soundandvision.com (^) [ 43
Listening to it on my system with
the Moon 390 in the mix, I vividly
experienced the exact same
effect.
CONCLUSION
Simaudio’s Moon 390 is about
as full-featured a stereo
preamplifier as you’ll find on the
current hi-fi scene. Want to
stream high-res audio tracks
from Tidal and Qobuz? How
about playing vinyl or other
analog sources and then
streaming the signal to multiple
zones? Or perhaps you want a
high-end stereo preamp that
offers HDMI switching, including
HDMI-ARC to stream sound
from Netflix when watching TV?
The 390 will do all of that and
more. But what impressed me
most about Simaudio’s preamp
was its performance—from
streamed high-res tracks to
standout discs from my LP
collection, the 390 made
listening an absolute pleasure.
Yes, in this case high-end
performance comes at a fairly
high-end price, but the
abundance of features offered
up by the Moon 390 make it well
worth consideration.
to classic rock tracks from Led
Zeppelin, The Doors, Deep
Purple, etc., that I overplayed in
my youth on crappy cassees
and scratched-up vinyl in pris-
tine, high-res digital form. Many
of sound surprisingly great and
contain a wealth of detail that I
definitely missed the first time
around.)
Sticking for the time with
Qobuz, I next streamed
a 24-bit/96kHz FLAC of
Radiohead’s “Exit Music (For a
Film)” from OK Computer. Here
again, the clarity of the Moon
390’s delivery, and its ability to
separate and define layers in
the sonic mix, stood out. Thom
Yorke’s plaintive voice loomed
hugely in the soundstage,
while the acoustic guitar in
the background came across
as impeccably clean. When
a Mellotron-like synthesizer
eventually joined in, its sound
was appropriately lush and
the presentation seemed to
extend well beyond the physical
confines of the speakers and of
the room itself.
While high-res audio play-
back is a selling point of the
Moon 390, it didn’t exactly need
to be fed high-res audio via
media server, USB, or streamed
sources to sound great.
Listening to a 16-bit/44.1kHz
FLAC stream of “Woodstock” by
jazz supergroup Hudson, John
Medeski’s acoustic piano solo
had a solid, almost meaty, pres-
ence, while Larry Grenadier’s
standup bass sounded sinewy
and clean. The cymbals from
drummer Jack DeJohnee’s kit
also had a 3D-like quality that
made them float realistically in
space.
I wrapped up my assessment
of the Moon 390’s digital chops
by comparing the performance
of its built-in DAC with the
Pioneer BDP-88FD universal
disc player’s own DAC using
a handful of reference CDs. In
each case, the sound delivered
by the Moon 390’s DAC was
more precise, layered, and
clean. Vocals had a distinct
sense of body, and there was
an overall "lively" quality to the
sound I was hearing. The perfor-
mance of the Pioneer player's
built-in DAC, in comparison,
was consistently more recessed
and less engaging.
ANALOG PERFORMANCE
One product category Simaudio
is known for is phono stages,
and the features offered by the
Moon 390’s built-in one are the
same as what you’d get with
the company’s Moon 110LP
v2 ($399). Pulling out some
LPs from my collection, I was
surprised by the clean and
dynamic sound I was geing.
In some ways, it was consistent
with what I experienced during
digital playback.
One example: a Nonesuch
LP of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring
delivered muscular-sounding
tympani and bowed basses,
along with impressive low-end
reach. There was a warmth to
the sound that I’m not used to
hearing with my regular phono
preamp, but it at the same time
had a fair amount of dynamic
slam. The soundstage presen-
tation, meanwhile, was wide
and extended, with precise
layering of instruments in the
orchestra.
Next up, I played “Take a
Walk on the Wild Side” from Lou
Reed’s early 1970s Tr a n s f o r m e r
LP and heard punchy, detailed
overall sound along with
similarly good bass extension.
When listening to this Lou
Reed track played on high-end
turntable setups at hi-fi shows,
I’ve always been impressed by
the soundstage width when the
strings come in, and the image
depth as the female backing
vocals are drawn forward
gradually in the mix, eventually
wrapping around your head in
a surround sound-like manner.
"The Moon 390
is about as full-
featured a preamp
as you'll find."
The Verdict
Simaudio’s Moon 390 is a high-
res stream machine that com-
bines high-end sound with an
extensive feature set and solid
ergonomics.
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