This installment of Gary Lea Interviews is on a chat with Hiram Toro, the man behind Koetsu USA. Hiram distributes Koetsu, Chario and Montegiro to name just a few of his products, he also has a very interesting story to his audio career. It is one of many things that speak to his character. GL […]

I thought it might be fun to talk about four of my favorite sultry female vocal albums, since most of us have just finished living through the hot summer nights of August, right? In no way am I suggesting that these are the four best Sultry albums, heck they don’t even all come from the […]

Introduction Two friends, Paul and Sarah, are in the process of upgrading their electrical service. To date, they have replaced all the wiring between the power company’s transformer outside their house on the property line and their service panel, the wiring from the panel to each AC outlet and the outlets themselves. Unlike most of […]

Phillip Holmes talks serious music via the $6,000 Jaton Real A&V-803 loudspeakers A pleasant surprise from the last day of 2009 CES was meeting George Cheng of Jaton Audio. Fellow Dagogoan Gary Lea asked me to check out the Jaton room after I told him I hadn’t been in to visit. George was slowed by […]

This year’s CES was a really enjoyable one for me for the first time in a few years. Not only did I see and experience a good deal of new and exciting equipment, I also made a lifelong friend, met some other really great people and best of all, I met a pair of beautiful […]

For many years at CES or the nearby The Home Entertainment Show, I have visited Roger Sanders and listened to his demonstrations of his electrostatic speakers. The sound has always been good and reminiscent of the many years when I owned electrostatic speakers, such as Radio Shack speakers with electrostatic top ends, Quad ESLs, both […]

I met Ian Grant at this past year’s Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. He and his lovely right hand Rachel Zhang took such pity on me because I had no voice, thanks to a bit of recent surgery. They were incredibly patient and answered all of my questions without the slightest hint of being flustered, despite […]

Already having been intrigued, and subsequently surprised, by the Azur 840C player I felt it only natural to investigate the newer offerings of the Azur line, the 840E Preamp and the 840W Amp. They have a lot to live up to, as the player is a pleaser. If this combo would surmount the challenges and […]

Introduction to Ypsilon Ypsilon Electronics was founded in 1995 by two sound engineers. They each had experience in the field of the reproduction of live music. Maybe it’s their experience in live concerts along with their technical background that contributes to the truly high-end sound they have been able to build into their products. It […]

Introduction Late in 2007 Bill Dudleston, the owner and designer of Legacy Audio, was discussing with me on reviewing his flagship speaker, the Helix. This was no small matter as the Helix is a world-class speaker and I would be the first to review it. I knew that I needed superb electronics to pair with […]

Montegiro is a small German company relatively obscure to American audiences, manufacturing some of the nicest looking and well built turntables on the market. I have a sneaking suspicion that the obscure and lesser known part of that description is about to change. The Lusso turntable, which is the subject of this review, is the […]

On today’s audio menu is a review of the Aural Symphonics Chrono interconnects and Hybrid v3 speaker cables. I had them for an extended period of time, and have been able to use them with three sets of monoblock amps, four preamps and two digital front-ends. I’ve had a great time playing with them used […]

Design Haruo Takeda is the creator of the Miyabi phonograph cartridges. Many of Takeda cartridges were sold under major audiophile brand names, such as Cello, Klipsch, Krell, and Mark Levinson. In the late seventies he began to design a cartridge he would eventually sell under his own brand name, Miyabi. While there may be no […]

I’ve been having fun listening to several really nice turntable mats and LP stabilizers. They range in price from $100 to $6,095, and I would have to say I was quite surprised by how much and how different they each affected the sound of my system. I shall start with the lowest-priced and build my […]

There was eye candy and great sound courtesy of Audio MIRЯOR (it took a while to figure out how to do Cyrillic characters). Bulgarian born Vladimir Bazelkov moved to the U.S. in 2000. He now lives in Houston. Hey Vladimir, move to Dallas! It’s not as hot, and we don’t have hurricanes. Besides, I’d love […]

John Busch is more the DIY hobbyist than the full time manufacturer. He drove from California to spread the gospel of the open baffle/dipole speaker. Last year I heard what John can do with careful crossover tweaking when I heard his Altec Duplex dipole arrangement sounded sweet, laid back and forgiving; it’s not at all […]

“I’ll tell you ’bout Texas Radio and the Big Beat, Soft drivin’, slow and mad, like some new language” † The most important audio shows aren’t the ones for industry insiders, distributors, dealers and reviewers. It’s the local shows, open to the most ignored people in high-end audio: the end users. CES (and the rest […]

The Beatnik’s Soundstage I still remember to this day the first time I heard an audio system that could produce a soundstage where instruments, and even singers, seemed to come from outside the area between the two speakers. It was somewhere around 1978, plus or minus a year, and high-end dealers were springing up everywhere […]

I don’t usually include much of the manufacturer’s product description, but I do not have the same technical understanding in the digital domain that I do with amps, preamps, turntables, and speakers. And what the heck, there has to be something beyond my understanding to explain why this ordinary, even plain looking one-box, two-channel, Red […]

Jonathan Scull I had the opportunity to hog tie the infamous J10 for a little question and answer session. Getting to know him is getting to love him. Turns out we have some of the same passions. Formula One racing is probably at the top, as well as a general love for fine automobiles. Jonathan […]

1. Intro Voice 0:09 2-1. What a Wonderful World 7:09 2-2. What a Wonderful World 3. Cheek to Cheek 4:32 4. Grand Canyon 8:07 5. My Foolish Heart 5:13 6. Senor Blues 8:39 7. I’ve Never Been in Love Before 4:43 8. Nardis 4:23 9. Mysterious 4:27 10. Good Morning Heartache 5:58 Total time: 53:20 […]

Clarity vs. Black Round One For all three of these comparisons I used my reference system consisting of a Clearaudio Anniversary AMG Wood CMB Turntable with two Clearaudio Satisfy tonearms, and an assortment of EMT (Jubilee Series JSD5, TMD 25N mono), Benz (Series 3, Ace L, Ebony TR S Class), and Miyabi cartridges. Amplification was […]

So far most people who have heard the new T series power conditioners from Audience have been mightily impressed. Harry Pearson mentions in his column for The Absolute Sound that upon inserting the new aR-12 T for the original aR12 that “the transformation of that system was transfixing. Maybe even “staggering” and “astonishing”, according to […]

I first met Robin Wyatt of Robyatt Audio at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. He had a really nice sounding room and I really enjoyed visiting with him. So, when Constantine called and asked if I would like to review the Tektron 211S amp that Robin was importing from Italy, I said most certainly. Robin […]

I would guess that all audiophiles have at one time struggled with ground loop problems, such as hum. I know I have. I have used cheaters, tested for minimum leakage voltage, and tried system star grounding ideas. In the main, I have been able to deal with hum and other noise associated with ground loops. […]

I have had the distinct pleasure of having the new top-of-the-line Pass Labs preamp to play with for the past few weeks: the XP-20. This was a particularly interesting review opportunity because I’ve previously reviewed both the Pass Labs X-600.5 monoblock amp and the XO.2 preamp, so I could make direct comparisons. You may want […]

State Of Format Evolution The Sony SACD was the most viable audiophile format to have come along, and among a sleuth of well-conceived characteristics that defined its prominence, such as a backward compatible layer, progressively affordable new disc players, and even active support of labels worldwide in the following years, it was the advent of […]

I’ve mentioned some LPs in both my reviews and my Beatnik Column, but not on a regular basis. I’m not just an audio equipment reviewer; I was a music lover as well as an audiophile for 35 years before I wrote my first review. I hear live music weekly, sometimes it’s jazz, sometimes it’s classical, […]

Albert von Schweikert must have one of the longest and longstanding learning curves since his days at Caltech decades ago. I am suspecting this not because I have been his classmates at Caltech, or the fact that he has produced many avant-garde, highly regarded loudspeaker designs since the 80s under the company of his namesake […]

By: Albert Von Schweikert, Chief Design Engineer, VSA Corp. Editor’s Note: Dagogo is honored to be chosen as the platform for the first publishing of a new Whitepaper by Albert Von Schweikert. Lately, several high profile speaker companies have launched advertising campaigns using their cabinet construction methods as the topic of discussion. One manufacturer claims […]