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Music history, like all human history, is filled with nooks and crannies—digressions from the main course of events. Take Anton Bruckner for example. The global concert hall calendars are filled with performances of his symphonies and some of his choral works. New recordings of these pieces are frequently released. How many of you have ever heard a performance, or…

There's no accounting for taste, or so the truism goes. But arguing over preferences is exactly what many audiophiles do. Similarly, Stereophile reviewers are all about parsing and evaluating sound, and how a product looks isn't usually a big part of the equation. But I'll buck that convention and say that the radically shaped Estelon X Diamond Mk IIs aren't just the…

As recommended by Aldo Filippelli, Estelon's amiable VP of sales and business development for the Americas, I had intended to drive the Estelons with the new Vitus SM-025 monoblock amplifiers, at least for a spell. He feels that pairing the Baltic beauties with the Danish power amps results in unusually good synergy. The release of the Vitus product was postponed, however, which frankly made my job a little easier. I used my reference Krell FPB-200c amplifier, a known quantity instead of a wild card. For most of the duration, my hyperclean Benchmark HPA4 line stage served as a preamp.…

Description: Three-way bass-reflex loudspeaker. Drive units: 11" ceramic-sandwich dome woofer, 7" ceramic-membrane mid/woofer, 1" inverted diamond-dome tweeter. All drivers by Accuton. Crossover frequencies: 75Hz (third-order), 2kHz (second-order). Frequency range: 22Hz–60kHz. Impedance: 6 ohms (minimum 3.8 ohms at 55Hz). Sensitivity 88dB/2.83V/1m. Recommended amplifier power: 50Wpc or more.
Dimensions: 54" (1370mm) H × 17.5" (450mm) W × 25" (640mm) D. Weight 190lb (86kg) each.
Finish: Black Lava Liquid Gloss, White Gloss. Add up to $8000 for nonstandard…

Digital sources: 15" MacBook Air M2 Max running Roon 2.0, Roon ROCK (Lenovo ThinkCentre), Eversolo DMP-A8, Grimm Audio MU1, Aurender A20.
Preamplifiers: Benchmark HPA4 line stage, Eversolo DMP-A8.
Power amplifier: Krell FPB-200c (recapped).
Integrated amplifiers: Audia Flight FLS10, Pathos InPol Legacy.
Loudspeakers: Focal Utopia Scala EVO, REL No.31 subwoofer ×2.
Cables: Speaker: AudioQuest Thunderbird Zero and Bass. Power cables and interconnects: RSX and Clarus Crimson pure copper OCC power cables. AudioQuest WEL Signature (AES3),…

Let's get to it
It's hard to deny that the Buckeye's specifications seem to conflict with its modest physical size and weight (slightly larger than the Benchmark but considerably lighter), so I immediately chose to stress the monoblocks with organ music, just to relieve some of that cognitive dissonance. That meant starting with two of my familiars from New England: Pipes Rhode Island (16/44.1 rip from CD, Riago CD 101) and (from Massachusetts) Mendelssohn: Six Organ Sonatas, Op.65 performed by Thomas Murray (CD, Raven 390, rip originally from LP, Sheffield Town Hall S-13). I chose…

There's a clear evolution in technology and performance from Hypex's original and innovative "self-oscillating" UcD through to NCore and now to the Purifi Eigentakt class-D module used in the Buckeye amplifier. The original UcD circuit married an input comparator, a power stage, and LC filter with feedback looped back between output and input "undoing" enough of the LC filter's phase shift to ensure stable operation. Loop gain was a respectable 30dB, but designer Bruno Putzeys has said this was as far as he could go and still guarantee the amp's stability.…

Description: Monoblock power amplifier based on Purifi 1ET9040BA C500 class-D technology. Inputs: 1 XLR (balanced). Input impedance: 51k ohms. Gain: 25.5dB (High), 20.5dB (Medium), 15.5dB (Low). Input sensitivity for rated output (High, Medium, Low): 2.9V, 5.2V, 9.2V. Rated output power at 1kHz (0.1% THD): 375W into 8 ohms (25.75dBW), 750W into 4 ohms (25.75dBW), 1200W into 2 ohms (24.8dBW). Maximum output current: 40A. Power efficiency: 96%. Frequency range: 0Hz–80kHz. S/N ratio: >140dB. THD: 0.0001% (20Hz–20kHz, 400W, 4 ohms). 12V trigger in/out, Auto-Sense…

Digital sources: Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center v33 and Roon 2, Merging Devices Hapi II, exaSound S88, Okto dac8 Pro D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS. Oppo Digital UDP-103 universal disc player.
Power amplifiers: Benchmark AHB2, NAD M23.
Loudspeakers: KEF Blade Two Meta with IsoAcoustics GAIA II feet.
Cables: Digital interconnects: Mogami Gold AES TD DB25-XLR snake. Analog interconnects: Mogami Gold AES TD DB25-XLR snake, Benchmark Studio&Stage XLR-XLR. Speaker cables: Blue Jeans Canare 4S11.
Accessories:…