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As someone who has repeatedly reaped the sonic benefits of MQA, I found the MQA Labs press release tantalizing. "MQA Labs Debuts FOQUS ADC Design with First Ever Demonstration, Showcases Full Technology Suite," it declared, then continued, "Highlights will include a first listen to audio captured with a FOQUS ADC chip, showcasing the enhanced clarity made possible by a reimagined decimation process." The press release promised further surprises, including "a walk-through of our new and upcoming studio plug-ins, offering creators powerful tools for managing impulse response and noise shaping…
Robert Auer of Auer Acoustics isn’t just selling loudspeakers—he’s curating a lifestyle. A shrewd furniture designer, Auer showcased his holistic vision at the Munich show, integrating his Mr. Auer Chair ($110, prices approximate when converted from Euros) and Auer Acoustics Panzerholz Rack ($5700) into his sound system. His website [robertauer.com] further blurs the lines, offering everything from recipes to kitchen solutions and even a custom trolley for his signature chair. This approach transcends audio, offering an entire, well-appointed existence.
At the Munich show, Auer’s…
The Spin Doctor, Michael Trei, and I visited the booth of Korf Audio’s Alexey Kornienkov, who showed two new products: the TA-CF9 monocrystallic sapphire arm tube/reference tonearm ($5600), and an updated version of his HS-A03 ceramic headshell ($215; all prices approximate when converted from Euros).
The TA-CF9 tonearm, mounted on a classic Micro Seiki RX-1500 turntable, is available in 9" and 10" versions. It features a full ceramic headshell, Kornienkov’s "zero friction, zero stiction" flexure-pivot horizontal bearing, low-friction advanced ceramic vertical bearings, Cardas…
Advance Paris. The name might evoke images of WWII’s French Resistance or even the cold suspense of The Day of the Jackal. But for audiophiles, Advance Paris has a different, equally compelling meaning: it’s a 30-year-old French hi-fi company that manufactures integrated amplifiers, stereo and mono power amps, preamps, and CD/network players.
Advance debuted its Nova line at this year’s High End Munich, consisting of six new components that should arrive in retail channels by the fall. Presented by CEO Dimitri Peucelle and product manager Cédric Léon, the static display featured the A-…
Lucca Chesky’s LC1 bookshelf speaker was a hit at AXPONA and Capital Audiofest, so it made sense to see Chesky’s stand positioned prominently outside one of High End Munich’s large halls.
The demo setup was straightforward yet effective: music files streamed from a laptop into a Cambridge Audio EXA integrated amplifier ($1299). To optimize sound quality, the computer sat atop four IsoAcoustics Orea Graphite Isolators ($45 each). The speakers rested on IsoAcoustics Aperta stands ($199/pair), and the amplifier sat on an IsoAcoustics ZaZen Isolation Platform ($199). AudioQuest…
Two well-known French high-end audio brands, Kora and Diptyque Audio, debuted new products together at High End Munich.
An Innuos Statement music server and streamer ($18,900), a Kora CD Player 140 ($6300, all prices approximate when converted from Euros), and a Kora DAC 140 ($8150) fed Kora's new CSA 2120 stereo amplifiers ($30,600 each), which offer 120Wpc into 8 ohms, and the new CSA 1200 monoblocks ($51,000/pair), rated at 200W into 8 ohms. O2A cables connected the works.
The electronics ably drove Diptyque's new Reference MKII ($53,000/pair), a 3-way ribbon…
By this stage of the Munich show, I was frazzled but still hungry for more. The Thrax/Ramar room delivered, with Thrax's Rumen Artarski and Ramar's Rangel Vasev presenting a compact, well-executed system and a set of ingenious vinyl accessories.
This compact rig included a Thrax Yatrus turntable ($17,000) with Frank Schröder CB tonearm ($6000) and MySonicLab Signature Diamond cartridge ($15,000), feeding the new Thrax Cotys phono stage ($9,300). An XACT S1 Evo server ($16,000), via an XACT N1 Network Switch ($6,000), fed a Thrax Maximinus Mk2S DAC ($34,000).
Amplification…
Much of the coverage of the passing of Marianne Faithfull has focused on her private life rather than her music. That is understandable—yet it's also regrettable because it misses the important fact that for 60 years, Faithfull produced an impressive catalog of music, releasing 21 solo studio albums plus collaborations, compilations, and live recordings.
To oversimplify, her career can be divided in two periods. The first, which received most of the attention in obituaries, was in the 1960s, when she was a face of the British Invasion. In the mid-'60s, with her soft, folky voice and very…
Back in the '90s, when I was young and marginally employed, one of the things I looked forward to most was going downstairs to my mailbox and finding a copy of Audiomart. The booklet arrived every two weeks, sometimes monthly, and was filled with classified ads for audio gear typeset in tiny, difficult-to-read print. In those pre-internet days, you needed a reference from a subscriber to sign up for Audiomart, which fostered a sense of community and safety, and if you wanted to respond to an ad, you had to call someone. Mostly I just enjoyed perusing the ads, but the prices for some of the…
Contributing to this effect was the remarkable sonic density produced by the Royal N. I'm talking about an intensely palpable physicality, or, put another way, a heightened sensation of sound being a mechanical wave that needs the medium of air to expand. For me, this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of musical reproduction and is another calling card of the SPU.
The cartridge's frequency response is a thing of beauty. On "Mount Harissa" from The Far East Suite (RCA Victor LSP-3782), Duke Ellington's late masterpiece from 1967, the orchestra's blasts sounded robust and…