Gear, Goldmund IS a pioneer of Electrical (acoustical) and mechanical grounding. Did you not see the thick cenbtral rod in the PL frame?
The software to do all this stuff started development in 2007 and took 6 years to be ready for Prime Time, so why compare 2002 stuff?
Power conditioning is external and would be retrofitted to any such gear, but if my experience with the Joob circuit applies here, Goldmund sounds WORSE with Power conditioning, based on hos the circuit interacts with the power line...Sort of uses the power grid as a huge capacitor...hence the extreme dynamics.
The little ProLogos box is capable of 120db max spl, 120!!!
I dont know much about the Alize Dac tech, but I understand that the Alize 7 is darn good. What I do know is that Goldmund has lots of $$$ to fund research and make collaborations with Universities and defense contractors, so its not inconceivable that that are dense packed with tech.
I have not heard the PL, so cant go out on a limb, but am gratified that Matt will be able to hear it and the Kii in the context of high end separate systems abd can give an overview and his overall impression. That should be fun and enlightening.
BTW, the Metis and PL Tower are more lifestyle. The Prologos and the + are more audiophile aimed and the Anatta is the reference product.
PL Mk1 was $50K with Grounding frame and the Mk2 is $70K.Apart from software optimization, not sure what else is different.
If I get to hear em, I will report back here.