"There is a common misconception today," Vandersteen states, "one that has been aided and abetted by a strong marketing effort from certain Hollywood firms, that the requirements for a home-…
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Loudspeaker designer and manufacturer Richard Vandersteen has heard enough: He is embarking on a crusade to right an egregious wrong he sees being perpetuated by the marketing scribes and salesfolk working in the consumer electronics business. Though he was miles away, at his company headquarters in Hanford, CA, his passion for spreading the audiophile word came through the telephone loud and clear.
Sidebar 2: The Antony Michaelson Quintet
Clarinetist Antony Michaelson was educated at Trinity College of Music in London, where he studied with Keith Puddy and John McCaw. His love of music was the driving force behind his search for a "better stereo system": in the late 1970s, unable to find such a system, he founded his first hi-fi company, which made tube amplifiers. He then put his hi-fi knowledge to good use as founder and managing director of British company Musical Fidelity. Realizing that he missed the joy of making music, Michaelson resumed serious practice of the clarinet…
If you didn't follow Paul Messenger's 2006 Hi-Fi News Show Report—and really, you missed some fine reporting if you didn't—you may be unaware of the fact that Apogee Acoustics has been reborn in the Antipodes.
Graeme Keet (aka Graz), long known for his repairs and rebuilding of Apogee's magnetic planar loudspeakers, has obtained the rights to the Apogee brand name and the domain name www.apogeeacoustics.com. At the London show, Graz demonstrated his first new product, the $25,000 Synergy 1.5 loudspeakers, which, Graz says, "used the 1 ohm Scintilla as the benchmark."
"The…
Previous Awards:
Stereophile's Products of 2001
Joint Products of the Year:
MartinLogan Prodigy loudspeaker (review)
Revel Ultima Studio loudspeaker (review)
Joint Budget Components:
Creek 5350SE integrated amplifier (review)
Perpetual Technologies P-3A D/A processor (review)
Polk RT25i loudspeaker (review)
Joint Loudspeakers:
MartinLogan Prodigy (review)
Revel Ultima Studio (review)
Amplification Component: TacT RCS 2.0 digital equalizer/preamplifier (review)
Joint Digital Sources:
Accuphase DP-100/DC-101 SACD transport/processor (…
Once home, I unwrap my new possession, place the record on the VPI Traveler, and anxiously, expectantly, sit down to listen.
More beeps, bangs, and drones—gah!—almost as terrifying as the crap coming from Ms. Little's apartment. Ten seconds in, I'm scolding myself: Why did I buy this? (footnote 1) I get up, pull the record from the platter, return it to its sleeve, place the album on a stack of countless others like it, and soon forget it ever existed.
Where did I put that Drake record?
Ms. Little snapped me out of my reverie. "And what do you mean by 'Hmm'?"
"…
Integrated Amplifiers & Receivers
A
Audio Research VSi60: $5000 ✩
In the 50Wpc VSi60, a passive line stage is combined with a JFET input stage driving one 6H30 driver tube per channel. Each channel's output stage has a matched pair of Svetlana 6550C push-pull tubes with a combination of pentode operation and ARC's "partially cathode-coupled topology." Convenient to use, the VSi60 provides output taps at 4 and 8 ohms, as well as four pairs of voltmeter test points. Though it lacked the ultimate control of more powerful amplifiers, the VSi60 combined a glorious midrange…
Sidebar 2: Associated equipment
For most of my listening the analog front-end consisted of a VPI TNT turntable with all the latest updates, including the Flywheel (footnote 1), fitted with either a Rockport Capella air-bearing linear tracking arm or the Graham 1.5t with ceramic armtube. The cartridge was either a Clavis DC or a Dynavector XX-1L. The 'table sat on a Bright Star Audio Big Rock TNT isolation platform, which rested on a TNT stand filled with lead shot and sand. I also listened on the Rotel RP-900 turntable/Sumiko Blue Point combo.
The digital source was an EAD T-7000…
2001 Amplification Component
TacT RCS 2.0 digital equalizer/preamplifier (review) ($2950-$4248; reviewed by Kalman Rubinson, Vol.24 No.9, September 2001)
Runners-Up (in alphabetical order):
Balanced Audio Technology VK-40 preamplifier ($4000; reviewed by Robert Deutsch, Vol.24 No.7, July 2001)
Classé CAM 350 monoblock power amplifier (review) ($7000/pair; reviewed by Brian Damkroger, Vol.24 No.1, January 2001)
Conrad-Johnson Premier 17LS preamplifier (review) ($4495; reviewed by Brian Damkroger, Vol.24 No.5, May 2001)
Creek 5350SE integrated amplifier (review) ($…
2008 Joint Amplification Components of the Year
Conrad-Johnson ACT2 Series 2 preamplifier ($16,500; reviewed by Wes Phillips, Vol.30 No.11, November 2007 Review)
Parasound Halo JC 2 preamplifier ($4000; reviewed by Sam Tellig & John Atkinson, Vol.30 No.12 & Vol.31 No.3, December 2007 & March 2008 Review)
Runners-Up (in alphabetical order)
Anthem Statement D2 multichannel preamplifier-processor ($7499; reviewed by Kalman Rubinson, Vol.31 Nos.9 & 11, September & November 2008 Review)
Ayre Acoustics AX-7e integrated amplifier ($3500;…
Stereophile is partnering with the Festival Son & Image, to be held in Montreal, Canada, Thursday April 3 through Sunday, April 6. The first day is for trade and press only—public admission starts on Friday at 11am. More than 120 brands will be demonstrated in rooms on 11 floors of the Sheraton Centre hotel in downtown Montreal, and the Show's keynote speech is being given by Monster Cable's Noel Lee at 10am on the trade day, Thursday April 3.
Stereophile will be blogging live from the Show and the magazine's team of editors and writers, including John Marks, Wes Phillips, Robert…