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stserophritlicartridge coils and another did delicate
hand-soldering.
I watched the delicate, time-consum-
ing assembly of a cueing mechanism
and then saw a top-of-the-line
Statement tonearm constructed from
many fine parts. It’s not accidental that
the whole process is similar to how fine
mechanical watches are made.
Then Micha threw watchmaking
caution out the window and allowed
me to try adjusting the suspension of
a just-rebuilt EMT cartridge, which
required me to press the
end of the cantilever with
my index finger, forcing its
back end against the rub-
ber damper, which scared
the crap out of me.
I managed to do it and
then secure the tiny grub
screw—both while looking
into a microscope. I felt a
great deal of satisfaction—
until that cartridge was
installed in the test arm
and the cantilever collapsed
instead of tracking the test
record.
I tried a few more times
without success. Then
I watched Huber, the
experienced watchmaker,
do it and realized I had not
used sufficient force. Better
that than snap the canti-
lever! Huber repeated the
process until the test record
indicated ideal complianceof Zurich provided dramatic lake and
mountain vistas. HiFiction’s Micha
Huber met me at the station and took
me to another really nice hotel. We
shared a very pleasant meal.
I spent most of the next day at
HiFiction’s sunlit, spacious, “heavily
wooded” factory—wooden shelves,
desks, tables, and storage cubbies
(which looked remarkably like I’d
imagined)—watching workers at one
end prepare for High End Munich
while, at the other, a woman woundI own, assembly takes place in a rela-
tively small, clean, well-organized shop
on a series of tables. Subassemblies
are picked as needed, and the finished
products are assembled by hand. I
was there on a weekend, so I couldn’t
watch components being built, but I
was shown the process by which the
multipin cable is constructed.
You see the finished cable with its
20 pin connectors at both ends, and
you don’t think about how it gets
made. Each tiny wire (20 in each cable)
close to the border with France, had an
excellent “meaty” meal in a charming
little restaurant, and then went to his
home and listened to records that I’d
brought on his vintage EMT broadcast
turntable through his big Klipschorns,
driven by the new NHB-108 model
2 stereo amplifier. It was the first time
I “got” what these speakers do really
well: untangle and resolve inner detail
in a most “speedy” way. Bass was bet-
ter than I’d expected, though they’re
not the greatest in the time domain.
I spent the night in a French hotel just
across the border. It snowed overnight
and, not too much higher up from
where I was staying, it stuck. The day
began with more listening—this time to
the new NHB-468 monoblocks—and
then it was off to darTZeel’s CNC
facility. In what appeared to be an old
wooden barn, some of the industry’s
most fanciful and distinctive casework
is produced. From there, we headed
for darTZeel’s offices and assembly
facilities located in a funky loftlike
building with lots of “atmosphere.”
It’s a much smaller facility than CH’s,
which makes sense since darTZeel’s
product lineup is smaller.
The 3-hour, late-afternoon train
ride to Winterthur on the outskirts
is soldered by hand by a
woman who places the
cable through a retaining
loop and then slings it
over her shoulder so she
can hold it steady enough
to solder and shrink-wrap
20 wires to 20 tiny pins
located in close proximity
to one another and then
turn the cable around
and do it again, making
sure the correct wire goes
to the correct pin.
darTZeel’s Hervé
Delétraz picked me up
at CH Precision—they
are all friends. We drove
to near where he lives
Top:TheformerhomeofOdeon
Records.Left:Ahand-soldered
andshrinkwrappedmulti-pin
connectoratCH-Precision.Below:
ThisinstrumentinCH-Precision’s
machineshopmakesremote
controlsovernight.