Analog source: EMT Pure Black, Kuzma CAR 30, and VPI Goldy MC phono cartridges.
Preamplifiers: Ampsandsound Yosemite, Rogue RP-7 (line); Tavish Audio Design Adagio, Manley Chinook, Allnic H-5500 (phono).
Power amplifiers: Air Tight ATM-1 2024 Edition, Rogue Audio Stereo 100.
Integrated amplifiers: Unison Research S6 Black Edition, AVM Evolution CS 5.2.
Loudspeakers: DeVore Fidelity Gibbon Super Nine.
Cables: Interconnects: AudioQuest Pegasus and Firebird, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II (RCA). Speaker: Auditorium 23, AudioQuest William Tell…
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
The two units' back panels are not simple. To attempt to detail every connector would induce a soporific state in most readers and certainly this writer, so we'll just publish a photo and focus on the basics. On the back panel are two sets of speaker cable binding posts to facilitate biwiring, single sets of RCA, BNC, and XLR inputs, balanced XLR analog outputs for amplifier chain connection, an earth-ground socket, a ground-lift switch (footnote 2), and a signal-ground socket. And more.
The power supply's rear panel is simpler and less crowded. It includes a main power switch,…
I was lying on the therapeutic couch.
"And how long have you felt this way about audio components?" my therapist asked. His pen scratched on his notepad.
"Gosh, it seems like forever. My mother told me I would nurse only if she sat down with me next to Dad's old Garrard record changer while it churned through a stack of LPs."
"Hmmmm." He paused, then resumed writing.
"Hey, Doc? Is there anything to drink around here?"
Sometimes I think audiophiles are crazy. If the point of it all is our love of music, we often forget that the brain is where it happens—not…
A mono pair of CH Precision M10s ($210,000/pair as reviewed) declares its presence in capital letters. Each channel consists of two large units, each almost 2' high, linked by a total of four umbilical cords. While the "lighter" amplifier unit weighs almost 117lb, the toroidal transformer–based power supply unit tops out at nearly 172lb. That's a lot of metal.
If you dare stack the two units one atop the other (I had no choice in my modest-sized music room), each stack proclaims might and—given the front panel's minimalist Swiss styling—refinement.
On the levels of sound and music…
Sidebar 4: Measurements
In common with CH Precision's M1.1 amplifier, the M10 includes the facility to adjust feedback on the fly via the company's intuitive app. In the M1.1, feedback could be adjusted to the nearest 10%; in the M10, the adjustment has 1% increments. Of course, the "0% feedback" setting does not really mean "zero compensation" as there's always sufficient local feedback to manage the bandwidth, gain and stability of the M10's input and output stages.
Sidebar 3: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: dCS Varèse five-piece music system, Rossini CD/SACD transport; EMM Labs DV2i DAC, Innuos Nazaré Music Server and PhoenixNET network switch; Small Green Computer Sonore opticalModule Deluxe (2); Broadcom/Avago AFBR-5718PZ 1GB SX-SFP, Gen 5 Fiber Optic modules (2); Nordost QSource linear power supply (2); Sonore Audiophile Linear Power Supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS with Ferrum Hypsos linear/switching hybrid power supply; ASUS AX6000 and RT-AX88U Pro mesh routers and Netgear Nighthawk modem; Apple 2023 iPad Pro and 2025 MacBook Air.
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Just like last year, I saved retailer Audiophile Experts' room for last. I stopped by their room at the 5pm closing hour on Sunday, as the crowd headed home and exhibitors started dismantling their setups. That's because Stacy and Mathieu, proprietors of Audiophile Experts, like to cap off my harried show reporting with a soulful, uninterrupted musical performance, usually from an analog-fronted rig.
This year's source was a B77 MkIII reel-to-reel machine by Revox, for which Audiophile Experts is the exclusive Canadian dealer. The system also included an Accuphase C-3900S…
Sidebar 2: Specifications
Description: Solid state, class-AB, dual-channel, configurable, modular power amplifier. Inputs: two balanced XLR, two single-ended RCA, two single-ended BNC, USB port, Ethernet port (as configured for review). Outputs: two XLR balanced outputs (pass through for daisy-chaining), two pairs of speaker binding posts per channel. Power output, Stereo Mode: 2 × 300W into 8 ohms (24.8dBW), 22 × 550W into 4 ohms (24.4dBW), 2 × 900W into 2 ohms (23.5dBW); Mono Mode: 1 × 600W into 4 ohms (24.8dBW), 1 × 1000W into 2 ohms (24.0dBW), 1 × 1600W into 1 ohm (23.0dBW); Bridged…
When the Wigmore Hall Live label was launched in 2005, the great mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson had only a few months to live: She died of breast cancer in July 2006, age 52. The hunt for lost recordings to memorialize her artistry led directly to her November 30, 1998, Wigmore Hall recital, broadcast that day as part of BBC Radio 3's Noonday Concert series and preserved in the BBC archives. That recital was released on the Wigmore Hall Live label on January 1, 2007, six months after Hunt Lieberson's passing.
How is it that an archival broadcast recording became a widely…
Lord knows I try to keep an open mind, but those good-measuring delta-sigma chip DACs rub me the wrong way. Their processing complexity vexes my mind, and there's never been a reconstruction or upsampling filter that I've been a fan of. Nevertheless, I believe that every audio component must be judged by how it sounds and feels in use.
With digital converters as with other products, I don't need to know their price or technology before I listen. It might be better not to know. But usually I do know. This review is unusual in that when I first started listening with the HiFi Rose RD160 DAC…