There's not much room for tweaking here, either. Forget aftermarket power cords. Too bad, too. As good as this system sounded, I couldn't help but wish to try some of my own cords as I marveled at how well it did without them. Of course, most of the cords in-house retail for more than the entire DIY system. How's that for perspective? It's the price we audiophiles pay to wring the last iota of performance from our components. Some may gravitate toward the DIY products just because they squash such temptations. Satan, be gone.


Nor will you get a backache lugging these things around. None of these little boxes tipped the scale at much over a few pounds. In fact, my JPS Labs Ultraconductor interconnects and Opera Joplin speaker wires weighed more than the components which were hard pressed to stay in place once connected up. I opted for these more commensurately priced wires and interconnects in part because my JPS Labs Superconductor 3s would have been an impossible proposition due to the relative weights involved. As it was, a two-quart bottle of Nitty Gritty record cleaner fluid was called into service to sit atop the stack and stabilize things.


What you do get is very nice across-the-board performance with no glaring faults. The Horning Perikles aren't the last word in deep bass extension but as far as they go, Charlize kept things taut and tuneful—no slurring here. The bass line from Dave Grusin's "She Could Be Mine" from GRP's Digital Sampler Volume 2 [GRP-D-9529] did an excellent job plowing the way for Grusin's piano and the various percussion instruments. The soundtstage was big and airy and reminded me greatly of the Cayin A 88T, a KT88 tube integrated. The presentation was light and open with nice microdynamic bite. Not the last word in harmonic saturation -- nobody will mistake Charlize for an EL34 amp or my own ICEpower based analog switching Bel Canto Reference 1000s -- but by no means were we talking dry or sterile. When "The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" commenced, I had to put pen and paper down for the duration. A composition of mostly strings and piano, it really put the midrange performance and overall balance of Charlize to the test and considering the price and class involved, she faired absolutely brilliantly. All things considered, there was little room for criticism but if I had to pick a nit or two, I could have wished for a bit more soundstage depth.

It wasn't that the stage was of only two dimensions; the graduations from front to back were obscured. Width was very good and about three minutes into the song where Grusin's tickled ivories are located entirely to extreme stage left only accompanied by Abe Laboriel's bass lines, the DIY components did a heck of a job making the piano plainly visible about half the way back on stage. To say that the DIY components don't do depth is an overstatement. When things get frenzied, they simply don't keep things sorted as well as more accomplished and expensive components do. "Mozaik" and in particular the snare drums and piano sounded a little more whitish, a little splashy, lacking the body my reference components produce. The opening and sustained bass lines from "Dolphin Dreams" didn't convey the same sense of sustained power or grace I'm used to, either. I could almost hear the little amp running out of steam.


But now I'm really digging. That these minis stood up at all to such comparisons speaks volumes to the fact that they're basically very good components that commit none of the sins of commission of mass market gear of like price. Scratchy or brittle highs? Not. Constricted and collapsed soundstage? Nope. Even if the midrange got just a little muddled during complex passages, it still did a very good job even under duress, all things considered. I should be complaining about far more egregious problems but here I am splitting hairs on how these dwarves don't measure up to components that generate sales tax figures on par with the asking price of the DIY components. If you're willing to put in the time and build your own components around the even cheaper DIY Paradise modules... well, the mind boggles at the value factor.


The DIY Paradise components didn't exactly provide any revelations during listening sessions except for the fact that such good overall performance can be had for such a paltry amount of money - if you're willing to forgo the eye-candy aspect and can live with only 10 watts of power. I can honestly say that listening didn't involve nearly the compromises I expected. My biggest frustration during the review process was the lack of a phono stage and having to restrict all my listening to digital while the magnificent Merrill-Scillia Research MS2 turntable sat motionless off in the corner. Far too much time without vinyl but I can't hold that against the DIY products. Just bad timing.

Conclusion
I'm aware that these DIY components have competition out there. Where class-T amplifiers are concerned, I've already mentioned Trends and Kingrex, already reviewed on 6moons as well as Sonic Impact, Red Wine and others. How the DIY Paradise Charlize compares I can't say as I haven't used any of the competition. I'm also aware that some of the competition is asking for even less coin than DIY Paradise. I will add that DIY Paradise products can be ordered in at least two different styles of wooden boxes and you can assemble a complete system (with the exception of a CD transport) with matching cosmetics. That'll be worth something to certain buyers. No matter how you look at it, these components represent real value. When I accepted the DIY Paradise review assignment, I didn't have a clue how good these class-T amplifiers could sound.


I can confidently state that within the parameters of the caveats pointed out -- which in the right system could actually be benefits -- the Charlize, Monica and Maggie each present the potential buyer (or DIY builder) with very solid performance and a value quotient that's off the charts. With each subsequent listen during the review period, I found myself more and more impressed. No, in absolute terms they weren't giant killers - they weren't better than or even quite as good as my reference components. They are, however, products of extreme value. Where they fell short of my gear, they did so in esoteric areas of performance. As a system, the DIY components weren't quite as liquid, not quite as detailed and insightful and they did shrink the scale of the presentation to a minor degree. But at their price, they came much closer than they had any right to. I can't imagine this amount of money buying a better performing DAC, passive attenuator and power amplifier package. But until I have more experience with class-T amplification, I'll have to reserve judgment as to just how award-worthy the Charlize amplifier actually is. However, there's no doubt that in the extreme low-price category, the Monica DAC is a clear Blue Moon contender.