The first three Dagogo Reviews published in our September Issue describe what today’s technological competency can do to three categories of products: an SACD player, a tube preamplifier, and a loudspeaker. Among the reviewed is a modified Sony SCD-777ES, an SACD player I owned until last summer, which I stopped using in light of the sound of Redbook CD format as produced by my 47 Laboratory PiTracer CD transport and Audio Note DAC5 Special D/A converter.
Jack Roberts, however, gave his Sony a second chance and sent it to modification houses. I listened to his renewed SCD-777ES VSEI 5+ recently through his $8,000 Audio Note E speaker, and I reckon the performance envelope of the Sony has been pushed astoundingly beyond the confinement of its previous parameters.
Speaking of Audio Note, it has long been the SET amplification maker of choice to many audiophiles since the early 80s; but if you have been following Dagogo’s reviews, you know that two Dagogo’s reviewers, namely Constantine Soo and Chris Redmond, have tried different iterations of the British company’s E type loudspeaker, and have found their speakers to be eminently musical, as well as of audiophile-grade.
The $8,000 AN-E SE that Jack Roberts has been using is also a more refined version of Audio Note’s basic E type loudspeaker, and this month Jack is offering his insights into the finesse of his AN-E as well.
But we are not done with Peter Qvortrup’s speakers yet. Stay tuned, because Dagogo has been given the opportunity to review a few more of the E’s, and we promise the reviews to be informative and worth reading.
In addition to Jack’s incursions into higher refinement of hi-fi as realized in his Sony and Audio Note, Ryan Coleman also shares his experience with his $14,500 Einstein THE TUBE preamplifier. Ryan values this German engineering marvel so much that he bought it for his own use. Don’t miss his take on the Einstein’s ingenuity in a technology treaded most monotonously by others.
Constantine has been experimenting with four of Combak Corporation’s Harmonix tuning feet, and in the context of the Accuphase E-550 solid-state integrated amplifier that he reviewed in May, 2006, he finds an application of the Harmonix TU-66ZX BeauTone underneath the integrated amplifier to augment higher level of distinction in tonal shading and dimensionality from the $12.5k MaxxHorn Immersion horn loudspeaker system. A review of a suit of the Harmonix tuning feet is underway.
Speaking of the Accuphase E-550 integrated, for the readers who remember my finding of its fully functional and separable preamplification stage, I have more to report its sound in the context of a pair of Swedish solid-state monoblock power amplifiers: the $11,000 pair of the Nagra PMA. If the Accuphase could make the 100dB MaxxHorn sound superlative, imagine what the horns will sound like when driven by a pair of state-of-the-art, 200Wpc Nagra solid-state monoblocks plus the Accuphase preamplification stage. Watch for the Nagra review soon.
And there’s more.
In the coming weeks, two Dagogoans will share their experience of solid-state monoblock amplifiers of different manufactures with the readers, one costing $5k, and the other $20k, while a third Dagogoan goes the monoblock route via vacuum tubes. More reviews on exciting products are due to be published in these pages, and we’ve added a new review by Jack Roberts for our readers in the mid-month September Issue: the Shindo Monbrison Preamplifier Review. So, please check back every 1st and 16th of the month to partake all the unique audiophile experiences that is Dagogo.
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