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The largest regularly scheduled choral singing event in the world is the Estonian National Song Festival, or Laulupidu, which comes around about once every five years in Tallinn, Estonia's capital city. The numbers are pretty mind blowing. Two all-day concerts are held over a weekend in early July, and this year, at its peak, the number of singers on stage at one time reached 32,022, performing to an audience of 100,000. Pretty amazing for a small country of just 1.4 million people. This is truly Choral Woodstock. I wrote about my first trip to the 1985 Laulupidu in Spin Doctor #9, which took…
Left to right: Clifford Antone, Doug Sahm, Albert Collins. (Photo Courtesy of Susan Antone.)
There have been venue owners who have been larger than life—Hilly Kristal (CBGB) and Doug Weston (Troubadour) come to mind—but few live-music club owners have ever lived in and for the music the way that Clifford Antone has. He also lived a life of extremes. Once, I was escorted into his office and found that almost the entire room was taken up by a sea of electric guitars on stands. During a South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas, in the early aughts, I was flabbergasted when I walked…
Veteran phono-preamplifier designer Ron Sutherland has been partial, of late, to battery power. Getting off the grid can produce superb results, as demonstrated by his Hubble phono preamp ($3800), powered by 16 alkaline batteries.
I favorably reviewed the Hubble in the February 2010 issue, and remember loving most everything about it—particularly its drop-dead-quiet backdrops, its solid, weighty bottom end, and its fully fleshed-out instrumental textures. I was less enthused by its somewhat soft, muted high-frequency transients, though of course tastes and associated gear will differ. I…
Simaudio has introduced a streaming network streamer/integrated amplifier, the Moon 371, the first product in a new, more affordable series called Compass. Why Compass? The name evokes the name of the higher-end North series, introduced in 2023. "Compass guides you North," a Simaudio rep said at a press event in Boucherville, across the river from Montreal.
The 371, which carries a price tag of $6500, gives you everything you need to make music except a streaming subscription, speakers, and speaker cables.
During a presentation at that Boucherville press event, Simaudio execs…
At 1am on September 17, 2025, Adam Wexler’s phone broke through his snores. He silenced the call and rolled over. Four hours later, the insistent ring jolted him awake. “When Ray, an amazing man who oversees the pier and runs everything around here, called me at 1am, I ignored it,” Wexler recalled, “though fire did cross my mind, because this space is entirely timber. Then my employee Robert Kapszewicz called, and I went to the warehouse at 5:30am.”
Starting in the early morning, a five-alarm inferno tore through the historic 19th-century Beard Street Warehouses at 421–499 Van Brunt…
Today, Harman said that it has completed its acquisition of Sound United, adding Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Marantz, Classé, Definitive Technology, Polk Audio, and Boston Acoustics to its portfolio.
Sound United will operate as a standalone Strategic Business Unit within Harman’s Lifestyle division. The intent is to preserve each brand’s identity—heritage, engineering approach, and customer base—while giving the group access to Harman’s global scale for manufacturing, distribution, and platform support. The promise: broader reach and added capabilities without collapsing brands into a…
"Larry, I've just come from the Alexis Park." Tom Norton, editor of Ultimate AV button-holed me. "I think the Pioneer speaker is worth a visit. It's one of the only new things I've found over there." Tom's words rung in my ears. Had to see it!
Pioneer's room was downstairs from the very hot $45,000/pair TAD Model-2 loudspeaker. Both speakers were designed by Andrew Jones—Pioneer is TAD's parent company—and under Andrew's leadership, a multi-national team reconfigured the TAD beryllium technology into the 145 lb, three-way, $9000/pair Pioneer S1-EX. Both speakers use the same…
Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Digital sources: MacBook Air running Tidal, Roon, Qobuz. Bricasti M1 Series II DAC, Musical Fidelity M1 CDT, Pro-Ject CD Box RS 2 T CD transports.
Preamplifier: McIntosh C12000.
Power amplifier: McIntosh MC462 Quad Balanced Stereo.
Integrated amplifier: McIntosh MA252.
Loudspeakers: Wilson Audio Specialties The WATT/Puppy, Harbeth P3ESR.
Cables: Digital: AudioQuest Diamond AES3, Coffee USB; Interconnects: AudioQuest Fire, Sky; Speaker: AudioQuest Firebird, Robin Hood; AC: AudioQuest Dragon.
Accessories: AudioQuest Niagara 7000 power…
These days, listeners the wide world over enjoy hearing their music recreated for them by equipment whose origins are international; trade isolationists might consider the example of PrimaLuna. This Holland-based company's operations span three continents, with designers from Floyd Design and Durob Audio in the Netherlands, manufacturing in China, and input from California-based Harmonia Distribution.
The PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid is a hefty 63.8lb. It's designed to be used as either a stereo amplifier or, in pairs, as a monoblock ($7195 each, $14,390 for a pair). The handsome grayish-blue…
Sidebar 3: Measurements
I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system to measure one of the PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid amplifiers that had been auditioned by SM. It had the serial number XA994S8721BN. After making sure the six preamplifier tubes were correctly seated and letting the amplifier operate at low power for 30 minutes, I performed a complete set of tests in both Stereo and Mono modes.
The PrimaLuna preserved absolute polarity with both the balanced and single-ended inputs in both Stereo and Mono modes. The balanced input XLR jacks are wired with pin 2 hot, the AES standard. A…