Innovation
The analogue audio market has undergone a significant renaissance in the last 15 years. Contrary to the predicted demise of the turntable heralded by the release of the Sony CDP-101 in 1982, the analogue market has withstood the test of time and has seen steady growth since 2000.
Each form of media, digital or analogue, is a facsimile of the original performance. No media is truly inclusive of every detail of the performance. However, from a sound quality perspective, the question is are we extracting all the available information from the media?
What makes a Dohmann design different?
It is the Dohmann Audio approach to micro-detail retrieval that sets the designs apart from the majority of the market offerings.
This has been the main goal of all turntable designers throughout the history of audio and remains the goal of most serious turntable designers today. Ultimately, it is a matter of how much effort are you prepared to put into your design? How important is it to you? For many designers, it may not be commercially viable to start fresh and invest the resources into new research, testing and measuring. This is why the majority of designs offered to the audiophile market are based on old technology & methodology with a fresh aesthetic.
At Dohmann Audio, we have listened to most of the modern high end designs which are well reputed and believed that we could take the listening experience to a new level. That takes a lot of effort, determination, investment and courage. It takes an understanding that all this equipment sounds this way because of the technology that is being used and if we want to sound better, then we have to forget about that technology and find something better. And when we find something better, we have to prove that it improves the sound quality. If it does, how do we then incorporate it into a user-friendly domestic turntable design? This thinking is the breeding ground for innovation and is at the core of all Dohmann designs.
The possibilities for innovation are almost endless. Technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. We are constantly researching new breakthroughs in unrelated disciplines, in contact with a network of researchers around the world, attending science and engineering events globally with a view to incorporating new technology in the pursuit of better sound.
Voicing
There is no doubt that technology is paramount when pursuing high performance. The laws of physics have to be respected and when investigating which designs & materials work best, there is no substitute for research & technology.
However, we are human beings and our engagement with music is emotional in nature. In order to create a truly satisfying musical playback system, you need to have a deeper understanding of psychoacoustics (how our brains perceive music and sounds). To build a turntable which raises the level of musical enjoyment requires an understanding of which design elements influence critical psychoacoustic experiences.
A violin built by a robot may have perfect symmetry & construction. It may be ‘theoretically perfect’ but it simply won’t sound as musically engaging as a violin built by an experienced master luthier.
There are other elements in a design which influence the sonic attributes of the final result. These understandings come through “blood, sweat and tears” and a lifetime pursuit of music playback perfection.