In 2022, Fred Crowder and I travelled to California to hear a cost-no-object system, from which came Fred’s article, “One Man’s Dream”.  It was a celebration of one man’s journey through audiophilia toward an incandescent experience of recorded music. Fred’s own journey was similar, even if not involving quite the same cash outlay, and the […]

  Read the 2015 Pass Laboratoriess XA200.8 Review The first quarter of 2025 has proven to be most interesting thus far. Class D amplification has finally come of age with the release of a $2,499 analog class D monoblock amplifier, the Orchard Audio Starkrimson Mono Ultra Premium, which I reviewed last month. There are uber […]

  The first part of this review was sweeping in its perspective and discussed the larger topic of the efficacy of using a pair of integrated amps, specifically ones with DAC/pre/D topology. This segment will explore tuning that system configuration with the associated cables, especially HDMI cables used for transmission of the I2S signal favored […]

  The New Jersey-based Orchard Audio has a compact class D monoblock amplifier that outputs 500 watts continuous and 1,000 watts peak into 4 ohms, costs $2,499 each, and it is an analog switching amplifier. The Starkrimson Mono Ultra Premium monoblock, the subject of this review, employs the latest Gallium Nitride field-effect transistors (GaNFET), with […]

A pair of the nine feet tall Sound Lab Majestic 945PX electrostatic panel speaker system costs $60,000, and it is the flagship model in the Majestic series. The ”945” nomenclature denotes the panel being nine feet high in a 45-degrees curving radiating surface. It is essentially a large canvas of mylar diaphragm stretched inside a […]

  A little more than six years ago, I reviewed and subsequently adopted the Pierre Lurne record clamp as my reference after a rather exhaustive search for a clamp/weight that would enhance the sonics of my Rockport Sirius turntable.  Initially, I would have said, if asked, that given that the Rockport has a well-designed vacuum […]

If you are anything like me, the acquisition of McIntosh and Sonus Faber by Bose Corporation was a shock. As a long-time audiophile and devout believer in maintaining the quality and standards of the Audio Specialty industry, this move was tantamount to seeing a cherished artisanal craft risk being absorbed into the world of mass […]

  Read: Part 2. The PS Audio Stellar Strata Mk2 Integrated Amplifier is one of the most important components I have handled, but not for the reason you may think. In the process of reviewing this and one other integrated amplifier, I have reached what many would consider controversial conclusions regarding two channel audiophile system […]

Publisher’s note: Heaven 11 has notified us that the MK2 has been discontinued at the time of press, making way for the launch of the MK3 in February, 2025. Follow-up Review forthcoming. Here comes this curious integrated amp that I spied at AXPONA 2023 as it was playing through a pair of PAP Trio10 Heil […]

A Revelation When I receive an updated version of a product that I have previously reviewed, the changes are more often evolutionary rather than revolutionary.  By this, I mean that the designer has in fact improved areas in which the product was already strong while weaknesses remain.  This clearly is not the case with the […]

Variety for the budget audiophile Let’s say you have $3K to spend on speakers. What will you buy? One of the hundreds of OK sounding box speakers? Maybe a Vandersteen or a dipole speaker like a Magnepan? I have owned the Vandersteen 1B and 2CE, the Magnepan MMG and 1.6QR (and reviewed the .7i; see […]

We put bits of electronics, wires, and drivers together to create something ephemeral which we hope will also be ethereal. Digital bits seem a strange way to conjure music, but they are no stranger than the coded structure of our being. Someone wrote that code, just as someone wrote the code that operates the PS […]

SHOW REPORT 8/16/2024 Constantine Soo Colin King of Gestalt Audio and Joe Cohen of Lotus Group once again teamed up for a second year at CAS, and attendees were treated to another field-coil speaker system driven by a meticulously design and set up analog gig, featuring a new and improved Fuuga cartridge on a $30,000 […]

  Audio Note UK operates a little differently than the rest of the industry in the home stereo world. The company creates a complete array of components for stereo systems from cartridges to loudspeakers down to making the internal parts including transformers, resistors, capacitors, cables, solder, etc. Furthermore, company owner Peter Qvortrup insists upon complete […]

  HighResHiFi, U.S. Distributor of FINAL Electrostatics, Netherlands will demonstrate all new electrostatic panel speaker line-up in both multichannel and stereo configurations. 2024 California Audio Show – Final (final-audio.com) System 1 –  stereo & multichannel music audiophile: Final model 35  pair @ $27,000 BREAKING: Final to present it’s top of the range Model 35 at […]

SHOW REPORT 8/14/2024 Constantine Soo The Audio Note UK room was presented by dealership True Sound, and it was packed just like last year. Lee Chen of True Sound counted 85 new visitors by Saturday afternoon! Many of them sat for an hour or longer. The AN-E/SPx Ltd field-coil speaker system, the star of the […]

SHOW REPORT 8/12/2024 Constantine Soo Clarisys Audio debuted the Piccolo, its full-ribbon panel speakers with yet the smallest dimensions. On hand to walk us through the juicy tidbits of the desing was Ron Resnick of Audio Cafe, Beveryly Hills, CA. Electonics support were by Gary Leeds of WestminsterLab. Sitting at the center in the first […]

SHOW REPORT Constantine Soo 8/8/24 Dr. Phil Ducote and Dan Rosca of cables manufacturer Audience AV demonstrated a pair of the latest version of the $4,000 ClairAudient 1+1 mini-monitors, now in version 5. On the 30-inch Skylan stands and driven by a pair of famed OTL tube amplification company Atma-Sphere’s latest class D monoblocks, coined […]

  SHOW REPORT Constantine Soo 8/8/24     Sound Lab was represented by its Japanese distributor, Christopher Stubbs of Sound Lab Electrostats Japan in the Lobby Gold Ballroom. He was joined by Jose Ramirez a.k.a. Dr. Vinyl, and Todd Garfinkle of MA Recordings. Two pairs of new Sound Lab panel speakers were positioned on a […]

Note to the reader: In this article I am not claiming to have found a method in which affordable equipment performs at a SOTA level, but rather, a method of system building that has elevated my digital front end and offers flexibility to optimize any system I build and elevate the performance of speakers I […]

Publisher’s note: This article is co-authored by Fred Crowder and Earl Weed.   In this review, I explore the effect of a relatively new product, Arya Audio RevOpods, vibration control feet on the sound of my system. Over the years, I have used a variety of different devices to damp/isolate my equipment both from external […]

  Sound Lab Japanese Distributor Chris Stubbs of Sound Lab Electrostats Japan will be showing two new Sound Lab models in the Lobby Gold Ballroom. Electronics and cables to be provided by Dr. Vinyl. Per Chris: Models are (and note both are brand new): G7-3C (narrow model) & G8-5C (a slightly narrow version of what […]

  I occasionally express my nostalgia in the hobby of audiophilia through acquisition of inoperative or nominally operative audio devices versus vintage stereo equipment. The nostalgia or vintage systems I have built did not have a performance level sufficient to inspire me to listen to them more than a day or two. I have found […]

Audiophiles dig specifications. Most audiophiles are not technically savvy and rely on the brilliance of the design engineers of companies and their marketing departments to make purchase decisions, and what fun that is. Finding out how different designs make music in one’s own home makes for one of the noblest hobbies. Anyone can be a […]

  I’m not ready to be called old at 61, but I must admit I am making boneheaded mistakes I presume are associated with age. Such was the situation when I called Damon Gramont, Director of Sales and Marketing for Bricasti Design, to discuss a problem with the review unit of the Model 1 Series […]

  “Today will be a day long remembered. It has seen the death of Kenobi, and will soon see the end of the Rebellion.” – Darth Vader, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, 1977. It was on this pretext that the story of the second movie in the original Star Wars trilogy, Star […]

The hierarchy of large loudspeakers in my experience begins at the top with the Sound Lab Prostat 922 at the Kimber Kable Exhibit at 2008 RMAF, Acapella Audio Arts Excalibur Triolon with its plasma tweeter, colossal midrange horn and a complete woofers column, followed by the Destination Audio Vista horn, the Dynaudio Evidence Master, the […]

A few short years back, some large Japanese global conglomerate poured its vast engineering resources into creating three components; the first, a D/A converter that would be the envy of all, one that decodes all known codecs, and performs at equivalent level as others’ flagship designs. Then it turned its attention to the creation of […]

  Several months ago a local dealer, Timbre Audio, hosted an open house featuring the principals of the company Computer Audio Design: Isabel Whitley and Scott Berry. CAD designs and manufactures passive external grounding boxes, among other products. Although I had heard of the company and had even read one or two reviews, I was […]

Read: Audio Note UK IO Ltd field-coil cartridge system Review   I group audio engineering kung-fu into 3 main categories: Concepts which have a solid theoretical basis. Concepts which have a plausible, but tenuous or inadequately researched theoretical basis. Pure Magic, based on intuition and experimentation! What we are talking about here, the sound of […]