GOLDMUND - Swiss Made High-End Audio Equipment

Welcome to the brand new Goldmund Internet Server.

Internet is not a phenomenon anymore. It is a vital necessity for a contemporary company to survive.

Goldmund, being the most technological among the high-end companies had to do it before anybody else.

Goldmund, having the broadest development engineering network in the industry was also needing it the most. In fact we already used the net for ourselves for some time. Now, it is time to offer it to our distribution network and to our customers.

You will see in this issue the beginning of the project and how it will evolve.

You will see the result on the Web.

We know how much our end-user will love to be in direct contact with us.

We know how much it will help the good sales people in their work. The only ones that will not use it are the bad ones… Who cares.

It’s a revolution. Jump with us in the surfing game.

Tomorrow it could be too late.

Michel Reverchon

The new available features :

• We now offer Lugs in addition to Bananas as adapter termination.
• The Tri-Amping Giant Amplifier Adapter is ready for shipment.
• Buy it as a kit ! We now offer the parts of the speaker cable separate for people wanting to upgrade their cables.Future Goldmund power amps will even have the Goldmund Speaker Cable connetor directly assembled on the chassis ! So, you wont have to buy the Amplifier Adapters anymore. Amplifier termination will be built-in.

The Mimesis 14 is receiving a small face lift these days. Slightly improved circuitry and the suppression of unused circuit issued of the original Mimesis 12 design, the Mimesis 14 is a better value than ever.

You wanted it. You have it.

The new Mimesis 12 receives several improvements :

• It now uses the Mimesis 10+ digital Interface technology, lowering the jitter level and increasing sonic quality.
• It has now 3 switchable inputs, each of them coaxial and balanced, so the increasing number of digital sources can be handled by a single converter.
• We improved the internal layout, to further improve sound and also insure a better safety. The Mimesis 12 improves its reliability.

We think to be able to deliver these new units by June. Keep posted.

For the numerous today’s users of the Mimesis 12A and 12B, the new Dif12 interface module can be acquired for a very reasonable price, showing the care Goldmund takes of its best customers. Please ask us for price, including quantity discounts.

Our “Ultimate” range of products will soon include 3 of the most awaited components ever designed by Goldmund.

These components have been designed to build the most sophisticated control center possible in today’s audio. Linked by computer, they will allow the same utmost system to be used for music and for movies.

Preliminary Drawing

Let’s have a quick look at the first two units soon-to-be-introduced :

Successor of the Goldmund Mimesis 10, designed for even higher expectations, the Mimesis 20 is the highest technology D/A converter ever dreamed of by audio amateurs or professional users.

Here are some preliminary Key features :

• New exceptional digital interface module :
  • Providing zero-jitter output.
  • With automatic bandwidth control, a Goldmund new exclusive feature allowing to connect poor digital signals without sacrifying the extreme precision of the interface if the signal is good.
• 8 inputs configurable to any standard.
• Using a range of pluggable modules providing a unique set of various input standards combinations :
  • SPDIF Coaxial 75.01 Ohms RCA connector inputs.
  • SPDIF Coaxial 75.01 Ohms BNC connector inputs.
  • AES/EBU XLR 110 Ohms symmetrical inputs.
  • Toslink R176 standard optical fiber inputs.
  • AT&T Optical fiber inputs using the highest standard of terminals.
• Full Goldmund “Mechanical Grounding” construction, implemented as never before in a D/A converter :
  • 10 kilos metal enclosure with 10mm thick panels, using new brass, aluminium and steel alloys, especially selected to optimize mechanical impedance matching.
  • New 4 float-feet Goldmund base construction.
  • Direct mechanical grounding connection with Mimesis 36 CD Turntable if the two units are stacked together, or with the Mimesis 22 Preamplifier and Mimesis 24 Video Controller in a full Home-Theater system configuration.
  • Brass bottom for optimum resonance cancellation between circuits.
  • New sandwitch cover material, providing better damping and shielding.
• 5 separate power supplies.
  • Fully separate for logic and audio, as well as for digital and analog.
  • 2 transformers.
• Hi-Optical prints
  • Goldmund exclusive Hi-Optical layout design, as already used in the Mimesis 9.4 and the Goldcube.
  • Ground planes on each signal-carrying board.
  • No laquer, to avoid detrimental effects on analog small signal linearity.
• Hyper-shielding inside the box.
  • transformer mu-metal and steel 1.5mm.
  • Ground planes.
  • Symmetrical tracking.
  • Symmetrical analog output to include the unit in any configuration.
• Front panel keyboard switching including 2 digital tape loops for full digital copy.
• Front panel bandwidth and signal quality control.
• Full Remote-control and Keyboard-control link with Mimesis 22 & 24 to provide automatic switching of the digital audio inputs in a pre-programmed logical sequence with the analog audio and video inputs.
• Serial port for computer control in future Goldmund Home-Theater applications.
• Auto diagnostic software at power-up. The software, if an anomaly is detected, will provide the service technician with error codes to help detecting which section is defective.

Successor of the 10 years old Mimesis 2, the Mimesis 22 is the highest technology preamplifier ever designed for the delicate analog signals.

Here are some of the preliminary features :

• Full internal Dual mono construction.
  • Totally separated right and left channel circuitry
  • Fully separate power supplies channels to the transformer level.
• Improved Goldmund amplification stage using 6 new A2 Module, the most accurate amplification device ever produced :
  • More than 1000V/s.
  • Highest Group Delay linearity.
  • Gold shielding of the critical stages.
  • Individually manually adjusted.
  • New damping and temperature equalizing resin filling in the A2 for better HF performance.
• Most advanced Volume & Balance control :
  • Full remote control.
  • Goldmund “Ghost Knob” separate right and left motorized potentiometers with servo-track link. A manual action on one channel potentiometer is automatically duplicated on the other channel by the motor-activated potentiometer, making the knob turn automatically until the dB attenuation is exactly identical. Computer-assisted 0.2dB volume tracking alignement at power-on. Allows automatic compensation for aging circuitry or parts.
  • Balance action by remote control or by the “Balance” push button on the keyboard. This key decouples the two master potentiometers, allowing a difference to be introduced by turning only one channel knob. The dB difference between the 2 channels is then recorded and remains constant after the balance key is released.
  • Multi-cage potentiometers to optimize tracking error with Goldmund exclusive resistive potentiometer optimization.
  • Full dB attenuation of each channel displayed on front panel.
• 15 separate power supplies.
  • Goldmund “AC Damper” circuitry to minimize AC noise contamination into the low frequency region.
  • Fully separate for logic and audio.
  • 3 transformers.
  • Ultra-high speed new Shottky rectifier.
  • Master Power Supply with unique Goldmund non-regulated, single-ended circuitry.
  • Multi-layer L-front filtering.
  • Six separate Goldmund “Capacitor-Amplifier” power conditionning ciruits per channel.
• Hi-Optical prints :
  • Goldmund exclusive Hi-Optical layout design, as already used in the Mimesis 9.4 and in the Goldmund Goldcube.
  • Ground planes on each circuit carrying small analog signals.
  • No printed board lacquer, detrimental for small analog signal linearity.
• Full Goldmund “Mechanical Grounding” construction, 100% implemented for the first time in a preamplifier :
  • 30 lbs metal enclosure using 10mm thick panels.
  • Assembly made in brass, aluminum and steel alloys especially selected for exactly adjustments of the mechanical impedance.
  • New “Four-Float-Feet” Goldmund base construction.
  • Direct “Mechanical Grounding” connection with the other new Goldmund products as the Mimesis 36 CD turntable, the Mimesis 20 D/A converter and the Mimesis 24 Video Controller.
  • Brass bottom plate for optimum resonance cancellation between stages.
  • New sandwich cover material, providing better damping and shielding.
• Hyper-Shielding throughout the enclosure :
  • Transformer shielding using Mu-metal and 1.5mm steel.
  • Gold shielding on the new Goldmund A2 Module.
  • Separation between channels with high-Q HF Peraluman shielding.
• Built to control a full Digital/Analog Home Theater system.
  • 3 separately isolated audio outputs for multi-amping systems.
  • One special output for Home-Theater adapter.
  • Input switching by 36 bi-stable relays to avoid any contamination from the switching signals during listening. All contacts doubled.
  • Connection by RS 422 (AES Standard) with the Mimesis 20 & 24, providing a programmable (remote and keyboard) “Smart-Switching” between digital, analog and video sources.
  • Serial port allowing computer control and program updates loading.

We told you we were working on top-sounding resistors for our future products. Already in the Mimesis 9.4 and new A2 module, we used some of our special models. But the big event is for 1995, with the introduction of our new top resistor, the Goldmund Gold Resistor. It may look like a Vishay, but it is not. In fact the Goldmund Gold Resistor is even better (Mil Specs).

Note on updating a power amp with A2 modules

Be careful that some of our amps have been assembled with A1 modules in a configuration which I not acceptable for the new A2 module. Two resistors for each channel have to be adjusted. Please refer to our service notes Nr A2-950201 and A2-950402 .

The Goldmund CD table and future audio furniture.

Several of our customers who have bought a Mimesis 36 still don’t know how it should sound. We insisted, insisted. “Mechanical Grounding” is not a joke. It works. But when you make a product like the Mimesis 36 or the Mimesis 39 where all the construction details have been thought of to improve their Mechanical Grounding and we see these CD turntables running on a flimsy support, we scream bloody murder and you should too.

Please…. Try these machines on a real Mechanical Grounding table and stop proffering absurdities like (we heard it, we swear…) “the Mimesis 36 is still not at a Levinson level !” (authentic). Those who tried it on THE table know the truth and are laughing…

But many don’t know yet, and ignorance is not an excuse for stupidity.

Here are some of the latest Goldmund ads in Stereophile and TAS.

To make it easy for our top distributors to use such ads in their local countries, we can provide them for a basic price the computer files, so they can modify or adapt the ad to their local contingencies (we already had such a demand for a Chinese magazine and some European ones).

A few dates and topics.

• In May 1995, we open our Internet Server to public connection.

  In a first step, it will include only few pages providing product description, pricelist, pictures and a few detailed technical notes.

• Then, we will progressively include other pages, especially for service support, until we reach our goal of having all Goldmund Marketing and Technical Information On-line. This should be achieved by end of 1995.

The winners of our 1994 Formula 1 challenge will be with us soon to celebrate their results. We really believe that the experience will be unique. Let’s meet them in the upcoming issue where we will publish all the pictures.