Affinity to the Unobtainium.

Unlike almost any other company on this planet in pursuit of the perfect tone, ours is not run by engineers. Or marketing people. Or mutual funds. Audionet is the brain child of scientists. 

Who first convened in a garage, of all places. Only it was the subterranean car park of famous German Bochum University. Where it was decided to attack all questions of high end musical reproduction at the deepest possible level. To see what cutting edge science could come up with in terms of audible wonder. These same scientists are still running the company, after 20 years. And since they’re scientists, they much prefer to leave the singing of praise to other professionals:

“It occurs to me the best narrative line to take in describing the sound of the Audionet components is to tell you what I wasn’t thinking about. Information retrieval, for one, was not on my mind. Tonal balance, frequency response, signal purity, noise level—all of these weren’t rumbling around inside my cranium.

That says a lot. It means that here was a pair of mid-level, relatively affordable, components able to scale up in these areas into the neighborhood of the Big Boys — to the highest level. I knew we were off to a merry start. As you’ll see, this will be the major theme of this review.

Now let’s talk about what I did take note of. Over the years, I’ve heard many audiophiles talk about the seeming impossibility of reproducing realistic transients. I have to agree. If you’ve ever been in close proximity to a live drum set, you’ll know what the issue is. The speed, the force, the aggression of a single cymbal strike is outrageous.

In this regard, Audionet is in a class by itself. From the very first note—you’re going to be caught off guard.

The transient hits hard, with blazing speed and a sharp edge. Audionet gear refuses to slow it down. Indeed, with one of the highest slew rates in the industry, the specs clearly reflect what I am hearing. Full orchestral blasts exert maximum pugilistic verve. Abetting the impact is a dark-hued tonal balance that doesn’t skimp on the lower frequencies and packs oodles of weight and heft.

Beyond the sheer power, there are two more things to note about that transient onslaught. First, the treble is not rolled off and is allowed to roam freely. Second, dynamic range is staggering: not only do big macros give no hint of compression, they travel to places previously unheard at Nack Labs. The Audionet thrust coefficient is something else!

Yet peak SPLs do not bite you. Nice! I don’t know how Audionet managed that. How do you pack power, speed and full treble extension without harming the sensitive cochlea of the listener? Certainly, I did not expect it at this price point.”

See? We couldn’t have said it better or more eloquently than Mr. Marshall Nack, and our heartfelt thanks for those wise words. Let us just quote our founder, Mr. Thomas Gessler, at this point: “There’s one thing above all. I want to hear the music breathe.” 

We’re quite sure that is the exact reason why you’re here. You must have felt there’d be machines somewhere on this planet which can sound like these. Welcome home. We’ve been waiting for you.