Digital sources: 16" MacBook Pro M1 Max running Roon 1.8. Roon ROCK (Lenovo ThinkCentre). Bluesound Node 2i streamer. Naim Uniti Atom, controlled through iPad Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. PureAudio Lotus DAC5, Benchmark DAC3 B, RME ADI-2 DAC FS, Auralic Vega, Musical Fidelity V90.
Preamplifiers: Benchmark HPA4, Naim Uniti Atom, Apt Holman (overhauled and returned to factory specs 2020).
Power amplifiers: Krell FPB 200c (recapped 2020), PrimaLuna DiaLogue Premium HP, Schiit Ragnarok, McIntosh HPA-100.
Loudspeakers: Tekton Moab, MartinLogan Odyssey…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Sidebar 3: Measurements
The PrimaLuna EVO 400 arrived without the eight EL34 output tubes installed, just the six 12AU7 small-signal tubes. Neither the EL34s nor the sockets are numbered, so I assumed that PrimaLuna's Adaptive Auto Bias system would ensure that the tubes were optimally biased after I installed them. (As recommended for EL34s in the manual, I made sure that the bias switch on the right side of the chassis was set to Low.) None of the four red LEDs for each channel's tube condition illuminated during the testing, which meant that PrimaLuna's BTI circuit didn't detect a bad…
Unless you live under a rock, you've followed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. You know something about sanctions against Russia and Russia's responses to those sanctions. If, in addition to not living under a rock, you're a tube-audio aficionado or electric guitar nut, you may have thought about a likely consequence of that war that's far less momentous than the destruction and carnage we see on TV: Will I be able to get new tubes for my amplifier? Especially those lovely Russia-made tubes.
I spoke and exchanged emails with several tube-focused hi-fi companies, including makers of hi-fi…
Great hi-fi can give you goosebumps. And it relates to another source of horripilation: live music, and its recordings. I've also always been a live music junkie—ever since I was a kid.
I was fortunate to have grown up attending the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Pops Orchestra's "LolliPops" children's concerts. I'd seen some tepid live acts as a kid (ie, Donny and Marie). But nothing prepared me for my first rock concert. It, um, rocked my world.
It was The Power Station, at a large, covered, outdoor amphitheater. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) opened. I…
I listened to the Amelias with three amplifiers. For a while, I had in the system the class-AB Soulution 330 integrated, which is rated at 240W into 4 ohms. Then I swapped in the MBL Noble Line N51, which operates in "atypical class-D," with a specified output of 380Wpc into 4 ohms. Finally—just before I sent the Amelias to John Atkinson for measurement—I tried the little PS Audio Sprout100 integrated: another class-D design. Its rated 100Wpc met the speakers' specified minimum power. It worked better than I expected.
Of the three amplifiers, the N51 provided the most fullness and…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Three-way, floorstanding, bass-reflex loudspeaker with reversed tweeter/midrange array with one 38mm treated-silk tweeter, one midrange driver with 5.1" (130mm) flared parabolic cone, two 5.1" (130mm) parallel woofers, both made with Rohacell, a lightweight structural foam. Crossover frequencies and slope: 200Hz and 1345Hz, 4th order. Frequency range: 48Hz–20kHz, –3dB at 48Hz. Sensitivity: 90dB/2.83V/m. Impedance: 4 ohms nominal, 2.8 ohms minimum at 119Hz.
Dimensions: 7.5" (190mm) W × 40" (1015mm) H × 13.2"(335mm) D. Weight: 44lb (20kg).
…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
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…
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…