Koetsu USA Stibbert Tube CD Player

Koetsu USA had a ton of products on display at the Venetian this year, not the least of which was a new edition of their signature Stibbert Tube CD Player, a CD player isolated from vibration through the use of a spring suspension. The innovative, if unconventional, Stibbert Tube CD Player is a tube-based product that employs a newly designed double chassis completely isolated by four conical springs. The chassis is made of a high-density steel alloy treated with a diamagnetic black polyvinyl paint. Um... well that certainly sounds cool. The resulting mass of the new edition’s chassis is three times that of previous versions, which Koetsu claims enables higher bass resolution. The new chassis also makes it easier to change tubes and control the grounding path.

Other new or improved technologies introduced into the CD Player include:

• Dual Speed technology enables the transport to reduce its voltage and speed to the lowest possible levels and optimize performance
• Zero Clock is said to improvesperformance by eliminating jitter and clock errors, and includes a very sophisticated digital output filter
• An Electro Power voltage supply is supposed to improve audio performance through an innovative current generator that cleans up the signal going to the analog stage and result in speed fluctuations of less than 0.0001 percent. The PSU also "galvanically shields" the CD Player. I'm pretty sure that makes it impervious to at least one superhero.

The Stibbert CD Player also features high quality capacitors and a sophisticated new analog output stage based on two 6922 tubes. The stage uses a true symmetrically balanced tube design to achieve the highest sonic performance.

The main plinth of the Stibbert chassis is made of a 20mm-thick black acrylic shaped to resemble a Ferrari Formula 1 steering wheel. Its uniquely curved shape is designed to "significantly increases the design’s structural rigidity and virtually eliminate vibration feedback". The drawer-type transport mechanism is designed to achieve the most stable disc rotation.

The Stibbert CD Player is available now for a suggested price of $5,030. A mere pittance for those of you who use $20 bills to polish your Italian leather shoes.

For further additional information, visit www.goldenote.it or www.koetsuusa.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.