Stefano Bertoncello writes: “The bespoke, ultra limited edition DST17, with its meteorite-iron pole-pieces and fossil mammoth ivory cantilever and an slim-like building care and quality, was delivered by its maker, Maestro Daniel Kim. As I already appreciated when first meeting Daniel in person a few weeks ago in Munchen, he proved to be a rare-breed artisan whose knowledge for his craft and care for details seldom found everywhere.”
“We met at Marco’s place in Bologna and the Fluksus and ALE system were in great shape and superbly fine-tuned; the Technics SP-10R in skeletal plinth and Shindo RF-773 Meursault 13” arm played some truly nice music with Analogtechnik’s DST15 La Scala with authority and extremely class and beauty… but… BUT!!!
When we mounted the brand-new DST17 serial # 000/010 😱😱😱😱😱😱🥇🥇🥇🥇
OMG!
The colliding of stars, an Higgins’ Boson, a Black Hole happened in fron of the excluse panel: music sounded like it was played by a group of Saints, an orchestra whose members were Angels and Seraphims, directed by God in person 😏😵💫😀😊😇😎!
Daniel Kim, myself and the landlord were jaws-dropped and not blinking-eyes-mode for long, loooong moments.
It was such a one-of-a-kind listening experience which left us empty and full of emotions at the same time.
I felt honored as I witnessed the birth of a star (DST17), a new bench-mark, no hypes and so different from the poor, poor presentation of Analogtechnik’s cartridges at last Munchen’s HiEnd, seriously affected by an inexplicable (or unfortunately predictable) lack of empathetic support to the young craftsman from so-called audio geniuses, relegated to a few minutes of listening at the end of the day when all the visitors had already left, on a record player and an arm unsuitable for express the HUGE merits of these extraordinary cartridges.
I could continue in singing praises about yesterday… I won’t do!
The highlight of 2023, to-date… silky, natural, effortless, beefy and organic sound was the gift after a lot of time and efforts from all parties involved in creating this limited-edition worth the VERY BEST ancillaries and most exclusive audio installations.
Everything in the name of Music… and empathy among good-hearted people.
No jealousy or power-games, only positive vibes, Italian-style in South-Korean sauce.
I’m so proud to have been involved in this unique experience and creation of this bespoke cartridge and I truly wish to Daniel to get the success he deserves, still keeping his humbleness and no-compromises approach.
… and of course, as I’m nor jealous neither snob, try to get a DST17 for an ultimate, definitive analog experience: reportedly (from the patron who financed the project) most of the very limited edition batch is already reserved, but some could be still available, as I’m writing at the moment.”
