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At the 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in January, John Atkinson asked if I would like to do a "Follow-Up" on the Wilson Audio Sophia ($11,700/pair). I was happy to accept the assignment. Not since my days at The Abso!ute Sound, where I reviewed the first generation of Wilson's Cub, have I had the opportunity to listen to a Wilson speaker at length.

I'd quite admired the Cub for its dynamics, resolution, and surprising bass, but ultimately I respected it more than I could love it. For all the performance the Cub…

One day in the fall of 2005, Wilson Audio Specialties' John Giolas had just finished setting up my new pair of Sophia loudspeakers, and I was taking in their incredible sound. He turned to me, seemed to hesitate for a second, then uttered the phrase that makes any audio purchaser's heart stop. "We're coming out with a new model."

I know, I know—my Sophias were still every bit as good as they'd been just moments before, and besides, new isn't always better. The logic is unassailable, and it…

Analog Source: VPI HR-X turntable & tonearm, Lyra Titan cartridge.
Digital Source: Simaudio Moon Reference Andromeda CD player.
Preamplification: Sutherland PhD phono stage; VTL TL-7.5, Placette Active line stages.
Power Amplifiers: VTL Ichiban, Mark Levinson No.20.6 monoblocks.
Cables: Stereovox, Nordost Valhalla, Shunyata Research. AC: Audience, Shunyata Research.
Accessories: Audience Adept and Shunyata Research AC conditioning & distribution systems; Shunyata Research AC outlets; Finite Elemente Reference…

On two occasions I've caught myself wondering how to afford a pair of Wilson Audio loudspeakers. Interestingly, both happened within the past year. The first was in April 2009, at the Son et Image show in Montreal, during a demonstration of the MAXX Series 3. The experience was notable for its blend of genuinely great sound with genuine musicality: Each performance unfolded of its own natural accord, with human randomness and nuance, and without the fussy, mechanical, shallow artifice that attracts some audiophiles in…

Peter McGrath was our guest near the end of summer, but I was the one with the baggage: A few good Wilson demonstrations aside, I was far from convinced. I didn't think the Sophia Series 2 would prove musically satisfying. Would it sound good? Yes. Would it deserve my respect? Without question. Would I love it? Couldn't imagine it.

Then there's the power thing. My favorite amp these days is the 20W Shindo Haut-Brion, each of whose custom output transformers has only a single 16-ohm secondary winding: scarcely the thing for a high-end loudspeaker with a sensitivity…

Well, I'm working up to the Ring. But it's important to remember that, throughout most of the 19th century, Tannhäuser was Wagner's most popular work. With Lohengrin, Der Fliegende Holländer, and Rienzi—early works all, it was one of the few Wagner operas that most operagoers would have heard. Not only that, a good case can be made that the opera's unprecedented sensuality, its convincing musical…

But in all of these permutations, Tannhäuser can still be a bitter pill to take. Even in the Dresden version, the music ranges from the sublime (the pilgrims' chorales, the Act III prelude, the Rome Narration) to the ridiculous (the overdone part-writing that closes Acts I and II) to the merely humdrum (the Act II…

WAGNER: Tannhäuser
Plácido Domingo, Tannhäuser; Cheryl Studer, Elisabeth; Agnes Baltsa, Venus; Andreas Schmidt, Wolfram; Matti Salminen, Landgraf; William Pell, Walther; Kurt Rydl, Biterolf; Clemens Bieber, Heinrich; Oskar Hillebrandt, Reinmar; Barbara Bonney, Shepherd; Chorus of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Philharmonia Orchestra, Giuseppe Sinopoli
Deutsche Grammophon 427 625-2 (3 CDs only). 1989. Klaus Hiemann, eng.; Günther Breest, Wolfgang Stengel, Claudia Hamann, prods. DDD. TT: 3:16:14

Which brings me to the second recording of the…

Briefly, the argument, brewed of Wagner's usual conflation of various legends, with a soupçon of fact, and set in 12th-century Thuringia:

Tannhäuser is a Minnesinger, a composite of two historical figures: the ne'er-do-well minnesinging Tannhäuser, who lived somewhat later and was for centuries the subject of cautionary lays; and Heinrich von Ofterdingen (Wagner retains "Heinrich" as Tannhäuser's Christian name), whose travels and trafficking with the almost certainly legendary magician Klingsor led him to a cave of timeless delights not unlike…