Introduction About six months after I reviewed and subsequently purchased the Audio Note M10 Special Edition Line Stage, AN asked whether I had any interest in reviewing their top of the line phono stage which, in their opinion, represents an ideal match to their M10 SE line stage. In their words, no expense had been […]

See Day One, 2018 CAS (CAS8), Pt 1 Day One, 2018 CAS (CAS8), Pt 2   After a short break back at my room, I am now refreshed and ready to see some more demo rooms. Whammerdyne Heavy Industries/PureAudioProject Whammerdyne is known for its very high-end low-output power amps. On display was what they call […]

Day One, 2018 CAS (CAS8), Pt I   I was able to start my morning at CAS8 a little before the show opened. This was Constantine Soo’s 8th show, and I for one was looking forward to seeing and hearing what was ahead for me over the weekend. Since I am writing this article post […]

The California Audio Show 2018, affectionately known as CAS8 has come and gone, but not without a fair share of sadness and nostalgia. Regional Hi-Fi shows are the lifeblood of the industry. We are talking about an industry which has the number of brick and mortar foot trafficked dealers dwindle precipitously the regional shows fill […]

The Audio Note UK DAC 0.1x is part of Audio Note UK’s entry level zero system. At first glance, the DAC 0.1x can seem to be a tough sell in a 2018 marketplace with far more modern DA converters competitively priced, most of them having half a dozen inputs and outputs and impressive techno babble […]

Respondent: Jeff Joseph, Joseph Audio, Room 5216.   What’s the “elevator pitch” description of your company? Globally acclaimed Joseph Audio loudspeakers are designed to deliver the natural clarity of your recordings with effortless musicality.   What makes your company and products special – how do they stand out from the pack? Our exclusive crossover technology […]

To say that Ophidian’s MINIMO speakers are compact is the understatement of the year. The speakers measure roughly 5” wide, 7” high and 6” deep. The footprint of each speaker is smaller than the base plate of Pangea’s DS-400 stands (6” wide x 8.5” deep) and, while the image of them resting atop is indeed […]

Full Circle Record Store Day (RSD) was yesterday (April) all over the world, and it has indeed cemented its place. I remember its first year and it was nothing like in to what it has morphed. Good or bad, it always makes for a hot stove topic. Who does it benefit? Is it more for […]

Respondent: Rob Runolfson, Muraudio electrostatic loudspeakers, Room 5209.   What’s the “elevator pitch” description of your company? Muraudio is a Canadian company that designs and manufactures point source electrostatic loudspeakers.   What makes your company and products special – how do they stand out from the pack? Muraudio is the only company in the world […]

Respondent: Joseph Hakim, Eigen Audio, Room 5220.   What’s the “elevator pitch” description of your company? Eigen Audio sells high end audio equipment to the Greater San Francisco Bay Area – in particular the South Bay , an area that is relatively underserved in terms of high end audio dealerships. We focus on providing exceptional […]

Here’s a slice of rollicking Americana from a time and place not so far away.  Or was it? For nearly a quarter century Oakland A’s Swingers Baseball Band brought vintage jazz to ballpark audiences, Traditional Jazz events and private parties. It was a solid musical ensemble with a limited role at games: * Performing six […]

Introduction Recently I stumbled upon a method of connecting audio components I had never encountered, and it centers on the use of interconnects. I’ll not spend time discussing the efficacy of cabling; the reader will either be convinced of the merits of aftermarket cables, or will not. I do not intend to debate what I […]

If PS Audio’s Sprout100 has all the answers, you can just imagine the questions. I cannot tell you the number of times aspiring audiophiles and existing ones who share my penchant for travel ask me online and in person to make recommendations for them. And, what they have all in common is their particular criteria […]

Dr. Roger West and Dr. Dale Ream founded sound Lab on July 1, 1978. Their founding belief was that electrostatic transduction is the optimum loudspeaker technology. Over the decades since, the company has continued to offer updates to older products. The Sound Lab Ultimate 545, the subject of this review, is the same speaker that […]

I heard about the wonders of a small device by Sonore called the microRendu, a product that takes an Ethernet audio stream from a computer or server and “renders it to a perfect, ultra-low noise USB feed to one’s USB DAC.” It purportedly boosts digital playback in terms of clarity and “musicality.” One of my […]

Why So Jittery? Ah, so you haven’t re-clocked your USB signal … yet. Computers are noisy in theory and in practice. Operational noise aside, the USB signal coming out of it is not only noisy, but unclean and read that to mean imprecise. This is where jitter enters the frame and as computers were never […]

I learn something from every component I evaluate. Mostly this learning takes the form of discovering—or rediscovering—an aspect of music reproduction that I realize I’ve been missing. With the Omen Dirty Weekend loudspeaker from Zu Audio (Ogden, Utah), I rediscovered several things that I had drifted away from in the last few years of assembling […]

Furutech has a new cable riser, named the Booster, which utilizes the company’s Nano Crystal Formula (NCF) technology. I have been using Furutech NCF outlets, outlet covers and power cable connectors for quite a while and consider them a significant upgrade to my reference system. Nano Crystal Formula is an active anti-resonance damping material. It […]

My Lifetime, A Lifeline You don’t know it as a kid, especially born on one continent and growing up in another. It can be real difficult, really painful. Navigating grammar school and the playground is tough on its own, doing so when you don’t grasp the finer points of American boyhood is wholly another. Going […]

This is my third TriangleArt turntable to review. I’ve reviewed the Symphony, the Symphony SE and now the Maestro. The two Symphony turntables have been discontinued, and the Maestro has taken the place of both. All three turntables have had a few things in common. They all are eye-catching, they are all high mass designs, and […]

Read Part 1 At around 50% of the cost of the TriangleArt Master Reference system, but costly nonetheless, the Spiral Groove Revolution turntable system and Centroid tonearm is capable of high drama of a different kind. Allen Perkins, founder and designer of Spiral Groove, began his career in the mid-80s as the chief designer for […]

Respondent: David MacPherson, Studio Electric, Room 5224.   What’s the “elevator pitch” description of your company? “Do one thing and do it well.” We build speakers that exceed expectations.   What makes your company and products special – how do they stand out from the pack? Dave MacPherson, managing partner at Studio Electric, has a 30-year […]

  The Infamous Burp Hollow, San Francisco Nightclub, 1956-66 “A seamy hole in the wall on Broadway — the booming entertainment strip of North Beach — this joint was near the bottom of the long list of jazz rooms flourishing in San Francisco around 1960.” — Clarinet player Bill Carter, 2014   A Colorful Nightclub […]

Publisher’s note: Doug Schroeder, in conversing with Gary Dews, owner of BorderPatrol, found him “perfectly polite and technically succinct,” which inspired him to write this review in the style of notation form of the Owner’s Manual. This review is separated into two parts, namely a Q&A section, followed by the review observations. Per Doug: “Do […]

Respondent: Rong Zhang, Unisinger Inc., Room 5231.   What’s the “elevator pitch” description of your company?  Unisinger’s mission is to provide artistically designed and affordably priced natural, balanced sounding high performance loudspeakers with Venturi Effect technology for improved aerodynamic and acoustic characteristics.   What makes your company and products special – how do they stand […]

Brendan Jan Walsh is anything but conventional. I met him here in Columbus, Ohio of all places at what was billed as a Classical Music Rave. On that alone I made a bee-line for the event, not knowing anything about him, but mindful of my past raving, this had to be experienced. Yes, there were […]

Everything’s venomous in Australia. Well, not everything, just a lot of things; snakes, spiders, jellyfish. I recall reading in the book In A Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson, how in 1967 Prime Minster Harold Holt, a man very comfortable in the water, went for a swim with family and friends during high tide at Cheviot […]

Respondent: Mark Waldrep, AIX Media Group, Outer Booth #1   What’s the “elevator pitch” description of your company?    AIX Records specializes in the production of new high-resolution albums (96/24) mixed in surround and stereo and available on disc or downloads. Company founder and Chief Engineer Mark Waldrep has also written a book call Music […]

Swing Era Trumpeter Buck Clayton Swing era trumpet player Buck Clayton (1911-1991) is best known for his role in the early success of Count Basie and his Orchestra and his sensitive accompaniment for Billie Holiday’s records. Clayton was the son of a tuba-playing minister, and yet because he had some Native-American blood his mother called […]

A Passive Low Noise Filter Designed to Open Up A System To know me is to suffer my eccentricities. It is my nature to be both a skeptic and a cynic of the highest order, so imagine how I must be feeling now when something which originally caught my eye at an Hi-Fi show as […]