Analog sources: Clearaudio Performance DC Wood turntable with Tracer tonearm and Talismann v2 MC cartridge; MoFi Electronics UltraDeck turntable with tonearm and StudioTracker MM cartridge and weight.
Digital sources: MBL N31 DAC/CD player, MacBook Air (M1, 2020) as Roon Core.
Preamplification: MoFi Electronics StudioPhono phono stage.
Integrated amplifiers: MBL Noble Line N51, Soulution 330 (with onboard phono stage, w/o DAC), PS Audio Sprout100.
Loudspeakers: MBL Radialstrahler 120.
Cables: AC: AudioQuest Monsoon and NRG-Z3, Ansuz…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured the Chario Aviator Amelia's farfield and nearfield behavior with the DRA Labs MLSSA system, using calibrated DPA 4006 and Earthworks QTC-40 microphones and an Earthworks microphone preamplifier. I examined the loudspeaker's impedance magnitude and electrical phase with Dayton Audio's DATS V2 system. Before performing the measurements, I mounted one of the Amelias on its baseplate using the supplied conical spacers to ensure the correct distance below the downward-firing woofer and port.
Chario specifies the Amelia's sensitivity as 90dB/W/m. My B…
Finally, after three dark years of COVID-related cancellations and postponements, one of audiophilia's biggest and most important shows, Munich High End 2022, took place on Thursday–Sunday, May 19–22, at the city's huge MOC.
As luck would have it, Julie Mullins, Michael Fremer, and this writer all ended up staying at the Innside Hotel in Munich's shiny new tech center (above). Our proximity was fortuitous because we soon discovered that the show had discontinued free shuttle buses. Armed with iPhones and credit cards, we found it easy to hail cabs and Ubers and transport our band of the…
At a well-organized Munich press conference, Danish speaker company Raidho, now owned by Dantax, introduced the successor to the X1, the Raidho X1t Super Mini Monitor (5800, presumably for the pair and equivalent to US$6210). The speaker is equipped with the company's planar-magnetic ribbon tweeter, which claims 50 times less mass than conventional dome tweeters; a 5.25" tantalum-coated ceramic-on-aluminum midbass driver, which claims to raise breakup modes to 15kHz; and a rear port. Frequency range is 70Hz–50kHz, impedance >6 ohms, sensitivity 85dB, and black piano and white piano…
The stylus that cuts the grooves in your favorite records is best described, in simple terms, as "chisel-shaped." The most accurate playback styli—the "extreme" ones that extract the maximum amount of information from the grooves—have a similar shape, with sharper and more severe contact edges than a standard elliptical stylus, itself an advance over spherical styli.
These extreme shapes, with names like Line Contact, Fine Line, Gyger, Replicant, Shibata, and van den Hul, have complex geometries with long, narrow vertical contact patches that sit deep within the groove, can better trace…
In a room that vied for recognition as the hottest enclosed space on the hottest floor on the hottest day of Munich High End, 45-year-old Burmester Audio introduced its new CEO, Industrial Engineer Frank Weise, and at least four new products. If my comments are far more than fuzzy around the edges, so was this far more than half-baked Serinus.
The new 216 and 218 amplifiers fill a price and quality gap in Burmester's former amp line-up. The 216, which is the successor to the Burmester 911, is claimed to offer "flagship Burmester sound" in a modern design.
Burmester's new BC150…
Ease was the order of the day in the Marten/Jorma room. Soprano Anna Moffo sounded just lovely, with superb air and open soundstaging, on an LP of her singing the "Jewel Song" from Gounod's Faust. Ditto for pianist Byron Janis, whose superb-sounding recording of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto graced a prized Mercury Living Presence LP. Deserving of honor was Swedish manufacturer Marten's new Mingus Quintet 2 loudspeakers (62,000/pair, equivalent to US$66,100). This replacement for the original Mingus Quintet boasts a new midrange driver, lower distortion, higher sensitivity, a new…
The German loudspeaker and cable manufacturer released its new Divin Sovereign Referenz Subwoofer ($29,500, with extra charges for special Black 24k Gold, White, and White 24k Gold finishes). Demonstrated with Göbel's Divin Marquis loudspeaker that John Atkinson reviewed in October 2020 and billed as the company's "ultimate benchmark," the active, DSP-controlled, closed-chamber sub includes an 18" driver in a resin-bound composite board cabinet with "massive acoustic baffles" of 75mm maximum thickness and extensive internal bracing. Weight is 145kg—that's almost 320lb—dimensions are nearly as…
Danish audio company Dynaudio launched a new trio of Focus wireless speakers in Munich. The company's show presence encompassed a larger-than-average-sized room, with another off to the side. There, Dynaudio Technical Trainer Otto Jorgensen (below) gave a presentation on the new Focus active speaker series: the 3-way Focus 50 floorstander ($11,000, presumably for a pair), the 2.5-way Focus 30 floorstander ($8250/pair), and the 2-way Focus 10 stand-mounted speaker ($5500/pair). This series supersedes the previous Focus XD speaker line.
The new Focus speakers all contain Danish-…
Richard Strauss: Orchestral Works
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Andris Nelsons, cond.; Yuja Wang, piano; Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Deutsche Grammophon 486 2049 (7 CDs, auditioned as 24/96 WAV), 2022. Various prods. and engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Andris Nelsons, cond.; Yuja Wang, piano; Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Deutsche Grammophon 486 2049 (7 CDs, auditioned as 24/96 WAV), 2022. Various prods. and engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
At last, a box set of the orchestral works of Richard Strauss to rival the classic analog traversal from German conductor Rudolf Kempe and the Staatskapelle Dresden: a heaping helping of orchestral blockbusters, 93 tracks of music that, for color, splash, dynamic impact, fantasy, romance, wonder, and…