Micromega PA- 20lPW 400 @szBB)Now under new ownership, the Micromega brand boasts a new livery and embracesthe most progressive of amplif ier technologies as this Class D design i l lustratesReview: Ken Kessler Lab: Paul Miller

ime to disregard all the Frenchfelonies that form my antipathytowards our neighbour acrossthe Channel: the revived

Micromega has returned to the marketwith a family of new products offeringbuild qual i ty, style, functional i ty and,above al l , pr ices belying manufacture inEurope. The brand wil l be a cat amongUK pigeons, despite arr iving when theeconomy suggests that this is not thetime to launch, or re-launch a brand.Perhaos new owner Didier Hamdi knowssomething we don't . Maybe tough t imesare just made for bargains.

An hour with Hamdi tel ls you that theMicromega of yore is merely the spir i tualprecedent of the relaunched company.The original focused on advanced digitalproducts, at a t ime when there weretoo many CD players and DACs on themarket to create any'hero' brands.Yet, Micromega was, along with Theta,Wadia and a few others, among fewstand-outs during the crowded 'CD era'.

As computers; DVD and other 5indisc formats cheapened nearly al l digitalhardware down to low-end ubiquity,Micromega withered, again l ike therest, in a world of f 16.95 CD playersfrom supermarkets. CD was devaluedto insignif icance, while Micromegawas primari ly a manufacturer of digitalhardware, and the prices were of theupper sector. Hamdi, though; is anaudiophile from the'grown-up' businessof industr ial electr ics, and his plans forthe brand include a heavy dose of real i ty,not least in the approach to pricing.He f inds the margins and prices for high-end equipment to be both offensive andimaginary: anathema to the man whosecompany i l luminates the Eiffel Tower. Hisintention is to turn audio pricing upside-down. As he's got the stones to be a

RIGIII: The PA-20 preamp's volume controloffers independent line/hmdphone output andadjusts in larger or finer steps according to honvfast you spin the dial. Volume, input selection,tape monitor and mute are also on the remote

championship motorcycle rider, I 'd takethe threat seriously.

SLEEKPACI(AGINGWhile the new Micromega can offeryou 13 models includinggtlnerr.four '.integrated amps, three CD players,streamer plus the turntable developedby Epure, we're looking here at thelone preamplif ier and the morepowerful of two stereo power ampsat the top of the range. Despite theirlofty position, together they cost onlyf3288. I can name a dozen different1m interconnects that sell for more thanthat: and whi le 3288 is st i l l a fa i r chunkof change during these straitened times,in context it's cheap as frites.

Wisely, Micromega saved a bundleby using the same housing for all themodels, differing only in faceplates -and even those have been reduced to aminimum, eg, the preamp and all of theintegrateds are the same. lt has optedfor a sleek 430x300x70mm (WDH), withrounded edges, clearly legible, blue-lit

displays 130x26mm on the right-handhalves of the panel, to the right ofthe stepped volume rotary, with sixsmoothly-operating buttons below.

For the PA-20, the buttons operate(L-R) input select down, input select up,monitor, mute, headphone and standby.Also found on the front are 3.5mmsockets for headphones, driven with itsown 2W amp, and direct input from aniPod. I tr ied the latter with the analogueoutput of HRT's superb MusicStreamerUSB DAC via phono-to-3.5mm plug, toaccess the BBC's iPlayer from my PC,and it worked perfectly. The back offersinputs for tape, four analogue sources aswell as a 47kohm MM phono input, andconnections for a subwoofer, processor,pre-main-out and interfaces for multi-room installations. Best of all? Balancedmain outputs via XLR to exploit thePW-400 it its best.

Fitted with superlative multi-waybinding posts and both phono andXLR inputs at the back, and rated byMicromega at 400Wich into 4ohm

54 5 www.hifinews.co.uk : DECEMBER 2009

and half that into 8ohm, the PW-400uses the efficiency of Class D [seeboxout, below] to squeeze a seriouslypowerful amplif ier into a tiny chassis.There was no better evidence of thisthan at a private session I enjoyed withMicromega at the recent Paris hi-f ishow, prior to its doors opening for thepublic. Used with massive Avantgardehorns - admittedly a sensitive load - thebi-amped speakers delivered the sort ofplump, rich bass they usually deny.

Level was never going to be an issue,which I confirmed with a selectionranging from LS3/5As to Wilson Sophialls, with Tannoy Mini Autographs andQuad 1OLs in between. Sources includedthe Pro-ject Xtension with its own arm,an Ortofon 2M Blue MM cartridge, theMarantz CD-12/DA-12 CD player, theDenon DVD-2900 universal player andthe aforementioned HRT MusicStreamerfed by Radio 4 from my PC. All wireswere courtesy of Yter.

{&} SALACIOUS SEDUCTIONBecause I had that blast in Paris prior tolistening to the system at home, I wasprimed for two things: an absence ofcompression and utter neutrality. Theformer is the result of seemingly l imitless

power; the latter appears to be a prioritywith the new Micromega, a desire topresent a chain that amplif ies but doesnot modify. To demonstrate this in.'Pajt, "they played the most lean, unclutteredselection of minimalist recordings youcould muster, from bass-led jazzin athree-piece, to solo acoustic blues. Notbeing too suspicious, but being awarethat a dearth of complexity makes iteasier to deliver an impressive sound inshow conditions, I turned the other wayback at home.

For modern, studio-borne pop, Islipped in an old fave, the LightningSeeds' C/oudc uckoola nd, namedin honour of my favourite play byAristophanes, The Birds. Although thevocals are delicate enough to play intothe sparse-is-good theory that motivateshi-fi companies to demonstratewith ultra-lean recordings, themixes included enough weirdsynthetic instruments andsnappy percussion to challengethe Micromegas in ways thatthe show pieces didn't. Thecoherence was impeccable, with nothingamiss suggesting disproportionateemphasis in any areas. In other words,that unexpectedly rich bass from the

horns was all theirs, not an effectcreated by the amp.

What wil l impress fans of anythingevqn remotely technoid - dig out your

"btdXiaftwerk vinyl for this - is thecrispness and speed of upper frequencytransients. Someone spent a lot of t imevoicing this pair because it consistentlyavoided anything that you'd call sibilant.With Julie London's close-mic'd vocalson ln Person At The Americana, it waspossible to hear all of the characteristicsthat made her voice so salaciouslyseductive, yet no hisses marred theexperience. Benefit ing even more fromthe silky top was the brass ensemble thatbacked her, and the audience applausethat welcomed her.

Nuances? She possessed a voice ofmultiple textures, often adding a slight

There's a good reason why Micromega's PW-400 combines high power outPut{close to 2x200W/8ohm) with such cool-running efficienry (drawing just 46OW}from within a modestly-proportioned chassis. The answer lies in its choice ofUcD Class D amplifier modules, originaHy developed by Bruno Putzeys during histime at Philips Applied Technologies. Also known under the 'HyPex' brand thesefullydiscrete, selfoscillating amplifiers are arguably the most elegant of thecurrent Class D breed. Unlike most competing solutions they are singleendedratherthan balanced in design and offer a superior load tolerance, suffering lessvariation in response, distortion or noise with different choices of speaker.

End-users, in this case Micromega, have to design and implement a Powersupply to support the UcD module. Micromega's solution is ACTS', a linearrather than switchmode supply where the transformer's secondary winding istuned to 4x the mains frequency, helping to suppress rectifier switching noise.The quieter the suppty, the greater the amplffiefs dynamic range. PM

'Coherence was impeccable,\ nth nothing amiss suggesting

disproportionate emphasis'warble to her always smoky delivery. lfshe didn't puff on the occasional LuckyStrike (and as she reached her 70s, sheprobably kept the fags under control),then we must thank her DNA for thevocals: respected on every level by theMicromegas. Framing the brass section -a cool drummer to the far right, smoothand apt backing vocalists of the sort youcan't f ind anymore, and a slick guitariststage left, with Julie dead-centre - wasa vast, wide and deep sound stage,probably inspired by Place Vendome:large, yet elegant.

You leave the recording wishing youwere there that night, the deal-makerbeing a downright sexy version of 'MyBaby Just Cares For Me', balancing asleazy rhythm section and sleazier hornswith a voice that makes Jessica Rabbitsound like Hilda Ogden. lt is somehowappropriate that this sizzling session was G'

DECEMBER 2009 i www.hifinews.co.uk i 55

Hglg*o*"_Tl_'"9ru*!:^:::u)$:irfinlrtfi #it":'#H::"j"J"fr'i#jli:"^lfiuxl#xli?+i';f,',.T';:lx":ff :'iili"'I/ti"*il5' jf,'Jiffi'Jl[T:lf,:3fr J,i;?:f HjJ"".'.:T3H'.,l:,lLi;:3i.TlTl:;['"';:l::li';,:Tfl :,'"T"1',,TJIYffi xsT,''ff :##"':xT""ll;:ii::;T:J^ln:,:":l&::rn:,?"x'":T,iTi,liTltTlil::,T,i:;J?:ff ;1)(if /ffJ"'fu nn sl; *#ifu ,m::s?t""',ff k',1 [-ilt'#,[qgfrf i*#ffi:,#ffi+is"#amp [Craph 2, below]. Distortion does increase with outputfrom the PW-400 however, from 0.003% at 1W to 0.01%/10W,0.1 5%/100W and 2% at 2o0w8ohm. The PA-20 is also thequieter of the pair, its 97.5d8 A-wtd S/N (re. 0dBV) besting the82.6d8 (re.OdBW) achieved bythe nru400 (even accountingfor the gdB difference in level). Readers are invited to vieweernpcehensive QC Suite test reports for the Micromega PA-20 preamp and PW-400 power amp by navigating to wvtlw.hifinews.co.uk and clicking on tfie red 'download' button. PM

ASOVE: The PA-2O preamp offers five line, one MM phono and one tape input with'Pro'(processor bypass) and sub loopthrough connections. Balanced outputs linktobalanced inputs on the PW-400 which offers hno sets of stereo speaker binding posts

rendered utterly incendiary by a Went Wrong. The controls were aFrench replay system. By the t ime del ight to use. I didn't even botheryou get to 'Cry Me A River' , you' l l exploit ing al l the hidden featuresneed a cold shower. Even the ( l ike being able to rename the ;. ' -"r.schmaltzy'The Trol ley Song' can inputs); I fel l in love with the PA-20cool the ardour. straiqht out of the box.

As a cold shower, I then turnedto TEAC Esoteric's fabulous SACDof Falla's The Three-CorneredHaf, a new issue of the SuisseRomande/Ansermet Decca classicrecorded in 1 961. The openingtimpani, the massed chorale, thecastanets - | was reminded (andI say this with abject humil i ty)of the sound of the SME MusicRoom's system with AR-A at thecontrols. The soundstage was ofepic proport ion, the dynamicsunfettered and the tones neutral.

Then I real ised what i t wasthat makes so many want tocompare these products tomuch dearer r ivals: the detai l .too, recal led something elsebeyond my own system. I wasreminded of Esoteric 's bestsource components, with anabundance of information that 'salmost distract ing, because onewants, inst inct ively, to be ableto focus on every single elemental l at once. l t 's why movie loversenjoy repeated viewings of thechariot sequence in Ben-Hur, theepic batt les in everything fromLord Of The Rlngs to Star Warsto 300: each repeated l isteningreveals something more that youmight have been too preoccupiedelsewhere to appreciate.

IMPECCABLE BEHAVIOURLeaving the sound for anothermajor consideration, i t 's worthmentioning that the Micromegapair ing behaved impeccably fromthe f irst moment they were fedsome AC. Absolutely Nothing

Because one interfaces with apreamplif ier, but leaves a poweramD to i ts own devices, i t 'sperhaps easier to warm to theformer. And in this case, thePA-20 may turn out to be themore popular of the two units,given that it worked so well withother amps - such as Quad's 909.It could emerge as a sleeper, aki l ler of a bargain preamp, a hotwhisper on the audiophi le gossipcircuit . But that would be toignore the PW-400's beguil ingmix of sheer force and Gall icsophist icat ion. Considering thatthe exemplars of this - the bestBurgundies or Valrhona chocolate,for example - are hardlyinexpensive, and as Paris r ivalsLondon for l lmit less avarice, theamp, at below two grand, t icks al lof the same boxes as i ts sibl ino. 0

To everyone's surprise,Micromega'Mk l l ' is analtogether better propositionthan its quirky forebear. Thissublime combination showshow the firm has managed toblend Bauhaus elegance, up-to-the-minute ergonomics, totalusability, truly sweet sound andblessedly sane prices, yet sti l lmanufacture in Europe ratherthan Asia. Considering the totaltariff, this could be the start of anew Anglo-French contretemps.

Sound 0uatity:83%

ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffim0

Bnmt PesO0Srl '> EI

ABOVE: Dynamic power output versus distortion intoSohm (black trace), 4ohm (red), 2ohm (blue) andlohm (green) speaker loads

i,x",ffi il*T:'JJHTffi"-"A*urftl:

tnA

o

R|nmic Ftrtr onort t>

Power output (<19 THD, 8i 4ohm)

Dynamic pffier (<1%THD, 8/a/2/lohm) 22OW I 41 1w / 343w / 196W

0'o14-0.039ohm (PA-20; 24ohml

-O.O to +0.13d8/-O.1 to -7.8d8

27omv 1 389OmV{balancd in)_

Frequency response (2oHz-1 00kHz)

s7.sd8 (odBV) / 82.6d8 (odBw)

56 i www.hifinews.co.uk i orceueen zoos