Audionet G5 Exclusive Review

 The ART G5 is a CD turntable that I regret missing. I missed it when I was looking for a digital source for editorial reference, and I couldn’t stop listening to it, but unfortunately I had to let it go in the end. It can be said to be the masterpiece of the new generation CD turntable, using the new CD Pro8 laser reading mechanism, which is the best CD turntable structure (excluding SACD) you can buy with money, while the YBA CDT 450 used by U-Audio, using the CD-Pro2, was also once recognized as the best turntable structure, but unfortunately it was discontinued, so most of the new high-end digital turntables turn to the CD-Pro8. Unfortunately, it was discontinued, so most of the new high-end digital turntables are moving to the CD-Pro8, and missing the ART G5 means that we are stuck in the past and not keeping up with the latest trend.

Moreover, the CD-Pro8 used in the ART G5 is a modified and enhanced version, with many of Audionet’s own technologies, originally called “Aligned Resonance Technology”, which is the origin of the ART name.

The “Harmonic Calibration Technology” includes many of Audionet’s unique vibration suppression designs, such as separating the CD reader from the control circuit board to avoid the effects of subtle vibrations, mounting the CD reader on top of a thick aluminum plate, strengthening the damping of the aluminum plate, and securing it with brass feet. Although the chassis appears to be standard in size, it weighs as much as 22 kg, and Audionet has added a lot of material to control the resonance.

Another technical highlight of the ART G5 is Audionet’s own DSP upsampling algorithm, which upscales all music signals to 24 bit/192 kHz and then sends them to dual DACs for independent decoding of the left and right channels, and uses asynchronous clock recalibration to reduce the time base error to less than 60 picoseconds sigma. Audionet says that this is already a value that tests the limits of the measuring instrument, meaning that the time base error of the ART G5 is so low that even the instrument can barely detect it, so you know how low it is.

All digital conversions have to go through analog amplification, and this part of the ART G5 uses our own Audionet OP, which some people may think is not good enough when they see the OP. The OP can achieve very good bandwidth and low distortion at the same time, but the problem is that the high specification OP needs sufficient production volume before the manufacturer is willing to do it, so the Audionet OP is not easy to come by.

The most expensive electrostatic headphone system today

The Sennheiser HE1 was launched in 2016, and it can be said to be one of the most expensive headphone systems today. The reason why audiophiles call it the “New Big O” is to pay tribute to the flagship Orpheus electrostatic headphone system back then. The price of the Orpheus launched almost 30 years ago was 300,000 dollars, which is about the price of a ping in the egg yolk district of Taipei City, and the price of the HE1 launched later was 2 million dollars, which is also about the price of a ping in a luxury house in Taipei City.

Called electrostatic headphone system, meaning that HE1 is not only electrostatic headphones, but also added vacuum tube amplifiers and DAC decoding, as long as the addition of music sources, you can enjoy music, launched in 2016, it will use eight ESS SABRE ES9018 DAC chip working in parallel, fully balanced digital analog decoding, now almost all high-end digital sources to adopt the same structure, it can be seen that the design of HE1 The design of HE1 is very forward-looking, and it is still not outdated after five years of launch.

A rare opportunity to try out the sound system

The ART G5 with HE1 is a must-have experience. However, how many audio stores are willing to show such an expensive “personal exclusive” audio system to the public? So, if you want to see the best personal audio system, don’t miss this opportunity to try it out.

This is the third HE1 audition event, the first one with Danish Gato, the second one with Mark Levinson, and this one with Audionet.

Since I had the chance to hear HE1 in 2016, I have only had the chance to touch it during the audio show. However, the audio show is inevitably interfered by the environment, and HE1 is an open-type static headphone, so it is afraid of the noisy environment. How can you feel the power of a top-notch headphone system when the details of the music reproduced by the HE1 are covered up? However, if you make a reservation for the audition, you can enjoy the exclusive listening room for 30 minutes per session without worrying about the interference from the surroundings.

With such a high-end headphone system, the power supply must also be taken into consideration. If you come to audition the sound, you can ask more about the details of the sound system, which is the professionalism of the store.

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