So now it’s time to talk over the party...
It all started when Kürthy Tomi (hungarian distributor of Kondo) once mentioned that Ákos had made something, which would be worth to listening to, but that time I wasn’t really care about hifi, so the information just faded away. Then Clarinate just appeared at one of the hi-fi shows as a backdrop, but not as an exhibited piece. That time I looked at the (then-current) website, and I thought they look very nice, and probably they are very good, but I just let it go. Until one day the phone rang and Ákos’s name appeared with some godawful text full of hieroglyphs — his contact was added so many years ago, that the contact list from my old phone in my new one caused some linguistic incompatibility. But I can still read who’s calling:
“Hello, man! When are you coming our way?”
That was the invitation for a little Clarinet solo. I said, well, sometime soon.
I’m a very very lazy person but Ákos is someone who belongs to the closest and oldest of our hi‑fi circle of friends. Now we refer him as Akos, or by his full name, Ákos Vörös, but years ago we just referred to him as “the Buddy with the Ruthy” or “the Buddy with the GakuOh.” He’s one of the oldest black belts who was always there at the Kondo parties, at a time when I didn’t even know that such a category exist—even not Audio Note—but he always kept his anonimity, which we all respected. As far as I know, he had Ongaku and Fuji (only a few were made of it, and one of them ended up with Akos, and also Master Kondo himself personally visited him several times). His last Kondo amplifier was a pair of Gaku Oh monoblocks, which were made according to his specifications (PSE), paired with an M1000 MKII preamp. And of course, he also didn’t mess around with the speakers. When we first met, he owned a Kondo Ruthy4 (the largest model in that series). Then came a short break, then in the period of exploration, FAL Supreme-S, then Avantgarde DUO Omega, which was followed by a TRIO paired with two Subctrl230s (this is the larger sibling of the Subctrl225 that comes with the UNO and DUO, instead of the 25‑cm long‑throw woofers, it’s equipped with 30‑cm long‑throw woofers, and and of course it is much bigger). The last system I saw was the TRIO + GakuOH setup, fronted by a Simon Yorke turntable. The CD player played only third fiddle (there was no second fiddle).
After this sort background, here is the dry facts (taken from the former website):
“The team of electrical engineers specialized in the development of electronic measuring instruments, as well as scientific research and engineering consultancy. (VADECO Engineering Ltd. 1991.)
After a long detour, the Clarinet GmbH brand name and the Clarinet Audio Design product line were born in 2007. After hundreds of hours of design, implementation, measurement, analysis, and listening sessions involving musicians, we arrived at the final version of our current products.”
This may seem like a pretty promotional piece, but it’s not. Ákos (and his team), if I remember correctly, examined the products of around 80 wire manufacturers (not cables, just the wire as raw material) before finding the one to create their own unique cables.
They also had to test several materials, of course, the alloys of its basic elements, to find out which would be the most suitable for producing enclosures of devices. Naturally, the critical components are all handmade and they all made in their own workshop, and it’s no secret that silver is their favorite friend. In the whole process he also involved musicians which was not difficult, as Ákos himself is a musician. I hope I’m not talking something stupid, but if I remember right… better not go into that… he used to play in a quite serious philharmonic group, on some kind of percussion instrument and I think he also played on clarinet, but I cannot remember this exatly.
We know that it doesn’t mean much if a musician gives his opinion, as they often can enjoy and interpret music on almost everything, and they are not very experienced in the depths of hi-fi, but Ákos cannot be described this way—he’s the case of the “poeta doctus.
.... Uhhh this is going to be very very long…I have so much information that I can also write a book. So it’s time to set it up.
When people start to speak about Clarinet, many people said that it's just a copy of Kondo, it’s an imitation, and things like that.
It’s true, that there is a similarity in the logos, but between the Kondo and Clarinet logos, I can see a huge difference: While Kondo’s horn-shaped logo looks back to the past, symbolizing the Japanese underground (Kondo-san took it from the old YL Acoustic, which was one of his favorites), in the Clarinet logo (which shows the horn of the clarinet instrument, but it is abstract and can also be seen as a hornspeakers. The game of horns :) ), I see the future. For me, it looks to the future where people have realized that if they want to find a good sound, they have to looking for it in the direction of horn-shaped speakers. Why? Some people ask. Because they have a horn sound? That’s only something those people say who’ve never ever been close to a good horn speaker in their life. Avantgarde once rode this wave too, building from the past, bringing the future. Of course, the AA (Avantgarde Acoustic) also got hit for having a trumpet or horn-like sound, but only those say that who’ve never heard it correctly adjusted. However, they’re right in one way: they don’t understand it because there’s no box resonance, which their ears have gotten used to. Anyone who lives with horns, the first thing when he listen to a traditional box, is that he will immediately notice that it resonates and colors the sound. This thing is in our brains, and it’s hard to let it go.
...
Kondo... Okay, we saw the Kondo pedigree, and we can also think that Ákos just wanted to make a Kondo for himself, but why would he do that when he already has (had) ?
Here comes a spoiler—Ákos’s amplifiers are comletely different from Kondo amplifiers, even in their designs. Anyone who has seen a Kondo amplifier and then looks at a Clarinet amplifier will immediately notice that they’re completely different in appearance. Instead of the raw, brushed aluminum, they have a treated surface (it looks like powder-coated or painted), and the arrangement of the components and tubes is also entirely different.
The design resembles Kondo’s style? Yes, just like a Ferrari resembles a Porsche. Four wheels, steering wheel, seats, engine, a chassis. The surface treatment, I’d call it a very faint beige, or off-white, or whatever fantastical color it is, and the side panels, though I didn’t knock on them, seem like wood-effect paint to me, still on a metal box. It has the rotary knobs, and the tubes stick out. What Clarinet has in common with Kondo is the clean design and the high-quality execution, which indeed distinguishes both brands from the flashy, attention-grabbing designs.
His sound? This is an interesting thing, and at the beginning of our visit, Ákos started by saying that Kondo is an Asian sound, made for Asians. Clarinet amplifiers, on the other hand, are made for the European ear. And this is true, because I am european, I feel, I understand, and I love the Japanese fineness, but after nearly 20 years of living with Avantgarde and with the brand new FAL full range speakers under my arm, I sometimes feel that the 25 Hz lower frequency limit isn't the same as 15 Hz; the sound spectrum feels incomplete. When I feel this, I just switch to the horns. But this doesn't fully explain what makes the electronics different. I still remember when Ákos and I were listening to the GakuOH amplifier, which sounded incredibly beautiful and correct, but when I asked for some AC/DC, which was on the record shelf, I felt what I always feel when trying to drive Avantgarde with a Kondo or a similar SE/PSE amplifier: it just doesn't work perfectly together. I stayed quiet at that time because 1- we don't touch the host's system, and 2- I said to myself, this is a Kondo, it had to be fine, maybe something was wrong with the setup. Of course, this was a long time ago, by now I know well, as a few of us already do, that these amplifiers are only limitedly suitable for driving Avantgarde speakers (Overture is different, that’s not SE). And now comes the twist in the story, for Ákos, the fixed point was the Avantgarde TRIO, and despite its very high sensitivity, it couldn’t play perfectly with the Kondo. This long history with Kondo experiences served to reveal which amplifier doesn't work with the horns (don’t mix this up with other horns. It works well with traditional horns, but i like Avantgarde better).
In other words, the goal of developing the Clarinet was to make it very musical, but it should NOT BE A KONDO!!!...
...
Arrival, a quick hello, how are you, and then started tol istening to music.
The system is still cold, we’re cold (and tired) too. The first taps are coming. The hi-fi chairs are practically sitting right inside the horns, everything’s still cold, everything’s still stiff, but it was clear that this is something else than last time.
In the first few moments, it’s more scary than captivating, but Ákos wasn't prepared for us (no warm-up). I basically went to Mészáros Jani (very good cartrideg reparator) for three cartridges. While at the M3 highway, it just occurred to me to call Ákos — maybe he has time for us or not. .
The records kept spinning and switching. We started with some attention-grabbing albums, those that instantly grab the listener, great records, but Ákos knows I'm not the type to be affected by that, so we quickly shifted to a direction that also held the soul and the rawness of the music. In the meantime, the system is warming up, and we eat a little ... what was it? Some kind of cake that we have already need very much. You’re not very receptive with an empty stomach, you’d rather eat than listen to music. We’re talking, Ákos is telling stories about what’s happened since Clarinet was created. People come, listen to it, take notes, and then move on to the business talk. Then Ákos tell them, first you should get a good speaker, because until you don’t have that, nothing else really matters. Some people follow this advice, but others, after testing the interconnect cable and comparing it with a renowned one, finally buy the cable. If they need it, they need it — they didn’t return it :)
Yes, I didn’t say, also the cables are made by Ákos, because as he says: the key is the synergy and the systemic approach. So the same cables are used inside the devices, and also the resistors and the transformers are selfmade.
The Tango transformer is on the shelf, but Ákos prefers to make his own, because it will be the good one. Of course, we’ve heard plenty of these kinds of stories before — more often read or seen than heard — but we’ve never witnessed (or heard) the punchline: the good sound. This story is quite unique, because here, the punchline is real. As much as Ákos is a huge admirer of the Kondo name, I’m a full-on fanatic. But this was the point when I said to myself that Ákos made something very good. That bitter pill is tough to swallow, but it starts to going down on your throat, and you haven’t even realized it yet....
...
The system is starting to settle in, the turntable is still the same Simon Yorke (why change it if it’s good?), and I see an IO and an SFz transformer in it. The speaker cables are SPz, and a whole mess of power cables has been made from SPz as well. But at the extension cord, I saw the blue-green twisting Avocado (not Avocado, I zoomed in on the photo. It was also made by Ákos and is black. I'm still blind :)).
Meanwhile, without even noticing, the sound has smoothed out, the first 15 minutes flew quickly, only the memory of the cold, just turned on sound remains, in which Avantgarde subs has a significant role. Ákos asks: "So, how is it?" Answer: How would it be? It’s good. But I can see for Ákos this answer won’t be enough. But the opposite is also true, he can see that for me this won’t be enough. Well, I am not amazed all the time as I’ve already heard a lot of good systems. But it must be told – when we start to explain hi-fi – that they felt like to sit in the tenth or in the fifth row. But damn, here is no tenth and fifth row. It’s so realistic, that you feel like to sit on the stage. (I just mention if someone would like to sit in the tenth row, you can do it with horns, but once you sat in the first row, you will see, that it’s good to be there :) The opposite is harder, from the tenth is not easy to move up to the first row.
Ákos asks: So, is it good? Answer: Yes, it’s good. After the classical music journey, a carefull Doors album, and then I started pushing that old AC/DC record. "Sure, I’ve got it, I’ll find it," but before that, Ákos put on a Led Zeppelin album (II). That was the killer punch. Until then, it just sounded good, but the Zeppelin... The prejudice is hard to shake off, and the 300B triodes were playing, with just a few watts. The drum hit so hard that it nearly knocked my head off. It wasn’t overblown, it wasn’t boosted, it wasn’t humming, it wasn’t buzzing, it wasn’t rolling, just a ridiculously real drum hit, with such force and intensity that I nearly pissed myself. Not from fear, but from shock. Everyone went silent then, and looked stunned. Then came the old AC/DC album, and you couldn’t even recognize it.
Raw power, dead-on precision, but no distortion or strange roughness. Just as much as there is in the music. Of course, the whole performance was there, all at once. A kind of transistor-like decisiveness, rawness, but without the harsh transistor distortion. Astonishing. I've heard Avantgarde speakers a lot, including TRIO, but never driven like this before. By the way, 300B amplifiers always have a certain interesting scratch in their sound. It seems that it’s not the tube, but the thing positioned in front of it. Here, the 300B didn’t do anything but amplify the sound. Of course, I was scratching my head, wondering what makes this sound so good, but I’m not the one to figure that out. I don’t understand electronics, I can only observe things. But here and now, it’s been proven that SE/PSE amplifiers can drive Avantgardes. Let’s add that these amplifiers were designed this way, but if something can drives Avantgarde, it will drive anything. I’m looking for the words, but it’s hard to find them. But that bitter pill kept rolling down, and I have to say it: I’ve never heard the horns sound like this before. We haven’t tried Clarinet with anything else, but what works with horns, as I mentioned in the two lines above, will work with anything (within reason). I know, at first, it seems hard to swallow this pill, but I suggest if you have opportunity to listen Clarinet, you should have to.
My hands are shaking a little as I type the following sentence: nothing I've ever heard sound like that....
Because you shall see my friends, once the Clarinet reveal itself, it will shine forever on the holy sky of hi-fi.
https://www.clarinetaudio.com/
So now it’s time to talk over the party... 
It’s true, that there is a similarity in the logos, but between the Kondo and Clarinet logos, I can see a huge difference: While Kondo’s horn-shaped logo looks back to the past, symbolizing the Japanese underground (Kondo-san took it from the old YL Acoustic, which was one of his favorites), in the Clarinet logo (which shows the horn of the clarinet instrument, but it is abstract and can also be seen as a hornspeakers. The game of horns :) ), I see the future. For me, it looks to the future where people have realized that if they want to find a good sound, they have to looking for it in the direction of horn-shaped speakers. Why? Some people ask. Because they have a horn sound? That’s only something those people say who’ve never ever been close to a good horn speaker in their life. Avantgarde once rode this wave too, building from the past, bringing the future. Of course, the AA (Avantgarde Acoustic) also got hit for having a trumpet or horn-like sound, but only those say that who’ve never heard it correctly adjusted. However, they’re right in one way: they don’t understand it because there’s no box resonance, which their ears have gotten used to. Anyone who lives with horns, the first thing when he listen to a traditional box, is that he will immediately notice that it resonates and colors the sound. This thing is in our brains, and it’s hard to let it go.
