2014 had been a very fruitful year for AE. I want to express my sincere gratitude to all of you alongside our partners in various part of the world who are willing to bear with my relentless attitude to keep pushing the envelope. This is not easy. Because I don't like to walk the conventional path.
WIth respect to the product of the year from my perspective, it has been the most difficult year for me to pick one. All of our partners have matured to the next stage. Frankly, I don't exactly know how I can improve substantially more in 2015 after reaching the current zone of ultra performance both at home and at AE.
As a result, I have listed my own criteria to pick the product of the year from now on. And it has to meet all of the following conditions:
1. The designer has to demonstrate expertise in more than 1 area.
2. Response to customer support must be fast.
3. Product Delivery has to be on time (within 2 weeks of deviation from target delivery.)
4. Reliability of the product over time.
5. The technology employed must be groundbreaking from the perspective of conveying musicality (this is the part customer will decide)
6. Stability of product line.
7. Ease of communication
Based on such stringent conditions, there is only 1 designer who meet all of the aforementioned conditions.
He is DIETMAR BRAUMER of TRINITY ELECTRONICS GmbH.
His DAC and POWER AMP have shocked all critics. His relentless effort to keep improving everything until the last minute without delaying delivery is simply UNIQUE. He redefines the meaning of "state of the art" using compact chassis to save the space for HK audiophiles and push the performance exponentially at the same time.
I would also like to say from now on the product of the year award is also equivalent to the DESIGNER of the YEAR award. I shall present a Medal to Dietmar Braumer later and ship to Germany.
At the personal level, the Zanden Chouku also touches me tremendously because of my decade long relationship with Yamada san. It also happened that it is always his dream to build the best single end tube power amplifiers at his 60 year old birthday. AE has fulfilled his dream and the Chouku shall remain a cornerstone in the history of AE forever.
The truly out of the box concept from Javier of Wadax also earns my earnest respect for the innovation of ideas to the service of music. I continue to see great potential in this young man. His technical expertise is amongst the rarest I have ever met in my life so far.
Other than that, all other manufacturers have done a great job and I really have no idea how I can rank you guys in terms of importance because the perfectionist state is accumulative.
If I had not singled you out in this short writeup, it does not mean you are not the best in your field. The fact that you guys are under AE portfolio already means tremendous in terms of ultra quality.
I forget to say RALPH KREBS of Cessaro is a close call to being the DESIGNER of the YEAR because he meets ALL of the condition except 1. He only made speakers.
But soon in 2015, Ralph will venture into more areas.......
Comments
WIth respect to the product of the year from my perspective, it has been the most difficult year for me to pick one. All of our partners have matured to the next stage. Frankly, I don't exactly know how I can improve substantially more in 2015 after reaching the current zone of ultra performance both at home and at AE.
As a result, I have listed my own criteria to pick the product of the year from now on. And it has to meet all of the following conditions:
1. The designer has to demonstrate expertise in more than 1 area.
2. Response to customer support must be fast.
3. Product Delivery has to be on time (within 2 weeks of deviation from target delivery.)
4. Reliability of the product over time.
5. The technology employed must be groundbreaking from the perspective of conveying musicality (this is the part customer will decide)
6. Stability of product line.
7. Ease of communication
He is DIETMAR BRAUMER of TRINITY ELECTRONICS GmbH.
His DAC and POWER AMP have shocked all critics. His relentless effort to keep improving everything until the last minute without delaying delivery is simply UNIQUE. He redefines the meaning of "state of the art" using compact chassis to save the space for HK audiophiles and push the performance exponentially at the same time.
I would also like to say from now on the product of the year award is also equivalent to the DESIGNER of the YEAR award. I shall present a Medal to Dietmar Braumer later and ship to Germany.
At the personal level, the Zanden Chouku also touches me tremendously because of my decade long relationship with Yamada san. It also happened that it is always his dream to build the best single end tube power amplifiers at his 60 year old birthday. AE has fulfilled his dream and the Chouku shall remain a cornerstone in the history of AE forever.
The truly out of the box concept from Javier of Wadax also earns my earnest respect for the innovation of ideas to the service of music. I continue to see great potential in this young man. His technical expertise is amongst the rarest I have ever met in my life so far.
Other than that, all other manufacturers have done a great job and I really have no idea how I can rank you guys in terms of importance because the perfectionist state is accumulative.
If I had not singled you out in this short writeup, it does not mean you are not the best in your field. The fact that you guys are under AE portfolio already means tremendous in terms of ultra quality.
Merry Xmas and Happy New year!
PT/Jlam
I forget to say RALPH KREBS of Cessaro is a close call to being the DESIGNER of the YEAR because he meets ALL of the condition except 1. He only made speakers.
But soon in 2015, Ralph will venture into more areas.......
"Wow" factor dominates my selection criteria, with LV Titan Duo and Single come close. Mind you all, the new LV feet aren't a facelift.
The Wadax Trio just arrived and yet to set up computer audio and remapping. I will consider it as a 2015 contender.
Doug's choice is obvious: the one-of-a-kind D7 SE phono