Stereophile – August 2019

AESTHETIX AUDIO MIMAS

read this: a moving-magnet/moving-coil phono-stage card

($1250) whose fully discrete, FET-based, high-gain differen-

tial circuit uses Wima film capacitors and offers adjustable

gain and loading; and a DAC card ($1250) that will permit

playback of PCM resolutions up to 24-bit/192kHz and

DSD64 via S/PDIF or USB, and 24/352.8, 24/384, and

DSD128 via USB. The DAC will include fully balanced dif-

ferential analog circuitry incorporating Wima film caps and

asynchronous USB technology from Wavelength. Due in

September: an upgrade of the Mimas’s headphone amplifier

from the standard^1 ⁄ 3 W, IC-based device to a fully discrete,

class-AB, 1W amp, with an upgrade to Mogami wire

($500); and an adjustable, high-pass crossover with frequen-

cy settings of 60, 80, 100, and 120Hz, to facilitate pairing the

Mimas with a subwoofer ($300). Expected by year’s end is

an Ethernet card with its own control app, which will trans-

form the Mimas into a Roon endpoint (ca $1250).

The only option my review sample came with was Aes-

thetix’s stylish aluminum remote-control handset ($400); it

was sent because production of the standard plastic remote

was delayed. The upgraded remote, designed and manufac-

tured by Aesthetix, is smaller and heavier than many, with

backlighting triggered by movement, but only in low light.

This remote comes with its own hefty manual that explains

how to cycle through the Mimas’s menu system via the

remote to adjust its many settings.

On with the show

Setup was simple. To accommodate the lengths of my

Nordost Odin 2 interconnects and cables and my limited

shelf space, I put the Mimas on a lower level of my Grand

for correcting DC offset. He also emphasized parts qual-
ity: Roederstein plate-load resistors, Reliable Capacitors as
coupling caps. “A power amplifier can be capacitor-coupled,
which relieves the burden of DC offset to a certain degree,
but most solid-state power amps have to either have some
way to correct for DC offset or track so well so that they
don’t have offset at the output. For Aesthetix, that means we
have to take great care in matching individual sets of FETs.
... The easy solution for this product would be to put in a
DC servo, [but] even though it would be a lot easier to build,
we’re doing without it because its effects would be audible.”
The Mimas’s power transformers are wound in-house;
White says the power supply provides “a ton” of capacitance,
allowing the amplifier to “effortlessly drive a wide range of
speakers.” Would it be able to adequately drive my Wilson
Audio Alexia 2s—hardly the easiest load on planet Earth?
There are, of course, trade-offs in squeezing a preamp and
a power amp into a single box. Separates isolate functions in
individual, (hopefully) well-shielded enclosures, with sepa-
rate power supplies. The physical distance between a separate
power amp and preamp, or between the cases of a two-box
preamp, minimizes the interactions of power transformers
with low-level signals. The noise resulting from those inter-
actions can obscure details, diminish vivid colors, and raise
the low noise floors that many audiophiles crave. In the case
of the Mimas, Aesthetix has attempted to minimize interac-
tions by using a stainless-steel transformer cover and as much
component shielding as they could fit into the box.
There’s a lot in that box, even without some significant
options that were not yet available for my listening ses-
sions. The first two will likely be available by the time you