Takeaways?
First, if what I saw of this year's inaugural Earvanafest was any indication of the high-end headphone industry's general health, it must be doing very well. The couple of times I stole a gander at the event, it was teeming with activity. It might explain why this year the Audiofest organizers decided to host the headphone component of the show in a much bigger space than usual, and call it Earvanafest!
Second, ribbon-based tweeters are…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…