1st have to say this to me is up there with the best integrated amps where it just comes down to preferences rather than actual sound quality as it is superb.
Plenty of presence and weight and surprising dynamics, both much more than one would expect from a solid state integrated.
The sound is smooth, and importantly for me has finesse in that it conveys aspects of an instruments delicate sound including subtle low level detail.
The challenge in describing the sound is that for me it seems there is a subtle difference between RCA and XLR while using the Audio Research CD8; tone and dynamic were identical but I felt the XLR seemed more incisive and forward while the RCA in comparison very subtly more relaxed and similarly very subtle change in the mid-range timbre (hard to explain).
In all other respects they sounded identical IMO; such as for the smoothness, not lean and not cold in terms of sound presentation, along with same level of high detail and speed but without being analytical or feeling swamped with sound, and closer to analogue than most solid state manage.
I feel this is important as there are many similarities (most would expect them to be identical) but the few the differences were enough for me to have a preference and I feel this will probably be the case for others; some will like the RCA while others the XLR.
So it makes sense to audition listening to both.
If I think of close challengers to the Dartzeel, it would be the Devialet.
However for the Devialet to get close it requires the mono setup and even then it cannot match the Dartzeel for its presence-weight and subtle richness-warmth, however the Dartzeel combined with a high quality DAC (or integrated into a high quality CD player) would still come out more expensive than a dual Devialet setup as it can rely on a cheaper transport or straight to laptop with a USB-SPDIF bridge converveter.
One area for consideration though is the bass and it seems to me the Dartzeel will rely upon a speaker with reasonable (at least not poor anyway)mechanical damping compared to the Devialet that can be used with any speaker.
Using the Dartzeel with a speaker that has less mechanical damping suggests to me that the bass could be more loose/booming.
For me this is not a problem as it is not excessive anyway but a few speakers may highlight this; to me this is the engineering tradeoff for achieving the great sound it produces so is not an issue.
Others may perceive it as if the Dartzeel is having problems driving challenging low impedance speakers, but I feel it is not this but that some speakers have less mechanical damping relating to the bass speaker driver.
I am no speaker designer so take my rationalising with a pinch of salt
Strongly recommend everyone in the lookout for a true high end amp to go out and listen to the Dartzeel CTH-8550 even if they were considering seperates as it sets the bar for integrateds that most may not appreciate can be achieved.
Just make sure to listen to both XLR and RCA.
Next step for me is to decide whether to purchase Audio Research CD8, as a comparison will hopefully be listening to Metronome lastest CD player (CD8) in the near future.
This is a bit frustrating as I have a very nice Metronome transport but I really cannot justify buying the C2A DAC at its price.
As a background, my most recent audio gear has been Devialet (loaned a 2nd Devialet for a little while for dual mono setup), Audio Research Re5 used with DS450 and then DS450monos.
Just mentioning these as they are still recent enough to provide a useful memory-preference comparison to the Dartzeel CTH-8550.
Ok time to get back to listening
Cheers
Orb
Plenty of presence and weight and surprising dynamics, both much more than one would expect from a solid state integrated.
The sound is smooth, and importantly for me has finesse in that it conveys aspects of an instruments delicate sound including subtle low level detail.
The challenge in describing the sound is that for me it seems there is a subtle difference between RCA and XLR while using the Audio Research CD8; tone and dynamic were identical but I felt the XLR seemed more incisive and forward while the RCA in comparison very subtly more relaxed and similarly very subtle change in the mid-range timbre (hard to explain).
In all other respects they sounded identical IMO; such as for the smoothness, not lean and not cold in terms of sound presentation, along with same level of high detail and speed but without being analytical or feeling swamped with sound, and closer to analogue than most solid state manage.
I feel this is important as there are many similarities (most would expect them to be identical) but the few the differences were enough for me to have a preference and I feel this will probably be the case for others; some will like the RCA while others the XLR.
So it makes sense to audition listening to both.
If I think of close challengers to the Dartzeel, it would be the Devialet.
However for the Devialet to get close it requires the mono setup and even then it cannot match the Dartzeel for its presence-weight and subtle richness-warmth, however the Dartzeel combined with a high quality DAC (or integrated into a high quality CD player) would still come out more expensive than a dual Devialet setup as it can rely on a cheaper transport or straight to laptop with a USB-SPDIF bridge converveter.
One area for consideration though is the bass and it seems to me the Dartzeel will rely upon a speaker with reasonable (at least not poor anyway)mechanical damping compared to the Devialet that can be used with any speaker.
Using the Dartzeel with a speaker that has less mechanical damping suggests to me that the bass could be more loose/booming.
For me this is not a problem as it is not excessive anyway but a few speakers may highlight this; to me this is the engineering tradeoff for achieving the great sound it produces so is not an issue.
Others may perceive it as if the Dartzeel is having problems driving challenging low impedance speakers, but I feel it is not this but that some speakers have less mechanical damping relating to the bass speaker driver.
I am no speaker designer so take my rationalising with a pinch of salt
Strongly recommend everyone in the lookout for a true high end amp to go out and listen to the Dartzeel CTH-8550 even if they were considering seperates as it sets the bar for integrateds that most may not appreciate can be achieved.
Just make sure to listen to both XLR and RCA.
Next step for me is to decide whether to purchase Audio Research CD8, as a comparison will hopefully be listening to Metronome lastest CD player (CD8) in the near future.
This is a bit frustrating as I have a very nice Metronome transport but I really cannot justify buying the C2A DAC at its price.
As a background, my most recent audio gear has been Devialet (loaned a 2nd Devialet for a little while for dual mono setup), Audio Research Re5 used with DS450 and then DS450monos.
Just mentioning these as they are still recent enough to provide a useful memory-preference comparison to the Dartzeel CTH-8550.
Ok time to get back to listening
Cheers
Orb
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