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I sometimes joke about how audio designers create products that resemble themselves, not just in how they look, but also in the design approach used, and especially the way they sound. So, we have tall, cool, pragmatic Scandinavians making gear like the lean, elegant Børresen loudspeakers, while the Italians build luscious curvy equipment endowed with natural wood and leather, like Sonus Faber speakers and Unison Research amplifiers. Continuing this blatant stereotyping, we have Acoustic Signature founder Gunther Frohnhöfer, a stout German known for creating precision-built turntables that…
With this in mind, I found it interesting that Acoustic Signature chose to equip the review Verona with a 12" TA-5000 NEO and a 9" TA-7000 NEO, the third and second models, respectively, from the top in their five-model lineup. On paper, the 5000 and the 7000 seem quite similar, but when you dig a little deeper the differences become clear. Both have carbon-fiber armtubes, but the 7000's tube uses an internal lattice structure that adds stiffness and damping. Both use high-precision gimbal bearings, but the structure and materials are quite different. The internal wiring on both arms is…
Follow-Up (from July 2024, Vol.47 No.7)
In Spin Doctor 13, I said that the Acoustic Signature Verona NEO turntable doesn't come with a record weight—or anyway that my review sample didn't. I pressed the excellent Ultra Carbon TC-40 weight from Poland into service in its place. Well, when I went to pack up the Verona to return it, I found a record weight in the box. In my haste and excitement to get the Verona set up and playing, I somehow managed to miss it. Imagine my red face at the AXPONA show when I tried to explain to Acoustic Signature sales manager Robert Hagemann why his beautiful…
My second press day at Munich High End began with an intimate press conference at the Ideon/Baun loudspeaker booth in Halle 3. Benno Baun Meldgaard, former speaker designer for Gamut, Raidho, and Gryphon, was not on hand to discuss the latest developments in his forthcoming speaker line. I first encountered Baun speakers at the 2023 Pacific Audiofest. The first speaker in the Baun line-up is due by the end of 2024. Designed to sit very close to the rear wall, the speakers will range upward in price from about $23,000/pair.
Happily, Ideon’s design team was on hand. Ideon’s designer has…
Speaker designer Karl-Heinz Fink’s Fink Team recently bought British loudspeaker brand Epos. “We have changed the Epos designs considerably,” Fink told me about the company’s three speaker models. “Epos loudspeakers are less expensive than Fink Team’s, but the engineering is nearly the same as the Fink Team’s.”
The Epos ES-28N (projected US price $8000/pair or less) is the company’s first three-way loudspeaker. “I’m not convinced by 2 ½ way designs because they can beam,” Fink said. The speaker’s walls utilize constrained layer damping, and the front baffle is nearly 50mm thick. The bass…
Six years after Hans-Ole Vitus, the founder of Danish company Vitus Audio, visited the United States to premier his first three products at CES 2004, Michael Fremer went gaga over the company's top-line MP-P201 Masterpiece Series phono preamplifier. Thirteen years later, at AXPONA 2023, it was my turn to be blown away, this time by the sound of a $385,000 Vitus Audio top-of-the-line Masterpiece series front-end and amplifiers that sang through price-commensurate Estelon Extreme Mk II loudspeakers.
In between—and not for want of trying—Vitus's presence in these pages has been limited to…
Setup and game plan
While my status as a good boy is always open to question—I'm sure I was one sometime in the distant past—I honor manufacturer's wishes when I can. Hence, after friend Scott and I installed the fully-decked-out Vitus RI-101 Mk.II on the free top shelf of my Grand Prix Monza equipment rack, I plugged it directly into the wall, and so it stayed throughout the review.
A simple A-B-A test confirmed that replacing stock, nothing-special feet with Wilson Audio Pedestals delivered increased air and transparency and elevated the whole sonic presentation. Those…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Balanced, class-AB, solid state, integrated stereo amplifier with optional DAC/streamer module. Analog inputs: Three balanced (XLR), two unbalanced (RCA), all 4V RMS tolerable. Outputs: One pair balanced speaker terminals, one pair balanced XLR changeable between pre out & tape out. Rated output power: 300W RMS into 8 ohms, 600W RMS into 4 ohms (both 24.73dBW). Input impedance: 16k ohms. Output impedance: 0.075 ohms (loudspeaker), 33 ohms (Pre/Tape Out). Bandwidth: 800kHz. THD + N: 0.04% at 100W, 1kHz. S/N ratio: >100dB, 1kHz. Power…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler Plus, Vivaldi Master Clock, and Rossini Transport; EMM Labs DV2 Integrated DAC, Meitner MA3 Integrated DAC; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server; Small Green Computer Sonore Deluxe opticalModule; Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with SOtM sCLK-OCX10 Master Clock and sPS-500 power supply; Finisar FTLF8519P3BNL and Broadcom/Avago AFBR-5718PZ 1GB SX-SFP, Gen 5 Fiber Optic modules; Nordost QNet switch and QSource linear power supplies (2); Sonore Audiophile Linear Power Supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS with…
I put on CD8, two concertos by Joaquín Rodrigo recorded with the San Antonio Symphony in 1967. Concierto andaluz was commissioned by the Romeros' guitar quartet (the three sons plus father Celedonio). The guitars sit dead center in the stereo image, with prominent double basses to the right and first-seat violins to the left. Spread behind the front array, from left to right, are woodwinds and brass. As I heard while making the 3-to-2 channel mix of this recording, every note and its source is clearly located on the soundstage, and the four guitars are distinctly detailed. The 801 D4…