The bass in "Krakatoa Moon" from Of Moons and Dreams by the Cécile Verny Quartet explodes almost like soap bubbles. The Axxess makes it enormously easy to trace individual instruments. Yet it presents a harmonic coherence that confers voices and instruments body and their space. In view of these sonic capabilities, rock is of course really fun, such as Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones was able to prove. The Forté1 makes the reckless sound of "Brown Sugar" immediately palpable. Nevertheless, when drawing my personal conclusion, this Forté makes its skills more audible with classical music and jazz than with rock music, where the given tonality sometimes tends to more presence. The Axxess by no means appears to be a palliator and thus sometimes uncovers weaknesses.

Last but not least, the headphone output deserves some attention as well. My Denon headphones harmonized extremely well with the Forté’s clean and controlled sound. The overdone lows, caused by sometimes sounding a bit too fat with other sources, do not exist here. Instead, this frequency range is honoured by power and contour. In the version of the Depeche Mode hit "Personal Jesus" by the Jazzystics with Karen Souza, the cymbals of the drum set sound soft, metallic, colourful, the bass lines paint their melody into one’s ear. Karen Souza's whisper-tender voice sounds as articulate as it is flattering. Piano and vibraphone shape this "Personal Jesus" with their tonal arcs and make it as exciting as beautiful.