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Because the AMG turntable sits rigidly on three adjustable spiked feet, it seemed wise to repeat my auditioning with the Giro G9 sitting on my PS Audio PerfectWave PowerBase isolation platform and power conditioner ($995, discontinued). Normally, I use the PowerBase passively—not as a conditioner, but only as a platform for my Linn LP12, to prevent footfalls on my bunker's ancient wooden floor from becoming part of my music.

The PowerBase worked some unanticipated magic with the AMG Giro G9. Besides making the turntable noticeably quieter, it sharpened…

Record collectors felt differently. The prices of cutouts were right—usually, from 99õ to a penny under two bucks. And cutouts were better than digging through crates because the records were still sealed . . . even if the jackets were a bit mangled. The beauty of cutouts was that they were so cheap, you…

Between 3 and 5am the next morning, again using the Pye truck and the Neumann mikes, saxophonist Chris Mercer was recorded in the…

Even at full strength, my family didn't need 3000-plus square feet of living space, let alone four acres of outdoor frolicking space, much of it wooded. But in 2003 that's precisely what we bought, partly because our deal fell through on another, very different house, partly because living next to a dairy farm was an appealing novelty, and partly because the hill on which the house is poised seemed defensible. On our very first morning in our new home—a Saturday in early June—we awoke to gunfire and puffs of smoke…

Description: Three-way, floorstanding loudspeaker with sealed enclosure. Drive-units: 1.1" (26mm) diamond-coated beryllium-dome tweeter, 6" (152.4mm) graphene-coated Nano-Tec–cone midrange unit, two 10" (254mm) aluminum-cone woofers. Frequency range: 20Hz–50kHz. Sensitivity: 88dB/2.83V/m. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Recommended amplification: 50–1000W.
Dimensions: 48" (1220mm) H by 15" (380mm) W by 14" (360mm) D. Weight: 220 lbs (100kg).
Finishes: Metallic gloss or high-gloss paint.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 00739, 00740.
Price: $38,000/…

Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge.
Digital Sources: Aurender N10 music server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; dCS Rossini CD player & Rossini Clock; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter; AudioQuest JitterBug, UpTone Audio ReGen USB cleaner-uppers; Mac mini running Vinyl Studio, Pure Music 3; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB and Benchmark ADC1 A/D converters.
Phono Preamplifiers: Linn Linto, Liberty Audio B2B-1, Channel D Seta L.
Power Amplifiers: MBL…

I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Magico S5 Mk.II's frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 for the nearfield and in-room responses. A complication was that the 220-lb loudspeaker was too bulky for me to move it outside for the testing, or to lift it onto my computer-controlled turntable. I therefore had to do the quasi-anechoic measurements in my listening room, where the proximity of room boundaries led to more than usually aggressive windowing of the time-domain data, which in turn reduced the…

According to the company:

NightOwl ships with two sets of earpads—Protein Leather Boost Pads for slightly enhanced treble clarity and Ultrasuede pads for…