In many ways, this should come as no surprise. Not only are the benefits of placing critical digital circuitry in a single box well established so that signal transfer, interface and interference between separate stages can be precisely governed through layout and routing, but France (from whence the Neodio hails) has an exceptional reputation when it comes to digital products. With a list of manufacturers that includes the likes of Micromega, Metronome Technology, TotalDac and Devialet (not to mention Goldmund, which might have sneaked across the border but which definitely has its roots in France), the country has long been in the forefront of digital development. Look a little closer and you see that at least one of the things that Micromega, Metronome and Goldmund have in common was an early and serious appreciation of the contribution made by mechanics and mechanical grounding to digital performance. Now take all of those things, roll them together and add that touch of individuality that is so quintessentially French and you end up with something that’s very, very like the Origine -- and musically very, very impressive indeed -- impressive enough to attract the attention of both myself and TAB writer Dennis Davis, as well as a host of other respected manufacturers and listeners.

Read my review and you’ll start to appreciate this player’s strengths -- and not just its stunningly classy looks. But being French, Neodio designer Stéphane Even wasn’t satisfied with just a single revolution; he wanted to not just the audio system but the system as a whole upside down. Take a look at the related news story and you’ll see that through the deceptively simple step of eliminating one link in a three-link chain, he has been able to offer exactly the same product at approximately half the previous price. It’s a decision that recognizes both the changing nature of the audiophile market and the unsustainable nature of the prices being asked.

So, for all those people asking who in his right mind would offer a one-box player at this price level, Neodio doesn’t just agree -- they’ve done something about it. That something involves a price reduction in its home market from €35,000 to €15,000 (or €13,750 if buying from outside the EU), with similar reductions available across other markets. If this player delivered remarkable performance at its previous price -- performance that rivals and in most cases betters the far more expensive multi-box alternatives -- the new, lower mark makes it one of audio’s all-time musical bargains. But not content with that, Neodio has simultaneously launched not just a matching amplifier, but a new generation of mechanically tuned cables and equipment supports, thus creating a complete system solution -- all of which benefits from the new price structure. Rather than approaching these products separately, that overarching logic -- sonic and financial -- makes a system approach the only logical path.

The Origine CD player has already been reviewed, so I’m going to simply list the highlights and the small revisions that have elevated it to S2 status. The beautifully executed and supremely stylish casework is more than just a pretty face. Carefully dimensioned and laminated with polymer slabs, it creates a rigid but non-resonant mechanical reference for the in-house energy-sink transport. The DAC is suitably sophisticated but the standout feature is the use of an analog (as opposed to quartz crystal) clock. The player is equipped with both balanced and single-ended outputs and also provides S/PDIF and USB digital inputs. The elegant remote control is minimal but effective and includes volume up/down buttons for the matching A2 amplifier. The S2 upgrades to the player centered on a change of base plate material and the adoption of the new B1 feet. A small routing revision on the circuit board means that you can’t fully update the original Origine to S2 status, but as Dennis Davis can attest, simply adding the new feet gets you most of the way there.

The A2 amplifier is almost indistinguishable from its sibling CD player and even shares its price. No bad thing -- and attractive as the Origine S2 player has always been, adding a second, near identical box seems to magnify the visual impact. Employing exactly the same casework and feet as the player, the A2's only visual identifier is the location of the alphanumeric display, placed centrally where the CD player has its drawer. Otherwise, beyond the confines of the copper belly band, the two boxes look identical until you get to the back panel. Look a little closer and you discover that, in fact, the left-hand side of the chassis is a carefully recessed and warm-running heatsink, although that is at least in part due to the top plate limiting the sink’s thermal efficiency. Even round back there’s thematic continuity, with the A2 presenting a similarly minimalist range of connections: just four line-level inputs (two on XLR, two on RCA, although all four are single-ended) and binding-posts for a single set of speakers. That’s right -- no digital connections, no tape or preamp outputs and definitely no processor loop or headphone jack. When it comes to connectivity, this is definitely old school (although any of the inputs can be assigned by-pass status for use in a home theatre) -- as is the interior. The linear power supply is built around a substantial 1000W transformer, while the audio circuit is free of global feedback and based on a new topology consisting of just two separate stages, the output stage delivering 150Wpc of class-AB power, backed up by a 32A peak-current capability.

The A2 is both the very model of less-is-more minimalism and a complete contrast to the kind of all-singing, all-dancing integrated amps that seem an obligatory element in every serious product line these days. Just take the similarly priced Mark Levinson No.585.5 as an example: six digital inputs, a user-configurable phono stage, four assorted line inputs, a line output, an MP3 "repair" circuit and more configurability than a box of dominos. It doesn’t even offer network capability or wireless connectivity, facilities considered de rigeur in many competing products. It certainly underlines just how Spartan the A2 really is. It doesn’t even offer a mute function -- which is one minimalist step too far even for me. At least that minimalism allows the use of a single elegant remote control to cover all CD and amplifier functions, including display intensity/mode and repeat. But then, as Neodio is quick to point out, these electronics are all and only about musical performance, pursuing that performance along very specific lines that are easier to understand once you take the feet and cables into account.

The drum-like feet that are bolted to the underside of the S2 and A2 also exist as a separate product, the Origine B1 intended for supporting other electronics or speakers -- in the latter mode, a threaded well in the top surface allowing the use of threaded posts to give solid attachment to speaker stands or cabinets, along with attitude adjustment. Unlike the majority of coupling devices (Nordost SortKones or Stillpoints are the most obvious examples), the B1 is intended to act as a sink instead of a ground path. The stainless-steel body contains a proprietary geometrical arrangement and compound developed specifically to dissipate parasitic, high-frequency vibrations that Neodio believes pollute both the physical structure of our components and the air around them.

This belief has evolved as a result of experience with the sophisticated, laminated casework and energy-sink transport in the electronics, leading in turn to the development of the company’s latest, mechanically tuned cables. Taking the physical as well as the electrical performance of cables seriously is nothing new, with both Nordost and the Chord Company making significant advances in this regard. Neodio has arrived at similar conclusions along their own path and from a completely different direction. Where Neodio takes things a stage further is that, with the addition of the Origine B1 feet and the Origine cables, you have a complete system that shares the same thinking, including embracing the support and mechanical termination of your chosen speakers. Stéphane Even refers to it as the Neodio Eco-System, a name that makes a great deal of sense.

Where the Origine S2 CD player can suffer as a standalone solution in comparison to the higher-tech, higher-spec competition is that its contained coherence can sound less obvious, or at least can seem to offer less obvious clarity. Such a seeming defect is a function of just how natural and unforced its presentation is, but in hi-fi terms, that lack of etched, spot-lit detail is often -- and mistakenly -- perceived as a shortcoming. Any subsequent blurring or loss of clarity downstream and you start to erode the player’s strengths -- and let’s be honest, what system doesn’t erode the signal to some extent? In fact, the notion that better cables can’t improve the signal, they can only do less damage can (and should) be applied to the replay chain as a whole. This isn’t to say that you should hype the signal in the first place in an attempt to compensate, which just introduces more error. Instead, the Neodio global approach is a serious attempt to minimize loss and induced error, preserving signal integrity and the performance potential of the electronics in the system. Place the Origine S2 player in the context of its partnering components, and suddenly that slightly reticent tendency disappears as the rest of the chain feeds off the CD player’s inherent musical coherence.

If a system’s infrastructure (AC supply, signal transfer and supports) defines the operating conditions for the electronics -- like the road surface defines the performance limits of a car -- then a single coherent approach that integrates the mains supply, signal distribution and mechanical termination of the components doesn’t just make sense; it promises exponential gains in performance and intelligibility. Familiarity with the Origine S2 CD player and the B1 feet created considerable expectations for the Neodio system as a whole. Those expectations were met and if anything, exceeded, although just because this is a system solution, don’t simply assume that it’s also plug-and-play. There are niceties to consider before you start to really appreciate what this system can deliver.

First and foremost is the A2 amplifier’s warm-up cycle. Whether or not this is aggravated by travel shock (it generally is with most components) it took a good 48 hours for the amp to settle down -- a marked contrast to the unflappable behavior of the CD player. This isn’t simply a case of linear improvement where the amp gets progressively warmer or goes ever deeper in the bass. This is a more schizophrenic response, almost as if the various parts of the amp are settling in and coming to terms with each other. Either way, don’t be surprised if you get anomalous results over the first couple of days. Some of it will be very, very good and some of it might make you think something’s broken. But don’t worry, once it settles down things even up considerably. Indeed, just like its designer, "even" could be part of this amp’s name.

The other learning curve involves the B1 feet. The Origine electronics already have them fitted, but if you are using equipment from other manufacturers, then using them in place of existing feet is the order of the day, with some experimentation reaping ready rewards. Certainly start by locating the largest power-supply components (transformer and caps) as well as the AC input and work out from there. Using them in place of speaker spikes is slightly less straightforward and will also vary according to the type of floor. On a solid floor, a good ground path will work really well, so the lossy nature of the B1 is less effective, but on a suspended floor the benefits can be huge as the feet help to stop the speakers from driving energy into the floor -- and then, later receiving it back. Obviously, you need the correct threaded adapters, but what you have to look out for is any shift in speaker attitude as well as the height differential between the B1 and the spikes.

There’s also the question of how the speaker’s spectral balance will change with the different termination. In the case of the Raidho XT5 I used for much of this listening, the B1s produced a more even but also a lighter bass, so that the drop in height relative to the solid, Track Audio feet I was using previously actually helped to restore the overall balance, only requiring a tiny forward movement to compensate for an almost 3cm drop in height off the floor. Rake angle relaxed a little, again reflecting the change in height, but azimuth remained almost exactly the same, just evening up on both sides to eliminate the previous 0.1-degree differential. Replacing conventional spikes you might well end up shunting the speakers back an inch or so to restore bass weight and take full advantage of the improved linearity and low-frequency clarity.

Although their use as supports is straightforward enough, it’s the fact that you can use the B1s in other ways too that offers additional opportunities. Rather like the Stillpoints record weights, they can be used as energy sinks at critical points throughout the system, on top of equipment or speakers/stands, or at strategic points around the listening room, particularly around the area where the speakers are sited -- and where energy levels are highest. I’ll touch on this later, but for the moment I started by using the B1s as fitted to the electronics and under the speakers as described above.

It’s always nice to rediscover something so familiar that it’s become almost clichéd -- and few works fit that category as well as Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, collected along with three of Vivaldi’s other violin concertos [ZigZag Territoires ZZT080803]. Amandine Beyer and Gli Incogniti deliver a scintillating small-group reading that allows the music to explode with fresh energy and life. Three violins, viola, cello and bass are augmented by not just harpsichord continuo, but by Thorbo or guitar as well, providing additional, weight and texture. Despite the tiny band, the result is music that has a really stable presence, an anchor that encourages the violinists to attack the score with serious verve and gusto -- and they do. Indeed, some of the faster passages are played with such rapidity that the notes almost tumble over each other in a confused cascade; exciting yes, but not exactly virtuoso technique.

That is, until you hear them on the Neodio system. The body, presence and energy, the sheer gusto in the playing are, if anything, even more apparent, but now those rapid passages take on a sure-footed agility, a clarity and sense of purpose that bring direction, structure, cut and thrust to the almost geometrical elegance of the piece. Suddenly it’s as if the musicians (and the system) have more time -- time to play as quickly as they please, time for you to hear the shape and spaces in the phrases, the links between one musical sentence and the next. Yet ironically, as impressive as they are, it’s not those fast sprays of notes that make you realize what’s going on. Listen to the hesitant, almost fractured exchanges that follow the opening bars of "Spring" and you’ll discover a new sense of discipline and order, pattern and poise. Far from the abstract, there’s a clear and overarching plan and path to the music that builds inevitably back to the whole orchestra in chorus. It’s not just the notes, but the spaces between them and where they come from, information that’s rendered with almost unprecedented clarity by this system. Yes, I’ve hear it before, but never expressed quite as explicitly -- and never by a system at anything like this price point.

This ability to separate instruments, both those at the same and different pitches, is key to the musical clarity you get from this system. There’s no groping for instrumental identity or location, no wondering who is playing what. Whether it’s a small group like Gli Incogniti or the Vienna Philharmonic, there’s no question as to just who is doing what -- or how much of it. Continuing the theme, the Kertesz/VPO New World (disc 24 from the Decca Sound box [Decca 478 3179]) is both beautifully paced and fulsome in its dynamic contrasts and, once again, the Neodios turn in a vivid and dramatic performance, beautifully scaled and perfectly pitched, underlining just why this is one of the great readings. So much of a conductor’s job is to do with weight and tempo, yet it’s remarkable the liberties so many systems take with these very things, adding weight here, robbing it there and speeding things up at the expense of body or harmonic development. But worst of all is the fact that they are selective in the frequencies at which these effects operate. The more you listen to it, the more you appreciate that what makes the Neodio system so remarkable and so remarkably satisfying is the lack of spectral discontinuity or emphasis. This thing really is as flat as a ruler, top to toe -- flat enough to impose previously unheard discipline on those otherwise unruly partners, the loudspeakers. But in this instance flat doesn’t mean dull, gray or boring. Indeed, just like the S2 CD player, the Neodio system displays a rich, varied but above all natural tonal palette.

That unforced and expressive dynamic range and sense of pace -- fast or slow -- are equally adept on jazz or pop. This is a system that seems to lock effortlessly onto any passing groove -- that natural distribution of weight and energy at work again -- whether it’s the undulating rhythms of the Art Pepper Quintet or the more automated motive forces of the Pet Shop Boys. The gently swaying bossa nova rhythms and deft arrangements of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s Stone Flower [CTI KICJ 2038] take on an irresistible quality, the sheer clarity of the presentation feasting on the broad soundstage and wealth of instrumental detail. The complex percussion, in particular, thrives on the precise timing, crisp note-to-note resolution and dynamic graduation of the Neodios. What can be intrusive or even irritating on some systems, falls naturally into place, an essential part of the piece.

Once again, it’s this unforced sense of pattern and place that makes this system so listenable, each instrument secure both in its own contribution and its part of the whole. Listening into a band has never been quite so easy, whether that band is the Clash on the dense musical snarl of London Calling [Epic EGK 36328] or Alison Krauss and Union Station on the pristine New Favorite [Rounder 610 4952]. Not surprisingly, vocals have exactly the sort of direct, communicative quality that brings them to life, although, once again, the Neodio system resists the temptation to push them forward or add a false sense of presence.

Although the A2 integrated is the new kid on this particular block -- or at least, the one that will attract all of the attention -- it is difficult to separate it from the rest of the system. Used with different front-ends, including the AMG Giro record player carrying the DS Audio cartridge, or the Wadia S7i CD player, it delivers the same clear, stable, immediate view of events, but just as the CD player flourishes inside its own ecosystem, exceeding its already stellar performance when used in isolation, so the amplifier’s musical range and coherence are eroded as you substitute other cables, and the system’s performance loses that innate clarity and persuasive confidence as you remove the B1s from beneath the speakers.

Make no mistake, the A2 is a very fine integrated amplifier indeed, but just like any other product, you’ll only hear it at its best when it’s working in the optimum environment. Once you’ve heard what it can do under those conditions, anything less seems like criminal negligence, especially given that this is a genuinely high-end performer, operating at the heart of a genuinely high-end system that can be purchased for less than the price of the cables in a lot of systems out there. I’ve been loud in my recommendation of the Origine S2 CD player and I recommend the A2 almost as confidently, even though it suffers much greater competition. But use the pair together, along with the associated infrastructure components and the performance you’ll achieve is close to unassailable at their new, far more approachable price.

Part of that performance advantage lies in the sheer coherence, the natural order and perspective they bring to the musical presentation -- an order that sits so comfortably that any deviation or aberration is immediately apparent. It’s a virtue that makes achieving correct speaker placement a cinch. It also tells you all about AC integrity and the other niceties of system setup. The complete Neodio rig has a consistency and holistic quality that at once bind the elements in the system together and allow you to forget about them, freeing the music from the system that’s actually producing it, but also freeing it from the confines of the listening room. The sense of acoustic depends on the recording, not the walls of your room, so the narrow, deep soundstage of early Deccas pushes straight through the back wall, while early Buddy Holly stereo recordings do the same thing to the side walls -- all independent of the speakers. It’s another major step towards accepting the performance as reality, or at least the current reality, which is as much as audio equipment can do.

Which brings me to an interesting question: as good as the entire Neodio ecosystem is (and it is spectacularly good) just how good are the cables and support products used with other brand’s electronics? Assembling a simple test system using the Aesthetix Romulus CD player and Levinson No.585 integrated, driving the Raidho XT5 loudspeakers, already mounted on the Neodio B1 feet. Starting with just the Origine cables connecting the components, I listened by stages as I inserted B1s under both the amplifier and then the CD player. Each time I added the B1 feet, the music gained body and coherence, the soundstage stepping away from the speakers and gelling into a single, enclosed space. The second set of feet (under the CD player) revealed the floor beneath the orchestra, establishing that familiar, natural perspective, but they also brought a sense of concentrated musical energy and power that increased both low-level texture and overall dynamic range.

So yes, the Neodio Eco-System brings musically significant gains to a non-Neodio setup, a fact underlined when I started removing or substituting elements in the infrastructure. Swap out one of the power leads and the sound was brighter, more spot-lit, less natural, less coherent and the timing integrity collapsed. Where the complete Neodio set instilled a sense of measured pace and the conductor’s control, bypass the distribution strip, change a power cord or substitute the interconnects and that sense of order and purpose simply evaporated. Just as the Origine CD player first impressed with its no-nonsense, self-contained sense of musical coherence and communication, if you view the Origine cables and feet in a similar light, although they represent an array of discrete items that arrive in separate boxes, then they perform the same trick and offer the same significant musical advantages. In a world where trying to recover and reassemble a stored signal is both the task and the challenge, Neodio has demonstrated an uncanny grasp of the mechanical and electrical issues in play.

I also experimented with the B1 feet in other positions: atop the speakers, on the casework of equipment and, perhaps most tellingly, on first-reflection furniture and the floorboard stretching between the front feet of the speakers. Seldom did I strike a situation in which placing a B1 didn’t make an audible difference. How significant or musically important that difference was varied, reflecting in part the distance between the B1 and the signal path, but the impact of a single Origine foot placed centrally on that floorboard was quite remarkable -- and definite food for thought. Likewise, feet placed on reflective surfaces behind or around the system also offered clearly audible differences. Neodio might not be the first company to look at the impact of parasitic mechanical vibration on signal transfer and system performance, but their approach underlines the fact that beyond individual components, beyond the system and its supports, we need to consider the whole listening room and its contents as a single entity. That realization alone makes time spent with the Neodio system more than just musically worthwhile, But at the end of the day, audio components and the companies that manufacture them stand by sales and sales alone. On that scale, Neodio could be seen as underperformers, especially given the quality of their equipment and musical results, but that might (should!) be about to change.

I know of no better one-box CD player than the Neodio Origine S2. In fact, I know of precious few musically superior CD replay systems period, irrespective of price or complexity -- and it has an extremely good USB input too. The A2 amplifier operates in a far wider context than its CD playing sibling, with a greater variety of partnering equipment and functional requirements to meet or match. As a result, it suffers greater competition and needs more careful consideration of system matching. It might not achieve the same level of almost universal musical superiority that the CD player enjoys, but that is only because it operates in a somewhat narrower context. But it is about as universal as an amplifier gets, at least in terms of speaker matching and as long as its minimalist input/output options are sufficient for your needs, its musical performance makes it almost as big a bargain.

Use the CD player and amp together, along with the cables and B1 feet, and you have genuine high-end performance at the sort of price level where, these days, many individual high-end components seem to start. But more even than that, the Neodio products aren’t just an ecosystem; they’re also a closed system, meaning that step inside the loop and you are virtually guaranteed to achieve the promised performance. Sure, you can still screw up the speaker positioning (if you ignore the evidence of your ears) or suffer truly horrendous acoustics, but the Neodio chain takes most all of the rest of the guesswork out of the equation. In fact, whilst I would never describe their sound as tube-like, that combination of presence and authority, the ability to reflect changes in musical density and dynamics, preserve color and flow yet also offer the transparency, focus, detail resolution and dynamic discrimination that we normally associate with solid-state designs, suggests that this is a system that really does bridge the gap between tubes and transistors, with its musical attributes planted firmly across both camps. Is that a new definition of neutrality? Maybe not, but then maybe it is actually a more useful construct than neutrality itself -- at least as far as understanding how systems work and how they communicate on a musical level.

All other audio considerations aside, the one thing the Neodio set up never fails to do is communicate, and that’s in danger of becoming a lost art in the world of hi-fi. This isn’t just a system that you can actually own and enjoy. It’s a system we can learn from too. With more and more systems offering ever more convenience and facilities, it’s a timely reminder that it is actually the musical performance that counts.

Prices: Origine S2 CD player, €15,000; Origine A2 integrated amplifier, €15,000; Origine P5 power cord, €660 per two-meter length; Origine I50 interconnect, €1000 per meter pair; Origine L20 speaker cables, €1600 per two-meter pair; PW 1 power strip, €500; B1 footer, €125 each.
Warranty: Three years parts and labor.

Seven Audio
Bordeaux, France
+33 (0)5 56 40 19 50
www.neodio.eu

Associated Equipment

Analog: AMG Giro turntable with 9W2 tonearm and Kuzma Stabi M turntable with 4Point tonearm; Fuuga, Kuzma CAR-50, Lyra Etna and Dorian cartridges; DS Audio DS-W1 cartridge with matching equalizer; CH Precision P1/X1 and Connoisseur 4.2 phono stages.

Digital: Wadia S7i CD player, CEC TL-5 CD transport, Wadax Pre 1 Ultimate DAC.

Preamplifiers: CH Precision L1/X1, Connoisseur 4.2 LE.

Power amplifiers: Berning Quadrature Z, monoblocks; VTL S-400 Series II Reference and CH Precision M1 stereo amps.

Loudspeakers: Raidho XT5.

Cables: Complete loom of Nordost Odin 2 from AC socket to speaker terminals. Power distribution was via Quantum Qb8s, with a mix of Quantum Qx2 and Qx4 power purifiers and Qv2 AC harmonizers. CAD Ground Control and Nordost Qkore grounding systems.

Supports: HRS RXR rack with MXR platforms and R-shelves, Vortex and Nimbus equipment couplers and damping plates.

Acoustic treatments: As well as the broadband absorption placed behind the listening seat, I employ a combination of RPG Skyline and RoomTunes acoustic devices.

Accessories: Essential accessories include the SmarTractor protractor, a USB microscope (so I can see what I’m doing, not for attempting to measure stylus rake angle) and Aesthetix cartridge demagnetizer, a precision spirit level and laser, a really long tape measure and plenty of low-tack masking tape. I also make extensive use of the Furutech anti-static and demagnetizing devices and the Kuzma ultrasonic record-cleaning machine. The Dr. Feikert PlatterSpeed app has to be the best-ever case of digital aiding analog.

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