In The Beginning Let me begin with what is now an oft-told tale. In the early days of audio, amplifiers were tube-based and of low power. The speakers they powered were, by necessity, of high efficiency/sensitivity, often incorporating horns. The introduction of the transistor dramatically changed the landscape as it became possible to obtain higher […]

Audio Note Audio Note Room 1, hosted by the hard-working Josh Turney of Audio Note USA Peter Qvortrup exhibited two systems in two adjacent rooms. The first room was hosted by Josh Turney of Audio Note USA, Audio Note’s U.S. Distributor, who put together a relatively modest AN system consisted of the AN-E LX loudspeakers […]

Quantum Products Quantum’s president Bill Stierhout (pictured) has a long list of reputable clientele from within and outside of the industry. The most notable one in the industry being Mr. Kazuo Kiuchi of Combak Corporation. Mr. Stierhout’s Quantum Resonance Technology™ (QRT) has been adopted by Mr. Kiuchi for deployment in his Harmonix Reimyo CDP-777, CAT-777, […]

GamuT Audio David A. Stephens of Rhythm Marketing, GamuT Audio’s U.S. Distributor, and Lars Goller, the owner/designer of GamuT Audio, put on their work suits and greeted visitors at their exhibit. Being showcased were the top-of-the -line, $14,800/pair L7 loudspeaker, featuring: * two 7-inch Low Frequency driver made of sliced paper cone, spike-mounted in low […]

Nagra, Audion, Verity Audio Dagogoan Jack Roberts listens to the Verity Audio Sarastro loudspeaker via a Nagra system with the Audion Premier Quattro monoblock PREAMPLIFIERS ($10,995/pair, see below) John Quick, Nagra USA and Verity Audio’s mutual U.S. sales and marketing manager, exhibited two Nagra / Audion / Verity systems at opposite ends of the over-sized […]

Harmonix Reimyo and Harmonix Royal Stage, by Combak Corp. Mr. Kazuo Kiuchi, Managing Director Mr. Kiuchi’s “Bravo!” minimonitor already encompasses his goal of recreating a full-range sound. His recent ongoing development of the matching Consequence subwoofer system is, in reality, a succumbing to the demands of the majority of audience for emphasis in bottom-end vigor, […]

It’s flexible and modular. It’s sleek and minimal. It’s imported and unique. It’s the future of hi-fi for the masses. Well, probably so… it certainly is at least a step in the right direction. There’s been a lot of talk lately about the future of the high-end audio industry. That the manufacturers must find a […]

The following are specifications on the second subject of this review, the Furutech Speaker Reference III: Fitted with the same EMI-absorbing GC-303 module and the company’s own FP-201 Rhodium-plated, non-magnetic Pure Copper spade terminals, this time constructed with six bundles of the 20-strand of the α-OCC conductors with a center αμ-Conductor in two twisted cores, […]

The Furukawa Background The high-end audio industry of the 80s saw the ascent of high-performance cable manufacturers that advocate the application of Oxygen Free High Conductivity (OFHC) copper, as a means to pushing the performance envelope of an audio system. Rather than the 100% removal of the oxygen content in the conductor as indicated by […]

The Audio Note range of speakers have a history which is both extensive and well documented. For the benefit of the uninitiated, I’ll give a quick run through in the next couple of paragraphs. In a (quite large) nutshell, the late Peter Snell designed and built speakers which Peter Qvortrup of Audio Note obviously regarded […]

The subject of this review is the Accuphase E-550 line-stage integrated amplifier. The phase-accurate Accuphase of Japan has been producing award-wining amplifiers since its founding in 1972, and that majestic power meter in gold chassis design has become the arresting visage of all Accuphase amplifiers shortly after. In fact, Accuphase believes that there will be […]

Deja-Vu Audio (dealer) room: Audio Note AN-J speakers & Synthesis Audio amplifiers Synthesis Celebration power amplifier Synthesis Pride CD player Synthesis Ecstasy Vintage Hi-Fi Heathkit W4AM amplifier Citation II Citation II Zu Audio Zu Druid loudspeaker Wyetech Pearl preamplifier, Sapphire monoblocks

NAT Distribution Consonance Speaker Consonance Droplet CD player Dynakit Dynakit PA 774 ReX Boxxer 7 (MSRP $4,500/pair, factory direct) Consonance electronics in ReX room High Water Sound room Harmonix Reimyo CDP-777 TW Acoustics turntable Silvertone Audio

Audio Odyssey (Dealer) Audio Odyssey Atohm Sirroco, MSRP $1,500/pair Jasmine Serenade integrated Mini Tube Amplifier Unison Research Mystery (top), Audio Analogue Maestro (bottom) Bastanis Prometheus… …driven by Lady Day amplifier Cheer Amplifiers

Preface On May 6 and 7, 2006 the Vacuum Tube Valley Audio Expo was held at the Embassy Suites in Piscataway New Jersey. The show was very much to my liking in both scale and the products represented. There were enough people present such that no room seemed empty, but neither was there terrible crowding […]

I had the afternoon off from work today and nearly completed the job of moving the bicycle from its winter storage alongside my bed (you have to be a townhouse-dweller to understand) to its seasonal placement on a hook by the backdoor. It’s a job because boxes and boards and other winter hallway pile-ups had […]

Foreword Being a digiphile, I was on an extended “tube trip” in the 80s and 90s, an euphemism coined by Arnold Marr, then-audiosales guru of Music Lovers of Berkeley, California. Even though several audio friends of mine became owners of B&K Component’s ST-140, not to mention the fact that their units sounded musically involving just […]

My System B&K Reference 31 Preamp/Processor, B&K Reference 7270 Amplifier, Boston Acoustics VR-970 Speakers, DIY Infinite Baffle subwoofer, DIY speaker cables using Belden 1810A, DIY audio cables DIY using Canare LV77S, DIY sound treatments. When evaluating the Maverick, I compared it to the source I listen to the most for music: my HTPC with a […]

The subject of this review is a $2,495 integrated amplifier by Krell, the KAV-400xi. Many high-end audio companies survive by producing a wide range of products in price and quality to capture different spending patterns; but Krell has always concentrated its resources in making only the top-level products. Thus, a budget equipment bearing the Krell […]

Tourists returning from a trip to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China often marveled at the city’s population density as personified by the shopping centers and the human presence everywhere. In a region distinguished by the main Hong Kong Island of 31² miles, a large peninsula of 18² miles, an adjoining rural area of […]

I recently had a flood – a flood of new audio toys to try in my system. The tide brought in Nordost’s top-of-the-line Valhalla power cords, Sphinx’s very excellent Project Eight Reference Preamp and Project Eighteen Power Amp, and a pair of Genesis 6 speakers, which are the subject of this review. This Is Your […]

The high-end audio is a hobby of variety and objectivity. In each of the industry’s primary product categories, there are polarities in approach and technology – such as the RIAA-based phonograph and the 16-bit/44.1kHz-based digital playback systems, MOSFET and tube-based amplifications, and finally, cone and planar loudspeaker technologies – that the proponents for each consider […]

The MD-300B is attractive in its light gold-colored chassis and taller light gray transformer cover. It has a wood front panel with a large round power button in brushed light gold, and two knobs that are triangle shaped on a round back in the same color and metal. One knob is an input selector switch, and the […]

April marks the beginning of the 2nd Quarter, and we at Dagogo have been busy rounding up great gear for your intellectual and spiritual pleasure. By now, we have all surely learned that the Harmonix Reimyo CDP-777 Extended-K2 CD player has been discontinued. The recipient of rare, universal acclaims, the CDP-777 is now in need […]

I have written a series of articles under the heading of Psychological Art Perspectives, and have based them on a succession of interviews I conducted with various artists from different genre. A few of the artists I have actually worked with in the past, and others were people whom I met throughout the years, and […]

Accuphase is a core constituent of a prestigious, global circle of modestly-sized audio companies. And in its indigenous market of Japan, Accuphase is a leader in both innovations and market share. Many of its amplifiers of the 70s and 80s continued to be regarded as reference-class products by the owners presently, and the company’s history […]

This is a review I struggled with. For I feared I would not have the right audio vocabulary to convey the sound of the Aurieges’ to you. I wish I could tell you that my system had a wider or deeper soundstage with the Shindo, or that music seemed more transparent when the Shindo arrived. […]

Perhaps I need a few different systems for different kinds of music. I guess for Dagogo’s readers with varied tastes, not that mine are that varied, the ultimate goal of building a hi-fi system would be to put together one that does justice to all their favored types of music. I can tell you right […]

With this presentation I would like to offer from the genre of music composition, one of the many examples of the mind-set upon one, when in the midst of composing a work. No matter what the medium; it’s the pulse, the pace, the very atmosphere of the moment. One allows the depth of things to […]

Let’s see if three’s a charm. In the last two issues of Stereophile magazine, they featured a review and a follow-up of the Sonic Euphoria Passive Line Controller (PLC). I have made it a point not to read those reviews… waiting until I finish my own, and then see how my impressions compare. I’ll let […]