Crayon Audio attacks SoulSonic headquarters

Sound Attack

MONO AND STEREO HIGH-END AUDIO MAGAZINE

Crayon Audio - who would have thought we have a SOTA audio amplification company an hour away from Brezno (my home place at the end of the world), across the Slovenian/Austrian border? I have discovered it by pure coincidence and boy, was I lucky! After seeing the photos of their CMA-1 monoblocks on their mysterious website, I instantly knew I want to hear them in my system because to me, their visual design was the coolest I have ever seen but of course...I had high hopes for the sound as well. I sent an invitation email to Roland Krammer, the atomic power mind behind the Crayon Audio designs, asking if he would be willing to come over to the SoulSonic headquarters with his extraordinary stylish integrated and monos to "burn some speakers" and he immediately agreed.

Roland Krammer is a man with an incredible history of achievements in the electronics field - and not only in audio! I should leave his resume for some future occasion because again, I have this strange feeling Crayon Audio components will land at Mono&Stereo for a formal review, sooner or later, that`s inevitable. The high end audio field is flooded with products but those that really stand out are rare and yes, Crayon Audio fits in the "stand out" category, hands down.

My experience with the CFA-1.2 integrated and the CMA-1 monoblocks is extremely positive: they make the music come to life like not many amps can do. They are extraordinarily transparent but also smooth at the same time, they posses the microdynamics in spades that inject true lifelike feeling to the musical performances. The list of virtues is too long for this brief mentioning, let me just say that during Roland`s visit we have listened for hours, not talking much and even when I wanted to say something, the music would continually disturb my concentration and direct my attention towards listening rather than babbling. Erm...is this a good sign? You betcha!

As it appears some more sessions with Crayon Audio are on the horizon and I am very excited about the upcoming preamp that will be put in the same enclosure as those beautiful monoblocks of seemingly Alien origin. Hopefully the Crayon trio will sing soon!

http://www.crayon-audio.com/

Text and photos by Miro Krajnc

  

Matej Isak. Mono and Stereo ultra high end audio magazine. All rights reserved. 2006-2013. www.monoandstereo.com. ..:: None of the original text, pictures, that were taken by me, links or my original files can be re-printed or used in any way without prior permission! ::..