With a computer as a source, I listened to Doug MacLeod's "Sweet…
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Perhaps my biggest discovery at the 2023 Warsaw Audio Video Show was Fezz Audio's reasonably priced line of excellent-sounding electronics. With a lineup that includes the Equinox Prestige tube DAC, designed by Lampizator, and the new Olympia monoblock whose auto-bias feature—controlled by a microprocessor—fine-tunes bias between tracks, Fezz electronics again joined with Pylon Audio loudspeakers and, for analog, Muarah turntables to produce fine, life-enhancing sound with fundamental integrity that speaks volumes.
Derek Skipworth of Arlington, Texas’s Audio Thesis was on hand to showcase several components at CAF2024. His spartan room featured a T+A Elektroakustik SDV 3100 HV Streaming DAC preamp ($38,900) and a T+A Elektroakustik A 3000 HV power amplifier ($24,275), driving the striking Rosso Fiorentino Siena Series 2 loudspeakers ($40,000/pair).
Audio Thesis’s biggest announcement
Audio Thesis’s biggest announcement was the global launch of Turnbull Audio. Not to be confused with Devon Turnbull of OJAS fame, this Turnbull is a cable company, which outfitted the Audio Thesis room at CAF.…
The buzz was palpable weeks before I hit the show. David Chesky’s son, Lucca, had designed a pair of small bookshelf speakers—the LC1—while still in high school and developed the speakers while interning at Princeton University with Professor Edgar Choueiri, the brains behind Bacch SP.
Sandy Gross, veteran and founder of Polk Audio, helped choose the drivers and contributed to the design, I was told. And they were selling for $498 apiece.
The LC1 cabinet exploits a composite, multi-layer, high-mass, non-resonant material, features a 1” dome tweeter, a 6.5” polypropylene cone…
Herb waits for Godot
It's important for readers to remember that I've spent my adult life as an artist and mechanic. Making things. Working as a tradesperson during the day then at an easel or workbench at night.
When I finished high school, all I wanted to do was work in a fancy, well-equipped shop building drag race engines. Engine building was something I had already shown a talent for, but my parents insisted I go to college. Unfortunately, my high school grade point average was so low I was turned down by every college I applied to. Consequently, my parents forced me to…
Since I reviewed it in Gramophone Dreams #79, the EVO 100 has refused to make my system sound warm, soft, or second-harmonic thickened. It defies all clichéd descriptions of what tube amplification sounds like. Instead, it plays clean and fast and corners like a race car.
When Kevin Deal emailed asking if I was ready for a "free" EVO 100 "upgrade," I asked, "What's wrong with the way it is?"
He responded, "It's a parts upgrade and circuit tweak. We could do the MKII BS to raise the price, but we don't roll that way. Our job is supplying joy, not cashing in. Doing it free…
Newcomer Eastern Bay Sound brought its new “Farm-to-Table” speakers to CAF2024.
The speakers are made on the Chesapeake Bay by local artisans who use a local mill to provide wood for their hardwood designs, which borrow from local nautical history, according to the company’s Buff Colchagoff.
EBS’s Southwind standmount ($1450/pair) is a mass-loaded Voigt pipe (mass-loaded horn) designed for the Markaudio CHR-90 5½” full-range drive unit. The cabinet’s inner box is ½" Baltic Birch plywood, and the outer box is ¼" Walnut, with Maple and Cherry hardwoods.
“Both the alloy…
It is unusual to begin a review with a detailed discussion of setup. But setup protocol for the Moon 861 power amplifier ($22,000 each), the top-level amplifier in the North Collection from Moon, which I reviewed bridged in mono, proved crucial to its sound.
The setup saga began when Moon co-owner Costa Koulisakis traveled to Port Townsend from Quebec to help remove two 861 amplifiers from their sturdy flight cases and set them up. (We also set up the Moon 891 Network Player/DAC, which I'll review next month, with and without the 861s.) First, he noted that Moon designed the 861 to rest…
Details
The Moon 861's attractive front panel is blessedly free of bells, whistles, and unnecessary clutter. It includes a discretely placed button that toggles the amp between "active" and "inactive" modes (ie, on and standby), and a status indicator light that differentiates between powering up, normal operation, and firmware update status. The light's unusual placement and shape add to the amp's distinct aesthetics.
There's more action on the rear. Beyond two pairs of speaker output posts and single pairs of balanced and single-ended inputs, the rear panel holds toggle…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Dual-mono power amplifier bridgeable to mono. Inputs: Stereo pair balanced (XLR), single-ended (RCA), 15A IEC. Outputs: Two pair spade-lug binding posts. Output power, stereo: 300Wpc into 8 ohms, 600Wpc into 4 ohms (both 24.77dBW); mono: 800W into 8 ohms (29dBW), 1400W into 4 ohms (28.45dBW). Input sensitivity: 1.4V at full rated output power. Input impedance: 47k ohm. Gain: 31dB. Frequency response: 2Hz–100kHz (+0/–3dB). Crosstalk: –119dB. THD, 1W: 0.002%; 200W: 0.001%. IMD: 0.006%. S/N ratio: 119dB. Damping factor: 900. Power consumption: 85W at…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler Plus, and Vivaldi Master Clock; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server and PhoenixNET network switch; Ideon Absolute Stream Meta Edition (2024) music server and Alpha Wave; Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule Deluxe (2); Broadcom/Avago AFBR-5718PZ 1GB SX-SFP, Gen 5 Fiber Optic modules; Nordost QSource linear power supply (2); Sonore Audiophile Linear Power Supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS with Ferrum Hypsos linear/switching hybrid power supply; Linksys MR9000 mesh router and Arris modem; Apple…