once in a while, a cd player comes along that redefines your previous standards about digital playback and audionet art g2 is one such player.
i am totally overwhelmed by this player but my dealer wanted to collect it back tomorrow so i am savoring my last moments with it.
what stunned me about audionet is its adrenalin-filled, highly-charged energy and drive. it makes music so much more live-sounding, full-blown, energetic and purposeful. music through the audionet envelops the entire soundstage, front to back, left to right. because it has so much details and energy, the whole soundstage is set alive with oodles of details and sonic cues. switching back from audionet art g2 to meridian g08 is like alighting from a 3000cc car and hop onto a 1500cc car; suddenly all the zest, drive and headroom are lost.
i seldom experience this kind of paradigm shift in digital playback. audionet gives new meaning to words like live, energy, rhythm, drive, headroom, sense of purpose etc etc.
the only caveat - and i believe this is due to system optimization - is that this german player seems a bit less intimate in vocals and more laidback music. other this little quibble, this player is almost perfect.
both hifi kaki and i are sufficiently enticed by this gem of a player, and we are doing our mathematics at the moment....
p/s i am told that the eps (external power supply) unit which is sold separately, add another 40% to the performance.
infrequent updates
8 years ago
35 comments:
This is a very good single box CD player.
having said that,I feel if you want to invest in digital playback ,you should go for seperates.
Maggielurva,
Would you rate this as one of the best single box player?
Juju,
If I could share a bit of my experience;
The single box players are a universe away from the multi chasis digital playback.I've had the chance to audition the single box EMM Lab and dcs[P8} and suffice to say that both of them failed miserably...
If you are in the market for a single box player ,you will not go very far wrong if you include the audionet,I ended up buying Metronome{a small specialized French company}
Before u commit, please check out the single box Accustic Art Mk3 CD player too, also known to be a giant killer at its price range.
As for Metronome, I know of one user who upgraded his Metronome transport/DAC combo recently to the Accustic Arts Drive/Tune DAC combo with great delight
Check
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/
fr.pl?rdgtl&1186974908&openflup&45&4#45
The next upgrade to this combo for him will be the Accustic Arts Reference Drive, which is also on my list
anonymous.
which metronome did your friend use?
He is the first Metronome user that has switch to something else.I suspect he is using the old Metronome.
Even Steve Hoffmann still uses the Metronome CDP
The observation made by Maggielurva is very,very accurate.
I listened to my friend's unit not so long ago and the must striking feature s are the massive sound stage and livelyness that reminds you of being in the stadium listening to live concert[rather than a sleepy Jazz bar] Match it with tube amp ,as my friend did,it is as close as Nirvana as you could get
Here's the system of my Flemish friend who switched to Accustic Arts.
Check
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/
fr.pl?vdone&1123459787&openflup&116&4&&st0
(you have to cut and paste above link 'cos this blog's interface simply chews up long URLs)
With regards as to what he thinks of the top model Metronome Kallista
Check
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/
fr.pl?rdgtl&1186974908&openflup&69&4#69
Metronome may be worshipped on the Steve Hoffman forums but on Audiogon opinions differ ;-)
Check
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/
frr.pl?rdgtl&1186974908&openfrom&64&4
Ah ,just as I suspect ,
it is the old Metronome
Metronome just lost its distributor in USA
http://www.tmhaudio.com/Metronome.htm
Tmh audio rarely keeps distributorship for long.
Last year they LOSt the distributorship of NEODIO products ,a highly regarded fleet of electronics from France.The have also lost the distributorship of Bocchino interconnects{and replace them with HK made SINE!!!!!}
In short ,it does not mean and amount to anything,anonymous...
Frankly I never heard of Neodio. Just checked their website, they are only known in France, only saw 2 endorsing reviews on French mags.
Bocchinno sells directly to whoever wants to buy their stuff. Also not as well known as Oyaide and Furutech, Hubbel or Wattgate. Losing it is no big deal
Bocchino Direct...
http://www.bocchtech.com/bocchinoaudio/prices+purchasing.htm#Buying
actually the sound of this Audionet is a lot like the EMM labs seperates..
It s greatest strenght ,to my not so golden ears is the massive headroom.Superb piece of digital engineering by the Germans.
Anonymous.
SoRRy For asking;
have you heard of
1]Lavardin
2]Karan Acoustics
No doubt the Germans are at the leading edge of high-end audio. they have
MBL
Burmester
Accustic Arts
Lindemann
ARS
Check this article
http://www.tnt-audio.com/edcorner/january05.html
Perhaps their focus on quality and engineering precision is also what makes Japanese audio also as good as the German counterparts. Afterall both Japan and German are well known for quality and precision.
French stuff... hmmm has the looks but not the reliability..
Lavardin is French, Karan is not...
Lavardin is French and Karan is Serbian{former Yugoslav]
LAVARDIN has not got any distributors in US ,and those Lavardin loving American has to buy theirs fr CANADA.Those of you{I Have}that has heard of Lavardin sound would know about their magic.
KARAN only had the US dealer the past 2 yrs.
Well NEODIO is known as the new LAVARDIN,and is hugely populoar in Germany and Austria.The designer of LAVARDIn passed away a few years ago.and The folks at NEODIO has carried on the legacy of LAVARDIN sound.It is also known as LAVARDIN on Steroid
Thanks for the education, for a moment, I thought you were trying to tell us that tmhaudio also got but later lost those 2 mentioned brands...
Maggielurva,
I hope your readers will not get offended but I think that the Malaysians audiophiles on average tends to choose well known mainstream brands,like audio research,B&w speakers etc....
I also get the feelings that people do not go and auditions products anymore and make a lot of assumptions without actually even seen them let a lone heard them...
As for the products that has been discussed,The audionet is certainly one great player,just like the LINdermann SACD player.Is it your cup of tea;I urge you to sit and audition.From my own experience,I can say that Maggielurva's discussion is absolutely on the money.l..
A popular product is not necessacarily the best products;
To quote some examples:
1]Nobody has heard of Eva Cassidy let alone buy her CDs when she was alive.Now her Cds sell in millions.
2]even products that are considered as mainstream in Hi-fi circle are virtually unknown to the mass.Sony,Toshiba and the likes are the bywords that the public go by.yet you and me know about their sound.
so I must disagree with Mr Anonymous....Losing Dealership of a product doesn seems much.the way I look at it seems like tmhaudio is the one with the problem,not Metronome..JMHO
Mr myne:
Yes I agree with you. But the problem is Malaysia dealer prefer bring in the Branded. The choice in Malaysia
is also very limited. This hobby is expensive in Malaysia, our retail price is higher, average income is much lower.
To the last anonymous.
Correct me if I am wrong,but i think From my observations travelling in your region,malaysia is as posperous as the Singaporeans.
There seems to be more choices in countries like Thailand and Indonesia than there are in malaysia
I do not think the folks in Malaysia are alone when it comes to choosing mainstream brands.A lot of us are victims of our own insecurity hence we need the approval of others to validate our choice....
if I see a manufacturer spend and realize the importance of external power supply,The knbow about digital and rarely you will get dissapointed
On 5-21-08 inn Audiogon
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin
fr.pl?rdgtl&1186974908&openflup&66&4#66
"A final addressing Shahedk's interest regarding the Kallista transport. This line is no longer imported into the US because of a very high failure rate. My friend who has in his system the MBL reference transport at one time had the Kallista reference and believes the MBL is better sounding then the Kallista and is built to a higher standard then the Kallista. "
This is when the cookie crumbled...
Next
More crumbles..
From http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4288&postcount=15
"The Metronome CD player components (4) were sent today back to the factory in France because the XLR-digital connection between the Kalista (transport) and the converter doesn’t work. For such an expensive unit it is very a shame for Metronome that such a thing happened. In fact they are very consternated about what happened that’s why they told the dealer to send the units back."
Anonymous,
I do not think it is as bad as a defaulted REVIEW sample of ZANDEN sent to Mike Fremer.
anyway I would rather listen to people like S Hoffmann[and Maggielurva] who spend their time actually making music,producing music than some nameless Augdiogoners.
Come on you are talking about an endorsement from one of the best record producer in the world!!!!And you turn your back to THAt?Incredible!!!!
And have you seen about what HP said about the Metronome Kalista?Go figure,and actually go for a listen instead of listening to some rumormongers in audiogon!!!!
Rega has a much higher rate of failure than anyother maker of CDP at the moment ,yet nobody seems to notice
I can't help being suspicious here anonymous?You do not think it is the work of a sore dealer who lose the dealership of such an acclaimed range of products?I do not see any reliable issue elsewhere in the world.
Metronome seem to win awards wherever they go,even in JApan
The audiogoner quotes are not nameless...his name is Teajay
The zerogain quotes are not nameless...his name is Titian
Hearing from various users in the field and the grapevine is certainly much more enlightening than solely relying on a reviewer who may collude with those who advertise with them.
Check out critic forum in Audioasylum to find out more about the shady world of audio magazines reviews.
Winning awards is one thing, reliability in the long run is another.
In the ultimate high end range, for the price you fork out, it is best to be forewarned of what other users have found out. No reviewer knows better than the distributor or the actual user.
Check out the catastrophe of users who believed the excellent 6moons reviews of Tube Research Lab equipment at
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f11/scammer-trl-tube-research-labs-paul-weitzel-314357/
I haven't actually listene to any metronome cd player,let me qualify that,but every single major Hi-Fi country except US seems to rave and rant about Metronome Kallista.It certainly pique my curiosity.
Anyway ,do you think the Japanese would award a non Japanese product with an excellence award if they have a serious problem?
Or S Hoffman would put his reputation at stake for some little known French company?
I am just curious..
Please lah, many brands of CD equipment with problems out in the field have won awards not only in Japan, but elsewhere too.
Let me name a few :
EMM Labs transport
Bluenote Stibbert
Cary 306
Rega Planet
Marantz SA1
etc
Please google if you do not believe... or be nice and I can post you all the links
Just to add...
Don't be too gullible.
Winning an award in some high-end segment of the world is probably an accolade to a technical achievement.
However, transforming that to a real production reliable product is a different ballgame especially for small boutique companies that do not have the economies of scale or experience of QA practices.
Dear folks, dont forget Meridian has 808.2 Signature. It is definitely the King in single box or multi-box configurated CD system.
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