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Lots of Luxman at Common Wave

L.A.-based dealer Common Wave Hi-Fi is presenting in six rooms in Costa Mesa this year. The one I visited was showing a Luxman PD-151 Mark II turntable ($5995) with Luxman's LMC-5 cartridge alongside other Luxman components from the 100-year-old Japanese maker's limited Black Edition Centennial series.

Instead of the company's ubiquitous silver chassis, these come in, yep, black: a Luxman L-509Z integrated amplifier ($12,995), D-07X SA-CD player ($10,495), and NT-07 streamer ($7995). Music was played back through a pair of QLN Signature speakers with stands ($24,500/pair).

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Onkyo Is Alive and Well (Case in Point: Its New Icon Series)

Guess who's back from the brink of existence? It's Onkyo, the storied Japanese audio brand that filed for bankruptcy in 2022. Like Mark Twain's rumored demise, reports of its death were greatly exaggerated. In Munich, Akihisa "Alec" Watanabe, project leader at Onkyo Technology, and Dave Gans, VP of Marketing & eCommerce at Premium Audio Company (Onkyo's U.S. distributor, which also handles Klipsch) convinced doubters that the brand is alive and well.

Klipsch revealed its new La Scala AL6 in March, and the large speaker sure stood its ground in Munich, but I was there to get the…

A Little Boom Goes a Long Way: Avantgarde's New Twin Sub

Avantgarde Acoustic provided a close look at its latest offerings, including a new compact subwoofer, the Twin Sub (price not yet announced).

The company explained that the sub expands Avantgarde's subwoofer lineup with a more compact, easier-to-integrate option. The new product was designed to offer the Trio G3's full-range impact in a more compact form, as it's easier to integrate than the company's larger SpaceHorn subwoofer.

A Clearaudio Reference Jubilee turntable ($21,500), fitted with a Unity tonearm ($16,300) and a Goldfinger MC cartridge (about $17,500), fed an…

With New Reference Speakers, JBL Scales a Sonic Summit

"Immerse yourself in extraordinary acoustics and thrilling inspirational insights," trumpeted the JBL "Summit of Sound" press release. Present at the event were Harman Luxury Audio top brass Dave Tovissi, Jim Garrett, and Paul Neville, with Harman's David Glaubke moderating. The men proudly pointed to the elevated sonics of their new Summit speakers, including the JBL Ama ($19,995/pair with stands), the JBL Pumori ($29,995/pair) and the JBL Makalu ($44,995/pair).

The Makalu is a 3-way floorstanding reference loudspeaker with a 12" woofer and 8" midrange driver, both made with JBL'…

Glory and Hallelujah: My Time at Kondo Audio Note

My last stop of the show was a real highlight. The only Kondo Audio Note equipment I'd heard up till then was at a friend's home in New York City. His setup included a Kondo Ongaku integrated amplifier, a Kondo KSL-SFz SUT (step-up transformer), Kondo silver interconnects (KSL-LPz and Ls-41), and Kondo KSL-SPz silver speaker cables. The sound was consistently beautiful, very natural, with a touch of romanticism.

But even that setup didn't prepare me for what I heard in Munich. The show system was fronted by a Kondo Ginga turntable ($68,000) mounted with a Kondo IO-XP MC cartridge ($8900…

Revinylization #65: Six Doors Albums on All-Analog LPs from Rhino

For Warner Music Group, the Doors have been a deep vein of music gold. Their albums have never been out of print, and the catalog has enjoyed regular reissues for decades. Each new version of the Doors' first six albums sells well enough to prompt another trip to the vaults.

The latest moonlight drive down love street is a series of all-analog LPs from Rhino High Fidelity (RHF). A limited-edition numbered box set version sold out in days; un-numbered single LPs will sell until the production parts wear out. Cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Mastering using his Studer A-80 tape machine and…

Tiki Time: Desmond's Tiki Tube Amps

T.H.E. Show is enjoyable for many reasons—friendly people, a good vibe, some great-sounding rooms, and new hi-fi gear. There are introductions of new products from known makers and from some showing unexpected things. An example of the latter: L.A.-based Desmond's Tiki Tube Amplifiers, shown on passive display in the Marketplace area. Proprietor Desmond Bowe said these are just intended as examples "to get a conversation started" with the customer.

Bowe is a musician. He started out with guitar amplifiers. He began making his Tiki hi-fi creations during the COVID pandemic as he…

Charles Tolliver and Strata-East

The why behind most artist-owned labels tends to be a thicket of motivations. They have more adventurous tastes. They are more artist friendly. They are anxious to be the ones in charge of the money for a change. For jazz trumpeter Charles Tolliver, co-founder of the record label Strata-East, the motivation was a combination of all these factors and more.

During a break in the hectic schedule that preceded the April 2025 release of 32 reissues from the famed Strata-East catalog—including the work of Charlie Rouse, Pharoah Sanders, and Cecil McBee—I caught up with Tolliver and his son Ched…

Ayon Audio and Lumen White

T.H.E. Show has plenty of jazz in the demo rooms, including Dave Brubeck's "Take Five," which I heard via Roon in the demo featuring Ayon Audio and Lumen White demo in Emerald Bay 1, a large banquet room, presented by USA Tube Audio Labs.

The demo system featured equipment that's been around for a while but has received iterative updates, including tube amplification from Ayon, including the Kronos Signature preamp/DAC ($10,995) with a pair of Orthos EVO Gen 4 monoblock amplifiers, which drove a pair of Lumen White Kyara speakers ($49,000), which have ceramic drivers…

Rock of Life: The <I>Brothers In Arms</I> CD Turns 40

The Compact Disc needed a big win—and fast. During its first few years in the marketplace (footnote 1), the format wasn't living up to lofty expectations. Part of the problem maybe was that most of the CDs released up to that time came from analog sources.

But then on May 17, 1985, the CD's savior arrived: Brothers in Arms, the fifth studio album release by British rock stalwarts Dire Straits. Trumpeted as one of the first "full digital recordings" in the pop/rock oeuvre, Brothers in Arms was an undeniable smash international hit from a band that had struck it big already. Exactly 40…