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Review of Dartzeel NHB-108 Amplifier

Dartzeel is a relatively new entry to the high-end game. Despite being reviewed by John Marks in a recent issue of Stereophile, the company's only current product offering, the NHB-108 stereo amplifier, hasn't gotten a lot of press on these shores. Hopefully this "review" will do its part in rectifying that.
As many of you probably already know, Switzerland-based Dartzeel is the brainchild of one Herve Deletraz. Herve is a wonderful guy who's dedicated to the very best customer service. As essentially a one-man operation, I'm sure his time is limited, but he's always responded to my e-mails in an extremely courteous, timely manner.

On to the amp. I'm not one for technical details, so I'll leave them to those of you who want to visit Dartzeel's website. Basically, the 108 is a "purist" stereo amp rated at a relatively modest 100 wpc. Its smallish dimensions belie its weight, which measures around 65-70 pounds.

Internally, the amp is incredibly well laid out (if tightly packed), with an attention to detail that one should expect--but doesn't always receive--from components in this price range.

Outside, it's purely love-hate. (Refer to the website for pictures). Either you get it or you don't. Personally, I've grown used to its appearance over time, but it's taken a while to become acclimated. If WAF factor is any sort of issue, practice up on your compliments. Then again, I may be overstating the case. While it's not Liv Tyler, it's not Janet Reno, either. Time reveals its inner beauty.

Performance-wise it's a much more straightforward issue. In my experience the 108 is the most balanced, natural-sounding amp I've ever heard. It has a way with timbre that's downright spooky--up there with the very best tube units one cares to mention. The sound is just "right"--every note is reproduced with a tonal correctness and warmth that is as close to the real thing as I've heard in an amp. Because of it's sheer naturalness, it can take a while to overcome the initial impression that it is somehow soft or rolled off. That is most emphatically not the case! Dynamics are crisp and fast, and the frequency extremes are right where they need to be--not overstated or highlighted at all, just perfectly natural and realistic.

The only potential weakness of the 108 is its power rating. It flows a nice amount of juice for 100 watts, but one could theoretically run into problems with particuarly current-hungry or inefficient speakers. Part of the amp's midrange purity, I believe, is attributable to the use of the bare minimum of bipolars in the output stage. That, of course, comes at the price of power, but in this case the tradeoff is more than worth it. Just take some care in speaker matching--as you should, anyway--and you'll be rewarded with a sound that balances the very best of solid state with a midrange that will make some question whether they even need to fuss with tubes.

Despite its novel physical appearance, the need for careful speaker matching, and the fact that the US dollar has been taking a Tyson-like beating lately, the Dartzeel is a serious contender in the super-amp category. Yes, there are amps out there that do this or that "better" than the 108, but I've yet to hear one that strikes a better balance between the various areas of performance. It's a stunning piece of engineering and a landmark amplifier.

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Product Weakness: Appearance is strictly take-it-or-leave-it. Power rating requires some attention to speaker load. Cost.
Product Strengths: Naturalness, midrange magic of the highest order, speed, dynamics

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Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier: Dartzeel NHB-108
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated): EMM Labs DCC2
Sources (CDP/Turntable): EMM Labs CDSD
Speakers: Von Schweikert VR-4 Jr.
Cables/Interconnects: Jena Labs Pathfinder
Music Used (Genre/Selections): Rock, blues, country, some classical
Room Size (LxWxH): 24 x 20 x 7
Room Comments/Treatments: Echo Buster, ASC
Time Period/Length of Audition: 3 months
Other (Power Conditioner etc.): Shunyata Hydra-8
Type of Audition/Review: Product Owner
hooper
sirspeedy70680e509
1,064 posts
 
I'm sorry if I seemed defensive at any point in any thread.Mike,I truly wish you the absolute best.You should do as you please,afterall who am I to judge anyone,as I've gone through the merry-go-round quite a bit in the past,and I've never even been in your room.My intent was more like the kind of advice I'd give my son,in order for him to save some money,on something.I only opened my big mouth because I obviously loved your component choices,and questioned alternatives to allow such fine equip. to stay with you.Best of luck,though you won't need any!!

PS: You showed real class by not commenting,as I was trying to bait you a bit(though in a friendly way).I doubt if I could have risen to that level.
mikelavigne
2,200 posts
 
thanks sirspeedy for the good wishes. the attention (good and bad) my postings attract is of my own doing. if i don't want the feedback i should just keep to myself. mostly i enjoy the discussions and relationships that result from my choice to share my experiences. many directions i have eventually gone have resulted from advice i initially rejected......i try to stay open-minded to any possibilities.

since this is all just fun for me anyway.....i typically don't get too riled over any comments.....i leave that sentiment for business.

best wishes to you too.
sean
6,231 posts
 
There are design aspects of the VR 9's that i really like ( sealed cabinets ), but for the money involved, i'm thinking that they could have made some very simple yet sonically important changes to them. The use of Solen caps instead of something a little higher grade, the 80 Hz crossover frequency for the single subwoofer driver, which is mounted on the rear of the cabinet, etc... are all things that i would have done differently. Then again, i'm not a professional speaker engineer, so what do i know. I just hope that Mike is happy with his purchase and that it delivers what he wants within the confines of his own personal listening room. He's tried damn hard to achieve absolutely phenomenal results and he deserves to get just that : )

I do have one question for Mike. That is, if he doesn't mind. I would be curious to see if he's applied any type of loudspeaker placement computer modeling to his installation? If so, how have the actual in-room results compared to the computer based predictions? Have you modeled the VR's to see how they'll work in this specific room? Sean
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cinematic_systems
282 posts
 
Mike,

I appreciate the clarification, JTinn stated quite clearly that your room did not suck out or better word (I should have used originally) attenuate the frequencies below 30hz and clearly it does. And based on your demands it should, to offset room gain. So based on JTinns comments on your room, I could not understand why you couldn't get any bass.

I'm trying to understand but I keep getting conflicting reports back and forth and although I believe everyone's experience to be valid I am trying to correlate semantics and such. I can not find anechoic measurements of the Midi exquisites, are they on the web?, because low frequency measurements are hard to do, and the ones I measured had a slight shallow dip from 40 to 25 hertz where there was a bit of a peak at 25hz. But unless I took the speakers outside I can't really trust my bass measurements and seperate the room from the speaker. I'd be real interested in the anechoic measurements since my client will be moving his midi's to a new room. Can he get them from Kharma?

Howie;

If you read the thread carefully you will see a great deal of conflict or contrary information. This why I keep asking.

Sirspeedy,

LOL, hey you are free to guess at it if you like, but my clients don't pay me for perception, they pay me for the real thing. You and your buddies can kid yourself all you like about how well you hear and how its good to just walk away with a memory. I walk away with documentation.

Critical Listening is the easy part, anybody can do it.

Thks Sean and Stenrsr
howie
230 posts
 
Cinematic Systems, critical listening is NOT the easy part. Bill Evans once said "I do not agree that the layman's opinion is less of a valid judgement of music than that of the professional musician. In fact, I would often rely more on the judgement of the sensitive layman than that of a professional, since a professional, because of his constant involvement with the mechanics of music, must fight to preserve the naivete that the layman already possesses."

The better of a musician I have become, the more judgemental I am of musicians and of their music. I try to hear whether the musician does anything to make him/her special while others with no musical background are trying to "feel" whether the musician gives them that special feeling. Music is all about perception. You may hear a good player when others may simply hear a copycat. Putting science to music has always been wrong to me.
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