Gold Note

Manufacturers website: www.goldnote.it

I was the UK importer for Gold Note for many years until 2017.

I have some interesting deals from my stock and a couple of one-off items – please see my USED HI-FI/EX-DEM listings.

GOLD NOTE, rebranded from Goldenote (originally Bluenote) are an Italian company who make everything in-house from turntables, tonearms, cartridges, CD players through to loudspeakers. The best of ‘lifestyle’ in terms of style but with sonics and musicality of the highest order.

They produce beautifully crafted arms from aircraft-grade aluminium and titanium. The top tubes are machined in varying thickness of titanium to cut down resonances. They make gimbal bearing designs of up to 12 inches in length. (There were some great Unipivot arms – now discontinued.) Their turntables use AC 24 pole motors for better dynamics than DC motors and combine acrylic plinths with brass spacers and counterweights. The bearing design comprised a PTFE slug (the slipperiest substance known to man) in a brass sleeve which gives a highly detailed but natural sound owing to there being no metal to metal contact. Their cartridge range is smooth and detailed and starts with entry-level Moving Magnets followed by High-Output Moving-Coils and  Moving Coils of the highest order.

The Micro-Line comprised the compact CD-7, DAC-7, HP-7 headphone amp and pre-amp, AP-7 integrated amp, M-7 mono amp, PH-7 phono pre-amp, and PSU-7 external power supply. All in compact sized casework 200mm L x 80mm H x 260mm D.

They voice their digital products by comparing them to similarly priced turntables in their range resulting in an excellent tonality. Consequently products like the Bluenote Stibbert valve CD player was considered amongst the world’s best by Harry Pearson of Stereophile.

An excellent amplifier range, the top models such as the Demidoff were 60% handmade employing inductive power supplies, tastefully backlit VU meters and remote-controls.

Finally, their speakers respect the tradition of pre 90’s Spendor, Rogers and Harbeth with thin-wall construction – actually of varying thickness – making them transmit sound like a musical instrument. Some have screw -mounted back panels to decouple vibrations in the time-honoured fashion which made for such musical engagement all but lost in most modern MDF designs by designers who think over-focused detail is everything even if it means losing the natural reverb and decay of a note.

This company deserves far greater recognition. They produce attractive modern designs which simultaneously respect the greatness of past classics; they are forward-thinking artisans!