search
Technics displayed their Reference Series product line at CES 2017. While the New York Times recently focused on the introduction of the company's SL-1200G coreless-motor direct-drive turntable ($4,000), my interest focused on Technics' 188-lb, $17,000 SE-R1 digital amplifier, which I heard powering their SB-R1 3.5-way floorstanding speakers. Bill Voss, Technics' Business Development Manager, explained that the SE-R1 is rated at 300Wpc into 4 ohms (the load impedance of the SB-R1 speakers). The amplifier uses a pulse-width modulation circuit, a high-precision sample-rate converter for…
I'm an old friend of DeVore Fidelity's founder and chief engineer, John DeVore. So old that every time I see him, my mind says, silently, "John-Knee Dee-Vore," and I immediately picture one of the Monkeyhaus parties held in his listening room/factory in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. At almost the same moment, I picture our mutual friend and Tone Imports proprietor, Jonathan Halpern, putting a Hank Williams 78 on the Monkeyhaus turntable—but I never want to call Jonathan "John-Knee Help-Porn." No way. Now that he is importing two of my favorite British audio brands—Falcon Acoustics and Sugden Audio—…
Miracle of miracles, as I walked down the hallways of the Venetian's 30th floor, checking every sign, it seemed that I had covered virtually everything in my territory. In point of fact, as I discovered after the show, I actually missed the Bluebird Music Suite, which sat isolated on the 34th floor, with its debut van den Hul cable beyond the reaches of my Vegas-pummeled vision. Happily, Jon Iverson took that room in, which makes me glad that I felt free enough to spend some quality time listening to Yoav Geva's magnum opus, the YG Acoustics Sonja XV loudspeakers with included sub towers ($…
Turns out the Venetian's Grand Lux Cafe has a decent kale and brown rice salad, which three in our group quickly ate in Stereophile's hospitality room on the 29th floor. After lunch we headed up one floor to the Simaudio room where we were greeted by Lionel Goodfield and the Moon Units (sorry couldn't resist). Simaudio's room is at the back corner of one of the wings, and though much smaller than the suites on the top floors, is still twice as big as the regular rooms on their floor.
And the company had put their space to very good use. When we walked in, some loud electro music was…
When Charles van Oosterum founded Kharma International in the Netherlands 35 years ago, he began with the company's Ceramique line, which used ceramic drivers. Kharma's ceramic-driver Enigma was their first big speaker to fill a ballroom. Now, over a third of a century later, with ceramic drivers replaced by Kharma Composite drivers with carbon fiber, the Kharma Enigma Veyron 2 ($437,500/pair), the smaller (!) sibling of the Enigma Veyron 1, has made its US debut at CES. (I should have covered this speaker at its Munich High End debut but, mea culpa, I somehow missed it.)
The company's…
Under the mistaken impression that I had covered all the new cables, accessories, and $20,000/pair-and-up speakers in the Venetian—save for one cable company whose rep was deeply engaged both times I visited the room and one speaker company whose blare into the hallway discouraged me from visiting—I invited our own Jana Dagdagan and her video camera to join me as I indulged in auditioning the two rooms populated by Magico loudspeakers. I'm glad I did, because I not only heard some great sound, but also discovered a passive display of the brand new Magico S3 Mk II ($28,000/pair in M-Cast…
Vintage Technics amplifiers and tuners are surely among the most beautifully styled audio gear ever. In terms of well-drawn, refined-looking industrial design, Technics amplifiers from the 1970s and 80s beat Marantz, Kenwood, and even Sansui.
The space-station bottom lighting on Technic’s watt-meters created a new fashion in amplifier art direction that has never been equaled— and has never gone away. (Think: Audio Research, Pass Labs, SAE, and D’Agostino.)
Technics spent all of 2016 re-emerging into the Euro-American audio market—and they did it with full-on high Japanese…
Look at that photo, with the beautiful wood-plinthed KT88 amp. What do you notice? That's not a dCS digital stack lying on the table bottom-right: It's an iPad. A fancy red cable, whose name I forgot to get, is connecting a portable music source to the line-level input of a $1850 single-ended stereo integrated headphone amplifier called the Mogwai. It's all handmade by Ampsandsound engineer-proprietor Justin Weber. Look again. Do you see those loudspeaker binding posts? Ah ha! The Mogwai is another of those "fusion" products that I love. It sits on your desk, drives some sensitive desktop…
I am an Anglophile
and a Brit-fi guy. I just am. Back in 1982 I really wanted a wood-cased A&R Cambridge A60 to drive my Rogers LS3/5a speakers. But I couldn't afford its modest price. Somewhere around then, this venerable UK company simplified their name to Arcam. They continue make excellent, elegant integrated amplifiers, and their venerable Solo Music ($2250) is an audiophile-quality "complete stereo system in a box" that features SACD/CD drive and 80Wpc (8 ohms) of amplification in a modest but high-styled, enclosure.
The whole Solo Music package is simple, good looking, and…
Available elevators at CES are usually scarce, so seasoned show-goers hit the stairs at the end of each floor to move up or down. Since the Simaudio room was right next to the stairs, we decided to head straight up five floors to the 35th where distributor Bluebird Music had their nest in one of the larger Venetian suites. Jake bounced up the stairs no problem carrying his ukulele, the rest of us maybe a tad more winded. But we made it and were greeted by the Bluebird and Chord crew as we entered.
John Atkinson had stuck with us, wanting to hear Jake play as often as possible, and…