After listening to the Lumen White in the meantime, I missed a certain lightness with the AudioMachina, which in my experience depends on the frequency response. An acoustic transducer with solid, powerful bass foundation seems a little more sedate and less open than the one without. So I played a little bit with the Maestro GSE's upper limit frequency and the level of the subwoofer module. As soon as I reduced the level by one notch on the control knob the AudioMachina was clearly more open. In my excitement for the crisp bass I overdid it a little bit. That I didn't notice it before was due to the fact that the Maestro GSEs work in a very quick and agile way. Surprisingly even increasing the bass here does not lead to the expected complacency. With the control knobs you have control whether the AudioMachina should act a little bit lighter and more airy or with a lot of pressure in the low frequencies. Exceptional listening pleasure with an impressive spatial representation is definitely guaranteed. And joyful playback and speed don't suffer in the least under such an extra portion of bass energy.

Even if in the GSE generation the Maestro is equipped with bi-wiring terminals, I have only connected them with one loudspeaker cable with the Ayon-Mono-Amps. I'm not really a downright bi-wiring fan. Even though during his visit Volker Bohlmeier told me enthusiastically about the bi-amping operation of the AudioMachina with four of his Einstein Silver Bullet OTL mono amplifiers, I really couldn't imagine running four class-A heating modules in my really small listening room or even transporting them there. According to Volker the bi-amping operation with two Einstein The Poweramp hybrid stereo amplifiers is the second best solution. Not that anything in the least was missing during the operation of the Maestro GSE on the Ayon Epsilon bursting with energy with the KT 150, but I was still curious whether driving the higher mid-range range and the lower mid-range separately justifies the investment in a second amplifier tonally, as Dr. Karl Schuemann with his MAPS system has ensured that power amplifiers will have an easy job with the Maestro. However before I connect the two The Poweramp, then I will first swap a stereo amplifier for the two Ayons.

Thanks to the active subwoofers in the Maestro GSE, the 2x 90 Watt from the Poweramp are suitable even for louder volumes. To my amazement the hybrid amplifier suggested even larger virtual rooms than the Epsilons, or in other words: they radiated more detail and deeper dimensions. But I didn't select the Epsilon as a supplement for a partially active loudspeaker concept; I selected it because it has the necessary power to get the three bass driver units of a LumenWhite moving but still to keep them on a short lead. For the AudioMachinas there would certainly be a more sensitive solution in the Ayon range than the powerful Epsilon. But that would be another story. Before I switched over to bi-amping, I enjoyed the musical flow and the wide ranges from the interaction between The Poweramp and the Maestro GSE where the listener is truly pampered. It doesn't matter that there are songs in the Amarra playlist which I have been heard many times before, when I was comparing the Ayons and the Poweramp. Just like top-class jazzmen with acquainted standards can still take pleasure in entirely new facets, Einstein and AudioMachina have managed to present the old pieces in a new light.