BLUENOTE Stibbert Tube
Digital sources
The Stibbert's purpose is to make listening pleasure not to analyze music. It is a warm, round and ear-friendly player that brings back the old good days when vinyl was the king. However, its resolving capabilities left the Stibbert behind competition.
Function and form
The Stibbert's package includes not only the CD player unit but also brass bolts, springs, aluminum rods, acrylic and aluminum plates. The owner needs to assemble the device and suspend the CD unit from the thick black acrylic piece that is shaped like a butterfly. The Bluenote suggests it is the shape of F1 monoposts - if yes then I do not know what it has to do with a CD player. When assembled the whole framework is perfectly stiff and the transport elastically decoupled from it. Bluenote puts a lot of effort into anti-vibrational design that comes close to that of high-end turntables.
The top and bottom acrylic plates are available in black, in transparent or in combination of both.
Bass management
The transport mechanism is plastic. The electronic parts are claimed to be developed by Bluenote - Zero-Clock should suppress jitter, Electro-Power supply should have power conditioning abilities and also controls the reading optic. Crystal Semiconductor DAC chip upsamples to 24bit/192kHz and send the signal to a tubed output stage (two 6922EH triodes).
To me the Stibbert is mechanically perfectioned device with quite standard internal topology. For its asking price I would like to see better parts inside.
Clarity & delicacy
The turntable analogy projects significantly into the Stibbert's sound that is very smooth and liquid with spacious soundstage. The Bluenote saturates tonal colours of instruments and voices on top of very good bass - the music is rich and dense with great macrodynamics. When I listened to Barry Adamson's Leech’s Funeral Service I enjoyed full sound of a saxophone and double bass, as well as liquid gospel choirs mixed with various synthetic sounds. The Stibbert played with passion and the big band music matched well its style.
Tonal accuracy
Spatial resolution
I lacked a higher level of resolution. The saxophone was an exhibition of clours but it was much more difficult to track its movements or hear the subtle sounds (like the player moving, felt pads stopping the air etc.). With reasonable effort I could distinguish individual members of the choir, however I missed a bit of ambience and surrounding air. The Stibbert's sound was muted as if the room was acoustically dead and it was not capable of micro-resolution. The good thing was that some bright recordings were pretty good listenable through the Stibbert.
Manufacturer's website: http://www.fineaudio.com.au
Associated components
- Source: Accuphase DP-78
- Amplifiers: Pro-Ject Stereo Box RS, Accuphase 2410 and A-60
- Interconnects and speaker cables: Krautwire Fractal, Audioquest Forrest, Pro-Ject
- Loudspeakers: Bowers & Wilkins 802 Diamond
- Power conditioning: Nordost Thor (modified), Nordost Valhalla, Block Audio Snakeblock
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