Infigo Audio, Alta Audio, Resonessence Labs | CAF 2021

Infigo Audio dazzles us with their metalwork and more, Alta Audio roars like thunder, and it’s good to see you again Resonessence Labs.

The Story

The big story is Infigo Audio, is a Canadian company that makes high-end amplifiers, DACs, and audio cables. You supply the source, as in this case with Resonessence Labs, a company we haven’t seen since T.H.E. Show 2019.

CEO/Founder Hans Looman has been consulting to former Resonessence Labs, a spin-off of ESS Technology, the well known creators of the Sabre DAC chip, and helped them run the various audio shows they were presenting in the past 10 years. His amplifier design was showcased for many years as the Projecta amplifier and was originally planned to be released under the Resonessence brand. Unfortunately Resonessence Labs ceased business, and the amplifier will now be released under a new brand: Infigo Audio.

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What comes to us new from Infigo Audio is a full suite of high-end electronics, firstly the Method 4 DAC which also pulls double duty as a preamplifier. The starting point for the Method 4 is it’s ES9038PRO Sabre DAC chips, which are governed by ARM based controllers. The 32-bit audio path with digital volume control is robust. But the chip isn’t the whole story, its military grade clocks (which are synched to the music) and dedicated power supplies for each sub-circuit keep unwanted processor signals from tampering with the music.

Notable features include a dimmable touchscreen display and Apple remote compatibility. It is available in silver, gold, or black anodized finishing, housed in a solid milled aluminum chassis. S/PDIF, Optical, AES, USB all included, both SE and balanced outputs as well.

Bringing the outright slam to the party, Infigo Audio’s Method 3 wide bandwidth power amplifiers. Sold as monoblock pairs (62 lbs each) that operate in class-A and output up to 250 wpc into 4-Ohm loads.

There are plenty of things internally worth bragging about, so it makes sense that the display unit was running with the top down for us to peep inside. Of note on the outside of the amplifier is the curved heatseek fins which are curved for looks but also to abate resonances.

Sparkle Series cables from Infigo Audio were running throughout the system, but I wasn’t able to get as close a look as I liked, and much prefered the listening chair than hunting cables in the dark. Can you blame me?

Providing the audible vision of what these electronics are capable of were the Alta Audio Alec floorstanding loudspeakers. A simple two-way design, using a ported cabinet built from DampHard — a proprietary multi-layer, multi-density, resonance free material. Up top, a 5-3/4-inch ribbon tweeter, down low an 8-3/4-inch mid-woofer.

And when I say down low, I mean DOWN LOW — because the Alec utilizes Alta XTL Bass technology, which stands for a special type of extended transmission line, which Alta Audio founder Mike Levy says “tunes these speakers like instruments.”

The Sound

Occasionally I say dumb things a few times a day. When we entered the room no music was playing, I tool a seat and began the bass notes of whatever track was selected. “Good googly moogly!” was belted from my mouth. Not something I normally say, but I’m sure something I’ve absorbed over the years from reading about the Apollo Space missions.

Dynamics galore. You know that what that means, right? Extension that could not be ignored. At the show, this might have been the most sub-woofer like bass. Though I could have enjoyed a little more effort in the upper mids, I wasn’t complaining about a thing. Quite impressive, and I hope to see more of what Infigo Audio can do.