Sasha Matson

Gryphon Audio Designs Diablo 333 integrated amplifier

Sasha Matson | Dec 27, 2024

What's in a name? Denmark-based Gryphon Audio Designs laid down a marker when company founder Flemming Rasmussen chose that name in 1985. Browsing through the current Stereophile Recommended Components list, I only found one other manufacturer that utilizes an animal moniker. The imagery summoned by the use of the mythical treasure-guarding Gryphon seems appropriate; a hybrid creature combining features of the eagle and the lion, creatures of strength and speed—this choice underlines some of the aesthetics and performance Gryphon Audio has become known for. The handsome hardcover user's manual for the Diablo 333 simply states in gold "The Gryphon," along with a side-on profile of that winged lion-tailed creature, as a logo.

The Gryphon Diablo 333, a solid state, stereo integrated amplifier ($24,900 without optional DAC and phono stage modules), replaces the Gryphon Diablo 300, which was in production since 2016.

Recording of January 2025: Mari Kodama: Bruckner Piano Works

Recording of the Month

Sasha Matson | Dec 17, 2024

Mari Kodama: Bruckner Piano Works
Mari Kodama, piano
Pentatone PTC 5187 224 (reviewed as 24/192 WAV, also CD). 2024. Erdo Groot, prod., eng.; Shunsuke Yokoyama, piano technician.
Performance *****
Sonics ****½

Music history, like all human history, is filled with nooks and crannies—digressions from the main course of events. Take Anton Bruckner for example. The global concert hall calendars are filled with performances of his symphonies and some of his choral works. New recordings of these pieces are frequently released. How many of you have ever heard a performance, or recording, of any piece for solo piano by Bruckner?

Birth of the Blue Listening Session

Music and Recording Reviews

Sasha Matson | Dec 08, 2024

On Thursday, December 5, 2024, Miles Davis came back to New York City. Miles was escorted by Acoustic Sounds' Chad Kassem. This "from beyond the grave" appearance was one of the most memorable listening sessions I have ever experienced. Kassem previewed for us his Analogue Productions' issue Miles Davis—Birth of the Blue (Sony/Columbia APJ 172, 2024). The release date is set for December 13th. on 180-gram vinyl and SACD.

SVS Ultra Evolution Pinnacle loudspeaker

Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Sasha Matson | Sep 13, 2024

How many times have you been told by parents and teachers that everything successful must be built on a strong foundation? It's true in music, where the low frequencies are the foundation the music rests on, like the basement framing a building. If you get that part wrong, where are you? Sitting in the mud, that's where. With no chance to address beauty in the midrange, texture and air above, or other tasty things.

Youngstown, Ohio–based loudspeaker manufacturer SVS made foundations its specialty, starting at the company's very beginning in 1998, when it started by designing subwoofers and only subwoofers. The company didn't start offering regular loudspeakers, with midranges and high frequencies, until 2012. Over time, SVS's high-value speakers got more ambitious until earlier this year, at AXPONA, it introduced its most ambitious loudspeaker yet, the full-range, three-way Ultra Evolution Pinnacle ($4999.98/pair).

McIntosh ML1 MkII loudspeaker

Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

Sasha Matson | Jun 19, 2024

What was old is new again. McIntosh Laboratories has been in business long enough that they are able to bring new design thinking, materials, and construction methods to products from their extensive back catalog. Example: McIntosh's first successful loudspeaker, the ML1. The venerable Binghamton, New York, hi-fi company recently released a redesigned "Mk II" version ($12,000/pair, stands included).

In this, McIntosh is not unique; KLH, JBL, Klipsch, and other companies have rethought and reworked vintage products for the current marketplace, employing new approaches and technologies. Think of it as remastering classic hardware.

A Chat with Charles Lloyd

Interviews My Back Pages

Sasha Matson | May 15, 2024

Photo: D. Darr

Sasha Matson: Good morning from Cooperstown, home of baseball. Do you follow baseball?

Charles Lloyd: I played first base. I'm left-handed.

Matson: Does this new album, The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow, feel special to you?

Lloyd: It does indeed.

Recording of June 2024: Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow

Recording of the Month

Sasha Matson | May 14, 2024

Charles Lloyd: The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
Lloyd, tenor & alto saxophone, bass & alto flute; Jason Moran, piano; Larry Grenadier, bass; Brian Blade, drums, percussion
Blue Note 00602458167962 (reviewed as 24/96 FLAC; available on CD, digital, LP). 2024. Dorothy Darr, Lloyd, Joe Harley, prods.; Dom Camardella, Kevin Gray, engs.
Performance *****
Sonics *****

The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow was released by Blue Note Records on March 15, 2024, which was Charles Lloyd's 86th birthday. It is Lloyd's 47th album as a leader—the first was Discovery!, on Columbia Records, in 1964—how about that! With a running time one minute over an hour and a half, pressed on two LPs, this album is a significant addition to Lloyd's era-traversing catalog. Of the album's 15 tracks, 13 are Charles Lloyd compositions, split between new pieces and new arrangements of older works.

TAD Grand Evolution One loudspeaker

Audacious Audio Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Sasha Matson | May 01, 2024

Review samples of some new high-end audio products do not grow on trees. They are more like dray horses trouping from one destination to another. After the US premiere of the Technical Audio Devices (TAD) Grand Evolution One (TAD-GE1), a floorstanding speaker from TAD's Evolution series, at the 2023 Capital Audio Fest, the review pair came to stay with me in Upstate New York for a couple of months before traveling on to the 2024 Florida Audio Expo for another public appearance. After that, they returned to John Atkinson for measuring—then off again on another journey.

The TAD Labs GE1 is a three-way, three-driver design. Up top is TAD's proprietary Coherent Source Transducer (CST), a 5½" coaxial tweeter/midrange driver. Two matched 7" woofers fill out the middle of the front panel.

Wilson Audio Specialties Sasha V loudspeaker

Audacious Audio Floor Loudspeaker Reviews

Sasha Matson | Jan 25, 2024

Wilson Audio's new Sasha V loudspeaker (that's "V" as in victory, not "five") extends the line that began in 2009 with the debut of the Sasha 1 model. The installation manual includes a page titled "Sasha Evolution," with elegant line drawings of the various versions of the Sasha loudspeaker—now four—which were preceded by the two-box WATT/Puppy combo, which dates from 1989. The Wilson Audio Specialties Sasha V ($48,900/pair) replaces the prior Sasha model, the Sasha DAW, in the Wilson lineup.

The hefty, floorstanding Sasha V maintains a close family resemblance. The new Sasha's width and height are almost identical, logging 14½" and 45 1/16", respectively. The cabinets gain an inch in depth and now measure 23 15/16". The cabinets' subtle beveling is slightly different; probably only recent Sasha owners would notice. Extra thickness in the cabinets adds 9lb for a total of 245lb per speaker.

Santa's–Sorry, Sasha's–Christmas Playlist

Music and Recording Features

Sasha Matson | Dec 19, 2023

In my house, I have a little stack of CDs that I bring out once a year—for Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I then put them away on the shelf until the following year. This annual Festival of Christmas Albums is met with varying degrees of pleasure and resignation by the family members present; listening is non-negotiable, though we may not make it through all of them. Once in a while a new Christmas album will make the cut and be added to the stack, but not every year.

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