The Resonance 2-LP set (also available as 2 CDs; both sets include extensive photos and liner notes) is the album's first commercial release. An Argentine label issued a bootleg several years ago and a German CD followed, made…
search
Do we need yet another unearthed recording of the Bill Evans trio? I count 22 albums or boxed sets—a total of 49 polycarbonate or vinyl discs—of posthumously released sessions, many of them in just the last few years. But this latest discovery, recorded in Buenos Aires in September 1979, is a stunner. So, to answer the question above: Yes, we do need this recording.
I wasn't the only reviewer who sought Nirvana in the large 16th floor Aster Presidential Suite jointly sponsored by retailer Kyomi Audio of Chicago, Audio Skies distribution, and Stealth Audio Cables. On Sunday morning, less than eight hours after many members of the press hung out in the room until 2AM, several returned for yet another fix.
Just days after I'd visited Oakland and spoken by phone with violinist David Abel and pianist Julie Steinberg, high-resolution files of Dave Wilson's fabled analog recording of the duo performing Brahms Sonata No. 1 sang in this room. The sound was…
A newcomer from Denver, Colorado, Erwin Jesudason's Sadhan Audio made its debut at AXPONA, presenting its new preamplifier, cables, and loudspeakers. Though humble and homey-looking, this minimalist system was sweetly transparent, its largish floorstanding speakers imaged beautifully and practically vanished, casting a wide, deep soundstage. Some more expensive systems lack the Sadhan Audio system's effortless reproduction and natural tone, which made a CD by Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, and Mike Marshall a toe-tapping wonder. (The late Art Dudley often said if a system got you bumping and…
The Rega room was one of two rooms the Sound Organisation, a distributor of several brands from the UK, had at the show. Their other exhibit in room 662 consisted of some recent gear from Chord Electronics, such as stacked racks of the Chord Qutest DAC, Huei phono preamplifier, etc. on static display.
The active system was rather old-meets-new: It had BBC School Spendor Classic 2/3 speakers ($6100/pair, just over $7000/pair with stands) and a 180Wpc Chord Ultima 6 ($9200) stereo power amplifier. Those followed a high-tech digital source setup with an Aurender N200 (I think)…
It's a good sign that at least some AXPONA exhibitors showed systems that were more budget-friendly than most. On the door to room 666 (perfect, right?) was a piece of paper affixed with blue painter's tape. Handwritten in all-capital letters, it read: "WARNING! DO NOT ENTER IF YOU WANT TO SPEND A FORTUNE ON YOUR HIFI."
Behind that door I encountered a simple but really good-sounding system that didn't call for apologists to stumble over themselves 'splaining. It was a new all-Rega setup: a Rega Planar 1 turntable and tonearm with a Rega Carbon MM cartridge installed ($595…
On rock, this system turned heads and caused more than a few mouths and eyes to open wide.
Strange as it may seem, this huge air-walled exhibit room's sponsor, AudioQuest with Abt Electronics of Chicago, was the mostly invisible partner that enabled Rotel's Michi P5 preamplifier with phonostage ($4299.99—follow-up coming in our August issue) and Michi S5 stereo power amplifiers ($7499/each—reviewing coming in our July issue) to sing through Klipsch Jubilee loudspeakers ($35,000/pair including outboard electronic crossover). That's a lot of parentheses in a single sentence, so let's parse…
Some would call it a tease; others would call it sheer torture. That's how I, who fell in love with the sound of Stereophile's 2021 Amplification Component of the Year, Gryphon's Essence monoblock power amplifier, felt seeing a static display in place of hearing the new, humongous Gryphon Apex power amplifier ($99,000/chassis).
"It's the most impressive amplifier made," said Gryphon's Rune Skov about a silent, 450lb component that outputs 210Wpc in pure class-A into 8 ohms, doubles its power down to a startling 0.5 ohm, and boasts 1F (farad) power supply capacity. Then he tortured me…
Ken Stevens and the folks from Convergent Audio Technology had already taken down most of the heavy black draping that tamed reflective sidewalls when I happened upon CAT's JL5 LE stereo amplifier ($24,995) and JL7 SE ($49,990) monoblock amplifiers connected to their SL1 Legend Extreme preamplifier ($59,995). (The Statement Extreme, $209,990, was not playing.) Connected to Magico S5 Mk.II loudspeakers by beta version CAT Black Path cabling, the system delivered lively, maximally illumined silvery sound.
In my brief listen to "Keith Don't Go"—I resisted the temptation to run out the door—…
When I heard Usher's "Yeah!" being blasted out from the, uh, Serenity Room, I wondered whether to go in or hang back from the crunk. Not hating on the song, but it was awfully early in the day for this. (It turns out there was someone shooting a video in there.) But the real surprise was that the bumping, club-worthy music wasn't coming from outsized tower speakers, but from a pair of stand-mounted two-ways with some innovative porting.
The demo was presented by Next Level HiFi, one of several Chicagoland area dealers at AXPONA; one of their three rooms was assigned to me. The…
American Sound presented a second demo in the suite's smaller room: Avantgarde Acoustics' Uno XDs, a smaller model soon to be upgraded to G3 status, driven by Japan's Phasemation amplification.
Another noteworthy debut: a Japanese Analog Relax EX1000 phono cartridge (below) with a body made of 2000-year-old Yakusugi Cedar. Here, it served as transducer on a VPI Avenger turntable. Another fine showing.