Yet this issue sees me reviewing a loudspeaker that costs $215,000/pair. Last month I reviewed an amplifier priced at $55,000. In August,…
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"At what price does a high-end product cease to exist for the 'normal' audiophile?" This question, which I asked in the February 2017 issue, was a follow-up to one I'd asked in our April 2011 issue: "If all someone is offered is a $150,000 pair of speakers . . . that person will walk away from this hobby, or build his or her system by buying only used equipment. Either consumer choice turns the price spiral into a death spiral for manufacturers."
When I began writing for Stereophile, I dreaded doing comparisons. They were stressful and tedious—and what if I got them wrong? But I quickly learned: Not only do readers enjoy comparisons, they need them. How else might they imagine the relative merits of the component under consideration? Once I realized this, I began acquiring a range of reference amplifiers, such as the low-power Pass Laboratories XA25 and PrimaLuna ProLogue Premium, the high-power Bel Canto Design e.One REF600M monoblocks, and the single-ended Line Magnetic LM-518 IA. I also collected a range of affordable, popular…
In either mode, the Harbeth M30.2s were obviously well-tempered and well-nourished, power-wise. Both modes delivered detailed sound that was neither warm nor cool, just well balanced. The bass was tight and clean, maybe slightly lean, with no overhang or fuzzy harmonic additives.
Ultralinear mode was more sharply focused than Triode. In UL, music's empty spaces seemed too empty, in a slightly unnatural way. I felt I was receiving less information, that those empty spaces had once been occupied by texture, color, light, and shade. UL seemed higher in contrast. In Triode, voices and…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Stereo, push-pull, class-AB1, tubed power amplifier with transformer-coupled inputs. Tube complement: two 12AX7 (voltage amplifier), two 12AU7 (driver), four KT120 (output). Inputs: 1 pair single-ended (RCA), 1 pair balanced (XLR). Outputs: 2 pairs (4 and 8 ohms) five-way speaker binding posts per channel. Power output: 100Wpc into 8 ohms (Ultralinear mode, 20dBW), 60Wpc into 8 ohms (Triode mode, 17.8dBW). Frequency response: 5Hz–50kHz, ±1dB. Input impedance: 75k ohms. Sensitivity: 1V RMS.
Dimensions: 18" (455mm) W by 7" (180mm) H by 17" (400mm…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Sources: AMG Giro G9 turntable & 9W Turbo tonearm; Linn Sondek LP12 Hercules turntable, SME M2-9 tonearm; AMG Teatro, EMT TSD 75, Hana SL, Koetsu Rosewood Standard & Signature Platinum, My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent Ex MC cartridges; MoFi Master Tracker MM cartridge.
Digital Sources: Mac mini computer running Audirvana Plus 3.2; HoloAudio Spring "Kitsuné Tuned Edition" Level 3, Mytek Brooklyn, Schiit Audio Yggdrasil Analog 2 DACs; JVC X-Z1010 CD player (used as transport).
Preamplification: Auditorium 23, Bob's Devices CineMag 1131,…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Rogue Stereo 100 amplifier using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 "As We See It"). Before doing so, I installed the KT120 output tubes and, following the instructions in the manual, checked each tube's bias current. These were all around 50mA rather than the recommended 40mA, so, using the supplied tool, I adjusted the four trim pots. I checked the bias currents several times while performing the measurements, but none of the tubes had drifted from the recommended 40mA. The Stereo 100 has both balanced and single-ended inputs…
Saturday October 20, 1–6pm, Jared Sacks, Channel Classics Records' founder, producer, and engineer as well as NativeDSD Music's co-founder & CEO, will give a DSD Listening Demo in collaboration with Mytek at Innovative Audio Video Showroom (150 E 58th Street, New York, NY 10155).
Sacks will walk listeners through some of his multi–award-winning Channel Classics DSD recordings as well as some of the most popular and noteworthy DSD tracks from other labels. From Analog Tape Transfers Direct-to-DSD by the team at 2xHD-Mastering, to the unedited/unprocessed one-take DSD256 recordings from…
Bernstein: Arias and Barcarolles
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Ryan McKinny, bass-baritone; San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas
SFS Media SFS-0073 (24/96 download). 2018. Jack Vad, broadcast & mastering eng., postprod.; Jason O'Connell, post-prod. DDD. TT: 32:54
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Isabel Leonard, mezzo-soprano; Ryan McKinny, bass-baritone; San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas
SFS Media SFS-0073 (24/96 download). 2018. Jack Vad, broadcast & mastering eng., postprod.; Jason O'Connell, post-prod. DDD. TT: 32:54
Performance ****½
Sonics ****
Why name this short digital download or streaming–only release of a live San Francisco Symphony performance from 2017—its native 24/96 PCM broadcast sound is a notch lower than the best-recorded titles in SFS Media's series of Davies Symphony Hall broadcasts— as our "…
Register to win a 1M pair of Coppertone RCA interconnects, a 1M Coppertone USB digital cable, and a 2.5M pair of Coppertone speaker cables (Total value $649.84) we are giving away.
According to the company:
Coppertone by Black Cat Cable distills a tremendous amount of high performance attributes into an affordable series of cables that punch far above their weight!
High-velocity, low-capacitance interconnects ensure the preservation of the low-voltage analog signal by suspending the conductor in air with our NAMI™ process Low-inductance, low-skin-effect, low-…
Doug White, of Philadelphia-area retailer The Voice That Is, has been a fixture at US audio shows the past few years, where he always gets great sound using loudspeakers from Tidal Audio. (There is no connection between the German audio manufacturer and the music-streaming service owned by Jay Z and Sprint.) In early 2017, Herb Reichert, Jana Dagdagan, and I visited White and spent a delightful afternoon listening to Tidal's then-new Akira loudspeakers. I promised myself to review the Akira, which costs a wallet-straining $215,000/pair, when my schedule opened up. As things turned out, it…