Artisan Fidelity is the result of a 22-year pursuit by Christopher Thornton to find higher fidelity sound for the home. He says it has simply been a labor of love. On his website he lists his title as Designer / Artist and I think that is a fair description. His love of music and audio has […]

The Sakura Systems website provides the following technical description: “In conventional CD players, or CD transport~DAC combination, with multi-bit DAC chip, the original I²S signal is converted to S/PDIF format at the transport circuit, then converted back again to I²S at the receiver of the DAC section. For 4735 CD player, Junji Kimura created a […]

Publisher’s note: Knut Skogrand of Skogrand Cables has provided Dagogo with a detailed review on the company’s new Tchaikovsky line of cables by Mr. Joseph Ki Cheong Ming, one of the company’s customers.  Mr. Ming is a member of the Analogue Fellowship, LS3/5A club main man, inventor of the Ki method, architect and a seasoned […]

I find 47 Labs to be such an interesting company. At times I am tempted to get rid of all my ultra expensive and big gear and just listen to one of their little systems, as they are so musically satisfying. While I have always considered myself to be in KISS (KeepItSimpleStupid) high-end audio camp, […]

A couple of years ago, I was introduced to the world of Enklein. At the time, after many hours of evaluation and break-in, I concluded that, though not ideal in every respect, the EnKlein “Zephyr” and “Taurus Reference” were a combination of interconnect and cable that clearly yielded improvement in my reference system. As it […]

I’ve got to start this review with an apology. I’ve had the Sonus faber Venere 3.0s in my home in various locations now for over 5 months and should have completed this review three months ago. In fact, I was mostly done with the review back in May. However, one thing led to another, and […]

The phono preamp is not the sexiest component in the system, at least as far I’m concerned. A little bit of a front-end component, kind of a middle of the pack component, it suffers from a touch of an identity crisis. But make no mistake about it – a miss matched or an inferior component […]

Harry Belafonte Belafonte At Carnegie Hall The Complete Concert Analogue Productions 200g 2LP Pressed at Quality Record Pressings Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound from the original 3-track analog tapes Plating by Gary Salstrom I didn’t list all the cuts on these two LPs, heck most everyone knows this recording. It’s an LP with […]

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. […]