sweet norwegian beauty

it has been more than a decade since i last acquianted with norwegian hifi marque, electrocompaniet. if my memory served me right, it was one of those good-value-for-money high-end gear in the late 80s/early 90s. i myself had owned an EC power amp before, the model of which i have well forgotten but it was a very warm and musical amp, sans all the solid-state nasties of those era.

fast forward to the new millennium, electrocompaniet ran into financial crises that culminated in autumn 2004 with new owners and new management. the new owners want to expand electrocompaniet into a major performer in the international high-end Hi-Fi market, specializing in amplifiers, CD-players, and equipment, both for 2 channel and multi-channel system. looking at the two impressive products today (the ECI-3 integrated amp and EMC-1 CD player) i have no doubt that they have come a long way in achieveing these goals. black is still EC's perennial fave colour!

the build quality of both the EC amp and cd player are absolutely top-notch. the black coloured chasis makes it all the more sexier and mysterious. i especially like the top-loading mechanism of the EMC-1 CD player - so classy and precise, like a piece of audio jewelry.

the essence of the modern EC sound is just like what i remembered of yesteryear - warm, sweet and tube-like. the overriding keyword here is sweetness. the tonal quality is so sweet that i swear that i was listening to a tube amp. partnered with RM60K rockport mira speakers, the resultant sound is classy, detailed and very un-solid-state-like.

oh, do check out their website http://www.electrocompaniet.com/. if a manufacturer is serious about its products, it is shown in their website. EC's website is so classy and cool.