Amp/Preamp Asylum: REVIEW: Audio Note M3 Preamplifier (Tube) by chris.redmond2@bushinternet.com

Model:	M3
Category:	Preamplifier (Tube)
Suggested Retail Price:	$6000
Description:	Audio Note M3
Manufacturer URL:	Audio Note
Model Picture:	View

Review by chris.redmond2@bushinternet.com ( A ) on December 04, 2005 at 10:20:28
IP Address: 88.104.231.239

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After being extremely satisfied with the venerable 'giant killer' Audio Note M2 for the last few years without feeling the need to deprive it of shelf space while the whole system evolved around it, inevitably there came a time when the first sign of 'upgraditis' began to manifest itself.
It usually starts off with a nagging feeling of discontent, progressing to sweaty palms while checking the bank balance and in severe cases can culminate in a rash; that is, a rash decision to buy a piece of equipment you can't really afford and in hindsight don't really need.
In my case I'm awaiting the modification of an APL modified Philips SACD1000, and in the meantime a Toshiba SD-900E is holding the fort like Davey Crocket - with a pea shooter and soggy peas, hence a growing dissatisfaction with my system which had me pointing a finger at what was - value wise at least - the weakest link, the ol' AN M2.
Unfortunately the AN M3 was out of my price range and the more recent 'M2 balanced' may well have been a significant step up in performance, but psychologically it was still an M2 so a few months of searching for a used M3 ensued with no success - at least not in my price range.
Enter stage right the LAMM LL2.
Widely reviewed, all reviews forming a quite defined, unified consensus of a musical, neutral and involving presentation - all aspects of a performance present and correct with no colourations or sonic signature that could be recognized.
In the UK the LAMM was competing with the M3, cost twice as much as the M2 and after finding one used I convinced myself that the LL2 would be an upgrade worth acquiring.
The M2 was duly traded in against the LL2 and bid 'goodbye' with a kiss and rather guilty wave as the LAMM took up residence.
Now, in the annoying style of low-budget movies it's a case of "One month later...".
Enter stage left the 'new' Audio Note M3.
Not widely reviewed in it's new guise - not reviewed at all in fact - but with the benefit of Mr David Cope's welcome assistance of a few days ago I can inform you that;
"The new M3 (MSR US$6000 Line, $7500 Phono), has the same audio circuitry as the pre-existing M3, but the power supply is completely new. As Bob Neill mentioned, it is based on the M10 Galahad power supply, simplified to suit space and cost limitations. There are actually two power supplies - two power xfrmrs, two chokes and 3 boards, two of which each have a 6X5, ECL82 and OB2 regulators."
So that's the physical difference between the old M3 and the new M3 - now comes the part I've not been looking forward to which is of course the task of describing the sound while trying to resist the usual adjectives, so please forgive me if I invent a few of my own while I'm in the mood, i.e. slightly tipsy after a largish glass of red wine (and God bless the spell checker).
First off, the LAMM LL2 truly is an excellent preamp and I can confirm that the glowing reviews - I found five - are right on the nail. On first listening I breathed a sigh of relief as the LL2 improved on some aspects of the M2 such as resolution of fine detail and bass quality, and I'd have been perfectly content with the LL2.........had I not compared it to the M3.
The ultimate resolution of the LL2 and M3 aren't poles apart but only in the way that a black and white photo can have the same resolution as that of a colour photo with the same number of pixels.
Perhaps that analogy is in itself too 'black and white', but music just seemed to come to life with the M3 more vividly with more colour - not colouration mind - leaving the LL2 seemingly a little pale and starched by comparison.
It must be said that I'm not continually swapping between the two to make these comparisons as A/B'ing does tend to make me concentrate on individual aspects of the sound which isn't the way to evaluate equipment in my book; maybe it is for a quick fling but not for a long term relationship.
The one overriding impression I get with the sound of the M3 is one of 'live', yet before hearing the M3 I was very impressed with the LAMM's apparently natural rendition of vocals and acoustic guitar in particular even though this had always been a strong point of the M2 it replaced.
The Toshiba SD-900E had now thrown it's pea-shooter at a Mexican climbing the fort's wall and was now armed with.....er........a much bigger pea-shooter, harder peas that sting like Hell if they catch you on the cheek. Sorry Tosh, you're destined for that graveyard in the sky but you're at least going down fighting now.
Vocals through the M3 seem more fleshed out and rounded, again just more human and 'live' with increased presence and this simply makes for more palpable images, a more involving experience.
Sometimes it's the case that when comparing two components of a similar price, one is more adept at defining individual instruments or singers in their own space while the other isn't quite so precise, instead being more adept in presenting the 'whole' picture.
The M3 does both tricks masterfully however and if I wanted to pick holes in any aspect of it's performance I'd either have to audition an M6 or above, or drink another large glass of wine and maybe then I'd complain that I couldn't work out what the M3 is and where it came from.
In one recording on the Eagles' 'Hell Freezes Over' for instance, the audience applause was subsiding before the intro when the whistle of one individual I'd never noticed after years of listening to this CD jumped out from the crowd. Very low level but for some reason it now stood out.
Now I'd hazard a guess and say that if I did install the LL2 back in the system I'd probably hear that same whistle, but the point is I hadn't noticed it before because it was part of the audience.
The M3 picked the whistle out because it better defined the different character of the whistle to the applause, even though the levels were similar.
Again, you could easily spot a previously unnoticed tiny red ball among the green grass in a colour photograph, but return to the same photograph in black and white - or one where the colours were faded - which you've had for years, and you notice that the red ball had been there all along.
Bass is deep and organic, and while the bass of the LAMM LL2 was one of the most immediately obvious strengths when compared to the old M2, I certainly didn't get any sense of loss of depth when the M3 was connected up and in fact the bass tends to show more of an individual character between recordings now.
You definitely get the sense of drum-stick against stretched skin where appropriate, and in general the bass seems to be of a better quality as opposed to being just deeper.
It really is a shame that I don't have a better source as obviously both the LL2 and M3 would be able to stretch their legs more, but even as it stands my system is now surprising me with how musical it has become and how I've listened to more music in the last couple of days than I have for any two day period in the last twelve months or so.
In my email box I have an email from someone who was loaned an M3 in 2003 with what he now believes was the prototype of the new power-supply while he auditioned an AN CDT2 and DAC, and he preferred it to his then Conrad Johnson 16LS which retails for just shy of $8,000.
He went on to buy the AN M5 which is still in situ, and Dave Cope (US distributor of Audio Note) contends that the new M3 is nearer to the old M6 than the old M3 according to reports.
I haven't heard the M6 so can't comment, but if this is so then the M3 is a steal at $6,000 and I'm now writing on Saturday morning in a state of total sobriety.
The Audio Note M2 was/is a bargain at it's price, the LAMM LL2 at double the price is again well worth the money and is rightly considered one of the class leaders, but for me the new M3 has raised the bar to another level with it's ability to communicate and deliver the emotive impact of music.
Also consider that my M3 has only a few hours on the clock, and given that Black Gate capacitors apparently benefit from burn-in more than most other caps it's frightening to think just how good the M3 will be after a few hundred hours or so.
Needless to say I heartily recommend the M3 to anyone in the market for a pre amp, and in fact I'd physically frogmarch anyone with the necessary funds down to their nearest Audio Note dealer if they so much as suggested auditioning another preamp in my presence.
Obviously a pre amp should not be adding anything to the audio signal in a system and in this respect I was surprised at just how much of an all-round improvement the M3 made to mine when compared to the LAMM which has itself been preferred to a passive in one review.
After a only a couple of days listening to the M3, the conclusion I've reached is that the M3 definitely isn't adding anything to the mix that wasn't originally there; in my opinion it's the case that most other designs lose something of the character of vocals, individual instruments and the whole 'message' the music was meant to deliver.
I'm not qualified to write about comparisons in microdynamics, macrodynamics, tonality, bass response and the like, but when it's the case that a component makes - or rather allows - recordings to simply sound more realistic and subsequently more enjoyable and involving, for me that component is doing everything I could want of it and in this respect the M3 is now a critical part of my system.

Product Weakness: Some may want a remote, but I say 'Begone Ye Heathens!"
Product Strengths: Apart from the sound quality, it's worth mentioning that although there is a large complement of transformers and valves in this design yet it is amazingly quiet; in my system at least it's quieter than the LAMM.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	E.A.R 509 monoblocs.
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	LAMM LL2
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Toshiba SD-900E
Speakers:	Revel Performa F30s
Cables/Interconnects:	Kimber Select KS-1030
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	Dozens of CDs from across the board.
Room Size (LxWxH):	15 x 15 x 9
Room Comments/Treatments:	Fully furnished room.
Time Period/Length of Audition:	3 days.
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	PS Audio P600
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner

Product Weakness:	Some may want a remote, but I say 'Begone Ye Heathens!"
Product Strengths:	Apart from the sound quality, it's worth mentioning that although there is a large complement of transformers and valves in this design yet it is amazingly quiet; in my system at least it's quieter than the LAMM.