I recently bought an original NAD 3020 integrated stereo amplifier for $66 on eBay. As soon as I hooked it up to my Dynaudio Contour 1.1 speakers, I remembered why the little amp took the audio world by storm in the late 1970s.

My first encounter with NAD came when I worked as a high-end audio salesman at New York’s Sound By Singer. We started selling NAD receivers in 1978, a year before the 3020 was introduced. Japanese-designed and -manufactured brands of the time were gorgeous, and NAD’s gray plastic faceplates weren’t winning any beauty contests. That didn’t bother my customers one bit; they loved NAD’s simplicity and glitz-free appearance. In fact, young, hip audiophiles perceived NAD as the higher-quality alternative. But the sound is what really differentiated NAD from the majors. With NAD, you could feel like the engineers were running the show.

What paired with the 3020, Snell Acoustics’ model J and K speakers, and to a lesser extent Boston Acoustic A40s, were popular with NAD customers, and there was a sprinkling of Rogers LS3/5A fan boys scooping up 3020s. And since the little amp was launched a couple of years before the compact disc arrived, the Rega Planar 2 served as the go-to turntable.

The 3020 may have been rated at a mere 20 watts per channel, but it had 3 dB of headroom. Hence, it could deliver 40 watts into 8 ohm loads, 58 watts in 4 ohms, and 72 watts into 2 ohms for brief periods of time. I doubt you can find a receiver today that safely drives 2-ohm loads.

Peter Tribeman, NAD’s US president at the time of the 3020’s introduction, recalls the original demo at the Consumer Electronics Show. He hooked the 3020 up to four pairs of floor-standing AR speakers in parallel. The latter presented an absolutely brutal load (1.1 ohms) for the 3020, but the little amp experienced no problems. Crowds were amazed, and the feat was duplicated at many other 3020 demos, which established the brand as a serious player in a field dominated by giant Japanese electronics companies like Denon, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sony, and Yamaha. A few months later, the CES demo was repeated at the New York Hi-Fi Show. I wound up with a bunch of newly hatched audiophile customers sold on NAD.

Tribeman, who currently runs Atlantic Technology and Outlaw Audio, also delights in revealing what he calls the “Benign Error,” which played a large role in the 3020’s allure. Strangely enough, it was a mistake in the layout of the original circuit board. According to Tribeman, the “Benign Error” produced unintended “L-R crosstalk,” which somehow generated more low-level detail and ambience. The “Benign Error” was eliminated in the second-generation 3020A model, and with it, some of the original’s appeal. More 3020As sold than 3020s. By the time Tribeman left the company, NAD had sold more than a half-million 3020s around the world.

The Sound by Singer staff had high hopes for the 7020, the receiver version of the 3020. But that model had serious reliability problems—as did many NAD products that followed in its wake. Early CD players sounded exceptional for the money, yet they kept crapping out. NAD became plagued with quality-control issues through the 1980s and into the 1990s. However, some of its products escaped such a fate, which is probably why the company maintained a very positive reputation.

Indeed, the biggest surprise of listening to my “new” 3020 came via the phono preamp. The sheer scale of the sound and dynamics were far beyond what I expected. It’s not the most neutral-sounding pre you’re going to find, and it’s not all that quiet. But the music’s weight and solidity make up for any transparency deficiencies. Or maybe it’s the midrange’s grainless ease that I find so beguiling—even tube-like. Tom Jones’ Praise & Blame studio LP is recorded live to analog tape, and the 3020 brings it all home. Jones may be in his 70s, but he isn’t taking any prisoners on the session. While the amp sounds sweet with CD, it really comes into its own with vinyl.

Sure, a lot of my early NAD customers eventually moved up to higher-end gear and became card-carrying audiophiles. But the 3020 was the gateway drug that fueled their addiction. I can still hear why.  -Steve Guttenberg

Now that it costs about $75 to gas up your car, a $199 phono preamplifier is a real bargain, especially one that digitizes your vinyl collection via the onboard USB connection.. If that isn’t enough, the NAD PP 3i even has a line input so that you can digitize your cassette collection (and 8-tracks). The PP 3i comes with Mac/PC compatible AlpineSoft’s VinylStudio Lite software or it can be downloaded with a quick visit to the NAD website , allowing you to save WAV files of your favorite albums; that’s another review for another day.

The PP 3i is powered by an included 24-volt wall wart and is always on. It only draws a couple of watts from the power line, so those worried about being green can sleep easily, knowing that leaving the PP 3i on 24/7 won’t cause glacial meltdown. Setup is straightforward, with no switches or added ephemera. You just power it up, plug in your turntable, and roll.

Begin Your Vinyl Journey

If you are just dipping your toe into the waters of analog, the PP 3i is a great place to begin building your budget analog front end. The PP 3i has inputs for MM and MC cartridges, surprising given this price. While there are only a handful of budget MC cartridges on the market, the NAD’s match with Denon’s DL-110 ($139) proved amazingly good.

Three budget turntable/cartridge combinations put the PP 3i through its paces: The AudioTechnica AT-LP120 (now discontinued for a new model with a phono preamp/USB link built-in) with Denon DL-110 MC cartridge; the new Rega RP1 turntable with stock Ortofon OM5e MM cartridge; and a freshly refurbished Dual 1219 from Fix My Dual, fitted with a brand-new Grado Red cartridge. A pair of Audio Art IC-3 interconnects ($110) transferred the signal to the Croft pre and power amplifier combination, both played through the latest Klipsch Heresy III loudspeakers.

What Does $199 Get You?

Amazingly, a lot more than I expected.  While we won’t be having a detailed discussion about finesse, air and extension, this little box did a very respectable job at getting the analog essence to the speakers. The onboard phonostage in the Croft preamp was still miles better than the little NAD, so I did what any self-respecting slacker would, and lowered my standards.

Swapping the Croft amp and preamp for a few vintage 70s receivers revealed that the NAD outperformed a couple (the Pioneer SX -424 and 535), was on par with another (Harmon Kardon 330), and fell a bit short of what was on board with the Marantz 2230. Honestly, in the day where four- and even five-figure cartridges are more commonplace than one might think, just the fact that this thing even plays music for $199 is pretty impressive.

Excels With Digital Transfers

While you might get a little bit more soundstage depth with something like the Bellari VP130, it costs more, is a lot noisier, and it won’t digitize your vinyl. Even if you don’t use the PP 3i to play music in the context of a budget hi-fi system, which it does well, its real strength is its ability to capture some of your favorite LPs for enjoyment in your car or on your iPod. So shell out another 30 bucks (or half a tank of gas) for the full version of VinylStudio and get to work.

And this is the real strength of the PP 3i, folks. If you are a true vinyl enthusiast, you will obviously end up going for much more, but ripping a stack of your favorite LPs to your iTunes library couldn’t be easier. VinylStudio makes it painless to chop your tracks up into album format and add metadata. Surprisingly, less-than-audiophile-quality records transferred to iTunes in the Apple Lossless format sounded as good if not a little better than ripping their CD counterparts, at least on a budget system.

The fun didn’t stop there. Digitizing some of my favorite hip-hop treasures from cassette yielded results that were as equally as good as the vinyl rips. Not only is Cash Money’s Where’s the Party At? now available in my iTunes library, I’m revisiting K-Tel’s Super Hits of 75 from my 8-track collection, too. Plug your 8-track deck into the high-level input and connect the PP 3i to your laptop via USB, and you are in business.

You Need It

No matter the degree of your vinyl obsession, I suggest buying the NAD PP 3i. It’s a perfect entry-level phonostage with benefits for the neophyte, and it works well to digitize some of your analog rarities. Plus, it comes in handy should your megabucks phonostage have to make a return to the factory for repairs. Some music is always better than none.  -Jeff Dorgay

www.nadelectronics.com

The NAD 3020 integrated amplifier was a marvel in its day. While rated at only 20 watts per channel, it boasted a beefy power supply and fair amount of headroom, giving it the ability to drive a wide range of speakers. It also included a bevy of features, not the least of which was a high-quality MM phono preamplifier and “soft clipping” circuit that prevented more than a few tweeters from ruin. All this audio goodness came wrapped in a stark, olive green-tinted black case for just $219.

The C316 BEE power is rated at twice that of the 3020 and claims NAD’s latest PowerDrive circuitry from the company’s flagship amplifiers. Tone controls now offer the option to be entirely switched out of the circuit, and an 1/8” jack on the front panel accommodates the high-level output of a portable music player.

As one of many audiophiles with fond memories of the NAD 3020 (an original, not the later A or B version), I had tons of fun bringing one back into the studio for a serious listening session. Mark Stone and the folks at NAD North America gave the 3020 seen in this issue’s Old School section a complete checkup, verifying that it still more than meets its original design specs. Our test sample exceeded the stated 20wpc at 8 ohms rating by a healthy margin, producing 29 wpc at rated distortion. (Steve Guttenberg lends further insights on page 19.)

Still, while the 3020 is a stout amplifier on the bench and in the listening room, time has come to move on to the entry-level NAD integrated. The new model’s form factor remains similar, albeit slightly slimmer. The LEDs follow modern fashion and are blue instead of the red popular in the late 70s. A remote is included in the box. And, adjusted for inflation, the $329 C316 BEE makes for an even monetary better value than the 3020 in the early 80s.

Better Than I Remember

It’s always easy to wax poetic about the past, deluding oneself into thinking that things were better back in the old days. While the 3020’s power meter was constantly pegged driving my Acoustat 2+2’s during the early 80s, it barely broke a sweat powering my current Verity Audio Rienzes, which present a much more benign load. At modest listening levels, neither amplifier caved, but the difference in sound between the two units proved dramatic—and in favor of the old.

Teamed with the Rienze floorstanding speakers and a dCS Paganini stack, and cabled with a full complement of Cardas Clear, the demonstration epitomized what I’ll call audio-foolery. Who in their right mind would mate a couple of $300 integrated amplifiers with $100k worth of ancillaries? Guilty as charged, but the results were telling.

Differences between old and new models are unmistakable. The current amplifier possesses more extension at the upper end of the spectrum, but the vintage unit wins in every other category. The 3020 enjoys a more vivid, almost tube-like midrange, and takes control of the Rienze’s woofers with more authority.

While the C316 BEE is a great little amplifier, the 3020 is a serious piece of audiophile kit.  When listening to Thomas Dolby’s “My Brain is Like a Sieve” from Aliens Ate My Buick, the electronic effects have an almost buoyant feel, wafting back and forth across the soundstage. Yet they stay in a single plain when experienced via the C316 BEE. The wet and expansive echo in Tim Curry’s voice on the title track of Simplicity has depth on the 3020, but none on the new amplifier. The most explicit revelation occurred during the intro of Keith Emerson’s “Ignition” from his recent Keith Emerson Band. Where the 3020 reproduces the low organ notes, all is silence when played through the C316 BEE.

A similar verdict is reached listening to Tone Loc’s “Funky Cold Medina.” The C316 BEE just doesn’t have the grunt. The final nail in the coffin came courtesy of the acoustic guitar intro to Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car.” A tonal richness exists with the 3020 that fools you into thinking a much more expensive amplifier is behind the scenes. No wonder the audiophile press labeled this amplifier a “giant killer.” At modest volume, it more than held its own with the industry’s best when introduced in the early 80s.

When swapping my aforementioned setup for an iPad, Aperion Intimus 5 bookshelf speakers ($599/pair), and Radio Shack capable, the differences between the two amps practically disappeared. But that’s what makes the 3020 so cool: You can hook it up to a pair of $11,000 speakers and be impressed. While the C316 BEE may not ultimately appeal to audiophile sensibilities (and let’s face it, what $329 integrated amplifier does today?), it makes for a great graduation present for a music-loving teenager about to head off to college.

Progress Worth the Price

Don’t get me wrong: The NAD C316 BEE represents very good value and performance for the price. Like its predecessor, it serves as a great cornerstone for a budget hi-fi system. If mated with a decent pair of $250-$600 speakers, it’s sure to impress the uninitiated. And if you’ve never experienced a 3020 in great shape, you’ll probably be bowled over by the C316 BEE.

The idea of a brand-spanking new amplifier with no scratches or fingerprints, as well as a warranty, will likely appeal to 99.9% of listeners that would rather not take the chance of getting an abused relic. 3020s usually got passed on from friend to friend, creating a lot of audiophile goodwill. But more often than not, they gathered numerous abrasions in the process. However, if you do happen to stumble across a mint 3020, buy it.

Removing the cover of the C316 BEE reveals a tidy layout that’s a model of simplicity, with a large toroidal transformer and beefy heat sink for the power amplifier’s output stage. By comparison, the 3020 looks like someone emptied a colander of pasta on the circuit board. And the C316 BEE does have a remote, so progress isn’t all bad.

Besides, the NAD C316 BEE offers everything you need around which to build a great budget hi-fi system. It sounds good, fits nearly anywhere, and offers much better sound than what local big-box bandits sell for the same amount of money. Will it shift millions of units like its predecessor, and end up in dorm rooms everywhere? We can only hope.

www.nadelectronics.com

Now that it costs about $75 to gas up your car, a $199 phono preamplifier is a real bargain, especially one that digitizes your vinyl collection via the onboard USB connection..

If that isn’t enough, the NAD PP 3i even has a line input so that you can digitize your cassette collection (and 8-tracks). The PP 3i comes with Mac/PC compatible AlpineSoft’s VinylStudio Lite software or it can be downloaded with a quick visit to the NAD website , allowing you to save WAV files of your favorite albums; that’s another review for another day.

The PP 3i is powered by an included 24-volt wall wart and is always on. It only draws a couple of watts from the power line, so those worried about being green can sleep easily, knowing that leaving the PP 3i on 24/7 won’t cause glacial meltdown. Setup is straightforward, with no switches or added ephemera. You just power it up, plug in your turntable, and roll.

Begin Your Vinyl Journey

If you are just dipping your toe into the waters of analog, the PP 3i is a great place to begin building your budget analog front end. The PP 3i has inputs for MM and MC cartridges, surprising given this price. While there are only a handful of budget MC cartridges on the market, the NAD’s match with Denon’s DL-110 ($139) proved amazingly good.

Three budget turntable/cartridge combinations put the PP 3i through its paces: The AudioTechnica AT-LP120 (now discontinued for a new model with a phono preamp/USB link built-in) with Denon DL-110 MC cartridge; the new Rega RP1 turntable with stock Ortofon OM5e MM cartridge; and a freshly refurbished Dual 1219 from Fix My Dual, fitted with a brand-new Grado Red cartridge. A pair of Audio Art IC-3 interconnects ($110) transferred the signal to the Croft pre and power amplifier combination, both played through the latest Klipsch Heresy III loudspeakers.

What Does $199 Get You?

Amazingly, a lot more than I expected.  While we won’t be having a detailed discussion about finesse, air and extension, this little box did a very respectable job at getting the analog essence to the speakers. The onboard phonostage in the Croft preamp was still miles better than the little NAD, so I did what any self-respecting slacker would, and lowered my standards.

Swapping the Croft amp and preamp for a few vintage 70s receivers revealed that the NAD outperformed a couple (the Pioneer SX -424 and 535), was on par with another (Harmon Kardon 330), and fell a bit short of what was on board with the Marantz 2230. Honestly, in the day where four- and even five-figure cartridges are more commonplace than one might think, just the fact that this thing even plays music for $199 is pretty impressive.

Excels With Digital Transfers

While you might get a little bit more soundstage depth with something like the Bellari VP130, it costs more, is a lot noisier, and it won’t digitize your vinyl. Even if you don’t use the PP 3i to play music in the context of a budget hi-fi system, which it does well, its real strength is its ability to capture some of your favorite LPs for enjoyment in your car or on your iPod. So shell out another 30 bucks (or half a tank of gas) for the full version of VinylStudio and get to work.

And this is the real strength of the PP 3i, folks. If you are a true vinyl enthusiast, you will obviously end up going for much more, but ripping a stack of your favorite LPs to your iTunes library couldn’t be easier. VinylStudio makes it painless to chop your tracks up into album format and add metadata. Surprisingly, less-than-audiophile-quality records transferred to iTunes in the Apple Lossless format sounded as good if not a little better than ripping their CD counterparts, at least on a budget system.

The fun didn’t stop there. Digitizing some of my favorite hip-hop treasures from cassette yielded results that were as equally as good as the vinyl rips. Not only is Cash Money’s Where’s the Party At? now available in my iTunes library, I’m revisiting K-Tel’s Super Hits of 75 from my 8-track collection, too. Plug your 8-track deck into the high-level input and connect the PP 3i to your laptop via USB, and you are in business.

You Need It

No matter the degree of your vinyl obsession, I suggest buying the NAD PP 3i. It’s a perfect entry-level phonostage with benefits for the neophyte, and it works well to digitize some of your analog rarities. Plus, it comes in handy should your megabucks phonostage have to make a return to the factory for repairs. Some music is always better than none.

-Jeff Dorgay

www.nadelectronics.com

Michael Gatenby wins our New Year’s Day giveaway, a pair of Audio Engine 5 speakers.

His winning new year’s resolution was to “eat more waffles…” You have to love that!
We did, and we sent him a pair of speakers.

Stay tuned for more great giveaways at TONEAudio!

And happy new year!

Designed by a Finnish musician and engineer, these tall and slim floorstanding speakers were “always musical and involving,” regardless of the source. We liked the speed and transparency as well, and the fact that the soundstage was so wide and deep that “it’s almost like listening to 5.1.” With bass extension down to 30 Hz, the Serenades are a well-balanced speaker that we recommend highly.

If you’ve ever had the chance to listen to Totem speakers, or perhaps you already own a pair, you know they pack a major punch. This Canadian company has a knack for making speakers with class-leading performance, and understated physical designs in enclosures that don’t dominate your listening environment. They always deliver more low frequency extension than you’d expect from a compact cabinet. Because this name is long, they will be referred to as the V2s going forward.

The V2s continue this tradition of excellence. The new V2 we have on hand has Totem’s latest Torrent drivers installed, consisting of a 7-inch woofer and 1-inch titanium dome tweeter. They weigh slightly more than 37 pounds each sport relatively small cabinets. 8.81” x 16.6” x 11.7” to be exact. You can read the full specification list here:

https://totemacoustic.com/product/element-fire-v2/

It is worth noting that while sensitivity is listed at 88db/1-watt, Totem claims an “easy 8-ohm impedance,” which lead to dragging a pair of Bottlehead 300B amplifiers out of the closet, along with my R&B skeletons. Going straight for the bass heavy tracks to get these babies breaking in, (Totem suggests about 200 hours) Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra gets the nod, with his World of Funk album that you can find on your favorite streaming service with ease.

Setup

Using the bass line in Jennifer Warne’s “Ballad of the Runaway Horse,” to lock in the bass and the bass to mid transition, takes the V2s from great to exceptional. Most of my listening for the context of this review comes from the borrowed (from our publisher) PrimaLuna EVO400 tube amplifier and the Pass INT-25 solid state amplifier. Both are equally impressive yet show off different aspects of the speaker – with the Pass amp slightly grippier, and the PrimaLuna somewhat more swimming in midrange magic. I could live happily ever after with either.

Because the V2s go deep (claimed down to 30hz) avoid tight corner placement if you can. Better yet if you can get the Totems about two feet from the back wall and about twice that away from the side walls, I think you will be really excited at just how large a sound field these speakers can produce.

Much like the Focal speakers with metal dome tweeters, careful fine adjustment of the rake angle removes the last bit of edge from the highest frequencies, without losing any of the resolution the speakers provide.

When you have it wrong, the V2s sound harsh, when you dial them in just right, they sound smooth and resolving. A solid hour or two with the help of a friend will get you there. Double that if you must ­do all the work yourself. While you’re at it, get stands that are as massive as you can deal with, somewhere between 20 and 24 inches tall, depending on your listening position. My main room is about 18 x 24 feet and while the Totems will deliver great sound either way, if you can access the wider wall, you will be rewarded with maximum image width and depth.

Bigger bottom

If you’re one of those people that always needs more bass (I’m saying this from an “it takes one to know one” perspective) Totem makes several great subwoofers that will mate perfectly with your Fires. Serendipitously, our publisher happens to have the Totem Tribe Solution in for review, so borrowing it for a long weekend was incredibly easy.

Available in satin black or white, this compact subwoofer is only 13” x 24” x 4.5” allowing it to fit nearly anywhere. Hence the name. As a single guy, I can enjoy having a Marshall stack on one end of my living room and a lot of gear everywhere. But for those of you with a smaller room, and a partner that you might have to convince the additional bulk of a sub is ok, the Tribe Solution is perfect. Even if you don’t stand it upright in the middle of the room and enjoy it’s pair of 8” woofer cones pulsating to the music at hand.

Commendable as the V2s are, an extra 500 watts on tap rocks even harder. With my favorite 90s electronica tracks, the ability to crank it up even further (than is reasonable and prudent) is always welcome. To be clear, the Fires are not small speakers with no bass, (Tune Tots, cough, cough) and you don’t need a sub to enjoy them. However, it is nice to know Totem makes a solution that’s a perfect fit should you want to increase your system’s capability. Personally, I like products that go together easily. Watch for our review on this one.  

Bigger everywhere

One of my least favorite audiophile cliches is “the XXX speaker defies the laws of physics.” Nothing defies the laws of physics. However, what Totem does do, is carefully optimize mechanical and electrical parameters, to give their products exceptional performance. I’ll take science over magic any day. Their crossovers are carefully constructed, delivering speakers that are easy to drive. The amount of signal that gets from the binding posts (and in this case, the V2s have exquisite binding posts) to the drivers can get lost in a complex crossover. One thing you might do to get just a little bit more upper midrange clarity from the V2s is to swap the factory jumpers for jumpers made from whatever speaker cable you currently use. This is not a Totem specific thing, we do this with every speaker we use that has jumpers. It’s not a “this one goes to 11” improvement, but a 10.7 to 11. It just depends on how OCD you are!

These speakers use a 2-way design with the woofer running full range, and no high or low pass filter in the circuit, resulting in an 88db/1-watt speaker that you can drive with anything. That’s part of that punchiness that Totems are famous for. While the cabinet looks deceptively simple, there are no parallel surfaces in it’s design. That’s about ten times harder (and more expensive to build) than a standard design. This attention to detail results in a compact speaker delivering a wonderful, open midrange and upper bass free of cloudiness.

It all adds up to a small speaker that sounds like a big speaker, and a speaker that delivers excellent performance no matter what you drive it with. Running the V2s in with a perennial favorite, the vintage Marantz 2215 (a sweet sounding 15 wpc solid-state receiver) is enough to bring serious insight to what the Totems are capable of, yet hooking them up to the PrimaLuna EVO 400 amp and a vintage Levinson preamplifier (with a Technics SP-10 table bringing up the analog) feels like watching a movie in Technicolor on one of those big, wide, curved screens from back in the day.

From the smallest acoustic music, to griding metal, the V2s can play as loud as the situation demands, yet they are very engaging at low volumes as well. Again, this is another example of great crossover design and driver optimization. It’s way tougher for a speaker that can wrap you up in the experience at low levels than one that can just play loud. (I’m coughing some more)

Another winner

Our publisher agrees the Totem Element Fire V2s are more than worth one of our Exceptional Value awards. On top of delivering so much sound for the price, they are built to an exacting level, and will deliver maximum performance with anything you connect them to. You’ll have to buy some pretty spendy gear before you consider trading your speaker in, and that’s what makes them worth every penny.


$8,450/pair

Totemacoustic.com

Cover Story

Digital and Analog parity:
The Tambaqui DAC and Lupe Phono from Mola-Mola

Features

Old School: Going down the Revox Rabbit Hole
by Jeff Dorgay

1095: Vera-Fi’s awesome Vera Link. Now you have sound anywhere!

The Audiophile Apartment: The REL Classic 98 subwoofer

Journeyman Audiophile: Tannoy Autograph Mini speakers

Headphone Arts:  FOCALS latest Bathys phones with a surprise

Shanon Says: Our Canadian connection lets us know what she’s listening to

Mine: It Should Be Yours

Future Tense: Gear in our immediate future

Reviews

YG’s Hailey 3 Speakers – the first of an all new breed
Black Ravioli Record Ground – It’s not a clamp!
The Enleum AMP-23R – Massive sound, minimum footprint
Totem Solution Sub – When you think you don’t have room for a sub
Naim CD5si – A worthy disc player

Music

Playlists:  We share our readers choices from around the world
Merch Table:  ZZ Top. Awwww!!
Jim on Jazz

You might laugh at me for beginning my review of the new LSA headphone amplifier with my Pikachu headphones, but it’s somewhat of a torture test.

More often than not, crappy budget headphones have a crazy impedance curve. (Which makes them sound even worse with a phone or laptop) But an amplifier with some serious drive can control them enough to sound better than they are. Bam, the new HyperDrive 2 Preamp/Headphone amplifier passes the first test.

LSA is going to be selling the HyperDrive 2 for $995, but in typical Underwood HiFi Tradition, they give early adopters a deal – for now they will be $799. I’m not a huge headphone listener, but I really love headphone amplifiers that offer the ability to be used as a preamplifier as well – it’s the perfect way to entice a personal listener into a two-channel system as time, budget and space allow, making this an even better value. LSA’s Mark Schifter said that the first 100 units will also have NOS Russian 6N1P tubes. Our experience has been that these are very robust tubes with long life, so this will provide even more value.

Ok, on to real headphones

Getting back to hifi reality, a group of phones including an older pair of Grado SR-60s, Sennheiser 650s (with Cardas cabling) and some original Audeze LCD-1s rounded out the old school, with some Sendy Peackocks, and a pair of Focal Clear Mgs for current cans. Thanks to the adjustable gain switch on the front panel (0dB, 6dB, and 12dB) you should be able to drive anything with ease.

The overall sound of the HyperDrive 2 is large, spacious, headphone-y. When you put on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, Santana’s Abraxas (whatever version you have, btw) or anything by Frank Zappa, you’ll want to light up a joint. Or feel like you’ve already indulged. Headphone listening is a personal experience, and for many the gateway to high end audio.

Those tubes inject a nice bit of tonal saturation and warmth, to distinguish the HyperDrive 2 from a lot of other inexpensive headphone amplifiers that rely on Op Amps alone. It’s just right and a welcome touch. Highs are fleshed out, mids sound natural – regardless of headphones chosen, and the bottom end is well defined and powerful.

Bonus #1 – It’s an incredible preamplifier

You could buy the HyperDrive 2, never use it for more than a headphone amplifier, and be completely happy forever. Really, it’s that good. Even my $4,000 pair of Focal Utopias sound damn good through the HyperDrive 2.

However, good as the HyperDrive 2 is in this mode, I submit that it’s an even better stereo preamplifier. Now that most people use their DAC as a digital hub, the three single ended RCA inputs are enough for your favorite DAC, a phono stage, and maybe even a tuner or cassette deck.

The level of transparency, musicality, and sheer weight that the HyperDrive 2 delivers reminds me of legacy giant killers from Hafler, NAD, and APT/Holman. Simple, well-designed circuits that achieved synergistic success that was more than the sum of the parts used to construct them. The input stage consists of a pair of ECC88/6DJ8 tubes, so you can tune this to taste with some NOS tubes, and the heaphone amplifier section utilizes the Texas Instruments TPA6120A2 op amps, with the preamp output (line level outputs) using Texas Instruments OPA1656 op amps. I’m normally op amp adverse, but these are well implemented.

Again, keeping the approachable ethos intact, three power amplifiers were used with great success. A recently re-capped Nakamichi 420 power amplifier, scored from a friend for a couple hundred bucks was first up. Second, the LAB 12 Mighty, which provides 10 Wpc of single ended EL34 power, and finally a PrimaLuna EVO 100 power amplifier. (35 Wpc all tube).

Speakers on hand were equally budget minded. A pair of Vandersteen 1Cs, a vintage pair of Acoustat 1+1s (though I had to step the game up to my vintage Nakamichi 620 power amplifier) and a pair of KEF LS-50s. Throw in some entry level Black II cables from Tellurium Q, and we’ve got a rocking system on a reasonable budget.

The LSA used in this manner is incredibly good. Way beyond what is typically offered up at this price – it’s really a level of sonic refinement and resolution that is almost always absent here, usually requiring spending a lot more money. This is the true strength of the HyperDrive 2. Underwood and LSA’s manufacturer direct policy makes it possible. Bonus points for you.

Bonus #2 – You can drive speakers with it – a bit

Well, within reason. LSA claims 2 watts into 32 ohms, so I had to go for it. You won’t be able to drive a pair of Harbeths with this thing, but if you’ve got a pair of Klipsch LaScala’s, some Zu Dirty Weekends, or a pair of the new Heretic speakers with 97dB sensitivity. And Bingo was his name. A quick late night run to Best Buy for an $8 headphone extension cable was all that I needed to hack the system, and my trusty wire stripper. The HyperDrive 2 has a standard ¼” jack on the front panel for your phones, so that’s how we did it.

I’m sure the LSA folks won’t sanction this, but if you have a similar pair of speakers in a small ish room, this little desktop powerhouse is incredibly clean sounding. I couldn’t help but be totally impressed with how well this headphone amplifier drove my Heretic A614s to modest levels. If I were back in college again, in a small listening room, I could really enjoy this kind of setup. LSA claims an output impedance of 13 ohms, so this activity will be hit and miss, depending on your speakers. But always worth exploring!

An outstanding value proposition

In a world populated more and more by stuff barely anyone can afford, it’s refreshing to see a product so dedicated in offering so much performance for the dollar. In my day we had our Hafler, NAD, and a few others to get us into it all. Sure, they didn’t have the same quality of casework as maybe a Levinson or Krell piece, but the sonic fundamentals were there in enough abundance to get us to all abandon our mid fi recievers.

Today, the LSA Hyperdrive will convince you it’s time to step up from a Sonos or powered speaker thing and get a real hifi system. Pair it up with a few carefully chosen components and you’ll be thrilled, whether you approach it as a headphone amplifier first or as a 2-channel preamplifier that’s the cornerstone of your system. Very highly recommended. You’ll be seeing this one again before the end of the year. Pika, pika.

www.underwoodhifi.com

The Vervent Group, that unites Naim and Focal has opened two more “Focal Powered by Naim” stores in Canada. Winnipeg and Barrie to be precise. This is an incredible way to experience the full depth of these brands, along with their personal audio products. It’s a big win for new and seasoned audio enthusiasts.

Focal Powered by Naim Barrie takes place in the EQ Audio Video store, led by Edward O’Herlihy, an expert in audio solutions for more than thirty years. Focal Powered by Naim Winnipeg moves to Creative Audio in St. Boniface’s French Quarter, a store run by audio enthusiast Jeff Kowerchuk.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Through their global network of stores and shop-in-shops, Focal and Naim put their customer at the center of their attention and offer them an authentic experience. Discovery of complete systems and high-end products, sound advice and listening experiences. They allow you to fully grasp the quality of Focal and Naim sound and to project yourself at home with a hi-fi or Home Cinema solution.

FOCAL POWERED BY NAIM BARRIE

Close to the Barrie Molson Center, this shop-in-shop invites you to discover the World of Focal and Naim and test products via the four demonstration rooms of the luxurious EQ Audio Video store and a headphone bar with Focal’s headphones for a unique listening experience.

Highlighting the space will be the exclusive Focal Naim 10th Anniversary Edition system. It includes Focal Sopra N°2, Naim NDX 2 – NAC 282 – HICAP DR and NAPSC – NAP 250 DR for $48,000 USD and $62,400 CAD. The system includes all the connections you need, including a pair of Naim’s top-range Super Lumina speaker cables.

Focal Powered by Naim Barrie

130 Saunders Road, Units 5,6,7

Barrie, Ontario, L4N 9A8

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.focal.com/en/focal-powered-by-naim-barrie

Located in the Creative Audio store, Winnipeg’s Focal and Naim shop-in-shop offers immersive listening in its two demonstration rooms, as well as more intimate listening at its Focal headphone bar. Designed around sharing, the space presents hi-fi and home cinema products of excellence but also unique finishes, such as the Focal Sopra N°2 speaker available in its Electric Orange finish.

Focal Powered by Naim Winnipeg

7-353 Provencher Boulevard Winnipeg, Manitoba R2H 0G8

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.focal.com/en/focal-powered-by-naim-winnipeg-0

When I was a little kid, I remember listening to albums from my parent’s collection that that have stuck with me throughout the ups and downs of life.

Throughout her career as a songwriter, painter and musician, Joni Mitchell has never made any excuses about being a strong Canadian woman, expressing herself in her art and music. Perhaps those memories of Clouds on that 60’s record player help me enjoy and appreciate The Hissing of Summer Lawns even more today. Mitchell’s Blue and Ladies of the Canyon are two of my favorite late night headphone listening albums – I’ll never shy away from that emotional journey. Her unique voice, distinct guitar sound are never far from my turntable.

The 3 album box set of Joni Mitchell’s career-changing debut at Carnegie Hall saw its first-ever release late in 2021 and I was fortunate enough to land the 180-gram, three LP, snow white vinyl version. This jewel is a must have for dedicated Joni fans.

From the first time you hold the beautiful but heavy jacket, to immersion in the music, Live at Carnegie Hall’ captures a time and place in history. When a 25-year-old Joni Mitchell stepped on stage in her long vintage skirt on February 1, 1969 in front of a packed house, it was her first major concert.  Her partner at the time, Graham Nash sat in the audience along with her parents and Bob Dylan. Her debut album, Song to a Seagull had been released less than a year prior, produced by David Crosby. This Canadian was new to California, but familiar with performing at coffee houses and nightclubs. But this was big.

The black and white photo on the cover features Mitchell, pin-straight hair down her back, sitting at a Steinway, 3 mic stands, and her trademark Martin D-28 Dreadnought laying on an otherwise empty stage. If a picture could tell a story, this one certainly sets the tone for what a treasure that jacket holds, captured on vinyl. Joel Bernstein’s candid photographs, Mitchell’s handwritten changes to the set list and lyrics to Blue Boy offer a glimpse into that night in New York.

For first play, this gorgeous white vinyl went onto my reference Acoustic Solid Vintage Exclusive with a low-output Dynavector DV-20X2 cartridge. The album begins with an appreciative crowd and Mitchell opening the 19 song concert with “Chelsea Morning.” According to the notes written by Graham Nash, she had started the song, but had to stop.The crowd, in support of the important event they were witnessing, gave her a Valentine which she held up, smiling on stage. You can hear the nervousness in her voice as she acknowledges this kind gesture, but the initial hesitancy melts away when she settles into “Cactus Tree.”  From that moment on, she sounds relaxed, confident and in her element both in her voice and instruments as she bares her heart and soul on that famous stage. She is almost apologetic for her piano playing but nails it on “Blue Boy.”  Her lighthearted banter in between tracks sounds more like a conversation she is having with a small intimate crowd instead of addressing the 3,600 seats in front of her. On side 2, (my personal favorite track) the stellar a Capella rendition of “The Fiddle and The Drum” follows her explanation of what it was like to be a Canadian living in America during this incredibly important time in history.

The second set starts with “Marcie”, a song for a friend. The initial nerves are a distant memory, and her voice confidently holds the listener’s attention. Immersed in the music, Mitchell continues her musical storytelling. Dedicating “Morning Morgantown” to her parents, there is a realization that this young woman, alone on stage, has her friends and family there to support her during her first big show, not a seasoned professional who was accustomed to performing to large crowds. The second set ends with a medley of “The Circle Game, and Little Green.” There is a poignant edge to her description of the latter track as being “about a little girl.”  At that time in her career, not much was known about her personal struggle after surrendering her daughter for adoption in 1965. Perhaps only a few people in this crowd knew Mitchell’s longing and heartbreak. As she fluidly shifts between the 2 songs, the emotional connection to her story deepens, drawing your focus to the fusion.

The fifth side contains her encore, starting with “Michael From Mountains,” closing the show with “Urge For Going,” after she retunes her guitar and acknowledges how far it is from Saskatoon to Carnegie Hall. Her delightful fingerpicking on the final track draws the listener in as her voice delicately lifts and swells, describing a Sasketchewan winter.

The vibrato in her voice, the sound of fingers plucking steel strings and the voices of the crowd singing with her on Get Together are clearly heard, even when in the background, reflecting the talent of Bernie Grundman’s mastering. Overall, this live recording is dynamic and well balanced without taking away from the artist alone on stage. The exquisite layers and passion behind the music are attained in this album. From the first play, this peek into music history has quickly become a frequent flyer on my TT.

Live at Carnegie hall, 1969 is a gift from a place in history that needs to be remembered as a time of change and uncertainty. This album not only pulls the listener back to late 60’s free spirit hippy culture that embraced my parents, but draws you in with honest vulnerability and creativity. The special place I have for Joni Mitchell and her music throughout my life, in my collection and in Canadian music history, just grew by leaps and bounds. Two very enthusiastic Canadian thumbs up.

www.jonimitchell.com

Warning, these speakers tend to keep you cemented in your listening chair. The Heretics are “album side” speakers if that makes sense.

Spinning Nightmares on Wax’s In A Space Outta Sound, the dub heavy, trippy vibe is intoxicating. Next up, Propellerheads Decksanddrumsandrockandroll. Again, the whole album goes by without the slightest urge to make a playlist. The bass line in “Oh Yeah?” is so much fun. The 12” coaxial driver combined with the ported cabinet adds up to a very organic, tuneful (yet not overdamped) bottom end.

If you’ve looked at Heretic’s website (www.thehereticspeaker.com) you’ll notice the famous shot of EMI studios, with the Beatles in the control room. They are listening to what looks like the larger Heretic A612, but these are actually Altec drivers in the cabinets. Robert Gaboury, the man behind the Heretic has taken this 12” coax and the Altec cabinet design and brought it into the modern age, to produce a speaker that is really a pleasure to listen to.

Powered by the Lab12 Mighty amplifier, which only produces 10 watts per channel, these speakers sporting a 97db/1-Watt sensitivity rating barely make the cool, circular VU meters move from rest. Seriously, how often do most of you listen to music at a 97db level? It’s unbelievable that this pair of speakers, combined with a $2,400 power amplifier can create such an expansive and immersive musical experience. But it does. Pricing is TBA right now, but they will be under $8k/pair for the smaller 614s, reviewed here.

Quick, adjective barrage

All of those audiophile cliches we’ve heard a million times over truly do apply to the Heretic A614s, but they are one of those rare speakers that provide instant fun. If you’re a persnickity audiophile, you’ll find things to nitpick, but then you will no matter what you’re listening to. These won’t be the speakers for you.

You can look at these speakers one of two ways – you can be fussy and point out the small things they don’t do (as you would with every single other speaker made) or you can sink into the vibe and just enjoy them. To give you a reference point of where I’m coming from (because saying a speaker is “fun,” really doesn’t give you much to go on…) my short list of fun, under $10k/pair speakers are in no order, The Vandersteen 1C, The JBL L-100 Century Classic, The Magnepan SMG, A nice used pair of MartinLogan CLS’s, The Harbeth C7s, The Zu Dirty Weekends.

Speakers that are not necessarily the last word in audiophile speakers, but ones that you can sit around all evening listening to music with, have a great time, and not have to engage the audiophile part of your consciousness that feels the need to dissect everything.

Quick setup

Thanks to their relatively light weight – about 40 pounds each, with a profile of 19” wide, 15” deep, and about 26” tall, you can move the Heretics around and set them up easily by yourself.
Having used these in small (10 x 13 foot), medium (11 x 18 foot) and large (15 x 26 foot) the Heretics deliver great results anywhere, though you will get a little bit more bass loading in an extremely small room, that may or may not work to your advantage.

While these speakers come with feet attached for use on the floor, I had the best results getting them about 13” off the floor. Custom stands are on the way, but for now a pair of heavy Sound Anchors stands with 1.25 thick butcher block boards work splendidly. A little blu tack between the boards and the stands really helps too. Getting that tweeter up a little higher than ground level makes for a lot less mid-bass bloom/roundness and gives up nothing on the bottom end. This also helps the Heretics to create a larger soundstage, eliminating a lot of reflection right from the floor.

Because the originals have that EMI heritage, the push for some Beatle’s was just too much to resist, and considering it’s that time of the year here in America again, Revolvers’ “Taxman” was perfect. These speakers do such a great job at holding the bass line rock solid, the drums in place and a clear view of all the harmonies – it’s incredible. And incredibly enjoyable. Whether you prefer the stereo or mono Beatles, this is a treat. Switching it up for Cheap Trick’s “Taxman, Mr. Thief” is equally rewarding. And this is not an awesome recording by any stretch. Yet the slightly round bottom end of these speakers gives a little bit of help to the average recordings in your collection. Again, that fun thing.

For those of you that haven’t been following my ongoing narrative, one of my biggest hot buttons is coherence. Thanks to the coaxial tweeter, these speakers sound like a big single driver speaker with extension. The crossovers are well designed, as the transition from woofer to tweeter is as good as it gets – seamless and free of grain. Regardless of what kind of music you enjoy, these speakers do a fantastic job rendering it.

Vocals are transcendent with the Heretics, both in terms of tonality and the way they can decode layered harmonies. The Heretics are highly natural in their presentation, and again thanks to the high sensitivity, nothing is ever working hard to produce sound – resulting in low distortion and fatigue. These are speakers you can listen to all day without becoming the least bit tired.

Amplification

Don’t let the sensitivity rating fool you, even though these speakers don’t need a tremendous amount of power to play really loud, it’s a quality thing. A few obvious choices (the Cary 805 SET monos, the Line Magnetic 815) didn’t provide killer results, yet the 4 watt per channel Finale is out of this world good. As mentioned at the beginning of this review, Lab12s Mighty (10 watts per channel) is also fantastic. Our Pass First Watt SIT-3 was also a stunner. This amplifier is very speaker sensitive, but in this case, the match is perfection. This single ended solid-state amplifier delivers about 92% of the texture and depth of the best tube combinations, with a bigger image, and a lot more slam on the low end. So, again – big fun with these speakers. And there’s still about five or six amplifiers to try.

Perhaps we were cheating a bit at first, using the Pass XS Pre, XS Phono and dCS Vivaldi One with Vivaldi Clock, but even when bringing the associated components downstream in keeping with you’d probably expect to be in a system with a pair of speakers in this price range, the results are still excellent. The only thing tried that was less than awesome was our vintage Marantz 2270. This just sounded flat.

The rest of the story

Looking at the Heretic site, you’ll see there are several other finishes available, and you can order the speakers with or without grilles. If you have munchkins or pets, seriously consider the grilles. Our review pair came in the natural finish.

Gaboury says that the cabinets are made from 12mm Canadian ultra-premium birch plywood. The website says, “Because of tone. Tone comes from rigidity, lightness, and compliance, but not too much.” Rather than go on and on, if there is any way you can give these speakers a listen, if you share some of my listening priorities, I think you will really enjoy the Heretics. Should you have a larger room, or need more bass extension, they also make the A612, which is the same driver in a cabinet with more volume.

Sensitivity remains the same, but there is an additional half octave of bass extension. When Mr. Gaboury catches up with orders, he’s promising to send us a pair. For now, provisionally, I am purchasing the review pair, but I may hold the checkbook close to the vest until I hear the bigger model. I’ve got the room. Either way, these speakers have provided some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time just hanging out and listening to music for its own sake. You’ll only need one or two of your favorite tracks to decide if they are the droids you want.

For now, highly recommended, and #toneaudioapproved.

www.thehereticspeaker.com. (manufacturer)

www.fidelisdistribution.com. (importer/distributor)

But wait, there’s more

At the end of this review, designer Robert Gaboury had a bit of spare time in the middle of getting ready for Axpona, to fill me in on the fine details of how these great speakers came to be. Here’s what he has to share:

First thing, the ductless design.  Thiele/Small parameters are used to predict and accurately simulate low frequency behavior of transducers in closed and vented box. These days, all designers (including me) use software simulation in the development of loudspeaker enclosures.

However, T/S parameters were derived in the 1970s, meaning that Altec designers, when designing the 614 and 612 (1940 something) « utility cabinets » , which are ported, used another method to calculate vent area relative to enclosure volume. I found this fascinating, and decided 3 years ago to investigate, out of curiosity, what was happening.

Nowadays, we all want the best possible low frequency extension in the smallest air volume and most contemporary speakers use vented boxes with transducers designed especially for this. This is usually a tube in a box, and by adjusting area and length (along with enclosure volumes and transducer’s T/S parameters), the box is tuned to « load » the transducer at the lowest possible frequency. Loading happens when the air in the box opposes the cone motion, and at this point (the tuning frequency), the cone motion is nil and vent output is maximal. Below that frequency, the driver is unloaded, moves a lot, yet produces no sound, because the air pressure just escapes the port, out of phase with the driver, creating an acoustic short-circuit.

In recent years, passive transducers have been used when we want to tune a box to a lower frequency that would be practical with a tube (i-e, the tube is too long to fit in the box). This means that modern drivers are made to work in small boxes and generate ample LF. And accuracy in the mid-band is often sacrificed (I’d say always) a consequence of the quest for LF, because in order to allow a small transducer to resonate at – very – low frequency, the cone must be heavy. I simplify a bit, but think of a 1973 Buick Electra hitting potholes, versus a Lotus formula car… The Buick will resonate at very low frequency – and take a long time to settle, but won’t handle as well as the Lotus. As you can guess, the Lotus is a lot stiffer.

Back to the enclosure: a vent tube is always tuned to a specific frequency, say 42 Hz.  I found out, using simulation, that a ductless vent (such as the old Altec) is not precisely tuned. In fact, it is tuned to a much broader frequency band, which is highly desirable:  no « one-note » bass.

Also, a super stiff suspension is very desirable for medium (vocal range) definition. Think Lotus. So, if you accept the notion of a big transducer, a big box and ductless designs, something interesting is possible: musicality. That is Heretic.

Second thing: co-ax design, re-invented. Older professional coax drivers such as Altec 604 (and others) use a compression driver mounted in the woofer voice coil. The downside is the compression driver, which has a large dome (usually 3 to 4 inches). In the Heretic, the dome is quite small, almost as small as a modern tweeter, yet, it is horn loaded by a short aluminum horn, itself loaded with the woofer’s membrane, acting as a waveguide. Smaller dome means smaller mass, means higher resonant frequency (think Lotus), means very good extension – much better than older Altec 604 for example.

Third thing: serial crossover network. This alone is, for the designer, guaranteed headache. Because the woofer and tweeter are connected in series, the network logic is inverted. If you want to fix something in the high frequencies, you must act on the LF section. It like writing with your left hand in front of a mirror. Yet, when (and if) you get it right, it has a level of coherency not possible to achieve with normal parrallel networks used in 99% of all loudspeakers.

For me, designing Heretic was something extraordinary because it opened up a box of ideas that was shut and sealed somewhere in the 1970s, when acoustic suspensiuon was the « in » thing. For me, performance and musicality are two sides of a same token. Along with low mass and tight handling. That’s heretic.

The new PrimaLuna EVO 300/Floyd integrated amplifier begins its journey here with a PrimaLuna EVO 400 power amplifier (loaded with KT150 tubes) beside it on the rack. The dCS Vivaldi ONE has a high-quality variable output stage, making for a perfect front-end component to allow easy comparisons, as the EVO 400 is a power amplifier only. Aimee Mann’s “Humpty Dumpty” gets the evaluation off to a start, as it has on every other review I’ve written in the last 17 years.

The MoFi SACD offers a large soundfield in all three dimensions, and Mann’s voice is front, center, large, and breathy. This $7,399 integrated amplifier makes a heck of a first impression. As we’ve had a lot of great integrateds here in the last two years, mainly in the $7,000 – $12,000 range, there is a lot of competition at this price. Some offer onboard phonostages (A high-quality MM phono can be installed in your EVO 300 at the cost of $299, and it’s very good); others concentrate on a built-in DAC. Some have both, others have neither. And they all sound pretty good. There’s a lot of homework to be done. The EVO 300/Floyd leaves the choices to you.

Listening to PrimaLuna’s latest amplifier reminds me of the last time I visited the Louvre. Admiring all the different works of art from such a diverse pool of creativity made me think about amplifiers and how they all sound so different. Measurement geeks that say they all sound the same be damned. Different devices, different topologies all have a different sonic fingerprint. Here, we have something unique.

Your slice of heaven

Possibly one of the most significant discussions we as music lovers have when assembling an audio system is the merits of vacuum tube versus solid-state amplifiers. (And the relative subsets within these categories.) More often than not, tube designs possess an edge when recovering microdynamic information in a recording, and similarly, solid-state amplifiers usually have more current reserve, a higher damping factor, and more control over a speaker’s woofer cone. Hence tighter, more powerful bass response.

Many audiophiles have declared their piece of audio heaven mating a tube preamplifier with a solid-state power amplifier to get the airy delicacy that tubes produce and the extra bass control, dynamics, and current drive of a solid-state power amplifier. While other hybrid designs usually use a pair of tubes as buffer or driver stages to add a bit of warmth, the EVO 300 Floyd brings together a vacuum tube preamplifier and solid-state power amplifier on a single chassis. The result is sheer genius.

Herman van den Dungen, the man behind PrimaLuna, reveals that this hybrid integrated amplifier is designed with a twist. Though it sports a vacuum tube preamplifier section, with six 12AU7 tubes, and a solid-state Mosfet power section, don’t look for a pair of pre-out/power-in jacks on the rear panel. It is not meant to be broken apart into individual sections. On one level, why would you? Both sections have been designed to mate perfectly with the other, and the use of switching or jumpers would only degrade the sound. Tape deck and subwoofer fans fear not, there is a variable output for your sub and a pair of fixed outputs for your reel to reel deck!

As Mosfet devices come the closest to approaching the voice that tubes provide, it’s a natural match, and because there are no output tubes to replace, a re-tube will not be expensive. 12AU7s are plentiful, and even if you feel the urge to roll tubes, NOS 12AU7s aren’t nearly as costly as 12AX7s.

Getting into it

If you’ve never experienced a PrimaLuna amplifier – they are pretty heavy, and well packaged. However, where the EVO 400 all-tube amplifier tips the scale at almost 70 pounds, the EVO 300/Floyd is 55 pounds. Even though the usual massive output transformers are lacking, a dedicated 500VA transformer is on deck for the power amplifier section, and the preamplifier uses a pair of smaller, dedicated power transformers for the tube section.

Removing the bottom cover is a visual feast for the parts geek/aficionado. A cursory look reveals an expensive ALPS volume pot, along with resistors and capacitors from Nichicon, Rubycon, Kemet, Takman, DuRoch, and others. This is the kind of stuff that one usually finds lurking in amplifiers costing 3-5 times as much.

PrimaLuna’s vacuum tube amplifiers are all built with point-to-point wiring (except for the small auto-bias board that eliminates the need to bias the output tubes) and feature a fanatic level of attention to detail. Those arguing point to point wiring can’t compete with the consistency offered by printed circuit boards have never looked inside a PrimaLuna! The EVO 300/Floyd still uses point-to-point wiring, but there are three PCBs now. These boards are 2.4mm thick with 105um gold-plated copper traces, for maximum longevity and highest signal integrity.

Fit and finish elsewhere is equally fantastic. PrimaLuna has always set the standard for execution, using their signature dark blue metallic for the chassis, mated to a thick aluminum front panel with silver or black anodizing. The only thing feeling out of place on recent PrimaLuna products is the control and selector knobs. The rough, pebbly finish does not look as “finished” as the smooth ones used in earlier PL products. This is truly my only complaint with the EVO300/Floyd, but it is something that other PL owners have talked about online. Perhaps offer an upgraded, machined pair of knobs as an add-on?

Around the back, there are five line-level RCA inputs. Unlike the EVO separates, where moving to the 400 series brings balanced capability, the EVO 300 and 300/Floyd only feature RCA inputs. You can only fit so much onto a chassis at some point, and this won’t be a deal-breaker for most.

Finally, PrimaLuna offers a full-function, machined aluminum remote that is again a class leader. You won’t find this level of detail on a nearly $20,000 Audio Research Reference preamplifier. Even better, PrimaLuna’s remote will work with the full range of their components, so if you happen to have an older PL CD player or their EVO DAC (read our review here), you can control everything with one remote. It’s a nice touch that comes with 20 plus years of building components with a human element.

Tomato, tomato?

The EVO 300/Floyd has a rated output of 100 Watts per channel into 8 ohms, and 150 Watts into a 4-ohm load. Early reviews in the UK and European press that are putting it on the test bench reveal closer to 120 Watts into 8 ohms and about 180 into 4 ohms. My EVO 400 reference amplifier delivers 88 Watts per channel and can be switched into triode mode (albeit only producing 50 Watts per channel with KT-150s), offering more flexibility where the ultimate in LF “slam” is not a necessity.

This is more a “different” than a “better” comparison. Listening to both topologies side by side, the lineage is obvious. Thanks to the extra current drive that the hybrid amplifier provides, it will deliver better results with a broader range of speakers. Nothing is off limits with the EVO 300/Floyd. It will even take hold of a pair of Magnepans with ease. HiFi News (and occasional TONE contributor) correspondent Ken Kessler mentions that the EVO 300/Floyd did a great job driving his Wilson Audio DAWs – a speaker that requires a high-quality amplifier.

Carefully listening to tracks with dense mixes and highly layered vocals, such as Todd Rundgren, Crowded House, CSN, and others, shows the hybrid amplifier giving up little quarter to the all-tube EVO yet painting a slightly deeper, more dramatic sound field. Solo acoustic instruments and vocal pieces nod slightly to the tube amp, but heavy rock and large-scale classical pieces favor the Floyd. Again, remember I’m splitting hairs here. This is an incredibly well accomplished product.

Hours of listening underlines what an enjoyable product this is, and at times you might find yourself wanting to lift that top cover to see what’s really in there. We’ve got a pic, so you don’t have to – the EVO 300/Floyd does have a solid-state output stage. PrimaLuna has done a better job combining tubes and transistors on one chassis than anything we’ve come across. This amplifier has not made a single misstep while here. I can’t imagine anyone having buyer’s remorse after taking the plunge. This amplifier has an overall tonality incorporating the inner detail and spaciousness that you would typically associate with an all-tube design.

Feed your head

In addition to adding a MM phonostage, the EVO 300/Floyd sports a ¼” headphone jack on the front panel. You merely need to push the HP/LS switch on the right side to disable the speaker outputs when listening with headphones.

PrimaLuna powers the headphone jack with the full amplifier, so you are not listening to an inexpensive OP amp powered headphone module. Auditioning a wide range of phones on hand from Focal, Grado, and Sennheiser was indeed satisfying. All but the most obsessed headphone listener will not feel the need for an outboard amplifier – further increasing the value proposition or the EVO 300/Floyd.

But why go hybrid?

Telling the story of the EVO300/Floyd on the PrimaLuna home site, van den Dungen (with his usual wry sense of humor) asks the question, “PrimaLuna, what are you doing now?” The answer is complex, but this amplifier is a valuable addition to the PrimaLuna lineup. If you are an audio enthusiast that only wants a vacuum tube setup, PL has you covered. However, if you have a pair of speakers that could use that extra bit of current capability only a solid-state amplifier will deliver, then this amplifier is the perfect solution.

Maybe you’re a tube lover with limited space, or you’re just tired of buying so many tubes. Again, the EVO300/Floyd is the winner. Sonic taste is as wide as the Grand Canyon; you may prefer the hybrid’s voice over anything else. Considering how easy the PrimaLuna amplifiers we’ve owned and reviewed are on tubes, you may never even need to re-tube your EVO300/Floyd. 10,000 hours on a set of 12AU7s in a PrimaLuna or even more wouldn’t surprise me in the least.

As I’ve said many times before in these pages, I love integrated amplifiers because they save you a set of interconnects and a power cord when building a system, making them a supreme value. To that effect, I am thrilled to give the EVO300/Floyd one of our first Exceptional Value Awards of the new year. This is an amplifier you can build a high-performance system around and keep for a long time. Considering that my PrimaLuna ProLogue One is still going strong after 20 years, you can take that one to the bank.

https://www.primaluna-usa.com/primaluna-evo-300-hybrid-integrated-amp

https://www.primaluna.nl/hybrid/evo-300-hybrid-integrated-amplifier/

Peripherals

Digital Source dCS Vivaldi ONE, HiFi Rose 150

Analog Source Technics SL-1200/Denon 103/Pass XP-27

Speakers Sonus faber Stradiveri, Eggleston Nico, Acoustat 2+2

Cable Cardas Clear Relection, Tellurium Q Black II

Not only did Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock’s “It Takes Two” make hip-hop history, the 1988 smash and pop-culture staple espoused a philosophy that mirrors a long-held high-end audio doctrine: Separate components (two) reign superior over their integrated brethren (one), unless the latter commands a far, far higher price tag than the comparable pieces.

From a technological angle, the tenet remains difficult to argue. Two pieces of gear, each dedicated to a primary function in the audio chain and free of the compromises that often need to be implemented to merge preamplification and amplification duties under one roof, seems, on paper at least, to carry the day. What usually goes unspoken is that the arrangement generally requires more thought put into system synergy (especially when different brands are involved) as well as more money and more space. The audiophile industry also counts on such tradition to boost demand for associated categories—cables, interconnects, racks. After all, the more equipment you have to link, the more wire you’ll require, and the more shelves you’ll need. Everything adds up, and quick.

For decades, the approach has simply been accepted and considered the price of entrance. Like many assumptions, experience supported it—and the audio press and marketplace dutifully reinforced it. By and large, two (or, for everyone running dedicated mono amps, three) boxes offered a higher magnitude of sonic enticement than one-box affairs. But, in the words of Bob Dylan, times have changed.

Fueled by leaps in technology, the practicality of high-resolution streaming, and the limitations associated with small living spaces, listeners increasingly appear bent on simplifying their setup without sacrificing on sound. Akin to dialing up practically any album on your phone and wirelessly sending it in better-than-CD quality to your hi-fi, the prospect of marrying such accessible convenience with seductive fidelity faced myriad roadblocks not so long ago. As evidenced by the Luxman L-590AXII integrated amplifier—a model whose predecessor, L-590AX, TONE publisher Jeff Dorgay cites as one of the five of the thousands of audio products that have crossed his doorstep that he wishes he never let get away—those blockades have been eradicated.

They Still Make ‘Em Like They Used to Do

The co-flagship of the five integrated models in the manufacturer’s line, L-590AXII broadcasts its signature calling card by way of two amber VU meters—a color designation the brand reserves for high-current Class A designs. Whether you’re new to high-end audio or a dyed-in-the-wool aficionado, Class A remains the summit to which amplification technologies aspire. As with nearly every choice in life, the approach touts advantages and disadvantages. When it comes to next-to-zero distortion, even-order harmonics, and linearity, Class A rules with an iron fist. The drawbacks: Some designs run extremely hot and many tout efficiency on par with the gallons-per-mile consumption of a 1967 Lincoln Continental. Plus, Class A tends to translate into a higher price tag due to expenses associated with production.

At $9,495, the Japanese-made L-590AXII doesn’t come cheap. Yet even before you begin counting the dollars you’ll save on extra cables, the value proposition of L-590AXII becomes clear the moment you open its shipping carton. Ready to withstand the in-transit abuses thrown its way by UPS or FedEx, the 62.6-pound unit arrives triple-boxed. Unpacking it bestows the sensation of uncovering a series of Matryoshka dolls. Once you unwrap the protective padding from the amplifier, the stalwart construction of L-590AXII manifests itself. The old adage “you get what you pay for” transforms into “you get what you pay for, and then some more.”

Furnished with gorgeous steel and aluminum casework that extends to its bead-blasted, clear anodized finish and screw-free exterior, L-590AXII lures eyeballs with a thick top plate complete with a pair of vents for heat dissipation. The front panel continues the visual feast. The attractive VU meters, extremely responsive in operation, center an array that finds an input selector on the left and volume knob on the right. Riding above the bottom edge: A power button, small monitor button, six more selector dials, two more small buttons, and a headphone jack. In standby mode, a faint honey-colored indicator glows between the meters. When active, a powder-blue light blushes above the Operation button, an orange LED signifies the chosen input, and the meters prepare to dance. Consider the effect stately, not showy.

If you’re a hands-on type of person, know that it’s impossible to overstate the tactile feel of the silver-matted controls. They convey a confidence, prestige, and durability you only get from handmade craftsmanship and the implementation of premium-grade materials. Ironically, L-590AXII’s metal remote boasts similar solidity, But even it cannot replicate the sensation engendered by the panel. The differences go beyond the fact L-590AXII trades in metal rather than plastic or composite. They point to a faculty of command, pride, and authority, as well as the privilege of piloting a purpose-based component engineered for longevity and devoted to virtuosity.

Gumby-Like Flexibility

The guts of L-590AXII subscribe to the same vision. The integrated shares much of the tech instilled in Luxman separates, not the least of which pertains to version 4.0 of the company’s Only Distortion Negative Feedback (ONDF) circuit, a LECUA1000 computerized attenuator, and a discrete buffer circuit. In another nod to L-590AXII’s worth, all three also grace C-900u, the manufacturer’s $15,000 flagship preamplifier. And each involves complexities that underline Luxman’s pursuit of purity and naturalism.

In short, ONDF benefits from a fast slew rate, three-parallel push-pull structure with three-stage Darlington, and the advantages of an open-loop circuit—sans the latter’s instability and distortion. Short for Luxman Electrically Controlled Ultimate Attenuator, the LECUA1000 utilizes an 88-step amplifier circuit and three-dimensional layout that permits the substrates to be placed in a manner that minimizes all routes—and fosters resistance to external vibration. As for the buffer, it comes mounted on preamplifier circuit output stage to preserve signal integrity and enhance the power amplifier section’s drive.

Also on board: A high-inertia power supply circuit with a high-regulation large-capacity power transformer and big block capacitor of 80,000μF independently arrayed for instantaneous power and stability; a low-resistance speaker relay in which two contacts are connected in parallel, an order that leads to a damping factor of 320 (versus its predecessor’s 240) for remarkably vibrant music reproduction; and OFC wire, beeline construction, a loop-less chassis, and gradation cast-iron insulator legs.

Functionally, L-590AXII doubles as the equivalent of a five-tool Major League Baseball star. Four pairs of line-level RCA inputs, two pairs of balanced XLR inputs, tape/record jacks, and preamplifier out and main input jacks—allowing L-590AXII to serve as a standalone preamplifier or amplifier, should you choose to do so now or later—augment four pairs of Emuden speaker binding posts. Oh, and yes, a top-notch MM/MC phono input resides here too, as well as phonostage bonuses such as a subsonic filter and mono button, furthering L-590AXII as a jack of nearly all trades. The only implement missing from L-590AXII’s toolbox? A built-in DAC. Given everything else the integrated promises, and how it makes good on those pledges, it’s a moot point.

The versatility extends to the features anathema to many audiophiles: tone controls. Those of a certain age will remember graphic equalizers that in the 1980s were as ubiquitous as the power conditioners of the current era. Cut from a related cloth but superior in that they present no damage or manipulation to the signal, Luxman’s bass and treble controls offer the opportunity to finitely tailor recordings lacking in certain areas or fine-tune your overall setup. Akin to the attenuators found on many JBL loudspeakers, they can come in handy and beg the question of why a majority of high-end gear shuns their existence. Since no room sounds exactly like another, you can’t go wrong by at least experimenting. Or, you can just leave them alone.

It Can Handle the Truth

From a specifications perspective, when taking into account its rated 30Wpc output into eight ohms (60Wpc into four ohms), the appeal of L-590AXII appears to dim. Many listeners in the market for an amplifier key in on one figure and one figure alone: watts per channel. It’s understandable. Over time, manufacturers have groomed audiophiles to associate herculean output numbers not only with fidelity, but necessity. L-590AXII, and other likeminded Class A products, tosses such logic out into the alley. A caveat: Should you own less-efficient speakers (say, anything below 88dB sensitivity, with 90dB a preferred cutoff), consider instead one of Luxman’s Class AB models, like the 120Wpc L-509X, previously reviewed in TONE.

But, if your speakers don’t require a miniature power plant, L-590AXII stands to school you in how engaging, powerful, robust, gorgeous, and dynamic 30Wpc can sound (and feel). Using it to drive a pair of Klipsch Cornwall IV towers (102dB sensitivity rating)—and matching it with a Feickert Woodpecker turntable with Ortofon Cadenza Bronze cartridge, dCS Bartok DAC, and Oppo BDP-105 universal player—proves positively electric.

Out of the box, L-590AXII performs ably. Once it registers 200-300 hours of break-in time, it finds another gear. And while touching the top of the unit after hours of operation might mirror the wisdom of Flick sticking his tongue to a frozen flagpole in A Christmas Story, L-590AXII runs warm, not broiling, thankfully avoiding the face-melting heat generated by many of its ilk. Also, while some audiophiles may opt to leave L-590AXII powered on for days on end, it reaches top speed from standby in only about 20 minutes. Translation: Be green, save on your utility bill, and shut it down when you’re done.

By the same token, plan on extended listening sessions. L-590AXII renders program material with ravishing degrees of spaciousness and body. It may not have a single tube inside, yet it plays with the corresponding warmth, body, and sweetness of its valve brethren—and without the latter’s regular hassle and finicky disposition. Machines lack emotions, but that doesn’t mean they cannot impart emotionalism to art, exactly what happens every occasion L-590AXII processes a signal. If your preferences lean towards fullness, naturalism, and roundness, and you can stand to sacrifice a hint of clinical precision and forceful slam for beguiling tonality and involving personality, L-590AXII walks your talk.

The Luxman also knows control. Challenged with a complex piece or invited to untangle knots of information, it does so without blinking. Its trademark faculties—nuance, detail, depth, weight, grip, taut bass, punchy mids, resolved highs—hold tight. Whether tested with Lana Del Ray, Bob Marley, Staple Singers, Beyonce, Judas Priest, Allen Toussaint, Accept, Leonard Bernstein, Andrew Bird, Megan Thee Stallion, Missy Elliott, Outkast, Cheap Trick, Eric Clapton, Charley Pride, Bob Mould, or Bob Dylan, L-590AXII possesses an uncanny knack for presenting the air and space around  instruments and vocals—to the extent they exist on the actual recording. L-590AXII knows where things go, assembles multi-dimensional soundstages, and helps makes music reflect live properties. The results beckon you to experience more of the recording, more of the producer’s and artist’s aims. Want truth and perspective? Come and get it.

Just as impressively, L-590AXII never sounds forced or dry. It handles graceful, delicate passages as masterfully as those prone to explosive swings or Marshall-stack potency. Fast and nimble, rich and fluid, L-590AXII conjures an overused audiophile term—effortlessness—by way of its top-shelf-whiskey smoothness and mediation-like ease. Speaking of the latter, L-590AXII’s fanciest magic arguably relates to how loud it can go without any hint of strain, harshness, glare, or distortion.

While the Cornwall IVs play a major role in the equation and harbor ridiculous power-handling abilities, L-590AXII seemingly knows no decibel boundaries. Importantly, the combination doesn’t just do loudness for loudness’ sake. Besides, achieving such a goal isn’t tremendously hard but will sound horribly unpleasant. Instead, the difficulty for any hi-fi lies in playing at booming volumes where the clarity never suffers, where the volume doesn’t ever seem deafening, and where cranking it up edges you closer, closer, and closer still to the kind of system—big, involving, transparent, crisp, vivid, sonorous, direct, in-your-chest present—you dream of encountering at a rock concert.

Built to perfectionist-minded standards and wearing a badge that in the United States still lacks the household recognition of other luxury brands—meaning you both benefit from not paying an extra premium just for a nameplate and leverage the audio expertise of a company with a 95-year history, with its first integrated dating to 1961—L-590AXII can take you there. And rest assured you’ll still have plenty of road to travel on that volume knob, which you might never twist past the two o’clock position. If the prospect of such excitement, enlightenment, fun, and involvement doesn’t grab you, you should probably find a new hobby.

Luxman L-590AXII

MSRP: $9.495

luxmanamerica.com

Peripherals

Analog Dr. Feickert Woodpecker turntable with Jelco tonearm and Ortofon Cadenze Bronze cartridge

Digital dCS Bartok DAC and Oppo BDP-105 universal player

Speakers Klipsch Cornwall IV

Cabling Shunyata Delta interconnects and power cables

Power Shunyata Hydra Delta

Additional listening – Rob Johnson

While I love my reference tube amp, preamp, and phonostage, I prefer to savor them at those times when I’m sitting down and actively listening to music. To me, there’s just no sense in burning through expensive or NOS tubes for background music while I’m working. Therefore, the idea of a solid-state integrated amp, complete with a phonostage and headphone amp, offers an incredibly appealing proposition.

After spending time at local Luxman dealer, Pearl Audio, listening to the L-590AX MkII – and borrowing one owned by a good friend to audition at home – I was smitten with it. I purchased one too. Not only is the build quality and finish superb, but its smooth and beguiling sound is also perfect for all-day, fatigue-free enjoyment. While I initially worried about a 60 watt-per-channel (4 ohms) Luxman providing enough juice for my GamuT RS3i speakers, that concern faded quickly after a few minutes of playback.

Yes, my reference tube components do exceed the Luxman’s prowess in some ways. At more than double the L-590AX’s price, they better! However, those nitpicky quibbles do not leave me longing for “more” while listening to the L-AX590 MkII. I’ve found the Luxman’s exceptional sound and versatility place it among my favorite audio components ever. It’s perfect for those seeking to simplify their audio systems without compromising sonics. Just add the analog or digital music sources of your choosing, sit back, and enjoy.

Today, there are many great-sounding pieces of gear built by relatively new companies. However, I’ve had experiences where more exotic equipment I’ve owned failed for one reason or another. With electronics, it just happens sometimes. But, in a couple of cases, it took months for the manufacturer to complete my repairs. The hallmark of a renowned brand like Luxman is not just in its ability to design and build marvelous components, but its customer service should a problem arise. Given Luxman’s legacy of 90 years in business, I know I’m in good hands.

More Additional listening – Jeff Dorgay

The most rewarding part of this job is when A: people actually listen to what I have to say, and B: when the advice proves excellent and the end user is happy with the results. Then, I have done my job correctly.

Bob Gendron and I had many conversations about him wanting to streamline his hifi system, yet not lose any performance. I tried to convince him that going to the L-590AXII would actually be a step up from what he was currently using. A tall order to be sure. “Are you sure, are you absolutely sure?” Man, we had about 20 of these conversations. I was starting to feel like Yoda arguing with Luke Skywalker in a swamp. I told Bob the same thing I’ve told countless (now) Luxman owners – the (last generation) L-590AXI was an amplifier that I’ve always regretted selling. A lot like my 87 Porsche 944 Turbo. The level of performance and style is off the chart for the price asked.

On phone call number 21, I drew the line in the sand. I told Bob that if he didn’t LOVE the 590AXII, I would buy it back from him and pay the shipping. “It’s really that good?” Yes it is. Needless to say, you’ve read his copy and he’s still thrilled with the amp. Now that Rob Johnson and his friend (along with about 6 other TONE readers since) all have 590s, it’s time for me to get another one.

As for Rob, the phone call started with a suggestion for a good friend of his. We had a similar line of conversation, but as I didn’t know if I’d be buying Bob’s 590, I couldn’t make the same money back guarantee on this one. Fortunately, his friend was equally smitten, which led to his loaning it to Rob for a weekend and convincing him in a similar manner.

The L-590AXII is one of those rare components that offers performance way beyond the sum of its parts. If you sat at a chair blindfolded and someone told you were listening to $40k worth of separates, you’d believe them – and that’s not just me using the force on you. I’ve reviewed the flagship Luxman pieces, and while they offer more power and more ultimate resolution, the 900 series amplifier only plays in class-A mode to about 12 watts per channel. At modest volume, with my Sonus faber Stradiveris, which are fairly efficient (92dB/1-watt sensitivity) it’s tough to hear the difference. Of course if you want the flexibility of separates, and need the power, you’ll need the separates.

Personally, much as I love everything else about the 590, I really love the phono section, (and the tone controls!) especially with a Denon 103r cartridge. The level of performance is incredible – it’s dynamic, quiet, and resolving. One less set of interconnects and power cord less to buy, and unless you are in the $5k-$10k cartridge club, you may find this is all the phonostage you ever need.

In the end what truly makes the Luxman L-590AXII an incredible product, and one of the few pieces of gear that I’ve talked more friends into buying than almost anything else is the level of balance it offers. Much like a sports car, if you have more stop than go, or more go than handling, or more performance than reliability, the exercise fails. The Luxman L-590II takes the systematic approach to perfection. No one section of this amplifier leaves performance on the table at the expense of the other. And, together, this amplifier gives those of you wanting a money no object, mega performance system on a reasonable budget a bigger helping of that than anything I’ve yet encountered, especially if you want on-board phono instead of DAC.

The Luxman L-590AXII is not just an Exceptional Value, it is one of the best values in high end audio in my book. #toneaudioapproved.

Rega’s top table, the P10 is new again. Not new new, but Rega new, which means It’s been subtly updated in nearly every aspect.

This warrants a two-tier review. One for those of you that closely follow the brand, and perhaps even have one of the last versions of the P10, or even a P9, and one for those of you that are new to Rega and may be considering a P10 instead of something else in the $6,000 – $10,000 range.

Part one: for the faithful

If you’ve been closely following the Rega narrative, you know that they don’t usually produce new models that deviate terribly far from the past ones. Back in 2014, Rega introduced their RP10, which introduced their “skeletal plinth,” derived from their Naiad prototype. Intriguing as this shape was, Rega played it safe, offering a traditional cutout plinth-esque plinth, allowing the attachment of a standard dust cover, and an their new RB2000 tonearm.

The space age ceramic platter was a carry-over from its introduction with the P9, and now because of the skeletal plinth featured a ceramic top brace between the tonearm mount and the center of the plinth for additional rigidity. Comparing the RP10 to the P9, side by side, the newer table was more resolving, more extended, and slightly less warm sounding. As with the P9, the bass response of this table is outstanding. No more comments about low mass tables lacking bottom end weight.

The P10 abandons the additional plinth, and now puts P10 on the front of the plinth where it should be, still an epic example of engineering beauty. Now, with its further refined RB3000 tonearm it is as much a joy to behold as it is to listen to.

Nothing overlooked

Looking through the design info on the Rega website, every aspect of this table is made better, to tighter tolerances, to a higher level of precision. This is the essence of Rega. Rather than reinvent the wheel, they refine the wheel over and over. Great at the P10 is at the task of playing records, it is an engineering aficionado’s dream. Just running your fingers across the surface of the ceramic platter, or moving the tonearm from rest to cue down on a record’s surface is exquisite. The complete lack of play in any dimension of the new, zero-tolerance bearing in the RB3000 is almost seductive in its action.

There’s a level of finish here that would not be out of place on an Aston Martin or an F1 car. It’s no coincidence that much of the engineering talent in F1 is from England. You might expect this level of quality in a six-figure turntable, but this level of execution in a table costing only $5,695 (without cartridge) is crazy good. If you dig the sound of the Apheta 3 MC cartridge, the package is an even better value at $6,995. Seriously, with or without cartridge, the P10 is one of the best values in high performance turntables period, end of story. Staffer Jerold O’Brien wanted my RP10, so it ended up going to him after the review – membership has its privileges, but this P10 is staying here. About a week into the review process, I sent payment to The Sound Organisation. I knew the minute I played the first track.

Equal attention has been paid to every other aspect of the P10, making this table the epitome of the whole item being more than the sum of the parts.

Part two: for those new to Rega

The toughest part of this review is not to sound like too much of a Rega groupie. If you’re someone who equates high mass, and a gigantic plinth with great sound, you probably won’t even give a P10 a shot. Much as I love to make comparisons to automobiles, I’ll make a cycling comparison this time. The P10 reminds me of the first time I rode a lightweight, high performance road bicycle. As someone skeptical of shaving 10 pounds or so off of something without a motor, I was floored by the increase in efficiency that loss of weight created. That’s how the P10 feels. So effortless in a way.

Rega has been building turntables for nearly 50 years now, and even if you place a current model next to one that’s been around forever, they look more similar than different. Nearly all of their improvements have been the result of constantly refining their process. No matter how much they make one of their products better, they are always striving to make them stronger, lighter, more reliable. And above all, better sounding. By these criteria, Rega is an unqualified success.

While there are many variations on the turntable theme, the basic groups are suspended or unsuspended (solid plinth) designs and low or high mass designs. Being that Roy Gandy is a former automotive engineer, he’s always taken the approach to eliminate as much mass as can be done without sacrificing rigidity. Much like a Formula 1 car. Mass equals stored energy, so the lower the mass, the more of the record groove’s energy can be transferred to your stylus. The P10 is a very lively sounding table, where some high mass designs feel slow in comparison.

Unboxing

Rega sent us the P10 with the third generation of their Apheta moving coil cartridge pre-mounted. An excellent choice for a number of reasons – if you use a Rega cartridge, and take advantage of their three-point mounting system, the cartridge is pretty much dialed in. It’s the most no fuss, no muss high end table/cartridge combination going. If your patience for fiddling with cartridge and turntable setup is close to zero, and you don’t have a friend, tech, or dealer that can do it for you, this setup is the way to roll. In ten minutes, tops, you’ll be spinning records. When was the last time you did that with a high end turntable?

Now that Rega has done away with their plinth extender, the current P10 comes with a clear acrylic cover that merely rests on the turntable mat and has a U-shaped bend where the tonearm goes. It’s great for keeping the cat off the turntable (not that you should have a cat anywhere near a turntable, but I digress) but not much more. Ditto for the stylus guard on the Apheta. Save it in case you need to move, but otherwise forget it. Chances are high that you’ll break the stylus/canteliver assembly taking this on and off repeatedly. Just saying.

Once the plinth/tonearm assembly is unpacked, all that’s left to do is mount the platter, the counterweight and set tracking force to 1.9 – 2.0 grams and the anti-skate/bias adjustment. The enclosed instruction manual will take you right through this process. Rega suggests 100 ohm loading, however if you have the ability to go to 50 ohms on your phono preamplifier, I highly suggest giving it a try.

You can read more about the Apheta 3 cartridge on the Rega site here (https://www.rega.co.uk/products/apheta-3) where they go into great detail on what makes their cartridges unique. I’ve been using the Apheta since the first model and it provides a remarkable level of transient speed and lack of coloration that I’ve always found exciting. And again, this is not a crazy money cartridge. On its own, an Apheta 3 will set you back $1,995, but packaged with the P10, only $1,300.

Over the years, I’ve used several different cartridges with Rega tables with mixed results, but the Rega cartridges have always been a home run. Combining their ease of setup, with great sound, and no need to worry if you have the right compliance/mass combination is tough to beat. I can’t suggest the P10/Apheta 3 combination highly enough and am tempted to check out their top Aphelion cartridge at some point.

Further listening

Using the P10 in the main system, with the VAC Renaissance Phono Stage (all vacuum tubes) is downright sexy in the presentation. Combining the speed of the Apheta with the slightly lush tonality of the VAC phonostage is like catnip. Going for a more neutral, yet still very dynamic sound, the Boulder 509, set to 100 ohms is a powerful combination that won’t break the bank at $5,500. It’s incredibly low noise floor is well suited to the Apheta 3.

While we don’t currently have a Rega phonostage in our reference system, their past Ios phono was an outstanding match for the earlier Apheta, so it’s probably a safe bet the current Aura at $5,995 is probably an excellent match. When The Sound Org can free one up, we’ll let you know. Once you’ve settled on a phonostage, you’re in for a treat.

The P10/Apheta combination resolves a lot of musical detail without crossing the line into being harsh or grating. Once the P9 came on the scene, the big Rega tables had the heft in the lowest registers to compete with nearly anything out there.

Beginning our listening session with a Feickert test record to verify speed accuracy (and like the past dozen Regas we’ve tested, the speed is spot on) we move on to some bass heavy material. Queueing up Robert Plant’s Shaken and Stirred, along with his more current duet with Alison Krauss, Raising Sand puts any doubts that this table/cartridge combination can go deep. The Apheta 3 does a fantastic job at keeping the large soundfield it generates intact, in the middle of a solid bass line. Some refer to this as pace and timing. When it’s wrong, either the cartridge is unable to follow the bass groove, and gets muddy, or what’s going on in the rest of the musical spectrum becomes diffuse and undefined – the image collapses somewhat with complex material.

There’s an overall clarity to this table and cartridge that makes it so attractive. While it’s easy to get enticed by vinyl playback, it’s up to you whether you like a more euphonic (warm) presentation, or a more accurate presentation that is more natural in sound. Because the P10/Apheta 3 offers such a neutral presentation to start, you can tune to your taste. Those wanting a little extra warmth can head for a tube preamplifier, while those wanting every last molecule of detail will probably find solace in a solid-state phono pre.

A final word on the power supply and speed accuracy of the P10 makes for an incredibly lifelike rendition of acoustic guitars, piano and violin. Pulling a 40-year-old Planar 3 out of mothballs to compare Rega’s progress is amazing. Where those old belt drive turntables offered up a soundstage unlike our Technics 1200s of the day, they did fall short when playing back a solo violin. There’s definitely a bit of wavering going on with the old table. The current P10 is rock solid.

Nothing but praise

Living with the P10/Apheta combination for some time now, I couldn’t be happier about writing the check, and that’s the highest praise I can give this table. You can spend a lot more on a turntable and cartridge, but I doubt you can find a turntable offering more performance for the dollar, euro or pound. It’s funny after 40 years of buying turntables that I keep coming back to Rega. #toneaudioapproved.

PS: Thanks to Rega for some additional photos…

www.rega.co.uk (manufacturer)
www.soundorg.com/rega (NA distributor)

With turntables spiraling out of control, price-wise, a $100k turntable is no longer the talk of a madman that it once was. That said, I submit that a well sorted $20k-ish table/arm/cartridge combination is all you need.

I must confess, as a Thrax owner (We use their Enyo integrated), I’ve become a big fan of this brand. I like their functional elegance and build quality. There is a solidity to Thrax products that reveals a major pride of workmanship. The Thrax Yatrus does not feel like a me-too product, it feels like something that’s been designed and built with care from the ground up.

Albert Einstein has been quoted as saying “things should be made as simple as possible, no simpler.” I wish I could come up with something more insightful for the Yatrus, but this sums it up. Every aspect of this table is exquisite. It’s low-profile, aluminum plinth features constrained layer damping and looks gorgeous. Unboxing this table, you’d swear it cost a lot more.

Comparing the level of execution the Yatrus offers, this feels much like some of my favorite components from Nagra, Burmester, AMG and D’Agostino. Quizzing the few friends that did stop by to look and listen to this table all said (without hesitation) “$50k” when I asked what they thought the price would be. One even mentioned “Is this another one of those fancy 100-thousand-dollar turntables?”

Though I’m giving the review away a bit, you could probably tell some people you did pay 100 grand for the Yatrus and they’d believe you. In all honesty, my range of solid experience stops at the $50-60k turntables, yet I feel the Yatrus sounds as good as anything we’ve ever had in for review, regardless of price tag.

The Yatrus tips the scale at $15,500, with mounting for a 9-inch (or less) tonearm. Our review sample came with a Schroder arm that you can purchase for another $5,500. If you aren’t aware of Frank Schroeder, he makes some of the world’s finest tonearms, and there is almost always a waiting list for them. If you don’t already have a premium arm you’re in love with, I highly suggest purchasing these two as a package, find your favorite $3k – $10k phono cartridge and live happily ever after.

The sweet spot or quandary?

A handful of readers will snipe about a $20k table/arm cartridge, but perhaps this isn’t the droid for you. As I’ve said before, I suspect few people will jump out of bed and say (or think) “I’m going to buy a twenty-thousand-dollar turntable today.” Most music loving audio enthusiasts work their way up to a table in this range. You probably have at least a few thousand albums (if not more) in good shape and appreciate the difference between the grades in pressings. You may even own a good chunk of first-stamper this, first-stamper that records. And, you’ll have something to sell or trade in to make this move, so it won’t be as much of a leap as it sounds at first.

If you’ve gone far enough on your analog journey to think about jumping up to this level in analog playback, there are some excellent choices at your disposal. With a number of past benchmarks from this realm pushing $40 – $50k (an SME 30 is $45k these days) $20k for a destination level turntable isn’t crazy talk.

Getting down to business

Things have come a long way since the days of the early direct drive Technics tables. Motor and  power supply design along with superior parts and build quality no longer make direct drive a less than option. Considering the fantastic direct drive tables we’ve had here from Brinkman, Grand Prix Audio and Technics, I’ve come to prefer the weight and speed accuracy of a direct drive table. The Yatrus reinforces this even further.

The Yatrus is quick and straightforward to setup. Like other Thrax components, it comes packed in its own high-density foam lined flight case. You might think this extravagant, but it shows major respect on the part of the manufacturer. They don’t want your table to arrive damaged, and they think enough of their work to protect it thusly. No small point of contention in today’s world of mass production. Should you change residences, this is something you can put a few zip ties on and let the movers move it.

If you have any appreciation at all for machine work and fine detail, savor unboxing the Yatrus. Every surface on this table is machined to perfection – it looks and feels like what you’d expect under the hood of a Ferrari or Aston Martin. The surfaces and fasteners are of exceptional quality, and the knobs adjusting the turntable’s height are protected by a white, stick-on plastic. The slight matte finish makes for a table that won’t be full of fingerprints all the time, like some of those chrome and gold-plated monstrosities. Again, understated elegance wins the day. PS: if you are that qualityphile that geeks out on the experience, you’re going to love the single knob to turn the table on and set speed. (the Yatrus even plays 78s!)

Once you remove the table and level it via the three adjustment knobs on the plinth, all that remains is to plug the power supply in from beneath, gently lower the platter onto the main bearing, and affix the tonearm. Used with our Analog Magik software suite, the Schroeder/Lyra combination was set up to perfection in about 15 minutes. From box to record playing music took about 45 minutes and I was really taking my time.

The music

Fun as all this tech worship is, the Yatrus delivers musically on a grand scale. Using the Pass Labs XSPhono as a conduit, the first thing noticed is quiet. Cueing up a copy of Lou Reed’s The Raven, and heading straight for “Vanishing Act,” listening for the solo piano just hanging in the air is incredible. Great as this track is through the dCS Vivaldi, the Yatrus adds the extra tonal saturation and air that makes Lou Reed feel six feet from the listening chair. If your taste runs more to classical and acoustic music, this is where the direct drive tables jump to the head of the pack. The superior speed accuracy that a top direct drive table offers renders piano, violin, and pretty much any other stringed instrument with a solidity and delicacy that even the best belt drives have a tough time competing with.

Even if you aren’t a classical aficionado, I urge you to add a copy of Yarlung Records Debut, by the Janaki String Trio. The spirited playing, captured on these two 45 r.p.m. discs, cut by Bernie Grundman tell you everything you need to know about the Yatrus. If I could only play you one cut, to convince you how exceptional this turntable is, “Allegro con spirito” from String Trio in C Minor, Op.9 no 3 would do the trick. It might even make a classical music lover out of you.

The speed, texture, and space that the Yatrus offers up has such a simple beauty. There is so much delicacy to this piece, that either feels harsh and screechy on a lesser table, or lacking in texture. The subtle differences in weight between the violin, viola, and cello are easily discernable, even to a novice classical music listener like me. A similar effect occurs when listening to Crosby, Stills, and Nash via mediocre vinyl playback – their voices just seem to blend together, yet with through the Yatrus, the vocal shadings and phrasings that make each of these vocalists unique now feels like night and day. This is what you get with a top turntable, and what makes the Yatrus worth the asking price.

It’s also worth mentioning how well the Yatrus does with the lower end of the musical spectrum – another area that the direct drive tables tend to excel. A few long evenings of electronica and prog selections reveal recordings that you might have thought had one-note bass, yet now reveal texture where there was none before.

In the end, it’s about resolution. This table offers up such a high level of fine detail extraction, it will take you to a new world of analog enjoyment. As digital continues to improve, this kind of musicality is what still makes vinyl an incredibly tactile experience.

A best buy

I submit that unless you have (and maybe even if you do) a seven-figure system, you can probably live happily ever after with the Thrax Yatrus. This table is killer good, and the Schroeder arm is one of the world’s finest. The combination is so good, you can experiment with other arms, but I’d suggest staying right here. With so many mega turntables looking like an engineering project at best, and a shop class project at worst, the Yatrus ticks all the boxes for me. It’s finished to swiss watch level quality, it’s understatedly attractive, and it is highly musical.

If you live in an ecosystem that makes a $500k turntable a pittance, the Yatrus isn’t going to be cool enough. But if you’re a music lover that wants to retrieve as much music as they can from their analog music collection, and still has to keep an eye on the bottom line – this one gets my vote. For my money, this is the point of diminishing returns, and the curve goes up sharply from here. I can’t imagine needing more turntable than this. If I didn’t have an engine rebuild project inhaling 20-dollar bills like a room full of 80s party people inhaling coke in the bathroom, I’d buy it today. Don’t be surprised if you see the Yatrus returning in the next 12 months as a reference component when the party’s over.

www.thrax.bg (manufacturer)

www.highendbyoz.com (US Distributor)

Peripherals

PREAMPLIFIER Pass Labs XS Pre

PHONO STAGE Pass XS Phono, VAC Renaissance Phono

SPEAKERS Sonus faber Stradivari, with six pack of REL no.25 subwoofers

CABLES Cardas Clear

Much as I like to dismiss measurements when it comes to the subject of hifi, there’s one that I find intriguing – sound pressure level, which relates closely to dynamics.

Much as I like small Class A solid-state amplifiers, SET tube amplifiers, and small tube amplifiers like the hallowed MC30 amplifiers from McIntosh – there’s no substitute for power. And in this case the new MC1502 delivers incredible dynamic range.

Listening to The System’s hit, “Don’t Disturb This Groove” at a modest level of about 82 db, I’m surprised to see that the sound level app on my phone is recording 112 db peaks. Meanwhile the softest parts of this track fall all the way down to 55 db, with the room going “silent” at 29db. Even with somewhat compressed Motown tracks, Diana Ross’ lead vocal in “Standing at the Crossroads” Jumps up 20db with ease. Switching back and forth between the 1502 and an MC275 feels smaller, significantly smaller, and the MC275 is no slouch. But the meter doesn’t lie. With levels matched, the same tracks hit much lower instantaneous peak levels, even though average levels are exactly the same.

You might be surprised at how much of the music you feel is unlistenable because you find it overly compressed, is actually running your amp and speakers out of power. Your room size, and speaker sensitivity will play a big part in this, but again, 82db isn’t exactly concert hall levels. Even turning the volume down lower to a 76db average level, is still generating 100db peaks on a lot of tunes.  The 150 watts per channel that the MC1502 deliver comes in handy, and at much lower listening levels than you might think.

Racy carbon fiber or traditional Mac?

Anyone digging the matte black and carbon fiber look of the 70^th anniversary MC2152 might still be lucky enough to snag one, albeit at a higher price of $15,000. It offers a slightly sleeker, look and has its controls oriented front to back, instead of side to side, as the MC1502 does. But it doesn’t sound any different. The $11,000 MC1502 is a stone cold bargain at that rate, and if you’re a Mac loyalist, maybe take the change and put it towards a C22 preamplifier. That’s where I’m headed.

Whichever direction you choose, unless you are really buff, get a friend to help you lift it out of the box. Packed, the MC1502 weighs 135 pounds, and unboxed, 118. A discussion with the urgent care doc about being careful nicked $800 out of the C22 fund, so proceed with caution. It’s not the lifting the 118-pound amp that gets you into trouble, it’s the trying to gently wiggle it into the equipment rack that will bite you.

And make sure to have plenty of space above wherever you place your MC1502. 8 KT88 power tubes throw off a fair amount of heat. You’ll notice that the MC1502 arrives with a tube cage in place, holding the shipping foam over the tubes. Throw that stuff in the packing carton and forget about it. You wanna see those tubes in action, which leads us to another nice touch.

For some time now, Mc gear has had green lights behind the tubes, so all the tubes glow green. I think the person that suggested this feature should be punished, but it’s still a free country for a little while. The MC275 requires making a small 1/8” jumper to plug into the remote power socket to disable these green lights and allow you to enjoy the tubes in their natural hue. The MC1502 lets you control this from a control knob on the right side of the amplifier. If the person that added this feature to the 1502 is the same person that came up with the green LED thing, rest easy. I won’t fire you when I am the next owner of McIntosh.

But you know what’s super cool? When the 1502 powers up from cold, the two middle driver tubes light up, then another pair, then another, then the final two. Oh yeah. That’s just vacuum tube awesomeness. Roon somehow senses that this is the time for more cowbell and plays “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Life can’t get much better than this. The rest of the tube complement consists of four 12AX7 and four 12AT7 tubes. That makes for a total of 16 tubes. That’s a lot of tubes to tube roll if you feel so inclined. Fortunately, McIntosh amplifiers are really easy on tubes, and they sound great with the stock tubes. That being said, the area of my brain often overtaken by OCD behavior knows that the MC275 did reveal even more sound with premium tubes. I’ll leave you to your own madness.

All things big and small

Extended listening reveals that this amplifier is just as good at low volumes as it is pushed to its limit – which it does with tremendous composure. Many of the McIntosh owners I’ve met over the years really like to rock, and this amplifier indeed does that. Our Sonus faber Stradiveri speakers are fairly sensitive at 92db/1-watt, so playing music loud was easy. My ears gave up before the MC1502 could clip to the point where the soundstage collapsed.

Actual component break in was minimal. The MC1502 sounds good straight out of the box, and after about four solid days of listening had opened up the last bit, so this isn’t one of those fussy “needs 600 hours to sound right” amplifiers. Dig in and get to it right away. However, the MC1502 does need a solid hour to fully warm up, stabilize, and give its best performance. The first five minutes are compressed, and for the next hour, it slowly comes out of the fog in a linear fashion.

In addition to sounding great at high and low volumes, the MC1502 handles the most densely packed and technically challenging recordings with ease. Part of this delicacy is just what you get with tube amplification, yet auditioning recordings with a lot of percussion or acoustic guitars gives up that airiness and speed that tube aficionados will enjoy.

It’s always tough to get everything with a tube amplifier, but the MC1502 does an incredible job at an approachable price. There’s those transformers again. If you aren’t familiar with tube amplifiers on a regular, and you’ve heard other audio enthusiasts talk about the “warmth” that tubes provide – some of that is many tube amplifiers lack of control over the lowest bass frequencies. Or a softness in the highest frequencies.

The MC1502 takes charge of the lower register as well as or better than any high power tube amplifier we’ve had the opportunity to review in the past 17 years, and the overall tonal balance is slightly warm, with a moderate amount of tonal saturation as well. Yet there is a high level of resolution, which will allow you to peek way into your favorite recordings. This is not your grandfathers McIntosh – it’s a thoroughly modern amplifier.

Price, performance and heritage

There’s no doubt McIntosh makes great gear. And while they offer a wider range of product offerings than at any time in the company’s history, I submit they still rule when in the domain that put them on the map – building high quality tube amplifiers. Maybe I’m a little biased.

Walking through the McIntosh facility, you’ll make your way to a group of people that wind the output transformers for McIntosh amplifiers. Most of the people assigned to this critical task have been doing it for decades. High quality output transformers are the key to great tube amplifier performance. Most of the companies that make the world’s finest tube amplifiers wind their own, and keep the design parameters, as well as the winding technique top secret. All of these amplifiers have much higher price tags than McIntosh. 70 plus years of manufacturing allows not only an economy of scale, but an economy of process and refinement to manufacturing technique.

As mentioned earlier, the MC1502 has the same form factor that Mc tube amps have used for decades. They feature a polished stainless chassis, with transformers at the rear, and tubes up front, displayed for maximum effect. The front panel shows off the McIntosh logo proudly. A quick look at McIntosh tube amps new and old illustrates just how much refinement has gone into these designs. Long gone is the barrier strip for connecting speakers (making way for the sheer girth of today’s audiophile cables), input level controls, and we see balanced as well as single ended RCA inputs. Those of you with multi components systems can control power up remotely via the 12v trigger port. Inputs and outputs are both on the left side of the chassis, however the stereo/mono switch from the MC275 is absent. This is a 150 watt per channel stereo amplifier. That’s it.

One of the biggest questions

Chatter on the internet suggests you don’t need an MC1502 – you can just bridge a pair of MC275s. You can do that- however the results are different. Kudos to McIntosh for offering you a way to merely add another amplifier, and it’s not a dreadful way to go, but having a pair of bridged MC275s reveals enough of a difference, I suggest selling your MC275 (or just moving it to another room and building another Mac system!) and upgrading to an MC1502.

The McIntosh website suggests this is a better approach, because the new amplifier has a lower signal to noise ratio. Comparing a pair of bridged MC275s to the new MC1502 with a number of different speakers all reveals the same thing. The MC1502 has a cleaner, less cloudy, if you will presentation. The bridged MC275 sound great, until you swap the MC1502 into the system, and the effect is there just as much at low volumes, playing acoustic or vocal music as it is playing heavy rock. Talented as the Mc transformer people are, I doubt the output transformers in the MC275 are matched to a zero tolerance, because most people aren’t bridging them.

Once again, Roon anticipates my mood, playing Hall & Oates “Possession Obsession,” and I’m starting to get a little creeped out. But this is a case where trading up is a great thing. Thanks to the incredible loyalty of McIntosh owners, their products barely depreciate. These days, a nice used MC275 is trading for close to retail price, so you won’t lose much money trading up. Who knows, maybe your local Mc dealer will hook you up? All kidding aside, if you want bigger power, make the jump to the MC1502, you won’t be unhappy. However, as I like to say, I love to spend your money.

Final setup, listening, and tech notes

Once you’ve hoisted the MC1502 into place, the rest is easy. Thanks to RCA and balanced inputs, it will integrate into any system with ease. Again, if you’re all Mac, you’ve already got the rest of this figured out and it’s a plug and play operation. During the course of the review session, we made it a point to use the MC1502 with our reference Pass XS PRE, as well as the Backert Labs Rhumba, BAT REX, the Nagra Classic Pre, and a vintage Conrad-Johnson PV-12. All perfection, and the MC1502 has more than enough resolution and tonal purity to reveal the subtleties between all of these preamplifiers.

Thanks to auto biasing, you’ll never have to mess with setting the tube bias, and thanks to McIntosh’s Sentry Monitor circuity, the amplifier is automatically shut down in the event of tube failure. Should this happen to extreme clipping, or a short in the output terminals, the tubes will go from their standard green or amber to bright red. At this point, shut it off for a minute or two and reboot. McIntosh always runs their tubes well beneath maximum design limits, resulting in long tube life. I suspect that the MC1502 will be as easy on tubes as past McIntosh amplifiers I’ve owned, and with more power on tap, you might not find yourself cranking this one up as much to get the desired effect.

You can get all the specs for the MC1502 here, but this amplifier is quiet. There are plenty of solid-state amplifiers that aren’t this quiet. All the audiophile clichés apply here. Should you have fairly sensitive speakers, you will appreciate this aspect of the MC1502. While working on issue 107s speaker roundup, the 97db/1-watt Zu Dirty Weekends reveal less than quiet amplifiers immediately, and thanks to the ultra low noise floor of this amplifier, delivered a stunning performance.

It never hurts to have about 20 speakers at your disposal for a speaker roundup to really give an amplifier a thorough investigation. Everything in house delivered great results, however the MC1502 delivered amazing results with the new Harbeth C7ES3-XD, and the Harbeth/Mc combination is not usually two great tastes that taste great together. Again, that extra current and bigger power supply equals control, and that almost always equals great sound.

In the end, fantastic

Tube amplifiers aren’t for everyone, but the McIntosh has gone above and beyond expectation to bring us an amplifier that produces plenty of power, sounds fantastic, and is well built. Thanks to the auto bias circuitry and anticipated long tube life, this is as easy as it gets to live with a tube amplifier.

The highest compliment I can give the MC1502 is that I’m selling my beloved MC275 and buying a rack with a bigger lower shelf. It’s a keeper. – thanks to McIntosh Laboratory for additional photos.

www.mcintoshlabs.com

Peripherals

Analog Source Grand Prix Audio Parabolica Turntable/TriPlanar/Lyra Atlas

Digital Source dCS Vivaldi One

Preamplifier Pass Labs XS Pre

Phonostage Pass Labs XS Phono

Cable Cardas Clear

Removing the Questyle CMA Twelve from its black cloth bag is instantly exciting. Aficionados of fine design, machining, and assembly will really appreciate the exquisite detail and high level of finish the CMA Twelve offers.

It’s no coincidence that Foxconn, the same people who make the iPad and iPhone, build Questyle products and finish the level equally. The tight tolerances are beautiful to behold, with Questyle claiming a machining tolerance of .02mm. The few other manufacturers in the high-end audio world building at this level all have five and six-figure price tags attached.

The CMA Twelve is $1,495, with a $1,995 CMA12 “Master” version. The premium version uses a ROGERS Ceramic PC Board, which Questyle claims to “ensure ultimate performance,” though there is no other indication of upgraded parts in the owner’s manual. Like all other Questyle products, the CMA Twelve is available in a matte black and matte warm gold finish. Its slim form factor of only 1.38 inches (55mm) tall, 12.99 inches (330mm) wide, and 7.87 inches (200mm) deep, makes it easy to integrate into your system and environment. A 5mHz module is also on the rear panel, perhaps anticipating a return of Questyle’s wireless amplifiers.

The front panel features outputs for 4.4mm BAL, 6.35mm (standard ¼”) UNBAL, and 4-pin XLR headphone cables. Moving around back, optical, digital, SPDIF (RCA), and AES/EBU (XLR) inputs should take care of any potential digital source you might have. This is not a streaming DAC, so there is no Ethernet input, and there are no analog inputs either. If you’re using the CMA Twelve as a self-contained, personal listening station, there is no provision for plugging in a phono stage or going line in from your preamplifier.

With several good disc transports on hand from Cambridge, Technics, and dCS to choose from, along with a vintage SONY ES player (with optical output) and Aqua’s new streamer, it was easy to put the CMA Twelve through its paces. When in Rome…

Sonically engaging

The dCS Vivaldi transport revealed the outer boundaries of the CMA Twelve’s performance envelope and was used for most of our disc-based listening sessions. The Aqua streamer was called in to play Tidal and Qobuz files via ROON. Anyone with a bit older CD player can expect an incredible upgrade to their players’ sound. Even if you never use the headphone section, the CMA Twelve is easily worth well more than its asking price used merely as a high-resolution DAC.

Favorite phones from Audeze (Orig. LCD-2), Focal (Stellia and Utopia), and Grado (RS-60s) were on hand for nearly all of the listening sessions – with excellent results. There is no adjustment for headphone impedance anywhere, but this amplifier has no problem driving any load. Questyle claims an output of 2 watts per channel via the XLR output. I was incredibly tempted to plug them directly into our Zu Audio Dirty Weekend speakers (with their 97db/1-watt efficiency rating) to try the CMA 12 as an integrated amplifier!

A big part of the sound (or nearly complete absence of it) of the CMA twelve is its utilization of current-mode amplification, a Questyle patented technology. Those wanting an in-depth explanation of this amplifier orientation can click here to go to the Questyle website. Bottom line, Questyle claims that operating in current mode makes for lower distortion and faster transient response. Running through our usual set of phones, this is a valid claim, especially on musical selections with solo, breathy vocals. Using Johnny Cash’s American Recordings to further investigate this, his signature huskiness is clearer, with more of a resonant ring. Drums and percussion have more power and distinctiveness, without feeling harsh or brittle. Tracking through a number of our favorite Blue Note tracks (high res and CD res versions) easily show off how well this DAC does with acoustic drums, piano, and percussion, offering up a convincingly real presentation of tone, timbre, and attack/decay.

Digital adventures

Taking advantage of the AKM AK4490 chip, and Questyle’s True Direct Stream process does not require any PCM conversion. Music lovers with large DSD collections will experience a higher level of signal integrity than they would with a DAC that must convert the data. Unfortunately, we do not have enough DSD selections here to really comment, other than to say that what we did audition sounded excellent.

As mentioned earlier, the CMA Twelve’s digital performance is so much more refined than any of the other $1,500 DACs we’ve experienced, even if you aren’t a headphone listener, this device is well worth it, as a DAC alone. Using it in this context, with the Aqua LinQ streamer turns the CMA Twelve into an impressive music server, though nearly everything we used in this manner dwarfs the Questyle box in physical size. Merely flipping the front panel switch from Headphones to DAC to get a fixed output and bypass the front panel volume control, again offering slightly more resolution and musical clarity.

With so much emphasis put on high-resolution files, it’s easy to forget about 16/44. Considering that most of us still either have or stream the bulk of our music at this resolution level, it’s important to note that Questyle hasn’t abandoned CD quality resolution in pursuit of high res. Whether we were playing files from a streamer or disc transport (and we highly suggest the $599 Cambridge CXC for this task) the CMA Twelve shows just how engaging CD playback can be in the year 2021.

The overall sound of the Questyle is dynamic and neutral – neither embellishing nor detracting from the music being played. You can easily fine-tune to your personal preference with your choice of headphones. Questyle offers a high/low bias switch on the CMA Twelve’s front panel, offering more current drive for lower impedance phones. Even with a few lower impedance phones, we struggled to hear a difference with this switch in either position, in this case, your mileage may vary, and this is worth investigating.

Going out of my head

Taking advantage of the variable outputs makes the CMA Twelve the perfect building block for a two-channel system, which leads to the only real complaint about this box. With its sonic quality as good as it is, it’s a shame there isn’t a single analog input, so an analog source could be added.

That said, using the CMA Twelve with a handful of solid-state and tube amplifiers from PrimaLuna, Pass, C-J, and BAT was a lovely experience. This is an excellent linestage preamplifier. If you’re a music lover that is purely digital in your musical pursuits, don’t overlook using the CMA Twelve as your core component. Driving a 30-foot pair of Cardas Clear interconnects (RCA or XLR) proved to be a snap for the CMA Twelve, so its small footprint makes it easy to set up close to your listening position and running a long-ish set of cables to a power amplifier and speakers.

A lot to love

In the end, the Questyle CMA Twelve DAC/Headphone Amplifier gets an A and our first Exceptional Value Award for 2021. Would I love a CMA Fourteen, with an analog input and maybe a matching form factor Questyle phonostage? You bet. However, used within its intended purpose, the CMA Twelve is at the top of similar offerings.

Engaging as the CMA Twelve’s sound is, this component’s build quality is without peer at any price. We’ve unboxed enough five-figure components that look like they were made in shop class by comparison. There’s something wonderful about using a component that is this well made, and I hope we see a wider range of products from Questyle in the future.

www.questyle.com (manufacturer)
www.bluebirdmusic.com (US and Canadian distributor)

Ironically, this review starts out with the title track from the Kinks classic Low Budget. However, low budget doesn’t mean low quality.

Just because you don’t have $60,000 to spend on a pair of speaker cables, doesn’t mean you don’t love music – right? These highly capable, yet diminutive two-way speakers do an excellent job unraveling this dense recording, keeping the vocals and harmonies intact.

Some audio enthusiasts associate the term “pace” almost exclusively with British speakers, yet these Canadian masterpieces are masters of keeping the musical pace of a recording intact. If you’re new to the world of obscure audio prose, think of musical pace in the context of hearing live music. When you hear a group of musicians playing together, whether acoustic or amplified, the music blends together so that it’s tough to hear one instrument standing out (unless a particular player is soloing). Yet listening to recorded music on a HiFi system, on a less than awesome pair of speakers, perhaps the drums or the vocalist doesn’t seem to “keep up” with the rest of the music. There are several reasons for that, and at least for me, pace is something that I notice more when it’s not happening. I hope that makes it a bit clearer. Pun intended.

The Skylights do an excellent job with pace, and overall balance. Building anything to a price point means something must be compromised. Totem resists the urge to emphasize any aspect of the music spectrum, creating a $1,000 pair of finely balanced speakers. If you’ve ever listened to Totem speakers at a HiFi show, you’ll notice they always use high-quality amplification for their demos.

Totem speakers are very resolving, at the top of their class for the price. Unlike many modestly priced speakers that plateau quickly, the Skylights are true to the breed in the sense that they keep revealing more musical information as the electronics behind them improve. The Skylights turn in an acceptable performance with the SVS Prime Sound Base ($499), a PS Audio Sprout II ($599), and a recently acquired vintage Marantz 2220B ($150), so you don’t have to have primo gear to build a nice system.

However, plugging them into the VAC i170 integrated ($10,000) is an ear-opening experience. The Skylights no longer sound like a great pair of thousand-dollar speakers. Mated with a small sub in the 13 x 15-foot room, they are installed, even better. You don’t need a subwoofer to enjoy the Skylights, but should your involvement and budget improve, these speakers give you a lot of room to grow – that’s value.

Further down the value path, the Totem Skylights are built at their Montreal facility – this is not a “designed in Canada, built in China” speaker, and it shows. The level of finish on the cabinets – from the joints to the way the drivers bolt in, is outstanding. Totem builds honest products.

This two-way system is available in a black ash veneer, mahogany veneer, or a white satin finish. Our review samples arrive in satin white, and I must admit this has become a real favorite.  Those with more traditional décor will probably gravitate to the black or mahogany, but in a newer home, the white cabinet blends into the background in a lovely manner.

You can get the full specs here (https://totemacoustic.com/product/skylight/), but the diminutive cabinet of the Skylights holds a 5.75″ woofer and a 1″ soft dome tweeter, with a claimed sensitivity of 88db/1-watt. As someone that doesn’t make purchasing decisions based on spec sheets or measurements, the Totems perform well beyond what their conservative specs suggest. And they will deliver an equally good performance with solid-state or tube electronics. Shaking the dust off of a vintage Dynaco SCA-35 makes for a heavenly, musically involving setup with the Skylights in a 10 x 12 room at a modest listening level.

Because the Skylights have a very gentle roll-off in their low-frequency response, they respond well to being placed close to the wall. This way, they can utilize room gain to achieve some extra bass grunt, without sacrificing the detailed, three-dimensional image they present. You’ll know when you get too close to the walls when the upper bass becomes cloudy and non-distinct. We had excellent luck with the speakers about 8 inches from the wall when using them without a subwoofer, delivering solid output down to around 40hz. Those in more compact spaces will appreciate this.

The Skylights offer excellent vertical and horizontal dispersion, so they are not as critical of speaker placement as some, and this contributes to the large, coherent soundfield they generate. Yet, a little bit of fine-tuning when you get the chance will make for an even bigger musical window. We found toe-in to be more of a determining factor than rake angle with these speakers, and getting the distance between them just right will help you to get the maximum image size.

Going through a wide range of musical selections, both acoustic and electronic, reveals no weaknesses in the Skylights – no music is off limits. However, lovers of bass-heavy music may want to invest in one of Totem’s excellent subwoofers sooner than later. You know who you are.

Refinement is the word that sums up the Totem Skylights best. As you move up the food chain with real HiFi manufacturers, the best offerings reveal more musical information without emphasizing one part of the musical spectrum over the other. These speakers provide that wealth of experience at an easily attainable price. After a few hours with the Skylights, you’ll understand why Totem owners are as loyal to the brand as they are.

www.totemacoustic.com

Back in the late 1970s and early 80s, Japanese hifi manufacturer Rotel was one of the top value proposition audiophile brands. Though not possessing quite the cache of top brands like Mark Levinson and Audio Research, many a budding audiophile brought home a Rotel RA 913 or RA-2030 integrated amplifier to start their journey into the high end. Their products have always offered high build quality, a clean design aesthetic, and most of all, great sound.

Rotel has never left the audio world, but has always had somewhat of a quiet legacy, going about their business building great gear. However, in the last five years or so, they’ve been making a bit more noise so to speak, and their latest products retain all of their key values.

They join us here with two models that celebrate the current rebirth of the integrated amplifier, the standalone CD player, along with the recent passing of audio legend, Ken Ishiwata. Long known for his relationship with Marantz, Mr. Ishiwata was the most well-known of Japanese hifi designers, and always a joy to engage with at hifi shows. He was somewhat of a creative director, taking designs, listening carefully, and making suggestions to improve them further.

Unfortunately, Mr. Ishiwata passed away right before the completion of the Tribute models, but the Rotel team implemented his suggestions in the final designs, a real testament to his legacy. Even a quick listen out of the box shows that these are indeed special components, well within reach of any music lover.

The Rotel A11 and CD11 Tribute models from Rotel are the last two pieces of audio gear to bear his imprint, and like everything else he’s had a hand in, are fantastic. At $699 and $499 respectively, this 50-watt per channel integrated amplifier and compact disc player go about their business in an understated way. If you need a plethora of inputs, outputs and functionality, this may not be the combo for you, but if you want the core for a straight-ahead system that delivers the sonic goods, read on.

More than enough power

Most small to moderate space dwellers should be just fine with 50 watts per channel, and lifting the top on the A11 reveals the necessary ingredients: a hefty power supply with big power transformer, a discrete, class AB power amplifier, complete with heat sinks, and enough control facilities to add a turntable, CD player, and tuner or tape deck.

The A11 has an onboard DAC, featuring a Texas Instruments chipset, it is only a Bluetooth streamer, with no optical or SPDIF inputs. The CD11 CD player provides both an anlog RCA output as well as a coaxial output. This is the only shortcoming of what is an otherwise excellent pair. As good as their performance is, it’s a shame you can’t plug a laptop or budget streamer in to increase the functionality of these two excellent components, but it’s understandable that Rotel drew the line in the sand here.

Half of our listening was done with our reference pair of Sonus faber Lumina 1 speakers, while the rest was split between a pair of Martin Logan Motion 15i’s, the Golden Ear BRX’s, and Totem Sky’s. All excellent choices in the $600 – $1,600/pair range. There were no anomalies with any of these small speakers, and we’d suggest any one of them.

The overall sound of the A11 is natural – neither embellishing, nor subtractive in nature. Thanks to a discrete amplifier section, the tonal saturation present is more engaging than many similarly priced integrateds featuring class-d amplification. Not only is the A11 worthy of both the Rotel name, and the legacy of Mr. Ishiwata, it reminds me of another legendary integrated, the NAD 3020.

Offering great bass control, clear mids, and a smooth high end, this amplifier is destined not only to be a classic, but one that will stay in your family for years. Whether buying your first hifi system, or a second system for somewhere else in your house, the A11 provides engaging sound that you will not tire of.

The shiny disc

Much like the vinyl record, the CD is also enjoying a bit of a resurgence. Used record stores and online shops have a plethora of discs available, and at reasonable prices. For those of you that either aren’t streaming, or just enjoy the physical act of playing a disc, the CD11 does not disappoint.

Good as the A11 is, $499 in 2020 is about $88 in 1983. Those of us that were there at digital audio’s beginning know what rubbish even a thousand-dollar CD player sounded like back then. The A11 goes about its business, just playing CDs. As mentioned, there is no provision for streaming, or even a digital input to connect your laptop, so it serves one purpose only. At this price, even if you no longer have a massive (or any at all) digital disc collection, it’s much like picking up an entry level Pro-Ject or Rega table. A few days of online shopping will put you a pretty diverse collection of 50 to 100 discs in no time.

The overall sound is solid, and smooth. This is a very un-digital sounding player, that compared to a late 80s player (that we won’t name) is amazing. Truly, the only thing the CD11 lacks is a level of resolution that the big bucks digital does. However, in the context of the amplifier, and a like priced pair of speakers, it’s going to be tough to get this level of involvement out of a $499 turntable and bargain records.

Playing MoFi copies of a few Santana favorites (Abraxas, III, and Caravanserai) where the CD11 only captures the 16/44 layer is a joy. Music comes through with a lack of grain, clean top end and great dynamics.

The black disc

The A11 also includes an excellent MM phono stage. As we still had a Pro-Ject Debut with Ortofon 2M Red hanging around, and our long-standing vintage favorite Technics SL-1200mk. 5 with Shure M44, it was time to spin some records. This amplifier turns in a fantastic performance. The phono input is quiet and composed.

Having used a few Ishiwata inspired designs, I can’t help but hope he had a major say in final tweaking of the phono section. Thirty seconds in you can tell this is not an afterthought, but respectfully aimed at providing an engaging experience for the new vinyl enthusiast.

Both cartridges worked great with the A11 – the channel separation is excellent, producing a very wide soundstage, with great delineation of instruments. We even tried the Technics SL-1100/Denon 103 MC combination with a Bob’s Devices step up transformer. Again, the Rotel delivers big sonics. Playing the new Anne Bisson LP, Keys to my Heart, was absolutely dreamy. Ms. Bisson and her crew of vintage jazz cats made for a bold, engaging sound.

The phone

Though you can’t plug a laptop or streamer into either of these components digitally, you can stream your mobile device via Bluetooth to the A11. This is probably the only part of the A11 that feels a bit out of balanced, so I would almost suggest this amplifier and disc player combination to someone favoring physical media. Regardless, at least being able to stream tunes in the background, at dinner or a party via your phone is still acceptable. Again, kudos to the Rotel design team of including such a great amplifier and phono section for this price, having to add a digital input probably would have bumped the MSRP up a hundred bucks or possibly two. And, you can always add a streaming DAC instead of the CD11 if you have no need for digital physical media and still have a formidable combination.

Finally

We also need to mention a few last things. Fit and finish of this pair are way beyond par for their respective price points, but Rotel has always done a fantastic job in this department. The simple remote and the user interface are both intuitive and easy to use. It was a breeze to get these two rocking without the need for the manual without issue.

And…the A11 has tone controls. Laugh if you want, and yes, it sounds slightly more transparent with said tone controls disengaged. Apartment dwellers and those not able to put their speakers in the optimum audiophile position will appreciate a little bit of boost and cut – as will those streaming from a mobile device.

In the end, I challenge you to find a better sounding pair of components on which to anchor a good, entry level music system. The Rotel A11 amplifier and CD11 disc player are an honor to their makers. Two very honest components that do a great job at their tasks. It doesn’t get any better.

The Rotel A11 amplifier and CD11 Disc Player

$699 and $499

www.rotel.com

Rotel is a company that’s gone about their business making high performance gear that is reasonably priced, in a relatively understated way. On one level, Rotel products have always been somewhat of a gateway product for some, and a great destination for others.

If you’ve started your hifi journey with NAD, Cambridge, or Music Hall, (or maybe something else along those lines) and would like to step up a few notches, but perhaps not ready to commit to vacuum tubes – Rotel is always a solid choice.

The launch of their new Michi line is something completely different. With the P5 preamplifier at $4,000 and the S5 stereo power amplifier at $7,000 (and there are a pair of monoblocks at $7k each, if you just have to have more power), this pair offers a serious insight into mega high end sound at an approachable price indeed.

Let’s begin at the source

Unboxing the P5 preamp hints at what to expect. It’s heavy. 50 pounds heavy. Power amplifier heavy. Peeking at the internal view on the Rotel website confirms this is not just some fancy casework filled with air. The massive power supply capacitors are flanked by a fully populated circuit board, (with a lot of discrete components) and all the switching relays at the back of the chassis, to minimize noise. It’s as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside.

Speaking of sources, the P5 is a true control center in every sense of the word. It features a DAC with the ability to decode DSD, MQA, and PCM files up to 32/384, so it is more than reasonably future proof. While there is no balanced XLR digital in, there are three optical and three RCA S/Pdif inputs as well as an Ethernet port and a USB input. As a bonus, it also features an aptX/Bluetooth input, so you can stream from your mobile device. (and so can your guests)

Vinyl enthusiasts will appreciate the option of MM or MC cartridge compatibility, selectable from the front panel, though there is only one phono input around back. As versatile as the P5 is, it’s a shame that Rotel did not provide separate MM and MC inputs. Not a deal breaker.

With two more balanced XLR inputs and four more RCA inputs, even those of you with an FM tuner, and a couple of tape decks won’t run out of input jacks. Rotel also includes two pairs of balanced XLR outputs, three RCA outputs and a pair of mono subwoofer outputs. In short, they’ve got you covered.

Around front, it’s clean, crisp and concise. The front panel display is an off white that goes easy on the eyes and is very easy to read. Both controls (selector on left, and volume on right) turn smoothly should you feel the need to engage manually, but the multi-function remote is the way to roll, especially if you have a lot of sources plugged in. Bonus points – there’s a headphone jack just below the volume control, and it worked well with everything we had on hand, from original Koss Pro –AAAs to the latest from Focal. The Utopia phones cost more than the P5, yet this preamplifier does a great job with personal listening duties. The sweet spot here is probably phones in the $200 – $1,000 range, which covers a lot of ground.

Spinning a few records

Another slightly anomalous behavior is the MC phono input, with loading fixed at 100 ohms. We can’t call the engineers at Rotel bad Smurfs, as a few other manufacturers (Luxman comes to mind) does this as well. And there are a number of great MC cartridges you can work with, so this isn’t the end of the world. We did all of our analog listening with the Technics SL-1200GAE and a Denon DL-103r – a nearly perfect combination. However, this is a preamplifier that you will chose a cartridge for, because variable loading is not an option.

That said, working within given parameters, the Technics/Denon combination is a superb match for the P5. While specs don’t tell the whole story, the phono stage is claimed to have a S/N ratio of 80dB, and suffice to say, it is quiet. Putting the P5 to the immediate test and breaking out the classical LPs shows off just how quiet this combination is.

Putting this in context, think of the P5 as a $2,000 linestage, a $1,000 DAC, and a $1,000 phonostage, with a bonus headphone amp thrown in. Not to mention, there are three three extra power cords and sets of interconnects you don’t have to buy. And the satisfaction of knowing it all works together perfectly. That’s value. Comparing the on board phono in the P5 to anything we’ve listened to in the last few years, it’s safe to say it’s as good or better than any outboard phono stage in the $600 – $800 range. Remember, you’re still going to need even a modest pair of interconnects…  The only advantage to an outboard phono is possibly a wider range of MC loading options, but for convenience and high performance all on one chassis, the P5 can’t be beat.

Digital delights

Working with a MacBook Pro, a current Cambridge Audio transport and a vintage SONY CD ES player (via optical output), the P5 handles every file, from MP3/Spotify up to DSD without a glitch.

s with the phono section, putting what the P5 accomplishes in context of comparably priced outboard DAC, it’s fantastic. It resolves more than enough information to tell the difference between source quality in your files, along with a high level of musicality in its class. It does an excellent job with compressed, less than awesome 16/44 material. Zipping through a Kiss playlist, a Monkees playlist and Queen’s Greatest Hits are all decoded with dignity. These tracks all sounded better than they had a right to, with an ample amount of airiness and dynamic range.

Moving on to better quality material, the P5 reveals even better performance. An old standby, Lyle Lovett’s “North Dakota” begins with some very gentle bongos, and they manage to float out in space a bit, and offers enough resolution to distinctly hear Rickie Lee Jones singing backup clearly.
Now for the power

Unless you’re extremely buff, get a friend to help you move the 132 pound S5 power amplifier to your equipment rack. If you don’t have a friend handy, a box of nicotine patches and a good protein shake might get you through. Seriously, get a friend. This is an amplifier that belies its weight. Utilizing a similar design motif as the P5, its rounded corners and gloss black front panel (with super cool power output meters) will look great in your listening room.

With 500 watts per channel into 8 ohms and 800 into 4, there shouldn’t be any speakers on your no fly list. Hint, hint, even if you aren’t going to buy both Michi pieces, this is an excellent amplifier to drive Magnepans with. Staffer Jerold O’Brien and I faced a major dilemma: he helps me moose the S5 out of my listening room and up the 2^nd story at his place where the Magnepan 3.7s are, or we rent a UHaul and bring the Maggies to me.

Avoiding as many people as we both can in this age of quarantine, we decided we’d both be exposed to fewer cooties, bringing the S5 to his place. Besides, now that I also have a little orange BMW 2002 stored in his barn, plenty of time to be car geeks after we get done listening.

Most Magnepans need a lot of power to really strut their stuff, and the Michi S5 is one of the nicest combinations for these speakers. 20.1 and 30.1 owners that need even more power, can buy the M8s (1080 watts each, into 8 ohms, 1800 watts into 4 – booyah) which should be enough to power a small outdoor music festival.

Everything from the Maggies, to ESLs from MartinLogan and vintage Acoustats (i.e. all the “really hard to drive” speakers) presented no issues to the Michi. Regardless of what speakers you have, this is an unassuming, yet highly capable and powerful amplifier that merely does the job it’s asked to do without issue. It’s a testament to the amplifiers enormous power reserves and excellent design that it is not particularly sensitive to speaker cables either. It has enough resolving power to hear the difference between brands, but isn’t touchy about cables in a way that some small amplifiers can be.

Power without finesse is nothing though, and again the Michi scores big points. If this amp had no logo on the front panel and you told your audiophile pals that you paid 10k for the S5, they’d probably believe you. Even at low volumes, the effortlessness that the S5 presents adds to the musical presentation. I must admit to being biased towards big amplifiers for this reason.

Overall, the big Michi amp has a neutral tonal rendition. To try and put it in a little bit of perspective, we’ve always held Boulder amplifiers up as the ultimate in “just the facts” amplification, however these are some pretty expensive amplifiers, even at entry level. Comparing to past solid-state designs we’ve listened to, the Michi has more tonal body/saturation that something from Simaudio, Krell, or current Levinson products, but less than our reference Pass amplifiers, or any other great Class A amplifier from Luxman, Sudgen, or the Riviera monos we’ve just reviewed.

You can stay with the Michi preamplifier and keep things extremely accurate, or for those craving a little bit of additional warmth, without sacrificing the control and dynamic power of a solid-state amp, add a tube preamplifier on the front end, to tune to your taste. An amplifier this neutral makes that easy.

A system approach that works

At $11,000 for the pair, the Michi P5 and S5 are a logical step up for the music lover that needs more power than an integrated can provide, and has a lot of flexibility as well. This pair is the perfect anchor for a $20k – $50k system, and only needs a turntable and a pair of speakers to enjoy every format available. Should you be a digital only listener, add your favorite speakers and roll. Should the vinyl bug hit, you’re ready if and when you want to take the plunge.

While you’ll need a stout shelf for the 132 pound P5, a system built around these two components will have a minimal footprint. Thanks to their timeless visual design, they will integrate well into a design conscious environment – a final bonus.

www.rotel.com/michi

Who knew that almost 20 years ago that this cool little tube amplifier would change my life?

My first assignment for The Absolute Sound was supposed to be a NAD integrated amplifier. But the day I got my copy of Stereophile in the mail with the ProLogue One you see here on the cover, I thought that might be a great piece to review.

As fate would have it, less than an hour later, Robert Harley was on the phone. “The NAD fell through, they didn’t want the new guy at TAS reviewing it. How about the new tube integrated from PrimaLuna?”

I already knew Upscale Audio’s Kevin Deal from the world of cars, so this felt like a slam dunk. The review was a success, cementing the PrimaLuna brand and my audio reviewing career – though I didn’t know it quite yet. When I started TONE (and for years to follow) people would say, “you wrote that PrimaLuna review in TAS, didn’t you?)
Yeah, I did.

Of course I bought the review sample. This amplifier was so good, how could I not? If you’re a fan of the vintage Dynaco and Marantz EL34 amps, the original ProLogue One felt and sounded like a restomodded classic. Not slow, soft, and syrupy like the vintage amps, yet not as clinical as a current ARC, BAT, or VAC amp. And the price was a killer deal. $1,095 in 2005 was insanely inexpensive for a tube integrated amplifier, wired point to point, with this level of fit and finish.

Another point of contention back in 2005 was the “built in China” moniker, but PL principal and lifetime high end audio pro, Herman Van Den Dungen makes sure everything is produce to perfection. The amplifier you see here has been in use since I wrote the original review in TAS, and it’s only had a single tube change.

When I got the ProLogue One back from my (now ex) niece a few years ago, I couldn’t have been more excited to be reunited with this old friend. And it cost me dearly – I had to trade she and her husband a new Simaudio NEO integrated ($3,400), along with some heavy convincing that having a tube amp around the house with a couple of toddlers was a really bad idea. The fatigued tubes were replaced with a new pair of PrimaLuna 12AU7s, a pair of EAT 12AX7s and a mint quad of NOS Siemens EL34 power tubes. Other than a slightly noisy volume control (with a little bit of contact cleaner took care of immediately) the PL One was back rocking with a pair of 1976 vintage Klipsch LaScalas. The sound was glorious, and with the coolio, upgraded tubes, even better than the day I unboxed it for the first time.

Almost 20 years later, PrimaLuna products have only gotten better, and there is now a wider range to choose from.

My ProLogue One no longer gets daily use, but it has the exalted position of being the first component I reviewed professionally. Today, I still use a pair of EVO400 monoblocks as reference amplifers, which produce around 140 watts per channel with 8 EL34s per channel.

I’m sure these will be as highly regarded as classics in 20 years, much like the great amps from ARC, Marantz, CJ and others. Every time I fire the ProLogue One up, it’s my favorite memory in high end audio.

www.primaluna-usa.com

Over the years, the TONEAudio team enjoyed many opportunities to evaluate Focal speakers, including their stunning flagship Grande Utopia Evo, as well as the Stella Evo’s currently here on audition.

While Focal’s cost-no-object speakers offer a revelatory musical experience, most of us will never have the financial means to own a pair. Of course, Focal understands this reality and offers many other price-performance speaker options in their lineup. The Chora 806 bookshelf speakers we review here retail for $990 (plus optional stands, $290), demonstrating Focal’s commitment to offering high-quality and financially-friendly speakers. While these stand-mounters serve well as a stereo pair, those looking for a line of matched speakers for their home theater setup will find the Choras equally at home.

France’s Focal resides among a shortlist of manufacturers who design and build their speaker components in-house. Therefore, the Chora line benefits its listeners with trickle-down technology borrowed from more expensive speakers in Focal’s arsenal.

Like the 806’s floor-standing siblings, the stand-mounted Chora employs a one-inch aluminum-magnesium tweeter above a 6.5 inch (16.5cm) midrange. The driver cone uses Focal’s proprietary “Slatefiber” material combining recycled non-woven carbon fibers and a thermoplastic polymer. While non-conventional, the elements certainly deliver the sonic goods. A front port for bass reinforcement complements the midrange and tweeter. The port placement gives owners more speaker placement flexibility since the 806 can reside closer to a rear wall without bass over-emphasis.

The Chorus 806 is a hefty “bookshelf” speaker at 16.2 pounds (7.35kg). The utilitarian, modestly finished cabinets measure 8.25 inches wide by 10.5 inches deep by 17 inches in height (21x27x43cm). For more detail about the speaker specifications, check out Focal’s 806 spec sheet.

The Chorus line offers black, light wood and dark wood finishes to complement most décor. Prospective owners with young children will also appreciate the Chora line’s removable grille covering the woofer, plus the tweeter’s perforated metal armor to help deter small fingers.

Placement/Setup

To hone your speaker placement, Focal offers a mathematically-based positioning guide, which you can learn about in their incredibly well produced manual. As always, experiment in your room to determine what sounds best to you.

Once locked into an ideal location, the Choras can do an excellent job of three-dimensional projection. Using Stereophile’s Test CD’s “natural stereo imaging” track, the speakers do a terrific job keeping up with the recorded material – especially for boxes at a sub-$1k price point. As David Chesky circles an omnidirectional microphone in the recording space while beating a drum, sound travels in a similar lap around the listening space and projects to the far sides of the listener, and even behind the listening chair. For more traditional stereo recordings, the Chora 806 also does a great job of separating instruments across the front soundstage giving each element a defined presence.

The 806 employs an unusual binding post. Yes, it does serve to accommodate bare wire, banana, or spade terminated cables. Those using speaker wire with banana ends will need to find a thin bladed screwdriver to gently pry the covered caps off.

Even when driven by a modest classic 35-watt NAD 3020 integrated amplifier, the speakers come to life in remarkable ways. For a critical evaluation of the speakers, though, the usual upstream reference rig with a Conrad-Johnson ART150 amplifier lets the Choras sing to their full potential.

Rewards come to those who wait. Over a 24-hour break-in period, the 806’s sound evolves beneficially and settles into a smooth and well-balanced sonic presentation. The Chora’s voice is just a hint to the warm side of neutral. While they do offer substantial treble reproduction, they also avoid stridency and sibilance, as noted during Zero 7’s song “Distractions” that features Sia Furler’s powerful and beguiling vocals.

The 806’s voicing is a bit akin to being in the 10^th row of a concert hall. Some of the front-row details diminish, but the whole musical picture reaching the ears proves highly engaging. “This Mess We’re In” featuring PJ Harvey and Thom Yorke retains its goosebump potential. While the singers’ placements in the mix overlap front-and-center during the chorus, they remain well-articulated and separated perceptually. Instruments including strings, horns, piano, and percussion render with a substantial degree of separation and realism too.

The 806 is also forgiving. Older tracks like “Sugar Man” by Sixto Rogriguez are fun to hear despite the original recording’s limitations. Even the worst-recorded song I love, “Hi Babe” by the Ngozi Family, sings forth with a surprisingly compelling nature.

For those who like to rock, Rage Against the Machine’s “Bombtrack” proves revelatory too. Given the small cabinet size, low-frequency roll-off is inevitable. However, the Focals do a great job reproducing and articulating bass notes above 60 Hz or so. That said, expect punch, not slam, from the 806.

The Chora 806’s soundstaging capability, complementing their marvelous sonic reproduction, offers an immersive experience generally associated with speakers costing much more. The Chora 806 speakers provide an open and emotionally-engaging window to the music. Moving up the Focal line gets a prospective owner more detail, increased realism, deeper bass, and much more aesthetically-appealing cabinets. Track after track, though, I remained impressed with the 806’s capability.

Summing up

Focal Chora 806 speakers offer wonderful sound and build quality at a very reasonable price point. If you have a $1,000 budget for speakers, the 806 is an excellent choice. For those who desire heartier and deeper bass reinforcement than a stand-mounted speaker can offer, the floor standing iterations in the Chora line — or the addition of a subwoofer — will help satiate that thirst. Either way, you can’t go wrong. The 806 can easily anchor a budget-friendly system now and rise to the challenge as other upstream components come and go over time.

Additional Listening: Jeff Dorgay

While many grouse about flagship loudspeakers, the Focal Chora is a perfect example of vertical manufacturing done right. There are precious few manufacturers left in the world that make their own cabinets and drivers – Focal is one of the select few. Because they make everything in-house, they can put so much more value into a thousand dollar pair of speakers than a company that has to outsource everything.

This is why the Choras are such a great deal. With Focal’s Stella Utopia Ems playing in my living room, it’s easy to see (hear, actually) just how much Utopia DNA is present in the Choras. Granted these speakers do not have the adjustments, or the sexy, curvy cabinets of the Utopias, but the same people that design, manufacture and assemble the top range Utopia speakers build the Choras with the same materials.

There’s a level of sonic sophistication present in the Choras that is absent in most other speakers at this price point. The Focal “house sound,” if you will, is one of resolving detail without being harsh. Rob’s assessment is spot on, and comparing the $1,000/pair Choras to the $150k/pair Stellas, it’s amazing at how much of that house sound still comes right through, especially when listening to music slightly less dynamic, or a little lacking in super low bass information.

These are incredible speakers for someone just getting into the hifi game, and more than worthy of one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2020.

www.focalnaimamerica.com

Not wanting to waste the first half of the review with a history lesson, we’ll keep it short and to the point. It’s important to tell you why a product is worth the asking price, rather than leaving it to an unanswered question at the end of the review. So just a little bit about Bryston for those of you that aren’t familiar is an important part of their back story.

Bryston components are hand made in Canada to pro audio standards, and that’s not a bad thing. They are one of the few companies that sell in both arenas, and both camps benefit. The pro-audio customer gets additional value from Bryston’s audiophile side, making for fantastic sound, used in studios around the world, while the audiophile users benefit from rock-solid reliability.

Ever had a friend with a Bryston amp complain about it being broken? Me neither, and I’ve been buying hifi gear for a long time. Bryston offers the best warranty in the business because they make incredibly dependable products, and that’s a huge part of the value proposition here, especially when you’re thinking about buying a $25,000 pair of monoblocks. You can look at them as a lifetime investment, or if you’re a fickle audiophile, they will work flawlessly for the next three owners. But once you get to 1000 watt per channel monoblocks, where do you go?

Let’s get the clichés out of the way

All of the well-worn audiophile clichés apply to the 28B Cubed monoblocks. So, we’ll skip that, eh? In addition to the high reliability/build quality of these fairly dense amplifiers (they weigh 90 lbs. each, but feel heavier, thanks to their compact form), it’s all about the power.

Many audio enthusiasts subscribe to the first watt theory, that if the first watt of power doesn’t sound great, the next 999 don’t matter. To a certain point, that is true, but once that goal is achieved, to really feel like you are living the music instead of just listening to it, a vast power reserve is vital to feeling there.

While you may listen at low volumes, even when doing so, and with small speakers, I might add (in this case the excellent Falcon LS3/5as) the added level of control and dynamics offered by this amplifier rule the day. All too often, we think of dynamics as the ability to handle large, quick musical transients. I maintain that the ebb is just as important as the flow, and the 28B Cubed amplifiers have a fantastic ability to fade back to zero just as quickly as they can accelerate to 100%. This ability to breathe, if you will, is what allows you to hear fingers slide across a guitar fretboard and feel the textural difference when you listen to Stanley Clarke (or whoever your favorite bass players are) go from acoustic bass to an electric. Small amplifiers just can’t do this as easily.

The colossal power supply in each one of the 28B Cubed chassis offers up a level of dynamics and control that very few amplifiers can match. This level of effortlessness brings yet another level of clarity to your system’s presentation. For the internet pundits claiming that the source is everything and that power doesn’t matter, I think a day with the big Bryston monos will make them believers.

Power is good

In the course of this review, I made it a point to use the 28Bs with about a dozen different pairs of speakers. The Falcons, a pair of ProAc Tablettes, the ever-popular KEF LS-50, and even my old Spica TC-50s got pressed into service. Every one of them delivered better performances than they ever have, with more bass offered up than I ever dreamed any of these tiny contenders were able to provide. If you’ve ever noticed, clever speaker manufacturers with the “best sound at shows” often use massive amplifiers in their rooms, even with small speakers and low volume levels.

Moving up the range, a couple of torturous, tough to drive speakers were brought into play: the Quad 2812s, some vintage Acoustats, and some Magnepans all were driven with ease. Extreme ease, actually. It might seem to go past what you know, but more often than not, I’ve achieved much bigger, broader sound with ESLs usually thought of as just needing a polite, little tube amp with a giant solid-state amplifier. It’s that devil control again because ESLs are pretty much like hooking your amp up to a big capacitor and calling it a day. That bottomless power supply inside the Bryston amplifiers is rock solid and unaffected by any of this. I must admit, though, that because the 28Bs were so clean in their presentation, I was a little scared I might just melt the Quads into a puddle. Fortunately, no speakers were harmed in the production of this review.

Finally, pairing the Bryston monos with the Focal Sopra 3s, the Focal Stella Utopia EM, and my Sonus faber Stradivaris proves these amplifiers are worthy in the highest of high-end systems too. A couple of status-oriented audio buddies were shocked to know that these amplifiers were “only” 25 thousand dollars a pair, so it’s all relative. Seriously, putting the 28Bs into a system with some top-shelf gear proves they are more than worthy.

Down to the sound

Everyone likes a different sound or tuning on their system. If your taste falls more to the overly warm, ultra-romantic sound of certain tube amplifiers, the Brystons will probably not be your cup of awesomeness. Those liking a neutral/natural tonal balance to one only a few clicks to the warm/romantic/tonally saturated side can quickly achieve that. Bryston’s flagship preamplifier or any number of others offering that voice will work wonders. Again, if you’d like a bit of warmth combined with the massive power and low-frequency control, this too is easy to accomplish with the 28Bs.

These are fully balanced amplifiers, yet they offer single-ended RCA inputs as well. I had an ample slice of heaven using a vintage (yet updated) Conrad-Johnson PV12 preamplifier, an equal helping of loveliness with my reference Pass XS Pre (slightly warm), and just as nice, but different rendering with the new Boulder 1166 preamplifier. (spot-on neutral, much like the Bryston gear).

Thanks to their natural character, they will be an excellent match with a wide range of tastes. And, you’ll never be hunting tubes down on a weekend when you want to get some serious listening done. Turn your 28Bs on and just enjoy.

Whatever music you enjoy will be reproduced faithfully with the 28Bs. Their vast power reserves make them equally adept at capturing the full-scale dynamics of the heaviest metal band, or the biggest orchestra at your fingertips. Their sheer nimble speed will appeal to those that enjoy acoustic instruments, and vocal performances. There was nothing we found lacking, or less than enjoyable, though again I must admit playing some of my favorite rock, hip – hop, and EDM tracks are so much fun with these amplifiers. Their massive power reserves bring this music more to life than modestly powered amplifiers can.

You don’t realize just how awesome these amplifiers are until you go back to your favorite 60 watt per channel amp. It just feels small. For everyone that’s said you need big speakers to play music on a big scale, you need big amps too. And these are some pretty damn cool amps.

I haven’t mentioned it up till now, but for my music-loving friends that enjoy achieving concert hall sound pressure levels, you will not be disappointed with these amplifiers in the least. Because they can produce so much power, with such tremendous ease, I highly suggest getting a sound pressure meter or app for your phone. Unlike those distorted amps you hear in a live concert performance, the Brystons are so clean you might finding yourself inching that volume control up, up, up to the point of hurting yourself. You’ve been warned.

Even when listening to my favorite live rock recordings, I couldn’t make these amplifiers clip, and if you have even modestly sensitive speakers, your hearing will give out before they do. One final warning, with this much power at your disposal, be sure that if you aren’t using a Bryston preamplifier, that yours does not make any kind of transient pops, etc., should you turn it off first. This much power will harm your speakers. Always be sure to shut the 28Bs off first if you are using a tube preamplifier to avoid problems.

Setup, break-in and such

Other than lifting your 28Bs into place, they are incredibly easy to use and operate. With 15A AC inputs, you should be able to plug them in anywhere. The rear panel claims that they draw 1790 watts at full power, so those who like to really rock should think about dedicated lines. To that effect, while we could never make these amplifiers clip, when they were both plugged into a single 15A AC line, we were able to take the circuit breaker out at the wall.

We suggest having dedicated 15A lines for your 28Bs, and if you’re starting from scratch, a pair of 20A lines isn’t a bad idea. All of our testing, aside from the initial investigation was done with dedicated 20A power lines for each monoblock. While not a huge difference, the dedicated lines to offer that last bit of ease that these amplifiers are capable of delivering.

The 28Bs come out of the box sounding great, and after a couple of days fare even better. I suspect this is just as much due to thermal stabilization as it is “component break-in.” I am a true believer in this phenomenon; however, it seems to be a more profound thing with tube amplifiers possessing a large number of giant Teflon capacitors. None of that is going on here to impede your progress, so you can enjoy your 28Bs straight away. Because they are class AB amplifiers, they do not get terribly warm either, another plus.

Finally, the 28Bs are available with 17 inch or 19-inch front panels, in silver or black. I love the silver, and it’s worth calling attention to the fantastic job Bryston has done in the machine work on these cubed amplifiers. It’s a tremendous aesthetic combination – paying homage to the massive power contained within, yet not overdone in the least. The only decision is whether to get the front handles or not. They look great without, yet are so much easier to handle with, and both models have the rear mounted handles.

Honestly, that’s the biggest decision you face. When we did our initial look at the 28B Cubed monoblocks last year, we gave them one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019. Yes, $25k is not an idle purchase, but you won’t find a $100k pair of amplifiers that best these. Considering the build quality, Bryston’s dedication to their customers and dealer network, and the top-level performance, if that doesn’t say exceptional value, I don’t know what does. These amplifiers were an absolute pleasure to use.

The Bryston 28B Cubed Monoblocks
$25,000/pair

www.bryston.com

Peripherals

Preamplifier Pass Labs XSPre

Digital Source dCS Vivaldi One

Analog Source GrandPrixAudio Parabolica Turntable/TriPlanar Arm Koetsu Jade Platinum

Speakers Sonus faber Stradivari (35th anniv. edition), six pack REL no. 25 subwoofers

Cable Cardas Clear, Tellurium Q Reference

Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson have worked together for over 40 years, consistently producing products which represent a high level of sonic performance for the dollar.

At the same time, they’ve pushed the boundaries in tube audio design, investing countless hours of engineering experiments, testing, and tweaking before releasing new components. Their amplifiers and preamplifiers have won numerous awards over the years and the company has a very loyal following.

TONEAudio has reviewed many C-J amps over the years, including both of their recent solid-state designs, the MF2275SE and the MF2550SE; fantastic amplifiers in their own right. Our publisher has owned numerous C-J products and makes no bones about being a fan of the marque. Among their latest tube amplifier iterations is the Classic Sixty Two Special Edition (CL62SE), an evolution of the previous Classic Sixty SE (CL60SE) released nearly a decade ago. And like the CL60, there is a standard and SE version, with the latter featuring upgraded components and in particular a full compliment of CJD Teflon capacitors in critical circuit areas.

The Classic series is aimed solidly at those wanting to experience the magic of vacuum tubes at a more accessible price point than their top of the line ART components. While C-J considers the Classic line entry level, for me it reflects an important benchmark for great sonics. Still rated at 60 watts per channel as the CL60, lessons learned from the ART power amplifiers have trickled down to the Classic series.

Rated at 60 watts per channel as the name implies, the CL62SE reviewed here represents an evolution of the circuitry found in its older brother the CL60SE. Despite the numerical designation, I dare say it is more than two better. Conrad-Johnson went through the amp design with a fine-toothed comb, seeking out anything which could benefit from an upgrade. Some trickle-down technology from their latest flagship ART amplifier encouraged a few key differences in the new CL62SE. Among other changes like the use of metal foil resistors, the tube complement shifted slightly. The CL60SE utilizes four KT120 output tubes, along with a pair of 6922 variants, and a single 6189. In the newer CL62SE design, the 6189 is replaced with another 6922.

Appearance

As with many C-J products, the amp retains the classic gold color and a humble, boxy form factor. The hefty transformers rise from the rear of the base, with the tubes residing up front. A vented, black powder coated cage surrounds the tubes to avoid inadvertent skin contact. Those tubes get hot indeed! However, if you do not have children or pets who may be drawn to the tantalizing tubes while you are not there to supervise, it is fun to remove the cage and watch the subtle glow unobstructed. The CL62SE front offers a toggle switch for power, and a small red LED to indicate power up. It is rather apropos, though, since something called the Classic Sixty Two should take on a classic, minimalist form factor, right?

Similar to the front-facing appearance of the amp, the rear panel layout remains equally spartan. Two single-ended inputs accept the connection from a preamp, and a single pair of metal 5-way binding posts get a tight grip on speaker cables. As a tube amp, there is no “standby” power mode as seen in many solid-state designs. Controlled by the switch on the front, the 62 is either on or off. Saving tube life is a good thing, however. With power applied, the amp needs about 30 minutes of warm-up time to sound its best. If you listen to morning music like I do, make the amp your first stop after getting out of bed. Two cups of coffee later, you are ready to rock.

Setup and tube bias

Unlike a solid-state amp prepared for use right out of the box, the CL62SE takes a bit of extra setup due to the tube complement. First off, you will need a long, standard screwdriver to remove the protective grille and gain access to the tube sockets. With the cage removed, the second order of business is unpacking all the valves and loading them firmly into the correct sockets.

The final step is biasing the tubes using the included plastic screwdriver. Biasing serves two purposes: First, it ensures the tubes are adjusted to deliver equal power into the left and right channels. Secondly, it helps increase the life of the tubesby setting them at the point where they are accomplishing their role in kicking all the needed electrons to the internalplates, but not going beyond that required call of duty. Each tube has a finite number of electrons to move, so conserving the stream encourages valve longevity. According to the CL62SE manual, a tube complement should last at least two years if used as directed, but as the saying goes, “your mileage may vary”.  Often the tubes last longer, especially when the owner takes care to shut down the amp when not in use.

C-J makes the biasing process surprisingly simple. After power up, four small red LEDs next to the four KT120s indicate each valve’s bias status. If the light is on, the biasing screw next to it needs to be twisted counter-clockwise a bit – just barely enough to turn off the LED. Conversely, if the LED next to each tube is off already, an owner will want to double-check them. Twist the biasing screw clockwise until the LED turns on, then reverse direction very slowly until the LED turns off.  C-J recommends this process be repeated after about 30 minutes of use, and maybe every six months after that. Down the road, when new valves join the amp, the process must be completed again. C-J notes that after biasing is complete, LEDs may flicker just a bit when the amp is in heavy use driving speakers. I did not notice that during my time with the CL62SE, but don’t worry if you encounter it.

After the 62’s requisite warm-up period, with volume all the way down, I put an ear to each speaker to get a sense of background noise and tube hiss. As it turns out, it is hard to distinguish any. One can hear the pings and ticks of the tubesduring warm up, but after that process, the C-J is nearly silent – even more so than most solid-state designs I have experienced.

Listening

Admittedly, I have never owned a tube amp and always appreciated the simple nature and bass heft of a great solid-state amp coupled with a tube preamp. Unfortunately for my wallet, I may now be a convert.

Listening to music interpreted by the CL62SE, there are two characteristics which stand out immediately. First, the soundstage of this amp not only extends to the far left and right of the speakers. It also widens well above and behind the speakers – and accomplishes a trick I have heard with few amps – extends the sound stage well in front of the speakers toward the listening seat.

The CL62SE regularly pushed musical elements so far to the left and right of the soundstage, my ears perked from the unexpected, but very welcome, experience. Yes, there are plenty of amps out there that have a wide soundstage, but this C-J generated one of the most expansive and immersive ones experienced in my listening space.

The second surprise in sonics is the way the 62 portrays instruments and vocals. There is not only a very transparent and organic ease to the music, each musical element is exceptionally well defined, even in a very crowded soundstage which overlaps instruments and vocals. Indeed, vocal performances have a level of detail and palpability making them eerily real. Ambient cues, “air”, and sparkle around various musical instruments compounds the miraculous illusion, floating around the room with ease and grace. I had not expected the magnitude of these characteristics and found myself listening for hours to favorite albums. Sometimes, the subtleties make all the difference.

Despite the extreme level of detail, revelation, and a very energetic presentation, there is no stridency to the sound. Soprano vocals, horns, cymbals and other musical elements can have the potential to spark the eardrums. The C-J pours forth all the detail, but without nasty artifacts that sometimes accompany it. This beguiling nature will glue you to the listening seat longer than you might realize.

My concerns about limited, mushy bass quelled quickly as well. The 62 offers quite a bit of muscle despite its modest power rating. Deep bass notes rendered with taught accuracy pour out in a very natural way. Solid state amps can truly excel in the delivery of tight, weighty, and low bass reproduction. Moreover, there is something highly satisfying about punchy bass when one just wants to rock! After re-adjusting my ears to the tubed 62, I did not miss it though. Forget ideas of old-school tube designs with mushy bass and overly-romanticized sound. The 62SE is proof to the contrary. Those listeners who enjoy power over nuance may still prefer a solid-state design, but they are likely to be surprised at what the CL62SE is capable. Despite the “Classic” name, this tube amp is a clear result of modern engineering.

Conclusions

If it is not apparent by now, let me say it plainly. The Classic Sixty Two SE is a stellar amp. Conrad-Johnson’s “entry level” tube amp represents a pinnacle of value at its $5,750 MSRP. If you need more power, C-J offers the CL120SE monoblock version. For those with a tight budget, the standard version of the CL62 sells for $4,250, offering much of the SE sonic prowess.

If this amplifier investment is within your budget, those audio fans who love tube gear – and even those who prefer solid state – should make a point of visiting their local Conrad-Johnson dealer to hear the Classic Sixty Two for themselves. Yes, tube amps do take a little more nurturing over their lifetime, and new valves are needed periodically. C-J offers a full set of replacement tubes for about $500. However, a CL62SE owner will be rewarded in spades for that minimal level of maintenance.

Conrad-Johnson Classic Sixty Two SE Amplifier

MSRP: $ 5,750 (SE version)  $4,250 (Standard version)

www.conradjohnson.com

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AND-PRODUCTS OF THE DECADE!

Old School:

Juan Calvillo looks back at the Marantz 2252

Headphone Art:

Auditioning the Focal Utopia Phones

The Audiophile Apartment:

Jeff Dorgay spends time with the Pathos Logos Mk.II Integrated

Shanon Says:

Our Canadian correspondent tells us about power

Mine: It Should Be Yours

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Future Tense

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Cover Feature: Tubes

Jeff Dorgay reviews JBL L-100 Classic speakers

Rickie Lee Jones’ version of “Bad Company,” from her latest album puts the Paradigm Premier 700F speakers in perspective immediately. These speakers create a massive, immersive soundfield on this ethereal track. Combine this with a level of resolution rarely available in a $1,598 pair of speakers along with major low-frequency capability, and we’ve got a winner.

Our art director Brian Gage did some of the heavy lifting, putting serious break-in time on the 700Fs, but did not find nirvana in his reasonably large living room. I had a similar result here in my main 16 x 25-foot room – the 700Fs got slightly swallowed up, with a bit brighter feel than either of us liked. Moving them to room two, (measuring 15 x 13 feet) proved to be the magic combination. A little bit of room gain makes for a bit more bottom end and better top to bottom balance overall. Experimenting with a couple more rooms lends us to suggest using a pair of 700Fs (without a subwoofer) in a small to medium sized room for best overall tonal balance.

Placed on the short wall, with the speakers about three feet out into the room, six feet apart and toed in only slightly was a great place to start. Because the 700Fs have wide dispersion in both planes, and substantial HF energy, they will work well in a typical home living room with a fair amount of furniture – and will not need too much attention to final placement for a good result. But the patient can fine tune them for even better sound.

As Brian noticed, the 700Fs offer excellent dynamic contrast – a longtime Paradigm hallmark, and are great for home theater applications. I followed his lead, and after full evaluation in my listening room, moved them into my small theater room as front speakers. This time, power coming from the new Anthem MRX 520 surround receiver. In my HT system, they were part of a mixed group of speakers, with the pair of Paradigm Atoms we reviewed a while back, a Paradigm Defiance subwoofer and a Bowers & Wilkins sub.

Those building a theater system from scratch would be wise to pair the 700Fs with any of the other three speakers (larger and smaller) and one of the subwoofers in the Defiance lineup to get the maximum effect, but back to two-channel world…

Crafted in Canada continued

A big part of the Paradigm story is that their speakers are all designed and built in their Canadian factory. Where some manufacturers have moved their entry-level products overseas, Paradigm does it all under one roof. This is vertical design and build at its finest. Where many speaker manufacturers must work around the compromises accompanying off the shelf components, Paradigm produces every bit of their speaker systems from the ground up – drivers, crossovers, and cabinets. If the driver in a new speaker doesn’t meet their goals, they go back to the lab and re-design it to be in spec, rather than just getting by. The purchasing power that a company of this size brings to bear also helps to keep costs way down and Paradigm has built their reputation on offering maximum performance for the dollar. The 700Fs uphold that 37-year history of excellence.

The stylish PPA™ (Perforated Phase Aligning) tweeter and Midrange lens technology combined with the ART™ (Active Ridge Technology) surrounds in the woofer, all hail from their flagship Persona speakers. This is a level of build quality and craftsmanship that is only offered by a handful of other manufacturers, that incidentally also design and build everything in house, so the 700F has few peers.

Understated black grilles are standard equipment, but if you don’t have to contend with prying paws or fingers, the bold design statement made by the exposed drivers and beautiful machine work seems way too nice to cover up. Spikes are also included, along with pucks so that the spikes do not bite into hardwood floors.

Setup and break in

The 700Fs come out of the box slightly stiff, so give them a couple of weeks of solid play to achieve the maximum bass response, smoothness, and cohesion of the drivers. If you have the luxury of playing them in a room, out of phase with a blanket over them, with some reasonably dynamic program material, this will accelerate the process somewhat. And don’t be afraid to break out the bass heavy tracks.

As mentioned, the 700Fs are easy to get up and playing music, but a bit of fine tuning the rake angle will maximize the imaging width and depth. We suggest placing the speakers for the best balance of lower bass output and upper bass smoothness to start. Then, adjust rake angle in small increments for maximum image width and depth, finishing off by fine-tuning the toe in for the best HF balance. Small steps are reasonable here, and thanks to the high resolution of these speakers, your efforts will be rewarded.

Fortunately, their compact footprint (8.375″W x 12.625″ D and 39.875″T) and light weight (48.2lbs.) won’t require significant acrobatics, or friends to unbox and move into position in your listening area.

Our test pair arrived in a gloss black, with gloss white and an espresso grain finish also available. No matter which finish you choose, the front and the top face of the speakers are finished in matte black – no doubt a move to keep the cost more reasonable. Two sets of binding posts are available for those wanting to bi-wire, but for the duration of our review, the 700Fs were used with a single pair of speaker cables and the jumpers intact. The quality of the finish on the side panels is as smooth as the $35,000/pair Personas we reviewed previously.

Again, this is where building everything in house is a benefit – the same people doing the cabinets on Paradigm’s top speakers are working on these too. However, it’s more than just the quality of the finish on the outer walls of the cabinet that impress. Looking at the 700Fs very carefully reveals the smoothness of the bevels on the front panel and how cleanly the drivers are mounted. There is no visible hardware. The cabinet corners intersect perfectly. This is the level of quality you demand from a $10k pair of speakers. Not something you expect for this price – a definite bonus to qualityphiles. These are speakers that you will be very proud to own.

A good seat

Thanks to a sensitivity rating of 91db/1 watt, it doesn’t take a ton of power to drive the 700Fs, but the more current and control your amplifier has on tap, the more involving the presentation. The difference between using the 700Fs with a few budget and vintage amplifiers versus contemporary offerings from Nagra, PASS, and ARC is impressive. Through the Nagra amplification chain, the 700Fs easily illustrate the difference between a wide range of source components. These are very capable speakers.

Paradigm claims a low-frequency limit of 33hz, with a +/- frequency range of 45 – 20,000 Hz. Though we don’t perform lab measurements here, a cursory audition of the original Stereophile Test Disc, with test tones down to 20hz reveals solid output down to 35hz. This is more than enough to enjoy whatever kind of music you love. It also is enough output to mate effectively with whatever subwoofer you might want to add to the mix. Often, speakers falling off around 60 Hz (as in a typical sat/sub combination) always seem to have a bit of a gap in the low-frequency response, making subwoofer integration less than seamless. Again, the 700Fs succeed brilliantly with or without a sub.

Again, in the 13 x 15-foot room, our favorite EDM and hip hop tracks reveal more than enough useable LF content to impress through the 700Fs. Paradigm calls them a full three-way system, with a pair of 5 ½” woofers, crossing over to a 5 ½” midrange driver at 800hz via a 2nd order crossover and then to the tweeter at 2500hz. The drivers work seamlessly together and provide a high level of coherency.

Much fun as these speakers are to tear up your favorite rock tracks, solo vocal tracks impress equally, as do acoustic cuts.

Tough to beat

The under $2,000/pair speaker market is incredibly competitive. Paradigm brings engineering and execution together for a class winner. They’ve achieved not only a high level of performance with the 700F; these are well-balanced speakers that do not compromise one area of audible performance for the rest of the spectrum. Quite an achievement for $1,598 a pair and more than worthy of one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019.

The Paradigm Premier 700F Speakers

www.paradigm.com

$1,598/pair

Peripherals

Digital source dCS Vivaldi One

Preamplifier Nagra Classic Preamp

Power Amplifier Nagra Classic Amp

Cable Tellurium Q Black II

Power Torus Tot II

Stopping by Pat Hickman’s place to drop off a pair of vintage McIntosh amplifiers for his special level of detail and restoration is always a treat. There’s always something super fun on his test bench, either about to be restored, or just finished, ready to go to a customer.

Today, he was going to put my McIntosh MC30 monoblocks on the bench to be returned to their original glory. As always, our discussion goes to his Whammerdyne 2A3 Truth amplifiers – the flagship got our product of the year award a couple of years ago and it is incredible. Not everyone can afford them, but his new DGA (Damn Good Amplifier) takes a lot of what he learned via the design of the Truth amplifier, but in a more affordable package.

This is a direct coupled (i.e. no caps or resistors in the signal path) single ended, class A stereo amplifier that uses a pair of 2A3 power tubes. Most people can barely coax 2 watts per channel out of a 2A3, but meticulous engineering and implementation makes for 4.3 watts per channel. And at this level, every few tenths of a watt counts. You can read more here:  http://whammerdyne.com/#technology

We step in to his listening room and Hickman plays a few tracks on his Pure Audio Project Quintet 15s, which makes for a stunning combination with the DGA (Damn Good Amplifier).I have the Trio 15s back at the studio, so am very familiar with the sonics. We cruise through a few polite but breathy and luscious female vocal tracks, and as lovely as it is, at the back of my head I’m thinking “but will it rock?”

Can you work with 4 watts per channel?

The toughest part of an engineering journey is the difference between building to a standard and building to a price point. The flagship Whammer amp was built to be an all-out assault on SET topology, using the best parts available. The result is nothing like you’ve ever heard from an SET. Every bit of magic that tube aficionados wax poetic is there, but with all the refinement you’d expect from the world’s top modern tube amplifiers.

There’s only one catch – the Whammers only make four watts per channel. Forget it if you’ve got a pair of Magnepans, or something equally power hungry. Hickman thinks 94db/1watt sensitivity or lower is pushing it, but the new Focal Stella Utopia Em’s (94db/1watt exactly) have been blowing me out of the room with a few watts, so why not ask?

Fortunately, today is the day that there’s a DGA on the bench that isn’t spoken for. Hickman warns me, “It takes about 45 minutes to come out of the fog.” He wasn’t kidding. Driving like an old man, taking great care not to jostle the unboxed amp on the way home, it is instantly put front and center in my living room system, built around the Focal Stella Utopia Em’s.

About that burrito

He is right. The amp sounds nice,on initial power up,but not as good as I knew it could. Burrito time. Taking the long way to grab a quick bite from my local taco stand has me back in a little over an hour. Three minutes into the DGAs initial power up, the title track from Steely Dan’s Aja gave me a place to start. Like I said, nice. Revisiting the track an hour later is a revelation, and there is some hidden musical treasure in this overplayed classic that instantly surfaces. Layer upon layer is rendered and all the spatial cues from the meticulous studio production melts the listening room walls away. The illusion of musical reality is vivid and convincing.

Conventional wisdom might suggest that pairing a $3,000 amplifier with a pair of $120,000 speakers might be madness. And it might with a lot of $3,000 amplifiers. Maybe even $30,000 amplifiers, yet the DGA delivers one of the most musically involving performances I’ve ever heard from the Stellas.

The DGA takes a few minutes to come fully up to operating temperature, and you’ll see the bias current going up during the process. Hickman suggests that both tubes bias be set as close as possible to each other. He makes it easy for even the uninitiated, with a digital readout on the top panel. All you need is a jewelers screwdriver and a steady hand. Once the amplifier has been powered up for an hour, check the readout and make sure both tubes read 60. A breeze.

The big difference

While most SET amplifiers deliver brilliant midrange, they fall short (sometimes dramatically short) when called upon to play complex or overly dynamic music. Great for Jacintha, not so much for Slayer. Some of them really hum, due to inferior design and parts quality. The DGA is so quiet, it takes full advantage of every bit of power delivered. As the music emerges from such a silent background it appears louder. Remember what you perceive as volume is the delta between loud and quiet. No background hum or noise, feels a lot louder than having the music dithered by noise.

I never wanted my playlist of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Aphex Twin tracks to end. The DGA has massive bass grip and texture, making this kind of music come truly alive. When was the last time you heard deep, defined, growly bass that made your pants flap via an SET? Via a tube amplifier for that matter? An equal amount of fun was had with a pair of even more sensitive Klipsch La Scalas, resulting in a long set of classic rock causing a few neighbors to give me the evil eye. Oh well.

The result derived from the LaScalas, Pure Audio Project Trios and the mighty Focals, though expressed differently, retain the core musicality that the DGH delivers. It has a level control for those wanting the ultimate simplicity, but I preferred the more fleshed out rendition when the Nagra Classic preamplifier (with outboard power supply) delivered.

The Whammer delivers pristine examples of all the audiophile descriptors that are so easily tossed about in reference to far lesser products. It’s reproduction of fine detail combined with such a clean distortion free and coloration free tonality will redefine what you think reproduced music is capable of. This amplifier reveals so much tonal contrast and saturation, hours will fly by as you track through your favorites. Where some of today’s best audio products can only offer a short amount of engagement, with fatigue or boredom creeping in after a few tracks, the Whammerdyne DGA is a cure for audiophile ADD.

It totally rocks

An exceptional value award really isn’t enough. If the Whammerdyne DGA had a Wavac or Gold Note badge on it, you’d be looking at a $100,000 price tag. And you’d pay it happily. Your audiophile friends would visit your audio den from the far reaches of the globe and get down on their knees and pray to it and tell you what incredible insight you have.

But this baby only costs $3,000. Add another few hundred bucks for having upgraded output transformers (which my review sample does not have) and a little more for a pair of NOS 2A3 output tubes (which my review sample does have).

I could neither have written this review, nor fully appreciated just what the Whammerdyne DGA delivers when I began this magazine. But I can assuredly say that after almost 1000 product reviews, this is as good as it gets. If you have sufficiently sensitive speakers, one of the Whammerdyne amplifiers will take you straight to audio heaven – on the express elevator. That Whammerdyne can build one of the world’s finest SET amplifiers for $20k is amazing. That they can give you the essence of their flagship for $3,000 is a sheer miracle.

Best of all, it’s not out of reach of any music lover. With a wider palette of high efficiency speakers available these days, you might want to revisit just what a few of the right watts per channel can do. This is the best of the best.

The Whammerdyne DGA 1

MSRP:  $3,000

www.whammerdyne.com

Analog Source Grand Prix Audio Parabolica /TriPlanar arm/Koetsu Jade Platinum

Digital Source dCS Vivaldi ONE

Preamplifier Nagra Classic w/Nagra VPS power supply

Speakers Focal Stella Utopia EM

Cable Cardas Clear

Building on the success of their Neo 380D DAC, Simaudio went back to the drawing board, creating the MOON 390 from the ground up, offering a perfect combination of flexibility and sonic performance that we’ve come to expect from this great Canadian company.

Thanks to an onboard phono stage and a streaming DAC (that is also a ROON endpoint) you are covered, no matter how you like to listen. This perfection starts at $5,300.

The biggest difference here between the 390, the 380D and the popular ACE is that the MOON 390 is a line level component only. You must add your own power amplifier to complete the system, but that is part of the fun!

Those wanting the modern functionality of an AV receiver, but only require a 2 channel environment, the 390 feels right at home and provides the latest HDMI specs with 4 HDMI inputs and one output (video pass-through/switching only. No video processing). The video works flawlessly and produces great sounding stereo for both TV and movies, without needing 5+ channels.

Digital music lovers can enjoy maximum flexibility with two ethernet ports, three USB inputs, TOSLINK, and AES-EBU inputs. unbalanced and balanced inputs and outputs, along with an MM/MC phono stage, an on board headphone amplifier for personal audio enthusiasts, anchored by a very capable preamplifier. It’s nice to see traditional audiophile companies adopting the latest AV functionality to their components, and with the 390 Simaudio has gone “all in.”

Listening/Enjoying

With an original 380D on hand for comparison, it is easy to see the progress made in the 390. The 390 sounds similar to the 380 right out of the box, but after about 48 hours of constant play, it comes into its own. The expanded input options allowed enjoying formats previously avoided. One killer feature with the provided HDMI board is the ability to decode a native DSD bitstream from SACD, for those that still have a large collection of SACDs and other disc-based media.

Connecting an Oppo UDP 205 to the 390 via it’s HDMI input, allows the ability to go back to untouched SACDs and DVD-A discs, providing long listening sessions more closely akin to vinyl than digital in both sound and experience. The SACDs of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blueand Chet Baker’s Chetwere so lifelike that it made me wonder why I ever ceased listening to the format. This may mean having to actually walk over to the player and drop in a shiny silver disc, but it’s a forgotten ritual that tends to yield a more focused and enjoyable listening experience than mere streaming.

Moving to the provided built-in phono stage with a Rega P5, I went exploring through some vinyl favorites that have been skipped since selling my external tube phono preamplifier a few months back. The sound of Louis Armstrong’s Satchmo Plays King Oliverwas clean, detailed and dead quiet, somewhere on par with the performance of their 110 LP phono preamplifier. Thanks to the flexibility of the 390 it never limits your format choices and you don’t have to choose between convenience and ritual.

Convenience and sound

Easy as the 390 is to use, it never compromises sound quality for convenience. With TIDAL and Simaudio’s MiND app ready, a world of music is instantly available at your disposal. Through the 390 and MiND, even basic 16/44 CD quality provides a lush soundstage with a natural sound that checks off nearly box one would want from a great DAC. Dense, detailed, warm/musical, and enjoyable at every note. With sound this good in this price range, one might even feel guilty about somehow getting away with the steal of the century. Each successive track compels me to linger a little longer rather than skip around.

With the ease of the 390/MiND combo and TIDAL’s vast collection, there is much more music to be had. The MQA Master of “The Angel of Doubt” from the latest Punch Brothers album All Ashore starts rather subdued, but eventually builds into a bluegrass vocal rap that shows off both the diverse talent of Chris Thile & Co. and just how well the 390 can translate a more subtle track like this. The opening gentle mandolin plucking, whispered vocals, and silent spaces provide the perfect contrast to the more forceful vocal tongue twisting ending. On this track, the 390 provides plenty of low-end authority with the acoustic bass while allowing the vocals to remain clear and separate over the top.

Pushing the 390 a little more, “The Dark” from the latest Thrice album Palms, delivers thundering toms and brooding guitars with enough space to hear how well the 390 can unpack even the most complex modern recordings. There’s plenty of air, detail, as well as bass extension as the track manically swings between the quieter verses and heavy chorus. The overall sound that the 390 produces reminds me again why the previous 380D DAC that the 390 builds on was such an amazing value. (you can read the original 380D TONE review here for additional listening reference: http://www.tonepublications.com/review/simaudio-neo-380d-dac/) It’s clear that Simaudio has eclipsed the already excellent 380D with their latest release.

While Simaudio continues to improve to their MiND app, it remains a weak point in the complete package. I eventually settled into its methods and quirks, but there’s definitely some room for improvement in overall ease of use and performance. Sound quality is exemplary, but I did experience issues with functionality and firmware upgrades in the context of my system. ROON users will not have this problem.

The Preamplifier

While it’s been a few years since I last auditioned the Moon by Simaudio 350P Preamplifier that the 390 is based on, it sounds every bit as enjoyable as I remember the 350P being. It’s detailed, with dead quiet backgrounds, punchy and controlled bass, speed, neutrality, and transparency… it is all there. It is amazing that Simaudio took the $3,700 Moon Neo 350p Preamplifier, the $6,100 380D DSD DAC, a good phono stage, a decent headphone amp, added modern HDMI connectivity/convenience along with the new MiND 2.0 network streaming unit, and gave it a $5,200 price tag. That’s progress.

Don’t forget the 10-year warranty, either.

With balanced XLR outputs as well as standard RCAs, the 390 is compatible with any power amplifier, new or old. Our publisher goes further into detail with this below, as I only had my Rogue Audio Stereo 100 for this review.

The bottom line

If you already own a previous generation 380D DAC, you’ll be happy to know that your award winning component is still great. However, those wanting a component that can decode analog and digital files, with a preamplifier and headphone amp built in, consider the new MOON 390. Simaudio has put so much of their top level components in to a single chassis, it’s equally worthy of one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2019. – Brian Gage

Additional listening

Having had the pleasure of reviewing nearly 30 Simaudio components since we started TONE, owning a few, and visiting the factory a couple of times – I can speak with confidence that I have some seat time with this brand.

Comparing the sound quality to that of Simaudio’s most expensive components, it’s easy to see where the technology has trickled down, and strategically, where costs have been cut to meet a budget target. First, the casework, while still machined in house and of excellent quality, is simpler in execution, but you still get three color choices: silver, black, or silver and black. The remote is stripped down in functionality and plastic instead of the coolio billet one that comes with the 800 series components. All excellent choices to put the money where it will do the most – inside.

Sonically, the MOON 390 feels similar in tonality and general dynamics to the top components. Again, because it lacks the massive power supply from their reference series, the 390 lacks the ultimate dynamic heft and low level resolution of the five-figure Simaudio components.

However, in the context of a number of power amplifiers in the $3,000 – $12,000 range, I never felt that I was missing out on anything. While my personal bias leads to a slightly big warmer side of the tonal scale, I enjoyed the 390 the most with the Pass Labs XA25 class A solid state amplifier and the new PrimaLuna EVO 400 tube power amplifier. The good news is that the MOON 390 is very neutral tonally, so you can achieve whatever overall effect you desire by voicing the rest of your system accordingly.

I’ve never been a big fan of the MiND app, but being a long term ROON user, I’m not a fan of any of the others either. Like so many other third party music server apps, MiND falls down hardest with a large collection. Those not wanting to shell out the coin for a ROON subscription that don’t have huge music collections will probably be just fine.

Running the phonostage through a gamut of moderately priced phono cartridges, utilizing the Luxman PD-171A turntable (which costs more than the 390), I’ll stick my neck out and suggest that a cartridge in the $100 – $1,000 range will be an excellent match for the MM/MC stage that is on board.

In the end, Simaudio has raised the bar incredibly high for this type of component, and while the ACE has served me well for the last few years, I have to step up and purchase the 390 – I love the ability to choose power amplification. Highly recommended. – Jeff Dorgay

Listening to the intricate fretboard work of Bill Frisell on his Good Dog, Happy Man album, I’m reminded of three things: Frisell’s remarkable performance at the Montreal Jazz Festival a few years ago, how much the Persona B captures the essence of their top Persona 9H, and how incredible these little speakers are. Every Paradigm speaker carton has a logo proclaiming “Crafted in Canada.” The pride is justified.

The Paradigm Persona B is a perfect example of vertical design and production excellence. Utilizing the same Beryllium tweeter and a unique to this cabinet 6 ½” mid/woofer, the $7,000/pair Persona B brings the same sonic excellence of the flagship Persona 9H to smaller listening rooms and budgets. If the standard five shade color palette (white, silver, grey, 2 shades of black and a very nice dark blue metallic) isn’t enough, you can order any one of 18 additional “premium finishes” for an additional $1,050 per pair.

Considering the luxury auto grade finish on these speakers, this is an incredible bargain for someone wanting to customize their speakers more to their environment. You can usually never go wrong with black, white, or silver, (and the two other standard colors) but some listening rooms just beg for a spot of color. Congrats to Paradigm for recognizing the needs of their customers.

Paradigm raised the expectation for mega speakers upside down two years ago when they released their Persona series. Known for decades for producing incredibly high performance/high-value speakers at their facility in Toronto, their engineering team brought their creative force together to make a “cost no object” speaker. The result was the Persona 9H, tipping the scales at an incredibly modest $35,000/pair.

In a day where we have cost no object speakers from other manufacturers with $625k/pair price tags, this is indeed a breath of fresh air. The Persona 9H earned our “Speaker of the Year” back in issue 86, and justifiably so. Centered around Paradigm’s own Beryllium drivers, this 3 ½ way incorporates 4 woofers, powered by a pair of 700-watt amplifiers and Anthem Room Correction to optimize the low-frequency response.

Not everyone has room for this

For those craving the level of musical accuracy that the flagship Persona delivers, but perhaps in a smaller room, Persona B is an outstanding and far less expensive choice. Pretty much for the price of a pair of Persona 9Hs, you could build an entire system. Even less if you choose the Anthem STR integrated amplifier and a great turntable of your choice.

We did just that in our 13 x 15-foot room to tremendous success, combining the $4,000 Technics SL-1200G, a $750 Hana SL cartridge, and some Cardas Clear Light speaker cables. The entire system cost is just over $20k, and we defy you to build a tidier system offering more capability than this. Many different amplifiers from ARC, Esoteric, Gold Note, Pass, and PrimaLuna were all tried with the Persona Bs to excellent effect, but the bulk of our review listening was done with the STR in-house. That way, you can easily stop by your Paradigm/Anthem dealer and hear what we are talking about.

However, rest assured, thanks to the 92db/1 watt sensitivity, these speakers will jam with any amplifier you have without issue. We even used the Persona Bs with the 20 watt per channel Nagra 300B amp and the Coincident Dynamo amplifier (only 8 watts per channel!). Both provided way more dynamic range than necessary to make ears buzz!

Room friendly

The Persona Bs definitely pass the “just throw them in the room and see how they sound test,” thanks to their fairly wide dispersion characteristics in the vertical and horizontal planes. However, the basic rules of stand mount speakers still not only apply but will give you even better performance. A little careful attention to the speaker rake when you’ve optimized them in the room for the best bass/midrange balance will give them that last bit of magic, and open up the soundstage significantly.

These are high-performance speakers, so pay attention to setup, and you will be rewarded. If you don’t choose the Paradigm B-29 stands made specifically for the Persona B and Prestige 15B speakers, at $600 each, use the most massive stands that you can, and be sure to use something sticky (like BluTack) to improve the speaker cabinet to stand interface. This will wring every last molecule of available bass out of the Persona Bs. The advantage to the Paradigm stands is twofold – the factory stands screw right into the speakers, and they offer the best aesthetic match as well.

We were all very impressed with how much bass these speakers can generate, zooming through our favorite EDM and electronica tracks. A little room gain goes a long way with the Persona B, and those in small to medium rooms may not be clamoring for a sub at all.

There was plenty of fun to be had listening to Aphex Twin, and the bass extension at our disposal proved fantastic and engaging. Briefly bouncing back to the 80s, a quick spin of Thomas Dolby’s Aliens Ate My Buick (full of synth bass funk grooves) ended with the George Clinton classic, “Hot Sauce.” Which of course led to at least another hour of the real deal – Clinton’s Maggot Brain had us all bouncing around the listening room, finishing with the massive bass line in George Michael’s “Hard Day.”

Because the Persona B is a two-way system with both the tweeter and mid/bass driver being beryllium, there’s a consistent voice that comes from all drivers being the same material. Transient attack and decay are perfectly uniform, making these speakers act more like a single driver.

Beyond bass

Much as we love bass, the Persona Bs paint a large sonic picture that could easily be mistaken for a big pair of ESLs. (where do you think that came from?) Instantly disappearing in the room, listening to Keith Jarrett’s “I’m Old Fashioned” comes alive via the Persona Bs. The timbral accuracy of these speakers is nothing less than stunning.

At this point in the review process, I’ve brought them out into the main 15 x 26 foot living room and have made them a part of my central system, with a pair of Pass Labs XA200.8 monoblocks and a full Pass XS Preamp/XS Phono chain of electronics, with the $45,000 Grand Prix Audio Monaco table and Koetsu Jade Platinum cartridge.

The point of putting a $7,000 pair of speakers in a system that’s worth more than my house? To show just how much music they can deliver. Many speakers at this price point (and some well beyond) sound great with your favorite $5,000 amplifier – no shame in that. Yet, when you make them an integral part of a system with much higher performance, they can’t really resolve the delta. Not here.

Bottom line: the only limitation to how much sound the Persona B can deliver will be the ultimate volume of your room and the quality of the electronics you pair them with. At that point, your only real question is, do you want to go up to a bigger Persona model to get more low end.

As we did with the top of the range Persona 9H, the Persona B is more than worthy of our last Exceptional Value Award for 2018. Perhaps even more, because so many more people can budget $7,000 for a pair of speakers than those that can spend $35,000. Everything comes together to perfection here: sound quality, ease of use and finish are all world class. Because Paradigm has such a significant scale of economy, you can have a $30,000 pair of speakers for $7,000. Very highly recommended.

The Paradigm Persona B

www.paradigm.com

MSRP:  $7,000/pair in standard colors, premium finish about $1,000 more

Peripherals

Digital Source                          dCS Rossini DAC/Clock

Analog Source                         Grand Prix Audio Monaco 1.5/Koetsu Jade Platinum

Preamplifier                            Pass XS Pre

Phono Pre                                Pass XS Phono

Power Amplifiers                  Pass XA200.8 Monoblocks

Cable                                        Tellurium Q Silver Diamond

Power                                       PS Audio P20 regenerator, w/Cardas Clear Beyond power cables

Racks                                       Grand Prix Audio Monaco

It’s tough to get everything, but it’s a great feeling when you do.

Over the last few years, high performance integrated amplifiers keep increasing in popularity – and for good reason. Space is at a premium, and many music lovers just don’t want to buy a rack full of gear. As a master of justification, here’s my favorite reason to buy an Anthem STR: the cost of four mid-grade power cords from a legitimate cable company, and three sets of decent interconnects from the same will set you back more than the cost of an STR. And you still don’t have a damn stereo system! Yikes.

For $4,499 the STR gives you a great MM/MC phonostage, a high res DAC, fully functioning preamplifier, a 200 watt per channel power amplifier, and built in Anthem Room Correction (ARC), which is one of the best in the business. How awesome is that? One great power cord, a pair of speaker cables, your favorite turntable, should you be vinyl-inclined, a great pair of speakers and you’re rocking for under $10k. And should you up the budget a bit more to incorporate even better speakers, you’re rocking with the big boys.

So much fun, where to begin?

You’re either for or against room correction, depending on which doctrine you choose to follow. Purists can bypass ARC completely, choosing Anthem’s Analog Direct option. This will switch all ARC and bass management out of the system. However, you might want to consider just trying it, even if the idea of introducing something digital into the signal path makes you bristle. It’s great. Don’t tell your friends, don’t tell anyone that you’re secretly enjoying it. But it’s really good.

Those of you following the “I just want great sound, regardless of what it takes to get there” doctrine, follow me, this is easy. It was super easy for me, because Anthem’s always affable Rob Sample came over with his Windows laptop and set the Pro version of ARC up for me. There are three levels of ARC at your disposal, mobile (Android or iOS), automatic, and professional. ARC Mobile now works with both Android and iOS but you will need an external OTG USB adapter (not included) for Android phones. iOS devices don’t require the included mike, but you can connect the mike with a 3.5mm jack if you choose. Congratulations to Anthem for making this step.

The Pro version of ARC transformed my 13 x 15 foot listening room, sporting a pair of Raidho X-1s and a pair of REL T7i subwoofers beyond my ability to set them up, delivering a much cleaner midband, better low level detail, and smoother, more solid bass response. Impressive. Don’t shy away from ARC if you only have an iPhone, even the easy version gets you awfully close. I was impressed at just how well even the basic version of ARC works. This also made it incredibly easy to use with a number of other speakers at my disposal, and all delivered equally enticing results, to the point that I couldn’t imagine not using ARC.

You can store four separate speaker settings that you’ve run ARC on. You may not need this one, but it sure made this review easy! The STR allows you to run in single or stereo subwoofer mode, instructing ARC accordingly. Because the REL subs work as an extension of your main speakers, I just ran ARC with no sub in the mix with excellent results. However should you be running a MartinLogan, Paradigm, JL or other subwoofer that runs on a line level input, I suggest going right into the amplifier.

Finally, the STR has the best user manual ever. Especially for a device this complicated. No matter how much you resist reading owners manuals, I can’t stress reading this one highly enough, especially if you want to use your STR to the full extent of its capabilities.

Vinylistic

Unlike a number of integrateds and preamplifiers, the STR offers separate MM and MC inputs, so in theory, you can use it with a pair of turntables, or a two-armed turntable – another example of forward thinking. The MM input offers 35db of gain with standard 47k loading and the MC 55db of gain with a 100 ohm load. This won’t accommodate every single MC out there, but it gives you more than enough choices.

The phono signal goes through the all analog RIAA filter and if you choose to use digital processing, it is then sampled and processed at 32bit/192khz resolution through the high quality, on-board ADC. For those that will freak out over their analog signal being digitized, merely select “no” in the “Convert Analog” menu option. Then it all stays analog. As all of the inputs are virtual, with up to 30 virtual inputs allowed, you can play with this to your hearts content, selecting between an MC analog and MC digital (or whatever you can think up) input to compare and contrast. Fun!

Having a pair of new Technics SL-1200s at my disposal, one sporting an Ortofon 2M Bronze and the other, a Hana SL MC, excellent performance was achieved with both inputs. The phonostage is quiet, dynamic, and dimensional. Pressed to making a comparison, it’s on par with anything external you’ll find in the $500 – $900 range. And remember, you don’t have to buy another pair of interconnects or a mains cable!!

As it is with a sports car, it is with an integrated amplifier. Balance is the key component. Anthem hasn’t made any sacrifices here, nor does any aspect of this amplifier feel like it was just added on, or thrown in to make it a “me-too” product.

Does digital equally well

The STRs built in DAC handles all files from standard CD resolution up to 24/192 via coax and 32/384 via usb, as well as DSD up to 5.6448mhz. Not being a DSD disciple, I really couldn’t test this part of the DAC, but the high resolution selections played, via Power Book Pro and Qobuz were fantastic. Two RCA S/PDIF inputs, optical, AES/EBU and USB inputs assure that you should be able to connect nearly anything digital with great success.

In addition to playing digital files via Mac Book, an older OPPO player was pulled into service to use strictly as a transport, via the RCA input. Again, this is a fantastic solution for those still having a collection of shiny discs that they would like to continue using. As with the phonostage, the DAC is not the last word in digital performance, but it is on par with everything else presented, making the STR such a great hub for your music, no matter how you need to play it.

Power equals versatility

There are a few integrateds out there that sound a little sweeter than the STR, but most of them are pretty wimpy. 30 watts per channel doesn’t get you far with speaker choices. The STR has a massive, class-AB 200 watt per channel power amplifier, with an enormous power supply and output stage to match.

With the MartinLogan Classic ESL 9s still here, these proved an incredible match for the STR, especially considering that at $6,495 a pair, they do not include built in room correction for the woofers. If you’ve got room for panels, this is a system that will give you such a huge helping of money no object sound, you’ll be amazed. Much more power hungry than the ESL 9s, my vintage Magnepan Tympani 1Ds also worked well with the STR, thanks to its beefy power amplifier stage. Regardless of speaker choice, there was always more than enough dynamic range on tap. At more reasonable levels, this extra power translates into effortless transients and great low level performance as well.

The details that round out the picture

Combining top class performance with incredible versatility is more than enough to justify the price asked for the STR, as well as all the rave reviews it’s been racking up from reviewers and end users all over the world.

But beyond this, nearly every function of the STR is customizable. Everything can be adjusted within the menus, and easily labeled so you can keep track. The individual levels of each input can also be set, so there are no surprises when switching from turntable to digital sources.

You will find the menus in the STR logical and straightforward. All menus can be accessed via the remote, which is tastefully stripped down. It has enough weight to feel substantial, yet is not so overcrowded with buttons as to cause an ADD related panic attack. Well done Anthem for not giving us a kids meal remote with such a nice product.

The friendliest integrated ever

Even if you never head down the analog path, the STR is incredibly versatile. If I were nitpicking, it would be really handy if they did include a streamer component – that’s the only thing keeping it from being 100% perfect. Our Naim Atom is a Roon Ready component and in a house and studio environment that gets all its music served thusly, it’s nice to have all components exist within one music data infrastructure. In all fairness, this wouldn’t stop me from purchasing an STR.

If you want an integrated amplifier that delivers major audiophile performance, sounds great, and offers major flexibility, this is the one you want. Designed and built in Canada, Anthem components have a long reputation for being rock solid, so if you do all the firmware updates, you just might be handing this one down to your kids.

And if your love of all things audiophile grow beyond the on- board capabilities of the DAC and phonostage, the STR alone without those two sections is still a value way beyond it’s $4,499 price tag, so should the upgrade bug hit you, this would certainly be the last component I’d replace in the chain. Even when driving speakers in the $20k-$30k range, the STR is not outclassed.

The Anthem STR Integrated Amplifier

$4,499

www.anthemav.com

Peripherals

Analog Sources           Technics SL-1200G, Technics SL-1200GR

Digital Sources                        OPPO 205 and MacBook Pro, Tidal and Qobuz OS

Speakers                     Pure Audio Project Horn15, Raidho X-1 w/2-REL t7i, MartinLogan ESL 9, Magnepan Tympani 1D, Quad 2812, Acoustat 1+1, Focal Sopra no.3, Klipsch Forte III

Cable                           Cardas Clear

Power                          PS Audio P20

Switching from the delicate, quirky vocals in Bjork’s latest, to Keith Jarrett’s classic The Koln Concert, to the pounding beats in High Contrast’s Night Gallery, through the new Magnepan .7 speakers, I realize I haven’t heard a moderate power tube amplifier offer up this level of sheer grip since the legendary Audio Research D79.

75 watts per channel? Magnepans? Is this an alternate universe? Nope. This amplifier cranks it out. Honestly, the REF 75SE offers so much sonic heft, the power meters barely move when paired to the Raidho X-1s, even at high volume, but the Magnepans make the REF 75SE work, using up all the available power on tap at high volume. The result is brilliant with both configurations.

Firing up the Audio Research REF 75SE for the first time, the amplifier is pleasant, but not OMG. However, like all ARC products, the REF 75SE needs some time on the clock to give it’s all. ARC suggests 600 hours of playing time, and while past REF components required close to this, even after the 50 and 100-hour mark has passed, the magic happens in earnest. OMG arrives between 300 and 600 hours, as with every other ARC REF component.

Talk to a fan of Audio Research, and the REF moniker often conjures up visions of the massive REF 750SE monoblocks; towering beasts that require palettes of power tubes at the ready for when the need to retube strikes. With a much more extensive selection of speakers offering a sensitivity rating above 90db/1 watt these days, not all of us need 750 watts per channel or even 250, but the desire for the resolution that the REF series provides is always welcome.

Some Audio Research aficionados admit in a hushed tone that the REF 75SE, with its single pair of KT150 output tubes per channel, is the sweetest creation in the lineup. That’s tough to call, without having them all right here for direct comparison, but considering our road trip with the Minnesota based amplifier company goes back multiple decades, we’ll try our best.

The $10,000 price tag on the REF 75SE, puts an entire REF based system in reach of a broader audience in many ways, and not just financially. A single power amplifier means less rack space and less wear on your back. Weighing in at only 47 pounds, the 75SE is a REF you can get your arms around!

A legacy to live up to

For this writer, the comparison doesn’t immediately go to the other amplifiers in the REF lineup, but the legendary D-79, which I’m equally familiar with and still own. It’s big power meters on the front panel bring back warm, fuzzy memories right away. A few hundred hours of run in time take the REF 75SE from really good to “oh my goodness.” No disrespect to the big REFs, but this amplifier has an appealing palpability to it that will make you a tube lover if you aren’t already part of the club.

Where a few past ARC designs were voiced with a leaner sound by comparison to this amplifier, (which might have you guessing whether there were transistors under the cover) the current REF series pulls it back slightly. The GS150 that was our Product of the Year back in 2016 has a warmer, more saturated tonal balance than the REF75SE, and that amplifier is a one of a kind – there is no lineup of GS series amplifiers to compare to. The GS is almost more vintage like in sound – you could almost think of the GS as two cups classic/vintage ARC sound mixed with one cup of current ARC sound, while the REF 75SE is two cups current ARC combined with one cup vintage. Both are fantastic, but if the last generation of REF amps left you a bit cold and the GS proved “too vintage” for your taste, the REF 75SE will be your perfection.

The 75SE is the epitome of the breed, perhaps because it is a simpler circuit, with a single pair of output tubes. Switching back and forth repeatedly between the D-79 and the REF 75SE is enlightening. The older amplifier, with its massive power supply and output transformers, feels as if it has more ultimate heft than the REF 75SE, yet the longer you listen, the current amplifier is cleaner, faster and more resolving across the scale. In many respects after decades of building world-class tube amplifiers, ARC knows better where to pound the nail.

Great as the D-79 is, a side by side comparison reveals the older amplifier, while still excellent, even by today’s standards, does not reveal as much music. Whether you prefer that presentation is up to you, but I’m guessing that if you have a modern, high-performance pair of loudspeakers and similar components, you’ll appreciate what ARC has built here. And the new amplifier incorporates everything that has made ARC great.

Deeper tracks

Listening to a series of familiar jazz tracks from Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, and Lee Morgan, the 75SE presents acoustic instruments in a natural, tonally correct way, with the right amount of attack, decay, and presence to convince you that you are listening to the real thing. This presentation does not vary when switching between Focal, MartinLogan, Graham, Raidho or Magnepan speakers. Each one of these speakers retains its own personality if you will, but as a listener, you don’t bounce back and forth between rows in the hall.

One of the toughest parts of the musical spectrum for tube power amplifiers to reproduce is the lowest register. More often than not, tube amplifiers don’t have that last bit of grip that the best solid-state amplifiers do, yet some solid-state designs can come across over damped at times. Hair-splitting for sure, yet the 75SE produces a hefty amount of bass extension, combined with control and definition. Listening to Jaco Pastorius tear up and down the fretboard on his self-titled album, the 75SE gives an exciting and engaging performance, full of low bass grunt, combined with the harmonics of Pastorius’ complicated technique.

At the other end of the frequency spectrum, the 75SE is equally detailed and nuanced, with an enormous soundstage painted in all three directions. Music played through the 75SE takes on a delicate, airiness that is the hallmark of tube gear – and ARC is definitely one of the masters of the craft.

What sets the 75SE apart from the larger, more powerful REF amplifiers is the subtle balance of microdynamics, pace, and delicate musical texture. The most complicated musical selections come alive in a way that most big amplifiers can not muster. Again, the big REF amplifiers create a sense of dynamic that the small amplifier does not, so you need to know what you value most.

A perfect partner for the right system

Combined with speakers like Focal Sopras, Wilson Sophias, or something else with a sensitivity rating of 91db/1-watt or higher, you may never need a bigger amplifier than the REF 75SE, especially if you do not possess a huge room. The 75SE combined with the Sonus faber Guarneri Tradition speakers ($16,500/pair) in our 13 x 15-foot room is lovely.

Adding a REF 6 preamplifier and a REF Phono 3 along with a fantastic $10k-$30k pair of speakers combined with a source or two puts an entire system in your reach for $50k – $80k that will leave you wanting for nothing. Again, your mileage may vary. If you have inefficient speakers, a big room, or you must listen at punishing sound pressure levels, this is not the droid you want.

Audio Research has built a compact version of their top line REF series amplifiers that sacrifices nothing sonically to their biggest amplifiers and has put it in reach of a broader audience. For music lovers that crave the best, yet have to keep somewhat of an eye on the bottom line, this is a dream come true.

The Audio Research REF75SE

MSRP:  $10,000

www.audioresearch.com

Peripherals

Digital Source                         dCS Rossini DAC and Clock

Analog Source                        Grand Prix Audio Monaco 2.0/Triplanar/Lyra Etna

Phono Stage                            ARC REF Phono 3, Pass XS Phono

Preamplifier                             ARC REF 6, Pass XS Pre

Speakers                                  Raidho X-1/REL T7is, Focal Sopra no.3/REL 212SEs

Cable                                       Cardas Clear, Tellurium Q Silver Diamond

HiFi reviewers and enthusiasts often talk about “analog magic,” but that term is seldom if ever used when discussing digital gear. Considering the progress made in the digital arena, it’s somewhat puzzling. I submit the Brinkmann Nyquist has magic, in spades.

Joni Mitchell’s voice (and self-backing vocals) in her classic “Car on a Hill” are smooth and scrumptious. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I was listening to vinyl – and that’s the point.

Some of us have been arguing about the validity of digital versus analog for about 35 years now. Granted, those first compact disc players sounded pretty harsh, but things have come a long way since then. Despite the sniping of analog aficionados, digital designers keep improving the breed, and though often fashionable to bash digital, it’s pretty damn good.

On one level, who better to make an incredible digital to analog converter than a man who makes great turntables? Helmut Brinkmann is that man. I’ve been using his Bardo turntable (with optional RoNT power supply) for over a year now and couldn’t be happier with it – deciding to purchase the review sample took all of about 30 seconds worth of listening.

Mr. Brinkmann’s DAC is equally engaging and impressive, even more, when the tubes stabilize thermally – usually about 30 minutes. Prepare to be impressed. Really impressed. The Beatle’s “Penny Lane” begins this magical mystery tour, as it’s a well-worn demo favorite. McCartney’s bass line comes through with an unmistakable strength – the pace is fantastic. The sonic picture presented is so natural, it reminds me of the Bardo/Koetsu Jade Platinum combination, which offers an equally organic experience. The music escapes the speakers with a level of depth, texture and ease not reached by the other digital hardware in my three listening rooms.

Say What?

I’ve been intrigued with mega-digital playback for over a decade now, and as much progress continues to be made in the analog world, I’m equally stunned at what the world’s finest audio engineering minds continue to extract from the 16/44.1 files that we’ve all been told are unacceptable. DSD and high res PCM files are certainly intriguing when the content lives up to the hype, but really, how many albums in DSD format do you own? 50? 100? 3?  Me too. The few hundred albums in high-resolution format reside on my NAS, still compete with about 12 thousand CDs ripped over decades, and thousands more streaming from TIDAL.

The Nyquist unfolds MQA files and is a ROON endpoint, so there is no digital scenario you are unprepared for. There’s nothing worse than a five-figure component requiring excuses. None are necessary with the Brinkmann Nyquist.

The Nyquist does a fantastic job decoding high resolution, audiophile files. If that is your quest, you will not be disappointed in the least, but if you are a music fan wanting maximum musicality out of your legacy digital collection, I suspect you’ll value the Nyquist even more.

The ins and outs

The Nyquist offers inputs for every digital source imaginable: Toslink optical, RCA/SPDIF, XLR-AES/EBU, USB, and Ethernet. With a combination of a Mac Book Pro, OPPO 205, dCS Rossini and even a Sony PlayStation, rest assured the Nyquist works well with anything you can throw at it. After auditioning a number of transport options, the bulk of my listening was done via the Ethernet connection and a 12TB QNAP NAS.

Again, thanks to the Nyquist being Roon compatible, it makes combining the digital files in your library, with anything you’d like to seek out via TIDAL (or whatever music streaming service you happen to use) a seamless experience. Thanks to the Nyquist being a single box solution, a plethora of extra cables aren’t required. Balanced XLR and single-ended RCA outputs are also available and have no issues driving 30 feet of interconnects so that you can place the Nyquist on a rack with the rest of your gear, or in a remote location with ease.

A wide range of inputs and outputs is one thing, but there’s more. The Nyquist is a modular DAC so that it can be easily upgraded as technologies change, and in essence, future proof. This is an excellent thing when you are spending $18,000 on a DAC. For my money, there are too many expensive DACs built around a fixed architechture. The Nyquist’s modular design is field-upgradable, making  it a much safer bet as a long term digital investment.

Finally, the Nyquist has a level control to help match its gain to your other sources, and it acts as a full volume control for the built-in headphone amplifier. More on that later.

The MQA issue

Some will (and have) argue that the Nyquist lacks the final few molecules of resolution that the top dogs from dCS, Gryphon, and MSB offer. That may be true, and again this is a complete matter of personal taste. None of these other DACs are rubbish in any sense, yet the Nyquist has a way of pulling you in just a little bit further, allowing your fussy audiophile gland to shut off that much quicker. It’s almost hard to describe this complete lack of fatigue that the Nyquist offers.

There is a fairly high amount of vitriol in the discussions surrounding MQA these days, so I tip my hat to Mr. Brinkmann for including MQA capability on the Nyquist. Grooving on David Byrne’s latest, (In MQA) American Utopia sounds inviting, though I have no non – MQA file to compare it to. Unlike a few DACs I’ve tried that make audible clicks, or pause when switching between resolutions, the Nyquist fluidly skates between formats effortlessly, with no audible glitches. Personally, I fear that the MQA format is misunderstood, (and that’s all the further I’ll go down this rabbit hole) so as a big TIDAL/Roon user, I’m glad I can stream MQA on the Nyquist. All of the MQA files played sounded fantastic.

Awesome 16/44.1 performance

Thanks to what amounts to a separate DSD decoding section, DSD files are not converted to PCM in the Nyquist. DSD and high-resolution PCM files are handled separately and with equally high fidelity, as you would expect with an $18,000 DAC. But again, cool as that is, the Nyquist does such an incredible job with standard CD-quality digital files, this is what will keep you in the listening chair for days on end.

CD quality files played through the Nyquist offer the same analog-like ease and presence that high-resolution files do. So much so, that it was tough to tell at times what I was listening to. I can’t think of higher praise for a DAC. Taking this approach a step further, streaming performance of low-quality 320kb/sec files sound better than they have a right to. The lack of air, dynamics, and tonal richness inherent in these files is well managed in the Nyquist.

Finishing touches

The Nyquist would stand on its own, even if it were just a premium DAC for $18k, but it’s streaming capabilities make it an incredible value proposition. Mr. Brinkmann takes this further, including a massive granite base to place under the Nyquist as well as a high-quality power cord – the kind you’d probably pay a third-party vendor at least a thousand dollars for. Brinkmann suggests plugging the Nyquist directly into the AC line, eschewing power conditioning. He’s never steered me wrong in the past, so that’s how we played it for this review; directly into the AC line with zero regrets.

Personal audio fans will appreciate that the Nyquist includes a top-notch headphone amplifier as part of the package. We’ve been reviewing a number of top headphone amplifiers; and feel the one built into the Nyquist delivers such a high level of performance you will never need an outboard headphone amplifier.

Finally, this all comes wrapped in a single box solution (other than the outboard power supply) which doesn’t require a loom of cables to go about its business. If you have room for a two-four box design that a few other manufacturers offer, no worries, however, if you want high performance only requiring a single rack space, the efficiency of the Nyquist cannot be ignored. Oh yeah, it has a transparent glass top too, so those of you that appreciate the sheer beauty of the internal design can bask in it, daily.

Keep in mind for your reference; my own bias is for overall system balance to be ever so slightly on the warm/natural/neutral side of straight-up neutral. I like as much detail as I can get without the overall presentation getting harsh, yet I crave as much warmth as possible before things become slow, or sloppy. Tracking through the original Chicago Transit Authority, the enormous sonic landscape painted is tremendous, with a smoothness to the layers of drums and percussion incredible.

So it goes with Brinkmann’s Nyquist; named after the famous digital engineer Harry Nyquist. This elegantly built DAC has a sound, unlike any other DAC I’ve heard – it’s more analog. Using a pair of new old stock Telefunken PCF803 tubes for the output stage, which Brinkmann claims “were built to last ten years in color TV applications,” should last even longer in the Nyquist. A quick search on eBay reveals these tubes to be very inexpensive, so I’d suggest buying a matched set from your Brinkmann dealer so that you are prepared. Long life be damned, we both know you’re going to lose a tube on Friday night, just when you planned on a weekend’s worth of listening. Be a good Eagle Scout, buy a spare set and rest prepared.

If after all these years, digital has still left you slightly cold, I assure you the Brinkmann Nyquist will not. It offers top digital performance for about what you’d pay for one of Mr. Brinkmann’s Bardo turntables with a top phono cartridge. But you never know, a few days listening to the Nyquist and you might not even want to be bothered spinning those black discs! It’s that engaging.

The Brinkmann Audio Nyquist DAC

MSRP:$18,000

www.brinkmann-usa.com

Peripherals

Preamplifier                Pass Labs XS Pre

Power Amplifier         Pass Labs XA200.8 monoblocks

Speakers                       Focal Sopra no.3 w/(2)REL 212SE Subwoofers

Cable                             Cardas Clear and Tellurium Q Black Diamond

Vibration                     Grand Prix Audio Monaco Racks

Canadian audiophiles from the Kelowna/Vernon side…

HiFi Attic will be hosting a music demo with B&W, AudioQuest and Bluesound this Friday the 13th at their Vernon store from 3:00 – 9:00pm, with lots of music and prizes. They are located at 3108 30th Ave in Vernon. They will have a similar event the following day at their Kelowna store, located at 1292 Ellis Street.

Stop by, take a listen and tell them we sent you!

Though the 1200 is the world’s most ubiquitous turntable, with legions of followers around the world, ask many a 1200 fan/owner/aficionado what turntable they most covet and the answer will be “An SP-10.”

Like everything else cool, vintage, and in short supply, used SP-10s are climbing up the chart as fast as air cooled Porsche 911s. If you want the Singer Porsche equivalent in SP-10 world, look no further than the folks at Artisan Fidelity. Their rebuilds combined with plinths that are out of this world gorgeous, will impress you if an SP-10 is your grail.

But some of us don’t like vintage, no matter how well executed. Some of us want brand new. Two years ago, when the new versions of SP-1200s were introduced, (and I bought two of them) there were whispers in dark hallways that perhaps an SP-10 replacement was in the works as well.

The future is here turntable lovers. And it’s beautiful beyond expectation. But don’t expect to see one soon. We were lucky to have an hour listening session, courtesy of the folks at Audio Vision San Francisco, before their guests were to arrive for the evenings festivities, with Technics.

Yes, yes, we can all play the “it’s not my system, so I can’t hear things properly” card, or we can get down to listening. After all, if someone flips you the keys to your favorite car or motorbike and tells you to have a go for an hour, you don’t refuse? Do you? And besides, Antonio, Randy, and Chris always have great sound in their rooms, so it’s no big.

Flipping through a handful of tracks from current MoFi tracks, including the spectacular Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach collaboration, all the way to a super clean copy of Ohio Players’ Honey, via a new Ortofon A90 cartridge, it’s easy to get a read. Yes, it’s incredibly good. The sound is massive, as you would expect from a great direct drive table, yet elegant and full of nuance in a way that the 1200G is not. That’s what you pay the extra $14,000, for.

The new SP-1200G and the less expensive GR are both fantastic turntables at $4,000 and $1,600 respectively. The SP-10R is a fantastic turntable period, and this writer feels it’s a major bargain at $18,000, with tonearm. Especially compared to most of the tables in the $20k range. The SP-10 will also be available without plinth, and the ability to use up to three tonearms. We’ll post more as soon as we know final details.

Beyond the big, weighty, ultra-quiet sound, this table is a work of art. I’d buy one just for the impeccable build quality, even if I never played a record on it. But like the Magic Bus, I can’t have one. The backorders are piling up, and AVSF’s Antonio Long (one of the US’ largest Technics dealers) told us, “I’ve got four on order already and I might not get them all when the first shipment arrives in the US.”

While the design aesthetic is very similar to the original SP-10, the result is similar to the SL-1200. Place a Mk.II next to a new 1200G and the new one not only looks bespoke in comparison, but futuristic and retro all at the same time. It’s like those wacky episodes in Star Trek where the new Enterprise faces down the old one at the opening to a spatial anomaly.

If this table piques your interest as much as it does mine, get to your Technics dealer and place an order. Now. Hopefully, you will get one before the end of the year. I know I’m probably looking at a mid 2019 date on one for me. Crazy.

www.technics.com

www.audiovisionsf.com

I’ve never been to Portugal, and I had no idea they made amplifiers there. Our first experience with Audolici was earlier in the year with their AVP-01 phonostage, which proved lovely.

Staffer Rob Johnson spent a fair amount of time with the amplifier you see here, and his GamuT RS3s with only so-so results. I had a similar result with my Quad 2815s; ok but not enthralling the way you expect a tube amplifier to be. Oddly enough, the I50 is a dream combination with original Quad 57s. In the middle of all this, the new Martin Logan ESL9s arrived, as well as the Raidho X-1s. In addition to the Graham LS3/5s and the new Focal Kanta speakers already on hand, these four speakers are a major home run with the I50. To be fair to Audolici, (as it is with most tube amplifiers), the secret is in the synergy. Some speakers just don’t pair up as well as you’d like.

But when it’s right it’s really, really, right. Pairing the I50 with the MLs and the Raidho’s redefines the audiophile cliché “holographic.” Compared to my usual tube go to’s, the I50, with a quartet of KT120 power tubes create a multi-dimensional sound field, awash in size and nuance. This is the “tube sound” at its best. Now that the ECM catalog is available on TIDAL, tracking all the way through Keith Jarrett’s Sun Bear Concerts is a complete joy with the I50. It was amazing how fast six hours went by, sitting on the couch, editing photos. The ease by which this amplifier renders music is addicting.

The magic is in the details

Listening to a group of demo standards, the low-level detail revealed through the ESL9s is simply staggering. The sax in Soft Machine’s “Blind Badger” blares way out in front of the speakers with the drums flailing in the background and a rock-solid bass line. This amplifier does a fantastic job at keeping the musical pace intact; offering wide dynamic swings at the same time.

This refinement isn’t inexpensive. The I50 Swing will set you back $8,750, yet after extensive listening with a number of different speakers, it gets my nod of approval. There are a few other great tube amps for less money, but they lack the level of resolution that the Swing offers. Going back and forth repeatedly between my reference PrimaLuna DiaLogue HP Integrated, the Audio Research VSi75 and a Conrad Johnson Classic 62 paired with an updated PV-12, the CJ pair came the closest to the I50, but will set you back more dough and require more rack space. The PrimaLuna is the value/performance king, with more versatility, tube options and more raw power (93 watts per channel with a set of KT-150s), where the ARC and CJ offer different voices, different variations on the theme. It’s like trying to decide whether you want to buy an Audi, BMW, Mercedes, or Lexus. All good choices, but all unique in their own way.

Regardless of program material, the I50 keeps drawing me in with detail and resolution. Where some tube amplifiers win you over with a bit of euphony, making everything sound “pretty good,” the I50 treads into a territory that I feel is occupied by the worlds finest components in the sense that it offers high resolution without sounding harsh – that’s a narrow beam to traverse.

Further Listening

Corny as this might sound, what the I50 does best is its ability to extract more detail from a familiar recording than you are used to, enough to get you to that magical, a-ha place. It does it in a subtle way, allowing more of your favorite records that you thought didn’t sound great, actually do. The little things that add up, like the way the castanets in The Acid House King’s Music Sounds Better With You have their own space instead of being buried in the mix. My favorite Monkees tracks sound way better, and Skinny Puppy really rules through this amp. The list goes on and on – the I50 is one of those unicorn products that keeps you up way after hours, listening to one more track, then another, then another. Is there a measurement for that? I don’t think so. The more time you spend with the i50, the more you will appreciate its virtues.

In addition to a lovely midrange, incredible imaging, and outstanding detail, the bass extension and control that the I50 offers is spectacular. Tube amplifier aficionados know this is not an easy task for these amplifiers, and if there is a place where tube amplifiers fall flat it’s in the lowest register of the musical spectrum. Much fun as I was having revisiting my favorite Soft Machine tracks, the kettledrum in Aimee Mann’s “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” has spectacular punch and control as well.

There are two other versions of the I50, the Jazz, producing 40wpc with EL34 tubes or KT88 tubes, and the Blues producing 25 watts per channel with 6L6 tubes. I’ll stick my neck out and guess that these amplifiers are similar in result, yet produce more of a sonic signature in keeping with the respective output tubes. Unfortunately, the Swing does not have the option to swap output tubes. This is one area that I prefer the PrimaLuna. If you want to custom tune your amplifier’s personality, keep this in mind. However, if you are more monogamous in your sonic tastes, and don’t feel an incessant need to switch, hanging your hat on one of the i50 models will be just fine.

By the book

Keeping the design simple, the i50 uses solid-state components in the power supply, a pair of Russian driver tubes and two KT120s per channel. Driven in this configuration, tube life should be long, and not pushing the power tubes to the max, adds to the grain free sound. The i50 also uses an auto-bias configuration, so you will not have to worry about that aspect of vacuum tube operation either.

Front and back panels keep it clean and simple. Up front, there is a power switch, volume control and a push button that selects one of the two available inputs. Around back, we have a pair of single ended, RCA high level inputs, IEC power receptacle and a pair of those annoying plastic covered binding posts (for our safety, of course) that so many manufacturers have had to adopt for certification purposes. If you have speaker cables with large lugs, I suggest re-terminating to bananas – this will make your life a lot easier.

While our review sample was bathed in a nice tomato red color, those not that aesthetically adventuresome can also get their i50 in standard audiophile black and white. I say bravo for offering the more stylish choice. No remote here, so you’ll have to get up and add a few steps to your daily routine controlling volume. (Or if you’re a Roon user, you can just cheat and control the volume from your iPad.)

The Audolici i50 is an excellent amplifier and we’ve enjoyed the time spent auditioning it. While at the higher end of the price spectrum for a 50-wpc tube amplifier, it offers style and sonic refinement in keeping with the price asked.

www.soundconsultant.com
(US Distributor)

www.audolici.com
(Factory)

Maybe it’s the concert halls, but so many European speakers have a thing for tonal accuracy, and Triangle is no exception. After spending a lot of time listening to the Triangle Antal Ez speakers from their Esprit line, I’ve come away highly impressed. The high gloss piano black (white and walnut veneer also available) towers stand approximately 44” tall by 12” wide and 15.75” deep.

The unique and very stable glass bases and rubber or spiked feet take about five minutes each to attach. Out of the box the Antal Ez’s were slightly tight and flat sounding, but they came alive after a few days of constant play. Initial listening took place in my 9’ x 12’ dedicated listening room, but these speakers begged to be heard in my larger 15’ x 19’ living room – and they are an excellent match.

Of the thousands of tracks auditioned during the Pass XS Preamplifier’s stay here, Lou Reed’s “Vanishing Act” sums it up perfectly. As he sings/speaks, “It must be nice to disappear…” the words to describe the XS Pre appear. It just disappears, calling no attention to itself, perhaps the toughest thing for an audio component to do.

Just like buying a car, test driving a premium audio component is usually a shorter first date than you’d like. In the end, it requires a certain leap of faith, and if you blow it, it’s going to cost you dearly. Much as I love Pass products, if you decide that the $38,000 XS Pre isn’t for you, there will be a stiff penalty, should you turn it over for something else. Like any other five figure hi-fi component, putting this two-chassis beauty back on the secondary market after a few months of use will be an expensive proposition unless you have an incredibly forgiving dealer, used to you doing this kind of thing on a regular.

The good news is that the above mentioned scenario probably won’t happen. I’d even go out on a limb to bet about 100 to 1 odds that it won’t. I’ve been using the XS Pre for over a year now, and I’ll do my best at describing it so that you won’t make a misstep.

First, and most importantly, where the Pass XS and XA series amplifiers have an ever so slight tip towards the warm side (which I happen to prefer) of what I’d call neutral tonality, the XS Pre is as close to having a straight up, 12 o’clock, right in the center neutral tonal rendition as I’ve ever experienced. The only other preamplifier I’d put in this category is the Boulder 3010, and to a slightly lesser extent my other reference, the Robert Koda K-10. Either of these preamplifiers cost as much as a gently owned BMW M3, and each is phenomenal performers.

Special and then some

Today there are a lot of incredibly competent preamplifiers, many costing less than the XS Pre and a few costing even more. Now and again, a component is so overwhelmingly good, that it’s an express elevator ride to audio heaven. My Conrad Johnson GAT2 is one of those preamplifiers too, but it’s got vacuum tubes, and only sports single ended RCA inputs and outputs so that it won’t be everyone’s idea of heaven.

The world’s finest preamplifiers that I enjoy impart little to no signature of their own to the music, yet they offer a bigger, broader, weightier presentation than a system is capable of without a preamplifier involved. This is a unique bit of magic that don’t completely understand because, in a perfect world, you would think that just going straight from your DAC or phonostage (provided it had a level control) would bring you closer to the music than running everything through another box and set of cables.

Good as the dCS Rossini DAC and Clock combination is on its own, running a pair of Cardas Clear interconnects directly from the dCS pair to the XS300 amplifiers sounds smaller, less focused and pale in comparison to putting the XS Pre in my reference system. How can this be? Especially considering Mr. Pass (the creator of the First Watt amplifiers – champions of the “less is more” approach to circuit design. Inserting the XS Pre in the signal path is not subtle. Again, this preamplifier does not change the tonal character or balance a molecule, yet everything enlarges. Dynamic range increases to the point where transients explode from the speakers where they merely had punch before, and the soundfield created by the system becomes much larger in all three dimensions. The sonic presentation goes from big and satisfying without the XS Pre to being engulfed in a tornado of sound. This effect was observed with every power amplifier connected, from a modest Conrad Johnson MV60SE up to the mighty XS300 monoblocks, so this can’t be a mere “impedance matching” kind of thing.

We’ve had the opportunity to use the XS Preamplifier together with the matching XS300 monoblock amplifiers to excellent result, paired with the XS Phono, making for an unbeatable combination of dynamics, tonality, and ease of use. There truly is nothing I can find fault with this trio. Ok, it’s all pretty heavy. That’s it. Fortunately, the XS Pre only weighs 80 pounds, and it is distributed between two chassis, the power supply, and the actual preamplifier circuitry. The two are connected by the same massive umbilical cords used in the XS Phono and the XS 150/300 power amplifiers. Terminated with Neutrik connectors, these are beefy cables indeed. 100,000µƒ of power supply capacitance per channel only hints at the power reserves available.

Nelson Pass and his crew have repeatedly said that they build components that they like, above all else. While many know the man with the name that adorns the faceplates as “the man” at Pass Labs, he is the power amp man. Wayne Colburn has designed all the Pass Labs preamplifiers and was given a clean slate (and pretty much a blank check) to design a companion preamplifier for the XS monoblock amplifiers. Rather than bore you with a long list of common audiophile clichés, he has succeeded on every level.

Incredibly versatile

Lovely as the XS Pre is with a full compliment of Pass components, it is equally engaging with every other power amplifier we’ve had here at TONE in the last year or so – single ended or balanced. The XS Pre circuitry is fully balanced, but it features balanced XLR and single ended RCA inputs and outputs.

As a review tool, the XS Pre is without peer. It is effortless in its delivery and consistent in sound quality, providing a similar sonic picture with balanced or single ended connections. Even if you don’t review hifi gear, this kind of flexibility offers a much wider range of options as your system and tastes change. With the XS Pre offering such a neutral rendition, it is a perfect system anchor, letting you mix, match and experiment elsewhere.

Because the XS Pre doesn’t manipulate or alter the tonal character of the music it delivers, the usual list of tracks to describe bass, treble, and imaging are almost irrelevant. Laurie Anderson once said, “Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much, much better.” That’s the XS Pre. It’s much, much better. Add the concept of never having to retube, along with the headache that a new set of tubes can cause, makes it a component you can just leave powered up and forget about it. Matter of fact, there is no power switch.

Setup is straightforward, provided you have two extra rack spaces and can separate the two boxes a bit, to keep every possible bit of noise at bay. Once powered up, the XS Pre took about four days to come all the way out of the fog from being fresh out of the box. As with any component, there is a slight bit of stiffness at initial turn on, but it dissipates quickly.

The front panel has a large volume control and a display friendly to read from across the room. Pass provides a simple, efficient aluminum remote that matches the casework of their other products, and this too is easy to use. The volume control has a wide range of operation, so even the most sensitive power amplifiers will have ample volume control range.

A keeper

Ultra high performance has a price, and there are a lot of great preamplifiers in the $10,000 – $20,000 range; even Pass makes one. (The XP-30) After living with a number of them, the XS Pre delivers an experience that you can’t get for $20k. That’s its justification. If you are looking for the last step up and a final justification, it’s worth every penny asked. This may be tough to swallow for some of you in the audience, but you can’t have a Ferrari 458 for $50k either. Like the Ferrari, the XS Pre will take your breath away if you have the room, system, and software to support it. And I’m guessing if you have 38 large, you do.

The Pass XS Pre does its job so effortlessly and so well if it doesn’t hit you on the head with the first track you play, just take it out of your system for about 90 sec. It’s like someone put the valet key in your Dodge Challenger Hellcat and the horsepower is gone. This is one of the purest hifi experiences I’ve had in over 15 years of reviewing components. Long term, I have even more enthusiasm for the XS Pre – every day it convinces me how special it is.

The Pass XS Pre Preamplifier
For more sexy photos, click here….

$38,000

www.passlabs.com

Peripherals

Analog Source            AVID Acutus Ref SP/SME V/Lyra Atlas, Grand Prix Audio Monaco 2.0/Tri-planar/Lyra Etna, Brinkmann Bardo/10.1arm/Koetsu Jade Platinum

Digital Source             dCS Rossini DAC and Clock, Gryphon Kalliope

Phonostage                  Pass XS Phono

Power Amplifier         Pass XS 300 monos, Pass XA200.8

Speakers                      GamuT RS5i, Focal Sopra no.3 w/2-REL 212, MartinLogan Neolith

Cable                           Tellurium Q Silver Diamond, Cardas Clear

Many people only know Pro-Ject for their line of high-value turntables, (and we’ve got one of those for you here…) but they produce an entire line of electronics and loudspeakers, along with some very stylish accessories.

Company principal Heinz Lichtenegger puts it perfectly when he says, “I like to make fun components that everyone can afford.” Add stylish to that list of boxes to tick – all Pro-Ject products share a very cool design aesthetic as well.

We’ve been living with an entire Pro-Ject system, consisting of their VT-E turntable ($349), the MaiA CD Player ($399), MaiA Integrated Amplifier ($499), along with the matching Speaker Box 5 mini monitors ($299). For this review, Rob and I concentrate on the components, with a review of the Speaker Box 5 speakers to be published online very soon.

Every Pro-Ject product we’ve used has always been high on performance and simplicity with a minimal footprint. It’s an understatement that Lichtnegger has outdone himself on this recent crop of products! If you are pinched for space, yet crave great sound, this trio is for you. We were all shocked at just how small the MaiA components are.

MaiA Integrated Amplifier: A Marvel of Compact Efficiency

Like the other products in Pro-Ject’s “Box” product like, the MaiA integrated amplifier is designed to pack much functionality into the smallest possible package. Wow did they succeed! Without its wall-wart power supply, the amplifier weighs in at a scant 4 lbs. (1850g). At 8.11 inches (206mm) wide by 1.4 inches (36mm) tall by 6.14 inches (156mm) deep, the MaiA is deceivingly minimalistic. Straightforward and effective controls on the front panel facilitate adjustment of the volume, plus your choice of source components. While nondescript on the outside, things get a lot more interesting when exploring MaiA’s capabilities.

The ins and outs

Any way you choose to connect a music source to this amplifier, there is an input to handle it. In addition to three stereo line inputs, options include USB, Bluetooth, digital optical, and RCA-type digital coaxial. As they say on infomercials, “but wait… there’s more.” An onboard MM phono stage as well as a headphone amplifier with a ¼” input is also included.

Five-way binding posts facilitate connection to loudspeakers using a variety of cable options. However, bananas are an ideal candidate, as these binding posts are relatively close together. With such a small chassis, there is little room for all the connections on the rear panel, so it is nearly impossible to connect spades in such a tiny space without touching each other inadvertently.

The only other connection required is the power cord, supplied by the included wall wart power supply. I suspect there was not enough room left in this small chassis to fit a full-sized 115v power cord socket, much less an internal power supply.

Lots inside

All those inputs lead to some remarkable circuitry within. The internal DAC does not decode DSD files, but it does a solid job with digital files up to a sample rate of 24bit/192kHz – plenty for CD and SACD input or streaming your favorite online music service.

The MaiAs Class D amplification circuitry delivers 25 watts into an eight-ohm speaker load, or 37 watts into four ohms. While featuring a much lower power rating than my usual reference amplifier, the MaiA had no problem driving GamuT RS3i speakers. Back at the TONE studio, we substituted a broad range of different speakers and found the power amplifier section both robust and conservatively rated.

Sonically satisfying

For our testing, we paired the MaiA integrated with the matching CD player in the same product line, as well as other sources on hand. No matter what musical genre you enjoy, the MaiA delivers excellent sound with ample detail. Sonically, the amp is very neutral, a touch to the forgiving side. It provides a high level of realism while avoiding uncomfortable and edgy stridency that emerges from some budget-conscious pieces of gear I have experienced over the years. Bass goes deep and punchy considering its modest power rating. Higher frequencies appear effortlessly, and retain the shimmer and glow desired from favorite recordings.

Soundstaging represents another important strength. The perceived performance expresses with large scale breadth and depth, extending forward of the speakers when a recording dictates it and filling the room with music without any apparent strain. Do not expect this amp to drive massive full range speakers with oomph given its power rating, but as long as you stick to speakers in the 90db/1watt range, it’s all good. Stand mounted speakers, though, are likely to find a very welcome ally. Simply put, it is a great amp. An audio fan cannot expect the world for the MaiA’s price point of about $500 USD, but you easily get a large continent or two!

The MaiA CD: Diminutive Digital

The MaiA CD player matches the integrated amplifier in size and performance, with its front-loading CD slot taking up three-quarters of the player’s width. Without its wall-wart power supply, the CD player weighs in at 2.77 lbs. (1260g). I have owned power cords which weigh more than this player!

Under the hood resides solid engineering and technology. Built around a Burr-Brown (Texas Instruments) DAC chip, this player is meant exclusively for CDs.The DAC handles all files at 24bit/96khz with 8x oversampling, bringing a lot of life to your CD collection. Those wanting to use the MaiA CD player as a transport only can do so via the Toslink output. Utilized in this mode via a 25 foot AudioQuest Toslink cable, we found the MaiA player to provide an interesting solution to those still wanting to play compact discs occasionally. The MaiA player is an excellent transport, via the Audio Research DAC 9, also reviewed in this issue. Even the fussiest audiophile can take advantage of a MaiA player, to play the redbook discs in their collection.

On the right side, the front panel offers a little digital display, the size of a postage stamp, noting track number and play time. On the left is the power button as well as a tiny IR receiver for the remote control. Beneath the disc slot is the expected buttons for track advance, reverse, pause/play and stop/eject. The small remote allows the owner to make these adjustments, plus others. The control allows track or album repeat, random play, and selection of a specific song by typing in the track number. The only remaining choice is black or silver casework. Both are very attractive.

The rear of the player is even more minimalistic. A single pair of RCA analog outs make connections to any amplifier straightforward. If you already have preferred interconnects at home with audiophile grade terminations, be aware there is little space between the terminals. Hose-like interconnects will not fit, so choose accordingly. We’ve had excellent result with the Audience or Cardas cables in this respect, and Pro-Ject even offers a line of their own.

In addition to the compact form factor, this player is a top musical performer. More expensive dedicated CD players can offer more refinement and a greater level of micro-detail retrieval. For the price asked, this mini-marvel will not leave its owner longing for more. Voiced slightly to the warmer side of neutral with robust detail, the MaiA player is very “anti-digital” in its rendition. Soundstaging is excellent with a soundfield that projects left and right beyond the speaker boundaries, and each musical element has a good degree of separation in the perceived distance behind the speakers.

Playing MoFi’s remaster of Beck’s Sea Change, proves immersive. Vocals lock in place up front with ambient cues layered across the soundstage. Bass notes have substantial heft, and highs offer gentle sparkle. Even loudspeakers many times the price of this CD player will find themselves complemented by this marvelous partner. Switching the program between acoustic, solo vocal and even densely packed rock recordings all satisfy.

Vertical Integration – The Pro-Ject VT-E

Up till now, the vertical record players we’ve seen have been little more than mere toys. Leave it to Pro-Ject to come up with a vertical that offers serious performance. As at home on a shelf or table, the VT-E combines Pro-Ject performance in a vertical format with a pre-installed Ortofon OM5 cartridge. You can even wall mount it, and they are available in red, white and black. At $349 each, I’d even consider buying six of them to make wall art! Should you not be integrating the VT-E with an amplifier containing a phono preamplifier, consider the VT-L, which has a built in phonostage and can be connected to a line input.

Everything is set up from the factory, so the only decision is whether to shelf or wall mount. Those that are challenged for space need only about 16 inches of wall space and a little bit of counter space underneath to put a complete Pro-Ject system! Though I admit I love the idea of a VT-L on a pedestal in the middle of the room with a pair of long interconnects to the rest of the system. Again, Pro-Ject is as much art as science. You can even order one in right or left-hand operation. Very diplomatic!

Skeptical as I was about the concept of a vertical table, the VT-E works perfectly. Most of my listening was done with the table wall mounted, so it proved immune to room induced vibrations. Sonically, it reminds me a lot of the Debut Carbon table. Tracking through some favorite current and classics, the Pro-Ject/Ortofon combination is more than capable. Of course, the synergy between it and the MaiA integrated is fantastic, and the aesthetic works well.

For the beginning vinyl enthusiast, the VT-E should prove a worthy companion, providing a musically rewarding experience and a real conversation piece to boot. And because it comes from the factory completely set up, it’s as no fuss as LP playback can be.

Summing up

Considering everything inside these tiny components, you might expect compromise, but none have been made regarding sonics. The Pro-Ject MaiA Integrated Amplifier and CD Player both combine excellent audio performance and functionality in a pair of very tiny boxes. We are pressed to think of anything offering this level of performance near this price.

Should you have more space, or just want bigger, more powerful components, the MaiA series will probably always have a place in a second room or desktop system. Our publisher is even thinking about a set for his garage system!

Both the Pro-Ject MaiA Integrated Amp and CD Player more than earns a much-deserved TONEAudio Exceptional Value Award. These would be outstanding components if they were in full sized boxes. Considering they offer it in such compact enclosures is certainly a bonus. Now you have no excuse not to have a great sound system anywhere.

Pro-Ject MaiA Integrated Amplifier. ($499)

Pro-Ject MaiA CD Player ($399)

Pro-Ject VT-E Turntable ($349)

www.box-designs.com (factory)

www.sumikoaudio.net (US importer)

www.pro-jectusa.com.  (for more details)

My now departed Kerry Blue Terrier, Harry was the world’s most stubborn dog. When he didn’t want to budge, there was no moving him. He was “You’re going to sit at that table until you eat those Brussel sprouts or you’re going to bed hungry” stubborn. When it comes to audio tweaks, especially anything the least bit fringy, I’m more stubborn and closed minded than my loyal Irish companion ever was.

I did NOT want to like the Corelli. I didn’t even want to listen to the damn thing. As Robert Neill enthusiastically explained it, my brain was screaming “snake oil.” But I’ve never met a Canadian I didn’t like, so why not give it a spin, eh? I’m still getting guff over the Furutech De Mag I reviewed, bought, and use on a daily, so get out the lighter fluid, let’s make the flame bigger!

Described as a power conditioner, the Corelli does plug into the AC line, there are no outlets to plug your gear into. Akiko Audio claims that the Corelli is “A pioneering reference power conditioner providing your gear with power in a unique way, without the use of electrical components and active power filtering. It reduces noise without negative side effects such as reduced dynamics or natural quality.” They go on to say, “Internally the Corelli is set up with units made of woven carbon, specifically geared to their task. The neutral, phase and grounding are separately treated. An extra fourth unit is responsible for the harmonization of the internal high frequency radiation field. Moreover, the device is stabilized with black resin to repress unwanted microphonic effects adequately.”

Sounds like mumbo jumbo to me. At this point, I still can’t wrap my brain around a power conditioning product that doesn’t cycle power through itself to the products it is supposedly conditioning power for. I look at the Corelli with the same furrowed brow as the big red bird in Angry Birds.

While my big black dog was very stubborn, he was also very curious. If you hid a cookie somewhere in the room, he would always find it, no matter how diligent you concealed it. So, my terrier like curiosity got the best of me. What the hell, I could always either A: send the damn thing back unimpressed, or B: write that scathing, negative review so many of you have been clamoring for all these years. It didn’t take much listening to realize that C: this wasn’t going to happen.

Getting wiggly

Even though weed is legal here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s not something I indulge in often because it makes me sleepy. What fun is that? However, there is a subtle, a-ha shift in your perception as the funny, leafy stuff starts to take effect. There’s that narrow zone between being unaffected and thinking everything in the world is incredibly funny, where the doors of perception are more than subtly altered. This is the effect of the Corelli, you don’t need to ingest anything to get this effect, and you can drive home safely afterwords. Bonus.

Following the instructions, I did plug the Corelli in nearby the system; straight in to the Torus TOT that currently conditions the power for my system. With one outlet still unused, why not?

Cycling through a series of familiar tracks with the Corelli plugged in, listening began again in earnest. Akiko’s power cord was used, as they claim this makes a huge difference in the presentation. It is a well-built power cord, and in all fairness is only a couple hundred bucks, so I can’t get grumpy about this aspect.

The reference system consists of the new Virtuoso Soltanus ESL speakers that have been here for some time, a PrimaLuna HP Integrated with KT150 tubes, Gryphon’s Kalliope DAC, the new Audio Research PH9 phonostage and the Soulines Kubrick DCX turntable with ZYX cartridge. In short, a highly resolving, yet not crazy money system that I’m very familiar with. The enclosed manual states that the Corelli takes a few weeks to stabilize, yet the biggest change will occur in the first day.

That’s the biggest audio understatement I’ve yet heard. For the first fifteen minutes nothing much seems to happen, though my wife made the comment, “Hey it sounds a little smoother, what did you do.?” Then the trip began. As that Tidal playlist continued, I  swore that everthing was sounding better, more homogenous, less grainy, more natural.

Going back to the LP’s I had listened to earlier, it was a night and day difference. Three areas made a major improvement; pace/timing, upper frequency smoothness and the size of the three dimensional sound field painted by the Virtuosos. For $2,000 with power cord, sign me up.

Trying not to be taken in, I unplugged the Corelli and removed it from the system and things shut back down to pre-conditioning levels. A few game-on, game-off cycles later, combined with torturing a few good audiophile buddies, we’ve all heard the same basic effect. Just like that damn De-Mag.

At the end of the test session, I’m definitely keeping the Corelli around. I still can’t really explain why or how it works, but it does.

Laugh if you must

I’m hoping that because we don’t write about tweaks here on a regular, super expensive cables, or anything else in that arena, that you will consider giving the Akiko Corelli a try in your system. They offer a money back guarantee, so you’ve got nothing to lose. But I’m pretty sure you won’t send it back.

The Akiko Audio Corelli Power Conditioner

$1,995 with power cord

www.akikoaudio.com (manufacturer)

www.worldwidewholesales.com (North America Distributor)

Sonneteer is a new name to many, admittedly including me. In the 1980s, college friends Haider Bahrani and Remo Casadei discovered their shared passion for live music and audio recording. After years envisioning products for their own use, and leaning on their backgrounds in electrical engineering, the two solidified their collaboration in 1994 with the founding of UK-based Sonneteer.

Why name the company Sonneteer you ask? In addition to his design skills, Bahrani enjoyed poetry. The name serves as an homage to those sonnet writers who inspired him. As such, their Alabaster Integrated Amplifier received its moniker from 16th-century poet William Alabaster[1] [2] .

Appearance

The Alabaster integrated amp sports a traditional and understated appearance. Our review sample with a black anodized aluminum facade does little to hint at the electronic prowess within. The front panel offers a purist complement of controls, with three knobs managing input source selection, adjust volume, and power. That is it. While the Alabaster may not win any beauty awards for modern elegance, the build quality is solid; with controls and switches that feel substantial when operated. For a very reasonable price around $2,400, this integrated earns a high score for price-performance. Looks are always a plus, but of course, that kind of facelift would drive up production cost. I applaud Sonneteer’s tradeoff, focusing on sound quality over flashy looks.

Weighing 26.5lbs. with dimensions of 12” deep x 17” wide x 3.5” high [3] only [4] hints at the hefty transformer coils, steel bracing, and circuitry within. The unit pushes 55 watts into eight ohms, and roughly double that into four ohms. With a new website on the way, the manual will now be downloadable.

With all respect intended to the straightforward design, the Alabaster has one major functional limitation – the lack of a remote control. Those like me who listen to a variety of artists or songs in a single sitting recognize that music is not always rendered at the same volume without software intervention. Depending on your audio setup, and your tolerance for volume swings between songs, this reality can lead to several tedious trips to the volume knob for small adjustments. [5] As the North American importer is quick to point out, “The Alabaster is good for upping the step count on your Fitbit.”[6] [7]

The ins and outs

The rear panel features a utilitarian look similar to the faceplate. Speaker binding posts at the far left and right of the unit body sandwich in between them a series of five single-ended stereo inputs, plus a set of RCA line outputs. Among the line inputs, the Alabaster comes standard with one MM phono input, giving the owner extra flexibility. Those seeking balanced connections are out of luck, but those with a single ended system will find this Sonneteer a perfect companion for the rest of its brethren residing on the audio rack.

The speaker binding posts meet European safety standards, the plastic shield covers each post ensures stray cables cannot connect inadvertently. Safety is a good thing, and these posts make connections to banana terminations or bare wire easy. Connecting spades requires sliding the cable termination into the shield from the underside. Due to the shield, there is no way to thread spades in from the top, so the Alabaster must sit against the back edge of the audio rack so that spade-terminated cables can dangle downward. If your speaker cables prove problematic in this regard, high-quality banana adapters may prove a saving grace.

The Alabaster’s straightforward connection options make setup very easy, and in a matter of a few minutes, this silver-tongued poet finds itself prepared to speak. When powered on, a small blue LED over the input selector comes to life indicating readiness. As a solid-state design, the Alabaster deserves several days of break-in to achieve the musicality it is designed to deliver.

Sound

Some characterize a “British” component sound as one that is voiced to prioritize warmth over stark transparency, politeness over detail, and relaxation over speed. Yes, those elements do serve well as broad brushstroke descriptors for the sonic signature this amplifier. Music portrayal is forgiving, perhaps akin to that heard several rows back in an auditorium where cymbal crashes and brass instrument blasts lose their bite as part of the bigger musical picture. At the same time, clinging to those generalizations would not do the Alabaster justice. These audible characteristics do make the Alabaster a joy to settle into for long, fatigue-free listening sessions. However, the sum of its sound is not bound to those overly-simplified descriptors. For example, listening to Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble’s dub-inspired collaboration Radioaxiom, the Alabaster reproduces low bass notes with solidity, musicality and drive which create the illusion of control by a more powerful amplifier. Those 100 watts never pull punches when needed.

Through the Sonneteer, the soundstage is substantial, organizing musical elements accurately from left-to-right across the soundstage. The front-to-back layering of musical elements is good, but when a complex array of vocals and instruments litter the soundstage, the Sonneteer tends to compress that picture a bit in comparison with some high-end gear I have experienced. The nitpick is minor, however, since the Alabaster does so much so well.

The complex harmonics of cymbal crashes or triangle strikes, like those captured on Ben Harper’s Burn to Shine, preserve most of the impact, reverberation and decay a listener should hear. Similarly, vocals offer the emotion of the performance without uncomfortable stridency or sibilance. For instance, Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” reveals itself through the Alabaster with the powerful crescendos one wants to experience from her recordings, but without the wince factor that accompanies it on some overly-revealing gear.

While the Alabaster cannot be expected to deliver the sound of separate components many times its price, it certainly offers an incredible amount of musical satisfaction. Higher-end components can exceed the Alabaster’s ability with a broader and better-layered soundstage[8] , a greater sense of realism, and more detailed presentation, especially at the higher end of the frequency spectrum. However, when compared more fairly to components in its price range, the Alabaster’s accomplishments are stellar indeed. The Sonneteer is a component any music lover will be proud to own. The team at Sonneteer deserves some serious accolades for making an amplifier that sounds this good, at a dollar figure accessible to many who prioritize the joy of music in their lives.

Conclusions

Simply put, the Sonneteer Alabaster is a price-performance wonder. For its very reasonable cost under $2,500 USD, it delivers excellent sound. The Alabaster might not unseat single purpose amps and preamps several times its price, may not be ideal for those who prefer a highly-detailed component which exposes every nuance in a recording. However, the Alabaster’s sound is beguiling, and this integrated amp is piece of gear to be enjoyed for many years to come. The warmth of its sonic character will help it mate well with many sources. If a prospective buyer does not require bells and whistles like a built-in DAC, networking connectivity, variable outputs for a subwoofer, or a remote control, this may be the integrated amplifier he or she has been seeking. I recommend it wholeheartedly, and it handily deserves a 2017 TONEAudio Exceptional Value Award.[9]

Sonneteer has a substantial dealer network in Europe, and has a growing number of North American dealers. If the Alabaster piques your interest, be sure to visit your Sonneteer dealer to hear it for yourself. For what it is designed to do, it performs those tasks extremely well. Sonically, it is a flat-out bargain for its modest price tag. Were William Alabaster alive today, I think he would enthusiastically approve of his namesake.

Additional listening: Jeff Dorgay

I couldn’t agree with Rob more that the Alabaster deserves an Exceptional Value Award. This integrated reminds me so much on one level of my reference, the PrimaLuna HP – it’s pure sound quality with basic functionality. With simple yet understated casework, all the value goes into the circuit and for the true music lover, this is a sonic treat.

Where something like the Simaudio ACE offers more functionality, the Alabaster offers a higher level of sonic prowess; if you can get by with 55 watts per channel and have the need for an excellent MM phono stage, it’s one of the best (if not the best) choice you can make.

Staying mostly in the British groove, with a slight detour to France and a trip across the pond to the US, I used the Alabaster with four different sets of speakers. Listening began with the lovely Graham LS5/9s, moved on to the Focal Sopra no.3s in my main system (which cost nearly ten times the Alabaster’s MSRP) and the vintage Klipsch LaScalas written about in this issue before settling back in on the Quad 2812s in room two. All delivered cracking performances.

What I’m the most excited about is the quality of the MM phonostage. Utilizing the new Gold Note Machiavelli high output MC (again, more expensive than the Alabaster) the level of refinement here is astounding, with a level of resolution I wasn’t prepared for.

In the context of some fairly expensive speakers, and using the PS Audio DirectStream DAC and memory player as a source, digital files were just as engaging as analog, and I suspect that a lot of Alabaster users will pair this $2,395 integrated with modest speakers and sources, never really knowing just how damn good this amplifier truly is. If it had thicker, more elaborately machined casework and a fancy remote, they could easliy ask $6k for this baby and you’d still be getting a bargain. So if you are a true music lover that is ever so slightly frugal, the Sonetteer Alabaster is your slice of heaven.

It’s certainly one of my favorites. You must hear one to believe it.

Sonneteer Alabaster Integrated Amplifier

Approximately $2,399 USD

Arcadia Audio Marketing
[email protected]
416-994-5571

PERIPHERALS

Digital Sources: Mac Mini, Roon Music Service, dCS Debussy, SimAudio 780D, Oppo Sonica DAC

Amplification: Burmester 911 mk3

Preamplification: Coffman Labs G1-B

Speakers: GamuT RS3, JL Audio Dominion Subwoofers

Cables: Jena Labs

Power: Torus AVR 15 Plus, RSA Mongoose power cords

Accessories: ASC tube traps, Mapleshade Samson audio racks, Coffman Labs Equipment Footers, AudioQuest Jitterbug, Atomic Audio Labs Mac Mini stand

I can’t tell you how many times friends and readers have asked me the same question, “I just want a nice turntable. I’ve been getting back into vinyl a bit, and I’d like something better than an entry level deck.”

The minute I point them in the direction of one of my favorite $1,200 turntables, start discussing cartridge choices and a decent phono preamplifier, the next comment is “I don’t want to get carried away with it, I’m only going to buy a couple of hundred albums.” If this sounds like you, the Shinola Runwell might just be the answer to your needs.

Opening the Shinola Runwell turntable reminds me of the first time I unpacked my Shinola watch. Well done, with high attention to detail, and confidence inspiring execution. I’ll be the first to admit; I don’t know a thing about watches. If you’re a watch aficionado, you can stick your nose in the air at my lowly Shinola watch all day long, and you won’t offend me. I love it.

The next thing I noticed was an Andrew Bird album (excellent choice) with a note saying “Thank you from Shinola.” When was the last time anyone thanked you for buying something? When was the last time a hi-fi store salesperson was even kind to you, period?

Steve Jobs once said, “If we don’t make technology as easy to use as putting a bagel in a toaster, no one will use it.” Laurie Anderson once quipped that she had “A drawer full of techy items she couldn’t figure out.” Shinola gets a 10 out of 10 for including a large, well-written, easy to read, quick start guide. I wish every other turntable company on Earth would follow this example. (To be fair, Rega comes pretty close, but that’s it.) If you can’t set it up, you’re not going to play any records, right? This stuff should not be daunting and exclusionary.

It’s an all-inclusive analog vacation

A good friend of mine that is a high-level IT professional said to me once, “we don’t realize just how immersed in all this stuff we are until we talk to someone that isn’t.”

Most of the people that go to Club Med, or any of the other all inclusive vacation spots do so because it’s a no brainer. They want to go on vacation, after all. That doesn’t mean those of you that want to sniff out more exotic locations or cuisine are bad Smurfs. But I can tell you this; the main thing that keeps the average music lover away from vinyl is the perceived hassle of setting up a turntable.

I’ve never had an easier time getting from box to spinning records than I have with Shinola’s Runwell. I’d give them an award for that alone. My nagging audiophile sensibilities got the best of me, and I just had to check the stylus force. Spot on at 1.85g. Attach the belt, plug it in and roll – there’s a power cord and a pair of interconnects in the box, so everything you need to roll is there. Or spin, should we say.

It’s probably taken you a lot longer to read this far than it will to set up a Shinola Runwell turntable. And that’s a good thing. Once spinning, the Runwell turns in an honest performance. The Ortofon 2M Blue works well with the internal MM phonostage. Mated with the exciting Atoll amplifier and preamplifier that we just reviewed last issue and the Focal Sopra no.1 speakers, this all makes for an incredibly pleasant analog experience. The Runwell is so easy to use, playing record after record is a breeze.

But is it an “audiophile” turntable?

Yes and no. From a sonic standpoint of comparably priced turntable/tonearm/cartridge/phonostage combinations – definitely. From an infinitely adjustable/tweakable analog deck, no. The only unfortunate part of the Runwell is that you can’t bypass the onboard phono preamplifier without getting your soldering iron out, but you can adjust VTA, etc., so you can swap MM cartridges if you like. But then that defeats the purpose of this turntable. Considering the modular nature of this table and the fact that this is Shinolas first table, I wouldn’t be surprised that future models may have more versatility.

For those of you that just have to tweak something, consider upgrading the Ortofon 2M Blue to a 2M Bronze or 2M Black. With a 2M Black on hand (it is the same form factor and weight as the 2M Blue) it only takes five minutes to make the swap and you won’t have to bother with VTA. The Runwell is capable of enough resolution to allow you to hear the difference, upping the price of the whole deck from the original MSRP of $2,500 to about $3,200. And if you just can’t leave well enough alone, swapping the supplied RCA cable for something else will reveal more music too. I’d suggest the Wireworld Equinoxe 7. At $200 a pair, this will also bring more musical enjoyment to your Runwell. While not infinitely geekable, you can still upgrade enough stuff on the Runwell that it’s not a dead end product, in audiophile terms. Hint to the Shinola team if you haven’t already thought of it, consider offering this table with a 2M Black for another $500.

However, even if all you do is take the Runwell out of the box, set it up and listen to records, never even thinking about changing anything, it succeeds on every level. The musical experience delivered is more than commensurate with the price asked.

Running through a set of favorite test discs, the massive platter has great speed stability, offering a weighty sound, not unlike what my VPI Classic One delivers.

For those of you that haven’t been following the Shinola story, Mat Weisfeld, and his father Harry, the guys behind VPI have been very involved with the Shinola table, and this turntable shares a lot of visual as well as sonic DNA. Yet, this isn’t just a Camaro rebadged as a Firebird. On one level, the visual styling of the Runwell is a step above the basic VPI tables, with an overall look that is more reserved, yet more sophisticated than the VPI Classic Line. (And I say this as a happy owner of a Classic One and Two.) The Runwell is also more compact than the VPI tables, and even though these tables are brothers from the same father, they each have unique identities.

The machined top plate of the turntable plinth reminds me of a vintage Thorens TD-124, both in color and feel. A massive aluminum platter, tonearm and light wood base (it’s also available in black) rounds out the package, complimented by the medium toned leather mat on top of the platter. I’ve seen plenty of ten thousand dollar turntables lacking this level of fit and finish.

Pure analog ease

Spinning record after record, this is a turntable that even a seasoned audio reviewer could easily live with. No $2,500 record player gives you everything – that costs a lot more money. But judged within its context, the Shinola Runwell is a lovely turntable. Playing more than a handful of very familiar LP’s, the analog magic is here in spades.  Sonics are superb, the soundstage presented is wide open, with more info in the left to right, and while there is some front to back information, not as much as might be expected from higher end decks – and much of this is the limitation of the 2M Blue. When upgraded to the 2M Black, more front to back information is available.

I was consistently impressed by the overall smoothness of the onboard MM phono section. Tonality is excellent, along with snappy transient response, and this baby is quiet! Perhaps the only nit to pick is a slight softening/rolling off of the extreme high end. Again, swapping to a 2M Black takes care of this for the most discerning ears.

Not a poseur

Shinola Audio has come out of the box with an impressive product in the Runwell Turntable. Build quality is exceptional, packaging equally intriguing, but best of all the sound quality is more than what you’d expect for the price. When you head down to a Shinola store and touch one, you’ll see what I mean. The staff at Shinola has built a product that they should be very proud of.

Some will bellyache over the somewhat closed loop system, but most of those types bellyache no matter what. If you want a record player that is a few steps up from entry level stuff, works perfectly and looks magnificent, I can’t recommend the Shinola Runwell highly enough.

For now, the Shinola Runwell is only available through Shinola stores and select Neiman Marcus stores. All the more reason to stop by and see the other cool stuff they have. You might just need a backpack or a watch!

The Shinola Runwell Turntable

MSRP:  $2,500

www.shinola.com

Peripherals

Preamplifier              Atoll HA120

Power Amplifier        Atoll HD100

Speaker Cable           Cardas Iridium

Speakers                    Focal Sopra no.1

I probably should listen to more classical music at comfortable volume levels.

Back in 1990, when I finally got my hands on an Audio Research D-79 after wearing down a good friend to part with it, he called to inform me that I should “let it warm up slowly with some nice string quartet music.” No way. The first track played was Alice Cooper’s “Hey Stoopid,” and after a few minutes to warm up, I pushed those big meters all the way into the caution zone. Having grown up with polite little EL-34 tube amplifiers, this was a revelation. I had never heard a tube amplifier that had the drive of a big solid-state amplifier before. It was equally revelatory to my next door neighbor, who was pounding on my front door before the first chorus.

I have not grown up one bit 25 years later. At first listen, it seems like the Audio Research GS 150 that has just arrived for review has defective power output level meters.  UFO’s “Lights Out” is playing at much higher than normal conversation levels, but the needles aren’t budging. Volume indicator on the GSPre is set to 42 and we’re all thinking that at least a few watts per channel are being delivered to the Dynaudio Evidence Platinum speakers we use as a reference, but to no avail – still no movement. Raising the level to 60 finally makes for some meter movement, and the sound level is indeed rambunctious! Yet the GS150 can play much, much louder.

Going for broke, pushing the meters to swing past the 150-watt mark towards the caution level during Michael Schenker’s blistering solo, with no trace of distortion, convinces me this is indeed a very special amplifier. Call me nostalgic, but I haven’t had this much fun with an Audio Research power amplifier since the days of my D79. Whether you listen to chamber music or metal, the level of involvement that the GS150 brings to the table is precious.

ARC’s REF amplifiers are wonderful, and I’ve even owned a few of them over the years, but this new GS series of Audio Research components is unique in the sense that it blends a tiny bit of the vintage ARC sound with everything they’ve learned in 40 plus years of amplifier design. Add the super stylish Italian casework and this is the amplifier that’s going in my coffin.

Last year we bestowed an extremely complimentary review on the Audio Research GSPre, enjoying its combination of Italian style with a return to the glorious all-in-one preamplifiers of the past, featuring a full-function phono stage (and a headphone amplifier) all on one chassis. The matching GS 150 power amplifier is equally beautiful and equally capable. Perhaps even more.

A special sound, indeed

When it comes to splitting hairs, the GSPre renders music with slightly more body and slightly less resolution than the REF 5SE and REF Phono 2SE combination, albeit at a much lower price. (The REF 5SE/Phono 2SE pair will set you back close to $30k, the GSPre has a $15k price tag) The delta between the two isn’t so much less than different. Even though a BMW M4 will get you around the racetrack a little faster than a fully equipped 435i with sport suspension, the latter is a more reasonably priced car to live with every day if you can’t take advantage of its maximum performance on a regular basis. The same holds true for the GSPre.

However, the GS150 is a different animal indeed. Possessing a similar sonic signature to the GSPre, it offers all the detail and resolution that the REF power amplifiers are known for, yet that pinch of tubeyness is there and not in an overwhelming way to ever sound slow, rounded off or overly euphonic.

At $20k the GS150 is a step above the REF 150 in ARC’s product lineup and in a side-by-side comparison provides a different sound. Though the spec sheets look almost identical, these two amplifiers are different beasts indeed. They do share a fully balanced configuration, and like the REF amplifiers, the GS150 must be used with a balanced preamplifier; it will not work with a single-ended preamplifier and balanced adaptors, so take this into account before purchase.

Vivacious violins, piano perfection

The blistering, bluesy guitar of Gary Clark Jr. on his latest album Sonny Boy Slim is sublime. The texture revealed on Clark’s guitar is staggering, awash in reverb, decay and distortion along with a true sense of scale, giving the impression of a live performance. This additional dimensionality not provided by lesser amplifiers doesn’t take the illusion as far.

Listening to a wide range of music for months now reveals no limitation to the GS150’s ability, whether driving Magnepans, the new Quad 2218 ESLs or major floorstanders from ProAc, Dali, GamuT, Dynaudio and Focal. Even the diminutive ProAc Tablette Signatures deliver an otherworldly performance driven by the GS150. Regardless of speaker or cable choices, the GS150 remains perfectly stable, unaffected less than many of the other tube amplifiers we’ve used – some highly particular by the cables used.

Good as this amplifier is, you may notice its capability even more when listening to solo vocals or acoustic instruments. The tonal richness that the GS150 reveals will keep you riveted to your chair for hours on end — always the mark of a great component. Pay particular attention to the way this amplifier accelerates and stops cleanly on a piano key strike or a guitar pluck without overhang or smear, yet retaining a high amount of saturation.

Where some components, especially those with vacuum tubes under the hood, can paint a sonic picture that is a lot larger than life in all three dimensions (And lets face it, that’s why we love tubes in the first place) the GS150 always expands and contracts with the music and the production, never just giving an overblown rendition of everything. Cool as it might be a piano shouldn’t sound like it is ten feet tall. This is another way that the GS150 conveys a realistic portrayal of music.

Chock full of tubes

Where the D-79 uses between 14 and 18 tubes depending on iteration, (there were three models; A, B, and C) to produce 75 watts per channel, the GS 150 uses 4 6H30 driver tubes and four matched pairs of KT150 output tubes to produce 155 watts per channel. As you can see from our photo shoot, at the 11^th hour we have acquired a D-79 for some comparison photos, but alas this warhorse is in desperate need of a power supply refresh, so we can’t give you a side-by-side comparison of the sound.  Once it returns from the shop, we will feature it in the Old School column next year and run the classic and the newest model side by side for your and our enjoyment. For now, it’s a wonderful memory to have these two in the same room together!

Let’s not forget the package

Audio Research has always made great sounding gear, but the wives of most of my friends have always seen those big boxes and said “not in my house.” But now with the Italian influence that Fine Sounds brings to the table, this amplifier is gorgeous, as is the matching preamplifier.

Looking at the chassis closely, you can see how much hand work has gone into every facet of this amplifier, from the finish on the front panel; to the delicately lettered power meters and the hand-welded chassis.

Again in the tradition of the D-79 and D-150, the GS150s front panel features three meters: the right and left meter for power output and tube biasing, with the center meter keeping track of incoming AC power. The bias adjustments are on the right and left hand side of the chassis.

Nice as the casework is on the GS150, the same level of attention has been paid to the package inside the familiar, dual box Audio Research packing that long-term aficionados have come to love. To say the tubes are well-protected is an understatement; now they are presented to the owner as a fine wine or cheese. It’s a nice touch, especially at this price level and it’s worth mentioning that the instruction manual is fantastic too. Straightforward, well illustrated and easy to read.

Product of the year, hell yeah

Is this the best power amplifier Audio Research has ever built? For me it is, but that’s being selfish. Discussing the technical features with ARC’s Dave Gordon, I jokingly said that the GS150 is like they built a bespoke amplifier for me, exactly as I would have it look and sound. In the way that Google always seems to know what you are thinking, maybe Audio Research has been probing my thoughts too. To be fair to everyone else, I can safely that the GS150 is my favorite vacuum tube power amplifier.

Buying a great power amplifier is a highly subjective undertaking, especially when a five-figure price tag is attached. If the GS150 weren’t our Product of the Year, it would certainly garner an Exceptional Value Award. If you don’t need 300 plus watts per channel and you enjoy the sheer sound that ARC’s engineers have achieved with the GS150, you’ll never need more amplifier than this. Just like fine cameras, watches or sports cars, there are a number of great vacuum tube power amplifiers available today, yet they all have somewhat different sonic personalities.

If you are an obsessed music lover, I’m guessing you have been on a quest for that “I’ll know it when I hear it” sound, perhaps for a long time. Perhaps longer than I have. If the GS150 touches the nerve that excites that center in your brain, this is an amplifier that you can enjoy for the rest of your life. It is meticulously built — inside and out — by a company with 40-plus years’ experience, execution and support behind them. Should your obsession take you elsewhere at some point, ARC products enjoy high resale prices on the secondary market, and that’s another big part of what makes this amplifier worth the price.  I am thrilled to award the GS150 power amplifier and the companion GSPre our Product of the Year award for 2015. I’m sure 30 years from now it will be held in as high esteem as it is today.

The Audio Research GS150 Amplifier

MSRP: $20,000

www.audioresearch.com

Peripherals

Analog Source            AVID Acutus Reference SP/SME V/Lyra Atlas

Digital Source             dCS Rossini DAC, Roon player

Phonostage                  ARC REF Phono 2SE, Simaudio LP810, Pass XP-25

Preamplifier                 ARC GSPre

Speakers                      GamuT RS5, Quad 2218

Power                          IsoTek Super Titan

Cable                           Cardas Clear

The good news is that both the Merrill Audio Christine linestage and the Jens phonostage are two world class components, revealing a tremendous amount of music, while leaving no sonic signature of their own. No small feat for any linestage or preamplifier at any price. Considering that the Christine tips the scale at $13,000 and the Jens at $15,500, you might even consider them a bargain. That will depend on your meal plan.

Listening begins with the Christine Reference linestage to get familiar with the Merrill Audio “sound,” or in this case a complete lack thereof. The Christine Reference Preamplifier belongs on the ledger with the $40,000 Robert Koda K-10 for delivering a neutral presentation in every way. It sounds like neither tubes nor solid state, it is merely a conduit for music. Talking to Merrill Wettasinghe, the designer, he stresses the wide bandwidth of this preamplifier as part of it’s neutrality and it only takes a cursory listen to realize he’s on to something.

Get ready for major goosebumps

Queuing up Mickey Hart’s Drumming at the Edge, a real audible stunner, both for micro dynamics and dramatic bass drive instantly hammers home the capabilities of this preamplifier. The instantaneous nature of Hart’s big bass drums is engulfing, giving the Quads a level of sock that doesn’t happen easily, yet when fast forwarding a few tracks to “Lonesome Hero,” you can hear the beads flowing back and forth in their stick, and you’re waiting for Hart to hand it to you from inside one of the speakers like the ghost in Poltergeist about to pop out of the television set.

Moving on to “Mali Men” from Afel Bocoum and Alkibar, with it’s dueling acoustic guitars, the lightning speed of this preamp takes charge, revealing every nuance of the fretboard action, to the point where through the Quad 2812s, it’s as if you are sitting right in front of these guys feeling their fingers zoom up and down the fretboard. Saying that the Christine conveys the emotion of the performance doesn’t do this box justice.

Much fun as this preamplifier is with the Quads, (and they’ve turned in a breathtaking musical performance with the Christine) moving to the GamuT RS5i’s and the Focal Sopra no.3’s, both of which have some serious bass output, further illustrates the speed, precision and articulation of this incredible linestage. If you want bass grip, you’ve got it.

The deep, slippery bass groove in Thomas Dolby’s “Pulp Culture” hits hard through the Focals, and these speakers which share the Grande Utopia’s ability to nail percussion transients do an incredible job at painting a distinctly multilayered portrait of this and many other highly familiar recordings.

Even relatively blasé recordings like the Monkees self titled album reveal hidden treasure. Granted, the Christine shows off the somewhat low fi recording, it still digs up a plethora of detail, not only showcasing the delicate harmonies in the arrangements, but keeping the bass line intact and powerful. I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Last Train to Clarksville” sound more engaging.

Vocal and acoustic instrument aficionados will not be disappointed either. However, extended listening sessions reveal that while this linestage is tonally neutral and incredibly true to the music, it does not embellish in the least. Fortunately, it is not forward, etched or strident in any way, yet it will not make magic out of lousy recordings. So the final choice will be up to whether you want to play it as straight as it gets, or do you want special sauce?

Ins and outs

Magical presentation aside, this is probably one of the more difficult preamplifiers I’ve used. Nothing about the Christine is intuitive and while the manual is nearly 50 pages, you don’t even get to how to turn the damn thing on until page 24. Once you’ve paired the supplied Apple Remote and waded through a few menu layers, you will be rewarded with incredible sonics. Christine should be better accessorized for 13 grand. However, Mr. Wettasinghe has spent the money where it counts, on top of the line Cardas XLR connectors throughout. This is a fully balanced preamplifier, though it is supplied with two pairs (one for output, one for input) of Cardas premium XLR adaptors too. Always the mark of an excellent design, the Christine performs equally well mated to balanced or single ended components, so don’t shy away from it if the rest of your gear is adorned in RCA jacks.

Aesthetically, the shiny gold plated front panel will appeal to you or it won’t. Should you purchase the matching Jens phonostage, you will at least have two components that visually complement each other. The alphanumeric display screams Apollo 13, however it is easily read from across the room. Whether this will cloud your judgement and subsequent purchase decision is up to you.

We have no idea what’s inside the case of these solid-state miracles, as Wettasinghe does not talk about it or publish pictures. This preamplifier is a two-box design, with a smaller, external power supply attached via a supplied umbilical cord, which is also of very high quality. Should you buy one and open it up to peek for yourself, the warranty is void. As Tom Waits would say, “What’s he building in there?” Proprietary anything makes me suspicious and crabby at the same time, but the damn thing delivers. My K-10 is the same way. Shrouded in secrecy. We’ll never know.

Analog, eh?

The $15,500 Jens Reference phonostage is equally compelling. Sharing a similar lack on sonic signature with the Christine Reference linestage, the two together are a powerful combination. Fast, full range, and audibly engulfing. Oddly, for as much as Mr. Wettasinghe carries on about the benefits of a fully balanced topology, the Jens is single ended, with a single input and single output.

No matter, the delicacy of Eric Bibb’s guitar comes through strongly, striking a great balance of brushwork on the drums with Bibb’s plucky guitar style. His recent release from Pure Pleasure Analog is absolutely sublime. Partnered with the Koetsu Onyx Platinum, the Jens reveals a lot of music, taking you to a place I’ll stick my neck out and guess you haven’t been.

Gain is fixed at 70db, which works well with every cartridge in my collection, especially with said Koetsu, having only .3mv of output. Loading is widely variable from 5 ohms to 5,000 ohms, which should accommodate a wide range of cartridges, especially with the range between 25 and 500 offering the bulk of the settings.

Where the loading functionality of the Jens Reference Phono stage is incredibly well thought out, implementation is not terribly user friendly. That big lighted panel on the front face merely has three sets of LEDs indicating the Jens’ power up status. Adjusting gain requires going back behind the preamplifier, and rotating a pair of black knobs, hoping you’ve set the same number of clicks on each channel. If you are an analog lover that changes cartridges often, this will become tiresome in a hurry.

In all fairness, we didn’t knock the $60,000 Indigo Qualia for having one input and a single gain/loading setting, so we won’t knock the Jens for the same failing. Simaudio’s MOON LP810 also only sports a single input and is similarly priced to the Merrill Audio. So consider this a high performance phonostage for the music lover with a single turntable that doesn’t swap cartridges often. If you like to diddle with multiple table/arm/cart combinations, you might be best served elsewhere.

Again, like the Christine, the Jens is sealed, with an equal penalty (i.e. no warranty) so there is no way to see just what lurks underneath the cover and how the build quality of this preamplifier stacks up to its competitors.  It uses the same two box design, utilizing the same power supply as the Christine Reference Pre, so if you decide to go all Merrill Audio, the line and phono stages will require three shelves to accommodate all of the boxes.

Combining the Jens with the Christine makes for a dynamic combination. Both share the same ultra wide bandwidth design ethos and provide a very fast, clear and immediate presentation. Even the notoriously forward Rega Apheta 2, thanks to a 25 ohm loading setting is easily tamed, providing linear response. While there is no listed specification for signal to noise ratio, the Jens has a complete absence of background noise; it’s high res digital quiet, making for an incredibly dynamic analog presentation. All the audiophile cliché’s about “inky black backgrounds,” and “sound just creeping up out of the background,” etc., etc., apply here. Most phonostages have at least a tiny bit of noise, but not this one. Even with the volume control of the Christine cranked fully clockwise, there’s a total absence of sound. Impressive.

Total honesty

The Jens’ lack of sonic signature doesn’t really make for exciting audio journalism. Extended listening with a wide range of highly familiar pressings proves highly engaging. A perfect tonal balance, wide dynamic range and weighty presentation gradually increases the gravitational pull of your listening area. A few hours on the couch with the Jens makes it tough to escape your hifi system’s orbit. As more hours racked up, the same thought occurs when listening to the Jens, it epitomizes the analog feel, giving recordings this homogenous flow resembling a master tape that helps fool your brain into thinking you are listening to the real thing.

And the more you listen, the more you’ll be pulled in. Everything feels a little bigger, a little deeper than what you’re probably used to. The only phonostages that have exceeded this have been the $60k Qualia and the $65k Pass Xs Phono. I’ve yet to experience a phonostage that reveals this much music at this price, and that’s the highest compliment I can pay the Jens. A few other phonostages do things differently, a few are more user friendly and a couple of great tube phonostages offer their own sonic signature that one listener may prefer over another. But if you want analog honesty and you don’t mind the quirky nature of the Jens, I can think of no better phonostage unless you’ve got $60-65k to spend.

The Merrill Audio Jens Phonostage and Christine Linestage
MSRP:  $13,000 and $15,500 respectively

www.merillaudio.net

Peripherals

Turntables                   AVID Acutus REF SP/SME V/Lyra Atlas, Brinkmann Bardo/Koetsu Onyx Platinum

Preamplifier                Merrill Audio Christine, Pass Xs Pre

Amplifiers                   Pass Xs 300 Monoblocks

Speakers                      Quad 2812, GamuT RS5is, Focal Sopra no.2, Sonus faber Il Cremonese, MartinLogan Neolith

Cable                           Tellurium Q Silver Diamond interconnects and speaker cable

A relative newcomer to the audio industry, U.S.-based Kanto opened its doors in January of 2007. After working for larger consumer electronics companies for many years, Kanto’s founders put their design discipline to work developing new products to meet their goal of delivering high-quality products at very reasonable prices. Kanto’s latest speaker product conceived in Canada, the Yumi powered speaker, is building a fan base of its own. After putting the Yumis through their paces, I count myself among Kanto’s recent fans.

In The Eye of the Beholder

Kanto speakers are available in a variety of colors to blend in with any home décor or provide a nice contrasting hue. A prospective owner has the choice of matte black, gray and white finishes. However, I’d highly recommend choosing from one of the beautifully executed gloss finish options including black, white, gray, blue, purple, or red.

Kanto deviates from the standard boxy speaker shape, giving the Yumi’s a modern twist. While the front and back of the speakers are flat as you would expect, all the speaker’s side edges are curved. Rather than having defined sides it’s more like the speaker has a “flow” around it.

Tweeting and woofing are handled by a one-inch silk dome, and a five-inch Kevlar driver, respectively. Despite the small dimensions, these drivers prove themselves serious workhorses. To encourage better bass response, each speaker has a two-inch bass port. With the ability to output frequencies ranging from 60Hz to 20 KHz, the Yumi’s cover the majority of the human hearing spectrum. For those craving full range bass down to 20 Hz, the Yumi’s do include one subwoofer output on the rear.

Lots Under the Hood

Within the modern exterior lies the real magic of the Yumis. In Kanto’s design implementation, one of the two speakers is both the brains and brawn of the pair. It houses the control knob, source switching circuits, and the amplifier. Only this speaker must be attached to a power outlet using a standard electrical cord. Each of these elements requires some additional explanation.

The dual-purpose knob on the front not only controls volume but by pushing in the knob and rotating it, the Yumi toggles through various input options. Owners have a choice of connections for music sources including RCA, 3.5mm, Bluetooth, and optical.

Opposite the knob is a small LED that indicates the speaker’s state and source.  White, blue and amber colors – flashing or solid –  show various states of sources and power readiness. In addition to the various inputs, and a power switch on the rear of the speaker, a built-in USB charger is a convenient addition, making it easy to charge a mobile phone or another audio device while using that device to stream music.

Yumi’s are powered by a 30-Watt Class AB amplifier. Putting that much juice in a little speaker enclosure is a bit like packing a turbo charged V8 engine in a Volkswagen Bug… and it’s awesome! While I admire greatly the energy efficiency and sound quality of modern Class D amp designs used in many powered speakers today, there’s still something about the older-school amplifier circuitry that usually generates, to my ears, a more musically engaging and lifelike experience. The Class AB implementation in the Yumi is no exception. When in standby mode, the Yumi amp sips only half a watt, keeping the circuitry warm and ready for use. While the owner can manually put the Yumi’s into standby mode via the remote, the speakers will do it automatically if no source material is detected for a period.

External dimensions of the speakers are a scant 6.9” W x 8.1” D x 10.6” H (17.4 x 20.5 x 27 cm). The Yumi speaker pair weighs in at about 23 pounds. Of course, the passive speaker makes up only 8.8 pounds (4 Kg) of that heft since the heavy amplifier, power supply, and other technology is packed inside the other speaker enclosure.

All in the Wrist

As if all this isn’t stellar enough, the Yumis come with a plastic remote that fits comfortably in the palm of your hand, allowing the owner to control many functions from the comfort of a favorite listening seat. Volume, mute, and source selection are complemented with the ability to control bass and treble. A reset button snaps the sound back to neutral when frequency emphasis isn’t desired. When using a Bluetooth connection, additional buttons control the ability to play, pause, or select the previous or next song.

Sending music from a phone via Bluetooth is incredibly easy, however, in my experience a fair amount of fidelity gets lost with compressed music despite the Yumi’s implementation of the aptX codec created to give Bluetooth better sonics. Using the analog RCA inputs to pipe in music from my reference rig, the Yumis take flight. In every perceivable way, music comes though with a sonic improvement over of the wireless connection. It may be silly to feed the Yumi’s a signal from sources priced much more expensively than the Yumi’s themselves, however, these speakers demonstrate their ability to take great source material and deliver it to the listener in a musically satisfying and very engaging way.

Shocking Sound

These powers speakers deliver impressive sound. Though the Yumi, tracks like “Rotten Apple” by Alice in Chains have a surprising level of texture, emotion and depth which I would normally associate with  larger speakers and more powerful upstream equipment. Similarly, vocal tracks like Cat Power’s “Silver Stallion” reveal the emotion of the performance.

There’s a relaxed naturalness to the Yumis voice. It’s easy to settle into long listening sessions with various music types like electronica, vocals, pop, classical and jazz, never feeling like huge compromises are made. All of the tracks auditioned are delivered with nuance and delicacy beyond the Yumi’s price point. At the same time, there’s a quick-paced liveliness when the music dictates it. These speakers are not one-trick ponies, but chameleons that do well with whatever musical information is thrown at them.

The bass these little babies put out defies expectation. Even a few feet from the rear wall without any bass loading, there’s a good amount of lower frequency heft, and adding a little more is no problem thanks to the tone control options. With any small enclosure, though, there are bass limitations. Those craving heavy and tactile low frequency information can utilize the Yumi’s subwoofer output to augment the monitors.

From a soundstaging perspective, the speakers offer additional surprises. They somehow manage to throw a huge, three dimensional soundstage with ease, as you might expect from a great pair of mini monitors. Musical elements exceed the left and right boundaries of the speaker bodies and there’s a perceived depth of musical cues projected well above and behind the speakers.

The Yumi speakers deserve many accolades. But yes, they do have limitations. Are these tiny speakers going to reproduce spacious orchestral works with the impact, powerful swells and crescendos of a full range floor-standing speaker? Of course not. It’s important to frame perspective here. Let’s just say these Kanto speakers pour forth music, across the frequencies they are capable of reproducing, with ease, grace, and potency.

Given the speaker size and $449 price tag, I can’t criticize something that does so much so well. Some compromises must be decided deliberately by designers in order to satisfy size requirements, manufacturing costs, and future consumer sales. Kanto’s team made took a lot of care to avoid glaring errors that can make modestly priced speakers sound or feel cheap, impeding listening enjoyment. For potential owners living in a small apartment, or who want a set of speakers in a bedroom or den, the Yumis easily offer enough oomph to fill a room with spacious sound. Heck, they did a mighty good job filling my main listening space.

Get ‘Em While They’re Hot!

Right out the gate, these speakers command attention and deliver big, thrilling sound that seems impossible from such an unassuming enclosure. It’s a pleasure to test a product that provides so much quality for a modest price. Over the course of my time with the Yumis, my enthusiasm for them only grows. At the end of the review period, I could not bear to pack up and return these mini marvels, and purchased the demo pair. For all they offer at their price point, we award the Kanto Yumi Speakers a 2016 Exceptional Value Award.

Kanto Yumi Powered Speakers

MSRP: $449

www.kantoliving.com

PERIPHERALS

Analog Source: SME Model 10 with SME V and Model 10 tonearms. Dynavector 17D3 and Denon DL-103R cartridges

Digital Sources: Mac Mini, Roon Music Service, dCS Debussy

Preamplification: Coffman Labs G1-B

Cables: Jena Labs

Power: Torus AVR 15 Plus, RSA Mongoose power cords

Accessories: ASC tube traps, Mapleshade Samson audio racks, Coffman Labs Equipment Footers, AudioQuest Jitterbug, Atomic Audio Labs Mac Mini stand

Today’s iPhones offer so much technology and functionality packed into a tiny space, it’s getting harder to imagine how the built-in capability can wow us further. Yet British hifi manufacturer Arcam has developed the MusicBOOST; it’s the ultimate accessory to take your iPhone 6 to the next level.

The ‘BOOST offers three benefits; first, it’s a protective case. The stiff plastic shell designed to surround the phone pairs with a rubber-like, grippy material on the case back. The soft surface makes the phone less likely to slip from one’s hand, but the plastic is there to absorb impacts in the event the phone is dropped.

Secondly, Arcam has a battery built-in which trickle-charges its host phone on the fly. Arcam’s specs indicate the battery pack roughly doubles the iPhone 6’s internal battery charge.

Third, and most importantly, Arcam squeezes in a DAC and headphone amp maximizing the prowess of an excellent Burr-Brown chip. Yes, the Arcam can drive larger, efficient headphones when they are connected into the MusicBOOST with an 1/8” adapter. However, it’s not an ideal match for less efficient over the head models, like the infamously tough to drive HiFIMan Phones. The MusicBOOST’s internals are a much better partner for efficient IEMs.

How Arcam squeezes all that capability into a case that adds only ¾” to the length of the phone, ¼” to the thickness, and virtually no width change, is a much appreciated engineering mystery making the MusicBOOST a marvelous, and minimally obtrusive accessory weighing in at only 100 grams. And just like their home hifi and home theater components, they do it at a very reasonable price, $189 in this case.

Setup

The iPhone 6 slides into the MusicBOOST from the top, nesting into a lightning plug at the bottom. Once the phone resides within the case though, external lightning cables can no longer be used. The supplied cord featuring a micro USB connector to charge the phone/case combo takes its place.

The case has only two tiny control buttons. One activates the ‘BOOST’s charger for the phone. The second button gives the user insight into the amount of charge remaining in the Arcam. Depending on the button pressed, four tiny LEDs on the case indicate current status. The rest is plug and play, you can start listening to better sound immediately.

Listening

The iPhone 6’s DAC is not bad, however the Arcam offers an upgrade over the sound quality of the iPhone’s native internals. While Apple Lossless encoding of music stored on the phone offers better resolution than the compressed 256 kb/sec option, both formats benefit from sonic improvement with the Arcam in place. Streaming Tidal’s CD-quality music proves even more revelatory; exposing a bigger gap between the iPhone and the MusicBOOST, now offering a relaxed smoothness that the naked iPhone can’t. The Arcam’s lushness isn’t overly romantic, but it does take music to the warmer end of the spectrum. As a result, vocals and instruments render with detail, but without sharp digital artifacts that detract from the overall musical experience.

Bass also receives a substantial improvement over that produced by the stock iPhone. The combination of an excellent DAC chip for decoding, and the extra oomph from the amplifier, gives low notes a more substantial and weighty presence. There’s simply more low-end information to enjoy. Those enjoying more bass heavy music will dig the MusicBOOST.

Higher piano notes, and the complex frequency combinations ushered forth from a cymbal crash, are portrayed with ample strike and decay. While not rolled-off, the warmer characteristic of the DAC does render higher frequencies with politeness over stridency –  a welcome combination for long listening sessions.

Soundstaging improves through the MusicBOOST too. While the left-to-right soundstage width does not seem to exceed that of the naked iPhone, music enhanced by the Arcam does have a more beguiling overall quality thanks to an increased sense of depth and ambience, giving the illusion of a larger sonic space from around your head.

Is it right for you?

Quibbles with the Arcam are minor. First, the lack of wrap-around phone protection at the top of the case leaves me a bit worried. The back of the case does extend slightly beyond the top of an iPhone 6 offering a good level of drop protection, but there are some areas exposed that would leave an iPhone 6 vulnerable to impact at certain angles. I’ve depended on a Spigen case to defend my iPhone from inadvertent drops, and that solution has saved my bacon many times over. It’s a small leap of faith to count on the Arcam as a primary defense measure for the phone, but the incredible functionality makes it worth the risk.

The second caveat with the Arcam is more a matter of personal preference over practicality. Those who crave the revelation of every tiny, bright nuance in a recording might be disappointed. The MusicBOOST’s warmer sound defers to the bigger-picture forest, and not as much to the individual tree branches. On the other hand, if you prefer a slightly more lush musical portrayal than what your stock iPhone delivers, the MusicBOOST will be just the ticket. Again, a lot of this will be determined by your choice of phones.

At about $200, the Arcam is a small investment, and the functionality packed into it provides lot of value. If one attempted to purchase a high quality case, battery boost, DAC and headphone amp separately as iPhone add-ons, all those individual elements would certainly exceed the Arcam’s price. Plus of course, all the individual components could never match the simple and small form factor the Arcam provides in a single package. After my experience testing the Arcam MusicBOOST, it appears my iPhone 6 has found its new long-term travel partner, and I don’t even have to wrestle our publisher for this one, because he has the larger, 6+.

Publisher’s note: Before handing the MusicBOOST of to Rob, I did put it through its paces with my wife’s iPhone 6S and concur with his assessment. With so many external iPhone amps and DACs now available, I really appreciate the form factor and the convenience of the extra charge capacity; anyone running out of juice near the end of the day on a regular basis will really appreciate another full charge stored in the MusicBOOST.

You wouldn’t think the fraction of a millimeter in thickness between the older iPhone 6 and the newer 6S would mean anything, but it does make the difference between snug and tight. Should you have a newer 6S, plan on making your MusicBOOST a permanent fixture as it is a bit tougher to dock and un-dock. The sound quality is a major step up, especially considering the cost factor, enough so that we happily award the Arcam MusicBOOST an Exceptional Value Award for 2016.

For those just beginning their personal audio journey, this will be a fantastic addition to on the go listening. Even with stock iBuds, the “boost” is very worthwhile. Now if they only made one for the 6S+, I could have one! Come on, come on!

Arcam MusicBOOST

MSRP: $189

www.arcam.co.uk (Manufacturer)

www.soundorg.com (US Distributor)

PERIPHERALS

In-ear monitors: JH Audio JH16, Ultimate Ears UE18, Cardas A8, Sennheiser MM 30i

Headphones: Audeze LCD-X, Sennhesier HD650, Sony MDR-7506

Bryston, the long-standing Canadian audio manufacturer, is highly respected on a number of fronts. Their gear is superbly built, rugged, and reliable. They also offer virtually unmatched support with multi-year warranties on most components. Their amplification is used worldwide in both professional and domestic audio environments. Their digital source components have been well received by the world press and remain in residence in my current reference system.

As comprehensive as Bryston’s product line is, with power amps, preamps, integrated amplifiers, digital file players, and power products, there was until recently one omission: loudspeakers. This gap in their product line has been filled with an extensive lineup of speakers ranging from the Mini A “bookshelf” model all the way up to big and bold room-filling floorstanders.

Why speakers?

The impetus behind Bryston’s drive to produce loudspeakers in an already crowded and competitive area is their VP of Product Marketing, James Tanner. Tanner, in his quest for a speaker that would satisfy him personally, came up short in his search, and thus decided to pursue an original design that would achieve certain goals. His efforts translated into results that were satisfying enough that Bryston decided to distribute these designs commercially.

Bryston put a lot of resources into R&D, doing extensive testing, listening, and measuring with the help of fellow Canadian manufacturer Axiom, whose facilities are state of the art.  The speaker lines are all manufactured in Canada – no outsourcing here – and there is an accompanying unheard of twenty-year warranty.

The Mini T monitor loudspeaker in this review sells for $3,200. The Mini T is flanked by the Mini A, its smaller brother, and at the top of the line, the mighty Model T Signature flagship multi-way tower. There is nothing actually “mini” about the Mini T, as it stands 22.5“ high and weighs in at 42 lbs. The speaker is a three-way, with a 1” dome tweeter, a 5.25“ midrange driver, and an 8“ woofer.  The frequency response is stated as 33Hz to 20kHz, impressive at this price point.  Efficiency is average, at 86 dB, 4 ohms, nominal.

The Mini T is available in Black Ash, Boston Cherry, Natural Cherry, and in custom veneers at an additional charge. There are custom stands available to which the Mini T can be bolted. Out of the box, the Mini T exudes quality. The finish, construction, and binding posts are first class – what many have come to expect from Bryston.

The Mini T takes residence in good company. The speakers are driven by an Audio Research VS55 tube amp, the Simaudio 760A solid-state powerhouse and a Coffman Labs G1-A tube preamp. Sources are Simaudio’s NEO 380D DAC, Bryston’s own BDA-1 DAC, and a Revox A77 tape deck. Cabling is Stager, Transparent, and DH Labs with the Mini Ts sitting comfortably on custom Sound Anchor stands.

Getting down to business

After a relatively short 25-hour break-in period, the listener is treated to a wonderfully coherent, integrated, and live sound. The Mini Ts are not slow, midrange heavy classic British style monitors of yesteryear. They are very much a modern product, with amazingly low distortion levels, deep, very satisfying bass, and an open, transparent midrange.

Listening reveals the Mini Ts’ opposing strengths. They are incredibly nimble and quick, yet buttery smooth and relaxed at the same time, projecting an unusually deep soundstage to boot. The reverb feels wetter, note decays are longer, and timing is better than any other speaker at this price point that I’ve experienced.

The Cars studio albums, remastered at 24/192, sound fresh, vibrant, and not the least bit dated via the Mini T. It is a real treat to hear such classics as “Good Times Roll,” “Got a Lot on My Head,” “Candy O,” and others with crunchy guitars, articulated bass lines, and the classic vocals of Ric Ocasek and Ben Orr floating holographically in the center of the mix.

The latest album from immensely gifted jazz singer Gregory Porter, Liquid Spirit, 96 kHz download, plays to many of the Mini T’s strengths: accurate tonality, correct instrumental timbres, and musical pacing. Porter sings like a human cello, with a bit of the finesse of Nina Simone, and the conversational style of Bill Withers, and the Brystons render his voice in a most astonishingly present way.

The Mini Ts do the versatility thing without breaking a sweat. Orchestral pieces, classic Blue Note jazz ensemble recordings, and classic rock are just different channels on the dial for the Bryston. No matter the source – analog or digital – the Mini Ts easily draw you in. Listening to Steppenwolf’s Gold: Their Greatest Hits on reel-to-reel is one of the highlights of the review period. The fuzzed-out guitars, psychedelic arrangements, and the ominous vocals of John Kay have the house rocking.

The Pentangle’s sublime Basket of Light, on SHM-CD, a longtime reference for evaluating speakers, is presented in a way suggesting electrostatic-like transparency and dynamics, especially on the track “The Cuckoo,” with the late, great, John Renbourn and Bert Jancsh’s acoustic guitars, the wonder that is Jacqui McShee’s voice, and Danny Thompson’s otherworldly acoustic bass. I’ve had very few true jaw-dropping moments in hifi, but this was one of them. The Mini Ts could have passed for floorstanders, given the earthy, deep-rooted foundation of the music.

The Mini Ts are also a breeze to set up. They are not super fussy about room placement, but of course a bit of experimentation is advised. Being relatively close to boundaries does not cramp their style, like so many high end speakers.  This is due to the controlled way the Mini Ts’ drivers disperse energy into the room. Despite the cabinet not being designed to to “tame” resonances into oblivion, which can cause other problems, there is no apparent transient smearing or non-mechanical distortion present.

A solid performer indeed

Bryston, with the Mini T stand-mounted monitors, eschews the “flavor of the month” design and concentrates on maximizing the potential of a three-way dynamic loudspeaker. The results are a smashing success. The Mini Ts will remain in my system as a reference in this price point. My only complaint is the stamped metal jumpers, but that is a small problem easily solved.

It must be noted the Bryston Mini T will rise to occasion with high-quality partnered equipment. Great cables, amplification, and sources will pay huge dividends due to the speaker’s low distortion. Focusing on amplifier quality rather than overall power rating will pay dividends, and the Bryston dedicated stands are definitely worth a look. The Bryston Mini T monitors are among the best deals going. An audition is highly recommended. Bring your favorite recordings and prepare to be impressed.

Additional Listening

I’ve heard the Bryston speakers a few times at various shows and have always come away impressed, but it’s always nice to set them up in a familiar environment and make a few brief comparisons. On the heels of the impressive $4,000 Eggleston Emmas that are my budget reference, the Bryston Mini T delivers excellent performance.

The size is a bit odd, as they are not really big enough to be floorstanders, but hardly small enough to be considered small monitors. For most this should not be an issue, but small kids and tail-happy dogs might be problematic.

I agree with Andre: the Mini Ts are incredibly easy to set up and get great sound with minimal fuss. After the photographs were taken, I took the liberty of trying them in three separate rooms: a small but modestly treated room (10 x 13 feet), my large listening room (16 x 25 feet) and the living room in my house, which has to be the worst sounding room I’ve ever heard, yet it makes for a great “real world” listening environment. The Mini Ts shined in all three.

Having heard Bryston amplification in a number of the world’s finest recording studios, matched with PMC loudspeakers, I’d make this comparison. The Mini T is very linear, with wide dispersion and sounds great whether you are sitting on the couch or hanging out, listening on the floor in the corner of the room – a plus for a speaker that you want to share with friends. It should come as no surprise that the Mini Ts sound fantastic with Bryston amplification, but their chameleon-like character makes them a good match for anything else on the shelf, from a vintage Marantz receiver to the Boulder 2160 I have here for review. But beware that these speakers reveal what they are fed, so if you aren’t happy with the end result, it’s probably due to something not quite right in your system. As I tend to prefer sound tipped a bit more to the warm romantic side, I preferred the Mini Ts with tube gear, to inject a little extra midrange magic into the presentation, and again, because these speakers are so natural, you can easily fine tune them to your taste.

Lastly, don’t let the 86db sensitivity rating fool you. The Mini-Ts are incredibly easy to drive and will provide more than satisfying sound pressure levels in a modest room with 20 watts of tube power. I found the Retro i-50 integrated we reviewed last issue to be more than enough in my 10 x 13 foot room. Of course, more power will provide more dynamics, especially in a larger room and on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Mini-Ts delivered an equally impressive performance in y large room with the Pass Labs Xs 300 monoblocks. These are definitely speakers you can grow with!

For just over three grand, this company, well known for their electronics, has produced a winning loudspeaker. We are very happy to give them one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2015. If you’re speaker shopping, stop by your nearest Bryston dealer with a few of your favorite tracks. –Jeff Dorgay

The Bryston Mini T Loudspeaker

MSRP:  $3,200

www.bryston.com

PERIPHERALS

The new Galileo series from Audio Research combines over 40 years of amplification know-how with the proficiency in visual design resulting from ARC being part of the Fine Sounds Group and leveraging the Sonus faber design team. The resulting components push the sonic boundaries that ARC is famous for, wrapped in casework deserving of true aficionados.

These are components that you will want to put front and center; gone are the big, black rack handles of yore. And you have to see the new power output meters (which work double-duty to bias the KT150 output tubes) to believe how cool they look in action. The teams in the U.S. and Italy have come up with an amplifier and preamplifier so close to perfection that the only question now is what will they do for an encore?

Expect a full review of both components shortly, and a long-term evaluation next year, after we’ve lived with these two awhile. First impressions don’t come any better than this.

ARC GSPRE Preamplifier and GS150 Power Amplifier

$15,000 and $20,000, respectively

www.audioresearch.com

I’ve Seen the Future of Music, Again!

Forget everything you know about serving digital music files. No matter what you are using, it’s irrelevant.

A bold claim indeed, but spend a few minutes with Roon and you’ll find yourself getting up from the listening chair hours later. It’s that compelling. Now you can access music three dimensionally, much like you do when flipping through the bins at your favorite record store, but arguably better. And I say this as an analog lover that still has 8 turntables and over 7500 LP’s.

So, where did Roon labs come from? The core team that developed the Sooloos music server stayed together and to take their baby to the next level, so rest assured this is not a group of random newcomers to the industry. And every member of this team is Stephen Hawking smart.

A bit of history

We featured the original Sooloos music server on the cover of issue 11, proudly proclaiming it was the future of music – at least the future of digital music delivery. In the six years since the introduction of the iPod in 2001, Sooloos hit the scene with an ease of use that was, and to a major extent still remains untouchable today. Computer audio was in its infancy then, but like our laptops, cellphones and other things technologically related, it has taken off. For many listeners, the Sooloos interface is now the gold standard of functionality.

The guys at Sooloos weren’t sleeping. Though they sold the company to Meridian a couple of years after it’s inception to find a better hardware partner, so they could continue to develop the application, porting the Sooloos look and feel to the newly developed iPad in 2010, and a few somewhat lower priced endpoints have been released on the hardware side. Meridian managed to smooth out the rough edges on the initial hardware platform, but unfortunately, the cost of admission stayed high with the Sooloos system remaining available to mostly well-heeled customers.

Meridian continued to improve the sound quality of the Sooloos Control units, and paired with their flagship 800 series disc player/DAC, serves up good sound. However, the Control 15 has never played terribly well with other DACs, another limitation.

Fortunately, this system no longer needs tens of thousands of dollars worth of specific hardware to run; it’s equally at home, running on mac and windows platforms, with tablet support due shortly after release. You can buy a lifetime subscription to the Roon software for $499, or subscribe on an annual basis, as you would Photoshop or Office for $119 a year. New users can try Roon free for 14 days.

As someone who leases all of their production software, I love this model, because with a subscription, there are no surprises down the line. You’ll always have the latest, greatest version, and Roon is wherever you are, regardless of which model you choose.

Shortly after release at this week’s Munich High End show, Roon promises a tablet client, so the system will be more portable and touch screen accessible for Mac users with no touch-screen options. Running both for the purposes of this review, I confess two things; I still don’t much care for Windows, but considering the low cost of an all in one, touch screen Windows box, it’s tough to argue with this solution. Roon begs to be touched. By comparison, my Sooloos Control 15 had an $8,500 price tag without the storage. A 21” HP machine will only set you back about $500, but a couple hundred more will buy the 27” model. Now if only I could get an 80” touch screen wall mounted running Roon…

Roon will happily coexist with anything on your current machine, but if you choose to pick up a dedicated machine, a modest configuration will get the job done. Excellent results were achieved on both Mac and PC sides with 4gb of RAM.

Liberated from dedicated hardware, Roon sounds as good as the DAC you connect it to, and in the context of my reference systems, sounds fantastic with the dCS Paganini and Gryphon Kalliope DACs. Yet even mated to the $599 Arcam iRDAC that we reviewed last issue, the sound quality has taken a dramatic increase for the better, especially with AudioQuest’s JitterBug (reviewed in issue 71 of TONEAudio) and their USB Diamond cable in the signal chain. The most noticeable difference is in the upper registers, with the digital glare from my Control 15 now a thing of the past.

Of course all computer audio geekiness applies here, so the better you can optimize your computer used for playback, the greater the improvement. If you are new to the computer audio playback world and aren’t already following computeraudiophile.com, I suggest stopping by to peruse their backlog of articles, they will help you wring even more audio performance out of your Roon based system.

Speaking of storage

Roon finds everything on your network, regardless of configuration, but a NAS offers the tidiest solution. With almost 11,000 CD’s in my collection, an 8TB QNAP NAS makes for reasonably priced, bulletproof storage. Invest the minimal cost difference between enterprise grade hard drives and standard grade drives to ensure long-term durability. Those needing further protection can easily add an equivalent external USB drive somewhere on the network as a mirror.

Once installed, Roon looks for primary and secondary storage, as well as creating a folder keeping an eye on for new music added to the collection. Where Sooloos took advantage of Exact Audio Copy to rip files in a proprietary FLAC format, Roon is much more diplomatic. While not offering their own ripping software, leaving you to use your favorite method of digitizing your music, Roon does access all the major audio files, and works with all resolutions, up to and including 24bit/384khz. Those with iTunes and other low-resolution libraries will enjoy a seamless integration with the rest of their digital audio files. Roon principal Enno Vandermeer is quick to point out that with so many CDs still in circulation, many music lovers have a favorite way to rip, so they’ve left it to the end user; rip with the software of your choice, move the resulting files to storage and let Roon do the rest. It works equally well with high-resolution files too, and while DSD is not yet supported, Roon’s Rob Darling makes it clear that DSD support will be available “very, very soon.”

All of Roon’s principals make it a point to joke about how as software guys, they would like to just keep geeking out on the program, but a line has been drawn in the sand, and version 1.0 is incredibly robust. Eight years of refining Sooloos didn’t hurt their game one bit. Knowing how committed this team is to providing the best musical experience again suggests that a subscription model is the way to go, so Roon can continue to innovate and you are always experiencing the best they have to offer

Initial power up and install of the system is brief, but some windows users may need to update their USB DAC drivers to keep everything hunky dory. This only added five minutes to my install process, and once complete, the HP communicated flawlessly with the Gryphon Kalliope DAC that is my current reference in system two.

Surveying the landscape

For those who don’t run Roon continuously, upon starting the application, you are greeted by a screen telling you the status of your collection (how many albums, tracks, artists and other data) along with a quick visual link to music that has been recently added. A quick scroll down the page reveals the day’s featured artist and featured composer, both only a click away.

Clicking the icon in the upper left corner offers three different browse modes; overview, genres, discover and a fourth linked to Tidal if you have a Tidal subscription. Again, Roon saves the day with Tidal, making navigation through the clunky Tidal interface a breeze, but better yet, albums you love can be imported to your Roon library with the click of the button.

The Genre callout divides your library by musical genre, offering you the options of going to an overview of jazz, rock, country or any of the other genre classifications, with callouts for major contributors to said genres. The mega music geeks in the audience might argue over fine divisions here, but there is no argument to the density of thought that has gone into this.

If you decide to follow a particular artist, the resulting main screen presents the artist along with a bio, birthday and other relevant info along with where to find them on the web, Facebook and Wikepedia. All from the comfort of your listening chair.

Discover mode “curates your library to find hidden gems, unseen connections between artists and interesting things to hear.” This is the understatement of the year, again revealing a virtual encyclopedia on the artists in your collection. And it refreshes every time you click into this mode. I found this one of the most enjoyable aspects of Roon, continually offering “Wow, I forgot about that record” moments.

If this isn’t enough, five more hierarchies remain; artists, albums, tracks, composers and works. Sorting by artist puts your collection in alphabetical order by artist, with a callout as to how many albums by this particular artist reside in your collection. Again, pairing this with Tidal makes fleshing out various discographies a snap. Sooloos users will recognize Album mode and feel right at home, yet with Roon, this is only the starting point of the journey. Tracks are a little tougher, especially if you have a lot of music. It might take forever to get through hundreds of thousands of tracks, albeit listed in alphabetical order. Kudos to the Roon team for offering this, but it’s not for everyone.

Composers and works will not be as useful to those listening to primarily rock, pop, and hip hop, but a major boon to classical and jazz lovers. With classical having so many different variations on the theme, Roon may just be the tool to introduce classical music to a new generation of aficionados, and yes, it features gapless playback.

It’s like spending all day in the record store

Listening to the classic trio of Al DiMeola, John McLaughlin and Paco DeLucia’s Friday Night in San Francisco, it’s merely a finger tap away from seeing all the other bands these guys played with, which of their albums are available in your current music collection and what else is available to either listen to, or add to your collection on Tidal. Roon’s creators wanted to create a “never ending musical experience.” That they have succeeded brilliantly is an understatement.

Starting with Al DiMeola, I was able to take a lap through most of his discography, added a few albums I didn’t have to my collection via Tidal and notice his birthday is coming up, recalling he was on Stomu Yamashita’s Complete Go Sessions, which led to another hour with Klaus Schulze, ending up with some early Santana. This interactional aspect of Roon has really rekindled my interest in music and again, always reminds me of spending a day in my favorite record stores with good friends, sharing knowledge and coming home with a big pile of new records to explore.

The microphone button in the lower right corner of the screen illuminates when lyrics are available to the tracks you are listening to, unfortunately the mic was not illuminated when listening to a few of my favorite hip hop records. In this case, I suggest just turning the volume to the maximum.

The music never ends

No matter how ambitious, obscure or quirky you choose to get with your day’s listening or playlists, there will always be that time your talented hands are busy and you can’t get back to the server to punch in more tunes. Roon has you covered there too, with Radio mode.

Much more than a mere shuffle or random playback mode, it uses all of Roon’s relational database to find music in the same vein that you were listening to, slowly easing further and further away from your original choice until you are again in uncharted waters. Interestingly, after a three day binge of listening to Prince, the Pretenders and Robert Plant, Roon chose some obscure Prince and Led Zeppelin tracks for about 90 minutes and then went off on another tangent entirely when placed in radio mode and allowed to roam free.

Radio plays whenever your chosen music runs its course, or you can generate a queue of music to your taste. Touching the radio button instantly gives you a track suggestion with thumbs up or thumbs down icons awaiting your choice. When you select thumbs up, the track is added to the queue, and another, similar track is suggested with a similar choice. Starting with Ratt, I was quickly lead to Dokken, Poison, Whitesnake and Van Halen. Rage Against The Machine led to Jane’s Addiction, White Zombie and Living Color. The more diverse your music collection, the more interesting radio mode will be, whether you chose random mode or program it yourself. I find this more and more to be my go to mode.

The ultimate tool for the ultimate music lover

If you’re a major music geek, you’ll be in heaven with Roon, especially if you link it to Tidal. And if you aren’t, I suspect you will be soon. Back when I was a kid, dinosaurs roamed the Earth and birds played records, there was always that guy that had the awesome record collection. Now you can be that person, and can have more access, more knowledge and have more fun than he ever did. Roon brings a tactile, interactive, dare I say analog way to access your music collection.

Not only is Roon the future of digital music delivery, it’s the most fun way to do it, and like Sooloos, the team at Roon has set the bar so high, I doubt anyone will ever catch up. We still haven’t been able to search all the nooks and crannies that Roon offers, so we promise a follow up once it’s been out in the marketplace for a while. But for now, this is an amazing debut. Please stay tuned for more. -Jeff Dorgay

www.roonlabs.com