First look
The heaviest of the bunch has got to be the 250i amplifier, what with its thick metal exterior that's been sliced up along the sides to provide heat dissipation, very much like the tough NAD amplifiers. Weighing in at 25kgs, the simplicity with which this grey shaded amplifier carries itself is commendable. Finished with a black-oak wood grain, completes this dark setup, and with its side firing woofers, adds a great touch of out-of-the-box to the otherwise conventional setup.
Technological aspects
Cambridge Audio Azur 550C CD Player
This CD player comes with Cambridge Audio's CD transport that is used only for audio rather than as a DVD-ROM as well which is the case with some of the other CD players out there. This is hooked up to a S3 Custom CD Servo that uses an all-new chipset and their latest version of double-sided surface-mount technology that keeps the signal paths within the CD player as short as possible. Shorter signal paths means low jitter means noise-free sound. It features the Wolfson WM8740 DAC, which has been used in other Azur players before, primarily because of its flawless 24blt/192kHz capabilities. As for the transport, it has been re-worked to make it even quieter and a bracing system that's been taken from their volume knob at dead centre to the left of which lies a blue-lit LED to display everything from volume to input to other menu functions, only adds to the remarkable authority the Perreaux radiates. Even the Perreaux sign of the audio waveform scribbled on the top panel seems like a symbol of power. As for the black finished aluminum cabinet of the Azur 550C CD player, it goes remarkably well with the dark 250i amplifier, especially when placed one on top of the other (the 250i should be down of course).For power, all Azur CD players use a toroidal transformer that keeps noise low and waveform distortion to a minimum.
Perreaux Eloquence 250i integrated Stereo Amplifier
Just by looking at the massive 250i and reading that it's the most powerful and most sophisticated amplifier Perreaux has to offer, you can be sure there's immense power pumping out of this guy; specifically, 250W at 8ohms and a whopping 500W at 4ohms. That's enough to drive any pair of speakers out there, especially when that power is distributed over 5Hz to 60 kHz at a damping factor of 800. This amplifier is no joke when it comes to its specification sheet and that balanced XLR input along with the RCA inputs on the back panel adds to the seriousness of it all. The left and right channels are divided up for maximum isolation for each of the two channels when it comes to individual amplification within the amplifier. It contains three separate transformers that feed four independent power supplies so as to provide even the most difficult of speaker loads clean and sufficient power to drive them. That along with various microprocessors at various stages of amplification, from volume and balance control to the more sophisticated functions, makes this one well-controlled amplifier. This is one of the few stereo amplifiers that have such an expansive amount of options on the controller. This is primarily because of the on-board microprocessor that has been given the duty to manage the amplifier's inputs, etc, via the menus. However, you can't quite see the little options if you're sitting even five feet away from the amplifier's LED screen, so the remote does become useless at this point. When it comes to volume changes and input selection, the remote comes in handy and the dB markings of the LED screen are large enough to be seen from even 10 feet away.
RBH 1044-SE Floor Standing Speakers
The 1044 is one of the few towers out there that has mounted its bass woofer to the side of the cabinet rather than keeping it front firing. The 10" aluminium cone subwoofer has been placed to the left of the tower while two 4" aluminum cone woofers and a 1" silk dome tweeter face the front under a tightly held grille. With these grills off, you're looking at shiny aluminum drivers that dazzle with silver, however, if s best to keep grilles on with towers in this price range as their crossovers have been adjusted keeping the grilles on. The subwoofer crossover happens at 100Hz. which is even lower than the maximum value of the variable crossover knobs on stand-alone subwoofers. With a 10" woofer, you can do that quite easily because these towers can go from 30Hz-20 kHz, which comes as no surprise. However you need a sturdy enough cabinet for bass as low as this, especially when you're driving the speakers with an amplifier equipped to deliver such a high damping factor. And the RBH has just that, with each of the cabinets made from MDF and weigh only a kilo more than the 25kg amplifier.
