J.Sikora manufactures turntables and tonearms in Lublin, Poland. Concentrating on something as frivolous as audio reviewing and not thinking about what's happening in Ukraine is difficult enough. Lowering the stylus onto a record spinning…
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Lublin, Poland, is about 130 miles from Lviv, Ukraine, a town that has been in the news lately. That's about the same distance as Hershey, Pennsylvania, is from my desk in northern New Jersey, where I'm writing this. They are close. Russian missiles struck Lviv on March 18, 2022, and as I write these words Lviv is preparing for more intense bombardment.
With the motors running and a stethoscope in my ears, I placed the stethoscope diaphragm on the plinth, as close to each of the four motors as possible without touching and heard complete silence. No matter where I put the stethoscope on the plinth, there was absolute silence. That's impressive and unusual.
I placed the stethoscope diaphragm in the same positions with the motors off, then started them. Usually, there's a low-frequency grinding noise that smooths out as the platter achieves speed. Here, I heard only more silence.
The 'table also passed the impulse "thump test."…
Sometime around 483 BCE, in Kushinagar, the capital of the Malla Republic in what today is the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, an aristocrat named Siddhārtha Gautama—known better to us as the Buddha, or the Awakened One—passed away. For 45 years, he had wandered the North Indian River Plain teaching a method of overcoming ignorance, craving, and the cycle of death and rebirth to a growing community of followers. As he lay dying, the 80-year-old teacher was surrounded by disciples, many of them crying. Gautama was by no account a sentimental man, and several times he told the monks to cut it…
My first encounter with the Entity was underwhelming. It arrived in a box Amazon might use to ship two bottles of multivitamins; inside the box, I found a rather featureless, black, sheet-metal box about the size of six chocolate brownies arranged end to end in two layers, weighing about 2lb. The front panel contained only the company logo. The back had two sets of RCA jacks, a ground lug, and a pair of three-way switches for setting cartridge loading, with options for 90, 120, and 180 ohms. Unusually, the power cord is captive: Lejonklou believes that in the context of his circuit, his…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Single-box moving coil phono preamplifier. Inputs: one stereo pair RCA. Outputs: one stereo pair RCA. Gain: 71dB. Input impedance (switchable): 90, 120, 180 ohms, 10nF. Max nominal cartridge output level: 0.4mV at 3.54cm/s. Output impedance: 300 ohms. Power consumption: less than 5W.
Dimensions: 4.1" (103mm) × 2.3" (59mm) × 7.1" (180mm). Weight: 2.1lb (970gm).
Finish: Black.
Serial number of unit reviewed: 057. Manufactured in Sweden.
Price: $2695. Approximate number of dealers: 9. Warranty: Five years parts and labor, transferrable…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Garrard 301 turntable in a Box Furniture Co. plinth; Thomas Schick 12" tonearm and headshell. Technics SL-1200G turntable; Dynavector Te Kaitora Rua cartridge; Hana Umami Red cartridge; Ortofon SPU Classic G cartridge; Zu/Denon 103 cartridge.
Preamplification: Shindo Aurieges preamplifier; Sutherland Little Loco phono preamplifier; Tavish Adagio phono preamplifier.
Amplification: Line Magnetic LM-845IA (used as a power amplifier); Pass Labs INT-60; Mark Levinson No5805; Ayre AX-5 Twenty.
Loudspeakers: Altec Valencia 846A.
…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I measured Lejonklou's Entity phono preamplifier with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system. The single, moving coil–compatible input preserved absolute polarity and offered 70.2dB of gain. (Though this is slightly lower than the specified 71dB, my measurement was affected by the voltage-divider action between the preamp's input impedance and the Audio Precision's output impedance of 20 ohms.) The input impedance was 90 ohms with it set to "90," 120 ohms with it set to "120," and 180 ohms with it set to "180," all values consistent from 20Hz to 20kHz. The output…
[With this post, Stereophile to begins posting industry news—items that ultimately will appear in the magazine in the Industry Update section—online when it's still fresh.]
After a dozen years as General Manager of dCS Americas, well known industry veteran John Quick has joined Dynaudio North America with the title Vice-President for Sales & Marketing, Americas. Quick will work alongside Michael Manousselis, Dynaudio N.A.'s president, to develop and refine Dynaudio's sales channels, marketing efforts, and brand awareness across its home and professional audio offerings in the…
The Linda Lindas: Growing Up
Epitaph (16/44.1 stream, Qobuz). 2022. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Carlos de la Garza.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
Epitaph (16/44.1 stream, Qobuz). 2022. Produced, engineered, and mixed by Carlos de la Garza.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½
When your uncle is an award-winning producer and engineer, a band formed by you and your cousins has a higher-than-average shot at going somewhere. But even that family advantage can't explain the immediate success of the Los Angeles–based Linda Lindas; they've earned their accolades through talent, hard work, and ingenuity. Their first album, Growing Up, offers proof of their worth and the promise of a stellar musical…
When I reviewed Technics's SU-R1000 integrated amplifier for the December 2021 issue, I found its performance beyond my expectations. It practically rewrote the ritual of listening to music on my home hi-fi. With its wealth of technological advancements, significant user options, and clear, three-dimensional sound, it cast a large sonic shadow over the other integrated amplifiers in my possession.
What's more, joined to my reference system, the SU-R1000 upended my preconceived notions of what switching amplification sounds like and enlightened me about the sonic possibilities of those…