What is it about these so-called “all-in-one” components, such as the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII, that I like so much? When I was a journeyman audiophile I was always taught that it’s better to separate the features of components as much as possible, breaking out tuners and integrated amps from ’70s receivers, breaking out phono stages from preamplifiers, breaking out the right channel from the left channel and, most recently, breaking out power supplies from everything else.
But I’ve reviewed all-in-ones from companies such as Bel Canto, AVM and others and I’ve never heard anything that could be called a sonic compromise just because everything exists in one box with a single mains. Now I have this $7,500 Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII integrated amplifier, DAC and streamer in for review, and once again I’m tempted to dump all the tiny little boxes in my system and save some space on my rack–merely by embracing the future.
Words and Photos by Marc Phillips
For most audiophiles, Electrocompaniet from Norway is one of those legendary audio brands that seem to have been around forever. (They’re coming up on their 50th anniversary.) When I was that journeyman I lusted after an Electrocompaniet power amp, a shade over two grand at the time, that I had heard in a friend’s system. I’d been looking for an honest-to-goodness audiophile amp, and I had my eyes on a B&K ST-140 since I could afford it (it was still less than $500 at the time, and even that stretched my budget). I certainly couldn’t afford the four-times-as-expensive Electrocompaniet, but I kept telling myself it wasn’t that far out of reach. It was the kind of purchase that I could plaster all over a vision board–if we had them back then.
I feel like Electrocompaniet is another high-end audio company that went silent for a while, but the brand is strong again thanks to Antal Audio Group, which also imports and distributes Triangle. When Frank Gazzo of Antal asked me to review the Triangle Magellan Duetto speakers, he also requested that I pair it with the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII. Cynics often see nothing but the promotional side of such a request, but in the high-end audio industry there’s often another factor–synergy. When I hear speaker manufacturers request a certain amp for a review, or vice versa, more often than not there’s a remarkable synergy between the two brands. In many cases, the two companies voice their products together.
That’s what happened here with the Duettos and the ECI: at $7,000 and $7,500, respectively, they form an almost complete system on their own. For $15,500 plus cables, it’s a killer system that fits almost anywhere.
Inside the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII
I just mentioned “embracing the future” with the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII, and for a very good reason. The ECI 6 DX is full of modern hi-fi technology: it’s Roon ready, it supports Tidal Connect, and it’s “Bluetooth-enabled,” which means you can stream to it over Bluetooth. (The APP control is done over Wi-Fi, which means you need a network connection to control the unit with the app.) The streamer can play Qobuz, Spotify and Tidal, it can work with Airplay and DLNA, and it can even index your existing music files. It uses Electrocompaniet’s EC Play app, or you can just use the IR remote control that’s included.
The DAC in the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII has a sample conversion rate of up to 24 bit/192kHz, and can be connected by USB, Toslink or SPDIF. The preamplifier section of the ECI 6 has four analog inputs–three RCA and one XLR, and features a preamp out that includes both RCA and XLR connections. Finally, the power amplifier section is good for 125wpc into 8 ohms and 200 into 4. While it’s easy to use a class D circuit for these all-in-ones–the lack of transformers creates space inside for all those extra functions, the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII is a class AB amplifier. That makes it heavy and beefy–it’s almost 50 pounds.
Set-Up
While I was supposed to use the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII primarily with the Triangle Magellan Duetto monitors, it didn’t take long for me to realize that this all-in-one came to my house at the perfect time. As I’ve mentioned, the last few months have been populated with review gear that isn’t quite plug-and-play–some equipment doesn’t play well with others, some equipment requires another piece of equipment I don’t have, and some equipment doesn’t work at all because something happened in transit.
The Electrocompaniet instantly became a “workhorse” piece of gear in my system–if I couldn’t get a streamer or a DAC to work properly in my system, in went the ECI. As a result, this all-in-one spent time with multiple levels of gear–all the way up to the YG Acoustics Sonja 3.2 loudspeakers ($99K/pair) and the Songer Audio S2s ($49,000/pair).
In regards to the digital section of the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII, i.e. the streamer and DAC, I had no problems with getting everything to sync up and work properly. (The Five Minute Rule, in other words, was satisfied.) I did hold onto the ECI for much longer than I anticipated, long after I had returned the Triangle Magellan Duettos to Antal Audio Group. “I just need it a bit longer,” I kept telling Frank Gazzo. “I have a couple of things I still need to try.” That, of course, was code for “the ECI just works. I can count on it to work.” It wound up getting me out of a jam or two along the way, and for that I’m grateful.
Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII Sound
The Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII, as I’ve explained, was incredibly useful for my reviewing chores. But how did it sound?
I’ll start off by remembering that Electrocompaniet amp I desired back in the ’80s had a sonic signature that some people described as a bit dark. In fact, when I openly declared my intentions to brown-bag it for a year to save up for that amp, the darkness issue was mentioned more than once by friends and by reviewers. (I think even the Stereophile review called it dark, but that didn’t stop it from landing on the RCL for many years.)
I’m not sure how I feel about the term “dark.” For me, dark means closed in, the polar opposite of open and light and airy, qualities I search for in high-end audio. For the record, “dark” has also been consistently ascribed to brands such as McIntosh and Mark Levinson, and traditional I like both companies. Even my beloved Spendor SP100s, which I owned for many years, were considered dark by some of my audio buddies. Maybe I like dark. I don’t think so, but maybe I’m wrong.
That said, the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII did not sound warm to my ears at all. My initial impressions were primarily that of neutrality, although my time with the ECI came right after my time with the wondrous Allnic Audio T-1500 Mk. 2 integrated amplifier, which uses 300Bs and has a sound that’s warm and sexy and addictive. Maybe that’s because I first paired the Electrocompaniet with the YG Acoustics Sonja 3.2s, which are very neutral and detailed and revealing. When I switched to speakers that had a slightly different flavor, such as the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan Micr/O monitors, I felt that the Electrocompaniet shared the DeVore’s vision of creating music that forged a strong emotional response in the listener.
I’m not saying that the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII was one of those products that are so neutral it gets out of the way of the music. I did hear, over time, a sound that emphasizes neutrality while still allowing a glimpse into the ECI’s mission. There was a richness to the sound that I found quiet satisfying–there wasn’t a single occasion where I felt the music was lean and not quite fleshed out. The overall sound of the ECI was still neutral and detailed, but I was reminded of editing and processing my digital photographs–there’s a point where you think the image is perfect and then you make one small adjustment and there it is, true perfection. I didn’t know it was missing until I made the change. Electrocompaniet is adding one last ingredient to the mix, something that made the good even better, especially in terms with the weight of the presentation and a slightly increased frequency response.
Is that dark? Who cares.
Listening Sessions
The Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII, not the lofty Burmester gear, was used in the system when Jeff Fox of Notable Audio first installed the J. Sikora Initial Max turntable. That meant the ECI was spoiled early on. The first two albums I used to break in the Initial Max were the Analogue Productions’ UHQR one-step pressing of Steely Dan’s Aja, and the also-one-step version of Lyn Stanley’s Black Dress Ballads. It’s been obvious that these two sets of LPs set the standard for quiet grooves and a natural presentation.
The Lyn Stanley album was the first LP cued up on the J. Sikora–I had promised Lyn I’d use her new album to christen the turntable, and I did. It’s easy to talk about the J. Sikora turntable and what it contributed to the musical whole–the same can be said about the Koetsu Urushi Black cartridge and the Koetsu StepUp tranformer and the Allnic Audio H-6500 phono stage or anything else in the playback chain.
But the Electrocompaniet provided the steady, dependable platform for everything else to perform. It did get out of the way of the music by highlighting the differences made while we were dialing in the J. Sikora. We could easily tell the difference between the Koetsu and the ZYX Ultimate Airy X cartridges, we could tell the differences while searching for the optimal speaker cables for the YG. (While my trusty Furutech Speakerflux cables were a strong match, I wound up sticking with the frontRow speaker cables from Audience because they were more dependable and consistent in their sound during all those swaps.)
Switching over to Aja, I found that the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII did a fantastic job of revealing all those hidden details in those familiar tracks, the kind of details that make you wonder if this UHQR was transferred from a slightly different take in the studio. (Donald Fagen’s contributions on keyboards seemed unusually fresh during that first listen.) Even when I switched over to the Burmester amplification, I felt that the ECI hadn’t been lacking in the layers and textures that transforms this benchmark recording from 1977 into something more contemporary in terms of fidelity.
The Electrocompaniet really strutted its stuff down the avenue once I had the DAC and streamer running–it was so easy to switch from the Sikora to Qobuz to internet radio with just a press of a button. Sometimes when I shift back and forth between vinyl and streaming, I feel like I’ve walked out my front door, down the street, and straight into someone else’s house. It’s a whole different feeling, and it required some effort to get there in one piece. With the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII, it was like changing channels on your TV. From input to input, I felt the music belonged to a whole that was very rewarding despite the format. In other words, the ECI took command of the system the way it was designed to do. While some of this new digital gear makes everything seem more complicated than it is, the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII unified my sound system and, more importantly, left me alone to enjoy the music with as few interruptions as possible.
Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII Conclusions
Toward the end of its stay, the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII was crucial when I had to bring in some heavy duty gear–the YG Acoustics Sonja 3.2 speakers, the Burmester 909 Mk. 5 power amp, the Burmester 088 preamp and the J. Sikora Initial Max turntable. I had a couple of false starts with the YG and Burmester gear, thanks to one audio show in Florida, one bout with Covid, and a busted tailbone. It took me a few weeks to get some help at the lake house, but at the end of the weekend I had the most magnificent systems I’ve ever hosted in my home.
What does this have to do with the Electrocompaniet? We did plenty of troubleshooting along the way, and the ECI was the wind beneath our wings. The fact that it does so much and so well for a single component made it easy to figure out what was wrong, all while providing superb sound when matched with far more expensive products. Once we had the big system in place, doing its ultra-fi thing, I think everyone stopped to compliment the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII. You know, this is amazing, but that Electrocompaniet was surprisingly good. I’m not gonna say it’s close, but it’s closer than it should be. How much is the Electrocompaniet again?
That brings me back to my original point: why are these all-in-ones so good?
I’m starting to formulate a theory about this. I’ve had a few recent discussions with others in the industry about systems where 40 0r 60 electronic devices are plugged into the AC outlets in a single room. They never seem to sound as nice as the simpler systems out there. All this grounding and RF and noise research I’ve been performing seems to suggest that a complicated system is always going to raise the noise floor in a system because it’s so…well, complicated. If a company can effectively isolate separate functions and power supplies within the unit, rather than out in the room, it seems like a more economic choice.
That said, the Electrocompaniet ECI6DX-MKII integrated amplifier and DAC and network streamer performs at a level that seems miraculous for the price, an observation that’s even more keen when you consider pairing them with the Triangle Magellan Duettos. It sounds fantastic, it’s easy to use and set-up, and if I ever decide to go down the all-in-one road I’ll definitely come right back to it.
