As the tiled floor in the listening room is not entirely level, it’s an advantage that the Carbofibre° HD can be perfectly aligned in no time at all thanks to the height-adjustable feet and the built-in bubble level. After that is done, I first listen to Georg Breinschmid's wonderfully varied and bizarre double CD Breinländ: The Austrian bassist and his changing players uninhibitedly mix short moritates, a very individual, 20-minute interpretation of "Carmen Fantasy" full of quotations and allusions, as well as rough musical and lyrical nonsense. So it perfectly fits that the last song is entitled „A beginning" ("Ein Anfang“). That's certainly not everyone's cup of tea and moreover not particularly audiophile, but for anyone with an affinity for quirky Austrian humour it's the music tip of the month.

After the Carbofibre° HD being ready for the comparison test, I relocate The Poweramp back on the Big Magic Base and get started with the Keith Jarrett Trio and their "God Bless The Child": When the power amp changes to the Carbofibre° HD, you could think of someone having turned the volume control one or two degrees to the right. Gary Peacock's bass gets slightly more crisp, but stays as full-bodied as before. The cymbals shimmer in richer colours, and the bass drum appears to be a bit bigger and more powerful. Often a more voluminous bass is responsible for the fact that the playback seems to be slightly slowed down and the musicians seem to perform with a little less enthusiasm. Fortunately, this is not the case here:  With the Carbofibre° HD a very solid bass foundation and the tremendously gripping groove are fortunately not in competition with each other. Thanks to its new supporting base, the Einstein amp swings up to top performance in both disciplines: In the end it feels even more comfortable on the Carbofibre° HD.

In Abdullah Ibrahim's "Calypso Minor", as expected, the bass drum and the propulsive double bass sound somewhat less solid and full-bodied with the SSC base. The tonal balance changes a bit when the Einstein finds its way back onto the finite elemente base. Here I feel reminded of the „Tilt“ control found on old Quad solid state preamps, which allowed subtle tonal displacements. But thanks to the SSC base, the grand piano not only seems a bit brighter, but also slightly more airy sounding. So, I simply will not get around Patrice Heral's "Improvisation"...