The system hasn't changed, but something has. How else can I make sense of the fact that, today, my experience of listening to music through the hi-fi…
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Today, the system sounds better than usual—in fact, amazing: warm, detailed, powerfully present, remarkably true. But how can this be? Isn't it more likely that my system, a well-considered but nevertheless inanimate, unfeeling collection of boxes and wires—NAD C 316BEE CD player, Arcam FMJ A19 integrated amplifier, KEF LS50 loudspeakers, AudioQuest Big Sur interconnects and Rocket 33 speaker cables—sounds today exactly as it did yesterday?
While the AudioQuest DragonFly has a black zinc-alloy case with subtly rounded edges and a smooth, almost rubbery texture, the Audioengine D3 has a case of injection-molded aluminum with very clean, flat edges. Small as both models are, the AQ easily feels more solid, more pleasant to touch. By contrast, the Audioengine feels somewhat tinny and hollow. The AQ is almost impervious to fingerprints; the Audioengine wears them with apparent pride. Through regular listening sessions, I noticed that the D3's case was consistently warm to the touch—never alarmingly so, but warm enough to warrant…
Sidebar: Contacts
Audioengine, 126 Industrial Drive, Building B, Burgaw, NC 28425. Tel: (877) 853-4447. Web: www.audioengineusa.com.
Cambridge Audio, US distributor: Audio Plus Services, 156 Lawrence Paquette Industrial Drive, Champlain, NY 12919. Tel: (800) 663-9352. Web: www.cambridgeaudio.com.
"Perhaps we can shed some light on your problem in a new segment exploring pre-adolescent turmoil. I call it . . . 'Choices.'"—Sideshow Bob, The Simpsons
"For us, unlike other manufacturers, there are not degrees of clean. Our entry-level machine is as good as our top of our line when it comes to cleaning records; in between, it's just a matter of choices." Thus spoke Jonathan Monks, who inherited from his father, the late Keith Monks, an audio-manufacturing legacy built upon the world's first commercially produced record-cleaning machine.
Our conversation was prompted by last…
The new model's vacuum arm moves more slowly, requiring about 70 seconds to traverse an entire LP side. (Older Monks machines do it in just over 50 seconds.) The nylon vacuum nozzle has a new shape, better suited, according to Jonathan Monks, to the slower platter and vacuum-arm speeds. And whereas the thread supply and its spooling mechanism are hidden from sight in the older, more expensive Keith Monks models, the discOveryOne keeps its thread aboveboard. With my own sample, the feeding of fresh thread into the system was not automated—I had to remember, after washing each side, to give…
When Carolyn Counnas, co-founder of Zesto Audio, contacted editor John Atkinson to ask about getting the Leto, the company's tubed line stage preamplifier ($7500), reviewed in Stereophile, JA suggested that I do the job. I'd recently reviewed competing designs from Nagra and VTL (see reviews in April 2013 and June 2013, respectively) and I was thrilled—I always look forward to hearing a tube preamp from a company I'm unfamiliar with, and besides, I'd seen pictures of the drop-dead-gorgeous Leto. After nearly 30 years of reviewing all sizes and pedigrees of preamps, power amps, and…
The Zesto's reproduction of the highs had one shortcoming, though it rarely raised its head as I listened to dozens of records. When listening to recordings with passages of significant high-frequency energy, I noticed a slight tense quality, as the preamp lost its normally relaxed demeanor. I heard this during the louder guitar-and-drum passages of the early Beatles recordings on Mono Masters (CD, Parlophone LC 0299-7), and even during the more active sections of "Ear Topology," from my jazz quartet Attention Screen's Takes Flight at Yamaha (CD, Stereophile STPH021-2). On the latter track,…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed line-stage preamplifier. Tube complement: two gold-pin JJ ECC83S/12AX7, two gold-pin JJ ECC82/12AU7. Frequency response: 10Hz–100kHz, –1dB. Output polarity: non-inverting. Distortion: approximately 0.02% at 1V RMS input. Voltage gain: 12dB. Signal/noise ratio: approximately 100dB ref. operating level. Channel separation: >90dB.
Dimensions: 17" (435mm) W by 5" (130mm) H by 12" (305mm) D. Weight 23 lbs (10.5kg).
Serial number of unit reviewed: 120132.
Price: $7500. Approximate number of dealers: 12. Warranty: 2 years, limited.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: VPI TNT IV, Rega Planar 3 turntables; Immedia, Syrinx PU-3 tonearms; Koetsu Urushi, Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood cartridges.
Digital Sources: Lector CDP-7T, Creek Destiny CD players.
Preamplification: Vendetta Research SCP-2D phono stage, Audio Valve Eklipse line stage.
Power Amplifier: Audio Research Reference 75.
Loudspeakers: Epos M16i, Monitor Audio Silver RS6, Nola Viper Reference III.
Cables: Interconnect (all MIT): Magnum M3, MI-350 CVTwin Terminator, MI-330SG Terminator. Speaker: Accent Speaker Technology Blue…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used Stereophile's loan sample of the top-of-the-line Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It") to measure the Zesto Leto. I carefully installed the four tubes—two 12AU7s, two 12AX7s—in the correct sockets, as instructed in the manual. With the Leto's volume control set to the maximum, the gain for balanced input and balanced output was 13.55dB in the left channel, 14dB in the right. For unbalanced input to unbalanced output, the gains were 12.1dB left and 12.52dB right. The Leto preserved absolute polarity (ie, was non-…