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My reference preamp of the past few years, the D’Agostino Momentum HD, is ceding to the new D’Agostino Momentum model, to be called the C2 preamp. Termed “a complete departure from the HD,” the C2 derives from the superb, top-line D’Agostino Relentless preamp (review forthcoming).

Among the C2’s many new features: power travels from the power supply into the preamp via interlocking 20A connectors in the preamp’s feet, eliminating all external umbilical cords. Both the remote and the power supply include numerical readouts of volume. Another first for D’Agostino: a headphone…

Western Electric owner Charles Whitener and Sales Director Trent Suggs together gave us a first look at Western Electric’s upcoming products. Dumb me failed to turn on my video until late in the presentation, but below you can catch a bit of Suggs’ presentation.

WE’s reference-level Series 100 will include a range of products. Pictured here is the first of the lot, the Type 100M monoblock, which is almost 14" tall and is expected to sell for $120,000. By email, Suggs touted pure class-A2/SET technology and zero negative feedback. Using ECC81, 300B, and 308B tubes—the towering…

VTL and Wilson have delivered great sound at previous shows, and they did so again here in a set-up of which Peter McGrath, Brand Ambassador for Wilson Audio, was especially proud: VTL’s MB-450 III Signature monoblocks, TL7.5 III Reference preamplifier, and TP6.5 II.

A Signature phono preamplifier joined a dCS Rossini Apex DAC and Rossini clock, Wilson Sasha V loudspeakers, VPI Avenger turntable, and Nordost cabling. To get an idea of the size of Audio Reference’s space, note that this was but one of at least six listening areas in the room.

The venue was the Midtown Bar. If they'd known what she was doing, her parents would have objected and her musical peers would have sneered, so Eunice Waymon performed under a pseudonym: Nina Simone. Adding to the indignity for this classically trained pianist, playing wasn't enough; she was also expected…

Read the back notes on the beautifully packaged new reissue from Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds and clarity emerges. The Fox wasn't born in Contemporary's studio/shipping room. Instead, it was laid to tape at Radio Recorders, Studio B, Los…

A Falstaffian figure in country music, Waylon Jennings at his best sounded the way every shower singer dreams of sounding: commanding, joyous, and up to no good. Possibly the most appealing thing about him is that he was always slightly full of shit but let you know he knew it. In Billy Joe Shaver—as brilliant a songwriter as they come and something akin to a modern-day cowboy—Jennings found the perfect auteur for the outlaw persona he was trying to craft after shaking off the middle-of-the-road trappings of his '60s material. On Honky Tonk…

With a miniature box speaker like my reference Falcon Gold Badge LS3/5as or the similarly sized Harbeth P3ESR XDs, which I'm…

With the First Watt SIT-3: When the Nelson Pass–designed First Watt SIT-3 power amplifier clicks with a speaker, it presents recordings in a manner that has bones, core strength, and a natural way with vocal and instrumental timbre. One of the speakers the SIT-3 really clicked with was Harbeth's P3ESR 40th Anniversary Edition; see the first link in footnote 1 for details. The SIT-3 is an 18W, transformer coupled, single-ended, single-stage class-A amplifier that uses vertically stacked, static-induction field-effect transistors exclusive to First Watt. It uses no negative feedback and…