High End Audio – Audio with a Passion!

Geplaatst op 14/01/2014 door hermanvandendungen

PassionThere are always many new, excellent audio products entering the market and you see a part of them disappear after some time or live a low level life in the shadow of others. How come?

I think that the simple reason is that many of these products lack a passion. A passion from the leading man behind the product, often the designer, the original owner of the brand! It’s his product, his child, his baby. His blood, sweat and tears are in this final product and he will do everything to defend it and bring it where he thinks it belongs: AT THE TOP!

Think of the top high end brands and realise that you also often know the name of the designer, the owner. Think of names like Saul Marantz, John Dahlquist, Jim Bongiorno, Dan D’Agostino, Bill Johnson, Dick Sequerra, Dave Wilson, Franco Serblin and others. Once they die, or leave the company, it’s not the same anymore. The 5 stars mastercook has “left the building” and “the building” doesn’t know how to continue the game the same way. Simply because there is no more that PASSION.

I have been very lucky I have met a great number of famous high end designers and manufacturers during the last (almost) 40 years. And I feel good about the fact that I share one thing with them that what makes an excellent product a high end audio product: PASSION!

I am very lucky that at this very moment we have a team that is highly motivated, skilled ánd full of PASSION! This PASSION will make 2014 the BEST YEAR EVER for us.

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Geplaatst in AH!, Algemeen info - Informations générales, Audia Flight, Audio Research, Awards - Oscars, Bow Technologies, Conrad Johnson, Copland, Dan d'Agostino, darTZeel, Kiseki, Krell Industries, M2Tech, Mystere, Playback Designs, PrimaLuna, Sonus faber | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Plaats een reactie

CES is over … Now back to normal!

Geplaatst op 13/01/2014 door hermanvandendungen

cesThe fact I was not in Las Vegas doesn’t mean I wasn’t at CES. I had my daily contacts with Kevin PrimaLuna USA about how things were going at the show. Had my contacts with clients being there, with some people of the press and was of course following the CES news that arrived through one of today’s digital pipelines. But … CES is over and now back to normal I would say. But what’s normal …

THE YEAR 2014 will be our BEST YEAR EVER. Main reason is because we were given back a FREEDOM which was stolen away from us without really understanding it was stolen away. Later this month you will understand better what I mean.

Back to normal means for example for our brand KISEKI that we look to the introduction of a new model, the Kiseki PurpleHeart N.S. But also to the fact that we have almost a limited run ready of the Kiseki PurpleHeart N.O.S. Hopefully also our Kiseki “bridge” will be ready to be introduced to the market. We are evaluating a transformer design for the N.S. models, while we still have a small stock of Audiophile Products / Kiseki transformers recently found back in our warehouse. And look what we have more ….

trafoagaatThe Kiseki Agaat cartridges you see on the picture are cartridges from the very past. These are defective and at that time returned to us. Being busy, busy, busy, these never made it to the repair department and found a small corner in the “wherehouse” instead. Now what to do with it? Recently we saw a defective Kiseki Agaat cartridge “go” on Ebay for € 1,250.-. Mmm, not bad. IF you have a really, really good repair service. Well we have one that we can really recommend. Not the cheapest, but certainly (one of) the best I met on my journey through analogy since 1975. We offer these defective Kiseki Agaat cartridges for € 1,000,- a piece. In case you buy in combination with one of the silverwired 5.3/40 Ohms MC transformers (€ 500.-) next to it, the price for the cartridge comes down to € 750.-. Remember that the cartridge has to be repaired and the costs for that depends totally on what the repairman finds upon his investigation. If interested, please let us know and eventually make a choice upon what you “see” on the picture.

Geplaatst in Accessoires, Algemeen info - Informations générales, Audio Research, Awards - Oscars, Kiseki, Phono stage, Sonus faber | Tags: , , , , , | Plaats een reactie

Great Weekend SHOW OFF Time Number 4

Geplaatst op 12/01/2014 door hermanvandendungen

Just F***ING PROUD PROUD PROUD!!!

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To be compared with Porsche! Wouldn’t you?

Geplaatst in Algemeen info - Informations générales, Audio Research, Awards - Oscars, PrimaLuna, Reviews - Tests, Versterkers - Amplificateurs | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 reactie

PrimaLuna Headphone Output – Our First

Geplaatst op 10/01/2014 door hermanvandendungen

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PrimaLuna’s new DiaLogue Premium HP Integrated Amplifier is the first PrimaLuna model featuring a headphone output. So what? Is this so special? Yes uhh No. What answer you want?

Make a hole in the faceplate, mount a headphone connector with built in on / off switch, route some wires from the output and off you go. Correct. That’s the easy way. But … PrimaLuna never goes the easy way, we go the better way, if such a way is available. 

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Here our analog solid state engineer / designer Jan de Groot comes in to give us the better way solution: “The headphone output in the PrimaLuna amplifier has been designed with one goal in mind: best possible output for the customer. This is done by placing a voltage divider at the output of the amplifier to optimize the output level. Switching between speaker and headphone is now equalized on the same level for the volume control. Disconnecting the speakers from the output is done by a specially selected relay. Specially in the meaning of best quality. A relay with multi gold plated silver tin oxide contacts, which is able to handle high currents at high voltages. 8 Amps / 250 Volts. The headphone output connector is a high end quality gold plated 6.3mm jack connector. A heavy duty, high quality switch on the side of the amplifier allows you to choose for headphone or loudspeaker output. Voilà. That’s it.”

primalunalogoNo, this is  not “travel-to-the-moon-and safely-return-technology”. That’s true. It is just the better way to do it. Our choice since 10 years. The PrimaLuna way. Quality is not an act, it is a habit – according to our friend Aristotle !

Geplaatst in Algemeen info - Informations générales, PrimaLuna, Versterkers - Amplificateurs | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 1 reactie