Schon wieder ein Netzwerk-Isolator von English Electric? Vor erst einer Woche stellte ich hier den EE1 vor, nun geht es um die Plus-Version. Ja, zweimal English Electric nacheinander, weil wir gern aktuell sind: Die Chord Company wird den EE1 Plus auf der am 21.02. beginnenden Bristol Hifi Show präsentieren. Gleichzeitig geht dieser Artikel online.

Das konnte natürlich nur klappen, weil Mika Dauphin, dessen Drei-H-Vertrieb hierzulande die Produkte der Chord Company – und damit auch die von English Electric – unter seine Fittiche genommen hat, uns sein allererstes Exemplar überließ, Patrick Mitchell, Chords Export Sales Manager, einige technische Details preisgab, noch bevor eine offizielle Pressemitteilung in Deutsch veröffentlicht wurde, und wir diesmal auf Fotos aus unserem Studio verzichten. Der EE1 Plus ist doppelt so teuer wie die einfache Variante. Er wird mit dem gleichen C-stream Digital-Streaming-Kabel geliefert und besitzt ein aus dem Vollen herausgearbeitetes Aluminiumgehäuse, das auf zwei schwingungsdämpfenden Füßen ruht. Wie zu erwarten befindet sich im Plus die gleiche kleine Platine wie im EE1 mit einem Übertrager, der Ein- und Ausgang galvanisch trennt, und einigen passiven Bauteilen zur weiteren Filterung von hochfrequenten Störungen.

Darüber hinaus wurde in das Aluminiumgehäuse eine recht breite Rinne gefräst, die über Kabel mit der Platine in Verbindung steht, deren Inhalt aber nicht zu erkennen ist, da er vergossen wurde. Laut Patrick Mitchell befinden sich darin Spulen und Kabel wie sie auch in Chords GroundARAYs zum Einsatz kommen. Letztere hatten mich bei einem Test derart überzeugt, dass ich ein Pärchen für die Anlage im Wohnzimmer erworben habe. Die Spulen und Kabel im GroundARAY und im EE1 Plus seien recht anfällig für Mikrofonie, erklärte der Sales Manger, was der Grund dafür gewesen sein, sie komplett zu vergießen. Auch die beiden relativ aufwendigen Füße und das recht schwere Gehäuse dienten dazu, Vibrationen von den passiven Bauelementen fernzuhalten. Das gelinge sogar noch effektiver, wenn man die Schrauben der Füße um etwa eine Viertelumdrehung lockere. Zudem sei natürlich eine stabile Standfläche hilfreich.

Da es in den Artesania-Racks recht eng zugeht, werde ich mich später um eine klangfördernde Aufstellung kümmern und schleife den EE1 Plus erst einmal anstelle des Waversa Isolators zwischen Ansuz PowerSwitch und dem Auralic Aries G2.2 in meine Kette ein, um ihm eine zweitägige Einspielzeit zu gönnen. Während ich die ersten Zeilen dieses Artikel tippe, läuft New Folks, ein Duo-Album mit Bassist Martin Wind und Philip Catherine an der E-Gitarre: Warme Bass-Sounds, eine ungemein klare, nur leicht angezerrte Gitarre, leises Mitsingen oder -summen Catherines sowie jede Menge Spielfreude und ein packender Groove sorgen dafür, dass ich alle feinsinnigen Dialoge dieses musikalisch wie klanglich überzeugenden Albums anhöre. Wenn Sie nicht so viel Zeit haben, hier ein Anspieltipp: „Blues In The Closet“.

Bei der „Polka“ aus Schostakowitschs Ballet The Age Of Gold mit dem London Symphony Orchestra unter Jean Martinon fühlt man sich einem Orchester auf einer großen und vor allem tiefen Bühne gegenüber, das dank der originellen Instrumentierung in vielfältigen, eher silbrigen Klangfarben erstrahlt. Das Stück spricht einen mit seiner Fröhlichkeit auch rhythmisch sofort an. Die Präzision der Akzentuierung nimmt allerdings minimal ab, wenn statt des Plus der „einfache“ EE1 die Signalaufbereitung vor dem Aries übernimmt. Der günstigere Isolator lässt auch den Aufnahmeraum einen Tick kleiner wirken. Schon dieses eine File macht deutlich, dass der EE1 Plus hochfrequente Verunreinigungen und Rauschen noch stärker unterdrückt als der Isolator ohne GroundARAY. Natürlich bringt auch der Wechsel vom English Electric Plus zum Waversa Isolator-EXT1 leichte klangliche Veränderungen mit sich, die sich aber nur schwer in Worte fassen lassen, doch letztlich keinen Qualitätsunterschied darstellen. Gefühlsmäßig tendiere ich bei diesem Stück dennoch eher zum EXT1 – wohl weil mir die Wiedergabe mit diesem im Signalweg schon seit langem vertraut ist.

Gut, dass ich noch einmal Patrice Herals „Improvisation“ auf Michel Godards Le Concert Des Parfums gehört habe, eigentlich nur, um meine bisherige Einschätzung zu bestätigen. Um so überraschter bin ich, als die Ausmaße des Refektorium des Klosters von Noirlac, in dem Patrice Herals Trommeln und Perkussionsinstrumente aufgenommen wurden, noch ein Stückchen beeindruckender wirken, wenn der EE1 Plus statt des Waversas im Spiel ist. Bei diesem Track ist der Plus eindeutig der Isolator meiner Wahl. Dabei hing er wegen der beengten Platzverhältnisse hinter dem Aries und des starren Ansuz Digitalz D-TC Gold Signature mehr in der Luft, als dass er einen soliden Stand gehabt hätte. Den findet er zwischen Adot-Medienkonverter und Ansuz PowerSwitch, nachdem ich den aktiven Synergistic Research Ground Block SE abgebaut habe.

Vor mehr als 20 Jahren war Jonas Hellborgs Solo-CD The Silent Live nicht nur eine meiner Lieblingsscheiben, sondern auch bei Tests immer wieder im Einsatz. Dann habe ich sie irgendwann mal gerippt, das File aber nur sehr selten gespielt. Da sich meine Kette in der Zwischenzeit deutlich weiterentwickelt hat, bin ich von „Wounded Knee“ ziemlich angetan: Mit dem Waversa vor dem Aries strotzt die Bassgitarre nur so vor Druck. Dennoch ist das Klangbild extrem durchsichtig und der virtuelle Raum erscheint wohldefiniert und glaubwürdig groß. Die Transienten der hart angerissenen Saiten wirken ungemein realistisch. Mit dem nun korrekt aufgestellten EE1 Plus zwischen Adot und dem Ansuz Switch scheint Jonas Hellborg plötzlich ein bisschen mehr Spass an seinem Tun zu haben und das Tempo minimal angezogen zu haben. Der gesamte Track hat an Intensität gewonnen. Die Steigerung durch denn zusätzlichen EE1 Plus im Signalweg ist dabei deutlich größer als etwa der Unterschied zwischen dem English Electric Plus und dem Waversa EXT1, wenn sie abwechselnd an derselben Stelle der Wiedergabekette eingeschleift werden. Vor dem Ansuz PowerSwitch möchte ich den zusätzlichen EE1 Plus nicht mehr missen! Eigentlich bin ich mit der aktuellen Konfiguration rundum zufrieden – hätte Patrick Mitchell nicht gesagt, dass das leichte Lockern der Füße zu noch zu mehr Wohlklang führen würde. Auch wenn es noch so unwahrscheinlich erscheinen mag und ich mich damit dem Verdacht der Voodoo-Gläubigkeit aussetze: Ich habe danach eine Veränderung wahrgenommen, und zwar zum Besseren. Dabei lasse ich es jetzt besser bewenden…

The Divin Comtesse had been introduced by Oliver Goebel at last year's High End show: The two speakers, which are petite by Goebel High End standards, filled the large room impressively with sound in conjunction with a subwoofer. Series production has now taken off, so a pair also found its way into my listening room – but it had to wave farewell soon.

The Comtesse is the smallest model in the Divin series and thus marks also the entry point to the entire loudspeaker portfolio from Goebel High End. The company owner explained that his distributors in non-European countries had wanted a less bulky loudspeaker, since some of the customers there had the audiophile demands, as well as the financial means, but not the space for larger sound transducers. Therefore, the main focus in the development of the Comtesse was to size down a large part of the sonic capabilities of the other representatives of the Divin line into a smaller cabinet volume. The crossover of the Comtesse is just as elaborately constructed as that of the next model up, the Marquis. The 8-inch long-throw woofer is similarly costly as the 12-inch chassis of this next larger model, while the midrange driver and the tweeter are identical and the savings due to the slightly smaller cabinet are almost negligible. This puts the Comtesse in the position to offer an unusually large amount of Goebel High End technology at a comparatively moderate price.

The midrange driver of the Divin Comtesse is an 8-inch chassis specially developed for the Bavarian high-end manufactory, into which, according to the product brochure, the patented Goebel® bending wave technology has been implemented. This is based on the principles of sound generation as known from musical instruments and is the result of over 15 years of development work, invested to achieve the most natural sound possible. The high-frequency spectrum is reproduced by an AMT chassis – or Air Motion Transformer – to which a waveguide milled from a solid block of aluminum has been adapted. The specific curve of this waveguide ensures that all drivers are flawlessly combined to create a homogeneous and natural sonic image. The low-frequencies are handled by a Goebel® 8-inch long-throw woofer, which has been designed to achieve perfectly homogeneous sound dispersion and equally homogeneous stimulation of room modes. This driver, specially manufactured for Goebel, was placed on the front baffle constructed according to the concept of “Constraint Layer Damping”, in which layers of different materials damp each other, in such a way that an absolutely smooth transition from the 8-inch midrange driver to the long-throw woofer’s low frequency band is achieved. The use of multi-layer, tropical-proof materials in the enclosure is intended to guarantee the ideal stiffness-damping behaviour ratio, and the chosen, purely functional form is said to eliminate any flexion, resonance or energy-storing effect.

The top-model of the Divin series, the Majestic, is delivered in six flight cases, as I once learned during a visit to the company headquarters. Even with Goebel High End's most affordable loudspeaker to date, the Comtesse, a flight case made in Germany is included in the scope of delivery. Oliver Goebel kindly brought an electric stair climber along to aid the delivery, so that the two speakers could be transported to the listening room without being carried by human hands. After they had found their approximate position in the tried-and-tested places and had been connected to Einstein's The Poweramp using Goebel speaker cables, I entrusted Oliver Goebel to the listening room with an iPad and access to the Qobuz streaming service. He simply needed a bit of peace and concentration to play his test tracks, as well as plenty of time to set up his speakers enabling them to develop their full potential. Well, another reason for my temporary retreat could, of course, be that there was a series of vocal tracks among his test files coming along...

When I returned to the listening room and listened to the first short excerpts from my favourite musical pieces, I was surprised not to miss anything in the first place – even though I had been enjoying the Børresen 05 SSE, which are several times more expensive, for quite a while: In terms of timbre, dynamics, resolution and spatial imaging, the Comtesse left nothing to be desired. What particularly amazed me is that the Comtesse sounds so much bigger than it really is: It’s an easy task for the Divin to reproduce sound events also occurring above its cabinet. I usually close my eyes automatically when I concentrate on listening. With the Goebel speakers, however, this is almost obligatory: otherwise, the visual impression reduces the sonic image to the height of the speaker itself. Without eye contact, however, you feel as if you are facing a much higher sound source. This is really awesome.

But that wasn’t the end of the line. Oliver Goebel insisted that I also took a closer listen to one or two female singers. And that was much more pleasant than I had fearfully expected. You could say that voices are the Comtesse's prime discipline, if it didn't perform at the same very high level in all other areas as well. Here, I make a short leap to when the 05 SSE had returned to the listening room, playing a few songs through them during which the Comtesse had excelled in the reproduction of vocals. My highly esteemed Børresen, however, could not reproduce female vocals as homogeneously and holistically as the Goebel speakers. But let’s jump back again.

The reason why the Comtesse didn't stay in my study for too long, despite all its merits, was that after the initial euphoria it became increasingly clear that it wouldn't be able to perform miracles and solve the acoustic problem of my listening room. The sonic advantages and disadvantages of the room, I recently described in detail to some extent: It has almost no anomalies, behaves neutrally and allows the sound to completely detach from the transducers. However, the frequency response of most loudspeakers comes up with a very narrow-band, quite low dip around 64 Hertz. As with all transducers with woofers on the baffle near the floor alone, this is also noticeable with the Comtesse. I have found this increasingly annoying since the Børresen 05 SSE, with the upper of its four woofers only being positioned a short distance from the sloping roof, stimulates the room in such a way that the gap in the bass range disappears: It can neither be perceived nor measured.

Since the Comtesse didn’t take very long to make a lasting impression on me, either when it came to joyful listening or when taking the gloves off with the relevant test tracks, I really wanted to offer them better acoustical conditions. As I noticed after moving my Goebel Epoque Aeon Fine from the study to the living room, latter makes it much easier for speakers to perform, especially in the lows: There is neither a gap in the low frequencies nor do room modes disturb the bass range. Since the left speaker is closer to the sloping ceiling than the right one, the balance shifts a bit to the left, especially with tall speakers like the Acapella Violon VI – an effect that was, however, less pronounced with the less tall Epoque Aeon Fine. That's why I suggested to Oliver Goebel that he should set up the Comtesse in the living room. He didn't think twice and agreed without hesitation. It, however, then took much longer to persuade the perfectionist to get the Divin moved out of the study. Although I had already dismissed the issue of the listening room, he insisted on spending over an hour there experimenting with the placement of the Comtesse to minimize the effect of the low-frequency dip. He succeeded in doing so by placing the listening chairs very close to the back wall, but in my opinion this lead to a negative effect on the sense of space.

Perhaps I should add that moving to the living room should not be considered as an audiophile descent, as the system there has improved significantly in recent years: Einstein's The Preamp and The Poweramp are in charge of amplification here. They are connected with a balanced Swiss Cable Reference Plus, while an Audioquest Dragon Bi-Wire connects the power amplifier and the loudspeakers. The room is connected to the network via Media Converters fed by linear power supplies and a single-mode Duplex optical fibre cable. Digital signals are processed by Chord Electronics' M-Scaler and converted by a Hugo TT 2. Usually, a 2GO and a 2YU – originating from Chord Electronics as well – serve as network transport. But I didn't want to impose these little boxes on Oliver Goebel and the Comtesse. Since I made best experiences with the Lumin U2, I asked Krey Baumgartl for an exciting alternative. He suggested the brand-new T3X, which I could use as a network transport before it would move to a colleague for testing afterwards.

The already burnt-in Lumin T3X then completed the system when Oliver Goebel and I set up the Comtesse in the living room. Here the set-up was much easier to realize than in the study. The developer slightly varied the distance of the speakers to the listening position and experimented a little with the angle, and lo and behold, it was perfect – at least for me. Oliver Goebel still had to find out for himself whether, and if so, how negatively the placement of the sofa directly in front of the wall affected the sound. He finally suggested moving it 20 to 30 centimetres further into the room, which I tried with success with a couple of records. However, since I don't have the last word in the living room when it comes to hi-fi, this set-up didn’t become a permanent solution, even though the Comtesse played with a bit more definition in the bass range in this position. Regardless of this “adjustment”, I cannot remember to have ever heard music this good in the living room. The large distance of the Comtesse's tweeter from the sloping ceiling on the left side meant that the first reflection occurred later: The sound detached itself perfectly from the loudspeaker cabinets. The position of the Divin in the sonic image could no longer be located, while the balance between the channels now happened to be so equalized and stable that the playback was enjoyable even if you weren’t sitting in the centre of the sofa.

Of course, I did listen to all the relevant test files: Keith Jarrett's “God Bless The Child” confirmed the enormous rhythmic abilities of the Divin Comtesse, Patrice Heral's “Improvisation” on Michel Godard's Le Concert Des Parfums and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 15 underlined the excellent spatial imaging of the Comtesse. The latter also showed the rich timbres that the smallest Goebel speakers are capable to reproduce. “Heavy Hour”, taken from Misha Alperin's Night, underpinned the outstanding performance in terms of fine resolution and dynamics, and on “Malinye”, a track taken from the album Codona 2, Don Cherry's pocket trumpet once again demonstrated that the speakers are able to reproduce instruments in full accuracy, even displaying them at the correct height. If the Divin hadn't been so convincing in the listening room – except for the small, room-related weakness in the lows – I would have thought that they and the living room happened to harmonize perfectly by pure chance. But no, it is solely due to the enormous qualities of the Comtesse that it seems as if they had been developed for the living room!

However, I'm not going to single out a particular record that would allow me to make a critical comment to relativize my enthusiasm for the Comtesse. I'd rather tell you about an equally fascinating new musical acquisition at Qobuz – and what the Comtesse makes out of it: Fulsome X's Impermanence, Live At Porgy & Bess. Fulsome X are Wolfgang Puschnig, alto saxophone and flute, Asja Valcic, cello, Jon Sass, tuba, and Reinhardt Winkler, drums. The quartet was recorded by Quinton owner Andreas Rathammer at the Vienna Porgy & Bess on the evening of 19th November 2023, the last day of the Finest Fidelity Show 2023. And it’s truly surprising what he has done with the digital multi-track recording: The only thing it has in common with what I was able to experience that evening is the joy of playing and the exciting interaction between the musicians. Even though the sound in the club was quite good, it does not come close to the sound so typical for Quinton recordings. The last three songs serve as a good example: the title track, “Second Heaven”, which fans of Wolfgang Puschnig know from the magnificent Quinton album Chants, and “Another Step”. “Impermanence” begins with the cello in front of a deep black background in a supposedly medium-sized room. Then the tuba sets in very sparingly, with the notes seemingly bursting out of it. Rim shots are heard in a much larger space before the saxophone joins in: the calm piece develops an irresistible groove. All of this has little to do with the live on-site experience, but it fascinates every second – not least thanks to the speed, timbre strength and bass capabilities of the Comtesse.

In the track “Second Heaven”, the short rhythmic riff from the tuba and the snare beats are joined by a fat bass drum that makes you think you can literally see the drumskin. The cello and saxophone contribute short melody lines in unison. The sparse, reduced musical action takes place in a spacious virtual room, and the sound is enormously detailed, airy and transparent. What a delight! The powerful lows and the seamless integration of the Comtesse's three drivers make the multitude of transients in the rhythmically exciting track “Another Step” sound very realistic. Even the short drum solo is electrifying. Despite performing top-notch in the various hi-fi disciplines, the Goebel speakers don't miss out on the fun of music. For the living room, the Comtesse is – and will remain – our new dream loudspeaker.