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ampsandsound Bigger Ben: $5600
See “Integrated Amplifiers.”

Audeze LCD-5: $4500
The open-back LCD-5 is the successor to Audeze’s well-regarded LCD-4 and, like its predecessor, uses planar-magnetic drive units, which feature proprietary, single-sided Fluxor neodymium N50 magnet arrays and a voice-coil concept called Parallel Uniforce. The idea is to vary the width of the conductor to match, or counter, variations in the magnetic flux to achieve uniform force across the membrane. The 90mm diaphragm is just 0.5 microns…

Analysis Plus Silver Apex Interconnects: $1219.99 (1m pair)
The Analysis Plus Silver Apex uses as its conductor an oxygen-free copper "stabilizing strand" covered with pure silver, in an arrangement the manufacturer describes, somewhat elliptically (haw) as "a hollow oval cable inside a hollow oval cable inside a hollow oval cable," said to be double shielded and thus quiet. And MF found it to be so: In his words, the Silver Apex is "highly recommended!" (Vol.42 No.5)

Audio Art Cable IC-3 Classic: $140/1m pair (RCAs), $160/1m pair (XLRs)
The IC-3—available…

AC Nexus Advanced Power Distribution & Ground Enhancement System: $20,000
Steve McCormack, once the proprietor of The Mod Squad, is the man who introduced the concept of accessory isolation feet—his Tiptoes were aluminum cones with flat tops and sharply pointed feet. Now he's brought to market this passive AC-power filter, whose Panzerholz enclosure contains two fist-sized silver-conductor capacitors from Duelund. The IEC AC inlet is a Bocchino Audio Marriner10 and the AC outlets are four Furutech Nano Crystal Formula duplexes. Four Cardas ground posts of…

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JL Audio CR-1: $3500
The CR-1 crossover has continuously variable high- and low-pass filters built around two banks of precision Linkwitz-Riley filters that can be set for 12 or 24dB/octave via. Front panel switch. Upon encountering the CR-1, LG "wondered where it had been all [his] life;" he's been using it ever since. "It's beautifully made, sonically transparent, performs a critical role in the optimal setup of subwoofrs, and has ergonomic bypass and mute functions that let you immediately hear the sonic iprovements of good bass management…

Acoustic Revive RR-888 Ultra Low Frequency Pulse Generator: $695
This small plastic box with a wall wart power supply is said to artificially generate the electromagnetic 7.83Hz Schumann resonance and alter the sound in your listening room. “Which it most certainly does—alter the sound, that is,” wrote AH. Listening to “Madness” from Miles Davis’s Nefertiti LP, he realized that the band’s tart, angular sound had become sweeter: “It was as though the dissonant and otherwise disagreeable sounds on the recording were somehow pushed down below the threshold of…

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Dynaudio Focus 10: $5500/pair (stands necessary)
Class A rating is as a Complete Audio System; class B (Restricted LF) as a regular loudspeaker. See Loudspeaker Systems. (Vol.46 Nos.2 & 11 WWW)

Focal Diva Utopia: $39,999/pair
(Vol.48 No.3 WWW)

Grimm Audio LS-1c: $30,450/pair plus SB1 Subwoofers $14,650/pair $$$
(Vol.48 No.4 WWW)

JBL 4329P: $4949/pair (stands necessary)
Class A rating is as a Complete Audio System; class B (Restricted LF) as a regular loudspeaker. See Loudspeaker Systems. (Vol.46 No.10 WWW)…

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Bel Canto E1X-DAC: $6800
The Roon Ready e1X DAC/Control Preamplifier offers AES3, coaxial and optical S/PDIF, digital inputs, and USB and UPnP/DLNA-compatible Ethernet ports. (The USB and Ethernet ports support MQA-encoded data and DSD data in the DoP format.) There are also line-level and MC/MM phono analog inputs, these converted to digital so that they can be adjusted with the DSP-domain Tilt, Bass EQ, and volume controls. The e1X features line outputs, a headphone output—the Tilt and BassEQ controls are not operative with this output—and a subwoofer…

If It's Friday, It Must Be Constellation Time
When I'd planned Peter Madnick's visit, I'd thought I'd be flying home from Munich the previous Sunday. My listening room was still the previous month's deadline-inspired mess, and after more than a week on the road I was beat, but after arriving home late Thursday afternoon I stayed up after dinner, got to bed late, and awoke early Friday morning to go to my…

Here's the first analog thing: After owning a McIntosh MR78 tuner for many years—I bought it on eBay sometime early in this millennium; it was fully functional and in superficially excellent condition—I finally did what I'd long intended to do: I sent it in to Audio Classics for inspection, refurbishment, and the famed Modafferi mod.

At the time of its…

Often nakedly personal and direct in their responses to life events, Shostakovich's 15 String Quartets can overwhelm with the enigmatic elements that make his music so compelling and unique. Shaped as much by intimate relationships as the repressive political realities that wore him down, they stand as one of the later 20th century's major musical achievements…