Treehaus Audiolab
Treehaus Audiolab's Richard Pinto likes field coil speakers, tube-rectified power supplies, and 300B power tubes. All are present in products enjoying their debut at Capital Audiofest 2021.
Ken Micallef
Continue Reading »
Volti's New Rival Type II loudspeakers, plus Innuos, Border Patrol, Triode Wire Labs, and a Happy Hour Cocktail
When I walked into the Volti Audio/Border Patrol Audio/Triode Wire Labs’ room, Volti’s head honcho Greg Roberts said, “Ken, remove that mask.” I did as the man asked, as all present were vaccinated, and accepted a happy hour drink from Triode Wire Labs’ Pete Grzybowski. I saw Border Patrol’s Gary Dewes smile, and knew I was with friends.
GT Audioworks, Pass Laboratories, Lampizator, Small Green Computer, and Magnan
GT Audioworks presented their Reference 3 Planar Ribbon Speakers ($49,000/pair), which debuted in January 2021.
Acora Acoustics, Transrotor, Audio Research, and Cardas [UPDATED]
In the third floor Eisenhower room, Valerio Cora brought his Acora Acoustics SRC-2 Loudspeakers ($37,000/pair) joined to the Transrotor Massimo turntable ($16,800) equipped with the Transrotor SME tonearm ($4300), the Dynavector DRT XV-1t cartridge ($9450). The Massimo was also equipped with a secondary arm, the Charisma Musiko ($2500) armed (as it were) with the Charisma Signature One cartridge ($3800).
The Eikon Audio Room
Gayle Sanders, founder of MartinLogan, brought Bethel Connecticut–based Eikon Audio’s line of loudspeakers and electronics to Capital Audiofest’s Lincoln room, the gear arranged into two systems.
Capital Audiofest 2021 Kicks Off
Capital Audiofest 2021 kicked off this morning with a heady air of excitement coursing through the sold-out host venue, the Twinbrook Hilton in Rockville, Maryland.
Ayre Acoustics EX-8 2.0 Integrated Hub D/A integrated amplifier
In New York City, everything comes at a premium: Housing, groceries, transportation, walking space, living space, sanity spaceconsider our cubbyhole apartments and tenement buildings. Even "air rights" are for sale in NYC, including rights to the air over my beloved Katz's Delicatessen in the Lower East Side. The square footage of my downtown apartment is less than a quarter of the space of my North Carolina home. (Brownstones? Only above 72nd Street.) But, as the song says, "If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere." What did Frank Sinatra know, anyway? He was from Hoboken!
Continue Reading »
KLH Model Five loudspeaker
In May of 2019, I heard about a promising jazz vinyl and hi-fi estate sale happening on New York's Upper East Side. Little did I know then what treasures the dig would yield.
Continue Reading »
Jazz Record Center's Fred Cohen had called from the UES apartment, the former residence of late CBS Records and Sony Entertainment mastering engineer Harry N. Fein. Fred said, "The records are kind of beat, but the apartment is jammed with tape decks, turntables, cartridges, tubes, midcentury modern furnitureget up here."
Klipsch Forte IV loudspeaker
No one taught me more about the heralded tone of Ortofon SPU cartridges, the magical pacing of idler-drive turntables, or the dynamics and speed of horn-loaded speakers than Art Dudley, Stereophile's late deputy editor. His equipment reviews and monthly Listening columns weren't merely tutorials on how to review audio equipment with insight and an individual voice; they were also an entertaining, informative immersion into the kind of hi-fi he loved. We also shared many conversations, though too few.
Continue Reading »
Thorens TD 124 DD Record Player
In 1957, Switzerland-based Thorens introduced the TD 124 turntable, a record player destined to become a classic. (TD is an initialism for tourne disque, French for turntable.)
Continue Reading »
A Thorens brochure from that same year itemized the TD 124's "11 main elements that result in 41 advantages." It noted the turntable's "strongly ribbed, solid chassis, crafted in cast aluminum," and its two-part platter including a "flywheel [subplatter], crafted in stabilized cast iron, [which] possesses excellent characteristics for the magnetic shielding of the drive system, as well as great inertia." Continuing, it lauded the TD 124's "main bearing, fitted with a 14mm spindle made of hardened, mirror-polished steel," its braking system, leveling dials, surface-mounted spirit level, and four "mushroom-shaped, rubber dampers [that] guarantee smooth suspension in a built-in frame as well as decoupling from the base."