On January 12, 2026, Dan D'Agostino Master Systems (DDMAS) welcomed approximately 52 international audio dealers and distributors, along with four members of the audio press, to the unveiling of the new Momentum Z mono amplifier ($125,000/pair) at the Dan D'Agostino factory in Cave Creek, Arizona. This 15th Anniversary event included: a fabulous welcome dinner in the finest and most sophisticated "steakhouse" I've ever visited (not that I've visited many); an extended product…
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Meet the Momentum Z mono amplifier. Other than this one, all photos in this story are by Jason Victor Serinus.
Previous Awards, 1992–2008:
Stereophile's Products of 2008
Product of the Year: Sooloos music server system (review)
Joint Budget Products of the Year:
Paradigm Atom v.5 loudspeaker (review)
Rega Planar 3-24 turntable & RB-301 tonearm (review)
Joint Loudspeakers of the Year
KEF Reference 207/2 (review)
Revel Ultima Salon2 (review)
Joint Amplification Components:
Conrad-Johnson ACT2 Series 2 preamplifier (review)
Parasound Halo JC 2 preamplifier (review)
Digital Source Component: Sooloos music server system (review)
Joint Analog Source…
All of the tracks on Miles Davis's In Concert (LP, Columbia/Legacy KG 32092) reproduced the brassy bite and the golden glow of Davis's horn with startlingly three-dimensional realism. In the title track of the Byrds' Turn! Turn! Turn! (LP, Columbia/Sundazed LP 5058), Roger McGuinn's Rickenbacker 12-string electric guitar was appropriately jangly and metallic. In fact, it even seemed a bit forward through the Sonus Faber. Orphée, from John Zorn's Mysterium (CD, Tzadik TZ8018) spotlights Tara Helen O'Connor's flute; its upper register was pure and clean through the 1.5, with all upper…
A small subset of audiophiles (always men—the especially old and joyless ones, I suspect) are sick of reading about my adventures in domesticity: They've been there, done that, and managed to do it far better than I. Good for them. Really, I'm glad they're so wise, mature, and experienced that they would spend their free time pounding out frenzied letters to the editor, caps firmly locked, disparaging my taste in music, my relationships with women, my choice of loudspeaker.
But I do wonder whether their energies could be better spent in sharing their experiences and wisdom, in humbly…
Because of Garth Powell's background in pro audio, you can be sure there's a Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) for the two groups of four outlets that use isolation transformers, because their outputs are symmetrical (balanced), which produces a voltage potential on Neutral relative to Ground. This is not a problem unless a connected component's power supply suffers a catastrophic failure, in which case there's a slight chance of the presence of AC voltage on the chassis. In that case, the GFCI would, within a fraction of a second, shut off the main power switch.
The Niagara 7000…
As it turned out, the silence wasn't the result of a hardware or firmware flaw. Rather, it pointed to the need for greater care in optimizing my computer settings—greater, that is, than the level of care required by most PCM-only USB processors, the relative simplicity of which had lulled me into a false sense of expertise. During a conversation with Paul McGowan I learned that I needed to: open my iMac's AudioMIDI Setup window; highlight the left-column choice for the PS Audio DAC; change the source default sampling rate from 44.1 to 192kHz; and remove from the master-channel "Mute" box a…
"Bass—the final frontier," declared Captain James T. Kirk. I have no doubt: The biggest problem in nearly every listening room is getting the bass to sound right. Today, we voyage to the frontier of bass response.
A Brief History of Time
Because my listening room is also a mastering room, it has to be as accurate as possible (see photo 1). The floor is a concrete slab, with solid-block wall construction and a cathedral ceiling 23' high at the rear—there are no floor-to-ceiling resonances. A bay window hidden behind the curtains disperses the lengthwise room mode by varying it…
I listened to the Thetas for seven months, alternating them with a Mark Levinson No.334 and a pair of MBL Corona C15s, the latter supplied by JA, who has them on long-term loan. The amplifiers drove my Quad ESL-989 and Revel Ultima Salon2 speakers full range, and were reconfigured to reproduced frequencies above 80Hz when Revel's Rhythm2 subwoofer was in circuit.
Although setting up a pair of monoblocks seldom requires instructions, I enjoyed reading Theta Digital's well-written and detailed manual. It revealed that the small rear-panel switch that controls the AC mains supply must be…
It was. The Stereo 1.0's manual (p.8) reveals that, as with the Levinson, the user must wait at least three seconds between activations of the power switches. In fact, the Constellation's Power/Standby bar must be held down all that time, until an internal relay clicks as it triggers the turn-on sequence, during which the bar's LED shifts from glowing steady red (Standby) to flashing green (Warmup). That flashing-green phase, too, is inviolate—pressing the bar again won't bypass it. At the end of that long minute, the relay clicks again, the LED glows steady blue, and the Stereo 1.0 is…
Totem Acoustic has always impressed me with their ability to get big sound from small boxes, but never more so than when I listened to the Tribe Tower ($US5300/pair) at this year's TAVES. Designer Vince Bruzzese has surpassed even his own high standards here. My first impression, before I heard the speakers, was that this is a "lifestyle" product: stylish in a modern way, with a small footprint that allows it to blend into most home environments. Almost by definition, sound quality is not top priority with lifestyle products
And then Vince played some music. I don't remember what it was…