At this year’s AXPONA, Magico introduced an upgraded S5 speaker—the S5 2024 ($74,500/pr)—but while it was present for close-up inspection, it wasn’t hooked up to anything. Wolf had decided that the standard hotel rooms he’d been able to rent weren’t large enough to do the new S5s justice sonically.
On paper, the…
Rhythm Distribution’s Craig Hoffman teamed up with Garrard, Goldmund, and Tannoy to unveil a beautiful-looking, primarily analog rig at AXPONA. Kat Ourlian—Global Head of Sales and Marketing for SME—was on hand to spin vinyl; she had Room 660 rocking from the first needle-drop with selections from Morphine, War, Jaco Pastorius (playing Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee”), and Massive Attack (“Angel”).
What was she spinning vinyl on? It wasn't just any turntable. It was a Garrard 301 Advanced ($54,900)—an SME-rebuilt 301 that Garrard calls "the ultimate and most advanced Garrard…
With their minds on a new music direction, Sierra Sound hosted Friday and Saturday "metal nights," but I was holed up in my room writing, with copious quantities of English breakfast tea and peanut butter. But I greatly enjoyed their room during daylight hours.
Sierra Sound boasted the world debut of the AMG Giro MK II Wood turntable. Also in room was the semi-new to the USA, ViV Lab tonearm; ViV Lab has…
At Capital Audiofest, Audio Note (UK) owner Peter Qvortrup was reading a book about economics: Limitarinism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth, which calls for caps on the individual fortunes of the super wealthy. I bought it. At AXPONA, Qvortrup carried another massive tome everywhere he went.
Noting my curiosity in the Audio Note (UK) room, Qvortrup gave me an audio test CD, The Likhnitsky Files (Audio Note), by Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky. After telling Peter how fond I was of John DeVore’s room playing…
I’m an old school, analog, tube-loving, horn-speaker–espousing kind of guy. I'm not against, but I'm largely uninterested in, most new technologies. But when I sit in front of a streaming, active, class-D powered, DSP-enabled Legacy system, I never fail to relax. To feel engaged, alive. And charmed. I don't want to get up. I don't want to leave. I don’t know why Legacy founder and president Bill Dudleston’s systems sound so good and make me feel so good, but they always do.…
I sat mesmerized when I first encountered a recording of Benjamin Britten's early Violin Concerto from 1939 (revised in 1958) at an audio show exhibit sponsored by High End by Oz. Ever since I heard those portions of Linus Roth's…
MoFi's System 1, in this hotel suite, included a HiFi Rose RS150B network streamer ($4995), HiFi Rose RA180 integrated amp ($6995), IsoTek V5 Titan line conditioner (in for review, $4995), Solidsteel HW-2L rack ($1699), and Cardas Clear Beyond speaker and signal cables.
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On Sunday morning, the final day of the show, my main regret was that I hadn’t made it to the fourth-floor Alta/Infigo room a day or two earlier. If I had, I would have encouraged everyone to go listen. Are audio writers supposed to burn with evangelical zeal? Probably not. But the combo of the just-introduced Alta Aphrodite floorstanders (starting at $50,000/pair depending on paint job) and the recently overhauled Infigo Method 3 monoblocks ($55,000/pair) inspired a tendency to grab friends and strangers both by the collar and drag them to…
The following interview, with Fyne Audio Technical Director Dr. Paul Mills and Managing Director Andrzej Sosna, conducted by Stereophile Contributing Editor Ken Micallef, was posted previously embedded in a report on Harmonia Distribution's rooms at AXPONA. Here, we present it on its own so that more people will see it. The video is followed by a transcript of the interview.
Here is the transcript of the video interview, lightly edited for clarity.:
Ken Micallef: Greetings. I'm Ken Micallef for Stereophile Magazine. We are here at AXPONA today and for the next…
The Clarisys range included the Clarisys Piccolo (TBA), Clarisys Minuet ($46,000/pair), Clarisys Studio Plus ($66,000/pair), Clarisys Auditorium ($180,000/pair), the debut Clarisys Auditorium Plus ($146,000/pair), and Active Crossover ACN400 ($22,500).
The speakers, made in Vietnam, "offer unique features such as double-sided bass ribbons, neodymium magnet structures…