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Sound: Almost 14000zl is a lot of money especially for an integrated of Polish origins. In this price range we can find some very good machines from renowned manufacturers as well as small companies tube and solid state. The most important competitors, in my opinion, are the Krell S-300 and Aaron No.1.a, not forgetting Leben CS300 and the fantastic Audiomatus duo composed of the preamplifier PP-03 and AM500R monoblocks. And just a step away are the integrated Accuphase E-250 and Luxman L-550A II. This puts the Chopin on the defense from the very beginning since it is from a company not very known and from a country not terribly embedded in the hi-end world.

As I wrote in this issue's editorial (No. 65, Bellum omnium contra omnes), the choice of Polish products, their positive reviews in Polish magazines—this is true for any country and products but we are talking about Poland here—cannot be dictated by country of origin. This would be the dumbest possible qualifier. "It is good because it’s Polish” (substitute country for your favorite) is utter nonsense. "Good and Polish"—and finally, with lots of bad will, "Polish and still good"—are acceptable however. Again, this has nothing to do with the idea of hifi and high-quality sound. It simply broadens the area of evaluation. When something is good, it is good, period. It is of course pleasant to test good or very good devices with which we feel emotionally connected in some way – by the personality of the designer or the philosophy embedded in the product or indeed the country of origin. But it cannot influence our review. The worst thing we could do is turn a blind eye on something because we know the maker, like his philosophy or because it stems from a country we promote. This is like—forgive the turn of phrase—castrating the product from the onset. The feedback to the manufacturer (and a review is a kind of feedback) becomes distorted and false. Only with comparisons to the competition, can one achieve constant improvements toward the goal of high-quality sound. That's why we cannot condone some kind of priority for Polish products. I will even say that they have it tougher because their comparisons to imports must be very thorough and critical.


Against this background, the Chopin performs well. If I had to choose a point of reference in terms of tonal balance and viewed the Krell and Aaron integrateds as reference, the Struss would be closer to the Krell. It is surprising how well these manufacturers eliminated many of the shortcomings of solid-state technology, making the sound so close to the natural and organic one that's so many times associated with tube amplifiers. For this machine the midrange and its transition into the bass are most important. Just behind them are the mid and lower bass but more about that in a moment.


I started the review with the mono version of Beatles for Sale. Its sound surprised me mostly because of the splendid coherence, very well preserved phase relationships, cohesion of harmonics and pure musicality if I may use that term. It could be heard right away that the treble was a bit withdrawn, not as resolved as in the Aaron or even my Leben CS300. But the choices of the designer went for a homogenous sound. Whenever there was a choice between for example a slightly better definition of the sonic source versus their depth perspective, the latter was chosen without any doubt. It really doesn’t happen often with transistors especially for this money that the sound is so smooth in the good meaning of this word – fluent, homogenous in all ranges, making most competitively priced tube amplifiers not 'tubey' enough! Only superior amplifiers like the Unison Research P40 create something similar. This showed brilliantly on Salzau Music On The Water by the Daniellson/Dell/Landgren trio which was recorded without plug ins, compression and closely positioned microphones.


Only in the hi-end can we fully appreciate what the musicians and sound engineer achieved based on the unity of all components involved in the replay of the musical event, the servitude of each element in the chain to all others. The midrange on this disc is extremely well saturated and has lots of energy. This is not about underlining this part of the spectrum but about the instruments emanating energy in a very three-dimensional fashion. If an amplifier has emphasized mid frequencies, this turns into a pulp especially when resolution is not high. Although I wrote that it seems to favor the midrange, the Chopin played this disc with ease and a kind of solemnity that lacked any thickness.


This disc impressed me because quality amplifiers like the tubed Leben CS600, tubed Ayon Spark II and transistor Primare I30 did not handle it as well. I in fact appreciated this coherence most with two utterly distinct discs: Henry Purcell's Ten Sonatas in Four Parts performed by the Retrospect Trio and Sounds Of The Universe by Depeche Mode. Those two are separated by everything possible except for one thing: to extract as much music as possible, they both need to be reproduced with respect to the musical tissue.


While the Polish amplifier showed its weaker sides here like its not very resolved and developed treble or its not very thorough depiction of sound stage depth, none of this was at the center of the events, hence here was no feeling of lack. The violins on the Purcell disc were smooth and had beautiful timbre similar to a good tube amplifier. We can get similar timbre for less money as in the JAG 300B SET but we's lose dynamics in the lower and midrange bands and the ease of handling over a variety of loudspeakers the Chopin Mk IV affords.


The other disc performed exactly the same, without emphasis of the upper midrange and a rounded-off treble. Here it not only did no harm but assisted in the creation of a full, saturated sound from the analog synthesizers and a truthful placing of the voices of Gahan and Gore within them, no easy task. There was no talk of perfectly allocating voices and effects vs. the background as from my reference system but the latter's expense is also a lot higher. We have to remember that this amplifier sells for 14000zl so we are just starting our adventure in the hi-end. When we take this into account, we can no longer feel indifferent about this proposition especially because bass is particularly well accomplished.



Without doubt this is responsible for the fantastic saturation of— and this is not about sedation hence the italics—the midrange and vocals. I heard that effect before in the Accuphase P-7100 and Krell EVO 402 and to some extent my Leben and most beautifully in the Ancient Audio Silver Grand Monos. It is about playing in a way that gives us breath and dynamic reserves from which derives 'freedom'. And the Struss provides something along these lines and to a surprising extent. Dynamics are very assured as can be heard in percussive elements like snare drums, which have splendid attack and very good reverb. This is a usual asset of good solid-state amps and only few tubes can compete not on ultimate power or bass extension but amount of harmonics and their integration with the upper ranges. What resulted here was a similar effect and why the lazy themes from the Kate Bush Aerial disc had dynamic reserves and were not snoozing. The first soundstage layer was strong and full and behind it was some 'cushion' of air captured by the microphones and other elements behind that.

One of the features of the Chopin is the integrated headphone circuit operating independently of the main section. Because I spend much time with headphones, I devoted an equal amount of time to evaluate the Struss working with them as I did for loudspeakers. The headphone output sounds similar to what we get from the loudspeakers. This is a slightly warm, not highly resolved but incredibly sensual, fluent, coherent sound with splendid bass. My AKG K701 exhibited a midrange to bass transition that was a bit too plush but I got used to it quickly and then would not have exchanged this combo for anything else.


Ultrasone's PROLine2500 with its stronger treble and bass were not a forward but rather sideways and backwards move especially when we consider sonic integrity. The quality of this amplifier is really outstanding and we can easily resign from separate headphone amplifiers like the Canor SH-1 (earlier Edgar SH-1), Pro-Ject or Heed. Only the Leben CS300, used as headphone amplifier showed how timbres could be differentiated better, how the sound stage (in headphone terms of course) could be deeper and wider. But this in no way diminishes the fact that Struss designed this add-on feature well. How many headphone outputs in integrated amps have a similar or better sound? Two, three? At best.


In audio, getting things right can take a long time. Even if earlier Struss products were good, had enthusiastic reviews and happy users, the Chopin shows that those were only teasers for what is offered today. This is not a universal or 'even' amplifier in the sense that it does not try to please everybody. Pleasing everyone usually results in sound that is less interesting or even irritating. I like the approach of the Chopin MkIV much better. This is a hellaciously fluid, heavenly gentle and incredibly saturated amplifier. It will perform best with lit-up loudspeakers - Harpia Acoustics Amstaff or Marcus models, Monitor Audio Rx, Gold or even Platinum. This is not global master class stuff (this is my opinion, not a fact) in matters of manufacturing quality and industrial design—there I prefer the Primare for example—but still on a good level. The headphone amplifier is worth about 3000zl and thrown in for free, to result in a machine you need to listen to.