Gramophone Dreams

Goldring's Ethos moving coil plays like a cartridge costing much more than its $1599 asking price. Not only that, it's built like one: aircraft aluminum body, neodymium magnet, plus a nude 0.3 × 1.4 mil line-contact stylus on an aluminum cantilever. With a 4 ohm internal resistance, the Ethos puts out 0.5mV at 1kHz and 5cm/s and plays happily into its recommended load of 100 ohms. Its dynamic compliance is specified at 15mm/N, static compliance at 25mm/N.

I mounted the Ethos in an LP Gear H4 headshell and attached it to my Sorane SA-1.2 tonearm, which was mounted on my Dr. Feickert Blackbird turntable. I connected it to MoFi's MasterPhono phono preamp set at Goldring's recommended load (100 ohms), with the Sorane's own DIN cable. I double-checked my cartridge alignment by playing the orchestral bell flute and harp tests on Shure's ERA IV Trackability Test Record (TTR 115). What I hear playing that record predicts what I'll hear with every other record. What I noticed with the Ethos was how clean, full-bodied, and well-toned the harp tracks sounded. The harp's strings felt thicker, closer to the mike, and—hence—more tangible than usual.

A new test I've devised is to play my scratched, clicks'n'pops noisy G/G+ copy of Barbra Streisand's first record (Columbia LP CL 2007) then try to rate cartridges on their ability to reduce the noticeability of these wear-sourced disturbances. Goldring's Ethos blew this test into the sky. Way better than most cartridges, it reduced the apparent volume of these distractions, turning a G+ disc into a VG keeper.

Waiting for Ethos: After 10 hours of playing time, the Goldring's Ethos was surfing the highest-velocity grooves. It played John McLaughlin's Devotion (Douglas LP S DGL 65075) with an almost pristine clarity. It sounded sweet, quick, and more tightly organized, with a sharp but not-too-sharp focus. In common with Bowie's Blackstar, it doesn't take much groove shimmy to make McLaughlin's Devotion sound blurred and congested. The Ethos tracked Devotion with absolute laser-level certainty, which made each artist's performance easier to follow.

After 20 hours, I reached into my Nonesuch Explorer Series collection and pulled out Kalpana Improvisations: Instrumental & Dance Music of India (Nonesuch H-72022). Playing Kalpana, the Ethos pulled its way through complex Raga time measures and the unprocessed harmonics of a sarod, a tabla, and a dancer with ankle bells. Over centuries, this timeless music has evolved to trigger the listener's imagination. Each song is created purposefully to spark visions and promote delirium. Throughout this Explorer Series recording, the rhythmically persuasive Ethos emphasized pathos and suppressed logos. The only tool it needed was its marvelous clarity.

You know when that shark bites with his teeth, babe ...
Scarlet billows start to spread ...
Now on the sidewalk, huh, huh, whoo sunny morning, un huh
Lies a body just oozin' life, eek
Oh, the line forms on the right, babe
Now that Macky's back in town Look out, old Macky's back!

I love how those lyrics celebrate natural-born evil with a wink, a sly smile, and a finger snap.

If there's a higher form of art than songwriting, it could only be singing. Since before I was born, great singers singing timeless songs have enriched my blood and kept my heart pumping scarlet. That's why I love YouTube, where, as I was writing this, I stumbled on Bobby Darin singing Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's "Mack the Knife" on the Ed Sullivan show in 1959. As I sat mesmerized by the video (footnote 3), I realized that with all forms of art, I must look past the obvious and into the shadows where the beautiful mysteries hide. The passage of cultural time has allowed Darin's masterfully orchestrated performance to transcend its finger-snapping Vegas vibe and move into the realm of evil Lynchian darkness, a moodplace I can never get enough of. To keep it going, I played my 7" 45 of Bobby singing about Macky, Lotte, and "old Lucy Brown" (Atco 45-6147), and damn me if Goldring's Ethos didn't pull out the same surreal darkness I discovered in the video. Sonics-wise, the fresh-sounding Ethos delivered most of the disc's juke box presence while maintaining a balanced relationship between the band behind and Darin's voice up front.

Just to be clear: I keep repeating my praise for the Ethos's tracking abilities because that's how it sounds: like its line-contact rock stays locked in the slot. Goldring's overachieving Ethos delivers a bright, extra-quiet clarity that lets the sounds and attitudes of music come out fresh, full, distinct, and robust. In my system, with a variety of phono stages, the Goldring Ethos made high-chi uptown sound at a modest downtown price.

The Meze 109 Pro
Meze's flagship Elite planar-magnetic headphone that I reviewed in Gramophone Dreams #64 is one of the most beautifully constructed, truthful, and seductive-sounding transducers that has ever straddled my brain pan. But the Elite costs $3999 while its new stablemate, the elegant-looking, dynamic-driver Meze 109 Pro, costs only $799 (footnote 4) and delivers a majority portion of the Elite's seductive resolve.

Normally I write about edgier, more expensive headphones, but in February 2023, at CanJam NYC, Meze's 109 Pro headphones powered by Woo Audio's WA2 OTL amplifier were the surprise high point during my two days of auditions. The 109 played David Chesky recordings so well that David and our whole listening gang declared it "better than anything in the big room." These high-revving declarations happened in Woo Audio's "off to the side" room where the 40 ohm 109 Pros were being driven by Jack Wu's modest $1499 WA2 OTL amp, which is specified as having a 70 ohm output impedance. That's right, Meze's 40 ohm voice-coil and 50mm "beryllium-coated polymer, cellulose/carbon fiber composite and copper-zinc alloy" diaphragm were being driven by an output-transformerless tube amp with an output impedance of 70 ohms (!) and the sound was instantly engaging: nuanced and vital, with thick textures and never-before-noticed details.

If Meze headphones have a house sound, and I were pressured to identify it, I would describe it as breathy, caressingly smooth, and nanodetailed. I am writing this story because that description applies equally to Meze's flagship Elite and Meze's new 109 Pro.

Often, while I write my reviews, I listen inquisitively at my desk using the JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266, the HiFiMan Susvara, or the Audeze CRBN, hoping to dig up some lost sonic treasures buried in a recording.

But when the lights are out, and I lay on the floor in my pile of pillows, I want sound that directs my attentions toward dream realms—toward the beautiful and psychedelic. Meze's 109 Pro excelled at that task. With every amplifier, the 109 exhibited a perfect right-brain/left-brain balance; beautiful sound and musical insight were celebrated equally.

As much as I live for Hank, Frank, and Bob, they don't really do sensual right-brain stuff like a gal named Barbra. I've never found a Barbra Streisand album that didn't grip me, but the one that holds me tightest now is her first one (which I mocked in my youth): The Barbra Streisand Album from 1963, which conveys the fresh voice and confident mind that, at age 21, traded lower pay for complete creative control. And—don't laugh—my favorite song off that first album is "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?," one of the first songs she performed publicly in 1962 at Café Bon Soir in Greenwich Village (footnote 5). This fun song was written by Frank Churchill and arranged and conducted for this performance by Peter Matz (16/44.1 FLAC, Columbia/Qobuz). The 109s powered by the Feliks Envy conveyed every eager breath of Streisand's fresh-faced exuberance. On this album, her voice sounds genuinely young but not inexperienced. Not surprisingly, critics and early fans noticed how something in the singer's voice suggested that Streisand knew she was a legend in the startup phase.

Listening with the Feliks 300B Envy, I kept grinning, giggling, and shaking my head in rediscovered admiration for how creatively Barbra delivers each song and how tastefully this album was recorded.

I have two copies of The Barbra Streisand Album: the G/G+ (VG with the Goldring) one I used for testing (above) and a NM one I use for personal pleasure. The NM copy accesses a lot more information of all types, and when I played it through the dCS Lina headphone amplifier, I was taken aback by the dynamic nuance and microarticulated space the 109 Pros delivered.

The sound through the Lina was a few degrees cooler than with the Feliks Envy, but the Lina better emphasized the confidence in Barbra's voice. With the Lina driving the Meze 109 Pros, the orchestra was presented clearly and always in perfect service of Streisand's voice.

I'm enamored with Meze Audio's made-in-Romania headphones for lots of reasons, and I'll explain more of them in the future. Right now, though, there's one important reason I must mention: Meze engineers have created their headphones to be extremely durable and 100% user-serviceable. "We believe that a longer product lifespan means a smaller ecological footprint," reads Meze's sustainability statement, on the company website. "Following this philosophy, the 109 Pro can be taken apart and serviced by average users—if ever needed." Spare parts and optional copper and silver cables are available on the Meze website (footnote 6).

Meze Audio's 109 Pro dynamic headphone joins the Klipsch RP-600M II, Magnepan LRS speakers, Elekit TU-8600 amplifier, and Pioneer PLX-1000 direct drive turntable as the products I am most proud to have introduced and recommended at Stereophile. I hope to find more such products in 2024.

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Footnote 3: See youtube.com/watch?v=557lFG-qq5g.

Footnote 4: Meze Audio, Iuliu Maniu str., no. 38, 1st fl., ap. 2, Baia Mare, 430131, Romania. Email: info@mezeaudio.com. Web: mezeaudio.com.

Footnote 5: These performances are documented on the recent release on the recent Impex issue, Live at the Bon Soir, Impex Records IMP6050. Also see stereophile.com/content/recording-june-2023-barbra-streisand-live-bon-soir.

Footnote 6: See mezeaudio.com/collections/accessories.