Description: Three-way, bass-reflex, "bookshelf" speaker system. Drive units: 7 1/16" (180mm) woofer with aramid-composite cone; Coaxial driver with a 5.5" (140mm) magnesium-cone and a 1 3/8" (35mm) beryllium-dome tweeter. Crossover frequencies: 250Hz, 1.8kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Frequency range: 34Hz–100kHz. Sensitivity: 85dB/2.83V/m. Max. power handling: 200W.
Dimensions: 11.3" (287mm) W × 20" (510mm) H × 17.6" (447mm). Weight: 63.9lb (29kg).
Serial numbers of units reviewed: BJMM000023WM/... 24WM. Made in Japan.
Price: $32,500/pair, optional…
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Sidebar 1: Specifications
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog sources: Dr. Feickert Analog Blackbird turntable with Schick 10.5" tonearm, Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum with Koetsu SUT, My Sonic Lab Ultra Eminent Ex powering Sutherland Engineering SUTZ transimpedance step-up; PTP Audio Solid6 idler-drive turntable, with Abis SA-1.2 tonearm, with a Denon DL-103 moving coil cartridge mounted, into an EMIA SUT and a Tavish Design Adagio phono stage.
Digital sources: Roon Nucleus+ music server; Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC; dCS Bartók DAC/streamer.
Preamplifier: HoloAudio Serene.
Power amplifiers:…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the TAD CE1TX's behavior in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses. The mesh that covers the coaxial drive unit can't be removed, but the measured behavior was taken without the grille covering the woofer.
Tad specifies the CE1TX's voltage sensitivity as 85dB/2.83V/m, which is 2dB lower than average; my B-weighted estimate was within experimental…
This sign may not look auspicious, situated as it is over a trash basket. But this poster next to the exit stairs of the Kieferngarten stop of the U-Bahn, Munich's equivalent of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system's network of underground and overground trains, was essential for people walking from the train to Munich High End's home in the MOC.
Nor was it the only sign I encountered. Many subways stops—even the airport—displayed large posters announcing the annual well-attended Munich High End audio show.
On Day 1 (Thursday) of the four-day show, the first of two Press and…
You may have now read as much German as I dare put into print, but you'll likely read far more about Voxativ's revamp of its first loudspeaker, the formerly discontinued, single 8" driver Ampeggio loudspeaker (25,900/pair), in the coming months.
"People kept asking for it," Voxativ owner Inès Adler told me. "We've learned a lot in the 20 years since it was first issued, and have been able to optimize and specially tune the design. Yet we've managed to keep it at the same price it was two decades ago."
In an all-Voxativ system that also included Voxativ's network…
SteinMusic's apparent paradox, a striking black-and-white equipment array that's on track to win my Looker Award of High End 2023 but that delivered maximally colorful sound, attracted throngs to the company's room. On Sir Simon Rattle's recording of Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite, performed by the City of Birmingham Orchestra, and Musica Nuda's live recording of "I Will Survive," Holger Stein's system delivered an arresting three-dimensional soundstage and marvelous range of colors.
Heading the system was SteinMusic's new Topline Bob L Ultimate speaker ($247,500/pair), a 4-way…
After a lot of hard work, Vitus Audio arrived in Munich with a new Signature DAC, the SD-025 Mk.II (26,500), and new SM-103 Mk.II monoblock amplifiers (70,000/pair). Allied with other Vitus equipment (see below), the system offered bountiful color, snap, and excellent low bass on a CD of Mathias Heise performing "Quadrillion." Having just viewed a bit of a Heise's live performance of the piece, I find myself extremely grateful for the opportunity to close my eyes and focus solely on the music.
The SD-025 Mk.II includes a new streamer board that supports gigabit network…
Even if Darren Myers's name isn't familiar, you still may have heard—or at least heard about—hi-fi components he designed, including the PS Audio Stellar phono preamp, which garnered Stereophile's Analog Product of the Year Award in 2020.
After working on projects for Classé and Bowers & Wilkins, Myers was hired by PS Audio, where he ended his tenure as senior analog design engineer. Myers recently joined Parasound (footnote 1) following the company's acquisition by David Sheriff.
Not all audio design engineers are themselves audiophiles, not even in the hi-fi space. But Myers…
I have been haunted for 15 years by these words: "Very often if I was given the choice of listening to a piece of music I really liked or listening to nothing at all, I would choose nothing at all. ... These days I don't listen to a lot of music, and I find a lot of pleasure in no music. There's a kind of silence and just hearing some conversation from outside, or hearing a police car in the distance, just these fragments of daily life are very poetic and very peaceful somehow."
They were spoken by Britisher David Toop (footnote 1), confirmed music-head, someone who has spent his life…
Ken Micallef wrote about the Mobile Fidelity SourcePoint 10 in June 2023 (Vol.46 No.6):
The SourcePoint 10 loudspeaker from MoFi Electronics (footnote 1) is an interesting, even unusual design. Sized somewhere between a conventional standmount and a small floorstander (but intended to be used on stands), the SourcePoint 10's beefy cabinet is similar in size to my 1978 Spendor BC1, but the SP10's 10" coaxial driver, which utilizes Andrew Jones's "Twin-Drive high-flux neodymium magnet system," is all new. The SP10 is heavy—at 46.2lb, nearly as heavy as the somewhat larger DeVore Fidelity O/…