Driven by Luxman's solid-state, class-A, 30Wpc, phono stage-equipped L-590AXII integrated amplifier ($CD11,695), the same company's DSD-compatible DA-06 USB DAC ($CD6495…
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Magico's three-way A3 speakers ($CD13,000) were the first things I spotted when I entered Sonor-Filtronique's third room. I fondly remembered them from last year—in my 2018 report, I gushed over the sound of the A3s, then driven by Ayre electronics. Magico's most affordable model, the A3 has an enclosure made of 6061 T6 aircraft-grade aluminum, while their drivers boast diaphragms made of beryllium and graphene.
As well as live music, the Montreal show offered a full schedule of seminars. Roon's Steve Silberman presented two seminars to packed houses on Saturday on getting the best from the Roon music app and the Roon Nucleus servers, including how to take advantage of the system's powerful DSP engine.
While the Roon seminars were held in the large St-Laurent 7 room, most of the other seminars took place in the smaller Outremont 3 room. Presenters included VTL's Luke Manley answering the question "Why Tubes?" and VPI's founder Harry Weisfeld talking turntables. I took in Elac's Andrew…
At the Montreal Audio Fest, Graham Audio's North American distributor, On A Higher Note, brought along the British speaker manufacturer's latest variation on the BBC-monitor theme: the LS5/9f ($US7995/pair in oak, as shown), described as a floorstanding version of the BBC-designed LS5/9 stand-mounter. According to On A Higher Note's Philip O'Hanlon, seen above, the LS5/9f was created by Derek Hughes, the son of the founders of Spendor (themselves once a BBC licensee—this is slightly complicated). Hughes reportedly intended the extra cabinetry to support the speaker without adding to its…
The first and only time I heard a live performance of Mahler's five-movement Symphony No.7, from Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, I left Davies Symphony Hall confused. The bad press that the 70+ minute work has received for over a century, mainly for its innate ambiguity, convinced me that it was, at best, a problematic work—one that Mahler might have eventually revised had he lived long enough. But after listening to DSD128 files of Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra's new recording of the symphony for Channel Classics, released March 29 in SACD format, I'…
Our conservative two-channel audio world doesn't easily accept change. Not that many years ago, even remote control was considered a sign of electronic moral decay certain to degrade sound quality. Today, home theater–like operating systems, with their fluorescent-screen hells and microprocessor-controlled functionality are commonplace, even in the highest of fi. Consumers accustomed to the convenience of audio/video processors now demand it on every price tier of two-channel hi-fi, though purists who think sound quality is commensurate with inconvenience can have that if they want it.
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Wow! Simply miked, recorded with an Ampex 354 tubed tape deck, and mastered by Bernie Grundman, this record is a stunner! Those two geezers are right! My bad—and my loss—for never having played it! Recorded live in a Montreal church, this production has it all: huge space, and a brass quintet that goes low with a bass trombone and high with a piccolo trumpet. And, of course, there's that pants-flapping pipe organ. Enrico O. Dastous's arrangement is so canny that I don't miss the orchestra—each movement sounds and feels fully fleshed out and complete.
I seriously enjoyed this album…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Solid-state, fully balanced, dual-mono preamplifier with built-in headphone amplifier and slots for optional phono preamplifier and DAC. Inputs: 2 balanced (XLR), 3 unbalanced (RCA). Outputs: 1 balanced (XLR), 1 unbalanced (RCA), 1 fixed-level Record out (RCA). Gain: –90dB to +10dB. Gain resolution: 0.5dB. Frequency response: 0.3Hz–500kHz, –3dB. THD: <0.05%. Signal/noise: 110dB. Input impedance: 47k ohms. Output impedance: <1 ohm. Headphone output: 12Wpc RMS into 8 ohms. Optional phono preamplifier gain: MM, 46dB; MC, 66dB.
Dimensions: 17.…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: Continuum Audio Labs Caliburn turntable & Castellon stand; Rega Research Planar 8, Thales TTT Compact II turntables; Kuzma 4Point, Swedish Analog Technologies CF1-09, Thales Statement tonearms. Phono cartridges: Air Tight Coda; Grado Labs Epoch (mono); Lyra Atlas, Atlas SL, Atlas SL mono, Etna, Etna SL; Miyajima Laboratory Infinity (mono); Ortofon MC Century, Anna A95.
Digital Sources: dCS Vivaldi One CD/SACD and Network Player, dCS Rossini Player. Lynx Hilo A/D-D/A converter, Meridian Digital Media System, Pure Vinyl & Vinyl…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Audia Flight FLS1 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). All of its outputs—balanced, single-ended, and headphone—preserved absolute polarity (ie, were non-inverting). The FLS1's volume control operates in 0.5dB steps, with the maximum level indicated as "+10.0dB" on the front-panel display. Setting the volume control to "0.0dB" reduced the gain by exactly 10dB, as expected. The FLS1's maximum voltage gain into 100k ohms was 15.8dB for balanced input to balanced output, 9.7dB for unbalanced input to unbalanced…
I first met Pro-Ject Audio Systems' founder and president, Heinz Lichtenegger, in 2016, at the US launch of the Austrian company's The Classic turntable. His passion for all things hi-fi was so intense I thought his head might explode. Gleeful in his mission to bring high-end audio to the people at less than typical high-end prices, Lichtenegger and Pro-Ject can fairly claim bragging rights for their entry-level Debut Carbon (DC) ($460 and up), one of the world's best-selling turntables.
On Pro-Ject's mammoth website, Lichtenegger bares his soul. "Our aim is to get as many people as…