darTZeel NHB-108 model two
Like the proverbial pot of gold, darTZeel’s golden equipment beckons. That, at least, is how it felt in January 2010, when John Atkinson and I ended our coverage of T.H.E. Show Las Vegas in the room shared by darTZeel, Evolution Acoustics, and Playback Designs1. Listening to darTZeel’s discontinued NHB-458 monoblocks2 and NHB-18NS reference preamplifier (now updated), I was transfixed by the fullness of the system’s midrange and overall beauty of the sound. “It was as though the system was opening its heart and welcoming us in,” I wrote. “That’s how warm and nurturing the sound was.”
The high point of the show came when I offered up the CD While You Are Alive by the male vocal ensemble Cantus, which John recorded. “The sound was little short of heavenly,” I wrote of an experience that left us glowing and feeling at one with the music. What remains ensconced in my memory is the system’s disarming naturalness of sound and generosity of spirit.
Cymbals were alive and believable, the midrange was smooth and inviting, and the piano’s timbres were nigh perfect.
Now, almost 12 years later, I was preparing to revisit darTZeel, this time in my own home.3 The product—darTZeel calls their components “instruments”—was the “model two” version of darTZeel’s original Swiss-made stereo amplifier, the NHB-1084. When it was first released, that looker of an amp cost $18,000; the model two costs $53,000. It’s likely that some readers will look at the price and think that they need to stumble upon a pot of gold in order to afford one.
The NHB-108 model two’s designer, company founder Hervé Delétraz, clearly intended to attract attention when his first product emerged with a gold faceplate, red heatsink fins, and a see-through glass top that revealed one-of-a-kind gold crescents, gold-topped capacitors, and (of course) gold-topped transformers. Blue and red also figure prominently in the visual display. As with certain Swiss watches that purposely expose their gears, the NHB-108 puts on quite the show.
“The first amp took 16 years to design because it wasn’t a full-time job and I needed to eat,” Delétraz explained in a conversation via Skype. “After I patented the electronic circuit [in 2000], which is different than others, I wanted everything else to be different, including the look and parts inside and out. I replaced straight bus bars with gold crescents because I thought they looked better. The internal finishings are also hand-brushed and anodized. We are the only company to do this; even the other Swiss
