Foreword The Chief Engineer and founding partner of Luminance Audio proves to be more than just a formidable engineering talent; he is also quite prolific in literary creativity if asked to do that. Including this article, DAGOGO has published five articles thus far by Steve Keiser. While three of the five articles were on his […]

I don’t want a simulation, I want reality. When I sit down to listen, I want to hear the real thing, not some weak representation of the music. As with all ardent audiophiles, I want virtual reality, the phrase Von Schweikert audio uses to describe the sound of their VR speakers, and essentially what every […]

Back in the 1950’s a movie character in a sci-fi film was just that, a character, one persona which was fixed throughout the movie. Fast forward fifty years and things have shifted a bit, and there is a fluidity to characters. With the utilization of digital effects in movies, “shape shifters” or “changlings”, beings that […]

Description We live in a world that is caught up in being glamorous and ostentatious, and let’s admit a good part of our hobby fits these adjectives. To this world, the Audience au24 cables come along like a basic little black dress—one without a celebrity designer label. When you first unpack the au24 cables and […]

How the Ikonoklast speakers found me I have read a few reviews over the years that started by saying something along these lines, “Every once in a while a product comes along that makes you rethink what you thought you believed about audio.” Well this is my first one. I didn’t even set out to […]

If you’re interested in hearing more about tables, arms, and cartridges from me, you will have to wait another month. This month, it’s all about the music. There are two things I’m certain of after three months of listening to vinyl. First, I prefer vinyl to digital by a larger margin than I have ever […]

Here with another in the series of articles from “Art! The Prospective In the Creative Process”, representing a variety of takes and procedures in regards to the artist involvement with the ‘perspective’ mindset. Samples with individual approach and applications of form, content, and practice, etc. of various professional artists’ in their fields, while working through […]

This tale begins late last spring when Constantine let me know the 47 Lab MC Bee cartridge and 4718 Shigaraki phono stage were on the way. Their arrival coincided with problems encountered with my tone arm, a vintage S.M.E. 3009R that had come with my Ariston RD-11 Superieur turntable. After just a few listening sessions, […]

Music Hall’s RDR-1 table-top radio is a reviewer’s companion. For when I was hard at work editing and typing reviews or making industry correspondences, the Musical Hall radio was there not simply playing crystal clear FM music from a classical station as never achieved by any other radios, it is also equipped with the Radio […]

There is an ancient saying, “A cord of three strands is not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:12),” a timeless way of saying there is strength in a cooperative effort. The principle is easily demonstrated by taking a thin string and noting how easily it breaks. Then, after tripling the length and twisting it, the cord resists […]

It didn’t take much cajoling from my editor to enlist me in writing the first review of the Esoteric X-01 D2, the upper model of the X-01 Limited, and now the premier one-box offering from Esoteric. This unit was designed for those whose passion is clearly SACD as the D2 circuitry is identical to that […]

What would you think of a product that comes with a half-sheet filled with warnings such as, “ATTENTION! SAFETY WARNING!! AFTER USE, PLEASE DISPOSE…IN A SAFE MANNER!” What kind of audio product is worth risking life and limb? Those are legally necessary alarms considering the object in question is a pin taped to a piece […]

Before I tell you about the Murata Super Tweeters, please allow me a few paragraphs to explain why and when you will reap the appropriate benefits from this truly unique product. Doing so requires a little bit of “myth busting”, so here it goes. The Myth Of “Diminishing Returns” As a child I listened to […]

Here was the plan. Even as heavy as the VSEI Level 5+ Sony 777 SACD player is, it was easier to move around than it was to bring lots of turntables to my house. So off I set to listen to, and where possible, compare the Level 5+ player to the best vinyl rigs I […]

My audio buddy Steve recently acquired an Audio-Technica 1005 tonearm and Grado Sonata cartridge for his Thorens TD-125 turntable. We decided to get together and listen to them along with a Denon DL-103 he already had. A classic ‘shoot-out’. I brought my Dynavector 10×5 to add to the mix, but left it attached to the […]

Think back to before you became interested in the equipment. If you’re like me, perhaps you listened to music on the radio, through a ‘record player’ or even one of the new little integrated amps and stereo speakers from Olson’s or Lafayette. If you wished for better sound at all it was probably that it […]

Should the ratio of audiophile to the layman be 1:100, then in the highest population density section of the Hong Kong SAR of 16,000 in a square mile, there would be 160 audiophiles dwelling within those high-rises, their audio systems plagued by colossal, detrimental AC irregularities. The resultant demand for AC solutions in Hong Kong, […]

Tubes Those big tubes sticking out the top are the famous 6SN7 octal vacuum tube, a directly heated 5AW4 rectifier tube, 6AH4 triode cathode follower stage. Description The physical appearance of the Ultra Verve seems to draw different responses from different people. Mine had a silver faceplate with black lettering. I thought it was very […]

Readers of Dagogo are undoubtedly familiar with Audio Note speakers, as five models have been previously reviewed in these pages: AN-E/D, AN-E SE (2003), AN-E SPe-HE, AN-E SEC Silver, AN-E SEC Signature. After having heard – and been enormously impressed with – a top-of-the-line Audio Note system at the Vacuum Tube Valley Expo held last […]

I’ve been in turntable withdrawal for nearly 20 years. I have a severe love/hate disorder when it comes to turntables. What’s not to love about them? They are the artwork of audio equipment with their beautiful plinths, platters, and suspensions. Some look functional, some like they came out of the future, some so retro, and […]

Introduction When I think about the biggest mistakes of my life, selling my records ranks just behind gambling against Michael Jordan and the Bulls in the 90s. Dumb with a capital “D”, on both counts. But I’m not one to look in the rear view mirror and long for the road not traveled (or for […]

A worldwide leader in the creation and development of state-of-the-art broadcast systems and protocols, Nagra’s 650-million-dollar, technology-driven parent company, the Kudelski Group, employs a certain cache of insane scientists, and it is only a matter of time that the company’s think tank would find application of its technologies in home audio. Spawned from such creativity […]

Opening Statement & Question 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 accurate, dynamic, coherent, and transparent preamp I have ever heard in my system. Does that mean it’s the best preamp I have […]

It was only late last year when I remember melting into the recliner with a glass of Irish cream liqueur, a packet of chocolate raisins and an obscenely contented smile on my ugly mush, thinking how great it was to be finally off the upgrade ladder/roundabout and able to simply relax, forget about the equipment […]

Howdy. Here we are now further along into the year with more of the world’s things Art. With yet another take or reiteration on some of those things out there that assure us that people ‘are’ paying attention and are affected in some capacity or other with a 21st century response. Quite a few reviews […]

I would like to share a few comments on my further use of the V8i over the past few months. I mentioned in the review the use of Jena Labs “Dussy” jumpers. Wherever possible, an owner of an integrated should seek to replace stock jumpers since it will have a profound impact on the listening […]

When I sit in my listening room these days, I am confronted with power – huge amounts of power. I’ve got four 600 wpc monoblocks and one 500 wpc stereo amp. The “little” monoblocks are 95 pounds apiece, while the big ones weigh in at 175 each. This is in stark contrast to the 500 […]

To help exploit the potential of the Ongaku as much as possible, 47 Laboratory’s PiTracer CD transport served in this review as the reference source in the respective company of Audio Note’s own $65k DAC5 Signature, the $34k DAC5 Special and Wadia’s $10k 27ix v3.0 Decoding Computer. The AN DACs were rotated with the PiTracer […]

Melody & Its Hi-Fi Black is always in fashion, especially when it’s a piano gloss black on a Melody Hi-Fi P1688 Signature preamp and matching S88 Mono Block amps. One thing that’s sure to fire up the desire to hear music is looking at some svelte equipment, and the Melody Hi Fi tube gear is […]

I have been doing a bit of reading about the Sun as I sit and listen to the Dussun V8i integrated amplifier. Although an average star, the amount of energy our Sun generates is staggering. Every second, the amount of energy the sun gives off exceeds all the energy used by mankind in all of […]