Translations:

From the historic capital of Renaissance Italy, Florence, we bring you Goldenote, a brand which proves that the great heritage of Italian design and craftsmanship is still very much alive today. The Goldenote Stibbert tube CD player won the coveted Golden Ear award from the Absolute Sound in 2005.

In that journal it was favorably compared to previous reference CD players costing at least eight times as much. In fact the Stibbert has been further improved since winning that award.

So what makes it so special? Well it employs two 6922 tubes in its output stage; but that is also true of a number of the most ‘musical’ sounding CD players. What really sets the Stibbert apart is its innovative use of a suspended sub-chassis.

This allows the CD transport to ‘float’ on precision engineered springs in the same manner as most of the finest turntables in the world. Suspended sub-chassis’s have long been recognised as the best method for extracting those micro-vibrations from record grooves which is how the music is derived from Vinyl discs. Goldenote are the first to apply this method to a CD transport and to very good effect. It has long been recognised that CD players are prone to the problems caused by unwanted vibrations and the importance of isolating them from these by being careful about the kind of support they are placed on. However, it turns out that when a CD player utilises a similar spring suspended sub-chassis as a turntable, the performance is considerably enhanced.

The Stibbert Tube CD player is the proof of this and not surprisingly it actually sounds quite similar to a top class Turntable. The same smooth relaxed natural sound is heard from the Stibbert as many of us are used to enjoying from analogue.

I know of one analogue devotee who owns at least 8,000 LP’s that has found it to be the only CD player he can live with and enjoy.

I was privileged recently to visit their impressive, modern and well run factory just outside of Florence in the beautiful Tuscan countryside where Maurizio Arterini of Goldenote demonstrated to us the Stibbert CD player together with some of their other excellent products.

It isn’t surprising that Goldenote also make fine Turntables and this demonstration included one of these.

We will be featuring more of these products alongside the Stibbert CD player at Sound Galleries and invite you to join us in sharing the experience of these highly cultivated designs. Visit Goldenote