$5,000 Blacknote DAC30 Tube Model

Blacknote DAC30
Tube Model

We are selling this $5,000 Blacknote DAC30 in great condition for a client of ours. One HiFi Reviewer had the following to say: "Blacknote DAC 30 reveals unknown details, amazing naturalness and musical balance. In the bass and middle registers it demonstrates the incredible harmonic clarity. Upper range captivates the finest natural and signature - the ability to show subtle differences in the sound of trebles, sibilance, air loops. Everything becomes clear: where sound comes from, what is the nature of its origin... Hence - the strongest presence." - See more of this review here. This beautiful unit can be yours for $2,000 or best offer.

The picture below is of the previous owner's system. He cares very well for his gear and had the following to say of this DAC: "I have a used Blacknote DAC 30 tubed DAC that I have used for less than a year. The sound is excellent and in perfect shape. I used to have an Esoteric X-O1 LE and the Blacknote was so much more resolving, more 3d and way more relaxing just to give you an idea on the sound of this DAC. One of the best that I have heard."

Blacknote was the brand name that the Italian company Gold Note originally gave to it's digital equipment. Gold Note now sells their digital equipment under the Gold Note brand name. The gentleman we're selling this for has an absolutely wonderful system and the reason for the sale of the Blacknote is that he got the chance to acquire one of the MSB 3 piece DAC's. MSB has so many models that I am unsure the exact designation but I think that it's the MSB Signature DAC IV Plus, but I could be wrong on the exact model. A very expensive 3 box DAC for sure and it includes volume control so the owner actually uses it as both DAC and preamp in his system. So that's why he no longer needs this Blacknote which is in great shape. He is the original owner and purchased this direct from the US distributor for Blacknote. He used the DAC30 for less than a year and it has been stored now for some months so it's probably close to 2 years old. It was used in a very high quality system with Spectron amps, later replaced by Pass Labs X100.8 amps, and with the extraordinary and rare Beveridge G-3 Electrostats with the unique Beveridge acoustic lens technology and 2 separate subwoofer cabinets. The Beveridges are not well known, they are a small family company. But they have been considered among the world's very finest speakers. They are exceptionally revealing of upstream components and cables and I have worked with my client to help him get things just right. He upgraded all of his power lines to 10 gauge and felt that made a huge difference. Then he bought a Synergistic Research PowerCell 10 MK III SE from us (on the bottom left of the rack in the photo above) and this made a huge difference, he told me that even his wife and his non-audiophile guests were struck by the upgrade this provided. Subsequently he added other Synergistic technologies (this pic was taken before those were added) including a Tranquility Base and Galileo Speaker Cells. We're Synergistic Research dealers and happy to sell you any of their items if you don't have a good local source.

I've been testing this DAC30 and another piece of tubed Blacknote gear he sent us to sell, a streaming player which we'll have listed next, and I have been extremely pleased with the sound of both of them. The Dac30 has all of the hookups you could possibly desire, the AES/EBU which is what I prefer plus 4 S/PDIF and a Toslink which you need to have there for hooking up anything that does not have a better connector available. It has both single ended RCA and balanced XLR outputs so it will fit into all types of systems. It can play the high resolution formats that people have these days. So it has everything covered to fit into a traditional audio system with a transport or a CD player. Of course you expect that from any tubed DAC at this price point.

Something you don't expect is volume control on both the front panel and the remote which means that you can run the DAC 30 as a preamplifier and DAC. I personally think that this is the best use for this piece of gear, in a simple system where you don't have a turntable you can use it to avoid the expense of a preamp altogether. Hook it up between a good CD transport, even an OPPO will do, and your power amp and you have a very simple and economic system that saves you money on gear, saves you money on cables, and you can have the sweetness of tubes as well. Of course if you are ahead of me in the move to digital files and computer audio you may have no need for the player, I don't know.

In addition to having all the features you would expect of a high end tubed DAC, the DAC30 is a thoroughly modern device and includes 2 USB ports for connecting a USB cable from a Mac or PC (or many other devices) to the DAC. It also has digital outputs, S/PDIF coax and Toslink optical for sending your digital signal onward to other devices.

I have to admit that I still listen to mostly CD's and while I have hooked this up to my Macbook Pro to test it and it was very easy to just select the DAC in my sound preferences and then play my music through it, there was no driver needed or anything like that. In Windows I understand you need a free driver you can get from the manufacturer website and that info will be included with the unit of course. So I did play music from the computer to test those features and I also did unfamiliar things like putting music onto USB sticks and playing music from ethernet attached (NAS) hard drives to test the Blacknote DSS streaming player we'll be listing soon I'm no expert on these new file types. It's something I want to learn about but I am still more oriented toward CD's and vinyl.

I've gotten to be friendly with Mr. Mark Levinson and I've noticed for years now that he travels the world giving demos of his ultimate reference Daniel Hertz systems with Swiss made electronics and speakers made with the Petrof piano company in Europe and that the source he uses is a MacBook Pro just like mine. He does have a special software he uses, called Master Class, that he can apply EQ to tracks with and which allows him to duplicate the wonderful Cello Palette device that he designed with Tom Colangelo years ago. But the hardware he is using is just the same as my MacBook Pro that goes everywhere with me (aside from the beautiful $120,000 pair of piano black M1L speakers, the 4 Swiss made M5L mono block amps and the M6L preamp with built in DAC). Everything except for those 7 pieces is just the same between our setups! And I guess that $120K of speakers and $60K of electronics do make a difference vs. my Able Planet headphones that I travel with but I think it's cool that he's able to do a demo that is arguably the finest system one can buy at any price using just the MacBook and a good DAC as his source, no $100K turntable required. So I definitely need to learn more about computer audio, I would LOVE to be able to have a large collection of music with me when I travel and not just the 30 or so CD's that fit in my little travel case. But I'm not there yet... I'm saving up for a Swiss turntable right now :) And begging my son to help me figure out how to put my CD's on a hard drive the right way. I did it once and apparently chose the wrong file type and need to redo it all.

Hopefully someone who is reading this is ahead of where I am on the curve and can make fuller use of all the features that are available here. I was definitely able to appreciate the tubed sweetness that this DAC brought to my music while listening to the output of my $6,000 reference Bel Canto player or to the $3,200 Grant Fidelity CD1000 we're selling for another customer. And I could tell that it works fine with a computer, I just am not qualified to do as much with it as many of you reading this probably are. And of course this is not to say that you have to have computer audio stuff going on to use this DAC30, you can just as well buy this to use with your transport or to upgrade your CD player by adding an external tubed DAC. It can be nice to add a DAC and with this DAC30 you get to add some tubes to a solid state system. You can toss your preamp and build a simple system around this. I know that my main system has power hungry speakers which require solid state amps, at least at the price level I could afford. But I crave the sound of tubes. So adding things like this is one way to add tubes without going to the expense of a pair of the mind blowing $125,000 Ypsilon Set 100 Ultimate mono blocks or some VTL Siegfried II's or something like that. I'm sure we'd all love to have those products but sometimes we want to make an upgrade and the ultimate upgrades are not in the budget. Maybe a Blacknote DAC30 is?

We created this photo montage to give you an idea of some of the beautiful and fantastic sounding consignment gear that we have up for sale on Audiogon. Our business mainly consists of helping our clients to make the biggest possible upgrades to their systems given their tastes and budget. Then we order them the gear they want. Usually that leaves them with an old piece of gear they no longer need themselves but which is still a very nice piece of gear for someone. Increasingly, clients are turning to us to sell their old gear. Everything in this montage is for sale now or else it just sold. So please click: "More from this Seller" above to see all our other listings. We have wonderful things from Audio Research, Grant Audio, Bryston, Conrad Johnson, BlackNote and more.

Plus, there's more info below about how to consign with us in case you have high end gear you don't need anymore and you're too busy to sell it, too famous to sell it, or whatever the case may be. We'd be pleased to discuss it with you. While I love talking with all the people from around the world who contact us about our sales a lot of our customers have told me that they either don't feel they have time to do it, they don't feel safe doing it themselves because they are too well known, or they just feel as if they'd rather focus on what they are best at and let us sell their gear for them. obviously if you make hundreds of dollars an hour (or more) at your profession then it makes more economic sense that you focus on that and leave selling your leftover gear to us. We're honored to have all this beautiful gear entrusted to us. We test it all thoroughly so that means we get to listen to it here in our own facilities and that is something we love to do.

And as a Buyer, you really get the best of both worlds when you buy these consignment items. You get the safety of buying from a trusted dealer who will support you with your purchase long after the sale is completed, which you won't get buying from regular Audiogon sellers. But you get the same cheap pricing that you could get buying from a private seller.

High End Zone is a family business. Stef and Heather are the parents, Isaac is our 14 year old son. At this point the voice will shift as Stef hands off to Heather. She does the photography, specs, selling policies and reviews with help from Isaac, who is away at Duke University participating in a writing camp but helped on these listings before he left.

In regards to the driver installation process, I found the Gold Note web page that discusses the driver installations needed for various computers. You can visit that page here where you will find a link that includes "all our DACs proprietary drivers to be installed on your Windows PCs." And the information that: "Apple computers don't need drivers since our DACs are just seen as peripherals to be selected through the Mac OS System Preferences panel." As well as the following affirmation from Gold Note: "Please note that also the whole Blacknote DACs line, the former digital equipment brand name from Gold Note, adopts the same drivers for all the DAC15, DAC30 S/S and DAC30 TUBE models."

The following introduction is from the included manual:

"The Blacknote DAC30 is an asynchronous Digital to Analogue Converter based around a High-Speed USB 480Mb/s port allowing the maximum speed available to stream data flux with loss & compression 100% free.

The Blacknote DAC, can play any kind of high resolution up to 24bit and 192KHz audio tracks files from any source hooked with, including the computer.

The audio files are streamed into the DAC directly via its USB ports without the need of any Digital over-sampling...

The audio tracks can be played from any computer after installation of the supplied special drivers (that) allow total compatibility and superior sonic performance.

The DAC display (shows) the real resolution of the files fed into the unit to guarantee the user always(knows) the kind of resolution achieved.

The DAC features also a number of traditional Digital inputs and output as S/P-Dif RCA, Optical, AES/EBU XLR to match all the other digital sources possible to it.

These unique features and innovations enable the Blacknote DAC to reach again the peak of the Digital Technology, offering another unbeatable powerful unit dedicated for the high end audio market."

We also found a wonderful user review which details his experience with the DAC 30 and are including it herefor you:

"I've now spent a few days with the Blacknote DAC30, with the following setup:
- USB in (iMac running PureMusic)
- Volume control bypass
My expectations beforehand were a bit mixed, i was expecting warm(ish) tonal balance + a pleasant and "easy" overall sound (italian-made with tubes, what else...?).
Even with this limited-time experience and despite the DAC only being broken-in for 20+ hours, i got something completely different. The DAC30 sounds nothing like what you'd expect from "italian with tubes".
The sound is delightfully detailed and airy, coupled with a soundstage depth that beats most of the digital front ends I´ve had in my system. At the same time, the midrange has a certain fullness which prevents things from sounding too digital. Transient response and dynamics are simply excellent, with eg. sharp plucking of guitar strings rendered believably both in terms of the initial "twang" and the natural decay of the sound (example Private Investigations from "Love over Gold", Dire Straits). Drums and cymbals have all the required impact (unforgiving on bad recordings) coupled with the nuances that make it sound "real" (the drumstick hitting the skin/rim/cymbal), which tend to get lost with lesser machines.
Compared to my previous cd rig (Audionet ART G2 + EPS power source), the iMac/DAC30 sounds more detailed, more transparent, more dynamic and more natural. There might be a slight loss of the finest details in the highest frequencies, but this might be attributed to the lack of break-in. Also, while the DAC30 clearly has better bass resolution, the Audionet might have had a bit better "grip". This is all with 16/44.1 material.
The other point of comparison is the highly regarded Ayre QB9 that I had in the system a week back. In my own subjective view (and in my system, mind You), the DAC30 performs better in most regards.
In terms of overall neutrality, the Ayre might have been a bit better, but it also tended to get a bit too "polite" overall, compared to the more "snappy" and forward character of the DAC30 (which I prefer). The Ayre was also a bit more dry in the lower register. BUT on most other parameters, i preferred the DAC30 - more air, much more transparency, better resolution of detail, better midrange presence, deeper and more expansive soundstage. And despite the bass being a bit softer, it still had more nuances than the Ayre presented. Dynamics (both macro- and micro) and transient response were better with the DAC30.
Caveats? Well some; first of all, the display doesn´t show the incoming frequency when using USB. This was initially very confusing as the display reads "fs.44.100" despite PureMusic putting out 24/96 or 24/192. I checked with the factory, when using USB the display is actually showing the frequency on the "digital out", instead of the frequency currently being received. So it will adapt (and play, uncompressed) to any signal coming in automatically...with any other digital input the display will show the correct sampling rate .
The other thing is the slightly flimsy feel of the two pushbuttons on the front of the unit, given the otherwise high level of build quality.
I wasn't very familiar with the Blacknote brand until now, but I've cetrainly been very impressed. The DAC30 is currently a strong no.1 contender on my DAC (very) shortlist.
I can only speak for myself and i´ve only listened to my own system, but if You´re looking for a very high-quality DAC, You should definitely give this one a try."

We have disabled the "Buy it Now" button on Audiogon because we had a whole run of people 2 years ago who agreed to buy then didn't pay. We prefer to do business the old fashioned way where we exchange emails like gentlemen and conduct a smooth and safe transaction for all parties. Because we don't own this we cannot take much less than the asking price for it. If you make us a low offer there is no way I am going to go to this gentleman and tell him that I have a low offer, that so and so really wants it but his wife won't let him spend more than X amount for it. I'll just ignore the lowball offer and wait til a better one comes in. However, if you want to buy this together with some other items, as part of a package deal, then that would be something we can discuss. Just let me know what items you want.

If you are the one who decides to purchase this item, thank you and enjoy! Our full store policies are included below the pictures, but for now I would like to let you know about a few of them. For payment, we are happy to accept a cashier's check, a bank wire or PayPal. If PayPal is your preferred payment method then please add the following percentage of your purchase and shipping price to your total to cover the PayPal fees: 3% for domestic buyers or 4% for international buyers. Also, since this is a consignment sale where the equipment does not belong to us but to our customer, we need to ask that the buyer promptly inspect and test the item upon receipt and report any problems found so that if there is a problem found we could withhold funds from paying our customer to deal with the problem. We don't think there will be any problem, but once we have paid him we won't have any recourse if any problem is found. So, please take the time to unpack and test as soon after the equipment arrives as possible. Our policy states that we will hear from you within 10 days of receipt if any discrepancy is found. However, what we really want is to receive your email saying how much this enhances your listening experience right away, just as soon as possible so that we know you are satisfied. But if there is any problem at all then we want to hear about that right away as well, so that we can make it right for you and make this a successful transaction for all concerned!

Also, because we're selling this for a client and have to give him the cash for it, we're not going to take trades unless you make us some trade offer that we consider to be so far in our favor that we can't resist putting in our own money to buy your gear. An exception to this that we would be willing to consider would be that if you want to buy this AND some other items that we sell then we'll try and make you a package deal for all of it. Since this is not ours we cannot discount it much, but we can give you an extra discount on other items we sell to make you a package deal. So if you want some Lansche speakers or Ypsilon amps or any of the many other things we sell, which are listed below, then please email us about it.

We would be happy to sell your gear on consignment if that would help you to purchase this or other items from the High End Zone. In some cases we might sell your gear on consignment even if you don't want to buy more gear from us, if the gear is very nice. Our most successful customers are very busy folks and we understand that if they spend hours answering questions from Audiogoners, that is thousands of dollars that they lost in terms of what they could have earned with that time. We do have some restrictions as to what we can sell because of the manufacturer rules about online sales and so on, but we do our best to help. We can arrange to have the gear picked up from your home or office, or in some cases we can even have someone come in and pack it for you. Then we will handle all the testing, photography, sales of the item and follow up after the sale. Since many people prefer to buy from a dealer and because we have 12 years of perfect feedback on Audiogon and Ebay with no neutrals or negatives ever we can usually get more for your items than you could get yourself. Depending on the exact item, you may net as much or even slightly more having us sell it. And once you factor in the value of your time, it's a clear savings to let us sell the gear for you. So let us know if we can be of service to you in that area.

This DAC30 comes with all original accessories and packaging.

The remote has never been used, if you look closely you can see the battery cover still intact. The black slip case pictured here to the right is new as well.

The DAC30 Back Panel
IEC Plug & Fuse:
- 100-240 Volt - 50/60 Hz with 1 A fuse
Digital Input:
-(2) two High-Speed USB 480Mb/s port
-(4) Four Coaxial RCA 75ohm Digital S/PDIF compliance
-(1) Optical Tos-Link
-(1) XLR 110ohm AES/EBU AES3
Digital Output:
- (1) Coaxial RCA Digital S/PDIF compliant
Analog Output:
- Left and Right RCA Stereo Unbalanced Analog Output
- Left and Right XLR Stereo Balanced Analog Output

Other Special Features:
- Triple Power Supply super linear set up
- Convenient 240mm wide chassis
- Front panel based on the same Blacknote family compact design features a display shows the menu option selected
- Remote and Volume control to let it use as a direct source/player directly
- Class A Tube output stage
Notes: The DAC30 can convert the signal directly from any computer playing native file in any resolution up to 24bit and 192KHz.

High Speed USB DAC and DAC30 Technical Specifications

SAMPLE RATE SUPPORTED: All up to 192KHz

ANALOG OUTPUT: Stereo RCA & XLR Balanced

AUDIO FORMAT SUPPORTED: All the computer Players used formats

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 20Hz - 20KHz @ +/- 0,3dB

ANALOG OUTPUT LEVEL: 2 volt RMS

THD (Total Harmonic Distortion): 0,05% TUBE

SIGNAL-NOISE: 90dB TUBE

DYNAMIC RESPONSE: 125dB

POWER SUPPLY: 100/260Volt 50/60Hz Super Linear

POWER CONSUMPTION: 60watt TUBE

DIMENSIONS: 9 inches Wide x 5 inches High x 16 inches Deep

WEIGHT: 18 lbs

Price: $5,000 USD

Double boxed

With all original packaging.

We are truly appreciative of responsible Audiogon members, please make sure you are one of them before you make us an offer. If you have questions concerning the gear, the terms of sale, or if you need to upgrade any of your cables, Tranquility Bases or other items in your system to the current spec, please contact us through email or by phone at 575.535.2280. We will be happy to get back with you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your interest and may our gear help facilitate your ears meeting high quality sound with ease.

Here is the shipping info for the
Black Note DAC30

1 box with Original Packaging

24 inches long X 23 inches wide X 12 inches high

Total Weight: 32 lbs

Origin: We ship from Gila, NM 88038 / USA

Please email us at [email protected] if you are sincerely interested in purchasing this and have any questions. We may also be contacted by phone at 575.535.2280.

Thank you for your interest and good luck biding.

Welcome to the home of High End Zone!

Thanks for looking at our listing.

Please check our perfect feedback from years of trading on Audiogon and buy with confidence. We have sold gear all over the world, to every continent except Antarctica and hopefully one of those scientists there will order from us soon!

We offer professional packing, prompt shipping with tracking info sent to you and a high level of customer service and support. We provide guaranteed quality and service. We think we are the perfect service for the customer who wants great savings but does not have time for all the hassle of putting together a system with pieces obtained from many different sellers. We offer one stop shopping for all your high-end needs.

The High End Zone, is a full service audio and home theater dealer offering superb gear at substantial discounts. That's our demo theater above, loaded with the gear that I love and the same gear that we love to sell, Runco, Revel, JL Audio, McIntosh, Anthem, Lexicon and more.

The High End Zone is all about listening to good music, talking to clients around the world by email, and helping people get the most joy out of the time and money they invest in their high-end audio and theater hobbies. If you're a successful individual, you and your family should be able to enjoy beautiful music and video in your home affordably, and the buying process should be fun, not a chore. We're dedicated to that and I hope we get the chance to sell you something that you and your family can enjoy together for a long time in good health, just as my family and I enjoy our several high-end audio and video systems!

Thank you for your interest, please do not hesitate to email us with your questions at [email protected] or give us a call at 575.535.2280.

The Fine Print:

We accept payment by PayPal and wire transfers from anywhere in the world and cashier's checks drawn on US banks. We will also accept escrow if the buyer pays the fee.

If PayPal is your preferred payment method, then please add the following percentage of your purchase and shipping price to your total to cover the PayPal fees: 3% for domestic buyers and 4% for International buyers. If you pay by PayPal then your purchase must be shipped to the PayPal shipping address only, per PayPal's rules.

We may accept a personal check from long-standing Audiogon members, but it does delay shipping for clearance. Please ask before paying that way. If you desire to pay by some other means you do not see here then please email us, we will try to accommodate you if we can.

Our items are guaranteed to work properly and be in the condition we describe. If we make a mistake, if an item does not work properly, or if the item description is inaccurate, we'll offer you a full and prompt refund or exchange at our option and issue return shipping labels at our expense.

Please check your purchases promptly upon arrival. In general, our policy is that any flaw, damage, missing item, incorrect item, etc. must be reported to High End Zone by email no later than 3 days (72 hours) after that item is delivered. If you are not able to check the item yourself in that time frame, please make the necessary arrangements to have someone else make such a check for you in your absence.

All sales are final with no returns or exchanges allowed unless the buyer finds a defect and reports it to High End Zone within 72 hours after delivery. See below for special note on delays due to customs on international shipments. If the buyer finds a defect and reports it to High End Zone by email within 72 hours after the item is delivered then High End Zone will repair, replace, or refund at our option.

In rare cases we have allowed a return to happen for a 20% restocking fee. Any item that is returned to us due to any reason other than the item not working properly or not in the condition we describe, the buyer will be charged a 20% restocking fee. This includes sales where the buyer "changes his mind", where his wife beats him over the head for spending too much money, where some unforeseen crisis, financial or otherwise, strikes the buyer, his family, his friends/ business/ job/ pets/ favorite sports team/ etc. or any other reason that the buyer may seek to cancel the sale or return the item for some reason other than a mistake or discrepancy on the High End Zone's part. And this includes cases where the buyer changes his mind and wants to cancel the sale before he even receives the item, possibly before we even ship it. We are a small company and the moment a buyer commits to purchase one of our items we are redeploying our capital to get other items for our customers to buy. If you decide 2 hours or 2 minutes after you buy something that you don't want it anymore, chances are we've already spent the money to restock. So the restocking fee absolutely applies in all cases of buyers changing their minds, wanting to cancel a sale after it is agreed or returning an item for any reason other than High End Zone providing a flawed or incorrect item. This does not mean that we will agree to accept a return or to allow for the cancelation of an order where a buyer changes his mind. An order is a contract to purchase and we are setting aside the goods for you the moment you order them. You would never want us to accept a higher offer after we accepted yours and sell the goods to someone else, and we would never do that. By the same token, we expect you to follow through on what you have contractually promised to do and to pay for your item as agreed.

So for example, if a buyer who used PayPal were to apply to PayPal for a refund because he changed his mind about purchasing an item, then IF we did give that refund it would be less the 20% restock fee. So the moral of the story is, if you're not sure you want it, just don't buy, wait until you actually are sure, and then buy. It's the same as if you're going to buy a house, you don't sign the contract til you and your wife are sure you want the house and can afford it. I feel like an idiot for having to say this but we have had a number of people who think "I changed my mind." or "My wife says I can't buy the amp." just magically gets them out of a contract they agreed to with us. With no consideration that we have incurred costs above and beyond the listing fees. By taking it off the market we may have lost potentially perfect buyers and we will have to spend more on listings fees and so on. So, we have to be strict about this and ask that buyers please be conscientious here. We charge low margins, that's only possible if people follow through and pay for items as agreed. So while all sales are final and there are no refunds or exchanges unless you receive a defective item and report that within 3 days as specified above, IF for some reason we do agree to accept your return or cancel your order when there is no mistake or defect on High End Zone's part, then you agree to pay us the 20% restocking fee on your order.

In the case of items that are shipped internationally the buyer is responsible to make sure the item clears customs in a timely manner. We've had cases where buyers waited a long time to pay their customs bill, delaying the release of the item. The trouble with that is we need to know promptly if there is any problem with your item so that we can file a shipping claim if needed or withhold payment from a consignor or a supplier on a defective item, etc. So we now require that any item be picked up from Customs within 5 business days or less in order to preserve the buyer's protections for shipping damage and defective merchandise under our selling policies. We discourage the use of Postal Mail as it may be harder to meet this deadline using that shipping method. Generally FedEx will clear items within one business day.

We can sometimes make an exception to some of the above policies if you change your mind in order to buy something else that we can sell you that costs more. For example, if you make a deal to buy a JL f113 from us and then you decide that what you REALLY want is a Gotham g213, then we can probably work it out to make that switch for you without a restocking fee. That said, please don't buy if you're not sure that you want the item you are buying. If you need to check with your wife, your broker, your business partner, your kids, or the Supreme Court before you buy, please do that. The High End Zone cannot be held responsible for any case of wives beating their husbands for spending too much money on good gear!

The High End Zone is a full service home theater dealer located in Southwest New Mexico. While we are well established as the premier dealer in our small town market, we also serve many clients who have multiple homes or live in far-flung places. The world is increasingly a small place and I delight in talking with and serving clients from all continents and many countries of the world. Depending on your needs we are happy to just sell you gear (note some manufacturers may prohibit us from sending gear to certain places) or we can provide a full service experience including system design, acoustic design and construction, installation, programming, and more. We've done work for very high profile clients with multiple homes and we are also proud to serve many hobbyists who enjoy this hobby on a modest budget. No matter your budget, we'll strive to provide the products you want at a price that is fair with top shelf service.

Some of the many lines we sell include, but are not limited to:

AB Amps
Acoustic Sciences Corporation ASC Tube Traps
AMX
Audio Desk
Axonix
B.M.C.
Capriccio Continuo (ATD)
Cineak
Crestron
Da-Lite screens
Daniel Hertz (ultimate audio creations of Mr. Mark Levinson)
Denon
Dragonfly screens
Einstein
Escient
Extreme Media Servers
Finite Elemente
Furman
Golden Acoustics
Hartvig
HB Cable Design
Ikeda
Isoclean
JBL
JBL Synthesis
Kaleidescape
Key Digital
Lansche
Lexicon
Lutron
Mark Levinson
Marantz
McIntosh
Middle Atlantic
Millenium
Mozaex
Paradigm
Parasound
PHC (Professional Home Cinema)
Polk Audio
Revel
Runco
Salamander
Scaena
Screen Excellence
Screen Innovations
SE2 Labs
Silverline Audio
Stage III
Stewart Film Screens
Tandem
Thales
Transparent Cables
Tru-Audio
Velodyne
Verastarr
Vidikron
Wireworld
Ypsilon

*List includes lines we are factory direct with as well as lines we get through distribution or through our extensive dealer network. Most customers don't care whether we are factory direct if we provide authentic product and great service at a fair price, but if you care about this or any other issue, please ask us.

Unlike most shops that sell a very small number of lines that they are authorized for and will always try and talk customers in to buying just those few lines, we are willing to sell you virtually any line that you want. Obviously we make a lower profit if we have to get it from another dealer, but our goal is to provide you, the customer, with one stop shopping and top notch service. It's more like the business model of Amazon than the old school brick and mortar stores. We want the customer's business and we will try and earn it by providing competitive pricing and top notch service for you on whatever brands you want. Of course if you are not sure what brands are best for your needs and want us to provide expert analysis of what gear represents the best value for your dollar, we are more than happy to provide that too. We spend a great deal of time and money listening to and viewing a wide range of audio and video systems, as well as bringing in gear for long-term testing in our facilities. Most of the salesmen you might deal with in a home theater store do NOT have a high-end audio video system in their homes. I have 4 such systems, including Runcos in every nook and cranny, and I live with this stuff daily. So I truly know what works well and what is worth spending money on and what is not. And even if I used something for years and loved it, when I hear something better, that is a better value, I switch immediately. My main loyalty is to the customer and your satisfaction--I want you to buy not just one thing from us, but all your gear, for life, and to recommend us to your friends and family. To that end, I will strive to give you the best and most honest advice, fair prices and great service. And I'll try to get you any brand you want, ultimately your system needs to satisfy you, not me.

Our clients certainly enjoy their home audio and video rooms. We do as well and hope you'll also take pleasure and be inspired by the variety of these beautiful installations.

Some aspects of making an informed choice in an audiophile grade listening room or a home theater system are worth a little extra effort. We invite you to contact the High End Zone for help in making your choices, we will make the extra effort worthwhile.