Standby
Following the user manual's order of power-on operations, I turned on my sources, my preamp, and then both DragoNs. Following a warm-up period, I heard two loud "pops" from the loudspeakers. It was not subtle. Since there didn't seem to be any other issue while streaming the local classical station during the roof work, I left them alone. After the first night, I powered down like normal. The next morning, I followed the same startup procedure and heard two more pops, one from each speaker. It happened again on the third morning. I did what people do these days: I made a video. I…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Hybrid tube/class-D (Hypex NCore) monoblock power amplifier. Tube complement: 1 ECC802. Output power: 325W into 8 ohms (25.1dBW), 525W into 4 ohms (24.2dBW). Frequency response: 20Hz– 20kHz, ±1dB. THD: <0.1% typ., <1% at rated power. Input sensitivity: 0.75V RMS. Input impedance: 30k ohms.
Dimensions: 12.5" (317.5mm) W × 5.5" (140mm) H × 19" (483mm) D. Weight: 33lb (17.7kg).
Finish: Black steel chassis with black or silver faceplate.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 0550, 0551. Designed and built in Pennsylvania.
Price: $5995/…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Thorens TD 125 MKII turntable; Jelco TS-550S tonearm; Zu/Denon DL-103 and stock Denon DL-103 MC cartridges; Auditorium 23 step-up transformer.
Digital sources: Oppo BDP-83 universal player; Denafrips Ares II DAC, iFi Zen Stream.
Preamplifiers: Linear Tube Audio microZOTL, Parasound Zphono MM/MC phono preamplifier.
Power amplifiers: Linear Tube Audio ZOTL40 Reference+.
Loudspeakers: ESS Transtatic I.
Cables: Interconnects: Auditorium 23, AudioQuest Black Mamba II, Kimber Kable Hero (XLR). Speaker: AudioQuest Rocket 44.…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I performed a complete set of measurements on one of the Rogue DragoNs (serial number DRAM-0551) with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system.
As the DragoN has a class-D output stage, I inserted an Audio Precision AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter between the test load and the analyzer. This filter mitigates noise above 80kHz and eliminates noise above 200kHz that would otherwise drive the SYS2722's input circuitry into slew-rate limiting. Without the filter, there was 408mV of ultrasonic noise with a center frequency of 416kHz at the amplifier's output terminals…
A different kind of stream: Route 140 Wrentham at Pendleton Road Eagle Brook; image by Ernst Halberstadt, 29 March 1973, Wikimedia Commons
I recently received a letter (not yet published) suggesting a need for a glossary of newer hi-fi terms (footnote 1). Some audiophiles raised on physical media, it seems, are perplexed by descriptions of the new streaming landscape. Just yesterday, all we had to worry about was DACs and transports. Today we have servers, streamers, players, streaming DACs, and all that. That immediately struck me as a good idea, allied with a second reason: To avoid…
Back in August, I received an email from Editor Jim Austin. Subject line: "Want to do a big review?" He had my attention. Jim wrote that he had visited Bowers & Wilkins parent company Masimo Consumer in Carlsbad, California, for a demo of the brand-new B&W 801 D4 Signature and 805 D4 Signature loudspeakers. (That visit was chronicled by Jim in the September 2023 Industry Update section.) B&W had offered Stereophile the first US review of both products—look for John Atkinson's review of the 805 D4 Signature in the coming months—and Jim thought the big 801s would be "right up my…
Víkingur Ólafsson: From Afar
Víkingur Ólafsson, grand and upright pianos
DG 4861681 (24/192 WAV, available on 2 CD, 2 LP). 2022. Christopher Tarnow, prod. & eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
Víkingur Ólafsson, grand and upright pianos
DG 4861681 (24/192 WAV, available on 2 CD, 2 LP). 2022. Christopher Tarnow, prod. & eng.
Performance *****
Sonics ****
From Afar seems on its face like a dream recording for audiophiles and music lovers. The 2-CD, 44-track project spotlights Víkingur Ólafsson, the sensitive, 38-year-old Icelandic pianist, performing a captivating program of short pieces twice on dissimilar pianos with very different sound: a concert grand and an upright. The very different performances are dictated by Ólafsson's…
For years, Audio Advice Live has been an annual event, drawing enthusiastic audiophiles to the dealership's showrooms on Raleigh's Glenwood Avenue, next to Virgin Cigars. This year, Audio Advice Live was different. It was a fully fledged audio show, held like most such events at a conference hotel: the Sheraton Raleigh Hotel in that North Carolina city, with rooms sponsored and presented by a wide range of hi-fi and home-theater manufacturers and distributors.
What differentiated this show from any other is that it was put together by a single dealer (Audio Advice, which also has a store…
I remember, at High End Munich 2019, setting eyes on one of the most attractive loudspeakers I'd ever seen, in the color that, as I now know, Estelon calls Ocean Mystery. I remember it as a passive demo, no music playing, seen through glass; whether that memory is strictly accurate I don't know. Memories are funny things.
That speaker was about as tall as an average-sized woman and weighed twice as much (not that I lifted it, or attempted to). Its cabinet seemed to carve out the least possible space while encompassing all its parts—nothing spare, nothing wasted. With black drivers…
There's an audiophile trope that says that when you've found the best position for a pair of speakers, you know it because everything snaps into place: No other position will do, even if it's just a half-inch away. That has never been my experience, and it wasn't here. To me, it's as though loudspeakers in a room occupy a potential well, like a marble on a hilly surface that rolls around until it settles in a low point—the low point being, in the analogy, the spot where the sound is locally optimal. Typically, that optimal position is approached in steps, and the closer you get, the smaller…