March 2005

Fi X3 300B Amplifier & Y Pre-amplifier
The 'X' and 'Y's of Aural Ecstasy
Review By Ian White
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The man in ecstasy and the man drowning -- both throw up their arms. The first does it to signify harmony, the second to signify strife with the elements... -- Franz Kafka

  Where was this Kafka guy when I was dangling over the edge?

Okay, so he has been slurping on tom yum soup in the great deli in the sky for the better part of eight decades, but that still does not let him off of the hook. I really could have used his help in 2004.

Your resident expert on the dating rituals of Amanda Peet and Rachel Weisz, got divorced last year after nearly drowning in a bottomless bowl of soup and I awoke to find myself lost on the Jersey Turnpike and extraordinarily hungry. You tell me which one was the bigger tragedy?

And There She Was...

Getting lost on the road is not something that I do very often, but during a rather thunderous downpour I took a detour off of the New York State Thruway and onto 17, which led me into northern New Jersey. As I made my way south on 17, passing a number of cultural destinations in Bergen County -- Hooter's, White Castle, and some guy related to Emily Dickinson, it dawned on me that I was really lost.

For a guy who managed to navigate the Negev desert by himself carrying a sack of melted Rolling Stones LPs and an Uzi, I was having a very difficult time finding the George Washington Bridge.

Running out of gas in New Jersey is never a good thing, especially when it could escalate to "and finally tonight on our newscast, the body of a lost Canadian was found...." I made my way through the streets of Teaneck, making left and right turns, blindly following the Force (most likely hunger) and came to a stop on a street lined with bustling kosher restaurants.

Do vey la White Castle?

I'm not sure what prompted me to tear through all of the compartments in the Escalade looking for a yalmake, but after years of Bar Mitzvahs and Weddings, the odds were good that there would be a crusty one somewhere.

I slammed the door, clipped the red satin yalmake to my hair (when in Rome…) and darted across the street in the pouring rain looking to get directions and a nice bowl of matzo ball soup.

And there she was.

Have you ever listened to a piece of equipment with no expectations and left the room feeling as if your soul has been lifted? Even for a few seconds...

When our eyes met, it was truly one of those moments.

When I walked face first into edge of the door as it swung open, it was also the end of that moment.

Hours later, after residing in a deep coma (okay, so it was only a shallow coma but we are talking about a Jewish mother's diagnosis), I opened my eyes and found myself on a strange chaise, in a strange living room.

I do not believe in Heaven as a post-mortem destination, but for anyone who does... they play a lot of Cure, Erasure, and Journey.

The craziest part is that G-D uses 300Bs, vinyl, and horns.

I came to the realization rather quickly that I had not passed through the pearly gates and into G-d's kick-ass listening room in the sky, but that I was lying half-naked on the couch of a Orthodox Jewish woman named "Lou" and that a white terrier was licking the soles of my feet.

Startled that I wasn't wearing all of my clothing, I looked frantically around the room praying that I wasn't too late.

I saw Deliverance four times.

As I finished tying my shoes, I looked up to see this vision walk out of the darkness.

It was the same girl whose eyes' had literally knocked me unconscious. She was as radiant as an 845 triode in the darkness and as curvaceous as a pair of Sonus Fabers. She walked over to an equipment rack in the corner and cued up the Cure's Disintegration before vanishing again.

Out of the still air came a richness of tone, a sense of pace and raw musical energy that one rarely hears from even the best of audio components. It was a cinemascope mirage of two starved lovers embraced in passionate lovemaking -- the type that most humans fantasize about but never get to truly experience.

Sure, there were limitations in the bass, but it was one of those rare moments of aural ecstasy where the music really did engulf and overwhelm me. Robert Smith got rather annoyed as I pushed my way past him to examine what was making such wonderful sound and much to my surprise, the label read "Brooklyn, YeYeYe."

Funny It Doesn't Look Like Brooklyn...

Don Garber of Fi is an illusion in the world of audio. Not only does he not have a website, but also I believe that only one picture of him has ever been printed in an audio publication. If not for Joe Roberts and Art Dudley, I doubt that many of us would have ever even heard of him. Somewhere, inside that dirty, congested, and abrupt world known as Brooklyn, he spends his time inside a studio building audio art that us working stiffs can afford. The thing is... his "working man" stuff is better than what most of the industry makes which puts those of us who have to spill ink in a bit of a spot.

When my life turned upside down in 2003, I was forced to sell things that I swore I would hold onto forever. What was once gold was now bupkus on a sesame seed bun. So, in my despair, I began to look for something "used" to fill the gaping holes in my system. Call it dumb luck, but I came across a beat-up Fi X integrated that fit into my budget and for all the supreme joy and loyalty she showed me, I have decided that I would sooner eat White Castle until my liver and kidneys disintegrate than replace her.

It should therefore come as no surprise that this mysterious Orthodox woman who dragged my wet and unconscious behind out of an emotional gutter, is also an Industrial Designer, and that she would love the Fi X3 300B and Y pre-amplifier.

"Y" Does Anyone Need A Preamplifier?

Source control and Gain.

Oh, and to make lifeless sounding power amplifiers sound less dead and multi-dimensional.

What makes the Y so unique is that it packs so much into such a small chassis. The front panel is divided up into two sections; a source and volume control, and two 6922s which make everything sound rather velvety. The rear panel is also very user-friendly with five sets of inputs, and two sets of outputs.

One curious thing about the Y is that Don Garber has played with the gain and provided inputs for higher output devices such as CD players and DACs and inputs for lower output sources such as phono stages and tuners. The two sets of outputs make bi-amplification possible, or one could do what I did and add a subwoofer to the chain. The only issue I have with the rear panel is that one of the output jacks is rather close to the power cord receptacle and I did have to massage the cord into place due to its thickness.

The level of finish and craftsmanship on this nine hundred dollar preamplifier is ridiculously high. Okay, absurdly high. Do not expect state-of-the-art parts inside, but whatever Don chose to use in this little guy, they work perfectly. From a noise perspective, I did hear my tuner every now and then when I switched between its input jack and the one right above or below it, but keep in mind I was actually listening for this sort of thing with my ear against the speaker. From a few feet away, I was hearing my own stomach rumble.

Unlike ninety-nine percent of the preamplifiers currently available, the Y will fit inside a bookshelf and make you forget that it even exists. If you have little children, do not have some fancy high-end equipment rack, and want to keep the lady of the lake thrilled, the size of the Y make it a superb choice.

But "Y" does it sound so good for only 3600 Shekels?

Simplicity.

The Y is not over-designed, stuffed full of expensive parts without reason, full of itself.

Is it even remotely as expressive as an Emotive Epifania or as forceful as a First Sound Deluxe? Of course not and it would be asinine to think that Don designed a $900 preamplifier to be a reference level product.

But for $900, one gets an incredibly transparent, quick, and musical tube pre-amplifier that is far more reliable and user-friendly than many of the products selling for two and three times its asking price. The Y stays out of your way, does not require one to keep a closet full of NOS as emergency spares, and it actually looks like someone with something resembling the poetic soul of an artist built it.

Is BMW Aware That They Are Selling A Single-Ended Amplifier?

The Fi X3 is an eight-watt single-ended behemoth, especially when you consider how small and light the X and Y are. While I do not know the exact weight, the X3 is pushing the scales due to a trio of transformers from MQ, which would make the amplifier a deadly weapon in a domestic dispute. The really cool thing about the X3 is that even with all of its iron, it fits on a bookshelf. A sturdy and manly one, but a bookshelf nonetheless.

The binding posts were surprisingly cheap (I guess Don had to pinch pennies somewhere) on the sample that I listened to, but I suspect that Mr. Garber will offer fancy Cardas posts if you ask him. The parts quality of the X3 is exceptionally high considering the retail price and it is rather obvious that most of the cost is in the transformers.

The X3 uses tube rectification, along with 6SN7s in the driver stage. The X3 that I listened to came with Electro-Harmonix 300Bs and I have to admit that they were not the best 300B tubes that I have ever heard. I believe that Don Garber will supply the X3 with the 300B of your choosing, just as long as it is readily available to him and not likely to send the X3 into a meltdown.

As was the case with my ex-love, the Wavelength Duetto, the X3 really likes the 300B tubes offered by Sophia and I did convince my new "friend" to open up the vault so that I could do a meaningful audition. The "meshies" from Sophia are an affordable alternative to the venerable WE 300B and truth be told I have always liked them more as they offer a more balanced presentation across the frequency rainbow. They may not have the creamy smooth midrange of the Western Electric, but they do everything else better and for a lot less money.

To my ears, the Wavelength Duetto was pretty tough to beat. It presented the clearest, most vivid picture you could ever ask for in a single-ended amplifier. Sure, it lacked a certain degree of emotion, but the Duetto never failed to engage me or keep me interested in what was coming next. I lament the fact that I had to sell it and that Wavelength no longer offers it.

The X3 gets one there for a lot less money than the current 300B offerings from Wavelength, Emotive, or Art Audio, but I still think it loses out on technical points to the Duetto, if you factor in a smaller sounding soundstage, a less transparent sounding midrange, and not as much authority in the bass. When it was still available, the Duetto was almost three times the price of the X3 so it has to be said that the X3 more than held its own against rather lofty and admired competition. The Duetto makes almost every other 300B power amplifier sound somewhat gritty, but perhaps that is what makes the X3 such a good piece.

Is it possible that the Duetto painted too clean a portrait of Sarah Vaughn, Green Day, Tori Amos, Grant Green, Bela Fleck, and Dexter Gordon, making one miss the obvious color and drama of each performer?

Partnered with the Y, the X3 is a very serious reproducer of music and emotion. One thing in its favor is that it worked equally as well with the Cain and Cain Abby, and IM-BENs, as it did with the Spendor SP2/3s.

Back To Reality...

As I lifted the tonearm off of the last record of the evening and bent over to flip the switch on the X3, I sensed that the vision had reappeared and was standing rather eerily over my shoulder and watching as I carefully put her system to sleep.

"So what do you think?" She asked.

"It is extraordinarily good," I replied.
"But did it move you?' She replied.

"For the most part, it was a lot more engaging than I have heard of late. It does a lot of things really well considering how affordable it is."

"Do you know why I like it?" She asked, turning towards me and becoming flesh and blood.

"It was the first piece of audio equipment that I ever saw that not only had some vision behind it, but it conveyed a sense of love by its creator. Sure, it is a mess of bent metal filled with wires and parts whose function I could care less about, but it does something to music that nothing else I have ever heard does."

As my brain formed the typical audiophile response to her overly dramatic and romantic explanation with crap about "oil-in-paper caps," and "hand-wound MQ iron", she stepped forward, grabbed me and kissed me with as much passion as any woman ever had.

"It makes me want to love."

Specifications

Fi Y Tube Preamplifier

Tube Compliment: two 6922

Inputs: five

Outputs: two

Gain: 23dB

Price: $895 + $25 shipping within USA

Fi Super X3 300B stereo single-ended power amplifier

Power: 8 watts per channel into 8 Ohms

Tube Compliment: two 300B, two 6SN7, and one 5AR4

Price: $1,750 + $25 for shipping within USA

Company Information

Fi
Mr. Don Garber
Brooklyn, NY
Voice: (718) 625-7353
E-mail: dgfi@earthlink.net