The absolute best for the best price isn’t something we talk about much in the audio world. We talk a lot about the best real world priced or bargain priced equipment. I don’t see much written about how to get the very cutting edge state-of-the-art for the best price. So, I would like to share […]

Audio Reference Technology (A.R.T.) was founded by Luigi Basagni in 1983 in Firenze, Italy. According to Basagni, realizing that there were myriad external factors that interfere with the transmission of audio signals, their main purpose was to pursue a way to get “the real sound” from audio systems. A.R.T. is not a big company, with […]

Finally, after two very frustrating years of poor planning and an airport stranding courtesy of Jet Blue Airlines, I actually made it back to the California Audio Show.   ASC First and foremost, I would like to begin my report by saying that many rooms sounded really fantastic. One really good reason for this high […]

    Laurence Borden interviews Paul Kaplan of Waveform Fidelity Cables (formerly Kaplan Cables) Laurence Borden: Paul, welcome to Dagogo. Please begin by telling us about your background. Paul Kaplan: My formal education was in mathematics and physics. Over a career spanning 40 years, I have applied quantitative techniques in a variety of settings and […]

Esoteric K-01X-The Silver Disc lives on! How we consume recorded music has been evolving steadily over the last 40 years. From analog records and tapes to the CD and now coming into its own, wireless streaming, from which I have found great success in the form of the Krell Connect streamer. While it is true […]

Earlier this year I was approached by the North American distributor of Harmonix, Wynn Wong of Wynn Audio, to review the Reimyo KAP-777 Stereo Power amplifier and CAT-777 Mk-II Vacuum Tube Control Amplifier. Reimyo is the name given the audiophile stereo electronics line created by the Japanese firm Combak of Harmonix fame. That fact alone […]

The Don Ewell Quartet Yellow Dog Blues and Other Favorites 200g LP Side A: 1. Michigan Water Blues 2. Atlanta Blues 3. Tishomingo Blues 4. Georgia Bo Bo Side B: 1. New Orleans Hop Scop Blues 2. Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gave To Me 3. Ole Miss 4.  Yellow Dog Blues   Musicians: Don Ewell, […]

The third floor had the most interesting stuff on it, maybe not the best, but the most interesting. Like last year, the most fun room was the Burwell and Son’s room. This year, they shared the big corner room on the third floor with Bottlehead and Tape Project. The source was The Tape Project’s Otari […]

Morning greeted me with a sunny warm morning in Sonoma County. As I got ready for my day at the Westin Hotel by SFO (that is San Francisco Airport for those who don’t know), I look forward to a day of complete immersion into audiophile bliss. But first an hour and a half of San […]

Let’s face it; there are a lot of things in life that don’t seem fair. Certain advantages are to be gained by those with the means to obtain the finer things in life. Some rail against the few who have access to the finer things. The phrase “one percent,” has become ubiquitous with advantage, but […]

The rooms of the first floor and one on the second floor fall into this category. They are much bigger than any room you would find in a normal house. Then, there were five other rooms on the second floor and two on the third that would be considered large rooms in an average American […]

This was the sixth California Audio Show and during that time the world of Audio Shows has changed. To begin with, there are a lot more of them, and the California Audio Show have become more of a local manufacturers and dealers show. I know that attendees would like more rooms of equipment, and vendors […]

Introduction Reviews sometimes assume a life of their own. This review or at least the idea for this review began when a friend (Sherri) brought a number of Nordost QKOIL models (QV2/QK1) to my home one afternoon so that I could hear them in my system. I had previously visited her home for a demonstration […]

For the past three years in my reference system, I’ve been using the AMG Viella V12 turntable and their wonderful AMG 12J2 tonearm. This table and arm combo along with the HRS platform sells for a little over $17,000 and is still the best bargain in truly high-end turntables. I have had turntables in my […]

Publisher’s note: This Review was published in January, 2012 originally. The Moon is a cold, sterile place. Well, at least the side facing away from the sun is cold; the side facing the sun bakes in approximately 107 degree Celsius sunlight. Have you heard about the new restaurant on the Moon? The food is out […]

Design and Description After reviewing the Margules U280-SC 25th Anniversary Stereo Tube Amplifier in my reference system, I added their preamp to it. For some history and info on the company itself, please read the amp review. The SF220.15 preamplifier is designed so that its output is a very low impedance, designed to drive any […]

If you are anything like me in your approach to parting with money and, like me, you run amplification that uses 300B tubes, then from time to time you’ll be grinding your teeth at the prices charged for these absurdly fragile bits of glassware, metal, ceramic and plastic. Hold an 845 or 211 in one […]

  Who is Margules Audio? Julian Margules of Margules Audio has been delivering audio for over 40 years and is well known in Mexico and other parts of the world. Still, I had never heard of them until 2010 and never heard one of their products until one of the early California Audio Shows. Margules […]

The last transistor active preamp I owned was Nelson Pass’ Threshold SL 10. It was a pure class A design that used cascade gain stages that with matched FETs driving a PNP, whose collector was biased by a constant current source that drove a complementary pair of followers. It also had an outboard power supply. […]

Introduction I have been an audio buff for over 40 years now and since those earliest of days when high quality audio reached my conscious being, the Swiss name Revox stood at the forefront. Of course, back then their mainstay was in the area of Reel-to- Reel tape machines. In fact, the A77, A700, B77, […]

Becky and I just returned from a great trip where we traveled from San Francisco to Prague and then took a river cruise through Germany, and then ended with a few days in Paris. I was really impressed how much these countries loved jazz and folk music. It was also my privilege to hear live […]

Alison Krauss + Union Station Live Rounder Record – Mobile Fidelity Sounds Lab 180 gram, 3 LPs Tracklist A2           Choctaw Hayride A3           The Lucky One A4           Baby, Now That I’ve Found You A5           Bright Sunny South B1           Every Time You Say Goodbye B2           Tiny Broken Heart B3           Cluck Old Hen B4           Stay B5           Broadway C1           […]

When I was writing the articles about the Quad 57, John McDonald of Audience commented that if I liked the Quad 57 I should hear their ClairAudient 1+1. I had reviewed and been very impressed with their “The ONE” speaker, so I asked him if I could review the 1+1. That’s how this review came […]

Also Read Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Junior and DAC Supreme Review   Introductory pleasantries Perhaps by now, due to the extensive amount of discrete opamp rolling I have done with the Eastern Electric MiniMax line of DACs I am something of an authority on the topic. I do not profess to be an electronics design […]

The T.H.E. Show in Newport is the major audio event in Southern California. The venue had changed to the higher class Irvine Hotel. This was an improvement especially since the room AC’s were quieter than the previous hotels. Unfortunately, the live performances were drowned by bar noise and bad room acoustics (there’s some irony in […]

Fritz Heiler, the chief cook and sole bottle-washer of Fritz Frequencies, has been designing and making loudspeakers since 1973 while he was still in college—when he should have been studying instead! It’s now 2015, and Fritz is still going strong stirring up new concoctions in his loudspeaker laboratory. Not one to rest on his laurels […]

In early March, I spent a week with my friend “Encinitas Jim” about whom I have previously written at length. While he has several high performance systems set up in various parts of his home, one is very similar to my own: Acapella Triolon Excalibur speakers, Einstein preamp, Ypsilon VPS 100 tube phono preamplifier, Jorma […]

Jack’s other High Fidelity Cables Reviews (in descending chronological order): CT-1 Ultimate Reference Rhodium Plus Power Cord (June 2014) CT-1UR Ultimate Reference Speaker and Interconnect Cables (February 2014) CT-1 Ultimate Cables (May 2013) CT-1 and CT-1E speaker cables (May 2013) CT-1E Phono and Interconnect Cables (February 2013) CT-1 interconnects (October 2012)   I have heard […]

This Review was published in February, 2007 originally. Also see Audio Note Quest Silver monoblock amplifiers Review, Part 1   A few years ago while using a pair of ‘valve like’ solid state Mitchell Engineering Alecto monoblocks, I was keen to try out the real thing, and so made numerous requests for information and recommendations […]

When you think of Audio Note UK speakers it’s the AN-E they are best known for and certainly the most widely reviewed of all their many speakers. I have seen both the AN-E and AN-J speakers at many shows and in many dealers’ showrooms. I have even seen some of the less expensive AX and […]