Michael Fremer

Chord CPM 3300 integrated amplifier
Integrated Amp Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 29, 2004  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2001  |  0 comments
With its high-end heart and home-theater brain, Chord's powerful CPM 3300 integrated amplifier ($9500 with the aluminum-cylinder Integra leg option, $8950 without) is a uniquely fascinating audio product well worth considering. High-tech innards and magazine-cover good looks don't hurt either, but what originally got me interested was the superlative sound Chord products have consistently delivered at trade and consumer shows when paired with Wilson-Benesch loudspeakers.
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Musical Fidelity M3 Nu-Vista integrated amplifier
Integrated Amp Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 29, 2004  |  First Published: Feb 01, 2001  |  0 comments
The old advertising jingle "Who put eight great tomatoes in that itty-bitty can?" bubbled through my head as Musical Fidelity's Antony Michaelson proudly unboxed the new $4500 M3 Nu-Vista integrated amplifier. How did they cram it all in there?
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Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista kWP preamplifier & Tri-Vista kW Monobloc power amplifier
Solid State Power Amp ReviewsTube Preamp Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2004  |  First Published: Jan 01, 2004  |  0 comments
Thoughts of power, domination, and audio road-rage enter one's mind when contemplating Musical Fidelity's SUV-like, limited-edition, 20th-anniversary offerings (footnote 1). (Only 75 sets of kWPs and kWs will be made.) The gleaming, brushed-aluminum, two-box, oversized, overweight Tri-Vista kWP preamp is fortress-like—the "kWP" looks as if chiseled into the faceplate by grimy, sweaty hands. Each of its boxes weighs almost 56 lbs. The unit's milled-aluminum remote control, the size of a Volkswagen Microbus and looking like something Fred Flintstone might wield, must weigh over 5 lbs. The kWP outputs more juice than many power amps: 55V, with 20 amps of peak-peak instantaneous current!
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Graham Audio Era Gold Mk.V phono stage
Budget Component ReviewsPhono Preamp Reviews
Robert J. Reina, Michael Fremer  |  Jan 30, 2004  |  First Published: Jan 30, 2005  |  0 comments
I don't know Gram Slee from Gram Parsons, or which House he was in at Harry Potter's Hogwarts School, but let me tell you: If you'd just been listening to a bunch of budget phono preamps, as I had, then came upon the GSP Audio Era Gold Mk.V, you'd think someone had switched out not just the phono preamp but your entire system. You might think you were listening to a different pressing or a different cartridge. How can this be?
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Krell SACD Standard multichannel SACD player
Hi-Rez Disc Player/Transport Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 21, 2003  |  First Published: Dec 01, 2003  |  0 comments
With the exception of dCS and Accuphase, you don't see anyone jumping on the bandwagon of $15,000-plus SACD players—and for good reason. Despite enthusiasm for the format within the relatively small audiophile community, high-resolution audio isn't exactly making waves on the front pages—or even the back pages—of the mainstream news media. And while ABKCO Records has sold millions of Rolling Stones hybrid SACD/CDs, and Sony is looking to repeat that phenomenon with the recent Dylan hybrids, what's being sold in both cases are CDs, not SACDs. The higher-resolution layer is simply going along for the ride.
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Linn LP Playing System
Turntable Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 30, 2003  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2003  |  0 comments
Long before the Swedes at Ikea did it, the singular Scotsman Ivor Tiefenbrun began giving his products funny-sounding names. For some reason positively phobic about the letter c, he banned its use in any of those names. Someone once told me his real last name is Tiefencrun, but since it wouldn't sound any different with a k, he settled for a b. "I could have been Ivor Tiefendrun, or Tiefenfrun, or Tiefengrun, for that matter," he's quoted as having said once while krunching a krakker.
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Pass Labs XA160 monoblock power amplifier
Solid State Power Amp Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 30, 2003  |  First Published: Nov 01, 2003  |  1 comments
Before the advent of big-screen projection televisions, manhood was measured more conventionally: by the size of one's crate-sized, boat-anchor-heavy, brushed-aluminum-fronted power amplifiers. Those days are long gone.
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Audio Physic Rhea powered subwoofer
Subwoofer Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 10, 2003  |  First Published: Sep 01, 1998  |  0 comments
"You can't get deep bass in your room," a reviewer from another magazine who'd never visited my room insisted recently on the phone. "Do you know how long a 20Hz bass wave is? It's 40 feet long, and your room is tiny."
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Odeon La Traviata loudspeaker
Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 03, 2003  |  First Published: May 01, 2002  |  0 comments
Interest in super-efficient, horn-loaded, compression-driver loudspeakers has grown in the past few years, fueled in part by a renewed fascination among many hobbyists with low-powered, single-ended triode tube amplifiers. But staring down the maws of two Tubby the Tubas is not every audiophile's idea of a good time—even when the resulting sound is spectacularly fast, coherent, and extended.
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Wilson Audio Specialties WATT/Puppy 7 loudspeaker
Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 14, 2003  |  0 comments
When I interviewed recording engineer Roy Halee (Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, The Lovin' Spoonful, etc.) at his home in Connecticut back in 1991, he pointed to his pair of monolithic Infinity IRS loudspeakers and said, "When I want to listen for pleasure, I listen to those." He then pointed to a pair of early-edition Wilson Audio Specialties WATT/Puppys in a second system set up in the corner of his large listening room. "When I want to hear what's on a recording I've made, I listen to those." It was obvious: Halee respected the Wilsons, but he loved the Infinitys. Not surprising, since Dave Wilson designed the WATT section to be a highly accurate portable monitor, and monitors are designed for respect, not love.
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