Hi everyone !
I'm writing this after my visit to the Göbel High End "manufacture"/factory. And boy what a visit it was.
The system consisted of their Divin Noblesse speaker in a marvelous piano lacquer finish. The speaker is 95 dB efficient.
Amplifying duty was handled by the Unison Research Absolute 845 integrated amp. It's dual 845 tubes produce 40 watt per channel (4–8 Ohm).
The source was a stereo CH Precision C1 DAC. It was supported by a Mutec 10 MHz Reference Master Clock. The CH C1 was feed by a Melco N1 streamer. DSD/Redbook tracks.
Cables were all Göbel Lacorde Statement Cable with their proprietary alloy conductor (not the usual copper/silver/gold).
It all was housed in a large room approx. 8-10m wide and (5+x)m deep.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My sonic impressions:
First track played was the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Redbook). I recall this track clearly from 3 other rooms I heard at Munich high end show and/or privately.
Bass check ! Midrange check ! Best I heard the Toccata ? check ! We were off to a good start.
Next track that stood out to me was a track called Ladysmith Black Mambazo Homeless.
The voices were nicely arranged and were reproduced with a very nice tonality. The tube amp certainly had a part in this.
The occasional low frequency "coughing" on the track was "placed" into the room with ease.
Then we queued up Kraftwerk - Elektrokardiogramm. I have seldom heard electronic music so clearly and forcefully reproduced by a tube amp.
Oliver Göbel pointed out that the CH M1 would have been even better at "hammering" the low frequency attacks into the room.
The next track name escapes me at this moment... oh well. What I can tell you is it consisted of a female voice accompanied with electronic music.
Attack and decay of the voice were just perfect on this track, the voice did not simply float into the soundstage, it was portrayed forward with energy behind it.
This can be attributed to the Divin's midrange driver. I had a tech-talk with Mr Göbel before listening and he said that lots of work went into the midrange driver.
It definitely paid off.
The soundstage is dependent on what you feed it. It widens when the music demands it and shrinks on smaller scale music.
The layering of the soundstage is simply amazing.
Imaging is spot on.
What else is there to say... The Divin does something that is very attractive to me. It acoustically nimble while still being forceful. It did not 'overstrain' the tube amp.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What amazed me the most was not the speaker itself. It is Oliver Göbel's attention to detail.
He showed me the connecting piece between the Bending Wave driver and the bass enclosure of the Epoque Aeon Fine.
It is machined out of a solid piece of aluminium then abrasively smoothed aswell as impeccably finished. He specifically chose a finish that would not change over lifetime (20+ years) of the speaker. Normal anodizing would slowly change over time.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What a system
And Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you !
I'm writing this after my visit to the Göbel High End "manufacture"/factory. And boy what a visit it was.
The system consisted of their Divin Noblesse speaker in a marvelous piano lacquer finish. The speaker is 95 dB efficient.
Amplifying duty was handled by the Unison Research Absolute 845 integrated amp. It's dual 845 tubes produce 40 watt per channel (4–8 Ohm).
The source was a stereo CH Precision C1 DAC. It was supported by a Mutec 10 MHz Reference Master Clock. The CH C1 was feed by a Melco N1 streamer. DSD/Redbook tracks.
Cables were all Göbel Lacorde Statement Cable with their proprietary alloy conductor (not the usual copper/silver/gold).
It all was housed in a large room approx. 8-10m wide and (5+x)m deep.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
My sonic impressions:
First track played was the Toccata and Fugue in D minor (Redbook). I recall this track clearly from 3 other rooms I heard at Munich high end show and/or privately.
Bass check ! Midrange check ! Best I heard the Toccata ? check ! We were off to a good start.
Next track that stood out to me was a track called Ladysmith Black Mambazo Homeless.
The voices were nicely arranged and were reproduced with a very nice tonality. The tube amp certainly had a part in this.
The occasional low frequency "coughing" on the track was "placed" into the room with ease.
Then we queued up Kraftwerk - Elektrokardiogramm. I have seldom heard electronic music so clearly and forcefully reproduced by a tube amp.
Oliver Göbel pointed out that the CH M1 would have been even better at "hammering" the low frequency attacks into the room.
The next track name escapes me at this moment... oh well. What I can tell you is it consisted of a female voice accompanied with electronic music.
Attack and decay of the voice were just perfect on this track, the voice did not simply float into the soundstage, it was portrayed forward with energy behind it.
This can be attributed to the Divin's midrange driver. I had a tech-talk with Mr Göbel before listening and he said that lots of work went into the midrange driver.
It definitely paid off.
The soundstage is dependent on what you feed it. It widens when the music demands it and shrinks on smaller scale music.
The layering of the soundstage is simply amazing.
Imaging is spot on.
What else is there to say... The Divin does something that is very attractive to me. It acoustically nimble while still being forceful. It did not 'overstrain' the tube amp.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What amazed me the most was not the speaker itself. It is Oliver Göbel's attention to detail.
He showed me the connecting piece between the Bending Wave driver and the bass enclosure of the Epoque Aeon Fine.
It is machined out of a solid piece of aluminium then abrasively smoothed aswell as impeccably finished. He specifically chose a finish that would not change over lifetime (20+ years) of the speaker. Normal anodizing would slowly change over time.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What a system
And Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you !
Attachments
Last edited:
