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DALI and NAD

The amiable and loquacious Jason Zidle is a product manager at Lenbrook, the Canadian company behind NAD and Bluesound. Lenbrook also imports Denmark’s storied DALI speakers. At the Renaissance hotel in Schaumburg, the star performers in the Lenbrook space are a handsome pair of just-launched DALI Epikore 11 floorstanders ($60,000/pair). The Epikores were flanked by two K-14 F subwoofers ($2200 each). A couple of bridged NAD M23 stereo amplifiers ($3749 each) were fed by an NAD M66 streaming DAC and preamp ($5499). All was connected with AudioQuest cables.

The Epikores…

AirTight, Reed, and Franco Serblin Make Joyful Music

What better way to start the first day of an audio show than with some light joyful music? In this case, it was with a 1974 LP, Heinz Holliger: Famous Oboe Concertos, on which the famous oboist joined players of the Dresden State Orchestra under Vittorio Negri for, among other works, Leclair’s Concerto in C for Oboe, Strings, and Continuo, Op. 7. In the first movement, the lively presentation complemented equally lively music, which cheerily zipped along. Holliger’s oboe sounded delightful, the instrument’s glowing timbres unmistakable. The balance may have tilted toward the top, but it…

DeVore Fidelity

In the room operated by Brooklyn's John DeVore, we time traveled to the 1940s and 50s as he spun pristine shellac 78s on an EMT turntable, playing through the world premieres of both his O/bronze Loudspeakers (30,000/pair) and the 7Wpc Komuro Amplifier Company K300S direct-coupled SET 300B stereo amplifier ($20,000).

The EMT 928 II Turntable with 909 Tonearm and Pure Black MC cartridge (for stereo) ($17,995), was joined by an EMT 912 Tonearm ($6995), EMT External Arm Pod ($2795), EMT Tondose TMD015 mono cart ($1995) and an EMT Tondose TND065 78 cart ($1995).

Auditorium 23…

Rutherford Audio: Stratton Acoustics, Accustic Arts, Vertere, Analog Signature, Antipodes, Solid Tech

In Schaumburg C, Rutherford Audio set up camp—and what a camp it was! Electronics by Accustic Arts, analog by Acoustic Signature and Vertere—two turntables—and loudspeakers by Stratton Acoustics, a speaker line I had not previously heard.

The room was notably populated with distinguished folks—the owners of Acoustic Signature and Accustic Arts (Robert Hagemann and Jochen Voss, respectively) were in attendance, as was Rutherford Audio head Robb Neimann.

With big music streaming from an Antipodes Oladra ($29,000) utilizing the DAC in an Accustic Arts Power V integrated…

Harmonia Distribution: Fyne Audio, Pathos, PrimaLuna, Cabasse

Harmonia—the recently renamed distribution arm of hi-fi company Upscale Audio—had four rooms on the 12th floor at AXPONA.

One room featured had a big, beautiful, woody pair of Fyne Audio loudspeakers—the very Tannoy-like Vintage Fifteen floorstanders ($39,999/pair), which feature a single 15" coaxial driver. These big speakers have a very high specified sensitivity of 97dB/2.83V/m and an in-room frequency response specified as 22Hz–26kHz (–6dB)—and this doesn’t include the optional SuperTrax supertweeter sitting on top, a new product from Fyne Audio, part of the Vintage series.…

(Un)healthy Obsessions

During a ferocious storm one recent Saturday, firefighters knocked on my door and urged my family and me to evacuate. The gale had smashed loose a neighbor's large propane tank and plunged it into the choppy waters of the fjord we live on. An explosion was possible, we were told. Five minutes later, our teenage daughters, our dogs, and my wife and I were in the car on our way to safety. (No blast occurred.)

Coincidentally, the last thing I'd read that turbulent morning was the Washington Post's front-page story about the late Ken Fritz (above), a diehard audiophile who'd spent 40 years…

SVS and the New Ultra Evolution Pinnacle

Ever since the announcement some two weeks ago, I've been eager to hear the SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeakers, which, at $2499 each—or, you guessed it, $4998/pair—are cheap in high-end terms but quite expensive for SVS. Coming from such a high-value company, I'm thinking, this could be a serious assault on audio's high-end. Stereophile has already lined up a review.

When I walked into SVS's two-channel room—they also had a home theater room, something you don’t see much of at AXPONA—the first thing I noticed is that in every chair taken was a younger human—under 40, let us…

Bel Canto, Pure Fidelity, YG

[Edited to add product information.]

When I walked into this room, just before closing time on Sunday, the show’s last day, they were spinning vinyl. Two things are notable about that fact, at least to me.

The first notable thing: I own the turntable, the Pure Fidelity Harmony ($11,390) in the quilted maple finish, which Ken Micallef reviewed. The cartridge was the Pure Fidelity Stratos, also well-known to me. The tonearm used on the Pure Fidelity was fancier than mine, the Origin Live–made Illustrious SE Stratos ($9095).

The second notable thing is that the…

YG Acoustics, Ayre Acoustics, Argento

YG Acoustics speakers were featured in several rooms at AXPONA 2024. The highlight for me was a room featuring the Carmel 3 speakers ($29,800 per pair), the entry point to the company's Reference range. These speakers are housed in aerospace aluminum cabinets finished in silver or black, embodying a minimalist, modern-sculpture aesthetic. The design is purposeful: Form follows function in this slender tower.

The Carmel 3 is a two-way that crosses over at 1750Hz. YG emphasizes phase alignment between the drivers across the crossover range. Core specifications include "usable output" from…

Magnepan and Rogue Audio

Rogue Audio's Nick Fitzsimmons and Bill Magerman ran a room that operated smoothly and sounded smooth. It featured a Technics SL-1210G turntable ($4299) with an Ortofon 2M Black LVB 250 cartridge ($1099), as well as a Hifi Rose RS150B Streamer ($4995), both front ends feeding a Rogue Audio RP-5 v2 preamplifier ($3995) and class-D–hybrid Rogue Audio DragoN monoblock amplifiers ($5995/each), which are capable of putting out 325/525Wpc into 8/4 ohms. Speakers were the Magnepan 2.7i panels ($5995/pair). Cables were by Cardas.

The upgraded Rogue Audio RP-5 v2 preamplifier features a new…