TONEAudio MAGAZINE The Concierge of High End Audio

I can’t tell you how many times friends and readers have asked me the same question, “I just want a nice turntable. I’ve been getting back into vinyl a bit, and I’d like something better than an entry level deck.”

The minute I point them in the direction of one of my favorite $1,200 turntables, start discussing cartridge choices and a decent phono preamplifier, the next comment is “I don’t want to get carried away with it, I’m only going to buy a couple of hundred albums.” If this sounds like you, the Shinola Runwell might just be the answer to your needs.

Opening the Shinola Runwell turntable reminds me of the first time I unpacked my Shinola watch. Well done, with high attention to detail, and confidence inspiring execution. I’ll be the first to admit; I don’t know a thing about watches. If you’re a watch aficionado, you can stick your nose in the air at my lowly Shinola watch all day long, and you won’t offend me. I love it.

The next thing I noticed was an Andrew Bird album (excellent choice) with a note saying “Thank you from Shinola.” When was the last time anyone thanked you for buying something? When was the last time a hi-fi store salesperson was even kind to you, period?

Steve Jobs once said, “If we don’t make technology as easy to use as putting a bagel in a toaster, no one will use it.” Laurie Anderson once quipped that she had “A drawer full of techy items she couldn’t figure out.” Shinola gets a 10 out of 10 for including a large, well-written, easy to read, quick start guide. I wish every other turntable company on Earth would follow this example. (To be fair, Rega comes pretty close, but that’s it.) If you can’t set it up, you’re not going to play any records, right? This stuff should not be daunting and exclusionary.

It’s an all-inclusive analog vacation

A good friend of mine that is a high-level IT professional said to me once, “we don’t realize just how immersed in all this stuff we are until we talk to someone that isn’t.”

Most of the people that go to Club Med, or any of the other all inclusive vacation spots do so because it’s a no brainer. They want to go on vacation, after all. That doesn’t mean those of you that want to sniff out more exotic locations or cuisine are bad Smurfs. But I can tell you this; the main thing that keeps the average music lover away from vinyl is the perceived hassle of setting up a turntable.

I’ve never had an easier time getting from box to spinning records than I have with Shinola’s Runwell. I’d give them an award for that alone. My nagging audiophile sensibilities got the best of me, and I just had to check the stylus force. Spot on at 1.85g. Attach the belt, plug it in and roll – there’s a power cord and a pair of interconnects in the box, so everything you need to roll is there. Or spin, should we say.

It’s probably taken you a lot longer to read this far than it will to set up a Shinola Runwell turntable. And that’s a good thing. Once spinning, the Runwell turns in an honest performance. The Ortofon 2M Blue works well with the internal MM phonostage. Mated with the exciting Atoll amplifier and preamplifier that we just reviewed last issue and the Focal Sopra no.1 speakers, this all makes for an incredibly pleasant analog experience. The Runwell is so easy to use, playing record after record is a breeze.

But is it an “audiophile” turntable?

Yes and no. From a sonic standpoint of comparably priced turntable/tonearm/cartridge/phonostage combinations – definitely. From an infinitely adjustable/tweakable analog deck, no. The only unfortunate part of the Runwell is that you can’t bypass the onboard phono preamplifier without getting your soldering iron out, but you can adjust VTA, etc., so you can swap MM cartridges if you like. But then that defeats the purpose of this turntable. Considering the modular nature of this table and the fact that this is Shinolas first table, I wouldn’t be surprised that future models may have more versatility.

For those of you that just have to tweak something, consider upgrading the Ortofon 2M Blue to a 2M Bronze or 2M Black. With a 2M Black on hand (it is the same form factor and weight as the 2M Blue) it only takes five minutes to make the swap and you won’t have to bother with VTA. The Runwell is capable of enough resolution to allow you to hear the difference, upping the price of the whole deck from the original MSRP of $2,500 to about $3,200. And if you just can’t leave well enough alone, swapping the supplied RCA cable for something else will reveal more music too. I’d suggest the Wireworld Equinoxe 7. At $200 a pair, this will also bring more musical enjoyment to your Runwell. While not infinitely geekable, you can still upgrade enough stuff on the Runwell that it’s not a dead end product, in audiophile terms. Hint to the Shinola team if you haven’t already thought of it, consider offering this table with a 2M Black for another $500.

However, even if all you do is take the Runwell out of the box, set it up and listen to records, never even thinking about changing anything, it succeeds on every level. The musical experience delivered is more than commensurate with the price asked.

Running through a set of favorite test discs, the massive platter has great speed stability, offering a weighty sound, not unlike what my VPI Classic One delivers.

For those of you that haven’t been following the Shinola story, Mat Weisfeld, and his father Harry, the guys behind VPI have been very involved with the Shinola table, and this turntable shares a lot of visual as well as sonic DNA. Yet, this isn’t just a Camaro rebadged as a Firebird. On one level, the visual styling of the Runwell is a step above the basic VPI tables, with an overall look that is more reserved, yet more sophisticated than the VPI Classic Line. (And I say this as a happy owner of a Classic One and Two.) The Runwell is also more compact than the VPI tables, and even though these tables are brothers from the same father, they each have unique identities.

The machined top plate of the turntable plinth reminds me of a vintage Thorens TD-124, both in color and feel. A massive aluminum platter, tonearm and light wood base (it’s also available in black) rounds out the package, complimented by the medium toned leather mat on top of the platter. I’ve seen plenty of ten thousand dollar turntables lacking this level of fit and finish.

Pure analog ease

Spinning record after record, this is a turntable that even a seasoned audio reviewer could easily live with. No $2,500 record player gives you everything – that costs a lot more money. But judged within its context, the Shinola Runwell is a lovely turntable. Playing more than a handful of very familiar LP’s, the analog magic is here in spades.  Sonics are superb, the soundstage presented is wide open, with more info in the left to right, and while there is some front to back information, not as much as might be expected from higher end decks – and much of this is the limitation of the 2M Blue. When upgraded to the 2M Black, more front to back information is available.

I was consistently impressed by the overall smoothness of the onboard MM phono section. Tonality is excellent, along with snappy transient response, and this baby is quiet! Perhaps the only nit to pick is a slight softening/rolling off of the extreme high end. Again, swapping to a 2M Black takes care of this for the most discerning ears.

Not a poseur

Shinola Audio has come out of the box with an impressive product in the Runwell Turntable. Build quality is exceptional, packaging equally intriguing, but best of all the sound quality is more than what you’d expect for the price. When you head down to a Shinola store and touch one, you’ll see what I mean. The staff at Shinola has built a product that they should be very proud of.

Some will bellyache over the somewhat closed loop system, but most of those types bellyache no matter what. If you want a record player that is a few steps up from entry level stuff, works perfectly and looks magnificent, I can’t recommend the Shinola Runwell highly enough.

For now, the Shinola Runwell is only available through Shinola stores and select Neiman Marcus stores. All the more reason to stop by and see the other cool stuff they have. You might just need a backpack or a watch!

The Shinola Runwell Turntable

MSRP:  $2,500

www.shinola.com

Peripherals

Preamplifier              Atoll HA120

Power Amplifier        Atoll HD100

Speaker Cable           Cardas Iridium

Speakers                    Focal Sopra no.1

The dictionary says that Syzygy is pronounced siz-i-jee, with the emphasis on the first syllable. A syzygy is defined as an alignment of three or more celestial objects.

Listening to the heavy bass groove in George Michael’s Older, I couldn’t agree more. My Quad 2815s and a pair of the SLF850 subwoofers are blending perfectly; this is not an easy task for any subwoofer. They don’t even feel as if they are on to begin with until the “mute” button on the handy iPhone app shuts them off. Then, the soundfield produced by the Quads merely collapses. This is subwoofer perfection.

Finished in a textured, matte black 12.5-inch cube, these subwoofers get the job done without drawing attention to themselves and can be used in a downward or front-firing configuration. In my room they prove to work best in the front firing configuration, but I have no pups of the two or four-legged variety to interfere with all things audio. Should you, the down-firing option will be greatly appreciated.

The main man at Syzygy, Paul Egan is by no means a stranger to the world of high-end audio, having spent 13 years at KEF and nearly as many at API, working with Mirage and a few other well-known speaker brands. So, when the time came to create his product, he not only knew what he wanted but where to procure everything. Leveraging his past relationships, he’s been able to pack a lot more into a sub-thousand dollar subwoofer than someone starting at ground zero. Keeping things lean and mean, he’s even eschewed putting grilles on his subs to keep them all business. Discussing the background of his products, Egan makes an excellent point when he says “I’m trying to democratize good sound at a reasonable price.” At $799 each, the SLF850 is a steal.

Success!

While there are two other 8-inch subs and a 12-inch in the product mix in addition to the SLF-850 reviewed here with a 10-inch carbon fiber driver, all but the smallest model are acoustic suspension with full wireless capability. While one sub is better than none, if you’re trying to extend the LF response of your speakers, a single sub can take a little more effort to place.

Which is why I enjoy wireless subwoofers so much. No worrying about running long cables to the proper placement. The DSP optimization functionality of the SLF850 takes this a step further, because the EQ makes it easy to place and integrate the woofer. Should you want to use your SLF-850 in a traditional, wired configuration, supplying signal from either your surround sound receiver’s LFE channel or the high level outputs from your preamplifier, that is no problem.

Setup couldn’t be more painless. These compact cubes unpack quickly and Syzygy includes an excellent manual to get you rocking in no time at all. If you are proceeding in wireless mode, the tiny Bluetooth receiver/interface needs to be plugged into a variable line-level output with traditional RCA cables. Once the SLF-850 is placed where you need to put it, download the app on whatever device (iPhone or Android) you possess and run a few processes.

First, the Syzygy Sub app finds and measures your woofer(s), with your smart device about a foot from its output. Then, moving to your listening position and running another sweep adjusts the woofer to your listening environment for optimum bass performance right at the sweet spot with the “Auto EQ” function.

This will get you about 90-95% of the way home and a bit more fine tuning will bring it all to perfection. Depending on the type of main speakers you are using, the Low Pass feature allows adjustment of the crossover from 40 – 150hz.

After everything is adjusted to taste, you can control the output level from your phone, and choose “normal,” “music,” “cinema,” or “night” settings, which are more like a preset bass level control. As I don’t have neighbors close by anymore, I just let the SLF850s rip in normal mode with excellent result, regardless of program material. The mute button helps you fine tune, making it easy to cut the woofer(s) out of the loop. The better you have it all dialed in, the less you notice the woofers, until a deep bass passage – as it should be.

A versatile performer

Though Egan sent me a pair of SLF850s for this review, I started with one, because not everyone will jump off the cliff for a pair right off the bat. Three sets of speakers were used, all presenting different perspectives. My Graham LS5/9 speakers go solidly down to about 40hz, with useable output to 30, making them a good speaker that can be run full range. The KEF LS-50s are strictly a satellite, being a challenge for any subwoofer because it will have to go sufficiently high without coloration to mate well with the little monitors. Lastly, the Quad 2812s are equally tough, but for different reasons; the difference in dispersion characteristics of the ESL panel and a piston woofer (not to mention the lightning speed of the ESL panel) is usually near impossible to get right, where you aren’t hearing speakers here and woofers there. But it can be done.

The short story is that the SLF850, both singly and as a pair mates flawlessly to all three of these combinations. In single woofer mode, the SLF850 was placed just slightly off center of the main speakers (all three) back against the rear wall in front firing mode. Thanks to the fine tuning allowed by the app, there were no issues at all integrating the SLF850 into the system and for the most part, if I were in a smaller space, I could probably get along just fine with one woofer.

Moving to dual woofer mode, the little KEFs worked great with the SLF850s slightly behind and off to the side of the stands. The Grahams a bit further in both directions and with the Quads, I ended up with the woofers fairly far back, almost behind the listening couch. This made for the most seamless integration. Not only did I notice even better integration, but a pair provides wider dynamic range and better low-level linearity as well. The bulk of the listening sessions were with two woofers in place.

You don’t realize you need it till you have it

If you’ve been predisposed to thinking that you don’t need low-frequency extension, prepare to be surprised. Even with the LS5/9s, which I previously thought had plenty of bass in my 11 x 18-foot listening room, came alive with a pair of SLF850s added to the mix.

They certainly made for a lot more fun with my favorite Dubstep and hip-hop tracks as well as the entire Genesis catalog, yet even when playing music that you might not think has a ton of LF content, the soundstage in the room opens up considerably with the woofers in place. Tracking through the classic Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway hit, “Where is the Love?” the pair of SLF850s gives both singers voices more depth and breath. Ditto listening to Miles Davis’ Tutu. Yes, the heartbeat at the beginning of Dark Side of the Moon was pretty rocking too. Again, just hit that mute button to see what you are missing.

The LS-50s took the longest to optimize (about 15 min as opposed to about 5 min with the other two), but again, once the sweet spot was located, things jelled tremendously, and these small but mighty monitors could now light up the room with heavy rock music and play considerably louder too.

Skeptical as I was that these speakers would not be able to keep pace with the Quads, (and Egan assured me that they would) they succeed brilliantly with these pesky panels. The current crop of Quads is much livelier than models past, but they are still Quads. You won’t get much enjoyment out of Metallica without the woofers, yet once in place, hard rock can now be appreciated. Grooving through TIDAL’s “favorite dance tracks of 2016” proved equally entertaining. With some serious bass happening, I’ve been able to enjoy the Quads like never before. Purists be damned.

56 pounds of sheer fun

That is if you take two. But regardless of whether you add one or two of the SLF850s to your system, fine tuned, low-frequency extension is easy and affordable. Thanks to the wireless, DSP configuration and the small form factor, I can’t think of anyone not being able to integrate at least one of these into your listening room. You’ll be glad you did. I’m adding the review samples to my Audiophile Apartment system, so you’ll be seeing and hearing more of them in reviews to come.

Our compliments to Paul Egan and the staff at Syzygy for delivering an outstanding product at a very approachable price; earning them one of our first Exceptional Value Awards for 2017.

The Syzygy SLF850 Subwoofer

$799

www.syzygyacoustics.com

Peripherals

Amplification        Esoteric F-07 Integrated, PrimaLuna HP Integrated

Analog Source     Soulines Kubrick Turntable/ZYX 1000 cartridge

Digital Source        Gryphon Kalliope DAC, ELAC DS-101G Server

Speakers        KEF LS-50, Graham LS5/9, Quad 2812

Cable            Cardas Iridium

Tracking through Radiohead’s newest album, A Moon Shaped Pool, the sonic landscape painted by ModWright’s entry preamplifier is impressive – even after I’ve just removed a big-bucks preamplifier from a system consisting of a CJ LP125sa+ power amplifier, the dCS Rossini DAC featured on our cover and my reference GamuT RS5i speakers, all cabled with Cardas Clear. Yep, this $2,900 preamp is getting the job done in good company.

Thanks to Tidal, running through 20 or 30 familiar favorite tracks requires much less time than when the original 9.0 arrived 13 years ago. Oddly, one of the things that impressed me most about the original ModWright preamp was Wright’s labeling the inputs both right-side up and upside down, making it easier to peek behind your equipment rack and facilitate connections. A small attention to detail, but one that convinced me that this guy had some insight.

A lot has transpired in 13 years. A quick drive up to Amboy, Washington proves fruitful, picking up one of the first SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition preamplifiers from Dan Wright. The original SWL 9.0 (named for the 9.0 pound birth weight of his son Spencer) was Wright’s first product 13 years ago, after a four-year career of modding other people’s gear for higher performance.

That original preamplifier was well thought out revealing a lot of sound for the $1,999 asking price. At the time, tube moguls Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, BAT and McIntosh didn’t have anything in this price range, and the ModWright compared favorably with a few of their more expensive offerings. But Wright was a young manufacturer with only a few years under his belt and relatively low overhead. Yet now with a manufacturing facility, employees and considerably more inventory, he’s managed to not only grow, but also stay lean and keep prices in line.

Fast forward to now

Today, Wright has earned his stripes, proving himself in an industry that isn’t always easy to compete in, and over 400 units of the original SWL 9.0 were produced. When one occasionally pops up on the secondary market, it is usually snapped up rather quickly, proving that this initial product is still very desirable. Those still possessing the original, take note: the mother ship can still service these preamplifiers.

Like the BMW 3-series, Wright’s products are evolutionary, rather than changing direction every couple years. They just keep getting a little better, sonically and visually, with every iteration. In his office, Wright jokes about how much he’s learned about shipping as well. While the casework of the SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition has been simplified somewhat to hit the price point, the machined aluminum top plate from the more expensive models has been tastefully replaced by a stamped piece of metal, and the faceplate is still thick, with equally robust control knobs, all machined with care. Carefully placed in an equipment rack, you’ll never know the difference and this is a great example of putting the money invested where it counts – in the sound quality. Also gone, much for the better, are the paddle switches of old, now replaced with gentle push buttons. I remember breaking one of the switches on my original 9.0, just as I did on my Audio Research and BAT preamplifiers of similar vintage, so this is a nice touch. The 9.0 SWL Anniversary feels like a far more expensive preamplifier, especially when you pick it up. This thing has to weigh about 25 or 30 pounds.

Nothing unessential

The SWL 9.0 Anniversary is a model of simplicity. Inputs on the left, volume on the right. Just like the original, it still “goes to 11,” so we can see that success hasn’t gone to Wright’s head and dissolved his sense of humor – though you’d never turn it up that far. About 12 o’clock was all any of my single-ended power amplifiers needed to achieve full output. Running a wide range of amplifiers, from a vintage, restored SAE 2200 amplifier all the way up to the Pass Xs300 monoblocks that are my current reference, compatibility is superb. It’s worth noting that this preamplifier easily drives a 20-foot pair of interconnects without sonic degradation, a plus for the audiophile in a more compact space who wants to segregate a power amplifier from the rest of the system.

Around back are four sets of RCA high level inputs and a pair of variable level outputs along with a fixed level output for those of you using a tape or digital recorder. I took the time to connect my VPI Classic 1/Lyra Kleos and Rega phonostage along with a Revox B77 to make a mix tape and can assure those who love to make their own recordings that the SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition performs flawlessly in this capacity as well. While not ready yet, Wright has mentioned that in the future, the SWL 9.0 Anniversary will be available with a built-in, solid-state MM phono option for $300. And of course, you’ll be able to upgrade it if you purchased without initially.

The original circuit of the SWL 9.0 was a hybrid Mu stage and the current version still takes advantage of the 5687 tube, which Wright likes for its “linear and dynamic sound.” However, today’s SWL 9.0 Anniversary is a pure tube design with no solid-state devices in the signal path. Only the headphone amp relies on discrete MOSFETs in the output.

Initial listening was done as a drop-in with my main reference system, yet the smiles were equally huge in the context of a bit more reasonable system. Final listening was done with a Pass XA30.8 amplifier and the Simaudio 260D CD player/DAC, all cabled with Cardas Clear Reflection cable. Both the Rogers LS5/9s and the Quad 2812s were used as reference speakers.

Wright claims the headphone stage should be able to drive anything and mentions he used Mr. Speakers Ethers to voice this part of the circuit. It sailed through driving the Audeze LCD-2s and my Oppo PM-1s with ease. While not the last word in headphone amplification, this should more than do the job for the moderate headphone listener who doesn’t want to spend $400–$600 on an outboard headphone amp, the necessary interconnect and power cord. Personally, in the tradition of the best vintage preamplifiers, I really like having a good phonostage and headphone amp all on the same chassis. This will serve 90–95% of the users perfectly. And it makes this preamp even more of a killer value.

Keeps the pace

Extended listening keeps bringing one thing to the forefront with the SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition; it has exceptional pace. Whether listening to something flawlessly mastered, or something dense and compressed like my favorite Monkees tracks, this preamplifier keeps the beat nailed down, never wavering. The bottom end is strong – neither overbearing nor thin – and the overall sound feels somewhere between natural and a few molecules on the warm side of the spectrum, but barely so. As it was thirteen years ago, the SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition adds precious little sonic signature to the music presented and that’s a good thing.

It has enough depth and inner detail to convince you that this is not a solid-state preamplifier, but it is never overly warm, tubey, or euphonic. You won’t be confused that it might be a vintage tube preamp either.

Head-fi friendly

In addition to the sonic and aesthetic improvements, the biggest change to the SWL 9.0 Anniversary is the addition of a headphone amplifier. Considering that even a so-so headphone amplifier is going to set you back at least $400–$500, the cost of this preamplifier has really only gone up about $400 in over ten years. Not bad, considering how much Wright’s organization has grown.

Yes, we have a winner

Investing ten to twenty thousand dollars in anything, whether an automobile or a music system is still somewhat of a luxury in today’s world. Some of the most intriguing audio systems I’ve heard over the years have fallen in this price range, because if you want great sound at this price point, great care is required both in system setup and component choice. I can’t think of a better preamplifier to round out a system in this price point than the ModWright SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition and am happy to award it one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2016.

The five-figure preamplifiers still reveal more music, as they should. But the ModWright SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition preamplifier nails all of the musical fundamentals, giving you a large enough portion of what the high end is all about. Unless you’ve got buckets of cash to spend, you can spend the rest of your life with this baby and not want for more. I’m certainly going to write Mr. Wright a check for one; half for old times’ sake and half to use as a reference in this neck of the woods. Here’s to thirteen more years. These days Spencer is tipping the scale at 100 pounds. Time flies indeed.

The ModWright SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition Preamplifier

$2,900 (phonostage $300 additional)

www.modwright.com

Peripherals

Digital Source                        dCS Rossini DAC w/Rossini Clock and Paganini Transport

Amplifier                    Pass XA 30.8

Speakers                    Graham LS5/9 and Quad 2812

Cable                          Cardas Clear

Power                         Running Springs Dmitri

After cable, one of the top audiophile arguments is about the need (or lack thereof) clean power.

The forum pundits like to quip, “I’ve got clean power, I live at the end of the street/out in the burbs/out in the country…” But the truth is you don’t have clean power.

The good news is this is easy to sort out, and I’ve found power products the easiest to demo. You plug it in and if you aren’t blown away, don’t buy it. No straining to hear if the magic fairy dust is doing it’s job or not. But once you’ve settled on a solution for your power needs, you head straight back to arguing about cables!

Fortunately, the folks at Core Power Technologies have made it easy for you, with their EQUI=CORE 300. This 300 watt power conditioner features a high quality power cord hardwired on the input and output side, which in the end makes for a bit better sound. Those needing more outlets can go with a Matrix 2 power strip from the folks at Wireworld.

Price is $799 – $899, depending on the length of cable required. Full review in process, but our initial response is “just go buy one.”  :)

www.corepowertechnologies.com

Features

Old School:

VPI HW-19 Mk 3 Turntable
By Jerold O’Brien

995:

Venture Electronics Monk Plus IEM’s
By Kyle Dusing

Journeyman Audiophile:

Rotel A14 Integrated and CD14 CD Player
By Andre Marc

TONE Style

Podium XL from HiFi Racks

The Bubble Sofa by Roche Bobois

Snap Power Light Outlet

Orvis WW1 Wooden Propeller

WireSkin Wine Bottle Carrier

42mm Timex + Red Wing Chronograph

Jackson Pollack Puzzle

Music

Spin the Black Circle: Reviews of New Pop/Rock and Country Albums
By Bob Gendron, Todd Martens, Chrissie Dickinson, Andrea Domanick and Aaron Cohen

Jazz & Blues: Eric Hofbauer Quartet, Steve Slagel, and More!
By Kevin Whitehead and Jim Macnie

Bob Gendron’s Rock Reissues You Shouldn’t Miss

Gear Previews

GamuT Zodiac Speakers

MartinLogan Expression ESL 13A Speakers

Exogal Comet DAC

Reviews

GamuT Di150 Limited Edition Integrated Amplifier
By Jerold O’Brien

SVS SB-2000 Subwoofer
By Jeff Dorgay

Esoteric E-03 Phonostage
By Greg Petan

Franco Serblin Lignea Speakers
By Jeff Dorgay

Plinius Hiato Integrated Amplifier
By Rob Johnson

VPI Prime Turntable
By Jeff Dorgay

Atoll’s HD120 and MA100 Amp and Pre
By Jeff Dorgay

New experiences and overcoming past prejudices are always one of the most fun parts of my job evaluating hifi components. While I’ve never been a fan of open baffle speakers in the past, Eden Acoustics importer Larry Borden has convinced me that the Tomei system is not only compelling but exceptional in every way.

Taking into account that he and I both share an equal enthusiasm for electrostatic speakers, along with the unique German Physiks speakers (which he also imports), I can see why he is so enthusiastic about this product. He’s quick to point out that this is “the perfect music system for the enthusiast wanting to exit the upgrade treadmill.”

Dealers often generate a fair share of margin from selling ancillary items, such as cables. While many audiophiles love agonizing over component choices as much as a good sommelier does over pairing the right wine with a meal, it’s up to you to decide if the Tomei system delivers you from the agony of endless choices, or deprives you of the same. As a music lover foremost, I’ll take the former.

Eden goes a step further in their approach, claiming their speakers are of a baffle-less design. The artfully designed shape of the Tomei is so small, thanks to the Lucite cutouts, there is no baffle to speak of. It’s almost as if the 6-inch (150mm) woofer and 1-inch (29mm) soft dome tweeter float in mid air. This intriguing design begs to have spotlights blast through them to cast interesting shadows on your listening room walls.

These lovely satellites with integral stands combine with a 13-inch, (340mm) open baffle woofer, DSP processor and five discrete channels of amplification, perfectly matched to said drivers as part of a control unit that also features a built-in, high-performance DAC. You only need to hook it all up and start listening via a USB Class 2 or SPDIF input.  Those preferring to stream wirelessly can do so via Apple’s Air Play or Google’s Chromecast.

Analog enthusiasts are not left out in the cold, with one pair of RCA and one pair of balanced XLR line-level inputs available. However, these inputs are upsampled to 32 bit/768khz signals via an on-board AK5397 ADC, so they are not actual line level analog inputs. Though this might annoy the fussiest vinyl junkies, most analog lovers will not even notice the difference. I had a similar experience with the Devialet integrated amplifiers that we’ve reviewed. With so many listeners turning to streaming audio, whether from their own NAS or a variety of on demand services, I doubt this will be a point of major contention.

Those wanting the complete technical details on the system can click here:

http://www.edenacoustics.com/page-2/

Eden Acoustics even includes all the necessary cables to connect the speakers and subwoofer to the amplifier/Control Unit, terminated with Neutrik connectors. High-performance audio doesn’t get any easier than the Tomei system. All you will need to purchase is your favorite high quality power cord and a USB cable. Easy.

Total cost is $18,000 but you’d be hard pressed to find this much hardware elsewhere for less. And, you’d spend a ton of time getting it all to integrate this splendidly, if at all. There are no compromises in the Tomei system; it looks fantastic, it sounds fantastic, it occupies a minimum amount of space in your environment, and it’s easy to set up. The components all come packed in well-lined and reinforced crates to assure safe transport. Once unboxed, you are about 15 minutes to music. What’s not to love?

The proof is in the listening

We begin listening via the onboard DAC, controlled by an iPad, with a Mac Mini as digital liaison. Working with Roon and TIDAL, it’s easy to navigate through selections of CD and high resolution, with the Tomei’s hardware providing more than enough resolution to easily discern between the two sources. I get the picture as soon as the classic Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald tune “Cheek to Cheek” starts.

The Eden website claims that the Tomei system presents “a big, open, airy sound.” I’d call it an understatement. These speakers disappear in the room better than nearly anything I’ve experienced, and while Borden’s Sanders ESLs are slightly more refined, the Tomei’s just vanish like the best panels you’ve probably experienced. They have way more sock than a panel system. He suggests an equilateral triangle arrangement, and a measuring tape confirms that we have the speakers 112 inches apart, as well as from tweeter to our nose. Borden assures me that the baffle-less design makes these speakers easy to set up in smaller rooms too.

Eliminating Mr. Armstrong from the presentation, Ms. Fitzgerald’s solo performance on “Miss Otis Regrets” is beyond description in typical audiophile clichés. Thanks to Borden’s room (measuring about 22 x 30 feet), listening to the Eden system in the nearfield presents Fitzgerald realistically, both sonically and spatially. It only feels like there is someone standing in front of a microphone in his room. An equally realistic portrait is painted, switching to the dark side, listening to Johnny Cash sing “Delia’s Gone.” Every bit of grit and agony in Cash’s voice cuts right through.

We all know that an excellent performance with a duo or solo vocalist is low hanging fruit, but the Eden system proves equally capable of every type of music directed its way. Classical music comes across as broad, spacious, and uncluttered, with the necessary amount of diffusion to give a convincing sense of an orchestra. Again, while these speakers will perform well in a compact space, a larger room (and in this case, one that is well treated) does help to create the illusion of size.

Good as the Tomei system is, taking the analogue signal from the EMM Labs DAC2x/Merrill Audio Christine linestage, driven by an Aurender music server, through the Control Unit’s A-to-D converter, and back through the amplification chain does provide a step up in sonic performance, so the hard core audiophile with a need for speed can still wring more performance from this already fantastic combination. 95% of those buying the Tomei system will be more than thrilled, but the system made it easy to discern the sound quality available by adding an outboard DAC that is nearly as expensive as the entire system to the mix. Revisiting all of the selections listened to earlier, the EMM DAC offers more refinement, a slightly smoother rendition of high frequencies, and an even larger soundfield in all three dimensions.

Adding an outboard DAC of this caliber nearly doubles the system cost, and while not terribly relevant in the context of the system, it does prove that there is still more performance to be had by these components, should you do want to get crazy with your platinum card.

Superior integration

Sub/sat systems often struggle with woofer integration. The satellites often can’t go down quite far enough, or the woofer can’t quite reach high enough, quickly enough to eliminate the music rendered as coming from three separate boxes. The Eden system offers up the most transparent combination I’ve ever experienced. The dipole woofer lacks an inappreciable amount of ultimate dynamic slam that my JL Audio Fathom possesses, but this is a worthwhile trade for the sheer quality of low-frequency energy produced. Borden points out that a dipole woofer produces fewer room nodes than other types of configurations, due to cancellation in the plane of the woofer. Again, the proof is in the listening.

With amplification tailored to each driver, the crossover points and slopes controlled by the integral DSP, and 1,250 watts of power at your disposal, the Tomei system provides plenty of dynamic range as well. At first glance, you might never glance that these small speakers can play incredibly loud with the ease that they do.

A DSP crossover can be tailored in a much more sophisticated fashion than a standard network consisting of capacitors and coils, making integrating the drivers easier from an acoustic standpoint, as well as an electrical one. With no capacitors and such in the signal path from the amplifiers, the electrical lag and associated phase issues of those components are eliminated as well. The opening bass drum whump in Shelby Lynne’s “Just a Little Lovin’” hints at the sheer jump factor of which these speakers are capable. The big bass drum in St. Vincent’s “Who” leaves no doubt. Aside from the level of bass energy that the Tomei’s woofer can produce, the quality, texture and sheer resolution of the bass produced are wonderfully lifelike.

Moving out of the audiophile realm, Tosca’s “Me and Yoko Ono” offers equally engaging reproduction of synth bass. Though there is nothing to compare this to regarding real instruments, this track proves that the Tomei system can not only move a lot of air effortlessly, it does a fantastic job at unwinding a densely mixed tune that might be confused as overly compressed on a less revealing system. Gliding through some of Eno’s Ambient series illustrates what a massive sonic field this system can generate. Again, less capable systems tend to reproduce much of this music as flat and two-dimensional, where the Tomei system easily displays all three axes’ for your enjoyment.

This ESL-like acceleration is available at all levels, working just as well at low volume as at brain damaging sound pressure levels. This freedom from electronic clutter makes for a music system that is not only easy to listen to at low to modest volume, but equally immersive. This level of clarity is a feat that some of the world’s finest speakers can’t accomplish to this extent.

Vanquishing more biases

I’ve never been a huge fan of digital amplification, DSP crossovers, or a system that converts everything into a digital signal to process. The Eden system works flawlessly, and if you weren’t aware of what you were listening to, you might not even be able to tell. For me, that’s the ultimate success – the sonic residue that used to be part of listening to digital amplification is not present here, so the Tomei system succeeds on all levels. The Tomei system is something I could live with forever if I stopped reviewing hifi gear and just had to pick a resting place. This is why it received one of my Publisher’s Choice Awards in issue 80.

If you’re a traditional audiophile who loves the chase of mixing and matching components, with a penchant for occasional, if not often change, the Eden Tomei system will probably not hold your interest. But if you truly love music, and would like to stop agonizing over your next move, I can’t suggest this system highly enough no matter what stage of the journey you are on. While I would never recommend you purchase any audio component on sheer aesthetics, those living in more of a design conscious environment will appreciate that exquisite sound and visual style can coexist so well.

The Eden Acoustics Tomei System

MSRP: $18,000

www.edenacoustics.com (mfr.)

www.distinctivestereo.com (US Distributor)

All the rage at last year’s Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, the Stereo Pravda SB-7 IEMs are here and our review is almost finished.

What makes these $2,500 in ear monitors so incredible? Quite a lot actually. The sheer level of resolution is beyond anything I’ve experienced in an IEM, but for this writer, the big diff is the BASS. What’s always missing in an IEM? Big Bass.

Not here. If you love IEM’s, the SPearphone SB-7 should be at the top of your list. Full review shortly!

For now, you can find out more information and see the rest of the Stereo Pravda line at

www.Stereopravda.com

Firing up Kings of Leon’s “Walls,” it’s tough to believe that so much sound is coming out of this diminutive cube, barely bigger than a large stack of waffles. Unlike many of the compact music systems we’ve tried, Naim’s Mu-so Qb actually throws a large, defined and deep soundstage. And it plays loud. Really loud.

We loved Naim’s original Mu-so when it was introduced, offering form, function and Naim build quality in a do-it-all enclosure. It was reasonably priced for the level of performance offered, but because of the fairly large size, couldn’t fit everywhere. Somehow, Naim’s clever staff of engineers have managed to squeeze nearly all of the performance of the big Mu-so into the diminutive 8-inch (8.3 x 8.3 x 8.6 inches to be exact) cube.  They’ve also squeezed the price down to $995 – impressive.

Before listening could begin in earnest, the photos needed to be taken and during this time the argument ensued as to where the ultimate resting place of the Qb would be. It only took a few minutes of initial listening to decide this would be a keeper, so on one level, this review is stilted a bit towards that of a giddy fan. Cool as the original Mu-so is, we couldn’t find a place for it at chez Dorgay. So back to our friends in Salisbury it went. But this little cube is too cute to ignore – and it packs a wallop.

Luxury throughout

When was the last time you had a major experience just turning a component on? You might think I’m crazy, but I highly suggest turning on your Qb in the dark the first time you power it up. Naim’s app makes it easy to control from your smart phone, but you’ll want to give that big, weighted volume control a spin. You’ll want to get up, walk across the room and interact with the Qb, it’s that cool.

Peel off the gorgeous, sculpted, three-panel grille (available in black, red, blue and the awesome orange you see here) and you see serious hardware inside and out. The front panel features a pair of soft dome tweeters and a pair of midrange drivers, both angled to achieve maximum stereo separation – each driven by its own 50-watt amplifier. The front-firing bass driver is given both a 100-watt amplifier and a pair of passive radiators on the side panels – that’s 300 watts total. This is where the low frequency grunt comes from.

The hardware is precisely screwed down to the aluminum frame with the same level of quality found in Naim’s flagship components. The 32-bit DSP engine lurking inside is derived from what the company has learned supplying Bentley with their sound system, again underlining the quality that oozes from the tiny cube.

Any way you want it

All of this makes for great nerd fodder, which you won’t care about the minute you play some music on the damn thing. And it won’t take you long. Earlier Naim server products took a while to wade through the setup procedure, but the Mu-so is quick and easy. Download the app for whatever smart device you own and a quick menu walks you through things. With the iPhone, once you enter the color of the blinking indicator and your network password, it’s rocking. The only setting you need to pay attention to carefully is the EQ setting – close to wall or out in room. Get this wrong and your Qb will either sound thin or boomy. Should your overenthusiasm get the best of you, and it sounds naff, go back and double-check your work. Bluetooth is equally easy to pair; you’re about 30 seconds away from using that mode to connect.

The Qb offers crazy connectivity. WiFi, Bluetooth/aptX, TIDAL, and Spotify Connect are just the beginning. A standard Ethernet port is also provided, and if you have a large collection of music on a NAS drive (especially if some of it is in high resolution), it’s a good idea to cable the Qb to your network, as it does offer 24bit/192kHz capabilities.

If all that wireless connectivity weren’t enough, an 1/8” analog jack is right there, begging for you to plug a turntable in. I dare you. Unable to resist the challenge, we spun some LPs via the new Rega Planar 3 we just reviewed, coupled via the Lehmann Black Cube and a WireWorld interconnect. Granted, adding a turntable and a phonostage to the mix goes somewhat against the grain of the compact vibe the Qb presents, but if this is your main music system, it works brilliantly. I can’t imagine someone who is space challenged coming up with a better choice than this to take advantage of their vinyl collection and their favorite digital tracks. Placed beneath a flat screen TV, it also makes for way better sound than those dreadful standard issue TV speakers too, making a Qb even easier to justify.

Rocking the casbah

Dialing up Lindsey Stirling’s latest, Brave Enough, and turning the Qb up to 11 rattles my bathroom walls. Yeah, that’s where it ended up so you-know-who could jam out during her morning ritual. But turnabout is fair play and just as that certain someone thought they were in for a peaceful morning bath, taking over the TIDAL app and swapping the current musical program for the alarm clocks in Dark Side of the Moon proved interesting to say the least. Should you purchase a Qb and wish to keep shenanigans to a minimum, log in with your own TIDAL account.

While the Qb nearly blew the windows out of our bathroom, it proves equally capable in a larger room. Sitting on top of a five-figure pile of mega gear, between the Sopra no.1 speakers that make up The Audiophile Apartment’s reference system, the Qb throws a huge soundstage in all directions. Jean-Michel Jarre’s Equinoxe fills the room with all the trippiness you expect from this disc. The extra LF power and definition gives it the extra oomph to make it feel like you are listening to a much bigger system.

Regardless of program material and volume level, this tiny cube floored everyone who visited. It was beyond amusing to have the Qb sitting on top of my DAC and have a guest say, “what’s that little orange box for?” only to answer “that’s what you’re listening to.” Keep in mind the Bose Wave Radio II has an MSRP of $100 more than the Naim Mu-so Qb, and it’s all plastic. It’s heresy to think that you might buy the former. If you have, unfriend me on Facebook right now, I don’t want to know you anymore.

It’s love at first and subsequent listens

With high-end audio being so daunting to so many, I can’t think of a better way to buy a great music system than the Naim Mu-so Qb. The price is right, the performance is off-the-chart good and you can connect it to just about anything. Best of all, you can move it around the house or office as you need it.

Should you be part of the audiophile world and need a second system, or if you are a current Naim owner wondering if the Qb passes muster, the answer is “without question.” Best of all, it will sync up with your existing Naim Net system if you have one, so you can hear music everywhere in perfect sync.

Compact audio is enjoying some major success these days, with incredible offerings from a number of manufacturers, but the Naim Mu-so Qb is something special. Should you wander to your Naim dealer for a demo, I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do.

The Naim Mu-so Qb

MSRP:  $995

www.naimaudio.com (factory)

www.audioplusservices.com (North American Distributor)

Closing the door on a Porsche 911, clicking the shutter on a titanium bodied Leica camera, that’s German engineering excellence, baby!

If you love that level of precision to go along with whatever high-performance product that suits your fancy, you’ll freak out just watching the 10.0 tonearm on the new Bardo lower ever so gently onto a waiting LP. This is such a precise, delicate action, the stylus cantilever on the Koetsu Onyx Platinum barely deflects at all. Those of you wanting to install a mega cartridge on your Bardo can rest assured it is up to the task.

As Adrian Belew’s trippy, reverse tracked, overdubbed vocals in “Big Electric Cat” go all the way from the edges of my speakers, out about seven more feet to the walls of my listening room, with detail galore, it’s easy to fall in love with this table. The Koetsu Onyx Platinum cartridge that costs as much as the Bardo puts forth a more engaging performance than it has here in any of my other reference turntables. Here, here for synergy. During the review period, everything from a Shure M97 to the Koetsu has been taken for a test drive, but the Japanese masterpiece wins the day. Everything on hand works exceptionally well with the Bardo. However, this table is fully up to the task of a $10k premium cartridge. It’s that good.

Living with Brinkmann’s direct drive Bardo for the last few months has been nothing but joy. This table is incredibly easy to set up, stays set up and is equally easy to use. With direct drive coming back in vogue these days, there are a few other DD tables on the market, but they are both considerably more expensive than the Bardo. Thanks to a change in their distribution scheme, and a Brinkmann USA office in place, the German manufacturer is now able to be much more price competitive, and that’s a great thing for analog lovers. The Bardo table/10.0 arm was still a fantastic deal at $13,500, but at $9,900, this is a straight out bargain for those wanting a world class, destination analog deck.

Should you want the benefits of Brinkmann’s direct drive expertise, but already have your favorite tonearm on hand, Brinkmann can supply whatever arm board you need. Ordering a Bardo sans tonearm will only set you back $7,000. Considering what a great job they do with their tonearm, which Helmut Brinkmann refers to as a hybrid unipivot design (and you can read more here http://www.brinkmann-audio.com/main.php?prod=tonarm100&lang=en) both mechanically and visually, it seems pointless to use another arm. But you can if you want to. To clarify the “hybrid” moniker, Helmut Brinkmann tells us that “his proprietary design uses Swiss-made gimbal bearings in the vertical plane and a bespoke unipivot in the horizontal.”

Multiple connectivity options make this beautiful table even easier to integrate into your system. Our review sample arrives with standard RCA connections going from table to phono preamplifier, but you can also opt for balanced XLR connections (this will take a little longer for delivery, as the RCA’s are standard issue), or a 5-pin DIN socket. Modifying an existing Brinkmann arm to a Din connector will set you back an additional $180. Handy if you already have a premium tonearm cable in your arsenal.

A further performance upgrade is available with the optional RoNt vacuum tube power supply ($4,190) for those wanting still more performance. A few Brinkmann owners have commented that this is not a subtle improvement, so look forward to a follow-up review sometime next year.

More music

The easier a turntable is to use, the more likely it is to get used. The Bardo takes up a small footprint and being a non-suspended table, you may want to install one of the better isolation bases, like the ones from SRA; it all depends on your room and taste. My floor is relatively inert and thanks to an SRA Scuttle rack, I felt no need to improve on the Bardo’s placement in my room.

Going way back to the obscure bin, an old favorite, Tim Curry’s Fearless is an album full of slick late 70s production, with some of rock’s favorite sidemen backing up Dr. Frank-n-Furter in his alternate career as a serious musician. The bass line in this record has always sounded somewhat vague, yet when portrayed by the Bardo, it’s rock solid. Actually, everything played on the Bardo has an uncanny sense of pace to it. The nearly $40k AVID Acutus REF SP and SME V has a little more weight in the lows and delicacy in the highs, but the Bardo is unbeatable at its price point.

Direct drive is not a dirty phrase

It goes without saying that a lot of the resolution the Bardo offers comes from meticulous build quality and attention to detail. Much of the major pace and timing accuracy this table delivers comes from the direct drive system. Utilizing Feickert’s iPhone app to check speed accuracy reveals most belt drive turntables to be relatively close to spinning at 33.33 r.p.m., but there is a fair amount of variation on the theme.

Watching the real-time speed graph for the Bardo, it’s near flat across the board. The phrase “rock solid” definitely applies here. Because Brinkmann implements direct drive the opposite way that the legendary Technics tables did, the result is much more to the liking of a modern audiophile.

Technics DD tables, initially designed for the broadcast world, used a high torque motor, hammered into speed accuracy by a quartz lock control mechanism, resulting a lot of motor “cogging.” This is what happens in the small spaces in the 360-degree rotation of the motor that don’t always have power applied. Unfortunately, this aggressive speed control did exactly the opposite of what was intended. Pulling out my SL-1200, with the excellent TimeStep power supply and a stock SL-1200, tracks played on the Brinkmann get progressively flatter in terms of three dimensionality, going back to the TimeStep equipped 1200 and then a stock one. It’s easy to see how the early direct drive tables got pooh-poohed, and I can see how easy it was to be seduced by the Oracle back in the early 80s.

Mr. Brinkman’s low torque approach, coupled to a heavy platter and world class bearing makes for smooth sailing. It takes about 8-10 rotations to get up to full speed, which is about the amount of time that it takes for the tonearm to set, and once you shut the power off, it rotates for a long time before coming to full stop. Brinkmann’s research led him to the current lead crystal platter insert in the aluminum platter, making for a major increase in resolution over one strictly machined from aluminum. Brinkmann spends a tremendous amount of time on materials research alone, and on his website, he claims this goes all the way down to the fasteners used to hold things together! The proof is in the listening; this is a very refined design.

Controlled ease

The presentation of the Bardo is indeed unique. Record after record has an ease and freedom from fatigue, again because of the excellent speed accuracy this table offers. Friends with canine hearing claiming perfect pitch that can hear a plethora of speed issues on every table I’ve ever reviewed were not only dead silent listening to the Bardo but they were also outright complimentary. Violins take on a magical realism with this table because of that speed accuracy.

You’ll probably key in immediately to how great your rock records sound, should you be a fan of this genre. The Bardo does a great job in the bass performance, but if you live on a strict diet of Zeppelin, you might not notice the subtleties of this table quite as much as the classical listener preferring soloists and small ensemble music. Sampling this fair gives the Bardo a near reel to reel tape like transparency.

Our choice for Analog POY

Here’s why the Brinkmann Bardo is our choice for 2016 Analog Product of the Year; it offers tremendous value, build quality, sound quality and ease of use. I’ve listened to my fair share of $100,000 plus turntables and have always walked away unimpressed. You can buy a pretty major hi-fi system for $100k, and I suggest if you take that path, you put the Bardo on top of your rack. Seriously, other than a few audio reviewers and a couple of hedge fund managers that got a screaming deal, who owns a $100,000 turntable anyway?

Wacky as it might sound, the $10,000 – $20,000 category is the hottest category for “destination” turntables. There are a handful of great tables costing 2-3 times this much (like the SME 30, the AVID Acutus REF SP and a few others), and they do reveal more music for sure. But again, the Brinkmann Bardo presents so much music, especially with your choice of awesome $5,000 – $10,000 cartridge, I’ll stick my neck out and say that most of us could live happily ever after right here.

If you’re currently using a table in the $3,000 – $5,000 category, you will be floored at just how much more musical information and nuance that the Bardo can shed light on, that if you have the purchasing power, this won’t be a difficult decision.

I’ve purchased the review sample and plan on spinning a lot more records on the Bardo. It’s simple, elegant, yet high-performance design has captured my enthusiasm. Should you be planning on buying a table in this price range, I not only recommend the Bardo, I sincerely hope you will audition one, and see if you enjoy it as much as I do.

The Brinkmann Bardo Turntable

MSRP:  $9,900 with Brinkmann 10.1 tonearm ($260 savings, purchasing the bundle)

http://brinkmann-audio.com

Peripherals

Phono Cartridge                    Koetsu Onyx Platinum, Ortofon Cadenza Black

Phonostage                            Pass XS Phono

Preamp                                  Pass XS Pre

Power Amps                          Pass XS 300 monoblocks

Speakers                                GamuT RS5i, MartinLogan Neolith, Quad 2812

Cable                                      Tellurium Q Black Diamond speaker and interconnect,

Power cords                           Cardas Clear

Vinyl lovers spend a lot of money on tonearms, cartridges, and phono stages in the effort to pull the most sound from the record grooves. However, none of these audio components can deliver their maximum performance if the record itself is a limiting factor.

Minute particles in the grooves of dirty records can diminish sonic quality, adding unwanted pops, snaps, and surface noise to the music. Even new, seemingly clean records are hampered by debris left over from the pressing process. Yes, simple record cleaning brushes can help this problem, but if the brush itself is not completely clean, it can introduce new debris – or worse – grind it back into the delicate record grooves. But nothing beats a good wet cleaning for the best possible result.

Based in The Netherlands, and imported by VANA Ltd in the USA, the team at Okki Nokki addresses this ongoing problem with their newly updated RCM-II record cleaning machine. Designed to loosen and suck out any grime present on the record surface, rather than simply re-distributing it, the Okki Nokki simplifies the cleaning process as much as possible.

The Okki Nokki package contains everything needed to start cleaning records within minutes. The main cleaning unit, which holds the platter and vacuum motor, a bottle of cleaning fluid concentrate, vacuum wand, and a cleaning brush. The team at Okki Nokki also includes an instruction booklet and links to an online video to demonstrate proper usage. The recommended clear acrylic dustcover is available separately for $50.00

The 50ml of cleaning concentrate is formulated for dilution into a liter (roughly a quart) of water. I find a pair of narrow-tipped, refillable mustard or ketchup squeeze bottles – like those you might see in a diner — serve very well for fluid dispensing and storage. If you chose to go this route; make sure to label the bottles. I don’t think this solution would be appetizing on French fries.

With fresh cleaning solution at the ready, place a record onto the Okki Nokki platter, clamping it down with the included aluminum record clamp. After flicking on the switch for clockwise rotation, about a tablespoon of cleaning solution should be dribbled onto the record. Applying the record brush against the vinyl surface evenly distributes the cleaning solution, starting the process simultaneously. After about five rotations, switch into counterclockwise motion for a few rotations, offering extra thoroughness in loosening any stray particles.

With the scrubbing process done, it’s time to remove the debris-filled solution from the vinyl surface. Merely switch the record cleaner back into clockwise motion, and turn on the vacuum motor switch. Pushing down lightly onto the vacuum wand, it rotates itself into position against the record surface for maximum effectiveness. Once the wand sucks itself into place, there’s quite a good seal against the record surface and no physical intervention is required – just let the record spin a few times. The combination of the vacuum, and the soft cleaning band on the underside of the wand, remove any loosened particles and leave the record surface completely dry. When turned off, the vacuum motor whir subsides, and the spring-loaded vacuum arm pops up off the record, swinging out of the way on its own.

For those vinyl fans who enjoy buying pre-owned records, or who have a lot of old records in their collection, it’s a good idea to purchase a second Okki Nokki vacuum arm. The wands are easy to swap, plus there’s no sense in rubbing old dirt into new vinyl. Save the “clean” arm for your new records, and keep the “dirtier” arm handy for the big jobs.

If a lot of records are shined up in one sitting, the dirty fluid reservoir inside the Okki Nokki may get full. There’s a tube on the rear of the cleaner that facilitates draining should it become necessary. With occasional record cleaner usage, most of the residual fluid will evaporate on its own.

Listening to records before and after cleaning, I find there’s a reduction in unwanted hiss, snaps, and pops, plus some improvement to the overall musical presentation. The Okki Nokki certainly lives up to its design goals.

At a price of $499, the Okki Nokki isn’t cheap, but considering its robust build quality, and features, it represents a very worthy investment for the vinyl enthusiast. The Okki Nokki can help preserve your record collection, get the best sound from it, and also save some wear and tear on your precious cartridge. After such a great experience with the Okki Nokki, I purchased the sample unit. I have a lot of records to clean!

www.vanaltd.com

I probably should listen to more classical music at comfortable volume levels.

Back in 1990, when I finally got my hands on an Audio Research D-79 after wearing down a good friend to part with it, he called to inform me that I should “let it warm up slowly with some nice string quartet music.” No way. The first track played was Alice Cooper’s “Hey Stoopid,” and after a few minutes to warm up, I pushed those big meters all the way into the caution zone. Having grown up with polite little EL-34 tube amplifiers, this was a revelation. I had never heard a tube amplifier that had the drive of a big solid-state amplifier before. It was equally revelatory to my next door neighbor, who was pounding on my front door before the first chorus.

I have not grown up one bit 25 years later. At first listen, it seems like the Audio Research GS 150 that has just arrived for review has defective power output level meters.  UFO’s “Lights Out” is playing at much higher than normal conversation levels, but the needles aren’t budging. Volume indicator on the GSPre is set to 42 and we’re all thinking that at least a few watts per channel are being delivered to the Dynaudio Evidence Platinum speakers we use as a reference, but to no avail – still no movement. Raising the level to 60 finally makes for some meter movement, and the sound level is indeed rambunctious! Yet the GS150 can play much, much louder.

Going for broke, pushing the meters to swing past the 150-watt mark towards the caution level during Michael Schenker’s blistering solo, with no trace of distortion, convinces me this is indeed a very special amplifier. Call me nostalgic, but I haven’t had this much fun with an Audio Research power amplifier since the days of my D79. Whether you listen to chamber music or metal, the level of involvement that the GS150 brings to the table is precious.

ARC’s REF amplifiers are wonderful, and I’ve even owned a few of them over the years, but this new GS series of Audio Research components is unique in the sense that it blends a tiny bit of the vintage ARC sound with everything they’ve learned in 40 plus years of amplifier design. Add the super stylish Italian casework and this is the amplifier that’s going in my coffin.

Last year we bestowed an extremely complimentary review on the Audio Research GSPre, enjoying its combination of Italian style with a return to the glorious all-in-one preamplifiers of the past, featuring a full-function phono stage (and a headphone amplifier) all on one chassis. The matching GS 150 power amplifier is equally beautiful and equally capable. Perhaps even more.

A special sound, indeed

When it comes to splitting hairs, the GSPre renders music with slightly more body and slightly less resolution than the REF 5SE and REF Phono 2SE combination, albeit at a much lower price. (The REF 5SE/Phono 2SE pair will set you back close to $30k, the GSPre has a $15k price tag) The delta between the two isn’t so much less than different. Even though a BMW M4 will get you around the racetrack a little faster than a fully equipped 435i with sport suspension, the latter is a more reasonably priced car to live with every day if you can’t take advantage of its maximum performance on a regular basis. The same holds true for the GSPre.

However, the GS150 is a different animal indeed. Possessing a similar sonic signature to the GSPre, it offers all the detail and resolution that the REF power amplifiers are known for, yet that pinch of tubeyness is there and not in an overwhelming way to ever sound slow, rounded off or overly euphonic.

At $20k the GS150 is a step above the REF 150 in ARC’s product lineup and in a side-by-side comparison provides a different sound. Though the spec sheets look almost identical, these two amplifiers are different beasts indeed. They do share a fully balanced configuration, and like the REF amplifiers, the GS150 must be used with a balanced preamplifier; it will not work with a single-ended preamplifier and balanced adaptors, so take this into account before purchase.

Vivacious violins, piano perfection

The blistering, bluesy guitar of Gary Clark Jr. on his latest album Sonny Boy Slim is sublime. The texture revealed on Clark’s guitar is staggering, awash in reverb, decay and distortion along with a true sense of scale, giving the impression of a live performance. This additional dimensionality not provided by lesser amplifiers doesn’t take the illusion as far.

Listening to a wide range of music for months now reveals no limitation to the GS150’s ability, whether driving Magnepans, the new Quad 2218 ESLs or major floorstanders from ProAc, Dali, GamuT, Dynaudio and Focal. Even the diminutive ProAc Tablette Signatures deliver an otherworldly performance driven by the GS150. Regardless of speaker or cable choices, the GS150 remains perfectly stable, unaffected less than many of the other tube amplifiers we’ve used – some highly particular by the cables used.

Good as this amplifier is, you may notice its capability even more when listening to solo vocals or acoustic instruments. The tonal richness that the GS150 reveals will keep you riveted to your chair for hours on end — always the mark of a great component. Pay particular attention to the way this amplifier accelerates and stops cleanly on a piano key strike or a guitar pluck without overhang or smear, yet retaining a high amount of saturation.

Where some components, especially those with vacuum tubes under the hood, can paint a sonic picture that is a lot larger than life in all three dimensions (And lets face it, that’s why we love tubes in the first place) the GS150 always expands and contracts with the music and the production, never just giving an overblown rendition of everything. Cool as it might be a piano shouldn’t sound like it is ten feet tall. This is another way that the GS150 conveys a realistic portrayal of music.

Chock full of tubes

Where the D-79 uses between 14 and 18 tubes depending on iteration, (there were three models; A, B, and C) to produce 75 watts per channel, the GS 150 uses 4 6H30 driver tubes and four matched pairs of KT150 output tubes to produce 155 watts per channel. As you can see from our photo shoot, at the 11^th hour we have acquired a D-79 for some comparison photos, but alas this warhorse is in desperate need of a power supply refresh, so we can’t give you a side-by-side comparison of the sound.  Once it returns from the shop, we will feature it in the Old School column next year and run the classic and the newest model side by side for your and our enjoyment. For now, it’s a wonderful memory to have these two in the same room together!

Let’s not forget the package

Audio Research has always made great sounding gear, but the wives of most of my friends have always seen those big boxes and said “not in my house.” But now with the Italian influence that Fine Sounds brings to the table, this amplifier is gorgeous, as is the matching preamplifier.

Looking at the chassis closely, you can see how much hand work has gone into every facet of this amplifier, from the finish on the front panel; to the delicately lettered power meters and the hand-welded chassis.

Again in the tradition of the D-79 and D-150, the GS150s front panel features three meters: the right and left meter for power output and tube biasing, with the center meter keeping track of incoming AC power. The bias adjustments are on the right and left hand side of the chassis.

Nice as the casework is on the GS150, the same level of attention has been paid to the package inside the familiar, dual box Audio Research packing that long-term aficionados have come to love. To say the tubes are well-protected is an understatement; now they are presented to the owner as a fine wine or cheese. It’s a nice touch, especially at this price level and it’s worth mentioning that the instruction manual is fantastic too. Straightforward, well illustrated and easy to read.

Product of the year, hell yeah

Is this the best power amplifier Audio Research has ever built? For me it is, but that’s being selfish. Discussing the technical features with ARC’s Dave Gordon, I jokingly said that the GS150 is like they built a bespoke amplifier for me, exactly as I would have it look and sound. In the way that Google always seems to know what you are thinking, maybe Audio Research has been probing my thoughts too. To be fair to everyone else, I can safely that the GS150 is my favorite vacuum tube power amplifier.

Buying a great power amplifier is a highly subjective undertaking, especially when a five-figure price tag is attached. If the GS150 weren’t our Product of the Year, it would certainly garner an Exceptional Value Award. If you don’t need 300 plus watts per channel and you enjoy the sheer sound that ARC’s engineers have achieved with the GS150, you’ll never need more amplifier than this. Just like fine cameras, watches or sports cars, there are a number of great vacuum tube power amplifiers available today, yet they all have somewhat different sonic personalities.

If you are an obsessed music lover, I’m guessing you have been on a quest for that “I’ll know it when I hear it” sound, perhaps for a long time. Perhaps longer than I have. If the GS150 touches the nerve that excites that center in your brain, this is an amplifier that you can enjoy for the rest of your life. It is meticulously built — inside and out — by a company with 40-plus years’ experience, execution and support behind them. Should your obsession take you elsewhere at some point, ARC products enjoy high resale prices on the secondary market, and that’s another big part of what makes this amplifier worth the price.  I am thrilled to award the GS150 power amplifier and the companion GSPre our Product of the Year award for 2015. I’m sure 30 years from now it will be held in as high esteem as it is today.

The Audio Research GS150 Amplifier

MSRP: $20,000

www.audioresearch.com

Peripherals

Analog Source            AVID Acutus Reference SP/SME V/Lyra Atlas

Digital Source             dCS Rossini DAC, Roon player

Phonostage                  ARC REF Phono 2SE, Simaudio LP810, Pass XP-25

Preamplifier                 ARC GSPre

Speakers                      GamuT RS5, Quad 2218

Power                          IsoTek Super Titan

Cable                           Cardas Clear

If you haven’t considered adding a subwoofer (or a pair of subwoofers) to your hi-fi system, it might be time to reconsider your logic. Reasonably priced subwoofers used to be one note boom boxes at best; barely able to keep up with your main speakers and subjected to the cannon shots in your theater system. The game has changed, considerably for the better.

Just as small displacement, four cylinder cars outperform the mighty V-8s of a decade ago, it’s the same story with subwoofers. Thanks to computer-aided driver design, careful attention to enclosures and the proliferation of high-quality class-d amplifiers, you can get a great sub for under a G these days. In the case of the SVS SB-2000, well under a G.

With so many excellent small monitor speakers available today, the only thing that’s missing is that last octave of low-frequency extension that keeps you from becoming immersed in the music. Fun as a lot of those speakers are you tend to restrict your musical palette to fit the system – we’ve all been there. The realism that low-frequency extension adds to your musical experience, even at modest volume levels is tough to ignore once you’ve experienced it.

Infected Mushroom just doesn’t infect you the way it should without the driving bass line that the SB-2000 provides. $699.99 puts a black ash SB-2000 in your listening room (gloss black is an extra hundred bucks) right now. And you can set it up in less time than it takes to drive to Walgreens and get a flu shot. Even quicker, if you take five minutes to read through the incredibly comprehensive manual that SVS provides. You can click here to read it online right now. See what I mean? These guys know their stuff.

The SB-2000 stuffs a 12” woofer and 500-watt amplifier into a compact package, weighing just under 40 pounds and measuring about 15 inches on all three sides so that it will fit just about anywhere. With that in mind, I’d suggest considering a pair of SB-2000s, to get more even bass output in your room. Those sharing my line of thinking will be rewarded at check out; SVS offers a $100 each discount if you want a pair. Why would you not?

The setup

For this review, we worked with a single SB-2000 and a handful of speakers in the $1,200 – $2,000 range, in two rooms. My living room is approximately 11 x 17 feet and the main listening room in the TONE studio, 16 x 25 feet. Over at The Audiophile Apartment, the SB-2000 was used in multichannel mode with an Anthem MRX-520 and five Dali Fazon speakers to excellent result. You can read that review here.

But we’re two-channel enthusiasts here, so the SB-2000 was mated to our Product of the Year winning Simaudio NEO Ace integrated amplifier. Speakers consisted of a pair of Magnepan MMGs, a pair of Vandersteen 1Cis, and a pair of ProAc Tablette Anniversary mini monitors; all audiophile classics in their own right and all in need of a little more grunt. We also used the Ace with SVS’ Prime Bookshelf speakers, that lightly tip the scale at a few pennies under $500 a pair, and this threesome is rapidly becoming our $1,200 choice for audiophiles on a tight budget that demand great sound.

System configuration is straightforward, running a pair of long Cardas RCA cables from the variable output of the ACE to the left and right input of the SB-2000. Multichannel users will probably opt for the LFE input, and again, follow the settings in the manual to get the proper amount of bass management from your system.

A fixed, 12db/octave crossover, with a cutoff frequency adjustable between 50-160hz, along with level and phase controls makes the SB2000 relatively easy to integrate into your main speakers. The smaller living room worked best with the SB-2000 slightly out from the corner of the room, yet in the larger room, it provides the best integration on all but the small ProAcs slightly off the corner on the opposing wall, as the Quick Start guide suggests for “best bass accuracy.” The Tablettes integrated best with the SB-2000 on the same wall, about a foot back from the speaker plane.

If you haven’t used a subwoofer before, try and resist the urge to crank up the bass too far. Or revel in the weight your system now has, crank it up and sit on your SB-2000 when you’re blasting your favorite tracks just to bask in the bass. I won’t call you an evil Smurf. However, when you come to your senses, ease back into your listening chair, and if you can summon the help of a friend, massage the controls a bit until the SB-2000 disappears from the system and you don’t notice it’s gone until you shut it off. Personally, I suggest going a little lower with the crossover frequency and a little higher with the gain than might be intuitive, but that usually proves to offer the best amount of cohesiveness with the main speakers.

Sit back and relax

While the most power hungry of the bunch, the little Magnepan MMGs wake up with some low frequency reinforcement. Surprisingly, the SB-2000 was able to go up high enough and clean enough, also mating wonderfully with the ProAcs. The Vandersteen 1Cis were the easiest of the lot and made for the most majestic combination, as they go down pretty solidly to just under 40hz, so in this system, the SB-2000 is truly acting as a sub-woofer.

When you get a sticky set of tires for your sports car, the first thing you want to do is head for the curvy roads to test the limits. And so it goes with a great subwoofer, bust out the bass heavy tracks to see what you’ve been missing. The SB-2000 does not disappoint and while it does add considerable low-frequency extension, the quality of the bass produced is also excellent.

I was particularly taken back by an old audiophile classic, The Three, featuring Joe Sample on piano, Shelly Manne on drums and Ray Brown on bass. The texture and articulation offered by the SB-2000 felt great as Brown’s fingers ran up and down the neck of the acoustic bass. Running through some tracks featuring Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke were equally enticing, yet when called upon to bomb the bass, the SB2000 proves it can deliver prodigious output as well.

An afternoon of old school hip hop from Public Enemy, Run DMC and KRS-1 kept everyone entertained and breathed much more life into the small-ish speakers used. This kind of music just begs for bass, and if your musical taste leans in this direction, I suspect a pair of SB-2000s just might get you in trouble with the neighbors or at best make you some new friends.

No matter what the choice of program material, the SB-2000 does not run out of power or dynamic range. A few other budget subs we’ve tried poop out when asked to rock, but not the SVS. Both the 50 watt per channel Sim and the nearly 100 watt per channel PrimaLuna HP integrated ran out of power before the SB-2000 did and within the context of these amplifiers, we could not get the SB-2000 to clip or bottom out the woofer cone. A very impressive performance.

You can’t go wrong

Whether you choose from SVS’ wide range of retail options, or just purchase from them direct, you can’t beat the terms they offer. If you don’t love it, you have 45 days to send it back. With speakers being such a subjective component to begin with, this is an excellent way to give the SB-2000 a test drive in your environment and get it optimized for your system. Once you do, I suspect the only call you’ll be making is to order a second one. And with that, we award the SVS SB-2000 subwoofer our last Exceptional Value Award for the year of 2016.

The SVS SB-2000 Subwoofer

$699.99 – $799.99 (ash or gloss finish)

www.svsound.com

Peripherals

Amplification             Simaudio NEO Ace integrated, PrimaLuna HP integrated

Analog Source            Rega Planar 3, Elys 2 cartridge

Digital Source            Elac RB-101 Server

Speakers                    Vandersteen 1Ci, ProAc Anniversary Tablette, Magnepan MMC

Cable                          Cardas Clear Light

McIntosh has been in the audio game since 1949. You read that right-1949. It would be fair to say they have forgotten more about running an audio manufacturing business than most companies will ever know, yet over the past few decades, McIntosh had seemed to fall out of favor with hardcore audiophiles, and for a while, they were no longer considered the darlings of the audio press that they were in the 1960s. Mac was looked at by many as your father and grandfathers first choice in audio gear.

About a decade ago as Charlie Randall took over as CEO, the products quietly, all became much better regarding performance and consistency, keeping them in front of enthusiastic music lovers the world over. Today, they have returned to favor among many audiophiles, and are now a go-to brand with custom installers across the globe.

Sitting by the pool

You need to look no further than my backyard in New York’s SOHO neighborhood, where the World of McIntosh Townhouse is located. With five floors of stunning décor featuring McIntosh, Audio Research, Sumiko, Sonus faber and Wadia products, music, comfort, and style integrate perfectly at every turn. Even the indoor pool (one of only 18 private indoor pools in NYC) has an over the top, dedicated Mac system to entertain clients and guests.

When given the tour of the townhouse by long time Mac consultant Kenneth Zelin, my first impression was,”This is the way to do it! It’s the way to immerse someone into the high-end experience”. The domestic setting is disarming and relaxing, allowing the listener to relax and get lost in the music. Alternatively, the WOM townhouse is a unique event space available to rent for large corporate parties and activities. Despite its broader commercial aspirations, WOM shows a huge commitment to its brands, a grand gesture that shoulders its featured lines to the head of the pack. Based on what I hear with the MC301 Quad Balanced mono amps And C52 preamp in for review, the commitment is more than skin deep or some show of bravura. The MC301 and C52 are terrific products, not just for the money but for the music and customer they serve.

Roundabout

The C52 preamp offers four single ended and three balanced inputs, with three sets of balanced and singled ended outputs, offering outstanding flexibility. There is also a highly capable MC /MM phono preamp, more on that later. The 8-band equalizer spread across the front fascia, offering 12 dB of gain or cut from 25hz to 10khz is anti-audiophile but music friendly. With this capability, there is not a poor recording out there that can stump the C52. I settled on a couple of dB cut at 2.5 kHz and a slight boost at 100 Hz.

The MC301 mono amplifiers included for the review are housed in a lower profile chassis compared to the standard McIntosh chassis yet produce 300 watts each into 2, 4, or 8 ohms. Build quality and fit and finish are first rate, as you would expect from McIntosh and delivered flawless service throughout the review period. The amps feature a soft clipping circuit allowing maximum volume without damaging the amplifier while offering the speaker a fighting chance at survival. Another example of McIntosh human engineering. The abuse that products endure during the review process can be a bit brutal. Plugging and unplugging interconnects and power cords while left un-muted can test a components mettle, despite my ham-fisted approach to these things.

Outside looking in

Having reviewed many amplifiers and preamplifiers over the years, a macro view of tonal balance is always my starting point; is the presentation warm or cool in tone? Does it welcome you in or put you at arm’s length? This tonality is the greatest strength of the McIntosh trio; they are equal to a shot of audio narcotic. So warm and inviting, the balance is the antithesis of cold, hard or biting sounding. The C52/MC 301 combo wraps its cozy little arms around you and welcomes you into the musical experience. Smooth? You bet. Realistic timbre? Check. Instruments and voices sound staggeringly realistic with no edge or glare whatsoever? Got it. These are traits that many music lovers adore. Music can be enjoyed endlessly with no aggravating edge, grit or grain.

This trio is not lacking in transparency, and this improvement is precisely where McIntosh has made tremendous strides in the last ten years. Disparate instruments and musical lines are exceptionally well rendered populating a broad soundstage. Perhaps not the widest I have had in my room, yet its way with depth is uncanny, particularly with analog is enticing. Background vocals and spatial definition are outstanding as well, allowing the front wall of my listening room to vanish completely. Listening to Sarah Vaughn “Just Friends” from Send in the Clowns is sublime. Front to back, left to right, the musical picture is stable and unwavering. Bringing up the volume a bit helps widen the stage while fleshing out images. The M301 and C52 are so smooth and distortion free, cranking the volume always feels right!

Detail retrieval is splendid but the focus on truth in timbre, instrumental color, and separation of instrumental lines is an even stronger trait. Like great tube gear, today’s finest solid state has gotten very close to getting the tube thing down. The tube heritage of McIntosh is not at all lost on the trio as they get to the heart of the signal and they reveal music with more bloom rather than rigid outlines and flat images. You might not be overwhelmed with a ton of information in the way the Pass Labs XA200.5 monoblocks and XP-20 preamp offers, but at 1/2 the price the McIntosh trio provides a ton of musical satisfaction.

Where the Pass gear paints a somewhat larger picture with wider dynamic swings, and both the Pass and D’Agostino amplifiers produce slightly more prodigious, deep bass, the MC301s are no slouch. After listening to the great pace and drive presented tracking through Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll,” I remain breathless.

I am a bass freak. I played bass in a band for ten years, and to this day, I listen to the bass line first on any new song auditioned. Over the last couple decades, I have learned the difference between boomy distorted bass and fundamental, clean extended low frequencies. Once presented with accurate, clean bass, there is no going back. It is amazing how many varying shapes and textures different bass recordings can render. The MC301 and C52 offer texture, color, and lack of any boxiness or excessive thickening in the lower registers.

The lack of distortion leaves just straight pure tone. Stand-up bass sounds spot on “Dolphin Dance” from Brian Bromberg’s Wood. The song has it all; depth, control, beautiful tonal colors, and transient snap with a big in-the-room presence. Electric bass such as that from Joe Satriani’s’ “Summer Song” sounds clean and clear through the MC301s, making it easy to follow each note throughout the track. Despite the articulation and resolution, the slight lack of slam does detract a bit from the ultimate live experience.

Segregation

To this point, we’ve been listening to a trio. Evaluating the C52 on its own merit, the aforementioned Pass XA200.5 amplifiers were substituted for the McIntosh components to get a handle on things and to perform an apples to apples comparison in my reference system. As a solo performer, the C52 preamplifier is resplendent through the solid state Pass amplifiers. This is a preamplifier with real musical soul.

The presentation is liquid with a wide open and detailed mid band that kept my ears peeled. The sound stayed open and defined through the upper mid-range, with no added glare or edge when broader dynamic swings dominate. Listening to the title track from Spyro Gyra’s Morning Dance on vinyl, as I have with every other component I’ve owned, the sax through the C52 has never sounded so glare and blare free. This track is a torture test too many components fail miserably.

The MC phono preamp in the C52 is not just good; it is amazing. Organized, rhythmic, dynamic, super quiet and colorful, I could live with this sound forever. “Funeral For A Friend” from Elton John’s masterpiece, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road naturally blossoms with air and nuance allowing the background vocals and synth parts to open up. The value added with this phono stage makes the $7K asking price for the C52 seems like a flat out steal. Kudos on not skimping on the phono stage McIntosh.

Adding further to the value is the onboard headphone amplifier. I am by no means a headphone guru but my Pryma (a Sonus faber design) headphones in carbon fiber sound nothing short of thrilling through the C52.

I am really pleased with the level of authenticity McIntosh products bring to the musical experience. With the M301 amp and C52 preamp, the sound is never less than engaging and immersive. Isolating the preamp proves just how deep the musical heritage goes in the engineering and performance of McIntosh products. Add the eight- band equalizer, stunning MC/MM phono stage, DAC, and headphone amplifier to the mix and $7K gets you a preamplifier you may never have to upgrade. The McIntosh C52 offers a significant helping of high-end audio experience, earning one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2016.

The McIntosh C52 Preamplifier

MSRP: $7,000   (MC301 monoblocks, $5,000 ea)

www.mcintoshlabs.com

If you have cable requirements that are slightly off the beaten path, and don’t like the idea of keeping (or losing) multiple adaptors on a regular basis, call the folks at Cardas Audio and get some custom cables made, pronto!

Josh Meredith at Cardas Audio and the team just sent me a pair of Clear Light interconnects to go from XLR to RCA, so that I have a wider range of connectivity with the PrimaLuna HP Integrated that I use as a reference component on my Audiophile Apartment site, and it only took a short while. It’s always better to have a completely positive connection and this is the way to roll. Even those of you with Burmester gear, or others using a non standard pinout, it’s easy to call Team Cardas and get exactly what you need.

Cardas welcomes the opportunity to build custom cables and as Meredith told me, “We definitely want to promote that we can do custom cables. As a general rule, if the connectors exist, we can probably make a cable with them.”

I’ve been using Cardas Cables in my personal and reference systems for over 15 years now with excellent result. Here’s another great reason to purchase their products.

www.cardasaudio.com

Following the driving bass line in Robin Trower’s “Too Rolling Stoned,” it’s tough to believe this much bass is coming from such tiny cabinets. Harder still to believe that said small monitors are flanking the couch, up against the rear wall of my listening room.

ProAc has been making the Tablette since 1979, and it is one of the world’s most popular mini monitors as well as one of high-end audio’s best values. The Tablette has won countless awards from hifi magazines the world over, mine included.

However, the Tablette has always been a ported design, so extracting the maximum performance has always required getting them out in the room somewhat, so the rear firing port doesn’t load up and put a nasty hump in the lower bass response. We were amazed at how much more low-end grunt was available from the recent Anniversary Edition, and remain equally amazed at how well the new Tab 10s non – ported design works.

These speakers are as easy on your billfold as they are to move around. Black ash, cherry, and mahogany is standard at the cost of $1,900 a pair, with ebony and rosewood (particularly striking) slightly more at $2,200 per pair. As with every mini monitor, we suggest as much mass as you can pack into the stands you choose. Weighty stands dramatically enhances the quantity and quality of the bass response delivered, and you will be astonished at how much more these speakers reveal on a high mass pair of stands.

Making excellent use of a thin walled, heavy damped, infinite baffle enclosure design similar to the BBC LS3/5a, the Tab 10 utilizes the same 1-inch silk dome tweeter from the Anniversary model and a few other ProAc models. New for the Tab 10 is a 5-inch woofer using a Mica based, ceramic coating that makes the woofer cone stiffer. The woofer in the Anniversary model has a 5 7/8 – inch, impregnated Kevlar cone, so these are indeed two different animals. The crossover in the Tab 10 is also optimized for the nonported cabinet to offer correct bass response.

One of the only things making music longer than the Tablettes is the Rolling Stones, so it seems more than appropriate to spin the LP of their latest, Blue and Lonesome. This tribute to the band’s favorite blues tunes is a vital record with explosive playing from Jagger, Richards, and Watts. The Tab 10s fill the room with sound, preserving the raw sound of this recording, with each musician intact, possessing their own space; a tough task to accomplish, considering the dynamic interplay between these musicians.

Easy and versatile

Where the Anniversary Tablettes will not work against the wall due to their rear-firing port, it’s smooth sailing with the Tab 10, yet they still deliver an excellent performance out in the room too. Apartment dwellers and those forced to make the living room do double duty as the listening room will appreciate the extra options for placement.

As with past Tablette models, the Tab 10 has a somewhat low sensitivity of 86db, yet it is incredibly easy to drive, so a ton of power is not required to enjoy them, and with a nominal impedance of 10 ohms, they are extremely tube amplifier friendly. Much of my test listening was done with both of our products of the year, the 50 watt per channel, solid-state Simaudio Neo Ace integrated, and the PrimaLuna HP Premium integrated amplifier, configured with EL-34 tubes for 70 watts per channel. These amplifiers all had more than enough power to achieve high listening levels in both my 11 x 18 foot living room and 10 x 11 foot dedicated “small speaker” listening room.

The Tab 10s have more than enough resolution to unveil the subtleties of these amplifiers, and a few other combinations tried, as well as the differences between the $32,000 Gryphon Kalliope DAC and a few budget DACs on hand. Impressive as they perform with mega components, the Tab 10s still turn in an outstanding performance with a recently restored Marantz 2245 receiver, making them a system anchor that you can grow with as your audio upgrade budget increases.

It’s always about balance

The overall tonal balance in the Tab 10 is just slightly warm, with a healthy dose of tonal saturation, as I like it personally, and I must confess that while the Tab 10s deliver a command performance with whatever high-quality amplifier you connect them to, I just love em with tubes. While the PrimaLuna/EL-34 combo was the go-to choice, getting crazy and moving in the Audio Research REF 6 pre, REF Phono 3 and GS150 power amplifier was a ton of fun, reminiscent of the very first time I heard the Tablettes driven by the legendary ARC SP-10 Mk. II and a D-79 power amplifier. Now as much as then, I couldn’t believe how much music came out of these tiny speakers driven by such major electronics.

Where the Tab 10, like the Anniversary Tab surprises you, is just how loud they can play. Going straight from the delicate, flamenco style of Eddie Van Halen on “Spanish Fly” straight into “Eruption” (Thank you TIDAL) to Slayer’s “Angel of Death” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets,” (with the ARC’s power meters bouncing healthily) you’d expect smoke and major carnage. In the best British fashion, the Tab 10s soldier on without bother.

As much fun as it is to find the limits of their performance envelope, the Tab 10s shine in everyday duty. The tonality has a relaxed ease combined with enough resolution to stay exciting, regardless of program material. These are speakers that you can get lost in, with long listening sessions a breeze. This has always been a hallmark of the Tablette, yet even better with current models.

Mini monitor magic

Some small speaker manufacturers make the mistake of trying to be everything to everyone, offering a goosed bottom end, giving the impression of more bass, throwing overall tonal balance under the bus. The Tablette does not make this mistake, and while at first blush, they might seem as if they are a little lacking, the more music you listen to, it sinks in at the amount of quality and articulation offered with the bass that they do produce.

Two drivers and a simple crossover network done right means a high degree of coherence, again creating that enticing illusion of reality and pinpoint imaging that the Tab 10s provide. Like the Anniversary model, when placed in my living room in front of the Quad 2812’s, on a lot of acoustic music, it was tough to tell them apart. Auditioning Keith Jarrett’s famous The Koln Concert proves irresistible; his piano delicately floats between the speakers with a sumptuous decay that has to be experienced. It’s still tough to believe that this level of resolution and sheer tonality is accomplished with a $1,900 pair of speakers.

Vocal recordings fascinate with an equal amount of engagement. Chrissie Hynde’s “Never Be Together,” from her latest album hovers out in front of the sparse lead guitar and drums on the track. Going way old school and spinning “Private Life” from her 1978 debut feels just as fresh as the first time I heard the album on the original Tablettes.

Still great after all these years

It has been great fun to watch and listen to the Tablette’s progress over almost 40 years. Every version is more refined and reveals more music than the last. However, the Tablette 10 is a thoughtful and exciting sidestep from the Anniversary model for those of you that have to get the speakers closer to the rear wall.

Whether you’re experiencing the sound of ProAc for the first time, or are a long standing fan, this is a pair of speakers you can easily fall in love with. Warmly recommended.

The ProAc Tablette 10

$1,900 (standard finish) $2,200 (premium finish)

www.proac-loudspeakers.com (Factory)

www.soundorg.com (North American Distributor)

Peripherals

Analog Source             AVID Volvere SP/SME V/Ortofon Cadenza Bronze

Phonostage                  Audio Research REF Phono 3

Digital Source              Gryphon Kalliope DAC,  ELAC DS-101 server

Amplifiers                   PrimaLuna HP integrated, Simaudio NEO Ace integrated

Cable                           Cardas Clear

Power                          Torus TOT

One of the most exciting things to come out of the headphone revolution is the plethora of desktop headphone amplifiers that either include a high-performance DAC, or a phonostage yet can also be used as a line level preamplifier. These are the coolest boxes in hifi right now, because they are a great bridge to both worlds.

Bruce Ball’s Questyle brand has been lighting up the internet, and the hifi shows now for some time with good reason; their creations sound fantastic, look stunning, are built to an incredibly high standard and won’t break the bank. The CMA600i featured here is a full resolution DAC that can handle anything up to 24/192 PCM files and offer True DSD conversion to DSD 256 as well. That spells future proof in our book.

Great as the high-res capabilities are, the CMA600i’s ability to provide breathtaking sound with standard 16/44.1 files is what makes this small but mighty headphone amplifier an incredible value. Listening to Al DiMeola’s Flesh on Flesh, streamed via TIDAL, all of the nuances of this guitar great come straight through. Though known for his ability to shred like no other on an electric guitar, his light touch on the acoustic guitar on this album is lovely rendered by the CMA600i, played back through my Conrad Johnson MV60SE tube amplifier and a pair of new Quad 2812’s in my living room. This review began using the CMA600i as a linestage/DAC combo first, and it kills everything I throw at it.

Super sleek style

Built in the Foxconn factory (the same people that manufacture iPhones), the CMA600i feels like a much more expensive component than its $1,295 price would suggest. Picking it up for the first time is deceptive, as it looks like it should weigh a lot less. Thanks to top quality parts inside from Wima, Dale, Alps and a big power supply transformer from Plitron, the CMA600i is beefy.

It doesn’t contribute to the sound, but the space gray finish, combined with the carefully machined corners on the casework make for an incredibly fashion forward visual design too. It looks more like something you’d expect from Nagra and that’s one of the highest compliments I can pay it. With the power supply in the casework, there is no annoying wall wart to lose or degrade the sound. Again, way more than you’d expect for $1,295.

The layout and operation are straightforward, and from a human engineering standpoint, the CMA600i is highly intuitive and easy to use, even without consulting the manual. Ball has concentrated on bringing you everything you need with nothing you don’t. Around back are USB, coax, and optical digital inputs and they all sound great, plus they give you the option of switching between three digital sources. Great stuff, but adding a solitary analog input so you can plug a turntable in, is sheer genius. Running a pair of interconnects from the $15,000 Audio Research REF 3 Phono again shows just how resolving the CMA600i is. Switching between the Soulines Kubrick DCX (reviewed in issue 80) and the Rega Planar 3, the CMA600i has more than enough capability to illustrate both of these turntables.

If you’re staying in the preamplifier groove, the CMA600i features both RCA and fully balanced XLR outputs, allowing any amplifier to be used. Driving a 20-foot pair of balanced Cardas Clear interconnects to my Pass Xs 300 monoblocks was a breeze. Comparing the 20 foot run to a 3-foot pair showed zero degradation in sound quality, a testament to how robustly this preamplifier is built.

Ok, ok, how about plugging in some cans?

It was so much fun using the CMA600i as a preamplifier, it took a while to get around to headphone listening, but again, there was no disappointment. The current mode amplification does it’s thing and moving from planar phones from Oppo, Audeze and my torture test favorites, the HiFi Man HE-6s, everything I could throw at the CMA600i proves to be effortless.

Listening to the acoustic version of Grand Funk Railroad’s “Stop Lookin Back” the high resolving capability of this headphone amplifier. The attack and decay on the acoustic guitar have plenty of texture, feel and transient attack. Staying in boomer rock mode, the marimbas in Frank Zappa’s “Central Scrutinizer” bounce around my head in a highly psychedelic manner, with Zappa growling in the background, somewhere deep in my cranial cavity. As the late, great Mr. Zappa used to say, “Isn’t this what it’s all about?” The answer is an unquestionable yes.

The sheer current drive (Thanks to the Class A Current Mode Amplifier) of the CMA600i keeps even the most difficult to drive phones in line. There is no wimping out dynamically or at the frequency extremes as can happen with headphone amplifiers that don’t have the power supply to back them up.

Tonally, the CMA600i is very neutral and again is not affected by phones connected. Where something like the Benchmark DAC 1 family tends to be slightly dry, and some of our favorite tube headphone amplifiers can embellish with a bit of extra tonal saturation, the CMA600i plays it straight. Those wanting the more lush sound of a tube amp might be turned off, but again, after extended listening with about 20 different pairs of phones, the neutrality of the CMA600i is a plus. I suspect headphonistas with a broad collection of cans will love it as much as I do.

Those liking strong bass response will not be disappointed, tracking through some EDM and hip hop favorites is convincing. Going way back, Koop’s Sons of Koop through the LCD-2s is stunning.  Even my Koss Pro 4aa’s that I’ve had since college sound phenomenal through the CMA600i – I’ve never heard them handle the lower frequencies with this kind of authority, and I’ve been listening to these babies for a long time. The ability to connect via either of the two ¼-inch, front panel jacks or the 4-pin balanced input, means everyone can join the party.

Digital versatility

A handy switch on the front panel lets you toggle through digital inputs with ease, making it easy to use whatever sources at your disposal. Giving things a go with a Mac Book Pro and the Aurender W10 server both provide excellent results. Listening to nothing but high res tracks via the Aurender quickly validate the additional resolution, switching back and forth between TIDAL and high res versions of the same tracks. The only aspect of the CMA600i I wasn’t able to fully explore was its ability to decode DSD files, as I have a very limited selection of tracks on my server. Suffice to say what I heard was excellent; however, I did spend quite a lot of time with 24/96 and 24/192 files.

Unlike a great number of DAC’s that use the Sabre chip family, Questyle walks to a different beat, taking advantage of the AKM4490 and its “velvet sound” architecture. While we can wax poetic all day long about the nerdy details, it is well implemented in the CMA600i. The Questyle website mentions that it is powered with a +/- 7-volt high voltage power regulator, to ensure high dynamic range. Listening to a wide variety of classical pieces makes it easy to see how well this works in practice. It is also worth mentioning that the CMA600i is fatigue free – long listening sessions are a breeze and digital artifacts, the enemy of hours in the listening chair, just do not exist here.

Whether listening through the phones, or speakers, I was never less than thrilled with just how much music the CMA600i reveals, especially in the company of some much more expensive hardware. Each component of the CMA600i is worth the $1,295 asking price on its own, if not more. Considering it takes up so little rack space, and you’ll save 2-3 times what the CMA600i costs on not needing power and interconnect cables for a DAC, preamp and headphone amplifier makes it one of the best values in high-end audio today. That’s why it has received one of my Publishers Choice Awards in issue 80. The CMA600i is certainly a teacher’s pet, and I’ve purchased the review sample to keep as part of the fleet.

A top performer

In the end, you can find a DAC or preamplifier that reveals more music than the CMA600i, but you’re going to have to spend a lot more money, whether you are making it the cornerstone of a high-performance headphone only system, or using it as the anchor for an incredibly good two channel system. This option makes it just as future proof as the ability to play all the high res formats in my book.

The Questyle CMA600i succeeds brilliantly on every level. It sounds great, is incredibly versatile and is visually elegant to boot. This is as good as it gets, and should you build a system around it; I suspect you will pass this one down to a family member. Well done Mr. Ball!

The Questyle CMA600i Headphone Amplifier/DAC/Preamplifier

MSRP:  $1,299

www.questyleaudio.com

facebook.com/QuestyleAudio

Features

Old School:

McIntosh MC 225: A Revered Classic
By Jerome Wanono

995:

Record Doctor V Record Cleaner

By Andre Marc

Journeyman Audiophile:

Peachtree Audio’s Nova 150:
Everything in one box!

By Rob Johnson

TONE Style

BMW’s new i3

Stache’ Labbit

LSR Apple Watch Silicon Strap

Cooking With Sammy Hagar

Tile Slim

Versa Watch Winder

Omaker W4 Pocket Speaker

Music

Spin the Black Circle: Reviews of New Pop/Rock and Country Albums
By Bob Gendron, Todd Martens, Chrissie Dickinson, Andrea Domanick and Aaron Cohen

Jazz & Blues: Keith Jarrett, Kris Davis and more!
By Jim Macnie and Kevin Whitehead

Gear Previews

Audio Research GS75i Integrated Amplifier

Graham Audio Chartwell LS3/5 Speakers

Web Reviews

Merrill Audio Jens Phono and Christine Preamplifier

Rega Planar 3 Turntable

Reviews

Sonus faber  Lilium Speakers
By Greg Petan

Coincident Statement Lifestage
By Jeff Dorgay

Conrad-Johnson GAT Series 2 Linestage
By Jeff Dorgay

Pass Xs Phono
By Jeff Dorgay

Audio Research REF 6
By Rob Johnson

Awards!

TONEAudio’s Products of the Year

Publisher’s Choice Awards

Exceptional Value Awards

Reinventing a classic usually fails miserably or succeeds brilliantly. Ford’s attempt at bringing back the Thunderbird, not so much, VW’s remake of the Beetle, fantastic.

Ask any fan of the Audio Research marque which pieces they feel are legendary and the original SP-1 preamplifier (as well as the SP-10) and the D-79 power amplifier will more than likely be at the top of their list.

ARC has always concentrated on performance, with an understated look, bringing them a legion of followers over the years. But the GSPre is different, oozing with aesthetic touches wherever you look. Designer Livio Cucuzza pays just the right amount of respect to ARC’s heritage, while expressing himself brilliantly. For those not familiar with Mr. Cucuzza, he is the talent behind Wadia’s Intuition and the current crop of Sonus faber speakers, including the brilliant Aida that was our Product of the Year in 2012.

Control functions are displayed in the same green shade that has been a staple of current ARC components, yet the control knobs, ever so slightly updated, look straight from the SP-1. When the GSPre was introduced in Munich last year, Cucuzza was certain to mention how important these design cues were, drawing upon pristine examples of classic components from ARCs own collection to listen to and observe during the design process.

A quick look behind the luxurious front panel reveals the tube tunnel of the SP-1, now covered with drilled Plexiglas, yet the simply bent corners on the first ARC preamplifier are now hand welded in the GSPre. The new preamplifier exudes quality, with evidence of hand finishing everywhere you look. ARCs Dave Gordon makes it a point to bring this all to my attention, saying, “This is where some of the additional cost in the GSPre comes from. This level of hand work isn’t inexpensive.” This is why you buy a Ducati motorcycle instead of a Yamaha, and so it goes with the GSPre. It is as lovely to look at as it is to listen to.

The front panel has a thinner, more sculpted feel and the familiar handles that are front and center on every other ARC component are now tucked tastefully off to the side of the chassis, just behind the front panel. The rear panel reveals a full complement of balanced XLR and RCA inputs and outputs with a 15A IEC socket, with the headphone input located on the right side of the chassis. If you are a headphone user, be sure to leave a proper amount of space to access the standard ¼ inch jack.

I confess, I love it

As much as I am supposed to be a conduit to the gear we review, it’s tough to contain my enthusiasm for ARC’s latest GSPre and GS150 power amplifier (You can read that review here) after living with them for some time now. Having owned the SP-1, SP-3, SP-10 and SP-11, along with a few contemporary ARC preamplifiers, I find the GSPre to be a very special component. Listening to Neil Young’s classic “Old Man” (the recent Chris Bellman LP remaster of Harvest) is mesmerizing; the detail present is amazing, the vocal and instrumental texture equally so. Switching LPs, listening to the reverb trail off at the beginning of CSN’s “Wooden Ships” seems to go wider and deeper through the Quad 2812s than I’ve ever heard. Few components I have heard at any price are this compelling.

It is wonderful, convenient and synergistic to have a high quality phonostage on the same chassis as a great linestage, which is why so many SP-10 and SP-11 owners doggedly hang on to their 30-year-old preamplifiers. I enthusiastically submit the GSPre as a more than worthy replacement.

Carrying an MSRP of $15,000, it is slightly more than the $13,000 REF 5SE, which in some ways sonically bests the GSPre. But the GSPre must be put in proper perspective; where the REF 5SE is strictly a linestage, the GSPre is a full-function preamplifier in the best ARC tradition, with an outstanding phonostage and headphone amplifier built in. Having reviewed all the past ARC phonostages over the last five years, I find that the performance of the GSPre’s onboard phono is in the neighborhood of the PH7 and PH8.

Those of you wanting it all on one chassis will not be disappointed with the GSPre, unless you are sporting a $10,000 phono cartridge on your turntable. Atlas and Goldfinger owners will still want to step up to ARC’s REF Phono 2SE to get the maximum performance, or those with extremely low output cartridges, as the GSPre only features 55dB of gain in the phonostage. Personally, I love minimizing the number of cables needed in a great hifi system – another excellent reason for choosing the GSPre. And it goes without saying that you’ll need less rack space, though the GSPre is so gorgeous, you might not want to tuck it away on the shelf of a rack. I suggest placing it on a big, Italian column front and center with dramatic lighting for accent, but I digress.

It’s more about different

Elitist audiophiles only concerned with ultimate performance may prefer the REF 5SE to the GSPre, but I submit the GSPre is more about different, than a mere better or worse comparison. The REF 5SE does have a bit finer resolution in the highest of highs and slightly more dynamic punch, but the GSPre offers a different voice, a different flavor. Though the team in Minneapolis still designs the circuitry, listening to a violin or acoustic guitar through the GSPre makes me wonder just how much time the ARC people have spent listening to Sonus faber speakers, now that they are part of the Fine Sounds group.

Think of the difference in rendition between the REF 5SE and the GSPre as the former being more like a pair of Wilson Audio Maxx 3s and the GSPre a pair of Sonus faber Aidas. Both excellent, but which will you prefer? If like me, you prefer that touch of tonal saturation and body, the GSPre will be your ultimate choice. It’s as if the GSPre is a sonic blend of 80% REF 5SE and 20% legendary SP-10, with no drawbacks whatsoever.

The GSPre is a contemporary design though, utilizing ARC’s FET/Vacuum Tube hybrid design that they pioneered with the SP-11, refining constantly. With a FET input driving two pairs of 6H30 tubes in the linestage and a single pair in the phonostage, all the tube magic is retained, yet the result is extremely quiet. The GSPre possesses incredible low level detail resolution and the spatial abilities usually associated with an all-tube preamplifier, though having none of the negative aspects. The 6H30 is an incredibly robust tube, and though ARC suggests replacement at 5000 hours, it is not uncommon for these tubes to last much longer. The power supply is all solid state, with seven stages of regulation.

Phono fun

As with the current crop of ARC phonostages, 100, 200, 500, 1000 and 47k input loading is easily switched from the comfort of your listening chair. The ability to do this via remote is particularly helpful not only from the reviewer’s chair, but when you are trying to get that last bit of performance from your system.

A wide range of cartridges was used for this review, from the $379 Denon DL-103 up to the $9,500 Lyra Atlas. Phono performance is dynamic and quiet, though as mentioned earlier, extremely low output cartridges will not have enough drive for the GSPre. The .25mv Denon and the .3mv Dynavector 17D3 were acceptable at lower levels, but at modest to high volume lacked slightly in dynamics. All the cartridges at my disposal from Ortofon, Lyra and Koetsu with .5mv output were a fantastic match and again being able to switch between 100, 200 and 500 ohms from the couch made optimization a snap.

Vinyl experiences with the GSPre and the Feickert Blackbird/Ortofon Cadenza Black MC were incredibly good, and this is an arm/cartridge/table combination I would highly suggest to a potential GSPre owner who was stepping up their vinyl game. Another lovely combination is the VPI Classic Two table and the Grado Reference 1 moving iron cartridge. ARC phonostages have always had an incredibly synergy with the Reference and Reference 1, and the GSPre continues this tradition. Its .6mv output does require 47k loading, something not all MC phonostages can accommodate.

While the GSPre can rock out with the best of them, vocals, small ensembles and solo acoustic instruments shine. This preamplifier does so well with retrieving ambient cues and gentle texture, it underscores what the vacuum tube experience should be without ever over-embellishing, as some vintage tube components can be prone to. For this reviewer, the balance is absolute perfection.

Bass extension and control are very good, but this is one area where the ultimate nod goes to the REF 5SE/ REF Phono 2SE pair, both with their larger, dual mono, vacuum tube regulated power supplies.

Getting personal

It only takes a few minutes with your favorite phones to realize to realize the on-board headphone amplifier is not a last minute afterthought. Much like the approach taken to the phonostage, the GSPre is not the last word in headphone amplification for the most obsessed headphone listeners, but so good that most will not feel the need to invest in a separate, outboard headphone amplifier. ARC claims compatibility with phones in the 30–300 ohm range and it proved a great match for the Sennheiser, Grado, OPPO and Audeze phones in my collection. I can’t think of a better way to explore personal listening for the first time than with the GSPre.

The same voice of the GSPre through your favorite speakers comes quickly through your favorite phones, no matter which ones you own. It paints a large sonic landscape, with excellent dynamics and control. Donning a pair of headphones will really convince you just how quiet the GSPre truly is, with transducers right against your head – a real plus for classical listeners!

A brilliant combination

The word that keeps coming to mind with the GSPre is balance. It does everything so well, with no weaknesses, I can’t imagine wanting another preamplifier. After extensive listening to the GSPre and companion GS150 power amplifier, it’s tough to be non-partisan, especially after having owned numerous ARC components over the years.

Mating the GSPre to the GS150 power amplifier is sonic and aesthetic perfection. However, should you have a different ARC power amplifier, or one from another manufacturer, it’s all good. Whether using the balanced or RCA outputs, the GSPre drives long cable runs with ease, and mating it with a plethora of amplifiers from Conrad-Johnson, Nagra, Pass, Simaudio and McIntosh, it delivers a stellar performance either way.

The GSPre feels as if ARC has read my mind and produced a bespoke preamplifier to perfectly suit my visual and sonic requirements. The GSPre combines the design sensibilities of ARC’s Italian partners, while leveraging 40 years of award winning vacuum tube component design. To say the result succeeds brilliantly is the understatement of the year. If this sounds like fun to you, I suggest heading straight to your nearest ARC dealer and be ready to write the check. This may or may not be your first ARC component, but I suspect after you live with the GSPre, it may be your last preamplifier. I know I could live with this one forever.

Audio Research GSPre Preamplifier

$15,000

www.audioresearch.com

There’s a lot of interesting hi-fi going on in Serbia these days, and we’ve had a number of review inquiries. However, nothing was more intriguing than the new Kubrick DCX from Soulines; currently imported by Jason Tavares at Adirondack Audio in New York.

This beautiful belt drive turntable has a retail cost of $4,000 without tonearm. The review sample was equipped with a Rega RB2000 arm and Apheta 2 cartridge affixed, bringing the cost of this combination to about $7,000. Jelco and SME boards are also available and were supplied. With examples of both, it was easy to run the DCX through its paces with these arms as well.

A quick touch up of tracking force on the Apheta 2 (1.75g) has records playing quickly. In the quest of perspective, the new Apheta was removed to compare with my original model on a pair of Rega P9 tables. You can read my thoughts on that soon, but suffice to say the new Apheta is more extended, slightly smoother and produces a larger soundfield than the model it replaces. More data points made it easier to judge the DCX on its own merit.

Basic setup of the table is quick and straightforward. Install the platter, the belt and tonearm of your choice. A small wall wart power supply is available, supplying 12 volts DC and Soulines claims an upgraded power supply may be in the works soon. The table is semi suspended and is easy to level quickly. In addition to the power switch, 33 or 45 rpm is easily toggled, with no belt fussing necessary. A model of simplicity!

The DCX does not have a massive footprint and easily fits on a 15 x 19 inch shelf. Weighing only 24 pounds, it should fit anywhere. Whether sitting on a rack, or anchored to the wall in our listening room via a Solidsteel wall bracket; the DCX is immune to foot traffic exhibiting no acoustic feedback effects.

Mix and match

With the Apheta 2 back in place on the DCX, the Soulines table delivers more weight than the Rega P9 can muster, yet offers slightly more energy in the treble range as well; it feels as if you’ve moved up about three rows closer to the stage. Should you have a system that is already slightly forward, this combination may be too much of a good thing. In my studio system, with the Focal Sopra no.3 speakers, this was, in fact, too much of a good thing. Moved to the living room system with a PrimaLuna DiaLogue HP integrated amplifier, MOON by Simaudio LP610 and the Graham LS5/9 speakers (which is a decidedly more laid back system) the Apheta 2 is perfection.  All remaining listening was done via the Conrad Johnson GAT 2 preamplifier, TEA-1a phonostage and the LP125sa+ power amplifier, via the Quad 2812 speakers.

The Rega arm may need to use the supplied spacers to fine adjust VTA with some cartridges, but this is not an issue with the Jelco or the SME as the adjustments are built in. The SME V proved an incredible match for the DCX, but at nearly $6,000, this more than doubles the cost of the arm/table combination. Rest assured though, that the DCX is up to the task. A more cost effective combination is the 309 arm. Though a little spendy at MSRP of $2,800, they can usually be found on the secondary market for just under $1,000 and this makes for an incredibly high performance combination.

As you might expect, the SME arm lends more heft to the presentation, while the Rega is a bit zippier. Again, this all depends on the ultimate voice you want your analog system to feature and the rest of the chain. This table is so much fun, you can really get lost in the chase. Even the vintage SME 3009 proves a great match for the DCX, combined with the Ortofon SPU delivers a rounder, more vintage sound that may be to the taste of some. No matter what combination was tried, this table provides a highly stable platform that gets out of the way of the ancillaries, delivering clean sound.

Though this particular ZYX is not a megabucks cartridge, it gives minute details room to breath, never letting the softest ones get lost in the mix. Taking an old favorite for a spin, Pat Metheny’s Offramp proves illuminating, with smooth, yet shimmering cymbals throughout, and Lyle Mays’ piano effortlessly clean. The last track on side one, “Au Lait” features some ethereal, Twin Peaks-y moans that appear way back beyond the speaker boundaries. Lesser tables tend to portray this track a lot more flat and two-dimensional.

Good as the Kubrick DCX performs with a modest cartridge; it can easily be the foundation for some of the world’s finest cartridges without missing a beat. Moving upscale to the Grado Signature 2 ($3,500) and the Transfiguration Phoenix ($4,500) proved the resolution of this platform, making it a breeze for both cartridges to express themselves, easily distinguishing what makes them unique.  This makes it a great table to build an analog system around, splurge on the Kubrick HDX, upgrading tonearm and cartridge as your budget allows.

The DCX shatters a few of my pre-existing biases, especially the one that has never been terribly fond of acrylic platters. In this case it works spectacularly and does not have an overly flat, two-dimensional sound that I’ve always chalked up to an acrylic platter. Acoustic instruments come alive and often played electronica tracks come forward from the Quads with a large, deep, front to back sound field. This table will easily immerse you in your favorite records.

Taking care of business

After auditioning a number of exciting combinations, I ended up with the combination of the Rega arm and the ZYX R-100 cartridge, reminding me a lot of the Miyajima Kansui that I never should have let a good friend talk me out of. Natural, with a little bit of bloom, but not sluggish or slow. Another outstanding match for this arm and table. Needless to say about halfway through the review I called Jason to purchase the DCX for permanent use as the analog reference driving my Audiophile Apartment system.

This system consists of the Quad 2812’s and PrimaLuna DiaLogue HP premium integrated that I raved about earlier this year, via Conrad Johnson’s new TEA-1 series 2 phonostage (review to follow shortly) listening to a major pile of records. Analog either draws you in or leaves you cold, and unscientific though it may seem, when it all comes together, it keeps you up until all hours of the night, playing record after record, time melting away like you have one of those aliens from the movie Dune, that fold space somewhere nearby.

Count the DCX solidly in this camp. Speed stability measured on the money, and it paints a fairly big, spacious, sonic picture, with music unfolding between the Quads in an incredibly gratifying way. Should you need to adjust the speed slightly on yours, the adjustments on the top of the subchassis make it simple as long as you possess a jeweler’s screwdriver.

The skeletal aluminum structure that makes up the subchassis is machined and finished to an elegant, semi-matte silver finish. The mechanical and sonic quality of this table becomes more evident with every day spent with it. It sounds and feels like a much more expensive table – the quality is in the details; all of the surfaces and edges are finished to a level you would expect from AVID, Clearaudio or SME.

Records spin on an acrylic platter via an inverted main bearing. Designer Igor Gligorov tells me that they every platter, main bearing and spindle are manufactured together as a unit, not in batches (and the resultant problems with batch tolerances) because he feels that this is one of the most important parts of the turntable. “I have put a lot of effort to isolate this system from the rest of the table and surrounding environment.”

The DC motor is sourced from Premotec of Holland with a simple voltage converter via a wall wart power supply. As a mechanical engineer, he stresses the importance of all parts of a mechanical system working together in synergy for the best result. Everything is strategically shaped, assembled and damped. The minute you put a record on the table, Mr. Gligorov’s hard work is evident.

A wholehearted recommendation

Plain and simple, the Soulines Kubrick DCX is a fantastic table in every way. It’s beautifully designed, mechanically and aesthetically. It’s proven easy to set up and has been playing records around the clock since we unboxed it a few months ago, providing hundreds of hours of flawless performance. We’ll report back in six months or so to give you a long-term perspective, but for now, it’s proved fantastic.

This is one you should consider for your system.

The Soulines Kubrick DCX Turntable

$4,000 (without arm)

www.adkav.com (US Distributor)

www.soulines.com (mfr)

Peripherals

Preamplifier              Conrad Johnson GAT 2, with TEA-1 phonostage

Amplifier                    Conrad Johnson LP125sa+

DAC                             Gryphon Kalliope

Speakers                    Quad 2812

Cable                          Cardas Clear

Power                         Torus TOT

For a minute, just forget about using the super cool Woo Audio WA8 Eclipse as a headphone amplifier.

Sure you could plug some headphones in, and you’d experience some of the best personal audio going. Battery power is intriguing because getting off the grid means lowering the noise floor and other gremlins occurring when converting AC power to DC. While this doesn’t always come to fruition with amplifiers, low powered components like DACs and preamplifiers do very well in this configuration. Forget that, let’s use it as the front end to a six-figure, 2-channel hi-fi system.

Pondering why the WA8 didn’t have a line output, like my Walkman Pro, which incidentally is about the same size, I went for broke and drove my $85,000 Pass Xs 300 monoblocks directly from the headphone jack. As my favorite secret agent, Archer likes to say, “Why would I not?”Considering how much gain today’s power amplifiers have, the 350mw output sounded like it just might get the job done.

Spinning the 40th-anniversary edition of Jethro Tull’s classic Aqualung, via the dCS Paganini transport, the WA8 presents a huge soundstage, with Ian Anderson’s flute locked in place as guitar, drums and percussion float everywhere, front and back. It’s not an Audio Research REF6, but it’s damn good and much better sonically than a lot of other preamplifiers with a similar price tag. None of them have an internal DAC.

These miniature tubes are available directly from Woo Audio, and as they are soldered to a moveable PC board, connecting to the mainboard of the amp, allowing the tubes to be changed by the user. Woo says they will make the tube set available on their site, price TBD as these tubes are rated for 5000+ hours.  I can’t imagine this will be a terribly expensive service. Sporadic listeners will probably go years before needing a tube replacement.

Unless a tube fails catastrophically, they usually fade out rather than fail. After about 5,000 hours you will notice a slight dulling of the sound, with the soundstage collapsing a bit, so that’s when it’s time to call the folks at Woo and schedule a maintenance call.

For less than the price of some interconnect cables, you can make the WA8 the cornerstone of a versatile 2-channel system, to use in your listening room or anywhere else in your home or office. The rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery pack has a claimed playback time of 4 hours, which was usually exceeded by about 15 minutes. This is the only disadvantage to using the WA8 as a linestage; you’re looking at 3½ hour listening sessions max. (the tubes take a few min to come on full song, but the WA8 sounds great from power up) It will take about 2 ½ hours to recharge, so theoretically, you could listen all afternoon, forage for food, and return to listen for another 4. Not bad at all.

The WA8 Is An Amazing Line Level Preamplifier

Every past Woo product we’ve reviewed has always provided great sound, with a sonic signature, ever so slightly on the warm side of neutral. Not quite a vintage, classic sound, but nothing you’d ever mistake for transistors and op amps. Sonically, it reminds me a lot of the voice of the current line of McIntosh line preamplifiers, if that’s any help.

Powering up the WA8, you notice a triplet of miniature tubes; this Class – A, single ended miracle uses a pair of 6S31 tubes in “two tube mode” adding a 6021 driver tube in “three tube mode.” Woo suggests using this to fine tune the amplifiers output to whatever headphones you might have at your disposal. Three tube mode worked best for preamplifier duty.

Using an iPhone 6+ running TIDAL makes an ideal miniature digital playback system, as the WA8 is Apple compatible with a CCK adapter, so it just grabs the digital bitstream from your iOS device. The WA8’s internal ESS SABRE DAC is what the big boys use, so again, expect the sound of a full sized DAC here; all the way up to 24bit/384khz files.

Hell yeah, I plugged a turntable in

Why not take the madness all the way and connect a turntable? Though this somewhat defeats the “compact” concept, those thinking about using their WA8 as a full function preamplifier will not be disappointed. Now if only Mr. Wu would make a companion phono stage with an identical form factor.

Rega’s new Planar 3/Elys 2 cartridge, paired with a Monk Audio phonostage (about $1,200 each) makes for a particularly lovely way to enjoy records, revealing all the analog magic you could hope for. Most people won’t need more than a turntable and a digital input, so this is pretty awesome stuff. Going back and forth between analog and high-resolution favorites drained the battery every time.

Headphone performance

The WA8 has been out since March, so you can stop by Head-Fi or your favorite headphone site and read more minutiae than you could ever dream of wanting to know. These guys have more patience (and more pairs of headphones) than I do when it comes to trying every possible headphone under the sun with the WA8.

Suffice to say, with my reference Oppo and Audeze phones; I was not only pleased with the spacious and dynamic sound of the WA8, I feel it is at the top of the price category in every way. Bass is deep and well defined, highs equally so, and this amplifier excels at low-level detail resolution. Add that little bit of extra sauce that tubes bring to the party, and the WA8 makes an incredibly non-fatiguing listening station.

Just like the current iPhone you can get the Woo Audio WA8 Eclipse headphone amplifier/DAC in a variety of colors; black, space gray and gold. (sorry no pink, I mean rose gold yet!!) Only 6.69 inches by 3.6 inches and 1.69 inches deep, it’s barely bigger than a paperback book. You remember those, don’t you?

Manufacturers that have the foresight to produce products giving headphone listeners an easy upgrade path to a 2-channel system when time and budget permit get major kudos in my book. It’s one thing to make a small portable headphone Amp and DAC, but one that you can use as a serious line level preamplifier makes the already great Woo Audio WA8 Eclipse my choice for Personal Fidelity Product of the Year in our next issue. You may never use it as a preamplifier, as I did, but you can. And you’ll love it.

The Woo Audio WA8

MSRP:  $1,799 Space Grey or Black, $1,899 Gold

www.wooaudio.com

The late Franco Serblin, the man responsible for Sonus faber is no longer with us to design great speakers, but his son in law, Massimiliano has brought the last of this Italian master’s vision to fruition.

Here at TONEAudio, we have the absolutely lovely Lignea, a diminutive floor standing speaker that retails for  $5,995 US. Watch for our full review in issue #81. Think of the Lignea more as a mini monitor with an elegantly integrated stand. There is no low, low bass response to speak of, but like your favorite Brit mini monitor, you won’t miss it.

Check out the rest of Mr. Serblin’s creations here:

http://www.francoserblin.it

Carbon fiber is just cool, no matter how you look at it. Sure it’s stronger and lighter than steel, but it looks so high-tech and sexy, especially when it’s done right.

And the folks at EAT have done a smashing job on the C-Major turntable and tonearm – it looks much more expensive than the $2,495 retail price, with an Ortofon Quintet Blue MC cartridge, that would typically set you back another $550. Preinstalled no less. The EAT C-Major got a lot of attention in the photo studio as we were setting it up for the first time.

Whether you are jumping off the cliff with your first table or trading up from something in the $700 – $1,200 range, the EAT table will give you a major increase in fidelity. A quick comparison to the offerings in the former category from Music Hall, Rega and Pro-Ject, put the EAT way out in the lead on every level, so this is money well spent.

Much of the technology in EAT’s $3,495 C-Sharp turntable that has won the hearts and ears of critics around the world is present in the C-Major. The plinth, platter, and tonearm are of similar design, though the C-Major has only a 9-inch arm tube and lacks the precision speed control of the more expensive EAT table. The C-Major is just a slightly more basic version.

After a quick check on cartridge alignment, via the Acoustical Systems SMARTractor, which has become our reference standard, the factory Lofgren A alignment was right on the money. However, I’ve become hooked on the Uni-Den geometry and after some initial listening, went back to the alignment I have on the rest of my tables. Apples to apples I guess.

The first LP is like that first kiss; it sets the tone for the relationship. If uninspiring, there’s not much chance for anything long-term. Happily, the C-Major sails through the first side of the self-titled Little Village album with ease. The triangle at the beginning of “Inside Job” is round, yet defined with more air than you might expect from a $500 MC cartridge. But Ortofon is the master of reasonably priced cartridges delivering high performance, and this cartridge is a perfect match for the EAT table.

The Quintet Blue, loaded to 100 ohms feels complete mated to the Pass XS Phono. Yes, this is somewhat overkill, but we’re evaluating the TT, don’t want the system to get in the way. The dead neutrality of the Pass makes it easy to complete the homework assignment. For some of the listening sessions, we switched to the Simaudio MOON Ace integrated (that is our Product of the Year) and a step up transformer to get more of a real world system perspective. The remaining listening was performed in system two, via the Simaudio MOON LP610 phonostage, PrimaLuna DiaLogue HP integrated amplifier and the Quad 2812 speakers. A highly revealing, yet musical system that the C-Major feels right at home as a part of.

The Sound

Every turntable imparts some sonic signature, and the C-Major has a slightly warm overall tonality. While this is always relatively difficult to quantify, when swapping cartridges to a known entity, in this case the Ortofon Cadenza Black (the closest to a neutral cartridge in my arsenal) the C-Major leans slightly to the warmer, more relaxed, more mellow side of the fence. To put this in perspective, it’s not as soft and unresolving as say, a mid-grade Linn LP-12, and it has a wider top to bottom range with more heft than say a Rega RP6. If anything, it sounds a lot like a cross between a VPI Classic 1 and a VPI Scout. Make any sense?

Listening further to Johnny Cash on the lovely Speakers Corner remaster of At San Quentin album, the EAT table does a fantastic job with pace, yet digs out the details in a much younger Cash’s voice, revealing nuance that a budget table can’t. A lot of this can be chalked up to the tonearm. More carbon fiber! This carbon fiber tonearm mated to an aluminum headshell and a precise bearing looks and feels as if it should cost as much as the table alone.

Tracking through some solo vocal and instrumental favorites again reveals nothing but nuance. Going back to some of the early Windham Hill records, mastered by Stan Ricker and pressed at the same JVC plant responsible for the first Mobile Fidelity titles is exciting. Alex DeGrassi’s acoustic guitar and George Winston’s piano comes through clean and clear. Piano notes are clean, with the proper amount of sustain and depth.

The uncolored piano rendition leads to a quick speed check, with the Feickert phone app and all is well. The EAT reads at 33.38 r.p.m. If you can hear that .05 r.p.m. difference, I’ll buy you a new BMW. More importantly, watching the speed graph in real time, it’s very stable. Not as stable as my $10k Brinkman Bardo, but damn good for a belt drive table. Bottom line, my review sample is well under the speed variation specified by EAT, and that’s always a good thing.

The C-Major also does an excellent job at untangling records having a dense mix, and this is something you don’t get much of in the $1,000 tables. Of course, they all play music, but if I dig out a copy of Bowie’s Scary Monsters, a lot of the minute details tend to blend the details into the background. Ditto for a lot of my Eno favorites, yet when played through the C-Major, those extra backing vocals on the Bowie albums reveal themselves as distinctly separate tracks, rather than just being played back as a single, fat vocal track. And the ethereal bits in Eno’s Ambient 1: Music For Airports float around the room with vigor.

Major manual

To EAT’s credit, they’ve produced an excellent manual for the C-Major, with very clear explanations and excellent diagrams illustrating what needs to be done. If you proceed with patience and follow the directions, even a novice analog enthusiast should be able to be up and running within about 20-30 minutes. Save those screws in the box, so in case you ever move, they will be at your disposal to lock the table down again.

Once the transit screws are undone, the rest is gravy. A quick double check of the factory set Ortofon cartridge confirmed no more work would be needed here, but should you start with your C-Major sans cartridge, the manual will talk you through it. Also, should you be using a cartridge with other than the supplied Ortofon, be sure of its weight. The standard counterweight will accommodate cartridges from 5-9 grams, and the additional insert extends that range from 9-17 grams, leaving a very wide range of cartridges at your fingertips.

Be sure to level the table, with the adjustable feet, and you’re nearly there. A particularly nice feature of the C-Major is that it has a pair of RCA jacks instead of trapping you with whatever tonearm cable might happen to be attached to the arm. Considering that the C-Major offers enough resolution to work with more expensive cartridges than the $500 Ortofon it is bundled with, taking advantage of a premium set of interconnects can also increase the performance and functionality of this table down the road. And, it gives you the option to run a slightly longer ground wire, should the need arise.

Cool for cats

The EAT C-Major is a cool, yet compact turntable that offers a significant step up in the amount of music it reveals from tables a few clicks down the food chain. It looks stunning in an understated, techy kind of way, and is easy to set up. Best of all it sounds fantastic. You rarely get all of this at just over two grand. I look forward to investigating more of what this company’s turntable range has to offer. Highly recommended.

The EAT C-Major Turntable

www.vanaltd.com (US Distributor)

www.europeanaudioteam.com (manufacturer)

MSRP: $2,250 (without cart), $2,495.00 (with pre-installed Ortofon Quintet Blue)

Peripherals

Phonostage                Simaudio 610LP

Amplification             Simaudio NEO Ace, PrimaLuna DiaLogue HP integrated

Speakers                    Quad 2812, Graham LS5/9

Cable                          Cardas Clear

Power                                     Torus TOT

The good news is that both the Merrill Audio Christine linestage and the Jens phonostage are two world class components, revealing a tremendous amount of music, while leaving no sonic signature of their own. No small feat for any linestage or preamplifier at any price. Considering that the Christine tips the scale at $13,000 and the Jens at $15,500, you might even consider them a bargain. That will depend on your meal plan.

Listening begins with the Christine Reference linestage to get familiar with the Merrill Audio “sound,” or in this case a complete lack thereof. The Christine Reference Preamplifier belongs on the ledger with the $40,000 Robert Koda K-10 for delivering a neutral presentation in every way. It sounds like neither tubes nor solid state, it is merely a conduit for music. Talking to Merrill Wettasinghe, the designer, he stresses the wide bandwidth of this preamplifier as part of it’s neutrality and it only takes a cursory listen to realize he’s on to something.

Get ready for major goosebumps

Queuing up Mickey Hart’s Drumming at the Edge, a real audible stunner, both for micro dynamics and dramatic bass drive instantly hammers home the capabilities of this preamplifier. The instantaneous nature of Hart’s big bass drums is engulfing, giving the Quads a level of sock that doesn’t happen easily, yet when fast forwarding a few tracks to “Lonesome Hero,” you can hear the beads flowing back and forth in their stick, and you’re waiting for Hart to hand it to you from inside one of the speakers like the ghost in Poltergeist about to pop out of the television set.

Moving on to “Mali Men” from Afel Bocoum and Alkibar, with it’s dueling acoustic guitars, the lightning speed of this preamp takes charge, revealing every nuance of the fretboard action, to the point where through the Quad 2812s, it’s as if you are sitting right in front of these guys feeling their fingers zoom up and down the fretboard. Saying that the Christine conveys the emotion of the performance doesn’t do this box justice.

Much fun as this preamplifier is with the Quads, (and they’ve turned in a breathtaking musical performance with the Christine) moving to the GamuT RS5i’s and the Focal Sopra no.3’s, both of which have some serious bass output, further illustrates the speed, precision and articulation of this incredible linestage. If you want bass grip, you’ve got it.

The deep, slippery bass groove in Thomas Dolby’s “Pulp Culture” hits hard through the Focals, and these speakers which share the Grande Utopia’s ability to nail percussion transients do an incredible job at painting a distinctly multilayered portrait of this and many other highly familiar recordings.

Even relatively blasé recordings like the Monkees self titled album reveal hidden treasure. Granted, the Christine shows off the somewhat low fi recording, it still digs up a plethora of detail, not only showcasing the delicate harmonies in the arrangements, but keeping the bass line intact and powerful. I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Last Train to Clarksville” sound more engaging.

Vocal and acoustic instrument aficionados will not be disappointed either. However, extended listening sessions reveal that while this linestage is tonally neutral and incredibly true to the music, it does not embellish in the least. Fortunately, it is not forward, etched or strident in any way, yet it will not make magic out of lousy recordings. So the final choice will be up to whether you want to play it as straight as it gets, or do you want special sauce?

Ins and outs

Magical presentation aside, this is probably one of the more difficult preamplifiers I’ve used. Nothing about the Christine is intuitive and while the manual is nearly 50 pages, you don’t even get to how to turn the damn thing on until page 24. Once you’ve paired the supplied Apple Remote and waded through a few menu layers, you will be rewarded with incredible sonics. Christine should be better accessorized for 13 grand. However, Mr. Wettasinghe has spent the money where it counts, on top of the line Cardas XLR connectors throughout. This is a fully balanced preamplifier, though it is supplied with two pairs (one for output, one for input) of Cardas premium XLR adaptors too. Always the mark of an excellent design, the Christine performs equally well mated to balanced or single ended components, so don’t shy away from it if the rest of your gear is adorned in RCA jacks.

Aesthetically, the shiny gold plated front panel will appeal to you or it won’t. Should you purchase the matching Jens phonostage, you will at least have two components that visually complement each other. The alphanumeric display screams Apollo 13, however it is easily read from across the room. Whether this will cloud your judgement and subsequent purchase decision is up to you.

We have no idea what’s inside the case of these solid-state miracles, as Wettasinghe does not talk about it or publish pictures. This preamplifier is a two-box design, with a smaller, external power supply attached via a supplied umbilical cord, which is also of very high quality. Should you buy one and open it up to peek for yourself, the warranty is void. As Tom Waits would say, “What’s he building in there?” Proprietary anything makes me suspicious and crabby at the same time, but the damn thing delivers. My K-10 is the same way. Shrouded in secrecy. We’ll never know.

Analog, eh?

The $15,500 Jens Reference phonostage is equally compelling. Sharing a similar lack on sonic signature with the Christine Reference linestage, the two together are a powerful combination. Fast, full range, and audibly engulfing. Oddly, for as much as Mr. Wettasinghe carries on about the benefits of a fully balanced topology, the Jens is single ended, with a single input and single output.

No matter, the delicacy of Eric Bibb’s guitar comes through strongly, striking a great balance of brushwork on the drums with Bibb’s plucky guitar style. His recent release from Pure Pleasure Analog is absolutely sublime. Partnered with the Koetsu Onyx Platinum, the Jens reveals a lot of music, taking you to a place I’ll stick my neck out and guess you haven’t been.

Gain is fixed at 70db, which works well with every cartridge in my collection, especially with said Koetsu, having only .3mv of output. Loading is widely variable from 5 ohms to 5,000 ohms, which should accommodate a wide range of cartridges, especially with the range between 25 and 500 offering the bulk of the settings.

Where the loading functionality of the Jens Reference Phono stage is incredibly well thought out, implementation is not terribly user friendly. That big lighted panel on the front face merely has three sets of LEDs indicating the Jens’ power up status. Adjusting gain requires going back behind the preamplifier, and rotating a pair of black knobs, hoping you’ve set the same number of clicks on each channel. If you are an analog lover that changes cartridges often, this will become tiresome in a hurry.

In all fairness, we didn’t knock the $60,000 Indigo Qualia for having one input and a single gain/loading setting, so we won’t knock the Jens for the same failing. Simaudio’s MOON LP810 also only sports a single input and is similarly priced to the Merrill Audio. So consider this a high performance phonostage for the music lover with a single turntable that doesn’t swap cartridges often. If you like to diddle with multiple table/arm/cart combinations, you might be best served elsewhere.

Again, like the Christine, the Jens is sealed, with an equal penalty (i.e. no warranty) so there is no way to see just what lurks underneath the cover and how the build quality of this preamplifier stacks up to its competitors.  It uses the same two box design, utilizing the same power supply as the Christine Reference Pre, so if you decide to go all Merrill Audio, the line and phono stages will require three shelves to accommodate all of the boxes.

Combining the Jens with the Christine makes for a dynamic combination. Both share the same ultra wide bandwidth design ethos and provide a very fast, clear and immediate presentation. Even the notoriously forward Rega Apheta 2, thanks to a 25 ohm loading setting is easily tamed, providing linear response. While there is no listed specification for signal to noise ratio, the Jens has a complete absence of background noise; it’s high res digital quiet, making for an incredibly dynamic analog presentation. All the audiophile cliché’s about “inky black backgrounds,” and “sound just creeping up out of the background,” etc., etc., apply here. Most phonostages have at least a tiny bit of noise, but not this one. Even with the volume control of the Christine cranked fully clockwise, there’s a total absence of sound. Impressive.

Total honesty

The Jens’ lack of sonic signature doesn’t really make for exciting audio journalism. Extended listening with a wide range of highly familiar pressings proves highly engaging. A perfect tonal balance, wide dynamic range and weighty presentation gradually increases the gravitational pull of your listening area. A few hours on the couch with the Jens makes it tough to escape your hifi system’s orbit. As more hours racked up, the same thought occurs when listening to the Jens, it epitomizes the analog feel, giving recordings this homogenous flow resembling a master tape that helps fool your brain into thinking you are listening to the real thing.

And the more you listen, the more you’ll be pulled in. Everything feels a little bigger, a little deeper than what you’re probably used to. The only phonostages that have exceeded this have been the $60k Qualia and the $65k Pass Xs Phono. I’ve yet to experience a phonostage that reveals this much music at this price, and that’s the highest compliment I can pay the Jens. A few other phonostages do things differently, a few are more user friendly and a couple of great tube phonostages offer their own sonic signature that one listener may prefer over another. But if you want analog honesty and you don’t mind the quirky nature of the Jens, I can think of no better phonostage unless you’ve got $60-65k to spend.

The Merrill Audio Jens Phonostage and Christine Linestage
MSRP:  $13,000 and $15,500 respectively

www.merillaudio.net

Peripherals

Turntables                   AVID Acutus REF SP/SME V/Lyra Atlas, Brinkmann Bardo/Koetsu Onyx Platinum

Preamplifier                Merrill Audio Christine, Pass Xs Pre

Amplifiers                   Pass Xs 300 Monoblocks

Speakers                      Quad 2812, GamuT RS5is, Focal Sopra no.2, Sonus faber Il Cremonese, MartinLogan Neolith

Cable                           Tellurium Q Silver Diamond interconnects and speaker cable

Closing the door on a Porsche 911, clicking the shutter on a titanium bodied Leica camera, that’s German engineering excellence, baby!

If you love that level of precision to go along with whatever high-performance product that suits your fancy, you’ll freak out just watching the 10.0 tonearm on the new Bardo lower ever so gently onto a waiting LP. This is such a precise, delicate action, the stylus cantilever on the Koetsu Onyx Platinum barely deflects at all. Those of you wanting to install a mega cartridge on your Bardo can rest assured it is up to the task.

As Adrian Belew’s trippy, reverse tracked, overdubbed vocals in “Big Electric Cat” go all the way from the edges of my speakers, out about seven more feet to the walls of my listening room, with detail galore, it’s easy to fall in love with this table. The Koetsu Onyx Platinum cartridge that costs as much as the Bardo puts forth a more engaging performance than it has here in any of my other reference turntables. Here, here for synergy. During the review period, everything from a Shure M97 to the Koetsu has been taken for a test drive, but the Japanese masterpiece wins the day. Everything on hand works exceptionally well with the Bardo. However, this table is fully up to the task of a $10k premium cartridge. It’s that good.

Living with Brinkmann’s direct drive Bardo for the last few months has been nothing but joy. This table is incredibly easy to set up, stays set up and is equally easy to use. With direct drive coming back in vogue these days, there are a few other DD tables on the market, but they are both considerably more expensive than the Bardo. Thanks to a change in their distribution scheme, and a Brinkmann USA office in place, the German manufacturer is now able to be much more price competitive, and that’s a great thing for analog lovers. The Bardo table/10.0 arm was still a fantastic deal at $13,500, but at $9,900, this is a straight out bargain for those wanting a world class, destination analog deck.

Should you want the benefits of Brinkmann’s direct drive expertise, but already have your favorite tonearm on hand, Brinkmann can supply whatever arm board you need. Ordering a Bardo sans tonearm will only set you back $7,000. Considering what a great job they do with their tonearm, which Helmut Brinkmann refers to as a hybrid unipivot design (and you can read more here http://www.brinkmann-audio.com/main.php?prod=tonarm100&lang=en) both mechanically and visually, it seems pointless to use another arm. But you can if you want to. To clarify the “hybrid” moniker, Helmut Brinkmann tells us that “his proprietary design uses Swiss-made gimbal bearings in the vertical plane and a bespoke unipivot in the horizontal.”

Multiple connectivity options make this beautiful table even easier to integrate into your system. Our review sample arrives with standard RCA connections going from table to phono preamplifier, but you can also opt for balanced XLR connections (this will take a little longer for delivery, as the RCA’s are standard issue), or a 5-pin DIN socket. Modifying an existing Brinkmann arm to a Din connector will set you back an additional $180. Handy if you already have a premium tonearm cable in your arsenal.

A further performance upgrade is available with the optional RoNt vacuum tube power supply ($4,190) for those wanting still more performance. A few Brinkmann owners have commented that this is not a subtle improvement, so look forward to a follow-up review sometime next year.

More music

The easier a turntable is to use, the more likely it is to get used. The Bardo takes up a small footprint and being a non-suspended table, you may want to install one of the better isolation bases, like the ones from SRA; it all depends on your room and taste. My floor is relatively inert and thanks to an SRA Scuttle rack, I felt no need to improve on the Bardo’s placement in my room.

Going way back to the obscure bin, an old favorite, Tim Curry’s Fearless is an album full of slick late 70s production, with some of rock’s favorite sidemen backing up Dr. Frank-n-Furter in his alternate career as a serious musician. The bass line in this record has always sounded somewhat vague, yet when portrayed by the Bardo, it’s rock solid. Actually, everything played on the Bardo has an uncanny sense of pace to it. The nearly $40k AVID Acutus REF SP and SME V has a little more weight in the lows and delicacy in the highs, but the Bardo is unbeatable at its price point.

Direct drive is not a dirty phrase

It goes without saying that a lot of the resolution the Bardo offers comes from meticulous build quality and attention to detail. Much of the major pace and timing accuracy this table delivers comes from the direct drive system. Utilizing Feickert’s iPhone app to check speed accuracy reveals most belt drive turntables to be relatively close to spinning at 33.33 r.p.m., but there is a fair amount of variation on the theme.

Watching the real-time speed graph for the Bardo, it’s near flat across the board. The phrase “rock solid” definitely applies here. Because Brinkmann implements direct drive the opposite way that the legendary Technics tables did, the result is much more to the liking of a modern audiophile.

Technics DD tables, initially designed for the broadcast world, used a high torque motor, hammered into speed accuracy by a quartz lock control mechanism, resulting a lot of motor “cogging.” This is what happens in the small spaces in the 360-degree rotation of the motor that don’t always have power applied. Unfortunately, this aggressive speed control did exactly the opposite of what was intended. Pulling out my SL-1200, with the excellent TimeStep power supply and a stock SL-1200, tracks played on the Brinkmann get progressively flatter in terms of three dimensionality, going back to the TimeStep equipped 1200 and then a stock one. It’s easy to see how the early direct drive tables got pooh-poohed, and I can see how easy it was to be seduced by the Oracle back in the early 80s.

Mr. Brinkman’s low torque approach, coupled to a heavy platter and world class bearing makes for smooth sailing. It takes about 8-10 rotations to get up to full speed, which is about the amount of time that it takes for the tonearm to set, and once you shut the power off, it rotates for a long time before coming to full stop. Brinkmann’s research led him to the current lead crystal platter insert in the aluminum platter, making for a major increase in resolution over one strictly machined from aluminum. Brinkmann spends a tremendous amount of time on materials research alone, and on his website, he claims this goes all the way down to the fasteners used to hold things together! The proof is in the listening; this is a very refined design.

Controlled ease

The presentation of the Bardo is indeed unique. Record after record has an ease and freedom from fatigue, again because of the excellent speed accuracy this table offers. Friends with canine hearing claiming perfect pitch that can hear a plethora of speed issues on every table I’ve ever reviewed were not only dead silent listening to the Bardo but they were also outright complimentary. Violins take on a magical realism with this table because of that speed accuracy.

You’ll probably key in immediately to how great your rock records sound, should you be a fan of this genre. The Bardo does a great job in the bass performance, but if you live on a strict diet of Zeppelin, you might not notice the subtleties of this table quite as much as the classical listener preferring soloists and small ensemble music. Sampling this fair gives the Bardo a near reel to reel tape like transparency.

Our choice for Analog POY

Here’s why the Brinkmann Bardo is our choice for 2016 Analog Product of the Year; it offers tremendous value, build quality, sound quality and ease of use. I’ve listened to my fair share of $100,000 plus turntables and have always walked away unimpressed. You can buy a pretty major hi-fi system for $100k, and I suggest if you take that path, you put the Bardo on top of your rack. Seriously, other than a few audio reviewers and a couple of hedge fund managers that got a screaming deal, who owns a $100,000 turntable anyway?

Wacky as it might sound, the $10,000 – $20,000 category is the hottest category for “destination” turntables. There are a handful of great tables costing 2-3 times this much (like the SME 30, the AVID Acutus REF SP and a few others), and they do reveal more music for sure. But again, the Brinkmann Bardo presents so much music, especially with your choice of awesome $5,000 – $10,000 cartridge, I’ll stick my neck out and say that most of us could live happily ever after right here.

If you’re currently using a table in the $3,000 – $5,000 category, you will be floored at just how much more musical information and nuance that the Bardo can shed light on, that if you have the purchasing power, this won’t be a difficult decision.

I’ve purchased the review sample and plan on spinning a lot more records on the Bardo. It’s simple, elegant, yet high-performance design has captured my enthusiasm. Should you be planning on buying a table in this price range, I not only recommend the Bardo, I sincerely hope you will audition one, and see if you enjoy it as much as I do.

The Brinkmann Bardo Turntable

MSRP:  $9,900 with Brinkmann 10.1 tonearm ($260 savings, purchasing the bundle)

http://brinkmann-audio.com

Peripherals

Phono Cartridge                    Koetsu Onyx Platinum, Ortofon Cadenza Black

Phonostage                            Pass XS Phono

Preamp                                  Pass XS Pre

Power Amps                          Pass XS 300 monoblocks

Speakers                                GamuT RS5i, MartinLogan Neolith, Quad 2812

Cable                                      Tellurium Q Black Diamond speaker and interconnect,

Power cords                           Cardas Clear

A relative newcomer to the audio industry, U.S.-based Kanto opened its doors in January of 2007. After working for larger consumer electronics companies for many years, Kanto’s founders put their design discipline to work developing new products to meet their goal of delivering high-quality products at very reasonable prices. Kanto’s latest speaker product conceived in Canada, the Yumi powered speaker, is building a fan base of its own. After putting the Yumis through their paces, I count myself among Kanto’s recent fans.

In The Eye of the Beholder

Kanto speakers are available in a variety of colors to blend in with any home décor or provide a nice contrasting hue. A prospective owner has the choice of matte black, gray and white finishes. However, I’d highly recommend choosing from one of the beautifully executed gloss finish options including black, white, gray, blue, purple, or red.

Kanto deviates from the standard boxy speaker shape, giving the Yumi’s a modern twist. While the front and back of the speakers are flat as you would expect, all the speaker’s side edges are curved. Rather than having defined sides it’s more like the speaker has a “flow” around it.

Tweeting and woofing are handled by a one-inch silk dome, and a five-inch Kevlar driver, respectively. Despite the small dimensions, these drivers prove themselves serious workhorses. To encourage better bass response, each speaker has a two-inch bass port. With the ability to output frequencies ranging from 60Hz to 20 KHz, the Yumi’s cover the majority of the human hearing spectrum. For those craving full range bass down to 20 Hz, the Yumi’s do include one subwoofer output on the rear.

Lots Under the Hood

Within the modern exterior lies the real magic of the Yumis. In Kanto’s design implementation, one of the two speakers is both the brains and brawn of the pair. It houses the control knob, source switching circuits, and the amplifier. Only this speaker must be attached to a power outlet using a standard electrical cord. Each of these elements requires some additional explanation.

The dual-purpose knob on the front not only controls volume but by pushing in the knob and rotating it, the Yumi toggles through various input options. Owners have a choice of connections for music sources including RCA, 3.5mm, Bluetooth, and optical.

Opposite the knob is a small LED that indicates the speaker’s state and source.  White, blue and amber colors – flashing or solid –  show various states of sources and power readiness. In addition to the various inputs, and a power switch on the rear of the speaker, a built-in USB charger is a convenient addition, making it easy to charge a mobile phone or another audio device while using that device to stream music.

Yumi’s are powered by a 30-Watt Class AB amplifier. Putting that much juice in a little speaker enclosure is a bit like packing a turbo charged V8 engine in a Volkswagen Bug… and it’s awesome! While I admire greatly the energy efficiency and sound quality of modern Class D amp designs used in many powered speakers today, there’s still something about the older-school amplifier circuitry that usually generates, to my ears, a more musically engaging and lifelike experience. The Class AB implementation in the Yumi is no exception. When in standby mode, the Yumi amp sips only half a watt, keeping the circuitry warm and ready for use. While the owner can manually put the Yumi’s into standby mode via the remote, the speakers will do it automatically if no source material is detected for a period.

External dimensions of the speakers are a scant 6.9” W x 8.1” D x 10.6” H (17.4 x 20.5 x 27 cm). The Yumi speaker pair weighs in at about 23 pounds. Of course, the passive speaker makes up only 8.8 pounds (4 Kg) of that heft since the heavy amplifier, power supply, and other technology is packed inside the other speaker enclosure.

All in the Wrist

As if all this isn’t stellar enough, the Yumis come with a plastic remote that fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, allowing the owner to control many functions from the comfort of a favorite listening seat. Volume, mute, and source selection are complemented with the ability to control bass and treble. A reset button snaps the sound back to neutral when frequency emphasis isn’t desired. When using a Bluetooth connection, additional buttons control the ability to play, pause, or select the previous or next song.

Sending music from a phone via Bluetooth is incredibly easy, however, in my experience a fair amount of fidelity gets lost with compressed music despite the Yumi’s implementation of the aptX codec created to give Bluetooth better sonics. Using the analog RCA inputs to pipe in music from my reference rig, the Yumis take flight. In every perceivable way, music comes though with a sonic improvement over of the wireless connection. It may be silly to feed the Yumi’s a signal from sources priced much more expensively than the Yumi’s themselves, however, these speakers demonstrate their ability to take great source material and deliver it to the listener in a musically satisfying and very engaging way.

Shocking Sound

These powers speakers deliver impressive sound. Though the Yumi, tracks like “Rotten Apple” by Alice in Chains have a surprising level of texture, emotion and depth which I would normally associate with  larger speakers and more powerful upstream equipment. Similarly, vocal tracks like Cat Power’s “Silver Stallion” reveal the emotion of the performance.

There’s a relaxed naturalness to the Yumis voice. It’s easy to settle into long listening sessions with various music types like electronica, vocals, pop, classical and jazz, never feeling like huge compromises are made. All of the tracks auditioned are delivered with nuance and delicacy beyond the Yumi’s price point. At the same time, there’s a quick-paced liveliness when the music dictates it. These speakers are not one-trick ponies, but chameleons that do well with whatever musical information is thrown at them.

The bass these little babies put out defies expectation. Even a few feet from the rear wall without any bass loading, there’s a good amount of lower frequency heft, and adding a little more is no problem thanks to the tone control options. With any small enclosure, though, there are bass limitations. Those craving heavy and tactile low frequency information can utilize the Yumi’s subwoofer output to augment the monitors.

From a soundstaging perspective, the speakers offer additional surprises. They somehow manage to throw a huge, three dimensional soundstage with ease, as you might expect from a great pair of mini monitors. Musical elements exceed the left and right boundaries of the speaker bodies and there’s a perceived depth of musical cues projected well above and behind the speakers.

The Yumi speakers deserve many accolades. But yes, they do have limitations. Are these tiny speakers going to reproduce spacious orchestral works with the impact, powerful swells and crescendos of a full range floor-standing speaker? Of course not. It’s important to frame perspective here. Let’s just say these Kanto speakers pour forth music, across the frequencies they are capable of reproducing, with ease, grace, and potency.

Given the speaker size and $449 price tag, I can’t criticize something that does so much so well. Some compromises must be decided deliberately by designers in order to satisfy size requirements, manufacturing costs, and future consumer sales. Kanto’s team made took a lot of care to avoid glaring errors that can make modestly priced speakers sound or feel cheap, impeding listening enjoyment. For potential owners living in a small apartment, or who want a set of speakers in a bedroom or den, the Yumis easily offer enough oomph to fill a room with spacious sound. Heck, they did a mighty good job filling my main listening space.

Get ‘Em While They’re Hot!

Right out the gate, these speakers command attention and deliver big, thrilling sound that seems impossible from such an unassuming enclosure. It’s a pleasure to test a product that provides so much quality for a modest price. Over the course of my time with the Yumis, my enthusiasm for them only grows. At the end of the review period, I could not bear to pack up and return these mini marvels, and purchased the demo pair. For all they offer at their price point, we award the Kanto Yumi Speakers a 2016 Exceptional Value Award.

Kanto Yumi Powered Speakers

MSRP: $449

www.kantoliving.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, dCS Debussy

Preamplification: Coffman Labs G1-B

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

The good news is that after years of refinement, MartinLogan has nailed the integration of ESL panel and dynamic woofer to a level they have never done.

I’ve owned nearly every version of ML speaker over the last 25 years and have loved them all. But these take the concept to perfection. Three minutes into the classic Robert Plant track “Sixes and Sevens,” there’s a tiny bell that sounds like a manual typewriter return and it hangs in space, crystal clear in a way that this well-worn classic rock track has never done. Even a fairly dense recording, like TV on the Radio’s Dear Science is unlocked, revealing a plethora of new information. That’s what you spend the big money on a pair of speakers for – and these are big money. Just a few nickels shy of $80k.

Turning the volume control on the Pass Xs Pre further clockwise, closing my eyes and staying in that vein, a 45 rpm maxi single of AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock” pegs the meters on the Xs300 power amplifiers and I’m transported back to the front row of Milwaukee’s Auditorium. The cannons blast, without the usual clipping and compression that plagues most systems I’ve heard, and it’s 1981 again.

Other speakers I’ve been listening to sound small in comparison. You wouldn’t think anything this big could possibly disappear in the room, yet these monstrous speakers completely vanish. Even with the lights on, they just fade out of view. The Neoliths don’t just deliver holographic imaging, they turn your listening room into the holodeck. Where most other ESLs (some past ML models included) generate a luscious musical rendition, albeit with a small optimal listening spot, you can stretch out with the Neolith. Not only do they produce a couch-wide listening sweet spot, they sound pretty damn good when you’re just sitting down on the floor or off somewhere to the side. This doesn’t happen with any other ESL, period.

You might think an $80 thousand pair of speakers would do everything, and on many levels the Neoliths do. But just like the world’s most exotic cars, the mega speakers all have different personalities, some with greater strengths than others. Having spent a few years with the CLX as a reference speaker and reveling in its glory, it still did not represent mega speaker status to me. When set up to perfection it offered a glimpse into music that very few speakers at any price could match. But the CLX was not a full range speaker and required a great, actually a pair of great, subwoofers to really reveal all.

The Neolith is a different story entirely, featuring full range frequency response that doesn’t require augmentation with subwoofers, and stepping out from past ML hybrid designs, the Neolith is fully passive, not incorporating internal amplifiers. These are mega speakers in every sense.

Redefining what can be

The journey that began with the Summits 11 years ago culminates in the Neolith, and on so many levels exceeds what I thought a panel speaker capable of. If you haven’t been reading TONEAudio for a long time, I must confess a love for panel (primarily ESL) speakers and have owned a plethora of MartinLogan, Magnepan, Quad, Acoustat and Apogee speakers. But none of these speakers have proved captivating in the way the Neolith renders music.

Every time I review a pair of MartinLogan speakers I have to go back to “Tea in the Sahara” by the Police, from their Synchronicity album, because this is where my journey with the brand began almost 30 years ago. This sparsely recorded yet dynamic track with a quickly paced bass line is tough to get right on any speaker, yet hearing this for the first time on the legendary CLS was a revelation.

To refresh my memory, I spent a day with TONE staffer Jerold O’Brien, who just picked up a pair of CLS IIzs with brand new ESL panels, combined with a Krell KSA-50 amplifier and highly modded early Levinson preamplifier. Add a lovingly restored Oracle Delphi series II and a Dynavector 17D3 cartridge and I’m nearly sitting on the same couch at Listen Up! in Denver, Colorado, again. Not to mention it makes for a great way to revisit my first Martin Logan experience.

As MartinLogan moved to their current hybrid designs, making their speakers more user friendly, some models have performed better than others. From the Summit and Vantage models introduced about six years ago, their design staff has been on a roll, integrating the ESL panel with the woofer in great fashion, each model getting a little better. Honestly, the Summit is still a speaker I could live with happily ever after with a combination of transparency and integration that is tough to fault.

The Neolith supersizes everything; it’s an ESL hybrid that is without limits – at least not ones I could find. No matter what the program material, they never felt pushed, compressed or at any kind of disadvantage.

While the Neolith can handle any kind of program material with ease, its strength is that big ESL panel – 35% larger than even their Statement E2. If there has ever been a speaker that music truly flows from, it’s the Neolith. Other mega speakers like the Focal Grande Utopia EM, the GamuT Zodiac or the Sonus faber Aida all are equally mighty, but in this area none of them can match the Neolith. Spinning the title track from Traffic’s The Low Spark of High Heel Boys, the gentle fade-in as the track begins, just seems to enter the listening space from nowhere. Then, as it reaches full volume, it’s present everywhere.

No crossovers in the signal path, from 400Hz on up, makes this happen. As great as the world’s best speaker manufacturers have become at driver, cabinet and crossover design, the interaction of different materials, the varied transient attack of different drivers still does not make for the seamless approach that one large driver with no crossover network dividing things up can offer.

It’s much like comparing the performance of the latest Ferrari to the Tesla P85D. Both cars are nearly equally fast on paper, but the driving experience is completely different. When you put the pedal down in the Tesla, 100mph comes up in nearly the same time, but the experience is completely effortless, without shifting gears. You might say it’s like butter.

You don’t realize how effortless it is until you go back to a traditional speaker, perusing the same music. On another level, it’s much like the seamlessness you hear when listening to a great SET amplifier, and if you’re like me, you might ponder “how can I get about 200 watts per channel of this?”  While you can’t get a 200-watt per channel SET, you can get the MartinLogan Neolith.

This brings up another important aspect of the Neolith’s performance. It’s the most tube friendly speaker MartinLogan has yet produced. Where other models have been less than sparkly on the high end with some tube amplifiers, the Neolith turns in an exciting performance with our PrimaLuna HP integrated amplifier (configured with KT150 tubes for nearly 100 watts per channel), Conrad Johnson CA125sa+, and the Audio Research GS150. They even turn in a respectful performance with the 20-watt per channel Nagra 300p. Wrestling a few other tube amplifiers from friends yields similar results – bad tube sound could not be found with these speakers.

Yip Yap

A cursory look at terrorist chatter on the internet reveals a fair number of people biased against the Neolith, claiming underwhelming demos, and as someone who tries to not fund the terrorists whenever possible, I must agree. I too have heard some very underwhelming Neolith demos, just as I have heard disappointing demos of a handful of other mega speakers. The Neoliths need to be set up properly, with truly great components behind them to deliver the maximum experience. And once you hear them in that context, I guarantee you will be blown away.

Revisiting time-worn tracks provides a wealth of new information. These speakers dig deep, really deep. Going back to albums used as demo tracks for decades is a sheer blast. Unveiling the jewels that Brian Eno left for us to discover in Devo’s Q: Are We Not Men is an auditory Easter egg hunt. The additional electronic pops in “Shrivel Up” and the extra vocal and guitar overdubs in the title tracks are simply hallucinogenic.

But it can’t all be sex, drugs, and rock & roll (or can it?). The separation of the violins in Arnold Bax’s String Quintet in G proves equally enticing. The violin is such a tough instrument to get right, yet the Neoliths sail through this album with perfect tone and timbre. Unlike the big Magnepans, which paint a supersized picture of ten-foot-tall violins, the Neoliths keep the size of the instruments as they should be. My 16 x 25 foot room creates an image that feels as if those four players are sitting about eight feet in front of my couch – it’s that holodeck thing again.

As user-friendly as a 385 pound speaker can be

It’s always fun to see how much better a manufacturer is at setting their speaker up than I am, and as you might imagine, I’ve gotten pretty good at setting up MartinLogan speakers. Due to the weight of the Neoliths and the willingness of ML’s Peter Soderberg to bring an associate and offer some extra muscle, I let him do the dirty work.

Once out of the crate, the preinstalled casters make short work of getting the Neolith into initial position. The front firing 12” woofer works full range up to the 400Hz crossover point, but the rear firing 15” woofer (with 4-inch voice coil) acts as a subwoofer, operating from 60Hz down.  Jumper adjustments to attenuate the bass output by -4 or -8 dB, along with a “distance control” to optimize floor and panel interaction, made this the quickest and most precise Martin Logan setup I’ve ever experienced. The supplied spikes can then be installed to get the perfect rake and tighten up the last bit of LF energy.

Without these adjustments, I may not have been able to achieve the stunning results I did in my 16 x 25 foot listening room and after hearing the Neolith in a few larger rooms, I’d suggest the more space you can throw at these speakers, the better. An even bigger, more cohesive musical experience awaits you if you can give your Neoliths a little more room to breathe. I’d go as far as to say that if your room is any smaller than mine, go for one of the smaller models for best results.

A quick sweep of test tones reveals solid bass response all the way to 20Hz. Playing a suite of EDM and hip hop tracks confirms the measurements; high volume of the initial bass line in Genesis’s “Back in N.Y.C.” would push the Maxell man’s chair out of the room. The Neolith will punch you in the chest, hard.

Some big speakers can only play big, while some small speakers can only play small. The MartinLogan Neolith does it all. A solo vocalist or instrument is rendered just right, with the tiniest of musical nuances never blown out of proportion. Yet when you need to rock, they will blow you away. Few speakers at any price can do this, putting the Neolith into the rarefied air of the world’s finest.

Faint of heart

The MartinLogan website says the Neolith is “not for the faint of heart.” At $79,995/pair, they are not for the faint of wallet either.  And at 385 pounds each, unboxed, you won’t be able to unpack these beauties if you are faint of bicep. The world’s finest electronics will take you to a new solar system of sound, yet the ease with which these speakers mate to nearly any amplifier make these our choice for this year’s Speaker of the Year. Watch for more gushing in issue 80.

If you love the portrait of music that panel loudspeakers create, there is no better embodiment of the genre than the MartinLogan Neolith.

The MartinLogan Neolith
MSRP:  $79,995/pair

www.martinlogan.com

Peripherals

Analog source:   Brinkmann Bardo turntable w/Koetsu Jade cartridge

Digital source:  dCS Rossini DAC, Rossini Clock and Paganini Transport

Preamplifier:  Pass XSPre

Phonostage:  Pass XSPhono

Amplifier:       Pass XS300 monoblocks

Cable:             Cardas Clear

Features

Old School:

The Bowers & Wilkins 803 Matrix 2

995:

KEF’s wireless Muo

By Rob Johnson

Journeyman Audiophile:

Q Acoustics Concept 40  Loudspeakers

By Mark Marcantonio

Personal Fidelity:

Woo Audio’s WA8 Headphone Amplifier

By Jeff Dorgay

TONE Style

The Wino: Four Modern Wines of Austria

Beck-01: The ultimate Jeff Beck book

The Impossible Camera

Hong Kong Phooey T-shirt

Mercedes USB Drive

Mahabis Classic Slippers

Scross Universal Voltage Adaptor

Music

Spin the Black Circle: Reviews of New Pop/Rock and Country Albums
By Bob Gendron, Todd Martens, Chrissie Dickinson, Andrea Domanick and Aaron Cohen

Jazz & Blues: Dave Douglas, Mat Ellerstein, and More!
By Aaron Cohen and Jim Macnie

Bob Gendron listens to the Stones in Mono

Gear Previews

The G-Lab Block Amplifier

Pear Audio Kid Howard Turntable

Tellurium Q Black Diamond interconnects

Soulines Kubrick HDX Turntable

VPI Prime Turntable

Reviews

B&W 803 D Speakers

Naim Mu-so QB mini

SVS Ultra Bookshelf Speakers

MartinLogan Neolith Speakers

McIntosh C1100 Preamplifier

Sonus faber Il Cremonese Speakers

JL Audio Fathom IWS Subwoofer

The home page of the Pear Audio Analogue website says that they are “turntables with pedigree.” If you’re relatively new to the vinyl game, it’s possible that you haven’t heard about the Nottingham or Well Tempered turntables, but the man behind Pear, Peter Mezek had a profound involvement with both of these legendary tables. So the tagline is very accurate.

These tables are hand built by Mezek in his factory in Slovenia, so these are as close to bespoke as it gets. The Kid Howard is as manual as it gets too; there is no power switch and because of the very low torque motor involved, KH needs a little push to get moving in the morning. But then again, so do I, so I won’t be too hard on this little turntable that can. This no-frills approach sets you back $4,995 with the Cornet 2 tonearm, which is a derivative of the Nottingham Ace arm, no slouch to be sure.

In the days of manufacturers applying Formula 1 machining techniques to their aesthetic design, as well as the goings-on under the hood, the Kid Howard looks somewhat primitive, mechanically at first glance. The olive green wooden plinth almost looks like it is hand carved and stained. I’ll warn you now the proof is in the listening with this table.

There are a great many ways to design a turntable, but the ultimate goal is to spin the platter at as perfectly close to 33.33 r.p.m., and isolate the record on that platter from any vibration either from the drive system and the surrounding environment. In essence, the stylus is merely tracking that delicate groove perfectly, unaffected by anything else.

Of course, everyone claims their way is the best, with some even insisting that the others have it all wrong. Mezek prefers to use a drive belt to isolate a motor with extremely low torque minimizing the vibration transmitted to that delicate stylus assembly. Pear’s approach results in a lower noise floor and a larger sound field.

Do turntables have a sound?

Just like so many love to argue about the “sound” of an amplifier, DAC or any other component. The choices that every designer makes positively effect the overall sound of a turntable, or perhaps more accurately, the way the turntable’s platter and motor (or suspension if applicable) interact with everything else in the record playing system to have a sonic signature. The KH definitely has a somewhat warm, relaxed feel. On many levels it reminds me of a mid to late 80s Linn LP-12, and that’s not a bad thing by any means.

This table does not require the constant fiddling that my Linn always seemed to need. The KH has more sheer bass drive than that LP-12 did. A quick phone call to staffer Jerold O’Brien brings that LP-12 back, amidst curses that “it will take a week to get this damn thing sounding the way it did.”  The KH’s unipivot tonearm is enclosed, so it won’t pop off in your hands the way a VPI arm wand does, but if you are used to more traditional tonearms, you will need to get used to the slightly floppy nature of this arm. Some may snark about the lack of a finger lift, but none of my SME arms use one either, so this was not a point of contention. SME’s founder, the late ARA, claimed that the purist approach to the tonearm did not require one, so that’s good enough for me.

The bass line throughout the tunes on the ORG pressing of Joni Mitchell’s Wild Things Run Fast have more presence, more palpability and detail than on the LP-12, and certainly more than a few other things I have lying around. I found joy with every cartridge mated to the KH. At the suggestion of Michael Vamos, the Pear importer (and the incredible GamuT speakers) I began the review with the Ortofon Cadenza black MC cartridge, one posessing a sound that we are both familiar with. Comparing this to the sound of my Feickert Blackbird, where this cartridge usually resides and could immediately hear a bit less of the more neutral, almost clinical sound that this cartridge, for better or worse can exhibit.

Swapping to one of the more reasonably priced ZYX cartridges, the Fuji-R100 was the winning combination for me. Again, remember, I like things just a few molecules on the warm side and will always happily throw the last few bits of detail and resolution for pace, ease and musicality.

Regardless of program material, everyone that listened to the KH only took about five minutes to arrive at the same comment. This table has a powerful lower register, almost like my Thorens TD-124 possesses and that’s wildly ironic when you consider that the drive motor has virtually no torque. See why it’s not a good idea to jump to conclusions? The KH’s speed stability is directly related to the 17-pound aluminum platter. Remember physics 101: bodies in motion tend to stay in motion, and that’s certainly the case here. Oddly, as you install said platter, there is a big brown thing that resembles a grounding strap, providing a slight drag on it. Pear claims that this further stabilizes rotational accuracy, offering the slightest bit of tension on the platter-to-motor interface.

Reveling in minutiae

For all of its other virtues, the KH excels at retrieving fine details and spatial cues. Rather than bore you with countless examples, suffice to say this one will surprise you as you wade through your favorite tracks. I always try to suggest evaluating any new piece of gear with three distinct categories of recordings: records you are intimately familiar with, fantastic recordings and dreadful recordings.

The KH is outstanding in all three categories. Time worn musical favorites reveal fine inner detail that I’d never expect a table at this price to expose. The sound field rendered is big, big, big; extending well beyond the speaker boundaries, all the way out to the side walls in the room. Audiophile darlings with tons of detail do not disappoint either. That big platter is a big help when listening to solo piano or violin; both of these highly sophisticated instruments are reproduced without waver, retaining the necessary amount of weight to sound highly convincing. Lastly, the crappiest recordings in my collection come across with a vigor that I wasn’t expecting. Often this can be the most telltale sign of a table’s performance.

While this turntable can be dissected in many ways, it offers a sheer level of enjoyment that is tough to adequately describe. After about 10 minutes of listening, you’ll get it. The Kid Howard grows on you quickly. Yes, there are turntables that resolve more detail, etc. etc., but this table is a sheer musical pleasure. As I mentioned in issue 78, regarding Enjoyment Per Hour, this is one of my favorite turntables at any price.

The Pear Kid Howard ticks all the boxes, and at a much lower price than I’d expect. $5,000 is still a lot of money to spend for most people, but if you are thinking of spending this much on a table, the KH would be at the top of my list, and I doubt that you’d get more performance for the money.

Generally, this paragraph would make the KH a shoe in for an Exceptional Value Award, but it’s that time of the year again. I reserve the small handful of Publishers Choice Awards for the components that are my absolute favorites of the year, and the Kid Howard is not only on my list for the year, but it’s also on my favorite tables of all time list. However, we don’t give awards for that. Maybe we should. This is a music lovers turntable.

Pear Audio Kid Howard Turntable

MSRP: $4,995 with Cornet 2 tonearm

www.audioskies.com (NA Distributor)

Peripherals

Preamplifier            Conrad Johnson GAT series 2

Phonostage            Conrad Johnson TEA-1 series 2

Amplifier            Conrad Johnson LP125sa+, Pass Labs Xs300 monos

Speakers            GamuT RS5i

Cable                Cardas Clear

If you’re the kind of person that’s on the phone shopping for upgraded wheels, tires, suspension and brake components the minute you bring your new superbike or sports car home from the dealer (possibly even before you take delivery…) then this brief article might interest you. However, if you like things as they come from the factory, then turn the page.

It’s no secret we love the PrimaLuna  DiaLogue HP integrated amplifier. My relationship with PrimaLuna goes back to day one – the original ProLogue, which I reviewed for The Absolute Sound, and subsequently purchased. That little amplifier is still in my family on it’s second set of tubes, chugging away, nearly 14 years later without as much as a burp. That’s awesome reliability as far as I’m concerned.

As PrimaLuna expanded from their ProLogue series to the DiaLogue series, with bigger transformers and even better components, building on the core values that made them great, the resolution just kept improving. Their Adaptive Auto-Bias™ makes all the headaches associated with biasing tubes a thing of the past. In 14 years of using PrimaLuna amplifiers, I’ve only had one tube failure, and the  Adaptive Auto-Bias™ did its job safely and efficiently, shutting the amplifier down without bother. On a few other “big name” tube amplifiers I’ve owned, this would cause at least a blown fuse, and on occasion, led to a blown resistor; once bad enough to scorch the circuit board beyond repair, and once a mini mushroom cloud. Fortunately, I was sitting close by, jumped up instantly to pull the plug and spray a little bit of Halon on the culprit. But I digress.

A tube rolling dream

To make this perfectly clear, all of the PrimaLuna amps come from the factory sounding great. Kevin Deal is the undisputed Jedi master of vacuum tubes, and he takes great care to voice the tubes in your PrimaLuna. If you don’t want to fiddle, sit back and enjoy, these are the world’s easiest tube amplifiers to live with.

But if you’re that guy or gal that has to wring a bit more performance out of everything, consider the KT150 option in your HP. Out of the box, the HP delivers 70 watts per channel with EL-34s and 73 per channel with KT-88s. No big deal there, the KT88 choice is more of a tone control, but swapping to KT120s takes you up to 89 watts per channel and all the way to 96 watts per channel with KT150s!

However, a set of KT150s will set you back $800. As Patrick Starfish likes to say, “That’s crazy talk SpongeBob!” But who ever said big fun was cheap? It’s still cheaper than a set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports for my BMW, and the way PrimaLuna runs their tubes, I guarantee you’ll go through about four $1500 sets of Michelins before you ever wear out those KT150s, so it’s a bargain. While I’m spending your money, grab a pair of super duper 12AU7s from Kevin to replace the two driver tubes too. You only live once.

Viva la difference

Some speakers responded to the upgrade more than others, and depending on your listening tastes, you may even prefer the EL-34s – they sound lovely. When driving my Graham LS5/9s, I honestly like the sweeter sound of the EL-34. That Adaptive Auto-Bias™ makes it a snap, just plug the new tubes in, push the bias switch on the right side of the amp and go. Best of all, considering how gently the PrimaLuna amplifiers are on tubes, should you have some mega-expensive NOS EL34s, they will last forever.

If you really like to rock out, that nearly 30 extra watts per channel does comes in handy. Recently I used the HP to break in a set of $45,000 Sonus faber Il Cremonese speakers and with the KT150s installed, this little (but heavy) $4,500 amplifier was giving the five-figure stuff a run for the money.  Where the HP equipped with EL-34s struggled a little bit to drive the massive MartinLogan Neolith speakers, just reviewed in issue 79, with the KT150s it was smooth sailing with plenty of headroom.

The biggest surprise and joy is driving the Quad 2812s with the HP/KT 150 combination. These ESLs don’t really need a lot of power to sing, however they do benefit from an amplifier with a lot of grip, and the HP is one of my favorite amplifiers for driving these speakers at any price. Swapping the KT150s felt like I added a pair of subwoofers to the Quads. The only time these speakers have demonstrated this kind of low-end grunt is when they are connected to the Pass Xs 300 monoblocks. ($85,000/pair) To get this kind of sound out of an amplifier just tipping the scale over five grand with a complete set of KT150s is unbelievable. In every other instance, the KT150s are a to-taste option, but if you are driving a set of Quads, the KT150 upgrade will change your worldview.

Am I crazy?

Probably. One of the most fun aspects of a PrimaLuna is the ease by which you can swap tubes, offering an almost infinite level of fine-tuning. This may drive some of you to insanity, but if you can approach this with a bit of prudence with a specific goal in mind, it’s exciting indeed.

Though spendy, keep the KT150 option in mind for your HP. Considering my original ProLogue went almost 9 years before I had to retube, this isn’t even a latte a week. Like I said earlier, it’s a bargain.

If you call Kevin Deal at Upscale Audio, to get a set for your HP, you won’t be disappointed. Highly recommended.

www.upscaleaudio.com

Several years after the Beatles and Bob Dylan got their just due in mono on audiophile vinyl, the Rolling Stones finally receive analog treatment worthy of their pivotal contributions to pop culture and rock n’ roll’s evolution. Spanning the band’s Decca output, and ranging from 1964’s The Rolling Stones through 1969’s Let It Bleed, the self-descriptive The Rolling Stones in Mono 16LP box set hits all the marks a reference archival release should. In short: For those wondering whether the trove—overseen by ABKCO audio engineer Teri Landi, cut at Abbey Road Studios by Sean Magee and Alex Wharton from new flat-master DSD files created by Bob Ludwig from the original analog mono master tapes, and pressed at GZ Media—is worth the roughly $350 investment even if you already own these records, you’ll get satisfaction. And much more. The anthology also again proves Phil Spector’s beliefs correct, at least in stereo’s nascent era.

As with the Fab Four pressings, some fans will undoubtedly pick nits with topics ranging from album-cover reproduction to whether “2000 Light Years from Home” sounds better on a U.K.-only LP last seen in an obscure dime store during the Lyndon Johnson presidency and now fetching outrageous sums on eBay. Let them. It’s their loss. Similarly, some reviewers will sweat over acute nuances amidst eight different pressings and, simultaneously, insert themselves into the narrative while mistaking self-importance and self-promotion for comprehensiveness. If you’re seeking such a comparative shootout or thesis-worthy track-by-track commentary, go ahead and stop reading. TONE’s purpose is more pragmatic and concise. Why? For one reason, practicality. Currently, the set is numbered and limited to 10,000 copies, meaning it could sell out while listeners sit on the sidelines waiting for a 3,000-word screed before deciding whether they should purchase it. Second, and more importantly: Fun. The thrills of a reissue as finely executed as The Rolling Stones in Mono relate to immediately experiencing songs you think you know inside-out from new perspectives made possible by freshly uncovered information, enhanced depth, and lifelike sonics that plop you down beside the band.

Such facets, and then some, are revealed moments after the needle hits the grooves of energetic platters like The Rolling Stones Now! and Aftermath. With the exception of Beggars Banquet and Let It Bleed, the mono mixes were given priority over their stereo counterparts—while the stereo versions of England’s Newest Hitmakers, 12 X 5, The Rolling Stones Now!, and Out Of Our Heads were all electronically processed. Just as notable, the mono sound mirrors how the Stones played in the studio—together, and at once, an approach that reflected the methodology of the blues and R&B legends that inspired them. Indeed, the environments and sensations delivered time and again by The Rolling Stones in Mono conjure that of intimate, sweaty, blues-filled juke joints on the South Side of Chicago at which the musicians, needing to compensate for the din of the crowd and clanking of bottles, cranked up their amplifiers and channeled their sound into explosive, massive balls capable of penetrating even brick walls. Cue up “The Last Time” from Out of Our Heads (U.S. version) or “Around and Around” from 12 x 5, and the intent is the same.

As a testament to the original producers and engineers, and to the quality of these dead-quiet pressings, the music that comes through en masse also features tremendous detail, depth, and spaciousness. These LPs convey the attack, decay, punch, pacing, power, and, most significantly, visceral directness more authoritatively and convincingly than even the long-out-of-print, exceptional-sounding SACDs of the same material. Above all, the vinyl delivers an abundance of tone and body—both the sort associated with individual instruments as well as the rarer, harder-to-replicate type engendered by the interaction of guitars, drums, bass, vocals, and a room.

The halos of space around Mick Jagger’s vocals; the pick-to-strings strum of Keith Richards’ off-beat guitar chords; the scalpel-sharp bite of Brian Jones’ blistering solos; the thrump of the foundation-setting rhythms poured by Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman. All here, all in invigorating, take-you-to-the-sessions fidelity. Wyman’s bass and Watts’ percussion, in particular, sound ready to burst out of the soundstage. The low frequencies and bass tautness on tracks such as “The Under Assistant West Coast Promo Man,” “We Love You,” and “Paint It, Black” achieve revelatory status. Equally remarkable: The acoustic signatures on electric/acoustic tracks (vide, “Jumpin’ Jack Flash) and weight, physicality, and presence of auxiliary accents (the marimba on “Under My Thumb,” tambura on “Mother’s Little Helper,” Jagger’s harmonica on the bevy of early blues-based fare).

Cumulatively, the effects not only shed brighter light onto the Stones’ works. They also trigger a deeper-seated appreciation for the songs and performances, and underline, more emphatically than before, how and why the quintet earned the title—and deserved it for quite a stretch—of the Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World. Listen to The Rolling Stones in Mono and no further explanation is necessary. Forget all the memorabilia, documentaries, museum exhibits, biographies, recollections, videos, and tours. The grooves on these albums best represent the Stones’ legacy and tell their story like nothing else.

Visually, ABKCO/Universal borrows a few pages from The Beatles in Mono. A sturdy, one-piece box with a flip-top magnetic cover contains all 16 LPs plus a 48-page book with a 5,000-word essay by David Fricke and rare Terry O’Neill photographs. The album jackets evoke those utilized by Music Matters and boast an attractive medium-gloss finish. Thick, re-sealable outer sleeves further indicate the care invested in the project.

Quibbles? The book should’ve been hardcover, and the cover art for Stray Cats—a 24-cut compilation of A- and B-sides and EP tracks—seems the only uninspired aspect of the set. It’s of trivial consequence, however. The Rolling Stones in Mono gets everything else right.

-Bob Gendron

ABKCO/Universal, 180g 16LP box set or 15CD box set

Why is the ELAC the world’s best music server? Because it fucking works. And it works right now.

I apologize if you are offended by my coarse language, but I have spent nearly a decade screwing around with music servers and “computer audio.” Before I did that, I was an early adopter in the world of digital imaging (I’ve been using Adobe Photoshop since version 0.8 – before it was even a commercial product) and I’ve torn out a lot of my hair over this stuff.

I am sick and tired of music servers that have gobbled up my life on setup, maintenance, tagging, metadata, etc., etc., etc. I have flushed hours of my life down the drain that I am never going to get back. You name it, I’ve tried it. I must admit I’ve stuck with my Sooloos system because it works most of the time and the interface is awesome. But back when I bought in, it was a pretty expensive system.

But the ELAC DS-S101G is $1,099 and you will have it up and running in less than 60 seconds. No joke. Plug in your Network cable, the digital output of your choosing and power that little jewel up. As soon as the LED indicator glows solid white, launch the LIFETIME, bundled version of Roon Essentials, tell it where your NAS or USB drive is, and enter the password to your favorite music service. TIDAL integration took 5 additional seconds.

That’s it. Done. It took me a lot longer to write this blog post than it did to hook up the DS-S101G. I hope you’ll be so kind to read my thoughts on sound quality shortly. In my Audiophile Apartment system, which features the outstanding Focal Sopra no.1 speakers, Audio Research Preamp, Nagra Power Amp and the MOON by Simaudio 780D, it sounds pretty damn good right now.

Seriously, don’t wait for my review. Just go buy one.

Here’s a link to the ELAC website….

Audiophiles love to argue about the subject of power delivery.

I can’t say I blame them, a lot of super expensive power products either do nothing, or worse yet, actually degrade the sound of your system. Unfortunately, this always seems to be a point of contention that the mainstream press loves to jump all over, further shaming those of us that are true believers.

30 years ago, I was paying 20 bucks a pop for “hospital grade” outlets in my listening room, and even though power conditioning products hadn’t even hit the market yet, combining this with a couple of dedicated outlets and paying attention to how my house and breaker box was grounded made for better dynamic contrast and a lower noise floor.

There are a number of boutique outlets out there that cost crazy money. The Cardas 4181 is $159. While that’s a lot more than a standard outlet, or even the go to hospital grade plug, which is now about $30 at Home Depot (and not a bad choice if you don’t want to plunk down $159 per on these blue meanies) but this outlet is built to a high standard.

No, I didn’t see God and installing the 4181 didn’t take me to a place of audio nirvana that will have me exhausting my adjective gland here, but what it did do, in conjunction with a pair of Cardas Clear Beyond power cords, each connected to dedicated 20 amp lines, each one feeding a Pass Labs XS300 monoblock (drawing 1000 watts each, all the time) was give the system an ease at high volume it did not have previously. And I’ve been listening to these amps for a few years now and am intimately familiar with their nuances.

Honestly at low volume, I didn’t notice a major change, but as the volume grew, adding the Cardas goodies makes a difference. I’d compare it to putting premium gas in your turbocharged car versus the cheap stuff. Slogging through the drive through lane at Starbucks, you’ll never notice it, but when you swing out to pass that slow moving Camry (and we have a LOT of these in the Pacific Northwest) it’s a little easier.

Whether that’s because of the high quality materials used for the contacts in the outlet, the firmness by which said outlet holds the power cord, or a combination of both, I know it works. While $159 is spendy for an outlet, in the context of your entire system, it’s a pinch.

I see optimizing your hifi system much like setting up a race car. You get a couple of horsepower here a couple of horsepower there, all from attention to the small details. That can add up to the difference between making the podium and not. Of course, hifi is not as serious as being the F1 world champion, but, all these little differences do add up.

While you’re swapping those outlets, double check the ground connection in your circuit breaker box, or have your electrician do it for you. Make sure the ground connection is tight, as well as all the connections to the circuit breakers, especially the ones feeding your system. Lastly, take a peek at the ground outside. If it’s not up to snuff, replace it as well.

I’ve seen audiophiles tear their hair out over noise issues and spend thousands of dollars on power cords and line conditioners, only to find out the major problem was the ground. The good news is that if you address this stuff first, you’ll notice the diff that the power cords and outlets make even more.

Should you choose to accept this mission, you can find the 4181 outlet right here:

http://www.cardas.com/power_outlet.php

And for our friends outside the US, they make a Shuko version as well. Good stuff!

So, happy listening. I hope that if you give a couple of these a try, you have the same result, or better, that I’ve had. The Cardas 4181 Outlet will definitely add a few more horsepower to your system.

At TONEAudio, we’ve had the chance to review several GamuT products, including the marvelous RS5 floorstanding speakers. The RS5s certainly set a high bar, and we eagerly awaited the opportunity to test the smallest sibling in the RS line, the stand-mounted RS3. Would the more diminutive Danish beauties blow our socks off like their bigger brothers?

GamuT’s chief designer, Benno Meldgaard, shared his top goals for the company’s flagship RS Series. First, he wanted exceed the capability of their previous “S” series in every way. After poring over every aspect of the design and build, GamuT gave the revised “RS” Superior moniker to the new speakers. Secondly, rather than focusing on charts, graphs, and numbers defining the RS prowess, Meldgaard’s speaker design escaped further scrutiny and tweaking only when the RS voice met the GamuT team’s unanimous agreement in listening tests. Subjective judgements count. Statistics may represent accuracy, but beautiful music is judged in the ears of the beholder.

In my own room, the speakers exhibit a flat frequency response, but the level of musical engagement they provide certainly reinforces the achievement of GamuT’s overriding design mission: delivering great music.

Stunning Surfaces

Twin RS3s arrive together in a single wooden crate, weighing in at about 250 lbs. Our backs certainly were better off because of the attached wheels, allowing ease of movement in our environment. Inside the mammoth crate, a carefully constructed and padded cradle supports and protects the speakers from damage in transit. As with the other GamuT speakers we’ve used, you simply pop the crate out, remove the two bars holding them in place and slide them out. Where a few premium speakers can take hours to get unboxed and in place, this is a five-minute operation with GamuT. Impressive.

The matching stands arrive attached to the monitors, so there’s no assembly required. Some potential buyers might want to use their own stands to cut acquisition cost, but that’s not an option with the RS3. Stands and speakers come as a package deal. The integrated stands serve two purposes: one functional, and one aesthetic. First, they provide a rock-solid base for the speakers, including a metal outrigger stand at the bottom for added stability. Threaded spikes facilitate adjustments necessary for ideal speaker placement. Secondly, the accompanying stands are a stunning part of the overall speaker package. The beautiful wood finish matches the speaker set perfectly, and the cantilevered appearance of the speaker-stand combination offers a stunning visual draw complementing the requisite functionality.

The speakers feature a sloped, time-aligned face placing the tweeter a little further back from the listener than the woofer. Since higher frequencies travel faster than their lower counterparts, this design gives the low notes a head start toward the listener, and all the frequencies arrive at his or her ears simultaneously to achieve the greatest sonic cohesion.

Other than the ruby finish of our sample pair, a prospective GamuT owner has a choice of three other wooden finishes: onyx, ivory, or maroon. Regardless of color choice, the external façade of the speaker is a marvel to behold. Beneath the outer finish, each speaker body is comprised of an amazing 21 layers of wood. Various types and thicknesses of wood reduce cabinet resonance and add rigidity to supplement the internal bracing. Such a hefty build comes with an equally substantial weight. Each speaker tips the scale at 101 lbs. (46 Kg). Dimensions, including stands, are 41.6” (1059mm ) tall, with a width and depth of 8.9” (226mm) and 18” (456mm) respectively. The depth measurement includes binding posts and grilles.

A two-way RS3 design includes a one-inch tweeter assembly, described by GamuT as a ring-radiator, silk cone Neodymium Magnet system. Lower frequencies are delivered by a seven-inch combined midrange/woofer driver featuring a paper cone doped with natural oils. The RS3 front grille features a minimalist configuration, comprised of 10 black elastic-like strands stretching horizontally across the speaker front, and connected to vertical metal bars near the speaker edges. If you have small children who may be tempted to touch the speakers, be warned that the grilles will do little to protect the sensitive woofer and tweeter beneath.

Standing Symmetrically

Every listener’s room is different, so GamuT includes some helpful instructions to optimize speaker placement. In addition to written recommendations, GamuT provides an Excel spreadsheet allowing an RS3 owner to plug in the length and width of their listening space. An immediate calculation returns measurements for ideal RS3 placement. When placed at those coordinates, GamuTs perform their best for imaging and accurate frequency response. This calculator is a real time-saver, giving a new owner a substantial head start toward audio nirvana.

After general placement is complete, two more setup steps must be executed for the best possible sound. These must be completed by ear. First, toe-in adjustments help get the most from the speakers. In my case, twisting the speakers about 30 degrees inward offers the best combination of detail, musicality, and holographic imaging. As a final step, GamuT suggests leaning the speakers slightly forward toward the listening seat for the best possible sound. The outrigger base of the speakers, and the threaded spikes built in, make this process simple using an Allen wrench. Applying the same number of twists to left and right side spikes ensures the speakers remain vertical while the rear is elevated and the front is lowered. As a final check, a carpenter’s level (or phone app) can help ensure the speaker pair are locked in at an identical, forward-leaning angle.

The RS-series speaker binding posts are unique, and frankly, rather frustrating. Thick, knob-like structures conceal a very wide, cone-like post underneath. With this post design, spade-terminated speaker cables are rendered unusable. Banana terminations, or spade-to-banana adapters are necessary. The speakers do not include jumpers either, so be prepared to use your own jumpers or a bi-wired configuration.

Stunning Sonics

Once the speakers start playing, put on your seatbelt. Wow. Just…wow. From the get-go, the RS3s impress. There’s nothing slow, laid back, or overly romantic about the RS3’s sonics. However, there’s nothing strident, etched, or overly accentuated either. There’s simply a high level of realism when voicing a performance. It’s easy to enjoy these speakers for all-day listening sessions without any ear fatigue.

No matter what musical genre is played, the RS3s achieve a miraculous balance of characteristics that leave this listener craving nothing. Sonic chameleons, the RS3s can portray with equal aplomb the warmth of a lush vocal performance, the dynamic swings of an orchestral ensemble, or the punch and speed of a vibrant rock track. Few speakers I’ve encountered seem to excel to this degree with any recording thrown at them.

Specified to reproduce frequencies as low as 34Hz, the RS3s are not quite full range. However, bass is a surprising strength of these monitors. In my own listening space, I find little roll-off at the lower limits of the RS3’s claimed range. Bass is taut, tuneful, and true. Even with the subterranean notes inherent in Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble’s Radioaxiom, the speakers never exhibit strain in producing satisfying bass. Yes, the sofa and kitchen cabinet doors did rumble. That said, those craving the deepest growling bass may desire the addition of a subwoofer, or perhaps one of the full-range speakers in the RS lineup.

Highs are rendered with similar delight. RS3s boast frequency extension up to 60 kHz, well beyond human hearing and into the sonic realm of the beluga whale. Not having any sea creatures on hand, I’ll have to take GamuT’s word for that. The frequencies I can hear, like the subtleties of cymbal rides and crashes, are portrayed with both force and delicacy as the recording dictates. Shimmer and decay float effortlessly into the room. Piano notes render with both a firm strike and ambient reverberation. Soprano vocal crescendos may coax forth a shiver down the spine, but never a wince from stridency.

The upper and lower frequency extremes sandwich an equally beguiling midrange, which frankly left me stunned. Vocals like k.d. lang’s on Ingenue have such a natural and unveiled sound, it’s easy to be immersed in an experience like having a private concert. While each breath a vocalist takes can be perceived due to the RS3’s command of subtle audio cues, that detail never distracts from the bigger-picture performance.

Imaging through the RS3 speakers is among the very best I’ve experienced. When placed correctly, the speakers manage the feat of wrapping audio elements far beyond the speaker boundaries. That, combined with the realism of the RS3’s sound, admittedly caused me on occasion to twist my head in surprise toward a stray, unexpected sound projected into the periphery of the room.

The RS3s blend in with the soundstage so well, with eyes closed and a finger extended, I have difficulty pinpointing the speaker bodies. Sound seemingly floats around the speakers, rather than emitting from them. Sonic elements extend into the distance behind the rear room wall, up to the ceiling, and wrap well into the room. It’s a truly immersive and three-dimensional experience that left me tethered to the listening seat for many late night RS3 listening sessions.

Summing Strengths

To answer the question posed at the beginning of this review: Yes, my socks were blown off by the RS3, landing in a smoldering heap in the corner of the room. The RS3s are among the most engaging speakers I have experienced.

I remain adamant there is no such thing as a universally “best speaker” since listener preferences, upstream equipment, and room acoustics all weigh into the equation. Taking those variables into account in my own case, I have not yet encountered another speaker that achieves such a Goldilocks-like “just right” balance for my own sonic preferences. RS3s offer a perfect combination of detail, soundstaging, speed, realism, and overall musicality. It’s a fantastic achievement.

In short, these speakers are keepers. If you are in the lucky position of having $20k in your speaker budget, I cannot recommend the GamuT RS3 speakers highly enough. Be sure to put the GamuT RS3 on your shortlist for audition. I plan to start saving now for both the RS3s and a new pair of socks.

GamuT RS3 Loudspeakers

MSRP: $19,900

www.gamutaudio.com (Factory)

www.audioskies.com (US Distributor)
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, dCS Debussy

Amplification: Burmester 911 mk3

Preamplification: Coffman Labs G1-B

Speakers: Sonus faber Olympica III, 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

I’ve been a huge fan of Bruce Ball’s Questyle gear for some time. They’ve made quite a splash at all the shows and their gear offers a combination of mega performance, value and an elegantly understated visual style to boot.

All of their products look much more expensive than their price tags, (having them assembled in the Foxconn factory doesn’t hurt!) and deliver top functionality as well.

With so many people pinched for space, multi-function components are all the rage, and in addition to offering a pure DSD DAC and outputs for every headphone termination imaginable, the CMA600i has RCA and balanced XLR line outputs so it can be used as a 2 channel line stage. Regular readers know this is one of our publisher’s hot buttons. The CMA600i retails for $1,295.

You can read all the techie goodness about the CMA 600i here.

Reviews are in process here and over at The Audiophile Apartment, so stay tuned!

If you think digital audio is merely bits being decoded and there isn’t any difference between players, you haven’t been listening.

Much like your favorite phono cartridges, all digital players have their own personalities, too. They all take a different approach, and it’s not necessarily better or worse, but it is certainly different – with each manufacturer putting a different emphasis on the part of the player they find the most important. This DAC and transport combination from Reimyo is a perfect example.

With so much emphasis on high resolution digital audio, Reimyo’s Kauzo Kiuchi (the founder of Combak) chooses to optimize his player, in this case, as a separate DAC and transport, for 16 bit/44.1kHz playback, and incorporate his take on fine tuning the combination; two sets of their Combak tuning plugs are included to deliver the digital goods. They also suggest using a bevy of their signal and power cables to achieve the ultimate result.

In the day of DSD and high res files, this may seem like an anachronism to some. But let’s face it, unless you started collecting music three weeks ago, the bulk of your collection is probably redbook files, or even compact discs. Should you be the music lover that really doesn’t care all that much about high resolution audio files, the Reimyo pair could be your destination, at least for the foreseeable future. Back when I traded my Naim CD555 for a dCS stack, I had remarked more than once that I could have lived happily ever after with the CD555 if it had a digital input on the rear panel. But computer audio dragged me down another path.

Un-digital digital

Listening to the ease at which the vibes and violin in the introduction of Elvis Costello’s “This House is Empty Now” are rendered, it’s clear that Kiuchi-san has created a masterpiece for music lovers. Forget everything you think you know about digital if you haven’t heard this player. Years ago it was very hip to have a first generation Play Station to play CDs, because it had a very warm and involving, yet unresolving sound that masked many of digitals errors of omission.

The Reimyo pair gives this same warmth without loss of resolution. I wanted to open the cover and look for vacuum tubes, but photos on the internet reveal that there are none inside. Another review of this player mentions the effect, comparing it to photography, saying that this player lacks the “sharpening” often associated with image processing. As a photographer, I agree with this analysis, but as digital camera sensors have improved with more dynamic range and resolution, that precious little sharpening is not required anymore. And thanks to the 999EX’s approach, it’s not needed here either. For those that remember film, the Reimyo feels much more like Kodachrome than an unsharpened digital image, with a wide tonal scale that seems to fade out almost to infinity that to the uninitiated seems soft. The longer you listen to this combination the more under its spell you fall. You’ll be stunned at just how much musical detail exists in those standard resolution discs of yours.

While both components are excellent on their own, the pair together is where the glamour lies. Using the CDT 777 with Simaudio, dCS and Gryphon DACs all proved excellent, and vice versa using Simaudio and dCS transports with the Reimyo DAC, the combination takes the relaxed analog-like effect to the ultimate level. I’m always great at spending your money, but in this case I highly suggest buying the two as a pair instead of working your way up. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the full complement of Combak cables, so the thought of even more resolution and ease lurking with this pair is indeed compelling.

More music

This player will really shift your paradigm in terms of worrying about high resolution downloads. With so many of these files just being upsampled redbook, it’s tough to know where the rocks in the road lie, and it’s often too late to turn back once you’ve bought a bum album. Anyone having a huge CD collection should really give the Reimyo combination serious consideration as a destination player and call it a day. There was never a time during the review period that I found myself craving the high resolution files lurking on my Aurender W20 server.

Listening to Dave Stewart’s understated masterpiece from the ’90s, Greetings From The Gutter, there was so much subtle spatial information lurking on what has always seemed like a brilliant album that was only mediocre in the recording department, it was a revelation. Even The Monkees’ Then and Now, which has to be the worst sounding CD ever, sounded fantastic with this player. Songs that felt hopelessly compressed to the point of being unlistenable are now palatable.

Which means well-recorded CDs sound brilliant. Tracking through Neil Larsen’s Orbit, mastered by Bernie Grundman, is full of percussive attack, a massive soundstage and weight that feels like a 24/192 recording, as do all of the best sounding CDs in my collection.

Single purpose player

The CDT777 transport links to the Reimyo DAC via a single coaxial output, where the DAC features coax, BNC, AES and optical inputs, so those streaming music will not be left out. Unfortunately, the only input lacking is a USB connection, but with so many good, reasonably priced outboard converters, this will not stop you from using your computer with the Reimyo DAC. Though precious few audiophiles will need the Toslink input, it is incredibly well implemented, should you need to use it, proving that not even the smallest detail is overlooked in the design of the Reimyo DAC. As mentioned, files are kept in their original format without being converted to higher resolution before digital conversion, which is done at a 24 bit/16x rate.

A Phillips CDM-Pro 12 mechanism, with clamp (very similar to the Naim 555…) is used to spin the discs with excellent results. This transport is robustly built and at this point in the game, should outlive you. A very basic remote is offered to control machine functions and switch digital inputs, so the rest is really installing the various Combak bits and getting down to business.

It’s really all about tonality

If you’ve ever been taken under the spell of a great SET amplifier, a well-presented single driver loudspeaker, or the original Quad 57 loudspeaker, these devices all present a “continuous tone” type of musical reproduction, because of the simple signal path, lack of crossover effects and the lack of interaction between multiple drivers or output devices.

There is a certain signal purity that accompanies any of these that is unmistakable and, once you hear it, it will either become your holy grail, or it will not be detailed (a.k.a. “audiophile enough”) for you. Add the Reimyo combination to this list of components that has an all encompassing, musical feel to its presentation. At first blush, you might even find it slightly dull, but the more time you spend listening, the more difficult it is to leave the couch or chair in front of your speakers.

This continuous tone nature really starts to pull you into the music after a few minutes, especially with vocal tracks and acoustic instruments. The piano takes on a new life through the Reimyo, and it’s tough to believe that you are actually experiencing digital music, let alone redbook CD.

Is it for you?

In the day of multiple, high resolution digital formats that change like the wind, there will always be a steady supply of compact discs to play, much like the massive collections of analog records still floating about. Should you be a music lover with a substantial collection of CDs, in search of a better rendition of your library, the Reimyo CDT777 and DAP 999EX will be your grail.

MSRP:  $12,500, transport and $11,500 DAC

www.combak.net (manufacturer)

www.wynnaudio.com (NA distributor)

Listening to Thomas Dolby’s “Ability to Swing,” the Acoustats in my living room have dramatically increased their ability to swing in every way: these vintage ESLs known for their somewhat loose and flabby bass now stand up and deliver Dolby’s snappy synth bass lines with authority.

The low level resolution that this preamplifier brings forth unearths minute details normally only heard on the TONEAudio reference system costing almost a hundred times more; all three dimensions of the sound field painted now expanded to the point of being psychedelic. In 35 years of listening to the Acoustats, they’ve never sounded this exciting. The slow sax fade in on Traffic’s “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” becomes conscious so deliciously, so delicately, as the accompanying instruments fold into the mix, it’s creepy the way these vintage ESLs wrap you up in sound.

But this isn’t Pass’ $38,000 Xs preamplifier; it’s their new HPA-1 headphone amplifier. This thing sounds so damn good twenty minutes out of the box, the thought of plugging a pair of headphones in is frightening, fearing my head will either melt or serious flashbacks will be triggered. So for the next few days, it merely does duty as the anchor of a modest 2-channel system, logging some hours on the listening clock. Before you start griping about the unobtainable price, the HPA-1 retails for $3,500 – hardly unobtainable at all.

Sheer genius

Wile E. Coyote lists himself as “super genius” on his business card, but I can’t think of guys more deserving of this title than Nelson Pass and his crew at Pass Labs. I’ve been buying his designs since his days at Threshold circa 1980, and I’ve never heard one I didn’t love. Not like. Love. Personal bias, maybe, but I keep trying everything else, finding plenty of lovely things, but when I come back to a Pass product, it just feels––or should I say sounds––perfect. So in case you haven’t been reading my reviews for years now, I confess my personal bias here, openly.

The HPA-1 is the brainstorm of the newest addition to the Pass team, Jam Somasundram. Speaking with him on the phone is highly enjoyable and he makes it a point to tell me that he “designed the HPA-1 as a linestage first,” giving it the necessary oomph to drive a power amplifier, so that driving headphones would be no problem. A man of major understatement, this thing is fantastic.

Even if you aren’t a headphone enthusiast, but have been shopping for a linestage in the $15,000 range, consider the HPA-1. (Remember, it’s only $3,500…) If you have a minimalist, yet high performance system and can live with two single-ended inputs and a lone single-ended output to your power amplifier, get your hands on an HPA-1 and spend the rest of the money on your system.

Pairing the HPA-1 with everything in the studio and at home from bare-bones vintage amplifiers up to the Pass Xs300 monoblocks used as the anchor to our main system is a treat. Comparing it to a number of other preamplifiers in the $5,000–$10,000 range, the Pass holds its own or outperforms them in terms of quietness, dynamic range and tonality. Once powered up for a few days, and played for about 100 hours, it opens up further, exhibiting a level of refinement you would expect from a $10k preamplifier. Remember, only two inputs, no remote and one set of outputs. But purely from a sonic standpoint, it is stellar.

From a visual standpoint, it looks like an Xs Pre put in a shrink machine. Its diminutive size is less than half of a standard component, making it great for a compact, yet high performance system, or the perfect desktop headphone amplifier.

Oh yeah, it’s a great headphone amplifier

Pass keeps the minimalist thing going here too. With only a single ¼-inch jack on the front panel, they haven’t addressed the balanced thing, or multiple outputs, merely concentrating on the one way of connecting that most headphones offer. Forget about that; this thing sounds awesome.

The Pass press release mentions that it will easily drive planar phones, and this is instantly confirmed with a quick test drive of HiFiMan, Audeze, and Oppo phones. Even the notoriously tough-to-drive AKG phones pose no threat to the HPA-1.

For those who haven’t had the Pass experience, Nelson Pass has said on more than one occasion, he “likes the sound of tubes, without the hassle,” that is, replacing tubes and the occasional catastrophic failure that can accompany high voltage and high heat. The HPA-1 sounds just like the current crop of Xs gear: refined, dynamic and quiet, with a tonal balance a few molecules to the warm side of neutral. Never a bad thing with today’s current crop of headphones, especially the top of the line Sennheiser phones.

After running through a wide gamut of phones to confirm no rocks in the road, most serious listening was done with the Audeze LCD-2s (current version) and the OPPO PM-1s. While this is a very well-balanced amplifier, its strongest suit is the sheer dynamic range it offers. Much like the Xs300 monoblocks we use daily, this extra dynamic range and grip helps whatever headphones you might have, fully controlling their diaphragm, resulting in quite possibly the most wonderful experience you will have with your current phones. Even my late ’70s vintage Koss Pro4aa’s took on new life with the HPA-1 driving them.

If you’ve ever been in a hifi show room, or trade show where the speaker manufacturer uses a massive power amplifier to drive a small pair of speakers with great result, you know what I’m talking about. It also gives whatever phones you are listening to extra oomph in the bass department. Favorite EDM tracks now really feel weighty, especially with the Audeze phones.

As you might expect, the stereo image produced by this amplifier on a premium pair of headphones is big, bold and exciting. A couple of times I caught myself getting up out of the chair, ready to walk away, thinking that I didn’t even have headphones on.

A $3,500 headphone amp with free preamp or vice versa?

Rather than bore you with audiophile cliché after cliché, let’s break it down. The Pass HPA-1 is on the top tier of the world’s finest headphone amplifiers, regardless of cost, end of story. If you can live with the single-ended functionality and a single output, you’ll have a tough time getting better sound anywhere. It is an expensive headphone amplifier, but delivers the goods. If you are only looking for a headphone amplifier, this is the top of the heap.

As the control center of a minimalist hifi system, it offers performance far beyond what you’d expect to get from a $3,500 linestage, and it has a world-class headphone amplifier thrown in for free. Again, if the topology fits your needs, even the most crazed audiophile could live the rest of their days with the HPA-1. It’s that good. Even if you never plug a pair of phones into the front panel and merely use it as a preamplifier, this is one of the best values in high-end audio today. And swing it does.

The Pass HPA-1

$3,500

www.passlabs.com

Features

Old School:

Recapping the HH Scott 357

By Erik Owen

995:

A Mini Miracle From Totem Audio

By Mark Marcantonio

Journeyman Audiophile:

Wharfedale Diamond 250  Loudspeakers

By Jeff Dorgay

Personal Fidelity:

Quad PA-One Headphone Amplifier and Audioengine HD6 Speakers

By Rob Johnson

TONE Style

Anker SoundCore Bluetooth Speaker

Bald Eagle Skull Shaver

Eunique Jean’ster and Ride’ster Jeans

DJ Pillows

Hot Wheels Yellow Submarine

Muss Cobblestone

StarTrek Communicator Net Phone

Music

Spin the Black Circle: Reviews of New Pop/Rock and Country Albums
By Bob Gendron, Todd Martens, Chrissie Dickinson, Andrea Domanick and Aaron Cohen

Jazz & Blues: Florian Weber Trio, Julian Lage, Avishal Cohen and More!
By Aaron Cohen and Jim Macnie

Gear Previews

Audio Research PH-9 Phono, DAC 9 and LS 28

Reviews

Audio Classics 9b Amplifier
By Richard H. Mak

System Audio Pandion 30 Speakers
By Jeff Dorgay

Conrad Johnson CA 150SE
By Jeff Zaret

Torus AVR 15 Plus Isolation Transformer
By Rob Johnson

Pass Labs XA30.8 Power Amplifier
By Rob Johnson

Today, Spotify announced their list of “Top 10 Shagging songs” here:

http://www.theladbible.com/now/music-spotify-reveals-the-top-10-shagging-anthems-and-one-lasts-127-seconds-20160804

I agree that most music is subjective, and we all have our favorites to initiate or accompany the mating ritual. Here’s mine – in no particular order. If this is all TMI, sorry about that! I hope you’re open enough to either be inspired or amused. Keep in mind, these are not staff choices. Like Captain Kirk, I stand alone on this one. Let the comments begin.

1.  Prince – One Night Alone

2.  Mickey Hart – Eliminators

3.   Pat Metheny – Are You Going With Me?

4.  Anja Garbarek – Big Mouth

5.  Dylan – I Want You or Just Like a Woman

6.  Crash Test Dummies – I Want to Par-Tay!

7.  Crowded House – Whispers and Moans

8. Dusty Springfield – Breakfast in Bed

9. The Tubes – Let’s Make Some Noise

10. Art of Noise – Moments in Love

Extra Credit:

Stephen Pompougnac – Hotel Costes (the entire series)

The Pretenders – Bad Boys Get Spanked

Judas Priest – Turbo

Kiss – Deuce

Squeeze – Tempted

Betty Davis – Game is my Middle Name

Sly & The Family Stone – You Can Make it if You Try

Fun, But Obvious:

Marvin Gaye – Let’s Get it On

Beatles – Why Don’t We Do It In The Road

Never:

Anything by REO Speedwagon, Journey or Styx

When you see the new Rega Planar 3, take a close look. It’s changed. The journey has become a destination. Nearly 40 years of constant refinement makes the Planar 3 the best in its class; no one does it better. Whether you’ve been a fan for years or this is your first go, this table defines elegant simplicity at an approachable price.

Lots of new bits, top to bottom

Starting as a Planar 3, then becoming a P3 and then an RP3, the Planar 3 designation returns. Rega claims that there are “only two bits in common with the outgoing RP3,” and according to Phil Freeman from Rega those are the two hinges holding on the dust cover, so it has been a total redesign. First time and legacy Rega fans will be equally astonished at how much music this table reveals.

Further conversation with Freeman reveals exactly how much has changed. He tells me that they have been going “aggressively” back to Rega’s original values and that they have done something “quite special” with the new Planar 3. While Rega has always been about evolution over radical change, a quick look around the new Planar 3 shows it to be overall much crisper than the outgoing table. To the untrained eye, the older P3 doesn’t look all that much different, until you look closely and put the close up view of the Macro lens to bear.

You’ll notice the feet underneath the table are different, with a wider profile, providing a more stable platform. The braces that goes from the tonearm pivot to the bearing are now 3mm thicker and the plinth is finished to a much higher level as well. Freeman makes it a point emphasizing that much of what they learned building the cost no object Naiad turntable filtered into the Planar 3. “We’ve streamlined, updated and optimized our manufacturing process, so part of the way we’ve kept the cost down is by eliminating assembly time. Yet the end result is more consistent than ever before.”

Even the glass platter is different. Now made out of a special, clear glass called “Optiwhite,” the 12mm platter is made to a tighter tolerance than past models. Comparing it to past platters, they all look green in comparison. This is referred to as a technical glass with no iron content. Rega polishes the edge cleaner, and now you can see all the way through to the center hole. Overall, the table has a much more expensive, refined feel in addition to better sound quality.

There’s plenty of stuff you can’t see contributing to the improved sound. Better CNC technology makes for a more precise main bearing hub, with no visible fixing into the plinth. The nut and washer of Rega’s past are now gone, claiming a much lower noise level and our listening confirms this. Microscopically the bearing is compressed somewhat.  You can hear this instantly in the much lower noise level provided when comparing directly to the old model. Freeman laughs as we end the conversation, reflecting on this journey, pointing out that Rega has not shipped any of their manufacturing away from the factory; “We’re control freaks, we have to have control. When you make something 6,000 miles away you can’t control them.  And we love making things.”

My long Rega journey

It seems like only yesterday I was leaving the world of mass-market hifi and entering the wacky world of high-end audio. Conventional wisdom at the time was that direct drive (i.e. my Technics SL-1200) was bad, and a British belt drive table was good. Not quite able to make the stretch to a Linn LP-12 back in 1982, Rega’s Planar 3 seemed the obvious choice. A chance visit to The Audio Emporium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin had them in the process of unpacking a crate full of Planar 3s as I walked in the door. Salesperson Jon Spelt happened to be pulling a lime green Planar 3 out of a box, remarking, “What idiot would buy a turntable this color?”

Well, I was that idiot, and thus began a very long path with Rega and the world of high-end audio. 34 years later here we are. Who knew? All I can remember was bringing that table home, setting it up next to the Technics and spinning the MoFi copy of Poco’s Legend. Hey, it was 1982, cut me some slack. The only thing I remember was that it provided a significantly more engaging experience than my Technics and I was pretty excited to finally be part of the club.

Capturing some of that lost memory, it seems appropriate to dig out that Poco album from the vault and test drive it for old time’s sake. At first listen the new table sounds fantastic, but memory has a way of romanticizing. The Rega Planar 3, at $945 without cartridge has only gone up about 2.5 times in that period and has made a major jump in performance and build quality. And by combining it with the table at time of purchase, you save $100. Not bad at all.

Getting down to the business of listening, the first thing to check is speed accuracy. About twenty years ago, it was common for Rega tables to run ever so slightly fast and once a few reviewers got wind of this, it was like the Audi sudden acceleration effect that dogged the carmaker for years after (yet no one could successfully duplicate). During the 12-year history of TONEAudio, we’ve yet to have a Rega table measure anything but perfect speed and the Planar 3 you see here is no different.

Back to the listening chair

To really get a firm handle on just how much Rega has accomplished, a 36-year-old model is commandeered to compare to the current table side by side in real time. Freeman confirms the serial number, saying the table was built in the fall of 1980, adding, “I probably built that deck.” Steve Daniels at The Sound Organisation, Rega’s US importer was kind enough to send another Elys 2 cartridge for the older table, making for a direct comparison. Pass Labs new $45,000 Xs Phono makes it a breeze to compare the tables as well as limit any equipment limitations. A quick speed check on the older P3 reveals that it is right on spec for turntable speed, so the analog gods are clearly smiling on us this day.

Identical copies of Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde (well, two pressing numbers apart) bring the Rega engineers efforts to bear immediately. The jangly guitar at the beginning of “Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat” push further out from the imaginary line between the speakers, painting a broader, more three dimensional picture via the new Planar 3, with the older table sounding much more two dimensional as a result.

Other LPs with nearly identical pressings reveal the same thing, regardless of which pressing is on which table – the new table is much more dynamic, with a lot more jump than the old. After a few direct comparisons are made to get a baseline, it’s tough to go back to the older table, showing how far the engineering staff at Rega has come with this new design.

The P3 has never been famous for bass extension, yet the new Planar 3 offers more weight, more control and more texture than ever. Rifling through bass heavy tracks shows how much of a contender this table has become. Bouncing back to that totally 80s groove, the synth bass line in Paul Young’s version of “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down” now rattles the room, where the old table politely offers up some bass.

Thanks to the capability of the Xs Phono, it’s easy to hear a much lower noise floor on the new table compared to the old, but even through a vintage Marantz 2245 receiver, the difference is still discernable, even playing though a pair of JBL L100s. This won’t do you a ton of good spinning your favorite Motorhead disc, but if you’re listening to anything in the acoustic or solo vocal genres, it’s an entirely new ballgame.

Should you order your Planar 3 with a Rega cartridge, setup will take all of five minutes. Attach the belt, fit the cartridge screws and set tracking force to 1.75 grams. Job done. This is not a terribly tweekable table. However, if you want to get into the tweak zone, consider Rega’s Reference Drive Belt. For $59, it’s made from a higher quality rubber and machined to a tighter tolerance, giving a better belt to platter and drive pulley interface. No, it doesn’t make the heavens part, but again those listening to classical and acoustic music will notice an extra degree of smoothness in the upper registers. Take a peek at our video clip to see just how easy this all is.

This more robust, more stable platform makes fitting a better cartridge to the current Planar 3 a better value proposition. If you can find a cartridge that has a similar stylus tip to top of cartridge body measurement, it will pop right in. For other cartridges, Rega makes a 2mm stainless steel spacer, or a step adjustable 2/4/6/8mm spacer that will adjust the back of the tonearm for proper VTA. Stepping up to a Sumiko Blackbird 2 was exciting, showing just how much more music this new table is able to reveal.

And, if you want to take your Planar 3 even further, Rega’s TT-PSU 2 (an additional $395) not only lowers the noise floor even further, controlling the motor better than the stock wall wart power supply, it lets you change speed from 33 to 45 on the fly, at the push of a button. Back when the original Planar 3 roamed the Earth, most records were only 33 1/3 r.p.m., so removing the platter and moving the belt on the pulley manually wasn’t a big deal. Now, with so many audiophile pressings being produced in the two disc, 45 r.p.m. format, it’s a major time saver. Not to mention how much easier playing those 45 r.p.m. maxi-singles will be!

When you really listen to the Rega Planar 3, listen close. It’s changed a lot. And we’re happy to give this perennial favorite one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2016. We defy you to find a better executed turntable at this price.

The Rega Planar 3 Turntable

$945 without cartridge

$1,145 with Elys 2 cartridge installed (Elys 2 is $295 separately)

www.rega.co.uk (factory)

www.soundorg.com (US importer)

Peripherals

Preamplifier              Pass Xs Pre

Phonostage                Pass Xs Phono

Amplifier                    Pass Xs300 monos

Speakers                    MartinLogan Neolith

Cable                          Tellurium Q Silver Diamond

**  Ed. Note: while the system listed here was used for ultimate comparison between the new Planar 3 and old to eliminate that from the equation, the majority of review listening was done with the new Simaudio NEO ACE integrated and a pair of Rogers LS5/9 speakers to keep this a bit more “real world,” if you will.

Features

Old School:

The dCS Elgar DAC: Where they started!

By Jeff Dorgay

Journeyman Audiophile:

Paradigm Prestige 75F Loudspeakers

By Mark Marcantonio

New Column! Timbre Tantrum

Cat Parkay looks at the Big Ego DAC from Emotiva

Personal Fidelity:

The Cardas A8 Ear Speakers

By Rob Johnson

TONE Style

Wino: Riesling – The Misunderstood Sensational Wine

Hamster Maturity- Kia Soul with Harman/Infinity Sound

Vintage Mic Showered

Apple Pencil for iPad Pro

Base Qi Micro SD Adaptor

Green Tea Kit Kat

Atomic Audio Mac Mini Platform

McIntosh RS100 Wireless Speakers

Kangaroo Pro Portable PC

Music

Spin the Black Circle: Reviews of New Pop/Rock and Country Albums
By Bob Gendron, Todd Martens, Chrissie Dickinson, Andrea Domanick and Aaron Cohen

Jazz & Blues: Florian Weber Trio, Julian Lage, Avishal Cohen and More!
By Aaron Cohen and Jim Macnie

Gear Previews

MartinLogan Neolith Loudspeakers

McIntosh C1100 Preamplifier

Rega Planar 3 Turntable

Meridian 818v3 Reference Audio Core

Pass Labs Xs Phono

Reviews

dCS Rossini DAC and Rossini Clock: Raising the Bar
By Jeff Dorgay

Rotel RB-1590 Power Amplifier: Big box, big sound
By Jerold O’Brien

ModWright SWL 9.0 Anniversary Preamplifier – Time Flies!
By Jeff Dorgay

MOON by Simaudio Neo 280D DAC – Stunning Simplicity
By Andre Marc

JL Audio Dominion D110 Subwoofers – Low Down (in a Good Way)
By Rob Johnson

PrimaLuna’s HP Integrated Amplifier – Beyond Bitchin’

Not having made changes to my system in a long time proves a double-edged sword; I know it intimately to the point where a minute change will be easily spotted and I was ripe to draw the cable review card.

A number of industry friends have been raving about Tellurium Q in person and out on the web, and this, too, is a double-edged sword because sometimes one wants desperately to believe the positive expectation.

The cables come packaged in a nice but not overly ostentatious box. Our review sample came equipped with locking banana connectors and a set of bi-wire jumpers similarly finished. Also enclosed is THE DISC, offering tracks chock full of randomly generated white noise, pink noise, pulses and sweep signals that go up and down the sonic spectrum.  There are three tracks on the disc. Track one is a system check for proper phase, etc.  Track two is an hour-long conditioning track which serves to not only condition the speaker cables but every other component in the chain. Track three is a ten-minute conditioning “warm up” to be played each time you decide to listen to your system.

By rights, I should hate these cables. I say that because it is silver-plated but that’s only the beginning of this product’s story. To make my personal bias clear, I have rarely heard solid silver cables that swept me off my feet, and silver-plated cables have always been tossed out of the system with great disdain since they sounded too horrible. You know the drill: overly etched, harsh, irritating, etc. Never completely musical. Well, now all that has changed. At least for this listener with this product.

Perusing the Tellurium Q website, I didn’t see a lot of detail regarding the exact construction, metal plating or dielectric materials used in these cables, but there is a lot of information regarding the process by which they arrive at their final design. Most of it has to do with combating phase distortion, which causes smearing of the musical signal.  Within each cable, different geometries are employed, different dielectrics are used, and the plating is matte instead of shiny and has a specific thickness. This witches’ brew of manufacturing results in the product at hand.  One interesting side note, the matte silver plating on the banana connectors is exactly the same as the input connectors on my speakers.

After installing the cables carefully, with attention to phase, the provided jumpers serving to ensure signal continuity between the low and high inputs, I followed up with the hour-long track of the test disc to make sure I was completely set up. Immediately, the greater sense of depth and width presented by my reference components exceeded that of what I was previously experiencing. This is not a subtle change, it is more like someone opened a huge door at the back of the room that I hadn’t known was there, causing me to immediately relax and enjoy what followed. So much for user bias. Vigilance to find that harsh-etched sound that silver always gave me, but it simply isn’t there with the Silver Diamond speaker cables. The overall high frequency character is presented in an utterly clear but completely musical fashion. This, added to the sense of space I mentioned earlier, combined with exacting bass extension and definition makes for a thoroughly enjoyable session.  It doesn’t matter whether I play symphonic music with massed violins or bass and drum jams, the result is always the same…..simply music.

Enough time has passed now that I continue to be amazed at the positive change the Tellurium Q speaker cables have made to my system – so much so that our publisher had to literally pry them out of my system to get them back! I think we both are anticipating a full system review of their cables at a future point. We’ll keep you posted.

Further Listening – Jeff Dorgay

Our staff curmudgeon Mr. O’Brien is rarely, if ever, impressed with cables of any kind, and that’s not to say he’s anyone that mighty, it’s just his mindset. He’d rather talk to you for hours about the intricacies of setting the mechanical fuel injection on a BMW 2002tii than entertaining the thought that a piece of wire could make that much of a difference, but that’s the wide range of attitudes that makes the wheel go ’round here at TONEAudio.

Being that he is as excited as he is about these cables, I wanted to get them back ASAP to run them through their paces here, on a wide variety of speaker setups to see, or rather hear what I could hear. I would also like to give a nod of appreciation to Stuart Smith of HiFi Pig for not only telling me about these, but keeping on me until we got a set in for review.

Though a bit more open-minded to the cable thing than Jerold, I still stick to what I know for the most part, using Cardas Clear, Clear Light and now Clear Reflection in my two main systems, and Nordost Frey in system three. We can argue till the cows come home about this, but at least you know what I like and use on a daily. And I too bristle at the thought of silver-coated copper (for that matter, anything coated over anything else) cables, but we have to try and maintain some objectivity in this wacky world of high-end audio.

As Jerold mentions, there isn’t much specific “tech” on the Tellurium Q website, but director Geoff Merrigan makes it a point that his cables are designed to preserve the phase relationships in the audio signal. While I am not remotely qualified to comment on this, I do know that every speaker I have heard with the same engineering goal has always sounded the most natural to my ears, so I think Mr. Merrigan is indeed on to something.

I too have not changed anything in my reference system one for quite some time so it was easy to ramp up on a trial of the Tellurium Q speaker cables. I must admit, it was an

“oh wow” moment when plugging them in to the Quad 2812s. These speakers, in concert with the Pass Xs300 monos throw such a massive soundstage already, and resolve fine detail so well, anything good or bad is instantly brought to bear. So I ran the hour long break-in track and went for a coffee. This done, the delta was much wider. Rather than bore you with a barrage of audiophile clichés, the Tellurium Q cables paint a more vivid picture than what I was listening to before.

Rather than blather

If you’re looking for a major jump in your system’s performance, I’d suggest buying a pair of these instead of considering a hardware upgrade. Before you write this advice off to cable delusion, expectation bias, or the recent Mercury retrograde phase, please take note: I have never said this in TONE’s 11-year history. There are a number of times I’ve swapped a good $5,000 preamplifier or DAC for a good $10,000 unit and not had this level of increased musical involvement.

Every aspect of my system’s presentation is improved; the soundstage grows markedly in every direction, transients are faster and cleaner, with a quieter overall presentation. The comment that everyone else hearing these cables, with no idea what they are or what they cost, said the same two things: “it sounds bigger,” and “it sounds louder.” I didn’t expect how much smoother, yet more resolving, everything sounds. I’ve never heard the Quads sound this enveloping.

$7,500 is a lot of money for wire, but the Tellurium Q Silver Diamond Cables deliver the goods. In the context of a six-figure system, this is merely a punctuation mark and the well-heeled customer won’t even blink. However, even in a much more modest system consisting of a Prima Luna integrated, Simaudio CD player and the Rogers LS5/9s, with a $10k price tag total, these cables still provide a dramatic enough improvement to be worth the price asked. In every possible system configuration I could scratch together, the results are the same.

Value is a highly relative subject; cable is nearly always a hotspot and I admit to being more prejudiced against spending big money on it, yet the Tellurium Q Silver Diamond speaker cables deliver more music than anything I’ve yet experienced. I highly suggest auditioning them the next time you’re considering spending some money on a system upgrade.

Produced and distributed in the UK, these cables are more readily available in the rest of the world. Walter Swanborn at Fidelis AV in the US is the sole outlet for now, but he’s an affable and easy guy to find. I guarantee you’ll be surprised!

The Tellurium Q Silver Diamond Speaker Cables

$7,500 (2m pair)

www.telluriumq.com (manufacturer)

www.fidelisav.com (US outlet)

We’ve been toying with the Melco N-1a for a few months now and it is superb. For $1,999 you can use it as a music server, renderer, as well as a few other things. I prefer to use it as a supercharged, mega high quality NAS.

We’ll have the rest of the review up in a day or two so please stay tuned!

In the meantime, visit our friends at The Sound Organisation for more information:

I gave Meridian’s co-founder Bob Stuart a difficult time a little over two years ago as he first told me about MQA, making it clear that I wasn’t going to tell you, my readers to buy Kind of Blue, again, no matter how compelling the demo he was about to show me would be.

The demo was amazing, and you wouldn’t expect anything less from Bob Stuart, undoubtedly one of high end audio’s most clever guys. Though Stuart is a confessed digital guy, it’s incredible that his latest creation is so analog sounding. A number of early reports on MQA have been less than bombastic, but like so many incredible things, the magic is in the details – in this case the fine details.

What Mr. Stuart has developed is certainly a paradox. As someone raised on fine analog, hearing MQA for the first time comes across as brilliant, but not in a hit your head with a mallet way. Yet the more analog you have heard, the more easily you’ll appreciate what MQA brings to the table. Music rendered via MQA has an ease and smoothness that you would normally associate with the best analog record and tape playback, in terms of musicality, with the dynamic range and speed accuracy you’d expect from digital. Sound like the best of both worlds? Well, it is.

Though Stuart started development work at Meridian, MQA is a separate company. As he mentions, “We had to set it up this way. First, it’s now a full-time job. Second it’s a completely different type of activity and in MQA we genuinely firewall our licensee activities from each other and that includes Meridian”.

It’s important to keep in mind that MQA is not really a new format, per se. Stuart and his staff say that MQA captures subtle timing information that is lost in the digital encoding process by creating a digital footprint of the recording chain of the album being played. In essence, they eliminate the sonic fingerprint of the gear going from the microphone to the DAC. Those worried that the sonic choices made by the artist and engineer to get said sound will be lost, have no fear. As much or little of the recording chain as the artist and/or producer want to leave in the mix can remain. This is why these recordings are referred to a “Master Authenticated.” They are all signed off on by the artist, so you know this is the record that the artist and producer intended you to hear in the first place.

A Sooloos server full of MQA files, from the 2L label and Warner Music, makes it easy to compare MQA to non MQA files in a relevant way. Good as the recordings from the 2L label are, these are not albums like Chicago V, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, or Harvest; records that I’ve been listening to for most of my life, and also are available in nearly every format you can think of. Yet with all these classics at my disposal, the shootout begins with Metallica’s black album. Notoriously squashed of life and dynamics, this rock staple comes alive via the MQA process. The beginning of “Wherever I May Roam” is now full of life; rather than being met by a giant wall of overly compressed guitar crunch, the MQA version uncloaks layer after layer of information, providing more listening enjoyment, and illuminating the amount of care made in the recording session. Metallica has never sounded better in my system.

Multiple comparisons to the existing standard and high resolution files I have of the Warner classics on file, via Meridian’s latest 818v3 Reference Audio Core, which acts as a MQA compatible DAC, preamplifier and control system and a pair of 7200SE active speakers prove enlightening. Stuart tells me that this pair of 7200s is very special, because it is the same pair of speakers that he dragged around the world, doing all of the MQA demos for various label heads, artists and producers… Yet, you don’t have to spend $16,000 on a DAC to enjoy MQA. A number of hardware partners are now available (check www.mqa.co.uk for the latest count) and Meridian’s $299 Explorer 2 DAC gives a highly convincing demonstration.

Moving the 818v3 from my home listening room to main listening room at TONEAudio proves equally illuminating, where a direct comparison between MQA and a few other very good DAC’s but to make the ultimate comparison; MQA and vinyl. Again, this is where MQA really shines. For all the vinyl lovers in the audience (myself included), constant comparison between the recent 45 rpm LP remasters of the Neil Young catalog and the tracks available on MQA are nearly a dead heat. Nearly all of my non audiophile friends with no predisposed agenda prefer the sound of the MQA files to even LP, yet the same comments are made by everyone with no audiophile language; MQA sounds more relaxing, more real, more like music. So Mr. Stuart has hit a home run.

Again, is it a night and day difference? Not necessarily. Listening to great 24/192 vs. MQA is like going from a 7 Series BMW or S Class Mercedes to a Bentley. High quality versus very high quality, yet the difference is still there and as Mr. Stuart is fond of saying, “once you hear it, you can’t un-hear it.”

However, I think the even bigger difference or improvement that MQA brings besides another level of refinement is the way it will bring higher resolution to everyone. The main problem with 24/192 files is the size of the data pipe required to facilitate it. An MQA stream is right around 1100kb/sec, actually a bit smaller than uncompressed CD resolution files. This will be tremendous for those of us wanting high res to go, streaming from Tidal and eventually others. Stuart was kind enough to let me stream some beta files on Tidal and the results are excellent.

And this is what I like most about MQA, you won’t have to buy Kind of Blue or any of your legacy audiophile pressings again to enjoy the benefit of MQA. That’s what makes this really cool. Those that do want to purchase these titles will be able to very soon, but linking MQA with Tidal makes it a lot more diplomatic and cost effective.

In addition, files encoded with MQA will still sound better, cleaner on your standard digital setup even if you don’t have a DAC capable of decoding MQA. For now, let’s call the difference about 20% in terms of revealing more music in a less imposing (i.e. digital artifacts, etc) way than a non-MQA file.

The biggest hope for MQA is that as recording studios around the world adopt MQA as a standard and invest in MQA encoding hardware, forgoing the need to send the files to Meridian for encoding as they do now, future generations of musicians work will sound much better; that’s a triumph for everyone. That’s why MQA.

And Kind of Blue sounds pretty awesome too. Touche, Mr. Stuart.

From the mixing console: A chat with 2L’s Morten Lindberg and Bob Stuart

Morten Lindberg of 2L Recordings in Norway, has created some of the world’s finest recordings before MQA was introduced, and he has been a very early adopter of Bob Stuart’s technology, taking things even further. Both of these gentlemen were kind enough to give me an hour of their time, right on the tail end of the Munich High End show to discuss their relationship and process.

TA:  Do you feel that thanks to MQA, music going forward is going to sound a lot better?

ML:  When you’re talking about a well-done setup to a perfectly done MQA setup, yes it is, but comparing to many people with a standard digital setup it will be huge. So many users have shitty playback. There are some major differences.

BS: It depends on what kind of listener you are. Some listen to MQA and say it’s very subtle, others say it’s extraordinary, listening to different aspects of the sound.

TA: For me, MQA was an a-ha moment, but I was listening to a lot of tracks that I’ve been listening to for years, so it was easy. I recently hosted about 40 people in my home to A-B MQA and all but one not only preferred the difference, but heard the same thing. The one who did not prefer MQA said it was “too smooth.” I keep noticing that smoothness, which reminds me more of analog, because of the long tonal gradation that MQA processed recordings possess.

BS:  Exactly, it’s a back to analog, closed loop system now. When you take out the “problems” of digital, you get sounding back to the original. Yet when you hear it on a cell phone with earbuds, MQA still sounds much better and that’s what’s exciting.

TA:  Because the bitstream of an MQA file is much smaller than that of a 24/192 file it’s going to be that much easier for everyone to enjoy high resolution audio?

BS:  Yes, it’s smaller than a CD stream and much smaller than a high res file.

ML: Two years ago I didn’t know anything about Bob or MQA, and this is what first attracted me to the format. I felt our original high res files sounded just fine, but this might make it easier to distribute our high resolution files in a smaller container without losing anything. That was actually the entrance to MQA, the “origami” part of the MQA file. I had to prepare sometimes 8 or 9 master file sets, tailoring dithering and filtering for each sample rate the customer might use, so now just using one file that would unfold and work with multiple end users really attracted me. Originally Bob and I were to sit and talk for an hour, but after our first meeting went seven hours, it still took a while to understand the total philosophy of how we could implement it into our work.

TA: Are you recording your new projects in MQA format? Does it add or subtract from your digital workflow?

ML:  We’ve been meeting regularly in our studio, listening to music, talking about audio and recordings, defining what are we searching for, other than just redistributing our files. There are not yet easily available production tools, so we’ve been figuring out how to work together. While in production, I send raw files to Bob, he does his processing and I get options back. I’m used to turning a knob or pulling a fader and having something happen. This is different. Me listening to the files not knowing what was done and describing what I’ve experienced has been very helpful and taken my level of hearing to a new level.

BS:  And we’ve developed a common language for all of this.

ML:  Remarkably, it’s not very technical; more about color and emotions. We aren’t talking about frequency spectrums that much!

TA: So for now, you’re not really working with an MQA encoder per se, you’re using your current workflow then sending it off to Bob to process.

ML:  Yes, but we are looking forward to a more efficient process very soon. What Bob and I are doing is fine tuning.

TA: So if I understand both of you correctly, MQA essentially removes the “digital fingerprint” of the recording chain.

BS:  That’s what we are trying to do, and soon Morten will have a full MQA setup in his studio, but this process has helped both of us tremendously.

ML: We’ve done quite a lot of projects together and our catalog goes back to 2002, and we’ve gone back to eliminate that “digital fingerprint” from all of our files.

BS: One of the best things about even a great encoder is that you can still improve it further.

ML: It’s really difficult to describe this process, as it isn’t always one process requiring one action. When we listened to my Mozart recording in its original shape from 2006, we’ve now made some major and many minor actions to get it where it is today. We tend to refer to digital as one curse word. A lot has happened since the 80s and 90s and what has evolved from converter to converter as our process has evolved.

BS: The magic here is that by taking out the sound of the converters, even this recording done ten years back is a great recording!

JD: Now having MQA, and as the tools keep changing, changes your process as well. Using this going forward, does it then change how you setup in the studio? Mic choices, mic placement.

ML:  Even though we don’t employ the MQA process when recording (Stuart chimes in “Not yet”) I would like to have MQA in my listening at the venue, it’s embedded in my brain so I know what slight differences I can change when recording.

JD: The parallel to photography stays in my mind, it seems to be a lot like pre visualizing what the end result will be.

ML:  Yes, definitely

BS: We find that Morten’s recordings with two mics, are the cleanest ones we’ve encountered. With other multitrack digital recording you have more blurring because more mic feeds are being processed. With more channels, there’s more blurring, hence the need to turn it up louder. You have to use brighter colors. Once you clean the picture, you don’t have to make the colors as bright to be seen. You can’t expect to make a great recording with 200 microphones.

ML: But they keep trying! This really goes to my heart. Most engineers are more concerned with abuse afterward from the producer or artist. I’m sorry if I seem harsh.

TA: Morten, with this being said, is there any chance of you working outside the current genres of music you now work in?

ML: Of course. It doesn’t matter what kind of music it is, it comes down to my craft and my approach to recording music. Part of the production is finding the right venue, the right room for any given type of music. Instruments balancing in a natural way is a big part of what I do. And this would be more than you might think.

TA: I agree with you gentlemen on all counts. Morten you offer your digital test bench so people can actually hear not only the difference between file formats, and resolution. How long has this been going on and whose idea was this?

ML:  It was my idea from the moment we started to distribute our original masters. About 2008 and it’s a simple web server, delivering about a terabyte a week of different samples.

TA: So back to our original topic somewhat; MQA is helping to simplify the process of downloading high resolution digital music files.

BS: Yes.

ML: Our job is to deliver the best sounding original recording we can in the final format that the customer wants to hear.

Conclusion

The digital process continues to advance, and both Bob Stuart and Morten Lindberg are major players on both sides of the console. With guys this passionate working for us, music delivery will continue to evolve and improve. You may hear a number of arguments on the internet or at the pub, but in the end, we at TONEAudio feel MQA is a huge step forward in digital music fidelity and delivery. We urge you to experience it at your convenience.

www.mqa.co.uk

The Sound Organisation is excited to announce the new Rega Planar 3 turntable and RB330 tonearm.

Arriving at the TSO headquarters by the end of May, the Planar 3 has improved sonic performance, aesthetics and usability. The new ‘Planar 3’ is completely redesigned for 2016, carrying over just two components from the previous model.

The UK based Rega team of designers, directed by Rega founder Roy Gandy, devoted two years of intensive development to perfect the Planar 3, and is the most intensive redesign of the iconic ‘three’ model ever. Complimenting the Planar 3 is the new RB330 tone arm. Engineered alongside the Planar 3, the RB330 is the culmination of 35 years of tonearm design experience.

Building on the success of the RP3, the new Planar 3 uses a lightweight acrylic laminated plinth utilizing an improved double brace system mounted specifically where the increased rigidity is required (between the tonearm mounting and the main hub bearing) forming a structurally sound “stressed beam” assembly. Rega’s low mass, high strength design directly addresses the issue of energy absorption and energy transmission, reducing unnatural distortions to the music.

Every aspect of the previous model was examined, exploring all options to extract more performance from this iconic turntable. As a result, the new Planar 3 shares almost no parts with the RP3 it replaces, all the way down to the clips at the end of the tonearm leads!

The Rega Planar 3 turntable is available June 2016, at all authorized Rega retailers.

$1,145.00 with pre-fitted Elys 2 MM cartridge; $945.00 without cartridge

RB330 will be available separately in a retail package for $595.00.

Watch for a full review at TONEAudio soon, as well as some sexy photos on our new site, The Analogaholic as well.

www.soundorg.com
www.facebook.com/thesoundorganisation

Walking past Pat Hickman’s pristine vintage 600SL on the way to his listening room, I already know I’m going to be in for something special.

The car is perfect from top to tires, with no attention to even the smallest detail overlooked. After about an hour of car talk, we make it up to his listening room to hear his creation; it’s equally well sorted. As with his SL, no stone is left unturned in the quest for perfection. Even the casework, as you can see, is influenced by Apple and his Truth amplifier has an uncanny resemblance to my old G5 tower.

Hickman stresses that the Truth makes homage to the past, yet brings the circuit design forward into this century. It succeeds brilliantly and he jokes “the only complaint we’ve had is that a few potential customers said it might not fit on a rack.” Neither will my Pass Xs300s, so I can’t see that as being a deal breaker.

The Truth is a single ended triode design, but this is no ordinary SET. It utilizes the 2A3 triode to produce 4.2 watts of power. You might laugh at the “.2,” but at this level, every bit counts. If we’re getting really picky, the Truth produces nearly 7 watts of peak power per channel. Most typical 2A3 designs struggle to produce 2 watts per channel, but thanks to every aspect of this amplifier being re-thought, re-worked and optimized for maximum bandwidth, low noise and maximum power transfer, Hickman and his engineering team is able to produce double the power that you would expect from this design.

Because he’s combined a classic design with a thoroughly modern approach, none of the classic problems associated with an SET materialize here. Gone is the flabby bass and rolled-off highs that plague these amplifiers, making you choose between luxurious midrange and lack of extension. You get both (and more) with the Truth. This emphasis on bandwidth that doesn’t sacrifice loveliness comes from the Truth being a true DC coupled design with no capacitors anywhere in the signal path to smear the sound or cause phase shift errors. The measured frequency response is only down 3dB at 6Hz and 140kHz. Pretty impressive specs for any amplifier.

Nearly every SET amplifier I’ve had the pleasure to audition, including the six-figure Wavac from Japan, hisses when you place your ear up to the speakers; this is usually accentuated by the use of the high sensitivity speakers required to make use of a low power amplifier. Yet in Hickman’s system, the speakers are dead quiet. Not a peep.

Let the show begin

The setup is straightforward, consisting of one of MSB’s newest DACs and a pair of Zu Druid loudspeakers. Hickman was driving the top-of-the-line Zu Definitions at this year’s San Francisco show and blowing everyone out of the room, so this was no surprise. What surprised me was how amazingly good the Druids sounded in this context. Having owned a pair myself, they have never sounded this alive in any of my systems.

We start the session with some familiar female vocal tracks and of course, the presentation is outstanding. Even the most basic SET, because of the circuit simplicity, offers up dreamy midrange – and the Truth is outstanding in this regard. Should your musical taste be limited to this genre, this is as close to heaven as it gets.

Hickman spins some tracks more in the EDM groove and his Zu speakers fill the room with bass that is controlled and defined in a way that you’d might not expect from a tube amplifier, let alone an SET. Acoustic music is off-the-chart good; wood blocks, triangles and cymbals take on a stunning realism. The level of tonal purity, contrast, smoothness and decay is stunning. As our listening session comes to a close, I click through about 15 of my favorite classic and current rock tracks – all is in order and I’m still very impressed with this amplifier.

Even with the modest $5,000/pair Zu Druids, a speaker that I’m intimately familiar with, the Truth lives up to its namesake. I can only imagine the performance this amplifier would provide with a pair of Avantegarde horns. Hickman promises an extended loan if we can get our hands on a pair, so you may not have heard the end of this wonderful amplifier in our pages.

Epilogue

Because at this point, there were only three production samples available of Pat Hickman’s Whammerdyne Truth Amplifier, one could not be dispensed to the TONE studio for a full-blown review in completely familiar conditions. However, I have heard the sound in Hickman’s studio on more than one occasion and was familiar enough with the rest of this system to spend a day with the Truth amplifier and share it with our readers. I love SET amplifiers, and I must say that this is not only the finest sounding example I’ve heard, but by far the best executed.

While we don’t normally report on gear that is this boutique in nature, I have known Pat for years and have watched this project come to fruition as a true labor of love. I’m also well aware of Pat’s vintage tube audio restoration business and the tremendous job he has done for customers the world over.

While Whammerdyne will probably never become the next McIntosh or Conrad Johnson, Hickman’s commitment to his product and customers is as strong as that of anyone in the business, and I am confident that this product will have the necessary support going forward to be valid. The way this amplifier is so over-designed and overbuilt, I can’t imagine it failing in this lifetime, or even the next. The $25k price tag is indeed high, but considering the amount of R&D, combined with the labor involved and nothing but the best parts under the hood, it is worth the price asked. And in the light of some SET’s fetching 2–10 times more, it represents high value as well.

Should you be in possession of a high quality, high sensitivity pair of loudspeakers, I can think of no better mate than the Whammerdyne Truth. It is one of the most wonderful amplifiers I’ve ever heard. I just wish there was a way to scale this sound up to about 60 watts per channel. Meridian’s Bob Stuart once said, “Once you hear it, you can’t unhear it.” This amplifier is a perfect example of that philosophy and it will keep me thinking about considering a pair of horns for system three…

Click HERE for the more information straight from the factory!

That said, I am happy to award this amplifier one of our Publisher’s Choice awards for 2015

13 years ago, Dan Wright was building his first product, the SWL 9.0, named after his son and I had just begun my career of reviewing audio gear for The Absolute Sound.

I was building my first major system and wasn’t getting quite the sound I wanted. My ARC LS-3 was a bit on the thin side and my CJ PV-12 just a bit too warm for the rest of the components in my reference system (back then: a pair of ARC Classic 120 mono blocks, a pair of Vandersteen 2Ce’s and a Rega P25). Kurt Doslu from Echo Audio suggested a preamp from “the new guy in town,” Dan Wright.

It only took a quick listen to see that the SWL 9.0 was Goldilocks. i.e., it was “just right.” With simple, clean and understated aesthetics and amazing sound for the then $1,999 price, Dan Wright’s first effort was a winner. Had we given out Exceptional Value Awards in our first year or two, this product would certainly have won one.

Thirteen years later, the SWL 9.0 Anniversary Edition celebrates everything ModWright stands for: great sound, great build quality, and great value. And like a thirteen year old BMW 3-series, the original SWL 9.0s continue to delight audiophiles the world over.

Now that ModWright has broadened their product offerings considerably, the 9.0 SWL, according to Dan is “the perfect way to introduce music lovers to our brand for the first time.” Expect a matching power amplifier somewhere down the road, as Dan Wright is always brainstorming something new…

With the price only going up $900 in 13 years, the new SWL 9.0 has more functionality, better casework and incorporates everything they’ve learned in 13 years of building quality gear. Watch for our review in issue #78.

Click here to go to their website.

HiFi Buys (3157 Peachtree Road NE, Atlanta) will host the inaugural Guys’ Night Out event—an evening of cars, cigars, craft whiskeys, hi-fi presentations, and luxury showcases, with a focus on creating unforgettable, high-quality experiences.

Featured hi-fi brands include Audio Research Corporation, Ayre Acoustics, Brinkmann Audio, PrimaLuna, and AudioQuest. Participating luxury brands and establishments include Buckhead Cigar, Groomed Buckhead Barber, Hennessy Jaguar of Atlanta, Land Rover of Buckhead, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars of Atlanta, Hublot Watches, and Meehan’s Public House.

Guests will have the opportunity to receive a complimentary hot shave and enjoy cigars in a comfortable outdoor lounge. Delicious hors d’oeuvres, a selection of fine wine and spirits, and a sampling of local craft beers will be served.

Admission and parking are free, and, despite the event’s name, all are welcomed to attend. (HiFi Buys’ inaugural Girls’ Night Out is scheduled for later this year!)

For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/123611664705169/ or http://www.hifibuys.com.

Amidst the hectic planning for 2016’s T.H.E. Show Newport starting June 3, General Manager Marine Presson took time out to talk with us about the coming event. Read her advice for first time attendees, planned highlights of the coming show, and Newport’s future direction with the tragic loss of event founder Richard Beers earlier this year.

TONEAudio: How did you first get involved with T.H.E. Show Newport?

PRESSON: I met Richard while working at the Atrium Hotel in 2011 and as the Conference Service Manager during the 2014 show, he was impressed with my work ethic and personable demeanor. Along with others, I believed his graphic advertising could use a touch of class and breathing room so I would always tell him to hire me as his Graphic Designer and shortly after the event, he did! In 2015, that was my ‘official’ role but as we grew closer professionally and personally, he started talking about me taking over and light-heartedly introducing me as the GM to some. Initially, I told him he was nuts! But what I didn’t realize at the time, is he already knew of his failing health and wasn’t joking at all. He saw someone that could do what he did and so he taught me everything possible during that short time. He became very sick immediately after the 2015 show and that’s when I began slowly taking over more and more of his tasks. A few days following the New Year, he was in the hospital incapacitated so I made the decision to take over entirely for the simple purpose of continuing his legacy as I knew that even if he recovered, it wouldn’t be in time to pull off this show.

TONEAudio: What makes T.H.E. Show Newport special compared with other audio events around the U.S./World?

PRESSON: Richard built this Show with a focus on making everyone involved – exhibitors, attendees, press, entertainers, etc. – feel like they were part of THE Show family and inviting all to join; this is why “Open to the Public” is noted on nearly all advertising we do. He was open to feedback and suggestions, always implementing positive changes that would further grow the event making it more successful each year, and keeping everyone happy. As I move forward with his legacy, it is my goal to continue creating opportunities for friendships and business connections as well as making it a fun, high-energy event that people can feel excited for. Essentially, it’s a big family party where business can thrive.

Presson (right) and teammates at T.H.E. Show registration 2015

TONEAudio: Compared with past Newport shows, what makes 2016’s event a must-attend?

PRESSON: First—it will be host to Richard Beers’s official and only memorial so we encourage everyone to join us in celebrating his life on Friday evening, June 3rd in T.H.E. Lounge.  Secondly—we are also putting more emphasis on the personal listening market and expect to see more young faces than ever before, a necessity for the survival of the audio industry in general.

TONEAudio: What advice would you give a first-time attendee?

PRESSON: Purchase your tickets ahead of time and bring your confirmation email to ensure a smooth onsite registration experience.  Utilize the tabs in the event guide to navigate your “show attack” – find exhibitors on our alphabetical listing, or use the maps as you walk the halls to find your favorite companies.  Enter your name in every raffle box and join us for the drawing on Sunday to win big prizes!  Isn’t everything so much more fun when you walk away with a prize?  When you need some down time, head over to T.H.E. Lounge to enjoy some amazing live music, grab a drink and recharge your batteries – or take advantage of the lively energy to network with great people.

TONEAudio: We are all shocked and saddened by the passing of Richard Beers, and understand this year’s event is dedicated to his memory. What is your own favorite memory of Richard?

PRESSON: Everyone knows Richard was rarely on time – I got married just before last year’s show on May 15th and being the loving father figure he was to me, made it a point to be on time for the ceremony. It was very special for me. His humor, intelligence, and down-to-earth personality made for countless memorable conversations late into the night that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

Richard Beers 1949-2016

TONEAudio: What do you think Richard would most like for all of us to remember about him?

PRESSON: Every discussion with Richard involved laughs – no matter the situation, there was always at minimum a good chuckle.  He was a high-spirited, funny, hard working, and generous warrior.  T.H.E. Show was his #1 priority and even through his failing health, he gave it his all. Failure was never option, he was going to take care of everyone as long as he physically could—and he did.

TONEAudio: What do you see as the future of T.H.E. Show? How will it grow or change over time?

PRESSON: There are still a lot of details to consider for the future but the bottom line is, I am dedicated to ensuring Richard’s legacy lives on. I will make every effort to ensure growth in a warm, friendly, and productive manner.  Being of a younger age than many in the industry, I’m fully embracing my advantage of reaching Generation Y, the Millenniums – they are our future and it’s my personal goal to introduce them to the amazing experiences the audio community has to offer.

TONEAudio: What is your favorite part of managing a large-scale event like this?

PRESSON: When Richard first introduced the possibility of me taking over in 2018, I was hesitant because it seemed like an overwhelming lifestyle. When I got my feet wet, and then completely submerged in this lifestyle the last few months, I fell in love with the role. He was right—it’s the perfect gig for me! Why? Because just like him, I enjoy doing a lot and especially in a fast-paced setting (some of us are just crazy like that!). I thoroughly enjoy being challenged on a day-to-day basis, planning and coordinating, and more importantly I love taking care of people and contributing to their successes.  I am the type of person that thrives in these ‘overwhelming’ situations and the rewarding feeling of completing an even successfully is priceless—for lack of better words.

TONEAudio: What do you find the most challenging element?

PRESSON: All aspects are challenging; you’re trying to make thousands of people happy—it’s nearly impossible to please every single person. But the most challenging this year specifically has been the feeling of loneliness. The wondering of ‘who’s here to help me and who’s here to help themselves?’ I’m still learning who the big players are, how everyone contributes differently, and putting together the pieces of the puzzle that were solely in Richard’s head. Next year will no doubt be less painful!

TONEAudio: When you are not working hard on show planning, what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

PRESSON: Spending time with my family and pets—a lab mix, puggle, and senior cat keep me busy! My husband, Wess and I moved to Colorado last June to increase our outdoor opportunities—hiking, fishing, and sunbathing to name a few are musts!  Having been born & raised in France, I’m naturally a foodie so I absolutely love dining out and cooking. And lastly—reading is my therapy.

TONEAudio: Is there anything else you want TONEAudio readers to know about the event?

PRESSON: The mission for 2016 is to maintain as much authenticity as possible. We are keeping a lot of the same from vendors to operations and mostly everything in between (with some fixes to efficiency leaks). That being said, as I discover more about the industry and event itself, I will be making whatever changes are necessary to improve the event and I am game for all that will contribute positivity to the audio community—feedback is always welcome and encouraged; it is only through understanding what you want that we can continuously expand on our successes.
Starting early May, we’ll be launching our Exhibitor Spotlight so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

On a final note, we’d love to hear your favorite memories of Richard, please share them on his guestbook and be sure to RSVP for his official memorial taking place Friday, June 3rd at T.H.E. Show Newport.

Find out more about T.H.E. Show Newport on their webpage

I’m confessing an honest bias when I mention that I fell in love with GamuT speakers about six years ago and have been using their top of the line S9 as a reference speaker for the last five.

With the perfect balance (for me, anyway) of dynamics, extension and coherence combined with a highly musical tonality, they tick all the boxes. But they are massive and need a large room to give their top performance. They also feature a hefty price tag, around $120,000. The new RS5i shaves the size to something more compatible with a wider range of rooms, and a much lower price, $33,990. Still not inexpensive, but more approachable, to be sure.

GamuT’s new RSi speakers build on all the strengths of the S series, and while the cabinets look the same from the outside, everything is different from the cabinet construction, to the drivers, including the internal wiring. No stone was left unturned to wring even more performance from these fine loudspeakers.

Every aspect of these speakers exhibits fanatical attention to detail, reflecting the precision and pride of their construction. This 2 ½ way speaker is claimed +/- 3db from 26hz to 60khz and while I no longer possess the canine hearing to hear 60k anymore, our Stereophile test disc confirms 30hz with ease and very usable output when playing 25hz and 20hz tones, though by 20hz, the output is dropping more dramatically. This was where my S9s had the advantage. Still these are impressive results for modest sized floorstanders, weighing in a just a touch over 100 pounds utilizing a 7-inch woofer with a woodfibre cone with the signature GamuT wood dust cap and a 7-inch sliced paper cone midwoofer, impregnated with GamuT’s proprietary oil. The highs are taken care of with their ring radiator tweeter with the system features an overall sensitivity of 88db.

The RS5i does not reach quite the level of dynamic slam as the much bigger S9, but in many ways the new speaker betters even the old flagship. Already great to begin with, the sheer coherence that the new speakers exhibit, along with greater ability to define minute detail and spatial cues take the presentation to a much higher level of performance than the previous S series. And they were damn good to being with. When not listening to music with overbearing energy beneath 30hz, the RS5i comes out on top. These are definitely the speakers I’m going to retire with…

Sonic performance aside, the RS5is are stunning to behold. Kvist Industries of Denmark is a financial partner of GamuT and they are known for producing the world’s finest (and most expensive) furniture featuring classic Danish style. The RS5is cabinets utilize 22 separate layers of wood, formed into shape with high pressure at such a high temperature, that the natural glue in the wood fiber melts together, to produce a uniform cabinet that retains its shape when the heat and pressure is removed. The RS5i is available in the matte black Onyx finish that you see with our review pair, as well as Ivory, Ruby and Maroon.

Those curious about the wooden dust caps on the cones, need not worry that they are for aesthetic reasons alone. These wooden caps are individually sorted to maintain weight and density and it works to enlarge the contact point between the voice coil former and cone with the additional benefit of stiffening the cone at the same time.

One critical aspect to setup

The GamuT RS5is, just like the other GamuT speakers we’ve reviewed are extremely easy to drive, and even though they have a sensitivity of 88db, can be driven to decent level even with a 20wpc amplifier – tube or solid state. They are not only one of the most amplifier friendly speakers we’ve used; they are also one of the most cable friendly speakers we’ve used. Trying a range of cable from Cardas, Nordost, AudioQuest and Shunyata, all had slightly different tonal characters, but none were outright bad.

My only suggestion because of the larger than normal screw terminals that are featured on the RS5i (and other GamuT speakers as well) is to get your speaker cables re-terminated for bi wiring with bananas. This is the easiest way to get the most performance from these speakers.

As with most loudspeakers, I like to adjust the speakers in the room for smoothest bass response and then fine tune for the best balance of LF extension, mid bass smoothness and maximum stereo imaging without the soundfield falling apart. However, the GamuT speakers need attention paid to one more parameter to achieve the maximum effect – attention to the rake angle. The finely threaded adjusters in the stainless steel speaker base allow easy fine adjustments. Once the rake angle is tuned to perfection, it’s exactly like nailing VTA on a fine phono cartridge; the speakers then disappear into the room.

The way large GamuT speakers disappear in the room like a fine minimonitor has always been one of their finest achievements. Once optimized, they not only disappear, but their other strength becomes instantly apparent. The crossover network on the RS5i blends the drive units seamlessly, with the midwoofer going from about 200hz all the way up to almost 8khz, and according to the RS5s designer with linear phase response to this point as well.

Yes, rake angle is critical to wring the utmost performance out of the GamuT RS5i, but optimizing these speakers brings an additional benefit. The better they are adjusted for on axis performance, the better they sound in other room positions. These are definitely “full couch speakers.” Unlike any of my favorite electrostatic speakers, that only deliver their best performance to one person in the middle of the couch, the RS5is sound awfully good no matter where you are sitting on the listening couch, and never fail to impress, even when sitting on the floor, well off axis. Everyone at the party can enjoy these speakers.

Finely tuned

The smoothness in Princes voice on “Damn U” is rendered in my listening room exquisitely with a proper sense of height, never overblown, and the separation between Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s vocal tracks in the classic “Where is the Love?” is simply amazing. These speakers exhibit a level of timbral realism that is uncanny, especially with vocals and acoustic instruments.

Many speaker manufacturers strive to damp every bit of resonance from the loudspeaker enclosure, so the only sound being produced is that of the individual drivers and crossover network. GamuT takes a different approach, tuning the enclosure, utilizing minimal damping material, working with the cabinet’s natural resonant properties, much like the approach taken by a fine acoustic guitar or violin. As GamuT’s Michael Vamos points out, “All of that energy absorbed by damping materials is converted into heat and lost dynamic punch. We feel that our way of doing things is what gives our speakers such a realistic, lifelike presentation.”

The RS5is are not limited to any particular type of music, proving just as faithful to solo vocals and acoustic instruments as they are to heavy rock, electronica or hip hop. Chuck D’s voice is particularly haunting, spinning the Public Enemy classic Yo! Bum Rush the Show, and the tire squeals bounce back and forth from speaker to speaker, sounding as if the car is right outside. Yet the cannons at the end of AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock” punch straight to the gut, with my Pass Xs300 monos pushed to their limits, meters bouncing.

Driving ease

In the context of a full GamuT system, featuring the D3i preamplifier we reviewed in issue 70 and the M250i monoblocks that we are almost finished reviewing, the sound is clear, dynamic and tonally inviting. Obviously the GamuT electronics are an excellent match, but I also achieved excellent, yet slightly different results with electronics from Audio Research, Conrad-Johnson, Nagra, Pass Labs and Simaudio. As I have purchased the review units for a permanent reference, they will most likely spend their time with the Robert Koda K-10 preamplifier and Pass Xs300 monos. (Though the RS5is were also used with the XA160.8 monoblocks as well)

GamuT takes the same lossless approach with the RS5is crossover network as they do with the enclosure. Some speakers have highly complex networks; that while doing an excellent job at harmonizing the drivers, soak up a lot of amplifier power. This usually requires a high-powered amplifier with high damping factor to give the best performance. While the RS5s certainly play louder with big amplifiers, they still deliver excellent performance with as little as 20 watts per channel.

The high degree of resolution that the RS5is bring to the table makes it incredibly easy for you to discern between component and cable choices, so fine-tuning the GamuT speakers exactly to your liking will be easy. During the course of this review, I auditioned AudioQuest, Cardas, Chord and Nordost cable, with all having very distinct sonic signatures, ranging from slightly laid back to slightly forward. I was able to achieve the same distinctions with the different electronics mentioned above.

Even with a more forward sounding system, the RS5is have such a natural tonal rendition, they will never feel as if they are grating on your ears, and even after long listening sessions never prove fatiguing – making them excellent reference speakers. Think of it more like seating placement; using them with warmer, more forgiving equipment and cables puts you further back in the hall and more revealing, nuanced gear and cable closer to the front five rows of the hall. Your preference, room and careful auditioning will determine the correct mix for you.

Rounding out the picture

Interestingly, the real strength of the GamuT RS5i speakers is their chameleon like ability to reveal whatever is connected to them, and the nuance of whatever music they are called upon to reproduce. This is a speaker that may not grab you as quickly as one with a more tilted frequency response. The more music you listen to, the more special they become. As with the larger S9, the GamuTs get out of the way, becoming little more than a conduit to the music served up, and that’s the highest compliment I can pay them. I’ve heard a few speakers slightly more dynamic, and only my Quads deliver slightly more coherence and detail, yet they throw a much bigger soundstage in all three dimensions. The RS5i’s are tough to beat in overall performance.

A call to action

As I said at the beginning of this review; I’m biased towards the GamuT speakers, they offer everything I personally enjoy in a pair of speakers, in abundance. But as I mentioned in last issue’s publisher’s letter, you should never buy anything just because I think it’s awesome. However, I can’t suggest the GamuT RS5i speakers highly enough and I’ve put my money where my mouth is – I’ve purchased the review pair. At the recent Newport Beach audio show my old boss, TAS editor Robert Harley mentioned the smaller version of these speakers, the RS3i as one of his favorites at the show, and Robert is a tough cookie when it comes to this kind of thing.

Should you take the time to audition a pair of GamuT RSi series speakers, I truly hope you enjoy them as much as I do. They are our choice for Speaker of the Year in our upcoming awards issue.

The GamuT RS5i Speakers

$32,900/pair

www.gamutaudio.com

Peripherals

Digital Source                        dCS Paganini Stack, Gryphon Kalliope DAC

Analog Source            AVID Acutus Reference SP/SMEV/Clearaudio Goldfinger

Phonostage                Simaudio MOON LP810/820S power supply

Preamplifiers             Audio Research GSPRE, GamuT D3i, Robert Koda K-10,

Pass Labs XsPre

Power Amplifiers      Audio Research GS150, GamuT M250i monoblocks, Pass Labs Xs 300 monoblocks

Cable                          Cardas Clear

Power                         IsoTek Super Titan

Denmark’s GamuT has a reputation for incorporating the best parts into beautiful chassis. But as with many of its products, it is the details of the company’s new D3i preamplifier that make it a standout.

GamuT’s engineers are highly skilled designers with backgrounds in psychoacoustics—which basically means that they’re focused on aesthetics and physics, and that they spend a lot of time fine-tuning using their ears, as well as test equipment.

As with artfully designed Danish furniture, the casing of the D3i offers beautiful, understated elegance. Its brushed-aluminum front panel comes in a choice of silver or black, and the body is black regardless of faceplate choice. The top of the unit features two sets of vents for heat dissipation, with a series of oval slits toward the rear of the case and a forward set of vents spelling out the company’s name. At about 4 inches tall, 17 inches wide, and 16.5 inches deep, the unit is rack friendly; and it weighs 26.5 pounds. Supporting the unit’s heft are four specially designed feet, which help isolate the chassis and sensitive internal components from unwanted vibration.  The power switch is hidden just beneath the front panel.

Two huge machined knobs rotate to set the source and volume, while three dime-sized buttons across the center of the unit control the illumination level, home-theater bypass, and mute. To help navigate the options, a control panel window resides in the middle of the faceplate and small blue indicators beneath it identify the selections. The unit comes with a remote that offers control of other GamuT products, should an owner have them in the chain. For those not requiring the home theater bypass function, the CD input can be configured as a regular input, controlled by the volume control, but the functionality must be activated on the rear panel.

The D3i is a solid-state preamp designed in a dual-mono configuration, with the left and right channels functioning independently. Even beyond circuitry, each side has its own power supply—which results in extremely clean playback.

Getting Started

As with most preamps, the setup process entails simply attaching the power cord and interconnects. It offers a mix of RCA and Neutrik XLR inputs to facilitate linestage functionality: Four sets of RCA unbalanced connections are labeled for tape, tuner, home theater bypass, and RIAA—the latter of which is accompanied by a grounding post, making the D3i turntable-ready with the owner’s choice of outboard phonostage. And a set of balanced inputs is available for a CD player. Several output choices enable connection to the preferred power amplifier: two sets of balanced outputs, a single set of RCA outs, and a pair of Tape Out RCAs for those connecting directly to a recording device.

Even before burn-in, the GamuT is not overly warm or romantic, but very pleasantly relaxed. The organic-sounding playback does not command attention by bloating, magnifying, or over-accentuating sonic elements. It’s rather like sitting six rows back from the stage at an unplugged musical performance, without the sonic degradation of the lower-quality audio equipment used at many amplified-music venues. These attributes prove beguiling and consistent regardless of the music type or recording quality.

Sonic Impressions

Defying the band’s low-fi punk roots, Fugazi’s album 13 Songs rarely sounds this good. Because the D3i’s sound is so natural, it’s easy to settle into the music and forget about the preamp. Music simply floats out into the room with an enticing sense of ease. This preamp presents vocals with solid and upfront imaging, reinforcing the illusion of a live performance. Cymbals twinkle with a complex mix of texture and frequency. Horns avoid a bright edginess, gathering instead a refined and emotional element, as experienced in Miles Davis’s album ’Round About Midnight. String instruments offer a similarly detailed and realistic-sounding pluck or strum, or draw of the bow. And piano notes are delivered with both firm plunk and delicate decay.

With the D3i, GamuT manages to create a sense of depth that places instruments toward the back of the soundstage, seemingly behind the rear wall, with the left-to-right soundstage exceeding the physical boundaries of the speakers when tracks pan to the extremes. At the same time, musical elements remain realistically conveyed. For example, Jeff Buckley’s voice during his rendition of “Hallelujah” emits from a seemingly human-sized source; it’s not stretched out artificially to fill space between speakers. On top of that, his vocal crescendos are free from the wince factor that the hard edge of some preamps can create.

Despite the musical ease described above, D3i does not compromise bass definition or drum punch. Taught, low notes have no problem reaching out to vibrate a listening seat. Kick drum, snare, toms and bongos have realistic tonal flavor with appropriate impact and texture, but without an eye-blinking level of magnification. Combining all these marvelous attributes, the D3i leaves itself open for little criticism.

Stellar Performer

The GamuT D3i ranks among the best preamps I’ve had the privilege to experience as part of my own reference system. After spending a few weeks with the unit, I’ve found that it brings out all the detail and presentation I enjoy, but without sonic edge or detrimental artifacts. It portrays music with an organic and natural ease that makes it easy to settle in for long listening sessions. Plus, as a solid-state component, tubes never need to be replaced. Simply turn it on and let it work its magic. And it is home-theater ready should the owner choose to add more channels.

The only barrier for a potential D3i owners is its lack of an onboard phonostage, should you be so inclined. However, GamuT will be offering an onboard phonostage later this year and the price will still be under $10k. If you find yourself trying to justify the investment of a D3i, here’s one way of thinking about it: For many dedicated audiophiles, flipping equipment is a regular habit. Over time, the losses associated with the trades add up. Those seeking a long-term companion, while other audio sources and amps rotate around it, may find the GamuT D3i to be an ideal choice.

GamuT D3i Dual Mono Preamplifier

MSRP: $8,250

gamutaudio.com