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Brilliant CornersIntegrated Amp ReviewsMusic and Recording Reviews
Brilliant Corners #21: German kitchens, Japanese amps, and Afropop gems
Alex Halberstadt  |  Dec 05, 2024
I have a day job at a museum. One of my favorite things about working there is taking the elevator from my office down to one of the floors open to the public; I walk into the galleries through a discreet panel in the wall. This makes me feel like I'm in one of those horror-movie manors with a tunnel concealed behind a bookshelf. Sometimes I startle people, which I kind of enjoy.

Mostly I like spending time looking at art, especially in the early mornings when the galleries are empty. Lately, I've been watching art handlers hanging a roughly 100'-long tapestry depicting some manner of planetary jetsam—or maybe they are aquatic plants—by Nigerian artist Otobong Nkanga. And I make regular trips to a small theater to watch mesmerizing footage of Orchard Street in working-class lower Manhattan, shot in 1955 by veteran filmmaker Ken Jacobs. Captured on warm, saturated 16mm film, the long-gone people on the screen appear as vividly alive as the museumgoers around me.

My favorite-ever thing at the museum, though, is a life-sized kitchen. Austrian architect Grete Lihotzky designed it for a Frankfurt housing complex in 1927.

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Digital Processor ReviewsSolid State Preamp Reviews
TEAC UD-701N streaming D/A preamplifier
Herb Reichert  |  Dec 05, 2024
In Gramophone Dreams #88, I described the sound of TEAC's VRDS-701T CD transport as "dense and precise in a way I had never previously heard from digital." I went on to explain, "by 'dense,' I mean there was a tangible corporeality effected by seemingly infinite quantities of small, tightly packed molecules of musical information."

What I noticed most during the review period was the extraordinary volume of data the 701T was vacuuming off those pits and lands and turning into music. As I have gotten to know it better, what I've noticed most is how the 701T sorts and delivers all that data in a manner that makes every DAC I pair it with sound more corporal and dynamic.

As I wrote that review, I wondered how the 701T would perform partnered with its matching UD-701N converter/streamer/preamplifier and how the TEAC flagship DAC's sound character would compare to flagship DACs from HoloAudio, Denafrips, and dCS.

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Tube Power Amp Reviews
Air Tight ATM-1 2024 Edition power amplifier
Ken Micallef  |  Dec 04, 2024
Closing his review of the AirTight ATM-1S amplifier in the November 2014 Stereophile, Art Dudley wrote, "The AirTight ATM-1S is right up there with the best I've heard: the artisanal, the small, the artistically sensitive, the colorful and characterful, the smart. The AirTight is as serious an EL34 amplifier as I've heard, offering texture, color, poise, musical drive, and rightness, all in good proportion to one another. It also looks nice and represents at least decent if not outrageously good value for the money."

Art's ATM-1S was a step in a long succession of tube amplifiers produced by AirTight since its 1986 founding. First came the original ATM-1; AirTight has also produced the ATM-2 (which used KT88 tubes), the ATM-4 (6L6GCs), the 1S that Art reviewed (EL34s; the S stood for "special"), the ATM-2 Plus, and now the ATM-1 2024 Edition ($14,975).

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Capital AudioFest 2024
Well Pleased AV/Alma Music & Audio: QLN, Qualiton, Merason, Innuos, Kubala Sosna, GigaWatt, Finite Elemente, AB-Tech
Ken Micallef  |  Dec 04, 2024
Mark Sossa, the best-dressed and best-mannered exhibitor at CAF 2024, under the banner of Well Pleased AV, had new gear to play for me and I was all ears.
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Capital AudioFest 2024
High Water Sound: Cessaro, Zeiler Audio, TW-Acustic, Dalby Audio Design, Codia Acoustic Design, Silent Running Audio, Stein Music
Ken Micallef  |  Dec 04, 2024
Even if audio isn’t your thing, I always advise everyone within earshot to visit Jeffrey Catalano’s hi-fi rooms, the world over. ‘Cause more than a smart-witted audiophile, Jeffrey is a seasoned musician and experienced listener, his vinyl collection spreading to the many thousands. This man has serious taste in music, an influencer, you might say, of the highest degree.
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Phono Accessory ReviewsPhono Cartridge ReviewsSpin Doctor
Spin Doctor #19: An exotic Audio-Technica cartridge and a Vivid flagship speaker
Michael Trei  |  Dec 04, 2024  |  First Published: Dec 03, 2024
I think of Audio-Technica as the maker of some of the best high-value cartridges out there. From the ubiquitous AT3600L, which can be had for a little more than a Big Mac meal at McDonald's, to the popular OC9 moving coil series, A-T's cartridges have long been easy-to-recommend options that deliver great sound mounted on just about any turntable.

But occasionally, Audio-Technica likes to show off its technological chops by launching a cartridge that breaks new ground. Last year, they celebrated their 60th anniversary by stunning everyone with the AT-MC2022, which uses an outrageous integrated stylus and cantilever fashioned from a single piece of lab-grown diamond. In 2016, they flexed their capabilities with the AT-ART1000, which completely reconfigured how the elements of a moving coil cartridge are arranged, with spectacular results.

Now, eight years after the AT-ART1000 was launched, A-T has introduced the AT-ART1000x, which incorporates several small but important improvements.

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Capital AudioFest 2024
Now Listen Here: Vandersteen, Acora, Pure Fidelity, EMM Labs, Bel Canto Design, Innuos, Ayre, Rega, Audio-Technica, AudioQuest, Finley Audio
Ken Micallef  |  Dec 04, 2024
NLH’s Aaron Sherrick was busy, yet oddly calm, as he sat and directed the action in the Executive Lounge. NLH’s Matt Early (an old friend of mine from Tower Records on 66th St. NYC) controlled the iPad, while Qobuz’s David Solomon offered support, emotional and otherwise!
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Capital AudioFest 2024
MC Audiotech, Linear Tube Audio, Wolf Servers, ArgentPUR Cables
Ken Micallef  |  Dec 04, 2024
MC Audiotech's Mark Conti, ever the gentleman, even when confronted by a rabid reporter, unveiled a system of such sweet tone and dynamic might that it soothed my inner beast. At
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Capital AudioFest 2024
VK Music: Elekit, Sun Valley
Ken Micallef  |  Dec 04, 2024
Gramophone Dreams’ columnist Herb Reichert has written glowing amplifier reviews of Elekit of Fukuoka, Japan, and Sun Valley, of Nagoya, Japan, both distributed by Victor Kung’s VK Music.

At CAF2024 Victor showcased many amplifiers at his CAF booth, most boasting fat tubes and open circuit boards, the kind of which activates my reviewer’s twitch.

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Audacious AudioSolid State Power Amp Reviews
Moon 861 stereo/mono power amplifier
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Dec 04, 2024  |  First Published: Nov 30, 2024
It is unusual to begin a review with a detailed discussion of setup. But setup protocol for the Moon 861 power amplifier ($22,000 each), the top-level amplifier in the North Collection from Moon, which I reviewed bridged in mono, proved crucial to its sound.

The setup saga began when Moon co-owner Costa Koulisakis traveled to Port Townsend from Quebec to help remove two 861 amplifiers from their sturdy flight cases and set them up.

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