I spent last weekend in a fantastic company of music lovers and audiophiles. I have so many observations that I could actually write a book, but I have a different form here, so I will try to divide it a bit.
Our team visited Czesław in Kashubia – the owner of the Grandnote hi-end set and the legendary JBL Everest
So let’s start with how the electronics fared: Triode Thereapy 300B Filip, Sun Audio 300B Wojtek, Audio 300B Silver Parallel Single Ended MK2, Shinai Czesław. For this Sun Audio Preampy and my modest Ear 834L
The columns are impressiveHi-end Grandnote Mach 8XLthe list price oscillates around PLN 100,000
You can read reviews in known places about the Shinai design, so it makes no sense to repeat yourself.
The price of Grandinote Shinai is currently 15,000 euros, so about 65,000 PLN, so we can boldly talk about hi-end.
How’s the sound?
Sun Audio 2A3
Wojtek in combination with my pre ear 834L (nose siemens and mullard 4004 lamps) just played … in a way that grabs the heart. He drew the stage most naturally, he had the most qualitative mountain, the most space between instruments, the best proportions, contours in the diameter.
The jazz, vocal, acoustic and saxophone repertoire played simply the best.
For example, ‘I’m sick’ by Dorota Osińska made me sit at the central listening point until I was internally tangled.This is the main feature of hi-end for me. This is the ability to enter the recording and emotional transmission to be shocked after listening.grandinote scalethis and the extraordinary ability to enter the recordingSuna with 3.5Wpower gave amazing energy.
The ear on the excellent lamps slightly weighted up the rather rickety and thin-line sound of Sun and gave him a kick, kick.
Triode Therapy 300B
Filip’s construction was round – actually as befits the 300B. On the other hand, the point of reference here is Sun Audio, not an absolute scale.
The whole thing was a bit more pastel, the vocals were a bit smoother. The top was darker, not so stretched, the plates had a slightly warmer character, and the whole thing flowed more. You also felt a bit more power and versatility than with a sun, which will not necessarily be perfect for all recordings.
Audion 300B Silver Night MK2 Parallel SE
He played a bit more harsher than Triode Therapy. It had more contour, more of a studio-like presentation, less heat in the midrange, a little less pastel.
I would say it was somewhere between Triode Therapy and Sun Audio. You could feel that he had the most power and he played a louder repertoire much more freely – actuallyBeginningwhere Sun was already lost (and it was already very loud).
At the top and midrange it had a little less flavors than Sun Audio, it was more resolving than the triodetherapy and less weighted in the middle than the latter. The tonal balance was closer to Sun after all.
I would make the choice of a taste of these 3 dependent on preferences and material. I would probably choose the least universal, but the most filial set from Sun Audio.
The Mezaliance – EAR834L + Haiku Sol I + Grandinote Mach 8XL
From casually on the last day I plugged in Haiku Sol I (about PLN 5,000 on the secondary market) – I took it only to change with Wojtek.
It looked little serious against the background of OTL tenors, Halcro DM10 preamp, Sun Audio, Grandinota Shinai or Denon PMA S1, but due to the fact that we listened to a lot and the atmosphere of the meeting was very loose – I decided to do this misalliance and check it withMach 8XL
After the first few minutes, Wojtek said‘
You’re the best fucking set
Sol and it’s an integra, so I connected it non-kosher to Line In and also played via EARA.
whoever did not enter the room, he was throwing ‘Well, it’s playing it!‘hey really cool‘or’no shock‘‘Awesome! What is this game?‘
Was it the best set of trips?
Both yes and no.
Haiku weighed the midrange the most, he played the violin, vocals, vocals spectacularly – you could feel the box, and the kids had the same amount of information as on Sun Audio, but in a lower tone.
Due to the power, he was doing very well dynamically, although the lowest bass could be slightly better.
Sun gave a clearer, more raw presentation. Triode Therapy Pastel, My Audion played as I mentioned in between, but it was objectively the least. And Hakiu – how Haiku just played music and gave the soul of recordings and acoustic instruments in an absolutely hi-end way.
Haiku just sat down and was absolutely the best to listen to both in an engaging and in the background, as well as at a low volume level where Sun was already a bit too skinny.
grandinote shinai
While the loudspeakers made a very big impression on me, combining an amazing scale, dynamics, timbre and directness … Shinai personally disappointed me.
And now it’s not that he was bad. After listening to the loudspeakers, I got excited and thought that after we played with Denon and Haiku lamps, the system would destroy my system … and it did not happen.
The guys liked it very much, and so did I.
But
In terms of filial – entry in the recording, resolution, contour, devotion of emotions – Sun ate it for breakfast.
At low volume – it sounded terrible without expression and bland.
When it comes to listening fun – it’s hard for me to imagine someone who has these loudspeakers, puts Shinaia and Haiku, listens and pulls out 10x as much for grandnote.
Shinai, of course, shows his cars louder, he shows his cars, which are mentioned in the reviews, he plays smoothly, smoothly, universally, but in this brand set we pushed the sound towards hi-end, or towards musicality much stronger and much cheaper.
To be honest, I think that in the long run Czesław will land with the Triode Therapy amplifier, which perfectly matches his character, what he listens to and to these speakers. It’s just a prototype, and already on slope lamps, unheated, played very close to my Audion on the NOS lamps (about 40,000 new with stock lamps), the sterling NOS Sun Audio 2A3 on the Audio Note, Black Gate or Denon conds PMA S1.
I don’t know what bothered Shinai – source and columns from the same stable. So we can talk about the conditions that should favor him,In my personal ranking it would be difficult to put it in the top3 of the rankings we made.
It may be that with other loudspeakers, or for a person who pays attention to other aspects of the sound of Shinai, it will be worth the investment.
