Thanks
@BPED for opening this well deserved and long overdue thread!
The AIC-10 is becoming more and more popular among the ultra-high-end headphones enthusiasts, and I have yet to know somebody who has had it or listened to it thoroughly and wasn't impressed by its sound.
Of course, its price positioning was very ambitious from Riviera Labs, and this raises the bar of expectations to the rooftop, especially considering that in the price range of the AIC-10 you can find many legendary speaker amplifier models and brands, with much more well-established reputation and resale value.
I had the chance of auditioning the AIC-10 at home during my quest for the ultimate amplifier to pair with my AB-1266 headphones, a very enjoyable journey that took me little less than one year. I decided at the time to look mostly into speaker amps because I wanted to drive my LS3/5a as well, and because auditioning at home high end headphones amplifiers here in Italy is basically impossible, and I wanted to make my choice very carefully.
I have written several posts about my auditioning adventures in the Abyss thread and will not make this post even longer than what is getting to by recalling that saga, but in summary the reason why I chose the AIC-10 to pair with the Abyss is that it delivered the best traits of the very finest tube amps and solid state amps I tried in a relatively compact and practical package.
To my ears AIC-10 has bloom, body, richness, holographic presentation one normally tends to relate to tubes and grunt, scale, transparency, speed and bass / treble extension we normally find in the best SS products. The balance between this characteristics can further be adjusted to match taste, mood, and synergy with the remaining of the chain (headphones, to begin with).
Below you find a table with the ratings I have given to the amplifiers I tried over the last year or so. The light grey columns are where I listened in a setup nearly identical to mine, but only for a few hours, while the dark grey ones are shops / friends homes auditioning where the upstream chain to the amp / AB-1266 was different from mine (hence not very reliable). White columns relate to extensive listening at home. 10 does not mean 'perfect', but 'best' among the amplifiers listed, and it is specifically in the context of driving the Abyss AB-1266 Phi TC.
Of course, this ranking is very much specific to my system, subjective sound and musical genres preferences, so take it for what it is.
The bottom line is that, to me, the AIC-10 can compete at or beyond its price range for driving the Abyss.
Other headphones I tried with the AIC-10 are the SR1a (which I own), the Susvara and the MySphere 3.2.
In all cases the results have been very satisfying, where:
- for the Susvara I had best results when using the speaker taps (as with the AB-1266) and a more neutral tube like my Fivre (while for the Abyss and SR1a I still like the Mullard CV491 tonal match the most);
- for the Mysphere, which I found an exquisite combination, I was using low-gain output and, again, my Fivre;
- for the SR1a the AIC-10 is not powerful enough to make this headphone full justice, while being an extremely fine tonality match and able to bring spectacular results with some specific genres.
Coming to loudspeakers, I was skeptical at the beginning because of the renowned inefficiency of my LS3/5a, but all was cleared when I tried the AIC-10 at home.
Again, the AIC-10 gives some soul and bloom to the LS3/5a by preserving their most classical virtues as the pinpoint imaging, vocal presentation and midrange purity.
SPL levels and dynamics (within the intrinsic limitations of this BBC design) are more than adequate to my room / preferences.
In summary (sorry guys for the long post), this is my pro / cons bullet list:
Pros:
- sound
- easy sound tailoring (rolling a single, relatively cheap, tube)
- practicality (not excessive size and heat - I leave it always on, has a remote)
- versatility (low / high efficiency headphones, loudspeakers)
Cons:
- price (hard to justify, especially if you are a frequent buyer / seller)
- elegant but a little understated design for my taste (at this price, I would have preferred a statement design, like the flashy ViVa Solista)
