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Swiss amps. Worth the price?

Is there such thing as Swiss sound? Are they good, anyway? Certainly cost a lot of dead Washingtons.
inna
jond's avatar
jond
5,750 posts
 
Everything from Switzerland is expensive relatively, it's a remote, sparsely populated country with few natural resources. And a wealthy population. Another example, Swiss wine is mostly not very good but very expensive and mostly consumed in country adding to the export costs. Some sweet looking lust inspiring gear though, especially Nagra and Goldmund.
david12
1,454 posts
 

To be boring about finance, Swiss prices have always been high, but much higher since their Central Bank gave up the fight and abandoned the fix to the Euro, last year I believe. The Swiss Franc has shot up since then.

 To get back to HiFi, the only amp which could draw me to the dark side of SS, away from tubes, is the Darzeel integrated. I heard it once with Wilson Alexias at a small dealer show and it was one of the best sounds I have ever heard, till I heard the D'Agostino Momentum amps in the same room with Alexias. I actually prefer the cheaper integrated to the Dartzeel Pre/Power combo. So yes Swiss HiFi can be great.

wisnon
700 posts
 
I live in Switzerland and have visited the Dartzeel, CH, Goldmund, Rowen, and Stenheim HQs as well as a branch of Illusonic. I know some of these guys personally.

Cant be a Swiss sound as, there are famous tube amp makers here too like ColoTube, Eternity Jo, Tron and Nagra.

Swiss gear tends to be expensive because labour is expensive here and the Swiss wisely deceded to go after the luxury (high end) segment of the market, where they can compete best. The engineering standards in the Helvetic Confederation (official name of Switzerland) is very, very high.

The country is by no means remote! It is in the geographical centre of Western Europe and shares borders with 5 countries. White wine is extremely good from places like Aigle and Yvorne and is expensive as the Swiss keep the best for themselves (they know a good thing), so drive the prices up. 8.5m population in a country 5 times bigger than Connecticut in area.

Current exchange rates make Swiss products even more expensive than in former years.

Dart has the LHC-208 which is a 200wpc Integrated combined with an Network connected Ethernet Dac called affectionately the "Danalog". It is also their cheapest product at $14k. Dartzeel stuff is excellent....as is CH Precision and Goldmund (the wireless active speakers). Dartzeel will get even better...so watch that space.

Rowen is also excellent but ONLY sold in Switzerland where they are the domestic mid-high end market leader.
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jazzonthehudson's avatar
jazzonthehudson
277 posts
 
Fond memories of the Swiss Alps, deep blue lakes and clean streets comes in my mind. The Montreux Jazz Festival in is one of my life time highlights. Having lived in many countries in Western Europe, I refer to German Swiss as the most correct behaving people in Europe, if not the world. Their industries has managed to rise time and again in the value chain, defeating the gravity of the pull of their rising currency. Down side is only for tourists, paying 3-5x the price for lunch there vs NYC.

I would say that the German (speaking) audio makers, the little that I have been exposed to, tend to be tonally correct.

Wisnon, you sound German Swiss, richtig?
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