Goldmund, not much inside, but ultra expensive.

Here's Srajan Ebaen's answer in his Goldmund Telos 360 amp review a while back.

Conclusion. Responsible journalism can't skim over a basic fact. Goldmund's Telos 360 are very expensive. For that they're quite empty inside and materially of low weight. The very smallest XA Series stereo amp from Pass Labs weighs more than this pair combined but wants just 1/6th the coin. Such a seriously loaded tab is part of the brand's luxury positioning. It comes with the territory. Where material packaging goes, their own Job 250 monos sold direct at $3'400/pr and manufactured in the same Geneva location show how a very similar circuit with the same power output can be stuffed into far smaller de-blinged boxes. Wherever ownership is invested in such matters, pride takes a hit. With these luxe monos, there's only a reassuring cuddle and the obligatory gleam of gold-plated decals and silkily finished nearly white aluminium to confirm status. Whilst sensibilities on eye candy diverge, there's no argument that these Swiss amps also deliver sonic substance. They aren't pushers of empty calories. Yet they aren't kitchen pickers with big knickers either. The overriding part of their design brief is speed, low noise and the resolution which occurs at the confluence of these two streams. There's very refined smoothness yet no comfort padding from fatty warmth.

With speakers whose warmth is built in with strategic radiation patterns and minor response tweaks à la Kaiser, the Telos 360 amps are truly ideal and ultimate choices which prevent additive fattening, deceleration and coagulation. Hence my earlier amp-as-passive-magnetive-preamp characterization. With speakers on the cooler leaner side like our Albedos or equivalent efforts from Estelon, Gauder/Isophon, Mårten & Co, arriving at a similar sound requires adjustments with your upstream choices. Then a superior valve preamp and/or tube-buffered DAC become natural options. Finally, I can think of precious few if any amplifiers which could brag of an equivalent lineage or core circuit tracking back unbroken 3+ decades. Over this period, the topology has undergone constant refinements by different teams of engineers. Should this be the sonic flavour of your dreams, here it's been tweaked, polished, re-tweaked and polished again and again perhaps to a more extensive degree than anywhere else. It's how Goldmund's commitment to tradition coexists with and informs their commitment to evolution. For those of us insufficiently lubricated*, the Job amps benefit from the exact same commitment. They're simply a few generations behind this now 9th-gen curve. This rewards those who make a far greater investment into the company with the very latest advances and findings. Which is as it ought to be. Finally, the art of scaling up power without sacrificing sophistication is trickier than doubling or quadrupling everything on a proven low-power circuit. That's why to this day we don't have a 100wpc FirstWatt, a 200wpc Bakoon or 300-watt Crayon monos. That Goldmund have learnt how to scale their circuit into high-power turf without sacrificing sophistication speaks to the lengths their various project leaders have gone over the years; and how management continues to invest into relevant R&D to make it so.

Yes research & developmental are cost factors, but their prices are ultra expensive, not mere expensive. This research & development cost must translate into cutting edge sound given the price that one must pay to play: does it?

A lot of folks believe that the ideal amp is going to be sounding like a straight wire with gain. The fact that the Goldmund amps don't have a lot of parts inside them doesn't necessarily mean that they don't sound great. OTOH, we can look at some of the old 70's era solid state gear, particularly receivers from that era ( and some from today as well) and they are chocker block full of parts...and yet they sound poor! (admittedly they are not priced, nor were they priced, like this Swiss gear). Nonetheless, can we equate numerous interior parts to either better sound quality or value??

I've been happy using my 590 NextGen for two years now. High quality and simplicity of use for a super-integrated; the target audience isn't into tweaking or OCD fascinations.

The sound is quite resolving but not clinical (as I find the CH Precision to be). There is a warmth, perhaps from a slight boost in the lower mid, that makes listening a pleasure. A bit like hiking in the Cascades on a sunny day -- clear, refreshing and you can see for miles.

The internal DAC is in the $5-10K quality range. Because it is voiced to the amplifier I prefer using it to my MSB IV stack.

As one would expect, the 590 is appreciative of clean power and good cabling. :-)

Robert

BMW 335i turbos DO NOT blow frequently...my local (independent) BMW mechanic has one.