Motor Drive and Platter Module
At the heart of the Model One is the Motor Drive and Platter Module, designed for both high performance and flexibility. Mounted on an aluminum plate with a resonance-damping layer, this module minimizes vibrations. It features a 300rpm belt-drive motor (500rpm in regions with 230V power) equipped with…
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VPI Industries, the New Jersey–based high-performance turntable maker, has introduced the Model One as the first offering in its new Forever Series. The new design emphasizes modularity and upgradability, allowing users to adapt their systems over time.
A new Polish turntable brand, BennyAudio, is poised to enter the United States via the Supreme Acoustic Systems distributorship. Given what I heard in BennyAudio's room at Audio Video Show 2024, aka The Warsaw Show, my audiophile buddy Scott might have gone to heaven and back if he’d been able to join me.
For Scott, cymbals are one of many litmus tests for a sound system. If he'd heard how fabulously BennyAudio’s Odyssey turntable, which is equipped with a short belt drive, one arm, and a van den Hul Frog Gold cartridge, reproduced the sound of cymbals. On "Dating" from E.S.T.…
Polish company J. Sikora belatedly premiered in Warsaw what they had unveiled at Chicago’s AXPONA six months before: their new Standard Max Supreme turntable. Only one table below the company’s top of the line, Standard Max Supreme reproduced music with the help of J. Sikora's Kevlar tonearm and an Aidas Mammoth Gold cartridge from Lithuania.
The Standard Max Supreme exemplifies J. Sikora’s underlying philosophy of addressing resonances by combining different metals and alloys in different proportions. Fifteen years of experience with metals and machining have passed since the initial…
Calling Elvis Presley the king of rock'n'roll may seem hyperbolic today, but that's what he was during 21 years in the hot pop culture spotlight. His recording career began and ended in his hometown of Memphis. From a bright cultural comet heralding something new to a depressed drug addict mailing in middling performances from his mansion's den, Sony's box set, Memphis, captures all his home-turf recording sessions.
The box has five CDs, each holding a different set of Memphis recordings. Disc 1, Sun Single Masters, contains those musical lightning bolts captured at Sam Phillips's Sun…
No one I know enjoys dating. Some friends detest it so much they won't go near it. Maybe they believe the love of their life is waiting to be discovered at a Zumba class or in line at the King Kullen. Or maybe they've quietly given up. Admit it: Dating offers a low probability of success, and if you think too much about just how low, the whole thing begins to seem ridiculous. Yet how do you meet a potential partner without, well, meeting them?
My first exposure to the perils of dating happened when I was 12. For my mother's birthday, my grandparents gave her a membership in a computer…
The Sound of Red October
I have to start this section with a caveat for can heads: Though I've been using good headphones for much of my adult life, I strongly prefer listening through speakers. So my impressions of the Red October's headphone capabilities lack the subtlety and knowhow of a true headspace aficionado like Herb Reichert. That said, I used four sets of cans—the Audeze LCD-3, the Sennheiser HD 650, the HiFiMan HE-R10P, and the Meze Elite—and listened to both vinyl and streaming.
Though the Ampsandsound flagship lacked the near-silent backgrounds of some solid…
German audio manufacturer beyerdynamic has launched updated versions of its premium studio headphones: the DT 1770 PRO MKII and DT 1990 PRO MKII. These models feature the newly developed TESLA.45 driver, designed to improve sound quality and reduce distortion. Priced at $599, both headphones are available now through beyerdynamic's online store and Amazon.
The latest iterations are tailored for modern music production environments, offering an impedance of 30 ohms to ensure compatibility with a wide variety of playback devices. According to the company, this adjustment addresses…
Hi-fi's vintage-tech revival feels like a Don Draper fever dream. You know Draper, right? The smooth-talking ad man from Mad Men? In one episode, he pitches a new Kodak slide projector, but instead of focusing on the science and the specs, he calls it a "carousel"—think bouncing painted horses—and says it will take people back to a simpler time.
For its early-'60s moment, that slide projector is high-tech—and "technology is a glittering lure," Draper tells the assembled group of cigarette-smoking suits around a conference room table. Draper mentions Teddy, a Greek former colleague Draper…
Aesthetics? Forget the clunky wooden box speakers that made your father drool (although the Corner Ribbon was and is lovely): The Revela 1 (which for the remainder of this review I'll occasionally call the R1) would not seem out of place in a billionaire bachelor pad. The cabinets are gorgeous, with real walnut veneer finished with several layers of high-gloss lacquer. The baffle is a similarly glossy piano black. (The Revela 1 is also available in Piano Black all over.) Those rounded corners and edges contribute to a striking silhouette. The speaker seems to float above its dedicated…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-way, bass-reflex, standmount speaker. Drive units: 1.6" × 2.36" (27mm × 60mm) True Ribbon high-frequency driver and 6.5" (165mm) wood pulp/para-aramid cone mid/bass driver. Crossover frequency: 2.9kHz. Nominal impedance: 6 ohms; minimum 4.1 ohms. Peak SPL: 102dB. Frequency response: 54Hz–24kHz, ±3dB; –6dB at 40Hz. Sensitivity: 86dB/2.83V/m. Peak power handling: 120W. Recommended amplifier power: 30–120W.
Dimensions: 15½" (395mm) H × 10" (246mm) W × 12" (312mm) D. Weight: 24lb (10.8kg).
Finishes: Piano Walnut/Piano Black, Piano Black.
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