So this diminutive, but highly polished Swiss gem showed up here this past Monday. It’s 1.75”, but is a solid 35#. The design is part of the original Goldmund, which was a few keys, and a hired team of engineers and scientists. All of the smaller sized gear is pre Yves- Bernard Andre, at least as the principal designer.
I’d heard a lot of positive commentary on the Mimesis 3 amp, and even had one in around 2005. However, I never used it as it was traded off immediately. Lately, the opinion of the amp forced my hand into getting one. I’m glad I did, it’s really shocking. The size, especially considering the bigger-more-better attitude which can be clouding in the high end, makes this seem less than. Big error in thinking. This is around a 100 watt amp at 8, so there’s certainly ample power. It’s based on Hitachi MOSFET outputs, four of them per channel. 250w dissipation per (I think). As important, the power supply uses four toroidal transformers and 22,000 MF caps per channel. A good, stiff power supply is probably more important than one thinks. Being able to produce every ounce of the claimed power at the full frequency spectrum is eye opening, as has been evidenced in my listening sessions. Especially compared to the JVC M-L10. Mind you, there’s about 4x in price difference between the two, but the JVC is just unable to be as dynamic, fast and accurate. The M-L10 seems to struggle at four ohms, and is often a little glossy and lacks the roundness and impact of the Goldmund’s bass. In fact, the difference is so dramatic, one hears it immediately between the two. The Goldmund also dispatches the much larger Onkyo 510, in terms of sheer musicality. I’m fortunate enough to have the original Hitachi PC-OCC power cable. If one didn’t know, Hitachi was also at the forefront of purifying copper wire tech too.
This amp is also part of the ultra wide bandwidth models, -3db at .85mhz!
Today, Goldmund still makes super premium gear, but it’s quite dark sounding. That signature started with the Mim. 9. Thankfully, the thin-line series did not.
The amp, pre and tuner took 5 years to finalize. Add in the Reference TT, and the vintage Apalogue speaker and you’re living the 80’s in high style. Seriously though, you will have to go with FM acoustics or DartZeel to match it then or today. The Mim 3 is that good.
Just make sure a qualified Goldmund authorized shop has updated the smaller caps with Vishay replacements. Costly, but worth it.
The Goldmund also seems to play well with many different preamps. Although I’d imagine it sounds its best with a 2+, the P-L10 I have here makes glorious noises thru it. In fact, it sounds a good bit better thru the Goldmund than it does thru the matching M-L10 amp. The Goldmund is a little less sensitive, so I’m able to raise the volume knob position into the more linear range, something I think would help with the sonic signature I’m hearing. Details can suffer at the lower ranges of a volume potentiometer.
Edit 1. The mention of Hitachi’s work on the PC-OCC copper wire tech is incidental only. The amp was designed with the Hitachi outputs and with the particular cord in mind. It’s likely all of the final measurements were done using it, so from the designers perspective, it makes sense to include it. By no means was I advocating for any one type over another.
Edit 2. After doing an A/B, the mighty Onkyo M-510 wins this shootout, it too matches very well with the P-L10 preamp I’m using. The Goldmund will be tested with both preamps coming in the mail. As will the Onkyo. I want to be sure the playing field is even.