Analog sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable, Castellon stand; OMA K3 (prototype), SAT XD-1, and TechDAS Air Force Zero turntables; SAT CF1-09, CF1Ti-09, Schroeder OMA, Kuzma 4Point, and Graham Elite tonearms; HiFiction X-quisite ST, TechDAS TDC01Ti, Lyra Atlas Lambda SL, Ortofon MC Century, Anna Diamond, A95 and A90, Grado Epoch3, Miyajima Labs Infinity (mono), Grado Epoch (mono), and Sculpture A.3 phono cartridges.
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi One SACD player/DAC; Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter; Roon Nucleus+ music server; Pure Vinyl and…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
With the large, heavy loudspeakers that Michael Fremer tends to review, I drive to his place with my test equipment. We maneuver one speaker onto a dolly and wheel it into his driveway for the measurements. However, with the 685lb Wilson Chronosonic XVX, this wasn't possible: I had to perform the measurements with the loudspeakers set up in Michael's room. The presence of early reflections from the room's boundaries meant that it wasn't possible to perform my usual gated, farfield frequency response measurements. Other than impedance and sensitivity, the only…
Something's definitely happening at the house of Yoshio Matsudaira. The legendary gentleman, whom I've never met or corresponded with, manufactures cartridges for his own brand, My Sonic Lab, as well as for others, including Air Tight. Over the past few weeks, more than a few readers have asked me to review or at least listen to the latest My Sonic Lab cartridge, the Platinum Signature. It's been described to me as having a faster, more open, less burnished sound than previous My Sonic Lab models. Based on my time with Air Tight's new PC-1 coda moving-coil cartridge ($8500, footnote 1), this…
A step-up transformer has two coils of wire—a primary and a secondary—wound around a magnetically permeable core. (Among some transformer experts, cobalt-based amorphous alloys and ferrite-based nanocrystalline amorphous alloys are considered the best core materials.) The coils themselves are usually of copper wire, although silver is used in some of the more costly ones. (Those who claim copper and silver can't sound different from one another haven't listened.) Voltage gain is largely determined by the turns ratio between the two coils: If the primary and secondary have the same number of…
Due to the ongoing pandemic threat, High End Munich 2021, which had been rescheduled to September 9-12, has been canceled for this year. The 2020 show was also canceled. If things go according to plan, the show will pick back up again in its usual May slot in 2022. See the press release below for more details.
High End Munich is the second show to be canceled in recent days. The cancelation of the new Pacific Audio Fest, which was scheduled for Seattle in late July and early August, was announced last week. The premiere of the Seattle show is now scheduled for July 29-31, 2022.
I would now be a prosperous gentleman had I been a clever fellow during the 1980s and held on to some of those Western Electric 300B vacuum tubes I used to buy for nothing and toss around casually (footnote 1). Unfortunately, I have no talent for acquisition or hoarding.
I remember once driving down to North Carolina with my Eddie Electric business partner, Ryoichi Kimura. We were going to an old farm hidden at the end of a long gravel road. The guy who owned the place employed teams of teenage boys in white vans to travel the country gathering Altec and Western Electric gear from…
Inspired by the Bugle Boy rectifier, I replaced the LM-518's Russian 6P3P driver tubes with some NOS, new-in-box (NIB), 1959-issued metal-bodied RCA 6L6GCs. The change in sonics was noticeable but less dramatic than when I changed out the rectifier. Best of all, those black-metal tubes look super-cool and are built to outlast diamonds. I kept them in. Later I experimented with some hip, vintage 12AX7s. They made the sound a bit more vivid and intricate, but none were as quiet as the stock tubes. I stuck with stock and they are still working quietly six years later.
I tube roll partly…
In Revinylization #9, I profusely praised the expensive, unobtanium Electric Recording Company (ERC) stereo reissue of Sonny Rollins's Way Out West. The record was superb-sounding and beautifully made.
"Clearly, these records are valuable in part because they're rare. But only in part. They're also valuable because they're beautifully cut, well-crafted, and gorgeous. I can live with their business model, even if I don't love it. I'm just glad there's a place in the world for objects like this."
I still am—but I'm also still ambivalent about hyperlimited editions such as those…
Big changes are afoot at Mytek. First up: The Mytek Brooklyn AMP+, the newest version of the compact, class-D Brooklyn AMP. The AMP+ is already in production.
In my 2018 review of the original Brooklyn AMP, I wrote that the class-D amplifier exuded "a consistent sense of truthfulness, striking resolution that was never analytical, spacious soundstages, superb dynamics, and some of the 'blackest' backgrounds I've ever heard...with the right recordings." I continued, "The AMP let me revel in its reproduction of the low end, with zero overhang or bloat, and profoundly impressive retrieval…
I placed the AMP+ next to the AMP on a shelf of my Salamander rack, making it easy and quick to switch between the two.
My first impression of the AMP+, contrasted to the older AMP, aligned with Jurewicz's claims: The new model is "cleaner" with a "bigger soundstage" and "more detail." It's "more precise."
Record after record, using the Brooklyn DAC+'s fine phono stage, I heard more explicit, better-defined images. Placement of vocalists and instruments was more specific within a deeper, wider soundfield. The AMP+'s clarity facilitated better microdynamics, those small dynamic…