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A Visit to SME
It's no secret that I have long been a fan of SME turntables and tonearms. But despite having worked on, set up, or owned hundreds of their products over the last 40 years, I have never had an opportunity to visit the place where they are made. Until now.

Nestled in a sleepy village called Steyning in the south of England, SME still operates from the purpose-built factory they moved into more than 60 years ago (above), although it has been expanded several times.

What struck me first, as I approached the facility, is how the…

When was the last time I'd encountered a Plinius product? I found no talk of the 40-year-old New Zealand brand between a brief mention in a 2015 column by John Marks and 2022, when Robert Schryer spied a Plinius component at the Montréal Audio Fest. The most recent Stereophile review of a Plinius component was Erick Lichte's 2011 take on the SA-103…

We placed the amps on Grand Prix amplifier stands. In place of the RA-150's supplied two-piece height-adjustable feet, I used…

Description: Solid state, class-A/AB stereo/bridged mono power amplifier. Inputs: 1 pair single-ended (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Outputs: 2 pair loudspeaker binding posts. Rated output power, stereo: 150Wpc continuous into 8 ohms (21.8dBW), 250Wpc into 4 ohms (21dBW). Rated output power, mono: 450W continuous into 8 ohms (26.5dBW), 600W into 4 ohms (24.8dBW). Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz, ±0.5dB, –3dB at 70kHz. Distortion: <0.03% THD at rated output power. Output current: 50A per channel for short durations, fuse protected. Input impedance: 47k ohms. Hum…

Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler Plus, Vivaldi Master Clock; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server; Small Green Computer Sonore Deluxe opticalModule; Uptone Audio EtherRegen with SOtM sCLK-OCX10 Master Clock and sPS-500 power supply; Nordost QSource linear power supplies (2); HDPlex 300 linear power supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS powered by Ferrum Hypsos linear/switching hybrid power supply; Linksys mesh router and Arris modem; 2017 Apple iPad Pro, 2017 MacBook Pro laptop with 2.8GHz Intel i7, SSD, 16GB RAM.
Preamplifier: Dan…

I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system for the testing. I performed complete sets of measurements on one of the Plinius A-150s that had been auditioned by JVS (serial number 8797) in both class-AB and class-A stereo modes. I then repeated the testing with the A-150 in bridged-mono mode. I preconditioned the A-150 in class-AB mode by following the CEA's recommendation of running it at one-eighth the specified power into 8 ohms for 30 minutes. At the end of that time, the temperature of the top panel was 90.7°F (32.6°C) and that of the side-mounted heatsinks 90.1°F…

Ikeda Sound Labs 9mono moving-coil cartridge: $4400
The Ikeda Sound Labs 9mono cartridge ($4400, above; footnote 1) is a dedicated mono design intended to integrate well into a modern stereo system. Within its curved body, made of solid aluminum alloy, is a low-output (0.22mV) moving-coil motor with a very low internal impedance (2.0 ohms). Generally, both specs mean fewer coil…

Rather than play familiar…

I concluded my September 2023 review of this tubed integrated amplifier by writing that the Audio Research I/50 "is the perfect amplifier for use in a relatively small room with a high-quality source and speakers, especially if the latter have a fairly high impedance. The I/50 has a touch of that 'tube magic' but without going whole hog, as so many of the current crop of tubed amplifiers do." The review sample just had balanced and single-ended line inputs and costs $5500, but toward the end of the review period I…

I reviewed the original HiFi Rose RS250 in December 2021. I wrote that this is "an extraordinarily versatile, affordable product" and that its sound quality suggested that nothing had been compromised in packing so many features into its small chassis. "Highly recommended," I concluded, "both as a…