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Listening
I collect black discs from the early 1950s because back then the vinyl was thick and heavy and its labels and covers used superior quality inks with super-saturated colors, often with gold or silver metallic lettering. My favorites among these classic beauties are discs made in Britain by EMI, Decca, and Argo. Lately, I've developed a special fondness for mono Argos pressed in England during the late '50s to early '60s. Their sound has a burnished gleam I find uniquely appealing.

On the first day of my Totem Element Fire auditions, I played my favorite composer,…

Description: Two-way, reflex-loaded, standmount loudspeaker. Drive units: 1" (25mm) titanium-dome tweeter, 7" (178mm) Torrent-cone woofer. Crossover: no low-pass filter on woofer, first-order high-pass filter on tweeter. Frequency range: 30Hz–22kHz. Sensitivity: 88dB. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms. Recommended amplification: 50–150W.
Dimensions: 16.6" (421.6mm) H × 8.81" W (224mm) W × 11.7" (297.1mm) D. Weight: 32.4lb (14.7kg).
Finish: Black or White Gloss.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: ESF1526, ESF1527. Manufactured in Canada.
Price: $8450/pair.…

Analog sources: Dr. Feickert Analogue Blackbird turntable with EMT 912-HI tonearm and EMT JSD 6 moving coil cartridge, Sorane SA-1.2 tonearm with Dynavector XX2A, Audio-Technica ART20, and Hana Umami Blue moving coil cartridges; Technics SL-1300G turntable with Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge; SunValley EQ-1616D phono equalizer, MoFi MasterPhono and Prima Luna EVO 100 phono stages. EM/IA SUT.
Digital sources: dCS Lina DAC with Master Clock, HoloAudio Spring 3 KTE, and Denafrips Terminator Plus DACs; TEAC CRDS-701T and Sparkler Audio S515t CD transports.
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I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system, a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone, and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier to measure the Totem Element Fire V2's quasi-anechoic frequency- and time-domain behavior in the farfield. I used an Earthworks QTC-40 microphone, which has a small, ¼" diameter capsule, for the nearfield responses and Dayton Audio's DATS V2 system to measure the impedance magnitude and phase.

While the…

The Fire V2 is a "system" that not only includes revolutionary crossover-less Torrent Driver technology, but additionally provides a harmonically tuned advanced geometrically aligned cabinet, connectors, and tweeter crossover that seamlessly and correctly activate a powerfully Dynamic and Totally Seamless Spatial Soundscape "In a Room Environment." If there are seemingly termed "resonances," these are purposefully accentuated or manipulated to add or subtract sound activation in the room in a purposeful manner.

Today's Torrent-based speakers are…

Fortunately, the two…

A health crisis was the catalyst for Matt Thomas to start Hearken Audio: A back injury caused temporary paralysis. "For lack of a better word, it was an experience," he told me in a recent phone conversation. He's now fully recovered, but the experience changed him. He decided to pursue his passion. He was already an avid audiophile and music lover; he had been…

If there's one word that best describes the sound of the Boston-bred alt-rock quartet known as Pixies, it has to be "dynamics." It's a musical milieu Pixies have deftly presented for 37 years and counting, right from the outset of the sinister janglefest known as "Caribou," the opening track on their inaugural September 1987 EP on 4AD, Come On Pilgrim.

From there, short, sanguine, sweet, succinctly titled songs like "Debaser," "Velouria," "Monkey Gone to Heaven," "Gigantic," "Here Comes Your Man," "Gouge Away," and "Where Is My Mind?" have all served to cement…

Mettler: : Are there some places where you're just singing vowel sounds and not even thinking about forming words where you'll go, "This is an 'ahh,' this is an 'eee,' this is an 'ohh,'" and then you go back into it to figure out the actual words?

Francis: : Sure. Exactly. I may even write in some of those vowel sounds on a piece of paper, or on my phone, and then begin to organize them in sequence of a rhyming scheme—whatever it is. Sometimes those sounds are very important, because they're the one thing I have going on in a song that's solid. I might have just a sound there,…

Arriving in Japan from the United States is like being turned upside down. This condition lasts for much of the first week. When I visited in November, the time difference between Tokyo and New York was 14 hours. "The floating world" is a term for the pleasure-addled urban culture of Edo-period Japan, but it's also an apt description for the twilit and not-entirely-unpleasant weirdness of first arriving in Tokyo. Everything seems slightly unreal.

I'd come to Japan for several reasons, one of which was simply to spend more time in what for me is the most enjoyable…