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Epos ELS-3 loudspeaker

Roy Hall, of Music Hall, US distributor of the Creek and Epos brands, called me one day a few years back. He was hawking review samples of Epos speakers.

"Bob, I'd like you to review a speaker from the eeh-pos line."

"Roy, I'm a big fan of Epos, but I review only inexpensive speakers; I think the Eposes are out of my price range."

"Nonsense. Since Mike Creek [founder, designer, and co-owner of Creek] purchased Epos from Tannoy in 1999, he has redesigned the entire Epos line and has shifted manufacturing to China to cut costs. So the new Epos line is lower in price…

Kroma Atelier Mimi Xtreme loudspeaker with Creek, Viola Audio Labs, Linn, and Ansuz

A speaker brand new to me, Kroma Atelier from Spain, caught many an eye and ear with the US premiere of their small black Mimi Xtreme standmount loudspeaker ($12,600/pair in white, $13,860 in black, left in photo) with Mimi stands ($3600/pair). Introduced by Tim Lukas's Matterhorn Audio Group of Boston, whose other brands include FinkTeam and Creek, the speaker is claimed to work with amps that output as little as 15Wpc. With a 6.5" midrange with proprietary cone, and a special AMT neodymium-ribbon tweeter designed by Mundorf to Kroma Atelier's specifications, the speaker boasts a 4 ohm…

Epos Aims High With the Encore 50

Since the ES14 from the mid-1980s, speakers from the English Epos company have been renowned for their midrange magic, not for ultimate dynamics. But Mike Creek, Epos's owner, is aiming for both with the Encore 50, which made its debut at CES. This three-way floorstander, priced at $9995/pair, uses two port-loaded 9" woofers with Kevlar/carbon-fiber/pulp-composite cones, in a large cabinet to achieve a high 90dB sensitivity, while the metal-dome tweeter uses an injected-molded roll surround to give high excursion. The midrange is fed by a tapped autotransformer to allow adjustment to a…

Stereophile's Products of 1998 Budget Component of 1998

Budget Component of 1998:

Creek 4330R integrated amplifier ($595, $495 without remote control; reviewed by Sam Tellig, Vol.20 No.11, November 1997; Wes Phillips, Vol.21 No.8, August 1998)

Finalists (in alphabetical order):
California Audio Labs Gamma D/A processor ($195; reviewed by Muse Kastanovich, Vol.19 No.11, November 1996; Robert J. Reina, Vol.20 No.5, May 1997, and Vol.21 No.1, January 1998)
LFD Mistral integrated amplifier ($1095; reviewed by Sam Tellig, Vol.21 No.9, September 1998)
Mission 731i loudspeaker ($299/pair; reviewed by Robert J. Reina, Vol.21 No.4…

Class-A Act: Gryphon’s Antileon Revelation Arrives

Gryphon's long-awaited pure class-A Antileon Revelation amplifier, the successor to the Antileon EVO, will hit dealer shelves late August in both stereo ($39,800) and mono ($45,500/each) versions. We used to say, “It will arrive late August if the creek don’t rise;” these days, we replace creek with tariffs.

The stereo model delivers 160Wpc into 8 ohms and 320Wpc into 4 ohms; the mono version increases that to 180W into 8 and 360W into 4 ohms. Output impedance is rated at 0.04 ohms for stereo and 0.02 ohms for mono. Power supply capacitance is 2×335,000µF for the stereo amp and…

The 2001 Products of the Year Joint Budget Components

2001 Joint Budget Components of the Year

Creek 5350SE integrated amplifier (review) ($1500; reviewed by Robert J. Reina & Sam Tellig, Vol.24 Nos.3 & 4, March & April 2001)
Perpetual Technologies P-3A D/A processor (review) ($799; reviewed by Robert Deutsch, Vol.24 Nos.1 & 10, January & October 2001)
Polk RT25i loudspeaker (review) ($320/pair; reviewed by Robert J. Reina, Vol.24 No.9, September 2001)

Runners-Up (in alphabetical order):
Acoustic Energy AEGO2 loudspeaker ($599/pair with active subwoofer; reviewed by Michael Fremer, Vol.24 No.3, March…

Music in the Round #85: Nimitra, exaSound, Baetis, Roon Contacts

Sidebar 1: Contacts

Fidelizer. Web: www.fidelizer-audio.com

exaSound Audio Design, 3219 Yonge Street, Suite 354, Toronto, Ontario M4N 3S1, Canada. Web: www.exasound.com

Baetis Audio, 428 Canyon Creek Road, Livingston, MT 59047. Tel: (514) 496-9933. Web: www.baetisaudio.com

Creek EVO 50CD Player/DAC

Creek's new EVO 50CD made its debut at CES and will also include a DAC built around 2 Wolfson 24/192 chips. On the back will be coaxial, toslink and USB inputs as well as coax and toslink as well as analog outputs. The player/DAC with USB will be available in spring this year for $1,495.

PM5003 <I>vs</I> PM5004

BJR compared the Marantz PM5003 & PM5004 in March 2011 (Vol.34 No.3):

In the context of reviewing the CD5004 CD player ($349.99), I thought it would be useful to also listen to its sister component, Marantz's PM5004 integrated amplifier ($449.99), and compare it with its predecessor, the PM5003 integrated (also $449.99), which I reviewed in the January 2010 Stereophile.

It took a good deal of scrutiny to see any differences between the PM5003 and PM 5004. The only thing I found is that the Speaker A and B terminals are reversed on the PM5004. Marantz told me that this is…

Graham Audio Era Gold Mk.V phono stage

I don't know Gram Slee from Gram Parsons, or which House he was in at Harry Potter's Hogwarts School, but let me tell you: If you'd just been listening to a bunch of budget phono preamps, as I had, then came upon the GSP Audio Era Gold Mk.V, you'd think someone had switched out not just the phono preamp but your entire system. You might think you were listening to a different pressing or a different cartridge. How can this be?

The GSP Audio Era Gold Mk.V is about twice as expensive as the Perreaux SXV1 and the Musical Fidelity XLPSv3, but it sounded at least 10 times better. It was…