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Analog Corner #203: A Whole Lotta Analog Stuff!

Graham Slee Reflex M moving-magnet phono preamplifier
The latest product from Graham Slee is the Reflex M ($1240). Like the company's previous designs, the lightweight Reflex M is housed in a small aluminum case and is powered by an outboard 24V DC power supply. RIAA equalization is applied actively within the negative feedback loop. See Graham Slee's website for specifications and more about this model's design rationale (footnote 1).

I had on hand an older Graham Slee phono preamp, the Era Gold Mk.V—when I'd first listened to it, in January 2004, its highly accomplished sound took…

Gramophone Dreams #104: Vintage Systems, Vintage Cartridges Part 1 Page 2

Empire 108
Empire Scientific's 108 Stereo–Mono moving magnet cartridge puts out 8mV, and with it in my system, Julie London's Julie Is Her Name (Liberty LRP 3006) sounded super-vivid and perfectly period correct: Julie sounded like she did coming out of my parents' Columbia console in 1958. When I played E. Power Biggs's Greatest Hits (Columbia MS 7269), the same thing happened. When I played Patsy Cline singing "Heartaches" (Decca 45 31429), it sounded like Patsy sounded coming out of a juke box.

Feeding the Linear Tube Audio Z10e integrated amplifier, the Empire 108 made my…

Sound Chaser #12: Tom Petty's Right-Hand Guitar Man Heads Up The Dirty Knobs

Photo by Sheva Kafai

Mike Campbell is a consummate support artist. He was Tom Petty's right-hand guitar man for 47 years, first with Florida swamp-rockers Mudcrutch, later as a founding member of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, then ultimately extending his reach to support Petty's solo endeavors. Campbell didn't just cowrite many key Petty hits; he also laid down some seriously scorching lead runs, on indelible tracks like "Refugee," "Runnin' Down a Dream," "Love Is a Long Road," "You Wreck Me," and especially the seven-minute fever dream that is "First Flash of Freedom."

…

Magico QPods

Audiophile young'uns, there actually was a time when cones and pucks and other under-gear accessories we now take for granted did not exist. Then, in the early 1980s, the Mod Squad's Steve McCormack developed and introduced Tiptoes. By today's standards, those aluminum cones were simple and inexpensive—and they worked.

Look what we've come to: Magico's QPod is a complex sandwich of CNC-turned stainless steel, oxygen-free copper, black-anodized aluminum, and a blue elastomer damping material. The result is an equipment footer that converts vibrational energy into heat through a process…

Records 2 Live 4 2026

When this feature premiered in 1991, it was intended as a list of recordings that were, in the words of Richard Lehnert, the music editor at the time, "both musically and sonically impeccable—in other words, the best, the tops, to die for." RL went on: "such a list also makes for some strange procrustean bedfellows—obscure recordings that would never make the proverbial 'desert island' list snuggling up next to towering classics of the concert hall and control room."

Over time, that focus has shifted. The requirement that the selected recordings be "sonically impeccable" has been relaxed…

Pearl Acoustics Model One loudspeaker Page 2

Setup
The Model One doesn't have threaded holes for the usual spikes or outriggers. It comes instead with a custom steel stand with adjustable spikes and a metal backrest to prevent the speaker from tipping backward; otherwise, it relies on its 55lb weight to keep it anchored. Because the speaker and stand are separate pieces, positioning the speakers incrementally required a different approach than with a conventional floorstander.

When I solicited Harley for setup advice, his recommendation was to "move the loudspeakers around off their stands first, one at a time.…

Pearl Acoustics Model One loudspeaker

The quest to review the Pearl Acoustics Model One began at the 2025 Montreal Audiofest, which I was covering for Stereophile. It was there I crossed paths in a hallway with Galion Audio's Thomas Tan, who also hosts the YouTube channel Thomas & Stereo. "Rob! Rob!" he called out through a stream of visitors between us. "You have to hear my TS A20 power amp driving Pearl Acoustics speakers!"

"You mean the speaker from Joseph Audio?" I asked over bobbing heads.

"No! The company is Pearl Acoustics. The speaker is the Sibelius."

I'd never heard of the speaker or the brand,…

Parasound JCA100 Tribute monoblock power amplifier Page 2

Setup & listening
Like the Halo JC 1+, the JCA100 has single-ended RCA and balanced XLR input jacks, along with pass-through output jacks. The two amplifiers share the same two pairs of high-quality loudspeaker binding posts, switches to set the voltage gain to 29dB or 23dB, and to select Normal or Low output-stage bias.

The JCA100 operates in class-A up to its full power into 8 ohms when its bias is set to Normal, which is how I used them. (Parasound said that with the switch set to low, the JCA100 delivers up to 15W in class-A.) It runs hot. To allow sufficient ventilation, I…

Audio Research SP-10 preamplifier Measurements (from 2026)

Measurements (from 2026)

After I reviewed the Audio Research SP-10 tubed preamplifier for English magazine Hi-Fi News & Record Review in May 1984 (footnote 1), I bought the review sample (serial numbers 54227013, preamp, and 94226012, power supply). I brought it with me when I moved to the US two years later and, after having it adjusted to operate on 115V wall voltage rather than the UK's 240V, I used it as my reference preamplifier for a few years. However, it spent most of the subsequent decades in my storage unit, only occasionally spending time in my system.

In August…

Audio Research SP-10 preamplifier

It says something for the state of technology that, after a quarter of a century, there still is no authoritative explanation for why so many high-end audiophiles prefer tubes. Tubes not only refuse to die, they seem to be Coming back. The number of US and British firms making high-end tube equipment is growing steadily, and an increasing number of comparatively low-priced units are becoming available. There is a large market in renovated or used tube equipment—I must confess to owning a converted McIntosh MR-71 tuner—and there are even some indications that tube manufacturers are improving…