Timbre. Akiko Suwanai is a talented violinist. Her Walton Violin Concerto under Oramo’s baton with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is performed with virtuosity. For Phillips, recording engineers Roger de Schot and Carl Schuurbiers prepared an impeccable SACD. With the Paw Gold, Suwanai’s viola harmonics swam on stage like tadpoles, with the viola showcasing its own unique timbre. The brass section’s sound was full but not bright. Drums had impact, contrabass texture. Instruments sounded like themselves to really impress me. How about the piano, one of the hardest instruments to reproduce? Vince Guaraldi’ piano on A Boy Named Charlie Brown was very natural without coloration but beautiful extension. It was hard to believe how very old this recording is because the atmosphere was so very life-like and here now. Like Guaraldi’s piano, Stephen Hough’s on Rachmaninov: The Piano Concertos was amazingly real and present. The forceful lower registers of a piano can be hard to reproduce but the Paw Gold had no trouble with that bandwidth either.

Bass. The Paw Gold struck me as a very neutral player on low frequencies. When I listened to Esperanza Spalding’ Junjo album, her upright had believable accuracy and its resolution seemed almost perfect. Nuances and extensions were beautifully apparent. Bass with the Paw Gold seemed fast even if you believe that lower frequencies have slower attacks than higher frequencies. I suffered no bloated notes or overhang from lack of damping. Yet you won’t find earthquake LF even on electronica. On LCD Soundsystem’s This is Happening, extension was good and even the sub bass seemed very extended, with the sharp attacks reserved for the upper bass. On Frank Zappa’ "Dog Breath Variations" and "Uncle Meat" from his The Yellow Shark album, the Paw Gold had no problem with the articulate rhythm sections. Here again it was nicely detailed to have me take note of the textures of the sonorous resonance of the double bass. But if you seek more fun with a punchier attack in this range, you should look at another player. With the Paw Gold, you will only find loyalty to natural neutrality.


Midrange. Here again the Paw Gold reiterated the neutral naturalness of its bass performance. On vocal albums like Annie Ross Sings a Song with Mulligan, the midband showed generally no obvious colourations but instead detail and transparency with top-notch resolution. There was neither too much energy nor too little so music was not presenting too forward or lean. On Brahms: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Händel Op. 24 with Leon Fleisher, the piano sounded real and fully extended. On a Stan Getz & Bill Evans album, Getz’ tenor sax was very palpable and beautifully textured. Evans’ piano felt smooth, not stressed or sharp. Even on the Lloyd: Symphony No. 5, the Paw Gold handled the dismantling of complex midrange passages easily. When I lent an ear to Luciano Berio’s Vovi album, I saw all the Sicilian folk music songs as transparent as can be. Again this was nothing fancy or contrived but natural.

   

Treble. The Paw Gold is a slightly dark player. When you consider how we live in an era where bright means detailed, one might think that the Paw lacked resolution. I didn't think so however. Jean Francaix’s beautifully composed Concerto pour Clavecin et Ensemble Instrumental under Christopher D. Lewis and John McMurtery had impeccable upper-register harmonics and plenty of fine detail. But I wouldn't say that the treble had lots of energy. For me, cymbals in real life can sound quite aggressive. Because of that, I can't remember ever lasting more than two hours at an actual Jazz club. On Quintet in Chicago, Cannonball’s alto sax had good upper harmonics but a little of a warm character to it. Jimmy Cobb’s cymbals were sweet and smooth and well extended. There was neither romantic syrup nor dry metallic aggression in evidence.
 

Intensity and musicality. Emile Zola once said, "all I care about is life, struggle, intensity". The Paw Gold is not an intense player, period. Sorry, Zola. It is musical and transparent and makes it easy to get involved but it doesn't do intensity like HifiMan or Astell&Kern. Its approach to music is neutral, not heightened, full or bitter. But don't misread neutrality for coldness. I could easily lose myself in Brian Eno's Music for Films. When I tried to analyse the sound, it was easy to forget criticism. Yet it wasn't intense like the AK240. I'd peg it more similar in that regard to the Tera player or Chord's Hugo.