The Moonriver Audio 404 amplifier will extract hidden elements and render textures from within any audio format, with the source, speakers and room to set the limits.
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Its culture will suit all music, as the Model 404 is by design set to define the faintest nuances of which tone integrity is composed. A hefty supply section ensures that ample healthy power is available at all times at all stages through separate rails. A fully discrete preamp section serves for acute dynamic awareness, while a high output stage that is custom-optimized for bandwidth and distortion warrants for neutral predisposition and transient fidelity. A laborious selection of components armors the design against tonal alteration, pretentious or not, thus preserving naturalness throughout the shortest feasible path.
Furthermore, an integrated phono stage, a USB DAC, two preamp outputs and a tape monitor loop expand functionality to form an ideally flexible integrated amplifier. Moonriver 404 amplifier is modular by nature; it can accommodate an MM or MM/MC phono stage and a USB asynchronous DAC. Fitting these modules is simple and can take place at any time, on or after purchase. The USB DAC may also be upgraded with a newer version to meet future needs.
Living rooms and house furniture are meant to serve everyday life and may not be provisioned with an ideal listening spot, evenly distanced from each speaker to form an equilateral triangle. It is also not uncommon for one speaker to have to be placed nearer room boundaries than the other, having various frequencies boosted in a more or less predictable pattern. More often than not, balance control would come in handy in that it drastically helps overcoming volume level unevenness and in some cases even reclaiming stereo effect and the resulting focused sound stage.
As expected, the way balance control is implemented on the Moonriver 404 amplifier, in parallel, will not degrade or affect the signal in any way determinable. Model 404 incorporates no less than 5 separate power supplies, each featuring overload protection. The power amplifier specifically runs on a dual mono configuration, beginning from separate windings on the toroidal transformer. Stereo/mono switch gives you the chance to enjoy recording art milestones with respect to how they were initially intended to please. ■