TONEAudio MAGAZINE The Concierge of High End Audio

My journey with Conrad-Johnson preamplifiers goes all the way back to its original PV-1, purchased new in 1979. Over the last 33 years, I’ve tried a number of different preamplifiers, yet the CJ sound remains a favorite.

Loyal TONEAudio readers know that I’ve been using the ACT 2/series two preamplifier for many years as a reference component. Just like that PV-1, the ACT 2 has performed without as much as a burp—along with the company’s Premier 350 power amplifier—for upwards of 20,000 hours. During a recent dinner with Lew Johnson, he and his partner, Bill Conrad, laughed and said, “You’ve probably spent more hours listening to the ACT 2 than we have. And we designed the damn thing.”

The ART 3 hit the scene a few years ago, and while I enjoyed listening to it in a few friends’ systems, I was too content with the ACT 2 to let it go. However, the GAT is another story. When I visited the CJ factory last year, Johnson said, “I think we finally have something you’ll want to trade your ACT 2 in on.”

While CJ has always made all-vacuum-tube preamplifiers, the GAT marches to the beat of a different drum. Produced in an edition of 250 units, each $20,000 GAT has a small, stamped serial-number pad on the back face. It is also the ultimate in simplicity. Only one 6922 vacuum tube is utilized as a gain stage per channel, and a low-noise FET transistor serves as an output gain buffer—an alternate approach from models employing the FET as the input stage. The combination works brilliantly, offering low noise and incredible low-level detail.

Under the Hood

Much has been said about the virtues of the proprietary Teflon CJD capacitors transforming CJ electronics from a slightly warm, mellifluous sound that this writer always finds enticing to a current sound that gives up none of the tonal richness from legacy designs, yet now possess a level of large- and small-scale dynamics—along with a transparency unattainable in previous preamplifiers. As they used to say at Weight Watchers, “All the satisfaction with none of the guilt.”

The GAT is full of the aforementioned large capacitors, strategically placed in all critical functions. Those used in the power supply look like emergency road flares, and account for much of the GAT’s explosive dynamics. The rest of the circuit board reveals premium parts; this isn’t an overpriced pretty box.

However, those massive Teflon capacitors take some time to sound their best.  We have experienced the same trait with every component featuring a number of them in their design. Right out of the box, the GAT sounds a little flat and restricted—almost in a haze. But it’s easy to pick up on the exquisite tonality that makes this preamplifier one of the world’s finest.

The GAT exits the fog once 100 hours pass, and makes a substantial jump in clarity around the 300-hour mark. Should you be a jittery, impatient audiophile, resist the urge to abandon the GAT until you get at least 300 hours on the clock, or you will be sorry. Most of this “break-in” finishes at this point; you’ll know it when you power it up and it just sounds a lot “bigger.” From that point forward, it continues to slightly improve over the next few hundred hours.

ACT, ART, or GAT?

The ACT, ART, and GAT all possess their own unique sonic signature, and each appeals to a different listener.  The ACT 2 places you about five rows closer to the musical presentation than the ART 3, yet the latter claims more heft in the lowest register of the frequency spectrum, and possesses more tonal saturation as well. Keep in mind, these are not earth-shattering differences. It’s more like the gradation between high-performance tires on a Porsche or Ferrari, but the preamplifiers do have their own unique flavor.

Regardless of your choice of adjectives, these two models owe as much to the type of tube (four 6H30s in the ACT 2, ten 6922s in the ART) as their inherent circuit design.

Enter the GAT. Imagine an equal mixture of the ART and ACT’s tonality, with greater dynamic ability and a lower noise floor. It’s that basic. The GAT makes for a perfect match for both tubed and solid-state CJ power amplifiers, proving a great dance partner with all the amplifiers at my disposal.

Users Chime In

During the course of the review, a few GAT owners were kind enough to send me their impressions, and we’ve all drawn the same conclusion. Whether previous CJ owners or not, all agree that the price asked for the GAT was “very reasonable” in comparison to other units they auditioned. One user called it a “relative steal.”

The GAT’s high-frequency refinement got the highest marks, with one of our respondents feeling the difference between the GAT and ACT 2 isn’t subtle. “It’s as if CJ has brought back the magic midrange from the Premier 16LS and ART preamplifiers, yet carved away the syrupy part.”

All concurred on the GAT’s superior noise floor and, interestingly, the seven GAT owners/responders all commented on the quality of the stock CJ power cord. One reader sums it up succinctly, stating, “I’ve experimented with a number of power cords, and noticed a marginal improvement. But the stock CJ cord is tough to beat.”

Serves the Music

High-performance audio components are like high-performance automobiles in the sense that they offer overpowering excellence in one area, yet lack in others that are even bested by modestly priced competitors. While the GAT is almost equally good with all aspects of musical reproduction, it is the master at combining high resolution with a complete lack of grain or harshness.

Keith Jarrett’s Shostakovich: 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 87 instantly reveals the nuance, texture, and decay the GAT puts at your disposal. Leading and trailing edges of piano notes sound magnificent—almost fragile, not unlike the multicolored light reflection on a soap bubble floating in the air. Acoustic instruments portrayed via the GAT are incredibly realistic.

The GAT also excels in the pace department. The title cut of Frank Sinatra’s Nice and Easy reveals the component’s prowess, as it keeps Sinatra’s vocals out in front of his orchestra while simultaneously painting a Cinemascope-esque soundstage behind him.  At the end of the track, when he snaps his fingers, this bit of fleeting percussion makes it feel as if the man himself is standing about four feet in front of you—unbeatable.

Anja Garbarek’s “Big Mouth” from Smiling and Waving illustrates how the GAT proves equally captivating with female vocals. In this case, Garbarek’s highly over-processed vocals fill my listening room to the point where, at high volume, the doors need to be opened to let some of them out. Yet, at the same time, all of the cool percussion and electronic sounds hover in space. Crowded House’s Woodface offers the same presentation. Even though it’s another studio album full of processing, and an excellent example of “pinpoint imaging,” the GAT bears fruit.

If you are the type of audiophile that loves the latter effect, the GAT will stun you with its massive soundstage and rock-solid imaging—no doubt because of the GAT’s lightning transient speed and freedom from overhang. It stops and starts without going past the mark, providing fatigue-free sound, even after long listening sessions.

Triumph Over Mediocrity

Like any other preamplifier from the top of the mountain, the GAT breezes through pristine audiophile tracks. But those cues aren’t what separate the best from pretty good. As fine as the GAT is with your best recordings, it will endear you with its ability to reveal more music than you thought possible from less-than-heavenly material.

Favorites from Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, and Todd Rundgren (A Wizard, A True Star is particularly nasty sounding) move up from the “terrible recording, but I love the music” to the “sounds pretty good” category. The Rundgren record is particularly splendid when played through the GAT: The bass foundation is better than I’ve ever heard it, along with a few more layers.

I can’t stress the importance of these revelations when it comes to an expensive component. It’s imperative that gear that costs as much as a decent car doesn’t limit the user to five audiophile-approved recordings. This alone justifies the price for this reviewer. Grab a GAT before they are gone.

Conrad Johnson GAT Preamplifier

MSRP: $20,000

www.conradjohnson.com

Peripherals

The biggest issue audiophiles likely face concerns what to do with all the huge and unsightly cables connecting components together. Of course, a faction of audiophilia considers big, beefy cable muy grande macho. However, not everyone wants a massive cable loom lurking in a listening room, which often doubles as a living room.

Attending lectures from various cable manufacturers isn’t much help. Most firms tend to justify their approach. Companies producing large cables try to convince you that a small diameter cable can’t possibly work. Whatever. Physics aside, after spending a lot of time with the Micro Diamond interconnects and speaker cables plugged into a wide range of components and speakers, they not only work brilliantly, they are beautifully executed.

And yes, these actually are cables you’d want your friends to see. Packaged like fine jewelry, they arrive in velvet pouches and inside black boxes—elegantly understated and nicely done without costing a fortune. A one-meter pair of interconnects (RCA or XLR) retails for $850, and is also available as a turntable cable with appropriate termination for $1,000. A 2.5-meter speaker cable set costs $2,950 in bananas or spades.

Crystal Cable director Gaby van der Kley works with the man behind Siltech cables and spent years touring the world as a concert pianist. She’s definitely a designer that knows what instruments sound like.

Going Against The Grain

Most audio cables on today’s market utilize copper or silver conductors, and some are primarily one material with a coating of the other on top. Crystal Cable takes a disparate path, using gold along with a silver primary conductor. Yet the gold isn’t for coating.  Rather, it’s almost impregnated in the silver to fill in molecular gaps in the 1.7mm conductor.

If I had a $20 bill for every talk I’ve heard on cable size, geometry, and the like, I could probably retire. Those subscribing to the “bigger is better” school of thought claim a svelte cable can’t deliver powerful bass response. But Micro Diamond cables are not bass deficient.

Beyond terrific audio performance, Micro Diamond speaker cables offer an interesting feature: scalability. Crystal Cable calls the ends “splitters,” and they can be purchased with a number of different termination options: standard spades or bananas, Furutech carbon spades, or bananas and bi-wired. You can also add another length of cable should you need to reroute your system down the road. Considering the low prices fetched by used cable, this strategy is an excellent way to future-proof your cable purchase and retain your investment.

Listening Sessions

The toughest part of any cable evaluation is trying to determine the sound of the cable. In a perfect world, a cable would add no sonic signature to the signal passing through it. Predictably, some industry folk would have you think all wire sounds the same. However, we believe cable makes a difference in the overall sound of a system and should do no harm to the signal.

While many listeners use cable as the last step in fine-tuning a system—employing cables as tone controls—we view high-quality cable as the way to transfer as much of your system’s performance from one component to another, and finally, to your loudspeakers. More than gross tonal changes, the main difference heard between second- and first-rate cable deals with reducing grain and increasing low-level detail retrieval, not unlike the qualities provided by an excellent power conditioner.

Auditioning Micro Diamond cables in three different systems—small, medium and super-size—achieved good results. The compact setup comprised a vintage CJ amp and preamp, Schiit Bifrost DAC, and pair of MartinLogan Aerius i speakers cabled with various odds and ends. The medium system consisted of a Simaudio 600i integrated amplifier, Wadia 121 DAC, and pair of Harbeth Compact 7-IIIES speakers. The final stereo array (publisher Jeff Dorgay’s standard reference system) involved Audio Research REF components, a dCS Paganini stack, and GamuT S9 speakers cabled with a mixture of Shunyata Aurora, Cardas Clear, and AudioQuest Sky cables.

A majority of acoustic recordings— selections heavy on piano, drums, and acoustic guitars—were played to quickly establish the cable’s proprietary sonics. The latter are highly revealing, with an upfront presentation akin to listening to studio monitors in a near-field configuration. Given Ms. van der Kley’s background, it comes as no surprise that piano reproduction via her cables feels sublime. Whether listening to Herbie Hancock or Beethoven, the instrument’s complex attack and subtle overtones are always maintained and never become harsh or blurred.

If any of your components possess a tonal balance anywhere between neutral and warm/romantic/euphonic, you will be amazed at the additional detail the Micro Diamonds bring to your system’s overall appeal. When utilized with the B&W 802 Diamonds, already a highly resolving speaker with the diamond tweeter and most solid state amplifiers is a presentation that is too forward for some. Still, TONEAudio counts a detail fanatic in its ranks that can never get enough resolution. He loved this combination.

The Micro Diamonds make the biggest improvement in an all-tube system, especially one that leans more towards warm tonality. With the Conrad Johnson PV-12 (recently rebuilt by CJ with CJD Teflon capacitors) and either the MV-50 (same treatment) or PrimaLuna Dialogue monoblocks, the Diamonds’ ability to transfer every bit of information adds a spectacular level of inner detail to this system without compromising musicality in any way.

A similar result can be achieved via speakers ever so slightly on the warm side of neutral. Vide, Harbeth Compact 7s really come alive with Crystal Cables. The sound in our test speakers from Focal, Verity, GamuT, and Peak Consult (all fairly neutral) now boast a different disposition. There’s more resolution, and it’s musically satisfying. What more can one ask?

The Crystal Cable Micro Diamond Cables

MSRP: Interconnect, 1m – $850, Speaker, 2.5m – $2,950

www.crystalcable.com

www.audioplusservices.com  (US/Canada Importer)

It’s been a year and a half since we penned the world’s first review of the Estelon XA speakers, the premier product from Alfred and Partners. Since then, the lineup has expanded to five products, including models below and above the XA, not the least of which is the XC. The latter utilizes Accuton ceramic drivers. They’re combined with designer Alfred Vassilkov’s proprietary crossover designs and wrapped into a sexy enclosure shape, also unique to Estelon, which involves a marble-based composite material.

The XC’s alluring design stops enclosure vibration cold. Between the distinctive composite material’s high density and undulating shape, which eliminates standing waves and resonance, the XCs provide a striking clarity. You merely hear what the drivers are capable of producing—and the sound is indeed very, very good.

The XC is designed for smaller rooms than its three larger siblings, yet the tonal quality is essentially the same. How? The XC employs the same 1.2-inch tweeter as the XA and X Centro, and the XC’s smaller stand-mounted enclosure uses a pair of the 7-inch drivers similar to the ones in the larger speakers.

Having just spent some quality time with the XAs at the Munich High End Show, my memory of the company’s house sound is extremely fresh. These speakers boast incredibly low distortion; they have clarity reminiscent of a pair of full-range electrostatic speakers. Vide, the detail present on “The Seeker” from the Crash Test Dummies’ And God Shuffled His Feet simply staggers. A huge soundstage extends well beyond the speakers, and the multiple overdubs are easily laid bare.

Small Speakers, Big Sound

The tonal purity and low-level detail rendered by the XCs allow them to shine on any densely packed recording—electronic or acoustic. Brian Eno-like in nature, Dave Stewart’s Greetings From the Gutter features endless layers of miniscule electronic sounds that hover out in front of the speakers and bounce off the walls in all directions. When the music is experienced through the XCs, a full-range electrostatic speaker comes to mind, confirming the precision of the XC’s crossover network, even in the critical vocal range.

Throwing a piano-and-violin torture test at the XCs doesn’t cause them to blush. “Poco Adagio,” from the Jung Trio’s Dvorak Trio In F-Minor, Op.65, features both instruments together. Despite the record’s lack of bass, the XCs prove the equal of a massive full-range system, reproducing the record’s width and height all the while keeping the three players perfectly separated in the recording space. Get this wrong and the violins become screechy. The XCs shine, especially near the end of the track, where passages become decidedly more fortissimo.

Using the XCs in medium- and small-sized rooms yields great results. Remember, all four Estelon models are designed to produce an almost identical sound in terms of quality, tone, and timbre. It’s just that the smaller XC is optimized for rooms of lesser volume, and in which the large floorstanding model doesn’t make sense.

The room gain from my small (11 x 17 foot) living room convinced me there’s more than enough low-frequency extension to comfortably play any kind of music. Even bass-heavy tracks, like those from Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum, enjoy enough weight to forgo the thought of a subwoofer. Unless you are trying to spin hip-hop discs at club level, the XC will impress. And while formidable in my dedicated listening room (16 x 25 feet), the XC lacks the last bit of the XA’s dynamic punch, staying true to Estelon’s design brief.

Perfect Pace

The speakers’ ability to keep musical pace intact is excellent. Of course, the freedom from coloration (both driver and box coloration) makes vocal recordings a thrill—whether it’s the gravely warble of Elvis Costello or irreproachable tone of Ella Fitzgerald.  The five-part harmonies on the Fairfield Four’s Standing In The Safety Zone epitomizes the XC’s capabilities at handling wide dynamic swings just as all five vocalists remain distinct from one another.

Low distortion is another of the model’s outstanding virtues. Regardless of the music, these speakers return breathtaking clarity. While they have no problems rocking out, acoustic-music aficionados will be astonished at their tonal purity. Even the most densely packed test tracks are charming, suggesting that many of our recordings may not be as limited as we often suspect. We just need a bit more resolution to delineate the information contained within.

While the XC cannot play as loudly as the XA in a large room, the additional 2db of sensitivity (89db for the XA versus 91db for the XC) makes for a better range of amplification choices. The XA performs admirably with 45 watts per channel of vacuum-tube power, yet more power is always better. In contrast, the XC is well matched with amplifiers in the 50-75 watt range. It’s even a charming partner, albeit at slightly lower levels, with Unison Research’s 25-watts-per-channel S6 amplifier.

Looking for extremely high quality in a moderately sized space? The XC needs to be on your short list. You can start with modest amplification, and upgrade to the world’s finest gear without needing to trade-in the XC on anything else.

Immersive

Highly resolving without being discordant, the XCs put you right at the front of the presentation. My listening position in the main room is more intimate than with the XAs. The XCs work well about seven feet apart (tweeter center to tweeter center), and my listening position is eight feet back. They produce an awesome soundstage in all three dimensions. It almost feels as if my couch is inside a gigantic pair of headphones!

Unless you need to reproduce the last bit of sub-40Hz bass at earthquake levels, the XC handles every kind of fare with equal aplomb—from electronica with SBTRKT and Fuel Box or heavy rock, ala Black Sabbath. The recently remastered CD of Paranoid is a treat when cranking the XCs to their limits on “Fairies Wear Boots.” There’s a wall of screaming guitars, but no exhaustion from the speakers. And the big beats in Fuel Box’s “One Day” do not detract from the vocal stylings or delicate percussion tracks laid over synthesizers.

Just like that of the XA, the XC’s slightly forward tonal balance—combined with its ability to resolve detail—needs to be considered when choosing the proper amplifier.  These speakers will show off what your upward components can and cannot do. Naturally, your personal taste will determine amplification selection, as will any speaker capable of such high performance. If possible, audition the XCs with your amplifier.

Setup Simplicity

The XCs are carefully packed in foam-lined flight cases, with integral stands. Ask a friend to help you unpack each of the 110-pound (49kg) speakers and move them to their initial spot in your listening room. From there, fine-tuning should be a cakewalk. Akin to an electrostatic speaker, careful attention to rake angle—easily adjustable with the spikes in the stands—and distance from the rear wall afford the best balance of low-frequency energy and image size.

Our test speakers arrived after logging plenty of hours, so they were immediately ready to go. My experience with the Accuton drivers in other speakers, as well as the XA, dictates that Estelon models need at least a few hundred hours to sound their best, especially in the low-frequency range. Their extremely low distortion triggers one other caveat: The ceramic drivers exhibit barely any cone breakup, so there’s a small margin between driving them to distortion and driving them to damage. Fortunately, they play at high levels quite comfortably, so only the most overzealous users need worry.

Such small cautions aside, the Estelon XC provides fantastic performance in a compact shape. Suitable for most rooms, these speakers are highly revealing and make for an excellent cornerstone for a no-compromise system. Enthusiastically recommended.

Estelon XC Loudspeakers

MSRP: $22,900/pair (stands included)

www.estelon.com

Peripherals

Ed Meitner has a new DAC, the MA-1, and it’s a doozy. Over the past 30-odd years, I’ve been lucky enough to meet a lot of high-end audio designers, but Meitner remains a special case. Our paths first crossed when I was working at a high-end store, Sound by Singer, in New York City. His mahogany-sheathed preamps and power amps were a good deal smaller than any other period electronics and sounded great with my Snell Type A speakers.

When I recently phoned him to catch up on old times and pepper him with questions about the MA-1, he was just as I remembered: A no-BS kind of guy. Most audio designers pay lip service to their love of music. He doesn’t. Doing so would, in his words, “cloud the judgment,” and, without hesitating, added, “Music is not my business. Sound is my business.”

He’s not lying. Meitner built an automated recording studio console in 1971 and designed 1-bit digital recording systems in the late 70s, a few years before the introduction of the CD. He also designed a fascinating velocity transducer speaker that rivaled the sound of the era’s electrostatics. He was always working on something new and different, like his AT-2 turntable. The platter-less design only supported the label while the grooved portion “floated” in free air. The turntable claimed a uni-pivot arm, and the whole contraption rested on three massive cones. Most high-end engineers stick with one thing or another, but Meitner played with them all.

Discrete and Unique Features

The MA-1 is the first product from Meitner Audio, a new company running parallel to Meitner’s EMM Labs, which continues to offer much more expensive components. EMM DACs all feature discrete converters fabricated from individual resistors, a remarkable feat given that most converters—including many competitors’ more expensive models—use DAC chipsets.

Hence, I assumed the $7,000 MA-1 would be built around a chip. Nope. Meitner steers clear of chips in all his DACs. He designs his own discrete DACs for myriad reasons, not the least of which is not having to worry about whether the chip manufacturer will stop making the part or change the spec.

In addition, most chip-based DACs are current-output devices. Meitner’s discrete 1-bit DACs are voltage-output affairs. He explains that when a DAC outputs current, you have to add a stage to convert current to voltage and add filters. The MA-1 needs no such converters or separate filters. Meitner designs the converter and filter in one, fully balanced stage. When you roll your own, you get exactly what you want.

The unit also features Meitner’s MDAT technology, which is similar to that in an upsampling DAC. Still, the latter can’t reproduce a music transient without digital pre- or post-“ringing.” Meitner’s MDAT doesn’t ring. Maybe that’s why his DACs reduce the digital nature of CD sound. Yes, the MA-1 possesses an unmistakable analog flavor. It’s highly resolved, but relaxed.

While other, more expensive DACs, like the $17,489 MSB Technology Platinum Signature DAC IV (a discrete, chip-free DAC reviewed in these pages last year), are more transparent, the MA-1 makes for a loveable match with music. If the recording is harsh or grating, the MA-1 won’t make it any less nasty. But when the recording is solid, you hear more of the good stuff.

Some credit for the presentation owes to the built-in Meitner Frequency Acquisition System, which instantly acquires the incoming signal, buffers it, and strips out jitter, whether or not the data stream is pure or anything but. From there, the signal runs through the Meitner Digital Audio Translator, which upsamples the zeros and ones to 5.6MHz—double the standard SACD sampling rate.

Visually, the MA-1’s brushed aluminum panel looks clean and simple, with a row of six input selectors and LEDs that indicate sampling rates of 44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, and 192-kHz at word lengths up to 24 bits through all six inputs. Around back, you’ll find two Toslink optical, two RCA coax, one AES-EBU XLR, and one USB asynchronous digital input, along with RCA and XLR analog outputs. There’s also a RS-232 port for those with fancy home-automation systems, and another USB port for future software upgrades. The Canadian-made MA-1 comes with a small, credit-card-style remote that only changes inputs.

Easygoing, Analog Warmth

The MA-1 arrived when I was reviewing the Davone Ray speaker, and both had an easygoing character that doesn’t shout “high-resolution”— or, in other terms, a presentation that sounds to me like live, non-amplified music. I did the bulk of listening with my reference Magnepan 3.7 speakers.

The analog warmth of older CDs, like Etta James’ The Definitive Collection, comes through intact. In this sense, the MA-1 succeeds by doing less; it simply lets the music be. Yes, the richness in older recordings is hard to resist. It’s part of the music’s DNA, but not so easy to retrieve. The MA-1 does just that, however. I also compared the MA-1 with a $7,995 Bricasti M1 DAC. There’s not a huge difference, but the Meitner is a wee bit more relaxed, detailed, and transparent.

Great digital gear sounds less digital, meaning there’s less grain, glare, noise, and other assorted digital nasties. Vide: Kinks guitarist Dave Davies recorded a killer live solo show at New York City’s Bottom Line club in 1997, and the resulting CD, Rock Bottom, is a delight. I’ve seen more than a hundred shows at that club, and this disc captures the place’s vibe better than most. With the MA-1, I can close my eyes and feel it. What a trip! I always sat at the tables directly in front of the stage, and the MA-1 nails that close-up perspective.

The Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You isn’t their worst-sounding recording, but it’s the band’s last great album. It hangs together better on the MA-1 than I would have thought possible. Where the overdone reverb usually puts me off, with the MA-1, it seamlessly envelops the group and sounds natural.

Playing back high-resolution 176-kHz/24-bit classical and jazz selections from the Reference Recordings HRx Sampler 2011 DVD, the MA-1 dramatically opens the soundstage. Instruments reveal more full-bodied presence when compared to what’s presented on CDs. Moreover, the DVD’s dynamic scale and low-level detailing are more fully developed.

There’s also more inner detail and nuance in the high-resolution version of Paul Simon’s So Beautiful or So What, which makes going back to the CD a letdown. I also have newfound respect for my Pass Labs electronics and Magnepan 3.7 speakers: they’re even better than I thought. Such revelations are signs of greatness in any component, and the MA-1 is no exception to this rule.

Meitner Audio

MSRP: $7,000

www.meitner.com

Peripherals

Moving speakers around your listening room to get the best possible sound can be both frustrating and fruitless.  Depending on the size and type of the speakers, you could spend countless hours getting them in just the right position and, even then, the sound still might not be perfect, because the listening environment itself plays a huge role in defining that sweet spot and achieving auditory bliss.

Room treatments are another headache.  You tell yourself that your speakers will sound way better with those gigantic bass traps you’ve been lusting after, but you can only fit so much stuff into a room before friends and loved ones either intervene or nominate you to star in one of those reality shows about people who hoard things.  Indeed, this process of generating the desired audio orbs down to the millimeter can quickly drive you mad.  And don’t even get us started on the tape marks on the floor. As a good audiophile buddy reminds us: “The amount of blue masking tape on your listening-room floor is directly proportional to how close to a nervous breakdown you might be.”

Meet Mac’s Magic Box

Of course, a room that’s been properly treated with the speakers optimally placed is still the Holy Grail.  Unfortunately, most of us don’t ever quite achieve this, so our rack of expensive gear never reaches its full potential.  This is why the engineers at McIntosh Labs created the MEN220.  It doesn’t use magic exactly; just a serious amount of heavy-duty science, to produce magical results, which seem all the more supernatural considering how easy it is to set up.

For the MEN220, McIntosh licensed RoomPerfect technology from Danish audio wizard Peter Lyngdorf, whose Steinway Lyngdorf music systems, which cost upwards of a couple hundred grand, utilize this proprietary room-correction software to optimize the system for any listening environment. TONE gear editor Bailey S. Barnard has written about Steinway Lyngdorf more than once in these pages and has always come away impressed. Whereas the Lyngdorf systems require a certified technician to implement the optimization software, the MEN220 allows you, the end user, to place the box between your amplifier and preamplifier, or within a processor loop if your preamplifier has one.  The MEN220 works with balanced or single-ended components, so it will integrate into any system where a break between the preamplifier and power amplifier exists.  Then, with a few simple measurements (okay, maybe more like 10), you’ll be on your way.  But, we promise, it’s easier than it sounds—and it’s certainly less maddening than inching your speakers into the exact right spot and festooning your room with foam sound traps.  Plus, it’s kind of a fun process that will make you feel like the acoustic engineer you’ve always told yourself you had the ability to be.

Once you fully install the MEN220, break out the calibrated microphone and long cord that McIntosh includes in the box.  The 220’s onboard processor is equipped with internal microprocessors, which measure the reflections in your room and make corrections for the peaks and dips in frequency response.  The included literature instructs you to take the first reading as close as possible to where your head is when listening to music.  This will return a reading, or “room-knowledge” score, of about 75% and will substantially improve how your system interacts with your room—but the MEN220 is capable of much more.

Additional measurements, each taken from a different spot, increase the room-knowledge score.  The higher the score, the more you will realize how much you were missing.  Using the 220 with McIntosh’s C50 preamplifier improves things even further, thanks to the C50’s built-in graphic equalizer, which allows you to fine-tune the MEN220’s audio achievements.  After a few different setups, we realized that bumping the room knowledge index above 92% eliminates the need for the onboard EQ in the C50.

Room Challenges

We put the MEN220 through its paces in a few different environments to judge its effectiveness in a treated room, a relatively inert, non-treated room and our publisher Jeff Dorgay’s living room, which has to be one of the worst-sounding rooms anyone on our staff has experienced, with major anomalies in the bass and midrange regions.  The MEN220 made a minimal difference in Jeff’s treated room with full range speakers, but in the other two environments, the 220 achieved significant gains in terms of clarity and coherence.

Wow!

When using the 220, more inner detail becomes instantly apparent.  The 24-bit remaster of the Beatles’ “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” from the Abbey Road album, startles with the level of clarity now present in this recording.  The corrections made Paul’s bass line much easier to follow, gave Ringo’s percussion its own space and elevated the backup vocals that were buried in the mix.  After the first of many test tracks, everyone was stunned at how much of a difference the 220 makes.

The piano hidden deep in the background of “Bang and Blame” (from the HDtracks download of the R.E.M. album Monster) now has much more airiness lingering well behind the right speaker, again exhibiting more clarity throughout the frequency range, with the bonus of additional dynamic information.

The wood block in the tune “Rich Woman,” which Robert Plant and Alison Krauss released in 2007 on their Raising Sand collaborative album, jumps out of the speakers.  With an almost surreal effect, it now sounds like someone is whacking the wood block about a foot in front of the listening chair.  Where was this thing in the 1970s when we all got really high listening to music?

Any thoughts of altered reality wouldn’t be complete without listening to some Doors.  “Riders on the Storm” was beyond psychedelic.  Again, the amount of bass resolution now on tap thanks to the 220 is stunning.  The piano floats wistfully in the air, instead of just being locked in between the speakers as it was before engaging the 220.

Like an eight-year-old boy, Jeff determined not to eat what’s on his plate.  He didn’t want to like the MEN220—because it’s sooo un-purist, sooo un-audiophile.  (Perhaps non-20th-century audiophile is more accurate.)  But with enough computer power under the hood to launch a spaceship, the 220 quickly converts the non-believers.  Then staff member Jerold O’Brien’s girlfriend asked the fateful question: “We can get rid of all that stuff hanging on the walls if you have this box, right?”  Like watching Wile E. Coyote scheming on how to catch the Road Runner, you could see O’Brien’s gears turning.  He looked nervous and made a quick exit.

Vintage O-rama

Sure, the MEN220 did a great job with the $8,500-per-pair Dynaudio Confidence C1s, and it was spectacular with the $23,000 Sonus faber Elipsa SEs, but it was time to try something way off base.  So we hauled out the circa-1970s JBL L-100 speakers.  And, as crazy and as “un-audiophile” as this seems, the JBLs underwent the most miraculous transformation of all.

The L-100s are fun speakers, but their sound is decidedly vintage, even with world-class electronics powering them.  After a quick set of measurements, they sounded like a pair of speakers that you’d expect to cost a lot more.  The JBLs still had their limitations—the upper register is still slightly grainy and there is a touch of bass bloat that even the EQ can’t fix—but they now have natural midrange and throw a huge soundstage with some serious pinpoint imaging.  Don’t believe us?  Stop by our room at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this October (www.audiofest.net) and have a listen.  We’ll be showcasing the MEN220 with the JBL-L100s in the TONEAudio “Chill Out” room.

Of course, running the 220 with the JBLs triggered a major classic-rock listening session.  Christine McVie’s voice on “Songbird” from Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours floated whimsically in the air between the speakers.  As easily as with any pair of audiophile-approved loudspeakers, the massive increase in system resolution enabled us to readily discern between high-resolution and standard digital files playing through the JBLs.  The 220 transformed the title track of Bowie’s Young Americans (again in 24/96) into an eerily immersive experience.  We could not believe this was the same pair of speakers purchased on eBay a few years ago for relatively little money.  Listening to the DVD-Audio rip of the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty was much trippier, thanks to the MEN220—not an acid flashback or all the Dead karma coming back from the days when the band used McIntosh amplification for their live show. Either way, it really enhanced the listening experience.

Truth or Dare

So how close does the MEN220 bring a modest setup, with randomly placed speakers, to the megabuck systems, carefully tuned and tweaked in a room full of treatments?  Much closer than any of us expected.  Of course, there still is no substitute for cleaning up the acoustics with the proper treatments, but the only place the 220 comes up a little short is when playing a super high-performance analog recording.  The digital processing does take that last 5% of sparkle out of the equation, but this is on a system worth a garage full of Porsches.  In every other system we placed the MEN220, it delivered a stunning level of improvement.

While the magic box will not turn a $400 pair of white van speakers into a pair of $160,000 Wilson Alexandrias—even magic has its limitations—the more resolving your speakers, the more accurate of a measurement the MEN220 will be able to make.  We were constantly flabbergasted by how much better an average room sounds with the MEN220 in the loop.  The biggest gains are in the mid-bass range, with upper-range smoothness a close second.  Cleaning up the mid-bass mess allows your speakers to deliver much cleaner midrange response with better imaging.

Reclaim Your Life

If you’re part of the lunatic (and we mean that in the best possible way) fringe of audiophelia that has a purpose-built listening room, you don’t need the MEN220.  But if you are a music lover who has spent a fair amount on a system that still leaves you feeling a bit short-changed, or your speakers are still in the wrong place, nirvana is only $4,500 away.  You could spend this on a few marginal tweaks that won’t change much of anything but your bank balance, but the MEN220 will definitely get your system where you’ve always wanted it to be—and it’s a hell of a lot simpler and less-maddening than moving speakers and dampening your room.  So grab an MEN220 for your system and plan a vacation with all the time and stress you’re going to save.

McIntosh MEN220

MSRP:  $4,500

www.mcintoshlabs.com

Peripherals

There is nothing better than having your cake and eating it too.  Few speakers personify this idiom like those from Sonus faber—they are stunning, even when your system is off.  And the minute the speakers deliver music, whether analog or digital, you are immediately transported to a place where you can forget about the gear, your troubles and whatever else comes to mind, and immerse yourself in the music.

First, full disclosure: This reviewer is biased.  While many of us claim to want a “straight wire with gain,” or “the whole truth, warts and all,” I can’t honestly say I subscribe to either of these philosophies 100% of the time.  Maybe I could if all music was perfectly captured and flawlessly recorded—but we all know it’s not.  Being a lover of panel speakers, electrostats in particular (and a closet lover of SET/single-driver systems), I value coherence most of all.  I don’t give a damn how dynamic a speaker is. If it sounds like the music is coming from a separate woofer, tweeter and midrange, the speaker falls down my list rather quickly.

A warm, syrupy and ultimately colored speaker doesn’t do it for me either.  Such an overly romantic-sounding speaker is as equally boring to me as a hyperdynamic, ruthlessly revealing speaker. Sure, both make for exciting demo sessions, but they always end up being less entertaining after you’ve lived with said speakers for an extended period of time.

The speakers that always hold my long-term interest are those rare few that achieve a balance of high resolution without being harsh, and a high degree of tonal richness without coming across overly colored or slow.  Those of you old enough to remember taking pictures with a film camera might remember the 81A filter, which offered a slight touch of warmth yet was never distracting, and had the ability to make color slides look richer and more vibrant than reality.  Speakers that top my list must sound great regardless of decibel output and, while we’re making demands, they should not rely entirely on cables and amplifiers to achieve greatness. They must also be relatively simple to set up.  How’s that for fussy?

Enter the Elipsa SEs

I’ve always been a fan of Sonus faber’s speakers, even though the Italian manufacturer’s older models have always been slightly romantic and forgiving. But things at Sonus faber have been quietly changing as of late, and its current models retain the mystique of their predecessors while adding an abundance of resolution to the mix.

If you’ve been envious of the $45,000/pair Sonus faber Stradivari speakers but can’t make the financial leap, the Elipsa SE is a bargain at $22,900/pair.  For all but the top percentile of the truly obsessed, this is the last pair of speakers you need to buy.  The SE model offers an upgraded crossover over the standard Elipsa, and incorporates the same tweeter from the Stradivari—a modest yet worthwhile upgrade from the $20,000/pair Elipsa.

We can discuss crossover slopes, sensitivity and driver-magnet structures all day and, while that is a fascinating story to tell, when you unpack the Elipsa SEs, it’s a sensual experience; not a scientific one.  The true aficionado will appreciate the painstaking effort that goes into every step of the Elipsa SE’s construction.  Whether admiring the hand-coated lacquer of the finish, the leather front and rear baffles or even the finely machined binding posts, you quickly realize that there are no “off-the-shelf” parts used in a Sonus faber speaker.

As anxious as you will probably be to get your new speakers up and running, take a few minutes to bask in the unrivaled craftsmanship that went into their construction.

Versatile Performers

Cueing up Chicago’s “While the City Sleeps” from Chicago V (via the 24/192 HDtracks file) immediately shows off the refined high end of the Elipsa SEs, as the high hat shimmers slightly to the left of the sound stage with seemingly endless decay.  The instant the horns enter the mix with full force it’s clear that these speakers have dynamics to spare.  Giving the volume control a major push to the right—reaching near-insane levels—the Elipsa SEs do not lose their composure: The enormous three-dimensional sound stage remains large and focused.

Slowing the pace somewhat with the title track of Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage (also available as a 24/192 download from HDtracks) portrays an even larger soundstage—now the Elipsa SEs completely disappear in the room, as the drums linger to the left of centerstage, with Freddie Hubbard blasting out on trumpet at the far left, and Hancock’s piano diffusely rendered as it moves gently up and back from center stage.

Combined with a full compliment of Audio Research’s Reference electronics and a dCS Paganini stack, one wonders if the presentation could be any better.  This is what real music sounds like.  While much of this impact can be attributed to the first-order crossover network and wideband drivers required to successfully implement this kind of design—a result of exhausting driver development to achieve perfection—that is only part of the story. It is the integration of everything that makes a Sonus faber speaker system truly more than just a sum of the individual parts.

Sonus Faber’s elliptic enclosure design results in what they call “Virtual 2pi radiation,” which also does a fantastic job disguising the mass of the speaker in such a svelte cabinet, resulting in a high performance speaker that is easy to set up in your room.

Even casual placement results in a wide and deep soundstage.  However, a bit of extra attention to the rake angle of the Elipsas allows them to achieve their maximum performance when set to perfection.  The resulting time alignment of the drivers adds to the coherence and the speakers literally disappear in the room.  A calibrated level (or iPhone app) will help you get both speakers tipped back exactly the same amount.

A great many speaker manufacturers strive to make their speaker enclosures as free from resonance as possible, but it almost always ends up making the speaker sound overdamped.  Listen to the sound a bass drum makes as the mallet bounces from the drumhead: There’s a liveliness to it, with resonance and sustain, regardless of whether it’s Tommy Aldridge or Art Blakey playing.  That’s the life force of a bass drum, which is, sadly, often lost in a speaker (or, for that matter, an entire system) that is overdamped.

An instrument’s resonant signature is much like a person’s voiceprint: Each one is unique, which allows us to discern the difference between violins or electric guitars.  The Elipsa SE preserves this delicate balance.  Yet, even with music created entirely in the world of the studio, the Elipsa SE holds it together seamlessly, no matter how complex the fare.  A long listening session of albums from Frank Zappa and German bands Can and Faust proves that, even at high volume, the speakers can play densely packed music without a soundstage collapse.  Faust’s “Picnic on a Frozen River” from the Faust IV album is full of multiple soft, discordant bits that remain anchored in the left-to-right as well as in the front-to-back soundstage at high volume. Zappa’s classic “Peaches En Regalia” offers a similarly exciting experience, with synthesizer riffs flying around my listening chair, just as it does when listening through great headphones.

Moving into the 21^st century, Playing Daft Punk’s Tron: Legacy Reconfigured reveals no weaknesses in the Elipsa SE, nor any sign of fatigue.  Even though this speaker has a low frequency specification of 35 Hz, they are well up to task of hitting this album’s the deep bass grooves.  And the high sensitivity of these speakers will not tax your amplifier, which adds to the dynamic realism that they offer.

The Elipsa SEs perform equally well at low volume, still easily disappearing into the room like mini-monitors.  Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 performed by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble shows the delicacy that these speakers are capable of, as well as the tonal purity.

Very Amplifier-Friendly

With a wide range of amplifiers at my disposal—solid-state, tube and class D amps, ranging from a pair of 20-watt 845 SET monoblocks all the way up to the mighty Pass Labs’ XA200.5 monoblocks—all were able to drive the Elipsa SEs without difficulty.  Granted, each amplifier imposed its own sonic personality on the presentation, which complements the high resolution that these speakers offer. But still, every variation on the theme remained thoroughly enjoyable.

Thanks to a sensitivity of 91 db per watt, the Elipsa SE is comfortable with the 35 watts per channel that the average EL34-based tube amplifier can provide, but because the speakers have a maximum power handling of 300 watts, they will absolutely crank if you have enough high-quality power on tap.

Driven to ear-shredding levels (by the XA200.5 monoblocks) with Mudhoney’s Superfuzz Bigmuff, the speakers revealed their true gloriousness.  The only distortion present was that of the amplifiers in the recording studio.  Following this up with the Pixies’ Tromp Le Monde and ending with Explosions in the Sky’s The Earth is Not a Cold, Dead Place is perhaps a bit off the path of the lute that Sonus faber mentions on their website, but it leads to the most important aspect of these speakers: They are unflappable.

That Bias Again

After giving the Elipsa SEs a major workout with about 15 different amplifiers of all genres, I must confess two things: There was no combination that turned in a bad performance and, being the hopeless romantic that I am, I was seduced completely when combining these speakers with a few of my favorite tube amplifiers.

Now that Audio Research is part of the Fine Sounds corporate umbrella that owns Sonus faber, it is no surprise that the Audio Research Reference electronics are a fantastic match for these speakers.  Yet, whether I was using the PrimaLuna DiaLogue 7 monoblocks, the Octave Jubilee Mono monoblocks or the Balanced Audio Technology VK-150s monoblocks, it was tough to get any work done while listening to these speakers.  The massive soundstage and dreamy midrange sent me back to the record rack repeatedly and many listening sessions ended in the wee hours.

But is the Elipsa SE Right for You?

That’s the answer to the $22,900 question, of course.  This is a pretty tall stack of twenty-dollar bills to spend on a pair of speakers, but few others exist at this price point that approach the Elipsa SE’s level of performance.  And even fewer exist that are this gorgeous.  But I am of the belief that life’s too short to have ugly speakers in your living room. As it turns out, I am not alone.  In an informal poll, the Elipsa SEs have the highest spousal-acceptance factor of any speaker we’ve ever reviewed, as well as the highest interest among non-audiophiles of either gender.

If you want a perfect fusion of acoustic purity and aesthetic beauty, these are the speakers you’ve been waiting for.  The truly tough decision will be whether to acquire the Elipsa SEs or go all the way to the Strads.

Many audio pundits cling to the philosophy that the source is everything in a system, and that is sound advice.  However, I find the speakers to be the biggest variable in a system—they have to integrate with your room and those you share it with, so they are often the highest hurdle to jump.  These speakers are so easy to drive, you would have little trouble starting your journey with modestly priced amplification and avail yourself to a new experience as your budget permits system upgrades.

About 15% smaller in physical dimension and with only one 10-inch woofer (rather than the two in the Strads), the Elipsa SE lends itself more to the average listening room.  As Sumiko VP of Sales Norbert Schmeid mentions, “While the Stradavari is ultimately capable of more performance, the Elipsa is an easier speaker to set up because of the single woofer.” And, at about 100 pounds each, you can move them around your listening room with relatively minimal effort.

Either way, you’ll get your money’s worth—and then some. Don’t be surprised to see these speakers in our awards issue later this year.

The Sonus Faber Elipsa SE

MSRP:  $22,900/pair

www.sonusfaber.com  (Factory)

www.sumikoaudio.net (US distributor)

Peripherals

It couldn’t have been scripted better:  while I was unpacking the Uniti Qute, my daughter remarked, “It’s so cute!”  But this compact marvel is much more than cute. It’s a high-performance music system in a package the size of a Steven King novel.

We awarded the Naim Uniti our Product of the Year-Overall award in 2009 because it packed so much versatility into a compact package, squeezing a CD player, integrated amplifier, DAC, FM tuner and internet radio tuner all into a standard Naim enclosure.

The Uniti has been flying off dealer’s shelves worldwide, but there are a lot of new-generation music lovers who just aren’t that into physical media anymore.  If you fit that description and can get by with 30 watts per channel instead of the Uniti’s 50 watts per channel, the Qute is the one you want.  And here’s another reason to buy the Qute: though it has less power than its big brother, the sound is even more refined.

At only $1,995, the Qute offers all of the functionality of the standard Unity, minus the CD player, and it comes in a box half the size.  A sleek little black box, the Qute has no front panel controls (though you can mute the sound by touching the front screen), just a large alphanumeric display, mini-sized AUX input, a mini headphone input and a USB port.  All the rest of the connections are around back, featuring four digital inputs (2 RCA and 2 optical), an analog input (also via RCA), a BNC digital output and a preamplifier output.  A wireless internet antenna is also included as well as a standard RJ-45 port, should you want to hardwire your ethernet network to the Qute.

Small enough to fit anywhere

The Qute is eight inches wide, three inches tall and 11 inches deep (207mm x 87mm x 314mm), so you should be able to find a shelf that will accommodate it.  As my test sample arrived with plenty of hours on the clock, I had no way of gauging a proper break in, though the full-size  Uniti took about 100 hours to sound its best.

Though most of my test listening was done with the Naim HDX music server, I did take the time to spin some vinyl with my Technics SL-1200/SME 309/Clearaudio Maestro wood combination through the Naim Stageline phono stage.

A wide range of speakers was used, but the majority of the listening was done with the new Finn speakers from Verity Audio.  These little three-way floorstanders have a 91dB sensitivity and though probably more expensive ($6,500/pr.) than what the average Qute owner would choose, this amplifier was more than up to the task.  If you were looking for a high-performance system with a minimal footprint, the Finn’s would be my first choice.  On a tight budget?  Grab a pair of Vandersteen 1C’s ($1,095/pr. and 90dB sensitivity)

Setup

The Qute is easy to set up.  On power up, it immediately looks for the wireless network from which you are streaming UPnP data, and if you have a Mac or Windows PC in place, it will find it immediately and let you stream music from your iTunes library, making the Qute a mini music server.  I tried this briefly, with great results, but having the HDX made this feature unnecessary for me.  However, those using their HDX in another room on the main system will enjoy having remote access to their library via the Qute in another room. There will be an iPhone/iPad app available shortly from Naim that will make this even easier.  Since there are no controls on the front panel, everything is controlled by the remote, though you can raise and lower the Qute’s volume by tapping the Naim logo.  A quick tap mutes the volume instantly, which can come in handy when the phone rings and the remote is out of reach.

The Qute has a wide range of analog and digital inputs, but it has only one pair of speaker outputs. They require that you use speaker cables that have banana plugs, at least on the end connecting with the amplifier.  Unlike the early Naim amplifiers, using Naim-specific speaker wire is no longer a must.  I used Audioquest Meteor speaker cable with excellent results.

Extreme versatility

Other than the CD drive in the full-size Uniti, the Qute can still control four digital sources: an analog source, the built-in FM tuner (DAB for our friends in Europe), internet radio and an iPod.  There is a digital output and line-level output for those wanting to make the Qute part of a larger system, adding a DAC and larger power amplifier, but I think this defeats the compact nature of the whole affair.  To Naim’s credit, it can be done, and easily.

Bypassing the internal DAC of the HDX to use the Qute proved to be a slight step down in overall performance. But using the Qute with an inexpensive transport was a huge step up.  Should you not be quite finished with silver discs, your favorite reasonably priced CD player will make a great transport for the Qute.  I tried my older Denon 3910 and Pioneer 563; both sounded much better through the Qute than through their onboard DAC/analog stages.

The tuner performed admirably with my $20 Terk antenna, but since I live in a city lacking in FM diversity, the real bonus was the ability to access internet radio.  Considering how many great stations are now available, I can’t see why anyone would not want to spring for satellite radio.

At present, the review sample of the Qute was not ready to accept my iPod through the front-panel USB port, but playback from a USB jump drive was no problem.  The album’s table of contents was easily read on the front panel display, and playback then proceeded as normal.  Naim Inc’s Dave Dever assured me that on the upcoming software update, iPod playback would work the same way.  Exactly like the Uniti and Wadia’s 170i, the Qute will allow you to access the digital output of your iPod so you can use it as a high-quality (but extremely compact) music server.  I couldn’t help thinking how cool the Qute would be if it had the color touch screen of the HDX so that album art could be viewed on its front panel…

Saving the best for last, the sound

The Qute is attractive, compact, versatile and easy to use, but best of all, it sounds fantastic.  Naim has always had a reputation for producing low-powered, high-quality solid-state amplifiers.  The early Naim Nait and Nait 2 integrated amplifiers are still held in extremely high regard, and it’s not uncommon for them to fetch considerably more than their original price on the used market.

Paying homage to the form factor of the Nait 2, the Qute outshines its full-size sibling with a presentation that sounds closer to the top-shelf Naim gear than the Nait 5i amplifier that powers the standard-size Uniti.  Thanks to its big power transformer, the Qute delivers the goods.  When used with the 90dB Vandersteen’s or the 91dB Verity’s, I could rock out to my heart’s content in my 11 x 17 foot living room.  The Qute even did a more-than acceptable job of powering the Harbeth Monitor 40.1’s that have a sensitivity of only 86dB.

Refinement is the name of the game with the Qute. Paired with any number of $1,000 speakers and a modest source, Qute proves itself to be one pleasant little amplifier. The Qute is a great performer as the core of a $3,000 – $4,000 system, and I’m guessing that’s how most people will use it.  But I was not prepared for the complete lack of grain when I supersized the system and added the Naim HDX as a source (with all uncompressed music stored on its hard drive) and the $6,500 Verity Finn’s.

I felt like I was hearing the quality of the Qute for the first time, with a lack of grain that I would normally associate with much-more expensive solid-state power amplifiers.  Much as the Nait 2 sounded much better than it should have for its small size, the Qute lives up to its heritage and then some.

Vocals took on an uncanny realism (for an amplifier at this price point) and my favorite current tracks from Peter Gabriel’s latest album, Scratch My Back, had the necessary amount of grit and texture to remain interesting.  Cheapo integrateds usually lack this finesse, and Gabriel ends up sounding like Seal.  Moving to the other side of the fence, Gwyneth Herbert’s subtle vocal shadings were fantastic on “My Narrow Man” from her current release on the Naim label, All The Ghosts.

The level of bass extension and control was impressive as well and again, the concept of texture kept coming up.  It was amazing to hear an acoustic bass really sound like an acoustic bass.  Unless I exceeded the comfort level of the Qute, I was pleased enough with the presentation that I nearly freaked out whenever my eyes perceived the small size of that box.

Last but not least, Qute had a splendid airiness about its overall sound, with plenty of space between the notes.  I’ve listened to more than my share of inexpensive solid-state integrateds, and most of them are rubbish.  Not only was a healthy amount of three-dimensional space reproduced, the tonality was very natural in a way that I previously felt could be accomplished only with much-more expensive gear.

Conclusion

Naim’s Uniti Qute will spoil you.  If this is the core of a high-quality second system, you might find yourself spending less time with your main system. If it’s your first venture into high-end audio, you’re going to have to spend a lot of money, should the upgrade bug hit you some day; the Qute is that good.

Naim has hit the mark perfectly for a high-quality yet reasonably priced, all-encompassing HiFI component.  Add your favorite pair of budget speakers and you are ready to rock for a reasonable outlay, yet it’s good enough to up the ante considerably with higher-priced peripherals before you will get tired of it. A word to the wise: anyone who gets rid of their Nait 2 rues the day.  Should you buy a Qute, I suggest hanging on to it forever.

Just like the legendary Nait and Nait 2 amplifiers, I’m positive the Qute will still hold a special place in many music lovers hearts years from now. This is what the music world needs more of.

The Naim Uniti Qute

MSRP:  $1,995

www.naimaudio.com

Around 2005, studio-tube-gear expert Manley Laboratories created an integrated tube amp with an iPod dock for the consumer market that had a triangular shape, and subsequently called it the Stingray iTube, keeping in line with naming the majority of its hi-fi consumer components after sea creatures.

“No one’s ever done fish before,” said EveAnna Manley (an avid scuba diver who is often referred to as the “Manley Tube Queen”) in a 2003 interview with Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity, regarding the curious decision to name the company’s products after marine life.  “Let’s have some fun.”

And Manley keeps the fun going today—in terms of both its product nomenclature and the quality of audio that those products reproduce.  Earlier this year, the company launched its “bargain” phonostage, the Chinook, which goes for about a quarter of the cost of its pond mate, an $8,000 statement tube phono preamp called the Steelhead, which wowed vinyl junkies when it hit the market about 10 years ago.  As one of TONEAudio’s diehard analog guys, I get my share of vinyl-related products—cartridges, record cleaners, phono preamplifiers and the like—and, while phono fiends like myself still consider the Steelhead to be one of the industry’s best tube phonostages in its price range, the Chinook isn’t a bad catch.

Testing the Water

As I have gotten older, I have grown less tolerant of components that are tricky to install or exhibit quirky operation.  Thankfully, the Chinook phono preamp lacks these shortcomings.  Its default gain is set at 45 dB, a standard output for moving-magnet (MM) cartridges.  If you are a moving-coil (MC) freak like me, you can easily set the gain to 60 dB by removing the perforated cover (affixed with eight screws), flipping a pair of DIP switches for each channel, and replacing the cover.  Except for a blue on/standby button under the Manley Chinook logo (which illuminates with start-up), all of the action is on the rear panel, where you will find a ground post, a pair of unbalanced stereo inputs and outputs and dual banks of DIP switches for adjusting capacitance and resistance.

The Chinook offers a staggering 32 loading possibilities all the way up to 47,000 ohms, as well as 24 settings, which yield resistance values below 100 ohms—a setting that’s probably not the best option for most MC-cartridge users.  The preamp gives MM-cartridge users seven options for capacitance adjustments, ranging from 50 pF to 350 pF.  Manley supplied two pairs of 6922 dual triodes with the review sample, one pair for the gain stage and one for the output stage.  Tube rollers can also experiment with pairs of 7308s, 6DJ8s and ECC88s.

Given the Chinook’s $2,250 price tag, I matched it with the most appropriately priced gear available, namely my old standby table: a modified VPI Aries with outboard flywheel and a JMW 10.5i tonearm.  For my test cartridges, I used a stereo Clearaudio Stradivari and a mono Benz Micro Ruby 3.  Prior to serious listening, I broke in the Chinook a bit by leaving it powered on for 24 hours. (It has a light-bulb-sized appetite of just 42 watts.)  Manley recommends placing the Chinook in an area with adequate ventilation, although I noticed that it is only slightly warm during operation.  As a side note, this preamp safeguards its tube innards with a gentle 45-second power-up cycle, which helps provide some peace of mind, because there’s nothing more aggravating than blowing tubes at power-up.

Swimming Upstream with Ease

The ear party kicked off with Jazz at the Pawnshop (Proprius Records), a live recording from 1976 that features a bunch of plaid-clad Swedes hammering away at American standards.  I was immediately struck by the Chinook’s near-holographic soundstage.  I then moved on to Chamber Music Society (Heads Up) from bassist-vocalist Esperanza Spalding, on which she plays a snappy duet, “ Inútil Paisagem,” with jazz vocalist Gretchen Parlato.  This cut really tests a phonostage’s ability to distinguish between two female voices that continuously alternate parts; meanwhile a discrete acoustic bass provides the backbeat.  The Chinook kept perfect pace with the exchange between the vocals and Spalding’s infectious bass line.

Next, I wanted to see how the Chinook handled a recorded pipe organ, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it does offer an objective lesson in deep bass and, because most are built into large churches, big acoustic spaces.  In the 1970s, speaker maker Dave Wilson recorded a series of recitals with organ virtuoso James B. Welch, playing some of the finest pipe organs in the country.  One such LP from 1977, simply titled Concert (Wilson Audio), treated me to some of the best renditions of bass and space that I have been privileged to hear, courtesy of the Chinook.

To test it further, I had to see how the Chinook handled mono, because some of the best phonostages can bring life and breath to mono LPs, astonishing those who faintly remember such records playing on their parents’ old phonographs.  If you scratch the surface of serious vinyl lovers’ collections, you are likely to uncover these relics, and reissue companies have recently begun releasing some classic LPs from the glory days of yesteryear.  One such example is from Julie London, a sexy siren who made it big in the 1950s.  She heated up my listening room (in more ways than one) with “Cry Me a River,” from a 45-rpm reissue of Julie is Her Name (Boxstar Records). I then spun the tracks of the iconic bop-era recording, Birth of the Cool (Classic Records), which were laid down between 1949 and 1950 and feature trumpet idol Miles Davis, his big-band arranger Gil Evans and a legendary supporting cast.  The Chinook made sure that you heard everyone in the studio with amazing recovery of detail, including some off-mic chatter, which adds a level of authenticity and nostalgia to the listening session

Many, many, many LPs later, the ear party ended with MoFi’s reissue of Little Feat’s Waiting for Columbus, arguably one of the greatest live rock albums of all time.  On this record, the late Lowell George and his super-boogie band present dueling synthesizers, guitars, percussion, keyboards and brass, a combination that makes for some hefty tunes.  Listening to the opening cut, “Fat Man in the Bathtub,” through the Chinook was a refreshing auditory slap in the face, just like having a primo standing-room-only place right near the stage.

Hooked on the Chinook

Vinyl records can quickly become an addiction that, fortunately, won’t shorten your natural life or get you busted for possession.  How you support this habit depends on source selection and, most critically, playback equipment.  Choice of turntable, tonearm and cartridge obviously matter, but the delicate signal still has to navigate the rest of the sound chain, where the phonostage acts as the gatekeeper of the grooves.  On this front, the Chinook excels, offering a substantial taste of the audio high life without maxing out your credit card.  It’s also a versatile component that will appeal to a variety of listeners.

Tube-phobes can relax, as this baby is dead quiet, even when cranked to the max; so can audio newbies, because setting up the Chinook is a cinch.  But before rushing out to plunk down more than two large ones, note that maximum gain for MC cartridges is 60 dB, which proved more than enough gain for the cartridges used in this review.  Some top-flight cartridges, however, put out less than 0.30 mV, which may not be the best match for this phonostage in a system based around a low gain preamplifier and/or low sensitivity speakers.

In summation, the Chinook provides spot-on imaging and recreation of the original recorded space, along with killer dynamics and a broad frequency spectrum—all at a reasonable price.

Gone Fishin’ (additional listnening)

Before sending the Chinook to Lawrence for this review, I had the pleasure of putting some initial hours on the clock and running it with a few of my own turntables.  I auditioned it with everything from the meager Shure M97 to the mighty Lyra Atlas, with excellent result.  Nothing in my stable of cartridges has less than 0.4 mV of output, so 60db of gain was more than sufficient.

Having spent a year with one of Manley’s Steelheads, that phono preamp has always been one of my favorites, it has a ton of personality—you’ll never mistake the Steelhead for anything less than a fish of the tubus maxiumus family.

Now compared to the big fish in my current analog pond (the Audio Research Reference Phono 2 SE, the Vitus MPP-201 and the Pass XP-25), the Chinook has a, shall we say, friendlier, more laid-back presentation.  But remember, my big-fish phonostages break the bank, with prices ranging from $11,000 to $60,000.  Everything else in the Chinook’s price is just StarKist tuna.

Mating the Chinook with the awesome and price-appropriate VPI Classic 1 turntable and the Lyra Kleos cartridge produced a relatively affordable analog front end of about $8,000, which won’t force you to take out a second mortgage.  That’s hardly Filet-O-Fish pocket change, but if you can find a heftier helping at this price, please, let us know about it.

The Manley Chinook gets down to the bare essentials, offering high performance in a basic box with no frills—everything you need and nothing you don’t.  We are happy to award it one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2012.   —Jeff Dorgay

Chinook Phono Preamplifier

MSRP: $2,250

Manufacturer: Manley Laboratories, www.manley.com

Peripherals

Thankfully, using the words “lifestyle” and “high fidelity” in the same sentence no longer makes you want to run for cover or the shower.

Great gear has been slowly getting more stylish: in part to attract the luxury goods consumer, and perhaps just because it’s cool.  Historically, big, clunky boxes have been banished from the main living space in all but the most tolerant of homes, so it’s wonderful to see manufacturers making products that are as enticing visually as they are sonically.

While Danish manufacturer Bang & Olufsen is certainly the pioneer of making audio products with a visual flair, it hasn’t been until just recently, when Devialet hit the scene with their D-Premier, that cutting edge audio performance is combined with sleek packaging.  It makes perfect sense that this fusion of style and performance would come from Europe, where living space tends to be at more of a premium.  Not as many of our European neighbors have the luxury of dedicated man caves.

Now Wadia, part of the Fine Sounds group, joins the party with the Intuition, and it’s a brilliant first effort.  A truly global product, the Intuition is designed and built in Italy.  Where the Devialet is square in form, the Intuition is softer in shape, looking much like an Apple MacBook Pro: inflated slightly, melted, and bent over a curved form.  Available in matte silver and black it was by far the most exciting product at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.  And the matte silver version, reviewed here, looks particularly Mac-like.

Power to spare

With 350 watts per channel at your fingertips (into 4 ohms, 190 WPC into 8) the Intuition can effortlessly drive anything.  It’s amazing how far switching amplification has come in the last few years, but the current design in the Wadia is fantastic, they refer to it as “Class D-Plus.”  Gone is the tinge of harshness and flat soundstage that used to plague these designs.

Because the current requirements from this type of design are very low, it’s easy to leave the Intuition on 24/7.  After a few days of continuous play, the Intuition opens up tremendously.  Interestingly, the Intuition is nowhere near as sensitive to speaker loads as the Class D amplifiers we’ve sampled.  Switching between Magnepans, electrostatic speakers and a plethora of cone speakers proves effortless.

Following Wadia’s John Schaffer’s suggestion, attention to power line conditioning and an upgraded power cord takes the Intuition to another level of performance entirely.  In this case, the Intuition is much like equipment with tubes under the hood, and once I install the Running Springs Dmitri and a Mongoose power cord, I’m rewarded with a dramatic increase in soundstage width, and a smoother high end as well.

Putting the pedal to the floor with a 45 r.p.m. single of AC/DC’s “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” with the Intuition replaces about $200,000 worth of gear in my main system, driving the GamuT S9s.  The S9s go down to 18 Hz and reproduce the cannon shots at the end of the track with tons of weight and punch.  The Intuition proves equally adept with the cannon shots at the end of the Telarc 1812 Overture LP.  Having exhausted my repertoire of cannon shots, it’s time to venture into a wider range of music.

Great everywhere

Jumping in the wayback machine for a cursory listen of Neu!’s Neu!2 is fantastic; this ethereal electronic piece is properly rendered larger than life, with analog synthesizer bits, random drumming and tape-looped moans orbiting around my KEF Blades.  Granted, this won’t tell you anything about timbre, or tonal accuracy – this piece needs to sound grandiose in execution, and the Intuition nails it.

Ditto on the subtle reproduction of acoustic instruments.  The atonal piano riffs in David Bowie’s classic “Aladdin Sane” explode from between the speakers, with killer attack and expansive delay, fading into nothing ever so gently as the driving bass line stays perfectly intact.

The “Shelly Manne” track from The Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project further reveals the lightning speed the Intuition possesses.  Both of these master drummers interacting over a major bass line is phenomenal and reproduced with ease.  Anyone judging a system on PRAT (pace, rhythm and timing) will be in heaven.  More traditional, yet equally intriguing, is Kenny Burrell’s Soulero. The Intuition’s ability to keep all four musicians distinctly placed in the listening space is fantastic.

Nuance is the key with the Intuition.  Forget what you think you know about switching amplification – this baby is smooth and grain free.  After moving the Intuition out of the studio and into my new listening room in the house with a pair of KEF LS-50s, I am amazed at how easy it is to lapse into a groove with this combination, at times fooled into thinking perhaps I’m listening to the big system after all.  The overall musicality of the Intuition is impossible to ignore and tough to beat.

A magic DAC indeed

The Intuition has seven digital inputs, so it can become the center of your musical universe with ease.  Two line-level analog inputs are available as well, so those wanting to add a turntable, or other source with RCA outputs can do so, but be aware that the Intuition does convert the analog sources to high-resolution digital information and then processes everything in the digital domain.

Utilizing an SME 10 turntable and Sumiko Palo Santos cartridge, via the Audio Research REF Phono 2 phonostage, provides an excellent addition to the system, with barely any loss of spatial qualities and nuance, robbing analog of its charm.  Hard core analog purists may not want to roll this way, but considering the Intuition’s design ethos, this may be not the droid for you, should you want a pure analog experience anyway.  All but the most maniacal vinyl lovers will appreciate the analog inputs and the ability to enjoy this part of their music selection with the Intuition, should they so desire.

Schaffer also makes it a point to mention that the Intuition on many levels is “the latest generation DAC from Wadia,” incorporating everything they’ve done, up to and including their prestigious 9 series.  After having used both the 581 and 781 as reference players for years, we notice the resemblance instantly.  Bass is solid, tuneful and well controlled, with dynamics to match – amazing actually, in such a compact package.

Part of this continued innovation is the use of Wadia’s patented Digimaster algorithm, controlling level in the digital domain, and the Intuition features the latiest iteration.  Coax and AES inputs accommodate 24 bit/192 khz signals, with the USB input having 32bit/384khz and native DSD capability.  Wadia chose to forgo galvanic isolation with the Intuition, claiming better analog signal integrity, and the results certainly speak for themselves – this is one of the most natural sounding DACs we’ve encountered.

All of the sources at our disposal perform flawlessly, and the optical input’s performance is incredibly good, interfacing with the Meridian MS200 better than any other DAC at our disposal, including the dCS Vivaldi.  Impressive indeed.  We have not had the chance to fully exploit the 32/384 or DSD capabilities at this early date, but expect a follow-up on the TONEAudio website in the next 60 days.  As more mainstream material becomes available in the DSD world, we’ll be listening further.

Could be more intuitive

I love the sound and functionality of the Intuition, though it does take a little bit of getting used to.  Kudos to Wadia’s design team for making the display large enough to be easily seen from across the room; however the super stylish remote is another story.  Shaped exactly like the Intuition but bite sized, it features five buttons, with a larger button in the middle, sporting an engraved speaker symbol, which mutes the Intuition.  The top and bottom buttons select inputs, while the left and right buttons control volume, as they do on Wadia digital players.  You can determine top from bottom on this symmetrical remote by searching for the IR transmitter – that’s the top.

Legacy Wadia owners should feel right at home, but for the rest of us, this is highly cryptic.  Certainly not an epic fail, but something that should be considered for future versions of the Intuition, and perhaps other devices in the Intuition family that are no doubt on the horizon.  Schaffer maintains a poker face when I ask him about a matching Wadia transport to accompany the Intuition, but the pair of WadiaLink I2S inputs on the rear panel suggests something is indeed in the works.

Easily integrated

Very minor nits aside, the rest of the Intuition is as user friendly as an iPod, and this device is clearly what the world needs more of.  Steve Jobs once said at the Macworld Expo that “technology has to be as easy to use as putting a bagel in a toaster,” and I believe that extends to high-end audio.  Geeking out is fun for some of us but off-putting to most – and why miss out on enjoying great music in your home because you don’t want a rack full of square boxes connected by various lengths of garden hose?

After living with the Intuition for a while and sharing it with a few friends in their homes, it’s clear that Wadia has hit a home run, creating a product that should fly off the dealers’ shelves at an MSRP of $7,500.

The Intuition plays music at such a high degree of realism, it is the perfect building block for a system of any stature.  Whether you choose to pair it up with speakers costing $1,500 or $100,000 (and of course, anywhere in between), you will be amazed at the resulting sound quality.

Thanks to the small 15 x 15 inch footprint, and its ability to run cool, the Intuition will be comfortable anywhere in your home, but I suggest putting its sexy shape in a prominent place where it can become a conversation piece.  And a subtle nudge to the rest of the hifi industry: can we have more of this?  It’s definitely where we need to be headed.  Job well done, Wadia.

The Wadia Intuition

MSRP:  $7,500

www.wadia.com

Peripherals

Simaudio Ltd. announces a very cool way to approach CD playback.

Their new MOON Nēo 260D CD Transport is available for $2,000 as a transport alone. Those having a favorite DAC, need only purchase this component to upgrade their system.  Those wanting an all in one digital solution can add the optional DAC for another $1,000, providing a very potent digital player that borrows heavily from the technology in Simaudio’s highly acclaimed MOON 650D

For the full press release, click here…

Based in Bernardsville, NJ, Merrill Audio was formed in 2010 by Merrill Wettasinghe, a lifelong audiophile and former HP executive with a background in R&D.

The current product line consists of the Veritas line of amplifiers and the Lucia preamplifiers.  Merrill Audio has a clear vision for the products they offer, which are designed and built with an attention to detail rarely encountered. In for review are the Veritas Power Amp Mono Blocks, priced at $12,000 a pair.

The Veritas monoblock amplifier is a Class D design that uses the Hypex Ncore NC1200 power modules.  Each  chassis is machined from a solid block of aluminum with one-inch thick outer walls.  The internal electronic components are laid out in various chambers to maximize isolation.  Further examination leads one to conclude that very few, if any, compromises are apparent in the construction and layout.

According to Merrill, wiring is point to point, and Cardas ultra pure copper litz wire is used throughout the amps. Around back are Cardas speaker binding posts that utilize solid copper  and a rhodium plate; however, they will only accept spade terminated speaker cable.  The inputs are fully balanced and feature only top-shelf Cardas XLR connectors, so balanced cables are mandatory.  For an interesting touch, the units are supplied with power cords that Merrill has had custom-designed for them by Triode Wire Labs.  The IEC inlet is gold-plated Furutech. The monoblocks also ship stock with either synergistic or Stillpoints support feet.

The Veritas are not for those with weak backs, as they weigh in at 33 pounds each. According to Merrill Audio, their build process is as follows: “Start with a 66-pound solid aluminum block.  Delicately machine the chassis from this solid block with isolation chambers and frames to limit any sonic interference and minimize vibrations. Keep the walls one-inch thick, to limit and absorb vibration. The signal paths are designed to be the shortest possible, giving you the cleanest audio signal possible. Longer cables typically use shielding. Excessive shielding introduces capacitances that slow the dynamics of the system, especially power amps, bloating the bass and reducing the high frequencies. Keeping wires short removes the requirement for shielding…”

Setup is straightforward: a MyTek Stereo 192 DAC, Musical Fidelity M1 CDT transport, Bogdan Audio Creations Art Deco and Thiel CS2.4 loudspeakers, Audience power conditioning, along with Kimber cabling make up the review system. One interesting note is there is no power switch – the amps are turned on or off by detaching the Triode Wire Labs power cords, which results in a faint, harmless pop through the speakers. The Veritas monos also run warm to the touch, and have been left on continuously for optimum performance.

Listening:

The Veritas are given a few days of casual use to allow them to settle in, and then a steady diet of reference tracks for serious listening.  It is apparent from the very first listening session that the Veritas are very serious contenders for one of the biggest sounding amps to enter the listening room.  All the engineering, careful selection of parts, and attention to detail pay off.  The listener is rewarded with an enormous soundstage; feel-it-in-the-gut, super-controlled bass; and a wonderfully transparent midrange.

The topology of this amplifier never enters the mind during extended, fatigue-free, and highly engaging listening sessions. It is clear that many audiophiles have preconceived notions about certain amplifier types and, unfortunately, prejudge certain technologies without actually listening.  But with the Veritas, listening is believing.

The Veritas are nimble performers – aside from the excellent bass performance, the high frequencies are supple and delicate. Complex musical passages are rendered with a sense of effortless ease.  Listening with anything but full attention proves a difficult task.  All musical genres are rewarded equally with sublime transparency and appropriate scale.

The new album from Tom Jones, Spirit In The Room, is an amazing mélange of classic folk, blues, and rock. Jones and producer Ethan Johns call upon material from Richard Thompson, Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, and more. It is well recorded, and through the Veritas monos, the gravitas of Jones’s voice is remarkable.  Jones’s take on Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song” comes through with the necessary emotional impact.

Switching gears, the remastered  Collectors’ Edition of Joy Division’s seminal 1980 release Closer simply dazzles rhythmically and texturally. The Veritas shines a glorious light on the recording, which laid a foundation for the alternative movement of the 1980s, with stripped-down arrangements, melodic bass lines, and minimalist production.

The Veritas is also spot-on with acoustic music, especially classic jazz. Listening to various high resolution downloads of historic Blue Note recordings from John Coltrane, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter,  Herbie Hancock, and Freddie Hubbard is a gas. Drums, horns, piano, and bass all sound natural in timbre and free from grain. Wayne Shorter’s Speak No Evil is a particular favorite with the drive and soul that the Veritas provided this classic recording.

The Veritas are so resolving, it is easy to hear the changes in upstream components, cables, and tweaks. The amps are remarkable in this regard, making it easy to detect something as simple as switching a power cord or two in the system. As revealing as the Veritas are, they never seem analytical or soulless. Quite the opposite, actually. They paint a holographic picture of the performers when the recording allows, without being the least bit mechanical.

On an ergonomic note, the Veritas runs slightly warm to the touch and responds positively to quality amplifier bases and speaker cables. It is utterly noiseless and offers some of the quietest operation experienced in this reviewer’s system. This manifests itself in a pristine soundstage and the ability of the listener to distinguish even the most subtle aspects of a recording.

Conclusion:

At $12,000 per pair, the Merrill Audio Veritas Mono Block amps are certainly not entry level components; they provide a sonic picture virtually without flaw across the musical spectrum. Mind you, the Veritas for this review are installed in a system normally built around tube amplification.  The fact that tubes have not been missed in the least during the review period speaks volumes about the vision of Merrill Audio.

The Merrill Audio Veritas Mono Block amplifiers may very well be a breakthrough in Class D amplifier design.  The fact that the amplifiers are equipped with such performance enhancers such as high-end vibration control, top-shelf wiring, and connectors that many far more expensive amps cannot claim is impressive and makes these amps plug ‘n’ play.  The build quality of the Veritas is beyond reproach, and the footprint of each amp is relatively small, which means easy installation.

The time spent with the Merrill Audio Veritas Power Amp Mono Blocks was nothing less than enjoyable with long, satisfying listening sessions. They have the ability to drive virtually any pair of speakers without a hint of strain, and with a clarity and precision most often seen at the very upper echelon – highly recommended for those seeking a transparent amplifier with power to spare.

The Merrill Audio Veritas Mono Blocks

MSRP:  $12,000/pair

http://www.merrillaudio.net

Associated Equipment:

Transport: Musical Fidelity M1 CDT, Squeezebox Touch w/CIA power supply

DAC: MyTek Stereo 192 DSD DAC

Speakers: Bogdan Audio Creations Art Deco, Thiel CS2.4

Cables: Kimber, Stager, DH Labs, Transparent

Accessories: Audience aDeptResponse

Audioarts NYC proprietor Gideon Schwartz is proud to announce that they will now be the official US importer and distributor for Robert Koda products.

Very favorably reviewed in issue 51, their K-10 preamplifier remains a reference component in the TONEAudio studio, and the rest of the product line looks equally enticing.  Schwartz says, “All the accolades can not properly describe the level of fidelity these jewels are capable of.”

Watch for more information here, and an expanding dealer network in the US shortly.  These are not to be missed. Should you be in New York City, contact Audioarts NYC for an appointment.

www.audioarts.co

Features

Old School:
Sennheiser’s HD 414 and HD 424 Headphones

By Jeff Dorgay

995: Sounds that Won’t Break the Bank
2 Headphones under $100

By Rob Johnson

Journeyman Audiophile

Sennheiser HD 700 Headphones

By Mike Liang

Bigger Than Life:
A  Conversation With Sly and the Family
Stone Drummer Greg Errico

By Andy Downing

Does the Clash Still Matter?

By Todd Martens

Tone Style

A Modern Day Art Shaman:

An Interview With Our Cover Artist,
Jermaine Rogers

By Kristin Bauer

The Beer Snob:
Craft Beer in Cans?
Welcome to the Future
By Bob Gendron

Canon’s EOS-M

Johnny Cash Postage Stamps

Sennheiser HH10 Headphone Holder

Maxboost Atomic Air External Battery
For iPhone 5

Nerf N-Strike Elite Blaster

By Jeff Dorgay

Music

Current Releases:

Fresh Releases in the Pop/Rock World
By the TONE Staff

Audiophile Pressings

Jazz & Blues
By Jim Macnie

Club Mix
By Connor Willemsen

Previews

Plinius SAREF Power Amplifier

Naim Unity Qute 2 DAC/Integrated

Focal Maestro Utopia Speakers

Sennheiser HDVD 800 Headphone Amp/DAC

Torque t103z Headphones

Wadia Intuition Integrated/DAC

Reviews:

Woo Audio WA7 Firefly
By Jerold O’Brien

NuForce HAP-100 Headphone Amplifier
By Paul Rigby

ALO Studio Six Headphone Amplifier
By Jeff Dorgay

Sennheiser Momentum Headphones
By Ian White

Grado RS-1 Headphones
By Ian White

AURALiC Taurus MK II Headphone Amplifier
By Jeff Dorgay

Magico, known for their highly innovative aluminum speaker enclosures, brings their technological expertise to the subwoofer segment for the first time, with their Q-Sub 15 ($22,000) and Q-Sub 18 $36,000).

The former, featuring a pair of 15-inch low frequency drivers and the latter a pair of 18-inch drivers.

Claiming that the all aluminum enclosure eliminates the enclosure flexing that plagues all other subwoofers, Magico promises “thundering low frequencies that are fast, pure and devastatingly accurate.”  They are also claiming a maximum sound pressure level of 175db (!!), with 6,000 watts of power drive behind the drivers.

Follow us to CEDIA at the end of this month to find out just how awesome these can be.  Knowing Magico’s past efforts, this should indeed be interesting.

For more info, go to www.magico.com

We’ve just received the new SB-88 compact monitor from Stirling Brodcast and it is a stroke of understated excellence.

Fresh out of the box, they sound a little stiff, but 50 hours of dynamic program material at moderate volume has them on full song.  An 8-inch, two way design, they resemble the BBC LS 3/6 design, though in a slightly smaller cabinet.  Sound is relatively close to the Harbeth Compact 7, that is a favorite here at TONEAudio.  As our test pair continues to open up, we will have a full review of these in the near future.  Stay tuned.  You will be able to purchase them at Acoustic Sounds soon.  MSRP: $3,033.

Incorporating a DAC inside an integrated amplifier has been going on for some time now, with mixed results, and the Primare I22 is a product arguably aimed more at the music lover who likes to keep things simple.

The I22 pictured here includes the $799 DAC board (with 24/96 USB and 24/192 Toslink and SPDIF inputs) for $2,498.  Those of you already in possession of a good DAC can order your I22 without DAC for $1,799 and those on the fence can add the board later for $799, without a huge financial penalty.

While aimed at a consumer who will probably spend $1,000 – $4,000 on a pair of speakers to round out a system, the I22 is well at home driving the $35,000 KEF Blades.  Its 80 watts per channel prove more than adequate to really rock the orange KEF flagship speakers.

Taking advantage of Primare’s UFPD (Ultra Fast Power Device) technology, which combines the Class D amplification stage and output filters into a single device, the claimed sonic improvements are readily apparent:  This is a thoroughly modern Class D design, which suffers from none of the sonic artifacts that characterize (and often plague) this configuration.

Listening to the multi-layered vocals of 10cc’s “Marriage Bureau” is a treat – all of the late ’70s multitrack wizardry is in full effect, including the great Moog synthesizer tracks, with everything well sorted and keeping its own distinct sonic space.

The ins and outs

The front panel is the essence of understatement, with a single volume control, flanked by a pale white LED indicator panel, displaying the input in use along with the volume level.  Just to the right is a pair of small, machined buttons to select input, and one more to switch between standby and power-on mode.  Incidentally, this might be counterintuitive to some, as the LED glows when the I22 is in standby mode, extinguishing when the amplifier is on.

Inputs 1-5 are standard line level inputs with RCA jacks and inputs 6–8 are digital inputs (if you’ve had the DAC board installed), with a Toslink, USB and SPDIF.  For the duration of the review, we used the Meridian Control 15 server via SPDIF and the Aurender A10 server via USB.  The majority of the files used were 16 bit/44.1, with a bit of dallying into the world of high res.  Hardcore audiophiles might squeal about the lack of 24/192 USB capability (or DSD for that matter, but I’m not the least bit concerned); however, for those streaming files from a laptop or other digital source, primarily of CD and MP3 quality, the I22 will be just fine as it is.  Should the highest resolution digital files be your priority, order the I22 without the DAC board, or just use an SPDIF converter with your laptop.  Pairing a Mac Book Pro with the M-Tech USB converter recently reviewed worked perfectly, requiring only a minimal investment of $179.

Setup takes but a second to unbox; connect speakers and source and you’re rocking – it couldn’t be easier.  Though it might not be important to some, the I22 is lusciously understated and feels considerably more expensive than its modest price tag might suggest.

Like every other Class D amplifier we’ve tested, the I22 does respond incredibly well to an upgraded power cord and line conditioning.  Adding a power cord and the EVO 3 line conditioner from ISO TEK removes a layer of glare and cloudiness that you might mistake for the sonic signature of the amplifier, giving the I22 an even smoother, more natural sound.

Resolution without regret

Both Carole King’s Tapestry and Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, downloaded via HD Tracks easily illustrate the onboard DACs ability to resolve the difference between standard and high-resolution files.  An even better demo was evident with Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s self-titled album, also in 24/192.  Both vocalists occupied their own space, delicately layered upon each other, with a delightful smoothness – again offering higher than expected for the price asked.

The deep low-frequency content in the Daft Punk album focuses on a primary strength of Class D amplifiers – bass response, providing equally solid heft and control.  This is very impressive with the KEF Blades, but even more so with the $1,499/pair LS-50s which really come alive via the I22, exhibiting tremendous LF response.

Equally compelling is the rendition of analog tracks, captured to 24/96, via my Nagra LB studio recorder, using the AVID Acutus Reference SP/Lyra Atlas/Indigo Qualia analog front end.  Again, resolution takes a big jump for the better, i.e. more natural, underscoring the overall sonic performance of the onboard DAC.  Sifting through a series of recent digital captures from the Music Matters Jazz Blue Note catalog makes it even easier to listen to the amount of texture the I22 is capable of rendering when the source material is up to the task.

Finally, combining a Rega RP6 turntable and Exact cartridge via the latest tube phonostage from Monk Audio (12AX7 powered, $1,195 MSRP) rounds the system out nicely for those wanting to make the foray into analog without breaking the bank.  Spinning Daniel Lanois’s Black Dub album, chock full of acoustic and electronic texture, proves how smooth this amplifier is capable of sounding.  While you wouldn’t mistake it for a valve amplifier, it is in no way harsh; in fact, a number of audiophile buddies didn’t know it was a Class D design until it was revealed.

The second track on the Lanois album, “I Believe In You,” features some great drum sounds, that are all captured with excellent depth, texture, speed and delicacy – especially with the brush work via drummer Brian Blades.  Many Class D designs have a tendency to sound somewhat thin in the sense of a two dimensional soundstage, yet here the Primare does very well.  Lead vocalist Trixie Whitley has always stood out in front of the soundstage, as she does on my reference system.  Comparing this to a somewhat similarly priced PrimaLuna tubed integrated, the tubes definitely throw a more three dimensional soundfield, but in comparison to similarly priced solid state kit, the I22 more than holds its own.  And you don’t have to screw around with vacuum tubes, either.

Simple, stylish, sonic excellence

Those wanting bells and whistles should look elsewhere.  However, if you want great sound wrapped in an understated enclosure that will not call much attention to itself, I can’t think of a better choice than the Primare I22.  Now, the only thing you need decide is if you want it in silver or black, and whether you’d like the DAC board or simply use the matching (and equally enticing) C22 CD player.   We are very happy to award this amplifier one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2013 – even more so, with the DAC installed.

The Primare I22 Integrated Amplifier

MSRP:  $1,799

$2,498 (with DAC)

www.primare.net (factory)

www.vanaltd.com (US Distributor)

Peripherals

Digital Sources               Meridian Control 15, Aurender S10, MacBook Pro

Analog Source                Rega RP6/Exact Cartridge, Monk Audio Phonostage

Speakers                       KEF LS50, KEF Blade, Harbeth Compact 7

Cable                            Cardas Clear Light

Accessories                   IsoTek Evo 3 power conditioner, power cord.

I don’t know what your listening habits are…

While cleaning my office/studio/listening room, I found a cache of unopened and hence, unplayed records.  It gave me pause for a second, perusing through the stack, thinking that I was not only feeling nostalgic on this particular day of record shopping, but pretty lucky as well. A little bit of old school hip hop, some classic jazz and some major heaviness from the 60s. I even found a few vintage MoFi’s lurking in the pile.  Where were they when I was thinking of listening to them?

I realize that we all find our joy in a different place.  Some enjoy being completist collectors, some enjoy searching rarities, while others just dig hanging out in a record store and smelling the vinyl.

But I suggest that for a day or two (maybe even longer) you step back and enjoy the collection you’ve already acquired.  I’ll bet that you too have some hidden treasure!

-Jeff Dorgay

One of the most exciting products to hit this January’s Consumer Electronics Show, Wadia’s Intuition combines their latest DAC technology, combining the current version of their award winning Digimaster algorithm, a digital preamplifier, and a 350 watt per channel (into 4 ohms) high efficiency power amplifier.

It is capable of processing 192khz/24 bit files via the coax, optical and AES inputs, while offering 384khz/32bit and native DSD playback through the USB input.

We will have a full review in a few weeks, which will be the world’s first in-depth review of the Intuition.  We’ve got a wide range of speakers to pair it up, from KEF (Blades and LS-50), Dynaudio (Evidence Platinum), Focal (Maestro Utopia), and GamuT (S9), so stay tuned.  Even after a few days, the Intuition continues to impress in every way.

www.wadia.com

As a young man, Guy Clark made his name as an edgy, new-breed country songwriter along with the likes of Townes Van Zandt and Mickey Newbury. Now 71, he’s taken on the mantle of lion in winter.

My Favorite Picture of You is a finely wrought, late-in-the-day statement. The centerpiece is the title track written for his wife, Susanna, who died in 2012. On the album cover, Clark holds a Polaroid of her as a young woman. The song is a shattering ode to that photo and all it represents: the good times, the bad times, and the woman who stuck with him through it all.

Clark displays a deep social conscience in several songs. The bright Tex-Mex melody of “El Coyote” belies the darker story at its heart: undocumented Mexican workers exploited and abandoned by the “coyote” they’ve paid to smuggle them across the border. “Heroes” spotlights a damaged Iraq War veteran after they’ve come home. Employing old-school country recitation, Clark tells the story of a scarred young man going off the rails: “A silver star and a pistol in a drawer/The morphine just ain’t workin’ no more.” Like John Prine’s classic “Sam Stone,” “Heroes” cuts with scalpel precision, focusing on the raw specifics of one soldier’s story.

The singer’s songs are built on mournful cello, quietly burbling banjo, sweet fiddles, and warm acoustic guitars. Melodies are memorable and winning. But the lyrics, delivered in Clark’s weather-beaten voice, that resonate most of all. Like a gifted short-story writer, Clark is all about details honed to a razor’s edge. “Rain In Durango” is a shrewdly observed character study of a rambling girl: “She wound up with a backstage pass/Was hangin’ with the pickers in the band/Till her heart got broke by a banjo man/Now she’s had all the bluegrass she can stand.”

Every cut is a smart, distinctive gem. The riveting western story-song “The Death of Sis Draper” would make the late Marty Robbins smile. Clark also casts a sharp eye on the dangerous, addictive life of an artist in “The High Price of Inspiration.” And he offers up a cheeky take on life in “Good Advice.”

“Don’t give me no advice that rhymes/I’ve heard it all a thousand times/Don’t start preachin’ between the lines/Give me somethin’ I can use.” What Clark gives us is thoughtful art. My Favorite Picture of You is a quiet treasure. —Chrissie Dickinson

Focal has just added Bluetooth APT-X Wireless capability to their award winning XS Book loudspeaker range, making a great compact speaker system even better – and certainly more versatile.

The XS Book Wireless allows wireless digital source transmission in a full range, user friendly pair of powered desktop monitor speakers that are equally at home with the desktop music lover and hobbyist music creator.

Equipped with an aluminum dome tweeter and 4-inch Polyglass woofer, these speakers have a wide bandwidth of 50hz – 22khz and can achieve a 97db SPL at one meter.  We are using a pair of these speakers in the TONEAudio studio to produce our upcoming video clips, so we can vouch for their high quality.

At $399 a pair, the XS Book Wireless is a perfect back to school gift, and comes with all the necessary cables you will need to integrate it into your system:  a 1.5m RCA cable, 1.5m extension cable, a 3.5mm jack going from computer to XS Book and a stylish carrying case.  Those not needing wireless functionality can achieve the same sound with the $299/pair XS Book system.

www.focal.com

www.audioplusservices.com

Features

Old School:
The Harman Kardon Rabco St-7 Turntable

By Jerold O’Brien

995: Sounds that Won’t Break the Bank
The Ortofon 2M Red and Grado Black1 Prestige Cartridges

By Jaime Lee Fritze

Journeyman Audiophile

Peachtree Audio Nova 125

By Mark Marcantonio

A Candid Conversation With Jason Isbell

By Andy Downing

Tone Style

Wino:
Art Meets The Grape
By Monique Meadows

Cardas Earspeaker 1

Johnny Cash Postage Stamps

DEVO Throbblehead

The KISS Van

The Sentinel Loudspeaker

The Moo Mat

The iPad TP Holder

Ryobi P260 Impact Drill

Leica’s M Monochrom

By Jeff Dorgay

Music

Current Releases:

Fresh Releases in the Pop/Rock World
By the TONE Staff

Live Music:
She & Him
By Bob Gendron

Audiophile Pressings

Jazz & Blues
By Jim Macnie

Previews

AURALiC Merak Power Amplifiers

Nagra 300P Amplifier

Audionet PAM G2 Phonostage

Boulder 865 Integrated Amplifier

Peachtree deep blue Bluetooth Music System

Reviews:

Light Harmonic DaVinci DAC
By Jacob Heilbrunn

Wilson Benesch Full Circle Turntable
By Paul Rigby

Coincident Statement Phono Preamplifier
By Jeff Dorgay

IQ Audio 300M Amplifiers
By Rob Johnson

Pass Xs300 Monoblocks
By Jeff Dorgay

AVA Ultravalve Amplifier
By Jeff Dorgay

Viola Bravo Amplifier
By Jeff Dorgay

Rogers EHF-200 Mk.2
By Jeff Dorgay

Slummin’

The long awaited 300B amplifier from Nagra is here….

And it is wonderful.  The 300P produces 20 watts per channel with a “polarized push pull configuration,” and features output taps for 4, 8, and 16 ohm speakers.  Thus far, we’ve been flabbergasted at what this mighty, yet minimalistic amplifier can drive.  Having seen the prototypes on the drawing board on our visit to Nagra years ago, it is truly exciting to see this amplifier on the dealers shelves.

MSRP is $16,995.

Full review in process, and for more information, click here for the Nagra website.

Just in from Audionet:   The PAM G2 phonostage, with EPC external power supply.

This two input phono stage from Audionet has two inputs that can be configured as MM or MC, with adjustable gain settings of 38db, 48db, 58db and 68db. Loading ranges from 100, 150, 470, 1000, 23k, 47k and 68k ohms, with the ability to achieve custom settings as well.  It’s built like a Porsche Turbo, with 280,000uf of power supply capacitance, providing major energy storage.

We’ve just put this one in the rack and begun listening, so stay tuned.

For more information, click here:

http://www.audionet.de

Always a fun day to visit the VPI factory, in Cliffwood, New Jersey.

This is American made at its finest.  VPI combines new and old school manufacturing with careful hand assembly to create turntables known all over the world for their sonic attributes.

The most fun however, is back in the sound room, where now retired principal, Harry Weisfeld has just unpacked a pair of JBL Everest speakers.  As we listen to Way Out West, via VPI’s new 3D printed arm and a Lyra Atlas cartridge, the lifelike sound is unmistakable.  Harry smiles and says, “they need a few months to really break in, then we’ll have some magic.”  An audiophile to the end.

And lurking off in the distance is a vintage Denon direct drive table, that Weisfeld is holding “for a friend…” Pretty cool.

The biggest metal story of the first half of the year belongs to Black Sabbath.

More than three decades after his original departure from the band, vocalist Ozzy Osbourne reunited with most of his former mates to finally his first new studio album with the group since 1978’s embarrassing Never Say Die. All didn’t go as planned. Drummer Bill Ward sat out over reported contractual disputes and ceded his throne to Rage Against the Machine skin-pounder Brad Wilk. Osbourne also owned up to binging on drugs and alcohol, leading some to predict a divorce from his wife would follow. In the end, the revelation seemed like a publicity stunt.

As comebacks by Social Security-eligible musicians go, Black Sabbath’s 13 represents a respectable attempt at recapturing former glories. The chemistry is better than that on a similar ensemble’s return—Van Halen’s 2012 A Different Kind of Truth—and guitarist Tony Iommi still hasn’t encountered a giant riff he couldn’t slay. The involvement of big-name producer Rick Rubin coupled with an ad blitz helped give the English legends their first-ever number-one album. Granted, attaining such a feat is much easier in 2013. But numbers don’t lie.

Akin to every other heavy band to pick up instruments, turn up amplifiers, and conjure apocalyptic feelings, High on Fire owes much of its existence to Sabbath. Yet like every great artist, the Oakland trio managed to long ago transcend its influences and leave its own mark on its métier. In terms of consistency, aggressiveness, ambition, skill, and intensity, no metal collective dominated the past decade more than High on Fire.

Led by guitarist/vocalist Matt Pike, the threesome utilizes pace, power, and physicality in brazen arrangements stargazing psychedelia to village-pillaging sludge. Metal—as susceptible as any genre to spikes and lulls—is currently in a creatively dormant stage, but anyone curious about the style’s progressive evolution and modern strengths since its last peak (circa 2006) can turn to Spitting Fire Live Volume I and II for a Cliffs Notes summation.

While Osbourne and Co. kept busy last fall orchestrating a high-priced publicity rollout, High on Fire played gigs at a pair of revered New York venues shortly after Pike’s emergence from alcohol rehabilitation. Selections from those performances, which document a reinvigorated and even stronger-willed band than that of pre-treatment Pike, fill these concert LPs. High on Fire comes on looser than it does on its tight-as-a-clenched-fist studio efforts. Then again, Pike takes extra liberties with axe-wielding solos and by extension, pushes his mates to even greater heights. Songs such as “Frost Hammer,” “Devolution,” “Speedwolf,” “Fury Whip,” and “Rumours of War” sound true to their titles. Not for the faint of heart, High on Fire thrives on in-the-red energy and mantle-hot rhythms that shake harder than a revved-up Harley-Davidson.

Raw, ferocious, uptempo, tough, violent, growling, sweaty, beautifully ugly: Fine portraits of underground metal heroes that, to paraphrase Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford, play their nuts off.

With so much excitement over tubes these days, here’s one that might have flown under your radar…

Van Alstine’s Ultravalve has been around for years, starting as their original Super 70, which was an upgrade kit for the legendary Dynaco Stereo 70, then morphing to the Super 70i before finally becoming the Ultravalve.  It’s a simple, elegant design with exposed tubes and transformers; a perfect way to display a classic tube amplifier.

Our full review will be in issue 56, but to let the cat out of the bag, this amplifier is stunning.  If you have an inkling that a modest tube amplifier would suit your needs, this is the one we suggest.  And for $1,995, nothing else can touch it in terms of performance.

www.avahifi.com

On a recent visit to the UK, Neil Young stopped by the Meridian facility in Cambridgeshire.

You can read more here:

http://www.meridian-audio.com/en/meridian-world/Neil_Young_Visit_to_Meridian_Audio/46/

Audio Arts NYC provides an oasis of chill, just four floors above the hustle and bustle of New York City’s Fifth Avenue, in the Flatiron District.

Owner Gideon Schwartz buzzes me up to his suite, where the main listening room, about 20 x 30 feet, features a comfy couch, a wonderful view of the city, Madison Square Park and a big fireplace. When was the last time you saw a fireplace in a hifi shop?  Instantly, your blood pressure takes a big dip for the better and it’s easy to relax. This is not a typical retail environment in any sense of the word.

The central room showcases one main system, with a variety of turntables from Holborne Swiss Audio, Simon York and a beautifully restored Thorens TD-124 from Schopper.  Off to the left the massive Kalista CD transport from Metronome Technologie sits, waiting to make magic from the often criticized compact disc.  A single pair of Zellaton speakers is placed to perfection in this acoustically correct space.  Well off to the side, are some neatly arranged components from Nagra, waiting for audition by another customer, along with electronics from  CH Precision (Switzerland), Malvalve (Germany), Lavardin (France) and Kora-Eda (Japan) flanked by a pair of Stenheim speakers.

“Want to hear a record?”  Schwartz cues up a Teddy Pendergrass, via the Holborne table and the sound from what some audiophiles might consider an average pressing comes to life on the big Zellatons, powered by the Burmester 911 mk. 3, an amplifier that I also use as a reference.  The sound is infinitely familiar on one level, yet a few clicks beyond what I’m used to, as the Zellaton speakers provide such a clear window into the music.  If I didn’t know better, I’d think that we were listening to an expensive remaster of this recording. Fortunately, there are no audiophile standards in his record collection on display.

Switching to digital, we listen to Musica Nuda, by Petra Magoni and Ferruccio Spinetti, the delicacy of analog remaining.  It’s hard to believe we are listening to digital, and again, the combination of excellent music and system synergy allows the listener to forget about the left-brain stuff that often gets in the way of enjoying their system.

The magic that this system offers sums up what Audio Arts NYC brings to the table. Purchasing components at this level requires a well versed guide, someone capable of hand picking things that work well together for maximum effect and demonstrating them in a comfortable environment, lacking in clutter makes it easy to unwind and take it all in.

At the time of our visit, a second, smaller room is nearing completion, to showcase other components, primarily speakers more suited to clients with a similar sized listening space. Here, I see components from Swissonor, Shopper Thorens, Wavelength and the new Midnight Blue series from 47 Labs.

While some of the names on the roster, like Burmester and Nagra are well known to American audiophiles, others like Zellaton and Stenheim are new to our shores. And while some of these components carry a lofty price tag, many do not. All too often, hifi salons become myopic and militant, offering potential customers few choices, which can be detrimental to those wishing to engage this hobby.  Everything here has been hand picked by Schwartz for sound quality, build quality and uniqueness.  “It’s really about the overall sound.  I put a very strong emphasis on the greatest possible fidelity for every approach.  This results in a musical consistency in my products regardless of cost.” Schwartz says. And whether your interest is in solid state, single ended triodes, or anything in between, Audio Arts NYC has an interesting solution.

Schwartz underlines the importance of this process. “Sometimes, it takes months for us to put just the right system together for a client.  I’m not in a hurry.” Right in the heart of New York City, he understands the stress that many of his clients face, and the importance a music system plays in their lives.

Wonderful as Audio Arts NYC is, perhaps the highest compliment I can pay Gideon Schwartz is that I heard four albums that were completely new to me.  This is the direction that high-end audio has to take if it is to survive. Having just returned from Tokyo, reflecting back on my visit to Audio Arts, it reminds me of the Leica store in the Ginza shopping district, where photography and the gear to create those photographs is equally respected, showcased in a soothing environment.

This deliberateness, and attention to detail, all the while celebrating the music that makes it all possible is what makes Audio Arts NYC so unique. I highly suggest an appointment.

-Jeff Dorgay

Audio Arts NYC

www.audioarts.co

The two European manufacturers get together for the audio system in the new Quattroporte sedan, a dressed-up pair of 805 speakers, and a global DJ tour.

Maserati is far from the first luxury carmaker to market with a premium sound system in its cars—but pair that with the new 805 Maserati Edition speakers from B&W, which provides the stereo for the Italian carmaker’s 2013 Quattroporte sedan, and a DJ throw-down at a hanger in Hollywood, and you’ve most certainly got our attention. (The Hollywood event in early June was part of the global Seven Notes tour. For these events, DJ/producer Howie B, who has worked with Björk and U2, among other acts, spins music inspired by the seven tones of a Maserati engine in action, with B&W delivering the chest-thumping sonic goods. Click here for more details on the tour: www.sevennotes.com)

The Quattroporte audio system is no mere car stereo, and I’ve heard similar systems from

Naim (for Bentley), Bang & Olufsen (for Audi and Aston Martin) and Burmester (for Porsche). The B&W system in Maserati’s roughly $130,000 Quattroporte easily holds its own in this competitive market. With B&W drivers and tweeters and Harman-sourced electronics, the 15-speaker, 1,280-watt stereo produces an audiophile-grade listening experience from any of the car’s four seats. The system offers a big display panel in the dash with intuitive touchscreen control, and easy synchronization with your digital-music device of choice.

B&W’s 805 Maserati Edition speakers aren’t too shabby either. The stand-mounted monitors are basically B&W’s flagship 805 Diamond speakers dressed up with the same materials used in the cabin of a Maserati, including bird’s-eye maple veneer, black Italian leather, and the Maserati trident symbol. The cost of the speakers, which will be available this fall, are likely to come at a premium over the $5,000 price tag of the standard 805s—but if you’re paying well over six figures for a Maserati, you might as well throw in a few extra bucks for matching speakers.

-Bailey S. Barnard

Minutes into their first album in more than 15 years, the Oblivians sing about waking up in a police car.

Guitars faintly double as sirens while insouciant vocals indicate more than just casual indifference. When you hear the trio’s offhand deliveries, you know these guys have been there before. There’s no faking, no pretense, no make-believe about what it’s like to be aroused from a drunken slumber only to smell the plastic vinyl of a worn bench seat, look up, and realize you’re headed to jail.

The band’s nose for cheap thrills, thirst for even cheaper drinks, and lust for back-street pursuits permeates Desperation, a raw garage-rock album recorded live to a one-inch Scully eight-track recorder at Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studio. Polished and pristine it is not. But immense fun lies within the 14 tracks, which include a jump-and-jive cover of Paul Butterfield’s “Loving Cup” that’s held together by salvaged instruments and sweaty desire. A similarly strong-willed do-it-yourself spirit comes to fore on a majority of the set, which resides in the same territory populated by seedy bars, glue-sniffing characters, and dark alleys.

Songs mirror the shady environments. Overdriven rhythms strut akin to alluring streetwalkers; charged tempos and stripped-back instrumentation hint at the campy shock sequences of 50s B-horror movies; simple percussive beats dig in and sway as if leading a parade of stiletto heels. Almost everything is caked in motor-oil grime, but the fuzz-box distortion never becomes overbearingly heavy or claustrophobic. Rather, the Oblivians honor their Memphis hometown by way of classic soul and stylish R&B figures that aren’t far removed from those preferred by Wilson Pickett or the Mar-Keys. The latter musicians’ legacies live on in the party anthem “Call the Police,” a collaboration with Mr. Quintron and Miss Pussycat that both gets down by way of a steaming-hot organ and makes good on its promise to “tear it down.”

Trashy, basement-reared rattling—as well as a penchant for sniffing around places and people your mother warned you about—also informs the wiry “Little War Child” and ringing “Pinball King.” Each contagious tune is evidence the Oblivians know their way around British Invasion hooks and surf-pop choruses as well as they do dive establishments most groups are too timid to visit.

And you can purchase it from SoundStageDirect right here…

Features

Old School:
The ARC SP-11 Preamplifier

By Ken Kessler

995: Sounds that Won’t Break the Bank
The Dynavector DV-20X2 Cartridge

By Lawrence Devoe

Macro: Sound for Small Spaces

Digital vs. Vinyl (Part one)
By John Darko

Journeyman Audiophile

The Funk Firm LSD Turntable

Tone Style

Wino:
Exploring South Africa’s Bounty
By Monique Meadows

LaCie Blade Runner Hard Drive

Definitive Technology Sound Cylinder

Kohler Moxie Bluetooth Showerhead

Fiat 500e

Symbol Audio Tabletop HiFi

By Rob Johnson

Music

Desert Drifter:

A Conversation with Bombino

By Andy Downing

Current Releases:

Fresh Releases in the Pop/Rock World
By the TONE Staff

Live Music:
Infected Mushroom
By Connor Willemsen

Club Mix:
By Connor Willemsen

Audiophile Pressings

Jazz & Blues
By Jim Macnie

NEW!  M on Classical

Previews

D’Agostino Momentum Stereo Amplifier

Rogers EHF-200 Mk. 2 Integrated Amplifier

Nagra Jazz Preamplifier

Sonus faber Guarneri Evolution Speakers

From The Web:

Octave Jubilee Monoblocks

Plinius Hautonga Integrated Amplifier

Reviews:

The Chord Chordette Qute HD DAC
By Rob Johnson

Music First Audio Classic V.2 Preamplifier
By Andre Marc

Oppo BDP-105 Universal Player
By Jeff Dorgay

Parasound Halo CD1 Player
By Rob Johnson

Simaudio MOON 850P Evolution Preamplifier
By Jeff Dorgay

Unison Research Phono One Phonostage
By Jerold O’Brien

Slummin’

It’s easy to become smitten with a pair of large, high-powered, German tube monoblocks at first listen.

There’s always something incredibly cool about amplifiers that have the delicacy, the airiness and that extra dimensional palpability that tubes bring to the listening experience, yet have the weight and sheer dynamic thrust that only comes with high power.  The Octave Jubilee monoblocks have been here for the better part of a year now, paired with many speakers large and small. They’ve excelled with every speaker I’ve had the pleasure to connect them to, with no loss of magic.  If anything, I’m more enthusiastic about these amplifiers than the day they arrived.

Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach’s collaboration “I Still Have That Other Girl,” illuminates the Jubilees’ ability to take a strictly mediocre recording and, with a bit of help from a top-quality source (in this case, the $110,000 dCS Vivaldi stack), extract the maximum amount of detail from it without crossing the line to become overly analytical – striking a perfect balance of tonality and dynamics.  As they should, for $67,500 per pair.

Control in the lower register is difficult for all but the world’s finest vacuum tube amplifiers – again, the Jubilees convey a sense of reality that usually requires a high-current solid-state amplifier.  The big beats on Eric B. & Rakim’s “Put Your Hands Together” hit hard without losing control instead of just coming across as boom, boom, boom – no one-note bass here.  A lost day to unearthing the best bass-laden tracks I can find fails to make the Jubilees falter.  Everything from Daft Punk to Pink Floyd is served up with gusto.

Getting Down to Business

Powering the KEF Blades in room one (with a sensitivity of 90db) is a splendid experience – even at eardrum-shattering levels, the Jubilees show no sense of strain.  It feels as though Alx Rose is right there in the room, whistling the intro to “Patience” from the G N’ R Lies album. The illusion continues further as Rose’s lead vocal comes in with barely a whisper, amidst a pair of acoustic guitars that stay sorted left and right of center.  Perhaps the enchantment is relayed best of all tracking through Use Your Illusion I and II, at near maximum volume, proving that these monoblocks – with eight 6550 power tubes per channel (KT88s can be substituted, while KT120s are not recommended) and massive power supplies – are up to the task of whatever program material you love to play loud. I cannot drive the Jubilees to clipping with the Blades in the system.

They prove an equally excellent match for the GamuT S9 speakers.  With a -3db low frequency limit of 17hz, they easily illuminate shortcomings in an amplifier’s ability to go deep. Again the Jubilees show what they are made of, both with extension and textural ability.  Tal Wilkenfield’s rapid-fire bass playing on Jeff Beck’s Live at Ronnie Scott’s is a perfect example of the way the Jubilees take hold of the GamuTs multiple woofer cones, without haze or hangover, picking up every nuance brilliantly. Yet when asked to go deep, digging up the beats buried in Bombay Dub Orchestra’s 3 Cities disc, the Jubilees feel as if they have a silicon output stage, offering better grip than any power amplifier I’ve had the pleasure of using with tubes under the hood. And Daft Punk’s controversial new album is a true treat, chock full of ’70s and ’80s disco beats rattling my insides at club level, courtesy of the Jubilees.

Inner Space

Moving the amplifiers to room two, now partnered with the Sonus faber Guarneri Evolution speakers, provides another intoxicating experience.  These compact speakers only have a sensitivity of 86db, and while they will play with a 40-watt per channel tube amplifier, they need big power to come alive and energize the room. The intro of Bauhaus’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” becomes a massive three-dimensional cube of distorted, in-your-face guitars, surrounded by jangly guitars floating on the periphery of the room boundaries.  “Heathen Child” from the Grinderman 2 album is equally well decoded.  This recording is somewhat dense, yet playing it through the Jubilees lays it bare, filling it with space and texture.

The small but mighty Sonus fabers sound as if the flagship Aidas, which we reviewed in December 2012, have been placed in a shrink machine: they provide a similar amount of detail and finesse, yet in the context of a smaller room.  Supreme Beings of Leisure’s “The Light” expands wide and deep with electronic effects buoyant above the rock-solid bass line and sultry lead vocal, all having their own distinct space.  Having used the Jubilees with the Aidas during that review, this combination feels like it has returned to my smaller room – the presentation is stunningly lifelike.

And while the Jubilees produce 250 watts per channel, those subscribing to the “first watt” theory (i.e., if the first watt doesn’t sound great, why bother with the rest) can rest assured that even at low volume, the Jubilees excel.  The Rolling Stones’ version of “Like a Rolling Stone” from their Stripped LP remains engaging at light conversation level, with plenty of weight and a massive soundstage, providing a highly convincing rendition of the Stones playing in a small club – all of the spatial cues, from Charlie Watts drumming to the sound of the applause bouncing off of the club walls, are reproduced perfectly in my 13-by-16-foot listening room.

When Clint Eastwood whispers “You don’t listen, do you asshole?” on the Pretenders tune “Bad Boys Get Spanked,” it sounds as if he’s sitting right there on the couch, whispering in my ear.  Fantastic.

The Long Game

It’s always a rare privilege to listen to an amplifier for a long period of time, as manufacturers can’t always spare a flagship product in this manner.  However, it’s highly revealing when they can, as it provides the opportunity to experience a wider range of musical selections, far beyond the favorite tracks often used in the context of a normal review.

A wide variety of speaker and system configurations reveal that the Jubilees are infinitely flexible.  Thanks to XLR and RCA inputs, switchable from the rear panel, the Jubilees should work well with any type of preamplifier – all of the combinations auditioned here work perfectly.  They produce more than enough power for all but the most inefficient speakers, and they are even able to power my power hungry Magnepans without strain.  While none of my speakers prove problematic, the manual specifies a load no less than two ohms, so there may be a few speakers that the Jubilees will not drive.

While the Jubilee monoblocks do absolutely nothing wrong, their greatest triumph is truly a natural tonal rendition, combined with the ability to render layer upon layer of musical detail effortlessly.  Much like the Simaudio 880M monoblocks we just reviewed, the Jubilees paint an almost identical palette, yet offer up slightly more space and sparkle than their solid-state counterparts.  Ultimate system matching will come down to personal preference.

Tube and Reviewer Bias

Tonally, the Jubilees come right smack in the middle of CJ and ARC, two of my favorite tube amplifiers.  The ARC REF amps are a bit more in the “just the facts, ma’am” category, where the current CJ ART series tends to embellish somewhat in a more saturated kind of tonality. (A personal favorite and definite bias for this reviewer)

The Jubilees add only the lightest touch of “tube warmth,” yet remain highly dynamic and incredibly quiet as well.  A full tube design, they use four ECC82 (12AU7) tubes as drivers, and eight 6550 or KT88 tubes for output.  The owners manual states that they can also use EL34 tubes, with a slight rebias adjustment, which could be incredibly intriguing.  What the owner’s manual doesn’t state is that a decrease in power is probably likely, as the EL34 tube has a much lower plate dissipation than the KT88 or 6550 tubes.

The Jubilees each use a single bias adjustment per amplifier, yet you can check bias on each individual tube via the rotary switch on the top panel.  The downside to this configuration is that each bank of tubes will have to be as closely matched as possible.  When they deviate by more than 15%, it’s replacement time. Each mono amplifier includes two extra tubes, so that should one go out of spec, you can easily replace it without having to get another fully matched set.  Octave claims a 3-5 year lifespan on the power tubes, and 10 years for the drivers. A set of 10 per amplifier when you do replace them would be prudent, just to be sure to have a couple of spares on hand, because one never knows when catastrophic tube failure will occur. Fortunately, the Jubilees have a very elaborate, yet unobtrusive, protection circuit; when I did have a tube failure, the amplifier gently shut down without clicks, pops or any other bother.  The Jubilees make no spurious sounds of any kind during normal power up or power down either; they quietly go about their business.

That touch of tubeyness is usually in the background, but makes itself known immediately when listening to acoustic music.  The gentle interplay of Pat Metheny and Charlie Haden on “He’s Gone Away” from the Beyond the Missouri Sky album reveals the Jubilees’ ability to let the notes hang on the vine, ever so slightly longer than they do when played through a solid-state power amplifier.  A similar sense of dimensionality is experienced with the Portland Cello Project’s current album, A Thousand Words.

Quite the Destination

The Octave Jubilee mono amplifiers are not for the faint of heart, back or wallet.  However, they deliver a fantastic musical experience that is commensurate with the price asked and are built to last a lifetime.  This has truly been an enjoyable long-term test drive!

The Octave Jubilee Monoblock Amplifiers

MSRP:  $67,500

www.octave.de

In case Plinius is a company that has slipped under your radar, they hail from New Zealand, and have been making incredible products for years now.

However, those that do know about the brand are doggedly loyal.  It’s a brand that I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone slag out on the various internet forums, so they are doing something right.

Something indeed.  Having built their reputation on big, class-A power amplifiers, the Hautonga you see here is an integrated amplifier (with phono stage, no less) that features a 200-watt per channel class AB power amplifier.  Yet, much like the Burmester 911 mk. 3 and the new D’Agostino Momentum, the Plinius comes up with a remarkably grain free sound, that just might fool you that this understated beauty has a class-A amplifier under it’s cover.  Yet the MSRP is only $5,750.

It’s a very understated box, with gently rounded corners and an asymmetrical top plate, yet the rear panel is bright blue, similar to the French racing blue you’ve seen on factory Renault race cars.  It makes for a nice accent stripe where the top panel meets the casework.  The Hautonga is beautifully machined and is available in black or silver.  The control layout is the ultimate of simplicity; a large volume control and gently rounded push buttons to control the inputs.  Oddly, a balance control is absent – no big whoop for digital music enthusiasts, but this might be somewhat inconvenient for analog lovers.  Even if it were implemented from the remote – and the Hautonga has a sleek, stylish, yet commanding remote.

A complete integrated

In the tradition of the best integrateds, the Hautonga features an on board phono stage – handy for those wanting to keep rack clutter to a minimum. It does feature adjustable gain with two settings via on board jumpers, however loading is fixed at 47k ohms.  Though I’m not a fan of running most MC cartridges at this setting, there are still some great alternatives.

The cartridges in my arsenal that mate particularly well with the 47k/high gain combination are the Sumiko Blackbird, a moderately high output (2.5mv) that works fine with 47k loading, and the Grado Statement 1 moving iron cartridge.  With a .5mv output and 47k loading, this is a perfect, if slightly overpriced match (the Statement 1 is $3,500) for the Hautonga.  Keep in mind that Grado does make a series of wood bodied moving iron cartridges, all having a .5mv output, from $500 on up.  I’m guessing one of these on your favorite table will prove equally enticing.

Tracking through a handful of recent favorites from MoFi and Music Matters Jazz, I submit that the onboard phono is probably equivalent to something you might purchase as an outboard phonostage in the $750 – $1,000 range.  Not bad, considering the Hautonga is an awesome deal without the phono stage.  Highs are smooth and well sorted, the overall tonal balance neutral and background noise very low.  And then there’s the necessity for another set of interconnects and power cord; another reason a built in phono is such an awesome idea.

Entry level and Journeyman vinyl enthusiasts will probably never need more analog capability than the Hautonga’s on board stage provides.

Maybe on the next version of the Hautonga, they will open this up to adjustment, or offer a $5,000 version with no phono stage.  Bypassing the onboard stage, utilizing the Aesthetix Rhea phonostage, paired with the SME 10 turntable and Sumiko Palo Santos cartridge, (an analog front end worth about $20k) the Hautonga easily resolves the difference in analog front ends – again showing off what a great amplifier this is.

Further listening

After a few days of being powered up, the Hautonga opens up to a full-bodied sound.  Ever so slightly on the warm side of neutral, the more you listen to this amplifier, you’ll psyche yourself out thinking that it is class-A after all.  It’s also on the warm side when in operation as well, suggesting relatively high bias current.  The Hautonga actually sounds more like my Burmester 011/911 combination than the Simaudio 850P/880M electronics.

Whether paired with their own Tiki streaming audio player (review in process) or any of the digital players at my disposal, the Hautonga is a pleasure to listen to, regardless of source.  While lacking the last bit of resolution available with cost no object gear, dynamics and tonality have not taken a back seat in the design process.  Listening to the title track from Gary Numan’s latest album, Dead Sun Rising, the Hautonga powers the Sonus faber Guarneri Evolution speakers in room two with conviction. This record is full of deep, deep, synth bass lines and the Hautonga sails through effortlessly, even at high volume.

These are speakers that require a lot of current and control to deliver maximum performance and this proves to be a great combination.  Going for the ultimate torture test, swapping in a pair of Acoustat 1+1 speakers, which are usually tough to drive because of their wacky impedance curve and the highly capacitive load they present, was another easy task for the Hautonga.

Thomas Dolby’s The Flat Earth proves spacious, controlled and full of punch.  The rapid-fire bass riffs on the opening track, “Dissidents,” is tough to nail on a pair of Acoustats if the amplifier lacks current drive.  Yet cranking this up, the Hautonga handles it in stride, which leads to some more bass laden tracks from Peter Gabriel and Genesis. Again, this amplifier’s ability to provide controlled bass, full of texture on a set of speakers known for “”one note bass” is highly impressive.

Moving the amplifier out to room one and the KEF Blades is a ton of fun – and again reveals this amplifiers ability to provide a high quality musical experience with ancillaries much more expensive than you might pair it up with.  The Blades 90db sensitivity proves an easy load for this amplifier to drive allowing for plenty of dynamic range and showing off the bass control and drive. While fairly efficient, the Blades also need a fair amount of current to reproduce bass well.  This prompted a long playlist of Deadmau5, Skrillex, Daft Punk and Infected Mushroom, pushing the amplifier to its limits.  Even after hours of this treatment, the Hautonga stayed slightly warm to the touch but no more.

Subtlety beyond its pricetag

While the Hautonga can really rock out when required, what makes it a top performer is the level of resolution and inner detail it provides.  Tracking through the MoFi gold CD of Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything, a number of small details come up in the mix that normally require more expensive electronics to extract – again convincing this writer that the integrated is one of the best ways to achieve high performance without breaking the bank.   With so many choices to damage the synergy between amplifier and preamplifier, having it all on one chassis saves the day for all but the most geeky – and patient end user.  An integrated is the fast track to great sound.

Vocals and solo acoustic instruments feel right played through the Hautonga.  Revisiting some early Windham Hill recordings from Alex DeGrassi and Liz Story illustrate subtlety, tonal nuance and a wonderful sense of decay.  The old audiophile classic, Solid Colors paints a great picture of Ms. Story and her Steinway, awash in detail rendered perfectly by the Hautonga/Blade combination.

The Jung Trio’s rendition of Dvorak’s Piano Trio in F Minor, Op.65, is another treat showcasing the fantastic tonal contrast and neutrality that the Hautonga has to offer.  Perhaps two of the toughest instruments to reproduce cleanly, the amplifier sails through, with the interplay between the sisters well intact.

Rounding out the picture

The Hautonga also features the other common niceties to round out the package, with four additional RCA line inputs in addition to the Phono and CD player inputs, along with a single XLR input.  A ground lift switch is also provided, which came in handy using a vintage tape deck that had a bit of a hum problem.

Preamplifier in and outputs, 12v trigger, and a HT Bypass assure that you can integrate the Hautonga into any possible system configuration.  They even provide a pair of speaker outputs for those wishing a fully biwired speaker connection.  So no stone really goes unturned.

Nits to pick:  very few, and well under what we’d expect at this price point.  All staff members that used the Hautonga, young and old complained about two things – while very stylish, the remote was fairly hard to read in black and when using the volume control button, it has too much torque, making fine volume adjustments via remote nearly impossible at worst and frustrating at best.  And last, the phono stage loading.  It’s a shame that a phono stage that sounds this good is limited to a handful of cartridges.

Neither of these are a deal breaker, and the Plinius Hautonga is such a stellar performer in so many ways, we are all in agreement that it is highly deserving of one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2013.

The Plinius Hautonga Integrated Amplifier

MSRP:  $5,750

www.pliniusaudio.nzld.com

And you can peruse their Facebook page here:

Peripherals

Analog Source                        Rega RP8/Sumiko Blackbird,  SME 10/Sumiko Palo Santos

Digital Source                                    Plinius Tiki, dCS Vivaldi, OPPO BDP-105

Speakers                                Dynaudio Confidence C1 II, Sonus faber Guarneri Evolution, KEF Blade, KEF LS-50

Cable                                      Cardas Clear

Stop the presses.

In progress for some time, ALO Audio has just released their new headphone amplifier and will be showing it at THE Show in Newport Beach this weekend.   So if you are a headphone enthusiast, this is the one thing you should not miss while attending the show.  Hitting the block at “just under $5,000,” their masterpiece can drive four pairs of headphones at once, AND it drives the torturous HiFi Man HE-6 with ease…

This all tube design features 0B2 voltage regulators and a pair of 6V6GT output tubes, driven in single-ended, class A mode, with a power supply and output transformers worthy of a 20wpc power amp.  Can you say headroom and dynamics?

And, for hardcore headphone lovers that love to spin vinyl, there is a phono stage module on the way shortly, which we will also report on.

And this is fresh out of the box!  The ALO team tells me it takes 200 hours to reach full bloom, so it’s going to be running 24/7 until I get home from the show, then I will report back.

www.aloaudio.com

Mono & Stereo’s Matej Isak has been very excited about the entire LessLoss line of cable products, but here
he focuses his energy on their digital cable.

You can follow his observations here…
http://www.monoandstereo.com/2013/05/lessloss-digital-cable-review-test.html#more

The entire line of German Physiks speakers, due to their omnidirectional nature, are incredibly easy to place, not requiring a tuned room to give their best performance.

This was readily apparent from the minute we unboxed them, making for the shortest set up we’ve ever encountered.  The major upside here is that the Unlimiteds will sound just as good, if not better than what you’ll hear at your dealer.

After a few months of enjoying the Unlimiteds, we took them on a quick, local road trip to confirm this theory, sharing them with a few staff members and a couple of traditionally difficult rooms, as well as a wide range of amplification.  As hinted at in the first segment of this review, the Unlimiteds really only require about 25-40 watts to get busy, thanks to a very gentle, unobtrusive crossover network that separates the down-firing woofer and their DDD omnidirectional driver, that covers the frequencies from 200Hz[RK1] on up.

First stop:  My living room

You might laugh, knowing that the publisher of TONEAudio probably has one of the worlds most dreadful sounding living rooms on Earth.  However, this room’s[RK2] wooden plank floors, large glass coffee table and highly reflective surfaces provides a great torture test, because most speakers usually require a lot of fiddling to even achieve passable sound quality.

This was the first big revelation with the Unlimiteds, and the reflective nature of this 11 x 17 foot room actually played to the strength of the speakers.  As I mentioned earlier in the review, the key to setting up the Unlimiteds (and I suspect all GP speakers) is to optimize for smooth, solid bass response.  Once accomplished, the rest falls into place nicely.  Powered by a Simaudio MOON 700i integrated (150 wpc) and matching CD player, the Unlimiteds create a gigantic soundfield in what is normally a troublesome room.  Gato Barbieri’s soundtrack from The Last Tango In Paris has his signature horn floating effortlessly, sounding larger than life, the speakers virtually invisible in the room.

Next stop:  Anechoic chamber

Well, not really, but one of my neighbors has a particularly dead room, full of rough hewn siding and an angled wood ceiling (much like staff member Jerold O’Brien) that sucks the life out of most of the speakers we’ve tried there.  Because of its absorptive nature, this room presents an equal challenge to my living room that is wildly reflective.

Should you possess a room like this, I suggest placing the Unlimiteds a bit closer together than normal, we achieved a coherent balance with the speakers about 6 feet apart rather than the normal 8-12 foot spread used everywhere else.  Due to the room absorbing the reflections that provide much of the spatial information, I also suggest listening in closer than you might in a normal to reflective room.

While the presentation sounded a bit small at the normal ten foot couch to speaker distance, pulling it in to 7 feet from the speakers brought the life and imaging performance back to life, providing an almost nearfield setup.  After hearing the Jung Trio’s recent disc of piano and violin, my neighbor also remarked that this was the most lifelike he’d heard acoustic instruments in his troubled space.

The last ingredient for a more benign environment is amplifier power.  Where the Unlimiteds could rock the house with 35 wpc in a highly reflective space, it took a couple hundred watts per channel to light them up in this sonically dense environment.  My neighbor had this well in hand with a pair of Parasound JC1 monoblocks at the ready.  Before long, we were playing Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” and clinking beer bottles in triumph[RK3] .

Final stop:  House party

A short road trip to a somewhat large room of 20 x 30 feet (with average acoustic properties) quenched my fears that these speakers could not play to a larger room.  Again, a little more power helps, but not as necessary as in the dead room.  The new Rogers EHF-200 that we have in for review (with 110 watts of KT120 power per channel) proves an exquisite match here, giving the Unlimiteds enough weight and control to really rock some house music.

Thunderball’s “To Sir With Dub” fills the room with solid beats, and after a little bit of experimentation, 11 feet apart is the magic spot for the speakers.  Placing the Unlimiteds in a large room provides an excellent listening position everywhere.  The image shifts slightly, but nowhere near what it would if you were listening to box speakers.  Whether sitting on the couch, standing off to the side or even sitting on the floor, well off axis, a great stereo perspective is achieved.  On many levels, these could be the ultimate speakers for your next party, because everyone can enjoy the music.  The Unlimiteds wide dispersion and smooth response also allows enjoyment of the music at a lower level than you would need from a pair of box speakers.

Mid way through the party, when someone got carried away with the volume control, reminiscing college days (and for me, that’s the late 70s) and cranking up Styx’ The Grand Illusion, we all got a chance to see that these speakers could deliver high sound pressure levels without fatigue and not lose their composure.

At the evening’s close, many of my host’s friends asked about the speakers, which were surprising, as there was, not an audiophile in the crowd.  Proof positive that you don’t have to be an audiophile to appreciate great sound.

Wrapping up

Living with the German Physiks Unlimited II loudspeakers has proved illuminating in many ways.  This is a pair of speakers that can be used in virtually any environment with a wide range of amplification, and requires minimal set up fuss.  Their tiny footprint and contemporary shape should also help them to blend into any décor situation as well.

Highly recommended.

And, after speaking with Robert Kelly, GP’s director of sales, they will be showing these speakers at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest again this year, with a show special price, for those interested.  Tell them we sent you!

www.german-physiks.com

We were so impressed with the Monk-Audio three input phonostage that we’ve made it part of our permanent reference collection.

Their latest effort, labeled the “tube preampli-le petit, still features three inputs, though this time utilizes a pair of 12AX7 tubes instead of the solid-state construction of their larger model.  Gone is the ability to adjust gain, loading and EQ, but the pricetag is very attractive – about $1,300. With the cost of the EAR 834P ever increasing, this could very well be its replacement.

Initial listening with a Denon DL-103r cartridge mounted on an SME 309 tonearm with the AVID Ingenium turntable reveals, a lively, dynamic sound with a very low noise floor.  In the weeks to come, we’ll be trying a handful of MM and MC cartridges, and report back with a full review.

Stay tuned!

Things that reference hallucinogenic drugs tend to pique my interest.  And the Little Super Deck (or LSD) from the Funk Firm will indeed take you on a trip to vinyl bliss, doing so for a lot less money than you’d expect—$1,995 to be exact.

Our review unit arrived in a very THX 1138–esque shade of white, but the table is also available in black or red, or with a black top and wooden base.  You can also dress it up with a different colored Achromat for an extra $99.  Brian Tucker of Pro Audio Ltd., Funk Firm’s U.S. distributor, suggests using only the 3-mm Achromat, as the 5-mm version raises the arm too far for the correct vertical tracking angle to be established and bumps the arm up against the dust cover.  A standard felt mat, similar to the one on a Rega or Linn table, is included at no charge.

Dropping the stylus on the record is a revelation, pure and simple.  After a few long evenings of playing records until the wee hours, I still find myself shaking my head, wondering how this much performance can be had for two grand.  As I listen to the records from the large pile of my Music Matters Blue Note collection, it becomes clear that this table gets to the heart of the music—it’s a master of tone.  Whether I’m listening to Herbie Hancock or Lee Morgan, the LSD delivers acoustic instruments with a level of tonal body and contrast that I’m not used to from a $2,000 turntable.

Though the sky is the limit for turntables these days, the $2,000-to-$3,000 range has so many excellent choices, with the playing field being upset on a regular basis.  Rega, Clearaudio, AVID, VPI and Pro-Ject (just to name a few) all have strong offerings that provide a major improvement in performance over tables costing about half as much.  With so much competition at this level, it’s a pretty exciting time for analog lovers who have a bit of spending money but who don’t want a table costing as much as a new car.

Some Assembly Required

A cursory look at the LSD doesn’t arouse suspicion, meaning that it looks fairly generic from a distance.  Closer inspection reveals just how much engineering has gone into this little marvel.  The LSD does not provide the same plug-and-play install that a Rega deck does, and there isn’t much similarity between the LSD and a Rega beyond the glass platters.  And, unless you’ve got good mechanical aptitude and are fairly intuitive, have your dealer set this baby up.

Unfortunately, the instructions for the LSD, which requires a fair amount of unintuitive assembly, are somewhat dreadful.  I understand that the cost of printing a manual like the one that accompanies a pair of Sonus faber speakers is prohibitive for a $2,000 turntable, but a high-resolution PDF file showing some actual pictures of the damn thing during each stage of the setup process should be considered essential.  I’m not singling out Funk Firm here, though:  I’ve yet to read a great turntable setup manual.

The photo included in the manual does illustrate the three-pulley “vector” system, which uses two additional free-spinning pulleys, so that the drive belt goes around the platter in a triangular formation, minimizing the need for multiple motors.  This is an ingenious solution for a table at this price, and a further example of how over engineered this product is—not to mention he fact that this system provides tremendous benefits when reproducing stringed instruments, particularly the violin.  Keep in mind that this is the same system used in Funk Firm’s flagship table, as well as the company’s $4,500 upgrade to the Linn LP12.

Just to see if this was all marketing hype or not, I used a shorter belt, driving the platter only with the motor pulley (returning to the Jung Trio for the same violin passages).  While you might not notice the difference the pulleys make when listening to your favorite rock records, those loving acoustic music will really appreciate the additional pitch stability this setup provides.

The LSD features a DC motor, similar to what designer Arthur Khoubesserian introduced decades earlier with his highly successful Pink Triangle table, powered by a small wall wart.  You can change speeds between 33 and 45 rpm using the switch on the plinth, which is handy for those having large record collections.

Moving Right Along

Those who are Jedi master enough to assemble the LSD will be highly impressed with how it implements some of its features.  Funk Firm takes a unique approach (patent applied for) to setting the anti-skate, using a weight attached by fishing line to a sliding rod. This allows for ultra-fine tuning of the anti-skate force, which couldn’t be achieved by simply putting the loop in a rung marked in ¼-gram increments.

Funk Firm also has a unique way to set the tracking force:  Using a combination of an under-hung counterweight and a vertical-track-force slider, located right on the arm tube, allows for a better optimization of mass on the table than merely adjusting the weight on the back end of the tonearm.  You can slide the collar up towards the headshell to increase effective mass for your favorite MC cartridge, and slide it back for the opposite effect when using MM carts.

The single screw holding the headshell in place allows adjustment of overhang and azimuth, and it is also a little tricky.  Keep the screw snug but not tight while making minor adjustments, or this will drive you bonkers.

This worked perfectly with my favorite MM, a NOS Ortofon VMS 20 Mk II, and the Lyra Kleos MC.  Dialing in the mass optimizes each cartridge better and ultimately eliminates that “thin” feeling that seems to accompany most budget turntables.  On the other side of the spectrum, my standard-issue late-’80s LP12 sounds slow and out of time by comparison—it lacks the sheer jump and acceleration on musical transients that this table possesses.  Some of this can be attributed to the F5 arm using the same Swiss Abec 7 bearings that my $5,500 SME V arm does.

Because of the F5’s ability to extract information from the black grooves, mating it with a cartridge that costs 50 percent more than the table still makes sense—though a cartridge at this level is probably at the limit of what most LSD owners will consider purchasing.  Lyra’s more reasonably priced Delos ($1,695) is a super partner for the F5 and LSD, as is the $850 Dynavector DV-20X2 and the $1,195 Sumiko Blackbird.  I also had excellent results with the $379 Denon DL-103R cartridge; the variable mass aspect of the F5 tonearm really comes in handy with this classic cartridge.

A Great Pickup Arm, All by Itself

As the F5 pickup arm is available separately for $1,295, the LSD seems like the ideal upgrade for a Rega table.  And, as we just happen to have a pair of P3s on hand, it makes perfect sense to take one for a spin, mounting an Exact 2 on each table. Those of you possessing a P25, P3, or P5 and wanting a serious upgrade should seriously consider an F5—everything improves dramatically.  The arm (sold separately) features the newer, three-point Rega mount.  The one supplied with the LSD is compatible with older Rega tables, and the mounting plate is similar to those of AVID tables.

My P3, already equipped with a Groovetracer subplatter, is now somewhat of a “Frankentable” with the F5 installed, but it’s a blast.  Bass weight increases dramatically:  Going back to The Art of Noise’s Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise? reveals bass that goes deeper and hits harder.  However, the biggest improvement is that of inner detail.

When listening to George Harrison’s guitar on “Taxman,” there is definitely more bite and decay compared to the standard Rega arm, and overall pace is improved, as well—no more cowbell required.  A similar effect is realized with “Eleanor Rigby,” in that the violins now have more separation and body, and less grain.

Finally, we gave the F5 a spin on the new AVID Ingenium, with similar results.  As good as the LSD is, the F5 is the star of the show.

It’s Like Buying a Pickup Arm and Getting a Free Turntable.

Putting the Funk Firm LSD through its paces with a handful of cartridges proves that this table is a steal for $2,000.  When compared to equally priced competitors from SME and Rega, the F5 pickup arm makes the LSD an even better bargain, with some innovative features that the competition doesn’t have.  But remember, this table will need a good dealer or good skills to set up properly.

But once it was setup, I could not find fault with the LSD, no matter what kind of music I listened to.  Going back to a few of the higher-dollar tables in my collection, I could see what I wasn’t getting in terms of dynamics and resolution, but the LSD combines it all so well, it won’t leave you wanting much more, no matter how good your system is.

The LSD strikes such a good equilibrium of basic, balanced aesthetics and the ability to reveal a lot of music that it may actually be a destination turntable for many analog aficionados.  Those stepping up from anything in the $500-to-$1,000 range will be shocked at how much music is lurking in their record collection.

And because of this, we are happy to award it one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2013.

The Funk Firm’s Little Super Deck

MSRP:  $1,995

www.thefunkfirm.co.uk

After listening to the D’Agostino Momentum stereo amplifier for a couple of weeks, with a variety of systems, I am convinced that this thing really does have some pixie dust of something from Area 51 under the hood.

It sounds like a class A amp, but it isn’t – it only uses 3 watts of power in standby mode!

Even connected to my Sonus faber Guarneri Evolution speakers, with a sensitivity of 86db, it’s tough to get those power meters (that look like a vintage watch dial) to budge much.  Even cranking Slayer doesn’t seem to make them move much.  Maybe that green light from inside is from Kryptonite.

I’m glad I’m not Superman.

But this amplifier is something special.  Watch for our review, on the horizon.

In issue #53, we reviewed the Simaudio Moon 880M monoblocks, that produce a staggering 800 watts per channel, with the delicacy and control of a small amplifier.

To make a long story short, the pair makes one of the best high power amplifiers we’ve ever heard at any price. To make a long story long, download #53 and read our review….

The matching flagship, MOON 850P preamplifier is equally stunning.  It’s two chassis design maximizes power supply design and minimizes noise, be it electrical or vibrational. It goes without question that the 850P and the 880Ms make quite a statement.

Stay tuned for issue #55, where we will have a full report.  But they are good. Oh, so very good.

After about three years, I’ve worked my way to the top of the Pass Labs food chain.

While the Xs 300 monoblocks are not for the faint of heart, or bicep for that matter, weighing in at about 300 pounds per side and costing about $40k per side, from the minute we unboxed them, it was apparent that these amplifiers were indeed one step beyond.  Having spent a year with the incredible XA200.5 that I just recently reviewed in issue #53, it seemed hard to believe that Pass could create two boxes that could reveal even more music.

It took four boxes.

Expanding the concept of Pass’ patented Supersymmetry amplifiers and the single ended, Class A design of the original Aleph, they have created a true masterpiece with the Xs300s.  As each channel draws 1000 watts of current per channel, all the time, I left them off on Earth Day, but they are back at full song today.  I walk to work, so my carbon footprint is still intact.

And what a better way to use electricity that these?

As we were taking the photos for the upcoming review, we hooked the first stack to the GamuT S9 speakers, and staff member Jerold O’Brien said, “Dude, your system sounds better in mono with one of these than it did with the pair of XA200.5s”  And the XA200.5s are no slouch.

Stay tuned for further adventures and our full review of the Xs300s.

Nelson Pass has created yet another masterpiece.

You can read more about the Xs300 here at the Pass Website.

Central California’s Wyred4Sound has taken the high end by storm with their extensive line of Class D based amplifiers, DAC’s, and music servers.

The Wyred4Sound mINT, short for Mini Integrated Amplifier ($1,499), is indeed a half sized component that interestingly, looks at once both retro and modern. The mINT boasts 100 wpc, and is a custom Class D design based on the ICE power modules. Wyred4Sound goes out of their way to stress the refinements found in the mINT that are usually regulated to much more expensive components. One aspect of the design they are especially proud of is the volume control. According to W4S, it is “a true-resistive ladder which results in linear control, excellent channel matching, and impressive sonic quality.”

But wait, there is more. A lot more.  Along with two analog inputs, the mINT is also a three input DAC, with TosLink and Coaxial inputs that handle 24 bit, 192 Khz data. There is also an asynchronous USB input that handles up to 96 Khz. Rounding off the list of features is a fixed output for a recording device, a variable output, an HT bypass, and a very nice, full function attractive remote control. And, the mINT is fully designed and built in California.

Down to business

The mINT was paired with Harbeth Compact 7 ES3 and the Opera Mezza speakers, proving a wonderful match for both, with more than enough power to drive both speakers to their limits. To put it another way, my listening rooms suffered from overload well before the mINT could even break a sweat.

The mINT is equally capable when fed analog sources, like a CD player or a file streamer, offering a spacious, precise, and untarnished presentation that I find wonderfully balanced. If anything, the tonal presentation of this amplifier is slightly tilted to the warm side, unlike the Class D amplifiers of a few years ago, that offered great bass performance at the expense of a smooth top end.  That bleached feeling is no longer a line item with Class D, and certainly not the mINT.  It proves very nimble on top, balancing dynamic contrast with brass instruments, staying delicate and finessed on strings and vocals.

The three digital inputs work equally well, and performance is on par with many outboard DAC’s that are similarly priced.  Eliminating some of the extra buffers and gain stages required with separate components pays big dividends here, giving the mINT high performance at a very reasonable cost.  You could easily spend $1,499 on power cords and interconnects between a separate power amplifier, preamplifier and DAC, making this little marvel a major bargain. In addition, the mINT offers a headphone jack on the front panel, upping the fun and the value factor even further.

The relaxed tonality the mINT provides, makes it highly enjoyable across a wide range of musical genres.  The opening track of Imelda May’s Love Tattoo album, “Johnny Got a Boom Boom,” combines a fast, dynamic slap bass line, snare drum and cymbal crashes, combined with May’s sultry, often screaming vocals.  Legendary salsa singer Hector Lavoe’s La Vos provides more of the same.  Percolating with layers of bass, percussion, brass and heavily syncopated rhythms, the mINT never loses its cool, throwing a large soundstage.  The mINT does an excellent job keeping these densely packed, explosive recordings well sorted and three dimensional – a perfect torture test for any amplifier.

Digital functionality

Windows users will need to install the proper USB drivers form the Wyred4Sound Website, and Mac users can just plug and play, selecting the the mINT in their sound control panel. All in all, an easy task, no matter what platform you choose.

The internal DAC proves equally balanced and on par with the amplifier section of the mINT.  Tunes from my Windows 7 laptop using Jriver’s Media Center 18 and FLAC files were spacious and engaging. Emmylou Harris’ Hard Bargain for a wide range of bluesy folk tunes and instrumental dexterity again reveals the mINTs ability to unravel delicate tracks without getting overly grainy or “digital” sounding.

The only area that left me wanting was the USB input being limited to 24/96.  The S/PDIF and optical inputs claim full 24/192 resolution, so those purchasing tracks in this format will have to search for a good USB converter to take full advantage of the mINTs digital performance.

However, this type of digital input flexibility offers a world of convenience to those who have ripped their CD collections to a hard drive or purchase high resolution downloads.

The mINT is a clever package, and if this is an indication of the rest of their line, I look forward to hearing more from this company.  It offers enough resolution to show what a higher quality power cord can do as well as better interconnect and speaker cables – a great sign.  But more refinement will cost quite a bit more money, perhaps twice as much, making the mINT an excellent bargain.
Additional listening

The Wyred4Sound mINT is the perfect solution for music lovers wanting great sound that have a reasonable budget and want to maximize space, i.e. not have a giant rack full of audio gear. Its ability to work with analog and digital sources means you can keep your turntable in the mix, or add one if you’re curious.  Thanks to its tiny form factor, the mINT, a turntable and a compact phonostage can fit on a shelf or tabletop nicely. The Rega RP3, Exact cartridge and Naim StageLine phonostage make a perfect match for the mINT, combining to make a system any analog lover will enjoy.

Its 100-watt per channel power rating opens the door to a much wider range of speaker choices that many of the small, desktop integrateds from Naim, Rega and others don’t drive as easily with 25-50 watts per channel.  The mINT was even able to drive the Magnepan MMG to adequate volume, and thanks to the variable output can take advantage of a small powered subwoofer – again increasing versatility.

Having tried it with a number of great speakers at my disposal, my favorite, hands down was the pairing with the Sonus faber Venere 3.0 speakers reviewed in issue #54 of TONEAudio.  Their 90db sensitivity makes for house party volume when you need it and great dynamics the rest of the time.

Equally intriguing is the built in headphone amplifier.  Starting with the ultimate torture test, the HiFi Man HE-6, the mINT falls down a bit, but to its credit, so does just about everything else, no black marks here.  Moving to a suite of much easier phones to drive (Grado, Sennheiser and Denon) proves enlightening.  Decent control and tonal balance overall makes the mINT a great way to get into the headphone game. Rocking some headphone favorites, it throws a wide and deep soundstage with Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, and Low’s The Invisible Way.

The Wyred4Sound mINT is easier to set up and listen to than it is to spell correctly.  For many, this will be a destination product, offering flexibility and performance unheard of five years ago.  We are happy to give the mINT one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2013.  – Jeff Dorgay

The Wyred 4Sound mINT amplifier

MSRP: $1,495

www.wyred4sound.com

Associated Equipment:

Opera Mezza Loudspeakers

Harbeth Compact 7 ES3

Musical Fidelity CDT transport

Marantz NA7004 streamer/DAC

Darwin Cables silver interconnects

QED Genesis Silver Spiral speaker cables

QED digital cables

Five years ago, when visiting the Rega factory in the UK, I joined a group of Rega dealers to witness something very special at Rega founder Roy Gandy’s house.

A new skeletal plinth design that was supposed to be a step above the flagship P9, featuring a one off, ceramic platter and what appeared to be an RB1000 tonearm.  Needless to say the sound was fantastic and the following day, back at the factory, we saw more.  Gandy and staff were coy, referring to it as a “prototype,” and a “work in progress,” tempering our enthusiasm, telling us that “it could be out in a few months, a few years, or not at all.”  So, I returned to the States empty-handed, but I did learn how to play cricket.

But time flies when your having fun, and we now have the RP8, looking surprisingly like that prototype I saw years ago, but for a few minor changes.  And, on one level the RP8 is a pretty big jump forward for Rega.  They have always championed a low mass plinth design as the path to analog greatness and the website hints that “this is the first of the skeletal plinth designs.”

Featuring a new RB808 tonearm, which looks like a further refinement of the direction taken with the RB303 on the RP6 turntable, introduced last year, and also features new, lower capacitance tonearm cables, that look very audiophile-like in nature. The RP8 has an MSRP of $2,995, however US customers can purchase one with Rega’s $1,800 Apheta MC cartridge attached and set up for $3,995.  A major bargain, if you have the right phono stage.

The hub/subplatter features a machined aluminum cap, extending all the way down so the belts can contact the full surface. Rega claims that this, combined with the new tonearm provides for increased resolution, and the first record auditioned, Herbie Hancock’s Empyrean Isles brings a new perspective on this Blue Note classic, and illustrates a turntable, tonearm and cartridge all working together as a system.

One of the toughest things facing an analog enthusiast is getting this combination correct, so that the optimum trackability, resolution and stereo separation can be achieved.  Freddie Hubbard’s Coronet bleats out of the left channel, completely occupying the left half of the listening room, with the proper height and spatial relationships – is both beguiling and convincing. The drum kit is miked equally hard right, with Hancock on piano, gently floating in the middle, with Ron Carter’s bass keeping the bass on track, yet dissolved into the stereo image.

Quick Comparisons – up and down the range

Utilizing the Audio Research REF Phono 2SE, with two identical inputs and the ability to load both phono cartridges at the 50 ohms required for utmost HF smoothness (and honestly, my ARC SP11 mk.2, with it’s 30 ohm setting is pure bliss with the Apheta moving coil cartridge, but alas only one input) makes it a snap to compare the RP8 to both the RP6 and P9 to see just how much higher the bar has been raised.

The MoFi version of Aimee Mann’s Lost In Space underscores the improvements on two levels.  This densely layered record needs a first rate analog rig to lay bare all the intriguing textures and spatial cues, which the RP8 aces.  Perhaps even more intriguing is the LF performance of the RP8 – it’s very close to that of the P9.  If you haven’t experienced the P9, it’s not like the rest of the Rega range.   It possesses incredible weight and body.  The RP8 has a similar weighty feel, you almost don’t expect this kind of locked in bass response to come from a table that is the opposite of some of todays massive record players.

That machined aluminum subplatter pays another big dividend; much better pitch stability, and consequently revealing more low level detail.  Where Mann’s delicate voice wavers ever so slightly during “Guys Like Me” on the RP6, it is rock solid when switching to the RP8.  This doesn’t mean the RP6 is rubbish, you don’t notice the difference as easily until you play it right next to the RP8, and let’s face it, the RP8 costs twice as much.

The biggest surprise comes in a side-by-side comparison with the P9.  While the $5,000 P9 still has more LF weight and an even dreamier, more defined high end, the RP8 closes the gap tremendously, leaving this reviewer to wonder what Rega has on the horizon with the RP10.  An urge to spin the recent remaster of Devo’s Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! Illustrates the huge soundstage the Apheta is capable, with synthesizers and special effects everywhere.  Moving up to the P9 offers an even bigger soundfield, yet pace and timing are equally enticing with both decks, yet the P9 takes the lead, with the opening, distorted bass line of “Mongoloid,” offering more grunt and more texture.

Ticking the necessary boxes

It wouldn’t be an audiophile review without some female vocals, eh?  The Low + Dirty Three In the Fishtank 7 LP seemed the perfect place to start, with it’s dreamy, ethereal vocals, fading way off into the distance of the soundstage on the opening track, “I Hear…Goodnight,” with Mimi Parkers gentle brushwork on the drums so faint, it would be lost on a budget rig.  This record also clearly illustrates the ease by which the Rega combo handles the violin – exquisite.

Going up in tempo to Me’Shell Ndegeocello’s Plantation Lullabies proves that the RP8 and Apheta can rock in a major way; Ndegeocello’s thunderous bass riffs command authority with this table and cartridge anchoring her sensuous vocals all the while.

We covered the Apheta in detail in issue 10 at it’s introduction.  In five years, it’s only gone up in price $300 and my opinion hasn’t changed.  This is a fantastic cartridge with a lightnening fast response, but it must be loaded properly or it will sound harsh and thin.  With comparisons to the RP6 and P9 out of the way, I could go back to in-depth listening through the ARC SP-11 mk.2, which has an incredible on board phono stage that just happens to have a loading setting of 30 ohms – perfection for the Apheta.

This allows the cartridge to have maximum dynamics, smoothing out the HF response at the same time.  Keith Richards “You Don’t Move Me,” From his Talk is Cheap album features great acoustic playing by the riff meister that hangs between the speakers.   Richard’s voice has never been his strong suit, yet it is rendered with plenty of body here.

Regardless of the program material chosen, the RP8/Apheta combination delivers the goods. Though you’ll save a few bucks should you choose an Exact 2 cartridge, if you have a phonostage up to the task, the extra $500 for the Apheta upgrade is the smartest $500 you’ll ever spend in the world of analog.

The nitty gritty

For those not familiar with Rega turntables and phono cartridges, they are the ultimate in simplicity, when it comes to setup.  The Apheta cartridge uses three screws instead of the usual two and this provides perfect alignment.  Your RP8 can arrive with the Apheta already installed, so all you need to do is five minutes of basic assembly (fit the belt, the platter and set tracking force/anti skate) Analog bliss is about 15 minutes away, if you’re really poking.

Personally, I love the skeletal plinth and as I have no children or furry creatures to threaten my analog world, I can bask in the RP8s high tech glory.  Those less fortunate, fear not.  The RP8 comes with a traditional plinth and dust cover that will protect it from the environment.  I could not discern any audible advantage or disadvantage to the extra hardware, but congratulate Rega for providing it.  My audiophile buddies were polarized, they either thought the RP8 was really cool, or tried to explain to me how it couldn’t work.

We could discuss techie bits in further detail, but you can read about that here, on Rega’s website.  Suffice to say they all work together brilliantly and the RP8/Apheta combination reveals more music than most in its class, if not all.  Mounting the Apheta on the VPI Classic 1 gives a warmer, slightly more bass heavy presentation, but it does not offer up the resolution that the RP8 does.  It’s like the difference between a Mini Cooper S and my Fiat Abarth.  You either prefer the more nimble ride of the Abarth or the somewhat more posh ride of the Cooper.  There’s no wrong choice.

However, if you want a high performance record player with next to zero fuss required, I can think of no better choice.

My Rega journey began with the Planar 3 in 1982, and somehow over thirty years later, I have the feeling it’s not over.  Roy Gandy and his crew are a clever group, and as long as they keep refining their turntables, there will be new vinyl adventures from this fine British company.  I’m very happy to award the RP8/Apheta combination one of our Exceptional Value Awards for 2013.

-Jeff Dorgay

The Rega RP8 Turntable

MSRP:  $2,995   ($3,995 bundled with Rega Apheta MC cartridge)

www.rega.co.uk (factory)

www.soundorg.com (US importer)

Peripherals

Features

Old School:
The Thorens TD-125 Turntable

By Ken Kessler

995: Sounds that Won’t Break the Bank
The Lounge Audio Phonostage

By Jeff Dorgay

Macro: Sound for Small Spaces

Ferrari Cavallino T350 and Denon AH-D340 Phones
By Mike Liang

Bryston BHA-1 Headphone amplifier
By Jeff Dorgay

Tone Style

Single Malt Shootout:
Kirkland 20 vs. Macallan 18
By Bailey S. Barnard

Joey Roth Ceramic Speaker and Subwoofer
By Mark Marcantonio

Gumby Shot Glasses

Camera Lens Coffee Mug

Vicoustic Omega Wood Acoustic Panels

Tape Deck Stand

Music

Current Releases:

Fresh Releases in the Pop/Rock World
By the TONE Staff

Live Music:
Richard Thompson, Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell
By Bob Gendron

Low
By Jeff Dorgay

Audiophile Pressings

Jazz & Blues
By Jim Macnie

Previews

KEF Blade Speakers

Music First Audio Classic Preamplifier

Audio by Van Alstine Ultravalve Amplifier

Simaudio MOON 850P Preamplifier

From The Web:

AVID Pellar Phonostage

NewClear NC1000L Power Amplifier

Rega RP8 Turntable

Wyred 4 Sound mINT Integrated Amplifier

Reviews:

Sonus faber Venere 3.0 Speakers
By Rob Johnson

Polk Audio LSiM703 Speakers
By Andre Marc

Boulder 3050 Monoblocks
By Jeff Dorgay

Dynaudio XEO 3 Wireless Speakers
By Rob Johnson

Qualia Indigo Phonostage
By Jeff Dorgay

Paradigm Reference Signature 8 Speakers
By Jeff Dorgay

KEF R300 Bookshelf Speakers
By Jerold O’Brien

Slummin’

Seriously, how about it?

With so many vinyl enthusiasts, new and old excited about this event, Record Store Day is growing to the point where it’s becoming more exclusive than inclusive.  Here in Portland, Oregon, my favorite record store owner, Terry Currier, of Music Millennium told me that “the line around the building started at 10 last night.”

A few other stores I know echoed the same sentiment, receiving so many titles that they got two or three copies of that could have easily sold a 100 copies, possibly more. Another store owner, preferring to remain anonymous, was a bit more bleak. “The limited edition model worked better when people weren’t aware of vinyl – it helped to build enthusiasm.  Now that the demand is there, customers go away from the store crabby when they can’t get the RSD goodies.”

So how about it Record Companies?  While you might lose a buck or two, making a few less RSD collectibles, you’d make a lot more money and achieve a lot more good will if those of us that actually listen to the records we purchase could get our hands on it.  Maybe compromise with Record Store Week? It appears the demand is there.

If I had to make a bet, I’d put my money on the Brits taking the prize for understatement.

Unpacking the 1920 loudspeakers from British manufacturer MAD (for “My Audio Design”), it’s tough not to have an internal dialog that goes something like, “Two and a half grand for these?  They are mad!”  But, looking past the relatively simple-looking box speakers, one soon notices gorgeously mitered corners and an exceptional attention to detail paid on behalf of the craftsmen behind these.  Hmmm.  Some understated British artistry, perhaps?  I take the necessary photos and roll the speakers into listening room two, which, at 13 feet by 16 feet, is perhaps even a bit on the large side for a pair of small speakers—truly mini-monitors, in this case.  The next thought that comes to mind is “LS3/5a clone,” until I turn the speaker around and see a rear-facing port.

At $2,650 per pair, the 1920s are towards the high end of the price scale for this category.  Their obvious competitors are the KEF LS50 ($1,499/pair), which we haven’t reviewed yet; the Harbeth P3ESR ($2,200/pair); and the Stirling Broadcast LS3/5a V2 ($1,999/pair).  A mint pair of original LS3/5a speakers can command up to $2,000 per pair.  While the originals do have a certain vintage charm, they are notably woolly sounding in the world of 21^st-century monitors.  Colleen Cardas Imports is handling US distribution and now has three dealers, with more on the way.

A mini-monitor, properly optimized in a small room, is one of audio’s guilty pleasures.  Paired with a great amplifier, these speakers will provide ample bass quantity and well-above-average bass quality, going a long way to convince you that you won’t ever need a subwoofer.  But don’t forgo good stands, as they are essential to getting the maximum output from the 1920s.  Just place these on a pair of high-mass stands (sand filled Sound Anchors are my choice) after applying your favorite sticky substance to couple the speakers to said stands, and expect to be wowed.

Jumping Right In

Auditioning the 1920s begins with the Zombies’ classic, “Time of the Season.”  What better way to audition a British speaker than with some of the best of the British Invasion?  Immediately, the spatial characteristics of these speakers reveal a massive soundstage in the small room, with things clearly delineated and with solid bass—and rock-solid pace.  The added dynamics of the original mono record is an absolute blast with these speakers.  Rod Argent’s keys leap from the speakers.  When mated to the Conrad Johnson MV-50C1 power amplifier, the 1920s confirm the manufacturer’s spec sheet:  These little speakers are incredibly easy to drive.  Even the 20-watt-per-channel Carver Black Magic amplifier has no problem playing these speakers to maddening levels.  (Pardon the pun.)

Ry Cooder’s light touch on the acoustic guitar at the beginning of “The Very Thing That Will Make You Rich (Makes Me Poor),” from the Bop Till You Drop album, hovers just above the speakers, with Cooder well out in front of them.  Cat Power’s “Nothin’ But Time,” from Sun, her current album, has a more modern feel, laden with weighty synth bass riffs, again allowing the 1920s to sound so much larger than they seem capable.  Closing your eyes to concentrate on the presentation, it’s easy to think you are listening to much bigger speakers, only to open your eyes and find this pair of tiny audio morsels before you.  An equally spacious presentation is had with Little Village’s “Don’t Think About Her When You’re Trying to Drive.”

Tonality + Dynamics = Bliss

The performance of the 1920s is especially excellent during playback of a slew of acoustic standards.  But, while the speakers are not as rolled-off sounding on the top end as either the Harbeths or the vintage LS3/5as on hand, they are not quite as extended as the Penaudio Cenya or Dynaudio Confidence C1 IIs that I have here for comparison.  (To be fair, the Cenyas and C1 IIs are considerably more expensive.)  With the 1920s, it’s a nice, gentle roll-off, which will not be noticed on all but the best audiophile recordings and that, more often than not, goes a long way at making digital files and budget solid-state amplifiers considerably more listenable.

The only time I found the tonal characteristic of the 1920s a bit too soft for my taste was when using certain vintage tube amplifiers.  With the Dynaco ST-70 or Harman Kardon A500 integrated amp, for example, even digital files come across as slightly dull.  But, having drawn that line in the sand, the combination of vintage tube amplification and 320-Kb/sec MP3 files sounds much better than it has a right to.

All things considered, the extra efficiency, slam and bass weight are what separate the MAD 1920s from their comparably priced brethren.  You won’t mistake these for a pair of floorstanders, but they open up and breathe so much more than the other small speakers we’ve experienced at this price level.  While the Harbeth and Stirlings both present a benign enough load to drive with a 20-watt amplifier, they are still rated in the range of 83 to 84 dB—which means that a low-power amp can’t deliver the dynamic peaks like it can with a speaker rated at 90 dB.

Crazy Imaging

If you are new to the small British monitor thing, the sonic image that the 1920s present will spoil almost everything else for you.  From the first tap of the hi-hat on the title track to Donovan’s Mellow Yellow, the term “pinpoint imaging” takes on a new meaning, especially if you dim the lights just a bit to keep your eyes from sending visual information to your brain that might otherwise distract processing power from your auditory nerves.  Donovan sounds as if he’s singing just in front of your face, with his overdubs floating in a sea of handclaps and horns.  And the separation between the flute and the oboe in “Jennifer, Juniper” is magnificent.

Maybe it’s the stunning imaging that these old studio records present, or perhaps it’s the strong British heritage thing, but I just kept going back for more British Invasion records to play on these speakers.  I swear I was having flashbacks during Donovan’s “Hurdy Gurdy Man.”  But then, a brief detour spent on a number of Duran Duran and Thompson Twins tracks from the ’80s transitioned me back to the 21^st century—and it was still good.

On the deep-bass side of the musical universe, Dungen and Dr. Dre are both off the menu at all but modest levels.  You can only cheat physics so far, and the 1920s pull off a major sonic feat already.  But heavy rock and hip-hop are simply not a match for these speakers, should you really want to crank it up.  But I’m guessing that, if this stuff happens to be at the top of your music menu, you’re not looking at mini-monitors anyway.  To use an old audiophile cliché, the 1920s are mostly guilty of omission.  They remind me of a first-generation VW Golf GTI or Mazda MX5—they’re tons of fun to drive between 20 and 80 mph, which is where we’re stuck living most of the time.  But if you have a modest amplifier, a medium- to small-sized room and few pipe-organ records in your collection, you won’t even know what you’re missing.

Smart is the New Sexy

A quick visual once-over of the 1920s and you might just pass them by.  While the small box is well executed, these aren’t head-turners.  But inside it’s a completely different story—an abundance of high-grade audiophile parts lurk: ultra-pure silver internal wiring on the tweeter, plus point-to-point wiring with equally zooty copper wire.  Best of all, these are hand assembled in the UK, with all components hand tested and matched before the construction process begins.

Don’t think of the MAD 1920 as a clone of the LS3/5a, nor as an update or replacement for it.  It will just raise your dander.  But do pay close attention to them—they are sleepers.  And don’t let the understated box fool you.  These speakers are the new standard for small monitors.

The MAD 1920 loudspeakers

MSRP: £1,500   (US pricing, $2,650)

US Distributor:  Colleen Cardas Imports  www.colleencardasimports.com

Peripherals

Preamplifier                Burmster 011

Power Amplifier         Conrad Johnson MV-50C1, Pass Aleph 3, Carver Black Magic 20.

Analog Source             Rega RP6/Exact, SME 10/Sumiko Blackbird

Digital Source              Sooloos Control 15, Aurender S10, Light Harmonic DAC

Cable                           Cardas Clear

Accessories                 GIK Room Treatments, Audience aR6-TSS Power Line Conditioner, Furutech DeMag and DeStat, Audio Desk Systeme RCM

As part of an ongoing effort to help children and young adults get the best music education possible, Acoustic Geometry made a donation to the Brennan Rock & Roll Academy in Sioux Falls, SD, involving multiple Studio 3D Doors and Studio 6 Windows, the finest soundproof doors and windows available.

Each Studio 3D Door featured custom viewing windows as part of the package, and the Studio 6 Windows were custom-built to fit the live recording area in the Main Room of the Academy.

Brennan Rock & Roll Academy’s own Rock & Roll Ambassador/Designer Kory Van Sickle said: “These doors are amazing! They’re not only beautiful; they’re also super soundproof as proven during our Grand Opening week. Lots of really great and really loud rock bands performed (all personal friends of Mr. Brennan), and I couldn’t believe how quiet the practice rooms were when the doors were closed. They truly are works of art and I can’t say enough about how great everyone from Acoustic Geometry was to work with.”

Acoustic Geometry’s Retail Sales Director John Calder, who attended the Grand Opening, remarked on the new Academy: “For anyone who loves music, this is a truly welcoming environment for learning how to ‘play well with others’. The Brennan Academy team has done a wonderful job of engaging the community with state-of-the-art resources for the Boys and Girls Club in Sioux Falls – I haven’t seen a better learning space for music. And the “entertainment-biz royalty” – like Alice Cooper, Gene Simmons, George Lopez, Louie Anderson, Vince Neil and Night Ranger – who gave their time and talent to kick off the event, were terrific!”

Acoustic Geometry (http://www.acousticgeometry.com/), the retail brand of Acoustical Surfaces, Inc., works with community-based organizations like the Brennan Rock & Roll Academy (http://brennanrockandrollacademy.com/) to help advance music education.

Contact:

Acoustic Geometry

123 Columbia Court North

Chaska MN 55318

952-448-5300

Brennan Rock

It arrived just before I jumped on a plane for the NY Audio Show.  It’s big, red and beautiful.

We’ve got the EHF-200MK2 integrated amplifier from Rogers High Fidelity here for a while and after hearing it at Stereo Exchange in New York this weekend, I’m anxious to put it through its paces with a wide variety of speakers.  Featuring a pair of KT120 output tubes per channel, this amplifier puts out 120 watts per channel in Ultralinear mode, but can be switched into triode mode as well.

The EHF-200MK2 is packaged like a piece of fine jewelry, homage to the luxury product it is.  The remote is gorgeous, the manual concise and easy to read – but best of all each one comes with a little note enclosed from the person who built it, adding a bit of humanity to the process. When I caught up with Roger Gibboni I thanked him for the extra car, but he said “We do that with every amplifier, we want people to know the care that goes into each one.” So, Trish, thank you very much for building this amplifier…

Stay tuned for our listening impressions and the world’s first review shortly.

I certainly had a lovely time at this years HiFi Show in New York City…

Put on by the Chester Group, the same folks that sponsored last years show, things went incredibly smoothly for the UK based firm, considering they overcame a few major hurdles. First, there was a lot of hotel construction that was in progress, that no one expected during show week, when it was being organized almost a year ago, and there were a few water and power failures that necessitated some major jackhammering during the day on Saturday as well as some tenant evacuations on Sunday evening.  Yikes.

However, the show was not only well attended, it was a diverse crowd, perhaps the most diverse crowd I’ve seen at an audio show in the US.  Montreal and Munich do an excellent job at attracting kids and women to the party, but the US shows tend to be more often than not, a high percentage of beard tuggers.

It was nice to see a few groups of younger people, like the ones pictured in the VPI Industries room, not only grooving on the music, but asking to “turn it up…”  It was also nice to talk music and audio with some of our female readers and get their feedback on things.

The Chester Group and their US liasons, Sally Goff (formerly the face of McIntosh) and Christina Yuin (our director of sales) made an excellent effort to bring some seminars and events that were a lot more music centric, and wider ranging than I’ve seen in a long time.

SoundStageDirect and The SoundOrganisation, along with PMC Speakers contributed with their “Studio to You” series of lectures, bringing in some famous recording and mastering engineers, to discuss their part of the process.

And, speaking of music, this was the first show in memory that also did not consist primarily of audiophile standards. I did avoid a couple of rooms (still) playing “Keith Don’t Go,” but by and large, it was a much more musical show overall.  The Rutherford Group was rocking everything from Swedish House Mafia to Elvis on acetate, AudioArts NYC had a wide range of jazz, classical and blues, on vinyl, and Johan Coorg of KEF was a mixmaster – spanning a very wide range of music as well.

Rounding things out, Stereophile’s Michael Fremer was there, with his turntable setup seminar, and Art Dudley (also of Stereophile) and I held a spirited panel discussion about vintage hifi, which I am told by the folks at the Chester Group, had the highest attendance of all the seminars.

Again a thanks to the Chester Group for performing above and beyond the call of duty, and all of you that attended.  I hope to see you again next year.

For those of you craving more room by room coverage, stop by Stereophile’s website, where they have done their usual concise job.