Herb Reichert

Herb Reichert | Apr 05, 2023 | 59 comments

When I survey the realms of fancy-pants audio, the first thing I notice are cohorts of luxury-brand manufacturers selling pride of ownership with emblematic faceplates. After that, I spot another type of manufacturer, one that mocks the first type and aims its products at a younger, more working-class demographic, seducing potential customers with how much "truth" they are offering for only $15. But sometimes, when I look beyond the full-page ads and big rooms at audio shows, I discover a rogue manufacturer that is peddling a very specific type of listening experience, which they believe is the best. A listening experience only they could have created. I am grateful for manufacturers like this. They make my job more interesting, and I admire them for their courage in betting on their own taste in music reproduction.

I am relating these observations because this month I'm reviewing a digital converter from an off-the-paved-road audio manufacturer named Benjamin Zwickel. He operates a company called Mojo Audio, which is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Gramophone Dreams #71: Heretic AD614 loudspeaker

Gramophone Dreams Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Herb Reichert | Mar 21, 2023 | 16 comments

The hegemony of the skinny-box orthodoxy had me worrying about our collective music-listening future—until a day in September 2022 at Jason Tavares's elegantly appointed HiFi Loft in Hell's Kitchen, NYC, where, after auditioning Klipsch's new, spectacularly dynamic, precise-imaging Jubilee horns (which have front baffles 52" wide) and Harbeth's latest not-skinny-but-consummately-coherent SHL5plus XD, I auditioned these stout, unpainted, unveneered-plywood box speakers.

NYC CanJam Report #3

CanJam NYC 2023

Herb Reichert | Mar 06, 2023 | 2 comments

I mentioned in my CanJam NYC intro that CanJams offer more than just networking and headphone auditions. (You can read part 2 here.) They are also good places, I noted, to access the house sound of virtually every good DAC and amplifier that will fit on a tabletop.

NYC CanJam Makes Sweet Sounds

CanJam NYC 2023

Herb Reichert | Feb 28, 2023 | 5 comments

In Gramophone Dreams #51, I flat-out raved about Feliks-Audio's made-in-Poland "Arioso" integrated amplifier ($6999). This black, stealthy looking, single-ended 300B stereo speaker amp mated extremely well with my Falcon Gold Badges. During the months I worked on my review, I tormented engineer-designer Lukasz Feliks with at least 100 questions via email, but I didn't meet him in person. So what a joy it was to see the face behind all those emails—he's on the left in the photo above—and the smiling faces of his two partner-brothers, Piotr (center), and Michal (right). I like meeting the minds behind the gear I review.

CanJam NYC 2023 Commences

CanJam NYC 2023 News

Herb Reichert | Feb 27, 2023 | 0 comments

CanJams are about much more than skull-testing the newest headphones. They are the best places for all audiophiles to audition innovations in amplification, file servers, and digital converters and to jabber and bond with students, hipsters, gamers, and brainiacs from every part of the demographic spectrum. When the Jam is in New York, at the Marriott Marquis, it's like a being in a secret stadium lit neon-purple with white, vinyl-covered lounge chairs sheltered from the 100dB cauldron of Times Square tourism.

Gramophone Dreams #70: Sutherland Engineering SUTZ & Lounge Audio Copla headamps, Dynavector DV-20X2 & XX-2 MKII phono cartridges

Gramophone Dreams Phono Cartridge Reviews Phono Preamp Reviews

Herb Reichert | Feb 23, 2023 | 5 comments

As an upstart journalist-flâneur, my basic urge is to step on the gas and let my '54 Buick careen down the freeway, crashing into guardrails on both sides. Old Buicks were built for that, and I would love to take readers on one of those kinds of rides.

But when I write this monthly column, I find myself aiming for a different feel, more like driving cross-country in a '70s Ford station wagon, documenting motels and gas stations. A trip where it's fun to roll easy, take in the views, and stop at every car museum, snake farm, and stalactite cave.

This month, I'm going to put some miles on the Ford's odometer as I investigate the effects of Ron Sutherland's newest current-drive creation: a $3800 transimpedance moving coil headamp called the SUTZ. Along the way, I will also re-review Dynavector's $1250 DV-20X2 moving coil cartridge and examine what might be the sweetest spot in Dynavector's cartridge lineup: the $2150 XX-2 MKII.

Rotel RA-6000 integrated amplifier

Integrated Amp Reviews

Herb Reichert | Feb 03, 2023 | 15 comments

Before this month, I'd never experienced Rotel amplification in one of my own systems, but I have memories of how their amplifiers sounded back in the early 1990s. In those days, at audio shows, I would audition every Rotel amp I could find; I was especially interested in their $369, 60Wpc RB-960BX. I was curious about that model because it was the number-one competitor to the 60Wpc darling of the audiophile proletariat: Adcom's GFA 535 II. My friend Corey Greenberg compared these two popular amps in Stereophile and concluded, "The Rotel is for the budget-minded music lover who wants a good, solid little amplifier that's not going to make listening to music a trying experience."

Gramophone Dreams #69: Trance Dancing on Maxwell Street & the Rotel DT-6000 "DAC Transport"

Digital Processor Reviews Gramophone Dreams

Herb Reichert | Jan 24, 2023 | 9 comments

Everyone knows I'm a lucky guy. I was born in Chicago in nineteen-hundred and forty-nine, and as far as I can tell, that was the perfect year to be born. I missed the war, plague, and Depression horrors of the first half of the 20th century, and I witnessed the art, music, and cinema inventions of the second half.

Gramophone Dreams #68: Lab12 Mighty power amplifier & Pre1 preamplifier

Gramophone Dreams Tube Power Amp Reviews

Herb Reichert | Dec 28, 2022 | 24 comments

In my realm, the most sophisticated, intelligent, difficult thing anyone can do is create something mysterious. It could be a poem, a photo, a movie, a song, a symphony, or a piece of painted wood. What's most important is the mystery—and that experiencing the mysterious creation inspires in the observer a desire to probe its hidden realms, to somehow figure it out. Human cultures are founded on mysteries: Mysteries incite art, inspire science, and facilitate dreaming.

Rogue Audio Pharaoh II integrated amplifier

Integrated Amp Reviews

Herb Reichert | Dec 09, 2022 | 34 comments

This morning, I received an email from John, my DIY friend in Europe, saying how happy he was. He had just finished building a new power amplifier using two UcD250LP class-D amplifier modules. He described the results as "quiet, clear, clean, effortless class-D power," adding, "What more could I ask for?"

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