I tested the T+A Caruso R with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system, repeating some of the measurements with the magazine's APx500. I controlled the Caruso R with the front-panel touchscreen and with the Caruso Navigator app on my iPad mini. Because the Caruso R uses a class-D output stage, I inserted an Audio Precision AUX-0025 passive low-pass filter between the test load and the analyzers. This filter reduces (but does not completely eliminate) RF noise that could drive their input circuitry into slew-rate limiting. I used it for all the loudspeaker output tests…
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Justin Weber's Ampsandsound was showing the Agartha ($6300), the Nautilus ($9200), and the new Red October ($12,000) tubed amplifiers.
Weber's lineup includes 20 amplifiers, a SUT, and an XLR-to-RCA converter with input transformers and a stepped volume control. All Weber's products are built by hand in southern California.
The Nautilus is a single-ended, class-A design with zero feedback and a tube complement of two 6L6GC-STRs, KT88s, or KT-120s, a single 12AX7, and two 5AR4 or 5U4 rectifier tubes. The cool blue Nautilus sits in a 12-gauge steel chassis and offers 8Wpc…
Woo Audio, makers of tube electronics, are known for designing great-sounding and great-looking amplifiers intended especially for driving headphones. At an AXPONA a few years back, I became fond of their smaller-scale products such as their WA7 Firefly, a cube-shaped headphone amp/DAC/preamp now in its third generation.
At CanJam, Woo unveiled a preproduction prototype of the WA23 Luna, a combination headphone amplifier and preamp. Woo Audio's Jack Wu (the Wu behind Woo) explained that the idea was to offer a top-tier product smaller than their WA33 flagship, which is a single-…
As I walked by the Centrance booth, Centrance owner Michael Goodman waved. I waved back, walked over, and listened to his HiFi-M8 V2 Portable Reference DAC/Amp ($749) and Ampersand Balanced Portable Reference Headphone Power Amplifier ($749), connected to a pair of HEDDphone Air Motion Transformer headphones ($1899; see Herb Reichert's July 2020 Gramophone Dreams column for a listening test.)
The HiFi-M8 V2 has a gain dial, bass and treble controls, asynchronous USB digital and 3.5mm analog inputs (plus Bluetooth), balanced output, bandwidth specified at more than 40kHz, and a “…
Woo Audio’s Jack Wu was in person to debut his new Woo Audio WA23 Luna amp ($9000), which he paired with Abyss's new semiopen-back Diana TC planar headphones ($4495).
The WA23 Luna is a single-ended triode design that can serve as a headphone amp or a preamplifier. Power ratings remain a secret, but Wu said the Luna is a high-gain, point-to-point design. It draws watts from a pair of Electro Harmonix 2A3 power tubes; also on board are two 6C45 driver tubes and a 5U4G rectifier tube. It can drive a variety of headphone designs, Wu said.
Encased in aluminum and finished in…
I'd heard Meze Audio discussed by headphone aficionados for a handful of years. So I was interested to hear some of the Romanian manufacturer’s headphones at CanJam, where Meze presented their new Elite open-back ($4000) and Liric closed-back ($2000) headphones. Both models employ an approach unusual in planar-magnetic drivers: a proprietary Isodynamic Hybrid Array that Rinaro, a Ukrainian company, created for Meze. Meze displayed a few clear-encased examples of these arrays in their demo area so that the curious (including me) could view the diaphragm’s fine, serpentine membrane…
Chord Electronics' new Mojo 2 portable DAC/headphone amplifier packs plenty of mojo into a small but substantial package. To my mind—and ears—it was one of this CanJam's highlights.
The tracks I listened to through the Meze Audio Empyrean planar-magnetic headphones (which are spec'd at 31.6 ohm impedance and 100dB/mW sensitivity at 1kHz) with the Mojo 2 sounded right—realistic—on both good and less-good recordings. The music had a seamless quality. Details were present in full but were not overhyped. Tonal balance was neutral. Music felt natural.
On "Thinking of a…
In 1964, Shure Brothers shook up the cartridge market by introducing the original V-15 moving-magnet cartridge, which then cost $67, equivalent to about $530 today. It came packaged in a deluxe, wooden, jewelry-style box—common practice for today's cartridges, but back then unheard of.
By 1968 I'd saved up for a V-15 Type II, and installed it in a Dual 1009SK record player. Wow! But, committed to the principle of using a low vertical tracking force (VTF) to minimize damage to my record grooves, I set the tonearm for the V-15 II's minimum recommended VTF of 0.75gm—and, as the Shure's…
Kuzma specifies the parts—coils, wire, stylus, cantilever—and the OEM builds them. then Kuzma machines, from anodized aluminum, the various generator housings, topping each with a brass coupling plate. Currently, Kuzma's line comprises six models, ranging from the CAR-20 to the CAR-60 (footnote 3). Yes, for comedy albums he should build a special CAR-54, but I bet Franc will read that and have no idea what that means or who are Toody and Muldoon (maybe you don't either!).
With the exception of the high-output CAR-20H, all Kuzma cartridges share very similar specifications, though their…
It felt as though everyone had stopped breathing, so intent was their focus. I was in an exhibit room at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest 2018. I doubt that anyone present spoke German, but after soprano Sandrine Piau's recording, with pianist Susan Manoff, of Carl Loewe's "Ach Neige, Du Schmer-Zenreiche" (ah, incline, you who are laden with sorrows) began to fill the space, the silence was so deep that you could almost hear hearts beat. as Piau intoned words by Wolfgang von Goethe that spoke of a loss so painful that it pierced the heart and bore into one's bones, everyone present felt the…