search

Magico S5 2024 loudspeaker
Introduced in 2024 to celebrate the California company's 20th anniversary, Magico's S5 2024 may be large and heavy (and expensive), but this three-way, sealed-box floorstanding loudspeaker stepped out of the way of the music with every recording I played. I was particularly impressed by the Magico's uncolored midrange, the control and evenness of its low frequencies, and how the two loudspeakers presented an appropriately large but well-defined soundstage with orchestral recordings. I concluded my review by writing that the S5…

In room 759, Afton Mountain Audio, an interesting dealership from beautiful Afton, Virginia, presented a Pure Fidelity Harmony Mk2 Hawaiian Koa turntable ($8995) with an Audio Origami PU8 tonearm ($6675) and an EBI Khumar MC phono cartridge ($2599). The cartridge fed an Aurorasound VIDA MkII phono stage ($5290).

The digital front-end was an LTA Aero DAC ($3950) supplied by an Innuos Stream1 music streamer/server ($3100). An LTA MicroZOTL Preamplifier ($5950) provided…

At the core of System One was a pair of Trilogy amplification…

The cheapest analog front-end on display was the Hathor turntable with the Horus tonearm, offered as a package for $8400. Further up the line were the Maestro ($9900) and Anubis ($18,000) 'tables, the former bearing a Horus 12" tonearm ($4400), the latter with the Osiris Diamond Mk2 12" tonearm ($9000). All three 'tables bore Zeus MC cartridges ($4800 each…

I was unprepared for the easy, peaceful opening of the Park Avenue's Ninth, with its blended, coolly lyrical violins and focused lead horn. Within clear textures, Bernard shapes and tapers the short motifs to fine effect, and the clarinet makes a point of phrasing its countertheme "across the bars." The brief transitional passage unexpectedly injects an off-kilter dance lilt.

In the…

This was the room of Charney Audio, in conjunction with HiFi Logic and Hapa Audio. The digital source was from two less well-known companies: a Lucas Audio Labs MiniMax server ($12,000) and a Charney Audio 4.1X SE DAC ($24,000)Amplification was also by Charney Audio, the L-3 SE preamplifier ($19,000), followed by the Charney Audio Kit-1 300B amplifier ($10,000). Those speakers? Charney Audio Lumaca IVs, in their US…

Room one featured a Grimm Audio MU2 media player/streamer/preamplifier ($17,500), a PrimaLuna EVO 400 Tube Preamplifier ($5995), a PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid Power Amplifier ($7195), Fyne Audio Vintage Ten floorstanding loudspeakers ($24,499/pair), Fyne Audio SuperTrax supertweeters ($4499/pair), and a Fyne Audio SC1 Premium Cable Kit for the SuperTrax tweeter ($449/pair). A second pair of speakers, Harbeth M40.5 XD2s ($20,990/pair), was also periodically connected..

In room 2, the…

The Jefferson room featured the VPI Vanquish Turntable ($80,000) and its custom stand stand ($60,000) equipped with two tonearms: a VPI Fatboy ($6000) and a Bird of Prey ($15,950) from Thai Scandinavian Engineering. Several cartridges were in rotation: a VPI Shyla ($2200), Grado Statement 3 ($3500), Audio-Technica AT-ART20 ($3200), and Tzar DST ($10,000). Amps…

Everyone knows I think audio components tend to sound like how they look,…

Matt's father, Henry Alterman, was the proprietor of Alterman Audio in their hometown of New Orleans. Henry got his start selling gear from his dorm room at Tulane University in the mid-1970s (footnote 1), before "going…