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Ready, set go. It may not look crowded at 9am on the first morning of High End 2015 in Munich, but we who were dashing in an hour early for the Devialet press conference soon found Atrium 4.1 (shown) filled with people. Attendees included, in addition to consumers, dealers from multiple continents, some of whom are now skipping January's CES in Las Vegas because they find the trip to Munich more productive and far more enjoyable. Also present were manufacturers and reps who prefer to make the rounds rather than display. All in all, it's fair to say that, for many in the industry, High 2015 is…
Clearaudio began making moving-coil cartridges in the 1970s, and only later got into the moving-magnet business. Moving-magnet cartridge designers must now be mindful that most of today's tonearms are of medium to high mass and that therefore, to be compatible, their MMs must be of low to medium compliance and of higher mass than those of the 1960s and '70s.
At $1200, the Maestro V2 is among the most expensive, if not the most expensive, MM cartridges you can buy today. Like all but one of the four other models in the V2 line, it features a resonance-optimized body of ebony. Clearaudio's…
Sidebar: Specifications
Description: Moving-magnet phono cartridge. Weight: 8.4gm. Output voltage: 3.6mV at 1kHz. Channel separation: >30dB. Channel balance: <0.2dB. Coil impedance: 660 ohms at 1kHz.
Price: $1200.
Manufacturer: Clearaudio Electronic GmbH, Spardorfer Strasse 150, 91054 Erlangen, Germany. Tel: (49) (0)1805-05-95-95. Fax: (49) (0)9131-40-300-119. Web: www.clearaudio.de. US distributor: Musical Surroundings, 5662 Shattuck Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609. Tel: (510) 547-5006. Fax: (510) 547-5009. Web: www.musicalsurroundings.com
An hour after High End 2015 opened in Munich on Friday May 15, the stairways to the second floor were packed. Multiply this mob scene by 7, and you have an idea of how many consumers and dealers were eager to fill the corridors, halls, and rooms at the show.
When I initially encountered Rosso Fiorentino loudspeakers at the first AXPONA in Jacksonville, I was so blown away by how well they handled full-range symphonic material that I encouraged Darren Censullo of Avatar Acoustics to import them into the US. Four years later, designer Francesco Rubenni, whose sporty outfit leaves…
An entire page of the High End magazin was devoted to an introduction to Meridian's MQA (Master Quality Authenticated) technology. Bob Stuart, who with Peter Craven, invented MQA, spent a generous amount of time with me discussing both the latest developments with the process, and some of the scientific research behind it.
Already, Arcam, Onkyo Music, 2L, Roon, and Tidal have signed on as MQA supporters, and over 100 potential business partners have been identified. Nonetheless, MQA's launch has been delayed 1–2 months because there's "something" Meridian is adding to increase its…
One of the major entertainment attractions at High End 2015 was US jazz vocalist (jazz-sängerin) Lyn Stanley. Performing twice daily in the room of her sponsors, Purist Audio Design, Stanley sang live into a microphone to recorded accompaniment, and then invited people to compare the amplified results to the playback of the same track on her LP (using Purist cabling, of course).
Stanley's deliciously deep voice sounded fantastic on Day 1, but technical snafus got in the way. Reverb on her mike was of outer space proportions—I'm told it got much better on subsequent days—rendering any…
The jazz world, not to mention the record business as a whole, lost one of its true gentlemen and most positive role models when Bruce Lundvall died on Tuesday, May 19 at the age of 79 from complications associated with Parkinson’s disease. Famed as the man who “discovered” Norah Jones, Lundvall revived and ran Blue Note Records as its President for 26 years. Prior to that he’d been President of Columbia Records and its parent, CBS Records. In the early 1980s he also spent two years at Elektra Records, launching the now defunct Elektra Musician label.
A native New Yorker (born in Jersey…
Many European audiophiles must have decided to take advantage of the three-day holiday weekend and avoid Saturday's crowds, because Saturday's show attendance, while still huge, was actually lower than Friday's. Then again, the decision to avoid Saturday may have been because so much of Munich saves Saturday for indulging in Bavaria's favorite gut-expanding passion, drinking beer. From audiophile nirvana to drunken oblivion in the span of 24 hours, to the tune of Ella and Satchmo singing, "Isn't it a Lovely Day."
While Saturday was packed by American show standards, getting an early…
Okay. I'm not a poet, and I know it. So let's quickly move on to the towering presence of Duelund's Frederik Carøe. Every time I look above the crowd and see Frederik's countenance, I know that Duelund has a new capacitor on the market.
This time, it's two. One is the Duelund Precision Audio Capacitor (approx. $80-$90), a new bypass capacitor for speakers and electronics. Made from pure silver foil, paper, oil, and wax, it costs ¼ to 1/5 the price of its predecessor, thanks to a devastating fire which forced Duelund to build a new, far more efficient factory.
Also newly available…
Just two weeks before PS Audio premieres the BHK Signature 300 mono amps at Newport Beach, the company showcased its BHK Signature 250 stereo amplifier ($7499) in Munich. This was my first opportunity to hear this Bascom H. King specialty in the context of an all-PS Audio system, and despite the sub-optimal room acoustics, it did not disappoint. In the context of PS Audio's DirectStream DAC ($6000), PerfectWave transport, P10 Power Plant, and power cables, the BHK Signature 250 joined Magneplanar 20.7 loudspeakers, a REL subwoofer, and Analysis Plus interconnects and speaker cable to project…