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In my March Spin Doctor column, I gave an overview of my experiences cleaning records over the last 50-plus years and the advances in record cleaning technology over that time. My review of the HumminGuru NOVA ultrasonic record cleaner focused on that increasingly popular approach to record cleaning, using ultrasonic cavitation instead of scrubbing the record with a brush. But if there's one thing I've learned in that half-century of playing around with audio gear, it's that it can be a mistake to embrace a new technology just because of its newness, dismissing what came before as obsolete.…
Wally Tools WallySkater V2.1 Pro
They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and while I learn new things about setting up turntables all the time, I long ago settled into a set of skills I have been using to adjust turntables professionally for decades. What has changed is the tools available to assist that work, which have improved immensely over the decades. I have added many of those tools to my arsenal.
Founded by turntable setup obsessive and inventor Wally Malewicz in 1994, WAM Engineering introduced a range of innovative setup tools that dug deep into setup issues…
Bryston CEO James Tanner is not only an Audiofest regular but an affable, down-to-earth guy who refuses to use either high-end cabling or hi-rez files at his show demos. Why? Because he doesn’t want visitors to think that the sound from his system is shaped by anything other than Bryston gear. That doesn’t mean he denies that better-designed cables or hi-rez files through his streamer will elevate sound quality—only that, when you hear his system at a show, you know exactly what Bryston gear sounds like. I found that an interesting viewpoint.
Also interesting to me was the company’s…
French hi-fi manufacturer Advance Paris has announced the release of LINK, a new series of cables designed for high-fidelity audio setups. According to the company, LINK cables employ Ohno Continuous Cast (OCC) copper with 99.9999% purity.
Scheduled for introduction in the U.S. in mid-April, the LINK range will include speaker cables (models L-LS3, L-LS4, and L-LS5), subwoofer cables (L-SUB3, L-SUB5, and L-SUB10), analog stereo RCA (L-RCA0.5, L-RCA1.5) and XLR cables (L-XLR0.5, L-XLR1.5), and digital cables including coaxial (L-COAX1, L-COAX2) and optical Toslink cables (L-OPT1, L-OPT2…
In his review of the J.Sikora Initial turntable, Stereophile's resident artist/sage Herb Reichert wrote, "Extended bathing, lighting candles, making tea, and preparing food are ritual work forms that prepare my senses to accept both pleasure and illumination."
When it comes to playing records, I too have a ritual. It involves carefully cleaning the vinyl, first on a Pro-Ject VC-33, followed by immersion in a HumminGuru Ultrasonic vinyl cleaner. Before and after, I inspect the record's grooves with a pricey VisibleDust Quasar R magnifier (footnote 1). Only then—black coffee hot, glasses…
Setup
I wasn't required to set up the SMS, as Sikora and Fox enlisted a three-man crew to bring the turntable's four wooden crates up the stairs and into my apartment. Notable Audio's Jessie Bentley did the setup work.
This was not a reviewer perk. "All J.Sikora dealers are required to set up the 'table and tonearm for the customer," Jeff Fox explained. "If a dealer gets permission to ship a 'table to a location where there is no dealer, then the dealer must do the installation there."
Supplied accessories include a pair of J.Sikora–branded interconnects, an umbilical…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Mass-loaded, belt-driven turntable with two EBM-Papst DC asynchronous motors, external power supply. Speeds: 33 1/3rpm, 45rpm. Upper platter: 10mm thick glass and aluminum. Platter: Delrin and cast iron, 13" (330mm) diameter, 40lb (18kg). Wow and flutter: ±0.03%. Base platter of brass, steel, copper; plinth and isolation platform of lacquered aluminum; inverted bearing, inverted bearing of steel and cemented carbide with ceramic (zirconium dioxide) ball.
Tonearm: Silicone-damped inverted-bearing unipivot with an armtube of Kevlar fiber and a…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Thorens TD 124 turntable with Korf TA-SF9R tonearm, Korf HS-A02 Ceramic Headshell, Kuzma CAR-30 MC EMT JSD Pure Black, MoFi Electronics UltraGold, Aidas Tru-Stone Gold Web phono cartridges.
Preamplifiers: Tavish Audio Design Adagio (phono), Manley Chinook (phono), Rogue Audio RP-7.
Integrated amplifiers: PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid, Riviera Labs Levante.
Power amplifier: Rogue Audio Stereo 100.
Loudspeakers: Voxativ Ampeggio 2024, DeVore Fidelity Super Nine, Volti Audio Lucera.
Cables: Interconnect: Agent Pur, AudioQuest…
Let's get this out of the way: The BMR Monitor may be a monitor, but it isn't a bookshelf or desktop speaker any more than a yacht is a dinghy. Heave a slick-surfaced, 32lb BMR from its shipping carton, then wrap your arms around its svelte figure, with its fancy array of drivers and rich-colored piano-lacquer finish, and you'll understand this speaker deserves better than to be tucked away amid books or flanking a computer screen.
I was so enamored by the look of the BMR Monitor, I initially thought its name didn't do it justice. It sounded too nondescript. But with time and growing…
With nothing left to do but listen to music, I started with a mono recording, the Ahmad Jamal Trio's At the Pershing (LP, 20th Century Masterworks 350259). I immediately liked what I heard: The BMRs offered an introspective clarity. Images were in their own zones, well-distanced from each other. Decaying notes, lower frequency reverberations, and other ambient information including clinking dishes and conversations among patrons offered a vibrant, richly layered framework of connective tissue that made an event that happened over 60 years ago seem like it was happening all over again.…