Audacious Audio

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews Audacious Audio

JBL Synthesis 1400 Array BG loudspeaker

Larry Greenhill May 10, 2010 First Published: May 10, 2010

JBL was founded 60 years ago, by Jim Lansing. Its history has been amply detailed in the book The JBL Story: 60 Years of Audio Innovation, by the late John">http://www.stereophile.com/news/052107eargle">John Eargle's (JBL Professional, 2006). Although it is primarily known for its pro-audio loudspeakers, the Californian company has offered a steady stream of high-performance domestic loudspeakers to the home market, including the 1971 Paragon, the L100 bookshelf speaker, and the JBL 250Ti floorstander, all of which remained in JBL's catalog for 20 years. In 1990, JBL produced the Project K2 S9500 flagship speaker for the Japanese high-end market. The K2 Project culminated in the $60,000/pair DD55000">http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2007/010907mikeyjbl">DD55000 Everest system, with its cross-firing asymmetric horns, and the subject of this review, the Synthesis 1400 Array BG, was a spin-off from the K2 project. It features horn-loaded midrange and tweeters to attain a flat response out to a claimed 48kHz.

Audacious Audio Digital Processor Reviews

Wadia 2000 Decoding Computer

Arnis Balgalvis May 06, 2010 First Published: Jan 06, 1990

Ain't technology grand! That's what I was thinking while driving to work this morning. Sure, the rain was coming down in buckets, but there I was sitting comfortably in a warm car, listening to music while making tracks at 50mph. A long way from horse-and-buggy days.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews Audacious Audio

Vandersteen Model Seven loudspeaker

Michael Fremer Mar 18, 2010 First Published: Mar 18, 2010

It's difficult to believe that the former top model of Vandersteen Audio's line of loudspeakers, the Model 5, has been in production in one form or another since 1997. Time passes quickly when you're having fun. Like all Vandersteen speakers, the 5 was and remains a good value and performance proposition. For all the 5's high technology and excellent performance both measured and audible, its price now starts at under $20,000/pair (up from about $10,000/pair when the 5 was introduced in 1997), including a built-in, proprietary powered subwoofer in each cabinet, and a sophisticated equalization system for room compensation.

Audacious Audio Turntable Reviews

Hanss Acoustics T-30 turntable

Art Dudley Feb 23, 2010 First Published: Feb 23, 2010

Revolver? More like evolver: 80 years after the first electrically driven record players became available, professional and amateur engineers continue to seek new ways to spin LPs with ever-greater steadiness and precision.

Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews Audacious Audio

Playback Designs MPS-5 SACD/CD player

Michael Fremer Feb 17, 2010 First Published: Feb 17, 2010

Playback Designs was founded less than three years ago. However, with the release in 2008 of its MPS-5 Music Playback System—a slim, full-featured SACD/CD player and DAC that costs $15,000 and is built in the US—the company has since established itself as a significant player in high-performance digital audio.

Solid State Power Amp Reviews Tube Power Amp Reviews Audacious Audio

EAR/Yoshino M100A monoblock power amplifier

Jonathan Scull Dec 31, 2009 First Published: Jan 31, 2002

When I first laid eyes on the Paravicini M100A monoblock power amplifiers at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2001, an audiophile in the room squinted at my badge and cried out, "Hey, J-10, these amps have your name written all over 'em!"

Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews Audacious Audio Digital Processor Reviews

dCS Puccini SACD playback system

John Atkinson Dec 14, 2009 First Published: Dec 14, 2009

It's now 10 years since the launch of the two high-resolution audio disc formats, SACDhttp://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/164">SACD; and DVD-Audiohttp://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/1099awsi">DVD-Audio;. Yet, perhaps partly because both were hobbled">http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/257">hobbled in various ways to please the record industry, perhaps partly because too many supposed hi-rez releases sounded no better than CD, and perhaps partly because record retailers weren't sure how to display the formats to their best advantage, neither took off in any substantive way. DVD-A disappeared, and SACD survived only as a niche format for high-quality classical releases in both two- and multichannel forms. As we got deeper into the same decade, digital technology, despite various sparks and flashes, went into the doldrums. Mainstream digital technology was increasingly concerned with squashing the music into fewer and more portable bits, not with increased sound quality. Even the concept of "CD sound quality" began to seem an unattainable goal, as MP3">http://www.stereophile.com/features/308mp3cd">MP3 files became the dominant music carrier.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews Audacious Audio

Aerial Acoustics 20T V2 loudspeaker

John Atkinson Nov 13, 2009 First Published: Nov 13, 2009

It was an audacious demonstration. For the launch of Aerial's 20T loudspeaker at the end of 2002, Aerial's head honcho and designer, Michael">http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/467">Michael Kelly, had arranged to compare the speakers reproducing the recorded sound of virtuoso violinist Arturo Delmoni with the real">http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/467">real thing. The setting was the ornate dining room of one of Newport, Rhode Island's many mansions, and, given the inevitable differences—due to the facts that a violin has a very different radiation pattern from a loudspeaker and thus excites the room differently, and that the recording inevitably gives the listener a double dose of the room's acoustic—the demo was successful. There was much subsequent argy-bargying between Stereophile's reviewers about who would review the Aerial 20T, but it was Michael Fremer who eventually wrote">http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/404aerial">wrote about it in April 2004.

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews Audacious Audio

Genesis II.5 loudspeaker system

Robert Harley Oct 08, 2009 First Published: Jan 08, 1995

Whenever anyone marvels at the enormous Genesis II.5 loudspeakers in my house, I'm quick to tell them that the II.5 is the smallest, least expensive loudspeaker made by Genesis Technologies. In fact, the company makes two larger speaker systems, the $33,000 Genesis II and the $70,000 Genesis I (footnote 1).

Audacious Audio Phono Preamp Reviews

Lamm LP2 Deluxe phono preamplifier

Art Dudley, Michael Fremer Sep 18, 2009 First Published: Dec 18, 2002

In an ideal world, I'd have every phono section I've reviewed in the past 16 years on hand to compare with these three and with all that arrive in the future. But because I have a life, I don't, and I wouldn't even if I could, though some readers (and one retailer) have insisted that that's the only way that I could possibly be of any use to them. Ha! And for those who are concerned that I've neglected the Manley Steelhead, not so! It's still my reference.