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Hey Decfest folks. Out here in NM I envy you!
I have been writing a review on the Torii MKIV, giving me a lot of time for careful listening and thoughts. This won't be that useful if Steve does not have a MKIV with a lot of hours on it, but if he does, and you have time, Reconstructive Feedback may be fun to check out. Here it took more than 600 to really hear all the amp's subtle potential. Unfortunately, I did not note where the Feedback shifted from diffused to all it can be, but I think this happened a little earlier. Now, with over 1000 hours, my Torii is really amazing, pretty different amp than pre 600 hours.
Here is part of my review. My source is a NOS Tranquility DAC 44.1/16 from a tweaked Mini with a separate Firewire drive for the music, with vibration control and weight, a good USB cable, and linear USB power separating the USB power to the DAC from computer power. This combo is great at micro detail, and is no doubt part of what I am hearing here.
"Reconstructive Feedback: For a long time I kept it switched off, preferring the more focused sound. But this changed with long burnin. At some point the feedback effect became tighter, clearer, and very tasteful… spacious, but no longer diffused. Now I Need to keep it on.
Compared with my MKIII, the soundstage here is similarly saturated, wide and deep, but the MKIV sound with reconstructive feedback is different, increasing subtle information. It heightens the complexity of detail while enhancing liquidity and spaciousness. This refines everything, from the sound of wood, brass or skin, to each player's space, and finally wide ambient decays fading way past my walls. Also, recording ambience more completely and seamlessly integrates with my room ambience. From note hits to fading trails, it feels like it takes bits of information and divides them into more bits. The increased fine detail and greater sense of resolution make tones and edges smoother and more complex at the same time. It can be heard throughout, but shows best in edges and ambience.
My soundstage was already quite good here, but if memory serves, the reconstructive feedback from the MKIV gives mixes with less focus on soundstage more soundstage definition than the MKIII.
There is a lot good about this design, but with my source and system/room, the Reconstructive Feedback switch is really sort of revelatory, bringing the rest to fruition. "
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