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…
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"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.
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…
Jorge Sadurni, whose impressive horn speakers I first encountered at AXPONA during its pre-Schaumberg years, introduced his Spherical Dual loudspeakers ($4600/pair with integrated stands—see driver in the photo.) Each Spherical Dual contains two high-damped cast-metal modules with 5" cone dynamic drivers. These drivers operate full range without crossovers and connect directly to an amplifier. Each Spherical Dual cast enclosure is 15" G x 6.5" W x 9" D and weighs 20lb.
The Duals are intended to couple with Sadurni subwoofers when used in larger rooms. In this case, Sadurni used…
Sometimes I wonder what the etiquette is at audio shows. I mean, nobody tells you anything. It’s fair to assume that playing windmill-style air guitar to songs by the Who is generally frowned upon, but is it gauche to sway and groove in your chair when the music moves you? Or do we instead straighten our backs, sit perfectly still, and concentrate? May you sing along to a favorite song? (I try not to, but it’s hard.) When an exhibitor hands you an iPad with a hundred million streaming choices, how many tracks may you play before the other people in the room have cause to hate-stare at you?…
There are times when a music critic gets so upended by a recording of well-loved music that their previous plaudits for a different recorded version demands reassessment. Thus did the first movement of Leonard Bernstein’s Vienna Philharmonic recording of Mahler Symphony No. 5, played on this excellent Gryphon system, cause me to sit up in my seat with eyes and mouth wide open as I heard more emotional impact, dynamic crescendos and decrescendos, tempo changes, and drama than on Rafael Payare’s recent Pentatone recording of the Fifth. Payare’s recording deserves accolades for recording…
Excellent, well-controlled bass was one of many strong suits in a room headlined by Vinnie Rossi BRAMA monoblock power amplifiers (gen2 - $59,995/pair) and BRAMA preamplifier (gen2 - $38,995) paired with YG Acoustics Hailey 3 loudspeakers ($63,400/pair).
I wish someone had told me to sit in the second row, because it was only when I moved back that the sound got wetter and I could tell how good this system was. How good it was despite the fact that, like many systems in the Schaumburg faced with Saturday’s internet outages, resorted to sending music wirelessly from a mobile…
Anyone who knows these brands senses the potential for great sound in this room. Great sound in and of itself, however, was not the system’s raison d’être. Rather, the resolution and quality of components were a means to an end during a demonstration of the ability of the Innuos PhoenixNet audiophile network switch ($4349) to enhance the sound of the Innuos Pulsar Network music player ($7999).
I never expected to hear how diminished a 16/44.1 file of Holly Cole’s "Bright Shiny Day" sounded when the PhoenixNet switch was removed from the equipment chain. With it, we gained, depth…
During each AXPONA, the makers of head-fi products set up their booths in the ground-floor central ballroom of Schaumburg’s enormous Renaissance hotel. The Ear Gear Experience, they call it. I always have a look and a listen, in part because the products there aren't crazy expensive: three and four figures, mostly. It's refreshing to temporarily get away from stereo systems that cost the price of a house.
Ah, who am I kidding, I love those too. But in the real world, who can afford $80,000 amplifiers and $200,000 speakers?
If your budget is perhaps just two or three…
Review samples of some new high-end audio products do not grow on trees. They are more like dray horses trouping from one destination to another. After the US premiere of the Technical Audio Devices (TAD) Grand Evolution One (TAD-GE1), a floorstanding speaker from TAD's Evolution series, at the 2023 Capital Audio Fest, the review pair came to stay with me in Upstate New York for a couple of months before traveling on to the 2024 Florida Audio Expo for another public appearance. After that, they returned to John Atkinson for measuring—then off again on another journey.
The TAD Labs GE1 is…
The GE1's base is substantial. It is shipped attached to the cabinets—not designed to be removed by users. When you look at the aluminum base plate, you see four capped corners—but in typical use, only three spiked cones are used, two for the front and one for the center at back. Those requiring greater stability can add two auxiliary feet at the back corners. Also in the parts box are two magnetically attached woofer grilles; oddly, no tweeter/mid grilles are included. I did not use the grilles in my auditioning.
Currently, my Downstairs System includes a McIntosh MA252 Hybrid…