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Another speaker debut and another winner. Introducing the Vandersteen Kēnto Carbon ($37,500/pair), which, together with Vandersteen M5-HPA amplifiers ($15,800/pair), VTL electronics, and more sounded open and alive on top on a Mercury Living LP of Dorati’s rendition of Stravinsky’s The Firebird. Depth and color were so good that I found myself wishing for a bigger space in which to hear how great this combination can sound. (But not too big, like the rooms I complained about for the first half of the show.) If that doesn’t happen at RMAF 2020, it will be at least partly because everyone at…
My last exhibit in one of the multi-tower Gaylord Hotel’s 1500 rooms was sponsored by Portuguese music server manufacturer Innuos. I’ve been looking for a music server to review and, with Jim Austin’s approval, hope to tackle the top-of-the-line Statement ($13,750 for 1TB SSD up to $15,150 for 4TB SSD). Released last November, here at the show it reproduced music with impressive transparency, depth, color, and body.
Featured, however, was the world premiere of the company’s PhoenixUSB reclocker ($3149), which can be used with any device to reclock signals sent via USB and ethernet. When…
If you, like me, tend to associate MartinLogan with electrostatic transducers, you may be surprised to learn that their more traditional Motion line accounts for most of their sales. The upgrades on the Motion 35XTi speaker ($649.99 each) are subtle, and termed “housekeeping” by the company’s Peter Soderberg. Designed by their head engineers, they are claimed to carry over the electrostatic voicing that distinguishes the company’s other models. Together with MartinLogan’s Dynamo 800X subwoofers ($799.99/each), Benchmark’s D/A DAC3 B D/A converter ($1699), LA4 line amplifier ($2499), AHB2…
Ray Kimber of KimberK able was in “You gotta” mode. After he told me that WBT, the 34-year-old German company that supplies connectors and cable terminations to hundreds of manufacturers worldwide, had a new, environmentally friendly facing process that made for better sound, I arranged to meet with WBT founder and CEO Wolfgang Thoerner on Sunday morning to discuss their new "WBT-PlasmaProtect" PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) plasma process.
Traditional gold, copper, and palladium galvanic electroplating baths are not only toxic and high consumers of energy, Thoerner told me, they also…
After talking with a number of exhibitors and attendees, I’d have to call the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest’s daring move to a new and very different venue—a controversial if also inevitable move—a success. Everyone I spoke to was happy with attendance, and the sound in the hotel rooms was generally excellent.
For people who stayed at the hotel, food in the two restaurants I visited was quite good, if pricey. The Marketplace had some excellent salads and enough goodies and caffeinated beverages to keep everyone happy. The amenities, including a large gym and pool, were excellent. So was the…
While it can't exactly be said that the folks from The Mod Squad invented the game of audiophile modifications of existing, current-production hardware, they certainly have grown to be one of the major leaguers. Their mods have a reputation for being well-thought-out, nearly always offering improvements over the originals. And while they weren't the originators of the concept (footnote 1), any company which brought the world Tiptoes (probably their most famous product) will probably have a niche in the 21st-Century Museum of High-End Audio.
It's hardly surprising, therefore, that the…
Sidebar 1: Associated Equipment
The system included the Klyne SK-5A preamp, Aragon 4004 power amplifier, and VMPS Tower II/R loudspeakers.
Connecting cables were by Monster: M-1000 interconnects and M-1 loudspeaker cable. There was one exception: Straight Wire LSI was used with the Audio Concepts player in the comparisons. An explanation is in order for this. Recall that in my recent review of several CD players, I determined that the solid-state Audio Concepts player sounded best with Straight Wire LSI cables, while the California Audio Labs Aria seemed to prefer the Monster M-…
Sidebar 2: Measurements (from March 1989, Vol.12 No.3)
We have started to include in Stereophile's CD player reviews the 1/3-octave analyzed spectrum of a player's output while it reproduces the dithered –90.31dB tone from the CBS CD-1 test CD. With an undithered signal, a tone at this level only crosses three quantizing levels and therefore is not sufficiently described for it to be reproduced as a sinewave. However, as the code representing this tone on track 19 on the CBS disc has had an appropriate amount of dither noise added when the CD was cut, it should reproduce as a pure, if…
Sidebar 3: Specifications
Description: 16-bit, 4x-oversampled CD player with remote control and separate transformer.
Dimensions: 16.5" W by 3.5" H by 12.75" D. Weight: 8 lb.
Price: $1200 inc. remote control and disc damper (1988); no longer available (2019). Approximate number of dealers: 90.
Manufacturer: The Mod Squad, Leucadia, CA 92024 (1988); company no longer in existence (2019).
One measure of a high-end product designer's talent is the musical success of his top-of-the-line product. This is his statement to the world of what he can accomplish—a kind of "personal best" that defines the upper limits of his talent. Because he knows of no way to make the product better, the component stands as the ultimate testimonial to his skill.
Another, perhaps more interesting, way of assessing a high-end designer's talent is to examine what he can do with the lowest budget. The designer trying to make champagne sound on a beer budget must stretch his skills to the limit when…