Sonic Frontiers Line 3 Line Stage
Bridging the Gap between Tube and Transistor Sound
by Myles B. Astor

November 1997 Volume 1 No.4

After declaring the Perfectionist Audio Pro Reference III/10K "the best solid-state preamplifier I've ever heard," Curtis Leeds discovered he was listening to a tube based unit. Inadvertantly, Leeds showed that the gap in sound between leading tube and solid-state preamplifiers has narrowed. And no line stage I've recently heard better exemplifies this trait than the Sonic Frontiers Line 3.

BRIDGING THE GAP
Several years ago, statements like that from Leeds spelled the kiss of death for a component. Negative connotations like analytical, bright, recessed and electronic instantly came to mind. Today, however, the character of tube and solid-state preamplifiers are much closer than the sound of their respective amplifiers. Tube designers have managed to blend the virtues of tube sound, harmonic integrity, image localization, focus and dimensionality and low level resolution, with that of solid-state preamplifiers. Tube preamplifiers are far less euphonic and more extended at the frequency extremes than yesteryear's models. The new generation of tube preamplifiers are quieter, faster, cleaner and more resolving than ever believed possible.

THE QUIET REVOLUTION
There's a quiet revolution going on in high-end audio. No, we're not referring to an underground uprising against subjective reviewing but a real breakthrough in the noise floor of audio components. A lowering of the noise floor that profoundly affects an audio system's transparency, resolution, clarity and intranote silence.
It's exactly these qualities - transparency, articulation and a whisper quiet background - which define the sound of Sonic Frontier's Line 3. Take for instance, the opening track on Martin Simpson's Music for Motherless Child (Water Lilly WLA-CS-49-CD). The Line 3's ability to articulate each note from Simpson's guitar or Mann's pipa is reminiscent of the best of solid-state preamplifiers. The Line 3 shows excellent control of both the leading and trailing edges of the musical waveform - along with little rounding of the note. No matter how fast Mann plays the pipa, the unit shows no evidence of smearing artifacts. The Line 3's combination of ultra-low noise floor and articulation allows the unit to capture one of music's forgotten qualities - silence.

SPATIAL RESOLUTION
The Line 3's transparency makes a major contribution to the unit's ability to reproduce the spatial qualities of recordings. Take "Geocentricity" from Tabula Rasa (Water Lilly WLA-CS-44-CD). There's an incredible sense of Srini's mridangum, a double-headed, 24 inch drum, reverberating throughout the church. Interestingly with Sonic Frontiers Line 3, the reverberation and echo of Srini's drum goes toward the middle of the church; other preamplifiers have it going to the outside of the church. Listen to how the Line 3 captures Srini playing the drum while the previous notes continue to reverberate inside the drum or when he strikes the middle or rim of the drums with his fingers or palms. Their only downside here is a slight dynamic midbass reticence to the drums-somewhat akin to the slight overdamping experienced with some solid-state units.

CLARITY VS. TRANSPARENCY
Sonic Frontier's Line 3 is the first line stage/preamplifier with the ability to discriminate between clarity and transparency. What is transparency? Transparency is a subjective measurement of the background noise floor of an audio system. Noise you don't realize is present until it's absent. Noise emanating from AC lines, EMI - and even the parts and circuit boards themselves. Noise obscuring the spaces between the notes. An AC power line conditioner is one way to lower your audio system's noise floor (or alternatively, a battery power supply such as the Pink Triangle Da Capo digital processor or Rowland Coherence preamplifier). Suddenly, spaces between instruments open up. Instruments in the rear of the soundstage (or hall) appear from behind a curtain. Subtler musical details such as one instrument playing softly in the presence of a louder instrument, pop out. Low frequencies are quicker and more detailed. Many of todays audio components (and systems) exhibit good transparency. Clarity on the other hand (and the accompanying sense of spaciousness surrounding the instruments), seems to have eluded many top flight audio components. A clarity defined as the removal of a veil or curtain immediately in front of a musician. An increase in the openness, spaciousness and airiness surrounding the musician. The best example of the Line 3's exceptional clarity and transparency is Ameniya's Summer Prayer (RCA RVC 2154). Many a preamplifier captures the xylophone's harmonics; where they fall short is in reproducing the individual bars of the instrument. Through Sonic Frontier's Line 3, there is a sense of each individual bar and when adjacent bars of the xylophone are struck. A feeling of reverberation that envelopes, but does not obscure, the xylophone.

WHERE'S THE MICROPHONE?
One benefit of the Line 3's transparency/ clarity is an ability to discern miking patterns and distances between the listener and the musician. Take for example, the two lutes on Renaissance Music for Two Lutes (Titanic Ti-15). The distance of mike to lute is instantly apparent by the balance of string sound to the resonance of the instrument's body. The sense of space extends to the body of the lute, not halted a foot or so in front of the instrument. There's an uncanny feeling of staring the musician in the eye. Where the Line 3 falls slightly short of the best preamplifiers/line stages is in the "fleshing out" the last vestiges of the body of each lute.

Ray Charles' and Cleo Laine's performance of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (RCA CPL-2-1831) provides another excellent example of the Line 3's incredible sense of clarity. Forgiving, the Line 3 isn't. This classic '70's multi-mike recording allows you to hear how Charles and Laine are in one place and the instruments in various other places. On the "Summertime" track, there is an openness to Charles' gravely voice and inflection to his voice that is often hidden beneath layers of grunge with other units -that contributes towards making his voice even more tonally recognizable. Don't forget to note how the line stage captures Charles and Laine stepping up to the mike at the end of "Summertime."

HYBRID TONAL QUALITIES
The superb Water Lilly recording of Martin Simpson and Wu Mann also serves to demonstrate the Line 3's tonal properties. Simpson's steel guitar is easily differentiated from Mann's pipa (a wooden, lute-like instrument). It's not just the quality of string tone that allows the ear to differentiate between the two instruments, but the difference in the resonant properties of each instrument's body at the same time, there isn't a romanticization of the sound of either instrument. The Line 3 will tell you everything, good and bad, about the CD or LP on the turntable. Tonally, the Line 3 is slightly to the analytical side of neutral but without the coldness and forwardness that characterized older Sonic Frontiers units. Personally, I wish the midrange were a touch richer or more harmonically complete-akin to the difference between a LP and a master tape.

CROSSING INTO NEW TERRITORY
It's in the low frequencies where the Line 3 most closely approximates the performance of todays best solid-state units. Here, the mid- and upper-bass region, such as Ray Brown's incredible bowing work on "Something's Coming" on Oscar Peterson's Trio performance of West Side Story (DCC LPZ-2021), is as detailed and tight as any tube unit on the market since the Audio Research SP 10-and without that unit's hardness! Different cones under the Line 3 affect the unit's bass performance; the most obvious change is dynamic compression. Another good test of the unit's bass mettle is Jonas Hellborg's Elegant Punk (Day Eight Music DEM LP 004). Hellborg's bass guitar has an incredible sense of solidity and definition. The guitar's frett-board literally buzzes. The lowest ranges of his bass guitar really reach out and grab you. The midbass is clean and clear without the burnished glow of other tube units. At the other end of the frequency spectrum, the Line 3 is extremely detailed. On Summer Prayer, there isn't the tendency to soften the highs like other tube units. An extended upper octave, yet not hard or smeared. Gongs ring with vitality. The subtler elements of cymbal playing come across as well as an echo that travels across the stage.

SETTING NEW STANDARDS
Sonic Frontiers Line 3 is by far, the best piece of electronics to come from Sonic Frontiers since their never-released, $25,000, 211 Reference PP triode amplifier (what an amplifier!). There is a lot to like about the unit's neutrality, transparency and resolution. Have we gotten the full measure of the Line 3? To answer that question, you'll have to stay tuned for the review of Sonic Frontiers companion Phono 1 phono stage in the next issue!

Sonic Frontiers Line 3 Line Stage, Sonic Frontiers, Unit #16, 3535 Laird Road, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 5Y7, Canada. Designer: Sonic Frontiers Design Team led by Michael Kerster. Tel: (905) 828-4575. Price: $4995.