth, natural, representing detail more than mass, and
with limited depth but very good ambience.
You might expect that this doubling up of the Maxim's features would lead
to a sound marked by exaggeration. But the addition of the Kestrel SE's to
the system actually made the Maxim's character more enjoyable. Brightness
became sparkle; silkiness became - well - Teflon-ness. Weight and depth
were so obviously secondary that I was not tempted to listen for them. By
its total commitment to the smooth, detailed "picture of the music" sound,
the combination of the Maxim and the Kestrel SE's led me away from even
wanting the musical mass that it did not provide. Amp and speakers
cooperated toward a common goal.
This synergy, as audiophiles call it, is rather different from the search
for system balance. The latter often involves choosing components with
contradictory qualities (e.g., warm amp with cool speakers), so that they
will cancel each other out and the system will come as close as possible to
neutrality, the lack of any pronounced character. If the goal is to achieve
a certain, moderate amount of weight, a moderate amount of depth, etc., in
the name of balance, then adding bright speakers to a bright a mp will be
an error. But adding the Kestrel SE's to the Maxim was not an error,
because doing so created synergy, unbalancing the system in the direction
of a particular, desirable character. When doing your own shopping, you
should keep in mind that bo th balancing and seeking synergy are useful
ways to match up components.
The Maxim's phono stage
In the Dual/Onkyo/Phase Technology system mentioned above, the Maxim was
given the task of amplifying records. At this task it excelled. All the
positive qualities of the Maxim's CD reproduction remained: the lively
brightness, the smoothness, the natur alness. To this were added a
substantial warmth and fullness - a honeyed character - that somehow
managed not to contradict the Maxim's delicacy. The Maxim's bass and
dynamics actually seemed stronger when reproducing vinyl than when
reproducing CD's. Vinyl reproduction is not a major focus of GoodSound, but
failing to mention the Maxim's performance on records would do it a
disservice.
Conclusions
Whether you will want the Maxim will depend on large part on how its
character strikes you. If you hanker for the recreative aspect of audio,
the feeling that the singers and instrumentalists are physically solid and
really there in front of you, then the Maxim will disappoint you. If you
want a lively, detailed, naturally drawn image of the music that lends
itself to perusal, then the Maxim will be for you.
Putting aside the Maxim's character, its relatively low power rules out
use with large, insensitive speakers, or in rooms of more than 2000 or so
cubic feet. The Maxim is in all ways a small amplifier.
At $750, the Alchemist Maxim stands between inexpensive offerings from
NAD, Rotel, and Arcam, which lack the Maxim's refinement, and a slew of
integrated amps at $1000 and up which match the Maxim's quality while
adding more power. Pairing the Maxim with small speakers in the $500-1000
range and a good CD player or turntable will produce an excellent
small-scale system, if the speakers and source component are chosen
carefully.
GoodSound (c) 1995 - 1997 Marlon B. Feld & Joshua M. Burgin
Roman Naftel
HELLO, serge!
Суб Hоя 22 1997 09:13, serge terekhov спокойно обращался к all
по вопросу "Review: Alchemist Maxim", но я решил вмешаться:
st> Alchemist Maxim intregated amp ($750)
[...поскипано...]
Ага! Hашел pевю. Молодец.
От себя: Maxim у нас имеет несколько меньшую стоимость, т.к. в США
английская техника имеет специальную систему ценообpазования :) - $650.
C уважением, R. Naftel
... Каков стол, таков стул.