LATEST ADDITIONS

Warsaw Audio Show 2022
Warsaw Day Two: Exotica
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 30, 2022  |  13 comments
"Focus on the unusual, the exotic," editor Jim Austin counseled by email. I didn't have to look very far. If Day One of the Audio Video Show 2022 in the huge Stadium was dominated by major brands, Day Two in the Radisson Sobieski Blu Hotel was filled with unusual speakers and electronics from small companies based in Poland and other European companies. Hardly any have a US presence, and many are searching for the right distributor to get them beyond the Polish border.
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Warsaw Audio Show 2022
Warsaw Day One: At the Stadium
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 29, 2022  |  0 comments
My trip to the Audio Video Show 2022 in Warsaw, Poland seems to have devolved into an unanticipated journey of protests. First, we almost delayed our pre-show mini-vacation in Paris—bless you, frequent flyer miles and friends—when, in the middle of a Workers' Strike, protestors were tear-gassed one block from the apartment of our hosts in the Montparnasse District. Then, on Day One of the show, I spent 45 minutes in the cold courting pneumonia as the shuttle bus between the Stadium and the Radisson Blu Sobieski Hotel was delayed due to a non-violent protest in the street near the start of the bus route.
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Solid State Power Amp Reviews
Simaudio Moon 860A v2 power amplifier
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 28, 2022  |  3 comments
We've all been in similar situations. We approach an undertaking with the highest of expectations. Then reality intervenes, expectations change radically, and we have another story to tell, post on social media, or use to begin a review.

This tale of altered expectations began a few years after my birth, at AXPONA 2022, where I covered several stellar-sounding rooms that included Simaudio Moon electronics. By the third such room, I'd resolved to contact Simaudio, check in with Jim Austin, and see if there was a product that made sense to review in my system.

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Warsaw Audio Show 2022
Ferrum's Prelude to the Warsaw Audio Show
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 28, 2022  |  8 comments
The Warsaw Audio Show, officially titled “Audio Video Show 2022"—the second largest audio in Europe—is set to begin today, October 28. Up at 6:20AM yesterday in Paris; flight to Poland with us the only masked passengers; Uber through traffic traffic traffic to the Radisson Sobieski Blu hotel boom boom; and off to a tour of the Ferrum Audio Factory.
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Stand Loudspeaker Reviews
Mission 770 loudspeaker
John Atkinson  |  Oct 27, 2022  |  9 comments
Some audio experiences stick in your memory. For me, one such was in 1978, which I reminisced about in a 1987 review for Stereophile of the Mission PCM 7000 CD player, Mission 780 Argonaut loudspeaker, and Cyrus Two integrated amplifier. Mission founder Farad Azima (footnote 1) was a driving force in the UK audio scene in the late 1970s, when I was deputy editor of the English magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review.
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Digital Processor ReviewsGramophone Dreams
Gramophone Dreams #66: Audio-GD R7HE MK2 D/A processor
Herb Reichert  |  Oct 26, 2022  |  11 comments
Whenever I install a new, in-for-review DAC, after some amount of spaced-out not-listening listening I find myself just sitting there, being happy I got the damn thing working. Once I recover from the stress of installation, my brain begins, without prompting, to examine the character of sound coming out of my speakers.
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Toronto Audiofest 2022
Toronto Audiofest 2022: Final Words and Observations
Robert Schryer  |  Oct 26, 2022  |  24 comments
The Toronto Audiofest 2022 may not have been the busiest audio show I've attended, but it was still a success. It had plenty of new product launches, great-sounding rooms, and a good amount of traffic, especially on Saturday, when seats became a hot commodity in many exhibit rooms.
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Toronto Audiofest 2022
EQ Audio/Rotel/Monitor Audio/Focal/Musical Fidelity/Kimber Kable/Norstone/Audience
Robert Schryer  |  Oct 26, 2022  |  0 comments
Like at the last Toronto Audiofest, I listened to two of EQ Audio's main systems that were setup at both ends mirror-image-like along the length of the back wall of their huge, subdivided exhibit space. One system included another North American premiere!—the Monitor Audio 3-way PL200 3G speakers ($17,500/pair)—the second system consisted of a pair of Focal Sopra No.3 speakers ($33,798/pair) and electronics by Musical Fidelity.
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Toronto Audiofest 2022
Eon Art/Oracle/Gershman Acoustics/IsoAcoustics/Cardas
Robert Schryer  |  Oct 26, 2022  |  4 comments
And now for something completely different, Part 3.

Ever heard of a monophonic integrated amplifier? An amp that includes a single amplification channel along with its single channel preamplification stage? I hadn't until I visited manufacturer Eon Art's room, which was demoing a pair of such a rare, in fact, one-of-a-kind, beast, called the Boson ($72,537/each).

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Toronto Audiofest 2022
Hearken Audio/Atelier Audio/Jean Nantais/Lenco/Bird of Prey/Miyajima Labs/Ilumnia/Ocellia/Tzar/Aqua
Robert Schryer  |  Oct 26, 2022  |  1 comments
A room I can always count on to deliver soul-stirring, heart-warming, duct-tearing, yearning-to-possess sound is the one hosted by Hearken Audio/Atelier Audio, an oasis of some of the least mechanical, most musical sound I've heard this side of real-life music.
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