Digital Sources: dCS Paganini SACD/CD transport & Scarlatti clock & Rossini DAC; Intel NUC7i7BNH computer with 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, running Roon; Linksys router with two TP-Link GB Ethernet media converters & multimode duplex fiber-optic cable; iPad Pro, external hard drives, USB sticks.
Preamplifier: Lamm Industries L2.1.
Power Amplifiers: Dan D'Agostino Master Systems Progression monoblocks.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia 2.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond (Ethernet), Nordost Odin 1 & Odin 2 & Valhalla…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Bricasti Design M15 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before I test an amplifier, I precondition it with both channels driving a 1kHz tone at one-third power into 8 ohms for an hour. At the end of that time, the Bricasti's top panel was warm, at 101°F (38.3°C), and its heatsinks were hotter, at 103.1°F (39.5°C). The M15 has sufficient heatsinking for its power rating.
The voltage gain at 1kHz from the speaker terminals into 8 ohms measured 26.9dB for both balanced and unbalanced signals, and both…
Manufacturer's Comments
Editor: A review in Stereophile is very important to Bricasti Design and to our dealers and export partners, so we took our responsibilities in this matter very seriously. We did our best, in hopes that the process would be transparent and fair, and that Stereophile's reviewer would report on the best that our product the M15 stereo amplifier can sound. We don't think that is what happened, and are very disappointed.
When Jason Victor Serinus approached us at the 2017 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest while we were demonstrating the M15, we told him that in view…
Back at the beginning of 2017, Greg Roberts, of Volti Audio, devised a clever way to bring his Rival floorstanders up to my penthouse pad, for what resulted in a rave review of those horn-loaded wunderspeakers.
I live on the top floor of a seven-story, elevatorless building on a busy street in Greenwich Village. A vertical challenge? No problem! Roberts is resourceful in many things, from speaker design to his former profession, the building of custom homes. Affixing a pair of unguent-saturated straps to the screws on each side of a Rival, we lifted and transported the 106-lb speaker…
The P21 EXD has speaker-cable taps for 4 and 8 ohms; I found the latter slightly more dynamic, and so did all of my listening in 8 ohm mode.
The P21 EXD isn't all that heavy at 37.54 lb, and slid easily into the bottom shelf of my Salamander rack. The umbilical that links the P21 and its PSU is rather short, however. I ended up placing the PSU parallel to the P21, under the stubby bench my CD player sits on, perched on four Mapleshade Isoblocks. The PSU I plugged straight into the wall, no filter. I pressed the on/off switch on its faceplate and the games began.
Listening
As…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Two-channel, tubed power amplifier with external power supply. Tube complement: amplifier, two Sovtek 6C45pi, four 300B; power supply, two 6AU4-GTA, two EZ80. Line-level inputs: 2 (RCA). Outputs: 2 pairs each of 3 binding posts—ground, 8 ohm tap, 4 ohm tap. Output power: 20Wpc into 8 ohms (13dBW). Input sensitivity: 1.2V RMS to full output. Input impedance: 100k ohms. Channel balance: 0.5dB. Frequency response: 10Hz–36kHz, –3dB. Minimum load impedance: 3 ohms. Gain: 10dB. Power consumption: 300W.
Dimensions: Amplifier: 17" (430mm) W by 13.5" (…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Kuzma Stabi S turntable & Stogi tonearm; Thorens TD 124 Mk.I turntable, Jelco 350S tonearm; Denon DL-103, Hana EL, Ortofon 2M Bronze cartridges.
Digital Sources: Apple MacBook computer running Audirvana Plus; LG BD550 BD player (as transport); Halide DAC HD, Mytek HiFi Manhattan, PS Audio NuWave DACs; Western Digital T2 Mirror Drives (2).
Preamplification: Auditorium 23 A23 moving-coil step-up transformer, Heed Audio Quasar phono preamplifier, Shindo Laboratory Allegro preamplifier.
Power Amplifier: Shindo Laboratory Haut-…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the BorderPatrol P21 EXD using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). I installed the numbered 300B tubes in the correct sockets, as identified in the manual, but I didn't adjust the bias for the two pairs of 300B output tubes, feeling that I should measure the amplifier in the condition it was auditioned by Ken Micallef.
The P21 EXD's voltage gain at 1kHz into 8 ohms was lower than the norm, at 17dB from the 8 ohm tap into 8 ohms, 15.9dB from the 4 ohm tap into 8 ohms, and 14.5dB from the 4 ohm tap into 4 ohms.…
Jason Victor Serinus reviewed the Lamm L2.1 Reference preamplifier in July 2018 (Vol.41 No.7):
Sometimes, great components enter our lives with little fanfare. Thus, by happenstance, did Lamm Industries' L2.1 Reference preamplifier ($22,790) end up in my reference system.
The story began at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, when John Atkinson and I visited Lamm's oversize suite on a high floor of the Venetian Hotel. Our intentions were twofold: to report on what we heard and saw, and to sniff out products for me to review. We found one likely candidate—AQ…
Soprano/composer Patrice Michaels with Ruth Bader Ginsburg at Glimmerglass in 2016
First there was the epithet, "Notorious RBG," which NYC law student Shana Knizhnik coined in 2013 (in a sly riff on the name of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's fellow Brooklynite and rapper, The Notorious B.I.G.) as the name of her Tumblr site. Then came Derrick Wang's, Scalia/Ginsburg, an opera based on the odd-bedfellows friendship of two SCOTUS justices and opera lovers from opposite sides of the political spectrum, Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia. During the same time period that the opera…