I don’t know how many times I have heard people say this about vocal recordings, especially those that are accompanied by a solo instrument or a small ensemble. They want you to put on something with a bigger, louder, more complex sound. Yes, I admit I have heard plenty of systems that sound pretty good […]

This is the third and last part of my iFi-audio Micro and Nano components review. I realized when I was partitioning this massive review into three parts, that not everyone would read all the parts since, for instance, some may not be interested in a tube buffer/preamp like the iTube discussed in Part I. So, […]

First Impressions are Sometimes Wrong A few years ago I was at an audio show (RMAF, if memory serves), and I wandered into a room featuring a speaker with which I was not familiar.   The speaker, as I learned, was from Lawrence Audio, and it was certainly pleasing to the eye. Unfortunately, there was (to […]

Oh my. How horn speakers polarize opinion within the audiophile community. They are rather like Marmite, the iconic British savoury spread consumed by devotees on toast or buttered bread. For equally as many though, Marmite is almost literally the spawn of the devil. English speaker designer and maker Simon Mears – and it’s my bad that […]

Paul Mah of Dagogo has written an extensive review of the BMC PureDAC, and is weighing in on the PureUSB1 as well. I direct interested parties to his review for comprehensive coverage of their function as I do not wish to be redundant. Here I offer my opinion of these products based on my use […]

The KEF LS-50 is fast becoming one of the most talked about speakers around, and I suppose it’s time for a reviewer at Dagogo to talk about them. Residing in Hong Kong I live in an apartment that is well suited to the KEF LS-50. Well suited means small if you missed it. The LS-50 […]

Rather than retracing ground previously covered in “A Visit to the Home of the Infamous Encinitas Jim” (Dagogo, April 2014), I refer you to that original article. Subsequent to my initial listening sessions in January 2014, there have been three changes to the system, which, in combination, have had an almost transformative effect on the […]

Laurence Borden: Dan, welcome to dagogo. Please begin by telling us a bit about your background, including your introduction to audio. Daniel Khesin: Thanks Larry, I am very excited to share our story and to be included in your coverage. I have been in the audio industry in one form or another for nearly 20 […]

Cecile Mclorin Salvant – Womanchild 180 Gram Vinyl, 2LPs Side 1 St. Louis Gal I Didn’t Know What Time It Was Nobody WomanChild Side 2 Le Front Cache sur Tes Genoux Prelude/There’s A Lull In My Life You Bring Out the Savage in Me Baby Have Pity on Me Side 3 John Henry Take It […]

Let start with the Burwell & Sons room; it was right there when you got off the elevator on the third floor and it sure seemed to be the best attended room at the show. From a few minutes before the doors officially opened on Friday until after the show was over on Sunday the […]

Music First Audio teamed up with TriangleART and Audio Note UK to produce the best sound I have heard from a pair of Audio Note E’s at a show, and that includes the Audio Note Level 5 system that was at the California show last year. The speakers in this system were some of the […]

As I said this year I want to cover the show a little differently. I‘ve posted some pictures of turntable eye candy and a thought piece, I called the blessings and curses of Audio Shows. Now it’s time to get to my six favorite rooms starting with the two best modern sounding rooms. Then in […]

This year I want to cover the show a little differently. I’ll post some pictures and my usual turntable eye candy pictures. I’ll also give you an article about my six favorite rooms divided into the two best modern sounding rooms, the two best vintage sounding rooms, and the two best rooms that bridged the […]

At the 2013 California Audio Show I had the pleasure of serving on a panel discussion where attendees were invited to ask audio writers question. On the panel was Jason Victor Serinus of Stereophile, Neil Gader The Absolute Sound, Michael Mercer of Positive Feedback, and myself. One of the questions we were asked was what […]

Earlier this summer I first wrote about the wonderful Melody Valve P2688 vacuum tube line stage. As I had mentioned, accompanying the P2688 on the long journey to South Florida was a pair of Melody Valve MN845 vacuum tube Monoblock power amplifiers. These amplifiers are really something to behold. To my eyes, they are stunningly […]

System set-up and listening I used two systems for this review: my personal reference system which consists of David Slagle’s Silver Remote Autoformer, a Wavac EC-300B SET amplifier driving the Teresonic Ingenium XR speakers, with DX4 silver drivers. Cabling in the system was entirely from High Fidelity Cables. The second system was my digital/video system, […]

“Simple means purer,” I have often thought as I have worked through a cornucopia of two channel devices that diminish the purity of the audiophile experience. This is not to mention the plethora of devices with ear buds with pretense to good sound. These may be repositories of information, but they certainly are not repositories […]

iDAC – $299 + Mercury USB cable – $99 for 0.5 meter, $129 for 1 meter I recently became somewhat serious about computer audio.  Last month I bought an Asus laptop and two external hard drives to be used in combination as a dedicated music server.  Previously my Sony laptop served as an uber everything […]

The 2014 Capital Audio Fest was held at the Sheraton Hotel in Silver Spring Maryland, July 25-27. The show had a friendly and congenial atmosphere, though attendance was lower than most of us would have liked. The exhibitors were spread out on numerous floors, with only six or seven rooms per floor. Had the show […]

iFi-audio, aka AMR’s pint size little brother Abbingdon Music Research, or AMR as audio hipsters like to say while sipping their double mocha macchiato, is a British manufacturer of high quality (both sound and build) audio components. AMR, the company-okay, I’m an older hipster who loves drinking latte macchiato- started in 2001, and in 2006 […]

Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs, Jerry Garcia & David Grisman • Numbered, Limited Edition, 180 grams, 2 LPs • Mastered from the Original Master Tapes • Pressed at RTI Musicians: Jerry Garcia, guitar, vocals David Grisman, mandolin Jim Kerwin, bass Joe Craven, percussion, fiddle Selections: Side 1: 1. The Thrill Is Gone 2. Grateful Dawg 3. […]

Yes, Lowther loudspeakers are vintage, but the only time I see reviews of them is when someone tries a new method of using the drivers. So, I’m going to include them and especially the Teresonic Ingenium XR Silvers in my Pet Peeve #1. The Teresonic Ingenium has been around for around 10 years and the […]

I am a fan of so-called “augmented wide bander” speakers, by which I mean speakers that use a wide band driver for the majority of the audible frequency range, supplemented below with a woofer, and (sometimes) above with a tweeter. Such speakers have the benefits of wide-band drivers (namely, their dynamics and coherence) but without […]

When I walked into their room at the last RMAF I knew these speakers were something very special for anyone trying to put together an extremely affordable system. Vanatoo is a new company and their first product is the Transparent One that was five years in development. The name Vanatoo comes from the isle of […]

Laurence Borden: Alan, welcome to dagogo. Please begin by telling us about your background, including of course electronics and audio. Alan Langford: My interest in audio started when I was around 10 years old when some friends and I started removing parts from old televisions and radios and discarded equipment to make our own amplifiers […]

The AX-Two loudspeakers are part of Audio Note (UK)’s entry level “ZERO” series of products.  The AX-One and AX-Two  are standmount speakers designed to be partnered with the I Zero and CDT Zero CD player as an entry level complete Audio Note system.  While there is something to be said for complete Audio Note systems, […]

Horace Silver Quintet – Song For My Father Label: Music Matter(Blue Note) 180 HQ Vinyl (2LPs) 45 RPM Tracks: 1. Song for My Father 2. The Natives Are Restless Tonight 3. Calcutta Cutie 4. Que Pasa 5. The Kicker 6. Lonely Woman Musicians: Tracks: 1-2, 4-5: Carmell Jones, trumpet Joe Henderson, tenor sax Horace Silver, […]

I don’t have many pet peeves, but one of them is the fact that we only think about recent or vintage stuff. A few examples, libraries are full of books; some of them written a few hundred years ago, but the only ones on the wait list to check out are brand new or a […]

Back in the fall of 2012, when my publisher asked if I would review Rick Schultz’s new CT-1 interconnects, my initial response was to say no. My memory went to some of Rick’s Virtual Dynamics cables I had owned in the past. They were some of the thickest, stiffest, and heaviest cables I had ever […]