Six Moons sur le GOLDMUND Telos 590 NextGen I (Reference Integrated with DAC)

Personal highlight and arguably the most unexpected aspect of this NextGen Swiss—Germany's WBT hit the NextGen naming turf first, leading AURALiC to call theirs G2 instead—was the sheer vibrancy of the tonal palette. That's been a traditional forté of valved competitors. With the Telos 590, it's migrated to Exicon Mosfets. So assured was this quality that Samuel Furon's solid-core silver Ocellia OCC speaker leads could stay put. Silver cables + hard ceramic diaphragms + transistors = polished rich colours? Quite. It's not what preconceptions expect. The Telos 590NextGen clearly benefits from very mature core circuitry which Goldmund  kept revisiting over the four decades they've done upscale hifi already. The currently ultimate expression in the cost-no-object Telos 5500 NextGen informs this integrated now. Its color palette runs hot like a minor fever yet the chassis itself is an ice queen. Cosmetics are understated and conservative yet the emotional power released between the triangulated coordinates of high-speed circuitry, ultra-low noise and built-in super DAC is exuberant and emphatic. A Swiss with his heart on a sleeve? What delicious effrontery. On my sonic map of prior encounters, the  590 sat right next to the Bakoon DAC-21/AMP-51R combo; or the Aqua Formula, Wyred4Sound STP-SE Stage II, Linnenberg Allegro set;  not in two or four mismatched chassis but just one. In my book, that spelled a real winner; and object of desire for those with the requisite means to pursue it. Ovation time!