These days, amplifier design often emphasizes efficiency. Class-D amps in particular have come a long way. Many are terrific, and they're…
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Back when gasoline had lead in it and amplifiers came with circuit diagrams in the back of the manual, there was an unspoken understanding that power meant weight. A professional camera was a Graflex Speed Graphic or a Hasselblad 1000F, built like a small battleship and nearly as heavy. Powerful car engines were cast-iron V8s with cylinders you could stick a fist in. And of course, serious amps had transformers that could double as boat anchors.
Secondo piatto
Most audio components' capacitors are soldered out of sight, neatly concealed inside the casework. Not the Legacy. Mounted in the silver center bay that runs lengthwise across the top of the amp are six custom capacitors—"pretty maids all in a row," my brain quipped (footnote 6). Each is Ferrari-red and looks like a D-cell that's been hitting the gym. These caps are made in Italy by Itelcond. Along with those logo-shaped heat fins, they've become part of the Pathos look. The company sources smaller, interior capacitors from Italy's ICEL. The input and speaker…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Fully balanced hybrid, class-A integrated amplifier with double InPoL technology, capacitors by Itelcond and ICEL, resistors by Vishay. Tube complement: Two Tung-Sol ECC803s, one Sovtek 6H30 per channel. Output devices: MOSFETS. Inputs: 3 RCA, 3 XLR, input connectors by Neutrik. Outputs: 1 pair loudspeaker binding posts by DBT. Maximum output power: 100Wpc into 8 ohms (20dBW), 170Wpc into 4 ohms (19.3dBW). Frequency response: 2Hz–100kHz, ±0.5dB. Input sensitivity: 700mV RMS at full output power. THD: 0.02% at 1W, 1kHz; 0.5% at 100W, 1kHz. S/N ratio…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: Aurender A20, Grimm Audio MU1, 15" MacBook Air running Roon 2.0, Eversolo DMP-A10 streamer.
Preamplifier: Benchmark HPA4 line stage.
Power amplifier: Krell FPB 200c (recapped).
Integrated amplifier: Audia Flight FLS10.
Loudspeakers: Focal Utopia Scala Evo, Estelon X Diamond Mk II.
Cables: Speaker cables AudioQuest Thunderbird Zero. Power cables and interconnects RSX and Clarus Crimson power cables. AudioQuest Red River balanced interconnects.
Accessories: Townshend Seismic Podiums. Finite Elemente Pagode amplifier…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
Despite the InPoL Legacy operating partly if not wholly in class-A—which means that increasing the current leaving those 4mm speaker outputs causes the amplifier to cool down rather than heat up—I preconditioned the unit by running it at 10% of the rated 100W/8 ohm output for one hour. Over that period, distortion (fig.1) increased slightly, from ~0.047% to a steady 0.06%; this uplift with temperature is a feature of most low-feedback designs. The distortion is second- and third-order in roughly equal measure.
Focal has just announced the Diva Mezza Utopia, a larger and more powerful sibling to the Diva Utopia active wireless speaker system it debuted last year. The new addition maintains the Diva Utopia form factor and aesthetic while upping the size of the four woofers from 6.5" to 8" and power from 400W to 500W per speaker. The result is a speaker system Focal states will "effortlessly fill" rooms up to 1076 sq ft. in size with sound.
Amplification by Naim powers these active towers. Each driver gets its own class-AB amplifier: 90W for the tweeter, 130W for the midrange, and 280W for…
Chad Kassem knows what it takes to make an immortal blues record. "Somebody who lived down in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, the South. They lived through it. Their story is real, and their voice is real."
The founder/owner of Analogue Productions and longtime blues true believer, Kassem's record label, mail-order warehouse, and vinyl plating and pressing plant—all headquartered in Salina, Kansas—were recently profiled in The New York Times ("The Wizard of Vinyl is in Kansas," March 5, 2025). Among his many business ventures, Kassem is part of the new Craft Recordings vinyl-reissue series…
Photo by Dave Archambault@vinylnirvana.com.
A friend who sells high-end audio gear once pointed out that people who shop for separate tonearms are very different from those interested in phono cartridges or turntables in general. If you think about it, this makes sense. Almost everyone buying a new turntable needs a cartridge to go with it, and most turntables come equipped with a tonearm. Tonearm shoppers are more avid enthusiasts than general consumers.
It wasn't always that way. In earlier days of high fidelity, 60 or more years ago, people putting together a cutting-edge phono…
It's nice to have a tonearm like the TA-1 where all the adjustments are clear and intuitive and everything moves smoothly and precisely. Tracking force is adjusted using a static-balance counterweight and dial, and the VTA/SRA adjustment uses a basic sliding arm pillar with a locking screw in the arm collar—no fancy on-the-fly VTA adjustment tower here. The antiskate bias is controlled with a calibrated screw-in knob on the side of the bearing housing, so there's no fiddling with weights dangling on fishing line. The supplied tonearm cable plugs into a 5-pin DIN plug at the base of the…
Harvey Diamond/John Lentz: how strange the road should be so easy
Diamond, piano; Lentz, vocals
Orchard of Pomegranates 006 (CD). 2025. Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, prod.; Craig Welsch, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
Diamond, piano; Lentz, vocals
Orchard of Pomegranates 006 (CD). 2025. Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, prod.; Craig Welsch, eng.
Performance ****
Sonics ****
If there was ever a sleeper album, this is it. This is John Lentz's recording debut, at 76. He has been involved with music his whole life but has never quite had a professional career until now. Harvey Diamond makes his recording debut as a leader, at 82. He was one of Lennie Tristano's last students and has been an underground figure on the Boston jazz scene for…