The Joke

After some weeks of overhauling, me and my pals Lo and Francesco, finally were able to transform Luca Chiomenti's superb "Scherzo" PCL 82-based 1,7W integrated amp into a world-class El Cheapo sonic masterpiece.

The throwing away of the ugly walnut case and encasing of the amp into a bespoke 20 mm piano black more elegant chassis, adding new, better internal wire layout and... ta, taaaa... using the mighty Alps RK-50 top-of-the-line potentiometer, well...

... the chrysalis became a butterfly, the duckling a swan, the seed a flower... with Cabasse Dinghy 221 the inter-notes silence is incredible, like the detailing... with Thomas Mayer's Tango EQ-600/WE 437A LCR phono stage, I heard - with small scale recording - a seldom experienced load of micro details and so convincing overall beauty.

 Here shown the four sections RK50 in-hand, for size comparison

 The mighty Alps RK-50

With the old trusty Studer A730 and its TDA1541 "double crown" the sound is - like Vinnie Gallo once wrote "the best radio I ever heard".

1,7W are a very low wattage... BUT 1,700 milliwatts are more appropriate to describe the feeling I have when listening to "Scherzo" amp... also with Cabasse's 98 db/w/m sensitivity.

... now, after getting the Alps RK-50 pot, the butterly... aehm, the amp... is now - respectfully and thanking Luca Chiomenti's skill as a first class designer -  now named "The Joke".

Great music today, folks...


Thanking Lo, Francesco and Kazumasa Oguri-san for great contribution to "The Joke" project and, of course, last but not least, to Luca Chiomenti.