ENLEUM AMP-23R - PREVIEW
Look Out, Here Comes Next-Gen!
Okay, a bit of history first. I reviewed designer Soo In Chae’s Bakoon AMP-13R integrated/headphone amplifier earlier in the year. From its external packaging to its inner components, the AMP-13R was exceptionally well designed from an industrial design and engineering standpoint, and the music that it made was exceptional (see review). The Bakoon AMP-13R won our highest award—the DIAMOND AWARD. It has also been selected as a product of the year for 2021, as featured in this debut issue of the AudioKeyREVIEWS! magazine.
Soo In Chae’s Bakoon AMP-13R was premised on “efficient simplicity”—just that which is necessary for the music, via the shortest signal path and the best available parts, to render music with the highest fidelity. This was achieved in the Bakoon AMP-13R. As I wrote in its review:
“The Bakoon AMP-13R is much like a great leader or coach or a superstar athlete in that its inclusion with any combination of capable components will lift all boats to levels that they may not have previously experienced. Please don’t take my word for it, seek out the Bakoon AMP-13R and discover this for yourself. The truth in this case will be in the listening and the subsequent lifting of all boats/components in your respective head-fi systems. Finally, the Bakoon AMP-13R performed flawlessly over the course of its entire stay! … The Bakoon AMP-13R is a form-follows-function work of modern art. Further, the AMP-13R is incredibly transparent, of a natural/organic musicality, and wondrously engaging. It is our latest DIAMOND award winner.”
Several months ago when Soo In Chae, via a very cryptic email, alerted me to the fact that something new would soon be debuting, something even better than the Bakoon AMP-13R, I was very interested.
Shortly thereafter, Soo In Chae sent the very first pictures of the new amplifier—Enleum AMP-23R—that I found very intriguing. The world Enleum, by the way, represents the synergistic coupling of “Enlightenment” and the Korean word “Eum,” which means “sound” or “note.”
Soo In Chae also noted that all the performance benchmarks set by the Bakoon AMP-13R had been surpassed by the new integrated amplifier. My question, “So when do I receive my review sample?”
I was told by Soo In that I would receive my sample of the Enleum AMP-23R prior to the debut of the AudioKeyREVIEWS! Magazine, with sufficient time to write a full-blown review. Well, the best laid plans often come up against unforeseeable events.
While the new amp did arrive prior to the magazine’s debut, there was hardly enough time to do a full review. So what you read now is but a preview of the Enleum AMP-23R with the full review scheduled for the second edition of the AudioKeyREVIEWS! magazine.
If the Bakoon AMP-13R has, indeed, been bettered either marginally or significantly by the Enleum AMP-23R, then I will absolutely reveal those details in my upcoming review. We, AudioKeyReviews, are, after all, passionate music lovers, who are incredibly supportive of the talented designers and engineers who push the envelope to bring forward components which offer the highest fidelity and musically engaging solutions. Solutions which allow for the enjoyment of the millions upon millions of songs that we all now have access to 24/7/365 via the various streaming services. I refer to these times as the Golden Age of Music Access (GAMA). AKRM
Stay Tuned!
K.E. Heartsong
The Company
ENLEUM
Enleum AMP-23R ($6,000)
ENLEUM
Enleum International Inc.
San Jose, CA
www.enleum.com
info@enleum.com