This seems as opportune a place as any to formally applaud Eastern Europe's recent contributions to attractively styled hifi. From Estonia's Tallinn we have the Estelon speakers which look like nothing that came before. From Poland's Szamotuły comes the MySound Cube, an EL84 mono amp with very attractive cosmetics that seem faintly inspired by Sweden's Engstrom & Engstrom The Lars. From Lithuania's Kaunas come both the Reed 3P tone arm and the conceptually novel LessLoss Laminar Streamer, a dedicated SD card player ensconced in an organic panzerholz enclosure. From Poland's Bielsko-Biała one can peruse the catalogue of Encore7's various Eggshell tube gear. From Romania's Baia Mare we have the fabulous yet affordable Meze 99 Classic headphones in three fashionable colour schemes. From Bulgaria's Varna come the futuristically different Everything But The Box speakers in pretty much any conceivable lacquer including 2-tone schemes. This was a very small sampling of possible finds beyond the European mainstream. Many of them have already made appearances in these pages. To continue this very necessary trend if one wants to be informed, we now return to DIMD to chat with Edgards Spārniņš and Andzejs Stenclavs about the subject of this review. We already have its genesis: Ph.D turned DIYer to please his musician wife with better than commercially available sound.

Now the hardcore audiophile—whom our strange culture has hammered on for decades about mutual exclusivity between stylish design and top performance—wants some detail on the actual circuitry, parts pedigree and why, beyond clean modern good looks, he or she should consider the PP-10 Stereo from Latvia over the competition. And what persuaded Edgards to turn his labour of love into a commercial product in the first place?


Between the opening photo and the one below, all is already clear about using this deck with its four silver-plated RCA inputs, single pairs of binding posts (hence a fixed output impedance), a power IEC, an input selector, a volume knob and a power switch. For what's under the sheets between inputs and outputs, we hand the mic to our Latvians and Marja & Henk. That's because coincident with me penning the intro, they'd run into the DIMD exhibit at the Warsaw Hifi Show and signed up for a review on the spot. Having gone through the lengths of show attendance with the added bonus of a personal meet with the DIMD team, it wasn't merely courtesy but good sense to pass this assignment on to them. But with the intro already penned, it made equal sense to let it stand for a different example of team spirit and collaboration. This is where I bow out and they take over.

Here is a link to their 2016 Warsaw show coverage and below, one of the DIMD'd systems there.