Digital audio has made strides in a frantic pace since its commercialization in the early 80s, when the industry abandoned engineering resources for perfecting the compact cassette and analog turntable media, and instead focused on advancing the state-of-the-art in the compact disc medium. The result was a convergence of talents and ingenuity the likes of […]
Who is Allnic? Kang Su Park of South Korea built quite a good reputation with Silvaweld Electronics. Now he heads up a Korean company, a family-run company called Allnic Audio, where all seven employees are family members. It was my privilege to have a nice long phone interview with Mr. Park. I learned from the […]
The adolescent Doug Schroeder When I was in my early teens I rode the Screamin’ Eagle rollercoaster at Six Flags St. Louis. What a memorable first ride! It must have been about 1977, maybe a year after the coaster opened, and it was a hot, sticky summer day. At the small band shell near the […]
No, you can’t always get what you want. The number of loudspeakers surpassing the cost of a decent family sedan is staggering. Then there are speakers that cost as much as a house. Regardless of cost, I believe all audio products need to offer a blend of good performance and decent value. Fortunately, there are […]
What is it about being under the Tuscan sun? I love all things Italian! Food, Lamborghini’s and Ferraris, Colnago and Campagnolo, the Giro de Italia, Gina Lollobrigida and Chianti, without the liver and Fava beans, thank you very much Hannibal! Goldnote may not be a familiar name to most of you as they are somewhat […]
Any audiophile worth their salt has heard of Clearaudio. Fantastic turntables, up to and including the monster Statement table for $150k, a wonderful array of phono cartridges, great record vacuum machines and many other products related to the reproduction of vinyl! One such item is the subject of this review: the 2-chassis Clearaudio Basic Plus […]
Jorma Design is a small Swedish company that manufactures loudspeaker cables and interconnects at a variety of price points. The Jorma cables utilize very high purity copper wire, non colored Teflon dielectric, WBT Nextgen silver connectors and in some instances Bybee Quantum Purifiers. All are handmade and evidence a level of fit and finish that […]
A “Fixer” is a person who makes it right, who takes a seemingly impossible situation and corrects it, sometimes by not so universally adopted and sanctioned methods. Often, the problem is inconvenient or even dangerous, but the Fixer can be counted upon to shepherd his client safely through the chaos. Over the years I have […]
ShengYa and Grant Fidelity ShengYa products are distributed by Grant Fidelity, located in Alberta, Canada. They span a variety of models and manufacturers, but their focus is high-value audio products. I met the proprietor, Ian Grant, at the 2009 RMAF. He was quite the knowledgeable audiophile, and had a roomful of great products. The CS-6 […]
Description The original Aesthetix Io phono stage was first introduced in 1995 and has earned quite the reputation as one of the world’s finest phono preamps. The designer is Jim White, formerly of Theta Digital fame. The Aesthetix Io Signature Phono Stage with the volume control can be used as your only pre-amplifier in a […]
Usher Audio/JPS Labs cables/Power Modules(David Belles) There was quite good sound coming from this room. I sat down and could relax to the excellent recordings from the folks at Puget Sound Studios using some of the highest sampling rates available. I’m less enamoured with the techno-babble and more interested in the results, and the Usher […]
The darkness of economic downturn has begun to dispel as evidenced in a more upbeat mood at CES/T.H.E. show. The mindset of many manufacturers and distributors was that their business had escaped a death sentence, and if things improved soon might get out of jail. The industry seems to have turned a bit more toward […]
I found myself not very much looking forward to CES this year. Las Vegas can be fun, but the mood at last year’s show was decidedly downbeat. In addition, I do not find the Venetian to be a particularly easy venue for me to navigate. The rooms on the lower floors are essentially separated by […]
MIT / Magico / Technical Brain / The Tape Project MIT Cables presented two pairs of its MA-X speaker interface ($34,500/pair) in driving Magico’s new Q5 speakers ($54,000). A rather large venue, such as this one, usually represents a challenging acoustics to work with, especialy when the speakers employed are of non-horn, smaller-diameter drivers configuration. […]
In this final installment on a highlight on turntables at the CES, we are including exhibits from Richard Beers’ T.H.E. Show at The Flamingo Hotel. The only other component in an audio system that can impart a visual statement as striking as a pair of loudspeaker is the turntable. Everything else are just boxes, whether […]
The high-end audio world once again descended on the city of sin treating dealers, reviewers, press, manufacturers, and whoever else snucked in to a whole lot of exercise, walking long seemingly endless hallways to audition the next greatest system. I realize that show conditions are not perfect but virtually every room is in the same […]
Turntables ought to be obsolete as a contact medium for sound reproduction. Instead, through adaptations of new technologies from other industries, the medium is having, probably, its third wind. Turntable is a fascinating object, with all the moving parts and a platter that is getting thicker and thicker, a customized platform that is getting prettier […]
I mentioned in our 2010 CES at Venetian Snapshots posting about the nicely dressed businessmen at CES, I also want to mention the air of professionalism and sincerity they brought to the event. In stunning contrast were the semi-naked waitresses and the majority, non-audiophile participants of CES, puffing away with their cigarettes and an indifferent […]
Clearaudio Innovation Compact Wood turntable ($7,000) with TT3 tangential tonearm ($3,500) (Imported by Musical Surroundings) MSB Technologies’ M202 class-A no-feedback monoblock amplifiers (prototype) MBL system: 101 E MK II Reference loudspeakers, 1621A Transport, 1611 D/A Converter, 6010D Preamplifier, 9008 monoblock amplifiers. Air Tight amplification imported by Axiss Distributions. Pass Labs unveiled two pairs of its […]
There are six annual U.S. audio shows now, namely the up and coming AXPONA in March, the AKFEST in May, the Lone Star Audio Fest in July, the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October, the CES High Performance Audio Exhibits in January and the T.H.E. Show that takes place alongside CES. Being an industry-only show, […]
Well it’s 2010, (I prefer “twenty-ten”, what about you?), I wish you all a happy new years and I’m sure we all hope this year will be a slight better than the 2009. On January 1st at our house, we all got up early to watch the Auburn Tigers win their bowl game. It started […]
Last month my record reviews were about the Analog Productions Numbered, Limited Edition 45 rpm Blue Note Remastered LPs. I received an email saying that I should have mentioned the option of picking up the originals since most of them were available for about the same price. That’s a very good point, but I did […]
As with most other industries, the high-end audio industry fell victim to the economic downturn. The preceding 18 months have witnessed all importers impacted by the recession, as some of them reprioritize their product lineups, while some others changed product lineups altogether. It has thus become a far more common, though no less daunting sight, […]
I have been quite the ripper lately, ripping CDs like a madman onto my miniature Toshiba portable hard-drive via my Gateway laptop. Of course, since 2008 Jack Roberts has been transferring CDs onto his hard-drive and listening to them via the ModWright-modified Slim Devices Transporter. That makes Jack the first ripper amongst his Dagogoans. Seriously, […]
The best thing happening to audiophiles on a budget is the rise of Chinese high-end audio manufacturing. Even for those who aren’t on a budget, there are products like the Opera Consonance Droplet LP5.0MKII Turntable and Stand for an MSRP of $5,700, or the Jolida Musical Envoy products. I know it’s hurting some Western manufacturers […]
If you Google ZYX, you’ll find plenty of opinion on the line. An observation that seems to be pretty consistent is that they are accurate. Accurate in that they don’t have any obvious colorations, tracking problems, romanticism, etc.. I’d only heard one ZYX in person, and only for about an hour, and in an unknown […]
Part of the excitement of being an audiophile is the fun derived from browsing online classifieds. Within our respective budgets, we can have so much fun examining the various listed equipment from the laptop on your lap in a lazy Sunday afternoon. So many times I was bent on acquiring yet another piece of gear, […]
It seems no secret in the industry that reviewers do not flock in droves for the chance to review cables. It is understandable as the difference from one cable brand to the next can generally be very subtle, unless of course, we are talking about the difference between […]
There are some things that just stick in your memory, like the first time someone suggested that I should pay for speaker cables. If you’re like me and you’re over 50, you remember when you purchased your speakers the dealer would ask you how much wire you would need. He would then pull out a […]
I have often read CD player reviews that imply that the sonic differences between CD players are very minimal. This has not been my experience. It is true that this may have generally been the case in 1990, but things changed by the late 1990’s, and the last 5-7 years have seen an amazing variety […]
