Dartzeel CTH-8550

Roy... someone posted on another audiophile site this comment.

My friends,
I have some fresh comments about the DartZeel CTH-8550:
I heard this $20000 Integrated amp and it sounds like a good $5000 amp.
It is nice to have a DartZeel to show this beautifull product of swiss industry to our friends...and that's all. I said product of industry, not product of swiss manufacture.
The sound is very fast and dinamic and all the small details of the music can be heard, but that sound has no body...that holografic body that you hear in a good Concert Hall ...or from a good highend amp.
I'm sorry to all DartZeel fans, but the sound of this integrated is disappointing.

Your comment?

is this an ad?

Well interesting comments but the one by Rossman flies in the face of recent show reports(including CES 2009) where more than one writer identified the system with this integrated driving it as stunning. Who to believe? My guess is that it's a product that sounds great but because of its cost some will be quick to criticize.Time will tell.

I agree with Rossman. It is disappointing.

Compared CHT8850 with my Jadis DA88s (speakers are Avalon Ascendant 2) and it was not even close. Dartzeel sounded grey, not involving. Jadis has better sense of liveness and purity of tone. Surprisingly, prefered even bass with DA88s - it was deeper, fuller, but still with nice control. Actually I can't find any aspect where CHT8850 would be better....

It is definitely very bad value for money. In my country Dartzeel costs almost twice as much as Jadis.

It's reviewed in the latest issue (8/09) of Stereophile by Wes Phillips. He loves it, but John Atkinson didn't like the way it measured.