LATEST ADDITIONS

Southwest Audio Fest 2024
Børresen Acoustics M6 and X6, Axxess, Aavik, and Ansuz
Mark Henninger  |  Mar 25, 2024  |  0 comments
At the Southwest Audio Fest in Dallas, Børresen Acoustics took a room and outfitted it with two killer systems. The cost-no-object system featured the flagship M6 speakers; the other showed the capabilities of the more affordable but similarly imposing X6 towers.
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Southwest Audio Fest 2024
Acora, VAC, Esoteric, Clear, and Cardas
Mark Henninger  |  Mar 25, 2024  |  0 comments
VAC and Acora were a compelling combo at SWAF 2024. In this demo, a pair of granite-bodied Acora SCR-2 loudspeakers ($48,000/pair) sounded rock-solid powered by a pair of VAC Essence amplifiers ($9900/each).
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Southwest Audio Fest 2024
Estelon Forza Speakers, MSB Electronics, Taiko, and Synergistic Research
Mark Henninger  |  Mar 25, 2024  |  0 comments
This superb high-end audio system, featured at the Southwest Audio Fest in Dallas, included Estelon Forza speakers ($170,000/pair) in dark silver liquid gloss powered by MSB M500 mono amplifiers ($75,000 each).
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Southwest Audio Fest 2024
YG Acoustics Sonja 3.2 with Constellation Audio, Audio Research, MSB Technology, and Pure Fidelity
Mark Henninger  |  Mar 25, 2024  |  0 comments

Southwest Audio Fest v1.0 in Dallas, Texas, was the site of the North American debut of the YG Acoustics Sonja 3.2 loudspeaker.

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Southwest Audio Fest 2024
MBL Radialstrahler 120 Speakers and C41 Player
Mark Henninger  |  Mar 25, 2024  |  0 comments

Now, before we return to Montreal, here's more from the Southwest Audio Fest.

You won't mistake an MBL speaker for any other. No matter what size MBL speakers you buy, you will get the same unique 360-degree dispersion driver technology. The company's smallest and most affordable entry point into its line of speakers is the Radialstrahler 120 ($26,500/pair), which was demoed in Dallas.

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Montreal Audiofest 2024
SPL, PMC, Luna Cables
Robert Schryer  |  Mar 24, 2024  |  7 comments

The first thing I thought when I spied SPL’s component rack was how nifty its gear looked—neither too large nor too small, with faceplates just the right size to accommodate their features with style.

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Montreal Audiofest 2024
Corby’s Audio: Saturn Audio, Coherent Audio, Baetis Audio, Rega, Allnic
Robert Schryer  |  Mar 24, 2024  |  0 comments

After I witnessed the ribbon cutting-ceremony performed by 20 industry under-40-somethings on Friday morning—a symbolic event meant to jointly celebrate the Montreal Audiofest’s 35th edition and the new generation of audio-industry flamekeepers—I hit the rooms closest to my own room, starting with Corby’s Audio. This Toronto-area retailer was showing a spread of audio gear that offered a visually appetizing mix of rich wood tones and sleek metal surfaces.

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Montreal Audiofest 2024
Bienvenue to the 35th Edition of the Montreal Audiofest!
Robert Schryer  |  Mar 24, 2024  |  2 comments

"I'm back, back in the saddle again"—actually, I'm back at the Montreal Audiofest, held March 22–24 at its usual grand locale, the Bonaventure Hotel.

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Audacious AudioStand Loudspeaker Reviews
Thrax Audio Siren loudspeaker
Martin Colloms  |  Mar 22, 2024  |  28 comments
Based in Bulgaria, European audio company Thrax has been active since 2009. Their ingenious and varied design approaches seen over several product lines have continued to intrigue me with their conceptual originality, innate musicality, and imaginative use of a broad spectrum of technologies. Their products range from valve (tube) amplification to digital audio and, more recently, loudspeakers . . . The range of distinctive high-end electronics has continued to expand to include a loudspeaker, the standmount Lyra, now joined by the smaller Siren ($13,600/pair), also a standmount and the subject of this Stereophile review.
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Tonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Technics Grand Class SL-1200/1210GR2 record player
Ken Micallef  |  Mar 21, 2024  |  16 comments
In the early 1980s, I worked in a pop band playing AM radio hits, grooving behind my Yamaha drums and Zildjian cymbals as sweat drenched my body and my ears rang. We danced. We pranced. My shiny silk jumpsuit led upwards to a 2"-high afro, which women ran fingers through in hopes of finding contraband smokes ... Then overnight, everything changed.

At the beginning of the previous decade, Technics had released the SP-10, the first direct drive turntable. That was followed in short order by the SL-1100. Clive Campbell, aka Jamaican-American DJ Kool Herc, pioneered the simultaneous use of two Technics SL-1100s, initially at his sister's birthday party in the Bronx, inspiring "block parties" (rigging streetlamps for power) and hip-hop culture. Kool Herc isolated drumbeats from records by James Brown (with drummers Clyde Stubblefield and John "Jabo" Starks) and the Incredible Bongo Band (powered by master studio drummer Jim Gordon), among others, creating "breaks" for heated dance-floor partying. Soon, Lace Taylor (aka Afrika Bambaataa) and Grandmaster Flash (The Message) took Kool Herc's inventions into the mainstream, and hip-hop went global.

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