This article seeks to make several points by looking at the evolution of my current front end: i) that achieving a reference quality front end is a journey, ii) that it is necessary to think of the components between the cartridge and the preamplifier’s input as a system rather than individually, and iii) to characterize […]

First of all, I would like to begin with a word of thanks to our Sponsors whose messages are being displayed at the top. I envy high-end retailers. They have a houseful of equipment in a wide range of price and performance category, and they are in the business to furnish their sound rooms with […]

In another 15 days, Dagogo’s September 2008 Issue will be launched, which will continue celebration of the ascension of 3 Dagogo Reviewers to the Senior Reviewer positions: Ed Momkus, Jack Roberts and Doug Schroeder. We featured three of Jack’s reviews in our July Top-Of-The-Month Issue, and this month, Doug’s reviews of Jeff Rowland Design Group […]

A premium dealership network is crucial to the long-term stability of the audio industry. For the audio hobby entails a “system” approach that is best conveyed and demonstrated by the brick and mortar establishment. Without stores that provide a personable learning and listening environment for the consumer, especially the ones that convey respect and trust […]

Design Goals The Medallion cabinet of Lowther America has been one of the most popular cabinets for the use of Lowther seven-inch drivers for over a decade, but many of Lowther America’s customers wanted something not so big and a little more modern-looking. The Alerion is Lowther America’s answer to their customers. It makes use […]

Forward Clearaudio of Germany has been dedicated to advancing the art of analog playback since 1978 with the introduction of their phono cartridges. Over the last decade, they gained a reputation by some of having abandoned the natural warmth of vinyl for speed and transparency in their turntable designs. I, for one, commend them for […]

Comparing one cable to another should be tedious and amount to splitting hairs. That’s what the objectivists want us to believe. The number crunchers tend to discount the details. Two cables should look the same on a scope when comparing a 1V square wave. But that’s not music. Music is much more complex and difficult […]

This review comes as a result of yours truly getting caught quite by surprise. Mike Zivkovic of Teresonic sent along his cables when I picked up the Teresonic Integrums to review. I used them to review the speakers and made a quick comparison with my Auditorium 23 cables and thought they were both very good, […]

The Audioengine A2’s are quite remarkable in how natural they sound. They come in velvet drawstring bags and are a mere 6 inches high, 4 inches wide, and 5.25 inches deep. They come in a beautiful, glossy black or white shielded 18mm MDF cabinet. The most beautiful part of it all is they only cost […]

Dagogo is approaching its 5th Anniversary of providing some of the most insightful and useful reviews for its loyal readers. Because of the consistent quality of Dagogo Reviewers’ writing, with the many hundreds of hours of auditioning, experimenting, and careful thinking that were evident in their writing, Dagogo has progressed into the online high-end audio […]

The recent delivery, setup, and subsequent listening sessions of the new Teresonic Ingenium MK2 speakers has lead me down memory lane again. I started to daydream about a few major surprises and some major let downs from my audio past. Then, a question popped into my mind, “what lessons, if any, have I learned from […]

Non-contact medium, such as CD, SACD and DVD do not require cleaning normally, save for Dagogo readers whose easy-mannered family members or relatives are never too quick to rough-handle the discs and imprint their greasy fingerprints onto the disc surface. Even for these situations, a micro fiber cloth will usually be adequate in wiping the […]

The Preliminaries We’re all susceptible to hype and wishful thinking. Certain audio pieces start to gain a mythical reputation; the Bozak Concert Grand was the first thing that came to mind. Since the audio experience is subjective, and has very little to do with measurements, it’s hard to disprove any statements about equipment you haven’t […]

In Greek mythology, Lysithea was a daughter of Oceanus and one of Zeus’s lovers. In astronomy, Lysithea is a satellite of Jupiter that was discovered by Seth Barnes Nicholson in 1938 at Mount Wilson Observatory. In high-end audio, Lysithea is a great-looking three-way loudspeaker manufactured by the Italian company, Eventus Audio. Basic Info When I […]

The phone just rang, and it was my editor again, he wants to know if I’ve written a review on the Slim Devices Transporter yet. “Well no, but I turned in reviews on …” (I have to remember who’s got what. -Ed) OK, to be honest I have no idea why I have taken so […]

Description The Benz Ebony TR cartridge is one of the world’s very best phono cartridges. It also one of the world’s lowest output moving coils; some have even dubbed it a ‘tiny-output’ moving coil. It is housed in a vented case made from aged Ebony, just like the body of the famous Benz LP. The […]

The CD player is on the way to becoming a relic. Just as several rather nice sounding players are hitting the market, online music is exploding at a rate that will leave discs in its digital dust. All one has to do is go to any local CD store, IF it’s still open or not […]

In as much as the audience of Dagogo Magazine is a part of that quintessential sector of the society who are often referred to as Audiophiles, Music-system-enthusiast and what have you, it is almost for certain that the majority of individuals of that shared ilk in and of high-tech-sound reproduction, are also quite aware of […]

A Little Background on Me and Lowther Drivers My favorite audio writer by far is Art Dudley. I often still think about, and miss Listener magazine. It was he who whet my appetite to hear some Lowther-based speakers. That sounds easier than it is. At the time I started to read Listener, I lived in […]

Introduction When asked to review a pair of Bowers &Wilkins speakers, I jumped at it. While I have never owned a pair over the years, many of my audio buds have. I still remember the first pair of B&Ws I ever saw, they looked like they were made of white plastic. They were big, wide, […]

Opening Statement I started my review of the Vacuum State’s RTP-3D (January 2007), their all-out attempt at a “state of the art” preamp with these words: “This is going to be a very easy review because this is a very special preamp. So let me just say it right up front, this is the most […]

Why We Need Room Correction If you’ve read about human hearing, the effects of your listening environment on your sound, and the difficulties associated with getting realistic bass, skip the first two sections and proceed to “My Prior Attempts to Deal With My Room”. If not, read on. How does human hearing work? Most of […]

I had current events on my mind while driving to the Lone Star Audio Fest. The increasingly high cost of fuel and slowing economy is bound to hurt manufacturers. Even though the Fed says the economy is still growing, consumers are tightening the purse strings. Still, manufacturers must advertise and trade shows will always be […]

Seems that many are completely lost out there. Caught in a quagmire wondering just what the heck was going on with those abstract art pieces you saw when your friend dragged you out one night a few weeks back? Doing one of those ‘First Friday’ artsy-fartsy gallery strolls in your town USA? The World? Some […]

Certain indulgences seem ubiquitous, nearly a genre of consumer product name brands in their own right, such as Harley Davidson or Rolex. Among these is McIntosh Labs, a company that has been producing high-end audio electronics and speakers for more than half a century. I recall as a child occasionally having the pleasure of being […]

Roksan may not be the best known name in audio here in the United States, but most folk in Europe know it well. Roksan is a British high-end audio company who became famous for making one of the first turntables to seriously contend with the Linn Sondek table. The name comes from the name of […]

The new Ikonoklast Model 3 High Output loudspeakers look exactly like the older one, but when you listen to them, they sound like everything you had wished the old Model 3 could sound like and more. So I want to share with you this incredible new speaker. I have now lived with the original Ikonoklast […]

If there were one tweak that an audiophile could use to educate non-audiophiles on why we labor so much for sound, power conditioning would be at the top of my list. Whereas cables & vibration control accessories are often subtle in their effect, power conditioning can be as obvious as a yawn in church. Even […]

Back when I first began to listen to records in the Fifties you put Theresa Brewer or Elvis Presley on the ‘record player’ and ‘dropped the needle’. Since then the record player has become the turntable and the needle, the stylus, which resides in a cartridge. Turntables and cartridges gave way, for awhile, to the […]

I’ve been reviewing a lot of speakers lately. To my surprise, every pair has been at least good enough to let me enjoy music. A few have been really exceptional, some have been great bargains, and one pair even made me consider if I could afford them. All of this has led me to do […]