Red Rose Music by Mark Levinson: DUSSUN (Korsun), Aurum Cantus, and…

Red Rose Music (Web Archive) is a small New York audio brand founded by the celebrated American Hi-Fi designer Mark Levinson — after his departures from the high-end brands bearing his own name, Mark Levinson, and CELLO — with the aim of returning to what he always felt was the fundamental theme: sound that makes you feel as though you are in the presence of the musicians themselves. From the look of the official site, it feels less like an audio manufacturer and more like a small Hi-Fi boutique. Unlike the traditional ultra-high-end approach of Mark Levinson products, the brand’s distinctive character lies in taking high-quality audio equipment manufactured under OEM arrangements primarily in China, arranging it in Mark Levinson’s own way, and selling it under his own label.

Red Rose Music and AudioPrism

Red Rose Music also merged for a period with AudioPrism, a maker of valve amplifiers and audio power accessories, producing a number of high-end audio products and accessories under both brand names. ※ The two have since separated again. Beyond that, the business Mark Levinson produces continues to attract attention in various ways — including high-quality SACD recordings of jazz made in New York, among other ventures, small in scale as they may be.

Red Rose Music 1934 RCA Cable

The Red Rose Music product I own is the RCA cable, the Red Rose Music 1934. It is described as an interconnect cable that Mark Levinson himself developed over many years of listening tests, intended for use in his own recordings. The cable has an unusual construction — three cores of extremely fine, enamel-coated OFC multi-strand Litz wire — and is exceptionally thin and flexible for a high-end audio cable, almost to the point of feeling insubstantial. Yet what might seem like a flimsy appearance belies a sound of distinctive buoyancy — extraordinarily delicate and highly resolving, presenting a world of its own that simply cannot be reached by other line cables built along more conventional principles.

In terms of character: the bass has moderate weight, the treble is vivid and open, and the presentation is delicate and understated — curiously, it also tends to sound as though the sound pressure has dropped slightly. The sound is refined throughout, with very fine resolution down into the quietest passages; the S/N ratio in the lower dynamic range is excellent. String instruments appear resolved string by string, as if you could see each one individually. The piano has a slight edge to its outlines, but there is moisture in the resonance and the vibration of the piano strings feels real. The overall tone is somewhat cool and fastidious, but the astonishing clarity and the soft, floating sense of bloom — reminiscent of electrostatic loudspeakers — are deeply captivating. In terms of musical expression, the sound is by no means cheerful or vivaciously alive, but the richness of nuance, which seems to dig deep into the inner spirit of the music, makes for a wonderful match with classical music — choral works and Baroque music in particular.

The 1934, now discontinued, is the budget model and uses OFC copper as its conductor; above it sits the Silver One, a model of identical construction but with silver conductors. It is a three-core Litz structure using 57 strands of extremely fine enamel-coated pure silver wire, with 19 strands per core wound in PTFE tape insulation. It has been on the market for around nine years, and as of writing it remains the only cable still listed on the brand’s home website, so it does appear to still be available. (In Japan, some shops sell it with pin plugs that differ from the original, at rather striking prices.)

Since acquiring it in 2000, the Red Rose Music 1934 has become an indispensable analogue RCA cable in my main system. I have tried a number of cables since, but have yet to find one that suits my personal taste better than the 1934. When I bought it at the time at Audio Union in Ochanomizu, a member of staff who was advising me on cables told me that the 1934 (which I believe I paid around ¥15,000 for) and the higher-model silver-wire Silver One (listed at ¥68,000 at the time) sounded quite similar, and that the difference was not proportionate to the price gap — so I went for the cheaper one. But given how deeply I have fallen for the 1934, I cannot help feeling that the Silver One, being the same construction in silver wire, would surely sound even more wonderful to someone like me who loves silver conductors. It is, however, not a price one can casually reach for (US$500 per 1m pair even in its home market), which is why I have yet to actually purchase one. I do hope I can get hold of one before it disappears for good…

Red Rose Music, DUSSUN (Korsun), Aurum Cantus, and More

As is fairly well known in certain circles, most Red Rose Music products — aside from those originally made by Audio Prism, such as their valve amplifiers — are manufactured under OEM arrangements by well-known Chinese audio companies. Amplifiers and loudspeakers of identical appearance to Red Rose Music products are sold under the original manufacturers’ brands at substantially lower prices, and the sheer scale of the price gap drew criticism from Hi-Fi enthusiasts in both Japan and the United States, with accusations of ethically dubious price-gouging.

For reference: the integrated and separate amplifiers in the Red Rose Music range are products of Dussun (formerly Korsun), while the loudspeakers fitted with ribbon tweeters are products of the Chinese manufacturer Aurum Cantus. Whether the internals are absolutely identical is not confirmed by any authoritative source, and the matter remains something of an open secret — though it is said that in the case of Red Rose Music branded products, the connector grades, internal wiring, and parts have apparently been modified by Mark Levinson himself (unverified). (Incidentally, I have also heard that the crossover networks in Aurum Cantus products and the American export versions of the same loudspeakers sold under the Red Rose Music brand are entirely different.)

Hi-Fi equipment has value beyond its actual sonic performance — the pleasure of ownership, status, and so on — and where people choose to find value for money is a personal matter. Moreover, even if the external appearance is identical, whether the finished product inside is truly identical is something no third party can determine. I leave that interpretation to each reader’s own judgement. What can be said is that both Red Rose Music products and DUSSUN/Aurum Cantus products enjoy an extremely good reputation among those who actually use them, and the controversy surrounding them seems to be almost entirely about the price disparity rather than the sound quality itself.

Well, if the same quality of product were made in America, I doubt anyone would complain about Red Rose Music’s pricing — so it was really the extremely low value of the Chinese yuan that made the fuss as large as it became. But in a world where the internet has spread and a little English goes a long way towards buying almost anything from anywhere, businesses that rely on large exchange-rate margins are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. DUSSUN’s own original-brand products are now available through Japanese authorised importers at entirely normal prices. And since Red Rose Music no longer appears on the distributor’s official site, it seems the distributor has already ceased handling the brand.

Now, the product from DUSSUN — the original manufacturer — that has been attracting renewed attention is the T2 Integrated Amplifier with USB DAC → (distributor’s site). It appears to be based on a product that was sold under the Red Rose Music brand as the Rosette 1, priced at US$2,000 (¥350,000 in Japan). Originally it seems to have been designed less for pure Hi-Fi and more for PC audio use; it is also an entry-level model within the DUSSUN range, and when you look at the local Chinese price, you may feel something rise involuntarily in your throat — but let us set that aside for now. At present, I am planning the construction of a high-quality PC audio system (note: not dependent on an audio board), and the DUSSUN T2 is one of the candidates I am considering for it.

The key point is that on top of its function as an integrated amplifier, it incorporates a D/A converter via USB input (detailed specifications unknown). As an integrated amplifier, this was a product sold under the Red Rose Music brand paired with the Rose Bud 2 loudspeaker — priced at ¥500,000 domestically — at ¥350,000 per unit; it can also be used as a headphone amplifier, making it a fairly strong candidate from a cost-performance standpoint. However, reading through reviews from people who have actually listened to it, the impression I get is that the direction of the sound is quite different from what I associate with the refined and delicate quality of vintage Mark Levinson gear or the Red Rose Music cables. I cannot say for certain without hearing the unit myself, but if the sound tends towards the broad and easygoing, that would be different from what I am looking for — and that is precisely where I find myself hesitating…

And then, in terms of capturing the genuine Mark Levinson flavour — actually obtaining the Red Rose Music sound — what interests me more, alongside the Silver One RCA cable, is the American-market version of the Aurum Cantus Leisure 2, a two-way bookshelf loudspeaker with a ribbon tweeter, or its successor the Leisure 5. Looking at the local website, the finish is beautiful — almost Italian in feel. However, the Aurum Cantus loudspeakers currently available on the general market, including the Leisure 2 and others of the same model designation, seem to use a trapezoidal cabinet that differs from the original, and the rectangular cabinet matching the Red Rose Music versions is very hard to come by. There are people who have acquired the equivalent of the Rose Bud 2 through local purchases or auctions, but what exactly is going on there? Could it perhaps already be discontinued…? If a Leisure 2 with exactly the same crossover network as the Rose Bud 2 — the US-market version — could be had for under ¥50,000 a pair at local prices, I would very much want to get my hands on one.

And so, given all of the above, I find myself wondering about my beloved Red Rose Music audio cables as well: did Mark Levinson truly design the construction himself from scratch? Or did he, true to form, simply come across some unusually interesting-sounding wire material in China or Taiwan and arrange it for his own brand? Could the source silver wire be bought from some Chinese manufacturer by the roll for a few thousand yen…? Such suspicions do creep in, though for the time being I have found no reports on this specific product anywhere online. That said, cheaper would certainly be better if I were to actually obtain one, and on that front I would welcome any information from those with inside knowledge of Red Rose Music or familiarity with Chinese Hi-Fi.