The Oracle Delphi Mk.II ($1250) is both a turntable and work of art. It is a visually stunning product, retaining a level of styling that, in my view, has never been equalled by any other audio component. It also adds enough sonic improvements to the original Delphi that it ranks close to the VPI HW-19, and is superior, in naturalness of sound quality, to the SOTA Star Sapphire.
Blame the Puritans! say I. The high end has always had an ostinato accompaniment of grumbles from those who appear to feel that it is immoral to want to listen to music with as high a quality as possible. In a recent letter, for example, <I>Fanfare</I> and <I>Stereo Review</I> contributor and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/reference/101">author Howard Ferstler</A> states that "the audio world has more products of bogus quality and shills promoting them than any other industry, bar none," and trots out the old saw that audiophiles "end up spending an excessive amount of money on equipment or tweaking techniques of surprisingly dubious quality."
“Good news!” Stephen exclaimed, the second I walked into his office. I saw my Usher S-520s plopped lovingly in my cubicle. “Check your email,” he instructed.
An email from JA read:
I couldn't find anything wrong, Ariel. I measured both speakers and also listened to them…they match very closely—as well as the individual responses of the tweeter and woofer of the sample that didn't have the biwiring jumpers connected.*Could that have been the problem?
Could this have been the problem…
Could this have been the problem?
COULD THIS HAVE BEEN THE PROBLEM?!
Sometimes stock is simply not good enough. Reader "EG" would like to know how many readers have used an after-market component-modification service to improve standard high-end gear. If you have, have you been satisfied or not? Why?
A couple of weeks back, a staff writer from <a href="http://www.observer-reporter.com/OR/Story/08-15-turntables">the Observer Reporter</a> contacted me.
A couple of obvious errors here, but <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/aug2008/db20080822_… encouraging piece</a>, nevertheless. What I <i>especially</i> like, of course, is this little bit:
You can walk by 21 First Avenue on any given day to see some of our city's most beautiful and talented DJs spinning rare and wonderful vinyl. It's true! It's <a href="http://www.eastvillageradio.com/">East Village Radio</a>. There's a big glass window. Look in and you might see Queen Majesty or Melody Nelson or Mark Ronson or a few of the colorfully dressed peeps from The Fader, those taste-makers. In fact, East Village Radio provides more than 70 unique, and often excellent, two-hour shows, covering musical genres from rock and electronic to jazz and folk to roots and reggae. Lots of good stuff.
A while back, out of the blue, I was contacted by audio distributor May Audio Marketing. They wanted to know if I was interested in reviewing any models from the Genius line of German manufacturer ASW Loudspeakers. I have a lot of time for distributors such as May Audio, whose primary role is to promote lesser-known European audio products on this side of the pond. All of May's principal clients—Castle, Enigma, and Gradient speakers; Sonneteer and Sphinx electronics; and Roksan turntable systems—are much better known in their home countries than in the US.
Has any modern designer of high-performance speakers extracted more music from a two-way box than ProAc's Stewart Tyler? His early-1990s stand-mounted <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/792proac">Response 2</A> (later upgraded to the Response 2S) was an instant classic, and while his tiny <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/standloudspeakers/0484proac">Tablette</A> proved controversial for being bass-shy and relatively pricey, his track record of two-way speakers remains unassailable.
Holding them felt safe. Maybe they lacked that luxurious lifestyle appeal of the fancier cables with their shiny colors and intricate woven designs, but that's not what I was looking for. I wanted quality, I wanted sturdiness, I wanted comfort. Only to encourage these feelings of security were the locking banana plugs.