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Stereo Haven, Dynavector, Well Tempered Lab, Lejonklou, JM Reynaud

Audiophile dream team Mike Pranka (Dynavector, Well Tempered Lab, JM Reynaud) and Charlie Schnyder (Stereo Haven) transformed room 624 into a sonic oasis. This well-tuned system made up of meticulously curated equipment delivered precision and nuance.

The system included the Dynavector XX-2 cartridge ($TBD) in a world debut, a Well Tempered Lab Amadeus Jr. turntable ($3350), a Lejonklou Entity MC phono stage ($2795), a Lejonklou Boazu integrated amplifier ($4195), and a pair of JM Reynaud Bliss Jubilee loudspeakers with matching Magic stands ($3500/pair). Necessaries included a…

Notable Audio, DeVore Fidelity, J. Sikora, Aidas, Wireworld

In Jeff Fox's Notable Audio room, a potential snag turned to genius, when a countertop that wouldn't budge required ditching stuffy seating and letting the equipment sprawl across the counter and floor, transforming the space into an inviting lounge.

Fox presented a J. Sikora Initial Turntable ($10,750) with an Origin Live Zephyr 12” Tonearm ($1700) and an Aidas Durawood Cartridge ($4950). A Sutherland TZ Vibe transimpedance phono preamp ($1400) fed a Naim Uniti Nova integrated amplifier ($6899) and two sets of DeVore Fidelity speakers: micr/Os ($3950/pair) and O/babys ($5700/…

AXISS impresses with Gauder Akustik, Soulution, Innuos, Accuphase, Transrotor w. DS Audio, and more

The all-out AXPONA push by AXISS Audio of Nashville, now headed by Cliff Duffey, encompassed four rooms. The biggest presented three new headliners: Gauder Akustik’s DARC 25-0 Mk II 4-way Reference Loudspeaker ($249,975), Soulution’s 727 preamp with phono module ($89,950; review forthcoming), and Soulution’s 757 deemphasis EQ preamplifier phonostage ($84,975), designed for analog components.

We began on a sweet note with an LP: Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies from the score to I’ll bet you know which ballet. (Hint: It's the one that's not Romeo and Juliet or Swan…

Fidelity Imports, Perlisten, Primare, QED, Titan Audio

Steve Jain’s Fidelity Imports turned heads at AXPONA with a kaleidoscope of digital and analog sound. They filled no fewer than six rooms, each showcasing an array of products, new and less new, from all corners of the world.

In the first room I visited, a two-channel system built around the Primare SP25 Prisma Home Cinema Pre-Pro ($5299), which features a network player and Dirac Live room correction, and a pair of bridged Primare A35.2 stereo power amplifiers (200Wpc into 8 ohms, 400Wpc into 4 ohms, $3999 each), connected to Perlisten R5M Loudspeakers ($5990/pair), and the…

Margules, Scansonic, Raidho, Viablue & RSX, and Tönnen Acoustic Do It Right

Bruce Ball’s AV Luxury Group, with a little help from his other distribution company, Ball Audio Distribution and System Solution (which forms what may be the world's best acronym), and Dantax Radio set up two systems headlined by Margules electronics.

In the more expensive one, which included the US debut of the Raidho X2T loudspeakers ($15,500/pair), Ball and Julian Margules began with a recording I know very well, Sarah Vaughan and the Count Basie Orchestra’s “Send in the Clowns.” The system was filled out by a Margules U280 30th anniversary amplifier ($12,000), SF220 preamplifier ($…

Brilliant Corners #14: The Degritter Record Cleaning Machine and a New Vinyl Listening Space in Manhattan

I've always been a city dweller and can't lay claim to having owned boats, riding mowers, shotguns, basement refrigerators, golf clubs, or even patio furniture. When I moved to a loft from an apartment with a tiny backyard some 13 years ago, I even had to give up my Weber grill. This geographical fact has kept my possessions streamlined. My favorites include a handful of old waxed cotton coats, a couple dozen leather boots and shoes, a few mechanical watches, my Garrard 301 turntable, a roomful of books, and rather a lot of art, much of it made by friends. But without a doubt my fondest…

Brilliant Corners #14: The Degritter Record Cleaning Machine and a New Vinyl Listening Space in Manhattan Page 2

After running Milton Nascimento's self-titled debut from 1967 (Som Livre 403.6152) through the Degritter, I listened to its most famous track, "Travessia." A poem about the end of a love affair, it established 24-year-old Nascimento as a vital songwriter whose singular tenor and unearthly falsetto would come to be described as "a voz do Deus" (the voice of God). The strings in Luiz Eça's orchestral arrangement can sometimes come across as a bit indistinct and murky, but after the ultrasonic cleaning, they sounded clearer and fuller than I'd heard them. And the chords Nascimento strummed…

Gramophone Dreams #84: dCS Lina D/A processor and Lina Master Clock

I was at least 40' away when I spied my first dCS Lina stack at CanJam. It was black, sitting conspicuously on a table emitting a strong Space Odyssey Monolith vibe. I can't remember which headphones I used, but I do remember how good it felt to face the stack and experience its startling clarity, showing off the bass end of a piano keyboard with a force I could feel in my shoulders. That impactful piano bass plus the stack's matte-finish, neo-Brutalist façade, and feels-like-cashmere volume control, made a strong first impression.

We all know everything sounds like what it looks like—…

Gramophone Dreams #84: dCS Lina D/A processor and Lina Master Clock Page 2

Close listening
My first night of close listening with the Lina was highlighted by a CD transported from my Onkyo C-7030 player, connected via S/PDIF on RCA: Walter Gieseking playing the Complete Piano Music of Maurice Ravel (NCA CD LC 12281). On page 546 in his Essential Canon of Classical Music (North Point Press), David Dubal described Ravel as "an elegant Apollonian" and an "exquisite jeweler," but for me Ravel is a more distinctly modernist extrapolation of Debussy's dreamier, more sensation-based creations. In Gaspard de la nuit, Ravel's three poems for piano, I experienced…

Silent Angel Bonn NX network switch

With every passing season, a new audiophile-grade network switch hits the market. These products, which can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, do the same basic thing as network switches bought at Best Buy for $30 or so (except, in some cases, slower), but their manufacturers claim they are built to a higher standard to achieve better sound.

As with all signal-conditioning devices that operate completely in the digital realm—especially those that work at packet level (more correctly referred to as "frame-level" on the local side of the router, but that's a distinction that even few…