I hadn’t planned to visit the Göbel/CH Precision/Kronos/Bending Wave USA room, having spilled a lot of ink on Göbel and CH products at Munich High End. But, given that I’d heard everything in the room before and was familiar with the excellence of its sound, I wanted to see if it could surmount the sonic difficulties posed by the Gaylord Convention Center's huge rooms.
This big, expensive system was comprised of Göbel High End Divin Noblesse loudspeakers ($220,000/pair); CH Precision’s M 1.1 power amplifier ($54,000), L1 preamplifier ($34,500), C1 DAC with USB option ($35,000), and P1 phonostage ($31,000); a Kronos Pro turntable ($42,000) with Black Beauty tonearm ($9500) and SCPS power supply ($15,000); Göbel Lacorde Statement cabling; Nordost QX-4, QKore 1, QB-8, QK1 and QV2; and a Core Audio rack and amp stand. I didn't hear the analog front-end. Using Tidal via a wired connection, we brought up the second movement of Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s hair-raising, sorrow-filled performance of Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 in 24/96. Anyone who uses heavy metal to try out a system might wish to try out this music as an alternative. The second movement conveys the violence, fear, horror and sorrow associated with the Czar’s 1905 slaughter of unarmed peasants. When the assault gets going, brass instruments, heavy duty percussion, and maybe 60 other instruments let loose in a massive fff assault.
The system acquitted itself wonderfully in soundstage depth and bass. The soundstage was astoundingly huge. Focus was not ideal—those room acoustics at work. Nonetheless, the music’s emotional wallop came through without compromise. Played through this system, the music moved me to my core.
