Audionet STERN Ultimate Series Preamplifier

SCIENTIST SERIES - ULTIMATE MACHINE STERN

The machine:

The STERN preamplifier, conceived and built by Audionet and designed by the legendary German industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger, combines circuit concepts that have been celebrated around the world with a design quality that has never been partially realized in high fidelity.

Highly concentrated, internationally protected FLOATING DESIGN embodies ultimate audiophile qualities. In terms of sound, STERN surpasses everything that has been on the market so far (even the AXPONA / RMAF / THESHOW / HIGHEND series winner Audionet Pre G2).

STERN goes straight to the core without detours, steps or loops. STERN is a sonic revelation for audiophile listeners. STERN effortlessly nails even the most expensive competition against the wall. STERN is simply 'acoustically and visually the greatest sensation that has ever' struck in the absolute top class.

The science:

Special features of STERN

• Magnetically and capacitively optimized circuit and device design without the use of ferromagnetic materials.

• Floating design with optimal microphone resistance and temperature stability.

• Floating housing plates, resonance-optimized with solid brass pads on a solid aluminum frame.

• The transformer suspension and screw connections are made of stainless steel.

• Double mono construction of circuit and power supply for maximum channel separation.

• Air Flow Design PCBs for optimized cooling and stabilization of the quiescent currents.

• Separation and galvanic isolation of all analog circuits by optocouplers.

• Input and output circuits as well as voltage stabilization are implemented with discreetly constructed, further developed Audionet operational amplifier modules with state-of-the-art mica capacitors.

• Rhodium RCA sockets from Furutech.

• Volume rotary encoder with double ball bearings, magnetic grids and optical scanning.

• Volume setting via an electronically switched and real-time linearized precision resistor network.

• DC coupling without sound-damaging capacitors or coils, shortest signal paths.

• One transformer per channel to feed the positive and negative half-wave for the perfect power supply.

• Four encapsulated and decoupled 50 VA toroidal transformers.

• Main current capacitors 22,000 µF ESR-optimized with silk dielectric.

• Total sieve capacity 176,000 µF.

• New contextual operating concept.

• Microprocessor control with its own power supply.

• Bypass mode for home cinema integration.

• Additional devices of the Ultimate series can be switched on remotely via two pulsed Audionet-Link circuits

• A microprocessor with its own switched-mode power supply monitors and controls all functions and provides information on a high-resolution display.

• The inputs can be freely named, different input levels can be adjusted.

• DC voltage components of source signals can optionally be regulated.

• Rhodium fuse