TONEAudio MAGAZINE The Concierge of High End Audio

Calling the F80 a $3000 table radio seems unfair, considering that it can form the foundation of an extremely sophisticated audio and video system. This amazing product features an 80wpc amp, an active 2.1 DSP loudspeaker system, an AM/FM tuner with DAB digital radio and a CD and DVD player. And yes, the official Ferrari colors on the rounded exterior surfaces are absolutely gorgeous.

Meridian has been making high performance digital players for 20 years now, and the 808 is the culmination of that expertise. We agreed that the 808 was “beautiful, well-built and sounds wonderful,” and that it is an extremely musical player that “gets it right on all levels. ” We recommend that you don’t listen to one unless you can immediately write a check for it.

Using MartinLogan’s fourth-generation curved electrostatic panels, these hybrid speakers offer that “transparent, walk-through feel” that can only ESLs can offer. Sure they offer detail, resolution, imaging and weight, but they can allow you to drift while listening to your favorite music as well. We found that they offered “nuance without being harsh.”

Even at a modest $1095, the Grotto is one of the finest subwoofers we’ve ever heard, at least until we strapped a pair of the big ML Descents to the new CLXs. Very flexible, the Grotto allowed us to play with low pass settings, output levels and phase until we could integrate it with almost any pair of speakers. We concluded that “it may be all the subwoofer you ever need.”

The Summits are the first pair of panel speakers we’ve heard that really rock, prompting us to finally crank up Metallica to ear-splitting levels. These MartinLogans also expanded the sweet spot considerably over previous electrostatic designs, and offered an almost seamless blending between the woofers and panels. We picked the Summits as Product of the Year for 2008.

We take a novel approach to reviewing the new Martin-Logan flagship CLXes by including two Descents, and found that this four-piece system plays in the same ballpark as those six-figure monoliths for a mere fraction of the price. Although proper set-up is labor-intensive, these electrostatic panels constitute a “serious loudspeaker system indeed,” bringing listeners “so much closer to the music.” The final verdict: “Intoxicating.”

A decidedly high-quality alternative to cheap switching boxes that can be found at Radio Shack, the Skipjack allows audiophiles to switch from four inputs to one, or three inputs to two. We found the latter configuration the way to go, making the Manley the perfect solution for great-sounding vintage amplifiers that can only accommodate a couple of sources.

“Equalizer”may be a dirty word in the audiophile dictionary, but this extremely flexible EQ has found its way into many professional recording studios. Featuring two independent mono, four-band passive equalizers in one chassis, the Manley can be quite habit-forming and can turn most audio purists into knob-spinning, frequency-enhancing mastering engineers. We found it to be an “extraordinary device with endless uses.”

Featuring 10 EL34 output tubes per channel, the Manley 250 can operate in either single-ended or balanced mode with just a flick of a switch. All those valves take a while to warm up, but soon you’ll be listening to a sound that’s “sweet and full of inner detail.” The 250 is one tube amp that never runs out of gas, and amazed us since it offered a high amount of detail along with the limitless headroom.

At $7500 a pair, these small but beautiful German speakers may seem like a tough sell. We found that they are “worth every penny,” however, offering a sound that is unusually big while providing impressive speed and control throughout the lower frequencies. While they didn’t go too far below 35 Hz, they earned one of our highest recommendations when paired with the REL subwoofer.

If you’re tired a wimpy little integrated amps, the MA7000 is the answer. This massive 250wpc amp weighs nearly 100 pounds, has an amazing array of features and will power almost any speaker on the market with ease. Best of all, it has the trademark big blue meters that will send most of the McIntosh faithful into orbit. The MA7000 is “built like a tank, sounds great and is easy to live with.”

This new preamp from the venerable American audio company has an amazing list of features including eight inputs, a number of data and control ports, separate MM and MC phono stages and the ability to change cartridge loading via remote control.¨Ü The six 12AX7s, bathed in a soft green light, are visibly through a glass plate in the top panel, making this McIntosh extraordinarily beautiful and flexible.

The perfect preamplifier for the audiophile who just wants to “hang out and not worry about gear, room setup and the like,” the C220 offers a multitude of features (including tone controls!) in one chassis. The sound was smooth and relaxing yet powerful, not unlike taking a restored vintage Corvette “for a nice leisurely drive in the country with the top down.”

Magnum Dynalab has made some of the best FM tuners in audio history, and now this highly-respected company turns its attention to satellite radio with stunning results. The MD-609T doesn’t quite provide CD-quality sound for $4000, but it comes awfully close, hammering a few final nails into the coffin of so-called terrestrial radio. If you want the best sound from XM, this is the way to go.

The McCormack is the rare 500wpc amplifier that you can “pick up without busting a gut,” and we felt it would satisfy all but the most demanding and obsessive of audiophiles. The distributed node technology is the reason for the svelte appearance of this amp, and the result is amazing control throughout the lower registers that makes it a bargain at its price point.

The $3200 Lyra Skala isn’t the most expensive cartridge out there, but it competes with the mightiest of contenders. This moving coil cartridge offers “astonishing transparency and palpability” while retaining just a “hint of warmth” that can be so appealing to audiophiles who are serious about their analog set-ups. We found it to be a more immediate and revealing alternative to some of the lusher and more romantic premium cartridges.

It isn’t every day we get our hands on a $10,000 cartridge for review, but this Lyra surpassed all of our expectations. Available in very limited quantities, the Olympos sounds decidedly different from other premium Lyras such as the Skala and the Titan. A champion of depth and tonality, the Olympos made speakers “just melt away from the room, leaving only the music,” therefore ruining us for life.

While modestly priced, this Lyra kept up with some of the big boys by providing “nice bloom, great bass and amazing inner detail.” Small changes in setup yielded huge differences in performance, but when everything is dialed in the Argo-i was neutral in timbre and tracked exceptionally well. The Lyra is “a great place to enter the world of true high-end analog playback.”

We were happy to see Luxman back in high-end audio, but this new 30wpc Class-A integrated amplifier surprised us by doing “everything right.” The L-590 is extremely revealing of source components, which is partially due to the “FANATICAL attention to detail” in the overall design. The balanced outputs, headphone amp, MM/MC phono stage and even the tone controls make this amp a great value.

These $48,500 speakers are “exquisite in form and function,” which isn’t surprising when you consider that they were designed by a noted artist and master craftsman. Exceptionally revealing, these unique and striking towers are a natural match for some of the finest tube amplification available and will provide an unwavering window into nearly every type of music.

Basically a slightly revised version of the now-classic Black Cube phono stage with a beefy outboard power supply, the Lehmann wound up being “first among equals” in our extensive survey of affordable phono preamps. Possessing an overall sound quality closer to our favorite $3K phono stages, the SE sounded “smooth, seamless and tight,” becoming one of our preferred references at this price point.

Offering both “stunning beauty and stunning sound,” these entry level floorstanders in KEF’s Reference Series offer an admirable level of fit and finish. The 203/2s impressed us with the way they responded to dense musical passages, and we found that the bass went much deeper than the published specs indicated. Resolution, dynamics, imaging and tonal accuracy were all top-notch.

The LA-150 is quite neutral “while retaining the lifelike sound of tubes,” offering a sound that was authoritative and dynamic. This preamplifier was transparent enough to allow us to hear deep into the soundstage, and it won’t gloss over music that has been poorly recorded. It does add excitement and panache, however, and makes music “a truly pleasurable experience.”

This tiny Swiss phono stage comes with an optional and equally tiny outboard phono stage that should be considered mandatory to get truly impressive sound and value. We felt that the JLTi was the most neutral phono stage we have heard at this price point and were constantly amazed that such a big, authoritative sound could come from such a small package.

A tubed integrated amplifier with a built-in iPod dock might seem like an unusual combination, but we found this modestly priced component to “sound fantastic as well,” providing a bridge between valves and a younger generation of music lovers. Two line level inputs are also included, making the Fatman “a very stylish package with pleasing sound.”

Famously described as being around the size of a shoebox, these classic BBC mini-monitors were meant as a replacement for the LS3/5a yet provide a sound that is even more “large and natural.” Legendary in terms of their engineering and build quality, the Harbeths “reproduce with an incredible sense of reality.” Don’t be fooled by the small size!

This unusual-looking tubed phono stage uses four 12AX7s and four 12AU7s (complete with dampers)¨Ü and provides an open and very detailed sound that is very quiet as well. Easy to set up and use, the Trumpet was especially impressive with vocals due to its tonal accuracy. You’ll spend so much time with it that you may put your “CD player on eBay and forget about digital altogether.”

If you’ve been wondering about the virtues of mono recordings, this Grado will eliminate much of the noise and thinness that stereo cartridges can inject into the mix. Very musical and slightly warm, the Sonata Mono will make your favorites sound more organic and realistic. We found that the Grado was “one of the most fun $500 purchases you will ever make!”

A rare moving-iron design, this $2500 Grado may look like the other wooden-bodied cartridges in this legendary American company’s product line. Offering a sound that is less lush and rounded than the lesser models, the Statement still provides a warm listening experience offers enough low-level detail to make you “forgo the moving coil experience altogether.”

There have been a few useful guides for hi-fi hobbyists over the years, but few focus almost exclusively on resisting the impulse to buy new components by extracting the best performance from what you already have. Jim Smith, former US distributor of Avantgarde Acoustics, is considered one of the best set-up guys in audio, and he offers 202 tips on accomplishing this goal. Purchasing this book, we decided, may be the most effective $45 tweak in audio.

These Canadian floorstanding speakers are “very neutral and relaxing without being rolled off,” and are downright gorgeous as well. A two-way ported design, these speakers don’t offer the ultimate in bass performance but excel in the midrange, providing an open expansive sound that boasts a high degree of coherence, with woofer-tweeter integration “as good as it gets.”

This Danish integrated amp offers intuitive operation and is “definitely a work of talented industrial design.” This solid-state amp offer 130wpc, a single pair of MOSFETs¨Ü and plenty of weight and punch, especially at medium to high listening levels. We found the Si100 to work well even with the most current-hungry speakers and wound up offering our highest recommendation.

A quick upgrade for tonearms with standard RCA jacks or DIN plugs, this cable has been treated with Furutech’s Alpha Cryogenic and Demagnetizing processes and is a bargain at just $429. We found it to be one of the most cost-effective upgrades you can make to an high-quality analog rig. The AG-12 offered a greater sense of decay and air, allowing listeners to hear even deeper into recordings.

The ultimate accessories for hardcore vinyl lovers, these two turntable-sized machines completely demagnetize and flatten your LPs, offering superior playback performance. While debates about demagnetizing have grown quite heated in the analog world, we found that the sonic differences were not subtle and that everyone who actually tried these machines were immediately won over.

After living with these stylish and functional racks for a few months, we “couldn’t imagine life without one.” Available in a number of shelf configurations, the Pagodas offered excellent resonance control and brought entire systems into focus like never before. We likened them to putting the perfect frame around a beautiful piece of art.

While fairly expensive at $17K, the Epifania thrilled us with its “pleasing tonality, unique looks and substantial build quality.” This valve preamp also excelled at ambience retrieval, making it an excellent tool for hearing deep into recordings. Since it’s produced in small quantities, you’ll probably be the only one on your block with one of these, but it may “be the centerpiece of your stereo for life!”

These premium power cords are exceedingly neutral in tone and are aimed at getting more music from your system, as opposed to acting as “fine-tuners.” Cryogenically-treated, the ESPs will not affect the overall tonality of fine audio gear and are perfect for audiophiles already pleased with the sound of their reference systems but want just a little more of everything.

This small two-box phono stage is virtually plug-and-play and will have you spinning your favorite records in no time. Using the highest-quality parts, the solid-state Circa sounds good that your digital front end “may start collecting dust.” It serves up “great dynamics, musical tonality and ease of use,” and the build quality is superb.

These understated yet beautiful stand-mounted loudspeakers feature a ribbon tweeter, 6-inch woofer and a beautiful cabinet made from laminated bamboo (in its SE version). Designed in Seattle and built in China, the F200s were very room-friendly, versatile, and offered a neutral presentation that is clear and extended on top. If you love British monitors but want just a little more sparkle in the treble, these may be the ticket.

While a $5000 cartridge should offer unparalleled sound quality, this Dynavector moving-coil offers exquisite tonality and timbre and was our first choice to mount on the $60,000 Continuum Criterion turntable. It requires precise set-up, but once everything is dialed in you should hear an astounding level of resolution mated with a natural tonal character. It’s a great tracker, too!

This tiny, almost pocket-sized phono stage offered a huge sound for just $750 and may be the perfect match for the very popular Rega P3-24/Dynavector 10X5 combination. In fact, the sound quality is so good that Dynavector could have placed this circuit in a bigger box and charged two or three times as much. Kudos to Dynavector for keeping it real…real small.

This “great affordable benchmark” is an updated of a true classic, the original Karat, and is one of the most neutral cartridges available at any price.¨Ü (It even measures that way!) It won’t satisfy those looking for a warm, dreamy sound, but it does offer “a ton of detail with a very high degree of tonal accuracy.” If you’re looking for a cartridge in the sub-$1000 range, the Dynavector 17D3 should be on your short list.

Understated in appearance, these small Dynaudio monitors caused us to shout “Wow!” when we first plugged them in. The build quality is amazingly high-they’re Danish, after all-and we loved the “healthy amount of nuance” they offered. While it’s easy to make a good speaker for $2500, the Contour S1.4 is proof that it’s possible to make a great one at this price point as well.

The perfect power cord for audiophiles who aren’t quite ready to “jump off the cliff” for the expensive stuff, the DH Labs sounds very good and is built to robust standards right here in the US. You won’t get fancy packaging or cryogenics or state-of-the-art connectors, but you will lower noise and increased dynamics over stock power cords.

This premium power cord offered noticeably better performance than stock power cords, and at $220 for a 2-meter version they won’t break the bank. We found that upgrading to the Red Wave provided about the same amount of sonic improvement as moving from cheap Chinese tubes to “spendy NOS equivalents” on our favorite valve amps.¨Ü After everything else is dialed in, the Red Waves can be “damn good!”

Not only do these small stand-mounted active monitors have built-in 250wpc amps for the 8″ subwoofers, but the midrange driver and tweeter are 92 dB sensitive so you can “add an SET amp and still rock out.” We enjoyed the fact that the 700s had a lot of punch thanks to the subs, and that they are small and unobtrusive and will work well with any source.

Simple yet beautiful, these compact floorstanders wound up being our favorites in the very competitive $3000 to $4000 range. Unusually refined, the Super 8s won’t hit you over the head with their greatness but will slowly reveal their strengths (smooth, extended bass and extraordinary imaging and soundstaging) over time. We know at least four equipment reviewers who wound up writing a check for them.

While only 30wpc, the Aries is single-ended and “each one of those watts counts.” This Class A, zero-feedback design uses an 845 tube from RCA/Cunningham to produce a sound that is “pure, lifelike and quite rich and meaty.” We feel that the Aries 845-G is the perfect compromise for someone who likes the sound of SETs but needs a little more power.

These large monitors are unique in that they can be used with or without stands. The wood veneers, made from renewable resources, are exceptionally attractive as well. The DA-2s provided a laid-back presentation that felt organic and will appeal to listeners who want to be “music lovers” instead of audiophiles, which makes sense when you consider that they were designed and built by a musician.

This Canadian amp had “stunning good looks and high build quality” while offering plenty of low-level detail amid an amazingly low noise floor. While the sound will never be mistaken for “tube-like,” the CA-2100 did many things a valve amplifier cannot, like bringing out “the tiny details in the recording that will keep your interest piqued.”