Jason Victor Serinus

March 2025 Classical Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Francis Vasta  |  Mar 14, 2025
Franck: Symphony In D Minor, Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande, Berlin Philharmonic/Daniel Barenboim; L'Arpeggiata: Terra Mater, L'Arpeggiata, Christina Pluhar, cond.; Malena Ernman, mezzo-soprano; Robert Simpson: Chamber Music, Volume One, The Tippett Quartet; Emma Johnson, clarinet; Raphael Wallfisch, cello; others.
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Stromtank S-4000 ProPower MK-II XT computer-controlled battery power source
Audacious AudioPowerline Accessory Reviews
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Mar 11, 2025
In my enthusiastic 2022 review of the Stromtank S-1000 ($16,900), I described the Stromtank as a computer-controlled lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery array that, coupled with its AC inverters and all the trimmings, supplies clean, constant, stable off-grid AC power to hi-fi components. By softly depressing a single button on the front panel, Stromtank owners can easily switch from wall-connected mode (when the Stromtank's dimmable front-panel meter is blue) to a disconnected, battery-only state (when the meter is green). At the end of a listening session, users can return to blue mode to recharge the battery array.
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EMM Labs DA2i D/A processor
Audacious AudioDigital Processor Reviews
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Feb 28, 2025
More than five years have passed since I evaluated the original, Canada-made DV2 D/A converter ($30,000 in 2019) from EMM Labs. Since then, I've heard it and other top DACs—many of them at audio shows; some in my reference system—and my appreciation for what the original DV2 could deliver has only increased.

Now arrive two new components, the DV2's twin successors: the DV2i, an "integrated" stereo D/A converter with a software-driven, high-resolution digital volume control, and the subject of this review, the DA2i, a straight D/A with no volume control. Both cost $35,000.

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What’s Going On With Krell?
News
Jason Victor Serinus, Jim Austin  |  Feb 20, 2025  |  First Published: Jan 29, 2025
Updated 2/20/2025 (previously 2/12/25)

In a Connecticut courtroom on Wednesday, Kristofer D'Agostino, son of late Krell owner and CEO Rondi D'Agostino, won control over his own trust, opening a path for Krell to begin to get its ducks in a row.

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Recording of March 2025: Alec Frank-Gemmill: Mozart Horn Concertos
Recording of the Month
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Feb 18, 2025
Mozart: Horn Concertos
Alec Frank-Gemmill, B-flat horn; Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Nicholas McGegan, cond.
BIS-2635 (reviewed in native 24/96). 2024. Thore Brinkmann, prod.; Brinkmann, Håkan Ekman, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

When I recollect the soundtrack to my acid-tinged summer of 1967, several LPs stand out: The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's you-know-what, The Rolling Stones' Their Satanic Majesties, Richie Havens's Mixed Bag, and Dennis Brain's equally famed recording of the Mozart Horn Concertos, with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Herbert von Karajan. Though all of them sounded potent and execrable, in equal parts, through our starving–ex-student record players, neither the Mozart's monophonic provenance nor the too-distant sound of Brain's horn could diminish the joy it brought me...

How wonderful it is to revisit these tuneful, often jolly concertos played by a superb horn virtuoso, Alec Frank-Gemill, backed by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by one of the world's most distinguished period-practice authorities, Nicholas McGegan.

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Maria, Maria...What's with this gal named Maria?
My Back Pages
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Feb 12, 2025
So much critical ink has been spilled on Maria, Pablo Larrain and Steven Knight's biographical fantasy on the last days of operatic soprano Maria Callas, that everyone who hasn't yet seen it "knows" exactly why. Which is a crying shame, given that very few reviews present the musical reasons that make Maria essential viewing, especially for people who care deeply about music.
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February 2025 Classical Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Robert Baird, Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Francis Vasta  |  Feb 11, 2025
Caroline Shaw: Leonardo Da Vinci (soundtrack); Ethel String Quartet: Persist (Works by Allison Loggins-Hll, Migiwa "Miggy" Miyajima, Xavier Muzik, Sam Wu, and Leilehua Lanzilotti); Zlata Chochieva: Works for Piano and Orchestra; Rococo: Works by Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Dvořák, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich; Tchaikovsky: The Seasons; Romance in F minor; Mozart: Serenata (Eine kleine Nachtmusik | Posthorn | Haffner).
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Soulution 727 preamplifier
Audacious AudioSolid State Preamp Reviews
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 30, 2025
Almost 14 years have passed since a review of a Soulution product appeared in the pages of Stereophile. Given the Swiss company's steady ascent in the high-end pantheon, it is high time that we again reached into the German-speaking region of Switzerland north of the Swiss Alps to evaluate another of the reference products from a company equally renowned for its sonic achievements and refined and elegant design aesthetic.

Enter the full-function Soulution 727 preamplifier ($74,975), whose optional MC/MM phono section ($11,975) will be evaluated in a future issue. Because Soulution claims that the 727 "sets benchmarks in terms of noise, phase errors, common mode rejection and distortion," one would hope that there's far more than 62lb of classy casework and an easy-to-handle lightweight remote to account for its price.

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January 2025 Classical Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Jason Victor Serinus, Stephen Francis Vasta  |  Jan 10, 2025
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos.19 & 23, Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano; Freiburger Barockorchester; Dvořák: Legends; Slavonic Rhapsodies, Czech Philharmonic/Tomáš Netopil; Evening Songs: Songs by Dvořák, Smetana, Fibich, and Suk, Adam Plachetka, tenor; David Švec, piano.
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January 2025 Rock/Pop/World Music Record Reviews
Music and Recording Reviews
Ray Chelstowski, Jason Victor Serinus  |  Jan 10, 2025
Jimi Hendrix: Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision; Wilderado: Talker; Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens: American Railroad.
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