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Mated with the new Avid Ingenium turntable with Pro-ject tonearm ($1999), Marantz PM14S integrated amplifier, and Audioquest cabling, a not fully broken-in set of Wharfedale Jade 1 loudspeakers ($1199/pair) sounded very impressive for the price. On the Cowboy Junkies Whites Off Earth Now LP, a take-no-prisoners depiction of electric guitar was balanced by a decent midrange, good bass, and a fine depiction of female voice. Abetting bass response was Wharfedale's Diamond 10.2 subwoofer ($799), which filled in between 35 and 65Hz.
Ammar Jadusingh began his loudspeaker company, Soundfield Audio, in late 2010, not long before he exhibited at AXPONA Jacksonville. Sold direct via the internet, his brand new Variable Soundfield Tower 3 four-way loudspeaker ($8500/pair), aka VSFT-3, contains two different, active woofers: a 10" sealed, high-excursion woofer and a 12" dipole woofer. With a claimed frequency response of 20Hz—23kHz, 8 ohms nominal impedance, and 92dB sensitivity, the speakers exhibited quite good balance and a warm midrange on a Red Book version of Dave Brubeck's "Take 5," live from the UK.
Driving the…
Is this the third consecutive show where the sound of Balanced Audio Technology (BAT) electronics has won me over? BAT doesn't need to either sugar-coat or tone down its tube sound, because its openness, clarity, and musical truth are so spot-on. IMHO, of course. The sound was so good that I didn't even bother to take notes on the music I heard.
After showing a pre-production model at CES 2014, BAT has just begun shipping its VK-P12SE/SP/Super PAK phono preamplifier ($12,495). Also making their US consumer-show debut, BAT's REX II linestage ($25,000) and REX II monoblock amplifiers ($40,…
Some of the best sound at AXPONA filled Chicago-based dealer/concert pianist George Vatchnadze's room. With more than a little help from industry veteran Dan Meinwald, who not only claimed to have simply plunked everything down, but also called the large room at the end of the 3rd floor of the Westin O'Hare "the best hotel showroom I've ever been in," Ella's "Angel Eyes" from her universally lauded LP, Let No Man Write My Epitaph, sounded drop-dead gorgeous. The midrange felt like a warm embrace, inviting me in without fear of witnessing Fitzgerald's emotion drowned in a sea of euphonia. (…
Not one to think small, Brian Walsh of Essential Audio in Barrington, IL needed a very big room to house the Sound Lab Majestic 845 electrostatic loudspeakers ($35,840/pair), Atma-Sphere MP-1 Mk.III.2 preamplifier ($16,940) and MA-2 Mk III.2 output transformer-less amplifiers ($41,600/pair), Aurender W20 reference music server ($16,800), Bricasti M1 DAC ($8995), Kuzma Stabi XL 2-motor turntable with all the trimmings ($32,280 total), Teo Audio equipment racks, and cabling from Teo Audio, Clarity Cable, and Creative Cable Concepts. Try saying that on one breath.
Listening to a DSD64…
From whatever vantage point you choose, AXPONA (Audio Expo North America) 2014 in Chicago's Westin O'Hare was a major success. Attendance on opening day, Friday, April 25, was quite robust, and the feeling in the hallway and in rooms was extremely positive. Saturday was mobbed, with standees in many rooms during peak hours, and hallways buzzing. Saturday's half-hour wait for tables in the hotel restaurant sent many of us scurrying to either the hotel's Starbuck concession or the hotel's "Grab 'N Grub," or whatever they called it.
As is always the case at audio shows, Sunday was…
Saturday, May 3, 1–5pm, Fidelis, located at 460 Amherst Street, Nashua, NH will host a seminar and open house with Peter McGrath of Wilson Audio (above) to celebrate and present Wilson Audio's new Sasha 2 loudspeaker. Brian Zolner of Bricasti Design will be on hand to talk about digital solutions and his highly regarded Bricasti M1 DAC, and Stereophile Senior Editor John Marks will be on hand to share his industry insights. Refreshments will be served. RSVP is appreciated: email store@fidelisav.com or call (603) 880-4434.
Big tube amplifiers were once scary monsters reserved for those who didn't mind heavy maintenance, careful tweaking, and the occasional explosion. Blown tubes required replacing, preferably with pricey matched pairs, then biasing with a voltmeter. Optimal sonic performance required regular bias monitoring and adjusting, and because of current surges on startup, you had to choose between leaving the heat-producing monoliths on, or turning them on and off for each listening session, thus shortening the life of the tubes.
For all of those reasons, the received wisdom was that tube amps…
The big Siegfried IIs could play "small" and fast, in that they sounded similar to VTL's MB-450 Series III Signature, but with more power, grip, and slam. And slam was the word—the Siegfrieds had slam not in spades, but in dump trucks full! Of course, you have to listen to a recording with wide dynamic range to catch the micro end of the act.
Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic's recording of Mahler's Symphony 3, while not the most revered performance of the work, is still a great one—especially for its sound in an upcoming vinyl reissue, even if the brass can sound a bit…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Tubed monoblock power amplifier with switch-selectable Damping Factor (four levels available, Low, Med, Hi, Max). Tube complement: one 12AT7, two 12BH7, twelve 6550C. Inputs: 1 unbalanced (RCA), 1 balanced (XLR). Outputs: 1 pair binding posts. Rated power output at <2.5% distortion into 5 ohms: 650W tetrode (26.1dBW), 330W (23.1dBW) triode. Frequency range: 20Hz–20kHz at 650W (tetrode) or 330W (triode). Optimal load range: 4–8 ohms. Input impedance: 47k ohms. Input sensitivity: 1–2.0V for full output, depending on Damping Factor setting. Power…