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Fidelity Imports: Opera, Soulnote, QED, Titan Audio

Steve Jain and his Fidelity Imports crew presented six rooms at AXPONA, stuffed with debut products from across the world.

Room 1215 featured Soulnote electronics—a D-3 DAC ($24,999), Z-3 Network Transport ($14,999), X-3 Clock Generator ($4999), and A-3 Integrated Amp ($24,999)—and Opera Callas Diva loudspeakers ($11,999/pair), connections by QED cables and Titan Audio power cords.

This gorgeous-looking system played cool of tone but engaging of soul. A stream of cellist Jacqueline du Pré’s classic recording of the Elgar Cello Concerto with Sir John Barbirolli and the…

Stenheim, VTL, dCS, Nordost, VPI, and Lyra Wow Once Again

Last year in the large Schaumburg F air-walled room in the Convention Center, Stenheim, VTL, and Nordost put together one of the finest sounding rooms I’ve heard at any show. This year, the sound was again among the best I encountered in the over 40 rooms I auditioned.

Given the room’s sponsors, it's not surprising that classical music was given the volume it deserves. If the first two selections, Jordi Savall’s interpretation of the Lacrimosa from Mozart’s Requiem and “Le Spectre de la Rose” from Berlioz’s Les Nuits d'Été, sung by the magnificent Sandrine Piau, were too downbeat for a…

Gryphon Audio Designs’s New PowerZone

As last year, Gryphon devoted the large Schaumburg E space to static displays. Most notable was the new Gryphon PowerZone PZ3.10 power purifier ($14,000) which has eight Furutech AC sockets and 20-amp current capacity and utilizes Quantum Resonance Technology.

Also arousing interest were the Diablo 333 integrated ($24,800), first unveiled at last year’s Munich High End; the Eos 5 loudspeaker system ($52,500/pair); the superb Ethos CD player and DAC ($39,800), which I reviewed at the end of 2019; the Kodo Carbon speaker system ($439,000/pair); a Commander preamplifier ($67,000); an Apex…

Yamaha, 70 Years Young, Blends Past and Present

At audio shows, we don’t look back much. AXPONA is mostly about what’s new, what’s hot, what’s happening. Yamaha proudly bucked the trend and delved into the past. In two adjoining rooms on the 14th floor, the Japanese brand celebrated its 70th anniversary as a hi-fi company. The room on the right had been transformed into a history museum of sorts, with key products from yesteryear that helped lift the audio brand to global fame.

Those products included the boxy "Hi-fi Player," an F-11 turntable from 1954. The company says it was the first commercial product to use the term "hi…

Quintessence’s take on Perfection: Wilson, Moon, Clearaudio, Hanna, Innuos, Kubala-Sosna, and Critical Mass Systems

After achieving Serenity and acquiring Knowledge, do we end up in the land of Perfection? The room I visited after Perfection was Connection, which was occupied by Quintessence Audio. So perhaps we can say that Serenity + Knowledge + Perfection produces a Connection to something higher than ourselves, which in this case would be Nirvana. (There's also a Nirvana room.)

Or might the best way to achieve Perfection be to forget about room names and focus on the music and equipment at hand?

On Flight Path, by Sphere—that's Kenny Barron, Charlie Rouse, Ben Billy and Buster…

Wilson Audio, Dan D’Agostino, Clearaudio, DS Audio, dCS, Innuos, Stromtank, Transparent, and Critical Mass Systems

Does this star-studded brand lineup from Quintessence Audio Ltd. of Chicago sound familiar? It should, not only because it’s frequently encountered at audio shows and dealers, but also because it consistently earns plaudits as one of my Best Sounding Rooms.

I can’t imagine that anyone who heard Sandrine Piau sing “Chanson triste” or Marcin perform “Kashmir” on guitar could miss how gorgeous and open the midrange sounded. The blend of low, mids, and highs was peerless, the sense of power awe-inspiring. Despite a pesky room mode, Yello’s “Electrified II” sounded remarkably clear and strong…

GTT Audio & Video presents Audionet, Kronos, Grimm and Mola Mola, Kronos, Vivid, Kubala Sosna, Dejitterit, and My Sonic Lab

Another big system with a midrange to love, with speakers well-matched to the space. I wasn't converted to the style of singer Vanessa Fernandez, whose cut from her new platter seemed more derivative than inspired, but the midrange sounded excellent, and there was also lots of bass to attract attention.

The system’s midrange again proved a high point on a hi-rez digital recording of a bit of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 1, where Anna Fedorova’s piano shone. The system, which would retail for $364,750 without the Kubala Sosna Realization cables, was headed by Vivid Audio…

Von Schweikert and WestminsterLab dance with Lampizator, Sonore, Small Green Computer, MasterBuilt, and more

Damon Von Schweikert, CEO of speaker manufacturer Von Schweikert Audio, did something interesting in the room (1621) he shared with Gary Leeds of WestminsterLab. Faced with a challenging room whose opening to a second inner chamber of similar size all but guaranteed that bass would be a mess, set up two Von Schweikert V-12XS MkII Shockwave subwoofers ($33,000 for two), facing each other. One was in the listening room toward the rear along the side wall; the other was in the opening. Operating 180º phase, the two subs equalized pressure at their positions and canceled standing waves, resulting…

Spin Doctor #12: EMM Labs DS-EQ1, The Wand 14-4 Turntable, MA Inner Sleeves

"I think both moving coil and moving magnet cartridges are terrible." That's what legendary Canadian audio designer Ed Meitner told me when I asked about the pioneering transimpedance current drive phono stage he created for his Meitner PA6 preamp some 40 years ago.

Meitner has been designing innovative hi-fi gear for the pro and consumer audio markets for more than 50 years, but for most of the last 30, he has been best known for his work with high-resolution digital audio and DSD recording (footnote 1). Despite this focus on digital—and despite that comment about the two leading phono…

Spin Doctor #12: EMM Labs DS-EQ1, The Wand 14-4 Turntable, MA Inner Sleeves Page 2

Upgrades for the Wand 14-4 Turntable and Tonearm
In the January 2024 Spin Doctor, I wrote about the innovative Wand 14-4 turntable from New Zealand (footnote 3). Almost immediately after I finished that piece, I was contacted by The Wand's US distributor about checking out some upgrades that are available for the Wand 14-4.

The upgrades are mostly trickle-down developments from the 14-5 turntable, allowing 14-4 owners to get some of the benefits from that more upmarket model. The most significant is the EV Battery Power Supply, which, as the name suggests, takes the motor off…