LATEST ADDITIONS

Look at this sexy beast. (I’m talking about the turntable.) Dr. Feickert Analogue’s Blackbird (€5490) got my attention with its clean lines and beautiful wood trim. The Blackbird shares the simple design of Feickert’s smaller Woodpecker, but adds the option of a second tonearm, while its refined controller software drives both motors in a slave-master configuration.

"Take a picture of me stroking this gorgeous thing," I said to Rosemarie.

"Yes, boss," she sighed.

Jim Richards poses beside his MD 806 WiFi tuner ($2500; sitting on the shelf below the sweet turntable).

In development for over two years, the MD 806 provides access to FM, DAB, and DAB+, as well as Internet radio stations via its onboard WiFi antenna or LAN, and locally connected music collections (MP3, AAC, FLAC, WMA, Real). Its 3.5” touchscreen displays metadata, genre, bit rate, codec, and sampling rate for the playing track, while personal audio collections (accessed through a local network or USB connection) are navigable by artist name, album name, or musical genre.

Optical and RCA digital outputs are also included for use with an external DAC.

Harbeth’s Alan Shaw holds his Monitor 20.1 loudspeaker.

I enjoyed a stimulating conversation about the priorities of a loudspeaker designer, the applications in which a speaker is used, and the difficulties of sound- and video-editing.

The first question Shaw wants answered about any particular loudspeaker is: “What loudness level is it optimized for?” From that, he can tell a lot about a speaker’s abilities and the priorities of its designer.

“If I get a strange look, as though [the designer] is wondering why I would want to know such a thing, then I start to feel anxious….”

On Thursday evening, Rosemarie and I attended the High End Show Gala, held in a large hall on the ground floor of the M.O.C. Marking the entrance were impressive, illuminated sculptures, creating an otherworldly scene.

Like most people who are neither radio talk-show hosts nor members of the Westboro Baptist Church, I'd rather be known for my loves than my hates. And after wandering this audio wilderness for umpteen years, I can stand before you and say without shame: An unlovable phono transformer has yet to step into my path.

Music Hall’s new plug-and-play dac15.2 ($299) has USB, coaxial, and optical inputs and is capable of handling resolutions up to 24-bit/96kHz.

“It’s just fucking amazing,” Roy Hall said simply.

Available this fall.

I swear: Music Hall’s Roy Hall was cracking jokes and smiling wide just moments before I snapped this shot.

“Are you enjoying the show?” he had asked.

“Very much. This show has a certain grace and a natural sex appeal that shows in the States seem to lack,” I said.

Roy nodded. “Ah, you get it. So you’re not just a pretty face.”

Then he walked me over to his new MMF-11 turntable (around $4500, including Pro-Ject 10cc carbon-fiber tonearm). First seen in prototype form at January’s Consumer Electronics Show, the 43-lb MMF-11 is a two-motor, flywheel-driven turntable with a thick, acrylic platter, a four-layer plinth, and magnetic feet to further isolate the turntable from vibrations.

“No original ideas here,” Roy quipped.