DarTzeel’s new direction

I owned one of the original Dartzeel NHB pre amps which I bought 2nd hand, it was about 4yrs old with the built in phono. I was going to get it upgraded to V2 or trade it in for a new one but there was a very long wait time, due to part shortages apparently, so went another route.

In the UK the preamp was around 15k GBP when it came out around 2004/5. Within a few years it went up to approx 24K due to the weakness of the pound.  According to the bank of England’s inflation calculator 24K (in 2008) would be 38k in todays money. Even allowing for some improvement costs the current a price tag of 54k  is a very large increase, needless to say it puts the amp in the ultra expensive category.

In 2008 the cost of the Dart NHB was equal to the average annual income in the UK (24k). Average income is currently around 30/4k so about 60% of a new Dartzeel. No wonder they are not flying off the shelf in spite of being an excellent amp!

I am not sure why he would pull all of his products from his website if he was actually coming out with a more affordable lineup.  Why would u not offer both ?  Doesn't add up.

I almost quit Audiogon because of the "rich" bashing.  When in high school I mowed yards and had a paper route.  I got my first Dynaco Kit with the proceeds (I/2 of my income went to a college fund) that I soldered together and made speakers.  At that time I never dreamed I'd have the system I have today.  Many wealthy people you will never see as they live below their means.  That's why they are wealthy.  They are not "gullible" or have made all their money with bit coin.  Most just work hard and smart.

That said I don't think the uber high end products provide the level of performance commensurate with their price.  

Thanks for this post skinzy! Sweeping generalizations about individuals of any economic status are the indication of a small mind.  

I’ve played with dartzeel’s amp circuitry, and assessed overall design.. they are trying to replicate tube sound, by increasing output impedance and create sophisticated fb loop freq./phase characteristics in SS ckt. I give Dartzeel credit of 50Ohm pre/amp interconnects design, which has sense to eliminate reflections and affecting sound resonances in longer than ~3ft cables. 

Few years ago I red Geneva Switzerland Audiophile direct Accuphase A70 comparison to DartZeel NHB.. Well, Dartzeel lost!. I confirmed in my experiments that replicating tube sound by SS ckt by Dartzeel has some disadvantages, and can be used only for flatter Z/freq. speakers, while Accuphase can drive speakers from 1Ohm to 16Ohms without affecting sound much.