Starting this speaker review as I do with nearly every other one with Aimee Mann’s “This is How it Goes,” I’m pretty excited about the Classic ESL 9  from MartinLogan.

To be fair to those of you that might be tuning in for the first time, I love the character of electrostatic speakers. I’ve owned, reviewed, or auditioned nearly every one over the past 30 years, and have spent a fair amount of time in the listening chair with Magnepan and Apogees. My current reference ESLs happen to be the current Quad 2812s (and don’t even get me started on the legendary Quad 57) which are priced at about $10k/pair, and we recently reviewed the $14,995/pair of ML Impression ESL 13A speakers.

Everyone likes something different, but the smooth, slightly diffuse, fill the room character of an electrostatic is tough to ignore. They paint a big, broad, sonic landscape in your room, provided you have enough space to let them breathe. One of the shortcomings of an electrostatic speaker is they tend to paint a vivid, yet small spot for optimum listening. MartinLogan has gone a long way at minimizing this with their curved electrostatic panel, (CLS X Stat to be exact) which broadens the sweet spot beyond what a flat panel can achieve.

MartinLogan’s early CLS from the mid-80s is where my journey with the brand began, and shortly after that a pair of hybrid Sequels took over when my listening room was downsized. The original Sequel (and later Sequel 2) cemented MartinLogan’s reputation as an audiophile speaker and to so many music lovers and audio writers alike became one of the products often referred to as a “giant killer.” They did not have the extension of a massive pair of floorstanders, yet they gave so much more of a window into the music than Magnepans of the day did, while being far more amplifier friendly than the fussy, full ribbon Apogee speakers were.

Past to present

The small (for MartinLogan) Sequel featured a 10-inch ESL panel and a 10-inch woofer in a cabinet nearly six feet tall. The original Sequels were $1,995 and the final Sequel 2, $2,495. A cursory glance at an online inflation calculator reveals that $2,495 in 1987 is about $5,500 in todays wallet. Considering the improvements made in 31 years, I deem the ESL 9 a major bargain and worthwhile upgrade for $6,495.

Pinching a pair of Sequel 2s from a close audio bud reveals a solid foundation to the original. The guys from Kansas were truly on to something back then. And as now, the sound from a MartinLogan speaker does a special something with the mids that is awfully tough to get unless you are spending a boatload of money, thanks to the absence of the box itself. If you care to read what we had to say about the Sequel in depth back in issue 68, click here.

Interestingly, the Sequel was nearly a foot taller than the ESL 9, yet thanks to the ML “Microperf”panels and a much more streamlined frame, the current speaker is stronger and disappears into the room far better than its ancestor did. Where the Sequel had a crossover point of only 120 hz, the ESL 9 crosses over to its pair of 10-inch woofers at 370hz, yet the transition between woofers and panel is far better than it’s ever been. No doubt this comes from MartinLogan’s extensive subwoofer experience, applying the same aluminum cone technology from their subwoofers here.

A vocal treat

The background vocals in Elvis Costello’s “Still This House is Empty Now” clearly occupy their own space, almost hiding behind Costello’s lead; an aspect of music reproduction that the panel really shines at. Yet segueing from Aimee Mann’s “Frankenstein” to Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein,” the ESL 9s don’t miss a beat, handily driven by the Pass XA200.8 monoblocks.

Good as these tracks are, densely packed musical selections shine through the ESL panel. All of my favorite Crosby, Stills, and Nash records are a particularly tough trial, as these classic rockers all tend to sing at about the same level. Each of them has a distinct voice when rendered through the ESL 9s. Don’t even get me started on the Monkees. Returning to music of this century, the lead vocal in Greta Van Fleet’s “Highway Tune” not only takes center stage in the mix, the ESL 9s define lead singer Josh Kizka’s voice well enough, that you now easily know he’s not Robert Plant. Lesser speakers blur this line considerably.

Baby wants to rock

When I reviewed the MartinLogan Summits back in issue 13, their ability to deliver a major dynamic swing proved impressive. Finally there were some panels that could deliver enough oomph, providing a visceral enough experience to play rock music at a respectable level. The ESL 9 fully embodies this tradition, with a level of refinement that the earlier model did not have.

Goosing the level on Cheap Trick’s “When I Wake Up Tomorrow” is truly impressive, as is a recent vinyl remaster of their classic In Color. There’s no need to give up the dynamics that your favorite records require to get the transparency offered by an ESL. Where some manufacturers (speaker and otherwise) try to reinvent the wheel every few years, MartinLogan has stayed on a steadfast path of refinement.

Their legacy products are still excellent, even by today’s standards, underlining the strength of their initial design brief. The Sequel and Summit still sound great, and you can still get them repaired – another attribute of a real high-end company. But going through the ranks with familiar tracks quickly reveals the sonic gains that have been achieved. Much as I love my Quads, they are considerably more limited in terms of what they can play and what they can play loud.

Tracking through a playlist of Rage Against the Machine tracks convinces even further that these speakers can be pushed, punished and still deliver the goods without fatigue. The low distortion factor that the ESL 9s deliver can be misleading though and because of the focused dispersion, it can be a little too easy to twist that volume control too far. The flip side to this is that the ESL 9s don’t make as much noise off axis as a cone speaker does, so you can probably play them louder without capturing the attention of your neighbors and perhaps the police. Bonus.

Choices, choices

If you like the sound of MartinLogan speakers as much as I do, the tough choice is going to be deciding between the $6,495/pair ESL 9s and the $9,995/pair ESL 11s. What to do, what to do. If you’re like my daughter, you won’t listen to me anyway, but I’ll give you my two cents worth. Those of you having a room with a lot of leeway for speaker placement will probably be well served with the ESL 9s. However, if your speaker positioning options are somewhat limited and you’ve got the extra dough, the advantage to the 11’s is their utilization of powered woofers coupled to Anthem Room Correction. (ARC™)

If either you can’t put your Logans exactly where you need to for optimum sound, or you completely lack speaker set up skills, go with the 11s. If you are a speaker setup Jedi, save the extra bucks and go for the 9s. You’ll do whatever you want to do. That’s free will. Either way, these are amazing speakers for the money. But I’m giving them an Exceptional Value Award for 2018. They rock.

The MartinLogan Classic ESL 9

$6,495

www.martinlogan.com

Peripherals

Analog Source            Technics SL1200G/Hana SL cart

Digital Source             Gryphon Kalliope DAC with dCS Bridge

Amplifier                     Pass Labs INT-60, PrimaLuna HP Integrated, Esoteric F-07

Cable                           Cardas Clear

Power                          PS Audio P20

A new discovery is exciting, even after hundreds of reviews – when you think you’ve heard nearly everything. Open baffle speakers have always been that little blinking light in the corner of my eye at various audio shows, but our paths always crossed, until recently.

If you remember reading our review on the Whammerdyne Truth 2A3 amplfier (link here), their designer Pat Hickman is a huge fan of the Pure Audio Project speakers. When you’ve only got a couple of watts you have to make great use of them, and Hickman uses the PAP speakers at his place, where I’ve been able to give them more than one good listen.

I’ve always liked the purity of low powered amplifiers, whether solid-state or tube. Other than a few exceptions, like the massive Boulder 3000 series amplifiers, simpler circuits have the potential for a clearer window to the music. The big dilemma with amplifiers under 20 watts per channel is the meager selection of high sensitivity, high quality speakers suitable to match up with them.

Crazy good choices

The PureAudioProject Trio15 is the solution to the high efficiency/high quality situation. But be aware, there are multiple choices – and they are all great. PAP Principle Ze’ev Schlik has not only built a speaker that sounds incredible, it gets my personal thumbs-up for being the most fun speaker I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. Even though the review samples were poorly packed by the last reviewer and nocked up a bit (though still working perfectly), it only took a few hours of listening to move the Trios from the want column to the need/system reference column in that big Excel spreadsheet that is my life.

A pair of 15-inch woofers made by Eminence to PAP specs (and upgradable to four woofers should you so desire) and a compression driver with a beautiful wood horn is merely the starting point. Thanks to multiple crossover taps, the ability to easily swap crossover components, and a choice of five different HF drivers (Horn, Voxative, ESS AMT, Beyma, TB-W808) you can fine tune the Trios to your room, amplifier and ultimately, personal taste.

Should you be disposed to ADD, the Trios might not be for you. All of these great choices could drive you crazy. Or maybe just buy all five combinations and switch them out. Thanks to the super reasonable $7,490/pair price of the Trio/horns, you could probably investigate all five options and still be under $15k/pair. Much as I love the horns, in the pursuit of knowledge, I will be picking up a set of Voxatives in the near future, as well as investigating an active crossover.

Did I forget to mention that Nelson Pass makes a custom active crossover for these? When have you ever had this much fun with your speakers? It’s like buying a BMW M car with the turbo six, but being able to bring it back to the dealer whenever you want and have the high strung 333hp normally aspirated six dropped in, or the 400+hp V8. And just drive away with a totally different car. I can dream.

Because of the gentle crossover slope and 2 way design, the urge to try substitute a vintage Audio Research EC-2 electronic crossover proves irresistible. As Schlik suggests a 550hz crossover point, and the EC-2 only offers a 500 hz setting, I proceed with caution and keep the levels down. This nearly 50 year old component has potential, allowing the ability to mix and match amplifiers, but it definitely adds a syrupy, slow, vintage sound to the overall presentation. Perhaps a trip to Mr. Hinkman and a call to Mr. Pass will have some more options available.

Finally, there are multiple options for connecting the drivers. Our review sample came with the upgraded Reference Audio Foils ($690/pair) but with nothing to compare them to but some basic Monster Wire hanging around, they are certainly worth the asking price. The foils offer a much higher level of resolution and clarity over standard wire. Samples from Cardas and Tellurium Q are in the works, so count on another article here as well.

Drive with ease

Only needing 2-5 watts per channel to have party central opens up a world of amplifier choices. I easily auditioned a dozen things and will be looking at more in the future. Much like my original Quad 57s, the Trios work “pretty well” with everything, but I did find a couple of standout combinations. My original PrimaLuna ProLogue One, with only about 25 watts per channel is not a bad entry level integrated, if you can find a used one. The Dynaco Stereo 70 also was warm and inviting, though lacking detail.

Of course being a big Pass fan, we tried them with the mighty XA200.8s (way overkill), the INT-60, the XA25 and the First Watt SIT-2. The INT-60 is lovely, but the XA25 mated to the Koda K-10 solid state amplifier proved mind bending, as did the Audio Research D-79. These two combinations offered the deepest bass response as well as the deepest soundstage. The Nagra 300P came in a very close second. Bottom line, you will have an amazing journey finding the “perfect” amplifier for these speakers – they reveal so much musical information, it might take you a while to find your slice of heaven.

Stop fiddling and listen

Tough as the thought of exploring all of these choices is, our main purpose is to listen to music. Once you find a combination that you love, settle in and listen. The Trio’s ability to simultaneously capture the dynamic power and delicacy of the opening cymbal shots in Brand X’ “Nightmare Patrol,” is riveting. Great as these speakers sounded at Hikman’s house, I was still expecting that pinched horn sound. None is present in the Trios – zero.

Having just spent a fair amount of time with vintage and current Klipsch speakers, the effortless dynamics offered by a horn/semi-horn/high efficiency speaker is compelling. Headroom and dynamics are just as important to me in terms of what we might all call fidelity. Tonal accuracy is wonderful, but experiencing lifelike dynamics is equally compelling.

The PAP website lists the Trio’s sensitivity at “94-96db/1 watt,” but they feel more efficient than that. The Nagra 300P amplifier that produces 20 watts per channel, and offers power output meters barely ever moved past the .5 watt mark. And that’s not a misprint. When using the Audio Research D-79, which is very conservatively rated at 75 watts/channel, it was nearly impossible to get the power output meters to budge from their rest stops, no matter how loud we played the music.

Hours pass by and on many occasions, what begins as an afternoon listening session, lingers far into the night hours – even with daylight saving time in full effect. A wide range of music proves highly engaging and exposes no flaws in the Trios. They play everything you can imagine with ease.

Much like the way a big pair of Magnepans or the MartinLogan CLS reproduce bass, the open baffle design has a similar level of detail, texture and definition, yet with more dynamic punch in the Trios thanks to the cone woofers. Because these woofers have such little excursion, there is no cone breakup either. Just as an automotive engine requires either displacement or more rpm to make power, woofers either need sheer size or excursion to move more air.

PAP lists a LF spec as somewhere between 29-32hz, and they work well in both of our listening rooms large (15 x 26 feet) and small (13 x 15 feet). Even in the smaller room, where they are staying, bass down to 30hz is easily achieved. For those of you raising your nose at “only going down to 30hz,” the LF detail will get you. Especially if you listen to a lot of acoustic music. The sheer texture on tap, listening to a cello or standup bass is exciting. The Trios are by no means a “1-note bass” speaker, and for some, it may take getting used to the lower register detail.

The Trios wide dynamic range makes it easy to achieve high SPLs with minimal power, but it also makes for engaging low level listening. These are one of the most exciting speakers I’ve had the pleasure of listening to at low volume levels, making them perfect for someone living in a condo or apartment situation.

Defying definition

Enjoyable as these speakers are, you need to hear them. Their clear, dynamic sound reminds me of so many aspects of other speakers that I truly love. They disappear in the room and provide pinpoint imaging when required like a great mini monitor, yet, they paint a vast, diffuse landscape like my Magnepan Tympanis, all the while, having the sheer sonic punch of the Klipsch LaScalas.

Those wanting a more traditional box speaker may not be able to work with the ultra modern aesthetic of the Trios, but as someone who loves the modern thing, I love them. There are so many variations on color and finish, and when you’re sitting in the listening chair, you don’t notice the lack of cabinet anyway.

The high resolution of the Trios puts a world of source components at your disposal, but because you don’t need a ton of amplifier power, I’m guessing you can build an amazing system around the Trios on a reasonable budget, yet should you get the urge to upgrade, these speakers will keep revealing more music, even with 5-figure amplification and source components.

The highest compliment I can pay the PureAudioProject speakers is that I purchased the review pair and will be using them as a permanent reference speaker in room two. I’ve never had this much sheer fun with a pair of speakers. In addition to being a great reviewing tool, they are going to be the vehicle for a number of audio journeys I’m planning, so count on hearing more about them in the months to come. It’s easy to award them one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2018. Again, I can’t suggest checking a pair of these out for yourself, should you be attending an audio show this year.

Finally, I’m doing the final edits on this review at the Munich HiEnd Show, so we only have the single picture at the top for now. The PAP Trio 15s will be featured in issue 88 of TONEAudio, due out in about a week, so please stop back and see some more exciting photos of these beautiful speakers.

The Pure Audio Project Trio 15 Horn

www.pureaudioproject.com

$7,490/pair

Peripherals

Preamplifier        PrimaLuna DiaLogue, Pass XS Pre, Robert Koda K-10

Power amplifiers    Audio Research D-79(restored), Audio Research REF 75SE, Pass Labs XA25, First Watt SIT-2, Nagra 300P

Digital Source        Gryphon Kalliope w/dCS Bridge

Analog Source        Avid Volvere SP/TriPlanar/Lyra Etna, Conrad Johnson TEA-1

Cable             Cardas Clear

PureAudioProject Reference Audio Foils, and Crossover Cable Upgrades, made by Verastarr.

One of the toughest hurdles to overcome in a small to medium sized listening environment is where to put the speakers.

So often, we’d love big speaker sound, but don’t have the room, and sometimes that rules out a subwoofer or two as well. Emily Duff’s “Needledrop Blues” kicks off the Avanti audition and these speakers immediately impress with their range and clarity.

Cabinet speakers are always at war, fighting physics, on multiple levels. You need a big woofer to move air, but a smaller front panel minimizes diffraction and helps to make the speaker disappear in the room – hence the popularity of mini monitors. Some manufacturers (Audio Physic included) work around this issue with side mounted woofers, yet I always find this configuration a bit tough to optimize. The Avanti solves this problem brilliantly with the 8-inch woofer integrated in it’s own cabinet inside the speaker that fires sideways but breathes downward thru the narrow opening at the bottom of the front baffle.

The usually loose, whumpy bass line in the opening of Anja Garbarek’s “Her Room” is solidly locked down, while Garbarek’s wispy vocals enter the mix, with violins and electronic ambient sounds everywhere. The killer is when the ProTools induced record scratches come in, they sound eerily real – and this nearly always sounds fake. Much like the complex percussive texture of hand claps, record surface noise is tough to fake. An odd test; but revealing of the Avanti’s capabilities.

Segue to setup

After a quick unbox, all that is needed is to attach the feet. Being that our listening rooms are concrete slabs with rugs over the top, the spikes are easy to use and make minute adjustments to get the rake/time alignment just perfect.  

The Avanti’s only take up about a 12 x 16-inch footprint (this includes the dimension of the base) and weigh only 52 pounds each, so you should have no problem moving them about in your listening environment. Thanks to that internal woofer, the Avanti’s were up and rolling in about 20 minutes. Starting in the spot where most speakers tend to sound good in room two, a slight bit of fine tuning rake angle and toe-in had us diving into the music quickly. These speakers have wide dispersion thanks to the soft dome covered cone tweeter. They even sound great way off axis, so all can partake in hi-fi goodness, you don’t have to be locked in the sweet spot.

AP lists the Avanti sensitivity at 88db/1 watt along with nominal 4-ohm impedance, yet on all the tube amplifiers we tried but the Audio Research REF 75SE, they performed their best with the 8-ohm tap, so feel free to experiment for best results. You can’t get it terribly wrong, but the difference between the 4 and 8-ohm taps will show up as better upper bass solidity and slightly more dynamic oomph with the perfect match.

Running a wide gamut of amplifiers from the 20 watt per channel tube Nagra 300P to the Pass XA200.8 monoblocks, there were no rocks in the road. Tubes or transistors both prove an excellent match as well as the stunning PS Audio Stellar S300, which is a class A/class D hybrid amplifier. Unless you need to play music at earsplitting levels, 25-60 watts per channel in an average sized room should be all you ever need. Again, emphasis on quality over quantity, because of the level of detail these speakers can serve up. A single pair of binding posts makes connecting to any cables a breeze.

Those needing extra details on the tech bits, please click here.

https://vanaltd.com/collections/audio-physic/products/avanti

Lack of listener fatigue

These speakers tip the scales at $8,500 – $9,000, depending on finish, makes use of AP’s latest generation their proprietaryhyper-holographic midrange and tweeter, previously reserved for their top range speakers, with the appropriate tweaks done to the crossover makes for incredible clarity without any harshness or fatigue. AP claims to have lowered overall distortion dramatically with these changes, and they are certainly non-fatiguing.

Our review samples arrived in the rosewood high gloss finish, which got major style points from everyone that had a chance to audition them. Until you run the back of your hand across them in person, the photos don’t do justice to how stunningly smooth the finish is. I wish the paint on my BMW was half this good.

An enveloping soundstage and low distortion make for a pair of speakers that keep you glued in your listening chair. Some speakers are great for a short test listen, but are easy to lose interest in. The Avanti’s are weekend speakers. The Avanti’s are whole-album speakers. They strike such a nice balance of resolution, natural tonality, and low distortion, it’s a breeze to just play the whole album, rather than bounce around a playlist. Even when streaming from TIDAL, queuing up the entire album, or swimming in a particular artist for hours is wonderful. An extended superset of Neil Cowley’s delightful piano lasted well after the sun went down, as did a long day of Miles Davis. I suggest Loud, Louder, Stopand Bitches Brew, respectively to really show off what these mighty yet compact speakers can do.

Ticking the rest of the boxes

The Avanti’s resolution plays the analog card perfectly – helping you to see way into your favorite recordings. Tracking through Anne Bisson’s Four Seasons in Jazz: Live at Bernie’sis a superbly clear contemporary jazz recording, and having heard Ms. Bisson sing live a few times, the combination of the Avanti’s and her recent vinyl release is incredibly close to the real thing. Especially for a pair of speakers at this price. This is the kind of clarity you’d expect to pay much more for.

An about face back to some early Thievery Corporation, it’s clear there is no lack of deep bass, and a quick barrage of test tones confirm that the Avanti’seasily hit their lower frequency limit of 32hz with ease and strength. The Avanti images like a top-shelf mini monitor, yet offer more than enough bass extension to play any music with ease. And you won’t have to buy a pair of stands! Rounding out the picture, there are a wide variety of colors and finishes, making it easy to incorporate a pair of Avanti’sinto any environment, from traditional to ultra-modern.

Sheer audio ease

The Audio Physic Avanti’s have quickly become a favorite around here. Other than the last bit of super deep bass, which requires you to spend way more than the $8,500/pair asking price, they offer a level of clarity and resolution found in the world’s finest speakers at any price. The Avanti’s can work well as a building block or as a destination. Their only real limit will be the quality of components you use to drive them. They will deliver very good results with something as modest as a $900 Rega Brio amplifier and OPPO 205 disc player driving them, yet they will provide world-class sound with a stack of five-figure components.

If that’s not exceptional value, I don’t know what is. Consider the Avanti’s duly awarded for 2018. And one of my personal favorites. This is a pair of speakers I could certainly live happily ever after with.

The Audio Physic Avanti
$8,500 – $9,000/pair (finish dependent)

www.vanaltd.com. (North American Distributor)

www.audio-physic.de.  (Manufacturer)

We’ve just started to audition the Gold Note IS-1000 integrated amplifier and it’s amore from the start.

Featuring an integral phono stage, based on the circuitry of the PH-10 that we already love, a built in DAC and streamer and a 125 watt per channel power amplifier that doubles down to 250 watts per channel into 4 ohms, This $5,000 beauty is a perfect solution for those wanting high quality, maximum versatility (did we tell you it has six digital inputs) and a convenient form factor. The only question left is black or silver.

The only thing Gold Note makes that we haven’t sampled is their speakers, but I’m going to stick my neck out and guess they are pretty good. Everything else we’ve heard from GN has been at the top of its class – turntables, phono cartridges, phono preamplifiers and now the IS-1000 integrated (which stands for integrated streaming). All good.

The high power AB amplifier section begs for a pair of Magnepans, so that’s where we started listening, both with the current .7s and a vintage pair of Tympani 1Ds The IS-1000 has power, soul, and control, taking charge of the big Maggies with ease. Settling into duty with my Focal Sopra no.3s is also a perfect match. Thanks to the Sopra’s 92db sensitivity rating the GN/Focal combination plays at discotheque levels without a hint of strain, distortion, or fatigue.

Initial listening with both the phono and digital sections appear excellent. For our full review, we’ll compare the onboard phono to the PH100, try some different speakers, and move more digital files through the IS-1000. Best of all, it’s Roon Ready, so all you need to enjoy the world’s premier streaming software, is merely connect an Ethernet cable into the supplied port and fire up your phone or pad. Rounding out the picture is a wireless antenna, so you and your friends can share your favorite music via phone at your next party.

More to come, but the initial impression of the Gold Note IS-1000 is that we have another winner on our hands!

The Gold Note IS-1000
MSRP: $5,000

www.goldnote.it

If you live in a somewhat compact listening environment, Triangle’s Theta is a perfect quality vs. quantity proposition.

In my 13 x 15 foot listening room, driven by the precise Nagra 300p amplifier, the 90db/1-watt sensitivity rating is more than enough to deliver room filling sound. With the Nagra’s legendary Modulometer hovering around the .2 watt per channel level, bouncing occasionally up to the 2 watt mark, punching me in the chest with the opening drum riffs of Black Sabbath’s “Fairies Wear Boots,” from their Paranoid album.

Forget about how stunning these speakers look for a minute. Well, maybe it is time for an ADD moment and just take a quick flyby. Maybe more than that. If I hadn’t known better, I might have mistaken the Thetas as a product from those guys we all know in Italy that make some of the world’s most beautiful speakers ever. Fit and finish on the Thetas is that good. The cabinet has a curvy, flowing shape, sporting a smooth finish that would be right at home on your favorite hypercar. Our review sample sports a deep, lustrous, red mahogany lacquer (10 coats) finish, but gloss white and gloss black are also available. As a huge fan of white speakers, I really like the white grille on the white speaker.

The stand mounted offering in their Signature line, the Theta is a two-way system with what looks like a 6-inch woofer (all the tech stuff is only available online in French, so I have no idea) and a modified dome tweeter inside a waveguide. Theta claims a 45hz LF limit for the Theta, but they manage to pick up a bit of room gain, nearly 10 feet apart with a bit of toe-in.

It’s like headphones, kind of

Cars, potential mates and loudspeakers share one thing. If they don’t make a bold impression right away, they usually don’t hold my interest. The Thetas present a deep, three dimensional image that’s like a fine tapestry. There’s layer upon layer of detail, that redefines the audiophile cliché of “pinpoint imaging.” Even at modest level, you’d swear that you have one of the world’s best pairs of headphones on – you just float around in the music. Truly amazing for a $4,200 pair of speakers.

Some minimonitors (say that ten times as fast as you can) sacrifice sheer sonic power for pinpoint imaging. The Thetas give you both, again exceeding expectation for price and cabinet size. There’s a level of refinement here, provided your system is equally capable, that’s usually attached to a five-figure price tag. They also offer a sense of height. The opening triangle in Tears for Fears “Woman in Chains” floats in mid-air, just above tweeter level, yet when the lead vocals enter the mix, also create an illusion of two guys right out in front of the couch. The more you listen, the more nuance you hear.

These small cabinets play much bigger than most comparably sized minimonitors. Swapping the Nagra power amplifier for the mighty Audio Research D-79, cranking up Aerosmiths “Eat the Rich” has the Thetas moving a lot of air during the pounding bass drum opening riff. I doubt in a small to moderate sized room you’ll be even thinking about a subwoofer, though Triangle does offer one of those as well if you just have to have more bass.

Even music with a driving low end like HVOB’s “Pay as you go Mobile Phone” has a locked down beat, with a forceful enough groove that you’d swear you were listening to much larger speakers. All the while, the wispy lead vocals in this track keep the pace, floating just behind the line of the speakers, equally blended in with the electronic elements present. The Thetas do not compress and feel congested, even at listening levels that are higher than prudent.

Simple use and setup

24-inch, filled Sound Anchor stands (with a bit of blu-tak to complete the interface) proved the best way to mount the Thetas. As with other high performance stand mounted speakers, this is critical to getting the best imaging and most solid bass response from the Thetas. Mounting them on a flimsy pair of stands will compromise these speakers to enough of an extent that they may not deliver the impressive performance described here. The Thetas are so beautiful, you may want a more aesthetically pleasing stand than the Sound Anchors, but don’t scrimp on the mass or the sticky stuff to keep them seated in place.

Because they throw such a large image, our experience was that they could handle a wider distance between them than some small monitors, allowing them to be a better choice for room filling sound, than only being able to enjoy them in an extremely nearfield mode. Should you choose to take that route, the massive three-dimensional sound they offer, is even more of a headphone-like experience. It’s nice to have a choice.

Finally, the Thetas worked well with every amplifier we connected them to, even the 9 watt per channel Coincident SET proved a fantastic match at moderate levels. Incidentally, the Thetas offer a pleasing musical experience at these levels, so if you aren’t someone who really needs to rock the house, a high quality 10 to 30 watt per channel amplifier will serve you well. This opens up a tremendous amount of possibilities for system building.

Simple, elegant, sonic excellence

I’m guessing our European readers know more about Triangle than our American readers, but they are working very hard to change that in the months to come. If you’d love a gorgeous pair of standmount speakers in this price range, and looking for something a bit different than what everyone else might be listening to, seek out the Thetas. They stand out in the crowd.

The Triangle Theta speakers

$4,200/pair

www.triangle.fr

Peripherals

Digital Source                         dCS Rossini Player and Clock

Analog Source                        AVID Volvere SP/Rega RB2000/Ortofon Cadenza Bronze

Amplifier                                 Pass Labs INT-60

Phonostage                              Conrad Johnson TEA 1

Cable                                       Cardas Clear

Power                                      PS Audio P20

About a year and a half, on a visit to the VPI factory, Mike Bettinger had just joined the staff and was hard at work on what would become the Voyager phonostage.

A true old-school perfectionist, Bettinger probably drove VPI principal Mat Weisfeld crazy fine tuning the finished product. Company owners want to sell stuff and engineers keep wanting to refine things; it’s probably been that way since the caveman days when they first started carving wheels out of stone. Yet even what I heard then was incredibly good.

Everybody wants some

Resisting the urge to put this in a really fancy box and charging crazy money, VPI is offering the Voyager for $2,500. This is an interesting price point, because there are a number of high performance/high value phonostages around $1,000 and up beyond $5,000 to about $10,000. But there aren’t a ton of offerings in this price range. The only product that gives the Voyager a run for its money is the Musical Fidelity NuVista (also in this issue) at $2,999. And even at that rate, we’re talking different instead of strictly better. But that’s another review for another day.

No offense to VPI turntable owners, but I love the Classic 1. VPI makes some of the best performing tables in their respective price points, but the Classic 1 is my favorite $3,000 turntable because like the good doctor in Star Trek: Voyager, it performs way beyond its original programming. There are a lot of decent turntables for the same price as the Classic, but none offer a level of engagement, musicality, and synergy (I’d call it magic) that this table does. It’s like jumping out of a BMW M5 and getting into a Golf GTi. Yeah the $120k Bimmer is better, but the $30k VW is so damn good, and so damn fun, after about 10 miles you not only don’t notice the difference, but you’re having such a great time you find yourself not even missing the big bucks ride anymore. The Voyager offers the same experience.

Could this be magic?

From the second the stylus was dropped on the surface of the recent MoFi Santana Abraxas, the magic light went off on the dashboard inside my head. I didn’t feel like I was listening to a great $2,500 phonostage, I felt like I was listening to a great phonostage period. I’m not going to put my CJ TEA-1 on Audiogon tomorrow, but it might be a while before I plug it back in.

Trying to objectify the Voyager better than just saying it’s “magic,” the first thing you’ll experience is major low frequency grunt, with an equal helping of low frequency definition. The grungy, distorted bass line in Ani DiFranco’s “Sasquatch” sets you back in the listnening chair Maxell man style. In addition to my own Classic One, the AVID Volvere SP with Rega RB2000 arm and the new Technics SL1200G turntables were used, with a wide range of cartridges from the $70 Shure M44 all the way up to the $10,000 Koetsu Jade Platinum. All were an excellent match.

Or could this be love?

Engaging as the Voyager is out of the box, cold, it stabilizes in about 24 hours, delivering an even warmer, smoother, more delicate sound. There’s not a hint of solid-state glare anywhere. With no massive Teflon coupling caps inside the box, it won’t take 600 hours to sound right and that’s awesome.

The fit, finish, and feature set put the Voyager over the top. As someone said elsewhere, “it has everything you need and nothing you don’t.” Vinyl malcontents will complain (as they always do) that the Voyager could use a wider range of gain and loading options, or balanced inputs/outputs. Shut up. This phonostage reveals so much music, that stuff would have just jacked up the price. There are plenty of cartridges that work with 100, 500 and 1000 ohms.

Oh yeah, Voyager doesn’t give you a MM and a MC input, it gives you two inputs, with either configurable as MM or MC. A number of $10k phonostages don’t do that. Even better, all the gain, loading and MM capacitance settings are accessible from the front panel. Additional coolness. Note: you must hit the mute button before making said changes, or grungy, potentially tweeter damaging stuff will come out. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Eruption

Enjoyable as using the Voyager with a range of premium MC carts, I wasn’t prepared for the unexpected. Mounting up a budget Shure M44 MM cartridge ($70 from our buds at Needle Doctor) on the Technics SL1200G to perfection with Richard Mak’s Analog Magik software suite seemed a bit overkill at first,but pulling a 12-inch single of George Michael’s “I Want Your Sex” is incredible, with the massive bottom end described earlier in this review, and a sheer velocity and punch that has to be experienced. An equally exciting but slightly mellower rendition was offered with my Classic One.

Is this musical reproduction at its finest? Probably not. Just as a famous cheesesteak at Philly’s Gino’s isn’t haute cuisine, I’d rather eat a cheese steak than steak tartar. If that’s you, consider grabbing an M44 for your table to mate up with the Voyager – that extra input is just begging for a 1200 and a DJ cartridge.

Fun and dynamic as the Voyager is, it offers high performance across the spectrum. With 62 db of gain, it will accommodate nearly all MC cartridges that you might want to mate with it. It’s low end punch will grab you, but closer inspection reveals a balanced frequency range throughout, and a delicate, nuanced high end as well. And the tonal balance presented is as close to perfectly neutral that you’ll find this side of a Boulder. It neither adds nor subtracts tonally, which makes it such a great match for whatever you might want to install in your headshell. Want a warmer presentation? Go for a Grado or Koetsu. Want more neutral? Think about Lyra, Ortofon, or something in that vein. Truly, the only thing that’s somewhat off limits are the handful of cartridges with incredibly low output in the .2mv range. Again, there’s plenty of choices in the .4 – .6mv range, so stop making excuses.

Best of both worlds

Everyone has their own set of hot buttons. I will always sacrifice functionality for performance if I have to choose. I’d much rather have basic, well thought out functionality and awesome performance than the other way around. VPI’s Voyager is off the chart good. And, you’ll never have to hunt for tubes, or drive yourself crazy hunting down NOS tubes at ridiculous prices. Plug it in, turn it on and dive into yummy analog goodness. Make that greatness.

This is the easiest Exceptional Value Award I’ve ever awarded. Buy a VPI Voyager before Mat and company put this in a pretty box and start charging $6,000 for it. -Jeff Dorgay

The VPI Voyager Phonostage

$2,500

www.vpiindustries.com

Peripherals

Turntables VPI Classic One, AVID Volvere SP, Technics SP1200G

Cartridges Shure M44, Ortofon 2M Bronze, Grado Statement, Hana SL, Koetsu Jade Platinum

Amplifier Pass INT-60

Speakers Raidho X-1 w/2-REL T7i subwoofers

Cable Cardas Clear

Power PS Audio P20

A few years ago, we reviewed the original Alta Audio speakers and came away very impressed at the integration of woofer and ribbon tweeter – a tough engineering feat.

Great as they sounded, the amorphous shape left me a bit cold from an aesthetic perspective. But as a guy that used to drive a bright lime green Saab 99, an off-center shape has never kept me from something that accomplishes its task.

Today, we have the Rhea in a much friendlier, rather unique bell-like shape, finished in rosewood (and custom colors – lime green, even!) only weighing 40 pounds each. This two-way system sports a slightly smaller ribbon tweeter than the flagship speaker, and a seven-inch woofer. Black grilles are supplied, but the Rheas look so attractive without them, I can’t imagine wanting to leave them on.

The deep bass groove in Beck’s “Little One” immediately convinces me of the Rheas room-filing sound. While they work well in my smaller, second room (13 x 15 feet) they require a bit more fiddling to achieve a perfect balance of deep and upper bass, the spacious sound in room one (16 x 25 feet) proves they can fill a room with ease. And the lovely integration of ribbon tweeter and LF/MF driver in Altas larger speakers has not been lost at a $4,495 price point.

Nearly all evaluation was done with the Pass Labs XA200.8 monoblocks, which have way more than enough juice to power the moderately sensitive (87.5db/1-watt) Rheas, but don’t let the specs lead you to a false conclusion – they are easy to drive, even with a modest amplifier. You won’t blow the windows out of your living room with a Rega Brio, or small PrimaLuna amplifier, but you can achieve more than adequate volume levels. Those requiring “turning it up to 11” will need at least 100 watts per channel to inflict ear damage.

One pairing we found that proved excellent and won’t break the bank is the new PS Audio Stellar amplifiers. The $2,995/pair M700s though excellent, was almost too much power for these speakers, but the $1,495 S300 combined with your favorite preamp or DAC will put you in the drivers’ seat for way less than $10k. Even if you spend a few bucks on a tasteful audio rack, some decent cable and a turntable. Not bad. Read Rob Johnson’s review of the Stellar S300 here.

Space and resolution

First impressions rarely lie, and even though speakers need to play for a few hours to reach their ultimate sonics, lousy speakers still sound lousy after 500 hours of “break-in.” Consequently, good speakers sound fine out of the box, becoming more refined with age. The Rheas are in the latter category.

The Rheas resolution and low-level delicacy hits you the minute you fire them up, even if they are not correctly placed – another great sign. Where this speaker will really challenge you is to fine tune the mid-bass tubbiness out of them. Plan on spending a couple of hours to make minute adjustments. If your Rheas feel just a bit constricted and flabby, you haven’t found the spot yet. Stick with it.

Whatever musical generation you happen to love, choosing a playlist full of tunes with elaborate studio craftsmanship will keep you glued to your listening chair. The Rheas construct a highly detailed, focused soundstage – though they are better at left to right than my other ribbon reference, the Raidho X-1s. While it is somewhat apples to oranges, the Raidho is a bit more three dimensional, but the Rhea is more expansive left to right. This stays consistent regardless of amplifier choice, though your favorite tube amp might just offer a little more image depth. The vibes throughout It’s Time For Dave Pike had me freaking out at times they sounded so big. The overall tonality of the Rheas might be goosed just a bit, but it’s in a way that serves the music and certainly not way overblown like a big pair of Magnepans can be at times.

Excellent throughout the range

Balance is the key with the Rheas, and they do not disappoint, regardless of program material. Like every modest sized speaker, there is a spot beyond which the Rhea can be pushed no more and at that point, compression sets in pretty quickly. This is not as noticeable with music having a wide dynamic range as much as popular music with a limited dynamic range. Cranking up UFO’s Lights Out was a little too much for the Rheas, but switching the program material to Elise Legrow’s Playing Chess (with considerably more dynamics) makes for enjoyable listening, even at fairly loud levels.

I’ve always been biased towards full range electrostatics and big panels, valuing top to bottom coherence; that’s my cross to bear. Next on the list is a well-executed two-way. The Rheas do a fantastic job convincing you that you are listening to a single music source, not a woofer crossed over to a tweeter. They disappear into the room handily, and that’s top on my list.

The Rheas also do an excellent job at pulling the small, quiet details out of less than fantastic recordings, and this will endear them to audiophiles on a budget. Rolling through a long playlist of generally lousy recordings, the Rheas still shine. U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind is dreadfully flat throughout, yet it proved engaging through the Rheas, exposing minute details and faint background vocals that are tougher if not impossible to hear on a handful of more expensive speakers we’ve auditioned. This perhaps is their best strength. That smooth ribbon is gonna get you every time. Its complete lack of grain and the subsequent fatigue that accompanies it is lovely.

What’s missing?

Much as I hate the cliché, the Rheas minor sins are those of omission. They don’t play as big, loud and dynamic as Alta’s larger models, but that’s what you write the bigger check for. The level of balance that they do offer has only been matched by a few other speakers in this price category. Where some manufacturers concentrate on bowling you over with a single aspect of music reproduction, the Rheas excel at doing everything to a high standard. And if you miss that last bit of low bass, get a couple of subs – you’ll still be way ahead of the game.

The level of clarity and resolution that the Rheas offer is what really sets the Rheas apart from many of their competitors. If this is your hot button, you’re really going to enjoy these speakers. And don’t forget, they do come in lime green.

The Alta Audio Rhea Speakers

$4,495/pair

www.alta-audio.com

For their 40^th anniversary, Dynaudio endeavored to make something very special. Their team faced a choice: design a new flagship speaker or make a top-shelf bookshelf at a price point accessible to many more music fans. Fortunately for budget-conscious audiophiles worldwide, Dynaudio chose to pursue the latter. At a price of $3,000 for the pair, the Special Forty speaker defies its modest price tag in every way.

Revelations out of the box

Unpacking the speakers is a joy in and of itself. After digging one’s way through the sturdy cardboard and foam packing materials, a white cotton bag represents the last barrier between the speakers and the new owner’s eyes. What lies underneath is breathtaking. While photos of these speakers showcase the beauty of the speaker finish, they have trouble doing it true justice. The gloss-coated grey birch – or the vibrant red birch finish of our review sample – demonstrate just how beautiful speakers can be.

While largely traditional in shape, the cabinets feature a slight taper from the front to the rear of the speaker, rendering the front face about an inch wider than the ported rear panel. A single set of gold-plated binding posts on the back make connections easy for speaker wires with a spade, bare wire, or banana termination.

As a bookshelf speaker, the Dynaudios require stands putting the tweeters at ear-level. Dynaudio does sell matching stands which are designed to complement the inherent beauty of the speaker cabinets and give the speakers a rigid base to optimize their voice. For those with a tight budget though, a more modest and less attractive pair of aftermarket stands can solve the immediate need.

More than the sum of its parts

Beyond their attractive facades, a lot of new technology lies within these two-way speakers. A newly-developed silk dome tweeter dubbed the “Esotar Forty” offers low resonance and increased airflow. Woofer-wise, trickle-down technology from Dynaudio’s higher-end Evidence and Confidence speakers help lower the Forty’s distortion and increase power handling through their proprietary hybrid magnet system. Unlike any other speaker drivers outside the Dynaudio factory, an in-house developed Magnesium Silicate Polymer material offers the tenuous balance of rigidity and dampening which result in a more organic sound.

Accompanying the advanced drivers resides a freshly-designed crossover too. Design goals included better impedance and phase alignment which help ensure only the relevant frequencies get routed appropriately for tweeting or woofing.

The sum of these elements certainly puts the “special” in the Special Forty’s namesake.

Music to our ears

After many hours of break-in time, the speakers reach their full sonic potential. When they do, brace yourself for a wonderful ride. As a cohesive whole, the Special Forty’s drivers and internals truly sing.

Overall, the Special Forties offer a refined and natural sound on the polite edge of neutral. They are by no means overly-romantic in their musical portrayal, just a tad polite. This deliberate voicing choice gives the speaker a chameleon-like ability to mate with many upstream components.

The silk dome tweeters offer a high level of detail but do not overly-accentuate sibilance or stridency inherent in some less-stellar recordings. On tracks like Dave Brubeck Quartet’s “Take Five” the complex harmonics of cymbals render with an organic-sounding strike, shimmer, and decay. Saxophone retains all the woodiness one expects to hear. Piano notes offer a high degree of realism. Both low and high notes seamlessly transition among the Dynaudio drivers creating a single, very cohesive picture.

The combination of drivers creates a convincing soundstage with immense breadth, height, and depth. The sound seems to emit from everywhere around the speakers, independent of the physical speaker bodies. Enjoying Pink Martini’s “Dansez-Vous” the track features a variety of instruments which accompany multiple vocalists. Percussive elements dance around the room contrasting the solidly-imaged saxophone. “Lilly” also showcases the way the Special Forties place lead vocals front and center layered among piano, trumpet, drums, and more. To my ears, various Dynaudio speakers always do a great job with voice reproduction, putting it up front and center. The Special Forties are no exception. They provide China Forbes’ marvelous voice the range and realism it deserves.

One cannot expect a bookshelf speaker to deliver kidney-rattling, low-end bass notes. However, the small Dynaudios do pack a surprising punch. Down to the low end of their audio frequency specification — around 40Hz — bass remains tight and tuneful. Listening to “Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine demonstrates the Dynaudios’ ability to rock. Rendering of Zach de la Rocha’s voice demands attention commensurate with its edged emotion. Bass, guitar, and drums pull no punches. Sound is dynamic and energetic.

Sampling several decades of Funk music, the Special Forty’s voicing gives Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” Terence Trent D’Arby’s “Dance Little Sister,” and “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars a very engaging quality and overall musically-satisfying experience, making it difficult to sit still in the listening seat.

Summing up

These speakers do so much so well at their price point I am hard-pressed to offer major criticisms. Yes, speakers like Dynaudio’s flagships take the sound experience to another level by offering an increased prowess reproducing musical nuance, refinement, detail, depth of soundstage, and deep bass recreation. Of course, those characteristics and enhancements come with a much higher price tag.

The Dynaudio Special Forty speakers are an absolute bargain for their beguiling looks, great sound, and the pedigree of the company’s 40-year history building stellar speakers. If Dynaudio did not handle every aspect of design and production in-house, the speakers would cost significantly more.

If you seek a new set of speakers in this price range, be sure to put the Dynaudio Special Forty on your audition list. I offer sincere kudos to Dynaudio for putting this level of sonic performance, build quality, and beauty within the financial reach of so many who prioritize music in their lives. Given this benchmark of performance, I cannot wait to hear what Dynaudio has up its sleeve to celebrate their golden anniversary a decade from now!

Additional Listening:  Jeff Dorgay

Most Danes are fairly modest people. This was the experience I had when visiting the Dynaudio factory in Skanderborg, Denmark last fall. While there was much excitement about their new wireless products (which were indeed incredible) new in-wall LCR custom install products, and of course their top range Evidence Platinum speakers, when my attention turned to the small 40^th anniversary model, the Dynaudio personnel were somewhat coy. “Oh would you like to listen to the 40s?” Would I?

Moving them out into the middle of the main listening room which was about 20 x 30 feet, all in attendance were taken back. Except for less ultimate low bass power, they felt like the $100k/pair Evidence models. When they finally arrived here, I did the same, putting them front and center, squarely in the middle of my 16 x 26 foot listening room, powered by a big stack of Pass Labs gear and the dCS Rossini Player/Clock combo.

Watch for another full review in the Audiophile Apartment section shortly, when I’ve had more time to try them with a few different, more reasonably priced amplifiers. I’ll have plenty of time, I bought the review pair. The Dynaudio Special Forty’s set a new standard for me in the $3,000 price point. They’ve got bass response that fools you into thinking you’ve got a pair of floorstanders. My Confidence C1s did the same thing, but they were nearly $10k/pair.

Combine that with a level of delicacy, tonal accuracy and resolution that you’d expect to pay $10k/pair for and you can see why I’m so excited. And happy to award them one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2018. And, they come in a very cool grey too…

Dynaudio Special Forty Speakers

MSRP: $ 3,000/pair

www.dynaudio.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

Preamplification     Coffman Labs G1-B

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

HiFi reviewers and enthusiasts often talk about “analog magic,” but that term is seldom if ever used when discussing digital gear. Considering the progress made in the digital arena, it’s somewhat puzzling. I submit the Brinkmann Nyquist has magic, in spades.

Joni Mitchell’s voice (and self-backing vocals) in her classic “Car on a Hill” are smooth and scrumptious. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was listening to vinyl – and that’s the point.

Some of us have been arguing about the validity of digital versus analog for about 35 years now. Granted, those first compact disc players sounded pretty harsh, but things have come a long way since then. Despite the sniping of analog aficionados, digital designers keep improving the breed, and though often fashionable to bash digital, it’s pretty damn good.

On one level, who better to make an incredible digital to analog converter than a man who makes great turntables? Helmut Brinkmann is that man. I’ve been using his Bardo turntable (with optional RoNT power supply) for over a year now and couldn’t be happier with it – deciding to purchase the review sample took all of about 30 seconds worth of listening.

Mr. Brinkmann’s DAC is equally engaging and impressive, even more, when the tubes stabilize thermally – usually about 30 minutes. Prepare to be impressed. Really impressed. The Beatle’s “Penny Lane” begins this magical mystery tour, as it’s a well-worn demo favorite. McCartney’s bass line comes through with an unmistakable strength – the pace is fantastic. The sonic picture presented is so natural, it reminds me of the Bardo/Koetsu Jade Platinum combination, which offers an equally organic experience. The music escapes the speakers with a level of depth, texture and ease not reached by the other digital hardware in my three listening rooms.

Say What?

I’ve been intrigued with mega-digital playback for over a decade now, and as much progress continues to be made in the analog world, I’m equally stunned at what the world’s finest audio engineering minds continue to extract from the 16/44.1 files that we’ve all been told are unacceptable. DSD and high res PCM files are certainly intriguing when the content lives up to the hype, but really, how many albums in DSD format do you own? 50? 100? 3?  Me too. The few hundred albums in high-resolution format reside on my NAS, still compete with about 12 thousand CDs ripped over decades, and thousands more streaming from TIDAL.

The Nyquist unfolds MQA files and is a ROON endpoint, so there is no digital scenario you are unprepared for. There’s nothing worse than a five-figure component requiring excuses. None are necessary with the Brinkmann Nyquist.

The Nyquist does a fantastic job decoding high resolution, audiophile files. If that is your quest, you will not be disappointed in the least, but if you are a music fan wanting maximum musicality out of your legacy digital collection, I suspect you’ll value the Nyquist even more.

The ins and outs

The Nyquist offers inputs for every digital source imaginable: Toslink optical, RCA/SPDIF, XLR-AES/EBU, USB, and Ethernet. With a combination of a Mac Book Pro, OPPO 205, dCS Rossini and even a Sony PlayStation, rest assured the Nyquist works well with anything you can throw at it. After auditioning a number of transport options, the bulk of my listening was done via the Ethernet connection and a 12TB QNAP NAS.

Again, thanks to the Nyquist being Roon compatible, it makes combining the digital files in your library, with anything you’d like to seek out via TIDAL (or whatever music streaming service you happen to use) a seamless experience. Thanks to the Nyquist being a single box solution, a plethora of extra cables aren’t required. Balanced XLR and single-ended RCA outputs are also available and have no issues driving 30 feet of interconnects so that you can place the Nyquist on a rack with the rest of your gear, or in a remote location with ease.

A wide range of inputs and outputs is one thing, but there’s more. The Nyquist is a modular DAC so that it can be easily upgraded as technologies change, and in essence, future proof. This is an excellent thing when you are spending $18,000 on a DAC. For my money, there are too many expensive DACs built around a fixed architechture. The Nyquist’s modular design is field-upgradable, making  it a much safer bet as a long term digital investment.

Finally, the Nyquist has a level control to help match its gain to your other sources, and it acts as a full volume control for the built-in headphone amplifier. More on that later.

The MQA issue

Some will (and have) argue that the Nyquist lacks the final few molecules of resolution that the top dogs from dCS, Gryphon, and MSB offer. That may be true, and again this is a complete matter of personal taste. None of these other DACs are rubbish in any sense, yet the Nyquist has a way of pulling you in just a little bit further, allowing your fussy audiophile gland to shut off that much quicker. It’s almost hard to describe this complete lack of fatigue that the Nyquist offers.

There is a fairly high amount of vitriol in the discussions surrounding MQA these days, so I tip my hat to Mr. Brinkmann for including MQA capability on the Nyquist. Grooving on David Byrne’s latest, (In MQA) American Utopia sounds inviting, though I have no non – MQA file to compare it to. Unlike a few DACs I’ve tried that make audible clicks, or pause when switching between resolutions, the Nyquist fluidly skates between formats effortlessly, with no audible glitches. Personally, I fear that the MQA format is misunderstood, (and that’s all the further I’ll go down this rabbit hole) so as a big TIDAL/Roon user, I’m glad I can stream MQA on the Nyquist. All of the MQA files played sounded fantastic.

Awesome 16/44.1 performance

Thanks to what amounts to a separate DSD decoding section, DSD files are not converted to PCM in the Nyquist. DSD and high-resolution PCM files are handled separately and with equally high fidelity, as you would expect with an $18,000 DAC. But again, cool as that is, the Nyquist does such an incredible job with standard CD-quality digital files, this is what will keep you in the listening chair for days on end.

CD quality files played through the Nyquist offer the same analog-like ease and presence that high-resolution files do. So much so, that it was tough to tell at times what I was listening to. I can’t think of higher praise for a DAC. Taking this approach a step further, streaming performance of low-quality 320kb/sec files sound better than they have a right to. The lack of air, dynamics, and tonal richness inherent in these files is well managed in the Nyquist.

Finishing touches

The Nyquist would stand on its own, even if it were just a premium DAC for $18k, but it’s streaming capabilities make it an incredible value proposition. Mr. Brinkmann takes this further, including a massive granite base to place under the Nyquist as well as a high-quality power cord – the kind you’d probably pay a third-party vendor at least a thousand dollars for. Brinkmann suggests plugging the Nyquist directly into the AC line, eschewing power conditioning. He’s never steered me wrong in the past, so that’s how we played it for this review; directly into the AC line with zero regrets.

Personal audio fans will appreciate that the Nyquist includes a top-notch headphone amplifier as part of the package. We’ve been reviewing a number of top headphone amplifiers; and feel the one built into the Nyquist delivers such a high level of performance you will never need an outboard headphone amplifier.

Finally, this all comes wrapped in a single box solution (other than the outboard power supply) which doesn’t require a loom of cables to go about its business. If you have room for a two-four box design that a few other manufacturers offer, no worries, however, if you want high performance only requiring a single rack space, the efficiency of the Nyquist cannot be ignored. Oh yeah, it has a transparent glass top too, so those of you that appreciate the sheer beauty of the internal design can bask in it, daily.

Keep in mind for your reference; my own bias is for overall system balance to be ever so slightly on the warm/natural/neutral side of straight-up neutral. I like as much detail as I can get without the overall presentation getting harsh, yet I crave as much warmth as possible before things become slow, or sloppy. Tracking through the original Chicago Transit Authority, the enormous sonic landscape painted is tremendous, with a smoothness to the layers of drums and percussion incredible.

So it goes with Brinkmann’s Nyquist; named after the famous digital engineer Harry Nyquist. This elegantly built DAC has a sound, unlike any other DAC I’ve heard – it’s more analog. Using a pair of new old stock Telefunken PCF803 tubes for the output stage, which Brinkmann claims “were built to last ten years in color TV applications,” should last even longer in the Nyquist. A quick search on eBay reveals these tubes to be very inexpensive, so I’d suggest buying a matched set from your Brinkmann dealer so that you are prepared. Long life be damned, we both know you’re going to lose a tube on Friday night, just when you planned on a weekend’s worth of listening. Be a good Eagle Scout, buy a spare set and rest prepared.

If after all these years, digital has still left you slightly cold, I assure you the Brinkmann Nyquist will not. It offers top digital performance for about what you’d pay for one of Mr. Brinkmann’s Bardo turntables with a top phono cartridge. But you never know, a few days listening to the Nyquist and you might not even want to be bothered spinning those black discs! It’s that engaging.

The Brinkmann Audio Nyquist DAC

MSRP:$18,000

www.brinkmann-usa.com

Peripherals

Preamplifier                Pass Labs XS Pre

Power Amplifier         Pass Labs XA200.8 monoblocks

Speakers                       Focal Sopra no.3 w/(2)REL 212SE Subwoofers

Cable                             Cardas Clear and Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Vibration                     Grand Prix Audio Monaco Racks

Canadian audiophiles from the Kelowna/Vernon side…

HiFi Attic will be hosting a music demo with B&W, AudioQuest and Bluesound this Friday the 13th at their Vernon store from 3:00 – 9:00pm, with lots of music and prizes. They are located at 3108 30th Ave in Vernon. They will have a similar event the following day at their Kelowna store, located at 1292 Ellis Street.

Stop by, take a listen and tell them we sent you!

In my other job in the 2-channel world at TONEAudio magazine, I’ve put the MartinLogan Motion 35XT’s through their paces, and they are fantastic speakers. Taking the concept further, we have the SLM range of speakers you see here.

The X3 is the most expensive of the range at $999, but it uses three of MartinLogan’s Folded Motion transducers and six, 4-inch woofers, squeezing a left, right and center channel in a sound bar that is just a shade over 6 inches high, 48 inches wide and only 2 inches deep. Available in white or black, the SLM X3 should fit into any décor easily.

In addition to the ease of integration, kudos to MartinLogan for offering a pair of small feet that can screw right into the SLM X3, so that in case you live in an apartment that frowns upon you permanently mounting things into a wall, it will just sit right up on a tabletop. Ms. Bubble and I also found this super handy in this mode, transporting the SLM X3 from living room video system to bedroom system. Both have small, powered, wireless Paradigm subs, so this is a breeze, and it’s nice for apartment dwellers on a budget, allowing great sound wherever you are. The rest of you can either buy a second one for the other system and mount via standard anchors to your wall.

It might be an issue for some that the SLM X3s are not powered, but I love the fact that they are not. Considering MartinLogan’s expertise at speaker building (and just like the Motion freestanding speakers) the combination of high-quality drivers and crossover network components inside the cabinet will blow you away with the sound quality – so you’re not limited by the electronics in the box. You can build your audio/video system with simple electronics, and as your system improves, you won’t have to upgrade the speakers.

Borrowing a pair of 35XTs from a friend and using my Paradigm MRX520 surround sound receiver with Anthem Room Correction and a small Paradigm subwoofer makes for a fantastic theater system with little effort. If you haven’t used Anthem’s ARC, it’s a treat and gives great sonic result without agonizing terribly about “where to place the speakers.” With the SLM X3 beneath my 70” LG TV, the 35XT’s back behind the couch as rear speakers and the sub hidden in the room corner, I was rocking in about 30 minutes.

As the SLM X3s only go down to 120hz, you will need a subwoofer. Again, I suggest ML or Paradigm because you can get all the bits from the same dealer, (Gotta love one-stop shopping!) and they will work swimmingly together. Finally, having front, center and rear speakers using the same tweeters gives a more cohesive overall sound.

Though the SLM X3 has a very similar sonic signature to the rest of the Motion range, listening began using the soundbar just as front speakers, with the sub off in the corner. Even if this is all you can muster to begin with, it will dramatically increase your television enjoyment. The monsters in Game of Thrones are much more convincing, and the spacy sound bits in Rick and Morty were a blast. Not to mention gaming is way more fun with big sound.

Remember, MartinLogan cut their teeth decades ago building some of the worlds finest speakers for 2-channel audio enthusiasts, so the SLM X3 delivers the goods in a way that most soundbars don’t. Using just the left and right channel of the SLM X3, on the dresser with subwoofer augmentation makes beautiful music. Stepping up to the Esoteric F-07 integrated we recently reviewed, the SLM X3 does not disappoint. Thanks to the 93db/1-watt sensitivity rating, you’ll be quickly evicted no matter what you are powering the SLM X3 with if you aren’t prudent!

Stereo imaging is big, bold, and wide, regardless of musical choice and these speakers provide luscious tonal capability. Vocal tracks come alive, and thanks to the lightening quick response of those Folded Motion tweeters, drums and percussion are incredibly realistic. Even if you never use the center channel, the SLM X3 and a small subwoofer make for a great, albeit compact stereo music system, which has infinite potential for expansion.

Moving to a full multichannel system is spectacular, and if you don’t want stand mounted speakers behind you, there are two smaller models to the SLM lineup that can be mounted vertically. This would be the way I’d roll if in a compact space, to keep things tidy.

Though priced at the upper end of the soundbar spectrum, the SLM X3 is a premium solution. It’s like three high-performance MartinLogan speakers, tailor-fit into a compact housing. They refer to it as an “Ultra-Slim Folded Motion speaker. This is a premium product from one of audios finest companies. Highly recommended.

The MartinLogan SLM X3 Speaker System

$995

https://www.martinlogan.com/motionSeries/models/ultra-slim.php

I became an audiophile during the period when digital playback began to make its first attempts to address the shortcomings plaguing the new medium. Despite the BS “Perfect Sound Forever” marketing hype heaped upon the unwitting music consuming public, we all knew something was wrong-really wrong with digital sound. Audiophile inspired components from companies like Wadia, Krell, Mark Levinson and its protege Proceed rallied to address the lack of musicality as defined by the flat, sterile, and edgy sound of the standard one box CD players of the day.

A Rotel CD player would first take up position to feed a Wadia X-32 out-board DAC. Soon after the krell SPB-32X DAC gave it a try. These add on DACs helped clean up the sound a bit but in retrospect they were really incremental improvements rather than the major musical overhaul we all were searching for. After giving these DACs a shot I moved back to all in one players. The  Krell KPS20i was my first really high end player. But it wasn’t till the arrival of the Linn Sondek CD12 which to my ears was the first high end CD player that delivered a sound that even hard-core analog enthusiasts could get behind. I started to get the feeling there was real hope for digital sound after all.

It’s 20 years down the road from my last out board DAC and boy has digital come a long way. Far better DAC chips are available at lower cost and component manufactures have gained much understanding of how to implement these devices. Along with the advancements in Chip technology came an understanding of the importance of power supplies and over all circuit design when creating a musical digital device. Getting the best from digital has also included exploring Up-sampling rates, differing mastering and decoding schemes ranging from the failed DVD Audio, the withering SACD on to the latest entry, MQA. Up till now I have dabbled in all but MQA and always end up in the same place. Well engineered standard 44.1 kHz Redbook can be very good. As can SACD, as could DVD audio, DSD and HD audio etc. It is all so recording and mastering dependent that it becomes a swiftly moving target when trying to pin an absolute conclusion on why any given version of a recording sounds great, or bad for that matter.

Audio Research has been in the digital game since 1995 with the introduction of the CD1.This CD player has gone through several upgrades and its current form the CD6 has done remarkably well in the market place. With the DAC9, Audio Research serves the Audiophile who has streaming, computer audio and/or transport sources at a price that while not inexpensive, undercuts the reference level components out there that can reach well into the tens upon tens of thousands of dollars.

The DAC9 was fed a stream from the McIntosh MB50 Streamer with Spotify and Tidal providing content. The system includes the Dan D’Agostino Momentum preamp, Pass Labs XA200.8 mono amplifiers seated on the lovely Bassocontinuo carbon fibre and leather amp stands.Speakers included  the Sonus Faber Lilium and Lansche Audio 4.1. All cabling was the outstanding MIT Oracle Reference.

In 20 years of reviewing I have never owned or reviewed an Audio Research component. I have heard them dozens of times be it amps and preamps along the way and have always enjoyed them. With a vivid highly resolved sound, music through Audio Research components can in a couple words can be described as “involving” and “vivid”.

The New Audio Research components enjoy a fresh look from the mind and hand of Livio Cucuzzo, Chief Designer for Audio Research and Sonus Faber. With one foot in the past al-la the sculpted rack mount handles on the face plate and one foot in the future via the large display window and seamlessly integrated flush mounted buttons, The DAC9 still projects a form follows function look while managing to feel totally fresh and modern.

My only concern is the thin perforated metal, highly resonant top cage. This approach bumps up against my love of massive over built chassis elements. Based on the sound however, this may not be as much of a concern as I might have thought. But I still wonder what a more rigid structure would yield.

5 digital Inputs include RCA, AES/EBU, BNC, Toslink, USB. Two 6H30 tubes caress the analog circuitry and you can hear it. Below the display is a row of six pushbuttons: Power, Menu, Option, Enter, Input, and Mute.The DAC9 uses the Burr-Brown/Texas Instruments PCM1792A chip in a quad configuration.

Some components need a little time to open up and ripen to find their voice and blossom. The DAC9 impressed me immediately-as in first note immediately. After about a half hour I had a very good handle on what the DAC9 was all about. While it did get better over time, its essential strengths were there from the beginning. I don’t want to give the impression there is any one or two things that stand out in the DAC9’s performance. The sonic performance of the DAC9 is extremely well integrated and broadly balanced. So in no particular order, here we go. Starting with tonality, the timbre of instruments and voices are so right, so natural and un-diminished in any way, it pleads a very strong case that digital is now neck and neck with analog as they streak towards the checkered flag. Compared to digital of even 5 years ago, that older sound might as well be an exhibit in the museum of sonic history. The DAC9 is the embodiment of thoroughly modern high end digital sound. There is a directness and vividness, a hallmark of Audio Research sound, that by its nature shows how any form of past digi-titus has been hunted down and extinguished. Color, texture, bloom all come together in a seamless singularity representing a recreation of a time and place that is totally believable.

Another amazing quality of the DAC9 is the ability to render layered depth. Images are placed with three a dimensional presence that is surrounded by air allowing for great separation and a front to back precision that keeps individual instrumental timbre distinct and untangled. The accuracy of front to back distances or layering goes back, all the way back with stunning clarity. Orchestras are mapped out to the performer. All the modern studio recordings I sampled benefited greatly by the hologram like presence put forth by the DAC9 and holds true to the reputation Audio Research has earned over the years.

Across the frequency spectrum the DAC9 maintains its great neutrality and natural seamless integration creating a single flowing musical garment. As the music expresses the entire frequency spectrum, there are no holes, no missing mid bass information that connects the bass to the midrange, no anomalies in the upper midrange that sticks out mucking up integration with the treble.  There may be more sheer resolution available in the treble via an ultimate reference but it will certainly come at a much higher price. The same could be said of the low bass. Its power and resolution give away little and always presents the music in a totally believable way. Power and impact are soul satisfying. My torture test remains “I’m Home Africa” from Stanley Clarks East River Side Drive. The driving pounding back beat has been rendered by countless devices over the years and the DAC9 keeps up with the very best I’ve heard. Some have presented the bass with a bit more tightness and sheer slam but that was accompanied by a dryness and lack of color and nuance. Any improvement beyond the DAC9 would surely come at a severe premium. I will lay my reputation on the line and say there is very little need to look further if profoundly enjoying music is your goal.

Late in the game I took possession of the Analog Domain Isis integrated amplifier. With the DAC9 in the chain the sound was just glorious. Tactile yet incredibly smooth. We are really on to something with this combination of the McIntosh MB50, the DAC9 and the Analog Domain Isis integrated . Listening to Aaron Nevilles “It Feels Like Rain”, A track I have heard at least a thousand times on a wide variety of gear, the DAC9 continues to provide such a confident, powerful bass giving the music a stable foundation upon which Aaron’s voice simply soars. The whole soundstage comes to life with the background singers subtle contribution taking on greater significance due to a high level of resolution and low noise floor allowing them to bloom in the mix a bit more. Very compelling.

Testing the upsampling feature was a breeze as it can be selected by the DAC9’s fantastic solid  metal remote. My MacBook Air was tethered to the DAC9 via the excellent MIT Matrix USB cable. With the music up sampled on Boston’s “Smokin’”, I found the upsample a bit smoother on top with a bit a bit less glare. Hard wired with the MIT Matrix, I also found the music a bit more vibrant than the wireless streaming mode. The Hardwire approach is the overall better performer. This conclusion played out over many recordings and was especially welcome on inherently brighter mixes. Listening to Tidal MQA recordings sounded just phenomenal at the CD9’s 384kHz upsample rate. John Coltranes Giant Steps was noticeably fuller in tone and more dynamic with greater body and presence. I could pick it every time in comparison to its down sampled version during a blind test conducted by Josh Dellinger Experience Director of the World Of McIntosh Townhouse.

The DAC9 came to the system soon after the Macintosh MB50 steamer that I found so musically satisfying recently. I stand by my conclusion that all on its own, the MB50 delivers a very satisfying musical presentation.

The question is at what price does finding a substantial improvement of the MB50 come? With the Audio Research DAC9, that answer is exactly $7,500. The addition of the DAC9 makes the music closer, becoming more vibrant and tactile, a quality enhanced by its tubed configuration no doubt. The DAC9 lights up the stage and casts a vivid glow around the images creating full rich sound. Ultimately the DAC9 expands the picture in all dimensions in a way that the musical MB50 can’t quite muster on its own. For a shade under 10K, the MB50/DAC9 is an absolutely killer combo of gear. Throw in a Macbook Air and a great USB cable like the MIT Matrix for Hi-rez digital at its best. This is digital the way it was meant to be. Looking back on when perfect sound forever was just a promise made, With the DAC9 It is finally a promise kept.

The Audio Research CD9

$7,500

www.audioresearch.com

Though the 1200 is the world’s most ubiquitous turntable, with legions of followers around the world, ask many a 1200 fan/owner/aficionado what turntable they most covet and the answer will be “An SP-10.”

Like everything else cool, vintage, and in short supply, used SP-10s are climbing up the chart as fast as air cooled Porsche 911s. If you want the Singer Porsche equivalent in SP-10 world, look no further than the folks at Artisan Fidelity. Their rebuilds combined with plinths that are out of this world gorgeous, will impress you if an SP-10 is your grail.

But some of us don’t like vintage, no matter how well executed. Some of us want brand new. Two years ago, when the new versions of SP-1200s were introduced, (and I bought two of them) there were whispers in dark hallways that perhaps an SP-10 replacement was in the works as well.

The future is here turntable lovers. And it’s beautiful beyond expectation. But don’t expect to see one soon. We were lucky to have an hour listening session, courtesy of the folks at Audio Vision San Francisco, before their guests were to arrive for the evenings festivities, with Technics.

Yes, yes, we can all play the “it’s not my system, so I can’t hear things properly” card, or we can get down to listening. After all, if someone flips you the keys to your favorite car or motorbike and tells you to have a go for an hour, you don’t refuse? Do you? And besides, Antonio, Randy, and Chris always have great sound in their rooms, so it’s no big.

Flipping through a handful of tracks from current MoFi tracks, including the spectacular Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach collaboration, all the way to a super clean copy of Ohio Players’ Honey, via a new Ortofon A90 cartridge, it’s easy to get a read. Yes, it’s incredibly good. The sound is massive, as you would expect from a great direct drive table, yet elegant and full of nuance in a way that the 1200G is not. That’s what you pay the extra $14,000, for.

The new SP-1200G and the less expensive GR are both fantastic turntables at $4,000 and $1,600 respectively. The SP-10R is a fantastic turntable period, and this writer feels it’s a major bargain at $18,000, with tonearm. Especially compared to most of the tables in the $20k range. The SP-10 will also be available without plinth, and the ability to use up to three tonearms. We’ll post more as soon as we know final details.

Beyond the big, weighty, ultra-quiet sound, this table is a work of art. I’d buy one just for the impeccable build quality, even if I never played a record on it. But like the Magic Bus, I can’t have one. The backorders are piling up, and AVSF’s Antonio Long (one of the US’ largest Technics dealers) told us, “I’ve got four on order already and I might not get them all when the first shipment arrives in the US.”

While the design aesthetic is very similar to the original SP-10, the result is similar to the SL-1200. Place a Mk.II next to a new 1200G and the new one not only looks bespoke in comparison, but futuristic and retro all at the same time. It’s like those wacky episodes in Star Trek where the new Enterprise faces down the old one at the opening to a spatial anomaly.

If this table piques your interest as much as it does mine, get to your Technics dealer and place an order. Now. Hopefully, you will get one before the end of the year. I know I’m probably looking at a mid 2019 date on one for me. Crazy.

www.technics.com

www.audiovisionsf.com

Stop by tomorrow, Thursday, to AudioVision San Francisco to oogle and audition the new Technics direct drive flagship SP-10. It truly is a feat of engineering to behold. The event will also have people on hand from Nordost, YG Acoustics and Bel Canto.

See you there! Festivities start at 7:30pm

Klipsch speakers are such a big part of audio’s history, and such a big part of American audio history, the first round of listening had to be all-American. Just because.

Taking full advantage of a custom made VPI Classic One turntable, Eminent Technologies tonearm and the latest Statement cartridge from Grado, the gorgeous walnut Forte IIIs went front and center in my listening room, powered by a full Pass XS front end, funneled through Cardas Clear cables and a freshly rebuilt Audio Research D-79 power amplifier. So we had a bit of vintage, current and custom all in the mix, but American hi-fi to the core.

The Klipsch Forte speakers have been around for decades, but the current model III has a number of updates that you can read about here (link) on the Klipsch website. Our review samples arrived in American Walnut (which is my personal favorite) but distressed oak, black ash and cherry are also available. Just like my LaScalas, built in May of 1976, each Klipsch Forte is hand assembled in Hope, Arkansas. All Fortes feature book matched veneers and upon completion, are signed off on by the person completing final testing, as they’ve always done.

Are you ready?

Queing up Kiss, Alive! only seemed appropriate. Thanks to a 99db/1watt sensitivity, this combination nearly blew the windows out and “Firehouse” never sounded better or, shall we say more alive? Staying with the live vibe, and moving from the Motor City to the City by the Bay, the legendary Friday Night in San Francisco, featuring Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin and Paco de Lucia is next. In addition to the frantic fretboard activity, you can almost feel the tension in the room between these three guitar greats as they streak through “Short Tales of the Dark Forest,” with the audience clapping, cheering and gasping in the background as the music swells and fades.

With so much discussion in audiophile circles about holographic imaging, pinpoint focus and the like, the fourth dimension is dynamics, or the lack therof. While the Forte IIIs don’t image like a pair of minimonitors, they paint a large, lifelike sonic picture that doesn’t subdue the wide dynamic swings you get when attending a live performance. Besides, when was the last time you went to a concert, rock or otherwise and heard “pinpoint imaging?” What the Forte’s do, incredibly well, is recreate a sense of size and spatial correctness that few speakers match.

Next on the list, Jeff Beck’s “Bigblock” from Live at Ronnie Scotts. This track opens with a low, growling bass line that fills the room, and throughout the album, it’s easy to hear the spatial cues that let you know you’re in a small club. As Jeff Beck’s signature Stratocaster screams in and out of the mix, the extra headroom that the Forte’s offer helps take things to 11. These speakers do an incredible job at keeping the presentation clean at moderate to high volume, yet even when played more softly adding the extra liveliness to keep the listener engaged.

Chilling it out

Thanks to a 99db/1watt sensitivity rating, you can use the Forte IIIs with small tube amplifiers and get great results. As good as the Fortes are at pinning your ears back, their wide dynamic range makes for an incredibly open presentation at low levels. Substituting the 20 watt per channel Nagra 300p amplifier drives these legendary speakers more than loud enough, but at low to medium levels provide a heavenly experience. If you want to keep it inexpensive, fun and tubes, think a restored Dynaco Stereo 70 like Klipsch shows on the website.

If you can imagine listening to Led Zeppelin at a modest volume level, the Fortes show off another side of their personality. The bass line in “No Quarter” is simply stunning, revealing perfect harmony between the rear-firing, 15” passive radiator and the front-firing 12” woofer. There is a low level clarity and linearity here that makes the Fortes just as much fun to listen to at a modest level as an Earth shattering one.

Reluctantly, a suite of female vocal tracks are investigated, because that’s part of the audiophile drill, but when your neighbor flips you the keys to his Hemi Charger, the minute you get out of his sight, you don’t head for Starbucks, you head for the nearest stoplight and do the biggest burnout you can muster. That’s how fun the Forte’s are. You could listen to Ella Fitzgerald, but you play Betty Davis. Which is exactly what I did, though Ella sounds lovely through the Fortes too. Listening to her snarl through “If I’m in Luck, I Might Get Picked Up,” illustrates the grit in this funk icon’s voice loud and clear.

Simple set up

As mentioned, with the high level of sensitivity the Fortes offer, pretty much any amplifier will get you started on your journey, but make no mistake, these speakers offer a high level of resolution to go with their wide dynamic range. The better your components, the more finesse they are capable of. Much like my vintage LaScalas, I’ve heard Klipsch pooh-poohed by the audiophile crowd, because they’ve only heard them driven by a mass market receiver at Best Buy. My Sonus faber speakers and Focal speakers sound lousy under the same conditions.

Even though the Fortes can pretty much be thrown in your room and sound ok, paying attention to getting the speaker to rear wall distance right plays huge dividends. First, what you probably perceived as boominess from this speaker when you heard a mediocre demo was the rear firing passive radiator fighting the woofer. Get the Fortes spread out in your listening room where the stereo image is how you like it, then move them back and forth in relation to the rear wall, first in 6-12 inch increments. Pay careful attention to the upper bass response and the blend with deep bass.

When you nail it, the Fortes disappear in the room, and not only will you get much smoother bass, the stereo image opens up tremendously. Then fine-tune the toe-in the same way. When you’re right there, the sound just washes over you without sounding harsh. A little too much and the Fortes will squawk at you, not enough and they sound lifeless and diffuse. Then crank it up and enjoy.

The best party guest

For $3,500 a pair, the Klipsch Forte IIIs are tough to beat. They exude old-school style, combining it with present day passion and quality control, resulting in a speaker that’s easy to live with, and works well with nearly any amplification you can pair them up with. I bought the review pair. You need em too!

The Klipsch Forte III

MSRP: $3,500/pair

www.klipsch.com

Peripherals

Analog Source                        VPI Classic One/ET 2.5 arm

Digital Source                        PS Audio DirectStream DAC and Transport

Amplification                         Pass Labs INT-60

Speaker Cable                       Cardas Clear

A recent TONE Facebook post had a number of people pissing themselves in anger over a $5,300 Louis Vuitton record case that’s not even available anymore.

They all screamed “stupidity,” because after all, who would spend $5,300 on a box that holds only 50 records? (to be fair it does have an extra compartment for some CD’s and “accessories.”

Would I buy one? Probably not at $5,300, but I might for $2,000 – it is pretty cool. For those interested, LV will still make them through their custom shop, but that’s not the point.

There’s always been a disheartening angst for things outside of our budget. So many are so easy to dismiss things that don’t make sense financially to them. As Stewie Griffin on Family Guy is fond of saying, “whatever gets you through the night, bitch.” However, by this definition, more than half of the stuff in our world is stupid because it is non-essential. Everything that is above the baseline of what we need to get by is not required and therefore open to ridicule.

Geez. Those of us that enjoy hifi live in a world of non-essential stuff. Really? You’re going to sit there straight faced and tell me your non-essential stuff is more worthy than my non-essential stuff?

Let’s put this in context. Your neighbor buys a new Ducati Panigale-V4 Speciale, tipping the scales at pretty close to $40,000. You think he or she is a God. (And I must admit I’m pretty envious too…) Said neighbor is probably only going to put a few thousand miles a year on that beauty, so it might translate into about an average use of an hour a day, spread out over the course of a year.

Yet neighbor number two that just spent $40k on a hifi system that they will probably use 4-10 times that much, is an idiot. Even more, God forbid, they spent $40k on a pair of speakers or a turntable. And it’s not like that Ducati is going to get you to the emergency room.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m a gearhead to the core. I’ll be the first one across the fence slapping my neighbor on the back when they are out in the driveway admiring their latest acquisition. But this is how I see hifi – motorcycle money. There are plenty of people driving nice cars and nice motorcycles that aren’t terribly wealthy people – they’ve just decided to spend a (perhaps) disproportionate amount of their income on something that brings them joy for whatever reason.

So, if you’re wondering why hi end audio attracts neither new people nor women to the ranks, this is why. Who wants to be part of that? Think about it.  – Jeff Dorgay

Article and Photo by Michael Corsentino

Record cleaning never looked so damn sexy! Meet the Levin record cleaning brush and its matching case. Handcrafted in Germany using centuries-old brush making techniques, the Levin brushes are made with hand-pulled horse or Chinese goat’s hair, for bristles that remain in place and provide years of use. Models for both wet cleaning and dry dust removal are available in a variety of exotic wood finishes ranging from bog oak, root wood, Karelian Birch Maser, pear wood, walnut or POM. Bristles are also offered in both white or black. I chose the Karelian Birch dry cleaning brush for its visual appeal and white bristles to easily see when they require cleaning. The natural hair bristles are gentle on your records and can be easily washed using soap and a damp cloth as needed.

Not your average brush

Levin brushes range in price from $99 to $175, with cases starting at $79. That’s not cheap, and it took a minute for this vinyl enthusiast to wrap their head around the cost; even a sexy, best in class product like this. I confess I hate spending money on record sleeves, cleaning fluid, brushes, etc. I’d rather spend that money on more records. But these purchases fall squarely into the necessary evil category; I grin and bear it because I know how important it is to take great care of your records.

Once you hold the Levin brush in your hand, the quality and care in its construction is evident. Fit and finish are outstanding. The matching wood and metal case strikes the perfect balance between form and function, calling to mind the goodies you find at the MoMA Design Store. Objet d’art meets record cleaning brush, cool!

Levin claims the combination of natural goat or horse hair, with the wood and aluminum used for the brush’s handle interact with your hand to create an antistatic effect. I concur with the manufacturer, it does as claimed, reducing static as it picks up the day to day dust on records. Even if you are using an excellent record cleaning system, some dust still builds up and using the Levin brush will extend the time between full cleanings.

Every time you lower the inch long bristles onto your records, you are reminded of the quality – there’s nothing flimsy about these brushes. The Levin brush is near twice the size of other brushes I’ve used and easily outperforms the AudioQuest and Mapleshade brushes I’ve used in the past. The Levin is in a league of its own.

The perfect addition to your daily ritual

My record cleaning brush is the one tool I use every day interacting with my record collection and is an essential part of my record care toolkit. It touches every single side of every record that I play. That’s a ton of use. In that light, the value of a great record cleaning brush takes on a new significance. Based on build quality, and the ease of cleaning the Levin brush, it’s a long-term investment that will easily deliver ten years of use, maybe more. The ultimate litmus test for any product, especially one replacing an existing solution, is “does it do a better job than the product it’s replacing?” In the case of the Levin record cleaning brush, the answer is a definitive yes.

There are a few minor quibbles regarding the brush’s case I’d be remiss if I didn’t share. I love being able to store the brush in a dust free environment when not in use, an amenity missing with my other brushes. However, the way case opens makes me a little nervous. The cover, partially clad in aluminum with sharp edges, nests into the base of the case, making operation a bit clumsy; it could easily slip out of your hand and scratch your record or rack.

Rather than being free floating I’d love to see the case’s cover hinged at the corner so that it opened like a straight razor, so open it carefully and away from anything prone to scratching. If you have even slightly oily skin, the finish on the aluminum case cover is a fingerprint magnet, so if you are on the OCD side, be prepared to keep the case clean as well. With cases costing anywhere from $79 to $145 the little things matter.

While not as sexy or “must have” as the record cleaning brush Levin’s offers a companion stylus cleaning brush and matching case which are sure to appeal to completists like me who enjoy owning the entire kit. I ended up buying both – of course!

At the end of the day

The Levin record cleaning brush may not be everyone’s cup of tea due to its cost, but keep in mind that the brush and its companion case may be purchased separately as budget permits. However, if you value the best tools touching your precious records, and you love beautiful objects as much as I do, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better looking or performing record cleaning brush to add to your record cleaning tool kit.

Pricing: Wet & dry brushes $99+, case $79+, stylus brush w/matching case included $79+

www.audioskies.com

Listening to the intricate harmonies in Crowded House’s “You Better Be Home Soon,” European Audio Team’s E-Glo S (named for its glowing vacuum tubes jutting out of the casework) offers up a sound that is mellow, defined, and dynamic.

You rarely get that out of five-figure phonostages, much less one for $2,995. With phono preamplifier prices reaching the stratosphere, what is the performance minded analog lover to do? European Audio Team’s Glow S, is incredible and we’ll do our best to tell you why in the next thousand words. But it certainly makes an outstanding first impression.

EAT principle Jozefina Lichtenegger is the driving force behind the company. All of her company’s products from their turntables, to the E-Glo S pictured here, to the packaging for their premium line of vacuum tubes project elegance backed up by performance. We’ve had excellent luck with their tubes as well as the turntables we’ve lived with in the past. The E-Glo S is not only a perfect match to her tables, it will look great wherever it is placed. We love manufacturers that can wrap style into the package, and even more so at such a reasonable price.

A single 18-volt wall wart takes care of keeping the low-level circuitry away from the power supply, further helping to keep noise at bay. The rear panel only offers a single set of RCA jacks for input and output – a model of simplicity.

Accommodating Indeed

Some phonostages require removing the top panel, or taking the unit out of the rack to get to the underside, the E-Glo S lets you adjust MC gain, (45, 50, 55, 65 and 70 db) loading (10, 30, 50, 90, 100, 1000 and 47 Kohms) and capacitance (50, 150, 270, 370, 520, 620 and 740pf) easily from the three switches on the top panel, with LED indicators on the front panel to keep track of your progress. If you are a monogamist when it comes to phono cartridges, just living with the same one until the end of its lifespan, none of this matters. However if you have multiple tables, tonearms, or armwands with different cartridges – lack of access to the gain, loading, and capacitance settings can become tedious.

Using the E-Glo S with a VPI Classic Two and multiple tonearm wand/cartridge combinations is a breeze. Swapping from MM to MC and the required adjustments from Grado Signature 1 to Denon 103r and back, effortless. Even if you don’t use multiple cartridges, the ability to fine tune your cartridge with minimal effort goes a long way to make the analog experience convenient.

The additional fourth switch is for a subsonic filter. We found this handy when using the E-Glo-S in the main system, equipped with a pair of REL 212SE subwoofers and listening to our favorite hip-hop and EDM tracks. It has a very gentle rolloff and no effect on low bass performance that we could tell. It might be pretty handy if you have wobbly floors too.

Running the gamut

While there are a number of intriguing phonostages in the $1,000 range, stepping up to the five figure models reveals a level of tonal sophistication that the lesser models do not. Of course, you need a system capable of resolving the detail, and for many analog enthusiasts, this is overkill. Comparing the E-Glo S to a number of top range phonostages we have on hand from Simaudio, Audio Research, Conrad-Johnson and Pass, the EAT is an excellent balance.

The E-Glo Sis like one of my favorite cars, the BMW M2. It doesn’t offer the ultimate level of performance of an M4 or a Porsche 911, but at real world driving levels, the experience is unmatched. Ditto for the E-Glo S. If you’ve got a mega system, with a top line turntable and you’re running a Goldfinger, Atlas or similar cartridge, you will need more performance than the E-Glo S has to give. (Though even in that context, you will be impressed at just how good it is). VANA’s Nancy Weiner suggests we take the larger E-Glo ($6,995) for a spin, so watch for a future review on this.

Acoustic instruments and complex musical selections really come to life via the E-Glo S. The speed of fast plucked acoustic guitars, or a gently bowed violin has the necessary delicacy to immerse you in sound. Yet there is also enough resolution to discern the difference between a Marshall stack and a stacked pair of Fender cabinets.

The low noise floor makes for great dynamics. Drums sound particularly lifelike, both on attack and decay, whether listening to the tubby drum solo of “In-na-gadda-da-vida” or the intricate work of Neil Peart. And it’s tough to beat tubey goodness for small ensemble and vocal pieces; the amount of texture and breath that the E-Glo S contributes is impeccable.

If you’re working within the context of a well-crafted system, and looking to put together a great analog front end in the $6k-$12k range, that includes the table, cartridge and phonostage of your choice – you will be hard pressed to find anything more revealing than the E-Glo S. The only qualifiers here are a single input, will RCA inputs and outputs work in the context of your system, and do you prefer tubes over transistors.

Speaking of tubes

JFets in the first gain stage keeps the noise lower than can be achieved in an all tube design. Even when placing my ear right up to the horns in the Pure Audio Project TRIO15s used for most of the listening in this review, the tiny bit of noise coming through is almost non-existent. Part of this can be attributed to the high level of quality present in the premium EAT tubes that are supplied with the E-Glo S.

The two supplied ECC83 tubes are a 12AX7 equivalent, and because the supplied EAT tubes are so good, I doubt you will even want to bother tube rolling – another bonus. While many manufacturers are using $10 tubes in their wares, these are premium tubes – a $400 upgrade on their own. Taking this into consideration, the E-Glo S is an even bigger bargain. For those of you that aren’t familiar EAT makes their own vacuum tubes, and you can watch a short video on their home page. Good stuff.

Swapping to run of the mill tubes, takes the noise up and the musicality down, so stick with the EAT tubes when the day to re-tube is finally upon you. For those of you with a secret stash of Telefunkens and Bugle Boys, there may be a few extra molecules of performance to be had, but you know what that costs!

A True analog champion

Running the E-Glo S through its paces with about a dozen different phono cartridges and hundreds of varied musical selections, it confirms its excellent first impression. This is a fantastic phonostage that is without compromise at its price. It’s easy to award this beauty one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2018.

The EAT E-Glo S Phonostage

MSRP:  $2,995

www.vanaltd.com (NA Distributor)

www.europeanaudioteam.com (Manufacturer)

French speaker manufacturer Triangle has just announced the release of the latest reference of the Esprit range – The Australe EZ.

We’ve been very impressed with what we’ve heard from the Triangle speakers we’ve reviewed so far, but the new Australe EZ promises even more, utilizing their DPS (Dynamic Pulse System) technology, previously only in their flagship Magellan range of speakers. It utilizes a second tweeter at the rear of the speaker, helping to add more depth and spatial information. As a further benefit, the sweet spot from the listening position is wider, thanks to the additional dispersion.

The Australe EZ also takes advantage of new woofer technology, centered around a new composite cone material made of wood pulp and carbon fiber. The resulting woofer cone is more rigid and lower in mass, guaranteeing fast and powerful bass response.

Every other aspect of the speaker has been reworked too, from the cabinet to the crossover network. Even the glass pedestal now has a perforated rubber plate bonded to it to eliminate vibration.

Visit your Triangle dealer to see, better yet, give a listen to their newest creation. We anticipate a pair for review soon.

www.triangle-fr.com

McIntosh just announced the release of their new MCT500 SACD/CD transport.

This is great news for those of you still committed to the shiny disc. With the ability to play SACD and CD discs, the MCT500 offers TOSLINK, RCA/SPDIF and AES/EBU digital outputs.

Owners of select McIntosh products with their proprietary MCT input will be able to take advantage of the full SACD bitstream as well, via the MCT output on the 500’s back panel.

Of course, the MCT500 shares the aesthetic of previous MAC components, so it will look right at home amongst a rack full of blue and green. $4,500 at your McIntosh dealer now.

www.mcintoshlabs.com

It’s an interesting journey to experience a manufacturer’s product in a gradual fashion. Beginning with Gold Note’s excellent Vasari MM cartridge, comparing to their Donatello and then Machiavelli cartridges, and finally the PH-10 phonostage, a solitary voice comes through.

There’s a relaxed, yet highly involving nature to the sound of their products, much like comparing the ride of the new Alfa Romeo Giulia to a BMW M4. Both cars are equally quick, yet the Alfa feels more elegant, more tactile. There is a certain charm the Italian car possesses that the German car never will. (And I say this as a very happy BMW owner.)

The same can be said for their top of the range Mediterraneo turntable. While it can be yours for $5,973 with a black or white base, I highly suggest going for the $1,000 upcharge to get the gorgeous Tuscan walnut base featured in our review sample. Starting as a 60mm block, that has been aged for 8 years and stabilized in a thermal control autoclave at exactly 7% humidity to achieve structural stability, it is carved into the curvy shape you see here. Not having the standard, polymer based table here for comparison, I can’t honestly tell you the wood sounds better or worse. But it is so gorgeous, I can’t imagine the Mediterraneo without it, any more than I can imagine a BMW M4 without the carbon fiber roof.

Immediately engaging

Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew is first on the list. Digging into the anniversary pressing, the Gold Note table paints a lush picture immediately. Taking advantage of the synergy with it and the Machiavelli cartridge, first through the Gold Note PH-10 phono, and then through my reference Pass XS Phono, the character does not change, it merely gets bigger, deeper and more involving. The sonic character reminds me of a perfect mix of the Rega P9 (speed), the AVID Volvere SP, (inner detail and LF slam) and my mid-80s Linn LP-12 (all kinds of mellow) in one package.

Many talk about the “analog magic,” that only vinyl can provide. Again, it reminds me of the difference between everyone else’s solid red and the red that bathes an Alfa, Ferrari, or Ducati. that’s a red you can lose yourself in, it’s so deep. This is the presentation of the Mediterraneo, and with some cartridges, it may be too much – unless that happens to be your “just right.” I prefer just a touch of warmth, so that dynamics and resolution don’t get lost in the mix. Swapping the Machiavelli cartridge for the Grado Statement 2 was a little too much for my tastes, a little bit too lush. Yet the Gold Note cartridges, the Ortofon Cadenza Black and Bronze cartridges and the Hana SL all proved a lovely balance.  Of course the rest of your system will determine your mix.

Regardless of musical choice, the Mediterraneo delivers a big presentation. Playing the remaster of XTC’s classic, Skylarking is enlightening. The bongos in “The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul” are anchored off to one side of the soundstage, as do the fingers snapping in the other channel, as the rest of the instruments fold into the mix, with the bass line well defined. This table is a master of keeping the musical pace intact. Again, the more densely packed the music selected, the more you are seduced by this turntable. It has zero fatigue factor.

This solid musical foundation makes the Mediterraneo a hit with any genre of music. We played more than our share of heavy rock and electronic selections along with the usual audiophile suspects. Of course, your favorite, flawless records will shine, but the Gold Note table digs deep into the grooves and is highly resolving as well. Even those average pressings in your collection will shine, so this isn’t a finicky “audiophile table” only suited to your 20 best pressings. A well-worn copy of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid carried the day, delivering blistering lead guitar lines, and crushing bass to boot.

Charm that doesn’t fade

While first impressions can be great, they sometimes fade after a while, and not every turntable (or romantic interest) remains a great party guest. We’ve had the Mediterraneo here for nearly six months and have played every kind of music imaginable through it, with nearly a dozen different combinations of phono stage and cartridge. It remains a favorite. This is a table that you can listen to from morning until night and not get tired of it.

The exquisitely machined tonearm with integral head shell is so easy to use and delicate yet firm in action, it’s a joy to use. Again, this is an area where some tables’ fall down. They are either too complex to use, or not terribly well implemented in their design, and their initial bloom fades. This table is a fantastic combination of art, design and science. The only complaint we are unanimous in, is the dust cover. While functional, it does not live up to the aesthetic of the table. This should be upgraded to a molded, single piece cover, as the current one looks as if it can be easily damaged. Consider this a minor blemish, as most people I know rarely use the dust cover on their tables, however if you happen to be someone that spends a lot of time with the dust cover in play, it may aggravate you. But hey, the convertible top on my Alfa Spider always leaked a little bit, and that never dulled my enthusiasm.

Easy to roll

Unlike my LP-12, the Mediterraneo is easy to set up, and better yet, it stays set up. A cursory check for speed accuracy reveals the Gold Note table to be spot on. If measurements aren’t enough, play your favorite violin piece; you can hear the steadiness instantly. It’s belt drive design is simple, elegant, and gets the job done. But don’t let the old school look fool you. There’s a 3mm stainless steel plate sandwiched between the 60mm wood base and the acrylic top to keep resonance to a minimum. Combined with a 45mm Sustarin platter (a highly stable co-polymer material) the bearing and spindle assembly are also made to the strictest tolerances. The end result is a dead quiet table, contributing to it’s incredible detail retrieval. Discs featuring heavily layered tracks keep the mix clear and clean. Whether you’re listening to the multiple overdubs in the first Boston record from the 70s or Gaga’s latest, you’ll be surprised at how many details you might have been missing before.

It’s worth noting that Gold Note offers an excellent instruction manual, something not all turntables offer. And the table comes well packed. Once removed, the Mediterraneo should take you about 10 minutes to assemble; install the platter on the spindle assembly, string the belt and then fine tune the tonearm for your cartridge. Tracking force is straightforward, and anti-skate is adjusted with a small weight on a string. This table is easy to work with, falling into place quickly. Even analog newcomers should have no problem setting it up quickly and easily.

Simple, beautiful, effective

Because Gold Note has been making gear for so many years, they bring considerable manufacturing expertise, offering products that show considerable refinement. While we’ve been impressed by everything they’ve sent us, the Mediterraneo is truly something special. If you want a turntable that does more than just play records, that is truly a work of analog art, this is the one for you. It deserves to be put on a pedestal and enjoyed while listening.

The Gold Note Mediterraneo Turntable

$5,973 ($6,973 with wood base)

www.goldnote.it

Peripherals

Cartridge Gold Note Donatello & Machiavelli, Ortofon Cadenza Black & Bronze

Phonostage Gold Note PH-10, Pass Labs XS Pre, Conrad-Johnson TEA-1s2

Preamplifier Pass XS Pre

Power Amplifier Pass XS 300 monoblocks

Speakers Focal Sopra no.3 with (2) REL 212SE subwoofers

Cable Cardas Clear, Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Racks Grand Prix Audio Monaco

I’ve never been to Portugal, and I had no idea they made amplifiers there. Our first experience with Audolici was earlier in the year with their AVP-01 phonostage, which proved lovely.

Staffer Rob Johnson spent a fair amount of time with the amplifier you see here, and his GamuT RS3s with only so-so results. I had a similar result with my Quad 2815s; ok but not enthralling the way you expect a tube amplifier to be. Oddly enough, the I50 is a dream combination with original Quad 57s. In the middle of all this, the new Martin Logan ESL9s arrived, as well as the Raidho X-1s. In addition to the Graham LS3/5s and the new Focal Kanta speakers already on hand, these four speakers are a major home run with the I50. To be fair to Audolici, (as it is with most tube amplifiers), the secret is in the synergy. Some speakers just don’t pair up as well as you’d like.

But when it’s right it’s really, really, right. Pairing the I50 with the MLs and the Raidho’s redefines the audiophile cliché “holographic.” Compared to my usual tube go to’s, the I50, with a quartet of KT120 power tubes create a multi-dimensional sound field, awash in size and nuance. This is the “tube sound” at its best. Now that the ECM catalog is available on TIDAL, tracking all the way through Keith Jarrett’s Sun Bear Concerts is a complete joy with the I50. It was amazing how fast six hours went by, sitting on the couch, editing photos. The ease by which this amplifier renders music is addicting.

The magic is in the details

Listening to a group of demo standards, the low-level detail revealed through the ESL9s is simply staggering. The sax in Soft Machine’s “Blind Badger” blares way out in front of the speakers with the drums flailing in the background and a rock-solid bass line. This amplifier does a fantastic job at keeping the musical pace intact; offering wide dynamic swings at the same time.

This refinement isn’t inexpensive. The I50 Swing will set you back $8,750, yet after extensive listening with a number of different speakers, it gets my nod of approval. There are a few other great tube amps for less money, but they lack the level of resolution that the Swing offers. Going back and forth repeatedly between my reference PrimaLuna DiaLogue HP Integrated, the Audio Research VSi75 and a Conrad Johnson Classic 62 paired with an updated PV-12, the CJ pair came the closest to the I50, but will set you back more dough and require more rack space. The PrimaLuna is the value/performance king, with more versatility, tube options and more raw power (93 watts per channel with a set of KT-150s), where the ARC and CJ offer different voices, different variations on the theme. It’s like trying to decide whether you want to buy an Audi, BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus. All good choices, but all unique in their own way.

Regardless of program material, the I50 keeps drawing me in with detail and resolution. Where some tube amplifiers win you over with a bit of euphony, making everything sound “pretty good,” the I50 treads into a territory that I feel is occupied by the worlds finest components in the sense that it offers high resolution without sounding harsh – that’s a narrow beam to traverse.

Further Listening

Corny as this might sound, what the I50 does best is its ability to extract more detail from a familiar recording than you are used to, enough to get you to that magical, a-ha place. It does it in a subtle way, allowing more of your favorite records that you thought didn’t sound great, actually do. The little things that add up, like the way the castanets in The Acid House King’s Music Sounds Better With You have their own space instead of being buried in the mix. My favorite Monkees tracks sound way better, and Skinny Puppy really rules through this amp. The list goes on and on – the I50 is one of those unicorn products that keeps you up way after hours, listening to one more track, then another, then another. Is there a measurement for that? I don’t think so. The more time you spend with the i50, the more you will appreciate its virtues.

In addition to a lovely midrange, incredible imaging, and outstanding detail, the bass extension and control that the I50 offers is spectacular. Tube amplifier aficionados know this is not an easy task for these amplifiers, and if there is a place where tube amplifiers fall flat it’s in the lowest register of the musical spectrum. Much fun as I was having revisiting my favorite Soft Machine tracks, the kettledrum in Aimee Mann’s “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” has spectacular punch and control as well.

There are two other versions of the I50, the Jazz, producing 40wpc with EL34 tubes or KT88 tubes, and the Blues producing 25 watts per channel with 6L6 tubes. I’ll stick my neck out and guess that these amplifiers are similar in result, yet produce more of a sonic signature in keeping with the respective output tubes. Unfortunately, the Swing does not have the option to swap output tubes. This is one area that I prefer the PrimaLuna. If you want to custom tune your amplifier’s personality, keep this in mind. However, if you are more monogamous in your sonic tastes, and don’t feel an incessant need to switch, hanging your hat on one of the i50 models will be just fine.

By the book

Keeping the design simple, the i50 uses solid-state components in the power supply, a pair of Russian driver tubes and two KT120s per channel. Driven in this configuration, tube life should be long, and not pushing the power tubes to the max, adds to the grain free sound. The i50 also uses an auto-bias configuration, so you will not have to worry about that aspect of vacuum tube operation either.

Front and back panels keep it clean and simple. Up front, there is a power switch, volume control and a push button that selects one of the two available inputs. Around back, we have a pair of single ended, RCA high level inputs, IEC power receptacle and a pair of those annoying plastic covered binding posts (for our safety, of course) that so many manufacturers have had to adopt for certification purposes. If you have speaker cables with large lugs, I suggest re-terminating to bananas – this will make your life a lot easier.

While our review sample was bathed in a nice tomato red color, those not that aesthetically adventuresome can also get their i50 in standard audiophile black and white. I say bravo for offering the more stylish choice. No remote here, so you’ll have to get up and add a few steps to your daily routine controlling volume. (Or if you’re a Roon user, you can just cheat and control the volume from your iPad.)

The Audolici i50 is an excellent amplifier and we’ve enjoyed the time spent auditioning it. While at the higher end of the price spectrum for a 50-wpc tube amplifier, it offers style and sonic refinement in keeping with the price asked.

www.soundconsultant.com
(US Distributor)

www.audolici.com
(Factory)

Starting from humble roots as a watchmaker in 2012, Detroit’s Shinola has come a long way in five years, consistently expanding its product lines in new and different ways, emerging as a major lifestyle brand.

Today, the company produces clothing, bicycles, bags, and more, including audio gear. As with its other products Shinola taps industry experts to help with their designs and production. The Shinola Runwell turntable we reviewed a few months back was designed and delivered in partnership with VPI Industries. The company adds another quality product to their roster with their new active bookshelf speakers.

Unpacking

Shinola ships the speakers nestled inside some of the most attractive packaging one will encounter. A suitcase-sized black cardboard box with embedded plastic handles on the sides makes for easy lifting. Lifting the lid, the first thing a new owner sees is the massive quick start setup poster with concise illustrations. Beneath it a considerable cushion of foam shields the pair of speakers individually wrapped in fabric bags. The few accessories hide neatly in another small cardboard box.

With unpacking complete, expect to admire what you have uncovered. While the speakers are nondescript and traditional in their boxy physical shape, the sides offer an attractive oak composite finish. A black finish is also an option. On the speaker front, the non-removable black grille covering the drivers sports a tiny, subtle gold-colored lightning bolt, Shinola’s logo. There no bombastic branding demanding the owner’s attention and interrupting the clean facade.

Under the hood

In this active speaker design approach, the two speakers are inherently different. One speaker contains the amp and requires the power cord. Inside that enclosure resides an efficient 60-watt Class D amplifier, paired carefully to get the most from Shinola’s drivers. The other speaker is purely passive, connected by a supplied length of speaker cable, making it easy to place.

A toggle on the powered twin offers the choice of designating it as either the left or right channel helping its owner to place it nearest to a power outlet. The brainier, amplified speaker also houses a pair of RCA inputs, an 1/8 inch mini-jack, and a volume knob. A few inches away, a rocker switch brings the speakers to life. Once powered up, the volume knob pulls double-duty as a standby switch when the speakers are not in use. By twisting the dial past the lowest volume setting, a tangible click activates a “standby” mode in which the amplifier sips minimal electrical current to remain warmed up for the next listening session.

With modest dimensions, these speakers house a custom-made 5.25-inch woofer with 20-ounce magnet nestled within an aluminum basket. A 1.5-inch cloth dome tweeter handles the high frequencies. Together, these drivers reside in a 12”x 8”x 9” cabinet. The amplified speaker tips the scale at 13.5 pounds, while the passive side weighs two pounds less. Given the small size, stands or a shelf are mandatory to elevate the speakers to ear-level for optimum sound. A rectangular port on the rear of the speaker body helps achieve robust bass response and serves as an unofficial handle to help carry each speaker to wherever you decide to place them.

Setup

Once on stands, installation takes minimal effort. Five-way binding posts facilitate connection of the single speaker wire between the twins regardless of cable termination type. After connecting the amplified speaker to the wall with a power cord, all one needs to do is connect the sources of their choosing. It would be ideal if Shinola included a second pair of RCA jacks for those with multiple sources. If a Runwell turntable occupies the single set, a listener must either use the mini-jack input for an alternate music source or be prepared to swap cables physically between them. Potential owners should also note there is no remote control for volume adjustment. Those who prefer to surf their digital music collection without using a “volume-leveling” setting, should expect much walking for adjustments as various recordings come up to bat. Perhaps it is time to give in and reconsider the relaxation power which digital volume leveling can offer.

Shinola includes an instruction manual offering helpful speaker placement tips. They suggest staging the speakers seven feet apart, two feet away from the back wall, two feet from the side walls, and nine feet away from the listening seat. First, owners should try listening with the speakers facing directly forward. After that, experiment with about 15 degrees of toe-in toward the listening seat. Shinola suggests the latter angle can improve stereo imaging, but of course, everyone’s mileage will vary. Each room has its sonic challenges, so consider their recommendations a good starting point in your effort to achieve ideal placement in your listening area. Keep experimenting!

Listening

After a few days of break-in and identifying ideal placement options, the Shinola speakers sing. They manage with aplomb the tenuous balance between detail-centric retrieval and a slight warmth of character, making long listening sessions pleasurable. Even on older or less-refined recordings, the speakers do a great job of transforming the music into a beguiling experience. Be careful, because you may find many enjoyable hours evaporating from your schedule once you get locked into the listening chair.

From an imaging standpoint, time spent on proper speaker placement rewards the listener with musical elements extending beyond the speaker bodies in all directions. Many speakers can project to the far right and left edges of the room, but fewer demonstrate skill to cast a perceived image in front of, and well behind, the speakers. The Shinolas do have that capacity, defying the physical plane of the speaker drivers. On live recordings like Dave Matthews’ Live at Luther College, audience applause sits well behind the speakers at the back wall, while his vocals take an extra step toward the listening seat. The Shinolas give well-recorded music a three-dimensional quality, rather than collapsing it into a much-less-inspiring two-dimensional experience. Those who crave every possible sonic detail emitting from a guitarist’s fingers sliding across a fret or the subtleties of each vocalist’s inhale, should not expect the Shinolas to mine that deeply – these speakers paint the sonic image with a slightly broader stroke.

This speaker’s overall voice is one of neutrality, never accentuating any particular part of the musical spectrum. The natural rendition these speakers offer make for long, fatigue-free listening sessions.

Shinola’s specifications suggest the speakers reproduce frequencies from 40Hz to 22kHz, with robust and tuneful bass response for an enclosure their size. Vocals prove another Shinola strength. Even with sopranos, the speakers perpetrate no edge, sibilance or stridency when paired with quality components upstream. Listening to well-recorded albums like Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals’ Burn to Shine tracks like “The Woman In You,” reveal the nuanced uniqueness of Harper’s voice.

For a speaker of this size and price range, the Shinolas demonstrate themselves as quite adept. The last bit of resolution they lack, will cost a lot more to achieve, and what they serve up is done very well.

Conclusions

With so many high-quality products in their lineup, Shinola evades any attempt at being labeled a one-trick pony.  Establishing their audio prowess among a crowded and established market of component manufacturers is no easy task, yet they are excelling. Their watches and turntable have been put through their paces with long-term use by the TONEAudio team, and prove themselves as unique and high-quality offerings. Similarly, the Shinola active bookshelf speakers are well-built, musical performers. It remains apparent the team in Detroit took great care with the release of their first speaker offering as they have done with everything else they touch.

Shinola’s speakers face a competitive “sandwich” at their $1,500 retail price. For a lesser investment, active speakers from companies like Kanto and Vanatoo offer very good sound at their price points in the sub-$500 range and exceed the Shinola’s feature set. Vanatoo T1s include a built-in DAC, USB input, a subwoofer output, and the option of Bluetooth connectivity. The Kanto YU6 speakers facilitate a Bluetooth connection too and come standard with a remote control. If one can stretch their audio budget to $2,000, Dynaudio XEO4 or KEF LS50 active speakers offer an excellent combination of features, pedigree, and performance for the money.

However, like the rest of the Shinola line, their speakers exude much more of an almost bespoke style that their competitors lack. You either dig this, get it, and want it, or you don’t. That will be the deciding factor as to whether you pull the trigger.

That said, Shinola’s speakers do offer great sound, practical features, and they fill a need for dedicated enthusiasts seeking an aesthetically and sonically capable partner designed from the ground up to match Shinola’s fantastic Runwell turntable. You do not need a turntable to get a lot from these speakers, however. They are easy on the ears, and not too hard on the wallet. Plus, they are backed by a three-year warranty. If the Shinola’s feature set, build quality, and sonics appeal to you, be sure to check them out. Shinola has released another winner.

Shinola Active Bookshelf Speakers

$1,500

www.shinola.com

Let’s cut to the chase, our first experience with RHA is fantastic. Their $39.95/pair S500 in-ears are incredible for less than a pair of Apple ear buds. You need to go no further to start to get the audiophile bug.

The construction quality alone will floor you for just under 40 bucks. And, the S500s offer a mic for those of you using a smartphone so equipped. As we tend to be more music listeners than multi-taskers, we’ll be concentrating on the music experience in this review. Popping the S500s out of the box is a first-rate affair – again, the level of quality in the packaging at this point shows tremendous attention to detail. Impressive.

Starting the listening with an iPad and streaming selections from TIDAL, the first impression is a good one, playing Rick Springfield’s angst-filled Songs For The End of The World. Springfields’ vocals go from trippy to overprocessed, and the S500s do a great job chronicling the changes in mood.

The other half of the first impression is a high-frequency response that is much better behaved than you’d expect in a $40 set of IEMs – better than you’d expect from a $100 pair. Thank the scads of r&d that goes on at RHA. Even at this price point, the 140.1 driver used is a custom unit, not merely something off the shelf that was appropriated to hit a price point. Combine that with the machined aluminum body, and the S500 exudes class all the way.

Skating through a wide range of rock and jazz tracks, nothing throws the S500s a curve. They play loud and clean enough that you should be careful. You’ll be able to crank the S500s up high without distortion so that you can do some damage. Public service announcement taken care of, a bit of AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap proves entertaining. The S500 keeps the Young brother’s lead and rhythm lines well sorted, instead of just blurring together like one fat guitar (as every inexpensive phone we’ve ever heard does).

The refinement again comes through listening to Neil Young’s Live at Massey Hall. Revisiting his younger self, singing classic tracks like “A Man Needs A Maid,” and “Heart of Gold,” the S500s deliver a smooth, undistorted clarity, making these time-worn tracks fresh again.

Heading Upscale

To this point, an iPhone 7 and iPad have been used for playback, with excellent result. The S500s work well with off the shelf hardware, yet even these modestly priced phones respond well to moving to an outboard headphone amplifier. Road warriors that take portable headphone amp/DACs with them will not be disappointed. Used with iFi’s new i-Micro Can SE, the S500s take a serious step up in fidelity, revealing enough music, to make them worthy of using in this matter.

Just for giggles, we plug the S500s into the $9,500 Octave V16 that is our reference headphone (when not using the Sonoma Model One) amplifier; they produce even more music. Though you probably aren’t going to go for this pairing, it does show off the ultimate ability of these modestly priced phones. With a pair of last generation Apple Ear Buds, they start out flat and stay flat, no matter what you feed them.

Final Points

The S500s do an excellent job keeping ambient sound out of the listening experience. Though not active noise canceling phones, they performed well on a couple of short plane trips, filtering the screaming baby in 22A out of my mobile listening session.

The RHA 500s are top shelf in every way. Sound and build quality is phenomenal, well beyond the price asked. For $40, you should buy five pairs and hand em out to your non-audiophile friends – if this doesn’t get them hooked on stepping their audio game up, nothing will. And if you live in an affluent neighborhood, buy 50 pairs and hand them out next year for trick or treat!

The RHA S500

MSRP: $39.95

www.rha-audio.com

It’s tough deciding what to name something. Taking the short cut and choosing a mere number is still daunting as one culture may see a number as auspicious, while another sees it as perilous.

Nothing less can be said for the name “Kanta.” In Croatian, Kanta means bucket, while in Sanskrit, it means desired, or beautiful. I’m guessing the latter is more what the Focal product development team had in mind.

The Kantas certainly sound beautiful listening to Adrian Belew’s Inner Revolution, with his signature elephant-like guitar wailing all around the room. If you happen to be a Focal fan, and have been following their progress with beryllium tweeters, every generation is better than the last. Just as Focal did with the Sopra tweeter, the new IAL 3 tweeter in the Kanta not only resolves more fine detail, it’s a touch warmer than the Sopra tweeter. This is neither good nor bad, but it is a different presentation. Do you usually order your car with the sport suspension upgrade? You might prefer Sopra. Do you like a slightly softer ride? You might prefer Kanta. Keep in mind, this is not a huge difference we are talking about here and there’s no wrong choice.

Another part of the Kanta sound is the Flax Sandwich Cone material used in the other drivers. Again, this offers a slightly different tonal rendition than Sopra or Utopia. You can read the details here.

A quick look around the speaker cabinet reveals the same level of quality construction and finish present on the $220,000/pair Grande Utopia EM. The smooth paint finish is like liquid glass, and the perfection of all joints, combined with beautiful machining on the bases and feet makes for a premium product. This is a speaker you will really enjoy living with and looking at, as much as listening to. Thank the team of experienced craftspeople at Focal for this – a visit to their factory reveals only the right people, tools and process for the task. Things that can be done better with a CNC machine or a computer are produced that way. When something requires hand finishing, it is done that way.

At this year’s Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, during the introduction of Focal’s latest masterpiece, there were smiles all around, but I had the biggest smile, knowing a pair of Kantas would be waiting for me when I got home. The other surprise was the cool blue color of my review samples, reminding me (fondly) of the pale blue on a family friend’s Renault Dauphine. So much for the yellow they promised me. Of course, white, black and wood finishes are also available for those less adventurous in their interior taste. Personally, I think it’s very cool that Focal is offering some more fashion forward choices, says the man with orange Sopras.

Childhood memories aside, the Kantas are not vintage in any way. They incorporate all the latest technolological advances from Focal’s engineers. From the new polymer material used in the cabinet, to the new driver designs (more on that here at the Focal website) to the front port, making them even easier to set up than my reference Focal Sopra no.3 speakers. Where the Sopra is particular about getting the rake and toe-in just right for the best performance, Kanta is slightly more forgiving. The Kanta is also more listener friendly right out of the box. The Sopras needed about 50-100 hours to level out, the Kantas were rocking from the first hour.

Speaking of set up

Tipping the scale at just under 80 pounds each, the Kantas are extremely manageable. Only 44 inches tall and slightly more than 12 inches wide, they will be at home in all but the tiniest of rooms. Like any speaker, a little extra room to breathe is always a good thing, but the Kantas deliver excellent results in even our smallest listening room, measuring only 11 x 13 feet. Thanks to one of the two ports being front firing, this speaker is easy to place for optimum coupling to the room.

Quickly optimizing for even bass response, fine tuning the rake for your listening position is a breeze, thanks to the finely threaded feet. This allows you to go slowly and catch the perfect spot where the Kantas disappear in the room like a pair of panel speakers. Incredible. As I’ve mentioned before, fine tuning your speakers to the last degree is much like when you achieve the perfect VTA setting on your turntable, there’s a pocket where the music just flows and loses that sense of being transmitted by a mechanical device. You should be able to take your Kantas from great to transcendental in about an hour or two – less if you have a patient friend.

Comfortable with any musical choice

Tracking through Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats, and Autechre’s Anti, the sheer level of low frequency grip these speakers offer is evident. If you listen to a steady diet of this type of music, you may want a larger amplifier with more current reserves to dig down as far as the Kantas can go. Should your taste be more to the middle of the spectrum, anything else will do.

The sparse arrangements in Belle and Sebastian’s “The Everlasting Muse” shows the other side of the Kanta’s character, locking down the pace of this track, easily rendering the delicate vocals, yet swelling up towards the end of the track, easily negotiating the volume and density as it increases.

In perspective, if you consider the rendition of the Sopra as natural/neutral, the Kanta is one or two slight clicks to the warmer/laid back side, almost akin to putting a pair of great NOS 12AX7s in your preamplifier instead of the stock ones, or switching from a Lyra cartridge to a Koetsu.

Focal has always had an excellent reputation for precise imaging, thanks to their beryllium tweeters and this is another exceptional aspect of their performance. Whether listening to an orchestra, a jazz quartet or a well-crafted studio performance, the Kantas produce a large and precise stereo image in all three dimensions. When you have your Kantas optimized, they will disappear in the room like a pair of ESLs.

A Team Player

With a sensitivity rating of 91db/1 watt, a ton of power is not required for a highly musical experience, especially in a smaller room. As with the Sopra, Kanta works well with tube or solid-state electronics, and in the small room, we made it a point to pair them up with PrimaLuna, Rega, Pass and of course the Naim Atom, which is now the room 3 reference. Those requiring reasonable listening levels, wanting a maximum of flexibility will be well served by the Atom, with 40 watts per channel. And the chances of picking one up at your Focal dealer is high, making it a breeze to do one stop shopping.

As someone who prefers to fall in love with a pair of speakers, building and perhaps eventually upgrading around them, the Kantas are a perfect place to begin the construction of an ultimate system. Even starting with a vintage receiver from the 70s, they deliver great sound. As you update your amplification and sources, they will only get better. And you’ll have to spend six figures before you outgrow the Kantas. That’s value and performance.

Can’t stop listening

Wonderful as the Kantas are, these are not fussy, audiophile speakers that can only shine with the best recordings. That tiny drop of warmth in the tonal balance, combined with their incredible resolving power extracts so much musical information from even the worst recordings, (especially if you’ve gone the extra mile and optimized the setup) nothing is out of bounds. Great as they are with your best recordings, the Kantas do a fantastic job at delivering the utmost from marginal to poor recordings. Favorite recordings that don’t always sound the best on a hyper resolving speaker are very palpable through the Kantas, and for most of us, that’s great news.

Where the Sopras are remarkably fatigue free, the Kanta has a slightly lower amount of distortion and increased clarity, that you won’t notice if you don’t have the opportunity to hear them both side by side. In case you might be wondering “why would I want the Sopras then?” the Sopras generate a larger, weightier sense of scale with more ultimate dynamics in a larger room with massive amplifiers driving them. If you need to really rock the walls down, the Sopras still give you more of this, albeit at a higher cost.

The similar voice and tonality of the entire Focal line is by far one of their most impressive aspects. As you go up the range, their speakers reveal progressively more music, resolving more detail and dynamic drive. Even in this area, the Kanta shares the ability to resolve wide tonal contrast, doing an incredible job with music full of hard, quick transients.

One of the most impressive things about Focal, is that their speakers all have a similar voice and tonality, but as you go up the range, progressively more music is revealed in terms of dynamics and fine detail resolution. But not everyone can afford $60k for a pair of Maestros or $20k for Sopras. $10k for a set of Kantas isn’t inexpensive, but by the time you add an amp, source and cables, marvelous sound can still be achieved for way less than a decent sportbike. Think of all the money you’ll save on speeding tickets!

If you’ve read this far, you know I’m a big Focal fan, and the new Kanta exceeds all expectation. They combine sound and build quality with fantastic dealer service and support, world wide. If you’ve enjoyed the sound of the bigger Focal speakers, but desire these sonic attributes in a slightly smaller package, the Kanta is for you.

The Focal Kanta no.2

MSRP: $9,995/pair

www.audioplusservices.com (NA distributor)

Peripherals

Analog Source GPA Monaco 2.0/Triplanar/Lyra Etna

Digital Source dCS Rossini DAC and clock

Preamplifier Pass XS Pre

Power Amplifier Pass XA200.8 monoblocks

Phonostage Pass XSPhono

Cable Cardas Clear, Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Racks Grand Prix Monaco

Celebrating 40 years in business, Conrad-Johnson released their special edition flagship amplifiers, the ART150, which is a single chassis stereo version and the monoblock ART300s. According to C-J, the amp represents the culmination of all their design expertise to date, and they will produce only 250 of them. For those needing more power, C-J also offers the new ART300 monoblocks. Like their smaller stereo sibling, production is limited 250 pairs.

C-J’s entry-level tube amplifier, the Classic Sixty-Two SE (reviewed here in issue 84) offers marvelous sound and represents an amplifier I could live with happily. That said, the ART150 defies expectations, delivering an extraordinary musical experience that few components in my personal experience have.

Creating a classic

Like all recent C-J gear, the new ARTs are available in gold anodized finish only. All the components reside within a 16.3”D x 19”W x 8.75”H metal chassis, resulting in an overall weight of  80 lbs. The ART’s aesthetics adhere to the style brief set by current Conrad-Johnson designs. As with all C-J products, the ART is a collaborative effort of Lew Johnson, Bill Conrad the rest of the C-J team.

The hefty base serves as the amplifier’s foundation, with custom power and output transformers shielded in a black metal enclosure jetting upward from the rear. A rounded Lucite frame with tube-sized holes in it protects the semicircle of three 6922 tubes up at the front face. Between these two functional structures rests a protective metal cage, with a front panel also made from clear Lucite. The resulting “window” makes it easy to admire the row of four KT150 driver tubes from a distance. The most recent offering from Tung-Sol, the elongated egg shape of the KT150 gives the ART amplifier more of a space age flair.

The front of the ART is a model of simplicity. A single, quarter-sized power button resides toward the right side, illuminated by a subtle amber LED when activated. When depressed the amp warms the tubes slowly, helping extend tube life. You might hear a few pings and pops through the speakers while the tubes warm up, but once the ART achieves optimal voltage and temperature one’s ear must be very close to the woofer or tweeter to detect audible hiss.

Mining for the best parts

As old wisdom suggests, “It is what’s inside that counts.” In the case of the ART150, careful component choices result in staggering performance. C-J sought the best possible parts for the new ART, right down to the type of internal wiring, with the wide-bandwidth output transformers and Teflon capacitors being custom-made solutions. Also under the hood are laser-trimmed metal foil resistors chosen for their high levels of performance in the sensitive signal path. As a single ended design, the ART accepts only RCA interconnects from a preamplifier. The high quality gold-plated input terminals offer both excellent electrical transmission and a secure grip on cables.

A set of metal five-way binding posts on the back of the unit facilitate connection of spade, banana, or bare-wire cable terminations with ease. Spades used in my case secure quickly and very firmly under the posts. For those without muscular fingers, a 7/16-inch plastic binding post wrench fits over the nut correctly, allowing extra leverage. If you elect this route, consider an approach of gentle assertiveness, remembering you are not bolting together a skyscraper’s support beams.

The Conrad Johnson design philosophy has always centered around meticulously executing simple circuit designs – a big part of why they don’t produce balanced circuit designs. Taking the simplification mantra further in this amplifiers, a single pair of KT150 output tubes per channel replaces four KT120 tubes per channel in the original ART amplifier, with the new design producing 150 watts per channel, up from the 140 per channel available in the original.

Swift set up

The tubes are carefully packed inside the tube cage, so this will need to be removed to fit power and driver tubes. Each tube box is wrapped in black tissue paper giving the unpacking process an extra touch of class.

Like every other C-J power amplifier, the user must manually bias the power tubes after installing them. The process is surprisingly easy, using a simple plastic screwdriver included in the ART150 package. After a new set of tubes are socketed, twist the biasing screw just enough to extinguish the small yellow LED next to each tube. C-J suggests doing this again after an hour or so of use, and again every six months to extend the life of the tube set. When re-tubed, the biasing process should be repeated.

The ART requires significant break in due to the custom Teflon capacitors and other electronics within. C-J completes a 5-day burn-in before ART amplifiers leave the factory. During that time, the C-J team can ensure no component inside the amp fails before shipping, and do a listening test. I gave the ART150 another 200 hours of play time to ensure it reached its full sonic potential, and the sound did gain improvement during that period.

It is best to shut down the amp when not using it. Doing so will help maximize valuable tube life. ART warm-up time from a cold start is a scant 15 minutes, so the wait for optimal sound is never a long one. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

Jewelry for the eardrums

C-J’s tagline “It Just Sounds Right” is not just marketing hype. In this case, those four words may comprise the shortest product review ever written. However, quantifying “Right” requires quite a few more words because a lot is right with this amp.

With the ART150, C-J did not just jump over the high bar set by the Classic 62. Instead, it seems they used a ten-foot pole to vault over it. The Classic 62 is a fantastic amp by any measure. However, the ART exceeds the Classic 62’s capability in every way.

With the ART150, my entire listening room becomes part of its huge projected soundstage. Music extends well beyond the left and right speaker boundaries, wrapping around the edges of the space. When music dictates it, spatial cues place instruments and vocals above, below, behind, or well out in front of the speakers. Imaging presented by the ART remains not only precise and defined, but almost tangible. Instruments and vocals layered over one another retain independent space rather than collapsing into one another. The three-dimensional nature of the music experience proves immersive, and time evaporates while listening to song after song. Even with familiar tracks, subtle sound effects are much easier to discern, offering details few components retrieve so exceptionally. Occasionally, music freed by the ART will surprise me, as if sneaking up next to my listening seat before revealing itself. Even older recordings reveal a few surprises. For example, engineered vocal effects in “By My Side” by INXS extend the background voices, well… right by my side. Alternately, the bar chime sounds in Depeche Mode’s “Everything Counts” seem to leap forward to a point a few inches from my ears. To have an audio component capable of detailed projection that catches me off guard like this is equally rare, eerie, and thrilling.

The ART will reveal every nuance of a song for better or worse. Great recordings sound quite realistic. However, on less-than-stellar tracks, the ART exposes any shortcoming too. For instance, listening to Santana’s Supernatural, the level of compression is evident. Cymbals lack both the splash of impact and a lingering decay. In contrast, extremely well-recorded albums like Johnny Cash’s American IV: The Man Comes Around provide the honest illusion of Cash sitting in the room. Few amplifiers I have experienced offer this degree of revelation. The ART represents quite an achievement indeed.

Despite the level of detail, this C-J’s purposeful voicing choices offer organic, natural, and forgiving sound. Even with some strident or sibilant recordings, ear-twitching spikes lose their sting and seem much more refined through the ART. C-J manages to capture every detail within a song but accomplishes the trick of making edgy sonics more enjoyable.

Forget any pre-conceived notion that this tube amplifier might generate watered-down or mushy bass. The ART150 rides the perfect balance between bass depth, punch, and naturalness. Similarly, high notes offer a welcome sparkle. Both male and female vocals glide through this amp’s circuitry, providing the listener a lush and luxurious musical experience as they emerge. Regardless of music genre, the ART never failed to deliver fantastic music, exceeding my expectations for an audio component.

Go for the gold!

Reaching audio heaven comes with a cost. Retailing at $19,500 for the limited edition ART150 and double that for the ART300 monos, either choice represents a significant investment. However, considering the extensive research and design process, no-compromise electronics, and the stellar sound this amplifier produces, one should expect a component of this magnitude to have a price commensurate with its performance level.

Those familiar with any piece of tube gear know they need replacement over time, so unlike solid-state amps, an ART owner should budget for planned maintenance. C-J suggests the ART’s tubes have a longevity of two or three years depending on usage. KT150s cost around $90 each and prices for 6922s can range widely depending if they are modern production or new old stock. Budget at least $500 every few years for a complete re-tube. The ART300 monos, each of which is essentially an ART150 optimized for a single channel, would double that tube cost.

Yes, I am utterly stunned by the ART150’s sonic prowess. Among amplifiers I have had the pleasure of evaluating at home for an extended period, the ART deserves a place on a tiny list of amps I would enjoy for the long haul. We will have to wait and see what C-J creates for their appropriately-golden, 50^th anniversary! For now, the ART earns a place among those scarce components that offer such an outstanding level of performance it could halt one’s long journey in pursuit of better gear. Kick off those worn-down trekking shoes, relax, and just enjoy the music.

I am giving the ART150 amplifier my highest praise: I purchased the demo unit as a reference component. If you are seeking a flagship amplifier to enjoy for many years to come, do yourself a big favor and head to your local Conrad-Johnson dealer for a demo. Like me, you may find you cannot walk away from the ART150. Grab one before these limited-edition units are gone!

Further Listening: Jeff Dorgay

Even though Conrad-Johnson has been refining their designs for decades now, they’ve made some pretty incredible tube amplifiers over the years. Audiophiles the world over still discuss many of their Premier designs in hushed conversations, with reverence.

Not only is the ART 150 one of the most musical revealing amplifiers I’ve heard, the combination with C-Js flagship GAT 2 Preamplifier has me squeezing my adjective gland for some new superlatives. I can not find them. If you already have one of CJ’s top preamps, the ART 150 will take you somewhere rare and special. If you don’t, you’ll be shopping. I won’t taunt Rob with the GAT until he recovers from the ART 150 purchase.

Everything Rob points out about the ART 150, is heightened even further when paired with the GAT 2. It’s worth mentioning that the ART 150 is no slouch with an ACT 2 either, so even if you have one of these on your equipment rack, it is a worthy partner for an ART 150.

As a friend pointed out recently, we are really living in an exceptional period for audio, no matter what your budget might be. With so many of the industry’s top designers benefitting from decades of experience, creating their best work. It’s often said that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. 40 years of refining greatness results in the ART 150 power amplifier. More often than not, tube power amplifiers give you musicality/tonality, inner detail, or massive imaging prowess, but rarely all three. The ART 150 does that and more – adding major dynamic swing and bass control. This level of resolution, delicacy and freedom from fatigue is what makes the ART 150 so special. That is why it is our Amplifier of the Year for 2017.

The Conrad-Johnson ART 150 Stereo Power Amplifier

MSRP:  $19,500

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 Classic 62, Burmester 911 Mk3

Preamplification: Coffman Labs G1-B

Speakers: GamuT RS3i, JL Audio Dominion Subwoofers

Cables: Jena Labs

Power: Torus AVR 15 Plus, RSA Mongoose power cords

Accessories: ASC tube traps, Mapleshade Samson audio racks, Coffman Labs Equipment Footers, AudioQuest Jitterbug, Atomic Audio Labs Mac Mini stand

It only takes about 8 seconds of listening to the delicacy of the violins on the The Jung Trio’s self titled SACD to realize that the Sonoma Model One headphone system is one of the most incredible personal listening experiences going.

Maybe the most, but we’ll leave that argument for the internet pundits. The level of texture, detail and sheer tonal correctness is well above anything we have yet experienced.

The sheer clarity and lack of distortion presented by the Model One might have you looking for the volume control, (to turn them up) but proceed with caution, this newfound level of sonic purity will fool you. So, don’t take your first test drive with Metallica. Ease your way into the Sonoma Model Ones until you get used to the feel. But be warned, you can’t un-hear this once you have.

Instant attitude adjustment

We pulled out all the stops to revisit well-worn test tracks, with the best sources we could muster. The dCS Rossini Player was used as a transport, via the coaxial digital input and our Aurender server, via the USB input for digital files (standard and high resolution) along with streaming Tidal selections. The analog combination of the Brinkmann Bardo turntable, featuring a $10,000 Koetsu Jade Platinum cartridge and the Pass Labs XS Phono made a great conduit for the analog bits. And, because the jack was there, an iPhone 7+ was called into duty, just to see how that would work. Spoiler: while not as good as the dCS or Bardo, with uncompressed files, the iPhone never sounded better!

Regardless of music selected, the key words to describe the Model One are effortless and natural. Incredibly natural. Often headphones and speakers can pick up a sound, a coloration, based upon the materials used in cabinets, crossovers and drivers. Not here. While the Model One’s do a splendid job with dynamics, thanks to the lightening sharp rise time of the electrostatic driver, the amount of fine detail they reveal will almost frighten you, especially with familiar recordings you thought you knew intimately.

The epic spatial presentation in Sigur Ros’ Valtari slowly envelopes you with sound, and as the music swells, the phones seem to disappear into thin air. The grumbly bass lines present are well fleshed out and full of detail – the only thing missing is the sheer sock factor from listening to a pair of dynamic speakers in a room. Your favorite pop, rock, rock and electronic selections will be portrayed in a way you’ve never experienced, yet the ease by which acoustic instruments are reproduced is an outright luxury. A fair amount of time spent with the Model One might even have you rethinking your primary speaker choice.

Road trip

My journey with electrostatic speakers goes back to the early 70s. The first real hifi system I experienced was a friends McIntosh setup, paired to a pair of Jantzen Electrostatic speakers. I didn’t even know what “transparency” or “imaging” was, but grooving on Robin Trower’s Bridge of Sighs proved captivating via his Dad’s Thorens TD124. Senior year in high school, when nearly everyone had a pair of Koss Pro 4AA’s, I had already traded up to ESP 9s, so the audiophile virus had already taken hold.

In the years that followed, I always had the good fortune to have a large enough room to keep those ESP 9s on the shelf most of the time, along with a pair of Stax that have been handed down to a good friend, but I keep coming back to that sound, or better, lack of sound that an ESL driver in headphones or speakers offer. I still own Acoustat, MartinLogan and Quad speakers as references.

Like premium phono cartridges, premium headphones have brought a dimension to personal listening not thought possible even five years ago. Planar headphones from Audeze, HiFiMan, OPPO and a few others have joined the field and their offerings are very good, but there’s still something special about electrostatic headphones – enter the Sonoma Model One System.

One step beyond

Previous electrostatic phones have worked like tiny ESL speakers in an ear cup, in the sense that they use a very light weight diaphragm energized between two grids carrying high voltage that pushes and pulls the diaphragm in and out to move the air. Sonoma takes advantage of a new transducer that they call a high precision electrostatic laminate (HPEL) design. You can read the full story on the Sonoma website here (https://www.sonomaacoustics.com/technology/) but to make a long story short, the Sonoma driver eliminates the grid, replacing it with an extremely thin membrane. Then, the driver surface is divided up into seven separate areas, tuned to different frequencies to eliminate resonance, which you can see from the transparent back of the drivers, yet maintains full range performance for cohesiveness.

Though the headband and ear cushions look fairly bulky, the cups are made from magnesium and the hand sewn pads are produced from Cabretta sheepskin leather. Knowing precious little about leather, this type of leather is made from the skins of sheep that grow hair rather than wool. This results in a smoother, lighter and more resilient leather that is typically reserved for gloves. Long listening sessions prove effortless with the Model One and where other, bulkier phones beg to be put down after an hour or so, the Model Ones can be listened to, without drawing attention to themselves for the better part of a day.

The result is a fairly massive looking set of headphones that doesn’t feel it. Design geeks in the crowd will flip over the careful attention to fine detail, right down to the high level of fit and finish present thanks to high precision stainless fasteners. Finally, Sonoma collaborated with Straight Wire to design a custom cable from the ground up to transmit the maximum amount of audio information. The cable alone looks like something you’d buy in the aftermarket for $500 – $1,000. Who wants to buy a $5,000 pair of phones, only to have to upgrade the cable?

A complete system

There are more than a few mega headphones out there, crossing the $5k mark, but none of them come with an amplifier and a full function, high res DAC. In case you forgot or aren’t familiar, the team at Sonoma invented the DSD workstations, used to record many of today’s digital recordings, so to say they know great sound is an understatement. Either way, their passion for sound is such a great place to start when designing a complete playback system like the Model One.

The latest DAC chipset from ESS, the Sabre Reference is used here, along with the AKM premium ADC chips, capable of operating up to 32bit/384khz. The ADC is required to allow the use of a 64-bit digital signal processor to optimize the frequency response of the Sonoma Model One.

This extra step is what gives the Model One the advantage over its competition, your music is fully optimized to the output capabilities of the driver, eliminating any frequency response anomalies along the way.

Technology that serves the sound

Combining the best build quality, with the coolest technology doesn’t blow you away without results, and the Sonoma Model One delivers. After listening to hundreds of other headphone/amplifier combinations, the Model One is our top choice. Not only have we awarded it our Product of the Year in the personal listening category, we are purchasing a Model One system to use as the standard by which we judge all other phones, so you will be hearing a lot more about the Model One system in the future. Wrapping it up, the Model One is exquisitely packaged as well – certainly a nice touch when you’ve made an investment like this in your listening future.

Remember, you aren’t buying a $5,000 pair of headphones, your getting an amp, DAC, DSP processor and top line cable for the asking price.

The value proposition

You can get a pair of earbuds at Best Buy for $19 and plug them into your laptop to enjoy music, so by that definition, you don’t need a $5,000 pair of headphones. But, if you’d like to have a level of sound quality that would probably take six figures to achieve in a room with amplifiers, speakers and cables, The Model One might just be the best value in high end audio today. Even those with mega systems will be amazed at what this system can do, revealing nuance and detail that can often be masked by the best of rooms.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Once you hear them, you will find a way to make them yours. And you’ll be glad you did.

The Sonoma Acoustics Model One Headphone System

$4,995

www.sonomaacoustics.com

In case you missed our review of SVS SB-16 Subwoofer, we were pretty excited about this massive, gloss black, low frequency machine. You can read the full review here.

However, if the SB-16 series is just a little bit too big for your environment, or a touch too expensive for your holiday budget, their new 4000 series is the way to roll. We compared the SB-16 series to the ZO6 Corvette. Hey, there’s no shame in getting a Grand Sport. Applying everything they’ve learned with the SB-16s, the new 4000 series subs offer all the functionality that made the bigger brother get so much world wide acclaim.

Priced from $1,499 to $1,999, you have a choice of the SB, which is smaller and has a sealed cabinet, the PB, featuring a larger, ported cabinet (along with the ability to go a few hz lower to 13hz instead of 19 hz in the SB) and the PC, which has a footprint of only 16″. (and it still goes down to 16hz) With maximum output in the 126-134db range, any of the new 4000 series will handle the most demanding music, movies or gaming situation. You can read the complete specs here.

Finally, the SVS DSP smartphone app works with these new subwoofers. As with any device, it’s all about interface, and SVS wins the day here – giving you control over more parameters from the comfort of your listening chair than any other. Party on, Garth. Watch for a review as soon as we can get our hands on one.

www.svsound.com

High quality integrated amplifiers are a hotbed of audiophile activity these days.

Thanks to improved manufacturing techniques, and in the case of a company like Esoteric, their ability to call upon the same engineering team that builds $50k (each) digital audio components, the $7,500 F-07 integrated amplifier makes perfect sense. Before the first track is played, this easily looks like a $20,000 component on the rack. The exquisitely machined chassis, elegant controls, and gentle blue backlit front panel all declare quality, high quality. If that doesn’t convince you, pick it up, the F-07 weighs 60 pounds.

Too enthused to read the manual or pour over all the specs, the F-07 is quickly connected to the Quad 2812 speakers for a test drive. Even from cold, this 100-watt per channel integrated entices. (it does produce 170wpc into 4 ohms, nearly doubling it’s rated power) The recent vinyl release of Crowded House’s Woodface fills the space between and beyond the boundaries of the Quads, which can be notoriously tough to drive, because of their highly capacitive nature.

Features Galore

Did I mention? The F-07 includes a built-in, dual mono MM/MC phonostage that is anything but an afterthought with a fixed loading of 100 ohms – perfect for my Zu Audio modded Denon DL-103r cartridge and the latest Technics SL-1200G table we reviewed last issue. The MM section is equally enticing, paired with the Gold Note Machiavelli cartridge. This on-board phonostage only features one input, with MM/MC selection on the front panel. Even moving up to the Ortofon Cadenza Black MC proves the F-07 up to the task, this amplifier will be at home with turntables costing as much or more! Nothing in the F-07 is an afterthought.

Digital lovers wanting an inclusive option can add the Op-DAC-1 DAC board in the accessory slot on the rear panel. This DSD capable DAC will only set you back $1,100, keeping the total package price of an F-07 with DAC under $9,500. Running through a long playlist of high-resolution tracks, the performance delivered by the F-07 is first class, and 16/44 performance equally involving. The delicate harmonies in Hall and Oates’ classic Abandoned Luncheonette are stunning, with all the elements of the recording having plenty of room to breathe. The harmonies in John Mayer’s latest, The Search For Everything prove equally enticing.

Today’s bargain DAC’s offer a level of resolution that would have commanded a five-figure sum a decade ago, but the F-07s onboard DAC has a smoothness that you won’t find with a budget DAC. No doubt, this is a result of trickle down technology from their world class Grandioso D1 DAC. Bottom line, unless you are going to drop major cash on an external DAC, I suggest just adding the card and be done.

Plenty of Power

The sonic signature of the F-07 is very natural. A well tempered, dual mono, class AB power amplifier, fed by a massive power supply makes for a dynamic presentation, that is free of coloration. The F-07 neither embellishes nor emphasizes what isn’t there. Sonically, this amplifier reminds me a lot of the Boulder amplifiers regarding “doing no harm,” but at a much more affordable price point. Bypassing the internal DAC and phono illustrates just how good the internal bits are, yet shows off what a fantastic amplifier the F-07 is.

Moving to more dynamic music and giving the volume control a major twist clearly illustrates how much sheer oomph it offers, especially now paired with the Focal Sopra no.3 speakers, with a 91.5db/1-watt sensitivity rating. Even tracking through major rock and EDM tracks, the F-07 never gets more than warm to the touch, at ear shattering volumes. An equally impressive performance is given with the current MartinLogan 13A ESLs as well as the Graham LS5/9s. 100 watts per channel should be more than enough for anyone in less than a cavernous room. And the F-07 does offer a set of preamp out jacks so you can use it strictly as a preamplifier, driving a larger power amplifier.

Regardless of the source, the F-07 is incredibly fatigue free. After many 8-12 hour listening sessions, I could always put one more record on, and that is the highest compliment I can pay this amplifier. While the majority of my test listening was done with the onboard DAC and phonostage, Esoteric’s Scott Sefton had to recall the DAC board, leaving the trusty Gryphon Kalliope ($32,000) DAC in its place. I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the Gryphon offers better digital performance, but the bigger picture is how well the F-07 responds, revealing a proportionate increase in resolution. A large slice of high-end audio heaven is yours with the F-07s internal DAC, but should the urge to upgrade still beckon, it has more than enough performance to keep you happy. Maybe the Esoteric K-07 SACD player?

In the Eyes of the Beholder

Excellent as the audio performance of the F-07 is, the level of human engineering on this product is equally great; it’s an incredibly easy integrated to live with and use day to day. The controls are well distributed on the front panel, with input and volume controls larger than the rest to command attention and secondary controls at the ready. And yes, it has a pair of tone controls that work incredibly well, only giving a gentle nudge to the opposite ends of the frequency spectrum. (+/- 12db @ 63hz and 14khz, respectively) I found these very helpful with records featuring less than optimally mastered. Audiophile purists can grouse about tone controls all they like, I’m enjoying the ones on the F-07.

The rear panel has all the inputs and outputs equally distributed, with four single-ended RCA and one balanced XLR line level inputs. Considering that you already have an on board phono and the potential for a built-in DAC, the F-07 should be able to handle any compliment of ancillary component you might have. In the best tradition of Japanese integrateds past, there are even two speaker outputs.

Last but not least, a headphone amplifier is included for those desiring personal listening sessions. Auditioning a modest cache of phones’ from Oppo, Audeze, B&W and Grado shows that like the phonostage, the headphone section is not an afterthought, either. No matter what set was chosen, the F-07 delivers a large soundstage along with the ability to control the presentation. Bass generated was excellent, the deep bass line in Prince’s “Here on Earth,” indeed impressive, with force and control.

Is it the one for you?

Whether you are a seasoned audio enthusiast, that is perhaps downsizing and would like to have the sound and functionality of a big stack of components in a more reasonable sized enclosure, or the music lover moving from a basic system, wanting to achieve the same objective, the F-07 is a winner. Having the privilege of listening to the world’s finest components daily, I must admit to looking at the F-07 after a full day of listening, asking myself, “could I just take this, a turntable and one good pair of speakers and call it a day?” The answer to that question is yes.

Everyone wants something different from their hi-fi system. And yes, there is more performance to be had from Esoteric’s flagship components. But I am a human being valuing balance above everything else. I’d rather have a new Miata than a Maserati. If that balance is your preference as well, I can’t suggest the Esoteric F-07 highly enough. Much for all the same reasons I love the Simaudio ACE integrated at $3,400; the F-07 is a similar component in the balance it offers. All of the components compliment each other and offer an equal level of performance, but the F-07 offers more in every way. I’m buying the review sample myself.

The final note on the F-07 comes in the heritage behind the company. With TEAC being the parent company, the build quality is fantastic, and there is a world-wide dealer and service network in place to assure support. This is as good as it gets. I suspect those buying an F-07 of their own, will plug it in, turn it on, and just enjoy great music for years, if not decades. I am more than happy to award this amplifier one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2017 – it embodies all the values we hold true at TONEAudio.

The Esoteric F-07 Integrated Amplifier

$7,500, Op-DAC-1 DAC board $1,100 additional

esoteric-usa.com

Turntable                     Soulines Kubrick HDX, Rega RB1000, Gold Note Macchiavelli

Speakers                      GamuT RS5i, Focal Sopra no.3, Quad 2812, Graham LS5/9
Cable                           Cardas Clear

Power                          Equi=Core 1200

Having spent a fair amount of time with the Magnepan MMG over the years, it’s a fun little speaker that can’t always rock. Change the program to jazz or vocal music, and you’d swear you are listening to much more expensive speakers. The spatial perspective of the MMG is incredible, feeling almost like you have a gigantic pair of headphones in the listening room. For $699 a pair, they are tough to beat.

The new Magnepan .7, at twice the price, is another high-end audio bargain of all time. Much more dynamic, with the ability to create a huge soundfield in a modest sized room, these speakers are so much more of what the MMGs offer, yet still reasonably priced. We’ll have more to talk about when our full review is finished, but after a few days of run in time, these little panels are nothing short of amazing.

Magnepans past are fairly power hungry, yet the .7s work with 60 watts per channel quite nicely. PrimaLuna’s HP Integrated and the Pass INT-60 offer excellent results, so whether you like tubes or transistors you can bask in the panel experience.

The holiday season is upon us. If you’re looking for a new pair of speakers, I highly suggest the Magnepan.7. My high-end journey started with a pair of MGIIs nearly 40 years ago. Even if you aren’t, zoom on over to your Magnepan dealer to see just what $1,395 buys. And for all of you complaining on internet forums about how high end sound is out of reach unless you have six figures to spend, here’s your solution.

www.magnepan.com

With phono preamplifier reaching the stratosphere, what is the performance minded analog lover to do? We’ve got a few good examples coming in the January issue of TONEAudio, but this new model from European Audio Team, the Glow S, is incredible. Here’s why:

Super styling. The sleek case, with soft blue LEDs, matte finish tube towers (hiding a pair of EAT ECC 83 tubes) and complimentary wooden end caps makes for a compact component that will look fantastic on any equipment rack.

Intelligent functionality. Everything is on the top panel, and you can adjust MC gain, (45, 50, 55, 65 and 70 db) loading (10, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 1000 ohms) and capacitance (50, 100, 150, 200, 270, 320 and 420pf) easily. There is also a very unobtrusive subsonic filter – great for those of you with subwoofers!

The sound. Bells and whistles sweeten the deal, but the Glow S sounds a lot more expensive than it’s $2,995 price tag would suggest. Click here to visit the VANA LTD site, if you’re in the US, or here to visit the EAT site, if you’re not.

Everyone has a favorite color; mine is red, and my husband (it’s no secret about Jeff Dorgay) loves lime green. When it comes to accessorizing these are the colors that attract us.

However,  our favorite colors sometimes may tend to be a bit too harsh indoors, or too big (in the case of lime green, no offense my love).  What man or woman hasn’t incorporated black into their wardrobe, or home? It’s understated and elegant and goes with everything.   There isn’t anything quite as beautiful as a pair of black lacquer speakers or black cars. In reality, black is only beautiful without smudges or dust, which is almost impossible to achieve.  The opposite of black is white, a non-color that reflects light rather than absorbing it.  Even the smallest black speaker will look more massive than a white one; all an illusion.

Bowers & Wilkins matte white speakers blend in with the room and don’t fight with the colors you are already using, still looking bright and best of all, they always look smart. Europeans have favored white for years as they have less available light than other places – especially the Scandinavian countries. Whether you live in the Northern part of the U.S. and have more rain, or in the lower Southern states with heat, white speakers reflect light. The new B&W705’s that I’ve placed in the bedroom blend with modern as well as traditional settings, so eclectic does well too. White looks crisp, clean and pure; just like the sound.

Raidho’s X-1 Speakers are compact, yet sit prestigiously on their custom stands. The white gives off the appearance of being ‘light and airy.’  Sound that is light travels, and psychologically we transfer this insight into our beliefs about what we see we also hear. The experience of listening is affected by our sight as well as hearing – such is the science of psychoacoustics. Some individuals have a neurological condition called “sound-to-color synesthesia,” or “chromesthesia,” in which they effortlessly experience their very own light show while hearing music and other sounds. Interestingly, many chromesthetes grow up assuming that everyone has the same visual responses to sounds as they do, and are shocked when they discover this is not so. (1 in 13,000).

Even smaller and more compact are the Dali Fazon Mikro speakers. Again, in white, with matching subwoofer and center channel, these make a potent, yet compact home theater choice. We’ve been using this in our small, bright white living room for a few years now with excellent result. You barely know they are there.

Your favorite color can be a big part of your personal life, but when it comes to choosing a speaker color, it’s best to think about what color works best for your living space. White doesn’t go out of style and it’s what many Europeans prefer. Practical because it hides dust and dirt, white is a big plus for a busy lifestyle. White represents perfection and is the purest most complete color. What more could you ask for? – Pamela Dorgay

There’s nothing more unfair to a pair of speakers than to pull them out of the box, throw them in a room with no care paid to fine tuning the setup and just playing music. But if you just got home from your favorite hifi store, that’s probably what you’d do, right? Especially if you’re not a terribly geeky audiophile.

Our back bedroom is the hang out room in our house. It’s about 11 x 12 feet, with a couple of big wardrobe closets, and a huge comfy chair and ottoman. It’s a great little room to get cozy in, put a pair of headphones on, and curl up with a glass of wine on a cold, rainy Pacific Northwest afternoon. But since we’ve added the Naim Atom to the mix, we’ve been on a quest for a great pair of small speakers that fill the room.

Having been to the introduction of the 705s in Boston a few months ago, we knew these were going to be pretty special, but you never know for sure until you get em in your room and your system. Ok, we are kind of geeky. However, in this room, it’s the rule that whatever is placed in it sounds great without major setup. We’re trying to keep it real in this environment.

The 705S2s pass this test with flying colors. Using the very reasonably priced Cardas Iridium speaker cables, and plopping the 705S2s on the filled Sound Anchors stands, they produce glorious sound right out of the box. Of course, as with any fine loudspeaker, careful attention to fine tuning makes for even better performance, we’ll explore that shortly in a full review.

www.bowersandwilkins.com

With 30 minutes on the power up clock, unable to resist the temptation any further, a new copy of Crowded House’s Together Alone is dropped on the current Technics SL-1200G with Hana SL cartridge, and magic begins pouring through the latest offering from Parasound.

If you’re new to the analog game, the JC3 Jr.s designer, John Curl is a legend, having a hand in some of the world’s finest preamplifiers and phono preamplifiers. We reviewed their $2,400 JC3 about five years ago, finding it an incredible performer and an incredible bargain. Since then, Parasound has gone on to build an improved JC3+ (at $2,995) and the Jr. you see here for $1,495.

Not a complete dual mono, dual shielded chassis design like the more expensive 3+, Jr. still gets the job done. It’s quiet, quiet, quiet; paints a big soundstage and is incredibly dynamic. Like the more expensive models, you have balanced and single ended output options and the choice of a fixed 47k loading or a variable 50-500 ohm MC setting, with three gain settings; 40, 50, and 60db. (6 db more if you use the balanced outputs).

Got your interest piqued? Watch for Eric Neff’s full report. I’m off to FedEx to blast it his way. Oh yeah, it comes in black too…

http://www.parasound.com/jc3jr.php

Time flies when you’re gorgeous and having fun!

Way back in 2012, we reviewed Sonus faber’s flagship speakers, the Aida and they were breathtaking to say the least. Now, they have just announced an updated version that is even better than the previous model. You can read our past review here:

http://www.tonepublications.com/review/sonus-faber-aida-loudspeaker/

But to sum it up, we called Aida “the new Italian word for perfection.” These speakers look as beautiful as they sound, and one friend wept when he heard Bob Dylan through them at our place. No kidding!

While the Aida looks the same from the outside, everything inside has been upgraded; crossovers and drivers all take advantage of everything SF has learned in the last six years.

Our North American readers will not be able to experience Aida until the end of 2017, but it will make it’s debut in the Warsaw hifi show this weekend. I envy any of you that will be there to experience it. I may be heading to Italy sooner than later!

www.sonusfaber.com

Having attended a dozen RMAF’s now, this year’s show had the best sound overall that I’ve ever encountered – at any show. While some manufacturers were not happy with the reconfigured hotel rooms, they did a damn good job at wringing good sound from them. The level of consistent great sound was definitely at an all-time high this year.

And while I think it’s unfair to draw a “best sound at the show,”line in the sand, here are my five favorites below. Speaking of unfair, I really liked the PS Audio room too, but this was a teachers pet favorite, because they were showing off a number of components I own! (The Focal Sopra no.3s along with REL 212SE subwoofers and a full compliment of PS Audio electronics, with their new Power Plant power conditioners that we should see for review sooner or later)

Nagra

Rene Laflamme and crew have been getting spectacular feedback all over the world this year, and it is well deserved. Basing a system around their new Classic DAC, Classic Preamplifier and HD Power Amplifier, with time tested speakers from Wilson and analog playback via their own reel to reel deck and the Kronos turntable, the Nagra components gave their best. Though this writer is not a Wilson fan, this was one of the most coherent and musical presentation I’ve ever heard them deliver. This room was a triumph of system synergy.

However, what made this system shine the brightest for me, was the high level of quality and consistency between sources. Great as the reel to reel playback was, digital and vinyl was so incredibly close, it didn’t matter what they were playing. This is what makes a truly high end system magical, when you can just get into the music and forget about the tech.

GamuT

Another group leaning heavily on the reel to reel, (While GamuT designer Benno Baun Meldgaard is a massive RTR enthusiast, they too provided equally stunning playback with all sources, from an all-GamuT system, anchored by their flagship Zodiac speakers. US Importer Michael Vamos had the tunes flowing from morning till night.

The Zodiacs have an amazing way of disappearing in the room, even more incredible considering how big they are. And the sound they produce is one of the most coherent, friendly sounds going. Having used GamuT speakers as reference components for years, they can be listened to forever without fatigue.

Featuring their latest XT-5 floorstanding speakers, the Raidho’s provide a vastly different presentation that GamuT or Wilson, yet on one level offer some of the strengths of each. Very dynamic, yet resolving, (without being fatiguing) the XT-5s paint an incredibly detailed and dimensional look at the music. Scary good.

We’ve just received their entry level X-1 and they are fantastic. Expect to hear a lot more about Raidho from us in the months to come – we have a factory visit scheduled for January, to get the story behind the speakers.

MartinLogan/Audio Research

Many long-term ESL lovers wax poetic about the marriage of an electrostatic speaker and tube amplifiers. ML went for broke this year, using the massive ARC REF 750SEs. Nothing beats the Audio Research REF 750SE monoblocks when it comes to sheer power delivery and control, yet these monstrous amplifiers have the same level of finesse that you’d expect out of a small tube amplifier.

Paired up with the equally gargantuan MartinLogan Neolith, the sound presented was big, bold, and stunning. If you ever thought panels couldn’t rock, this was the system to shatter your beliefs.

Pure Audio Project/Whammerdyne

Last year the $15k Whammerdyne “Truth” 2A3 amp re-defined what I thought a low power SET amp could do, but Pat Hickman has been hard at work, designing a killer low power amp for those not having that kind of budget. While the flagship Truth amp was in rotation and delivering amazing sound with the massive Pure Audio Project Quintet speakers, the real buzz for me was mating these speakers to his new DGA (Damn Good Amp 3) amp that barely tips the scales at $2,500.

Mated to the $3,500 Exogal Comet DAC, this whole system with your choice of reasonably priced cable is still only around $15k. This system was the bang for the buck king of the show. If you want six figure sound on a modest budget and have the room for the speakers, this is the way to roll.

Raidho

Featuring their $42,000/pair XT-5s, the Raidho room offered stunning resolution and the best implementation of a ribbon tweeter I’ve ever experienced. An in-depth, and lively presentation by Rune Skov, with a wide range of musical material had us all on the edge of our chairs. And, as you would expect from Danish craftspeople, the cabinets are just as gorgeous as the sound.

You will be hearing more about Raidho in the months to come in our pages!

Five Postcards from RMAF and Beyond:
A first visit to Denver’s audio show

By Gautam Raja, Photo: Brian Von Bork

#1. Wish You Were Hurting

There aren’t many Indian brands in high-end audio, which is why I’m sitting on an orange sofa at the Hotel Irvine, talking to Jacob George, a pony-tailed architect from Cochin, India. It’s 2015 at T.H.E. Show Newport, and Jacob is the founder and designer of Rethm, a company whose single-driver loudspeakers received good reviews in the international audio press. Jacob is in Orange County to show a pair of his elegant Rethm Maarga’s, and is also on the verge of setting up a US distribution network. He has run into an unexpected problem.

A dealer heard their room, and loved both sound and aesthetics of the speakers so much, that he walked the distributor into the corridor to talk business. The dealer had a bevy of high-profile clients with holiday homes at an upscale location in the US, and knew they’d love Jacob’s product.

But the distributor soon returned: no deal. The sound was right. The looks were right. The price was a problem. Too expensive? No, at $10,500, they were too cheap. His clients were expecting to pay about $80,000 for a pair of loudspeakers.

Long dissolve to 2017. The scene is the Davone room at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver. I walk in and look with suspicion at these pretty teardrop-shaped speakers with a beautiful wood finish. And when they play like a proper high-end product, I’m surprised. I make this admission to the soft-spoken Davone designer and founder Paul Schenkel, and while I don’t expect to be the first, I also don’t expect Paul to have no defensiveness or resignation about this, but a simple acceptance: this is how it is.

A little later, I talk to an experienced dealer about Davone, and he says, “Oh yeah, great speakers, but I can’t sell them. Too pretty.”

Please write back and tell me, why does it have to hurt?

#2. Wish You Were Younger. No, Older. No, Younger

In my recent past, I worked as a salesperson at a high-end audio dealership, a brief career unbesmirched by the ugliness of commerce (i.e. actual sales). But hey, I made lots of friends. Many industry reps visited the dealership, and I would ask them the same wide-eyed question: “Who is the new audiophile?”

They’d say, “You. Young people like you, with your USB turntables.”

And I would respond, “Holy crap, how old do you think I am?”

I’m 43, but I’m told I look much younger. (What they don’t tell me, but I know is true, is that I act much younger too.) But, apparently even 43 is young in audio world, and my callow USB-turntable-toting youthfulness was borne out at RMAF at the seminar “Young Guns of Hi-Fi”. It was part-joke that the venerable Steve Guttenberg sat in on the panel, but I don’t think anyone missed the irony of not having enough young guns to go around. Ebullient, ubiquitous Danny Kaey of Positive Feedback and SonicFlare led the seminar, and also on the panel were Rafe Arnott of Part-Time Audiophile, and Sean Casey of Zu Audio. They were all chronically young rather than chronologically—and I mean that in a good way. I guess that was the point.

Perhaps the only truly young people were self-described “older millennial” Jessa Zapor-Gray, vice president of marketing, Intervention Records, and someone I’ll describe as a likely older millennial, Jordon Gerber, manufacturing manager and chief engineer, Bob Carver Corporation.

The main question posed to the panel was the all-important: “How do we bring young people into audio?” The ball was thrown around a bit, but the game didn’t really take off. It wasn’t poor Danny’s fault, but more that these discussions are like lowering cartridge to your favorite record, and expecting the stylus to follow some other path—any other path—than the inevitable downward spiral through a bunch of well-worn tunes, to finish up “and but”-ting into eternity in the run-off groove.

“That was like stabbing myself in the eye,” said one of the panelists afterwards.

The industry seems to universally claim that young people must step in to save it, and yet one of the revelations at the seminar, something everyone on the panel and much of the audience agreed with, was that young people are ignored in rooms by manufacturers, dealers, and distributors. “These are young people with money, ready to buy,” said Rafe.

Again. Why does it have to hurt?

Also, I have never owned, and do not plan to own, a USB turntable.

#3. Wish You Were Hearing

Danny Kaey and I both live in LA, and he has promised to invite me to the next of his famous listening parties. (Hopefully it’ll stand even after he reads this article.) I phoned him for a post-RMAF chat about his seminars and, of course, “the industry”. Those aren’t my scare quotes; Danny had used them in the title of his Sunday seminar ‘Why We in “The Industry” Are All Arguing Over MQA and So Much More’. Again, Danny tried valiantly to kick it off, but the stylus descended, caught the groove, and a familiar album played out, including the famous “Bits is Bits” song. We all know the lyrics to that one, especially when sung by a computer engineer.

Though Danny is a certified gearhead, the three rooms he liked the most at the show were ones that were about music over equipment: Zu Audio, Classic Album Sundays, and Devore Fidelity.

“Shows need to be much less about listening to equipment and much more about a music party,” he said. “They need to make it comfortable, play non-audiophile music, and much less that quasi-controlled environment… it should be a lounge set-up where you can be social.”

Once again, we’re talking about self-induced pain. Stern chairs set up facing an audio system that’s a small skyscrapered city, playing beautiful inoffensiveness in a sea of variables that make it almost impossible to judge the merits of the object of your desires.

“This isn’t an inherently fun experience,” said one of the (truly) young observers at the Young Guns seminar, and most of us laughed. Jessa Zapor-Gray however, didn’t.

“But it is an industry event,” she pointed out.

I pivoted once more, starting to feel like a member of the fickle rabble in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Are shows such as the Los Angeles Audio Show, T.H.E Show, and RMAF marketed as consumer events, but treated and set-up like industry events?

And is this a problem?

#4. Wish You Were Here

Here’s what I felt on my final walkabout at 3.45pm on Sunday afternoon, catching the last of the rooms on my list before the sources started disappearing, and power amps mysteriously powered down in anticipation of the huge pack-up job at 5.30pm. There’s something deeply lonely about truly high-end audio. It’s polished into the liquid finish of speaker enclosures, brushed into the sides of solid metal casework, made manifest in the fanatical detail that bridges the chasm between 98% and 99%. I believe it’s a necessity not a symptom.

But it’s not a necessity to bake this sterility into the marketing. Looking at the advertisements, you’d think a home with $200,000 loudspeakers is a mausoleum with great light and stunning views. Floor-to-ceiling windows, floor-to-ceiling loudspeakers, and no humans to mar the gloss with their fingerprints, nachos, hairy pets, and cables. In these pristine mansions, no children clap their hands and giggle in front of turntables, no couples do an impromptu dance while dinner warms up. There’s not even the stereotypical target-demographic model: an old, white audiophile grinning at the veils being lifted by his new power conditioner.

These are products, the ads tell you, to be locked up in golden-ratioed towers. They celebrate loneliness, and loneliness sells when we’re largely not lonely. Today, we’re too lonely to be seen apex buying—just look at those extroverted little Bluetooth speakers that sing of backyard barbecues, dinner parties, and spontaneous picnics… in France.

So what happens if we start throwing people—you know, like actual human beings: happy families, beautiful friends—into those product advertisements?

I await your response.

#5. Back To the Home Fires

I should state that I’m no young gun, or gently middle-aged gun, or in fact, any kind of cis-weaponised member of the audio industry. I’m the upstart; the arriviste recently crossed over from consumer to industry, who presumes to comment upon the field. I wrote recently (and perhaps optimistically) that I had the tools to be the ideal observer: “I know the language but not the water-cooler gossip. I have the framework, but carry little baggage.”

In the days following RMAF, I reflected that though audiophilia was a huge, rewarding part of my life, I had an ambivalent relationship to it. You can’t come away from loving a $73,000 pair of loudspeakers without the moral fiber fraying a little. Something changes when you talk high-end all weekend with your audio-show buddy (hey, I have audio-show buddies now!), and he goes home to a small Northern California town that few people around the world had heard of; until the evening of October 8, when the firestorms put Santa Rosa on a global tragedy map. I went directly from discussing my friend’s upcoming loudspeaker purchase, to asking if his home was still standing.

I know it’s futile, even unfair, to bring life tragedy or world poverty to a luxury event. As I wrote in the long caption on an Instagram post (@gautamraja): “At shows such as Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, you meet passionate people whose surnames on their name tags match the badging on their highly engineered, beautifully finished products. Depending on the energy you bring to the show, it could be a study in glittering, exclusionary excess, or a moving view of a human yearning for perfection.”

My energy rattled between the two all weekend, but when things went well, as they often did, it was possible to walk through darkened hotel corridors on a clear, crisp Colorado day, and feel proud to be human.

If it’s going to be beautiful, sometimes it has to hurt.

#6. A Post-it Note From the Old Guy – Jeff Dorgay

Like our new guy Gautam, I too am usually confused for someone younger, but it’s because I’ve remained pretty immature, and the fact that I can still clear out a demo room in under ten seconds. With all this gray hair, I usually get mistaken for Einstein, the Doc in Back to the Future, or Nelson Pass. I’m comfortable with either of these. I asked Gautam to walk around, soak it up and give me his opinion on the vibe. I’d say he pretty much nailed it. I’ve been attending the RMAF now for 12 of the 13 years it’s been going on. I’ll always have a soft spot for it, because it’s where the first, 55 page issue of TONEwas launched 12 years ago.

One thing I did notice this year, was a lot higher percentage of rooms with good sound. That’s a big start. If you want people of any age to get excited about what this industry has to offer, the sound has to be compelling, and not just from a single, head in a vice position. This year, the chance with someone random stumbling in the door and hearing great sound was much higher than in years past, and I think that’s necessary to bring more people to our world. And unlike the Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, which I’ve been attending even longer, I did see a lot of unfamiliar faces, and that’s a good start.

All that being said, it was a pleasant show. Saw my buds, met some readers and made a few new friends, so life is good.

In closing, I don’t think anyone realizes what a crushing amount of work, show promoter Marjorie Baumert goes through, so I’d like to ask my fellow audio enthusiasts for a minute of silence and praise. I know how tough it is just to coordinate Thanksgiving dinner. I can’t imagine how tough it is to get all the wacky folks in our industry in one place and keep em all happy. Well done, Marjorie. See you next year.

For their 40^th anniversary, Conrad-Johnson started shipping their new limited-edition, tube-based flagships, the ART150 stereo amp and ART300 monoblocks.

Over time we have had the opportunity to review C-J’s current lineup of amplifiers including MF2550 and MS2275 solid-state designs, and the Classic 62 tube amp. Each one has its strengths, but there is not a slacker among the bunch. The ART150, however, takes things to another level of detail and soundstaging with a very natural, and organic sound. It indeed won our team over, earning the TONEAudio 2017 Product of the Year in the amplifier category.

Using a tube compliment of four new-production Tung-Sol KT150 tubes and three 6922s, the ART150 produces 150 watts per channel, plenty of power to let most speakers sing. The ART150 shares a visual lineage with C-J designs past, what’s under the hood is all new. Every detail in this design was scrutinized by the C-J team, including proprietary transformers and CJD Teflon capacitors alongside carefully-chosen foil resistors and wire for the delicate signal path.

With such attention to detail and a legacy of stellar products, Conrad-Johnson has another big winner with the latest ART amplifiers. Our full review is coming soon, so you will be able to get all the details.

www.conradjohnson.com

With a plethora of fairly cool powered speakers on the market these days, it can be tough to choose.

Triangle makes it easy with the LN-01As because in addition to being a great pair of powered speakers, priced right at $799/pair, they include an on-board DAC, subwoofer output, and an MM phonostage. The phono input makes the deal for me, because what’s the point of a “compact” system, if you have to add a bunch of other boxes, right?

Spinning records with a recently restored Dual 1229 and Grado Black cartridge is a lot of fun with these little speakers, the built-in phonostage performs well, with decent frequency response and dynamic range. Triangle offers a turntable, produced by Pro-Ject, but any basic table/cartridge combination will work well here. We tried a couple of budget Grado, Shure and Ortofon cartridges with excellent result.

Though it defeats the above mentioned compact ethos, plugging in a recently restored TEAC reel to reel deck makes for a cool new and old combination. Watching the VU meters bounce when playing a few mix tapes is indeed romantic with the Triangles.

Sly and the Family Stone’s classic “If You Want Me to Stay” is rendered faithfully, and that bass control on the remote comes in handy; whether you’re in the party mode wanting more sock, or just need to compensate for room placement, these modest tone controls are highly effective. Take off the audiophile hat and enjoy, I say.

Switching the program material for something more raucous (like Slayer) proves the French pair can rock. “Reigning Blood” had to be turned up to painful levels to get the onboard amplifiers to clip, making the LN-01As capable party guests. Even more so if you add a small subwoofer. Our trusty REL T5 rounded out the lowest notes, giving our favorite hip-hop and EDM tracks more body, especially at party levels. A little sniffing around on eBay can get you something you can live with for a few hundred bucks and keep the total system cost around a thousand. That’s tough to beat.

Very Versatile

Setting up the LN-01As is a simple task. Everything you need to get started, including a 20-foot length of speaker cable to connect the passive left speaker to the right speaker, where the amplifier and related electronics, is included in the box. A small yet capable remote is accompanied by an excellent instruction manual, to guide you through the process.

Coax and optical digital inputs are provided along with a line level analog input and the phono. Music can also be streamed via Bluetooth. A USB is not offered with the LN-01As, but everything included performs at a high level. I’d rather see more performance and less connectivity, but your tastes may differ. A quick comparison, running TIDAL from a MacBook Pro via line level, streamed from an iPhone 8 via Bluetooth and an older Sony CD player’s optical output reveals the digital input a winner in ultimate fidelity by a slight margin over the line level, with the Bluetooth third, though still very good. The key here is flexibility. The LN01As work great on a desktop, bookshelf, or on dedicated stands all the same. They use a rear-firing port, so take care not to place them right up against a wall, or the lowest frequencies will roll off slightly.

Passing judgement

The Triangle Esprit floorstanders we just finished auditioning were incredibly good overall and an incredible value. The same level of sonic excellence and workmanship is here with the LN01A, though both speakers are intended for entirely different audiences. Admirably, the LN01A shares all the audible virtues that the more substantial speakers offer, and share a similar voice. The highest highs and lowest lows are slightly rolled off in comparison to the larger speakers (as expected) but the lovely, natural midrange that we experienced with the Esprit is in full effect with the much smaller LN01A.

The LN01As are comfortably at the top of the class, providing you don’t need to have a USB input. However, we feel that the functionality offered by the on-board MM phono stage and subwoofer output far outweigh the lack of a USB input. The only mystery is the sampling rate of the DAC, but again, what it accomplishes with TIDAL files is outstanding. I can’t imagine that many music lovers with an $800 system going to the expense of downloading high-resolution files.

If there is one suggestion to be made with these speakers, considering how tiny the remote control is, a full function smartphone app might be a useful upgrade to the LN01A. But seriously, I’m thinking of buying the review pair and a Pelican case to have these at the ready for when we take a road trip. Exellent as these speakers are in the house or office, they would make great traveling companions!

The Triangle LN01A powered loudspeakers

$799/pair (white or black)

http://www.triangle-fr.com/en/activeseries/ln01a

Today McIntosh announced the release of their new MC252 integrated amplifier, to a wide range of polarizing comments around the world.

With an MSRP of $3,500, this is a pretty kick ass little package. The approximately 12 x 18 inch footprint makes it about the size of a PrimaLuna amplifier, so it’s not going to take up a ton of space wherever you end up placing it, and at only 28 pounds, nearly anyone can lift it into place – pretty cool for McIntosh.

A hybrid design, the MA252 uses four tubes in the input/driver segments and a solid state output stage, delivering 100 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 160 per channel into 4 ohms, so you’ll have enough juice to drive most any speakers. A headphone amplifier is included and an MM phono section as well.

You can see by the rear view, that there is one balanced XLR input, two unbalanced RCA inputs and the phono, along with a single, mono output for a powered subwoofer. This should make it easy to make the MA252 the anchor for a great compact system.

Visually, the 252 pays homage to past classic McIntosh tube amplifiers, adding the current aesthetic of LED’s underneath the tubes and a digital display to indicate function and volume level. You’ll love it or hate it, but it’s pure Mac, and built on the same assembly line in Binghamton, New York with all current day McIntosh components.

We look forward to a full review as soon as samples start shipping!

Please click here for more tech bits!

Maybe it’s the concert halls, but so many European speakers have a thing for tonal accuracy, and Triangle is no exception. After spending a lot of time listening to the Triangle Antal Ez speakers from their Esprit line, I’ve come away highly impressed. The high gloss piano black (white and walnut veneer also available) towers stand approximately 44” tall by 12” wide and 15.75” deep.

The unique and very stable glass bases and rubber or spiked feet take about five minutes each to attach. Out of the box the Antal Ez’s were slightly tight and flat sounding, but they came alive after a few days of constant play. Initial listening took place in my 9’ x 12’ dedicated listening room, but these speakers begged to be heard in my larger 15’ x 19’ living room – and they are an excellent match.

Part One: Initial Impressions

Old school auto mechanics have a saying, “If you want ‘em to run hard, break ‘em in hard.” With no connecting rods to send through an engine block, I can’t resist the urge to turn the volume up loud, the minute the photos for this review are finished. A quick playlist of Alice Cooper is queued up and a heavy hand on the volume control has “Hey Stoopid” filling the listening room with authority, my reference orange Focal Sopra no.3s in the shadows and the REL 212SE subwoofers turned off.

Where the Sopras were slightly stiff right out of the shipping cartons, the new Kanta no.2 is smoother and more relaxed, so we’ll see where this goes over the next few hundred hours. Out of the box, these are one of the most pleasing speakers I’ve spent time with – in this case a stunning first impression.

Expecting a pair of yellow Kantas (we love bright colors here at TONEAudio) the glossy Galouise Blue pair that arrived are just as stylish. Pamela gave them an instant thumbs up, mentioning that they nearly match the color of my bright blue Fiat 500e and current iPhone case. Who says guys can’t coordinate colors? Having seen nearly all the color combinations at the recent Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, they are all fun, and I applaud Focal delivering a few color combinations more daring than the standard white, black and wood.

The Kanta driver compliment consists of a 6.5” midrange, pair of 6.5” woofers and a new Beryllium dome IAL tweeter. Focal has updated their cone material again, this time using a Flax sandwich cone. They claim that this offers a “warmer, richer tone,” and a quick switch back to the Sopras confirms this. Which will you prefer? Both are excellent, but a trip to your Focal dealer for a listening session will help you decide. A sensitivity rating of 91db/1 watt means they won’t need a ton of power to get the job done.

Doing the audiophile thing, bouncing back and forth with 45 seconds of a wide range of musical material not only wins me over on the $9,995/pair Kantas, it brings two questions to mind: how can Focal keep making better and better speakers for way less than their $200k + pair of Grande Utopia Ems and what will the next Grande Utopias be?

The Kantas combination of technical excellence, sonic purity and sheer beauty, even after a few hours of listening is incredible. In the weeks to come, we will cover a lot more ground, mating the Kantas to a wide range of amplification from SET all the way up to our massive Pass Labs monoblocks.

For now, consider the Focal Kanta no.2 speakers one of the best first dates ever.

More info here:

https://www.focal.com/en/home-audio/high-fidelity-speakers/kanta/kanta-no2

Triangle has just sent us their new, powered ELARA LN-01 speakers and they are a nice twist on the powered monitor thing. We just finished with their floor standing Antal EZ’s over at TONEAudio and were very impressed with the sound, style, and finish.

The $799/pair LN-01s are two-way powered speakers, but much more. With a pair of 50 watt, Class-D amplifier modules in each speaker, they feature wireless, optical and RCA connections for digital music, but wait, there’s more. In addition to a line level AUX input, there’s a built-in MM phono stage too. This makes em a step above the competition. A variable level output for a powered subwoofer also increases the versatility of these little satellites.

Our review is in the works, but these are very exciting. Triangle heats up the powered mini-monitor race!

http://www.triangle-fr.com/en/activeseries/ln01a

Those of you in the Bay Area need only stop by our friends at AudioVision SanFrancisco to get a test drive. Tell em we sent you!

In this fickle world of hifi, from the consumer and the reviewer perspective, who keeps a component for TEN YEARS?

Long term readers of TONE know I’ve always had an affectation for AVID turntables, produced by Conrad Mas and company. Mr. Mas has been slowly, carefully refining his tables for over two decades now and they have earned unanimous praise from owners and critics.

My AVID journey began with the original Volvere, purchased after our review in Issue 7. That’s a long time ago. (Fall of 2007, to be exact) A few years later, I upgraded to a Volvere SP and this table has been a reference staple ever since. These days, my Volvere SP sports a Rega RB-2000 tonearm, but it’s hosted many different arms from SME, Rega, Clearaudio, Jelco and Tri-Planar; all with excellent results.

While it’s always fashionable to get a new toy, I appreciate the green approach that AVID takes, offering motor and power supply upgrades, so you don’t have to take as much of a hit when you’d like a bit more performance.

Ten years later, this is still one of the best values in turntables I’ve ever experienced. It still competes handily with tables costing twice as much and is as much of a breeze to set up as it is to use. Highly recommended.

The AVID Volvere SP

Approximately $6,500 (without arm, pre drilled for SME arms)

http://www.avidhifi.com/turntable_volvere.htm

If you’ve been living with LS3/5as, ProAc Tablettes, or a pair of similar sized Harbeths and love the form factor, yet long for more resolution, look slightly to the North and the East. Yes, I’m talking about Denmark – the land of beautiful speakers.

Priced at $6,000/pair, the X-1s are available in the white shown here (a personal favorite) or black. They feature Raidho’s ribbon tweeter, utilized in many of their other designs, combined with a 4″ ceramic coned woofer. More specs are available at:

http://raidho.dk/product-detail/x-1/

The X-1 shares the same sonic purity and transparency that is the hallmark of all Raidho speakers, just in a smaller package. Like your favorite Brit minis, there’s no low bass to speak of, and thanks to the front port, you can place them fairly close to the wall without it effecting the delicate midrange balance.

Make no mistake, to get the best out of the X-1, they need to be nearfield speakers, or coupled to a fantastic sub, if you want to fully enjoy them in a larger room. Or just get a bigger pair of Raidhos!  We’ve just started listening in earnest, but the X-1 makes a hell of a first impression. Stay tuned.

McIntosh made a big splash a while back with its six-box, 2,000-watt MC2KW power amplifiers. They are very cool, play incredibly loud (if you have enough juice in your power line to let them wind out all the way) and command an impressive presence.

Many lovers of the McIntosh brand see them as the Holy Grail. For those who don’t have the space or the budget but ­still dig those gigantic level meters, there’s a more reasonable alternative: the MC1.2KW. The more manageable MC1.2KW monoblocks tip the scale at only 147 pounds each. They’re still not budget components, but the $25k price tag will leave you with enough money left over from not buying the $70,000 MC2KW’s to assemble a formidable system.

Sporting metered faceplates the same size as the MC 2KW, the MC1.2KWs are attention getters. While many audiophiles love “deep-listening” sessions, nothing says “party on” like the gigantic blue meters, and this is a big part of their charm. Their blue glow floods your listening room like a couple of gigantic lava lamps. You can turn them off. But why?

A direct descendent of the MC1201’s, the MC1.2KW’s have significant electrical and cosmetic upgrades. According to Ron Cornelius, McIntosh product manager, the MC1.2KW “Actually produces closer to 1,600 watts per channel on a test bench, so you have to be careful with this much power on tap!”

Setup

Unless you are a super hero, getting at least one person to help you unpack the MC1.2KWs is a good idea. And be certain that your equipment rack can support at least 150 pounds per shelf.

Thanks to the large lip on the back, they are surprisingly easy to grasp and move around. I wish more manufacturers would provide rear panel handles on amplifiers this heavy.

While not the latest word in aesthetics, a pair of piano dollies come in handy shuttling the MC1.2KW’s between my reference amplifiers, along with the other gigantic amplifiers we had in for review this issue. They’ve since taken up permanent residence on a pair of Finite Elemente amplifier platforms and look very stylish; they beg to be displayed prominently.

Your next concern will be power. These big beasts need a lot of juice to do their thing. You can run a pair on a single 15-amp circuit, but they won’t reach full power. A dedicated 20-amp line

is better, but if you want an effortless 1,200-watt-per-channel experience, you’ll need a pair of 15-amp dedicated lines. McIntosh tech-support head Chuck Hinton recommends, “Each amp needs its own 15-amp line for maximum performance.” While McIntosh lists the maximum current draw at 13 amps, there’s no point in scrimping if you’re getting dedicated power lines run. Go for 20 amp lines and make sure to have it done by a qualified electrician. Ron Cornelius adds a few more tips, stressing the idea of having your wiring in top shape. Double check your power panel’s grounding and make sure all the connections to the panel and outlets are tight. It’s the nature of solid-core copper wire to wiggle loose with time. “If you don’t have solid power going to your system, your line level components will suffer as well.”

Extended listening with a dedicated 15-amp circuit, a dedicated 20-amp circuit, and dedicated 20-amp circuits for each monoblock reveals that power is your friend. While the amps worked with the single 15-amp line, the circuit breaker blew repeatedly at high volume.

The rest is easy. MC1.2KWs have balanced XLR inputs on the back panel along with RCA inputs and a 12-volt trigger, so it will integrate into any system handily. Due to the use of the legendary McIntosh Autoformers in the output stage, featuring 2-ohm, 4-ohm and 8-ohm taps to connect your speakers. Mc suggests starting with the nominal impedance of your speakers, but a bit of experimentation will yield the best results – sometimes the best match that transfers the most music might be a different tap. My only complaint with the MC1.2KWs, and for that matter all of the McIntosh solid state amplifiers are the dreadful speaker binding posts – they are too small and too close together.

The Sound

The MC1.2KWs immediately take charge. After a few hours warm up with nondescript background music, dropping Joe Harley’s recording of Mighty Sam McClain’s Give it up to Love threw a massive soundstage between my speakers. This record was recorded live to two-track analog tape and when you crank this one up and dim the lights, it sounds like mighty Sam is right there in your listening room (singing in front of a pair of gigantic McIntosh amplifiers in this case…).

With this kind of power at your disposal, big dynamic range helps to create a live feel on recordings with a big dynamic swing and the big Macs never disappointed, whether listening to a full symphony orchestra or Rammstein. You don’t realize just how wimpy your 100-watt per channel amplifier is until you have 1,200 per channel at your disposal. Trust me, you might never want to go back.

Friends listening to my system with the MC1.2KW’s always made the same comment: “Wow, I can’t believe how often those meters jump up around 300-600 watts and we’re not listening that loud.” All the arguments about “tube watts” vs. “transistor watts” vs. “whatever other watts you got” go away, and quickly. It’s big power vs. little power, baby, and if there was ever an argument for size mattering, the MC 1.2KWs settle the score handily.

People often forget that the need for power goes up exponentially as sound pressure level doubles; so that 100-watt-per-channel amp sounds great when you are listening in the one-to-10 watt range because you still have 100 watts or so in reserve, but when you get fast and furious with the volume control, compression sets in quickly and, if you’re not careful, clipping. Still, proceed with care when rocking out because even though it’s tougher to burn out a tweeter with all that clean power, you can run the risk of toasting a crossover when you are pushing the MC1.2KW’s near their limits. That’s when bad things happen to good people.

Power and Control

Next up, some Prince from the Diamonds and Pearls album. The beginning of the track, “Insatiable,” features deep synth bass lines with grunt that usually come across loose and sloppy. The extra power and control of the MC1.2KWs grabs those notes, holds the sustain and stops cleanly. I usually need the help of the JL Audio Gotham in my system to achieve that experience. No longer.

The other aspect of a high-powered amplifier that becomes instantly apparent is the ability to play complex music at relatively high volume levels without the soundstage collapsing. Try this with your favorite piece of densely packed music, whether it is a full symphony or driving rock. This is where the difference between 100 watts per channel and 1,200 per channel is instantly apparent. Though both play fairly loud, when you start to crank the 100-watt amp, everything gets muddy and you lose focus.

If you become the happy owner of a pair of MC1.2KWs, this will be a thing of the past and you might even discover that some of those discs that you thought were compressed just had their peaks rounded off.

During the course of this review, I had the opportunity to use the MC1.2KW’s with about a dozen different loudspeakers, from the Martin-Logan CLX electrostatics to the YG Acoustics Anat II Studios, both of which have low impedance dips and can be problematic to drive. Nothing in my speaker arsenal requires more power than my Magnepan 1.6’s Should you be a Magnepan owner looking for the Holy Grail, nothing lights up a pair of Maggies like the MC1.2KWs. Where the 1.6’s always feel somewhat bass shy in my 16 x 24 foot room, with the Mac amps they sounded like I had added a subwoofer to the system.

The dynamics were amazing and again, all who listened were surprised how easy it was to use up 1,000 watts per channel. It’s worth mentioning that no matter how hard I pushed these amplifiers, even when driving the Magnepans very loud, the MC1.2KW’s never got more than slightly warm to the touch.

Having just spent time with the MC252 amplifier that we reviewed very favorably, the MC1.2KW’s are in a completely different league. The MC252 is an excellent amplifier and a great value, but it does not have the delicacy and clarity that the MC1.2KW has. No matter what the listening level, these are some pretty special amplifiers with the slightest bit of warmth and body to the overall presentation. I doubt that anyone will ever refer to these amplifiers as “sterile solid-state.”

Big Power, Big Meters, Big Fun

At $25,000 a pair, this is not an idle purchase, even for the well-heeled. But if you want a pair of amplifiers that will never run out of juice or require you to buy a futures contract on output tubes, the MC1.2KW could be your Holy Grail. So dim the lights, put your favorite disc on and let em’ rip.

The McIntosh MC1.2KW Monoblocks

$24,995/pair

www.mcintoshlabs.com

We’ve just received the new flagship PS2000e headphones from GradoLabs.

These beautiful new phones, have not abandoned the familiar wood that makes
Grado’s famous, but now it is clad with a metal alloy, offering a more modern,
sleek look.

Until our review is live, you can read more here:

http://www.gradolabs.com/headphones/professional-series/item/69-ps2000e

Actually, two of them.

As REL’s John Hunter will tell you, you need a pair of 212SEs to disappear in your room, and that is the ultimate goal of a sub-bass system, to prove a transparent extension to your main speakers, never drawing attention to themselves. While the uninitiated might opt for small cubes that can be placed a bit more out of the way, Hunter explains it succinctly: “When you hear low-frequency information out in the real world, it doesn’t just come at you from off in the corner, it envelops you from all directions.” Thus, the height factor of the 212SE is equally important to disappear audibly.

After Hunter spends a bit of time optimizing my Focal Sopra no.3s for perfect positioning, blending the 212SEs into the rest of the system takes place quickly. When complete, the subs are impossible to localize, and in addition to the lower register improving dramatically, the entire presentation takes on greater depth, width, and height. The Sopra no.3s and the 212SEs work together as one. Perfectly.

As the music is playing, Hunter says, “Ok, now we’re listening to about $300k worth of gear, right?” Then with a quick flick of two switches and a wry smile, he turns the 212SE’s off and says, “Now we’re listening to $292,000 worth of gear.” The difference is staggering; the soundstage completely collapses. Considering the $8,000 that a pair of 212SEs will set you back, won’t even buy a power cord from some manufacturers, this is amazing. The delta achieved by including the pair of 212SEs in my reference system is more than just a 100% jump, I no longer can listen to the system without them in. Adding a pair of these subwoofers to get this improvement for less than 3% of the total system cost is unbelievable.

It’s not the bass; it’s everywhere

The level of depth that the pair of 212SEs adds to the mix is just as exciting as the low-frequency extension. The delicacy of the opening Fender Rhodes licks in the Springsteen classic “Kitty’s Back,” waft through space between my Focal Sopra no.3s so gently, it sounds better than when I’ve sat ten feet away from one in a club. This stunning realism is the key to the 212s presentation. As it says on the REL website, their goal is to restore midrange warmth and harmonic structure. This deceptively simple goal, nearly impossible to achieve, is a promise that has never been delivered in my listening room until now.

Tracking through myriad cuts deliberately lacking substantial LF content reinforces the initial experience. Whether listening to Ella Fitzgerald or Eddie Mercury, my system has more bloom, more dimensionality. The music comes alive in all dimensions more clearly, with more low-level information present at all volume levels. Enticing as giving the volume control a hearty spin is, it’s still good at low volume.

These subwoofers have been a serious threat to productivity. The experience they’ve added to my primary reference system keeps me glued to the listening chair, at times for hours, at times for the entire day. With so much more musical information available, listening becomes sheer joy again.

It’s almost better than real

Because of the power required, lower frequency extension and detail is usually the first thing to give up the ghost when pushed, followed closely by overall system imaging. Depending on your room, system, and available power, it happens gradually or in a brick wall fashion. For the first time in nearly 40 years, this didn’t happen, no matter how loud the music was. The REL 212SEs offer no trace of distortion, compression or fatigue. Even when hitting nearly 120db peaks in my 16 x 25-foot listening room.

Fun as this is, be careful should you attempt this at home, OSHA says you should not be exposed to music at this high volume level for more than about 10 minutes. Just enough to listen to Pink Floyd’s “Breathe” in a way I’ve never experienced it – not even live. Whether you jump off the cliff for a pair of 212SEs or even one of REL’s smallest offerings, the musical force that comes with having a great sub-bass system will make it tough, if not impossible to go back. You can’t unhear it.

Inside the black box

We can go on and on about the tech inside the 212SE, but from the listening chair, it’s all about execution and level to detail. That’s why the 1.6-liter engine in a Kia makes 150 horsepower on a good day, and the 1.6-liter engine in a contemporary F1 car makes almost 900. Make no mistake, REL is the Ferrari F1 of low-frequency reproduction. Full specs are available on the REL site here:  https://rel.net/shop/subwoofers/serie-s/212se/

The 212SE looks conventional from a distance, a big black box with woofers in the front. A closer look reveals that the two front-firing 12” continuous cast active drivers are paired to an additional 12” passive cone on both the rear and bottom. The passive cones use the same material as the active drivers, providing sonic consistency. REL claims that the two passive drivers not only add dimension to the bass produced giving the 212SE the equivalent of a pair of 17-inch drivers. Driving each of these woofer arrays is a 1,000-watt amplifier, optimized for its job.

Closer inspection reveals numerous fine details; the finish is exquisite. Not only is it the equivalent of anything I’ve seen on a six-figure pair of Wilson or Magico speakers, but it’s also the equivalent of anything I’ve seen on a Bentley. The gloss black on the review 212s is liquid in appearance, and this reflective quality helps it to physically disappear in the room. Even the complexity of the machined shape in the side handles reveals a level of attention that tells you this is indeed a special product.

For those not familiar with REL, they use a speaker level connection, requiring your main speaker’s run full range, so the signal going to the subs has the same sonic signature of what is going to the mains via your power amplifier. They can be used via line level inputs as well, but whenever I’ve tried this with a REL subwoofer, the results were never quite as good as doing it their way.

Should running a cable be inconvenient, REL subwoofers can also be connected via their Longbow wireless transceiver. The Longbow is a compression-free wireless system, utilizing the same speaker or line level outputs, transmitting wireless information effortlessly. While this option was not taken here, it has been used with other REL products with excellent result.

And the winner is

The combination of dynamics and musicality that a pair of REL 212SEs add to the mix is of such high quality, I had made up my mind after about 10 hours of listening (I was up until about 4 a.m. after Hunter left, the day he installed them) that this would be our product of the year. For my money, this could be TONE’s product of all time.

I’ve had the privilege to own and evaluate thousands of components in the last two decades. Nothing has ever come close to achieving so much at such a modest cost. $8,000 is by no means chump change, but when other companies are asking ten times this for wire, that they claim is a “component level” upgrade, I call shenanigans. If your system doesn’t go to 11 right now, a pair of these will get you there. And if it already does, hang on; you’re still in for a ride you aren’t expecting.

In the end, I’m not sure what freaks me out more, that a pair of REL 212SEs are this good, or knowing that there are two more models above the 212SE.

The REL 212SE Subwoofer

$4,000 each, two used in this review

www.rel.net

Peripherals

Analog Source                        Grand Prix Audio Monaco 2.0w/triplanar arm, Lyra Etna

Digital Source                         dCS Rossini DAC and clock

Main Speakers                        Focal Sopra no.3

Preamplifier                             Pass Labs XSPre

Phono                                      Pass Labs XSPhono

Amplifiers                               Pass Labs XS 300 monos, XA200.8 monos

Cable                                       Cardas Clear, Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Racks                                      Grand Prix Audio Monaco