Serge Schmidlin is one of the most reserved characters that the Hi-Fi market, accustomed to hyperbole and exaggeration, has ever seen. A designer with a good preparation that goes beyond the confines of sound reproduction (he has a doctorate in biochemistry but has acquired a vast knowledge of biophysics and physics) we could define Schmidlin as a person perpetually engaged in the scouting of the best solutions for music reproduction, which he faces without preconceptions to the point of having put together, under the types of Audio Consulting, a company located in Switzerland near Geneva, a series of projects of various nature and forge that all comply with a precise philosophy (amply illustrated on the site of the company). It is a limited series production characterized by the particular care both in the design and in the realization, with the aim of reaching a live sound able to excite the listener. Exclusive products also for the costs, often out of my mind but that, for direct experience, have very impressive sonic performances: at the Munich Hi-End 2015, a plant including Audio Consulting products was declared by us "the best of the realm" "! After an attempt that dates back to many years ago (August 2007), today those products come back to Italy, starting from the Pre Phono “Silver Rock Toroidal Phono Amplifier”, available for listening at the importer's premises, whereas the other Audio Consulting products are, at the moment, available on request. - Paolo Corciulo - Phono unit: Audio Consulting Silver Rock Street price: € 32.500
“This superbly crafted Swiss unit uses twin lead-acid battery power supplies (one for each channel) and twin, silver-wire, toroidal-core step-up transformers, followed by active solid-state circuitryfor RIAA and a toroidal-core output transformer, to generate 70dB of gain—quite enough, it would appear, to avoid the usual pitfall of transformer-based phonostages (to wit, dynamic compression). Though no fan of transformer-based phono preamps (or of units without capacitive loading) in the past, JV finds the Silver Rock to be an exception. Paired with CH Precision’s M1/L1 (or other high-qual- ity tube or solid-state electronics), the thing simply sounds like the absolute. While not quite as hard-hitting in the bass as phonostages without transformers, it is so neutral and natural in timbre ev- erywhere else, so extraordinarily high in detail, and so quick on transients JV doesn’t care. Nor should you. Perhaps the highest-resolution phono preamp JV has auditioned—and in the midband one of the most fool-you realistic—the Audio Consulting Silver Rock richly deserves the second of TAS’ 2017 Phonostage of the Year Awards. “ - Jonathan Valin -
This is not to short change how well they perform on the audiophile report card, with excellent grades across the board. But the Audio Consulting gear will obviously have greatest appeal to those who treasure musicality.
The Audio Consulting duo stimulated a pleasure factor, and all who heard it agreed: reproduced music should have that more often.
If the shoe fits (and you can afford it), there's no need to look further. Your search would likely be futile."
