Referenzen

Dies ist ein kleiner Auszug aus den Reverenzen von Goldenote und Blacknote, sowie Isophon

Auszug aus Dagogo USA für Streamer DSS

4What is most beguiling about the DSS is a smooth, lyrical quality that I hear with live music, 2-track tape and good vinyl. If you listen to live symphony orchestras, you know that there is an absence of force, even with loud music. Much vinyl and almost all CD/MP3 digital have a forced, mechanical jerkiness that is totally unnatural. It’s easy to see problems with digital video, and I’m thinking that digital audio has the same problems, but is much harder to pinpoint. With the DSS, the sound was put together in a way that was gracious and natural.

Another Car Analogy - General Impressions of Blacknote

With some things, the form and function are one. A race car doesn’t have radical lines and spoilers just to look cool. They are important parts of the whole—they keep the thing on the ground, which is not easy when you are going 150+ mph. It’s the same with the Blacknote products, but not so much with outward appearance as circuit and parts selection. Whoever is designing the Blacknote digital products is doing a good job of balancing the build, parts quality, and circuit topology.
Listening to and investigating the Blacknote DSS leaves me with the impression that the designer was looking to combine the best practices of new digital with the best practices of tube design, while being pragmatic about parts and case work. I hate to burst bubbles, but expensive parts won’t fix a bad circuit. The conversion is also true, that a good circuit doesn’t need diamond encrusted silver from asteroids, from another galaxy, for good performance. I can say that the Blacknote products start with intelligent designs and use high quality parts that complement, rather than cover up, the design. Some designs are putting 200mph rated tires on a Ford Pinto.
If the DSS is a car, it would be a rally car (think Subaru with upgrades)—it will stick like glue to anything short of quicksand or water; it is mind-numbingly quick around corners, both paved and unpaved; it can get you to work; it is reliable; it is versatile. It may even get more girls than a Veyron. It won’t go as fast as a Veyron. It won’t do 0-60 in 2 seconds. But a Veyron would last about 2 miles in the Baja 500, can’t haul groceries and runs out of gas very quickly. The driver of the Subaru gives you the knowing nod, while the poseur polishes his super car.
I have to admit to some glaring hypocrisy: I would denigrate the digital designers who say “bits is bits”, while at the same time saying that transports and digital cables can’t make enough of a difference to be worth trying. While I would defend the claims of analog playback without any hard evidence, I would automatically dismiss claims that a major limitation of digital is the transport and digital link. Shame on me. I have been shown the error of my ways.

DAC & CPU for DSS Improved Series

DAC & CPU for DSS "Improved" Series

Conclusions

This is a digital product that I can listen to for long periods without fatigue or boredom. The only other digital product that did this for me were purposefully smoothing over the rough edges and sweetening the tonal balance. Blacknote isn’t artificially smoothing or sweetening with the DSS: they have come up with a better way of reassembling the zeroes and ones back into an organic whole.
Remember, I am judging the unit based on its performance with a flash drive. Its performance when used with a transport is good, but not profound, and very similar to the sound of the Blacknote CD player, which is a very good player. There is plenty of competition from other CD players and DACs at this price, but when you look at the functionality and versatility of the DSS, it makes it easy to recommend to anyone looking at a digital purchase, whether you are primarily a digital listener or hardcore analog devotee.

The Best Digital Product of the Year 2009

High Fidelity digital player

newspaper Blacknote Koetsu USA DSS-30

Testbericht von Dagogo, einem der grössten Testmagazine weltweit über den CD-Player CDP 300

http://www.blacknote.eu/products/pdf/DAGOGO_Review_%20Blacknote_CDP300.pdf

CD-Player Stibbert Tube, Golden Ear Award 2005-2007 in den USA

Auszug aus dem legendären Testmagazin „The absolute Sound“, wo er den „Goldenear“ Award 2005-2007 in den USA gewann.
“This Bluenote player puts to shame the present-day competition I’ve heard, save for the Jadis player, which developed mechanical problems (turns out, it was the importer’s personal unit, a fact we didn’t know) and whose successor we eagerly await. The Jadis costs some eight times as much, so probably will want to bear in mind that, as good as I …. “

Testbericht aus Neuseland

http://www.goldenote.it/allegati/products/34/Tone_StibbertTube.pdf

CD-Player Goldenote Koala Tube

"""An abstract from the most recent 2008 review about the Koala Tube says: .....When a digital player has one of the best treated mechanisms in the Market, a very clever design on the digital to analog conversion, a very quiet and very well balanced at all valve output stage and mostly when it plays music with so much fidelity, I judge that you must hear it before you make any decision, even if you are heading for a CD player in the range of 4/5.000euro.....

World of HighEnd

Referenzen

Dies ist ein kleiner Auszug aus den Reverenzen von Goldenote und Blacknote, sowie Isophon

Auszug aus Dagogo USA für Streamer DSS

Another Car Analogy - General Impressions of Blacknote

Conclusions

The Best Digital Product of the Year 2009

CD-Player Stibbert Tube, Golden Ear Award 2005-2007 in den USA

Testbericht aus Neuseland

CD-Player Goldenote Koala Tube

CD-Player CDP 300 von US-Magazin Dogago

Goldenote Verstärker Demidoff Signature

Goldenote Plattenspieler Bellasvista

Tonabnehmer Goldenote Tuscany

Lautsprecher Isophon Tofana

Lautsprecher Isophon Vescova

Isphon Heimkino Reverenzlautsprechersystem

Lautsprecher Isophon Arabba

Lautsprecher Isophon Cassiano

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