Since its release in September, 2021, we are proud and honored to receive high praises from press and customers all around the world. Below we list some of the AMP-23R’s review highlights.
Though this was really a meet of equals, given the small but consistent advances of this circuit’s very latest implementation, the Enleum AMP-23R now is my new favorite low-power transistor amp for loudspeakers and HifiMan Susvara headphones alike. That this was virtually pre-ordained so boringly predictive doesn’t lessen the achievement. It’s not just a new name with old wine in a restyled bottle then. It’s the same varietal from the same vineyard but a harvest which absorbed just a bit more sun. Team Enleum should take pride in not just having rolled out a repackaged Bakoon. Whilst that rated very high already, they managed to still squeeze more juice from a winning recipe then mature it by another year. A votre santé!
Now fast forward to late 2021. If you haven’t been up to speed with the industry’s gossip, Bakoon International is no more and here Srajan sheds some light on why that had to happen. Soo In’s next audio chapter christened Enleum continues where the previous one had ended. This review’s Enleum AMP-23R marks its first page. As for the company’s name itself, it comprises of words Enlightenment and eum that in Korean stands for sound. Clever, short, purposeful and easy to remember, isn’t it? But then again, considering Soo In’s obsession about simplicity that’s hardly a surprise. His newborn brand that arose from Bakoon’s ashes was destined to lock on fewer quality watts inside neatly styled compact packages rather than the other way around. Its introductory product makes that point more than well.
To summarize, Enleum AMP-23R is as non-casual as the Bakoon was before it. Its industrial styling, petite footprint, flawless metalwork and brilliant overall execution already make that point, but I’m not aware of any other similarly voiced as accomplished hardware that sells for less than thrice its tag. Soo In’s newcomer easily pulls sonics way above that sticker to prove us once more that top shelf performance can wear a fabulously compact sharp suit that’s not even remotely close to the industry’s usual suspects. If 25wpc is plenty for you, Enleum AMP-23R is theintegrated/headfi amp to get and silly good effort that runs cooler, sells for noticeably less and is audibly more refined than its predecessor that was the best of the low-power kind. The award below merely highlights that.
There is a tendency when reviewing to play the first two or three minutes of reference tracks and move on, here that proved almost impossible because the music was so captivating that I had to let it run to the end and often onto the next piece. It’s hard to say exactly how this amplifier achieves this but it clearly has a degree of musicality and charm that eludes a lot of the competition.
This amplifier does all the hi-fi stuff well; it images precisely, has plenty of punch and delivers voices like you wouldn’t believe. I put on the first Nicks/Buckingham Fleetwood Mac [Fleetwood Mac, Warner] album to hear ‘Landslide’ which was lovely but decided that ‘World Keep Turning’ is equally good, that never seemed the case in the past. And that’s a rare and valuable quality in any piece of audio gear, showing the listener just how good the music really is. A lot of stuff makes the better recordings sound great but fails to reveal the musical beauty of less polished productions, but the Enleum gets to the heart and soul of the matter in a very convincing style.
The Sennheiser HD650 and Audeze LCD-5 headphones, quite a way apart in their requirements of amplification, both responded to the AMP-23R in a way that made a compelling case for Soo In Chae’s approach. The AMP-23R is, as is sometimes the way with zero feedback designs, ultra-fast and also liquid and powerful – almost as if the dynamic expression is powered by a large rubber band that imbues the amplifier with large reserves of current but which doesn’t result in an unrealistically tight, buttoned-up sound. People either react positively to this style of presentation or not. As a consumer of as much live music as I can get, I make no apology for admitting that listening to the AMP-23R through either headphone was a fill-yer-boots opportunity for me.
Editor’s note
I also spent time with the Enleum amplifier and was definitely as charmed as Kevin. What struck me primarily was the speed and fluidity that he mentions, the AMP-23R has a triode like ability to deliver the immediacy of live music to an extent that’s rare in solid state designs. I tried a number of speakers including Bowers & Wilkins 802 D3 which are just too recalcitrant in the bass to be bossed by any 25 Watt design, but JBL HDI 3800s worked well and PMC twenty5.21s blew me away. This compact standmount is not very efficient at 86.5dB but it has an easy load and allowed the full expressiveness of this amplifier to shine through. Delivering superb imaging and remarkable bass alongside very high transparency. The Enleum may be smaller than a coffee table book but it is a heck of a fabulous amplifier in a rather stylish case.
I absolutely love this amplifier! It has everything you might be looking for in a “one-amplifier-to-rule-them-all” as it can drive (with complete ease) the most power-hungry headphones you can throw at it, but still be equally light handed with some of the most efficient headphones around (and everything in between). The background of this amplifier is dead-black even with some of my in-ear monitors! For this review, I did borrow my brother’s Totem Sky bookshelf speakers over the holidays and we were both very thoroughly impressed with what we heard. Don’t let the smallish size fool you, this amplifier packs some serious punch!
I wholeheartedly recommend you check out Enleum AMP-23R; you won’t be disappointed!
AudioKey Reviews, K. E. Heartsong
The Enleum AMP-23R, in its current iteration, thus allows the signal to flow free of both additive and subtractive elements and in this sense it, Enleum AMP-23R, achieves what a good many other components attempt to do but do not. And it does it with the sweetest kiss of richness in a true Ying/Yang duality.
The Enleum AMP-23R, also like its predecessor, is a form-follows-function, minimalist, pragmatic, industrially-designed component, that is exceptionally transparent, natural, superbly musical, and fantastically involving. The Enleum AMP-23R is our latest DIAMOND AWARD WINNER and very, very highly recommended!
Pros: Transparency, resolution, amazing transient speed, organic/natural musicality, etc.
Cons: Zero.
As they used to say: “The king is dead – long live the king!” The ENLEUM AMP-23R is the worthy successor to the great Bakoon AMP-13R. An ingenious combination of minimalist design, innovative technology and perfect workmanship. Brilliant in sound both as a headphone amp and as an amplifier when combined with the right speakers.
It sounded utterly sublime through the Enleum-Wilson (TuneTots) combination. The presence of music and the palpability was something I’ve not heard from these Wilsons before, and that’s a presence and palpability that the NAD M10 V2 and the Naim Units Atom just cannot match. The Enleum gives us more abundant tonal color and a greater sense of music’s liquidity than both of the more affordable, more feature packed paced rivals. And It also possesses one of my favorite qualities of music playback that I don’t actually hear very often. That’s where I call dynamic elasticity where some sound will pop out and then come back, but it won’t go forward and back in a sort of jerky way. There’s a bit of an elegant flow to it.
With the right loudspeakers or with a pair of headphones, it leaves its rivals eating dust and I think that is super impressive.
14.03.2022. Soo in Chae’s Enleum AMP-23R just netted its 6th enthusiastic review. Given that lucky number, you’d expect some add-on commentary from us. It’s not that often that in such a short period of time, this many writers from different publications—with different ancillaries, rooms, tastes, hardware exposure and expectations—agree so much. Here they have, be it us, darko.audio, HifiKnights, Hifistatement, Hi-Fi+ or Headphone.Guru. There’s even two awards in that lineup already.
What’s it all mean? It means that despite its high price for what is low transistor power and limited featurization in this Age of the All-in-One, the AMP-23R hits far harder than most should suspect. In fact, cater to its power limitations—none such in headfi use!—and this could be your end of the road. Forget a preamp as well. It’s bonsai audio with a vengeance!
Postscript: Actually, today made for already 7 reviews. But at this rate, who’s still counting?
I’ve heard plenty of great sounding solid-state amplifiers by now, but none of them were crawling under my skin as soon as music started doing its mojo. Its different working principle was felt immediately. My tunes were revitalized, freed from any limitations, transients were riding a roller-coaster as if a (much) bigger amplifier was pushing and pulling them around.
It outperformed current production solid-state headphone amplifiers by a long shot and that was mirrored in its price tag. For countless of reasons, it didn’t feel as an ordinary headphone / integrated amplifier and that’s why Enleum’s nerdy team deserved our highest praise and award!
Steve Guttenberg, Audiophiliac
It was a perfect balance of purity and transparency and still had a bit of soul and warmth to it.
I switched over to the Klipsch Cornwall IVs, again with this little tiny little amplifier, it was beyond my expectations.
The AMP-23R is so quiet, so pure, it just made every headphone sound at its absolute best – some of the best headphone sound I’ve ever heard.
Steve Huff, Steve Huff Photo & HiFi
It’s not often I see a product that is this special. I see it as a bargain at its price but I know it can be a tough pill to swallow for those who are not fully into the audio thing. One thing to remember is that all pieces together will create the magic but this AMP23R is a perfect start to a beautiful system. It’s a very Zen kind of audio piece and I can’t get enough of it.
This thing is a marvel. The fact that it can do and fill so many roles for me is a win. It does my KEFs for my speaker near-field, It can do my Khorn Scalas as well which is fantastic. Marvel of engineering and it looks gorgeous.
Excellent in every respect: from dynamics and precision, to the charm of refinement, reverberation setting, shadow aura and intense pulsation of all flavors with sounds. It was a really great spectacle in the performance of a small amplifier, driving the four-way loudspeakers without any problems. Driving in the style of tube splendor, not the push-pull pentode ones, but the triode charm. 100% theatricality, total sound saturation – actors and stage design of the highest level.
Holger Barske, LP (LP_6, 2022)
I still have to smile when I plug such a cute four-kilo device like the Enleum into the system. However, one should not be deceived by the delicate physique of the device.
If I needed any arguments to continue consuming mid-highs with horns, alnico compression drivers and phenolic cones, the AMP-23R delivers. To practically the same extent as a good single-ended tube. The treble has just the right amount of sweetness, but never seems overstated. The mids sound detailed, sonorous and extremely present in the room. That’s exactly how I imagine it. Beautifully springy and delicate in the bass, a bass to listen to, less one that kicks in the stomach. Great class!
Grover Neville, Part-Time Audiophile
The Enleum AMP-23R is tonally one of the finest solid state amplifiers I have heard, and those looking for deep musical involvement would be well served auditioning one. If you don’t require gobs of power, you’ll have a hard time finding a solid state amplifier under $10K that’s anywhere close to as rich and clear sounding AMP-23R.