Michael Fremer

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Analog Corner #273: Soundsmith Hyperion phono cartridge & AudioQuest AC power products
Analog CornerPhono Cartridge ReviewsPowerline Accessory Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 11, 2022  |  First Published: May 01, 2018  |  36 comments
Peter Ledermann, founder and chief designer of Soundsmith, Inc., began his adventures in phono cartridges by reverse-engineering Bang & Olufsen's Moving Micro-Cross moving-iron cartridges for customers B&O had abandoned when it got out of the LP player business, and putting them into production. The B&O cartridges were of the direct plug-in variety; once they were no longer made, a worn or broken B&O cartridge would render a B&O turntable unusable.
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Analog Corner #272: Kuzma CAR, Miyajima Madake Snakewood, TechDAS TDC01 Ti phono cartridges
Analog CornerPhono Cartridge Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 08, 2022  |  First Published: Apr 01, 2018  |  4 comments
At Stereophile, we don't generally allow Mulligans—review do-overs. Usually, we take a second look at a product we've reviewed only when the first sample turns out to have been defective, especially if it was damaged in shipping—and we rarely do even that.
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Ypsilon Electronics Hyperion monoblock power amplifier
Audacious AudioTube Power Amp Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 22, 2018  |  18 comments
Designers of hybrid amplifiers can use solid-state devices in an amp's input stage and tubes in its driver and output stages, as Music Reference's Roger Modjeski did in his RM-200 Mk.II—or they can use tubes in the input and transistors in the output, as Ypsilon Electronics' Demetris Baklavas prefers.

The advantage of solid-state at the input stage can be lower noise. In the RM-200 Mk.II's fully balanced design, carefully matched input devices result in high common-mode rejection and low-noise operation close to the levels achieved with the best input transformers. The RM-200 Mk.II's signal/noise ratio measured a healthy 95.4dB.

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Analog Corner #271: Koetsu Rosewood Mono, Kuzma CAR-50 and CAR-60 phono cartridges
Analog CornerPhono Cartridge Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 08, 2022  |  First Published: Mar 01, 2018  |  1 comments
In 1964, Shure Brothers shook up the cartridge market by introducing the original V-15 moving-magnet cartridge, which then cost $67, equivalent to about $530 today. It came packaged in a deluxe, wooden, jewelry-style box—common practice for today's cartridges, but back then unheard of.
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Analog Corner #270: Rega Research RP10 turntable and Aphelion MC phono cartridge
Analog CornerTurntable Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 05, 2022  |  First Published: Feb 01, 2018  |  1 comments
In February 2017, for the first time in almost 20 years, I visited Rega Research's factory in Southend-on-Sea, UK. I found a company that had added to its just-built factory a second building of the same size, had added an upper level within that space, and already was running out of space. Corridors and walkways were being used for assembly and storage.
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Analog Corner #269: TechDAS Air Force III turntable and Graham Engineering Phantom III tonearm
Analog CornerTonearm ReviewsTurntable Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  May 10, 2022  |  First Published: Jan 01, 2018  |  65 comments
It was great fun having our editorial coordinator, Jana Dagdagan, shoot a video profile of me in my listening room. As I write this, it's had more than 88,000 views. While the ratio of thumbs up to thumbs down has remained consistently around 10:1, some of the negative comments, particularly about our industry and about this magazine, do enrage me.
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Analog Corner #268: Grado Lineage Epoch phono cartridges
Analog CornerPhono Cartridge Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 14, 2022  |  First Published: Dec 01, 2017  |  1 comments
Brooklyn-based Grado Labs has been in business for 64 years, manufacturing moving-iron phono cartridges, headphones, and, for a while, even a unipivot tonearm with a wooden armwand, as well as the sophisticated, S-shaped Signature Laboratory Standard arm.
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Analog Corner #267: Reed Muse 3C turntable & Reed 3P tonearm
Analog CornerTurntable Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 12, 2022  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2017  |  0 comments
The Reed 3P tonearm, which I reviewed in my April 2016 column, was an impressive piece of imaginative engineering and manufacturing prowess. I asked Reed's importer, Axiss Audio, if I could hold on to the 3P—I was already planning to review Reed's Muse 3C turntable. I'm glad I did—the 3P ($5000) and 3C ($15,000) make an outstanding combination. (When the only complaint you have about a turntable is that the cable from its power jack to the power supply isn't long enough to reach the floor, you can be sure you're going to write a very positive review.)
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Astell&Kern A&ultima SP1000 portable audio player
Media Server Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 19, 2017  |  27 comments
People often ask me how I listen to music when I travel. I play MP3s on my iPhone.

That answer always surprises, and sometimes disappoints: "You listen to MP3s?"

The response is moderately tempered when I add that I use good in-ear monitors (IEMs)—either Westone ES50s (ca $995) or Jerry Harvey Audio Laylas (ca $2725), both with eartips made from molds of my ear canals.

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Analog Corner #266: SME: Stirred, Not Shaken
Analog Corner
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 09, 2022  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2017  |  3 comments
The death of a company founder, whether sudden or expected, often produces trauma. Whoever was tapped to replace the visionary Steve Jobs would be handed a thankless task, but at Apple, timid Tim Cook's so-far unimaginative performance as caretaker demonstrates the difficulties of succession. As Jobs beat Sony to the iPod, Cook let Amazon beat him to the Alexa.
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