Michael Fremer

HeadRoom Total BitHead headphone amplifier
Solid State Preamp ReviewsBudget Component ReviewsHeadphone Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 26, 2004
When, on his long-running TV variety show, Jackie Gleason used to order up some "traveling music" from music director Ray Bloch, he got a live orchestra's worth. But when Gleason, a composer and conductor in his own right (he wrote his show's unforgettable theme song, "Melancholy Serenade"), actually traveled, his listening options were severely limited compared to ours. By the time the comedian died in 1987, Sony had introduced the Walkman cassette player, but Apple's iPod was still more than a decade in the future.
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Krell Resolution 1 loudspeaker
Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 21, 2004
Sometimes you have to make peace with a loudspeaker. You have to accept it on its own terms rather than ask it to bend to your sonic wishes, or to be something it's not. This is especially true when you're auditioning a seemingly endless succession of them, as I have this year. Like beauty-pageant contestants parading across the stage, all different-looking yet all enticing in one way or another, each speaker I've listened to of late has sounded different from the rest, and each has had a unique combination of strengths and weaknesses—yet each has been sufficiently "in the pocket" to paint a credible musical picture. Nonetheless, some required more bending on my part than did others, in order for me to believe the musical portraits they were attempting to create.
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mbl 101E Radialstrahler loudspeaker
Floor Loudspeaker ReviewsAudacious Audio
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 23, 2004  |  First Published: Oct 01, 2004
Back in the late 1980s, when I was writing for The Abso!ute Sound and couldn't afford any of the audio gear I was reviewing, my system consisted of an Oracle turntable with Magnepan unipivot arm, a pair of Spica TC-50 loudspeakers, and a heavily modified Hafler DH-200 power amp and DH-101 preamp. It was a fun system that imaged like hell, but my fondest audio memories of that time were of visiting fellow TAS reviewer Dr. Michael Gindi, who lived on Manhattan's West End Avenue, and listening to his mbl speakers. (With his shrink's paycheck, he could afford them.)
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Naim CDX CD player
CD Player/Transport Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 10, 2004  |  First Published: May 01, 1999
To compartmentalize or not to compartmentalize, that is the question. Does one review an expensive CD player at the dawn of the 24-bit/96kHz digital age by pulling a "Clinton," standing defiantly before a jury of audio peers to deliver a speech on the state of the CD art, boxing in, roping off, and all but ignoring the new, supposedly unimpeachable medium?
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Immedia RPM-2 tonearm
Tonearm Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 03, 2004  |  First Published: May 01, 1997
If the sole criterion for choosing a winner in today's hotly contested premium arms race was original thinking, the Immedia RPM-2 might well come out on top. While some of its design details resemble those found on other products, in many significant areas the arm is unique—not for uniqueness's sake, but in order to efficiently implement some clearly considered goals. If the unipivot RPM-2 bears a resemblance to any other contemporary arm, it is Naim's highly regarded ARO—which I've never heard. The similarity, though, would appear to be superficial.
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Rockport Technologies Merak II loudspeaker & Sheritan II subwoofer
Floor Loudspeaker ReviewsAudacious Audio
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 19, 2004  |  First Published: Sep 01, 2004
No one has ever accused Rockport Technologies' Andy Payor of under-engineering a product, and this set of gleaming black beauties is no exception. The system is available in two configurations: as the two-way Merak II for $19,500/pair, including sturdy custom cradle-stands with integrated crossover; and as the Merak II/Sheritan II, a three-way, two-box floorstander that, to afford them at $29,500, will reduce some to living in the speakers' shipping crates. You could do worse for housing than checking into the Sheritan Rockport: The wooden crates are almost exquisitely finished.
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Kuzma Air Line tonearm
Tonearm Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 15, 2004  |  First Published: Aug 01, 2004
The lacquers from which LPs are pressed are cut in a straight line, and that's how the LP groove should be traced. Even when set up perfectly, a pivoted arm describes an arc across the disc surface, maintaining tangency to the groove at only two points on that arc. Yet despite numerous attempts at building and selling linear-tracking tonearms, few remain on the market, and most are fraught with technical problems. Linear-tracking arms can be anything but linear, committing more sins of geometry as they meander across the record surface than do their pivoted brethren.
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Wavac SH-833 monoblock power amplifier
Tube Power Amp ReviewsAudacious Audio
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 10, 2004  |  First Published: Jul 01, 2004
Leaving aside for a moment the fact that the Wavac SH-833 costs $350,000/pair—
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Audio Physic Kronos loudspeaker
Floor Loudspeaker Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 13, 2004  |  First Published: Jun 01, 2004
Thirty-one flavors may work for an ice-cream chain, but a speaker manufacturer who sets out to please every sonic palate ends up with a serious identity crisis, pleasing no-one. From its inception in 1985, Audio Physic, based in Brilon, Germany, has been an event-oriented speaker company. Founder and original chief designer Joachim Gerhard focused much of his attention on providing listeners with the sensation of "live" by emphasizing coherent three-dimensional imaging and soundstaging—though not to the exclusion of timbral accuracy. Except for the Medea, based on a Manger driver (a fascinating design nonetheless), every Audio Physic speaker I've heard has fulfilled the company's mission statement.
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Kora Electronic Cosmos monoblock power amplifier
Tube Power Amp Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 06, 2004  |  First Published: Dec 01, 2001
"Moi? You want moi to review a French audio product?"
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