The Zesto Leto Ultra II looks identical to the original Leto preamplifier that the late Robert J. Reina reviewed in April 2014, although its two 12AX7 tubes have been replaced by 12DW7s. (The Ultra II also has two 12AU7 tubes.) The manual warns against installing the tubes incorrectly, so I made sure that I inserted each tube in its correct socket and, once that was done, I measured the Leto Ultra II's performance with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). There are three gain settings; the manual says to use the setting that…
search
What I categorize as mainstream, dealer-based, fancy-pants streamers and big-speakers audio is actually only the gold-plated tip of a gigantic asteroid-like monolith that extends (underground) from New York to Hong Kong, from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica.
This immense audio-social mass is mostly invisible to the Madison Avenue mainstream, but simple Google searches expose millions of proletarian audio-gear constructers (DIY'ers) working in shops, basements, and garages, scratch-building everything from turntables to tonearms to phono cartridges, to capacitors and vacuum tubes, to…
The standard earpads are 13/16" thick and covered with gray microfiber suede. The UWE earpads are the same thickness, but their foam is firmer than the standard pads and encased in perforated artificial leather on the inside and microfiber suede on the outside where the pad touches the head.
These perforated pads do what Mr. Shannon said they do, thinning out the upper bass and adding a few dB around 2kHz. The effect is to make muddled movie dialogue more intelligible while reducing midrange tone saturation. With Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1972) playing…
Linear Tube Audio Z10e (A Follow-Up)
In Gramophone Dreams #36, I wrote a rave report describing how well Linear Tube Audio's Z10e 12W power amplifier/preamplifier/ headphone amplifier (footnote 1) drove my high-sensitivity Zu Audio Soul Supreme and DeVore Fidelity O/93 floorstanding speakers. I was especially dazzled by how effectively the Z10e drove the Stax SR-009S and Dan Clark Voce electrostatic headphones. I was equally impressed by how well the Z10e played the relatively insensitive 88dB/mW JPS Labs AB-1266 Phi TC headphones. My only disappointment was the Z10e's lack of power and…
The Story of the Grateful Dead, a 14-LP, 8-album collection of Grateful Dead recordings with booklet and deluxe packaging, from Vinyl Me, Please (VMP-A006, 2020), is intended as a curated sampling of the high points in the Dead's extensive catalog. The first seven albums were cut from analog tape, while Without a Net comes from the original digital master. The sound is breathtaking.
I remember buying Live/Dead at an old bookstore on E. 7th Street around the corner from the Fillmore East, run by a grizzled lower–East Side bouquiniste called Max. When I got home, my parents were out, so I…
Joy. It's all about the joy.
Joy manifests during those moments when the critical mind suspends, the lens clears, and only union between you and your experience exists. When joy arises, time stands still, all sense of separation vanishes, and only wonder remains.
Many of us live for those moments. Moments of understanding that transcend verbiage and mental chatter and affirm what is real and eternal about the human condition.
Music offers the opportunity to live in joy for more than a fleeting second. The sense of oneness can last for an entire live performance or…
"Everyone has their own preferences and own tastes," Polychronidis said at the end of our chat. "If someone says their amplifier is the best, it makes me laugh. I like the multicolored diversity of our market, which has products for every taste and every wallet. Some people prefer 8W single-ended amps with 300B tubes, and others buy 1000W [solid-state] amplifiers to do exactly the same thing. We should keep it like this."
We're after the same rainbow's end
Instead of huckleberries, four rotating knobs dominate the Moonriver 404 Reference's front panel: a source selector for four…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Integrated amplifier with class-AB output stage, optional D/A converter and phono stage. Analog inputs: 5 pair RCA (4 line, 1 tape). Optional phono stage on input 1: MM with 40dB gain or MM/MC with 60dB gain. Separate power supplies for analog and digital sections. Analog outputs: 3 pair RCA pre-out (2 variable line, 1 tape). Maximum output power: 50Wpc into 8 ohms (17dBW), 70Wpc into 4 ohms (15.4dBW). Maximum output voltage: 20V RMS, 10Hz–20kHz, 50V peak-to-peak. Frequency response: 10Hz–30kHz, +0/–1dB. THD+N: <0.05% typical, 20Hz–20kHz. Signal/…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport, Rossini DAC, and Rossini Clock; HoloAudio May (Level 3) DAC; Synology 5-bay NAS 1019+; Roon Nucleus+ music server with HDPlex 200 linear power supply; Uptone Audio etherRegen, Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule, TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters plus multimode duplex fiber optic cable (2), Linksys routers (2); Small Green Computer linear power supply and Small Green Computer/HDPlex four-component 200W linear power supply (3); external hard drives, SSD USB sticks, iPad Pro.
Preamplifier: Dan…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
When I received the sample of the Moonriver 404 Reference that Jason Victor Serinus had auditioned, serial number DK201002153RE, it rattled when I unpacked it. I removed the top cover and saw that the amplifier had incurred damage during its transcontinental journey. The heavy toroidal power transformer is mounted on one side of the large printed circuit board that occupies almost all the amplifier's internal space, with two aluminum straps connecting the board to the central internal heatsink to provide the necessary support. The box must have been dropped on its…