Everything seems to come around. With all the excitement for streaming building at a feverish pace, some people still like the old-fashioned way of serving up digital; namely, spinning a silver (or maybe gold) disc.

World-renowned turntable manufacturer Rega was one of the last manufacturers to produce a CD player, but when they finally did put their engineering mettle to the task, their players were brilliant. And very analog sounding. Years later, nothing has changed, and their new $1,095 Apollo is by far the most sonically engaging players we’ve heard at anywhere near this price. CD player? Have we gone mad in this world of curated playlists? Read on.

Taking up a tiny footprint only about 8 inches wide, 3 inches tall and 12 inches deep, the Apollo is meant to be a perfect bookend to Rega’s remarkable Brio integrated amplifier, but it looks awfully nice on the Quadraspire rack with my Nagra Tube DAC. Patterned after the rest of the players in their lineup, the Apollo uses the same Starship Enterprise shaped lid for the transport. Rega’s Roy Gandy is a brilliant man with a wacky sense of humor, so one never knows if this is on purpose or random. Either way, this manual lid assures that it is not another mechanism that will fail ten years later – Rega is always the master of simple elegance.

Fit, finish, and functionality is always top of the class, and the Apollo feels much more expensive than its price suggests. As well as feeling rather heavy for its price. The front panel features a large display, flanked by a power button on the left and 4 buttons to control transport functions on the right. That’s it. Perfect.

Quite the comeback

Several audiophiles that have ditched the compact disc in favor of streaming or vinyl have been sneaking back, with surprising results. On my recent podcast with John Darko of Darko Audio, he admits “I recently picked up a couple thousand CD’s at a great price recently. I like to start my day with a CD over the morning coffee.” Fascinating, captain.

Much as I love a well-oiled record player that’s set up to perfection, or a mile long Qobuz playlist, there is something pure about putting a disc in, pressing play, and hearing a full album from start to finish. “As the artist intended,” I believe the expression goes. Without having to get up and flip the record over. Not bad. Following Mr. Darko’s lead, I substitute the morning coffee for a dreadful bit of wheatgrass, and a copy of Brian Eno’s Thursday Afternoon. With absolutely no worries about network issues. Sixty-eight minutes fly by.

The Apollo comes out of the box with a sound that is tonally neutral, free of digital artifacts, and full of life. To get immediate perspective, the Apollo is put in comparison with a stack of Nagra Classic gear (amp, preamp, and DAC) driving a pair of Focal Stella Utopia Ems, with a dCS Bartok along for the ride in input two. The Apollo makes an excellent debut, and when switching back and forth between the much pricier competitors, the lines are quickly drawn.

Where was sound this good 30 years ago?

Had digital sounded this good, this natural 30 years ago, who knows how things might have shaken out in the music business? In the early 90s, big bucks digital was just starting to engage, but nearly everything for a thousand dollars sounded like rubbish. Harsh, brittle, and lacking in tone. I know, I was there.

Leave it to Rega, a company that’s always been a little bit behind on the trendy curve, (but over the top on the engineering curve) to build a player that’s this good for this price. Centered around the latest Wolfson WM8742 DAC chips and their own analog stage, all carefully implemented in a compact case. According to Rega’s Terry Bates, the players designer, the analog output stage is entirely different. (Again, you’d expect nothing less from Rega) He refers to it as “A discrete implementation of an op amp with a nod to forgotten about 1960s amplifier circuitry with class A output.” In short, Bateman calls the Apollo “greater than the sum of its parts,” and we concur.

Tracking through an original digital pressing of Peter Gabriel’s Security, (the fourth album to many of you) the dynamic range of this player is stunning, offering considerable weight and drive. The Apollo keeps the pace with the densely packed, thunderous drumming on the opening track, offering compelling low-level resolution during the quiet beginning of “Lay Your Hands on Me.” This is a ton of fun listening to a disc, long since ripped to NAS, that was one of the first CDs I purchased back in the 80s, with its massive “full digital recording” sticker on the cover.

The far reaches of the audio spectrum are equally well represented. The deep, growling bass at the beginning of Charlie Sexton’s “Plain Bad Luck and Innocent Mistakes” puts the Focals to the task and rattles everything on the coffee table. Sorry, you can’t stream Under the Wishing Tree on Tidal or Qobuz, so there are times when a player comes in handy.

The transport option

Where many of today’s digital enthusiasts add a modestly priced vinyl deck to their system to dip their toes in the pool of spinning black discs, the Apollo is a perfect choice for those going the other way. With so many CDs popping up at yard sales and in used CD stores, there’s a lot available for next to nothing. And you don’t have to worry about backing it up either.

Thanks to an optical and coax digital output on the back panel, the Apollo can be used as a transport for those with higher quality DACs, powered speakers, or an all in one product like the Linn Selekt DSM, or the Simaudio MOON 390.

Used as a transport with all of these proved excellent, but returning to the Nagra TubeDAC proved to be the best combination. The Apollo as transport feels right at home plugged into this $20,000 DAC, and when playing 16/44 files, the sound from this combo often sounds more musical than what is streamed.

A perfect partner

Regardless of what you plug the Apollo into, the results are highly rewarding. In the context of a primary budget system, it holds its own and often betters the sound of turntables at the same price point. While our Rega P3/Exact combination still offers a bit more warmth and palpability through the midband, the Apollo corners the market on dynamics, and low bass punch. The two together make a formidable pair, offering the best of both worlds for a reasonable price – but that’s always been the Rega ethos.

Yet plugged into a six-figure system, the Apollo doesn’t disappoint in the least. Of course, it does not have the finesse you’d expect from a DAC or player that costs as much as a used Audi, but the basics are firmly in place, and that’s what makes the difference between digital being engaging or not.

Whether you use an Apollo as a full function disc player, or merely a transport, it will serve you well. In addition to giving it one of our Exceptional Value Awards, we’ve purchased the Apollo for our permanent collection, and it will be receiving a Product of the Year award over at The Audiophile Apartment. Can you feel the love?

The Rega Apollo CD player

$1,095

Rega.co.uk

soundorg.com. (US Distributor)

It’s the week of Halloween here in the Midwest, which mean a few things – crisp air, beautiful colors, falling leaves, and warmer clothes, but it also means the usual plethora of haunted houses. They pop up everywhere, and inevitably, someone tries to goat me into joining them on their adventure to one.

Each time, I politely decline. Seemingly without fail, the other party presses me about it, saying something like, “What’s the matter, don’t you like to be scared?” My reply is always the same, that people in costumes jumping out at you is not the definition of scared, it’s being startled. I am not interested in paying for the experience of being repeatedly startled.

However, in putting the Mytek Liberty DAC into my main listening system this week, I was just that- startled, but in a very good way.

Unboxing

The Liberty is conveniently one third the size of the Manhattan or Brooklyn Bridge from Mytek, making it a great fit into many systems. One control adorns the front panel, handling all source and gain duties. The black and gray finish sets off a sleek look, complimented by patterned vent holes in the top. Solid and well constructed, the Liberty is a featherweight component at only three pounds.

Listening

The disc I began my evaluation with (Jon Batiste’s Hollywood Africans)sounds even better now that the Liberty has a few hours on the clock. Using the Pioneer Elite DV79-AVi’s coaxial output into the first S/PIDF input of the Liberty- In particular, skipping to track 4, “Saint James Infirmary Blues.” I can hear Batiste’s lips part just before he sings. The reverb in this recording makes my room sound like an old New Orleans church. Voices come from the rafters, and the sax comes right out of the wall. It’s the piano, though, that pushes me back. Never has piano sounded this natural in my system or my room. I have always found it the hardest instrument to reproduce accurately. The Liberty gives it breath and life.

Spinning the classic track from Guy Clark’s album Texas Cookin’, “Anyhow, I Love You,” is where I got startled. I had listened to the song before having the Liberty in place, but now with it in the system, there was a striking new detail. Just before the female voices come into join Guy, I can now distinctly hear them inhaling in the left channel. To make sure I wasn’t losing my mind on this, I took the disc, and played on another system in my house, and that breath was not noticeable. Now, playing it once again through the Mytek Liberty, it is there, clear as day. When I first heard this, my head went right towards that speaker, thinking my wife was standing there, about to say something to me, but it was buried deep inside a 1976 recording. It made my heart race a little.

It also makes me crave a live recording, since this level of realism is getting so enthralling. On the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s gold release of Peter Frampton’s Frampton Comes Alive!,“Penny for Your Thoughts” rings in this room with striking clarity. Solo guitar with a crowd that I feel part of. Since the electric guitar is my other vice, I can’t help but indulge in the anthemic bliss of “Do You Feel Like We Do.” Everyone has that overplayed FM staple that never got old for them, and this is mine. There are a lot of huge dynamics in this song, lost if you only ever heard it on the radio. The peaks, which need to be played at concert volume, are large and full, with Frampton’s Les Paul Custom grinding big and fat out of both channels. The valleys get low, with a subtle ride cymbal, and then a pulsing high-hat, while the audience reacts. I’ve heard this song thousands of times, but the Liberty is giving me much more clarity from Frampton’s amps. I can hear more of the individual audience members. The iconic talk box solo sings with more soul. It’s a more elevated live listening experience, overall.

Just Ones and Zeros?

I’ve been doing the majority of my listening with the Pioneer Elite, but I did make use of all four digital inputs on the Liberty. With S/PDIF 2, I connected mt Sony ES changer, and utilized the Toslink input for my TEAC CD recorder. While the Mytek does a splendid job with all three of them, it will very quickly demonstrate that all transports are not the same. There are clear, audible differences between all three units, with the more expensive Pioneer Elite outshining it’s more economical cousins in my system.

Upon receiving the Liberty, I quickly made the decision that I wanted to utilize the USB input with my 6^th generation iPod touch. I purchased a Lightning to USB and plugged in to find that there was no response. A quick call to the very friendly and very helpful people at Mytek provided a solution. Since the Liberty does not supply any power from the USB, a specific adapter needs to be used. With the procurement of an Apple USB 3 Camera adapter, suddenly, I was in business!

Here again, this is a fantastic experience. Playing the iPod digitally through the Mytek Liberty yields a remarkably satisfying, rich, event that I’ve never had from my little device before. My playlists are now suddenly far more useful and enjoyable, and not just for the car anymore.

Use of the Liberty

As a DAC, the Mytek Liberty is wonderfully straight-forward. The single knob to the right, when pressed, switches between the four input sources. When turned, it increases or decreases the output level. The LED display shows either your source or volume level. I am using the unbalanced RCA outputs, but ¼’ balanced outputs are provided as well. There is a built-in MQA hi-res decoder. Conversion is up to 384K, 32 bit PCM. Native DSD up to DSD256.

Getting into My Head

Besides being a stellar DAC, the Mytek Liberty is also a serious headphone amplifier, so it’s time to switch off these speakers, and cozy up to the system. Grabbing my Sennheisers and a copy of Blind Faith, I plug in. Here is where the multi-purpose control becomes very handy, as this is now the volume control. On “Presence of the Lord,” the Liberty instantly shows that it is right at home with the great Mytek products I’ve been hearing for years, including its big brother, the Manhattan. The Liberty presents a large soundstage in the headphones and loses me in this disc, rather than sounding like a couple of cans on my ears. Detail is just as sharp and striking coming out of the front of the Liberty as from the rear outputs.

Wrapping it Up

Mytek packs an incredible amount of sound and technology into a very small package with the Liberty DAC, and at a fantastic price. To get a DAC with this much striking detail, plus a formidable headphone amplifier, all in a 1/3 rack space is just amazing. I don’t like to be scared, but I might be changing my tune on being startled.

Listening to a slew of Peter Gabriel favorites, via NAS drive and ROON, I ponder in earnest the thought of life without a turntable.

Which trend to follow? The declutter lady, telling us to pare down to a minimal compliment of things that bring us joy, or the vinyl enthusiasts, that want us to condemn digital and buy as many overpriced LPs as possible? Even though I’m a life-long vinyl enthusiast, after living with the N-01 for some time now, this minimalist solution certainly is enticing, especially now with Qobuz and Tidal at my disposal.

Esoteric’s N-01 weighs in at $21k; a world class DAC and streamer (or network player, as they call it)

For those not familiar, Esoteric is the premium division of TEAC, the same company that brought a full line of incredible tape decks to the world in the 70s and early 80s. All Esoteric components are hand built and hand tested to the highest specification.

Ultimate versatility

With optical, USB, AES/EBU and RCA digital inputs along with the Ethernet connection, chances are a great many of you will be using this as a DAC via an analog preamplifier, and the N-01s output level up all the way. Thus negating any issues with a very slight loss of resolution at the lowest levels. There is also a USB slot on the front panel [町田1] to accommodate a USB stick. This has to be the most inconvenient way of transmitting music ever – so I did not bother with this at all, but if this is how you do it, it will be a welcome addition. There is a second USB slot on the rear panel as well, adding to the N-O1s flexibility.
Of course, you can use the front panel USB port for an external hard drive, which could be handy for out of town guests to bring their music. As someone who is as territorial as a Chow-chow when it comes to letting others add random devices to their hifi system, if you’re coming to my house and you can’t find something on Tidal, Qobuz, or a NAS with 12,000 CDs on it, we probably shouldn’t be listening to music together anyway. But you can, with the N-01.

Besides, plugging in an external drive to the front panel takes away from the aesthetic of the N-01. Like all Esoteric products, the N-01 is beautiful to behold. Their casework is some of the best in the business, and I appreciate that their products all have a similar look and feel. This is a massive box, weighing in at just under 60 pounds, and it comes in a box that’s about half the size of a dishwasher – you’ll have to get through four sets of cartons to get to your N-01.

There’s as much beauty lurking inside the casework of the N-01 as there is on the outside. The power supply is separated from the signal carrying electronics by a thick, Nickel plated, pure steel plate. The bottom half of the N-01 reveals four massive toroid power transformers and two banks of capacitors that you might expect to see in a power amplifier. That a DAC has such a massive power supply speaks volumes. And the attention to detail everywhere else is equally fanatical.

A quick look at the spec sheet reveals that the N-01 plays everything. Everything from the lowest resolution MP3 to the highest resolution DSD file and MQA, so it’s safe to say this component is future proof. I’ve never been a DSD fan, so this is the only aspect of the N-01s performance I can’t comment on directly, with enough depth to have meaning. But if you have a NAS full of DSD files, I’m sure it will be up to task. All of the DSD files I’ve heard in the Esoteric rooms at shows have been fantastic.

All of my listening was done within the ROON environment, with the N-01 as an endpoint. This works incredibly well on a number of levels, but primarily because it is so much better at integrating multiple storage and streaming locations. It also eliminates the more cumbersome user interface available with Tidal or Qobuz.

Initial listening

Functionality aside, the N-01’s spot-on neutral tonal balance. Some components can impart a sonic signature that is either overly etched and hyper-detailed, or slightly warm, this leaves the end user making other compromises in the audio chain to “tune out the difference.” Starting with a neutral source lets you fine tune elsewhere in your system, assuring much more longevity (i.e. the need to upgrade later) for said component. A good thing when spending $20,000.

Those needing an upgrade, can add the G-02X clock ($6,500) or the G-01X Rubidium clock. Staffer Tom Caselli uses the latter in his digital front end and claims a massive increase in sound quality, as it should for the price. Past experience with adding a clock in the context of our players has always been the ability to achieve another level of refinement – dare we say a more analog like presentation. This gives you an excellent upgrade path with your N-01, should you need even more performance.

The N-01s grain free sound immediately puts you at ease, with a palpability quickly putting arguments to rest. Tracking through a bit of Ella Fitzgerald and Diana Ross, as well as the excellent Jackson Five: The Stripped Mixes, there is a delicacy afoot here that is rarely associated with digital playback.

Acoustic instruments come through with an excellent balance of tonal accuracy and saturation. The N-01 never sounds “digital.” Pianos, violins, and other stringed instruments breathe with the correct amount of attack and decay to further paint the illusion of real instruments in a real space – provided the rest of your system is up to task. Finally, the N-01 paints a large, but not overblown sonic landscape in your listening room that feels right from a sense of scale. Where some components can only offer up a huge, three-dimensional sonic picture, the N-01 expands and contracts as the music demands – a true sign of engineering prowess and maturity.

Solo or ensemble use

Using the N-01 with the Pass XS Pre, the Nagra Classic, and the conrad-johnson GAT 2 preamplifiers all proves excellent, with the neutrality of the N-01 merely allowing the sonic signature of these top shelf preamplifiers shine through. A similar result was achieved using the N-01 by itself with the Pass XA30.8, the McIntosh MC275 and the Luxman M-900u power amplifiers. As someone who prefers a slightly warm tonal balance, I particularly enjoyed the combination of the N-01, the MC275 and my Quad 2812 speakers. Thoughts of living without a turntable again filled my head.

Embellishment aside, further critical listening reveals the N-01s ability to separate fine musical details within densely packed recordings, delivering fantastic musical pace, no matter what the selection. Even though said CSN tracks possessed slightly more tonal saturation, the air around the four musicians’ voices was greater, and the distinction of their vocal character easier to discern.

More choices

With so many recent arguments about MQA, I submit that not all MQA decoders are created equal. That being said, the N-01 does a fantastic job at unfolding MQA files. Every A-B comparison on Tidal between the standard 16/44 and MQA version had the MQA rendition revealing more musical information in every sense. Comparing some MQA tracks on Tidal to 24/96 proved to be a mixed bag – for now, we’re going to relegate that to differences in mastering and internet arguments. Suffice to say again, MQA performance through the Esoteric is some of the best I’ve experienced.

Esoteric offers their own Sound Stream app for those not wishing to use ROON, but now that this device is fully ROON compliant, it’s somewhat of a moot point. I loved just plugging it into the network and getting down to business with my music collection.

Esoteric combines multiple 32-bit DAC chips and a 35-bit D/A processing algorithm to process the digital signal with full 35-bit resolution. With old school 16-bit chips falling back in fashion, I prefer the logic behind processing with extended bit depth and that Esoteric implements it to perfection here. There are multiple upsampling and filter settings, but as with my experience with dCS and a few other manufacturers, I saved myself hours of agonizing and second guessing, using it at the factory settings.

Maybe the factory guys are on to something, because that always seems like the best balance of overall musical priorities. Other settings may provide a slightly warmer tonal balance or something else, but it always ends up being the thing that you keep changing, relentlessly. I found bliss with the factory settings.

What’s in a name?

Because the Esoteric N-01 has such a high-quality DAC built in, with the ability to add a clock later, should you wish, it seems a bit of a misnomer to label it a mere “network player.” I like to think of it as a destination level DAC that just happens to stream files. It certainly seems like a much better value proposition from this angle.

The Esoteric N-01

MSRP: $21,000

www.esoteric-usa.com

Peripherals

Preamplifers Nagra Classic, Pass XS Pre

Power amplifiers Pass XA200.8 monos, Nagra Classic, Audio Research REF160M

Cable Cardas Clear

Speakers Focal Sopra no.3 w/REL 212 subwoofers

If you’ve ever experienced a set of GoldenEar speakers, you know that their founder and head concept guru Sandy Gross is a master of great sound without breaking the bank. And for a good reason, he’s a music and hifi guy to the core, with decades of experience.

Where the top speakers in the Triton range include powered woofers, the Triton Five is an entirely passive design, taking advantage of a pair of 6-inch drivers coupled to four side-firing 8-inch passive radiators. As with all Tritons, the Fives have a slender form factor, making them incredibly easy to integrate into your listening space. A 90 db/1-watt sensitivity means that they are equally easy to integrate into whatever gear you might be using.

The GoldenEar site claims that the Triton Fives “deliver exceptional performance with moderately priced receivers while allowing you to appreciate the subtle qualities of the world’s finest audio components.” We’ve been listening to the Fives for some time now, and have had the opportunity to audition them with an extensive range of components from vintage receivers to components costing 100 times the $1099.99 (each) price of these speakers.

The short story? They pass with flying colors.

Utilizing the same HVFR (High-Velocity Folded Ribbon) tweeter as their top speakers, the Fives have much in common with the $10k/pair Triton REF speakers. Because the Triton REF speakers are more prominent, with larger LF drivers, and a built-in powered subwoofers, they move more air and have more dynamic capability. But at less than concert hall levels, the Triton Fives share a core sound with the REFs. The primary voice, transparency, and colossal soundstage you love in the Triton REF is just here to less of a degree. That’s a pretty amazing feat of engineering for slightly over $2k/pair.

The Fives join a concise list of speakers that deliver a vast look at money no object performance at a very agreeable price. These are speakers that you can build an incredible system around without giving up your vacation plans.

Yes, there are a couple of mini-monitors at the 2-3k level that might offer a bit more midrange accuracy or more “pinpoint imaging,” but they are specialist speakers. The Triton Fives are a real full-range speaker that can fill your listening room and be the anchor to your system without a subwoofer.

Begin at the beginning

Knowing Sandy Gross shares my love for vintage audio, my listening begins in earnest with a Dynaco Stereo 70 that was recently restored by our buds at Gig Harbor Audio. This classic amplifier has a soft, inviting sound, and the resolution of the Triton Fives fleshes out this character. The presentation is big, spacious, warm, inviting, and slightly rolled off on top. It’s a ton of fun and a great place to start your hifi journey. A similar sonic experience is offered by the original PrimaLuna ProLogue One, as well as the current EVO 100. 30 watts per channel of tube power is all you need to get into the groove.

Switching to the new Prima Luna EVO 400 monoblocks and the Audio Research REF160Ms is a different story. There’s plenty of extension at both ends of the frequency range here. Sandy was using the big Prima Lunas at Axpona, and if you were there, you know how great that sounded. Putting some significant power behind these speakers shows off their high degree of resolution and imaging ability. With amplification that’s up to the task, the Triton Fives do a remarkable job clarifying and unscrambling slightly compressed recordings that you might have thought unlistenable. That’s the mark of a great speaker at any price, but pretty much unheard of at two grand a pair.

The GoldenEar site says you can enjoy the Fives with a basic receiver, and that’s true. These are some of the most amplifier friendly speakers we’ve spent time with. However, we’d suggest going for quality over quantity. We had incredibly great results with the $2,400 Sugden A21SE integrated, which is about 40 watts per channel. But it’s all power supply and is single-ended class-A.

Tracking through Rick Springfield’s “That’s When I Found You” sounds like a big, unintelligible ball of sound on my LS-50s, yet through the Titan Fives, there’s a wealth of information that wasn’t coming through. Switching to something better recorded, with a much larger soundstage (in this case, The Police’s “Tea in the Sahara”), is expansive, with the speakers vanishing in the room. Again, this is what high-performance audio is all about, and it’s well within your reach. A beginning to end listening of Synchronicity is enlightening, the Fives creating a soundfield that extends well beyond the speaker boundaries, with plenty of height information as well as the other two dimensions. And if you really want to hear some treble clarity, wait for the bell in Queen’s “Bicycle Race.” Awesome – it sounds like there’s a vintage Schwinn right there in your listening room.

Easy to optimize

Thanks to their narrow front baffles, and broad horizontal dispersion, GoldenEar speakers are always easy to set up, even for the uninitiated. Ironically, you don’t have to be a “Golden Ear” to get them 90% of the way, yet an hour or so of fine-tuning, should you be so inclined will offer benefits in imaging and spatial placement.

The Triton Fives didn’t take a ton of time to break in, they sound great out of the box (and fortunately they are not terribly heavy, so one person can set them up) and benefit from about 50-100 hours of play at a moderate level. A little less if you’re playing a lot of bass-heavy program material. At that point, they lose a touch of mid-bass fog and really deliver the goods. You might want to consider doing a rough set up, and then after a week or so, really spending an afternoon making the final adjustment.

I followed Sandy’s lead, placing the Fives about 12 feet apart in my 16 x 25-foot listening room on the long wall. Experimenting with the long and short wall, I preferred the long wall, with them toed in a little bit more than usual. This offered a really spacious sound, and I am biased towards an immersive soundstage. So, if you’ve got the room, spread the Fives out until they separate into two mono speakers, and then pull them back together about 6-12 inches. That should have you in the ballpark.

GoldenEar does it again.

Everyone who’s experienced the GoldenEar Triton Fives is thrilled with them, so add us to the list. This is a high-end speaker with a budget price tag because the designer has made the right choices. The cabinets are functional and only come in one finish – gloss black with a fabric front. One SKU means a massive scale of economy. Looking closer, you see the deceptively simple cabinets have a curved shape with no even surfaces to create cabinet resonances.

Basic black goes with everything and makes for an elegant speaker that has had the budget spent on sound quality. And that earns the Triton Fives a spot on our Product of the Year awards list at The Audiophile Apartment. Great sound, great value, great price.

https://www.goldenear.com/products/triton-series

Not just anyone could build something like this, to the level it’s made.

Who better than McIntosh, a company now in their 70th year of production, with a considerable amount of expertise in vacuum tube, solid-state electronics – both analog and digital, to come up with something like this…

At first contact, the new MTI100 looks like one of any number of turntables that might have an integral phono preamplifier, but it’s much more. Along with a phono preamplifier on board to handle the factory mounted Sumiko MM cartridge, there is a vacuum tube preamplifier (with a pair of 12AX7s in full view) a high-resolution DAC and a 50 watt per channel (into 8-ohms, 80wpc into 4) power amplifier. All on one chassis. Pretty cool. This is where 70 years of manufacturing expertise comes to bear.

You might think something like the MTI100 would be an engineering nightmare, but the McIntosh team has pulled it off perfectly. There is no audible noise in any section of the MTI100. Phono and digital sections are free of playback artifacts, even with highly sensitive speakers.

All this excellence doesn’t come at a budget price. The MTI100 tips the scale at $6,500. This is not an entry-level product. It’s a boutique product. There is plenty of chatter from the crabby audiophiles in the audience for several reasons, but they are all missing the point. This isn’t meant to be a modular, upgradable, rack system, though there is an output for a powered subwoofer. The MTI100 is a very stylish, compact music center.

Just add speakers

You don’t buy an Eames Lounge because you need a chair. There are plenty of those at IKEA. Don’t buy this because you merely want a turntable with a built-in phono preamplifier. You buy the MTI100 because you want to take a different approach – good sound, unencumbered by traditional componentry. And because you want something special, something with a history behind it, you want the security that comes with the McIntosh logo on the front. The McIntosh MTi100 delivers style and performance on all levels.

With 50 watts per channel into 8 ohms, the MTI100 drives most speakers with ease, and it’s enough power to give you a wide range of speaker choices. As fate would have it, we just happened to have a pair of the new Sonus faber Minima Amator speakers ($4,000/pair) on hand, so all that was needed was to grab the supplied power cord, and connect a pair of Cardas Iridium speaker cables. What other high-end audio system can you set up in 90 seconds? And for what it’s worth, we did plug the MTI100 into our reference Sonus faber Stradivari Homage speakers, so you can use them in a very high style system too. If you’d like to see the MTI100 in action, click here for the first of our “Music in Minutes” videos.

Going more “All American,” we take a detour with the new JBL Classic L-100s. (also $4,000/pair) Combining these iconic speakers in the living room of our decidedly mid-century modern house, it’s a system that’s never felt so right across from the Noguchi table. But there’s nothing ancient about the sound this system serves up.

As the MTI100 features Class-D amplification, the overall tonal balance is slightly thin in the upper register, but pairing it up with something ever so slightly on the warm side of things makes for a perfect balance. The JBL L100s, a pair of Vandersteen 1Cs, some Harbeths, or (of course) anything from Sonus faber will be outstanding. Your McIntosh dealer will also be able to make some great suggestions.

Multiple options

Cool as that belt-drive turntable is, making up the majority of the MTI100s form factor, it has three line-level inputs as well as two digital inputs. The onboard DAC processes digital files at up to 32bit/192khz resolution, perfect for music lovers streaming their content from a NAS or one of the more popular streaming services.

If you do feel the need to add more gear, like a tape deck, outboard DAC, or maybe connect your flat screen television to the MTI100 there are three single-ended RCA inputs, so expansion can be in the cards if you would like to go further. Adding the JL Audio’s new in-ceiling subwoofer makes for an incredibly versatile 2.1 music and theater system with a minimal footprint. A large TV adds to the two-channel capability, creating a perfect backdrop for streaming your music collection, even when you’re not watching movies.

It is a breeze to link an iPhone and iPad up via Bluetooth. A quick pairing has us sharing high res files from Qobuz in roughly a minute. This functionality is perfect when friends arrive. The MTI100 is a guaranteed conversation starter, and once your friends plug in via their mobile device, they’ll be begging you to let them spin records.

Spin away

Just like the rest of the McIntosh lineup, the two 12AX7 tubes on the top of the MTI100 glow orange until warmed up, turning green when the operating temperature is reached. Though real estate is at a premium and those tube cages beg to be removed, with their close proximity to the cartridge end of the tonearm, we suggest leaving them in place as the folks at McIntosh intended.

Thanks to that pair of tubes in the phono section, vinyl playback has more romance, both visually and audibly. Those tubes go a long way to remove the slight edge from the overall tonality, and spinning your favorite albums is just so much fun. The Sumiko sourced MM cartridge has a removable stylus, so if there’s a situation, a replacement stylus shouldn’t be much more than $100 – $150. If you entertain a lot with a vinyl friendly crowd, it might not be the worst idea to have a spare on hand. Again, your McIntosh dealer should be able to set you up on this.

Speaking of setup, the turntable section of the MTI100 couldn’t be easier to get rolling. Install the belt, place the platter on top, and install the counterweight. If you want to upgrade the sound of the MTI100, a better MM cart could be installed and aligned, but this does slightly defeat the ease of setup/ease of use ethos that the MTI100 brings.

Don’t forget the phones

For some of you in a really small space, you may want to use your MTI100 as a super cool personal listening station. We ran it through its paces with a number of headphones, from our Audeze LCD-1s, all the way to the AXISS Dianas and Focal Utopias. The on-board headphone amp is more than up to task, and will satisfy the most demanding headphone user. This was definitely not an afterthought.

Know thy customer

Living with the McIntosh MTI100 for a while proves it is worth the price asked. The level of quality, functionality, and audio performance makes it the perfect purchase for anyone wanting a high quality, all-inclusive music system. It is not a substitute for a rack of separate components, but you’d be awfully pressed to find a turntable/arm/cartridge, phono preamplifier, streaming DAC, and amplifier (along with four power cords, four sets of interconnects and a rack) that all work together for this price.

But as mentioned at the MTI100 is so much more than that. This is a piece of sonic artistry, that provides high-end sound from all the sources you can imagine, and looks great doing it. For many, this and a great pair of speakers will be a destination music system. For others, it will be a second or even third system. And I’m guessing there will also be a few die-hard, completist McIntosh collectors that will just have one because…

Much as I hate to profile anyone, I suspect the MTI100 will appeal to what I refer to as the “qualityphile” customer. This customer liking solutions off the beaten path, that are as technologically curious as aesthetically motivated. Gazing into my crystal ball, I expect the MTI100 is going to end up in some very design rich environments, and cherished by its owners.

We’ve decided to make the MTI100 The Audiophile Apartment’s Product of the year for 2019. Click here if you’re curious about what else we’ve picked.

www.mcintoshlabs.com

Many of us think of “that other company” when we think Italian loudspeakers, but the team at Gold Note is a serious contender, making their way into North America, after achieving major success in the rest of the world.

We’ve been very excited with the performance of the Gold Note electronics we’ve used so far, and our first experience with the small A3 EVO you see here is equally good.

This 5-inch, two-way, compact monitor delivers an incredible wallop for its small size. This gorgeous little pair of speakers is like a tuned Fiat Abarth. More sound and fun than you’d ever think could come from that small shape. Starting the listening with some jazz fusion from FORQ, via the VAC Sigma 170i amplifier, sets me back in the chair, Maxell man style.

Design choices

Everyone has their preferences, but I’ve always loved silk/soft dome tweeters. While not the champions of getting the last few molecules of musical detail like a diamond or beryllium tweeter, there’s an organic nature to the soft dome presentation that keeps me in the chair for hours on end. The SEAS sourced tweeter in the A3 EVO is a perfect balance of high resolving power and tonal smoothness, without being slow.

Cymbals fade off into the background with a natural ease, and acoustic instruments have a natural palpability that always engages. Transitioning from FORQ to Michael Hedges’ Aerial Boundaries, his blisteringly fast guitar work is truthfully rendered, and this record is always somewhat of a challenge. Yet, the EVOs succeed brilliantly.

The cabinets are beautiful, as you’d expect – these are Italian speakers, of course! Available in black or walnut, they’ve kept choices down, to keep the price in line. Every corner, every joint is exquisitely finished, to the same standard as their flagship speakers. The pride in manufacture shows the minute you get them out of the box.

Around back, a single pair of high quality binding posts get the job done, and the rear firing port is an aluminum tube. Precision and care in assembly is everywhere you look. These are speakers you will be very proud to own and show off in your listening environment. As it should be.

Setup and such

The A3 EVO are tiny, but not as light as their small size suggests, at a little over 20 pounds each, they will give you pause when you lift them out of the box. Gold Note packs them with care, and even installs a plastic tweeter cover (magnetically attached) to prevent damage. Make sure to remove the grilles and remove these covers, or you may be horribly disappointed at the lack of treble response when you first fire them up!

Your listening chair position will determine the tweeter height, or you can just use the Gold Note stands and adjust from there. We tried 20, 24, and 28 inch stands, settling on 28-inch for the best balance in our listening room. Horizontal dispersion is good, so if you have to place the speakers at less than the perfect height in your listening room, a bit more toe in will easily compensate.

Finally, whether you’d like a more immersive listening position or a larger stereo image, with a bit more bass response will determine whether you’d like corner placement or nearfield. Again, both provide excellent results, yet with the speakers in more of a corner placement, they produce an incredibly large soundfield in the room. For many of you wanting big speaker sound in relatively small quarters, the A3 EVOs can be your ticket to ride.

As a two-way speaker system, with a rated sensitivity of 87db/1-watt, the A3 EVOs benefit from a little bit of power to achieve higher sound pressure levels. Again, this depends on your desired result. If you’re listening to music with smaller dynamic swings and don’t require high volume, your favorite 30-watt per channel amplifier will get the job done, and if nothing else, provide a great place to start. With these speakers it’s definitely about quality instead of quantity.

Those wanting to rock the house more, will want to move up to an amplifier in the 50-100 watt range to get the little A3 EVOs to move serious air. But remember a 5-inch woofer can only do so much. Just as my little Fiat Abarth is a sheer blast to drive between 25 and 85mph, so are the A3 EVOs. Don’t push them too hard and the level of enjoyment is off the chart good. A bigger amplifier will give them a bit more ease and headroom, and certainly will make an excellent next step, should you have to invest your budget in speakers to start.

Further listening

The A3 EVOs offer up great sound right out of the box, but after a few days of constant play, the woofers go a bit deeper and the upper bass response tightens up slightly, along with the tweeter having an even greater sense of ease and extension. These are very user friendly speakers, so don’t fret over ultimate placement until you’ve got about 50-100 hours on the clock.

Listening to Carole King’s Live in Hyde Park clearly illustrates how natural these little speakers sound, as the audience swells at the beginning of the track, giving my modest sized living room an incredible sense of ambience, almost as if there were surround speakers hidden somewhere in the room. Damn good for a small pair of two ways!

An equally impressive result is had with Springsteen’s new album, Western Stars. There’s a delicacy here that the A3 EVOs are able to communicate, thanks to their exquisite tonal balance. And with program material like this, the tiny A3 EVOs feel much larger. As with all great small monitors, they disappear into the room without a trace, making for some great lights out listening sessions.

What’s not to love?

If you’re looking for a high-performance pair of compact monitors, that are beautifully executed, and a bit off the obvious path, Gold Note’s A3 EVOs get our recommendation. At just over $4,000/pair they offer everything you need to build a highly satisfying system.

The Gold Note A3 EVO Speakers

$4,099/pair – Black
$4,499/pair – Gloss Walnut (as reviewed)

www.goldnote.it Factory
www.rutherfordaudio.com NA distributor

Peripherals

Analog Source AVID Ingenium Plug N Play

Digital Source Gold Note CD-1000

Amplifier VAC Sigma 170i

Cable Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Listening to the deep bass line in Lyle Lovett’s “She’s Already Made up her Mind,” I’m still amazed after nearly 20 years of reviewing speakers, at how Totem’s Vince Bruzzese gets so much bass out of such small cabinets.

These svelte speakers are instantly riveting. The tiny frontal area of the enclosures houses a 1.3-inch soft dome tweeter coupled to a pair of 4-inch Torrent drivers, which are technological marvels. Totem has the only 4-inch woofer that is capable of a 26Hz free air resonance, and the dome tweeter goes effortlessly up to 30kHz. You can read more about the tech involved here, but it’s safe to say that Totem has succeeded brilliantly here in terms of clarity and phase accuracy.

Moving on to some more bass-heavy tracks, these speakers move serious air, regardless of their size. Five different amplification choices from Boulder, Nagra, Pass, PrimaLuna and VAC all deliver the goods: the highly resolving nature of the Tribe Towers quickly shows off the nuances between them all. With a 4-ohm impedance and an 89db/1-watt sensitivity, they work well with tubes or solid-state amplification. As expected, they offer slightly more slam with a big solid-state amplifier, but your personal preference will dictate what you pair your Totem Tribes with. We’ve often seen Totem use a Boulder amp in their demos, but rest assured that you’ll still get that deep bass you heard when tracking through Yello (just like you heard in the demo) with a good tube amp too.

Switching the program to Laurie Anderson’s Live at Town Hall NYC reinforces the exceptional spatial abilities of these speakers – from the ethereal openness of Anderson’s voice to the correctness of the applause in the audience. Staying in the Laurie Anderson groove a little longer, “Excellent Birds” (from Mister Heartbreak) combines both characteristics in one track. It’s incredible how far cone speaker design has come in 20 years or so – you no longer need a panel speaker to achieve this kind of three-dimensional presentation, only to have to compromise dynamics and impact.

Fine details make the difference

The new Totem Tribe Tower tips the price scale at $5,300/pair in Satin white or black and $5,800/pair in gloss ICE (white) or DUSK (black).Perhaps it’s Bruzzese’s love of automobiles, but these speakers are finished as well as any luxury car (if not better than some) and sport a gloss and lack of orange peel that you might expect from a $100,000 pair of Wilson or Focal speakers. Much like a cool car, they look great just standing still.

Our review samples arrive in the gloss black and reveal another great surprise: these beautiful speakers only weigh about 30 pounds each – a significant bonus. Nothing like high-performance speakers that won’t break the bank or your back. After a year of moving 300 and 400-pound speakers, I can’t tell you how welcome this is.

While the Tribe Towers deliver excellent sonics and top value for their price, this is a very important category. With so many great speakers starting at $10k/pair, making the Tribe Towers the anchor of your system allows you to build an excellent system for under $10k, and something pretty stunning for $20k – $30k (depending on whether you require equally good analog and digital performance, or just one excellent source) The Tribe Towers offer enough sonic performance that you can grow pretty far with them, as your enthusiasm and budget allow.

Every aspect of these speakers offers a level of quality that isn’t seen at this price. It starts with the finish, but it’s more than just a pretty paint job. The absolute precision of the finish work on the cabinet edges, dual WBT binding posts, and an innovative approach to the speaker’s feet is impressing. Totem eschews the spikes in favor of round, machined, ball-like feet that offer the same sonic coupling benefit of spikes, yet won’t damage your floor.

The only possible drawback to these feet is the small footprint, and light weight of the enclosures may be a bit wobbly on a relatively loose weave carpet or area rug. Those with small children and modest to large dogs will have to be a bit cautious, as I fear these speakers might be easier than some to topple. The price we pay for beauty.

Back to the sound

One of the secrets to the Tribe Towers success is the quality of the enclosure, crossover, and drivers, along with the meticulous attention to detail in the construction process. Totem hand-builds their crossover boards with a point to point wiring scheme, avoiding the pitfalls of a printed circuit board. The drivers are all hand-matched for uniformity, and the crossover is a gentle, first-order design, only connected to the tweeter.

Totem claims that this helps to offer a cleaner phase response, and it doesn’t take more than a few minutes to confirm this. Combining this with the minimal front baffle makes for a speaker that quickly disappears in the room, and creates a broad, immersive soundfield in all three dimensions. No crossover whatsoever in the woofer path adds to the fine detail these speakers are able to resolve.

Whether your go-to demo tracks favor vocals or acoustic instruments, the Tribe Towers deliver such a detailed presentation, it almost feels like a pair of premium headphones. We were consistently surprised, having several “wow I didn’t hear that” moments with these speakers. Again, this is the kind of thing you expect for 10, 20, or 30 thousand dollars a pair, but is rarely offered at this price.

The Tribe Towers perform equally well in our 12 x 18-foot room (on the short wall) and our larger 16 x 26-foot room (on the long wall), with just a tiny bit of toe-in. In both places, we followed their suggestion, starting with the speakers about 4 feet from the rear wall, which is an excellent starting point. In the smaller room, the speakers ended up about 6 feet apart and then in the larger room about 10 feet apart. While the smaller room offers a slightly more intimate sonic presentation, these speakers are capable of filling a bigger room with ease.

Should you really like to rock out and have a bigger room, you may want to consider an amplifier in the 75-200 watt per channel range. Physics is physics. In a smaller room, 30-40 watts of high-quality amplification will suffice for all but those needing excessive volume.

Just like the other Totem speakers we’ve either reviewed or listened to at various shows, they possess incredible dynamic range. The Tribe Towers can play loud, really loud when you want to listen to heavy rock, but they also sound good at low level (around 75db average). Not all speakers can accomplish this, but the Tribe Towers are as much a joy to listen to quietly.

Their ability to process large dynamic swings also means the Tribe Towers make a great pair of front speakers in a modest-sized theater system. While we didn’t have a full Totem system to do this, we did use them briefly in our bedroom system, powered by the latest Anthem multichannel receiver with excellent results. And, Totem makes a full line of surround and architectural speakers along with their own subwoofers, so you can keep a uniform sonic signature throughout.

Parting random thoughts

After living with these speakers for some time and using them in a variety of different listening situations, the smile only gets bigger. These are approachable speakers that are indeed without compromise. Their design is very user-friendly – all that experienced them enjoyed them as much as we did, with nary a “not in my living room” comment to be had.

Knowing that Totem has been around for decades, and has a well-established dealer network around the world means that your Totem Tribes will always be supported. This is a big part of what makes them a trustworthy investment. Their commitment to a phase coherent design makes them so engaging to listen to.

Bottom line: zero complaints.

www.totemacoustic.com

Of all the perils analog enthusiasts are faced with, the worst is breaking the cantilever on a precious cartridge.

Ask any audiophile with more than few cartridges, many of them will tell you that it is not a matter of if, but a matter when. If you handle tonearms and cartridges long enough, sooner or later you are bound to break a cartridge, hopefully it will be a Denon 103 and not a Clearaudio Goldfinger.

Thankfully, there are a few cartridge rebuilders on both side of the continent, and I have had the misfortune of trying a few that provide less than exemplary work. However, François Saint-Gérand of Ana Mighty Sound is one of the (if not THE) best cartridge rebuilders in the world today. Here’s a bit of what he had to tell me.

TA:  When did you start Ana Mighty Sound?

FSG:  I was encouraged by Thomas Schick, designer of the Schick Tonearm and personal friend, to start Cala Mighty Sound in 2012. In 2015, Xavier Delacoux joined out team together with Laszlo Szalai and Vencel Szabo. Christian Bianchi (founder of Prisme Audio in the eighties) who develops and build our Le Phono SE phono stage, also came on board.

We were originally called Cala Mighty Sound, “Cala” (Calamean) means beauty in ancient Greek, and it was also my DJ name. But the French pronunciation (spelled Calamine) basically means the dirt in a motor, and the name was also registered by another company so we decided to call ourselves Ana Mighty instead. It is referenced to my beloved wife and of course by extension to analog.

What is your background?

I have a Ph.D in speech recognition and its impact on speech theories and other linguistic fields. I’ve also taught Linguistics, Speech Theories, and Communication at the University level.

Who is in your cartridge rebuilding team?

László Szalai, chief engineer and László Vencel Szabó, his apprentice. László has worked in different audio studios (Hungarian Broadcasting Studio, Hungaroton Records, Archive of the Institute for Musicology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Research Center) as an audio and broadcast engineer. He made hundreds acoustic music recordings and is of course obsessed with excellent sound and HiFi. Vencel is his apprentice and assistant.

Can you tell me a bit about how the rebuilding/repair business in general?

Rebuilding cartridges involves extensive scientific research and field experience. We work with our suppliers and customers to offer dedicated and coherent solutions to our customers.

Rebuilding is actually more difficult than building a new cartridge, you have to completely unmount the cartridge and coils, with no manual or guidance. Working on a Neumann DST, for instance, is a very good example. In lieu of the manual, you must understand its construction and to feel it in your hands in order to get the best results.This is where the extensive experience of Laszlo Szalai is crucial.

Our extensive hands on experience with cartridge building gives us an unparalleled advantage on understanding the entire cartridge manufacturing and rebuilding process.  Very few people have seen the inside of as many cartridges as we have.

What are the common problems you see?

The most common problems are the broken stylus tips, snapped cantilevers, or general wear and tear over time

Specifically, what can be repaired, and what cannot?  What makes you different than other cartridge builders?

We can replace broken cantilevers, rebuild coils from scratch, change dampers, and retip the stylus. Very few people on earth can do all of these, especially rewinding coils, but we can. All rebuilds must meet four basic requirements:

– Repair a cartridge only if it is less than replacement cost.

– The cartridge body must be able to be opened without causing damage.

– Here is what makes us different. Cartridges are best repaired by not adding weight on the moving mass assembly of the cartridge. This is why we do not repair cartridges which have no cantilever shaft (like Audio-Technica and Benz cartridges). Our competitors will insert a larger aluminium tube extend the broken cantilever with glue, rather than rebuilding with a new cantilever. This produces a much larger effective mass of the moving ensemble, resulting in a lower resonance frequency for the coil mechanism, with negative repercussions in the audible range. We feel a cantilever should never be extended, but replaced.

– We cannot repair cartridges which can only be replaced by original parts.(for example AT, FR-7), which are often unobtainable.

What if you use parts different than original?

We have sources for almost all cartridge parts, and in some cases, we custom make our own components which exceeds the performance of original parts. For example, modern suspensions can be better than 30 year-old components. Small variations in parts can have a huge impact on sound. Sometimes even two new cartridges can have totally different sounds.   Our goal is to maintain sonic integrity of the cartridge after repair.

We have used newer parts on many well-known MC cartridges (Ortofon SPU, Denon 103, EMT TSD-15, Koetsu, etc…) the results obtained (both sonically and on measured specifications) were higher than what we expected and this is when we decided that this service should benefit to our customers.

How many repairs have you done?

Ana Mighty has repaired more than 200 cartridges, but László has a solid background with hundreds and hundreds of repairs from the past 40 years.

What is involved in cartridge rebuilding?

No two cartridges are identical. A repair always starts with a cleaning and a detailed inspection of the cartridge. We have a strict policy about not altering the original aspect of the cartridge (except for our highly modified version of cartridges). Once the body is open, we are able to inform the owner about all problems found. The whole process is documented by photos.

The actual repair starts with a very detailed cleaning and finishes with setting the parameters (VTF, compliance, tracking ability, etc.) of the cartridge. At the very end we test each cartridge for 3-4 hours, play them for 24 hours and then run a new set of tests to optimize the fine parameters of the cartridge again, with measurements documented.

What are the most important cartridge components?

The sonic characteristics of a cartridge is a combination of the sum of its parts, and therefore no  single component is more or less important than another. A good example of this is in the process of building coils. Very few have the capacity to rebuild coils, but we do. We can even build a coil from scratch, and at times we have to build it 5-6 times in order to have the right sound. Coils have different winding patterns; the most well-known are cross coils and square coils but we also rebuild the triangular coils unique to Neumann DST cartridges.

Do rubber dampers age over time?  What is their lifespan?

Time is a big enemy of cartridges. The life of the damper is unpredictable, but temperature and humidity does play a role. If a cartridge starts to sound distorted or grainy, it is a warning sign that the damper may need to be changed.

A problematic/damaged/old damper can change the position of the cantilever causing an uneven wear of the stylus (diamond tip). This can also damage LPs over time.  Due to technological advancement, we have better dampers than the original, such as our silicon frictionless dampers available in either single or double donuts as well as dual circular internal designs.

Do you see more wear and tear in coastal cities vs say inland USA?

Certainly yes, temperature (changes), humidity, change of air pressure, vicinity of seas or oceans (salty air), polluted air, altitude, etc. can have an effect on the components. Unfortunately, we don’t have any statistical data about it and it would be very hard to draw a definite answer.

Do you see uneven cartridge wear if Antiskating is set incorrectly?

Yes, and this applies to both entry-level and high-end turntables alike. Not only the stylus (diamond tip) wears unnecessarily and unevenly, but the record as well and while the cartridge can be repaired, the record unfortunately NOT.

Without a proper test record it is not possible to correctly set the anti-skating and this also affects the tracking ability of the cartridge. AnalogMagik is a tool which we use to set Anti-skaing.

The proper setting depends on the stylus pressure as well as on the stylus cut (shape/profile), also slightly on the length of the tonearm and tis dynamic capabilities. Last, but not least it also depends on the turntable settings (its proper leveling, etc.). Some people set the anti-skating by placing a glass disc on the rotating platter and set the stylus on its surface and set the anti-skating to keep the tonearm in position (avoid moving it away). However in this case the stylus is touching the surface of the glass at one point (on its tip), while on the stereo (test) record it touches with its 2 sides representing totally different frictional properties.

What causes bent or skewed cantilevers?

This is mainly caused by the aging of the damper. However, let’s not forget the damper assembly consists of not only a damper (rubber /silicon ring), but also a steel, copper or plastic string that is invisible from outside. The deformation or aging of these strings can also cause such problem. Bent cantilever can also be caused by careless stylus cleaning or by the cartridge dropping off from the side of the record.

What are some good cartridges you have seen, and why do you like them?

The following list is very subjective and is far from complete: Audio Note Japan (Kondo), Jan Allaerts, EMT, Ortofon SPU, My Sonic Lab, Accuphase, Lyra, Koetsu, Phasemation, Air Tight… For us some of the units of these manufacturers provide such musical experience since many years that we enjoy a lot. They have rather neutral sound, they have a relaxed sound, but at the same time they are very dynamic, analytical, precise and show a wide stereo soundstage. They are well designed and mechanically solid.

Is it true that Japan is the only country that can make a complete cartridge?

We don’t think so, however it is true that decades ago serious/excellent cartridges were coming          mainly from Japanese manufacturers. Let’s not forget though about the before mentioned famous European brands, such as EMT, Ortofon, Audio Note UK, Benz Micro, Clearaudio, Van den Hul, Jan Allaerts, etc.

Some have claimed that Koetsu differs only by body, but the cores are the same inside?

This is definitely not true.  Their models have different magnets or pole pieces, coil material can also be different, for example they use parallel wire (copper and silver) making the coil. They sort and match the components carefully, selecting the bodies to the sonic properties of the matched components. For sure this can be also valid for other manufacturers as the magnetic properties of the magnets are not always the same. The earlier Koetsu models have gained a prestigious reputation.

Is it true that only 1-2 manufacturers do all the tipping, cantilevers, and suspension in the world?

To the best of our knowledge there are only a few companies able to manufacture these, however we don’t exclude the possibility of new manufacturers entering this market.

Who are the main cartridge makers of today? Matsudaira of MSL?   Nakasutka San of ZYX?   Audio Technica? Who else do you know?

There are different type of builders and of these builders are important in thier own way :

–    Mass market like Audio Technica and Ortofon with advanced technologies and less human process implied in the building of their products. They produce thousands of MC cartridges, and represent a very small percentage of their total sales. Of course there are some exceptions like the Audio-Technica ART-1000 (of which we are proud exclusive dealers in France) which is produced at around 200 samples per year by only person… and which is also a beautiful and technically made product. Ortofon and Audio-Technica are OEM builders too.

–    Medium mass market like Excel, Benz Micro, Lyra, ZYX, MSL which also address OEM market

–    Small mass market builders like : Jan Allaerts and a lot of artisan Japanese cartridges (Sumile, Top Wing, Miyajima, Fuuga, etc…)

Main cartridge maker is not the one that sells the most cartridges but the one(s) that make the cartridges you prefer. ;)

Show us some examples?

Here is a cartridge repaired by another. You have coil wires soldered together (this is something we would never do), and an aluminum cantilever attached to the end of the original cantilever, on this Koetus Urushi Vermillion.

Here is what it looks like after the repairs with upgrades. We completely rebuild damper, coils and cantilever from the ground up.

And here, we have a modified Denon 103, with one of our body, and cartridge internals.

Closing thoughts from ANA Mighty Sound

It is important to mention that most cartridges that come to us are usually old, many of them were made many decades ago. Similar to other used equipment the aim is to repair it the closest to original condition. It is not always possible to return the cartridge to its original/brand new condition as the parts used for the repair might not be 100% the same as the originals.

With solid experience and special care most of the times it is possible to repair the cartridge very close to its original condition/sound. Many times, we received such feedback that the repaired cartridge sounded better than originally. We dare to state that in most cases changing the stylus to a modern and sharper cut as well as to change the cantilever to something more rigid improves the sound of the cartridge.

We would like to grab the opportunity and highlight here the importance of properly cleaning of the record and the cartridge’s stylus (diamond tip). If you look closely to the record and the stylus you can experience the wonder of this historical micromechanical technology. Love and respect your records, phono cartridge and all your equipment.

Closing thoughts from Richard

Does a rebuilt cartridge sounds as good as the original?  The truth lies with the pudding, and Francois provided me with a rebuilt EMT TSD15N cartridge, and asked me answer the question by listening to his cartridge.

The cartridge has been rebuilt from the ground up with 12 ohm silver coils, it has a proprietary frictionless dual donut damper, a new boron cantilever with Nude Microridge S tip (the smallest diamond tip available).  The rebuilding cost of the cartridge is €1800, but Anamighty does sell fully modified models for €3500.

At first I was skeptical given the cartridge looks a little weird, with wire leads coming out of the cartridge body instead of pins. But as soon as the cantilever dropped onto the LP, my jaw literally dropped!! The sound of the rebuilt TNT15 has the details of my My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent BC, it has the dynamics of the Lyra Olympos and the transient attack of the ZYX Universe Optimum. Does it sound better the original EMT TSD 15N?  I cannot answer fairly   because I do not have an unmodified original for a side by side comparison. But sitting beside the some of the best cartridges in the market, this €1800 rebuilt EMT holds its own!

I give ANA Mighty Sound my highest recommendation.

www.anamightysound.com

A relative newcomer on the HiFi scene, AudioSolutions comes out of the gate producing speakers that are top performers, offering tremendous value.

To be straight up with you, I prefer speakers more in the GamuT, Sonus faber, and Gold Note part of the spectrum. Slightly on the warm side, but still dynamic and resolving. A bit of extra tonal saturation goes a long way with me. So, that’s my bias. If you are looking for a speaker with these sonic characteristics, I can’t suggest the AudioSolutions speakers highly enough. They offer all the qualities I love in a speaker at incredibly reasonable prices. The Figaro M floorstanders you see here are $7,500/pair. Close your eyes, and you might just think you’re in Italy.

After about 50 hours of background duty, the first track up is Drab Majesty’s “Foyer.” Hardly the last word in audiophile fidelity, this track offers layers of atmospheric sounds and synthesizers, that in a lesser system, just sound flat and uninvolving. A great alternative track in the same vein is Thomas Dolby’s “I Scare Myself.” I’m sure you have your faves.

Team players

The Figaros present an easy load to drive, working equally well with tubes, solid-state or class D amplifiers, keeping their signature sound, but revealing the character of whatever they are plugged into. Mating them with the Boulder, Nagra, and Vitus amplifiers we had on hand for review, the Figaros become more dynamic overall, producing more LF extension and sock. Pass and Luxman provide a bit more warmth with tube amps from Line Magnetic and PrimaLuna even more romantic.

 With a rated sensitivity of 91.5db/1-watt, precious few amplifiers will be off-limits, but a few vintage amps in the queue were a bit too much of a good thing for this writer. As always, experiment, experiment, experiment to find your little slice of nirvana. The Figaros even turn in an enchanting performance with my PSAudio Sprout II. This was used in the garage after unpacking to burn them in, with a lot of metal tracks being played at a neighbor annoying level. After a weekend’s worth of parts cleaning, they were ready to move into the studio.

The front panel snaps off so you can use them with flush grilles or without – I always love to look at the drivers, so sans grille cloth I say. The flat, speckly finish covering most of the cabinet tends to diffuse the light bouncing off of the Figaros, so they are not as imposing as a pair of gloss black speakers. They are not as fussy to live with as a result.

The music lover trying to get as much sound as they possibly can for their dollar will appreciate this approach. Beautifully finished cabinets are wonderful, but they do add to the MRSP. AudioSolutions keeps the cost in check going this route. This finish is certainly easy to keep clean and fingerprint free. Half of the side panels are available in any one of 17 different colors, and you can read about that here.

Free of fatigue

Even after a long string of punk tunes, via the Pass XA200.8s (at a higher volume than is reasonable and prudent) the Figaros prove they can play loud with total control. Listening to Amyl and the Sniffers “GFY,” lead singer Amy Taylor channels Wendy O. Williams, along with a little bit of Lemmy and Yoko Ono, the Figaros are cranked to the point of pain. That’s my pain though, the speakers show no break up even at ear-splitting levels – they play loud with ease.

Going back to Yello’s “Vicious Games,” music bounces all over the place. The Figaros create a soundfield that is wide, deep, and tall. These speakers do an incredibly good job at reproducing height information along with the standard width and depth. Same thing, tracking through U2’s debut, Boy. All the tinkly bits float in space, and the Edge’s layer upon layer of processed guitars are all easily decipherable.

As you might expect from what I’ve told you so far, vocal and acoustic music is perfection on the Figaros. ABBA’s rendition of “Dancing Queen” is just as much fun as the Yayhoos remake. Yoko Ono’s vocals on “Watching the Rain” are everywhere in the sonic picture. If your musical taste is more traditional, I had an equally engaging time with Ella Fitzgerald.

Big bottom

AudioSolutions claims bass down to 32hz, and while we don’t measure speakers, a quick run of test tones confirms there is plenty of action at 30hz. The trick to getting the optimum setup with the Figaros (at least in my three rooms) was to get them a bit further out in the room than you might other speakers. It’s kind of like when you order shoes and a particular manufacturer runs half a size large. Get it wrong, and they sound uncharacteristically boomy – it’s not the speakers’ fault. Once you have achieved the perfect low and mid-bass balance, play some of your favorite bass-heavy tracks, and you’ll see what I mean. The Figaros deliver solid and substantial low-frequency output.

Running through a long playlist of hip-hop, EDM, and even some classic rock tracks with a lot of LF information, all but the most bass addicted end users will probably not need a subwoofer. The Figaros achieve true full range performance. Should your musical taste be strictly EDM and electronica, move the speakers slightly further towards the room corners to pick up a little bit of room/midbass gain and get the party started!

Further tech bits

The black finish is definitely slimming. The Figaros weigh 90 pounds each, so it’s up to you if you’ll need help placing them. They are well packed and easy to unpack without drama. Their footprint is small (44.1 inches tall x 10.7 inches wide and 18.5 inches deep) so they won’t overpower your listening environment.

A pair of 7.2-inch woofers, a 5-inch midrange that is run “further than the usual region” and a silk dome tweeter with a mini waveguide make for a full three-way system. Again, it’s important to note what a great job AudioSolutions have done on the crossover network and driver choices. These speakers have a coherence that you’d expect to pay 2-3 times this much for.

Even though the speckled finish is utilitarian in nature, the execution of the cabinetry is flawless, thanks to AudioSolutions “self-locking” cabinet. This is a level of detail I would expect on a $50k pair of Sonus faber speakers, but am thrilled to see in a $7,500 pair.

Adding up to excellence

We could go on and on, with this track and that, but the bottom line with the Figaros is the level of music they reveal. While $7,500/pair can bring you a considerable glimpse into the upper strata of high-end speakers, Audio Solutions delivers a masterpiece. In the context of a $10k – $100k system, they’d probably be the last thing I’d upgrade if I did at all. The only key is that if you like this “sound” as much as I do. If you’re more of a mega detail person, these may not be the droids you want. I can’t think of a speaker in the last decade that’s delivered more sonic enjoyment than the Figaro Ms do for $7,500 a pair. Hence, I am happy to give them one of our Exceptional value awards for 2019. This is a lovely pair of speakers without fault, that could easily be the last pair of speakers you buy.

AudioSolutions Figaro M

$7,500/pair

www.highendbyoz.com

Peripherals

Digital Source dCS Vivaldi One

Analog Source Luxman PD-717 w/Kiseki Purple Heart

Phono stage Luxman EQ-500

Preamplifier Pass Labs XS PRE

Amplifier Pass Labs XA200.8

Cables Tellurium Q Reference

August 31, 2019
I love wristwatches, but I’m kind of a lurker.

I’d love one of those big, chunky, Rolex Submariners, but I can’t quite make the leap to almost $20k for a watch. I wear a much more modest Tudor Bronze Black Bay. In a recent article from John Mayer on the Hodinkee.com website, he referred to my watch as “a way to get into the serious watch guy game without spending five figures.” Made me feel even better about my purchase.

High-performance audio is a similar thing. We see so many amazing technological triumphs, but some of them are out of our reach. Interacting with our readers for 15 years now, I’m amazed at how many of you have invested 30 to 100 thousand dollars in a music system. While that seems to be a big sweet spot (as are the 5-10k system owners) it’s still a far cry from the “money no object system” owners. No disrespect, it just is what it is. But guess what, that’s what we all want, right? Occasionally, you can cheat the numbers, and a few rare pieces of gear with a moderately high price tag, aren’t so far out of reach that you’ll never even be able to dream of owning one. And because they offer such tremendous long term value, make perfect sense to pull the trigger on.

The Boulder 1161 is precisely that kind of thing

If I received a big lottery payout tomorrow, I’d buy a full Boulder 3000 series system. It’s the most musically revealing gear I’ve heard in my journey as an audio consumer and audio writer. These are all six-figure components and worth every penny. But, they will remain out of my reach unless I have a major windfall. The new 1100 series is spectacular, in its own right. At $22,000 for the amplifier and $21,000 for the matching 1110 preamplifier, you could add your favorite pair of 10-20k pair of speakers a great source to make up a system that is close enough to what the crazy money gear costs, to live with for the rest of your life. And have no regrets.

Much like our discussion in the review of the dCS Bartok recently, you probably aren’t going to walk out the door and buy a $43,000 amp and pre tomorrow, and you probably aren’t going to start your hifi journey here. (Bully for you if that’s your starting point, though!) You work up to components like this, so you probably have something decent to sell or trade as a starting point, so this isn’t as scary as it seems at first blush.

After giving the 1161 an hour to fully stabilize thermally, the first cut to evaluate the mettle of the Boulder is Meshell Ndegeocello’s “Mary Magdalene,” a track combining a lush female voice, a wispy percussion track, and some of the deepest bass grooves going. It feels as if I’ve pushed my speakers and the listening room about 25% further apart. Many audiophile clichés come to mind, but the way this amplifiers’ complete lack of noise and coloration is uncanny, and if you’ve never heard a Boulder amplifier or system, might even freak you out a little. In an excellent way. I’ve never forgotten my first Boulder experience, and listening to the 1161 takes me right back there. The clarity that this amplifier offers is stunning.

What you don’t get

Because the 1161 is conservatively rated at 150 watts per channel (into 8 ohms), it doesn’t require the massive “big blue” 32-amp connector and power cord that Boulder’s bigger amplifiers use – providing considerable cost savings. Using a high quality, 15-amp AC socket means your favorite power cord will work just fine. Most users having speakers with a sensitivity rating of about 86db/1-watt, should be just fine with the 1161, so this shouldn’t be a deal-breaker. Those requiring more power can step up to the 1160, producing twice as much power, with an MSRP of $28,000.

Because of its power rating, this is a Boulder amplifier that can be easily lifted solo. Hitting the scale at just over 60 pounds, this one is maneuverable. Should you step up to an 1160 (at 135 pounds) assistance will be required. And remember, this is still the 1100 series. 

Boulder is known for casework that is flawlessly executed. This is because Boulder controls every aspect of their chassis building in house, from machining the raw aluminum to the final finish. They look great from a distance, but when you get close and truly inspect any Boulder product, you can see what a fantastic example of metalworking art they are. They are the only manufacturer in the United States that still has this level of control.

Functionality is king at Boulder, and their casework is not self-indulgent – the intricate design of the heat sinks allows higher heat dissipation while saving space over an amplifier with traditional finned heat sinks. The 1161 features the same heatsink design that graces the rest of the line, but the front panel and remaining chassis bits are of a slightly simpler design. The front panel design of the 1100 series is in part homage to the Flagstaff Mountain, which is near their Louisville, Colorado offices.

Finally, you don’t get to use your speaker cables if they have banana ends. The large wing-nut speaker terminals will only accommodate spade lugs because Boulder feels that is the best way to connect speaker cable – bananas loosen with time. So be prepared.

What you do get

Most importantly, you get the sonic virtues that have made Boulder a legend: tonal neutrality and freedom from coloration like nothing else, incredible dynamic range, and high resolution without fatigue or distortion. This fully balanced amplifier runs in class A mode up to 17 watts, (gently transitioning to AB above that) does a better job at disappearing than anything we’ve experienced. It’s so exciting that Boulder has not decreased the quality of their smaller amps, just the amount of raw power on tap.The 1161s 150 watts per channel never max out our Sonus faber Stradivaris (92db/1-watt) or the Focal Stella Utopia Ems (93db/1watt). These flagship loudspeakers deliver incredible performances with the 1161 in the amplification chain, and I couldn’t play them loud enough to detect any kind of clipping. Though the 1161 manual says that the white power indicator will briefly turn red in the presence of clipping, we were not able to make this happen, even playing TOOL at disgustingly (or invitingly, depending on your perspective) loud levels.

Where my reference Pass amplifiers sound slightly tubey in comparison, the Boulder is straight in the middle neutral. We will be revisiting this amplifier again in a month or so when the new 1110 preamplifier joins the system, along with our reference Boulder 508 phonostage for a full Boulder experience. For those curious about the difference, the larger Boulder amplifiers (with larger power supplies and even more output transistors) run further into class A mode, with the top amplifiers running class A all the way to rated power. And that’s what you pay a higher price for.

Many amplification components touted as “neutral,” merely exaggerate detail, overprocessing tonal contrasts in a quest for resolution, but these same products become exhausting to listen to for any length of time. When the Focals were in the system, I felt like I had a miniature version of Boulder’s reference system which features the Focal Grand Utopia EMs and a full complement of 3000 series components. This is an amplifier that you can listen to for days on end, and as you do, discovering new information in your recordings.

Sonically excellent as the 1161 is, most of its other virtue is underneath the top panel. The level of attention to detail rivals what you might expect from the Ferrari Formula One garage. (and, I’ve been to this garage) It’s no surprise that when you visit the Boulder factory, you see their biggest models being wheeled from one department to another on engine stands, in a spotless environment. Boulder’s employees are well trained and have been with the company for years, some for decades. (image courtesy of Boulder Amplifiers)

Nothing I’ve ever had the privilege of lifting the cover on in the audio world is built to this standard. This is what gives Boulder products the highest secondary market value of anything going – if you can even find them used. I’m sure people that trade Boulder in for something else are out there, but every Boulder owner I’ve encountered has only traded up. It’s rarely if ever for sale used, and I’ve never heard of one that has malfunctioned. I don’t even recall seeing a service area when I visited the factory, but I’m sure it’s there somewhere.

Excellence defined

In a world where countless hifi reviews lead to a conclusion where the reviewer says, “Is the XYZ amplifier worth the price asked? I don’t know, I can’t make that decision,” I have no reservation saying the Boulder 1161 is one of the best values in high-end audio today. On their website, Boulder says that the 1161 “has no sonic drawbacks.” For a change, the product exceeds the manufacturers claim.

And that’s what you write the check for. Given the Boulder 1161s sonic performance, build quality, and that it is as obsolescence proof as a component can be, I find it to be a more than worthy candidate for one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019. If you seek what Boulder offers, there is no better. And if you don’t need the raw power of the 2000 or 3000 series, this amplifier can easily be the last one you ever buy. Unless of course, you get a hankering for a bigger Boulder…

The Boulder 1161
MSRP: $22,000

boulderamp.com

Peripherals

Analog Source GrandPrix Audio Parabolica/Koetsu Jade Platinum

Digital Source dCS Vivaldi ONE

Speakers Focal Stella Utopia EM, Sonus faber Stradivari

Cable Cardas Clear, Tellurium Q Reference

For some odd reason, paging through the album artwork in the Roon browser, trying to decide what record to play first on the Wharfdale Lintons in my system, Queen’s News of the World jumps out at me.

Maybe it’s that I haven’t actually listened to this record in ages, or perhaps it was just watching the Family Guy episode where Brian terrorizes Stewie with the album cover, or, maybe it’s just that these reasonably priced speakers from Wharfdale really rock. Yes, they do. Those of you that have had the chance to hear them at recent audio shows know what I mean.

Budget speakers are full of compromise because there’s only so much a designer can give you on a tight budget, yet the Lintons are as close to perfection for $1,200 a pair as anything we’ve ever heard. They are genuine full range “bookshelf” speakers in the best British tradition, and very substantial. You’ll notice how lovely the cabinets are as you unpack these 40-pound three ways. The Lintons look and feel like a $4,000 pair of speakers. Actually, cabinet-wise, they are finished to a higher level of quality than my $4,000/pair JBL Classic L-100s.

Thanks in part to a pair of ports on the rear panel the Lintons offer solid bass down to the 40hz range, negating the need for a subwoofer in nearly all environments. Their ability to deliver claimed peaks of 110db means you can crank these speakers way past the point of prudence. You’ll never get there with a pair of mini-monitors.

System and setup

While you’re at it, consider buying your Lintons as a with their matching stands, bringing the cost to $1,499 a pair. That’s what you’d pay for a pair of KEF LS50s without stands. They are available in walnut, as you see here, or red mahogany. Both are pleasant and easy to integrate with your décor. Another fun aspect of the Wharfdale stands is the small shelf on the bottom that will comfortably hold 20 or so of your favorite records in each. Nice touch.

Finally, the Lintons 90db/1-watt sensitivity makes amplifier choices a breeze, and they are both tube and class-D amplifier friendly, so whatever you have on hand will be a good place to start. I began my break-in period with a stack of vintage Nakamichi 600 components and ran the gamut after that. Everything from the PS Audio Sprout II to the Audio Research REF160Ms plays well with these speakers – nothing should be off-limits.

Final review listening was done in our living room system with the VAC Sigma 170i tube integrated (85wpc) the dCS Bartok DAC and the MoFi StudioDeck +U that we just recently reviewed. Great as the Lintons work with everything, again, there’s just something about these speakers, a great tube amp, and a long playlist of classic rock that is inescapably good.

A day or two of varied program material is all you need to hear the full potential of the Lintons and then do final room tuning. Horizontal and vertical dispersion is excellent, so these speakers are less critical than most to optimize, especially if you are using the Wharfdale stands. This makes the Lintons easy to engage anywhere in your listening environment, not just on the center of the couch. This is also excellent when friends drop by, even those sitting off to the side or corner will get a good helping of the music, making these speakers everyone will enjoy at a get together.

Provided you have enough freedom to place your Lintons, it won’t take very long to achieve a good balance between bass extension and upper bass smoothness. In our 12 x 18-foot living room, they ended up on the short wall about three feet from the back and side walls with a few degrees of toe-in.

The Lintons are not terribly cable sensitive, but Cardas Iridium speaker cable offers up a few more molecules of warmth than our other favorite budget speaker cable, Tellurium Q black. The former offering the best synergy with solid-state and the latter slightly more tube friendly. For those on a super tight budget, cut this Home Depot extension cord (https://www.homedepot.com/p/Yellow-Jacket-50-ft-14-3-SJTW-Outdoor-Medium-Duty-Extension-Cord-with-Power-Light-Plug-64826701/204651253) in half, strip the ends and get down to business. It’s all good.

An excellent gateway to audiophile madness

Nearly all of the competitors in the Lintons price range run out of performance pretty quickly, so when the desire to upgrade your system arrives, the speakers are often the first thing to go. Not so here. After using these speakers with a relatively wide range of source and amplification components, the Lintons deliver highly satisfying musical performance with entry level  electronics, yet have enough resolution to remain keepers when the upgrade bug hits. That’s superior value.

The key to these speakers is genuinely the balance that they’ve achieved at their price – sonically and aesthetically. In the best British tradition, they go about their way of delivering great music without a fuss. Not quite as warm and woolly as a pair of Harbeths, yet not quite as dynamic as similar offerings from Totem and Paradigm, the Lintons are fantastic all-rounders.

Their real strength, beyond being easy to place and drive, is their wide tonal and dynamic range. If there is any sacrifice here (and again, all speakers at this price make some sacrifices), it’s that of pinpoint image placement within the soundstage. My reference $4,000 JBL L-100 Classics have the same issue, and for my money, I’ll take a speaker with a bit more diffuse soundfield that offers bass extension and dynamic ability every time.

They also offer a high degree of tonal accuracy and cleanliness, that is rarely offered at this price, so if you don’t share my love for classic rock, they do an equally good job with acoustic, classical, jazz, anything you have in your collection. This is another bonus for the beginning audiophile that loves to stream their music. Speakers with this kind of capability will invite you to sample more new music because they won’t poop out when you turn the volume up. Hmmm.

Which brings us full circle. That’s what makes the Wharfdale Lintons really rock, and so much fun to build a system around. These are speakers that you can get lost in for hours upon end just listening to music, and that’s what it’s all about. We can go on and on about specs and such, but none of that matters, if ten minutes into the music, you’re distracted by that new face aging app on your phone.

While we don’t offer a TONEAudio Maximum Fun Award, the Lintons would be our first choice. However, they are more than worthy of one of our Exceptional Value Awards. They’ve got it all, great sound, great build quality and a heritage that few speakers can match.

The Wharfedale Linton Speakers

$1,198/pair (without stands) $1,498/pair (with stands)

www.wharfedaleusa.com

Peripherals

Analog Source MoFi Ultra Deck, AVID Plug and Play

Digital Source Rega Apollo CD player, dCS Bartok DAC

Amplification VAC Sigma 170i

Cable Cardas Iridium, Tellurium Q Black II

Features

Old School:

Jeff Dorgay continues the roll with Pioneer and bags an RT-701 Reel to reel deck

1095:

Michael Laurance samples the Bowers&Wilkins 607 speakers

Journeyman Audiophile:

We put the Linn Selekt DSM through its paces with multiple power amplifiers

The Audiophile Apartment:

McIntosh’s new MTI100 is a killer combination

Shanon Says:

Shanon breaks in the Hana ML cartridge
By Shanon Swetlishnoff

Mine: It Should Be Yours

Styling Shades

Snoop Dogg Loafers

Weinermobile AirBnB

Fielder’s Choice Wallet

and more….

Gear

ARC REF 160 Monoblocks

Conrad-Johnson ART 27A

BAT VK56SE

Line Magnetic LM-45

VAC Sigma 170i Integrated

Music

Playlists:  We share our readers choices from around the world

Future Tense

AVID Acutus Dark

Anthem MRX 520

Mikek Brooklyn + DAC

and more…

Cover Feature: Tubes

Jeff Dorgay reflects on the Prima Luna EVO400 Amp and Pre

Listening to the delicacy of Allison Miller’s drumming in Boom Tic Boom, in my living room system, it’s easy to see how this DAC can be the end of your digital journey.

Like every other dCS DAC I’ve owned or reviewed, they always manage to hit a perfect tonal balance, combined with wide dynamic range and a natural presentation that never feels digital at all. Good as their last entry-level piece the Debussy was ($11k about 8 years ago), the new Bartok at $13,500 (and $15,000 with a built-in headphone amp) offers quite a bit more. By comparison, many of your favorite automobiles have gone up in price by a much greater percentage.

The Bartok’s sonic signature is similar to the Vivaldi but the Vivaldi is further refined. The Bartok reminds me much more of my former Paganini in terms of the ease it presents. Much like my reference dCS Vivaldi One, the Bartok just sounds like music. There’s no “pretty good for digital” stuff going on here. dCS’ John Quick had this to say about the similarity of the Bartok in their lineup:

“Bartok and Rossini share the same processing and RingDAC analog boards, so overall, they have the same processing capacity. The differences between the units (that affect their cost and ultimately their overall performance) are literally down to the Bartok having half the power supply and the chassis being far less expensive. The Bartok’s construction overall is less complicated, using thinner metal. It uses a folded metal internal chassis wrapped in aluminum side and top panels; and although the front panel seems like a thick hunk of aluminum like everything else, it’s actually a very thin cap that either includes the punch-outs for the headphone outputs or not.”

A long-term investment

It’s been argued elsewhere that components like the dCS Bartok will only be purchased by the wealthy, in reference to its $13,500 price tag. ($1,500 more, if you want the internal headphone amplifier, and I highly suggest that you spend the extra- you won’t regret it)

However, I submit that $13,500 – $15,000 isn’t out of reach for all but the well-heeled (read my article on “motorcycle money” here). Call me crazy, but I’m guessing you probably didn’t wake up today and say “I’m gonna buy a $15,000 DAC today.” Most audio enthusiasts don’t start there. Some do, but most don’t. Most of us work our way up the ladder. More realistically, you’re probably trading in a $3k-$8k DAC and moving up to what might be your last. dCS’ programmable architecture goes a long way towards making an investment as future proof as digital technology can be.

Over the nearly ten years I owned the Paganini stack, numerous upgrades were only an upload away, giving me a new DAC every time. You can read more about dCS’ approach and technological solutions here at their website.

This is an excellent time to make an investment like this because Roon is well implemented, there are several excellent streaming services available (directly via dCS’ own Mosaic App should you not go the Roon route), and all of the dCS players have proprietary fully-implemented MQA. We could have a dodgeball game to the death about MQA, but if you are a fan, rest assured that dCS has done a fantastic job at decoding MQA. I’ll even put the Nomex suit on and go as far as to say they’ve even outdone Meridan on MQA decoding ability – these files though both of the dCS DACs here, sound more lifelike than they have on any other MQA equipped box we’ve heard.

Just grab your favorite phones

Because the Bartok has already started achieving a lot of fanfare in the headphone world, let’s start here. As dCS’ first entry into this world, they’ve built a brilliant product. The Bartok’s full class-A headphone amplifier drives everything from my Koss Pro-4AAs that I’ve had since high school to the new Focal Utopias to perfection. You’d probably spend more than $1,500on a premium interconnect and power cable to add a headphone amplifier of comparable performance to a Bartok based system, so it’s almost like getting a fab headphone amplifier at no extra charge- and you don’t need to find more rack space. How’s that for justification?

After exhausting auditioning with about 20 different pairs of phones in the $50 – $4,000 range, I don’t need a better headphone amplifier than the one built in the Bartok. A couple of the top choices from Luxman ($4,995) and Woo Audio ($16,000) reveal a little bit more music, but nowhere near enough for this moderate headphone user to ever justify the additional cost. The front panel features a standard ¼-inch headphone jack and a 4-pin balanced jack. While this won’t cover every single headphone out there, all of the premium headphones on the market have one of these two options (if not both) available (and most have detachable cables allowing for adapting to either).

Headphone use couldn’t be more straightforward. Plug into the front panel and switch the Bartok’s output from line to headphone, and then use the knob on the front panel as volume, or control from your mobile device or laptop with whatever app you are using for playback.

Even the most fanatical of my headphone pals came away highly impressed with the Bartok’s performance. Those of you living in tight quarters, tight enough that you can’t afford the space for a power amplifier and speakers right now, would do well to grab a Bartok, a Roon subscription, and a few of your favorite streaming services.

This leads to my only complaint with the Bartok- it would be lovely if dCS would add a single analog input, so those needing just one input could use it as a standalone preamplifier, or those going strictly for the headphone experience, could add a phonostage too. If you’re all digital, the Bartok is pretty incredible.

Tomato/Tomato

Rather than seeing the Bartok as a $15,000 headphone amp that happens to be a remarkable DAC, I see it as a destination DAC that’s a steal at $13,500 and even more so with the addition of the headphone amp. Perspective is everything.

After coming off a year with the Rossini and now nearly a year with the Vivaldi ONE, the only thing the Bartok doesn’t offer that the other two larger and more expensive players in the lineup offer are scale and some ultimate top-end refinement. Some of this refinement can be achieved by adding a dCS external clock.

The sense of scale comes from bigger power supplies, isolation of functions to individual chassis and the added electrical and mechanical isolation that comes with taking core functions to separate chassis. The progress dCS has made here is astounding. Again, Mr. Quick chimes in, offering some more insight:  “We are getting better at trickling down more of the sound of our flagship in our current offerings, and Bartok is really special in that regard. Considering it has 6-7 years of R&D ahead of it from Vivaldi and Rossini – far ahead of anything else we’ve done- versus the 2.5-3 years that separated Scarlatti and Debussy… that definitely made a big difference. Beyond that, where we’ve taken the RingDAC in the latest series is also a primary contributor. We could not have made nearly the same overall improvement in changing the mapping algorithm (as we did in Vivaldi and Rossini v1 versus v2) in the older generation products.”

It’s all about resolution

Having the unique ability to compare the Bartok side by side as the anchor to a very nice $50k system (which is where I suspect most Bartoks will end up) and my reference system, worth nearly ten times this much, illuminates the differences clearly.

In my primary reference system, that has a much broader dynamic capability, more low-level resolution, and a magnificent soundstage, the Bartok makes a great showing. For many analog crazed audiophiles I know that are primarily analog, but would still like digital, this could be an excellent choice.

Regardless of choosing delicate, small ensemble choral music, or the most raucous rock, starting with the Bartok feels just fine. But then switching up to the Vivaldi One shows precisely where the limits of the Bartok lie. Yet going back to the system in my living room, which is unable to resolve as much musical information, the delta between the two is not nearly as vast.

The point here is that the core musicality of the Bartok is highly similar to the bigger boxes in the dCS range, and that’s what I appreciate. Some manufacturers are not nearly as good at delivering a linear increase in performance as you go up the range. The Bartok is at the top of its class for the price asked, as are the Rossini, Vivaldi ONE and full-blown, four box Vivaldi – as it should be. There’s no law of diminishing returns if you have a system capable of resolving the difference.

Versatility defined

The Bartok can accommodate any digital source you’d like to connect, via its RCA, Coax, or optical SPDIF inputs, single or dual AES inputs, USB or network inputs. That’s right, it’s got a fully capable streamer built in that will access your UPnP network and bring files in from your NAS or straight from your network.

The Bartok has a fully balanced, class-A output stage in addition to the headphone amplifier, and there are balanced XLR and standard RCA outputs, that are both variable. More about that in a bit.

Our experience with the Vivaldi ONE, the Rossini, and Bartok is that the best results are streaming music files right from the network. Those not wanting to pony up for a ROON subscription can use dCS’ own app, which works well and sounds excellent, though lacks the ultimate functionality of ROON. It’s also incredibly handy that you can chain another network device through the Bartok. I use a Naim Uniti Core for CD ripping and offline storage in addition to my NAS, so this is a perfect way to keep the Uniti Core close by.

Excellent luck was also had with a variety of different CD players as transports. Those who want to keep it all dCS might consider a used dCS transport for their disc needs, and if you use a Paganini transport with the dual AES connection, native SACD playback is possible. There are no limitations to digital playback with the Bartok. You can even connect to it as an Airplay zone!

Pre or not to pre

The ultimate question for some will be whether to use the Bartok as a standalone preamplifier, forgoing a linestage/preamplifier, or putting one in the system. Conventional wisdom suggests that less is more, but digital volume controls are always a touchy thing. At extremely low listening levels, they tend to lose resolution. Where the Vivaldi One can, in fact, be used without a line stage, if you are only concerned with digital playback, the Bartok is pretty good.

Ultimately, this is the other area where the entry-level Bartok is bested by the top dCS player. In my living room system when playing the Bartok directly into the BAT VK 56SE power amplifier and Focal Kanta no.3s, adding a preamplifier made a slight difference, offering up a little bit more spaciousness and definitely a smidge more warmth at very low-level playback. It was easier to notice the minute level of flatness there at the lowest level after going back to having a tip-top preamplifier in the system, but it will depend on your needs.

However, switching from the Kanta no.3s to the much larger and more resolving Focal Stella Utopia Ems, the jump in performance added by our Nagra Classic Preamplifier was unmistakable, especially in the area of tonal contrast and saturation. And of course, low-level playback is warmer and more full-bodied.

It’s about music

As I’ve said before, the dCS DACs have always deliver supreme musicality, and I have hung my hat on their products, using them as a reference tool for over a decade. However, what I love about dCS is the way they serve the music and not the other way around. This is a player than I can listen to for 12-16 hours a day (and have on many occasions) with zero fatigue.

dCS does an outstanding job at presenting music with a tonality that is dead center in the middle of the scale. Their products (and the Bartok is no exception) are neither warm and romantic nor overly bright, bleached or harsh. Hitting the tonality bullseye is tougher than it sounds, but they manage to pull it off every time.

Every other musical parameter is equally well represented. Rather than go on at length with tracks you may or may not know or like, the best way to see what I mean is to go to your dCS dealer and give the Bartok a listen.

Is it for you?

Returning to our original conversation, you don’t have to be an aristocrat to have a dCS Bartok of your very own. If you love music, and you want a top-quality digital front end that will offer enough performance to stay put, the Bartok is a winner. The performance that it provides more than justifies the price asked. dCS has put a considerable helping of their top technology in a package that outperforms many far more expensive boutique DACs.

Best of all, the customer service and ongoing support that comes with a dCS product assures that this is a digital player you will enjoy for years to come. Highly recommended. And yes, spring for the headphone amp!

The dCS Bartok

$13,500. ($16,250 with headphone amplifier)

www.dcsaudio.com

Peripherals

Preamplifier Nagra Classic Preamplifier

Amplifier Nagra Classic Amplifier

Speakers Focal Kanta no.3 and Focal Stella Utopia EM

Cable Cardas Clear

After 40 years of being an audio enthusiast, consumer (and someone covering this world for the last 17 of those years) I think we have a fundamental confusion in what we’re talking about.

To me, “high end audio” means something condescending, something unapproachable, something you can’t have. It means the secret handshake, the elite club.

I’d rather it not be that way.

In the world of cars, you have cars that get you from point a to point b reliably, like a Toyota RAV 4 or a Kia Soul, that are perfectly good cars (I’ve owned both of em) and they get the job done with no fuss. And for probably 99 percent of the population that’s just fine. If you think I’m nuts, how many of your friends, male and female, have said at one point or another, “cars don’t mean anything to me, I just need one to get from a to b and back.”

There’s no shame in that at all. Most people don’t give a shit about cars.

I’ve got news for you, most people don’t give a shit about audio either. But almost everyone loves, or at least likes music. But for so many, it’s something in the background, it’s something to listen to on the subway, or when friends are over. Or sing along with.

It’s something to get from point a to b.

But high performance audio is something completely different. High performance audio, like high performance cars, motorcycles, bicycles, cameras, concentrates on delivering more experience, no matter what the approach. It doesn’t always have to be expensive, and it doesn’t always have to be brand new. $30,000 will buy you a well-appointed Toyota camry, or it will buy you a really nice, used Audi S4. Think about it. If you love the way a car feels going around a corner, or stopping hard, you’d probably rather drive the Audi.

But even if you take the new approach, high performance audio does not have to break the bank. Many of the manufacturers that we might consider “high end,” and perhaps even out of our reach, make great products, that are very affordable. And they are all a great place to start your journey.

A perfect example of this is Vandersteen Audio. Their flagship 7s cost upwards of $60k/pair, but the current version of their model 1 is just under $1,500/pair. If that’s still crazy money in your book, look at the Paradigm Atoms. $299/pair. Both of these speakers are designed and built by the same people that build the flagship models with plenty of TLC.

I can cite plenty of examples in the realm of amplifiers, preamplifiers, DACs and turntables, but I’m guessing you know most of the players.

You can spend a little bit of money or a lot of money. That is up to you and those are your personal priorities.

But stop worrying if your system is “high end,” and where that line begins. Think “high performance,” or even “performance oriented.” Then we can all play, and we can all get on with it. Best of all, we can all get back to enjoying music, to a greater degree than what a mass market solution offers.

Who’s with me? If you’re enjoying music, and you’re having fun doing it, you’re in. It’s really that easy.

My apologies for the title. To be absolutely correct, the TUKs are all you need if you don’t want to listen to records. Music lovers sourcing their tunes digitally, have everything they need inside the small (but well packed) box that the TUKs arrive in. And for $799 a pair, these speakers offer an incredible amount of sound for the price.

Much as I hate listening to the Eagles, their first album is well recorded and offers some great harmonies, most that get lost on so called, budget speakers. The integration between the TUKs 5 ¼” woofer and AMT tweeter is flawless, and they offer distinct separation of these voices, doing an excellent job keeping the tracks’ pace locked down. Whether listening to layered harmonies, densely recorded metal tracks, or acoustic tunes, the TUKs are a pleasure to listen to, for hours on end.

This, along with the first week of listening was done strictly with the Bluetooth input from my phone, via Roon and Qobuz. I suspect that a lot of the potential audience for these speakers (or any compact, powered speaker for that matter) is more of an “on the go” listener, so if this happens to be you, you will not be disappointed using the TUKs this way.

Moving up

Should you have further audiophile aspirations, the TUKs have you covered with a built in 24/96 DAC, accessible via the rear panel USB port, RCA/SPDIF port, or an optical input. Sampling each, with an old SONY CD changer and Mac Book Pro, versus streaming 24/96 files from Qobuz and CDs is a major step up, with the TUKs offering a much higher level of performance from the already impressive Bluetooth input.

Listening to a number of the same tracks from the initial audition period, is a completely different experience utilizing the on-board DAC. Clarity makes a major jump forward, and if you have the opportunity to truly place the TUKs for optimum sound, a much bigger and deeper sound field awaits you as well. In typical fashion, Kanto puts the amplifier and DAC in one speaker, tethering to the other with a speaker cable. The powered speaker is designated left and the passive right, but should you need to place the powered speaker on the left due to proximity of your AC outlet, it takes a mere push of the button on the remote control to re-orient the speakers, so that left is left again.

Subtleties make the difference

This is a very nice touch, and something I haven’t seen on other powered speakers. The TUKs are full of nice touches, from their satin finish to the aforementioned remote. Fit and finish is high quality, and if there were no badges on these speakers, you’d believe me if I told you that these were built in the same factory that the $4,500 pair of Bowers & Wilkins Duo’s we reviewed recently.

Attention to detail is more than skin deep with the TUKs. In addition to the high-quality DAC and 130 watts per channel on tap, the TUKs also offer an on board phono stage, which we took advantage of with a few budget turntables from Rega and Pro-Ject, utilizing moving magnet cartridges, as well as a vintage Technics with a new Pro-Ject MM cartridge. On one level, this might be the most impressive feature of the TUK – these speakers have a damn good phono stage built in! If you already have a turntable, or are thinking of starting to spin records, the TUKs are a perfect place to start.

Put em anywhere

The small 8.5”W x 10.9”H x 7”D footprint makes the TUKs easy to place for maximum fun. Thanks to the TUKs wide dispersion, they offer great sound no matter where you have to place them. However, if you do want a more traditional audiophile setup, a good pair of stands with the speakers about 6-9 feet apart delivers the goods. Work with the room, best you can to achieve the best balance of upper bass smoothness and lower bass extension. Kanto claims a low frequency limit of 50hz, and this seems reasonable as long as you don’t push the TUKs too hard with tracks having a lot of sub bass information.

For the rest of you, a subwoofer is easily added. Thanks to an 80hz internal crossover, you can add one of Kanto’s subs, or anything else that has a high-level input. As I didn’t have a Kanto sub on hand, my REL T7 (which used to sell for about $349) worked well, and its white finish goes with the current aesthetic. Much as I love the TUKs, adding the sub really makes for a more full-range system, especially if you like music with a lot of low frequencies. With sub in place, tracking through hip hop and EDM faves is a breeze, and crossing over the TUKs, relieving them of amplifying the lowest frequency gives them even more dynamic range.

The small footprint makes the TUKs easy to bring music along wherever you might happen to be. They were as at home in my garage for a weekend worth of car maintenance as they were at an impromptu gathering, and on my back porch, by the fireplace. Actually, they work exceptionally well as a go everywhere party speaker. You might even call the TUKs the perfect road trip companion.

Thanks to all the inputs and small size, they also work incredibly well as powered desktop monitors. Those of you that spend a lot of time in front of a screen will enjoy these as conduits for your favorite tunes, or even to use editing video. Editing a few upcoming YouTube pieces was a snap through the TUKs.

Sonic superstars

Cool as everything else about the TUKs are, their sonic performance is well above everything else we’ve heard in this price range. They not only reveal a high level of musical detail, they have a level of refinement that is absent in this price category. Oh yeah, they even have a built-in headphone amp too. And It’s really good.

With or without a subwoofer, we can’t think of a better way to spend $799 on a hifi system. And remember, this isn’t just a pair of powered speakers, the Kanto TUKs are a complete hifi system. Everything you need to listen to music is in the box. Well, except for a turntable!

And we are pleased to award the Kanto TUKs the Audiophile Apartment’s first Product of the Year award. Whether you are just starting your journey, or need another system elsewhere in your environment, a pair of these will provide you with a lot of listening pleasure.

www.kantoaudio.com

Rickie Lee Jones’ version of “Bad Company,” from her latest album puts the Paradigm Premier 700F speakers in perspective immediately. These speakers create a massive, immersive soundfield on this ethereal track. Combine this with a level of resolution rarely available in a $1,598 pair of speakers along with major low-frequency capability, and we’ve got a winner.

Our art director Brian Gage did some of the heavy lifting, putting serious break-in time on the 700Fs, but did not find nirvana in his reasonably large living room. I had a similar result here in my main 16 x 25-foot room – the 700Fs got slightly swallowed up, with a bit brighter feel than either of us liked. Moving them to room two, (measuring 15 x 13 feet) proved to be the magic combination. A little bit of room gain makes for a bit more bottom end and better top to bottom balance overall. Experimenting with a couple more rooms lends us to suggest using a pair of 700Fs (without a subwoofer) in a small to medium sized room for best overall tonal balance.

Placed on the short wall, with the speakers about three feet out into the room, six feet apart and toed in only slightly was a great place to start. Because the 700Fs have wide dispersion in both planes, and substantial HF energy, they will work well in a typical home living room with a fair amount of furniture – and will not need too much attention to final placement for a good result. But the patient can fine tune them for even better sound.

As Brian noticed, the 700Fs offer excellent dynamic contrast – a longtime Paradigm hallmark, and are great for home theater applications. I followed his lead, and after full evaluation in my listening room, moved them into my small theater room as front speakers. This time, power coming from the new Anthem MRX 520 surround receiver. In my HT system, they were part of a mixed group of speakers, with the pair of Paradigm Atoms we reviewed a while back, a Paradigm Defiance subwoofer and a Bowers & Wilkins sub.

Those building a theater system from scratch would be wise to pair the 700Fs with any of the other three speakers (larger and smaller) and one of the subwoofers in the Defiance lineup to get the maximum effect, but back to two-channel world…

Crafted in Canada continued

A big part of the Paradigm story is that their speakers are all designed and built in their Canadian factory. Where some manufacturers have moved their entry-level products overseas, Paradigm does it all under one roof. This is vertical design and build at its finest. Where many speaker manufacturers must work around the compromises accompanying off the shelf components, Paradigm produces every bit of their speaker systems from the ground up – drivers, crossovers, and cabinets. If the driver in a new speaker doesn’t meet their goals, they go back to the lab and re-design it to be in spec, rather than just getting by. The purchasing power that a company of this size brings to bear also helps to keep costs way down and Paradigm has built their reputation on offering maximum performance for the dollar. The 700Fs uphold that 37-year history of excellence.

The stylish PPA™ (Perforated Phase Aligning) tweeter and Midrange lens technology combined with the ART™ (Active Ridge Technology) surrounds in the woofer, all hail from their flagship Persona speakers. This is a level of build quality and craftsmanship that is only offered by a handful of other manufacturers, that incidentally also design and build everything in house, so the 700F has few peers.

Understated black grilles are standard equipment, but if you don’t have to contend with prying paws or fingers, the bold design statement made by the exposed drivers and beautiful machine work seems way too nice to cover up. Spikes are also included, along with pucks so that the spikes do not bite into hardwood floors.

Setup and break in

The 700Fs come out of the box slightly stiff, so give them a couple of weeks of solid play to achieve the maximum bass response, smoothness, and cohesion of the drivers. If you have the luxury of playing them in a room, out of phase with a blanket over them, with some reasonably dynamic program material, this will accelerate the process somewhat. And don’t be afraid to break out the bass heavy tracks.

As mentioned, the 700Fs are easy to get up and playing music, but a bit of fine tuning the rake angle will maximize the imaging width and depth. We suggest placing the speakers for the best balance of lower bass output and upper bass smoothness to start. Then, adjust rake angle in small increments for maximum image width and depth, finishing off by fine-tuning the toe in for the best HF balance. Small steps are reasonable here, and thanks to the high resolution of these speakers, your efforts will be rewarded.

Fortunately, their compact footprint (8.375″W x 12.625″ D and 39.875″T) and light weight (48.2lbs.) won’t require significant acrobatics, or friends to unbox and move into position in your listening area.

Our test pair arrived in a gloss black, with gloss white and an espresso grain finish also available. No matter which finish you choose, the front and the top face of the speakers are finished in matte black – no doubt a move to keep the cost more reasonable. Two sets of binding posts are available for those wanting to bi-wire, but for the duration of our review, the 700Fs were used with a single pair of speaker cables and the jumpers intact. The quality of the finish on the side panels is as smooth as the $35,000/pair Personas we reviewed previously.

Again, this is where building everything in house is a benefit – the same people doing the cabinets on Paradigm’s top speakers are working on these too. However, it’s more than just the quality of the finish on the outer walls of the cabinet that impress. Looking at the 700Fs very carefully reveals the smoothness of the bevels on the front panel and how cleanly the drivers are mounted. There is no visible hardware. The cabinet corners intersect perfectly. This is the level of quality you demand from a $10k pair of speakers. Not something you expect for this price – a definite bonus to qualityphiles. These are speakers that you will be very proud to own.

A good seat

Thanks to a sensitivity rating of 91db/1 watt, it doesn’t take a ton of power to drive the 700Fs, but the more current and control your amplifier has on tap, the more involving the presentation. The difference between using the 700Fs with a few budget and vintage amplifiers versus contemporary offerings from Nagra, PASS, and ARC is impressive. Through the Nagra amplification chain, the 700Fs easily illustrate the difference between a wide range of source components. These are very capable speakers.

Paradigm claims a low-frequency limit of 33hz, with a +/- frequency range of 45 – 20,000 Hz. Though we don’t perform lab measurements here, a cursory audition of the original Stereophile Test Disc, with test tones down to 20hz reveals solid output down to 35hz. This is more than enough to enjoy whatever kind of music you love. It also is enough output to mate effectively with whatever subwoofer you might want to add to the mix. Often, speakers falling off around 60 Hz (as in a typical sat/sub combination) always seem to have a bit of a gap in the low-frequency response, making subwoofer integration less than seamless. Again, the 700Fs succeed brilliantly with or without a sub.

Again, in the 13 x 15-foot room, our favorite EDM and hip hop tracks reveal more than enough useable LF content to impress through the 700Fs. Paradigm calls them a full three-way system, with a pair of 5 ½” woofers, crossing over to a 5 ½” midrange driver at 800hz via a 2nd order crossover and then to the tweeter at 2500hz. The drivers work seamlessly together and provide a high level of coherency.

Much fun as these speakers are to tear up your favorite rock tracks, solo vocal tracks impress equally, as do acoustic cuts.

Tough to beat

The under $2,000/pair speaker market is incredibly competitive. Paradigm brings engineering and execution together for a class winner. They’ve achieved not only a high level of performance with the 700F; these are well-balanced speakers that do not compromise one area of audible performance for the rest of the spectrum. Quite an achievement for $1,598 a pair and more than worthy of one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019.

The Paradigm Premier 700F Speakers

www.paradigm.com

$1,598/pair

Peripherals

Digital source dCS Vivaldi One

Preamplifier Nagra Classic Preamp

Power Amplifier Nagra Classic Amp

Cable Tellurium Q Black II

Power Torus Tot II

Features

Old School:

Michael “Muppet” Laurance continues our love affair
with vintage Pioneer gear, this time one of their disc players

1095:

Jeff Dorgay spins a lot of CDs with the new Rega Apollo

Journeyman Audiophile:

The MoFi StudioDeck+U Turntable and cartridge

The Audiophile Apartment:

The Audiovector SR1 Avantgarde Arrete Speakers
By Jeff Dorgay

Shanon Says:

The Gold Note PSU10 Power Supply upgrade
By Shanon Swetlishnoff

Mine: It Should Be Yours

Cryo treated beer

Carbon Fiber wheels

Large floatation devices

Smurf PEZ

and more….

Music

Playlists:  We share our readers choices from around the world

Future Tense

Totem Tribe Speakers

Bryston BP-2 Phono/PS-3 Power Supply

Nagra Tube DAC

and more…

Cover Feature: Luxmania!

Jeff Dorgay takes a long look at Luxman’s finest amplification

Vitus Audio is well known around the world for fantastic sound and multiple box amplification chains that weight hundreds of pounds. Even their two-box reference phono stage weighs more than most power amplifiers!

Underneath the massive metalwork lurks enormous power supplies and electronics that are more than overbuilt for the task at hand. Many people that have full Vitus installations have spent well into the six-figure range to get this performance, and if you peruse social media and various hifi forums, you will see Vitus in a number of the world’s finest hifi dens.

However, if you are someone wanting to put together an incredible, yet not crazy money system, the Vitus RI-101 should be at the top of your list, it’s certainly at the top of mine. $15,600 gets you the RI-101 amplifier alone, delivering 300 watts per channel into an 8 – ohm load, which should be more than enough for nearly any speakers you have at your disposal. (yes, it even drove my Magnepans with ease)

From a rack level view, the RI-101 looks exactly like the top Vitus components, But instead of a CNC milled case, the case is standard, albeit heavy duty metal, powder coated black. At this price, it wouldn’t have made sense to go the full heavy metal route and I applaud Mr. Vitus for putting those dollars in the circuitry rather than the casework. With three balanced XLR inputs, two RCA inputs and a pair of balanced outputs (the preamplifier section is fully balanced), there is more than enough flexibility for future expansion. The binding posts on the rear panel are extremely robust and will work well with any audiophile speaker cables you have on hand. All of the connectors are first rate.
Weighing in at just under 85 pounds, the RI-101 is hardly a lightweight. Under the cover a massive power supply lurks, with all the attention to detail that is in Vitus’ top range. Even the volume control is from one of the top models. Again, keeping every bit of investment in the box, Vitus supplies an Apple remote to control volume.

An excellent trend

Add Vitus to the list of manufacturers that have put their resources into a premium integrated amplifier, and put them at the top. My review sample had been played for a bit before arriving, so it sounded great right out of the box, and full song by the next day.

The GamuT Zodiacs were in my living room system, making for a perfect combination. Our sample arrived fully equipped, with the on board DAC/Streamer module, which adds about $5,000 to the price. Closing in on the year 2020, why would you buy a DAC that doesn’t stream? The RI-101 is Roon ready, so you don’t have to waste time trying to make everything in your music collection interface with yet another app. Five minutes after unboxing the RI-101, it’s up and rocking. Roon found it instantly and I was playing music.

Unless you are completely anti-digital, or have a fantastic outboard DAC that is worthy of the RI-101, go for broke and get the DAC/Streamer built in. Considering what power cords and interconnect cables cost these days, and how much less shelf space you’ll need, the RI-101 with DAC/Streamer is an incredible bargain.

The DAC module features Ethernet, Coax, AES/EBU and USB ports, so any device you might have is covered. Much like the other DACs we’ve heard from dCS, Simaudio and a few others, streaming directly from the web or your NAS offers up the best sound, with the USB a very close second. The USB port can accept DSD files, and considering the DAC/Streamer is a module, you can count on Vitus to provide a hardware update should it be necessary.

Digital options

As most of my listening was a combination of 16/44 files from NAS and ROON/Tidal/Qobuz, the RI-101 proves flawless. Considering just how little music is available only in the MQA format, I don’t consider this a deal breaker. Moving on to a vintage SONY CD player and a current dCS Rossini CD player, both used as transports reveal that this is a fantastic combination for anyone wanting to still play shiny discs.

Auditioning the dCS via the XLR and Coax inputs with Nordost Heimall digital cables, it was tough to hear a clearcut difference between the two inputs, though we all felt the XLR input was just a touch more revealing. You’ll have to argue amongst yourselves on this, but suffice to say this aspect of the internal DAC is excellent. Should you be an occasional silver disc listener, Rega’s new Apollo player at $995 makes for an outstanding (and very compact) redbook transport that we really enjoyed.

Putting the internal DAC in context with stand-alone offerings from other manufacturers in the $5,000 – $10,000 range, this is the way to go. The combination of functionality and sound quality can’t be beat. Vitus approach to digital, combining the top ESS DAC chips with meticulous execution on all levels is fantastic.

The level of refinement on the digital side will easily win you over on multiple levels. First the amount of low level resolution present again rivals much more expensive units. Whether listening to Michael Hedges plucky acoustic guitars, or Shostakovich’s violin Concerto no. 1, the speed, tone and texture that this DAC brings to the table is incredible.

Switching the program to more contemporary faire is equally enjoyable. Tracking through Prince’s classic, 1999, layer upon layer is revealed, with a sound field that is both wide and deep. What else could you ask for from digital?

Because the low-level signals of a phono stage are so delicate, Vitus wisely chose to leave the phono section as something you can add in a separate chassis. The level of sonic excellence this amplifier delivers is up to any task, so you could easily spend the cost of the amplifier again on a phonostage.

In the end, the sound

Vitus has packed so much musicality into this single box, you might be tempted to stop your Vitus journey right here. The toughest part of the journey with this amplifier is that it is their entry level product. Should you go further up the line you will, of course, get more power, bigger dynamic swing, and even more resolution and delicacy, but this is the perfect introduction to the brand.

The top Vitus amplifiers are all class-A, so they take on a slightly warmer, more full bodied sound, but the class-AB RI 101 captures much of the flagship amplifiers’ character. Vitus calls this design a “high bias AB amp,” so the first 12 watts per channel are in full Class -A mode. At normal listening levels with moderately sensitive speakers, you’ll probably be listening in Class A on all but the most broad musical peaks. Just like the bigger siblings, the RI-101 is incredibly quiet, with well defined, powerful bass and a grain free high end to match. Vitus is one of the few solid state amplifier manufacturers that will not have you wishing for vacuum tubes.

Every speaker that we made part of the Vitus system was handled perfectly. Thanks to the amount of energy available with it’s well designed power supply, a few speakers that are somewhat power hungry, like the Raidho D1.1 felt almost as if we’d installed a subwoofer when driven by this amplifier. The mighty Focal Stella Utopia EMs with their beryllium tweeters can go horribly wrong when driven by an amplifier that is even the least bit brittle in it’s delivery. The match was perfection, as it was with the Focal Sopra no.3 and Kanta no.3. Honestly, there was no speaker that didn’t work well with this amplifier – a true sign of excellent design.

For anyone wanting a world class system without a rack full of gear, the Vitus Audio RI-101 is an excellent choice, no matter what speakers you currently own.

The Vitus Audio RI-101 Integrated Amplifier

MSRP: $15,600

DAC/streamer module:  $5,000 additional

www.vitusaudio.com (factory)
www.highendbyoz.com (NA distributor)

Peripherals

Analog source Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 w/Koetsu Jade Platinum

Phono Pre Boulder 508

Digital source Rega Apollo(as transport), ROON via network

Speakers Focal Stella Utopia EM, Raidho D1.1, GamuT Zodiac

Audio By Van Alstine produces line stage preamplifiers, phono stages, DACs, and more, the marvelous AVA Vision 400 SET amplifier we review here represents a culmination of Van Alstine’s knowledge applied to music reproduction.

Frank Van Alstine brings over 50 years of experience to his component designs, developing modifications for classic Hafler and Dynaco gear, and of course, focused on his own line of equipment.

Selling direct from his company website, Van Alstine keeps the price low, making his gear more accessible to budget minded music lovers that prioritize performance. AVA’s components offer solid fit and finish, avoiding the audio jewelry approach to case designs. This utilitarian appearance keeps Van Alstine’s production costs down, passing the savings on to his customers. Keep in mind the adages, “What’s inside counts,” and “Beauty is only skin deep.” AVA makes applaudable tradeoffs or the best sound.

In line with this philosophy, the standard version of the Vision SET 400 comes in a basic, powder-coated black case with a simple rocker switch for $1,999. The updated model you see here, featuring a thick, anodized, aluminum panel and push button for the power switch is an extra $200.

The ins and outs

The Vision SET 400 is audio rack-friendly with dimensions of 7 inches tall, 17 inches wide, and 13 inches deep, weighing 38 pounds. Much of that mass results from the beefy toroidal transformer inside; providing the fuel to push 225 watts per channel into eight-ohm speaker loads, and roughly double that into four ohms. No matter how hard we pushed the amp, it never failed in its firm control over various speakers. Driving my GamuT RS3i speakers, the SET 400 never falters, even at high listening levels. The heat sinks jetting from the rear of the unit peak at a temperature so low they fail as a hand-warmer.

The gold-plated, five-way binding posts accommodate speaker cables with spade, bare-wire, or banana terminations giving the owner a lot of flexibility. The amp also sports a pair of gold-plated RCA inputs for connection with a preamp.

The “SET” in the Vision SET 400 solid-state amplifier’s name refers to its Single-Ended Transistor based circuit design. The Vision amplifiers offer a Class A/B topology. However, the biasing maintains pure Class A power at normal listening levels. When pushed, the amp leans on Class A/B at higher power levels.

Listening

The SET 400 needs but a few days to reach full operating potential. As with past AVA designs we’ve used, there’s no lengthy break-in period required. Consider a weekend trip away, with constant music play and you’re ready!

Overall, the SET 400s sonic signature features a lot to love and very little to criticize. Thanks to the amount of reserve power always on tap, Rock and Electronic music is always vivacious, yet there is plenty of nuance to satisfy jazz and vocal tastes.

Indeed, the SET 400 threads the needle with an overall neutrality, yet has a touch of warmth to boot. Never artificially fluffing up the sound, it manages the deft feat of taking harsh recordings and making them far more enjoyable. Even when pushed, the amp seems almost tube-like in its ability to create fatigue-free music which results in long, couch-locked listening sessions. For example, the opening synthesizer notes heard on Portishead’s Roads pour forth with a seemingly-loving embrace. Where some amplifiers portray Beth Gibbons’ voice harshly or stridently, the AVA excels. Van Alstine’s years of designing tube gear presents us with a solid-state amplifier with similar voicing. String instruments maintain their dimension, bass notes carry with appropriate authority, and percussion features a punchy strike combined with fluid decay.

Bass proves another strong suit. The AVA’s high power reserve gets a grip on speaker drivers and refuses to let go. Bass guitar plucks reverberate with realistic tightness, followed by a decay with a palpable presence. The Vision also offers great soundstaging capability. Music emits in all directions beyond the physical speaker bodies, with plenty of separation among musical elements to distinguish each in its own space with little overlap.

One needs a pickaxe and a shovel to dig for criticisms at this price. Comparing the AVA with an amplifier like the Conrad-Johnson ART 150 which is several times the SET 400’s cost, the Vision has a slightly compacted width and depth of the musical performance, resulting in a bit less sense of three-dimensional, organic realism. For instance, the airy spatial cues perceived in a superb recording’s ‘space’ – As heard in Johnny Cash’s cover of “Danny Boy” from American IV: The Man Comes Around– are reduced a bit. However, that’s hardly a fair criticism given the price discrepancy between the two amplifiers. AVA has created something very special with the Vision SET 400.

The combination of the AVA’s sound and power make it an excellent fit for all but the hungriest speakers. Our publisher mentions to all the Magenpan lovers in the audience, that this amplifier did a fantastic job with his Tympani IVs.

Summing up

$2,000 is not chump change for most people. However, in the world of high-end audio, that dollar figure lies at the lower-end of the cost-no-object spectrum. The AVA Vision SET 400 amplifier offers excellent performance and a tremendous value. The AVA never fails to deliver marvelous, forgiving, detailed, and rich sound. Though I remain smitten by my current reference amp, I’m sad to see the AVA depart. While the Vision amp has some small tradeoffs in comparison with amps many times its price, the Vision is one of those few components I could enjoy for many years to come.

After enjoying its voice for a month during our review period, I found myself beguiled by the AVA’s prowess. The amp represents a stellar choice for a budget-responsible system with very few sonic compromises. If you seek an amp in the sub-$2,000 range, the Van Alstine Vision SET 400 sets an extremely high bar and deserves a TONEAudio Exceptional Value Award for 2019.

Van Alstine Vision SET 400 Amplifier

Starting at $1,999

www.avahifi.com

PERIPHERALS

Analog Source SME Model 10 with SME V and Model 10 tonearms. Dynavector 17D3 and Denon DL-103R cartridges

Digital Sources Roon Nucleus, Simaudio MOON 780D DAC, Oppo BDP-103, Synology DiskStation 415 Play

Preamplifier Coffman Labs G1-B

Speakers GamuT RS3i, JL Audio Dominion Subwoofers

Cables Jena Labs

Power Torus AVR 15 Plus, RSA Mongoose, and Cardas power cords

Accessories ASC tube traps, Cathedral Sound Room Dampening Panels, Mapleshade Samson audio racks, Coffman Labs Equipment Footers

We’ve been using ROON at TONE since the final alpha release, and it’s a powerful solution. None of the other music delivery platforms come close – if you love music and the discovery of more music, it’s the only way to go.

ROON allows you to combine music saved on your computer or NAS with whatever music you stream, seamlessly in an album art oriented browser. It’s like going to the record store and flipping through the largest group of record bins on the planet. Minus the crabby record store person with a dominant attitude behind the counter making fun of your music choices. Want to find everyone your favorite artist has played with or was influenced by? ROON will take you there, leading you down path after path of music exploration.

One of ROON’s strengths has always been the “Roon Radio” function, picking up after your playlist is finished, finding music that is remarkably similar to what you’ve been previously enjoying. That function is improved; the radio function goes beyond your collection, searching whatever streaming services you are accessing. Now, in addition to having the world’s biggest record store at your fingertips, you have the world’s biggest and most diverse radio station to feed you new music.

But capability requires power, and we haven’t even talked about all the other cool stuff ROON does like stream over multiple zones, offer DSP room correction and EQ, as well as a few other goodies. We’ll talk about that in its own article.

The more you ask of ROON, the more it requires from your host computer. ROON actually gives you the specs to build a purpose-built server, but this requires a ton of computing knowledge and that kind of defeats the purpose of such an intuitive platform, at least from my perspective. Even dedicating a Mac Mini strictly to ROON service and stripping it down as much as possible, begins to drag with an extensive music collection and multiple zones.

It’s all about dedication

Thankfully, last year, ROON developed their own box, the Nucleus and Nucleus +. You can read all the techie bits in their white paper here. The ROON crew not only came up with a dedicated box that is dead quiet, compact, and looks super cool, they even wrote their own OS that is optimized for ROON and nothing else.

Both the $1,399 and $2,499 Nucleus and Nucleus+ look precisely the same. The standard machine is meant to handle music collections of “less than 100,000 tracks,” and the Nucleus +, collections larger.

Staffer Rob Johnson went for the standard model, and me with over 12,000 CDs ripped, and quite a few thousand more indexed via Qobuz, and to a lesser extent, Tidal and Spotify went all out for the Nucleus +. I can say without reservation, as much as I love the ROON platform, it finally delivers on the promises 100% with a Nucleus +. When scrolling through a full screen of albums, searching, or when we have all three of our ROON zones going at once, the Nucleus + never hesitates to deliver what we need.

This is even more important to those of you streaming high res files, either via MQA with Tidal or uncompressed via Qobuz. Even when playing 24/192 files in the house, garage, and studio simultaneously, we could not detect any performance gap. You will, of course, need your Nucleus and NAS (if you have one) connected via Ethernet and the fastest router you can put your hands on.

Connectivity

While the Nucleus needs to be hardwired into your network, you can access it wirelessly from your phone, tablet, or laptop anywhere in your listening environment. Simply go into ROON and create whatever “zones” you need. Now that so many streaming DAC’s can be used as ROON endpoints, there’s no need to be a computer-based music listener, tethered to your DAC. Considering what some premium USB cables cost, you can almost buy a standard Nucleus for the same price!

If you aren’t utilizing a NAS for some of your music collection, you can still select a hard drive that is connected to a computer on your network or plug a USB drive directly into the back of the Nucleus. Finally, there is an HDMI output that can be utilized for output, and the sound quality will work in a pinch, but streaming via a ROON ready DAC is still the way to roll for optimum sound quality. Either way, it’s nice that ROON offers the option.

Back to square one

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review – there is no better way to catalog, store and play digital music back than ROON, and taking advantage of the extra horsepower that one of their Nucleus devices is nothing short of perfection. The ROON team has made digital music playback as effortless and glitch-free as it can be made.

Considering what a Mac Mini runs these days, the Nucleus is a bargain in comparison. Get your email on your phone and leave the music serving to ROON. You’ll be glad you did.

roonlabs.com

Listening to Dexter Gordon’s classic, “GO” through the Sugden A21 (actually the A21SE Signature, but I don’t want to keep writing that) and my Quad 2812s is positively heavenly, with all the tone, texture, and dynamics I’d ever need.

There is something incredibly cool about listening to an amplifier that sounds this emotionally involving that doesn’t have a five-figure price tag. Record after record reveals one a-ha moment after another.

Honestly, it’s even better than that. Music and audio lovers often have a wide range of needs, and at times it’s easy to lose your way obsessing over things you don’t need. I’m not being judgmental, I’m sharing this from an “it takes one to know one” perspective.

I’ll make this easy for you

If you don’t need more than 30 watts per channel, or balanced inputs, buy a Sudgen A21SE Signature. Get off the anxiety train and just dig it. A big part of the magic that this amplifier possesses is because of its class-A operation. But Sugden takes this a step further – this amplifier is single-endedclass-A. If you’ve ever heard one of the early Pass Aleph amplifiers, they use a somewhat similar approach.
Running the output transistors in single ended mode gives this amplifier an added amount of liquidity that even the best class-A amps can’t achieve. Dare I say, they sound tube like. If you love the sound of an SET but need more than a few watts per channel, with some serious bass control to boot, this amplifier is going to quickly become your holy grail.

Bypass the bling

If you ask the fellow that manages Jerry Seinfeld’s fleet of Porsches his thoughts on the best of the breed, he’ll look you in the eye and say “mid 80s Carrera – they are the best mixture of fun, function, and performance, without all those weight adding features.” That’s what the Sugden A21SE Sig is – a perfectly executed 84 Carrera with no options. Pure driving excitement. Ironically, Jonathan Halpern, the Sugden importer drives a mid 80s Carerra. Coincidence?

If you’ve got a turntable and a DAC, do you really need a zillion inputs, all those blinking lights, meters and such? If you do – that’s ok, this amplifier will not make you happy. But if you just love to drive, I mean listen, and all that matters is sheer performance without all the frills, few things will do the job like the A21 does. And every amplifier I know that is this luscious costs a lot more. The A21SE Sig’s meager $3,250 MSRP is the best money you’ll ever spend in high end audio.

This is an amp that even if you move on to a more grandiose system, you should keep. Forever.

As mentioned earlier, the A21SE Sig features five, single ended, RCA inputs. We used the dCS Vivaldi ONE as our digital source and the Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 with Boulder 508 phono (via XLR adapters) for analog duties. This amplifier is not the least bit out of its element with world class sources, and it has more than enough resolution to hear the difference between a gamut of phono stages from $1,000 to $65,000.

Auditioning required

With only 30 watts per channel at your disposal, you have to use them wisely, so you’ll need to get the right speakers, but it’s not like only having 9 watts per channel to work with. John DeVore’s speakers work well with the A21SE Sig; Harbeth, Spendor, and Grahams make great playmates too. Ditto for the Focal Sopra and Kanta range. Those in small rooms can achieve magic with whatever flavor of LS3/5a you enjoy. Perhaps the biggest surprise was connecting the A21SE Sig up to the Focal Stella Utopia Ems. These massive three ways, with their 13” field coil woofers enjoy a sensitivity rating of 94db/1-watt and they thrive on low power, high quality amplification. Again, the A21SE Sig delivers a stunning, three dimensional presentation with these flagship speakers.

The Sugden doesn’t really need any “break in” beyond being powered up for 24 hours, like every other class-A amplifier we’ve used, it does need to warm up. Even though there are no vacuum tubes here, class-A amplifiers usually run fairly warm and it takes about 90 minutes to fully stabilize thermally.

Sound at turn on is fine, but as you’ve had your A21 for a while, and become familiar with it, you’ll notice a slight haze in the presentation when it is ice cold; slowly and gradually clearing over that first 90 minutes it’s on.

Glued to the listening chair

Record after record proves that this is an amplifier completely free of fatigue. There’s a level of inner detail present, that will have you scratching your head (or reaching for the screwdriver to take the top cover off) to find the vacuum tubes inside. While you won’t find them, this is the result of decades of engineering refinement.

Regardless of the music you love, the A21SE Sig allows an incredibly musical experience. Bass is powerful, controlled, and anything but one-note. As the Focals go down to 16hz, the sheer amount of control and texture that this little amplifier delivers might be lost on a listener with a pair of LS3/5as, but through the mighty Focals, it was dramatic and impressive.

Inner detail is equally fantastic. Especially when listening to music with densely packed, similarly voiced harmonies, like Crosby, Stills and Nash, Utopia, or Crowded House. Where lesser amplifiers would leave these tunes sounding like a fat, or maybe slightly overdubbed vocal, the A21SE Sig gives each vocalist and individual space within the recording. CSN’s “Helplessly Hoping” is just beautiful to behold. Going back to the 80’s self-titled Utopia, Todd Rundgren, Willie Wilcox, Kasim Sulton and Roger Powell all go back and forth trading lead vocals on each track, yet because they all have such a similar vocal range, it’s easy (on an lesser resolving amplifier) to think TR is doing all the lead vocals. Again, the A21SE Sig clearly reveals the subtle differences between the group members.

Acoustic music lovers will be equally, if not more enthralled. The sheer amount of texture this amplifier reveals when listening to violins and pianos of different kinds is amazing. Everyone who’s ever claimed that “solid-state doesn’t/can’t sound as good as tubes” needs to hear this amplifier.

I could go on forever

But I don’t want to bore you. Seriously the Sugden A21SE Signature is an amplifier that every audiophile and music lover should own. For some it will be a destination product – it’s certainly good enough in that capacity. For others it will be a bookmark, but either way, this is an amplifier that shouldn’t be missed.

Oh yeah, you can get one in orange too. I like that a lot.

I guarantee that this is an amplifier, that once you hear it, you will never forget it. Very enthusiastically recommended, especially in a world where we mistakenly think that “high end sound” requires a six figure budget.

The Sugden A21SE Signature

MSRP: $3,250
www.sugdenaudio.com (factory)
www.toneimports.com (US importer)

Analog Source Luxman PD171A w/Kiseki Purple Heart

Digital Source dCS Bartok

Speakers Quad 2818, Harbeth P3SR, JBL L-100 Classic

Cable Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Power PSAudio P15 Power Plant

The first time I drove an Aston Martin, it was an otherworldly experience. The sheer opulence of the car was equally matched by the performance, providing a feel in a sporting car like no other. Yes, a geeked out Subaru STi is just as fast, but the sheer beauty of the Aston is unmistakable. You’ll get the same feeling when you unpack an Artisan Fidelity turntable.

Except this is like unwrapping a freshly restored and re-engineered DB5. Yes, it is an excellent record playing machine:  luxurious to behold, I suspect it will always give you pause when playing a record. Old car guys like to say, “It looks fast just standing still,” and that sentiment applies to the Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Statement Turntable, presented here in its latest version 2 form.

Gently placing the stylus down on Herbie Hancock’s Empyrean Aisles, I received an equally out of this world experience. If you’ve spent some time with idler drive turntables, you know they have a loveable, somewhat fat, burly, yet enjoyable tonal character. By comparison, my Thorens TD-124 sounds bloated and lacking in detail, when listening to the same tracks, even with the same phono cartridge. (in this case, a Lyra Delos)

Having an incredible digital front end at my disposal, analog has to be either really good or really different to go through the ritual that accompanies listening to a record. The Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Statement offers up a degree of tonal saturation, dare I say, a slightly romantic presentation, that I doubt anyone would ever mistake it for anything but incredible analog. There’s nothing like this in the digital world, and every time I listen to this table, I want more.

Artisan Fidelity’s Christopher Thornton has built the ultimate sleeper Garrard 301 turntable. As a vintage based deck, it still lacks the last bit of clarity that a top modern direct drive offers, but that’s not the point here. We’re not talking about ultimate musical accuracy here, we’re talking about flavor. This table is all about the sonic and visual character) It’s like the difference in body that a Les Paul Custom offers over a Stratocaster. Some prefer one over the other, some have both. You know where I’m going with this…

If you’re of the “a Timex tells time as well as a Rolex, so why spend the extra money” school, stop right now. Turn the page. You won’t like what I have to say.

What makes the Artisan Fidelity Garrard so incredible, separating it from the other “pretty plinth for old hardware beneath” Garrards, is the excruciating level of design fanaticismand precision engineering found in every aspect of this table. Considering how many fine watches cost as much or more than the Artisan Fidelity table, if you value what this table has to offer, it’s a steal at around $22,000 with external regulated power supply.  I’ve used turntables that cost three or four times as much that didn’t provide near the experience that this table does.

Breaking in your brain

Arriving in a couple of crates, the AFG (as I’ll refer to it for the rest of the review) is respectfully packaged, and basic assembly takes only minutes. But it takes a while for everything to sink in fully. If you are as much of a qualityphile as you are audiophile and music lover, you may need to put this table on whatever rack you have in mind and just sit back to take it all in. No other turntable I’ve spent time with offers such a sensual nature of operation. This is a product that begs to be used, often.

Every surface on the AFG is sheer perfection, from the clear coating on the upper Copper platter surface to the premium glossy black automotive paint finish on their proprietary solid billet Aluminum alloy chassis. Everything shines and sparkles. It may even prove tough to keep your enthusiasm in check to mount a tonearm or too, but you will be rewarded. The sample in question, for now, sports an Audio Creative GrooveMaster II tonearm in the front position with the Hyper Eminent EX cartridge from My Sonic Lab.

The rear position is occupied by an SME M2-9-R arm, expertly reworked to feature upgraded bearings, Cardas internal tonearm wire, and a hardwired tonearm cable (also Cardas), sporting a Kiseki Purple Heart cartridge, making for an excellent tradeoff. Additionally, we’ve been using the rear position as a test bed for cartridge reviews on our new site (www.cartridgedude.com). Both arms have been feeding into the new Pass Labs XP-27 phono stage going forward, but for the purpose of this review, all comparisons were made on our reference Pass Labs XS Phono.

As a confessed mechanical enthusiast that loves anything finely machined, coated and painted, the AFG is as close to sensory overload as it gets. The plinth is only the beginning, and once the massive modular platter, consisting of copper, magnesium alloy, aluminum, acetal and stainless steel is installed, a lot of the beauty is underneath. But the plinth alone is a work of art. You can click here for the full explanation on the Artisan Fidelity site, but here’s the short version.

Details, details, details.

That’s what will have you doing a second, third, fourth, and twentieth double take on this table. If you are used to the shortcomings mentioned above of the idler wheel system, it only takes about five seconds of musical flow to turn your head like a dog in disbelief. All the speed inconsistency and cloudiness you’d expect from an idler table does not exist with the Artisan Fidelity. Every aspect of this decades-old design has been re-thought and re-engineered to 21st-century spec.

There is a staggering amount of person-hours in the assembly of one of these, and I suspect more than any other high-end turntable I’ve used. I highly suggest going for the slightly larger plinth which enables one to add a second tonearm, making the investment even easier to amortize. Not to mention the visual appeal of two tonearms!

From the inverted and modular Sapphire bearing/heavy balanced Copper hybrid main platter unit to the finely machined austenitic stainless steel idler wheel, that has only .003 inch variation in its periphery surface diameter and precision billet aluminum eddy current disk brake, it’s the refinement of every aspect of this classic table’s design, combined with fanatic, individual final assembly and listening tests that distinguishes this from your Grandfathers Garrard. Forget everything you think you know about the idler drive system.

Quick setup

As this table uses a rebuilt version of the stock English AC induction drive motor, which happens to be a 220-volt/50hz configured unit, my sample arrives with an optional Sound Carrier Universal Turntable power supply ($1995) and offers a wide continuously adjustable range of fine voltage and frequency tuning for each 33 1/3, 45, and 78rpm speeds. In practice, this takes about five minutes to set up to perfection completely.

Setting both tonearms up to perfection with Richard Mak’s Analog Magik tool kit and a SmartTractor alignment tool, has me rocking in the free world in about an hour. Not bad for two tonearms. You can now purchase both of these tools directly from Artisan Fidelity, and if you don’t already own them, I highly suggest their purchase with your table, as the investment will pay dividends both in the short and long run.

Returning to the listening chair…

We can talk tech forever, and designer Christopher Thornton is such a passionate individual that he can explain everything he’s done in as granular of a level as you’d like. As exciting as this is, I dare you not to fall in love with this turntable by the time you play the first track.

Where my reference Grand Prix Audio Parabolica lifts so much detail from a record, it’s often hard to believe that so much detail exists in these grooves, the AFG gets nearly as much detail, but adds slightly more weight and fleshes out the midbass just enough to carry you through the average to pretty good records in your collection in the way that the more resolving table can’t.

Your perception of musical reproduction is so personal, there is no best here. Some days you want to drive the Bentley, and some days you want to drive the Porsche GT4, both are awesome, but neither can really deliver the experience of the other. Both will get you to the grocery store and back, and you can live with either at moderate speeds.

Much will depend on where your musical priorities lie. I maintain that to really enjoy analog to the fullest, you need more than one setup, but that may not be practical for everyone. Where the AFG excels is in the sheer size, scale and weight of its presentation. Going back to the Blue Note and Impulse jazz catalogs, listening to a lot of acoustic instruments, this table does an incredible job of reproducing the texture and character of a stand-up bass, the force of a horn, or a quick ride around the drum kit. And Ella’s voice has never sounded more realistic in my system.

Classic rock lovers will feel equally at home. Electric guitars sound massive, and multilayered studio recordings from the 60s to the 80s open up a level of sonic sorcery that might have you double checking to make sure no one put something in your drink. The sound field presented by this table with either cartridge is big, wide, deep, airy and immersive.

An experience like no other

I could gush on and on about the Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Statement for hours, but we’ve all got to get back to work, eh? The minute you listen to a record on one, it will either captivate you to the point where you can’t live until you find a way to make one yours, or its exuberant nature will not be your cup of tea.  Car talk aside, the only other thing I can really compare the AFG to that might make even more sense is a pair of top range Sonus faber speakers. They are the only other audio product I’ve used with a similar level of finish.  And it is the only other product where my friends’ spouses say, “yes, you can have one of those in the living room.”

Just like every SF speaker we’ve had in for review, the AFG is the only other product that brings a similar level of intrigue with it. Everyone wants to touch it. So much so, that I am thinking about mounting a very inexpensive cartridge to the rear tonearm, so everyone can experience the sheer physicality of operating this turntable.

As one who rarely turns fanboy on products, the AFG is a rare piece of gear that at the end of the review has me losing my ability to remain objective. If you genuinely love analog, you should experience one, whether you write the check or not. However, I suspect if you value the qualities I’ve mentioned here, you will have a very tough time not falling victim to its spell. This one has been here for the better part of a year now, and I pinch myself every time I use it.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. This is why it was our Analog Product of the Year for 2018.

The Artisan Fidelity Garrard 301 Statement

www.artisanfidelity.com

Single 9″-12″ tonearm compatible plinth configuration, $18,995 (Exotic hardwood and Automotive finishes optional)

Dual 9″ – 12″ tonearm compatible plinth, as above, $19,995

Sound Carrier UTPS Power Supply $1,995 (optional)

In 1982 I wanted three things: A Nikon F2 with motor drive, a BMW 320i and a pair of JBL L-100s. I got two out of three. I needed the Nikon to earn a living, and a new 3-series was about 13k, well equipped. But I did get a pair of L-100s and they rocked.

But then I became an audiophile and I was too cool to have JBLs. I bought a pair of Magnepans and got serious about hifi.

As the years passed, the L-100s kept nagging and a few pairs of vintage L-100s have come and gone. I still have a pair of originals, which have been modded to sound a bit better than I remember. I drag them out once in a while and connect them to my Nakamichi 600 wedge series components, lamenting how far hifi has come in 4 decades.

That all changed at last years Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Harman was showing the new, Classic L-100s in orange! Woo hoo, the signature foam block grilles were back! And the sound was out of this world good.

Today, I use a Nikon D800, and there’s a fairly clean 83 320i in the driveway for old times sake, but it’s more like my vintage L-100s. Not modern transportation anymore.

But these new L-100s rock. The first track played is Joni Mitchell’s “Car on a Hill” and it’s the late 70s again. Awesome.

– And a big thank you to Steve Rowell at Audio Classics for making this happen.

Stopping by Pat Hickman’s place to drop off a pair of vintage McIntosh amplifiers for his special level of detail and restoration is always a treat. There’s always something super fun on his test bench, either about to be restored, or just finished, ready to go to a customer.

Today, he was going to put my McIntosh MC30 monoblocks on the bench to be returned to their original glory. As always, our discussion goes to his Whammerdyne 2A3 Truth amplifiers – the flagship got our product of the year award a couple of years ago and it is incredible. Not everyone can afford them, but his new DGA (Damn Good Amplifier) takes a lot of what he learned via the design of the Truth amplifier, but in a more affordable package.

This is a direct coupled (i.e. no caps or resistors in the signal path) single ended, class A stereo amplifier that uses a pair of 2A3 power tubes. Most people can barely coax 2 watts per channel out of a 2A3, but meticulous engineering and implementation makes for 4.3 watts per channel. And at this level, every few tenths of a watt counts. You can read more here:  http://whammerdyne.com/#technology

We step in to his listening room and Hickman plays a few tracks on his Pure Audio Project Quintet 15s, which makes for a stunning combination with the DGA (Damn Good Amplifier).I have the Trio 15s back at the studio, so am very familiar with the sonics. We cruise through a few polite but breathy and luscious female vocal tracks, and as lovely as it is, at the back of my head I’m thinking “but will it rock?”

Can you work with 4 watts per channel?

The toughest part of an engineering journey is the difference between building to a standard and building to a price point. The flagship Whammer amp was built to be an all-out assault on SET topology, using the best parts available. The result is nothing like you’ve ever heard from an SET. Every bit of magic that tube aficionados wax poetic is there, but with all the refinement you’d expect from the world’s top modern tube amplifiers.

There’s only one catch – the Whammers only make four watts per channel. Forget it if you’ve got a pair of Magnepans, or something equally power hungry. Hickman thinks 94db/1watt sensitivity or lower is pushing it, but the new Focal Stella Utopia Em’s (94db/1watt exactly) have been blowing me out of the room with a few watts, so why not ask?

Fortunately, today is the day that there’s a DGA on the bench that isn’t spoken for. Hickman warns me, “It takes about 45 minutes to come out of the fog.” He wasn’t kidding. Driving like an old man, taking great care not to jostle the unboxed amp on the way home, it is instantly put front and center in my living room system, built around the Focal Stella Utopia Em’s.

About that burrito

He is right. The amp sounds nice,on initial power up,but not as good as I knew it could. Burrito time. Taking the long way to grab a quick bite from my local taco stand has me back in a little over an hour. Three minutes into the DGAs initial power up, the title track from Steely Dan’s Aja gave me a place to start. Like I said, nice. Revisiting the track an hour later is a revelation, and there is some hidden musical treasure in this overplayed classic that instantly surfaces. Layer upon layer is rendered and all the spatial cues from the meticulous studio production melts the listening room walls away. The illusion of musical reality is vivid and convincing.

Conventional wisdom might suggest that pairing a $3,000 amplifier with a pair of $120,000 speakers might be madness. And it might with a lot of $3,000 amplifiers. Maybe even $30,000 amplifiers, yet the DGA delivers one of the most musically involving performances I’ve ever heard from the Stellas.

The DGA takes a few minutes to come fully up to operating temperature, and you’ll see the bias current going up during the process. Hickman suggests that both tubes bias be set as close as possible to each other. He makes it easy for even the uninitiated, with a digital readout on the top panel. All you need is a jewelers screwdriver and a steady hand. Once the amplifier has been powered up for an hour, check the readout and make sure both tubes read 60. A breeze.

The big difference

While most SET amplifiers deliver brilliant midrange, they fall short (sometimes dramatically short) when called upon to play complex or overly dynamic music. Great for Jacintha, not so much for Slayer. Some of them really hum, due to inferior design and parts quality. The DGA is so quiet, it takes full advantage of every bit of power delivered. As the music emerges from such a silent background it appears louder. Remember what you perceive as volume is the delta between loud and quiet. No background hum or noise, feels a lot louder than having the music dithered by noise.

I never wanted my playlist of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Aphex Twin tracks to end. The DGA has massive bass grip and texture, making this kind of music come truly alive. When was the last time you heard deep, defined, growly bass that made your pants flap via an SET? Via a tube amplifier for that matter? An equal amount of fun was had with a pair of even more sensitive Klipsch La Scalas, resulting in a long set of classic rock causing a few neighbors to give me the evil eye. Oh well.

The result derived from the LaScalas, Pure Audio Project Trios and the mighty Focals, though expressed differently, retain the core musicality that the DGH delivers. It has a level control for those wanting the ultimate simplicity, but I preferred the more fleshed out rendition when the Nagra Classic preamplifier (with outboard power supply) delivered.

The Whammer delivers pristine examples of all the audiophile descriptors that are so easily tossed about in reference to far lesser products. It’s reproduction of fine detail combined with such a clean distortion free and coloration free tonality will redefine what you think reproduced music is capable of. This amplifier reveals so much tonal contrast and saturation, hours will fly by as you track through your favorites. Where some of today’s best audio products can only offer a short amount of engagement, with fatigue or boredom creeping in after a few tracks, the Whammerdyne DGA is a cure for audiophile ADD.

It totally rocks

An exceptional value award really isn’t enough. If the Whammerdyne DGA had a Wavac or Gold Note badge on it, you’d be looking at a $100,000 price tag. And you’d pay it happily. Your audiophile friends would visit your audio den from the far reaches of the globe and get down on their knees and pray to it and tell you what incredible insight you have.

But this baby only costs $3,000. Add another few hundred bucks for having upgraded output transformers (which my review sample does not have) and a little more for a pair of NOS 2A3 output tubes (which my review sample does have).

I could neither have written this review, nor fully appreciated just what the Whammerdyne DGA delivers when I began this magazine. But I can assuredly say that after almost 1000 product reviews, this is as good as it gets. If you have sufficiently sensitive speakers, one of the Whammerdyne amplifiers will take you straight to audio heaven – on the express elevator. That Whammerdyne can build one of the world’s finest SET amplifiers for $20k is amazing. That they can give you the essence of their flagship for $3,000 is a sheer miracle.

Best of all, it’s not out of reach of any music lover. With a wider palette of high efficiency speakers available these days, you might want to revisit just what a few of the right watts per channel can do. This is the best of the best.

The Whammerdyne DGA 1

MSRP:  $3,000

www.whammerdyne.com

Analog Source Grand Prix Audio Parabolica /TriPlanar arm/Koetsu Jade Platinum

Digital Source dCS Vivaldi ONE

Preamplifier Nagra Classic w/Nagra VPS power supply

Speakers Focal Stella Utopia EM

Cable Cardas Clear

There used to be a restaurant nearby that offered small portions fantastic deserts. You could have a large shot glass full of whatever deserts were on the main menu for a couple of bucks. It wasn’t about saving on the bill; there are times you really crave desert but don’t need a giant helping of chocolate mousse. The INT-60 from Pass Labs is kind of like that.

Their XS level components are some of the world’s finest. Ask nearly anyone that’s owned or reviewed them. Many of us with that level of appreciation for musical excellence don’t necessarily have the budget, or perhaps have a smaller room, or very sensitive speakers. At that point, a full XS system isn’t a fit. Introducing the INT-60.

Many readers have asked about the difference between their new XA25, which we reviewed here, and the new INT-60. On one level, they are different beasts, because the XA25 is only a power amplifier – yet the XA25 offers some nuances that even the mighty XS300s or my current reference, the XA200.8s don’t, due to a simpler circuit topology. Mr. Pass often praises the simple approach and the XA25 is incredible in that respect. But you still need a preamplifier, so by the time you find a worthy preamplifier and purchase the necessary cables, you’ll still most likely exceed the $9,000 price tag of the INT-60.

For those that need it, the INT-60 does allow separate inputs and outputs, that will let you use the power or preamplifier sections by themselves. Just in case you decide to bi-amp, or who knows?

Heavy metal

Don’t let the lower power figure fool you. Though the INT-60 is only rated at 60 watts per channel, where the larger INT-250 is rated 250 per, this amplifier stays biased in class-A mode longer, all the way to 30 watts per channel. At 93 pounds, it’s only about 15 pounds lighter than the INT-250 as well. The INT-60 is still fairly dense for a single chassis box.

Utilizing a smaller, yet stylistically similar blue meter to the one in the big Pass amps, the INT-60 features a similar visual architecture to all of the other Pass products. While this may seem like a minor point, it’s very thoughtful of the creative braintrust at Pass to allow the INT-60 to work with the same remote as their other preamplifiers. A small, but helpful feature. The rest of the INT-60s physical layout is also identical to the rest of the lineup, so if you are building a second system around your INT-60, or trading up from something else in the family, you will feel right at home.

The INT-60 is highly versatile, offering four line-level inputs, with one of them a balanced XLR input, while the other three are single ended RCA inputs. A pair of big Furutech speaker output terminals, much like the ones on all the other Pass amplifiers make it easy to connect any type of speaker cable. Bonus points here for being able to use the INT-60 as a preamplifier or power amplifier separately, so in case you decide to upgrade to a bigger amplifier, use a multiple amp setup, or just want to try something else for a while, balanced XLR and single ended RCA inputs and outputs are available, making the INT-60 incredibly flexible.

An equal measure of sound and simplicity

Like every other Pass amplifier I’ve used, the INT-60 needs a few solid days of play to break in, but not really any more – 100 hours will do the trick. Equally so for warmup, if you turn it off at the end of the day – expect about 1 full hour for the slight fog to clear when you power it up. Considering the INT-60 isn’t a full – blown class-A amplifier and it draws about 375 watts, it’s up to you whether you’ll just be leaving it on all the time.

Using the INT-60 with a handful of fairly efficient loudspeakers from Focal and Pure Audio Project, I doubt it ever ran hard enough to escape from class-A mode. Only when I connected the vintage Magnepan Tympani IVs, was I able to budge the meter from its center position, revealing that the amplifier is moving out of class A operation. It’s worth mentioning what a splendid job this amplifier did driving these speakers, that are normally thought of as needing tons of power to drive.

Bouncing between the XSPre/XA200.8 combination and the INT-60 at modest volume levels, it is clear just how much of the top range Pass performance is captured here. Of course, the flagship models resolve more information at all volume levels, but the core sonic picture that all Pass amplifiers portray is present in the INT-60. This amplifier is voiced a few small clicks to the warmer, more tonally saturated side of neutral. That’s how Mr. Pass likes his amplifiers to sound, and I agree. As he’s fond of saying, “it’s the tube sound without the hassle.”

If you’ve ever been a tube lover that is tired of the tube game, the INT-60 is your ticket to paradise. Leave it on all day, and never worry about scrounging for NOS tubes again. Sure the best tube gear might reveal a few more molecules of music here or there, but most won’t. And most won’t offer the level of quiet, dynamics and bass grip that the INT-60 does.

A high level of tonal and timbral accuracy also makes the INT-60 tough to ignore. Pianos, violins, and other acoustic instruments sound incredibly right, and with a pair of speakers in the 87-90db/1-watt sensitivity range, you will have to push the INT-60 very hard to get it to clip.

Rounding out the picture, the INT-60 paints a very engaging, three-dimensional musical landscape, with rock-solid pace. Listening to the Stones’ “Low Down” (from Bridges to Babylon), the INT-60 keeps Charlie Watts drumming solidly anchored through the melody, while Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood sneak up behind Jagger’s lead vocals, going “woo, woo” during the chorus, as if they were up on stage together. Pure acoustic performances delight, and the level that this amplifier unfolds densely packed music is truly world class.

100% fun, zero fatigue

A bottom end that will put you back in the listening chair when the music warrants it, and smooth, yet defined and delicate rendition of the mids and highs, makes for an amplifier you can listen to all day long.

As many music lovers gravitate more towards simpler setups in the home, a high quality integrated amplifier makes perfect sense. If your sensibilities call for this approach, we suggest the Pass Labs INT-60 very highly. This is a fantastic amplifier.

The Pass Labs INT-60

MSRP:  $9,000

www.passlabs.com

If you are a lover of single ended triode amplifiers, no doubt you are familiar with the mighty 300B.

The mightiest of them all are the vintage Western Electric 300Bs, and then if you can find them, the reissued WE 300Bs that came out around 2005 or so. Only a few pairs of these were made and then the “new Western Electric” fell back into obscurity. I had a pair of those and they were pretty incredible, and I did spend some time with the NOS models when I had my WAVAC monoblocks. Never should have gotten rid of those. Oh well.

Today, the 300B amps have had a bit of a resurgence (and to some, they never went away – just like vinyl) but there are no incredible tubes to power them with. Having listened to more than my share of the current 300Bs, most manufacturers have settled on Electro Harmonix or JJ, because they are available. But don’t expect the 50,000-hour tube life of the NOS WE’s. Nope, these are 5,000 hour tubes on a good day. Most manufacturers have voiced around the current tubes, but that only goes so far. If you have the chance to experience the vintage 300Bs, you’ll freak out.

The vintage WE’s are so smooth, extended, and dynamic, you’ll swear you’re listening to an entirely different amplifier. However, with these tubes going as high as $6,000 a pair for an amazing set. And being 60-80 years old, there’s still a chance you can pull them out of the box and have them croak. I’m just not that much of a gambler.

Enter EAT

The European Audio Team has their own factory in the Czech Republic, and recently, they’ve started production on the famed 300B, providing tubes that are a clear cut above the mass-produced items that are available, bridging the gap between NOS and NEW. With no WAVAC on hand, they were kind enough to send me a matched set of four for my Nagra 300B amplifier that is a push/pull design, delivering about 25 watts per channel.

The EAT 300B also bridges the price gap, tipping the scale at $1,695 per matched pair. Not so bad if you have SET monoblocks, but it gets a bit spendy if you need four of em. Regardless, this is still way less cash out of pocket that the 2004 vintage WE’s or the really old originals.

The Sound

Going past the afford/not afford, will my partner kill me/will they not notice part of the decision tree, the EAT tubes provide a substantial increase in performance than the current offerings in the $500-$900 pair tubes from “the other guys.” And by increase, I mean that the EAT tubes are more neutral sounding than the other current tubes, honestly more extended at both ends of the frequency range.

Where the Nagra has exceptional bass control, due to its massive, tight tolerance output transformers that are wound in-house, the EAT tubes bring a nearly solid state like grip to the lowest frequencies. Using our 96db/1-watt sensitive Pure Audio Project HORN 15 speakers, it’s almost as if I’ve added a subwoofer. Whether listening to EDM/electronica tracks, or Led Zeppelin, the bass line is hitting me more in the chest than the Nagra does with the stock JJ tubes.

An equal level of excitement is had on the upper register as well. Stringed instruments take on a more three-dimensional quality, with more texture. Pick your favorite acoustic guitar piece that you know well, and you will be surprised at how much more real the strings sound while being played, as well as the overtones that hang in the air after the strings have been struck. This is the stuff we all love 300B amplifiers for in the first place and the EAT tubes give you more of it.

In the end

At first the price tag might seem a bit prohibitive, but considering the care in manufacturing that goes into these tubes, I’m going to stick my neck out and bet that the EAT 300Bs will probably last a lot longer than the others. If that’s the case, then these are not so much more money out the door in the long run. And if you hate swapping tubes as much as I do, once you’ve settled on a sound, this will be indeed welcome.

There are so few 300B enthusiasts out in the field that have jumped off the cliff on these tubes, I can’t say that anyone’s experience backs up my own, yet. I highly recommend their 300Bs, and hope to give the KT88s a spin sooner than later.

North American Distributor:
vanaltd.com

Factory:

Europeanaudioteam.com

A very cool video on EAT’s tube production facility:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2jMzErw9I

Features

Old School:

Juan Cavillo restores a very old Pioneer Turntable

995:

Jerold O’Brien scopes out the new mini ProJect Integrated Amp

Journeyman Audiophile:

Chord Qutest DAC
By Shanon Swetlishnoff

The Audiophile Apartment:

Harbeth P3ESR Anniversary Edition
By Jeff Dorgay

Mine: It Should Be Yours

Still more lego stuff!

Porsche Coloring book

Talking fish

Snazzy reading glasses

and more….

Music

Playlists:  We share our readers choices from around the world

Future Tense

Focal’s Utopia Phones

PrimaLuna EVO 400 Amplifier

Golden Ear 5 Speakers

and more…

Cover Feature: The Tokyo Record Bar

One of Soho’s coolest dinner getaways, installs a full blown McIntosh System!

Building on the success of their Neo 380D DAC, Simaudio went back to the drawing board, creating the MOON 390 from the ground up, offering a perfect combination of flexibility and sonic performance that we’ve come to expect from this great Canadian company.

Thanks to an onboard phono stage and a streaming DAC (that is also a ROON endpoint) you are covered, no matter how you like to listen. This perfection starts at $5,300.

The biggest difference here between the 390, the 380D and the popular ACE is that the MOON 390 is a line level component only. You must add your own power amplifier to complete the system, but that is part of the fun!

Those wanting the modern functionality of an AV receiver, but only require a 2 channel environment, the 390 feels right at home and provides the latest HDMI specs with 4 HDMI inputs and one output (video pass-through/switching only. No video processing). The video works flawlessly and produces great sounding stereo for both TV and movies, without needing 5+ channels.

Digital music lovers can enjoy maximum flexibility with two ethernet ports, three USB inputs, TOSLINK, and AES-EBU inputs. unbalanced and balanced inputs and outputs, along with an MM/MC phono stage, an on board headphone amplifier for personal audio enthusiasts, anchored by a very capable preamplifier. It’s nice to see traditional audiophile companies adopting the latest AV functionality to their components, and with the 390 Simaudio has gone “all in.”

Listening/Enjoying

With an original 380D on hand for comparison, it is easy to see the progress made in the 390. The 390 sounds similar to the 380 right out of the box, but after about 48 hours of constant play, it comes into its own. The expanded input options allowed enjoying formats previously avoided. One killer feature with the provided HDMI board is the ability to decode a native DSD bitstream from SACD, for those that still have a large collection of SACDs and other disc-based media.

Connecting an Oppo UDP 205 to the 390 via it’s HDMI input, allows the ability to go back to untouched SACDs and DVD-A discs, providing long listening sessions more closely akin to vinyl than digital in both sound and experience. The SACDs of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blueand Chet Baker’s Chetwere so lifelike that it made me wonder why I ever ceased listening to the format. This may mean having to actually walk over to the player and drop in a shiny silver disc, but it’s a forgotten ritual that tends to yield a more focused and enjoyable listening experience than mere streaming.

Moving to the provided built-in phono stage with a Rega P5, I went exploring through some vinyl favorites that have been skipped since selling my external tube phono preamplifier a few months back. The sound of Louis Armstrong’s Satchmo Plays King Oliverwas clean, detailed and dead quiet, somewhere on par with the performance of their 110 LP phono preamplifier. Thanks to the flexibility of the 390 it never limits your format choices and you don’t have to choose between convenience and ritual.

Convenience and sound

Easy as the 390 is to use, it never compromises sound quality for convenience. With TIDAL and Simaudio’s MiND app ready, a world of music is instantly available at your disposal. Through the 390 and MiND, even basic 16/44 CD quality provides a lush soundstage with a natural sound that checks off nearly box one would want from a great DAC. Dense, detailed, warm/musical, and enjoyable at every note. With sound this good in this price range, one might even feel guilty about somehow getting away with the steal of the century. Each successive track compels me to linger a little longer rather than skip around.

With the ease of the 390/MiND combo and TIDAL’s vast collection, there is much more music to be had. The MQA Master of “The Angel of Doubt” from the latest Punch Brothers album All Ashore starts rather subdued, but eventually builds into a bluegrass vocal rap that shows off both the diverse talent of Chris Thile & Co. and just how well the 390 can translate a more subtle track like this. The opening gentle mandolin plucking, whispered vocals, and silent spaces provide the perfect contrast to the more forceful vocal tongue twisting ending. On this track, the 390 provides plenty of low-end authority with the acoustic bass while allowing the vocals to remain clear and separate over the top.

Pushing the 390 a little more, “The Dark” from the latest Thrice album Palms, delivers thundering toms and brooding guitars with enough space to hear how well the 390 can unpack even the most complex modern recordings. There’s plenty of air, detail, as well as bass extension as the track manically swings between the quieter verses and heavy chorus. The overall sound that the 390 produces reminds me again why the previous 380D DAC that the 390 builds on was such an amazing value. (you can read the original 380D TONE review here for additional listening reference: http://www.tonepublications.com/review/simaudio-neo-380d-dac/) It’s clear that Simaudio has eclipsed the already excellent 380D with their latest release.

While Simaudio continues to improve to their MiND app, it remains a weak point in the complete package. I eventually settled into its methods and quirks, but there’s definitely some room for improvement in overall ease of use and performance. Sound quality is exemplary, but I did experience issues with functionality and firmware upgrades in the context of my system. ROON users will not have this problem.

The Preamplifier

While it’s been a few years since I last auditioned the Moon by Simaudio 350P Preamplifier that the 390 is based on, it sounds every bit as enjoyable as I remember the 350P being. It’s detailed, with dead quiet backgrounds, punchy and controlled bass, speed, neutrality, and transparency… it is all there. It is amazing that Simaudio took the $3,700 Moon Neo 350p Preamplifier, the $6,100 380D DSD DAC, a good phono stage, a decent headphone amp, added modern HDMI connectivity/convenience along with the new MiND 2.0 network streaming unit, and gave it a $5,200 price tag. That’s progress.

Don’t forget the 10-year warranty, either.

With balanced XLR outputs as well as standard RCAs, the 390 is compatible with any power amplifier, new or old. Our publisher goes further into detail with this below, as I only had my Rogue Audio Stereo 100 for this review.

The bottom line

If you already own a previous generation 380D DAC, you’ll be happy to know that your award winning component is still great. However, those wanting a component that can decode analog and digital files, with a preamplifier and headphone amp built in, consider the new MOON 390. Simaudio has put so much of their top level components in to a single chassis, it’s equally worthy of one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019. – Brian Gage

Additional listening

Having had the pleasure of reviewing nearly 30 Simaudio components since we started TONE, owning a few, and visiting the factory a couple of times – I can speak with confidence that I have some seat time with this brand.

Comparing the sound quality to that of Simaudio’s most expensive components, it’s easy to see where the technology has trickled down, and strategically, where costs have been cut to meet a budget target. First, the casework, while still machined in house and of excellent quality, is simpler in execution, but you still get three color choices: silver, black, or silver and black. The remote is stripped down in functionality and plastic instead of the coolio billet one that comes with the 800 series components. All excellent choices to put the money where it will do the most – inside.

Sonically, the MOON 390 feels similar in tonality and general dynamics to the top components. Again, because it lacks the massive power supply from their reference series, the 390 lacks the ultimate dynamic heft and low level resolution of the five-figure Simaudio components.

However, in the context of a number of power amplifiers in the $3,000 – $12,000 range, I never felt that I was missing out on anything. While my personal bias leads to a slightly big warmer side of the tonal scale, I enjoyed the 390 the most with the Pass Labs XA25 class A solid state amplifier and the new PrimaLuna EVO 400 tube power amplifier. The good news is that the MOON 390 is very neutral tonally, so you can achieve whatever overall effect you desire by voicing the rest of your system accordingly.

I’ve never been a big fan of the MiND app, but being a long term ROON user, I’m not a fan of any of the others either. Like so many other third party music server apps, MiND falls down hardest with a large collection. Those not wanting to shell out the coin for a ROON subscription that don’t have huge music collections will probably be just fine.

Running the phonostage through a gamut of moderately priced phono cartridges, utilizing the Luxman PD-171A turntable (which costs more than the 390), I’ll stick my neck out and suggest that a cartridge in the $100 – $1,000 range will be an excellent match for the MM/MC stage that is on board.

In the end, Simaudio has raised the bar incredibly high for this type of component, and while the ACE has served me well for the last few years, I have to step up and purchase the 390 – I love the ability to choose power amplification. Highly recommended. – Jeff Dorgay

It’s been a long time since Devialet set the audio world on its axis, creating a product that sounds fantastic, yet looks as it should be on display at MOMA. Or perhaps in this case, the Louvre. Since Devialet, “lifestyle” is no longer an unmentionable word in high end audio. Like any classic, the design has to be something you never tire of.

Consider that box checked. The new Devialet Expert Pro looks as fresh as it did eight years ago when we reviewed the original. This beautifully polished box is stunning, whether you place it on a table, hang it on the wall, or give it its own enclave. This is industrial art at its finest. You should not hide it.

A range of three

Devialet offers the Expert Pro in three versions. The 140 we have here at $6,490, the 220 at $9,990 and the 250 at $18,990. As with past models, all three offer incredibly similar sonics because of the circuit topology (more about that later), and all can be used as monoblock or even multi-amplifier configurations, making them incredibly flexible.

Moving up the scale brings more inputs, and still more flexibility, with the two top models having a more advanced MM/MC phonostage, allowing more precise adjustment for your phono cartridge. All Devialet models digitize the incoming analog signal to 24/192, and if you choose the optional ($490) preamp out option, you can use the Expert Pro 140 to digitize your LP collection. Pretty cool. The two other models offer this as standard.

Where Devialet’s new technologies have reduced noise and distortion close to theoretical limits, they haven’t scrimped on musicality – their products sound great. They have over 100 patents, so this is not a rehash of old concepts.

Rolling with the changes

If you haven’t tried it, Devialet provides the most sensory engaging remote control experience in the world of high end audio. It’s unconventional, oversized, square shape, with a massive dial and four strategically placed function buttons is almost decadent to use. Everyone that’s ever had one of these dropped in their hand freaks out at the smooth, silky operation it delivers. And it helps you access the tone controls!

That’s right. The Expert Pro has a pair of tone controls that you can custom tailor to your system and speakers via the Devialet configurator. Argue you will, but when none of your audiophile buddies are looking, you’re gonna be trying them out. I guarantee it.

This is a big part of what makes Devialet products so awesome. Upgrades are a quick firmware update away, as are changes in functionality. You can easily set the parameters for the phono stage, crossover points, tone controls and whether you want to use your amplifier in a stereo, mono, or multiple amplifier configuration.

Once you’ve registered your Expert Pro, all of these changes are available from the Devialet website and can be transferred to your unit via an SD card. Being that the Expert Pro works as a wireless streamer, we remain surprised that Devialet does not allow the changes to be made over the web, or like a current PC, just allow you to automatically make firmware updates. Though the SD card seems a little bit old school in 2019, it works well and is straightforward in operation.

The French connection

Devialet has created a system called SAM that optimizes the amplification to the low frequency parameters of your speakers, providing the best combination of bass extension, yet restricting maximum cone movement so you can’t damage your speakers when playing loud. I suspect this is similar to what they use in their Phantom speakers, which seem like no matter how hard you play them, they do not seem to run up against the excursion limits of the drivers. With my early Devialet, I had excellent results with SAM on a few speakers, so it was exciting to see how many more speakers have been added to the list – nearly 100 now.

Even without SAM, the 140 really grips the big woofer cones of the Focal Stella Utopia Ems with authority. If you like bass heavy music, you will adore this amplifier. Staying as purely French as can be, I began my listening streaming Qobuz via ROON with Jean-Michel Jarre’s Zoolook. Fantastic. Yet with SAM in place, the 140 watts per channel that the Expert Pro delivers into the 94db/1-watt Focals provides bottomless dynamic range.

Grooving on electronica favorites from Kraftwerk and Aphex Twin shake the windows, walls and even the dishes in the kitchen! This is big fun. Best of all, it’s big fun in a completely understated, stylish way.

Additional combinations

The other speakers in my collection deliver equally fantastic results. The Expert Pro has no problem driving my power hungry Magnepan Tympanis, and it even sounds lovely through a vintage pair of JBL L-100s, though there is no SAM profile for these.

Devialet’s unique amplifier topology (read more about it on the Devialet site here https://www.devialet.com/en-us/expert-pro-hybrid-amplification/) combines a class A front end/driver stage in parallel with a class D output stage. Devialet claims it combines the best of both worlds and the result is more musical than any class D amplifier we’ve ever taken for a test drive.

It’s incredibly low level of distortion, and high linearity makes for a clean, crisp sound that is never fatiguing. Difficult as it is to try and describe tonality, the level of tonal saturation that the Devialet provides is not quite as high as a full class A amplifier like Pass or Luxman, yet it is higher (i.e. warmer in overall sound and tone) than say a Bryston or Simaudio amplifier. This is always a very personal choice with many variables, so your ultimate taste and speakers will determine the end result. That being said, we did not find a single pair of speakers that did not produce pleasing sound with the Devialet.

Another interesting aspect of the Expert Pro is that it was more impervious to cable changes than most amplifiers we’ve used, making it all the more user friendly. I suspect the low .001 ohm output impedance and damping factor of 8000 is a major contributor to this.

Ultimate connectivity

The last thing you probably want with a hifi system this elegant, is a massive loom of wires exiting the rear panel. Devialet has you covered, literally, a matching cover that slips on the back of the chassis, covers all of the cables, looking incredibly slick in the process.

Due to the low height, slim form factor, we suggest getting speaker cables that use banana plugs, at least on the ends that connect to your Devialet. They do offer 5-way binding posts, but you’re going to have a hell of a time connecting speaker cables with any girth at all.

Thanks to the differential design of the Expert Pro phonostage, Devialet claims that the grounding wire is a thing of the past and we concur, though it does seem kind of weird to not use the grounding wire anymore. Unless you have a Rega table that is.

Long time analog enthusiasts might wrinkle their noses at the thought of their precious analog signal being upsampled to digital bits, but the ADC converters used are first rate and we never found ourselves longing for an all analog signal chain. Again, considering the Devialet’s price, we highly doubt you will be able to find an all analog phonostage, DAC, streamer, full function preamplifier, (with tone controls!!) 140 watt per channel power amplifier and all the cables to connect it for even double this price. Give it a try!

The DAC/streamer section of the Devialet is equally exciting, decoding files up to 32/192 and DSD 64. The only thing not supported is MQA. Being a Roon endpoint, with access to Qobuz, there are so many high res files to stream, that I can’t imagine this being a deal breaker for that many. All inputs work very well, but we prefer the Ethernet connection, and this was the way all test listening was done, streaming regular and high res files from both Tidal and Qobuz.

A fantastic performer

The Devialet Expert Pro 140 is truly without flaw in our opinion. If you love music, high quality sound reproduction and don’t want a massive rack full of gear to stare at, there’s no better choice. If you can believe it, the Expert Pro 140 sounds even better than it looks, is incredibly easy to set up and operate, and is virtually future proof.

Now that Devialet has been in the market place for nearly a decade, their reliability has proven to be world class, and this is another one of those special components that almost never shows up in the secondary marketplace. You’re going to have to head to a dealer and buy a new one folks!

I not only give the Expert Pro 140 an Exceptional Value Award, I give it my highest personal recommendation as well. Our industry needs more of this. Please.

The Devialet Expert Pro 140

MSRP:  $6,490

www.devialet.com

It’s funny what you remember. My tenure with Krell goes way back, to the demo room I was scared to enter, where an early Krell KSA 150 was matched to a pair of Apogee Stage speakers. Even though I had just purchased a Rotel integrated from the same dealer the “Krell room” seemed like exalted territory.

The sound and appearance this combination made played heavily on my senses – even the smellof this amplifier had an aroma that neither the Classe or Levinson amplifiers possessed, and this combination that was the KSA 150 engaged on all levels. It was an audiophile elixir. I soon became obsessed with Krell and purchased a KSA 150. Moving up the product range, the

next generation FPB 300, FPB600, KSL preamp, SPB32-X DAC, KRC preamp, the KPS20i cd player and finally the KPS25i cd player would follow. This was money spent with consumer dollars, not reviewer dollars.

Thoughout my journey reviewing a wide range of manufacturer’s components, I’ve always rooted for Krell’s success, though I haven’t had much experience with current products since founder Dan D’Agostino moved on to form his own company. In the middle of evaluating a number of integrated amplifiers, Krell’s Walter Schofield offered the first crack at Krell’s K-300i, making for an excellent opportunity to revisit the brand.

Slim and powerful

Despite a low-profile enclosure, the K-300i weighs in at 52 pounds. Producing 150 watts per channel into 8 ohms, doubling into 4, the K-300i provides the weighty, grip that will entice newcomers, and be familiar to fans. The 1/2-inch milled aluminum front panel (available in silver or black) completes the homage to Krell products past, while the curved front keeps an eye on the future.

The K-300i is loaded. Equipped with 2 HDMI inputs, 1 HDMI out and a preamp output to compliment two pairs of balanced XLR inputs and 3 RCA line level inputs, everything at your disposal will easily plug in. Those checking the digital box also have Toslink and coax inputs along with USB and RJ45 ethernet inputs, as well as Bluetooth/aptX capability. This is a well thought out product as a stand-alone control center or integrated into a full home system via the RS-232 ports.

Vinyl lovers will need an outboard phono stage, but with so much going on in this compact chassis, I’d almost prefer keeping the delicate analog signal out of this box, and why pay for functionality you don’t need? Digital music lovers are in luck, with Krell offering an internal, streaming DAC for an additional $1,000 over the $7,000 MSRP. This includes an on-board DAC and Roon Ready streamer, that will decode digital files up to 24/192 and unfold MQA as well.

Krell’s David Goodman, their director of product development and head of engineering is the person behind the current XD series of amplifiers. As we saw in a recent comparison, the difference between their last series of amplifiers and those with XD technology, the improvement is not subtle.

Goodman relates that the XD upgrade (Xtended Dynamics, Xtended Dimensionality, Xtended Detail) “takes an already great sounding amplifier, and raises its performance to the next level. This is a perfect example of Krell’s continuous R&D efforts delivering benefits across multiple product lines. During the development of the K-300i, we discovered substantial sonic improvements lowering the amplifiers output impedance below traditional norms. Applying this to the existing products made for an equally big improvement and required a unique designation, hence XD. This lower output impedance exerts more control over the speaker drivers and damps out unwanted vibrational modes, allowing a more accurate reproduction of the original signal.”

Exceeding expectation

Fully anticipating big dynamics and a tonal balance favoring the lowest octaves, as with past Krell product, the K-300i is vastly different from past Krell efforts. It’s a top to bottom improvement towards a more refined, yet more musical sound. The lower registers are more refined and controlled at the same time.

Retaining the dynamics and forceful low end that’s made Krell famous with audiophiles the world over, the K-300i is more nuanced and natural in its musical delivery. There is a sweetness to the sound that is reminiscent of the original KSA-50. The K-300i is non-fatiguing, inviting you to turn up the volume on your favorite tracks – right out of the box. That’s always a great sign. Remember, Krell amplifiers are still class-A, but thanks to Krell’s current i-Bias topology, they don’t run as hot, or draw as much power at low volume levels as the original models did. Yet the K-300i still draws 900 watts from the AC line at full output – and generates a fair amount of heat.

Utilizing a wide range of speakers from Sunny Cable, Lansche and PBN, nothing threw the Krell a curve ball it could not field. After a solid week of burn in, some direct comparisons to my reference D’Agostino Momentum Preamplifier and Pass Labs XA200.5 monoblocks, reveals the big bucks gear still having the edge, but it’s not as big as you might think. The key word here is value. This is performance that would have been unheard of ten years ago for this price.

Great with all sources

This newfound balance altered my approach. Past Krell components always had me reaching for the more bombastic selections in my music collection, but the K-300i sends me to vocal rich recordings, exploring the heart of the mid band and treble in ways that older Krell designs did not inspire as a first move. From Sarah Vaughn’s previously unreleased concert pressed by Devialet, via my VPI Avenger Reference, with the Gryphon Sonett and Boulder 508 phono stages, it’s easy to see what this amplifier does so well.

Liquidity, color, expressive dynamics, and space. All positive aspects of these two phono stages, and the differences between them are clearly rendered by the K-300i, revealing the emotion present in the recordings auditioned. Sarah Vaughn’s vocals sound full of life at times and a weary at others. Eva Cassidy’s Live at Blues Alley is another familiar go-to when trying to reproduce inflection, a wide range of dynamic control, and emotional impact. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” from this band is wonderful, and though I’ve heard this recording so many times, the Krell never gets in the way of the music.

Compared to my reference McIntosh MB50 streamer, the Krell provides a more intense presentation to the Mac’s slightly sweeter rendition. If I didn’t already have an outboard streamer, I could happily live with the one built into the Krell. For the less than the price of a decent pair of signal cables and a power cord, you can have it all inside the chassis. A great thing for those craving simplicity.

Just a quick note about the HDMI performance of the K-300i. In a word, it is phenomenal. Watching Mary Queen of Scots, my wife and our friend agreed, it was like we had upgraded our modest Epson projector several levels. Color saturation and detail rendition was startling as was the contrast and brightness. If you are like me and your audio system does double duty as your home theater, the upgrade in video quality alone not to mention the ease of integration is worth at least half the overall cost the K-300i.

Coming to grips with it all

On balance, this is one of the best sounding pieces of Krell gear I’ve had the pleasure to use. While the last bit of resolution and slam from their top products is not here, because you can’t have everything for $8,000, Krell has made it a point to deliver a high degree of sonic excellence and balance in this compact package. Those needing more power can consider using the K-300i as a control center and adding a more massive Krell power amplifier later.

The only part of the K-300i that I didn’t terribly enjoy was the Bluetooth streaming, but this is not my favorite way to listen anyway. Still, it is nice of Krell to offer this, so that when friends drop by and want to share their favorite playlist, connectivity is only a click away.

It’s a true treat for this long time Krell user to hear what they’ve achieved with their latest XD technology and the K-300i in particular. At this price, it can make an excellent anchor for a reasonably priced, yet high performance audio system. Its compact form factor makes it an easy roommate to live with as well.

And I still think about that KPS25i – it was one of the coolest pieces of audio gear I’ve ever owned. It’s funny what you remember. The K-300i is a piece that I suspect its owners will treasure for a long time.

The Krell K-300i
MSRP: $7,000 (without internal streaming DAC)  $8,000 (with DAC)

krellonline.com

Letting the audition of the GamuT Zodiac speakers begin with the Beastie Boys “Groove Holmes” is so much fun, I don’t even need the weed. The massive, all-encompassing, psychedelic picture that these speakers paint is outstanding.

Keeping the disco groove going with a long playlist of classic Bee Gees tracks has me searching Amazon for a twinkly, glass ball for the ceiling. The bass line in “Nights on Broadway” has those super cool, see-through power meters in the Audio Research REF160M amplifiers bouncing in between the glowing KT150s and it’s all good.

$179,000 is a lot of money to spend on a pair of speakers, but if you’ve got that kind of cash, it’s not. Kind of a weird paradox. As it is with super high-end cars, motorcycles, watches, and the like, the uninitiated might think that once you step up to this level, said product does everything. Yet it only takes a quick ride around the block in a few mega cars to realize that while a Bentley is a truly amazing vehicle, it’s a completely different ride than a Ferrari, a Porsche 911 GT3RS, or an Aston Martin. All excellent to be sure, but still different, and very special. They will all get you to 200mph, but in their own way. Make no mistake, the GamuT Zodiacs are very special speakers and worth the price asked. And if you just want the sound, you can get em in black for $159,000/pair. Such a deal.

So it goes with mega speakers. Should you dig the GamuT Zodiac, you probably will not enjoy a similarly priced pair of Wilsons, the Focal Grande Utopias or a pair of Sonus faber Aidas quite as much. All four of these speakers are excellent and definitely have the same density of thought in their design and construction, but all approach how sound is produced in a different way, with different design choices made in their execution. If you’re looking for me to tell you that the GamuTs rule and the others suck, or vice versa, you’ll have to go elsewhere.

But I willsay that the Zodiac is my personal favorite for top speaker at this moment. Having spent plenty of time with the other contenders, these are the ones I’d happily write the check for. The priorities that designer Benno Maun Meldgaard has chosen appeals to what I love in a speaker most. First, and most importantly, they pass my main crazy expensive component requirement – they reveal so much music, that they will take you to a level of musical involvement that you won’t get with lesser speakers. And they do it with any kind of music.

Equally, if you’ve got nearly 200 big ones to spend on speakers, you’ve probably been at the hifi game long enough to know what you don’t like. And I’m guessing you already have the room, system, and software to wring the most performance from these speakers. The Zodiacs are up to the task of partnering with the world’s finest components, revealing everything they have to offer. They will never be the weak link in your audio chain, regardless of how much you’ve invested in the rest of your components.

What’s your sign?

One of the biggest audio mistakes so many people make is to put big speakers in a small room and expect good sound. The Zodiacs also deliver their most compelling performance in a medium to large space, but they deliver a better performance in a modest size room than any other big speaker I’ve used. This might be a plus if your Zodiacs arrive before your main listening room is done being built, or you’re anticipating a move in the near future. The only limit you will have in placing the Zodiacs in a small room, is that they will overdrive the room fairly quickly because they can move so much air.

GamuT only builds 12 of these yearly, one per month to go with the individual signs of the zodiac. Horoscope.com says that Capricorns (me) and Taurus (the Zodiacs) are a good match most of the time, so I guess it just makes sense that I’ve been enjoying these speakers so much. Though the signs of the zodiac are all very different, each of the 12 pairs of GamuT Zodiac’s are hand assembled with extreme care, and then fine-tuned by Mr. Meldgaard. Within a year of your purchase, you will also receive a personal visit by him to fine tune the speaker’s setup in your listening room, no matter where in the world you might be. That’s part of what you write the big check for. If you want an off the rack suit, this might be excess, but if you want something bespoke, and optimized by its creator, this is the way to go – and you don’t get this with any of the other mega speakers.

While I’m certain that I’m compatible with the Zodiacs, after pairing them with about a dozen different amplifiers (tube and solid-state) from a wide range of manufacturers, these are very equipment friendly speakers. Everything from the 20-watt per channel Nagra 300 amplifier up to the big Pass XA200.8 monos worked well, yet at the same time offering a different perspective on the music.

Because the Zodiac goes all the way down to 16hz, they will deliver the most convincing performance with an amplifier of the highest quality and best bass control. The trio of 10-inch woofers sailed through every bass heavy track in my collection, providing a level of detail and dynamics that most speakers need external subwoofers to achieve. Whether I was grinding through Aphex Twin, or gliding through Stanley Clark, the level of bass detail the Zodiac delivers is first class.

Let’s get serious

The Zodiac’s greatest strengths is their ability to walk a fine line between resolving a high level of detail without being harsh, sterile or fatiguing. Like every other GamuT speaker I’ve owned or reviewed, the Zodiac is a speaker you can listen to all day and never want to leave the listening chair.

Most big speakers with this kind of footprint feelbig and overbearing, and in some instances only play big. My Magnepan Tympanis are famous for this effect, and while it can be fun, not all music is meant to be presented at the same size. Listening to Eddie Van Halen play solo acoustic guitar on “316” through my Maggies sounds as if EVH is 14 feet wide. Cool, but not realistic. Playing the same track on the Zodiacs feels like he’s sitting between the speakers on a footstool, as it would if he were. But the second I mix it up and go with “Atomic Punk,” the living room walls fall down and there is a wall of speaker cabinets on a big stage behind me.

While the Zodiacs are fantastic with tonality and coherence, they also excel in terms of dynamics. They do not lose their ability to engage at the lowest of volume levels – often an area of contention with large speakers. Playing well below conversation level, the Zodiacs reveal minute musical details, and were able to draw more than one guest into the mix, requesting “to turn it up a bit more please…”

At the other end of the spectrum, the sheer dynamic punch the Zodiacs deliver will be limited by how much clean amplifier power you have at your disposal. Those wanting to achieve concert hall levels will have no problem doing so, with plenty of amplifier power. My Pass XA200.8s clipped and ears started to buzz before the Zodiacs reveal distortion of any kind. And that’s way louder than you should be listening to music without ear damage. This ability to play well between loud and soft reveals a degree of linearity that is seldom experienced at any price, and another one of the Zodiac’s strengths.

What you get at this price is a healthy dose of magic along with technological and manufacturing excellence. This combination of art and science is what fools you into believing the music is unfolding in front of you. This doesn’t happen at $10k or $20k, and you don’t realize it until you experience these. As I mentioned earlier, it’s almost hallucinogenic. Absolute power does indeed corrupt.

How do you describe what does not exist?

While other hifi writers have written volumes on the Zodiac, both in their listening rooms, and at various hifi shows around the world, I keep returning to my first experience with GamuT. Current designer Benno Meldgaard has built on the foundation of their original designer, Lars Goller, yet the magic is still there.

After days of listening to speakers at CES, I went offsite to where GamuT had (then) the S7 and S9 set up in separate rooms and my perception of speakers was re-defined. The Zodiac is capable of this achievement, with even more refinement and resolution.

What you don’t get with the GamuT Zodiac is distraction. All of the distractions that come from distortion, phase anomalies, and tonal inequities simply doesn’t exist with these speakers. They require no excuses whatsoever. When listening to many other speakers, my inner voice often says “if only they had less of this, or more of that.” I’ve never had this conversation with myself, when listening to the Zodiacs, no matter what music is playing. It’s so much easier to ramble on about speakers with shortcomings, but these really have none.

Looking the part

If you’ve had the pleasure of visiting Denmark, you know that they are masters of understated design, both elegant and functional at the same time. Where many of the other six-figure speakers sport rich automotive paint finishes to command attention, the Zodiac’s wood cabinet is specifically curved to achieve the desired acoustic effect, but GamuT takes a different approach. They use nearly 30 layers of fine wood, glued together and formed under over a ton of pressure to achieve their shape. (It’s worth noting that they used to make the cabinets for the B&W 800’s and developed this process)

The result is a beautiful cabinet that only needs an occasional oiling to look it’s best. And with no paper-thin veneer or highly polished paint, a slight bump to the cabinet will not mar the finish of your speakers. Intelligent design at its finest. These speakers just look more handsome as the years go by.

Simple setup.

The intelligent design of the Zodiac goes beyond the speaker itself. These are by far the easiest large speakers to set up – period. Their wheeled crates allow nearly anyone to get them in the vicinity of where they need to be. Tip the crate up, and remove two braces holding the speakers in place. Slide the crates back and you’re almost there. These crates are fairly large, so you will need storage space!

The Zodiacs weigh about 420 pounds each, so get a friend to help you, two if you can, for fine tuning. A quick trip to Home Depot for a custom pair of ¾-inch particle board sub platforms made fine tuning the front to rear and side to side alignment a breeze.

The two-part, five-layer steel bases are coated with an anti-vibration compound and the finely threaded feet allow precise tuning of the Zodiac’s rake. Easy as these speakers are to set up, this is the critical bit – much like achieving perfect VTA when setting up a phono cartridge. This is the most critical part of setting up any GamuT speaker. Once the rake is correct, the time alignment is assured, and everything falls properly into place.

Beyond big

Having owned the prior flagship S9 for a number of years, as well as the smaller RS5i (Our managing editor, Rob Johnson also uses the RS3i as his reference) has given a lot of insight into the refinement that goes into the Zodiacs. These speakers are so much more than just a “big speakers play big” experience.

As hinted at earlier, the Zodiacs can not only play big, but they can play at whatever scale the recording dictates – expanding and contracting as necessary. They not only follow the music, but mange to be mere conduits of the music – no small feat. Where the GamuT comes out a winner, is in its ability to perform all the necessary audiophile tasks at an equally high and balanced level. Yes, the Grande Utopia is a touch more resolving, perhaps the big Wilsons have a few molecules more bass grunt, and so on, but for my money the Zodiac does more at integrating all musical aspects at a tremendously high level than any other I’ve yet experienced. That is their strength to me. I never feel like I’m listening to speakers when they are on.

If you are buying speakers at this level, you need to hear the GamuT Zodiacs. I have to confess a true bias for the presentation that they deliver – guilty as charged. But that’s why I’d buy an Aston Martin instead of a Ferrari. That part of the argument is immaterial, I applaud your choice, whatever it might be at this level – you are obviously an obsessed music lover.

But, you don’t want to spend 180 big ones and not test drive these. Your biggest questions will be “can my floor support them,” and “what color should I get?”

The GamuT Zodiac Speakers

MSRP: $159,000/pair and up, depending on finish

gamutaudio.com

Peripherals

Analog Source Luxman PD 171 w/Kiseki Purple Heart

Digital Source dCS Vivaldi One

Preamplifier Pass Labs INT-60 integrated

Power Amplifier Pass Labs XA200.8 mono blocks, Audio Research REF160 mono blocks

Cable Cardas Clear Beyond, Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Rack Grand Prix Audio Monaco

It’s always fun to unbox something from PrimaLuna. They pack their electronics better than anyone, except maybe Luxman. But seriously, the three layers of packing – heavy, closed cell foam inserts, and a set of gloves makes sure your PrimaLuna amp or preamp gets out of the box in pristine fashion.

With so much hotly contested talk about component break-in, I’m here to tell you that the EVOs sound incredible right out of the box. Typically, their amplifiers have never taken terribly long to find their voice, so this will only get better.

Driving the mighty Focal Stella Utopia EM’s (with a 94db/1-watt sensitivity) I may not even need to use a pair of EVO 400s in mono configuration, which incidentally offer 144 watts per channel in Ultralinear configuration. Half these numbers with the stereo or mono in Triode mode.

In addition to an even further sonic refinement of the PrimaLuna concept, The top range EVO 400 components offer balanced inputs, giving them a much wider range of flexibility. Where the EVO 400 power amplifier comes shipped with EL-34 tubes (a long time favorite here) as with all other PL amps, you can use a wide range of output tubes to custom tune the sound to your preference. Input tubes are a breeze too, because PL’s designers chose to use the more reasonably priced 12AU7 tubes in the input and driver stages, instead of the ridiculously priced 12AX7s. Those wanting to tube roll and go hard core NOS can still afford 8 12AU7s without raiding the kids college fund.

Of course we need to do more listening, but when something sounds this good right out of the box, cold, it’s a winner.

The PrimaLuna EVO400 amplifier. $4,699 each, $9,398/pair
The PrimaLuna EVO400 preamplifier. $4,499

www.primaluna-usa.com

Based in Karlsbad, Germany, Octave Audio has produced meticulously designed audio components for over 30 years. Their HP-500 preamplifier, released in the late 80’s, has gained worldwide respect. It’s still manufactured today, although improvements have slipstreamed over the years resulting in the current SE version.

The Octave team never rests on their laurels and continually tackle the challenge of improving on their past designs. Their hard work results in Octave’s latest flagship preamplifier, the mighty HP 700. It’s a sonic marvel indeed.

What’s inside counts

The Octave’s clean and modern look, accentuated with a brushed aluminum exterior, conjures quite a visual impact. At 462 x 130 x 480 mm (W x H x D) and a weight of 10 kilograms there’s no overlooking the HP 700 on an audio shelf. The main unit is flanked by an external power supply measuring 110 x 90 x 277 mm (W x H x D).  While the HP 700’s outward appearance is quite dapper, the unit also embodies the spirit of an old proverb: It’s what’s insidethat counts.

The most impressive quality of the HP 700 is its versatility. Octave’s design approach involves creation of modular gear that can be tailored to best serve its owner. Rather than fill the chassis with a one-size-fits-all complement of inputs and outputs, Octave gives a prospective owner some say in what gets dropped under the hood. Do you need XLR, RCA, or both types of line inputs? Do you need an MC or MM phonostage? Or both? How about an MC phono input with XLR type connectors? What if you need a step-up transformer? Do they offer that, too? With the HP 700, the answer to any or all of these questions is a simple and resounding yes. Octave will help put together the perfect module complement for the new owner’s needs – there are eight different modules available. Best of all, should your system needs change later, you can always add or subtract additional modules. Our HP 700 review sample offers a little of everything, so the TONEAudio team had a chance to test it out with a variety of components on hand.

The Octave is a tube-based preamplifier; and regardless of modules chosen, the HP 700 requires eight tubes, regardless of configuration. The linestage section utilizes three tubes. There’s a single 12AU7 (ECC 82) required, and Octave makes available choices for the other two tubes needed. With the flick of a switch, an owner can choose to socket a pair of EF184 (EF 800) or D3A tubes. If you really want to start experimenting with tube rolling, it’s also fun to note that the switches can accommodate one of each.

The phonostage’s tube complement is a set configuration including one each of type 12AX7, 12AT7, and 6922 (6DJ8). Finally, the HP 700 control unit requires a 6922 (6DJ8) mounted sideways inside the chassis.

Getting ready for a treat

Setting up the HP 700 is simple, with no unexpected challenges. First, connect the umbilical from the external power supply to the main chassis. A notch in the connector prevents the possibility of misalignment. Then simply attach sources to their respective input module connections, choose RCA or XLR outputs to an amplifier, and you’re ready to rock.

The three huge knobs on the front panel control all elements of the HP 700’s functionality. The central volume control is flanked to the right by an input selector. A tiny blue LED indicates the chosen source. On the left side of the unit, a third “mode” knob stands at the ready. Its options require a little more explaining.

Turning on the power supply, the Mode indicator LEDs keep the user notified of progress. An amber LED indicates the start of a two minute warm up cycle during which the tubes are coaxed to operating voltages. In doing so, HP 700 does its best to extend tube life. During this short delay, a Mute indicator simultaneously makes its presence known until the Octave fully ready for operation. Once there, the mute disengages itself. The Mode knob also offers a low, medium, and high gain setting so the owner can best match the preamp to the source being heard. If changing music sources, the gain can be reset on-the-fly with a tiny twist. A final setting on the Mode selector offers the option of home theater bypass, disengaging the volume knob and deferring to the home theater processor’s volume settings.

Yes, a remote control is included with the HP 700. It’s an example of true simplicity featuring two buttons only: volume up and volume down.

Sing to me

It’s difficult pinning down the sonic signature of the Octave when the unit behaves like a sonic chameleon, optimizing any input source and any music genre thrown downstream. No element of the sonic picture seems emphasized or neglected. Music comes out as pure as it did going in. All this creates a fantastic, immersive listening experience.

It’s ironic to imply a $20,000 piece of gear does nothing to add or subtract from the sound, but for many that is the holy grail. There seems to be nothing in the Octave design that adds to, or takes away, from the music. Vocals and instruments flow through with a wonderfully organic quality that conveys all the human cues captured in a recording be it subtlety, passion, force, energy, or anything else the performers exude. Because the sound feels so natural, it is very easy to get immersed in long listening sessions with the HP 700. “Nothing” never seemed so beguiling! Of course, to achieve “nothingness”, the devil resides in the details. It’s much more likely the Octave is doing “everything” behind the scenes, but making such a complex task seem easy and seamless to the listener.

Reaching conclusions about the HP 700’s sonic attributes takes a bit of time and aural adjustment. At first listen, it seems the Octave lacks a bit of bass heft. But the more I listen, the more that initial perception proves wrong. What makes the HP 700 bass response interesting is that it delivers what the music commands it to. No region among the bass frequencies appear accentuated or diminished. There’s no supplemental punch or heft applied. Realistic bass response simply floats from the HP 700 to the amp without coloration or undue emphasis.

Similarly, vocals glide forth with a level of smoothness and realism that brings performers into the room. “Wash me Clean” from k.d. lang provides an immersive experience. Complementing her powerful and silky voice, guitar plucks have an organic texture. Small ambient notes slide forth with delicacy.

Soundstaging prowess is another Octave strength. Performers and musical cues are scattered across a perceived stage that extends well beyond the speakers. Not only does sound extend well behind the speakers, the HP 700 can place vocals so that they project a bit forward of the speakers. Beck’s album Midnight Vulturesincludes various unexpected sounds like a piece of metal pipe dropped on the floor, and an industrial-sounding machine punch. These elements skip across the soundstage as the sound engineer placed them. Even when a listener anticipates those sounds, the level of realism though the Octave creates moments where sound effects generate head turning surprise.

There’s little to criticize about the HP 700, and there’s no question about its overall prowess. Is it perfect? If natural, neutral, sound is what you seek, the Octave HP 700 will serve your ears extraordinarily well. That said, not every audio component is ideal for every audiophile. Those who seek to complement their existing components with a preamp that generates a little extra bass presence, or a warm and laid-back sound, or an extra-detailed and analytical presence will not experience those attributes via the Octave design.

Choices, choices

An audiophile with a budget around $20,000 for preamplification is a lucky individual indeed. For that amount, many world-class components are within reach. The question, of course, is which to choose. Making a purchase decision even more complicated, that same amount of money potentially can be divided to buy separate phonostage and linestage components, making a hard decision even more agonizing.

After listening to the Octave and experiencing the modular approach they take, I have little hesitation suggesting a prospective owner make the decision easy on themselves and take the plunge on an HP 700 configured to his or her liking. First and foremost, the sound is marvelous. Second, the unit can be configured with line and phono stage modules to accommodate any type of input. Buy what you need now, and add other things you need in the future. Third, gain control options help the Octave play very well with all the other components in the audio chain. Finally, the HP 700’s build quality leaves little to be desired.

The Octave HP 700 is a marvelous piece of audio gear, and those who choose to make an investment in one are sure to be thrilled with their purchase for a long time to come.

Further Listening

Having spent the better part of a year with Octave’s flagship tube monoblock power amplifiers a while back and a few of their integrated amplifiers as well, the Octave sound, or lack of it, as Rob describes is indeed wonderful. Upon closer comparison to ARC, BAT, C-J and McIntosh, I’d spot the Octave HP 700 a few molecules more tonal body and richness than the current ARC REF components, a few less than the CJ ACT 2 or GAT preamplifiers, a little less dark than the BAT and not quite as syrupy as the Mc MC1000 or MC500. How’s that?

All of the Octave gear I’ve experienced has come across with a lively, dynamic sound high in tonal contrast and saturation without sounding overly tubey; you won’t mistake one for a solid state component, but it is never tube-like in a vintage tube component perspective.

What has always impressed with Octave components is their teutonic build quality, attention to detail and Bauhaus – like casework. Plenty of German precision here. Like the other well known brands listed, an Octave component is built to last a lifetime, and as you go up the range, the sonics remain intact, yet each component reveals more music than the one beneath it in the lineup. Designer Andreas Hofmann always runs the tubes in his designs well within their limits, contributing to long tube life, another plus – especially for those making a substantial investment in vintage tubes.

Putting the HP700 through its paces with a wide range of sources and power amplifiers, both single ended and balanced reveals no difference in sound quality between outputs, making it an excellent choice for those prone to swapping amplifiers on occasion. Should you have the budget, I’d highly suggest their Jubilee monoblocks, a combination I’ve heard many times with excellent result.

The phono section is particularly good, and is reminiscent of the Octave Phono Module that we reviewed some time ago, in terms of sound quality and functionality. It works well with every MC and MM cartridge we were able to pair it with, and provides a level of sonic excellence that is in keeping with the rest of the preamplifier; vinyl playback is clearly not an afterthought here. Considering rack space is often at a premium, mating the HP 700 with a two tonearm turntable makes for a formidable analog based system with a minimal footprint.

The HP 700 offers some other novel technological goodies, that in addition to the modularity, really make it future proof; another consideration when writing this kind of check. Along with the option of setting gain, you can also set the output impedance to perfectly match your power amplifer and cable length. Precision tone controls are available as well as a stepped attenuator. Additional modules have a cost of between $475 and $2,750.

As far as destination preamplifiers go, the Octave HP700 ranks with the worlds finest. Thanks to their modular approach, it can easily be the last preamplifier you’ll ever need to purchase.  – Jeff Dorgay

Octave HP 700 Preamplifier

Starting at $20,000 depending on chosen modules

http://www.octave.de

PERIPHERALS

Analog Source SME Model 10 with Model 10 and SME V tonearms. Dynavector 17D3 and Denon 103R catridges

Digital Source Mac Mini with Roon music service, dCS Debussy

Amplification Burmester 911 mk3

Speakers Sonus faber Olympica III

Cables Jena Labs

Power Running Springs Audio Haley, and RSA Mongoose power cords

Accessories ASC tube traps, Mapleshade Samson audio racks, Coffman Labs Equipment Footers, AudioQuest Jitterbug

I’m a hifi reviewer, with an excellent music system at my disposal and thanks to Tidal, Qobuz and Roon, I pretty much have the world’s biggest record store available 24/7. That’s better than the flying cars they promised me when I was in high school – really, it is.

So why don’t I explore new music every minute of the day?

In all fairness, I am still sampling as much as I have time for, but at this point in my life, day to day can get in the way more than I’d like. Flipping through the updated copy of Robert Dimery’s 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, I bookmarked 8 titles that I hadn’t heard, and about 20 that I didn’t own, or have in my Roon library. Not bad.

But there’s great music being released every day. I’m not one of those crabby old men that thinks all of today’s music suuuuucks (though I do find some of it a little derivative at times), but it boils down to this:

Time.

I usually get unglued with a vengeance when people make the blanket “everybody/nobody” statements, so I’ll refrain from it here. I don’t know what everybody my age is doing or thinking, but based on my limited experience, it boils down to hours in the day.

Think about it, you’ve got that keep the bills paid app spinning all the time. Maybe you’ve got the future college fund, future wedding fund (maybe future divorce fund), retirement, vacation, health insurance, and fitness apps running all the time, along with a few special interest apps. If you’re a hifi enthusiast on top of that, you’re probably thinking about the system a bit as well.

All of these apps are eating up bandwidth. And battery power. While I’d like to think I’m pretty perky (and relatively immature) for 60, there are days I still feel like an iPhone 7 that’s had it’s performance limited because of an aging battery.

Which brings us back to the initial question.

Whenever you try something new, you are taking a 50% risk that it’s going to suck. Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want, but as a function of time, when you are on the downhill to EOL (end of life, as my perky 42-year old primary health care physician is fond of saying) there’s only so much time left.

You’ve got three hours to listen to music. How much of it do you devote to potential bad experiences? Do you play it safe and listen to Mahler V, or Led Zeppelin II, or take a risk, knowing that if you don’t get what you want, that’s 40 minutes of your remaining battery life you won’t get back. Excitement versus stability, the age old question.

Those of you that are more on the adventuresome side of the risk avoidance spectrum no doubt are still jumping off the cliff every chance you get. And I salute you. Further, you’re the ones I follow on Facebook and when you’re excited about a new album, I go to Roon and usually stream it right away. This has actually bumped the success rate with trying new things to about 80% positive, which I appreciate more than you know. As Lyle Lovett said once, “If it’s not too late, make it a cheeseburger.”

Some days I just want comfort food instead of the latest fusion cuisine. And sometimes, Van Halen II is just what the doctor ordered. But again, I encourage you to sample as much music as you can make time for, it’s never been easier. That’s one of the things that keeps me going every day. And please, keep sharing those new albums on social media. It’s always nice to be surprised.

Last year, we published a very enthusiastic review of PS Audio’s top P20 DirectStream Power Plant. It’s awesome, and every audiophile cliché you can think of applies. So we don’t need to go there again.

If you’d like to hear all the lavish praise, click here to read our review of the P20. At just a few molecules under $10,000, the P20 is not for everyone. The $7,495 P15 will perform the same miracles on your system and is sonically identical, except for a few minor differences. Where the P15 has a lower maximum capacity (1500 watts vs. 2000) it also only has the ability to utilize a 15-amp AC cord, where the P20 lets you take advantage of a 20 amp AC line and cord, the P15 does not. And it weighs a little less, which isn’t a bad thing.

The P15 features 10 outlets, to the P20s 16, but for most audio enthusiasts, that should be more than enough. With two “high current” zones and three regular zones, it’s easy to plug your power amplifier or integrated into the high current outlet, while plugging your DAC, phonostage and turntable all into separate zones of their own.

Originally, this was going to be an incredibly short review, because as long as you keep the P15 within operating limits, the sonic effect is identical to what the P20 offers. The P15 is the perfect choice for those not needing the full 20-amp capacity of the P20; some of you won’t even need the capacity of the P15. For those of you, PS Audio makes the P12, priced at $4,995.

Let’s address the elephant in the room right away. Yes, the P15 is worth the price to me, because in the context of the system that it’s powering (worth about $40k) there is way more than a 20% improvement. That’s always tough to quantify, and always easy when I’m spending your money, so I get it if this has you outraged.

The last six feet

However, what the P15 does, you really can’t get any other way. The top passive conditioners get you closer, but they don’t offer the last bit of silky smoothness without compromising resolution and dynamics that the Power Plants do because they actually regenerate and rebuild a fresh AC feed to your components – hence the name.

The argument that every crabby pants non-believer on the internet has is “but if the power has traveled all this way to my house, what does the last few feet make?” I could write another article on why I don’t agree with that philosophy, but to blow that out of the water completely, let’s start with fresh power right at the bottom of your audio rack. Now what do you non believers have to say?

Because the Power Plant is providing you with fresh AC, that six feet of power cord now makes an even bigger difference. The P15 and P20 make it much easier to discern the improvement that a premium power cable provides. You need look no further than the touch panel scope on the front panel of the P15 to see it in action. In my office/studio which features recent cabling and more attention to the Earth ground, the AC power only had an input distortion of 2%, coming from a 20 amp dedicated line and new breaker panel. In my house, with older wiring and a breaker box from the early 70s, that distortion rises to 3.5%. Interesting. Both Power Plants reduced output distortion to around .1%, a major increase in clarity.

Plugging an electric drill into the same outlet and pulling the trigger makes that figure jump up to nearly 10%, so while you might be thinking you’ve got clean power, everyone on your power pole’s transformer is contributing to the pollution in your power line. This is a lot of the haze and cloudiness that you might be hearing through your system without any attention to power treatment. This is also why your system sounds better at certain times of the day.
This distortion in the AC line is a major contributor to your system not giving you all the performance you paid for. Less distortion in the incoming AC power means that the power supply in your components work that much less, with less residual noise is getting through to your speakers. The P15 offers an ease that isn’t there without it being in the line, with no loss in transient impact or detail, a peril that more often than not plagues passive line conditioners.

A fresh start

Eliminating the other people on your power line gives you a clean baseline to start from. Perhaps the biggest benefit to have a Power Plant is that your system will always sound its best, day or night. Because it is generating power from scratch, you no longer need to worry about temporary power sags from other things like a refrigerator, water heater, or other appliance turning on at random when you’re in the middle of a listening session.

Adding the P15 to a system consisting of a VAC 170i integrated amplifier, Simaudio MOON 390 DAC/streamer and a Luxman PD 171A turntable doesn’t come close to taxing its maximum power capabilities. Again, the front panel display will tell you how much capacity you are using. In this case, about 39%. Swapping the VAC for the Nagra Classic preamplifier/Pass Labs XA30.8 amplifier (pure class A) upped the utilization to about 55% – still plenty of room.

Both amplifiers were driving the Focal Kanta no.3s, which are fairly efficient, but on hard musical peaks, both amplifiers were able to be driven to clipping and susceptible to voltage sag on the AC line at high volume without the P15. Installing the P15 eliminates this effect, yet you will get a similar “flattening” effect if you run the P15 very close to its limitations. The good news is that limit is much further down the road with the P15 on the job.

It’s not just about loud

As anyone who’s been following the loudness/compression wars for any period of time knows, getting louder isn’t the trick to volume. It’s all about dynamic range – make things quieter and the delta between loud and soft is volume. It’s like reducing the weight of a race car instead of just adding more horsepower.

This is where the P15 (and P20) really excels. Of course, your favorite records will have more life, dynamics and detail, but so will all the records (I use this term generically for analog and digital files) that you thought were marginal to shitty. Should you demo a P15 for yourself, I suggest starting with a few of your worst tracks – ones you might even think unlistenable. You’ll be surprised. I was shocked at how many albums in the junk bin became much more enjoyable. The amount of low level detail revealed by clean power is incredible. That alone is worth the price asked of the P15. Imagine getting another thousand LPs for free that you now love. What’s that worth to you?

The effect on analog and digital sources is equally bold, yet different. Every DAC plugged into the P15 instantly displays less harshness and glare – all the stuff you hate about digital, is now either gone or greatly diminished. Every phonostage exhibited a lower noise floor, especially those with vacuum tubes under the cover, allowing more of the finest musical details to come through. I guarantee you will have at least a few “wow, I never heard that” moments with the P15.

The same conclusion

I have the same suggestion I did with the P20 – get one if it makes sense for your budget. On one level the P15 offers more than a component level upgrade because dropping another 5 or 10 thousand bucks on a better component, or a set of world class power cords still leaves the noise in your entire system un-adressed.

If you are at a crossroads in your system where you are seriously considering a component or cable upgrade in this range, I strongly suggest that you audition a P15 first. I am confident you will hear a tremendous difference. And that goes for those of you at the top of the mountain.

The PS Audio P15

MSRP:  $7,495

www.psaudio.com

Peripherals

Analog Source Luxman PD 171 w/Kiseki Purple Heart

Digital Source Simaudio MOON 390, dCS Vivaldi One

Amplifier VAC Sigma 170i integrated, Pass Labs INT-60 integrated

Speakers Focal Kanta no. 3

Cable Cardas Clear Beyond, Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Rack Quadraspire EVO

The opening organ riff in the Who’s “Eminence Front” permeates my listening room. Diffuse, yet locked down slightly off the center of the soundstage as Pete Townshends guitar comes up out of nowhere and the track builds in intensity before his lead vocal enters the mix. These small monitors do the near impossible – they play loud, like a pair of big speakers.

Pushing the volume until my Pass INT-60 flattens out, the soundstage from the D1.1s just keeps getting bigger. Talk about good first impressions. Moving on to Keith Richards, “Wicked as it Seems” delivers similar dynamic excellence. Hours later, my ears are buzzing from listening to music so damn loud. Yet these little speakers offer such an undistorted, unfatiguing look at my favorite tunes, it’s easy to go past the danger zone.

I need to confess a hard-core reviewer bias right away. I really like Raidho speakers. A lot. A lot, a lot. I’ve been using a pair of their entry level X-1s in system two for some time now and they deliver such an incredible amount of musical detail, combined with a level of smoothness and dynamics that I’ve never heard from a ribbon tweeter, it’s tough not to be smitten – especially for someone that really enjoys the transparency of an ESL. The Raidho driver is even faster, and they incorporate this tweeter in every speaker they make, so if you discover that you like the Raidho sound as much as I do, you just get more of it as you go up the line. Think of it like drinking Macallan’s 12, 18, 24, or 60. More refinement costs more…

While all Raidho speakers share a common tweeter, the X series utilizes Raidho’s ceramic coned woofers, and the D series uses their diamond cones. The diamond composite in this driver is deposited at high voltage to create a cone that has no breakup anywhere near the audible range, making for an incredibly distortion free presentation. Unlike speakers built around the Accuton drivers, the Raidho driver takes this much further, offering much greater dynamic punch. No matter what your favorite type of music, these are not audiophile speakers, limited to solo vocalists and string quartets. They deliver massive dynamic contrasts when called upon.

$25k/pair vs. $6k/pair

A number of audiophile buddies observing the slightly larger D1.1 next to the X-1 all gave me the same look – how much more for these smallish speakers? It’s not a misprint, a pair of D1.1s will set you back $25k. A little more if you want the custom finish you see on our test pair.

Why you might want to consider going up the range is the level of refinement these speakers offer. You could argue that my $20k/pair Focal Sopra no.3s in room one arefull range floorstanding speakers for less money. That’s a valid argument, and smitten as I am with these little Raidhos, my Sopras aren’t showing up on Audiogon anytime soon. Yet, after hearing Raidhos in a number of different show rooms, dealers and my own room, there is something special here.

Where the entry level Raidho X-1 remains a fantastic speaker, and compared to a lot of small $4-$6k monitors I’ve experienced, a top value, the D1.1s are in an entirely different league. The D1.1s can play much louder, much cleaner and are truly world class. If you’ve ever met a feisty small dog and had their owner say, “He thinks he’s a big dog. He doesn’t know he’s in a small dog body,” that sums up the performance and attitude of the D1.1.

Yes, you will have to get a subwoofer or pair of subwoofers to get true full range performance with the D1.1s, but from about 50hz up, they rival anything I’ve experienced at any price. In a small room you may not even need the sub, depending on your musical requirements. I was more than impressed with the quality of the bass response in our smaller, 13 x 15 foot room.

Critical set up

While the D1.1s are nowhere near as fussy as some mega speakers I’ve set up, the one aspect that is critical when setting up any Raidho speaker is getting the rake angle correct. The ribbon does not have as much horizontal dispersion as some other speakers, so if you lean Raidhos back too far, the high frequencies will appear dull and diffused, along with a loss of image precision. A similar thing happens tipping them too far forward, but now additional image smear from floor reflections will muddle the mix even more.

The good news is that this limited horizontal dispersion makes the Raidhos a lot easier to integrate in a room than many others, because there’s not a ton of downward firing energy from said tweeter to interfere with the presentation.

As with any other speaker, use whatever method you choose to get the best low/mid frequency integration in the room and then slowly adjust the rake angle a couple of degrees at a time. Lift your head above and below the axis you are set, to figure out where you need to go for the optimum sound.  Finally, experiment a bit with toe in for the last bit of fine tuning.

With a claimed impedance of 6 ohms and a fairly low sensitivity of 85db/1 watt, these compact monitors are fairly power hungry. The Raidho website suggests a minimum of 50 watts per channel, but “good results with low power tube amplifiers are possible.” While I had decent results with our PrimaLuna DiaLogue HP Premium integrated amplifier (60wpc with EL34s) the Raidhos did a lot better with the KT150s installed (92wpc) and are pure heaven with the new PrimaLuna 140wpc EVO 400 monoblocks.

At the end of the day, my personal favorite was still pairing these amplifiers with solid-state amplification, and my experience with the Pass XA200.8s, the new Bryston 28B cubed, and the Luxman C900-n power amplifiers all deliver the most engaging performances with the small Raidhos. The big, high current amplifiers all produce a broader sense of dynamic scale, along with better bass control and extension than their tube counterparts. The few additional molecules of three dimensional space that the tube amplifiers could muster was not worth the added punch of the solid state amps.

A particularly nice combination was the pairing of the Nagra Classic Preamplifer and the Bryston amplifiers. These 1000 watt per channel amplifiers have grip in spades, and the ever so slightly warm presentation of the Nagra offers the best of both worlds. Of course, you will have to find your own nirvana with the D1.1s, but don’t scrimp on any other part of your system if you want them to give their best performance.

Returning to the listening chair

Once you have your D1.1s optimized to your taste and ability, expect a huge, presentation that will fool you time and time again that there really are a pair of floor standers lurking in your listening room.

Additionally, the tremendous amount of speed, and the coherent integration between woofer and tweeter will keep even the most feverish panel lovers happy. Acoustic instruments are reproduced with a stunning degree of realism, and heavily multi-tracked selections unravel with ease in front of you. As I may have mentioned before, but even more with the D1.1s, their setup is much like fine tuning the VTA on a premium phono cartridge. When it’s right, the presentation is almost limitless, and when it’s not, things are flat.

Most impressive about the D1.1s, as with my reference X1s is their ability to do a great job on less than pristine musical selections. These are musical speakers first, not audiophile speakers, limited to a few perfect tracks. Thanks to the incredibly low distortion in the Raidhos, these are speakers you can listen to all day long with no fatigue.

As mentioned earlier, the bass that these speakers can generate is of extremely high quality, and extends quite low, lower than the 50hz spec might suggest. Tracking through a long play list of hip hop, electronica, and classic rock tracks with plenty of low bass output was indeed satisfying, though with the Bryston amplifier’s 1000 watts per channel on tap, I did have to be careful not to bottom those little woofer cones!

They are also available in black…

Musically engaging as the D1.1s are, if you take enough time to really examine them closely, you will see just how beautiful they are built. The finish is luxury squared, as is the fine points of cabinet assembly. Joints are invisible, corners are perfectly executed and the gaps between the front face and the rest of the cabinet are meticulously optimized. The D1.1s look the part as well as sounding it.

Those wanting a compact, yet high performance monitor should consider the Raidho D1.1 at the top of their list. They are certainly at the top of ours. Highly recommended.

The Raidho D1.1

$25,000/pair

raidho.dk

Peripherals

Cartridge Koetsu Onyx Platinum, My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent EX, Lyra Atlas

Phonostage BAT VK-P12SE, Boulder 508, Pass Labs XS Phono, ARC REF Phono 3

Preamplifier Pass Labs XS Pre

Power Amplifier Pass Labs XA200.8, Luxman C900n, PrimaLuna EVO400 mono blocks

Power PS Audio P20 and P15 power conditioners

Cable Cardas Clear and Tellurium Q Reference

A few years ago, we put VPIs direct drive turntable on our cover, giving it a product of the year award.

It was a brilliant design exercise, offering incredible sound, but VPI had some supply issues with the direct drive motor, and had to discontinue production. However, it opened the doors of perception for both Mat and Harry Weisfeld, once they saw what a well-executed direct-drive turntable could achieve.
Audiophile purists that scowl like the red angry bird when contemplating direct drive over belt drive usually haven’t heard a contemporary direct drive table. (isn’t that how life in our world usually goes?) Way too often their only point of reference is that Technics SL-1200 they think they remember from college days, or the stigma surrounding the SL-1200 because it was used as a “DJ table.”

Like so many other technologies, direct drive utilizing modern materials and construction is not not only a formidable competitor, but done properly, exceeds the resolution of the best belt drive tables. Brinkmann Audio and Grand Prix Audio both make such a table, and we use them both as references. The legendary Technics SP-10 with power supply upgrades, and the newest version are both exceptional too. That first VPI direct drive was up there with the big boys too, we were sad to see it go. Evidently, so were they.

The direct difference

What well implemented direct drive offers that the belt drive tables often do not, is superior speed accuracy. This leads to a lower noise floor and a level of pitch stability that rivals CD or SACD. Now you can have that speed accuracy that you crave from digital, with the tonal richness that is more often than not, easier to get from analog.

Where the original direct drive VPI tipped the scale at a fairly heavy $30k, the current table has a much lower MSRP of $15,000. Always a nice thing. Thanks to expanding their engineering staff with veteran Mike Bettinger, direct drive stayed on the table. VPI’s Mat Weisfeld tells us, “Mike took Harry Weisfeld’s original design and made it more efficient. Most important, by taking advantage of the latest in cutting edge motor technology, he made the table easier to build in quantity – something that plagued the original design.

This allowed us to build 400 motors out of the gate, and pass a cost savings on to our customers. Direct drive speaks to VPI’s roots – Harry built the HW-9 for Denon’s direct drive motor back in the late 70s/early 80s. So, it’s always been in our blood.”

I’ve switched to direct drive with my two reference turntables, and there’s a definite clarity to the presentation that isn’t there to the same extent with the best belt driven tables. If you happen to be blessed with perfect pitch (I am not) the pitch stability that the best direct drive tables will give you a new musical perspective. More than one pitch-perfect acoustic music lover has remarked that they can’t deal with the instability that belt drive offers.

The HW-40 is no slouch in this department. Queing up George Winston’s Winter,with it’s solitary, lingering notes has a solidity that the belt drives, even VPI’s can’t match. A similar effect is easily noticed when listening to violin recordings, the tonal subtleties in both the piano and violin’s decay pattern is unmistakably more solid and organic sounding through the VPI.

A variation on the Fatboy

VPI’s 3D printed Fatboy tonearm has been a favorite upgrade with legacy owners, but they’ve offered an interesting variation on the theme with the Direct Drive – a gimbaled arm. As someone who’s owned VPI’s for an incredibly long time, I’m still a bit uncomfortable with the relative ease that the arm can be bumped from its pedestal. Especially when a Koetsu, Atlas, or other 5 figure cartridge is mounted.

The gimbal variation makes the proposition a bit more solid, and confidence inspiring to mount up a few more cartridges and get back to work. VPIs manual is very straightforward, and you should have your table up and running quickly. Running the 12-inch arm through the Analog Magik software suite makes a world of difference, all for the better. In theory, a 12-inch tonearm can provide lower tracking/tracing error, however that’s only if it’s set up properly.

Improper setup exaggerates the errors, due to the longer arm wand, and perhaps this is why the longer arms don’t always deliver on the promise. Once optimized, the gimbaled Fatboy is exceptional.

Spending time with the Lyra Atlas, Koetsu Onyx Platinum and the new Ultra Eminent EX from My Sonic Lab is an analog delight, with the Fatboy/DD combination easily bringing out the personalities of these fine cartridges. Those with multiple cartridge setups might want to have their direct drive fitted with a standard Fatboy so they can exchange armwands with multiple cartridges.

Back to the listening chair

If the direct drive feel grabs you, it’s tough to unhear it. The clarity offered by the speed stability offers such a neutral music delivery platform to start with, it’s so easy to fine tune the tonality to your liking from there. The Koetsu Onyx Platinum, paired with BAT’s new VK-P12SE phono stage provided a level of sonic perfection that I found tough to beat, offering a few clicks of warmth, combined with a massive soundstage and a well defined bottom end.

Our recent installation of a six pack of REL no.25 subwoofers (and the incredible amount of low-frequency resolution they provide) made the HW-40s locked in bottom end even more prominent. I’ll go out on a limb and declare that the better your system is dialed in to reproduce low frequencies, the more you will appreciate the HW-40. To further take advantage of the HW-40s capabilities, keep in mind that it is a non suspended design, so it will give the most LF extension on a premium rack, or even wall mounting.

We had excellent results on the top of a Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, and a SolidSteel wall shelf, thoroughly anchored to the wall studs. Keep in mind, this baby weighs about 75 pounds, so don’t even think about using wall anchors.

Properly set up and secured, further listening leads to bass heavy recordings, because the HW-40 delivers a full palette of low frequency information, and the resulting drama that this brings to the music. Beginning with the three LP set of the classic K&D Sessions, “Bug Powder Dust” squeezes me back into my listening chair. The opening bass line in Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” takes on new meaning with the amount of sheer LF texture the HW-40 provides.

But don’t think we’re just rattling the walls with bass. From the bottom of the frequency range to the top, the HW-40 paints a large sonic canvas. Small details hang in the air, and deeply layered recordings reveal treats you might have missed on a lesser table. No matter what kind of music you love, the HW-40 does a fantastic job.

A distinct lack of bling

The HW-40 reminds me of staffer Jerold O’Brien’s new silver Audi RS3. On the outside, it’s looks plain as plain can be, but when you turn the key, this sixty-thousand dollar car delivers the performance envelope of a two hundred thousand dollar car. This is what I love about the HW-40 – it’s all performance. While VPI’s Avenger is a much more mechanically complex beast (and offers the ability to use three tonarms, which is totally cool) I like simplicity. And I love the level of performance the HW-40 delivers at the price.

No doubt you’ve got your own opinion, and fortunately VPI offers both. At the end of the day, I’m hooked on the presentation of direct drive and while there are a few much more expensive tables that reveal slightly more resolution, the overall effect of the HW-40 is unbeatable for 15k.

Hence, we are happy to award the VPI HW-40 direct drive table one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019. This is the biggest portion of cost no object analog we’ve had the pleasure to experience for $15k.

We would like to thank VPI Industries for the accompanying photos.

The VPI HW-40 Direct Drive Turntable

$15,000

vpiindustries.com

Peripherals

Cartridge Koetsu Onyx Platinum, My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent EX, Lyra Atlas

Phonostage BAT VK-P12SE, Boulder 508, Pass Labs XS Phono, ARC REF Phono 3

Preamplifier Pass Labs XS Pre

Power Amplifier Pass Labs XA200.8

Speakers Quad 2812, Focal Sopra no.3, Focal Stella Utopia EM Evo with six REL no.25 subwoofers

Power PS Audio P20 and P15 power conditioners

Cable Cardas Clear and Tellurium Q Reference

Listening to the twinkly introduction of The Claypool/Lennon Delierium’s South of Reality, it’s instantly clear just how much music the $1,995 Lotus 5 DAC from Pure Audio offers.

It’s smooth, spacious, and dynamic presentation gets you into the groove immediately. Hours later, we’re convinced that this is a fantastic DAC, offering tremendous musicality. Gone are the days when you used to say “it sounds pretty good for digital.” With variable balanced XLR and single ended RCA outputs, the Lotus 5 is the perfect choice for those wanting to put together a high-performance system that won’t break the bank, and don’t need to embrace analog.

The rest of the system is equally modest, yet carefully chosen for high value for the dollar. A pair of Harbeth P3ESRs with a REL T7i subwoofer and the latest incarnation of the Dynaco Stereo 70 round out the picture with Cardas Iridium power, speaker and interconnect cables make for a killer system that will leave enough change from your ten-thousand dollar bill to spend a week in Hawaii on holiday, two if you go during the off season.

While you’re there, stop by Underwood HiFi and take “Underwood Wally” for a beer and thank him for selling components that deliver great music and leave you enough spare change for said holiday.

Competition breeds better products

With so much competition in the $1,000 – $3,000 DAC range these days, it is truly amazing at how much performance this buys you. As good friend and fellow audio writer John Darko and I were discussing on a recent podcast, DACs in this range could be easily outclassed by a $1,000 turntable a decade ago. This is no longer the case.

The Lotus 5 can handle everything – DSD, high res PCM and MQA, so however you like to serve up your files, it gets the job done. The only thing lacking is the ability to use it as a ROON end point. Considering how many great (and inexpensive) streamers on the market, this isn’t a deal breaker. During the course of this review, files were supplied by three sources: a Mac Book Pro, a Naim Uniti Core, and our vintage Sony ES CD player, via the optical output. All work equally well and the Lotus 5 brings enough life to the Sony changer to make it a viable digital source, despite being a vintage piece.

Built around Sabre/ESS DAC chips, the Lotus 5 is incorporating a lot of technology that’s not out of place in ten-thousand dollar DACs. The straightforward, yet elegant casework (silver or black) gives the Lotus 5 a luxurious look and the remote is well thought out, allowing you to easily scroll through the various menus, with the ability to choose output level, variable or fixed output and seven digital filter choices. As with nearly every other DAC offering this functionality, I ended up sticking with the factory settings after trying them all. Your level of OCD will determine where you land and for how long.

Great sound, great combination

Extending listening on a wide range of music confirms the initial impressions. Digital has come a long way in the last decade, and this is an incredibly relaxed and musical sounding DAC for $1,995. Even compared to today’s hardware, playing the Lotus 5 side by side with components from Naim and Simaudio that cost more than twice as much (but to the Sim’s credit, it does offer a headphone amp and analog inputs as well as a cracking MM phonostage), the sheer level of music revealed by the Lotus 5 is right there. And even if you are using it strictly as a DAC, it still holds its own.

The overall sound is very neutral, neither adding nor subtracting musically, with a tonal balance that isn’t in your face, but won’t be mistaken for having a few vacuum tubes under the hood either. Personally, I prefer this, because it gives you the option to fine tune the system to your taste and associated speakers. Want a bit more, warmth, and romance? Pair the Lotus 5 with your favorite tube amplifier. Those wanting less of that can go the solid-state route.

I found an excellent combination beyond the tubed Dynaco that I started with, combining the Lotus 5 with the Pass XA30.8 and Focal Kanta no.3s in my living room system, replacing the Simaudio 390 that was there previously.

Soundstage width is nice and wide, exceeding the speaker boundaries, offering a big sound. Where the Lotus 5 shows its limitations compared to the crazy money DACs is in ultimate resolution, soundstage depth and that way that a mega DAC fools you into thinking you are listening to analog. Yet in the context of similiarly priced hardware, the Lotus 5 is at the top of the heap.

The top end of the Lotus 5 offers top of the class high frequency refinement as well. Listening to acoustic music really shows off how well this DAC performs. Guitar, piano and violin are rendered without harshness or glare. Again, tough to want an entry level turntable after listening to some high res tracks here.

Another system that proved a fantastic match was utilizing the Coincident Dynamo III (an 8wpc SET tube amp) and our Pure Audio Project horns. The Lotus is an excellent control point here and made the heart of an incredibly enjoyable system. There is something so nice about the simplicity of a DAC/PRE, a power amplifier and a set of great speakers, that makes it incredibly easy to just kick back and relax without requiring a second mortgage to do so. Installing the Lotus 5 in the context of some decidedly upmarket gear that is well beyond its price point shows it incredibly capable.

A final, yet important point worth sharing about the Lotus 5 is that it is equally adept at decoding all digital files. Some DACs we’ve evaluated, especially those at the lower end of the price spectrum are often optimized for one segment of digital playback, i.e., high res performance is optimized at the expense of RedBook files, etc. It’s refreshing to see that Pure Audio has approached all options with equal respect. DSD and MQA files are also handled with care and ease, so no matter what you’re listening to, you’re covered.

Bottom line

As mentioned earlier, the Lotus 5 would be a great value even as a DAC alone, but considering the variable outputs and it’s ease at driving any power amplifier you might want to mate it with, that puts it over the top as a top performer and incredible value.

While my viewpoint might make some uncomfortable, the advent of Tidal and Qobuz offering so much music for so little money (and leaving the MQA vs. FLAC high res files out of this) I find it tough to really want to embrace analog if I had to start from ground zero. So, if you happen to be a digital music only music lover, I can’t think of a better anchor for a great two channel system than the Pure Audio Lotus 5 in this category.

With that being said, I am more than happy to award this DAC one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019. And Wally has mentioned that they will be offering 20% off to TONE readers, so be sure to mention this, should you call to order one. Tell them we sent you.

The Pure Audio Lotus 5 DAC/PRE

Msrp: $1,999

www.underwoodhifi.com

Peripherals

Power amplifiers Dynaco Stereo 70 (current model), Pass XA30.8

Speakers Harbeth P3ESR w/REL T7i subs, Focal Kanta no.3, Quad 2815

Cable Cardas Iridium

Power PS Audio P15

https://www.underwoodhifi.com/products/pure-audio

Even at a relatively low background level the massive Sonus faber SE speakers are immersive.

The top to bottom tonal balance is so engaging, it’s tough to write, or even have a conversation while they are playing. These speakers truly take your breath away, even before you turn the music on. Even at a modest level the SEs captivate instantly, as Bos Scaggs’ silky voice slowly folds into the mix of “Harbor Lights,” a track I’ve easily heard a thousand times over the years.

For speakers with such a massive physical presence, the delicacy that they deliver is almost tough to describe, it’s so seamless, effortless and with such gentle gradation when the program demands it, yet equally forceful when that is required. Powered by a full Burmester system, with bridged 909 Mk.5 power amplifiers for each SE (delivering nearly 2000 watts per channel) there are no dynamic restrictions here. And this is only a hint of what is to come.

The Sonus faber website says that the SE “is a limited edition masterpiece, available only by special request from premier clientele.” There’s a handful of Sonus faber dealers that you can purchase the Aida’s from, but if you want the SE, there’s only one place – LMC Home Entertainment in Scottsdale, Arizona. Owner Mike Ware is your steward to Sonus faber’s finest, and one of the top hifi dealers in the world. Ware says that his team will install and setup the SEs anywhere in the US, so you won’t have to worry about trying to move these on your own. Ware and his highly trained staff will leave nothing left to chance.

So, it made way more sense that I get on a plane and head out to see Mike. No one wants to see a pair of beauties like this get a nick, dent or scratch from shipping. Trading Portland for Scottsdale in January is not a bad idea either.

The setup

Having extensive experience with Burmester gear, also having spent time with the Sonus faber Aida a few weeks earlier, LMC’s Mike Ware saved me a ton of setup time. His main room, which measures about 25 x 40 feet, proves a much better venue for a speaker this size than my 15 x 26 foot room. Speakers this big really do need a big room to open up into.

Ware has the SE’s installed in the room about 15 feet apart and about 5 feet from the side walls, with three rows of slightly elevated theater seats. The front row center position is about ten feet back, the next row about a foot higher and the final row another foot or so higher. Because this system recreates such a true sense of scale, and fills the room so completely, depending on the performance played, you can get the immediacy of a third-row orchestra seat, the more diffuse position of the back row, or in between. It’s impressive, the way the stereo imaging holds up no matter where you sit.

Sonus faber speakers have always offered wide dispersion in both planes. Moving back to the middle row offers a slightly more homogenous feel with more room for the bass to integrate, but these speakers disappear in the room so well, it’s tough to not go back to the immersive, giant headphone like feel of the front row. Of course, you will certainly have your own preference, should you install your own pair. The best news though is that these are by no means a one-person, small sweet spot speaker. Sitting right in the center will give obvious dividends, but even sitting on the floor, off to the side, it’s still good.

The real deal

For all the naysayers that a great hifi system can’t put the real thing in your room, I say shut up. There’s something so special about these speakers in a big room, it is possible to close your eyes and be there. A perfect example of this is the “Superman” track from the Crash Test Dummies first album.  The SEs do such a precise job at recreating the performers, I feel just like I’m back at Portland’s Aladdin Theater, and Ellen Reid is resting her head on Brad Robert’s shoulder while singing backup. The spatial recreation is that convincing.

Awesome rarely comes easy and it rarely comes cheap. It certainly doesn’t here. A pair of SEs will set you back a cool $250k. Yeah. And that probably means at least another 250 or more in electronics and wire. We can have the argument till the cows come home whether this is “worth it” or not, but the bottom line is that this is what it costs to get sound this good. The rest is whether you want to play. But what a great playground.

Switching to more dynamic faire, bumping the volume on Aphex Twin’s “Minipops 67” is so much fun, even I want to get up and dance. And that’s not a medium in which I choose to express myself. Though I was given the green light to “turn it up as loud as I needed to,” the Sonus faber/Burmester combination never runs out of dynamic range, never flattening out in the slightest.

The driving bass line in the Aphex Twin tracks leads me to the back side of the SE to see where the “deep low level” setting happens to be. It is on “minimum.” According to the owners manual, this controls the output of the 15-inch, side firing woofer (with 4-inch voice coil) that is crossed over to the pair of front firing 10-inch woofers at 80hz.

Sonus faber lists the sensitivity of the SE at 92db/1 watt, and a maximum power handling of 1000 watts. Ware confirms my suspicions, that like the Aida, these speakers will play with anything, but a reserve of clean, quality wattage helps them deliver everything they are capable of.

Further up the spectrum

These woofers cross to the midrange driver at 250hz, and then again to the Beryllium dome tweeter at 2500hz. There is another one of these facing back with a smaller midrange, as part of what Sonus faber refers to as a “soundfield shaper.” This feeds a bit of the main sound towards the rear wall or corner in your room, and depending on where you set the controls, can go far at expanding the soundstage. Ware had these set on the lowest setting in his room, which makes sense considering the size.

The Aida has a similar setup around back, and when we had them here for review, we found that they helped integrate a large speaker into a smaller room better, but as always, experiment to find the sweet spot to taste.

I’d be lying if I told you I remember all the nuances of seeing the Talking Heads on the Stop Making Sense tour back in 1981, but playing the soundtrack through the SEs feels right. Their ability to reproduce the sheer sound pressure level of the live event, with the resolution, clarity, and nuance of a world class audiophile system is better than live in my book. And the way the audience response is folded in and out of the mix, feels totally real. I found a similar effect when listening to Jeff Beck’s Live at Ronnie Scotts, as I did with a number of other favorite live recordings.

The spatial presentation of these large speakers is fantastic. The energetic presentation they offer confirms a true sense of sonic reality. Sitting in the middle row of Ware’s room, the cues from people in the audience cheering, clapping, and whistling is so realistic it’s almost like listening to a full Dolby Atmos setup, not two speakers. Greg Dulli’s vocals at the beginning of Gentlemen is phenomenal. Im pulled to the edge of the seat as His textured, loud, cyring whisper drains off so gradually when he sings, “It’s in our home, baby, it’s in our bed.” Yet 20 seconds later when he begins to scream, I nearly jump out of the chair. That’s musical realism.

Big dynamics are big fun, but revisiting some of my favorite Beatles, Stones and Dylan records reveals how well the SEs lock down the musical pace, almost like a small pair of studio monitors – but a lot bigger. A LOT bigger.

A different look at detail

For many audiophiles, the word detail means a sharp-edged presentation that cuts into your psyche, often revealing the music in a harsh manner, with a forward presentation. Speakers that have a softer presentation are referred to as laid back, warm, or rounded off.

But imagine combining that level of detail, revealing the maximum amount of musical information in a way that is not the least bit harsh or grating, with a range of tonal scale that feels like a continuous gradation, that’s the sorcery that the SE presents. It’s like sleeping on 2400 count sheets.

The resolution experienced with the SEs is not so much in an ultimate sense, but in the smoothness of gradation. Sounds faded from maximum to minimum in an incredibly linear fashion, and swelled from quiet to loud in the same way. This is the last bit of realism for me.

If I weren’t listening to digital files, I’d feel almost like the music was running a tad slow, but it comes back to the way the music is rendered with such an utmost delicacy. The SEs have the necessary speed to accomplish whatever musical task is required, yet they never feel like they are “attacking the music.” The music merely swells and recedes so quickly and smoothly, there’s never any attention drawn to the speakers.

That’s the highest compliment I can pay the SEs. After a really intense seven hour listening session, I never felt like I was listening to hifi, nor did I have hifi thoughts while basking in their glory. All I could think of was what track to play next, comparing what I heard to what I’ve heard before. There’s nothing that these speakers can’t play. Big, or small, loud or soft, acoustic or electric. No limit.

And that’s part of what $250k buys.

The SEs do it all: they sound great at bone crushing levels, yet even at conversation level, they still sound fantastic. Yet they create a sound field that is so dense and full of musical information, as you slowly advance the volume level it’s easy to perceive the level at which you become totally immersed in the music – the point at which you become the music. The SEs provide a transparency and coherence of your favorite ESL, yet they have the punch of a cone speaker and the weight to convince you.

Because each pair of SEs is built to order, any special finish requirements can easily be accommodated.

The other part of the equation is the level of detail that is paid to every single aspect of all Sonus faber speakers, but even more so in the SE. The level of craftsmanship present here is unmatched by any other speaker manufacturer.

Sonus fabers’ craftsmanship is everywhere, from the leather neatly wrapped around the front and rear panels, all the way down to the suspension and feet in the base. No detail is left unfinished to epic proportions.

Ware informs us that it takes about four months to build a set of SEs, and he has a few pair in stock (in popular finishes) so if the urge strikes, you can take them home today. As mentioned at the beginning of the review, LMC Home Entertainment in Scottsdale is the sole dealer for this speaker in the United States. It’s a great place to visit, so you might want to schedule a vacation around auditioning them. Southwest Airlines is offering some specials right now…

As much as I’ve tried to fill you in on what these spectacular speakers sound like, I still feel my words come up short. Should the SEs be on your radar, it will only take about 90 seconds into your favorite track to fall under their spell. At that moment, you will know everything.

You’ve been warned.

The Sonus faber SE

MSRP: $250,000/pair

Peripherals

Digital Source Burmester 069 CD Player, Linn Klimax DS

Preamplfier Burmester 077

Power Amplifier Burmester 909 Mk.5 (2 in mono block mode)

Power Burmester 948 Power Conditioner

Cable Atlas Asimi

www.sonusfaber.com

www.lmche.com

Paradigm, Anthem, and MartinLogan are pleased to announce exhibition plans for ISE 2019 at the RAI in Amsterdam.

For four days in early February, the companies will showcase a broad range of advanced loudspeaker designs and cutting-edge audio electronics. Paradigm and Anthem will offer 2-channel and home theater demonstrations, MartinLogan will announce several new products, and Anthem will release details about the next generation of Anthem Room Correction (ARC) software.

For the duration of ISE 2019, Paradigm and Anthem are partnering with HTE (Home Theater Environment) and SIM2 to offer exceptional audio and home theater demonstrations. In a sound room, specially designed by HTE, Paradigm and Anthem will be demonstrating a 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos home theater system and a 2-channel audio system. Additional equipment used in the home theater demo includes SIM2’s new 4K projector and a projection screen from Screen Innovations.

Paradigm’s 7.2.4 Dolby Atmos demonstration system will feature the following products:

• Persona 5F speakers and Persona C center channel speaker
• Persona Sub and Defiance X15 subwoofers
• CI Elite E7-LCR in-wall & E-80R in-ceiling speakers
• Anthem AVM 60 audio/video processor
• Anthem STR and MCA power amplifiers

Paradigm’s 2-channel demonstration system will feature the following products:

• Persona 5F speakers
• Persona Sub subwoofers
• Anthem STR Preamplifier
• Anthem STR Power Amplifier

In addition to products featured in the active demo system, Paradigm’s display will feature:

• Details on the next generation of Anthem Room Correction software(a press release will be available on February 5th)
• Persona loudspeakers
• Prestige loudspeakers
• Premier loudspeakers
• Monitor SE loudspeakers
• Defiance subwoofers
• CI Home and CI Pro custom installation loudspeakers
• Garden Oasis and Stylus all-weather custom installation loudspeakers
• Anthem STR electronics
• Anthem AVM 60 audio/video processor
• Anthem MRX audio/video receivers
• Anthem MCA amplifiers

MartinLogan’s display will feature:

• A new line of CI speakers (a press release will be available on February 5th)
• CLX Art full-range electrostatic loudspeakers
• Renaissance ESL 15A hybrid electrostatic loudspeakers
• Classic ESL 9 hybrid electrostatic loudspeakers
• ElectroMotion ESL X hybrid electrostatic loudspeakers
• Motion 60XT loudspeakers
• Motion 35XT bookshelf loudspeakers
• Dynamo subwoofers

HTE (Home Theatre Environment) is an Italian based company offering unique solutions to transform any room into a specialized entertainment environment, conjugating the technical demands with the design. The strong point of HTE lies in its ability to transform the environment, so it will be acoustically perfect, without compromising aesthetics, thanks to proprietary HAS Acoustic System. One of their 24-bit Performance Interior Acoustic Design will be presented during the show. For more information on HTE, please visit: https://www.hte.design/

SIM2 is an Italian based company that designs and manufactures the world’s finest home cinema projection systems. Since 1995 SIM2 has designed outstanding products that offer the highest cinematic experience and perfect home integration. Premiering at ISE 2019, SIM2’s new NERO4 SD is a 6,000-lumen high-brightness DLP projector featuring the most advanced HDR video processing in the industry, a 4K compatible projection lens (capable of 92 line pairs/mm),  and a full DCI color space. For more information on SIM2, please visit:  http://www.sim2.com/

Paradigm, Anthem, and MartinLogan will be located at booth #15 – T265.

Today, from Amsterdam at the ISE show, the Sonus faber division of the McIntosh Group announced a wide range of in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. They call this new line of speakers
Palladio, appropriately bearing the name of the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio – a master of classical proportion.

This is fantastic news for those wishing to build an all Sonus faber system without compromise.

Sonus faber’s North America brand manager, William Kline and McIntosh Group’s Senior Marketing Manager David Mascioni gave us a quick call to fill us in on this exciting development.

For now this product that Kline refers to as “35 years in the making,” will consist of two product lines (level 5 and level 6) to compliment the Sonetto and Olympica collections, both from a sonic and aesthetic standpoints. He goes on to tell us that a lot of the core research for these speakers came from those respective lines, in both driver and crossover technology. “They incorporate everything that makes Sonus faber, Sonus faber.” When asked if this was company or market directed, he responded that it was an equal push from both sides, and that from a dealer standpoint, “A multi-channel or HT customer can now have an all Sonus faber system.”

With a total of 13 models, it will be easy to accompany your floor standing Sonus faber speakers with the additional channels required for a custom installation, or even go all in-wall/ceiling. The possibilities are greater than ever.

As you can see from the photos, these are pure Sonus faber, right down to the grilles. Sonus faber is saying that final pricing will be locked in some time in Q2 of this year, with product available in the dealer channel sometime in Q3. We will definitely have more to tell you as soon as we are able to experience these in person.

Watch the Sonus faber website for more information soon, and if you are attending ISE, stop by booth 14-C150. And tell them TONE sent you. Ciao.

With so many manufacturers of small speakers skating around the subwoofer issue, JERN (Danish for Iron, but more about that later) comes right out and tells you that their speakers are “meant for use with a high quality subwoofer.”

Meeting with JERN’s CEO and designer, Ole Lund Christensen and their representative for the US, Steve French at last year’s Munich show and again at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, these speakers put on a stunning display, with a pair of small REL T5i subwoofers. While achieving equally great results with a pair of T7is in my smaller listening room, the pair of REL 212SEs in the main listening room kept me pondering. It didn’t take long before they were mated to the big subs.

Carefully readjusting the level and crossover frequencies on the big REL’s to blend seamlessly with these super cool (but not light) small speakers was nothing short of breathtaking. While powering them with the Audio Research REF160M amplifiers in for review, along with the Pass XS Pre and dCS Vivaldi ONE made for a couple hundred thousand dollar reference system, with this tiny $5k/pair speakers as the centerpiece. They succeed brilliantly, and are not out of place.

Thanks to high quality drivers from ScanSpeak, Mundorf’s best capacitors in the 6db/octave crossover and a high density, cast iron enclosure that redefines inert, these speakers threw a massive, three dimensional soundfield in our 15 x 25 foot listening room. With the JERNs only about 6 feet away from my listening chair in an equilateral triangle, there was no real interaction with the rear or side walls and it was easy to get them aligned to perfection.

Do not do the knuckle rap test on the JERN’s unless you want to make a trip to your nearest urgent care facility for broken knuckles. This is such a unique application of a material that has been around for sometime. It manages to be completely resonance free, and while they are offered in colors, the native black is incredibly cool, especially if you can blast a few spotlights on your JERN speakers. The organic shape responds to lighting very well, looking more like sculpture than speakers.

Taking a lead from our newest writer, I used Doris Day’s voice, in “Love Me or Leave Me” to adjust the JERN’s. They utilize a thick rubber donut to go between the speaker and your stands (filled Sound Anchors did the job here) so that you can make minute adjustments to toe in and rake. They offer wide dispersion, but extra care making sure that both speakers are raked at exactly the same angle will give you the maximum amount of separation and imaging focus. You should be able to optimize this in about 15 minutes.

Be careful as these little sound pods weigh almost 30 pounds each! As our good friend Kurt at Echo HiFi in Portland likes to say “don’t play catch with them.” Those of you with basketball player hands could probably use them to knock out a set of curls though. But I digress.

Redefining the small speaker experience

Nearly always, small speakers mean small dynamics. Not with JERN. Having just come off a major listening session comparing three small speakers that I really love (the Harbeth P3ESL, the Graham LS3/5 and LS3/5A) the word stuck in my head was small. Great midrange, check. Killer, three-dimensional imaging, check. Big speaker dynamics, (even with subs) not so much.

The true magic in the JERNs, is their high level of resolution and actual dynamics; they mate better with a pair of good subwoofers than any other small speaker I’ve had the pleasure to use. Because they naturally roll off around 70hz, they can play louder than other small speakers, and the cones don’t bottom out when you play serious bass heavy music with a subwoofer like the REL, which demands running your mains full range.

Cranking up some vintage Nine Inch Nails, “Mr. Self Destruct” the REL/JERN combination paints a landscape extending beyond the speakers all the way to the side walls, which are ten feet to each side. Compared to the Quad 2812s used in the same context, the JERNs positively crank, playing so much louder than possible with the ESLs. When the track drops from maximum level, to Trent Reznor’s whisper, they follow the music truthfully, picking up layer after layer of detail.

A true Quad lover, the JERN’s and a pair of great subs eclipses the Quad experience in a lot of ways. The miniscule amount of ethereal ESL-ness that the Quads bring to the table won’t outweigh the sheer dynamics that the JERN’s offer, served with their own nuanced presentation. I’ve never experienced a pair of small monitors that deliver so much finesse along with sheer punch. Listening to Mick Jagger and Christina Aguilara duel on “Live With Me,” you can almost feel the two of them moving back and forth, taking turns with the microphone.

The model 14 is made to be used with a subwoofer and as mentioned, has a limited LF output, allowing more dynamics. Their model 12s are better suited for full range applications, much as you might use any other mini monitor. But keep in mind, they just won’t quite rock like the 14EH.

Further experimentation

The REL T7i’s make a fantastic match for the JERN’s that won’t break the bank. At just under $2,000/pair, you’ve got a $7,000 full range speaker system that will reveal a lot more music than quite a few speakers costing much more.

Those wanting to step up a bit, might even consider a single REL Carbon sub. This $3,500 sub, with its carbon fiber cone is even faster and more nuanced than the 212SE, and plays up a little higher in the frequency band without bloat. Where the 212SE’s are fantastic, when asked to crossover as high as the JERNs need to be, without a hole in the frequency spectrum, the Carbon goes that last 10hz with ease.

Thanks to the benign load a simple 6db/octave crossover presents along with a sensitivity of 88db/1 watt, you don’t need to have a pair of $30k Audio Research monoblocks. Making the Sugden A21SE (30 wpc, solid-state, single ended class A) the heart of the system along with the Mytek Brooklyn, and some Tellurium Q black cables brings the system total to about $13k, and in a small-ish room, is heavenly. We found equally enticing results with the PrimaLuna HP integrated (about 90wpc, tubes) and the Gold Note IS-1000 integrated (125 wpc, solid state).

The JERN 14EH’s provide such a high level of resolution, that the personalities of each of these amplifiers was easy to discern. Should you build your system around the 14EH, they will probably be the last thing you’ll replace if you chase down the upgrade path. If you want world class fidelity in a small room, these can easily be your final destination.

The more you listen, the more you’ll like

As with most speakers, the JERN’s are a little bit flat right out of the box. You can hear the magic, but it feels a little far away. Give them five or six solid days of play and return to the party. That’s better. Keith Richard’s “How Could I Stop?” was the track starting each mornings listening. Every day there was more separation between Richard’s lead vocal track and the backup singers, and Charlie Watts’ cymbal work picks up more texture as well. Most small monitors excel at conveying the musical pace, but the JERN’s are a step above in this respect.

The only thing the JERNs can’t do is play at near brain damage levels in a large room and present a massive soundstage. Those small cones can only move so much air. But in a relatively near field situation, your ears might just give up before these speakers do.

Ultimately, the real limitations of the JERN 14EH speakers will be your budget for ancillaries. They will sound lovely with modest amplification and subwoofers, but they offer a major helping of the best high-end sound has to offer if you mate them with world class components.

It’s always tough to add your personal bias to a review, but I loved the 14EH’s enough to buy the review pair. I think they are that good, and I’ve had the privilege to audition a number of great small speakers. With a great sub, there’s no other $7k pair of speakers I’d rather own.

The Jern 14EH Speakers

MSRP: $5,000/pair

www.jernspeakers.com

Peripherals

Digital Source         dCS Vivaldi ONE

Preamplifier            PASS Labs  XS Pre

Power Amplifier     Audio Research REF160M

Signal Cable          Tellurium Q Ultra Black

Subwoofers           REL T7i, REL Carbon Edition, REL 212SE

Tracking through Jaco Pastorius’ debut album via a pair of RELs new Carbon Limited subwoofers, there’s definitely something different from the way the low frequencies are rendered compared to what I’m used to on my REL 212SEs.

Our Product of the Year-winning 212’s provide a level of power, weight, and definition that are unmatched in their price category, the Carbon Limited throws a curve ball into the mix. The 212s weigh in at $4,200 each, the Carbon Limited’s are $3,500 each. Do you choose the mid-grade Porsche 911, or do you get the similarly priced, not quite as fast, but more nimble (and in much more limited quantity) Cayman GT4? Hmmm.

Just like Porsche’s best kept secret, RELs Carbon Limited subwoofer might end up being revered in the same way. REL has performed a similar feat of engineering with the Carbon Limited. Utilizing one of their carbon drivers from the current G-1 MKII sub, the passive radiator from the 212SE, and goosing the amplifier from the highly successful S/5 SHO, results in a compact, high performance product like no other, and nothing else in their line. Like the GT4, the Carbon Limited, due to the amount of hand fit and finish work (more about that later), will only be made in small quantities. So, if you want one, get to your dealer now and place an order.

Inspiration

In a recent chat with REL’s John Hunter, he reiterates a bit of information from a recent REL Blog post, telling me that this was a “what-if, dream project.” A fellow car guy, we’ve always pondered what might be available if you could go to the parts bin with unlimited access and just make exactly the car you wanted. A similar thing has occurred with the Carbon Limited.

The CL features REL’s medium sized enclosure from their Serie S subwoofers, but that’s where the similarity ends. The 12” carbon fibre cone with a full 4” of travel has excursion, dynamics, and low level detail that is unmatched by any of its competitors. Adding all the other components along with “a host of special tricks and techniques they’ve developed over the years” results in a nearly perfect solution for increasing the LF output of your system.

And if you look closer, you’ll see an even smoother, glossier, deeper finish than a standard model. As Nigel Tufnel would say, “how much more black can this be?” This black. A black that puts the black finish on a $100k GT4 to shame. Even cooler is the badge on top of the cabinet; this aluminum badge is triple chrome plated and the black of the REL logo is hand painted in the recess. You might see this kind of thing on a pre-war Delahaye, but not on a subwoofer. The shiny feet receive the exact same treatment.

In the end, the Carbon looks and feels luxurious before you even turn it on. To our quality-philes in the audience, you’re going to love it.

Simple setup

As with all REL products, setup is easy with multiple options. Should you choose not to use REL’s high level connection, which does offer the best sound and best integration with your main speakers, it can still be connected via the LFE channel, or line level outputs from your preamplifier. If you’ve never done it REL’s way, you should, it transforms the experience. Utilizing the high-level speaker output for connection, the Carbon takes on the low frequency characteristics of your power amplifier and it eliminates the signal from your preamplifier passing through another crossover network. All good things for signal integrity and the biggest possible soundfield.

Finally, you can connect to the Carbon wirelessly, using REL’s Longbow transmitter, featuring the same functionality and inputs as the ones on the rear panel of the Carbon. This eliminates the long cables from amplifier to subwoofer and has a range of about 45 feet. You can read the full definition of the Longbow system here, but suffice to say it’s the easiest bit of hardware we’ve ever used. Two switches, and you’re done.

As we’ve mentioned in other REL articles, switching back and forth between the Longbow and wired connections reveals no difference in the character of our reference system’s LF performance. The receiver is built into the Carbon, but you will need a transmitter, which has a cost of $300. The Longbow can control up to four separate REL’s in mono mode, but if you want to run a pair in discrete stereo mode, you will need two Longbow transmitters.

Once you’ve decided how to connect, the rest is straightforward. REL features excellent support tutorials on their website, but for a single-driver, cube enclosure like the Carbon, start with the sub or subs fairly close to the room corner, facing your listening position, then slowly adjust the level and crossover point until you just start to hear the sub separately, then back off. To fine tune, bring it out in the room until the bass gets too weak and go back slightly. Mr. Hunter is way better at this than I am, but long story short, when the REL disappears and all you hear is your main speakers going deeper with more definition, and you can’t hear a subwoofer anywhere, you’ve done it right.

Correctly optimized, the REL vanishes from your room. Hint: you can probably go with a slightly lower crossover frequency than you think, but with slightly more output than you think. If you are using a pair, start on the other side of the listening room with the settings determined here and fine tune to taste.

You can’t un-hear it

Hunter is fond of explaining that bass doesn’t just hit you from a small cube in your room, and this is why the 212SE is so successful, as is their stacks of larger subwoofers. Yet, because of the extremely nimble character of the carbon, it does a better job at convincing you it’s a stack of woofers than any other single cube solution we’ve tried. REL subwoofers excel at rendering bass attack and detail – real musical detail. Even when listening to electric bass players, you can tell the difference between someone playing through a vintage Ampeg cabinet and one playing through a Gallien-Krueger cabinet. Yet, way too often a home system, even subwoofer equipped, only provides a thumpy, whumpy, one note solution. Thus, the general angst towards subwoofers.

If you’ve used one of the smaller REL subs, you’re in for a treat when you queue up the Carbon. If you’re using someone else’s subwoofer, you’re in for a shock. The funky, irresistible groove in Rufus’ “Tell Me Something Good” shows off the sheer texture in the bass line. Go listen on another system and compare. You’ve never heard that, have you? A similar change is enjoyed with Curtis Mayfield’s classic, “Superfly.” I can do this all night.

The other massive bonus that the Carbon offers, thanks to its incredible speed, is the ability to play slightly higher on the tonal scale without drawing attention to itself. Most subwoofers struggle to even reach 50 hz without sounding muddy and muffled, giving the haters more reason to hate. The Carbon sails through, and mates splendidly with your favorite panel speaker as well as nearly any mini monitor you can think of.

We had a blast pairing the Carbon with the LS3/5a, Harbeth P3ESR, and the recently reviewed Jern 14DS. This has never worked seamlessly with any other sub – and it is perhaps the ultimate test. That lack of cloudiness in the midbass, makes for a stronger, more defined low bass, and that’s really what the Carbon is all about. It’s more than forceful enough for your favorite EDM tracks, but subtle enough for your favorite acoustic bass-heavy tracks.

Then, shut it off. Even with music that you don’t think is particularly bass heavy. You don’t want to live without the REL effect.

Why this one?

Speaker selection is always a personal thing, but the ultimate choice will come down to the music you listen to most, how high of a sound pressure level you crave, and finally which cabinet your room can accommodate.

If you’ve ever sampled one of the world’s finest desserts and came away thinking “I only need a few bites of that,” you have the mindset to appreciate what makes the REL Carbon Edition so special – though both John Hunter and I suggest you get a pair for optimum results. If you have a similar desire for LF response, wanting the quality of the top REL reference subs, yet don’t have as much space to fill, this is the perfect choice.

We’re giving the REL Carbon Limited our first Exceptional Value Award of the new year. Get one before they are gone. The additional labor required means they won’t make ‘em forever.

Our thanks to REL for the supplied images.

The REL Carbon Limited Subwoofer

MSRP: $3,500 (ea.)

www.rel.net

PERIPHERALS

Analog Source     Luxman PD-171A turntable w/Kiseki Purple Heart

Digital Source      dCS Rossini DAC/Clock

Amplification       PASS Labs INT-60 and VAC Sigma 170i

Speakers             Quad 2812, Raidho D 1.1

Signal Cables       Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Power Products    PS Audio P20 power conditioner and Cardas Clear Beyond power cords

The conrad-johnson team knows tube preamplifiers, with over 40 years of experience under their belts, building coveted products which improve with each new generation.

The ET7-S2 we review here is c-j’s middle child preamplifier, sandwiched between the GAT series 2reference and their entry-level ET3. For $12,000 the ET7-S2 benefits from many sonic improvements implemented in C-J’s flagship, but at a more accessible price point.

Like all c-j products, this preamp comes with only one faceplate color. Gold. And don’t even try to convince them otherwise. The ET7 features a hefty build weighing in at 19 pounds (8.62 kg), and audio rack-friendly dimensions of 19 inches (48.3cm) wide by 15.375 inches (39cm) deep by 4.375 inches (11cm) tall.

It needs to be mentioned that because of the extensive changes between the original ET7 and the new S2, that it can not be sent back to c-j for an “update.” Lew Johnson told us that the S2 has “an entirely new PC board, and this would be prohibitively costly.”

The ET7 comes with a matching, beautifully anodized remote allowing a user to change volume or source, mute, and alter left-to-right balance from the comfort of a listening seat. The front panel offers the same functionality, with delicate silver buttons and yellow LEDs to indicate user selections.

This preamp’s face features an LED screen showcasing the volume level for each channel. When the numbers are identical, balance is centered. As balance changes, the two numbers diverge from one another.  When changing volume using the remote or the buttons on the front panel, the ET7 has a very audible click accentuating each volume step activated in the digital domain. If you are used to a component with a smooth, silent volume change this sound is a bit jarring. After a few days though, it becomes second nature.

All of c-j’s current preamps employ at least one vacuum tube. The ET7 (like the ET3) taps a single 6922 and calling it a hybrid design is simplifying things a bit too much. Mr. Johnson comments, “the important work is all done by the 6922, which handles all voltage gain. Because the output impedance of a tube voltage amplifier stage is too high for most real world applications, we use a MOSFET device as a buffer. This provides much better performance than a cathode follower (all tube) solution.”

Those who enjoy tube rolling can open the chassis and make the swap. Some tube gear gets quite hot during use, but the ET7 case does not, even when left on for a few days. The ET7 features a standby mode to keep circuitry warm, but not waste tube life when the preamp is not in use. Depressing the power button toggles the component on or off. After powering on, the mute button engages while the tube warms up for a minute. When the mute shuts off automatically, you are ready to rock.

Ins and outs

The preamp features a single-ended topology and offers only RCA connectors. The user has a choice of five sets of pre-labeled inputs, plus two sets of “main outs.” The extra outputs prove especially handy for connecting subwoofers should the owner choose to add them. The ET7 does not include a phonostage, but c-j does label one set of inputs for one if the owner wants to connect an external component there to avoid confusion.

The ET7’s ability to handle home theater pass-through is a welcome feature. While I don’t use any surround sound components in my listening space, I do enjoy the ability to use the preamp’s pass-through capability with a Sonos system. Interconnecting the ET7’s home theater outputs to a Sonos Connect’s inputs, I can extend sound to the rest of the residence with Sonos speakers playing the music from the main rig.

Sound

The preamp includes c-j’s proprietary CJD Teflon capacitors, refined over the last decade. However, they do take some time to break in fully. We gave the ET7 200 hours of operation before making any serious judgments, although it sounds mighty good right out of the box. You will not be disappointed. Its overall character is on the warmer side of neutral, but not mushy or overly-lush. The ET7’s bass portrayal renders low frequencies naturally, with the heft or sustain engineered into the recording.

The preamp’s high frequency process offers a lot of detail too. It renders the harmonically-complex, but the beautifulring from percussive elements like a triangle or cymbal with grace. It also brings a palpable life to soprano vocals and reveals the subtle sonic cues which contribute to the ET7 soundstaging prowess.

There’s a very organic quality about this preamp. The ET7 takes the sting out of edgy recordings, yet still manages to reveal the fine details within. The resulting sonic signature is akin to taking a seat in the tenth row of a concert hall rather than the first.

Soundstaging is equally impressive. Musical elements extend in all directions around the speakers but never bunch up around them. The ET7 also does a very good job placing musical elements front-to-back in the soundstage. Vocals reach forward into the room, even when the sound engineer places multiple instruments – like percussion – in the center of the musical picture too.

After enjoying all genres with the ET7 in the chain, there is little to criticize and a lot to love. Is it right for you? That answer lies with your preferred sonic signature and the gear you want to pair with it. Those who crave accentuation of every note and detail in a song may find the c-j’s smooth presentation a tad polite. A very punchy solid-state amp might be a good match in that case. Those who want to grab a seat on the sofa and dissolve into the bigger musical picture, though, better buckle in for a long listening session and forget about analyzing the music. The ET7’s highly engaging sound is beguiling, and a perfect match for my ART150 power amplifier.

Conclusions

The ET7 series 2 linestage preamp represents an excellent option for those who seek fantastic musical performance. At $12,000 the ET7-S2 represents an investment. However, if you prioritize music in your life start saving your pennies now. Considering the amount of trickle-down technology which the ET7 gains from the GAT design, it can approach flagship performance at half the price.

After several weeks with the ET7 in place, it certainly proved its mettle. Its natural, organic presentation is immersive. Plus, the ET7’s warmer character will help it pair well with most amplifiers – and music — of your choosing.

Yes, there will always be new components that come to market, but newer is not always better. I expect c-j has some tricks up its sleeve for future products to debut as they approach their 50^thanniversary in a decade. But for now, the ET7-S2 represents a marvelous achievement, coupled with a three-year warranty backing it in the unlikely event it should fail. If you seek a preamplifier in the $10,000 range, be sure to put the ET7-S2 on your short list for an audition. You will not be disappointed.

Further Listening: Jeff Dorgay

Having lived with nearly every conrad-johnson preamplifier since the PV-1, it’s been an amazing journey with Lew Johnson and Bill Conrad. (and now new principal, Jeff Fischel, who has taken over after being involved for nearly 20 years)

Their original amplifiers and preamplifiers back from the late 70s to the mid 90s had a sound that was tonally rich and saturated, though criticized by some to be a bit warm and vintage in presentation. Yet the c-j motto “it just sounds right,” won them a legion of loyal fans the world over. Much as a fancy adjective might impress you, that tagline was always the essence of their sound.

When the CJD Teflon caps were first implemented in the early 2000s, it sparked the era of what I’d call the “modern c-j sound.” None of the midrange magic and tonal purity that I’d always loved with c-j components was lost, but c-j components now had an entirely new level of bass extension, dynamic range and lower noise floor.

This began with the ACT2 and ACT2/series 2 preamplifiers, which were my main reference components for many years, then moving on to the GAT and GAT 2. All four of these preamplifiers have received an incredible amount of awards the world over, and many end users as well as audio reviewers have called them the best in the world – for good reason. There’s still something unmistakable about the c-j experience. Few preamplifiers have this level of refinement with no shortcoming. Full circle, “it just sounds right” is as salient in 2019 as it was in 1979. That’s impressive.

Running the ET7 through its paces here, with a wide range of power amplifiers from c-j and others. Though the ET7 uses single ended outputs, it (like the others before it) has no problem driving a 30- foot pair of interconnects to a pair of power amplifiers on the other side of the listening room. Comparing the sound through the 30-foot pair of Cardas Clear interconnects and a 3-foot pair revealed no difference. The design team at c-j has always taken a less is more approach and it has always worked well.

Where there is still a substantial enough difference in sheer scale and resolution to more than justify stepping up to the mighty GAT 2, provided you have the system and can justify the expense, a quick comparison to an ACT 2 shows just how much the design team has learned. Granted some of this could be the difference inherent in the 6H30 triodes used in the ACT 2 versus the single 6922 in the ET7, but the current preamplifier has more refinement, much more. If this makes sense, the ACT 2 sounds a bit brutal now by comparison. It’s like the difference between the power delivery of a late 90s air-cooled Porsche 911 and the current car: the older car had more urge, which grabs you at first, but the new car has a much wider power band and modulation of power that it’s more useful every day.

Considering that 15 years ago, the ACT2 was a killer preamplifier at $13,500, the ET7 is an exceptional value at $12,000 today. Hence, the ET7 gets one of our first awards of 2019, and well deserved. This certainly can be a destination preamplifier for 99% of our listeners. It still sounds right.

Conrad-Johnson ET7-S2 linestage preamplifier

MSRP: $12,000

www.conradjohnson.com

PERIPHERALS

Analog Source SME Model 10 with SME V and Model 10 tonearms. Dynavector 17D3 and Denon DL-103R cartridges

Digital Sources Mac Mini, Roon Music Service, Simaudio MOON 780D DAC, Oppo BDP-103

Amplification Conrad-Johnson ART150

Speakers GamuT RS3i, JL Audio Dominion Subwoofers

Cables Jena Labs

Power Torus AVR 15 Plus, RSA Mongoose, and Cardas Clear power cords

Accessories ASC tube traps, Mapleshade Samson audio racks, Coffman Labs Equipment Footers, AudioQuest Jitterbug, Atomic Audio Labs Mac Mini stand

The thought of an integrated amplifier in the context of a high-end system is no longer the “less than” proposition it might have been a decade ago.

If you want a high performance system, yet aren’t longing for a massive rack of gear to go with, an integrated is a spectacular solution. With so many manufacturer’s building great integrateds, now offering excellent phono sections and now DAC/streamers on board, it’s tough to argue with this space saving proposition.

Enter the Gold Note IS-1000. This $5,000 integrated amplifier combines a 125 watt per-channel, Class AB power amplifier, full function preamplifier, high resolution DAC/streamer (that also works as a ROON endpoint – bonus) and phonostage based on the PH-10 that hifi reviewers the world over have all given stunning testimony to. It’s a hefty, yet compact box that weighs in at about 45 pounds, so don’t let the svelte shape fool you.

Our review sample arrived in basic matte black, but silver and an incredibly nice shade of gold is also available. Not quite as heavy in tone as the conrad-johnson products, Gold Note has struck the perfect balance of elegance and being different from the rest of the pack. If I were putting an IS-1000 in my living room, gold would definitely be the choice.

Around back, there are just enough inputs to be capable, without a lot of stuff you don’t need. The DAC has three optical inputs, Coax, and USB as well as an Ethernet connection to stream. There is also a wireless antenna, so you can connect your mobile device via Bluetooth – that way everyone can join in on the fun.

Along with the phono input, which can be configured as MM or MC, there is a set of single ended RCA inputs as well as a set of balanced XLRs. Seriously, other than a turntable, what else would you need to connect?

Ok, it’s gorgeous

The IS-1000 is a winner at first turn on. One major point that deserves mention, is just how easy this amplifier is to use. Too often, multifunctional devices are so complicated, that you must consult the manual to even get them to power up. The only thing you need to know (and I knew this from the PH-10) that the main control has to be pushed in to start things going. After that, the front panel screen makes it easy to navigate through all of the functions with ease. Again, Gold Note has done a fantastic job with the human interface. Volume level is the largest part of the display with everything a bit smaller. A quick push of the button allows you to navigate to where you want to go, with a second push to make the adjustment. The IS-1000 can be easily operated without the remote control.

While here, we’ve used it with an incredibly wide range of speakers, from the power hungry Magnepans, to the fussy QUAD ESL and everything in between. All were handled with ease, so whatever you speaker preference, the IS-1000 will serve your needs. Those wanting more power, or a multi-amplifier setup need look no further than the rear panel, with a variable output available.

We tried this with a few tube power amplifiers, just to investigate different, and again, the IS-1000 works incredibly well. Though it would be a bit of a waste to spend $5,000 on an integrated amplifier and not use the power amplifier section, the rest of the IS-1000 offers a high enough level of performance, that it would still be a great DAC/Phono/Pre. Perhaps the design team at GN would consider offering a future variation on the IS-1000, sans power amplifier at some point? For those still wanting to mix and match a little more, this would also be a fantastic product.

Super sound

Forgoing class-D amplification in favor of a traditional AB amplifier with a massive power supply is a big part of what gives it such a natural, organic feel. The sound is ever so slightly on the warmer side of the neutral mid-point of tonal rendition. Where the Pass INT-60 offers a bit more tonal saturation than the IS-1000, our Simaudio ACE has a little less, if that helps to give you a bit of perspective before you audition the IS-1000 for yourself.

Comparing the internal phonostage to the PH-10 we have on hand shows just how close the GN engineers have come. Connecting the PH-10 via balanced outputs, it was easy to go back and forth, with the Technics SL-1200G (utilizing my Gold Note Machiavelli MC cartridge) and hear the difference. Again, the on-board stage comes remarkably close, but it is worth noting that the PH-10 can be upgraded further with an external power supply for analog fanatics.

Tracking through a handful of other great phono cartridges in the $500 – $1,500 range again, reveals the sweet spot, and when used with an appropriate turntable (perhaps one of those beauties from Gold Note…) will offer enough resolution to provide an immersive analog experience. It only takes a few tracks to realize that the phono is not an afterthought, merely trying to take advantage of vinyl’s current popularity.

Listening to the recent Rolling Stones remasters, the combination of on-board phono and Machiavelli cartridge pulls out major details, while painting a very wide and deep soundstage with a low noise floor, even with MC carts. Bass is authoritative, and controlled, with an equivalent level of smoothness in the higher registers. Cymbals sound smooth and acoustic, stringed instruments feel correct.

The main area of difference from the PH-10 is its lack of adjustability. Where the stand-alone phono offers multiple gain, loading, capacitance and EQ settings, the on board phono of the IS-1000 is set at 45db/220pf for MM and 65db/470ohm for MC. However, this will accommodate quite a few cartridges, so all but the fussiest users will be just fine, but again, keep this in mind if you already have a cartridge that you love. Those starting from ground zero merely need to purchase a cartridge within this range.

Digital options

Compatible with every digital file and streaming option you can imagine, makes the IS-1000 incredibly versatile. At the close of this review, Gold Note just announced there is-1000 DAC Deluxe, featuring the BurrBrown PCM1792A chipset instead of the PCM1796 in our standard version. There has been no mention of what the additional cost is, or if existing IS-1000s can be updated, by just plugging in a new DAC board. So if your music selections lean more (or exclusively) to the digital side of life, this might be worth investigating before writing the check.

Love it or hate it, the IS-1000 is equipped for decoding MQA files, and being on the “I like MQA” side of the fence, I’m glad that Gold Note left nothing out, especially considering the ROON endpoint capability makes it so easy to stream TIDAL files encoded in this format. Everything I tried, from the oldest classic rock tracks, to recently released faire proved sonically delicious.
Like the rest of the IS-1000, the digital and streaming options all worked without incident, and did not require consulting the owner’s manual. All wireless devices synced up without problem, and ROON quickly found the IS-1000 as an additional zone. Thanks to a recent firmware update, controlling volume in the digital domain is excellent, making it easy to control the volume of your streaming based system with no more than your laptop, phone or pad.

This is also good news for the future. Knowing a simple firmware upgrade is only a download away, goes a long way at making the IS-1000 that much more future proof. And in the end, an even better value.

Power to spare

After a number of speakers were tried, we settled on the GamuT Zodiac for all final listening and evaluation. In the context of a world class, $150,000 pair of speakers, the IS-1000 is still more than worthy, and when using it in this manner, there is no place for the amp to hide. Merely streaming TIDAL via Roon with the Zodiacs is a completely immersive experience.

Only when comparing the IS-1000 to much more expensive and sophisticated integrateds from CH Precision and Vitus Audio (5 and 10 times as much) do you see where the limits of the IS-1000 are. The last bit of smoothness and resolution will cost you five figures though, and for most music lovers, the level of performance that the IS-1000 does offer is outstanding. And we never ran out of power, unless pushing the Magnepans really hard. With nearly any other speakers, you’ll have to turn the volume up way too far to get the amplifier to clip.

But in the context of the IS-1000s cost, it is at the top of the game. Using the IS-1000 with the entire range of compact speakers from issue 92, and a few others on hand, we feel that you could add a turntable if so inclined, your favorite pair of $2,500 to $10,000/pair speakers, a pair of good speaker cables, maybe a premium mains cable and end your quest for high end audio right there.

Conclusion

We are so enamored with Gold Note’s IS-1000, that we awarded it our Product of the Year in the Amplifier Category for 2018. The IS-1000 is a major step above so many of the other offerings we’ve heard in the way it offers a total package. Aesthetics, functionality, and sonic performance are all a 10+.

The Gold Note IS-1000

$5,000

Goldnote.it

Peripherals

Analog Source Technics SL-1200G w/Gold Note Machiavelli MC

Speakers Quad 2812, Magnepan Tympani 1D, Raidho X-1, GamuT Zodiac

Power PS Audio P20

Cable Cardas Clear

Features

Old School:

Jeff Dorgay uncovers an ARC DAC 1

995:

Will return next issue

Journeyman Audiophile:

The Quad Z4 Speakers
By Rob Johnson

Mine: It Should Be Yours

Lego Cars

Louis Vuitton Duffle

Peter Gabriel Live

Super Snacks

and more….

Music

Playlists:  We share our readers choices from around the world

Future Tense

VPI Direct Drive ‘Table

Harbeth P3ESR

Focal Stella Utopia EM

and more…

Cover Feature: The Fine Art of Audio

We give you lots of pretty pics!

Features

Old School:

Jeff Dorgay revisits the Nakamichi 400 Stack

995:

The Puffin DSP Phonostage
By Rob Johnson

Journeyman Audiophile:

McIntosh MA252
By Shanon Swetlishnoff

Mine: It Should Be Yours

Grinch Slippers

Shinola Clock

Oreo Turntable

BMW Bicycle

and more….

Music

Playlists:  We share our readers choices from around the world

In Praise of the Party Table! – Technics 1600
By Jeff Dorgay

Future Tense

Avid Ingenium Plug & Play

Brinkmann Edison II Phono

Van Alstine Power Amp

and more…

Cover Feature: TONEAudio’s Awards

Exceptional Value Awards

Publishers Choice Awards

and, the 2018 Products of the Year

Listening to the intricate fretboard work of Bill Frisell on his Good Dog, Happy Man album, I’m reminded of three things: Frisell’s remarkable performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival a few years ago, how much the Persona B captures the essence of their top Persona 9H, and how incredible these little speakers are. Every Paradigm speaker carton has a logo proclaiming “Crafted in Canada.” The pride is justified.

The Paradigm Persona B is a perfect example of vertical design and production excellence. Utilizing the same Beryllium tweeter and a unique to this cabinet 6 ½” mid/woofer, the $7,000/pair Persona B brings the same sonic excellence of the flagship Persona 9H to smaller listening rooms and budgets. If the standard five shade color palette (white, silver, grey, 2 shades of black and a very nice dark blue metallic) isn’t enough, you can order any one of 18 additional “premium finishes” for an additional $1,050 per pair.

Considering the luxury auto grade finish on these speakers, this is an incredible bargain for someone wanting to customize their speakers more to their environment. You can usually never go wrong with black, white, or silver, (and the two other standard colors) but some listening rooms just beg for a spot of color. Congrats to Paradigm for recognizing the needs of their customers.

Paradigm raised the expectation for mega speakers upside down two years ago when they released their Persona series. Known for decades for producing incredibly high performance/high-value speakers at their facility in Toronto, their engineering team brought their creative force together to make a “cost no object” speaker. The result was the Persona 9H, tipping the scales at an incredibly modest $35,000/pair.

In a day where we have cost no object speakers from other manufacturers with $625k/pair price tags, this is indeed a breath of fresh air. The Persona 9H earned our “Speaker of the Year” back in issue 86, and justifiably so. Centered around Paradigm’s own Beryllium drivers, this 3 ½ way incorporates 4 woofers, powered by a pair of 700-watt amplifiers and Anthem Room Correction to optimize the low-frequency response.

Not everyone has room for this

For those craving the level of musical accuracy that the flagship Persona delivers, but perhaps in a smaller room, Persona B is an outstanding and far less expensive choice. Pretty much for the price of a pair of Persona 9Hs, you could build an entire system. Even less if you choose the Anthem STR integrated amplifier and a great turntable of your choice.

We did just that in our 13 x 15-foot room to tremendous success, combining the $4,000 Technics SL-1200G, a $750 Hana SL cartridge, and some Cardas Clear Light speaker cables. The entire system cost is just over $20k, and we defy you to build a tidier system offering more capability than this. Many different amplifiers from ARC, Esoteric, Gold Note, Pass, and PrimaLuna were all tried with the Persona Bs to excellent effect, but the bulk of our review listening was done with the STR in-house. That way, you can easily stop by your Paradigm/Anthem dealer and hear what we are talking about.

However, rest assured, thanks to the 92db/1 watt sensitivity, these speakers will jam with any amplifier you have without issue. We even used the Persona Bs with the 20 watt per channel Nagra 300B amp and the Coincident Dynamo amplifier (only 8 watts per channel!). Both provided way more dynamic range than necessary to make ears buzz!

Room friendly

The Persona Bs definitely pass the “just throw them in the room and see how they sound test,” thanks to their fairly wide dispersion characteristics in the vertical and horizontal planes. However, the basic rules of stand mount speakers still not only apply but will give you even better performance. A little careful attention to the speaker rake when you’ve optimized them in the room for the best bass/midrange balance will give them that last bit of magic, and open up the soundstage significantly.

These are high-performance speakers, so pay attention to setup, and you will be rewarded. If you don’t choose the Paradigm B-29 stands made specifically for the Persona B and Prestige 15B speakers, at $600 each, use the most massive stands that you can, and be sure to use something sticky (like BluTack) to improve the speaker cabinet to stand interface. This will wring every last molecule of available bass out of the Persona Bs. The advantage to the Paradigm stands is twofold – the factory stands screw right into the speakers, and they offer the best aesthetic match as well.

We were all very impressed with how much bass these speakers can generate, zooming through our favorite EDM and electronica tracks. A little room gain goes a long way with the Persona B, and those in small to medium rooms may not be clamoring for a sub at all.

There was plenty of fun to be had listening to Aphex Twin, and the bass extension at our disposal proved fantastic and engaging. Briefly bouncing back to the 80s, a quick spin of Thomas Dolby’s Aliens Ate My Buick (full of synth bass funk grooves) ended with the George Clinton classic, “Hot Sauce.” Which of course led to at least another hour of the real deal – Clinton’s Maggot Brain had us all bouncing around the listening room, finishing with the massive bass line in George Michael’s “Hard Day.”

Because the Persona B is a two-way system with both the tweeter and mid/bass driver being beryllium, there’s a consistent voice that comes from all drivers being the same material. Transient attack and decay are perfectly uniform, making these speakers act more like a single driver.

Beyond bass

Much as we love bass, the Persona Bs paint a large sonic picture that could easily be mistaken for a big pair of ESLs. (where do you think that came from?) Instantly disappearing in the room, listening to Keith Jarrett’s “I’m Old Fashioned” comes alive via the Persona Bs. The timbral accuracy of these speakers is nothing less than stunning.

At this point in the review process, I’ve brought them out into the main 15 x 26 foot living room and have made them a part of my central system, with a pair of Pass Labs XA200.8 monoblocks and a full Pass XS Preamp/XS Phono chain of electronics, with the $45,000 Grand Prix Audio Monaco table and Koetsu Jade Platinum cartridge.

The point of putting a $7,000 pair of speakers in a system that’s worth more than my house? To show just how much music they can deliver. Many speakers at this price point (and some well beyond) sound great with your favorite $5,000 amplifier – no shame in that. Yet, when you make them an integral part of a system with much higher performance, they can’t really resolve the delta. Not here.

Bottom line: the only limitation to how much sound the Persona B can deliver will be the ultimate volume of your room and the quality of the electronics you pair them with. At that point, your only real question is, do you want to go up to a bigger Persona model to get more low end.

As we did with the top of the range Persona 9H, the Persona B is more than worthy of our last Exceptional Value Award for 2018. Perhaps even more, because so many more people can budget $7,000 for a pair of speakers than those that can spend $35,000. Everything comes together to perfection here: sound quality, ease of use and finish are all world class. Because Paradigm has such a significant scale of economy, you can have a $30,000 pair of speakers for $7,000. Very highly recommended.

The Paradigm Persona B

www.paradigm.com

MSRP:  $7,000/pair in standard colors, premium finish about $1,000 more

Peripherals

Digital Source                          dCS Rossini DAC/Clock

Analog Source                         Grand Prix Audio Monaco 1.5/Koetsu Jade Platinum

Preamplifier                            Pass XS Pre

Phono Pre                                Pass XS Phono

Power Amplifiers                  Pass XA200.8 Monoblocks

Cable                                        Tellurium Q Silver Diamond

Power                                       PS Audio P20 regenerator, w/Cardas Clear Beyond power cables

Racks                                       Grand Prix Audio Monaco

Some products you have a casual, cursory exposure with, and others you have a relationship with. Audio Research is a brand I’ve had a long relationship with.

They are one of about six brands that I go back decades with, having owned nearly 20 of their products before I even started reviewing hifi gear. And like any relationship, it hasn’t always been a love fest.

There are definitely ARC models that I’ve liked more than others. I still have their legendary D79 – considered by many to be one of their finest achievements. Though the D79 is a fairly complex design, it started a trend that led to the Reference amplifiers; a solid amplifier circuit combined with a massive power supply. Anyone who has heard the D79 knows that this amplifier plays much bigger, louder, and more dynamic than you would ever expect a 75 watt per channel amplifier to play. And it had bass grip like precious few tube amplifiers did, back in the 70s, or even today.

The amplifier that came really close to the sound of the legendary D79, was the now discontinued GS150 – offering a touch of warmth, yet with plenty of dynamic reserve. And those beautiful meters. The industrial design sense of Audio Research entered the modern age with the GS150, now a beautiful piece of audible art to proudly display.

Great as the GS150 was, there was a subtle lack of resolution that kept it in the “really great amplifier” category, instead of “one of the best amplifiers I’ve ever heard category.” The 160Ms smash that wall down. And while you might be tempted to exhaust your adjective gland, this result is more logical. Audio Research has building great amplifiers for over 40 years now. They’ve learned a lot, having tried a lot of things that don’t work during that period.

Yet these amplifiers go beyond that. I don’t want to spoil the review, but that’s going to take a while, and if you’re thinking about a holiday gift for yourself, or someone you know that would like a pair, do it.

Much as I hate to use superlatives, because it leaves you nowhere to go in the future, the 160Ms reveal more music than anything else I’ve ever heard from Audio Research. And they are one of the finest designs I’ve had the pleasure of listening to at any price. Considering how disappointing a number of six figure amplifiers I’ve heard have been, these are a mega bargain at $30,000 a pair. I wouldn’t be surprised decades from now if the 160Ms are spoken about in the same hushed tones as the D79. They are that good. Better, actually.

If you’re looking for an overly “tubey” sounding pair of power amplifiers, these will not be for you. However, if you are looking for power amplifiers that offer an incredibly rich musical experience that will make it easy for you to forget about the gear entirely, and 150 watts per channel is enough to drive your speakers, these are my choice.

As they used to say, “Run, don’t walk” to your Audio Research dealer and get in line for a pair of the REF160Ms. Further review spoiler: the 160Ms are our Product of the Year choice in the amplifier category for 2018. Watch for the in-depth analysis in issue 95. As I like to say, “Just buy em.”

The ARC REF160M Monoblock Amplifiers

MSRP: $30,000/pair

Please click here to visit the Audio Research website