Description: Belt-driven, two-speed turntable with suspended chassis, three-point floating suspension. Chassis: wood skirt with machined aluminum top plates. Hinged dust cover. Platter: 12" (305mm) aluminum, 20lb (9.1kg). Motor: 300rpm AC. Speeds: 33 1/3, 45rpm. Wow and flutter: 0.05%. Speed accuracy: 0.05%. Rumble: –80dB. Tonearm included: VPI S, S-shaped, statically balanced aluminum tonearm with aluminum headshell. Pivot-to-spindle distance: 240mm. Effective length: 10" (255mm). Effective mass: 10.4gm. Overhang: 15mm. Cartridge weight compatibility: 5–15gm.…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: VPI Shyla MC, VPI Goldy MC, MoFi Electronics UltraGold MC, phono cartridges.
Preamplifiers: Tavish Adagio, Manley Chinook, PrimaLuna EVO 100, Allnic H-5500 phono. Rogue Audio RP-7, line.
Integrated amplifiers: Unison Research S6, Riviera Labs Levante.
Power amplifier: Rogue Audio Stereo 100.
Loudspeakers: Voxativ Ampeggio 2024, DeVore Fidelity Super Nine, Volti Audio Lucera.
Cables: Interconnects: ArgentPur, AudioQuest Pegasus, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II (RCA). Speaker: ArgentPur AgPur12, AudioQuest William Tell (10'),…
Because editor Jim Austin praised the Audiovector R 8 loudspeaker so highly, I was eager to hear its new, larger sibling. So when the Danish company debuted its R 10 Arreté flagship ($165,000/pair) at High End Munich, I arranged an audition—and a meeting with CEO and owner Mads Klifoth.
Manufactured in Denmark, each five‑way R 10 Arreté uses 13 drivers, eight of them rear‑firing bass units. Its dual AMT tweeter array includes a zero‑compression tweeter covering 3kHz–53kHz and a dedicated hypertweeter that activates at 20kHz. The company says that the Accelerated Force Concept (AFC) bass/…
Designed by Chord Electronics’ founder and owner John Franks, Chord’s new flagship Ultima Phonostage expands the Ultima Reference range, joining the Ultima Pre preamplifier and Ultima Mono power amplifiers. The US price is TBA; the projected UK price is £18,000 (about $24,300).
Franks was available for demos and interviews, accompanied by Chord’s Dan George and Maurice Tryner.
The Ultima Phonostage offers 47k ohms impedance in moving-magnet mode with selectable capacitance. Moving-coil mode provides selectable impedance of 12–2200 ohms, also with selectable capacitance. Inputs…
AXISS Europe and Soulution's Cyrill Hammer presented a formidable system in Munich, featuring the debut of the Soulution 787 turntable.
Remarkably, the 787 achieves linear tracking not by moving the tonearm, but by sliding the platter itself. The 8" pivoted tonearm is mounted on a resonance-controlled sub‑chassis, while the platter shifts laterally "to keep the pivoted tonearm aligned with a linear‑tracking path," according to Soulution's website. The company claims the design delivers "all the benefits of low‑friction pivoted tonearms" without "the issues of skating forces, tracking…
Twelve years after VTL released its Siegfried Reference monoblock, the California‑based company is poised to launch its little brother, the Lohengrin Reference monoblock ($100,000/pair). Smaller though it may be, with fewer tubes and less power, VTL says that Lohengrin amounts to "a new benchmark for musicality and realism."
The Lohengrin, which should start shipping in the fall, has an eight‑tube output stage that delivers 400Wpc and sports the same driver stages and power supply as the Siegfried. Output impedance is lower, "reducing the necessary step‑down to the loudspeaker…
At High End Munich, Burmester launched an entirely new Reference system—except for the BC150 Reference speakers ($218,000/pair). Debuts included the Reference 249 modular preamp ($55,000) with optional MC phono stage ($5000) and DAC ($10,000); the 257 turntable ($55,000) complete with an arm, cartridge, and a sensor that constantly adjusts speed; and the 259 stereo amplifier ($90,000, bridgeable to mono).
Together, these new Reference components delivered impressively tight and solid sound. The system threw a terrifically involving soundstage on Agnes Obel's "Stretch Your Eyes…
High-end speaker and audio electronics maker MBL—best known for its groundbreaking Radialstrahler loudspeakers—has hit a financial rough patch. The Berlin-based company filed for insolvency on May 27, 2025, and is now actively seeking investors.
The court tapped restructuring expert Frank Brachwitz of PLUTA Rechtsanwalts GmbH as provisional insolvency administrator. MBL says it's business as usual: manufacturing and sales are ongoing, and the roughly 50 employees across its two German locations are still getting paid thanks to Germany's insolvency fund. MBL's U.S. branch isn't affected…
As I type these words, an Innuos Nazaré music server/streamer ($50,000) with 8TB of internal storage is en route to my home in Port Townsend for review. The Portuguese company's new flagship, named after the deepwater canyon off the coast of Nazaré that generates some of the world's largest waves, made its official debut at this year's High End Munich. The unit is expected to begin shipping in September.
According to the press release, Nazaré features a deeply customized PreciseAudio mainboard with new PreciseUSB and PreciseNET boards, each independently powered and directly…
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