Remember the simile/metaphor for an ideal amplifier: the “straight wire with gain”? It was always silly to say that such-and-such product was so close to a “straight wire with gain”, that you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Really? Has there ever been more obscene marketing hyperbole? Okay, well, “perfect sound forever” must rank […]

Loggie Audio Equipment: Acapella High Violoncellos II speakers; Ypsilon Aelius Hybrid Mono Amps, PST 100 Mk II preamp, and VPS 100 phonostage; Stage III cables, Weizhi power conditioning, Bergman Sindre Turntable and integral straight line tonearm with an Ortofon A-90 cartridge. This is what I personally consider to be the state-of-the-art with respect to what […]

Normally, when you read about the first year of any event, you expect apologies for what the writer hopes will develop over time into something interesting. In this particular case, that would be a major mistake. CAS was many things, but clearly not something which requires an apology. It was widely successful, easily exceeding the […]

One of the really fun things to do at this show, if you could get a seat, was to go to the Blue Coast World room for one of the live performances/recordings. Each day at 11 and 4, award-winning sound engineer Cookie Marenco was presenting live acoustic recording sessions with a host of different performers. […]

There were some great sounding systems that were using analogue sources. In the Design Interaction (retailer)-JBL Exhibit, they were using Project’s newest turntable. It looks rather plain, but it is using a magnetic bearing for the platter and sounded very good at the show. In The Lotus Group Exhibit, they were using the Hanns Acoustics […]

There were sublime moments, as when listening to live recording sessions of Blue Coast Records conducted at the show in one of the two, large lobby-level exhibits. Sitting in the front row, the distinction between the actual instrument in this exhibit and the equipment on the other floors reproducing music was stark. Not a single […]

The first time show attendee may not realize it, but the system in any given room which is heard on the first day is not necessarily the same system heard on the last day. Components are frequently swapped, cables alternated, room treatments added, and speaker systems exchanged. It is a good policy, if possible, to […]

Constantine, congratulations you pulled it off; what a great show! I’ll be honest I didn’t think it could be done in such a short amount of time. I also have never attended a show where the vendors seemed quite so pleased. It was great that so many of Dagogo’s writers were there as well. I […]

Ask nearly anyone who attended the Dagogo California Audio Show and you’ll likely hear that it was as good as gold! It exceeded expectations, most visibly in terms of attendance. As we Dagogoan’s were shuttled to the airport on the Monday morning following, Constantine proudly shared that the total visitors had topped 2,000! That’s sensational […]

May 19, 2010 The idea of organizing a California audio show had been raised by manufacturers and importers during my business conversations with them throughout the years. Then, something curious happened. The noise on the topic from the group nationwide died down at the same time the local group picked up the topic with me; […]

Between the first and second quarter of 2010, Doug Schroeder and Bruce Brisson, founder and lead engineer of Music Interface Technologies Cables, exchanged emails on an article that Doug was preparing. The result is the present Interview article. Among the 27 Questions asked by Doug, Bruce sent a 1,371-word reply to one of the questions. […]

Last winter I got a call from our editor, Constantine Soo, wanting to know what I thought about Dagogo sponsoring an audio show for the Bay Area. I asked when in 2011 did he plan to try to do it. He said, no he wanted to have it in the summer of 2010. Having acted […]

Editor’s Note: This Beatnik article was due to appear on July 16 but delayed because of preparations for the inaugural California Audio Show until now. Both the author and the editor wish to thank our readers for your understanding and support. If you’re an audiophile, I hope what I’m about to talk about isn’t going […]

As an audio columnist/reviewer you have a great excuse to go to audio shows. I hardly ever miss going to Denver and I personally avoid CES like the plague. It’s not that CES isn’t a good show, it’s just in the wrong city. I loved and miss the New York shows and the one we […]

The term synergy in audio has been used a lot over the years but I would like to tackle the issue of synergy in its ultimate form – the system approach. What is the system approach? Every audiophile builds a system but how many audiophiles start out with a clear “system” in mind at the […]

If you are attending Dagogo’s California Audio Show and are reading the show’s program, two things are self-evident truths; 1. You love music; and 2, you have more than a passing interest in the gear that is necessary to listen to music faithfully reproduced in a home system environment. So, what is a system? A […]

Editor’s Note: As Dagogo Reviewers present at the 2010 California Audio Show are compiling their show report, we are posting online the original commentaries published in the Official Directory of the show for you to enjoy. There are four commentaries in total, namely Doug Schroeder’s introductory article on page 6 the Official Directory, two inside-page […]

The weight of a clamp is fairly insignificant to the motor because the clamp’s mass is in the middle of the platter, where it has the least effect. One exception is where a felt mat is used on a slippery platter (for example, one that is very polished metal or acrylic). With an “old fashioned” […]

Do you remember your first record player? I certainly do. Depending on how I count, my first record player was either my parents’ “TV/Record Changer” or a Magnavox portable that sort of looked like a small suit case a few years later. It had speakers on each end and in the middle you could pull […]

One of the earliest recollections of my childhood has to do with a red and white portable record player and a bag of steel needles. I used to play my 45’s on that record player. There was nothing cooler than sitting on the front porch on a hot summer’s day and playing the Beatle’s “I […]

Introduction A few months ago, Brian Ackerman of Aaudio Imports mentioned a new power conditioner he had obtained. He said that his preliminary evaluation was that it was an outstanding performer at a more real-world price. I have reviewed several other products that Brian markets, and they have all been excellent; not necessarily at lower […]

This is the third Clearaudio turntable I have reviewed. Clearaudio is a German company that has been dedicated to advancing the art of analog playback for the last 32 years. Their cartridges were well received from the start and many considered them to be the absolute state of the art. One of their early turntables, […]

Dynaudio, a Danish company that has been building high-end audiophile loudspeaker systems for over thirty years, also manufactures speakers for both the professional and automotive markets. Per Michael Manousselis, Director of Sales & Marketing of Dynaudio USA, the company began supplying its Dynaudio drivers to the OEM and DIY markets after the commercial success of […]

Allnic: “All Nickel”, refers to the in-house built 78% Nickel content output transformers. These have a 12-to-1 cost difference to build and are a big part of the performance, wider bandwidth, faster energy transfer. – David Beetle of Hammertone Audio, North American Importer. Not Your Grandfather’s Korea For a provincial Texan like me, the stereotype […]

Why review a phono cartridge that has been around for nearly twenty years? Well, for two reasons. First, my two reference cartridges are the Miyabi Standard and the Benz Ebony TR, and I wanted to hear how the Miyabi/47 and Standard compared. Second, even though people mention it all the time, sometimes we forget just […]

A Smart Little Phono Stage! The offer to review cartridges and phono stages is usually accepted with “my pleasure” as the answer. Though I have found a couple of phono stages that really rock my world, I know that there may be better units out there from unknown companies. My opinions on cartridges and phono […]

He was considered a virtual idiot; after all, he wasn’t able to speak coherently until about age 12. He majored in classroom mayhem and proved to be an adept kleptomaniac. Who would have thought he would be enlightened to derive the theory of general relativity? My mind ponders such things when I hear Einstein Audio’s […]

Clearaudio is a German company known for superbly engineered products. In regard to tonearms, they have been better known for their refinement of the linear tracking tonearm. Yes, they have made several radial tracking tonearms including the Carbon Fiber Satisfy tonearms that I have used for the last three years, but they never made a […]

I have spent the majority of my life as an audiophile and have tried subwoofer/monitor speaker systems a few times. At college, I had some Realistic/Radio Shack speakers with an NEC subwoofer. Everyone on the dorm floor knew of the system, so when it came time for a dance at the school my name came […]

Although I can’t say that I am very familiar with many digital cables, I’ve owned six different brands, which is a drop in the bucket of what’s available. I went on a search for digital cables when I acquired my Esoteric transport and DAC four years ago, looking at 1.5 meter cables in the $1,000 […]