Setting up is hard to do! Whether your knowledge of audio show is from actually going to shows or strictly from show reports, I promise that you have no idea of the amount of work involved in transforming a hotel room into a showroom where your equipment will sound at least respectable. Think about it […]

This just in: Bay Area dealer Audio Image Ltd. (Emeryville, CA) in Lobby Bayside Room will debut the brand-new Audio Research Ref 250 monoblock amplifiers. Priced at $26,000 the pair, these amplifiers are not even on AR’s website yet, and the first production pair is due to arrive next Monday at the dealership. According to […]

The 2nd California Audio Show is just a week away, and details of systems are coming in gradually. Before I talk about the details, I want to encourage attendees to pick up a copy of the Official Directory to the 2nd CAS. In addition to 4 new commentaries by Dagogo reviewers, there will also be […]

One of Dagogo’s recent polls revealed that 38% of those responding had spent nothing on room acoustics. I found this both disturbing and thought provoking. Why would anyone totally overlook this area of our hobby (though maybe they have tried some free things). Still, most rooms need a little more than you can do for […]

Chris Connaker of Computeraudiophile.com LB: Chris, welcome to Dagogo. Please begin by telling us about your background, and what lead you to embrace computer-based audio and to start computeraudiophile.com. Chris Connaker: I have been an audiophile for as long as I can remember. In 1982, after talking my second grade teacher Mrs. Van de Weigh […]

The Complete Art Pepper at Ronnie Scott’s Club, London June 1980 “Blues For The Fisherman & True Blues” 7-LP Boxed Set by Pure Pleasure Records Let’s just say it right off the back these LPs were to me a total surprise and a sheer delight. Art Pepper was one of the great alto saxophonists of […]

Publisher’s Note: This Review is first published in the Offiical Directory of the 2nd (2011) California Audio show. Introduction Pass Labs has been on quite a successful journey with their ‘X” and ‘XA’ Series power amplifiers. Much the same can be said for their linestage preamplifiers. On the heels of completing my review of the […]

Seminars! Audiophile community recognizes the name Dan D’Agostino right away, because many of us bought his Krell amplifiers in the past. Dan will be exhibiting in the Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems suite, room 313, which is the King’s Suite on 3rd floor right outside the elevator lobby. I have wanted to see his Momentum […]

Laurence Borden speaks with Mr. Steven Huang of Audio Sensibility, a Canadian audio cable manufacturer. In this interview, we will learn not just about Mr. Huang’s design philosophy and uniqueness of his products, but also his family’s tie with the very Dr. Atsumi Ohno himself, the inventor of the OCC process that bears his name […]

The San Francisco Bay Area’s very own California Audio Show is on again. The second annual CAS is due to take place between Friday July 15 and Sunday July 17, at the Crowne Plaza SFO, Burlingame (1177 Airport Blvd, Burlingame, CA 94010. This year, we will bring more high-quality exhibits than last year’s inaugural event. […]

This review started with an assault upon me by Chris Owen. Well, that might be a bit of an overstatement; I should say that Chris has been a persistent man, catching me at every show I have attended and asking that I stop by to hear the systems he has displayed. I thought I might […]

About a year ago I reviewed the Linn Majik DS-I, a great combination of Linn’s Majik-I integrated amp and Majik DS digital streamer. The “Majik” series is Linn’s lowest-end product series, with the “Akurate” being a step up and the “Klimax” representing the top end. I was impressed by the Majik’s performance, especially when streaming […]

According to the result of the recent Dagogo Poll that ran between November 29 and December 5, 41% of respondents use dynamic multiple-driver speakers as reference, against 18% for horn, 21% for electrostatic or magnetic planar, 15% for single-driver and last not least, 5% for types of hybrid of the aforementioned. Although the sheer availability […]

Bill Dudleston and Doug Brown of Legacy Audio were showing their newest offerings in the extensive Legacy Speaker line. In one system, were the $4650 Classic HD speakers in gorgeous Rosewood cabinetry and the entry level, Studio HD at $1450/pr., a two way mini monitor speaker that sports a folded ribbon tweeter. Both models had […]

The ever gracious Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen had a very sweet sounding room featuring their Crescendo speaker system mated with a Tri Pure Class A 20 watt per channel amplifier, upsampled tube CD player, and of course all Acoustic Zen interconnects. The Quad and Merrill-Williams gear set-up in one of the rooms hosted by […]

While there are many approaches to speaker design, the true determinant of success is implementation. When it comes to open baffle speakers, few do it better than the legendary Siegfried Linkwitz. His Orion-4 speakers use two tweeters in a dipole arrangement, a single dipole midrange, and twin woofers mounted vertically in the bass of the […]

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Elio Villafranca is a gifted modern day musician traversing in both jazz and classical terrains. Born in a little town called San Luis, Cuba, in the western province of Pinar del Rio, Elio is the recipient of numerous industry accolades and awards, including one of the 50 best jazz albums of the year by JazzTimes […]

Description The Magellan VIII xu is TBI’s newest sub. Although it looks like most of the other Magellan subs, TBI says it is a greatly enhanced design. Their website explains that their subs use a quasi-transmission line loaded enclosure that allows the woofer to “see” the same load regardless of where the enclosure is placed. […]

If you want a to hear your mono recordings sound better than you ever dreamed without spending a fortune, there is nothing on the market like the combination of the Miyajima Premium BE Mono (reviewed recently) for $1,250 paired with the Robyatt Audio’s AK Mono Step-up transformer (“SUT”) for $650.00. The SUT is custom made […]

My love of monaural recordings began almost eleven years ago, a direct result of buying a Sony SCD777ES SACD player back in 2000. As an early adopter, the pool of SACDs to pick from was small, but there were a good many old jazz classics available. I discovered that a lot of these were mono […]

The second annual AXPONA, Audio Expo of North America, was held in Atlanta this year. The Atlanta Downtown Sheraton provided a substantially larger, upgraded, and more ambitious venue for this show when compared to the AXPONA Show held in Jacksonville, Florida a year ago. As was the case last year, the show attracted distributors, builders/manufacturers, […]

A company with which I was not familiar, but with which I ended up spending quite a bit of time, is Carnegie Acoustics. The company president is Ron May, whose prior company – Dr. Crankenstein – is well known in the car audio world. Ron’s goal in starting Carnegie was to bring high quality speakers […]

The second annual Audio eXPO of North America (AXPONA) was held in the Atlanta Sheraton Hotel from April 13-17, 2011. Though modestly sized with regard to both exhibitors and attendees, it was a great deal of fun, with some surprisingly good sound (given the difficulties of hotel room acoustics) and a relaxed, congenial atmosphere. There […]

Before I get to the substance of this article on my all out attempt to listen to vinyl in the most emotionally and musical involving way possible, let me list the components comprising this incredibly music playing system. The thing we seldom talk about is that you can’t really say how a preamp, a turntable, […]

A few months ago I dropped by a meeting of the Chicago Audio Society. The Bamberg Audio Series 2 TMM was playing and sounded quite good. Bamberg’s operations Manager Steve Fay then set up the top-of-the-line Series 5TMW but ran into some technical difficulties that prevented him from playing the 5 TMW (an audio salesman’s […]

Marten/EAR I walked into this room by mistake, and what a wonderful mistake it was. Though I did not hear the smaller system in the room, pictured above, the larger system was fantastic. The smaller system comprised of the EAR Acuete III CDP, EAR V12 integrated amplifier, and Marten Duke standmounts. The larger system, Marten […]

Lamm Industries The following listing was one of the “top gun” systems at either show including the following elements (not a complete listing): NeoDio NR22T Transport ($13,300) and NR22D DAC ($12,000), da Vinci AAS Gabriel Turntable limited edition ($59,900) with Grand Reference Grandezza Tonearm Luxury Edition ($10,989), Grand Reference Grandezza Stereo Cartridge ($8,525), Lamm LL1 […]

Naim Audio Naim Audio had an intriguing new speaker, the Ovator S-400 ($6,250) with a flat “Balanced Mode Radiator” for mid and high frequencies. While I would have preferred to hear the larger Ovator S-600 ($12,250 in standard finish), I found the smaller tower interesting. The flat tweeter/midrange sounds as a combination of point source […]