[I]n the beginning of the year at the 2012 CES, I observed that the room hosted by Sutherland, Merrill-Williams, and Vandersteen sounded particularly good. The cabling in that room was by a company that was previously unknown to me, Enklein Cables. During this visit I was introduced to company president Dave Kleinbeck and it didn’t […]

[W]hen I reviewed the Melody Valve PM845 mono block amps and Pure Black 101 preamp, I was knocked out by the build quality and no-holds-barred approach to amp construction.  Just going by weight, appearances and parts count, they are seriously impressive products.  My final conclusion was that the 845 output tube, which surely looks great, […]

New Friends, New Gear One of the joys of being an audiophile is “discovering” terrific products that are not well known, all the more so when this occurs unexpectedly.  This is my tale of such a discovery. The story began shortly before Thanksgiving, when I attended a get-together of a local audio society, at the […]

Sometimes things just work out so good. I have just discovered the best way ever to listen to mono records; that is with the SoundSmith SG-220 strain gauge cartridge system. Now, along comes a month full of great mono reissues, not good but great! I know all of you don’t love mono recordings the way […]

I wrote two reviews about the unbelievably musical sound of the AMG V12 turntable, tonearm, and HRS platform. Reviewing the V12 was quite a learning experience for me. Lots of things I already knew were drove home again for me. So, I thought I would take a moment to share these with you. First is […]

Swissonor is a small hi-end company in Geneva, Switzerland. Their first product was a non-magnetic cast iron main platter for the classic Thorens TD124 turntable. They became famous for their mods and improved parts for this beloved turntable. Since then, Swissonor has developed a genuinely complete product range with a single goal of achieving the […]

There are at least three possible starting points for this project: You have an existing ST70 in good condition; you have a completely FUBAR ST70 with a few good bits and pieces; or you start with all new parts. If you want to order all new parts, I will post what you will need to […]

[I]’ve always wanted to review a pair of MartinLogan loudspeakers, as I find them fascinating. I really love the way that MartinLogan has created the electrostatic panels to be perforated with small holes on the stators. It is not only very effective in terms of the increased performance of the sonics of the loudspeaker, but […]

Puritas means the purest of pure. I’ve been told that Allnic’s C.E.O. Kang Su Park hand-builds these beauties as a passion and a labor of love. The cartridge is housed in an unassuming thin, light wooden body.  Inside, the coils are more like a Neumann’s cutting head than a more conventional moving coil cartridge. It […]

Analog is truly the deepest rabbit hole in the audio yard. From table to tone-arm to cartridge to arm wire, there are a plethora of variables that go into making or breaking good analog sound. Not to mention some of the set up eccentricities imposed on the user by some of the more esoteric and […]

I must be an audiophile as the plethora of gadgets and gizmos proffered at C.E.S. didn’t stir my soul. I spent all of my four days in Las Vegas at C.E.S. and T.H.E. Shows in rooms with two-channel stereo – and I could have gone longer! It seemed a fast and furious four days, so […]

[M]y favorite TV shows of all time are Doctor Who? and Northern Exposure. Why? They are both nearly as weird and likable as me; ha, ha. Honestly though, I used to wish I could move to Cicely, Alaska; the fictional town where the people of Northern Exposure lived –not because I had any desire to […]

As I have noted in a previous review of the ZYX Omega S phono cartridge, famed craftsman Hisayoshi Nakatsuka has been at the cartridge designing and building business for over thirty years. Over these many years, Nakatsuka-San has been refining his thoughts on every aspect of phono cartridge design and typically leaving no individual component […]

Coverage of CES and T.H.E. Show (Las Vegas January 8-11, 2013) After two years of not being able to attend CES and T.H.E. Show, I returned to Las Vegas in January.  While attendance at CES was up, the number of exhibitor rooms at the Flamingo and the Venetian were down.  There were less than forty […]

The early attempts at tube-transistor hybrids go back much further than many audiophiles realize.  Just after the commercial introduction of the transistor, radio and television tuners saw the marriage of tube and transistor, often for much more reliable performance since tuner characteristics would drift as tubes age.  The same goes for high performance test equipment.  […]

After rereading my December column, “The Beatnik’s Favorite Things in 2012”, I noticed I did not mention my two favorite purchases last year. Well, it wouldn’t be right not to mention them, especially since I reviewed one of them. I’ll just list them in alphabetical order. The first is my Atocha Design Record Cabinet. I […]

HB Cable Design is imported to the U.S. by Brian Ackerman of Aaudio Imports. Brian has a ear for finding exceptional sound equipment from all over the world and bringing it to the American market. HB Cable Design is a very high end cable and power distribution design company from Germany. They make three passive […]

The Review System I recently reviewed Sablon’s remarkable Panatela interconnects. When possible, I most often use the same cables throughout my system, so for this review I hooked up my whole system with Sablon cables: The phono cable from my AMG V12 turntable to my Auditorium 23 homage T1 SUT, a pair of the Panatela […]

In this article I interview Jeff Wells, owner of dealership Acoustic Arts in Campbell, California, and Wells Audio, the manufacturer of the Akasha and Innamorata solid state amplifiers. I conducted an online discussion with Jeff about the Akasha. Doug Schroeder: Jeff, thank you for taking time to answer a few questions regarding the Akasha amplifier: […]

My affair with the Audio Exklusiv Electrostatic Panels was an unexpected one. As I have just finished reviewed on an Audio Exklusiv product earlier this year, I certainly wasn’t expecting to write another review for the same company. I’m also not fond of reviewing speakers because the thought of having to move my 280 lbs […]

This latest installment of VIP concerns what I believe to be an important new source of live concert recordings of great jazz musicians of the 20th century. The European concert house offered a level of freedom and adventure not enjoyed on most US stages, and certainly not in recording sessions for most of the major […]

MUDDY WATERS & ROLLING STONES CHECKERBOARD LOUNGE 180g 2LP/DVD COLORED VINYL Restored From Original Footage Mastered From Original Source by Bob Clearmountain First Official Release of Rare Live 1981 Performance at the Checkerboard Lounge in Chicago Selections: LP1 – Side A: 1. Sweet Little Angel 2. Flip Flop and Fly 3. Introduction (Instrumental) 4. You […]

WARNING: Dangerous voltages lurk inside all tube amplifiers. Injury, and even death, are possible to anyone working on the inside of the amplifier without proper precautions. Disconnect all equipment before working on it. Check high voltage capacitors with a multimeter to see if there is a charge. If there is, wait until it falls to […]

As with all other audio shows I have attended in the past, I have always attended them with a group of audiophiles to make the event into a day of fun for the boys rather than just routine show reporting. At this year’s Toronto Audio and Video Entertainment show, I attended the show together with […]

What do Thomas Thielemann, Dan Barber, and Edward Pong have in common? The first two men are celebrated chef-proponents of from-farm-to-table organic cuisine. In Ed’s case, he is at the helm of everything in the recording chain: from the choice of music instrument, musicians, venue, equipment, right down to the equalization of the particular open-reel […]

The least appreciated cartridge manufacturing company has to be Audio Technica. For longer than most of us have been alive, they have been making fine phono cartridges at affordable prices. Forgetting the argument of which cartridge is the best bargain, and which cartridges are the very best, which changes every few years, you can look […]

The review of the Akasha Stereo Amplifier from Wells Audio didn’t even last two weeks. It didn’t need to. I had heard enough; enough of everything a solid state amp is supposed to be to crown it the best of solid state amps I have used – by a mile! For that reason I terminated […]

In 1959, Rodgers and Hammerstein released the musical The Sound of Music which included the wonderful little song “My Favorite Things”. As we come to the end of the year, I’ve been thinking about my favorite things in regard to music. Live Music When it comes to live music, I’m lucky to live in the […]

Back on January 15th and 16th Matt Rotunda of Pitch Perfect Audio hosted the first ever Greenhaus. It was Pitch Perfect Audio’s homage to the Monkeyhaus events that John DeVore of DeVore Fidelity held in New York. You may have read some of Art Dudley’s stories about these events. Matt wanted to do something as […]

Laurence Borden: Ben, welcome to Dagogo. Please begin by telling us about your background, and how you became interested in high-end audio. Ben Zwickel: Larry, it was great meeting you at Capital Audio Fest and thanks for having me on Dagogo. I seriously got into music as a teenager which made learning about electronics a […]