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DaySequerra FM Reference Signature Modification: $3800 (+ cost of tuner) ★
David Day's Signature Mod effectively addresses this ultimate FM tuner's cathode-ray tube's tendency to burn out. Switching circuitry has been added to allow the CRT to turn off when not needed. The Signature Mod also replaces the tuner's incandescent bulb with longer-lasting LEDs, and uses hand-matched, low-group-delay filters for lower distortion and better channel separation. LG noted punchy, quick bass response, a deeper soundstage, and a more transparent midrange. "The new CRT's…

Analysis Plus Silver Apex Interconnects: $1219.99 (1m pair)
The Analysis Plus Silver Apex uses as its conductor an oxygen-free copper "stabilizing strand" covered with pure silver, in an arrangement the manufacturer describes, somewhat elliptically (haw) as "a hollow oval cable inside a hollow oval cable inside a hollow oval cable," said to be double shielded and thus quiet. And MF found it to be so: In his words, the Silver Apex is "highly recommended!" (Vol.42 No.5)

Audio Art Cable IC-3 Classic: $120/1m pair (RCAs), $140/1m pair (XLRs)
The IC-3—available…

Audio Art Cable SC-5 Classic: $240/10ft pair (gold spades; add $10/pr for silver spades), $250/10ft pair (gold bananas)
The SC-5 has silver-coated OFC conductors (14AWG), a foam polyethylene dielectric, a PVC jacket, and an internal packet of vibration-absorbing fibers. It can be terminated with gold-plated brass banana plugs or, for $10 less, DH Labs' gold-plated copper spade lugs. Compared to AudioQuest's Rocket 33, the SC-5 lacked body, weight, and warmth, but produced a detailed, dramatic overall sound, with clean transients and impressive dynamics, said SM.…

DH Labs Silver Sonic D-110 AES/EBU: $155/1m
(NR, but see EL's review of the Bel Canto DAC3.5VB in Vol.34 No.6 WWW)

Kimber Kable Orchid: $948/1m
Expensive, but the best AES/EBU link JA has used. J-10 loved the Orchid's midrange liquidity and detail, but preferred Illumination's S/PDIF cable overall. SD (almost) doesn't equivocate: "Probably the best out there for now . . . .A stunner!" RH and RD are also fans. New lower price usefully brings this cable in reach of more music lovers. (Vol.19 No.5)

Kubala-Sosna Expression: $900/m, $240/…

Remember in my first post when I said "How cool it would be if I'd turned into Alternate Rob with a half-million dollar system waiting for him at home?" Well, the system I encountered in one of Filtronique's rooms would fit the bill nicely.

It included the architectural wonder that is Nagra's Reference 70th Anniversary Limited Edition turntable ($232,500 with tonearm), of which only 70 will be made and sold worldwide; a Nagra MC-6 cartridge ($24,500); a Nagra HD DAC X ($89,500); a Nagra HD preamp ($90,500); a pair of 250W 2020 Edition Nagra HD monoblocks ($124,500/pair);…

MartinLogan's Motion F200XT in the Planète Haute-Fidélité room wasn't the only speaker in town to employ a Heil Air Motion Transformer tweeter. So did Monitor Audio's 3-Way Platinum 300 3G (for 3rd generation) floorstander ($22,000). Monitor Audio calls the tweeter an MPD (Micro Pleated Diaphragm) III transducer. Also equipped with two 8" woofers (in addition to a 4" midrange), the speaker is said to go down to 17Hz in-room, with a rated sensitivity of 88dB/2.83V/m. A speaker like this probably needs some juice to get it going; hence the amps that were feeding them, a pair of Rotel Michi…

"Are you sure there are no tubes in the chain?" I asked On a Higher Note's Philip O'Hanlon, North American distributor of the BBC-inspired Graham Audio speaker line, in Montreal retailer Art et Son's room. Philip was sitting with me listening to an LP of Belgian singer Mélanie De Biasio. He responded to my question with a grin and a chin-jab toward the amplifier in use, a 50Wpc solid state MoonRiver 404 Reference integrated ($5995; see Jason Victor Serinus’s Stereophile review), a modular design that includes such luxuries as a balance control and a stereo/mono switch and can accommodate…

What did the Hearken and Art et Son rooms have in common? The Graham Audio LS8.1 speakers ($13,300), so it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that I heard a similarly, though not identically, engaging intimacy in both systems' presentations, the kind that made me just want to relax in my seat and listen through whole albums.

The Grahams were the only piece of equipment common to both rooms. In this room, the Grahams were supported by a Lejonklou 40Wpc Boazu integrated amplifier ($5795); an Entity phono preamplifier ($3895; see Alex Halberstadt's review) and Källa DAC/…

Talk about a dream triad of fabulous gear from Switzerland: darTZeel, Stenheim, Merging Technologies. The first thing I said to myself when I saw this simple, sharp-looking spread in Toronto-based retailer Sonic Artistry's room was, "Damn, this is an attractive group!".

That attractiveness extended to the Swiss group's collective sound. Doing hosting duties at the time of my visit was all-around great guy and Audio Fest regular Walter Schofield, proprietor of Nexus Audio Technologies, which represents Stenheim among other high-end brands. Walter Tidal-streamed an array of dazzling…

When I asked Totem's Vince Bruzzese, at last year's "static" launch of the new Bison series, what the impetus was to create the Bison range, he said it came down to wanting to create something special to mark the company's 35th birthday but also that of the Model 1, which came out in the year of the company's founding, 1987. "I wanted to bring us back to Model 1 territory," Vince said, "where people were wowed and saying, 'oh my gosh, I spent how much in the past and never got this?'"

The Bison series includes the two-way Bison Monitor ($2250), which Vince told me is like the…