ENLEUM AMP-23R - REVIEW
A Statement Product Makes A Compelling Statement!
Enleum is a new company founded by Soo In Chae, whose prior company, Bakoon developed products that were lauded across the world. The Bakoon AMP-13R was one of our Diamond Award winners and one of the Best Products of the Year for 2021.
The Enleum AMP-23R ($5000) represents Enleum’s first official product. And given my time with it, my observations on this first product reveal some quite compelling things about this first Enleum product.
As I wrote in an earlier posting on the Enleum AMP-23R in a preview:
“Several months ago when Soo In Chae, via very cryptic emails, 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, in this instance, had succumb to the time constraints of reality.
While the new amp did arrive prior to the magazine’s debut, there was hardly enough time to do a full review.
This then is the full review of Soo In Chae’s brand-spanking new product. One other thing that I had mentioned in that preview:
“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.”
And now with more than enough time to review the AMP-23R for this issue of AudioKeyREVIEWS! Magazine, I have discovered a rather compelling outcome. Is the Enleum AMP-23R better?
REFRAIN: Unlike most reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the equipment actually sounds and not the process of physically “undressing” it and/or laying out its various accoutrement, specifications, etc. Think of this review then, as a non-linear movie—Memento, Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Queen’s Gambit, In the Shadow of the Moon, etc—that, likewise, starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning.
SOUND
The Enleum AMP-23R for the purposes of this review was used as a headphone amplifier only and was never connected to speakers. Like its predecessor, the Enleum AMP-23R drove every headphone—dynamic, planar—attached to it beautifully, while lifting their performance across the board, as if lifting all boats!
Transparent. Highly resolving. Natural. Sweetly Musical. Well, yes, the Enleum AMP-23R is better, decidedly. It is even more transparent and more resolving than its predecessor and yet it offers up a naturalness and a sun-kissed musicality that will have you listening all day long. This was true for me on a great many occasions, as the AMP-23R is in many ways an exceptional reference component, as it easily ferrets out the ability of a host of other components—DACs, transports, streamers, headphones, etc.
The Enleum AMP-23R also had more gravitas, more weight across the entirety of the frequency spectrum, than its predecessor, even as it looked more closely in on details, spatial cues and subsequently freed them, time and time again. Though a number of other components were unable to see these details, spatial cues and the air that suffused them at all.
Perhaps it was the black-quiet background that made stark and easily observable all that belonged to the music and all that did not—noise. Until you’ve heard a component so adept at rendering critical details, while banishing noise, your music will always remain completely unknown to you, regardless of the decades held in your possession. I know this as truth, as it has consistently happened to me via all manner of exceptional components and now with the Enleum AMP-23R. Shirley Horn, Dave Brubeck, Stevie Wonder, Eiji Oue, Dexter Gordon, Miles Davis, Hilary Hahn, Pat Metheny, Vilde Frang, and many others became better known to me, as they and their performances were revealed, easily, effortlessly, via the AMP-23R as they had never been before.
Did I mention the rich, holographic, analog-like rendering, the at-ease parsing of timbral shadings across the entirety of the frequency range? Yes, these things too were integral to the performance of the Enleum AMP-23R and it excelled at this.
The Enleum AMP-23R’s volumetric cube—sound stage—is immense, ethereal, black-quiet, intimate, whatever and whenever it is called to be so. Positioning, separation, layering were exemplary and at its price point there are few peers!
The Enleum AMP-23R was partnered with the ROON Nucleus Plus Streamer, the Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC and the DENAFRIPS Pontus II DAC. The headphones used were the Meze Empyrean Elite, the Meze Empyrean, the Rosson Audio RAD-0, and the ZMF Atticus. Cabling was ANTICABLE. Power conditioning was handled by TORUS RM20.
BASS
Eiji Oue’s rendition of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite (1919 version): V. Infernal Dance of King Kashchey (Stravinsky, Reference Recordings) begins and the opening tympani strikes are foundational! Foundational in that one might well be able to build a multi-story apartment building upon the potency of the massed tympani strikes (of which I’m told there were seven for this piece). And yet the transparency, the resolution, the resurrection of fine detail, as a lone triangle sounds and then diminishes and as an ominous rumble precedes formidable mallet strikes upon stretched tympani skins. While the AMP-13R also acquitted itself well in this respect, the Enleum AMP-23R moves past it, in all respects. There is in this symphony hall, via the AMP-23R, an organic wholeness, that is tighter, more palpable, more forbidding, more revealing than was the case with its predecessor. And the air, the spatial cues, the depth and width and height of the soundstage are a good deal more voluminous. My notes on the Bakoon AMP-13R were very detailed and quite specific, as was the resulting writeup, yet collectively I did not witness/hear what I am now experiencing across the very same music. I have just virtually attended the Minnesota Symphony, which, by the way, is less than 200 feet from my current apartment. Bravo! Bravo!
MIDRANGE
As I wrote of the next piece of music in the Bakoon AMP-13R review:
“One of my favorite albums, for those who’ve not read any of my other reviews, is Olafur Arnalds Island Songs. It is poignant, engaging, beautifully orchestrated, and very well recorded. On the track “Árbakkinn” (the Riverbank) Icelandic poet, Einar Georg Einarsson, recites a poem in his native language and despite the fact that I do not understand a word (though I’ve subsequently found its translation), the poem and the music are incredibly captivating.”
The Enleum AMP-23R lays this track even more exposed than its predecessor and it does this in a way that does not shed a sand pebble of its richness and its natural and engaging musical beauty. On the contrary, the AMP-23R does that rarest of things—it frees copious amounts of detail, spatial cues, fine timbral shadings, made easy in some respects from the black-quiet background that it generates. A black-quiet background that serves as the encompassing universe of the music, which allows the AMP-23R to lift detail, like it is picking pearls, clearly exposed, from an ebony tabletop. Einar’s recitation on “Árbakkinn” (Island Songs, Mercury KX) is tangible, palpable, real, as the birds serenade Einar from outside of the studio and from the very beginning of this song. Only the most transparent components can resolve the birds from the very beginning—00.04 seconds—of this track. The Enleum does this easily and in stride and without a care in the world. Bravo!
TREBLE+
Kronos Quartet’s “Aaj Ki Raat”—Tonight is the Night—(Kronos Caravan, Nonsuch) cues for play. The very first thing noticed is the greater width and depth of the soundstage. “Aaj Ki Raat” is an ingathering of exotic instruments—Hindustani tabla, Lebanese nay, Iranian kemancheh—as well as the Kronos Quartet’s more traditional instruments—violins, viola, cello. A lone triangle sounds with great resolution and clarity. Ustad Zakir Hussain’s tabla then beautifully anchors the piece with weight, palpability, and a wonderful, distinct timbre. The Quartet’s first violin enters and is then joined by the mix of violin and cellos as they float high above the mix, spacious and vibrant and more real. The decay of notes is natural/organic as they beautifully diminish. The Enleum captures the interplay, the swift transients and dynamic shifts, the decay of notes, and holds them all in a refined, organic mix, free of stridency, harshness, or sibilance. Bravo!
The Wrappings and Accessories
The Enleum AMP-23R, brand-spanking new and, possibly, the first off of the assembly line came in a rather uneventful, cardboard box. I can only imagine, however, given the exceptional graphic design that went into the previous component developed by Soo In Chae, that wonders await in regard to the final package design.
Design—Look and Feel
The Enleum AMP-23R is slim, black, elegant, and diminutive. It could easily hide away on a shelf or a bookcase whilst connected to one’s speakers. However, when the music began any guest might swear that you were lying that that little box was responsible for the incredible music now being played. Yep.
The Enleum AMP-23R is the true embodiment of a meticulously-designed less is more minimalism, in a kindly diminutive package (easy on all backs) that one’s significant other or designer would be joyous to place in any highly-designed room.
Functionality
The Enleum AMP-23R is a remote controlled, twenty-five (25) watt integrated/headphone amplifier. Its volume is handled by a Microprocessing Unit (MPU) 1,025 Stepped Attenuator, that is unique in how it calibrates and displays the levels of volume. The AMP-23R’s high setting for speakers and headphones/IEMs is 22.5dB. The low setting for headphones/IEMs is 7dB.
The front face of the Enleum AMP-23R defines minimalism. On the far left top the Enleum logo and beneath it, the integrated’s designation. On its far right side protrudes a volume knob or MPU Controlled 1,024 Stepped Attenuator. To its immediate top left an on/off button, with indicator lights beneath it that depict through one of two lights the input and phase. And the beneath this indicator is a 6.3mm headphone socket. That that’s it.
Its back bace features on the far right an IEC socket for the power cord connection, the right speaker terminals, the two right single-ended inputs and the rightmost ENLINK connections, which facilitates connections with other Enleum components. On the far left, with the exception of the IEC socket, are the matching left channels to speakers, single-ended connections and the ENLINK.
The Enleum AMP-23R’s genius lies in its new Ensence Circuit that incorporates a “new and advanced PCB” architecture which “employs all discrete transistors with zero negative feedback and an ultra-fast and ultra-wide frequency response.”
In terms of headphone power, the Enleum AMP-23R was used to drive headphones and IEMs only. And it drove every headphone and IEM in the house beautifully without ever passing the one-third mark on its volume grid. And given this fact, there is, perhaps, no headphone, not even the monstrously inefficient, that the Enleum AMP-23R cannot drive.
The Specifications
Enleum AMP-23R
Power Output : 25 watts (8 Ω, 1 kHz) | 45 watts (4 Ω, 1 kHz) | 4 watts (60 Ω, 1 kHz)
Gain : 22.5 dB max. (speaker, headphone high) or 7 dB max. (headphone low)
Gain Control : MPU Controlled 1,024 Stepped Attenuator
Frequency Response : 10 Hz ~ 100 kHz
Input : 2 Voltage (RCA) 1 ENLINK (BNC)
Input Impedance : 10 kΩ (Voltage), 10 Ω (ENLINK)
User Interface : One Button & Gain Phase Control | Remote Controller
Power Consumption : 30 watts (Idle) |100 watts (Max)
Dimensions : 230 mm (W) x 230 mm (D) x 55 mm (H)
Weight : 4.0 kg (net), 4.5 kg (shipping)
Compatibility (Synergy)
The Enleum AMP-23R was alternately partnered to the Mola Mola Tambaqui and the DENAFRIPS Pontus II. The headphones used to ferret out synergy were each and everyone exceptional and when paired with the Enleum AMP-23R, without exception(!) the resultant music was absolutely exceptional on its own. However, when paired with the Enleum AMP-23R each was fully brought to optimum performance and, in cases, beyond what I had expected, despite a history and awareness of the given headphone. The Enleum AMP-23R was consistently outstanding. And this is a rare feat indeed for any component.
CONCLUSIONS
The Enleum AMP-23R like the AMP-13R before it utilizes the shortest of signal paths, optimized parts, EXICON MOSFETS, and a separate ADC and DAC. Yet the Enleum AMP-23R goes a step further with the implementation of the Ensence Circuit—a “new and advanced PCB” architecture which “employs all discrete transistors with zero negative feedback and an ultra-fast and ultra-wide frequency response.”
Can exacting, yet minute changes make a world of difference in the sound of a given component? Yes, and the results, in this instance, are stunning! Soo In Chae has been on to something and in his latest iteration he moves his creation ever closer to perfection in small, measured, short-signal-path steps.
The Enleum AMP-23R, in its current iteration, thus allows the signal to flow free of both additive and subtractive elements and in this sense it, Enleum AMP-23R, achieves what a good many other components attempt to do but do not. And it does it with the sweetest kiss of richness in a true Ying/Yang duality.
If headphones are your domain, the AMP-23R may well move beyond any solid state headphone amplifier in terms of its “sound” and with 4 watts on tap, even the Grandmother of inefficient headphones (they know who they are) will find themselves sailing along with great ease, and you with great enjoyment of them.
If loudspeakers are your domain, then you will first need efficient speakers (90dB+) as the Enleum AMP-23R’s 25 watts, in this event, may not power the monstrously inefficient loudspeakers. But for those speakers that comply, and this is an assessment based upon many decades of listening experience (as I did not connect it to speakers) and the proper ancillary equipment, I believe a lifetime of happiness awaits from this diminutive gray/black beauty.
The Enleum AMP-23R, also like its predecessor, is a form-follows-function, minimalist, pragmatic, industrially-designed component, that is exceptionally transparent, natural, superbly musical, and fantastically involving. The Enleum AMP-23R is our latest DIAMOND AWARD WINNER and very, very highly recommended!
Pros: Transparency, resolution, amazing transient speed, organic/natural musicality, etc.
Cons: Zero.
The Company
ENLEUM
Enleum AMP-23R ($5,500)
ENLEUM
Enleum International Inc.
San Jose, CA
www.enleum.com
info@enleum.com