Jim Austin

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Audiovector R 8 Arreté loudspeaker
Audacious AudioFloor Loudspeaker Reviews
Jim Austin  |  Aug 18, 2021  |  6 comments
Many loudspeaker designers are minimalists at heart. They embrace a design aesthetic that says that simpler is better. Based on the evidence of the company's R 8 Arreté, Ole Klifoth, of Danish loudspeaker maker Audiovector, is not one of those designers.

On its website, in the Specifications section for its "R"-model loudspeakers (footnote 1), Audiovector offers a long checklist of technologies, many of them optional, some of them, called "Concepts," assigned snappy names and acronyms: IUC for Individual Upgrade Concept; LCC for Low Compression Concept; SEC for Soundstage Enhancement Concept; NES for No Energy Storage; FGC for Freedom Grounding Concept; and NCS for Natural Crystal Structure.

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Audiovector R3 Avantgarde Arreté Loudspeakers; Goldnote Giglio Turntable, Ph10 Phono Preamplifier, PSU10 Power Supply, and Four-Shelf Rack; Alluxity Pre 2 Preamp with Streaming DAC, Mono One monoblock amplifiers; Synergistic Research PowerCell
Toronto Audiofest 2019
Jim Austin  |  Oct 19, 2019  |  0 comments
Should you ground your loudspeakers? With most speakers it's a moot point, since there's no practical way to ground the internal metal parts. A few companies—Tannoy comes to mind—have in the past sold speakers with a grounding pin, claiming reduction of distortion and RF interference.
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August 2021 Classical Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Jim Austin, Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Francis Vasta  |  Aug 06, 2021  |  2 comments
J.S. Bach: Cello Suites, Beethoven: Hope Amid Tears: Beethoven Cello Sonatas, Brahms: Symphony No.3, Serenade No.2, Nino Rota: Chamber Music and Vaughan Williams: Symphonies Nos.4 & 6.
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Aurender and Computer Audio Design: Two Different Companies, Same Peculiar Idea
AXPONA 2022News
Jim Austin  |  May 01, 2022  |  9 comments

Audio shows are great for hearing new components and systems—of course they are. But they can also be good for encountering new ideas. Over two days at AXPONA, I encountered the same curious idea from two manufacturers.

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AXPONA 2019: It's a Wrap
AXPONA 2019
Jim Austin  |  Apr 18, 2019  |  2 comments
AXPONA 2019 was a good show—I'm tempted to say an important show. It's just an intuition, but I sense renewed vitality.
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AXPONA!
As We See It
Jim Austin  |  Jun 15, 2022  |  2 comments
I'm writing this one week after returning from Schaumburg, Illinois, where I attended my first real audio show since the Florida Audio Expo in early 2020, just as the pandemic was starting to gain momentum. Everyone I talked to was hopeful, but no one could predict what attendance would be like or what people's attitudes would be.
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AXPONA: T+A Brings the A-Team
AXPONA 2022
Jim Austin  |  May 01, 2022  |  4 comments

T+A elektroakustik GmbH & Co. brought the A-team to the 2022 AXPONA, including American rep Senior Vice President of Sales and Operations David Schultz, Chief Operations Officer (and heir apparent) Conradin Amft, and Founder and CEO Siegfried Amft. During a light Saturday breakfast in the big T+A room, the elder Amft briefed the Stereophile team on T+A's status and plans; expect some big announcements at High End Munich later this month.

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Bel Canto e1X DAC/Control Preamp, e1X Stereo Amplifier, and Audiovector SR 3 Avantgarde Arreté Loudspeakers
AXPONA 2019
Jim Austin  |  Apr 13, 2019  |  0 comments
In room 504 at the 2019 AXPONA, Minnesota-based Bel Canto partnered with Danish company Audiovector to present a really good-sounding system with a small footprint.
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Bel Canto, Pure Fidelity, YG
AXPONA 2024
Jim Austin  |  Apr 15, 2024  |  0 comments

When I walked into this room, just before closing time on Sunday, the show’s last day, they were spinning vinyl. Two things are notable about that fact, at least to me.

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Benchmark DAC3 HGC D/A preamplifier-headphone amplifier
Digital Processor ReviewsHeadphone Reviews
Jim Austin  |  Oct 26, 2017  |  101 comments
Much has been written about the divide in high-end audio between subjectivists, who trust their ears, and objectivists, who believe that anything not scientifically proven is fake news. I respect both sides and am skeptical of both extremes, and I like to think that's how most audiophiles feel. High-end audio is about experiencing music—that's the whole point—but scientific and technological rigor lie behind every real advance, past and future. I regret the cynical snake-oil salesmanship, bad thinking, and clumsy engineering that pervade certain parts of our hobby.
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