2023’S THE PRODUCT
BEST OF THE YEAR
HI-FI AWARDS

ONLINE AUTHORITY:
STEREOPHILE.COM

ESTELON AURA

CLEAN OPEN
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THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS AS THERE ARE EXPERTS

AS WE
SEE IT

BY TOM FINE & JIM AUSTIN
THIS ISSUE : A new Beatles single,

plus crappy streaming Atmos.

The Beatles’ last stand

O

n September 27, executives from Apple Corps and Universal Music Group held
a press event at the Dolby Theater in Manhattan. The event included Dolby
Atmos demos of forthcoming Beatles releases. It included some big news—
although the biggest news wasn’t obvious at first.
The obvious headline: The Beatles are releasing a new song. It’s called “Now & Then,”
and all four Beatles play on it. You’ve probably heard about it by now, since there’s a massive marketing campaign. UMG is calling it “the last Beatles song.” For more information,
see the Stereophile review on p.147.
Those attending the press event also learned that on November 10, Universal and Apple
Records will reissue the Red and Blue albums in expanded, 50th Anniversary form, as 2-CD
and 3-LP sets and for streaming, with “demixed” remixes of every song from Magical Mystery Tour backward. (The remixes of The Beatles—aka the “White Album”—and Abbey Road
have already been reissued, and some of the Let It Be multitrack tapes and live recordings
were “demixed” for the Let It Be reissue.)

For audiophiles, the most important
information revealed that day was not really about the Beatles. It came in response
to a question Stereophile directed at Apple
Corps CEO Jeff Jones. (Apple Corps Ltd., the
Beatles’ umbrella corporation, is of course
not related to Apple Computer’s Apple
Music, which is also involved in this story.)
A bit of background. Soon after Apple
Music’s 2021 press event announcing
its embrace of Dolby Atmos and “spatial
audio” (also lossless stereo, though that
was deemphasized), one of us (JCA) poked
around to see what he could learn about the
technology. JCA learned that Atmos in its
lossless, hi-rez “TrueHD” form is capable
of excellent technical quality—but Apple
Music’s streaming version of Atmos is quite
lossy, maxing out at a bitrate of 768kbps for
loudspeaker delivery—roughly equivalent
to one channel of CD-quality audio—and
a disappointing 256kbps if you’re using
headphones.1 When you consider that
Atmos is a multichannel technology—the
specification allows up to 128 audio channels for input—you realize how lossy it is
in this distribution format.
We’re primarily two-channel guys for
music listening, but we’re open-minded. TF
enjoys his collection of four-channel “quadraphonic” recordings. We’ve both long
appreciated the theoretical advantages of
multichannel audio and the experience of
well-produced multichannel music.
Those lossy-compression rates, though,
are scary. If we want to experience these
new Beatles records in Dolby Atmos—that’s
all they played at the press conference—in
real high fidelity, where should we turn?
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

It has been clear for a while to anyone
paying attention that elements in the
recorded-music industry are pushing hard
for Atmos. Audio engineers provide an
Atmos mix as a deliverable for many new
albums and remasters. Many of those mixes are probably very good, and no doubt
they are mixed, mastered, and archived in
lossless form—even in high resolution. But

Downloads appear to be
going away and thus are
not the long-term answer.
there’s a serious distribution problem: The
only way most people can access an Atmos
mix is via a streaming service—mainly
Apple Music, although Tidal, Qobuz, and
Amazon Music offer some Dolby Atmos
tracks. As described above, the streaming
version of Atmos is highly lossy. We’ve seen
very few sources of high-quality Atmos
downloads, and anyway, downloads appear
to be going away and thus are not the longterm answer. How, then, can we access better immersive versions of this music—better than what’s provided by the streaming
services—now and in the future?
One of us (JCA) has been asking this
question ever since Apple Music’s Dolby
Atmos debut and has rarely received a
straight answer. Jones—the Apple Corps
CEO—provided one. In the past, higherquality Atmos files (and other multichannel
formats) were stashed on Blu-ray discs in a
few deluxe edition box sets, including some
of the earlier Beatles 50th anniversary
“super deluxe” boxes. Jones’s news: Those

Blu-ray discs are going away. Why? Because
they raise costs hence the retail price, and,
as Jones put it, “very few consumers care.”
The streaming version of Atmos spatial audio, Jones said, “made the Blu-ray obsolete.”
Neither the new Beatles tune nor the new
remixes will be available in high-quality
Atmos. What you stream on Apple Music is
what you get.
Jones is probably correct: Few consumers care. Streaming Atmos is good enough
for most folks. Older audiophiles have
lived long enough to remember previous
generations of record executives telling us
that no one cares about better sound. We,
of course, are those “very few consumers.”
We do care.
Jeff Jones doesn’t speak for the whole
music industry. One suspects, though, that
the opinion he expressed is widely held,
and he seems to be right about Blu-ray
discs: They’re hardly thriving as a musicdistribution format. (We’re less sure about
movies.) Except for vinyl, physical formats
in general are fading.2 The only thing likely
to be left standing is streaming—plus,
maybe, vinyl.
How much does this matter? The key
thing for us is that stereo versions will
continue to be available at the usual high
quality, streaming and otherwise. Indeed,
recent Beatles reissues have streamed at
24/96.
We suspect—but of course we can’t be
sure—that Apple Music’s lossy Atmos
will slowly fade away under the weight of
higher production costs, lack of consumer
interest, and inferior technical quality in
this distributed form. Experience shows
that people don’t exactly notice a reduction
in quality. They simply stop listening.
Jones’s comments made one thing clear:
For those of us who care about perfectionist audio, Atmos, as conceived by recordcompany executives, is not the answer. We
should hope for its demise. Q
1 See professional.dolby.com/events/dolby-atmos-musicspecifications/#gref. Atmos also has other disadvantages.
It doesn’t “fold down” to stereo very well; a dedicated twochannel stereo mix is superior (especially when it’s lossless). And Atmos is proprietary, not an open format. Those
who use it must pay royalties to Dolby. If you were opposed
to MQA on those grounds, you should, for consistency’s
sake, oppose Atmos.
2 See riaa.com/u-s-sales-database. If anything, downloads
are fading even faster.

3

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Vol.46 No.12

p.47

p.105

FEATURES

p.95

p.129

47 Stereophile’s 32nd Annual Product of the
Year Awards



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EQUIPMENT REPORTS
71 $FFXSKDVH$PRQREORFNDPSOLࢉHU
by Jason Victor Serinus

p.83

83 Estelon AURA loudspeaker


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95 Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2


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105 DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/baby
loudspeaker



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117 Hegel Viking CD player


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129 Audeze LCD-5 headphones
by Julie Mullins

FOLLOW-UP
137 Volti Audio Razz loudspeaker


p.117

SEE OUR EXCLUSIVE EQUIPMENT REPORT ARCHIVE
AT WWW.STEREOPHILE.COM
Stereophile (USPS #734-970 ISSN: 0585-2544) Vol.46 No.12, December 2023, Issue Number
527. Copyright © 2023 by AVTech Media Americas Inc. All rights reserved. Published monthly by
AVTech Media Americas Inc., 260 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals
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(12 issues) U.S., APO, FPO, and U.S. Possessions $19.94, Canada $31.94, Foreign orders add
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time to time we make our subscriber list available to companies that sell goods and services
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same address. Printed in the USA.

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stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

5

NEW LOWER PRICING, SAME PRECISION & QUALITY.
Seems like the price of everything is going up lately. But not here. We’re excited to be rolling out new,
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'(&(0%(5ৱ৯ৱ৲

3

Vol.46 No.12

As We See It

An event promoting a new Beatles record reveals that when
it comes to Dolby Atmos, the emperor is naked (and
lossy-compressed).

11 Letters

Analog beyond 33 1/3WKHKLࢉVKRZLQ
Raleigh; fun with wood glue; fun with
record mats and weights; loudspeaker
distortion in the bass.

p.39

G
YOUR SET ON
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VISIT THPBOX!
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STEREOP
HILE.CO
FORUMS M

15 Industry Update

MQA survives to fold another day; a new McIntosh House in
Chelsea; a NYC demo by Metaxas & Sins; Bob Ludwig retires; a
smaller Relentless from D’Agostino.

p.39

STAY INFORMED: GO TO STEREOPHILE.COM
FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE INFO.

23 Gramophone Dreams

A new (old) Lenco and the importance of taste—plus a new,
DOOWXEHSKRQRSUHDPSOLࢉHUIURP3ULPD/XQD%\+HUE5HLFKHUW

31 Brilliant Corners
3UHVHQFHIURPGLJLWDO$OH[DXGLWLRQVD'$&DQGDVWUHDPHUIURP
Brittany’s Totaldac.

39 The Spin Doctor

From Austria, a new tonearm supplier on the scene; Zu Audio
updates its version of the DL-103, just a little; and the Spin
Doctor takes on a new turntable project, a Gates CB100
transcription turntable.

141 Aural Robert
,QWKHZDNHRI1DQFL*ULࢇWKȆVXQWLPHO\GHDWKDER[VHWDQGD
tribute album. By Robert Baird.

143 Revinylization
:KHQ'XNHPHWWKH%HDQȂWKLV9HUYH$QDORJXH3URGXFWLRQV
reissue of Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins may be the best
ever. By Tom Fine.

145 Record Reviews

A new single from the Beatles (you read that right); disappointing
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%DQKDUWDQG$ULHO3RVHQ,Q-D]]QHZPXVLFIURP-RKQDWKDQ
%ODNH0DUN7XUQHUDQG'DUF\-DPHV$UJXHȆV6HFUHW6RFLHW\,WȆVD
“lite” month in Classical, with a collection of British piano
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157 Re-Tales

Devon Turnbull, also known as Ojas, his deejay name, opens a
new listening space in New York City’s SoHo.
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

p.157

158 Manufacturers’ Comments

Representatives of Totaldac, Korf Audio, Accuphase, and Estelon
respond to our reviews of their products.

162 My Back Pages
%OXHVPXVLFLDQ-RDQ2VERUQHRQWDOLVPDQLFOLVWHQLQJDQGYLQ\O
By Mike Mettler.

INFORMATION
156
159
160
160

Audio Mart
Advertiser Index
Dealers’ Showcase
Manufacturers’
Showcase

p.145
Follow Stereophile on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/stereophile.

7

Fathom® f110v2
In-Room Powered Subwoofer

DECEMBER 2023
EDITOR JIM AUSTIN
JIM.AUSTIN@STEREOPHILE.COM
TECHNICAL EDITOR JOHN ATKINSON
SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
HERB REICHERT, KALMAN RUBINSON,
JASON VICTOR SERINUS
WEB PRODUCER JON IVERSON
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AVTECH MEDIA AMERICAS INC
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GENERAL MANAGER KEITH PRAY

FOUNDER J. GORDON HOLT
COVER PHOTO DAVID DUPUY
ART DIRECTOR JEREMY MOYLER

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS (AUDIO)

SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES

MARTIN COLLOMS, BRIAN DAMKROGER, ROBERT DEUTSCH,
TOM FINE, LARRY GREENHILL, ALEX HALBERSTADT,
SASHA MATSON, PAUL MESSENGER, KEN MICALLEF,
JULIE MULLINS, THOMAS J. NORTON, ROBERT SCHRYER,
MICHAEL TREI, ROGIER VAN BAKEL,

USA (800) 666-3746
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS (MUSIC)

REPRINTS

ROBERT BAIRD, LARRY BIRNBAUM, PHIL BRETT,
RAY CHELSTOWSKI, THOMAS CONRAD, TOM FINE,
KURT GOTTSCHALK, ANDREY HENKIN, ANNE E. JOHNSON,
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DAN OUELLETTE, ROGIER VAN BAKEL, STEPHEN FRANCIS VASTA

For high-quality custom reprints and eprints, please
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RTORCIVIA@AVTECHMEDIAUSA.COM
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KPRAY@AVTECHMEDIAUSA.COM

CHECK US OUT ON THE WEB AT STEREOPHILE.COM.

Dimensions* (H x W x D):
15.64 in. x 12.92 in. x 17.27 in.
397 mm x 328 mm x 439 mm

IMPORTANT STEREOPHILE
CONTACT INFORMATION

SUBMISSIONS

Any submissions or contributions from readers shall be
subject to and governed by AVTech Media’s User Content
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PRINTED IN THE USA. COPYRIGHT © 2023 BY AVTECH MEDIA AMERICAS INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

* All height dimensions include feet, depth
dimensions include grilles.

Irresistible.
As the smallest subwoofer in
the Fathom® lineup, the f110v2
is ideal for smaller rooms
and installations requiring
an unobtrusive solution that
delivers world-class lowfrequency performance.
© 2022 JL AUDIO, Inc. For more information on our complete
line of subwoofers, please visit your local authorized dealer or
www.jlaudio.com. Authorized JL Audio Dealers do not sell via
the Internet. Subwoofers pictured with grilles removed.

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

“Replacing the excellent low end of the (main speakers) with the
tautly controlled f110v2 more completely disambiguated the sound
of the guitar’s lowest strings from that of the wood,
without diminishing the warmth and weight of either.”
- Kal Rubinson, Stereophile

“Every impact was realistic,
with a visceral quality that I felt in my chest.”
- David Vaughn, Sound & Vision

“The JL f110v2 is a mighty-mite of a sub,
conceding little to its larger brothers.”
- Kal Rubinson, Stereophile

“But do they ROCK?
The answer to that question is YES!”
– Jeff Dorgay, TONEAudio

© 2022 JL Audio, Inc. For more information on our complete line of subwoofers, please visit your local authorized dealer or www.jlaudio.com. Authorized JL Audio Dealers do not sell via the Internet. Subwoofers pictured
with grilles removed. Product images shown are for illustrative purposes only and may differ from the actual product. Due to continuous product development, all specifications are subject to change without notice.

harmonic resolution systems
a Low Noise Floor Is Fundamental

eXRD

The new Patented EXRD Audio Stand System provides a continuous 42” wide surface, allowing
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Harmonic Resolution Systems’ (HRS) passion for enjoying the full magic of a musical performance has
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Visit AVisolation.com to learn more about HRS high performance audio products.
sales@AVisolation.com | 716.873.1437

LETTERS

TAKE HEED઩ Unless marked otherwise, all letters to the

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR

Beyond 33 1/3
Over the last couple of years, I’ve enjoyed
the increasing discussion of other recorded
formats like 78s and 45s. The improvements
in digital recovery and remastering from
78s lately have been astounding. The 4-CD
box set Excavated Shellac collects music
from around the globe recorded on 78s even
though some were recorded and released as
late as the 1960s.1
Listening to a bunch of 78s lately, I noticed
an uncanny quality to some 1950s recordings.
The frequency extremes are still rolled off,
but a steel guitar or electric organ can float
over the rest of a track in a way I’ve never
heard in another format.
45s are where the action is for some
genres I collect, so I enjoyed reading Michael
Trei’s section on cartridge alignment. I have
noticed that while a 45 mix will usually
smoke an LP version with a lot of equipment,
with some moving coil cartridges I’ve heard,
the difference is less extreme. A ceramic
cartridge with a conical stylus can do a lot
with these formats well.
Mark Owen
Seattle, Washington

The Raleigh show
Thanks to Audio Advice and industry reps
for such a great show in Raleigh, North
Carolina! They appeared to spare no expense
for the entry forum, extra registration and
guidance staff, badges, banners, current
copies of Stereophile and Sound & Vision,
free refreshments during and after the
show, plus Love Tribe at the Lincoln Theater.
Almost every room was tuned precisely to
demonstrate the equipment (no small feat).
I especially appreciate the effort it took to
prepare the Definitive, Bowers & Wilkins,
and Sony home theater rooms. The industry
reps were very friendly, and it was refreshing to hear them ask what attendees would
like to hear instead of sticking to a narrow
demo list, increasing the camaraderie and
fun factor for attendees and minimizing the
prevalence of classical music! It was great
to see families, women, and a reasonably
diverse crowd.
There should be a large poster in every
room with the full list of equipment in the
setup down to the interconnects and speaker
cables, with retail prices and any show
discounts, supplemented by a copy-paper
handout with the same equipment list and
prices plus the top 20 demo songs and artists
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

magazine and its writers are assumed to be for possible
publication. Please include your name and physical address.
We reserve the right to edit for length and content.

(including streaming source), so attendees
have a reference for what they are hearing.
This would reduce the necessity to ask the
same questions in every room and write it
down, and it would give us an inexpensive,
hard-copy document to take home to contemplate equipment upgrades.
I hope Audio Advice and the brands in
attendance found it worth the time and
expense invested so that there will be more
Raleigh shows in the future.
David Brainard
Vancleave, Mississippi

Fun with wood glue
In the September Harbeth speaker test, PVA
(polyvinyl acetate) was mentioned as wood
glue for speaker cabinets. But there is another audio use for PVA we’ve all seen and are
probably unaware of. It’s the shiny coating
on bextrene drivers (and sometimes other
drivers) used to dampen cone resonances.
We think of bextrene as a good cone material, but at high frequencies it rings badly.
The BBC, which developed bextrene, handled
this by damping the cones with Elmer’s wood
glue, thinned out. Friends and I discovered
this when searching for PVA for some
speaker projects years ago. We didn’t know
it was Elmer’s at first and bought a gallon of
PVA through a friend who had connections
with a chemical company before we found
out it was there on store shelves.

I ordered one from Stable 33.33 here in
Quebec, again after an exchange of e-mails,
this time with the founder, Sylvain Pichette.
Again, it made a difference, especially on
the way the tonearm reacts to the grooves
of the LP and what it brings to the sound
spectrum.
Jean-François Laferté
Terrebonne, Québec, Canada

Loudspeaker bass distortion
I am always impressed by the range of
parameters John Atkinson measures on
loudspeakers: impedance, frequency
response, step response, cabinet resonances,
lateral and vertical responses, and spectral
decay plots. But the measurement that I
wish he would add would be THD in the bass
region at about 100dB SPL at 1m. My current,
inexpensive subwoofer has less than 1%
THD at frequencies down to about 43Hz at
100dB SPL. Then at 40Hz it has 2% THD, and
at 35Hz, 20% THD. I would suggest that you
set the distortion level similar to that used
for amplifiers, ie, at 1% THD for the highest
allowed.
Small, bookshelf-type speakers should be
measured over the claimed range of operation. Since many are bass-reflex design,
they should not be tested below the port
resonance to avoid damage. Sealed-box designs could be tested over the entire range.
Pete Brown
Woodbine, Maryland

Allen Edelstein
Highland Park, New Jersey

Fun with mats and weights
The Spin Doctor wrote about platters and
weights in the September 2023 issue of
Stereophile. I once thought that such add-ons
were gimmicks, but I got myself a Funk Firm
Achromat after some email exchanges with
a distributor here in Quebec, who assured
me it would make a difference even on my
Denon 300F turntable. It did.
The next thing that caught my attention
was the debate about using a platter weight.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR should be sent as

e-mails only. Email: stletters@stereophile.
com. Please note: We are unable to answer
UHTXHVWVIRULQIRUPDWLRQDERXWVSHFLࢉF
products or systems. If you have problems
with your subscription, call (800) 666-3746,
RUHPDLO673&XVWVHUY#FGVIXOࢉOOPHQWFRP
or write to Stereophile, P.O. Box 37965,
Boone, IA 50037-0965.

Mr. Brown, I have occasionally tried to
measure loudspeaker distortion without the
luxury of an anechoic chamber, but the effect
of the room acoustics means that the THD+N
changes if you move the microphone even a
small distance. When I was able to measure
a speaker outdoors and there was no wind or
traffic noise, I have published an examination
of distortion. See, for example, stereophile.
com/content/velodyne-df-661-loudspeakerpage-2.
Is this an important limitation of my
loudspeaker measurements? Not generally. I
concluded long ago that the main consequence
of distortion on listening is that it tends to set
an upper limit on how loud people listen. See
my discussion at stereophile.com/content/
measuring-loudspeakers-part-two-page-7.
—John Atkinson
1 Released on the Dust to Digital label, Excavated Shellac
draws on music from 78s from around the world, presented
on the excellent Excavated Shellac blog.

11

MAGELLAN 40 TH
Anniversary Edition

Elegance, Technology, Performance, Pleasure & Emotion

CONTACT :

EXCLUSIVE RESELLERS

Frank Gazzo
503-970-8531
frankgazzo@antalaudio.com
Tune Hi-Fi
Seattle

Audio Visions
San Francisco

Big Kids Toy

North Carolina

Hi-Fi Loft
New York

House of Stereo
Florida

Holm Audio
Illinois

INDUSTRY
UPDATE

AUDIO NEWS & VIEWS

LENBROOK ACQUIRES MQA
Jason Victor Serinus

Lenbrook Corp., the privately owned
Canadian enterprise whose holdings
include NAD electronics, PSB Speakers, and
Bluesound (the maker of the BluOS music
operating software system), has acquired
assets of MQA Ltd., including MQA technology and the SCL6 codec. The press release,
which went public September 19, notes that
the deal “further solidifies Lenbrook’s commitment to excellence and innovation in the
evolving landscape of audio technology.”
The announcement ends months of speculation that began in April, when MQA entered receivership. An accompanying FAQ
affirms, “As one of MQA’s most significant
licensees and also the owner of the awardwinning BluOS high-res content platform,
… Lenbrook is in the business of providing
high resolution audio experiences [to] informed customers who appreciate innovation and value having options. … We believe
MQA fits this mission as the research that
makes up the foundations of the technology
are based on neuroscience and cuttingedge digital sampling. Although MQA is a

digital technology, it is an analog-to-analog
conception and not simply a digital codec.
Put simply, the MQA Encoder corrects for
the A/D converter, ‘deblurs’ that signal and
then uses a package that is much more efficient than regular PCM. Fans of MQA speak
to its improved transparency, noise stability
and temporal effects.”
MQA has attracted many critics since the
technology’s release several years ago. Lenbrook addresses the controversy head-on.
“We have always found it unfortunate that
the core attributes of what we understand
MQA to be seemed lost in a distorted narrative around some of the technical nuances
in its implementation,” an FAQ states. “In
this fray, the artist-first origins of MQA and
the sheer technical elegance of its handling
of the entire audio signal path got muddled.
We are excited to have the opportunity to
clarify the narrative and build on the technology in ways that can better demonstrate
their true value, while also promoting innovation in a specialty and premium audio
industry that thrives on healthy discussion,
subjective views, and debate.
“Lenbrook’s position is that anyone do-

SUBMISSIONS: 7KRVHSURPRWLQJDXGLRUHODWHG

seminars, shows, and meetings should email the
when, where, and who to stletters@stereophile.
com at least eight weeks before the month of the
HYHQW7KHGHDGOLQHIRUWKH0DUFKLVVXHLV
December 20, 2023.

ing work to advance audio processing and
sound reproduction is positively contributing to the vibrancy of the industry. The
vitriol directed towards innovations like
MQA and what it means to those creating,
delivering, and listening to better sounding
music has always disappointed us when the
technology and the patents that underpin it
are so novel.
“We prefer instead to build off the fact
that many influential content creators and
reviewers absolutely understood that MQA
was not really about 1s and 0s. We also believe that differing opinions is what makes
this industry healthy—for example, we do
not believe in one way to design a speaker
and carefully approach product development in ways that offer differentiation and
respect for individual listening preferences. A specialty hi-fi industry where
there is no debate or new ideas would be
commoditized far too quickly.”
Lenbrook affirms that MQA “was born
of a vision that a group of like-minded
musicians and audio engineers had to give
musicians the tools they needed to capture
their works in high resolution. … We have

CALENDAR OF INDUSTRY EVENTS
ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES: We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to you:

stereophile.com/audiophile-societies. If you’d like to have your audio-society information
SRVWHGRQWKHVLWHHPDLO&KULV9RJHODWYJO#FࢊUUFRP 3OHDVHQRWHWKHQHZHPDLODGGUHVV ,W
is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless it is associated
with a seminar or similar event.

CALIFORNIA
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)UDQFLVFR$XGLRSKLOH6RFLHW\KRVWVDYLUWXDO
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anyone who’d like to join us to talk about
KLࢉDQGZKDWHYHUHOVHLVRQ\RXUPLQG)RU
more information and registration, visit bit.
ly/3RyaqX9.

FLORIDA
])HEUXDU\ȁ7KH)ORULGD$XGLR
([SRZLOOWDNHSODFHDWWKH(PEDVV\6XLWHVE\
+LOWRQ7DPSD:HVWVKRUH1:HVWVKRUH
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stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

5RDG1($WODQWD*HRUJLD ZLOOKRVWIHDWXUHG
special guests Richard Vandersteen, founder
and head engineer of Vandersteen Audio,
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2Ȇ7RROH$IWHUDEULHISUHVHQWDWLRQDQG4 $
listen to a system with the new L5-ACC Audio
&RQWURO&HQWHU3UHDPSZLWK9DQGHUVWHHQ
+LJK3DVV$PSV +3$PRGHOV GULYLQJ
Vandersteen loudspeakers. In addition,
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stands and chassis noise reduction products
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NEW JERSEY
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specialty audio retailer Audio Connection
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ZLOOKRVWWZRVHVVLRQV SPDQG

SP IHDWXULQJVSHFLDOJXHVWV5LFKDUG
Vandersteen, founder and head engineer of
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1799.

TEXAS

] March 15–17, 2024: A brand-new show
from the team behind the Capital Audiofest
DQG3DFLࢉF$XGLR)HVWZLOOWDNHSODFHDW
the Anatole/Hilton in Dallas. For more
information, see southwestaudiofest.
FRPRUFRQWDFW*DU\*LOORU/RX+LQNOH\
at capitalaudiofest@gmail.com or lou@
SDFLࢉFDXGLRIHVWFRPUHVSHFWLYHO\

WASHINGTON, DC, AREA
]1RYHPEHUȁ7KH&DSLWDO$XGLRIHVWZLOOWDNHSODFHDWWKH7ZLQEURRN+LOWRQDW
5RFNYLOOH3LNH5RFNYLOOH0DU\ODQG)RU
more information, see the website at capitalDXGLRIHVWFRPRUFRQWDFW*DU\*LOOE\HPDLODW
capitalaudiofest@gmail.com.

15

INDUSTRY UPDATE

listened extensively to MQA content and
believe in the results of what we actually
hear.”
The affirmation of MQA as a vital, highresolution codec that honors the intent
of artists and engineers was echoed by
prominent Grammy Award–winning producers and engineers. Reached in Norway,
noted audio engineer Morten Lindberg,
co-founder of the 2L record label, stated
via email, “I’ve had the great pleasure and
privilege to work with Bob Stuart since
the early days of his development of MQA.
[Through] hundreds of critical listening
hours, I have really come to appreciate
[what] this tool brought to our sonic craft.
I’m very optimistic to the future of MQA.
And for the record: I have absolutely no
business interests in any of the companies.”
George Massenburg, Grammy and Academy of Country Music Award–winning
producer and recording engineer, also lent
his endorsement. “I’m so relieved that MQA
and SCL6 will continue under Lenbrook,”
he stated for the Lenbrook/MQA press
release. “MQA’s technology, with its faithful rendering of detail, complexity, and
soundstage, gave us the reason to go back

MCINTOSH OPENS A
NEW HOUSE OF SOUND
John Atkinson

From the outside, 357 West 17th
Street in New York City appears
to be a nice, gray-finished modern
townhouse, just around the corner
from the chic Chelsea Market.
But inside the 11,000sqft building are four floors and a rooftop
terrace. All the rooms are devoted to systems that feature audio
components from brands owned
or distributed in the US by the
McIntosh Group: McIntosh Laboratory of course; Sonus Faber; Rotel
Michi; Pro-Ject Audio Systems; and
Sumiko Phono. Supporting products in the systems are sourced
from Baxter (furniture), USM
(cabinetry), Sony (a video projector), Kaleidescape (a movie player),
Screen Research, Roon Labs, Abyss
(headphones), HRS (racks), and
AudioQuest (cables).
There used to be a different McIntosh Townhouse in Manhattan,
in SoHo. But just as the lease was
about to expire on that building in
2020, the pandemic shut everything down. The new McIntosh
House of Sound “Experience
Center,” which opened September
21, 2023, presents a somewhat dif16

into the recording studio and reverse a 20year decline in the quality of audio delivery
methods.”
A “select group” of MQA’s UK-based employees will join the Lenbrook team while
remaining in the UK. Bob Stuart, MQA’s
inventor/founder, will not join Lenbrook as
an employee but will serve in an advisory
capacity, focusing on MQA and SCL6 product development. Lenbrook says that the
licensing model for MQA and SCL6 will not
change. The press release noted that record
labels, artists, and producers continue to
encode and upload new music in MQA to
streaming service Tidal daily.
Lenbrook describes SCL6, a more recently developed technology from the MQA
team, as a “time-domain optimized scalable
codec” with applications in wireless audio.
“The technology is versatile and also
suitable for applications in streaming and
broadcast. SCL6 provides studio-quality
sound even at low data rates and can be
scaled rapidly and without audible interruptions. It is also worth noting that SCL6
is source agnostic, supporting PCM audio
as well as MQA.”
In an Industry Update in the May 2023

print edition of Stereophile, Julie Mullins
discussed SCL6, which at the time was
being marketed as “MQair.” Billed as “an
advanced codec created to offset wireless
streaming’s bit-depth and sample-rate
transmission limitations,” Editor Jim
Austin has described it as “the equivalent
of a Bluetooth audio codec that utilized
core MQA ideas.” SCL6 is said to be scalable
from below 200kbps to 20Mbps, covering
Bluetooth, Ultra-Wideband (UWB), and
Wi-Fi connections, supporting datastreams
with a sample rate up to 384kHz.
Mullins also reported that Lenbrook
brand PSB Speakers, which has long made
Bluetooth-based noise-canceling headphones, has announced that it will release a
headphone in the first quarter of 2024 that
incorporates the SCL6 codec via Sonical’s
CosmOS, an “ear-computing platform”
incorporating a microchip designed for
wireless headphones and earbuds. Sonical
says that CosmOS uses UWB radio technology that provides a higher data rate and
very low latency for more accurate sound
and performance, offering potential advantages to headphone manufacturers and
users worldwide.

ferent experience than the earlier
space. In the new townhouse, systems are set up in rooms that would
be typical of an upper-middle-class
home in Manhattan.
Sonus Faber brand ambassador
Will Kline gave me a tour, starting
with the rooftop, where an array of
Sonus Faber Aster outdoor speakers treated New York’s pigeons to
a Billie Eilish track. It was Reference Room 2 on the fourth floor
where I settled down to a lengthy
listening session. This system
featured Sonus Faber’s Amati
G5 speakers driven by McIntosh
MC3500 monoblock amplifiers.
The front end was a McIntosh
C2700 D/A preamplifier. There was
also a McIntosh MCD600 SACD/
CD player and MT10 turntable in
the room, but I listened to music
sourced from Roon. McIntosh’s
MEN220 room correction system
was not activated, and I saw no
obvious acoustic treatment, yet
the sound in this room was lively,
uncolored, full-range, and involving. Streamed from Qobuz, a 24/96
track from Translations, my 2020
recording of the Portland State
Chamber Choir, was reproduced
with a wide, deep soundstage and
natural tonal quality.
December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

Constant Innovation Towards the

Highest Level of Sound
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SU-GX70 Grand Class Network Audio Amplifier
Google and Chromecast built-in are trademarks of Google LLC. The Bluetooth® word mark and logos are registered trademarks owned by the Bluetooth SIG, Inc. and any use of such marks by Panasonic Corporation is under
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INDUSTRY UPDATE

The next two floors featured “The Jazz
Room,” with a system based on Rotel Michi
amplification, Sonus Faber Olympica Nova
III speakers, and a Pro-Ject X8 Evolution
turntable, and the “Disco Room,” which
featured Sonus Faber Electa Amator III
standmounts, a McIntosh C53 preamp,
and a McIntosh MC462 power amplifier.
In these rooms, I briefly listened to tracks
sourced from Roon, but I was anxious to
spend some time in the second-floor Reference Room 1, where McIntosh’s flagship
XRT2.1K line-source loudspeakers were
being multi-amped with stacks of McIntosh
MC2KW monoblocks. The preamp was
the two-box C12000, which Sasha Matson
favorably reviewed in the November 2023
Stereophile.
I don’t have the space to describe the musically overwhelming experience I had in
this room, but if you live in New York or are
visiting, McIntosh invites music enthusiasts and brand fans “to immerse themselves
in its unparalleled audio experience, accessible exclusively through pre-scheduled

personal tours, which can be requested by
visiting houseofsoundNYC.com.”
The one thing you can’t do if you visit the
House of Sound is buy something. I asked
longtime McIntosh Lab President Charlie
Randall: Why not? If it’s not intended as a
retail store, what instead is the strategic
vision for 357 West 17th Street?
“We don’t sell out of here. It’s purely experiential. The whole purpose is to put the
products in an environment where people
can look and see and feel and touch and
hear, kind of like if they were going to be in
their home. Our retailers all do a great job.
But the House of Sound is a place that they
can bring people for a different experience
from what they can provide in their store
locations. It doesn’t matter if they’re from
New York City or Texas or California—all
are more than welcome to come in with
their high-profile clients and show them
what McIntosh and Sonus Faber and the
other distributed brands that we have are
all about.”
What struck me, I told Randall, was that

none of the rooms Will Kline took me into
resembled a traditional audiophile’s listening room. They looked like regular rooms
that happened to have a high-performance,
high-end audio system in them.
“That’s on purpose,” Randall replied. “Because, when it comes to audio equipment,
is it going to look right in the living room?
This takes the guesswork out of it. Because
here, you can come and see [the components] in multiple rooms that may fit what
you’re looking for. Or they may not, but at
least you walk away with an impression
that it is like furniture—it’s nice to look at
as well as great to listen to.”
Daniel Pidgeon, CEO of the McIntosh
Group, summed up the House of Sound
as a way to convert music and film lovers
into audio enthusiasts. “There’s something
about closing your eyes and indulging in
pristine sound that sticks with you. We
hope through our immersive product
experience hub, we can create that spark
for people that makes them want to invest
in premium audio equipment.”

METAXAS & SINS DEMO
AT INNOVATIVE AUDIO

and presented by Metaxas & Sins’s new
American distributor, Jeff Garshon of Reel
Sound Distribution, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
I was hoping to see and hear a complete
Metaxas system, but that might have to
wait for a future show, perhaps High End
Munich or AXPONA 2024. What I did
hear was Metaxas’s $49,000 “Tourbillon”
reel-to-reel machine with Dan D’Agostino
amplification and Wilson Audio’s Chronosonic XVX speakers, playing tapes Metaxas
recorded himself, plus mix tapes—R2R
mix tapes—with tracks by Elton John,

Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, and Freddie
Mercury. Plus, an Analogue Productions
tape of Muddy Waters’s Folk Singer, which
sounded bell-clear, super-resolved, and
15ips-magnetic-tape solid.
As I listened, I realized that this was
the first time since the 1980s that I have
witnessed reel-to-reel tapes being played
in a mainstream New York audio store.
That’s a big deal. More amazingly, I realized
that this was the first time I’ve experienced
R2R tapes being played by a machine that
is completely new and manufactured from
scratch. That’s a bigger deal.
Most of today’s audiophiles,
I’m guessing, have never
experienced the distinctive
sound of a master-quality
magnetic tape. I doubt that any
audiophiles, including myself,
ever envisioned someone in
2023 building a completely
new reel-to-reel from scratch.
Maybe soon more luxurylevel audio stores will be
carrying newly manufactured
R2R tape players. The Metaxas
Tourbillon I auditioned was a
playback-only deck, but $8000
more buys you the option to
record.
In case you were wondering, as I was: The “Sins” in
Metaxas & Sins are Kostas’s sons, Alessandro and
Andreas, who build these
extraordinary decks by hand.

Herb Reichert

Netherlands-based engineer and industrial designer Kostas Metaxas founded
Metaxas & Sins in 1981 with the purpose of
making audio components that would be
considered objets d’art: “beautiful to look at,
breathtaking to hear—limited-production
heirloom components handcrafted from
the finest materials and electronics and
engineered by a visionary artisan.”
I know Kostas Metaxas from his appearances at the High End Munich show and
through German friends who
speak highly of his amplifiers and preamps. (Metaxas &
Sins makes amplifiers, speakers, a turntable, and—well,
see below.) What captured
my attention was how Metaxas blends engineering with
art-object aesthetics. When
I first spied his creations, I
imagined a Disney fantasy
where a roomful of animated
CNC machines go Sorcerer’s
Apprentice wild. His radically
shaped, elegantly drawn
components are eye-catching
in the extreme. Regrettably,
I’d never experienced how
they sound playing music—
until today, when I attended
a listening event sponsored
by New York City audio
dealer Innovative Audio
18

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

RELENTLESS 800
MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER

AFTER SETTING THE MEASURE FOR AMPLIFIER EXCELLENCE with the Relentless Epic 1600
Monoblock, the new Relentless 800 Monoblock extends the Relentless sound quality to a smaller
platform. Every major section of the Relentless circuitry—power supply, input, driver, and output
stages—has been enhanced in the Relentless 800. Incorporating the same circuit platform as its
bigger brother, the power delivery of the Relentless 800 is virtually unlimited, only exceeded by
the Relentless Epic 1600 itself.
With its nearly 4-kilowatt transformer and 400,000 μF capacitance power supply feeding 84
output devices, the Relentless 800 easily delivers 800 watts into 8 ohms—and when connected
to a 220-volt outlet, doubles its output to 1,600 watts into 4 ohms and 3,200 watts into 2 ohms.
Nuanced and musical at low volume levels, the Relentless 800 also delivers the striking dynamic
contrasts that bring music to life in the tradition of every component from Dan D’Agostino
Master Audio Systems.

dandagostino.com
© 2023 DAN D’AGOSTINO MASTER AUDIO SYSTEMS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

INDUSTRY UPDATE

THE MASTERING
GOAT RETIRES
Tom Fine

On June 30, a seismic shift
occurred in the music production world. Bob Ludwig,
legitimate owner of the title of
Greatest of All Time Mastering Engineer,1 stopped taking
new work. By the time you
read this, he will be finishing
his last projects and heading
into retirement. His one-ofa-kind facility, Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland,
Maine, is closing its doors.
Shortly after he announced
his retirement, Bob and I
spoke for nearly nine hours.
We went wide and deep into his life and
career. The full interview was published
on Stereophile’s website in August.2 We
covered his favorite albums and tracks
(tinyurl.com/LudwigsChoiceCuts), his personal life, home listening systems (tinyurl.
com/LudwigAtHome), and his trophy case
(tinyurl.com/LudwigsTrophyCase). He also
detailed how mastering and monitoring
gear has changed over the decades (tinyurl.
com/LudwigMasteringMonitoring) and
described all the different digital technologies he has used over the years (tinyurl.
com/LudwigDigitalDevices).

DAN D’AGOSTINO AUDIO
PRESENTS THE US DEBUT
OF THE RELENTLESS 800
MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER

BOB LUDWIG PHOTO BY PETER LUEHR; BILL MCKIEGAN PHOTO BY JOHN ATKINSON

Jim Austin

One of the more audacious product introductions in recent years
was of the Dan D’Agostino
Relentless monoblock
amplifiers. The imposing
Relentless amps—the “Epic”
version replaced the original
Relentless earlier this year—
weigh 570lb each. They are
long like a sports car or cigar
speedboat—more than 32"
long, so forget about putting
them on standard amplifier
stands. Inside, they have 112
output devices and are rated
at 6000W into 2 ohms and
peak current of 400A. Maximum power consumption
is rated at 10kW. Last time
we checked, the retail price
of the Relentless Epic was
$349,000/pair—Epic indeed.
Owners of the original Relentless can upgrade to Epic
20

Safe to say, every Stereophile reader
has heard Bob Ludwig’s work and probably owns some of it. He put the final
sonic touches on thousands of singles and
albums dating from mono, 45rpm singles
cut at the legendary A&R Studios in New
York to high-resolution surround-sound
music video projects, SACDs, and currentday streaming hits at Gateway. In between,
he helped grow early-days Sterling Sound
and then helped establish Masterdisk.
Among his final projects were Metallica’s
72 Seasons and Wilco’s Cousin.
What exactly does a mastering engineer

status for the difference in price: $25,000
for each monoblock.
At a September event at Innovative
Audio in Manhattan, D’Agostino’s Bill
McKiegan presented the US premiere of
a smaller Relentless, the Relentless 800.

do? Ludwig described it like
this: “I hear the sound [of the
master recording or mix-down
tape]. I imagine in my head
how I think it ought to sound.
And then I know what knobs
to move to make it sound like
it does in my head.” Clear as
mud! But how would an artist
describe their painting except
to say, “It looks like it should”?
Ludwig plans to sell the
building, which includes
residential quarters above the
studio. He is selling most of his
equipment.
Throughout our conversations, Ludwig emphasized how
thankful he is for a long career
doing something he loves: “Life in general
has been just amazing for me. I feel I’m a
very happy person. I’ve had some health
issues here and there, but I’m doing pretty
well today.” May the GOAT have a long and
joyous retirement.
1 Other mastering engineers have had decades-long
careers and many hits to their credit: Bernie Grundman;
Ted Jensen and Greg Calbi of Sterling Sound; the late Doug
Sax of The Mastering Lab; the late George Piros of Fine
Recording and Atlantic Records; the late George Marino
of Record Plant and Sterling Sound. And so on. But, when
asked to pick the Greatest of All Time, Ludwig seems the
obvious choice.
2 See tinyurl.com/BobLudwigPart1 and tinyurl.com/
BobLudwigPart2.

“800” in the product name represents the
newer monoblock’s output into 8 ohms:
a healthy 800W. According to the specifications, its 84 fast transistors allow it to
double down twice to deliver 3200W into
2 ohms. Higher-voltage power rails in the
earlier amplification stages
are said to “turbocharge”
the amplifier. All circuitry is
discrete, direct-coupled, and
fully balanced. Like its Epic
big brother, the Relentless
800 is feedback-free.
Compared to the Epic, the
800 is petite; in his show report from High End Munich
2023, JVS called it the “baby
Relentless.” It’s a big baby,
weighing in at 320lb each.
Size-wise, it’s not that much
bigger than normal-sized
amplifiers—just 26" deep—
and it costs a mere $195,500/
pair.
How did the 800 fare at the
event? I was busy, but by all
accounts, it had little trouble
driving the Wilson Audio
Specialties XVX. Q
December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

An American in Germany?
T66 and the author are from the US — but the
speaker’s performance and the comments
about GoldenEar at the Munich High-End show
are for all mankind:
The big AudioQuest room with Rockport speakers
was typically fantastic — AQ has a habit of putting
their all into the entire system in their exhibit rooms
so that you can hear everything that the cables are
doing (or, more importantly, not doing).
But it was the smaller AudioQuest and GoldenEar
room that really captured my attention thanks to a
new and very slim pair of GoldenEar T66s.
– Marc Phillips, Part-Time Audiophile

Get to know the T66. We believe it will also
capture your attention.

An all-new GoldenEar
floorstander with
powered bass.
Available now.

GRAMOPHONE
DREAMS

BY HERB REICHERT

EXPLORING THE ANALOG ADVENTURE

THIS ISSUE: Herb goes down the idler-drive rabbit
hole via a newly acquired Lenco L75 and tries out the
QHZ(92SKRQRSUHDPSOLࢉHUIURP3ULPD/XQD

The importance of taste

M

y adoptive mother, Lily Mae, was a retired businesswoman and former fashion model turned stay-at-home mom and artist-painter with famously good
taste in everything. She raised me to have good manners, an “active awareness of color and texture,” and “an eye for form.” She expected me to critique
her paintings, her decorating, and her wardrobe, urging me constantly to develop “good
taste in everything.”
In Lil’s world, a perfect day was for me to skip school and go with her clothes shopping
at Marshall Field’s, where it was my job to sit in a plush chair offering comments about
which outfits had the best fabrics and best “complimented her form.” She always said
“form is bones” and fashion is about “how fabrics hang on people’s bones.”
After lunch at Field’s, we’d have tea at
her artist friend Selma’s house. After tea
and perusing fancy art books in the living
room, we’d move to the dining room, where
Selma would show us the latest additions to
her blue-onion porcelain collection. After
admiring Selma’s dishes, we would move
to her back porch painting studio. There, it
was my job to notice which paintings were
new since our last visit. When I cut school
with Mom, my days were devoted to sitting
up straight, never looking bored, and noticing how various luxury objects met my eye.
My mother equated good taste with
“good breeding” and intelligence.
On the way home from Selma’s, Lil would
always compliment me on being “a good
shopping partner”—but that was only a
preface to her standard lecture on how
book-learning, manners, and refined taste
“get you a seat at the best tables.” Invariably,
she would conclude these class-consciousness sermons saying, “Anybody can have
money, but only ‘smart’ people have taste.”
Mom never let me forget that having
money creates the need for taste.
Lily Mae Iverson was born in 1907, so I
presumed every mother who survived two
world wars, a plague, and the Depression
lectured their sons like that. Fortunately,
her admonishments served me well. They
became the building blocks for my own
version of her philosophy: What I give my
attention to, and what I aspire to understand, reflects the kind of person I am
choosing to be.
For me, taste is literally the thought matrix of all the things I’ve chosen to regard as
important.

him to MoMA to see art, all he saw was the
pipes. Second, I see it through the eyes of an
artist like my mom, who let me cut school
so she could show me her favorite paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago. After I
started painting, we had a show together in
Chicago. At the opening, she told one of her
collectors, “Pay no attention to his work, he
has scrambled brains,” alluding to my use
of lysergic acid diethylamide.
Naturally, I grew up to love art and pipes
as much as mountains, forests, bodies of
water, and violent weather—but none of
those things do I now love more than cars,
trains, trucks, motorcycles, and boats. To
my last breath, I will aspire to having good
taste in everything that moves under power.
I love watching long trains at railroad

crossings and get excited when I spot a
prime specimen of a Mack or Peterbilt
truck. I love old tractors and the sounds of
two-stroke dirt bikes when they downshift
in corners. I love watching torque making
stuff move.
Right now, my desire to watch torque
in action has me exploring a mechanical
subcategory of vintage audio gear referred
to as idler-drive turntables. I’ve owned a
variety of idler drives including my first
turntable, a four-speed Dual 1009, a few
Garrard 301s, an Elac Miracord 40, and I’ve
never been without at least one Thorens
TD124. But…
Unlike many of my friends, I never considered idler drives to be inherently superior to direct or belt drives. For years, my
Denon DP-3000 direct drive sat right next
to my Linn Sondek LP12 belt drive. I never
thought to compare them as examples of
their drive types. The notion of advocating
for or believing in one form of technology
over another never appealed to me—until
one day last February when I heard my
friend Yale’s system sourced by his massive
EMT 930 turntable with an EMT arm and
cartridge. More than any system I’d ever
heard, that system, playing Yale’s really

Garages and museums
I view audio gear first through the eyes of
a mechanic like my dad, who, when I took
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

23

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

good records, made my toes tap uncontrollably and kept my mind locked into the
music. My experience at Yale’s lent serious
credibility to his claim that “idlers are close
to god” and set me on the path of discovery
I’m now on—the path where I can’t afford
an EMT 930, or for now, a professional rebuild of my 1957 TD124, but I could and did
afford a preowned, made-in-Switzerland
Lenco L75.
Lenco’s rhythm-keeping holiness
Experiencing Yale’s drool-worthy EMT 930,
followed by my time spent with PTP
Audio’s Solid9 Lenco-based turntable,1
forced my mind to wonder: Why do idler
drives inspire such fanatical devotion in
their adherents? Do believers actually feel
some kind of god force behind the hightorque motors, sturdy rubber idler wheels,
and heavy platters? Could pushing a platter
feel different to a listener, or be a more
effective use of motor torque, than pulling
with a rubber lead?
When the Solid9 departed, I decided to
see if a stock Lenco L75 could be as exciting and PRaTish as the PTP or EMT. And
because I’m a lucky guy, no sooner had I
made that decision than a friend of a friend
offered me his stock Lenco L75 for $750. I
said yes immediately, and two days later,

a 1969 L75 was sitting on my rack looking
fresh and only slightly used. It came in
its original box, with its original plinth,
tonearm, and owner’s manual. Best of all, I
could start playing it immediately because
it had been recently “refreshed” by turntable specialist Michael Trei, who tweaked
and adjusted the drive system, oiled the
platter bearing, and replaced the tonearm’s
rubber V-blocks with new brass ones.2 The
only nonstock parts on the L75 were a bendably soft after-market aluminum headshell
and Shure’s iconic M3D “Stereo Dynetic”
cartridge, which Shure introduced in 1958
and which, according to Shure’s advertising, was the world’s first “Dynetic” (moving
magnet) cartridge.
I tried running the M3D into the
moving magnet inputs of the SunValley
SV-EQ1616D and PrimaLuna’s new EVO 100
phono stage. It sounded the most fluid and
detailed through the 10-tube PrimaLuna
(see the description below) and the most
tone-correct through the four-tube SunValley equipped with smooth-plate Telefunken
12AX7s. Inexplicably, with both preamps I
noticed a faint, grainy hiss that haunted the
background of whatever disc the cartridge
was playing. This noise wasn’t obvious, and
it wasn’t hum. It seemed magnetic. Once I
noticed it, I couldn’t stop thinking about it,

so I swapped in an AudioTechnica VM95E
moving magnet cartridge, which dramatically raised the Lenco’s excitement factor,
manufacturing slurries of quick-punching,
hard-hitting bass and an upper-octave
transparency that made the Gen-X Lenco
sound young, smartly dressed, and fully
caffeinated. My Lenco fun had begun.
With the VM95E, recordings were
presented with bright, clear, noise-free
excitements, but vocal and instrumental
tones were not as dense, intense, or realsounding as they had been with the Shure
M3D, which showed real talent in those areas. Noticing that caused me to remember
how solid and colorful the PTP Solid9—an
extensively rebuilt Lenco—with the Sorane
SA1-2 arm sounded with a stock, plasticbodied, moving coil Denon DL-103.
The quality of my Lenco listening
jumped up several levels when I installed
the 40 ohm, 0.3mV DL-103. This cartridgetonearm marriage was ordained by the
same god that blesses idler drives. At first, I
connected the 103’s output to the SunValley
SV-EQ16161D’s moving coil input, which
is loaded with a 50 ohm shunt. That’s a
40 ohm cartridge driving a 50 ohm load!
With the SunValley and its 50 ohm load,
I heard a tsunami of naturally presented
low-level detail, strong rhythms, and a

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

more Duke and Mel star power. Distortion
seemed lower. Which made me wonder if
over all those boomer-decades my brain
had adapted to the brighter, higher-presence sound of the generally accepted load
of 300–400 ohms. Or maybe at 50 ohms,
some Lenz’s law damping was helping the
Denon’s conical stylus ride the groove better? More questions I can’t answer.
Dave Slagle has used AnalogMagik software and test records to show that loading
the DL-103 down lowers its IM distortion
measurably, and that this added damping
improves trackability.3
This Lenco-Denon-SunValley front end
did a fantastic job representing the voices
and the hip sentiments of Duke Ellington
1 See stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-73-ptpaudio-solid9-turntable-sorane-sa-12-tonearm.
2 See lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=13.0.

benign, rolled-off top end. Response-wise,
the 50 ohm load caused some of the Denon’s
4kHz energy to move down to 400Hz. The
sound with this nearly 1:1 loading lacked
the transient edge and brightness and fast,
sharp resolution I’ve come to associate with

punchy moving coil dynamics, but over
time my brain adapted to this unusually
rich and relaxed sound. Duke Ellington’s
Blues in Orbit (Columbia MOVLP 443) and
Mel Tormé at the Crescendo (Bethlehem BCP
6020) sounded quieter, easier flowing, with

3 Recently, Herb’s claim led to an interesting three-way
exchange between Herb, JCA, and EMIA’s Dave Slagle. Herb
and Slagle both pointed to a 1980 paper by Peter Moncrieff,
published in the International Audio Review, which
concluded on the basis of actual experiment that when a
resistor loads a phono cartridge directly—not via a step-up
transformer—it doesn’t affect the bandwidth or damp resonant peaks (which in any case, with an MC cartridge, are
very high in frequency) as is, or was, commonly assumed.
Slagle has corroborated Moncrieff ’s result. What loading
does do, Moncrieff discovered, is reduce intermodulation
distortion. The mechanism is uncertain, but Moncrieff
speculates that it could be due to electromagnetic damping
of subtle cartridge mistracking—hence Herb’s reference to
Lenz’s law in the previous paragraph.—Jim Austin

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

and Mel Tormé, but how would it do with a
more earthbound poet like Louis-Jacques
Rondeleux? Troubadours, his fantastic
album of secular 12th and 13th century
song (Harmonia Mundi France HM 566), is
a record I use to get a preliminary read on
a new cartridge. With the SunValley at 50
ohms, Rondeleux’s baritone was presented
in a strikingly vibrant manner. Roger
Lepauw’s vielle (a largish, violinlike fivestringed instrument) came through pure of
tone and LSD-detailed against deep, silent,
black backgrounds. The Lenco’s reproduction of the somber tones and hesitant pace
of Rondeleux’s singing made this recording
a high point of my early Lenco listening.
When I grew out of shopping with mom,
I began fitting pipe with my father and making hay every June with my uncles. Before
I drove cars, I drove tractors in Wisconsin.
The fields with the cut hay were about a
half-mile from the shed where the tractors
were stored, which meant I drove on the
paved road dragging an empty wood wagon

behind me. In one of the upper gears, with
the throttle partway open, I’d space out
listening to the deep-volumed rap-rap-rap
of power issuing from the tractor’s exhaust
stack while making my way slowly up and
down the rolling hills. The tractor’s mass
was so large, its torque so great, its gearing
so stiff that its speed never seemed to waver.
This sensation of inertia produced a calming, trance-inducing effect that I’m feeling
once again while playing records on the
Lenco. Now I’m wondering if this tangible
sense of inertia is what makes idler drives so
devotion-worthy.
Alone at night, I swear I can sometimes
feel the Lenco’s geared-down idler exerting
its forward pressure on the platter’s rotation. This sensation of pressure was easiest
to observe on quiet solo piano and chamber
music recordings. This is something I don’t
remember noticing with low-torque direct
drives, or generic belt drives, where each
belt-platter combination affects the sound
differently, depending on how heavy the

platter is and how many horses are pulling its belt. When a stylus is traversing
the groove and a loud passage comes, the
heavier platter will slow down less, but it
will always slow down a little if the torque
is insufficient for a fast response.
I know the reality of these spinningplatter epiphenomena is debatable and that
my experiences of them are borderline
subliminal. But if you’ve ever driven a
tractor on blacktop, you’ll know what I’m
talking about.
I’m sitting here watching myself falling
into a rabbit hole named Lenco that feels
a lot like one of those project cars of my
youth, a time when I could hang over a
fender for hours and break-dance on a
creeper. But for geezer Herb, this L75 is the
right size, shape, and weight and requires
the right size tools for me to pretend I’m
working on a project car—without the oilstained garage floor, sore back, or barked
knuckles. Maybe I’ll try hot-rodding it with
a tonearm swap next.

35,0$/81$Ȇ6(92ৰ৯৯3+21267$*(
As I experimented with cartridges on the
Lenco, I was reminded how almost all commercially available phono stages use either
a step-up transformer or a JFET at the input
of their moving coil circuit. Almost none of
the world’s tubed phono stages have a tube
at the moving coil input. One of those very
few, PrimaLuna’s new EVO 100, was in a
box in my hallway begging to be connected
to my Lenco-Denon DL-103 setup.
As I unpacked the heavy, triple-boxed
PrimaLuna, I thought how few tube phono
preamps have tube rectification and how
even fewer have tube-regulated power
supplies.
PrimaLuna’s $3695 EVO 100 features
all these deluxe tube accoutrements:
dual-mono 5AR4 tube rectification; dualmono choke-input EL34-regulated power
supplies; and two 12AX7 twin triodes per
channel for the RIAA stage and one 6922
twin triode per channel for its moving coil
input stage, which sits in its own shielded,
cushioned box at the back of the preamp,
just above the input jacks.
I’m always saying how everything
sounds like what it’s made of, and how this
applies to vacuum tubes and power supplies as much as it does to transformers,
resistors, capacitors, or wire. The more
tubes there are in an amplifier’s circuitry,
the more likely it will sound liquid and
radiant—like tubes. The bigger and more
responsive its power supply, the more the
amplifier will weigh and the more punch,
liquidity, depth, and dimensionality it will
deliver.

I was intrigued and excited to audition PrimaLuna’s EVO 100 phono preamp
because the last time I experienced a tubed
input for a moving coil was in the early
1990s when I built a few Arthur Loesch
phono stages that used a separate power
transformer, tube rectifier, and chokeinput, high-capacitance power supply for
each of its six WE417A tubes.
PrimaLuna’s EVO 100 takes the Loesch
preamp’s extremism even further. It is
built on an octal-tube–rectified, powertube–regulated power supply. I wanted to
see how that combination of expensive-toimplement features would contribute to
the sound of my system using low-output

cartridges.
The EVO 100 looks like a narrower version of the company’s $5295 EVO 400 preamplifier (11" vs 15" wide), which I reviewed
in June 2019. The EVO 100 weighs 27.9lb.
Together, these two components make
a unique 81.9lb, 18-tube, $8999 preamp/
phono stage combo that was, by virtue of
these engineering choices, guaranteed to
sound different than any previous phono
amplification I’ve used since I started writing for Stereophile.
When I wrote, a few paragraphs ago, that
“the more tubes there are in an amplifier’s
circuitry, the more it will sound liquid
and radiant—like tubes,” I did not mean to

26

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

R 8 ARRETÉ

Find you local dealer at
audiovector.com/where-to-buy

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

imply that more tubes automatically mean
better sound. In fact, I was hinting that “too
much of a good thing” might apply here: 18
tubes in front of a tubed power amplifier
might be too many. The reason I’ve never
favored tubes or transistors is that too
many of either is like too much butter or
salt. Historically, I’ve preferred a transistor
preamp with a tube-based power amp, or
vice-versa, depending on the speakers. I
call this “yin-yang-ing suppleness” because
I don’t like my music to sound tubey or
transistory.
When I first heard about it, I began
wondering whether the EVO 100 could
somehow become my new reference phono
stage. Despite having only one input (a
major defect at this price point), it has
done that. Loading and gain are selectable
from the front panel. Its five MC loading
choices—50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 ohms—
are well-chosen. The gain choices—40dB
for MM, 52, 56, and 60dB for MC—make it
convenient for someone who changes cartridges often, as I do. I wish there was 10dB
more gain, but that might be pushing the
noise factor too far. In concert, these loading and gain choices should properly serve
any moving coil cartridge with an output
of 0.3mV to 0.6mV without overloading on
loud transients.4
Tube forest wonderland
The minute I got it, I connected up the EVO
100. I tried it with the Denon DL-103 on the
Lenco and with EMT’s JSD 6 moving coil
cartridge and EMT 912 tonearm on my Dr.
Feickert Blackbird turntable.
The results were disappointing. I
thought the PrimaLuna made both cartridges sound off, or at least not like they
sounded with my Tavish or SunValley
preamps. But PrimaLuna importer Kevin
Deal at Upscale Audio had already warned
me that the EVO needs three days powered
on to sound its best, so I reinstalled the
SunValley equalizer and left the EVO 100
plugged in and turned on for seven days.
After really digging the Denon DL-103 with
the 50 ohm JFET load on the EQ1616D, I
was curious to see how the Denon would
respond to a “tube” 50 ohm load like the
one on the PrimaLuna. Dang me if the fully
warmed-up EVO didn’t up the 103’s dynamics and vividosity by at least 50%. I’ve
loaded the DL-103 in every imaginable way,
and I still prefer it with my EMIA SUT, but
the EVO 100 at 50 ohms sounded surprisingly musical and engaging.
Then I played Duke Ellington’s Blues in
Orbit (Columbia MOVLP 443) with EMT’s
JSD 6 into the EVO 100, loaded at 200 ohms.
I’ve heard that record a thousand times,
on some of the world’s most expensive
28

turntables, sporting $10k+ cartridges, and
I can’t say it ever sounded bigger, bolder,
richer, faster, or more thrilling than it did
through PrimaLuna’s all-tube phono stage.
The PrimaLuna completely eliminated the
JSD 6’s tendency to sound tight and analytical, giving me instead a cartridge–phono
stage combination that was both lush and
heart-pounding fun.
Because the tube input EVO 100 sounds
so different from generic JFET stages, I fear
many audiophiles will hear it once, pass
judgment, and move on. They’d be missing
the cake and ice cream at the end of the
party. I don’t exactly know what is changing
while an amp is cooking for days, but I do
know that Kevin Deal was right: The EVO
100 needs to be left on 24/7 for at least three
days to sound as bold and magic-mushroom
wonderous as what I just experienced with
the EMT JSD 6. The JSD 6–EVO 100 combo
produced room-filling, big-wave power and
sublime clarity. It made me feel like I could
see to the bottom of a deep crater lake filled
with perfectly clear water.
It’s impossible to be sure, but I attribute
this largely to the EVO’s tube-rectified,
tube-regulated power supply. It takes more
than a giant power transformer and a ton
of capacitance to make a responsive power
supply that doesn’t lose small-signal data
and generalize big-signal data.
That much deep-water clarity and
big-wave power production felt new to my
senses. The sound character was all-tube in
a way I was uncomfortable with at first. But
PrimaLuna’s uncompromised power supply and high-transconductance 6922 tubes
at its MC input forced me to recalibrate my

JFET/SUT–informed taste to accommodate
a radically different, new type of sound
I had not previously imagined. Like the
Heretic AD614 speakers, which thrill me
more with each passing day, the EVO 100 is
a revelation, and, for the moment at least,
my new reference phono stage. But please
remember, neither of these products were
designed to sound like anything we’ve ever
heard before.
If it ain’t one thing, it’s the mother
To keep my tastes evolving, I try to listen
with a child’s mind, wherein I don’t care
who made the audio equipment, when it
was made, how much it costs, or how it
measures. I only care if it looks cool, sounds
like real humans making music, and, most
importantly, if I feel pleasure and contentment while it’s playing my records. The
Gen-X Lenco L75 with the baby boomer
Denon DL-103 and PrimaLuna’s brand-new,
all-tube EVO 100 excelled at all these things.
My plan for next month: to compare PrimaLuna’s EVO 100 to Mobile Fidelity’s new
MasterPhono solid state phono stage. Q
4 See hifinews.com/content/primaluna-evo-100-tubephono-preamplifier-making-headroom.

CONTACTS
PrimaLuna USA/Upscale Distribution

1712 Corrigan Ct.
La Verne, CA 91750
Tel: (909) 310-8540
Email: info@upscaleaudio.com
Web: upscaledistribution.com

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

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BRILLIANT
CORNERS

PEERING INTO HI-FI’S BACK ALLEYS AND DUSTY NOOKS

BY ALEX HALBERSTADT
THIS ISSUE: A DAC and a streamer

from France’s Totaldac.

Presence, pleasure, and digital from France

T

o misquote Morrissey, some knobs are better than others. The Manley Neo-Classic 300B amplifiers that I’ve been listening to, for example, have a knob marked
“feedback” that goes from 0 to 10. I’ve learned so much from using it that I’ve
come to believe that if your amp doesn’t have such a knob, it should. You see, the
higher you set this control, the better the amp will measure. Applying more global negative feedback to these amps lowers their nonlinear distortion and noisefloor, increases
their bandwidth, renders them less sensitive to the speaker’s impedance variations, and
otherwise makes them more linear, stable, and efficient. In fact, by applying lots of feedback to an amplifier, it’s possible to reduce distortion to barely measurable levels.
So what’s the problem? Well, a few turns of the knob suggest that negative feedback isn’t
as useful as it appears on paper. The Manley website urges the listener to dial in a “tasteful
amount of feedback.” For me, that’s about 3dB, which tightens the bass without affecting
the listening experience adversely. But turning the knob past 3dB progressively reduces
my ability to enjoy the music: It robs it of color, texture, presence, and drama until these
ravishing tube monoblocks begin to remind me of a receiver from the early years of solid
state. Well, that might be an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
As it reduces the total amount of distortion, negative feedback adds higher order
harmonics that sound nothing like the
simple harmonics we associate with musical instruments,1 and after a while the brain
begins to call bullshit on the idea that dialing in more of it is bringing us closer to the
recording. The knob on the Manley amps
makes these relationships—which usually
reach audiophiles mainly in the form of
theory and opinions—audible to anyone
with ears.
Feedback is a large and complex topic,
but I’m bringing it up to poke at the question of purpose: What is an amplifier’s job?
Swiss industrial designer Max Bill, who
is best known for the Bauhaus-inspired
clocks and watches he designed in the
1950s, once said, “The basis of any aesthetics should, above all, be function. An
exemplary object should serve its purpose
under all circumstances.” I own one of
the minimalist mechanical watches Bill
designed for German
watchmaker Junghans,
and I enjoy wearing it
because it is beautiful. I would argue that
being beautiful is in
fact its purpose—a
$10 quartz watch and
my phone both tell the
time more accurately
and reliably.
A home audio component works the
same way. Its purpose isn’t to play back music accurately—however you might define

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

that—but to provide enjoyment. And by
enjoyment, I mean the feelings of pleasure,
surprise, and inspiration that can arise as
you listen to your hi-fi. About this basic
truth, a friend who works in the audio business recently remarked that what he sells
are “basically expensive sex toys.” He didn’t
mean this as a knock on our hobby—quite
the opposite, in fact. How many things do
you own that reliably give you pleasure?
While submerging an amplifier circuit in
gobs of negative feedback increases some
types of measurable accuracy, it also demonstrably reduces its capacity to provide
enjoyment, at least for me. And unless John
Atkinson has been keeping it to himself, I’m
not aware of a suite of measurements that
measure a component’s intrinsic listening
satisfaction.
The disconnect between measured

performance and listening has been on my
mind for the past several months as I auditioned digital components from Totaldac.
DACs in particular are overachievers when
it comes to measurable accuracy; even the
DAC chip in my long-since-retired iPhone
4S sounded surprisingly, consistently competent, especially when you consider its
minuscule size and cost. But digital sources
continue to struggle with providing pleasure—the kind of juicy, watermelon-in-anice-bucket-on-a-hot-August-day pleasure
that you can experience by listening to, say,
a 60-year-old 45 of the Fendermen playing
“Mule Skinner Blues.”
Many DACs nail resolution, transparency, frequency extension, smoothness, imaging, and dynamic muscle, but nearly all—
even the very expensive ones—fall short of
achieving tonal density, of pressurizing the
air in the manner of a good record player
or an actual musical instrument, which is
sensed by our bodies as physical presence.
Most of them tend to turn half-and-half into
skim milk. And some particularly unsuccessful ones make the music so insubstantial that it feels like it’s playing from behind
a sheet of glass.
For me, the sense of weight, texture,
and presence is a big part of what makes
reproduced music sound real—and real
fun. I don’t know how one might go about
measuring presence, but you sure sense
it when it’s gone. And I have never been
1 See, for example, solid state designer Nelson Pass’s take
at passlabs.com/technical_article/audio-distortion-andfeedback.

31

BRILLIANT CORNERS

entirely convinced by DACs that use tubes
in the output section to add back a measure
of this missing goodness.
In Brittany, near the tidal island of Mont
Saint-Michel, Totaldac’s Vincent Brient
has been trying to redress this situation
through a rather extreme approach to
designing digital components. “Listening
to digital should remind the listener of real
concerts,” he wrote to me in a recent email,
“where [listeners] are constantly surprised
by timbres, dynamics, presence, contrast,
and frequency bandwidth. It should not be
just an analytical and visual experience,
with nothing more than a soundstage. After
all, when a musician is playing in the next
room, you don’t have a soundstage, but the
sound is still magic.”
Brient’s solution is to create DACs using R-2R networks instead of integrated
chipsets. These networks are made of
Vishay metal-foil resistors with a variation
tolerance of 0.01%. As you might imagine,
these high-precision devices aren’t cheap,
and the Totaldac d1-unity DAC I’ve been
listening to contains 100 of them (whereas
the four-box d1-sublime DAC, which I heard
and enjoyed in Munich, uses 600!). Given
that the d1-unity boasts no exotic digital
filters, features, or technologies—it tops
out at a resolution of 24/192 and offers DSD

as an option at extra cost—and goes for an
impressive €11,500, my hopes for its sound
quality were rather high.
Before I get to that, I should mention that
the d1-unity’s compact, elegant black box,
which comes with a small outboard power
supply and weighs an unassuming 15lb,
also arrives shorn of frills. Besides a rather
plain plastic remote, there’s not much to talk
about. Until 2012, Totaldac didn’t offer a USB
input. It does now, using technology from
XMOS, though I found the AES3 input to
sound pleasantly meatier and more colorful.
Brient also sent me his d1-streamersublime (€9100), which offers a network
input and the expected digital outputs
and functions as a Roon endpoint, which
is how I used it. It also tops out at 24/192,
and it passes DSD via DoP. Its streamer and
reclocker boards, as well as its software,
were designed in house. Except where
noted, I listened to the d1-unity DAC and d1streamer-sublime together. And one note
about the cables that were thoughtfully
included with these components: Though
the Totaldac AES3 and Ethernet cables look
impressively constructed, I preferred the
sound of my AudioQuest Diamond alternatives by a clear margin.
I started listening with a stream of the
soundtrack to Todd Haynes’s 2007 film

I’m Not There (16/44.1 FLAC, Sony/Qobuz),
in which six actors—including Cate
Blanchett!—play Bob Dylan. The soundtrack
is a Dylan tribute album full of unusually
inspired casting decisions and surprising
arrangements. A favorite is “Señor (Tales
of Yankee Power),” performed by Willie
Nelson and Calexico with a verse in Spanish
sung by Mexican-American troubadour
Salvador Duran. I first got a feel for the
Totaldac’s talents during Nelson’s guitar
solo. I’ve heard him play Trigger, his Martin
N-20 acoustic guitar with a hole worn
through the soundboard just above the
bridge, on dozens of recordings and in person. Through the d1-unity, the instrument’s
unmistakable sound came through with
all of its nylon-string pluck and woodiness
intact. But the guitar body also sounded
rich, dense, and distinctly solid, as it does
through a good record player and on stage.
Hearing it hanging between my speakers
produced what my brain had assumed was
a distinctly analog thrill. The French DAC
was allowing me to revel in one of the most
fun illusions of reproduced music—the realistic presence of voices and instruments—
using a digital signal. This was cool!
On “Ring Them Bells,” from the same
album, Sufjan Stevens’s band-geek arrangement features more than a dozen instru-

Hear True-to-the-Source Sound

MoFi
UltraDeck

BRILLIANT CORNERS

ments including a viola, French horn,
lap steel, and electric drums, sometimes
playing loudly in unison and sometimes
creating a floral setting for his delicate
tenor voice, which here was thankfully
recorded without the usual heavy reverb
and overdubs. The d1-unity rendered the
instruments with vivid tone color remarkable for a digital source, which lent the
playing an unusual amount of beauty and
realism. The astonishing electric guitar
solo by Bryce Dessner of the National
sounded so gorgeous that I listened to the
track three times in row.
No amount of harmonic richness can
make up for a lack of resolution, and here
the Totaldac didn’t disappoint. The Rain
(16/44.1 FLAC, ECM/Qobuz) documents
a live performance by Indian–Iranian
ensemble Ghazal. The mid-tempo “Dawn”
is a conversation between Shujaat Husain
Khan’s sitar and Kayhan Kalhor’s kamancheh, a husky-sounding Iranian string
instrument played with a variable-tension
bow. Punctuated by Sandeep Das’s tabla, the
two main instruments argue, lament, egg
each other on, and engage in what sounds
like prayer. The recording captures the live
acoustic brilliantly, and the d1-unity was so
adept at resolving the instruments’ reverb
trails that at times the music sounded

almost orchestral. Hearing Khan’s soft vocal come in midway through this ravishing
music was downright startling.
The Totaldac’s unusual combination of
physical solidity, vivid color retrieval, microbe-level resolution, and ability to home
in on and reveal musical meaning made me
reach for recordings that sound flattened
and uninspiring through other digital
sources. Since saxophonist Wayne Shorter’s death in March, I have been listening
nearly constantly to his body of work. His
restless experimentation with form and
genre and his world-class songwriting

sometimes had the effect of obscuring the
childlike sense of wonder at the core of his
playing, as well as his ability to produce
an unprecedented range of tone colors,
particularly on soprano. Joni Mitchell, who
appeared with Shorter on 10 albums over
the course of 36 years, has likened him to a
paint brush. On his solo on “Ponta de Areia”
from his 1975 album Native Dancer (16/44.1
FLAC, Columbia/Qobuz), a collaboration
with Brazilian singer Milton Nascimento,
Shorter plays the soprano with the curiosity, stylistic freedom, and palpable sense
of delight that would characterize the best

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BRILLIANT CORNERS

of his late-career recordings. The d1-unity
decoded it with a physicality, vibrancy, and
emotional urgency that I simply don’t associate with digital sources.
To see how much the d1-sublime-streamer
was adding to this delightful illusion, I
replaced it with my own streamer: the much
less expensive and kludgier combination
of the Sonore ultraRendu and Denafrips
Iris digital-to-digital converter (the latter to
enable an AES3 connection to the d1-unity).
The resulting sound was possibly a hair
more forceful but also audibly less refined
and purposeful. The meaning of the music
was less obvious, and everything sounded
just a bit more mechanical. Still, the fleshy,
resolute, Technicolor character of the d1unity remained, and I came away thinking
that the Totaldac streamer is not an absolute
necessity for enjoying the company’s distinct
house sound.
The 12-year-old inside me sometimes gets
riled by childish questions. Here’s the one
he wanted answered while we were living
with the Totaldac combo: Does it produce the
organic textures, whomp, and utter juiciness
of the Garrard 301 record player that was
sitting on the shelf above it? 2 You probably
know the answer, but I’ll tell you anyway. No,
it doesn’t, not quite, but it does make music
sound more unrestrained and physically believable than any digital front end I’ve heard
(save for Totaldac’s top-of-the-line decoder,
which I mentioned earlier). It reminded
me a little of the decidedly odd Lejonklou
Källa, which may be even more engaging,
though not as colorful and present, and is
far more limited in operation. For those of
us who struggle with enjoying digital sound
at home—from anecdotal evidence, there
are still more than a few of us around—the
Totaldac d1-unity just may change your
listening habits and enlarge your musical
libraries. Machines capable of playing millions of tracks without physical media have
been around for a while, and some happen to
sound pretty great.
2 The Garrard was equipped with a Schick 12" tonearm and a
Miyajima Zero Mono phono cartridge.

34

JUST AS THE SUMMER HEAT
WAS HEADING INTO ITS LAST
SWOON, I GOT AN EMAIL
FROM STEREOPHILE EDITOR
JIM AUSTIN. “FYI, for obvious
reasons,” it read. Below was an
announcement that Craft Recordings, the
reissue label for Concord Recorded Music,
was releasing Thelonious Monk’s Brilliant
Corners as part of its Small Batch vinyl
series. According to Craft, new one-step
AAA lacquers from Bernie Grundman
were used to press a limited run at RTI using a fancy vinyl compound called VR900.
There would be a “linen-wrapped, foilstamped slipcase” and a “per household
limit of two copies.” Oh, and it would cost
$109, placing it into the rarefied realm of
super amazing reissues.
I’ve waxed cranky about reissues in
these pages before—all the while realizing
that finding fault with a renaissance of
excellent-sounding music on vinyl may
sound a bit ungracious. Still, I continue to
find some reissues to simply not be up to
the sonic thrills of the original vinyl, marketing claims and slipcases notwithstanding. In some cases, the records chosen for
rerelease are so easily found on the resale
market, or so musically lackluster, or both,
that they beg the question of why anyone
bothered. With due respect to Atlantic Records, who exactly was clamoring for their
recent 180gm vinyl reissue of Phil Collins’s
No Jacket Required?
Brilliant Corners is something else
entirely. An undisputed masterpiece,
it captures Monk at his compositional
peak, playing with an inventiveness and
energy that would begin to drift after his
move to Columbia Records in 1962. The

original mono recording was released by
Riverside, a company known for historic
sides by Monk, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins,
and Wes Montgomery—and also for its
records’ decidedly pedestrian sound. And
some of the original Riverside LPs on my
shelves also number among the noisiest
records I own.
According to music writer Ashley
Kahn’s insightful liner notes, included in
the Craft Recordings reissue, one reason
had to do with Riverside’s decision, in
1956, to stop using Rudy Van Gelder’s
Hackensack, New Jersey, studio and move
their sessions to Reeves Sound Studio, a
reasonably priced outfit on 44th Street
in Manhattan best known for recording
advertising spots for radio. That’s where
engineer Jack Higgins captured the 1957
sessions that would become Brilliant
Corners using a process billed rather
optimistically on the record cover as
“Riverside-Reeves Spectrosonic HighFidelity Engineering.” To make matters
worse, Riverside didn’t allot a budget for
rehearsals, and Monk’s difficult title track
required 25 takes, one of which reportedly ended in fisticuffs, and which had
to be edited together by producer Orrin
Keepnews into the final version.
To get a measure of the Craft reissue, I
compared it with a 1961 Riverside pressing
and a 1976 pressing from Victor Musical
Industries of Yokohama, Japan. Though in
pristine condition, the Riverside sounded
forceful and dynamic but also somewhat
coarse and pitchy. On the title track, it
added a sharpness and sourness to Sonny
Rollins’s and Ernie Henry’s saxophones,
while Oscar Pettiford’s bass sounded a
bit recessed. The decay of the piano notes
December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

BRILLIANT CORNERS

was truncated as well. This challenging,
occasionally strident music wasn’t helped
by the record’s challenging, strident
sound—listening to the Riverside proved
borderline unpleasant.
These issues were sorted out on the Victor: The horns were more correct, and the
bass came forward, though the recording,
like many Japanese reissues from that era,
sounds comparatively lightweight and
dynamically restrained. It provided a pleasant, balanced listen but lacked immediacy,
vividness, and excitement. For years, this
was the pressing I reached for most often.
From the first needle drop, the Craft Recordings reissue offered a more complete
picture of the sessions. Pettiford’s bass
sounded deep and powerfully resonant,
while the horns were richer and brassier
than on the other versions. On “Pannonnica,” Monk plays the piano with one
hand and a celeste with the other, and
the latter instrument’s bell-like, glassy
timbre rang out with haunting accuracy.
And the piano on his solo performance of
the Tin Pan Alley chestnut “I Surrender
Dear” sounded full and reverberant, with
long, realistic decay. There was also zero
groove noise. I played the reissue straight
through twice, marveling at this music,
which I hadn’t heard sound this sonorous

and alive. Listening to it reminded me of
watching Walter Murch’s reverential 1998
restoration of Orson Welles’s Touch of Evil,
another midcentury masterpiece from a
relative outsider.
Is this the best Brilliant Corners in
existence? I cannot say, not having heard
the 2010 Analogue Productions pressing
mastered by Kevin Gray or the 2020 release
from the Electric Recording Company. No
copies of the former are currently for sale
at Discogs, while the latter is selling for
about as much as round-trip airfare from
New York to Rome. I suppose that puts

the relatively high price of this release in
perspective. Regardless, kudos to Craft
Recordings for this beautiful-sounding
version of an indispensable album—a case
of a reissue we needed, done right. Q

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Web: totaldac.com

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SPIN DOCTOR

WE COME SPINNING OUT OF NOTHINGNESS, SCATTERING STARS LIKE DUST.—RUMI

BY MICHAEL TREI
THIS ISSUE: A new line of tonearms from Korf,

a new version Zu Audio’s Denon DL-103, and
an old “transcription” turntable by Gates.

Korf, Zu, and Gates

A

bout four years ago, the stand-alone tonearm market went through a bit of a crisis. First, in December 2019, SME announced that it would stop selling tonearms
separately, effective immediately. From that point on, SME tonearms would be
available only in combination with SME turntables. The decision seemed baffling: SME had been the tonearm company for more than 60 years; the company’s slogan
was “the best pick-up arm in the world.” But they also just happened to make some really
nice turntables.
More recently, SME partially reversed this decision, making their lower cost M2
series arms available for individual purchase again albeit at much higher prices. When
Herb Reichert wrote about the M2-9 in 2016, it was an excellent value at $1099. At today’s
price—$3395—it’s no longer a slam-dunk.
Five months later, in May 2020, we
received the second blow in this double
whammy of bad tonearm news. That’s
when the Ichikawa Jewel Company of
Japan, maker of Jelco tonearms, announced
without warning that they were shutting
down operations, closing their doors for
good. They blamed a combination of an
aging workforce, worn-out tooling that

needed to be replaced, and the coronavirus
pandemic. It seemed odd that nobody was
lined up to rescue such an important cog
in the turntable-manufacturing machine.
Jelco may not have been a household name,
but their products were used everywhere,
often rebranded by other manufacturers.
Even if your turntable’s tonearm wasn’t
made by Jelco, there’s a strong likelihood

.25)$8',27$6)৸5721($50
Made in Austria just outside Vienna, Korf
tonearms appear to be pretty conventional
at first glance, but under the skin, there’s
a lot of innovative thinking going on. Two
models are available, the straight TA-SF9
with a fixed headshell ($2036) and the
review arm, the J-shaped TA-SF9R ($2364)
with a detachable H-4 bayonet mount headshell.1 Korf sells its arms directly from their
web shop. The prices are set in euros, but
they are automatically converted to US dollars for buyers in the US. Consequently, the
US dollar prices quoted here were correct
at the time of publication but are subject to
exchange-rate fluctuations. Please consult
the Korf web shop for the latest US pricing.

Either Korf arm can be supplied with an
SME-style mounting plate with adjustable
sliding base, or with what they call a JIS/
Linn/Jelco round mounting base. While
the round base is compatible with the bolt
pattern for most Linn, Jelco, and Kuzma
arms, the platter spindle to arm mounting
distance for some of them may be different.
The Korf arm requires a mounting distance
of 214mm, which is the same as many of the
9" Jelco arms.
All this talk about mounting patterns
and arm bases brings up an important
point. For now, Korf arms are mostly sold
factory direct, which means that you are
probably going to be the person installing
it. This is a tall ask for most casual audio-

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

that the cueing device attached to it was.
Jelco’s arms were the Toyotas of the tonearm world, covering the lower end of the
price spectrum from around $400 going
up to about $2000 and delivering excellent
value at each point.
We lost two key players all at once, but
it’s not as if we suddenly had nowhere to
turn for tonearms. Turntable manufacturers like Acoustic Signature, Clearaudio,
Origin Live, Pro-Ject, Rega, and VPI all
sell their tonearms separately, but for
various reasons, I rarely see them used on
turntables other than their own, except
maybe Origin Live. A number of smaller
tonearm specialists have popped up in
recent decades: Acoustical Systems, Graham, GrooveMaster, Kuzma, Reed, Schick,
Schröder, and at the ultrahigh end, Swedish
Analog Technologies. Now we can add Korf
Audio to the list.

philes and even for some pretty handy
ones. It’s similar to the car-tuning world,
where anyone can go online and buy new
pistons, camshafts, and an intake manifold
for their Chevy small block engine, but it
takes a fair amount of know-how (and tools
and space, especially for cars) to install
and tune them properly. The difference
is that independent car mechanics can be
found pretty easily, while turntable setup
specialists who aren’t tied to a specific retail operation tend to be pretty thin on the
ground. Furthermore, unlike some other
tonearm owner’s manuals, the Korf manual
1 The TA-SF9R Tonearm with HS-A02 ceramic headshell is
$2364 with JIS/Linn/Jelco mount; it is $2586 with the SME
mount. An extra HS-A02 ceramic headshell is $220.

39

SPIN DOCTOR

assumes a certain level of prior experience
and doesn’t walk you through every step
in detail. Korf says that they are gradually transitioning from a direct-sales-only
model to having dealers and distributors,
which should make it easier to get professional setup assistance down the road.
Mounting the TA-SF9R on my SME
Model 30 turntable using the optional
SME mount was straightforward, although
the back of the counterweight stub came
within a gnat’s hair of one of the 30’s
suspension towers, even after I removed
its decorative upper cap to gain a little
extra clearance. All the expected adjustments needed to fine-tune the setup are
available, but Korf places rigidity above
convenience, so there is no on-the-fly VTA
or other adjustment aids. For overhang
and zenith, the headshell has a Technicsstyle plastic clip-on gauge that provides
Stevenson alignment, but the arm has a
clearly marked pivot point if you prefer to
use your own protractor. The azimuth can
be adjusted by rotating the armtube in the
bearing yoke, but because this is a J-shaped
arm, the vertical pivot is not in line with
the headshell offset angle, so every change
in azimuth will also change the stylus rake
angle a bit. I would prefer a tonearm with
adjustable azimuth at the headshell.
Things like this don’t make it impossible
to optimize the setup, just a little trickier.
On his blog, Alex Korf downplays extremely precise alignment. He feels strongly
that the arm’s basic mechanical design and
energy management is far more important.
In contrast to most arms, the Korf doesn’t
come with an output cable. The base of the
arm post has a standard tonearm 5-pin
DIN plug, to which you can connect the
arm cable of your choice. I used my Cardas
Golden Reference DIN-to-RCA.
Alex Korf falls into the category of
designers I have previously described as
deep thinkers, who look at each task from
a fresh perspective. Space precludes me
from going into too much detail on Korf’s
thinking, so instead I recommend checking
out his excellent blog, even if you aren’t in
the market for a new tonearm.2
With its extra-stiff steel armtube, the Korf’s effective mass is a hefty 28gm. Conventional thinking suggests that the arm is best
matched with stiff cartridges like Ortofon

SPUs, but Korf feels that the conventional
approach for matching cartridges with
arms is too simplistic. The Korf website
has a handy compliance calculator where
you can enter the total effective mass and
the cartridge’s compliance.3 The calculator
analyzes for both acceleration and excursion at the headshell. The results are shown
as two graphs (one each for acceleration
and excursion) with a “safe zone” marked
on each. Korf says this gives a much more
accurate picture of whether you will have
low-frequency resonance or tracking
issues than the single resonance number
you normally get from a compliance-vsmass chart. With the Zu Denon DL-103 (see
below) I used with the arm, a standard chart
puts the combination in the marginal zone,
while the Korf calculator makes it look like
a good match.
Once I quit thinking and started listening, it quickly became clear that that Korf
arm was extracting an unexpected level
of performance from the Zu/DL-103. Gone
was the typical, slightly-soft-and-comforting Zu/DL-103 sound, replaced by some-

=8$8',2'/ৰ৯৲0.,,5(9%
I can’t think of another audio component
that has been in continuous production for
as long as the Denon DL-103, which was first
produced in 1962 or 1964 depending on
which source you believe. Sure, there have
been a few revivals of vintage products over

the years, and you can even buy a new pair
of my beloved Quad ESL 57 loudspeakers,
but the Denon has never gone away in 60
years. Originally developed for use by Japan’s national broadcasting company NHK,
the DL-103 found its way into US retailers
around 1975 and saw its first of many ap-

40

thing significantly more nimble and lighter
on its feet. The Korf arm has an impressive
ability to strip away extraneous noise and
fuzz around each instrument, leaving an
uncanny sense of clarity and purity.
Cedar Walton’s direct-to-disc album The
Pentagon (East Wind EW-10002) demonstrates this effect clearly on the opening
track, “Manteca.” Walton’s piano chords as
he comps during Clifford Jordan’s solo were
super clear and open, while Ray Mantilla’s
congas came across with great tone and
dynamism. This is not a fat, lush sound. It’s
clear and quiet, providing an extra-clean
window into the music.
For something a little more dynamically
challenging, I played the Shostakovich
Symphony No.1 conducted by Lawrence
Leighton-Smith, from The Moscow Sessions
(Sheffield Lab TLP-1000). This was a very
unusual release for Sheffield Lab. Instead
of their normal direct-to-disc approach,
Keith Johnson of Reference Recordings
recorded it, in 1986, to analog tape. Russia
was still a pretty closed, Soviet country in
1986, so it was quite a trick to go to Moscow
and record a large Russian orchestra
using an American conductor and crew.
The results are exceptional, and the Zu/
DL-103 never flinched in handling Keith
Johnson’s recording and its punishing
dynamics. Again, clarity was the word that
kept coming into my head, with no uneasy
sense of inner groove distortion even in
the thunderous final movement. Somehow,
the Korf managed to turn the Zu/DL-103’s
seemingly modest spherical stylus into an
exceptional tracker. Maybe there is something to all Alex Korf’s talk about energy
management.
My cartridge focus here was on the Zu/
DL-103, but I also used the Korf arm with a
Lyra Delos, with equally impressive results.
I hope to hang on to the arm for a bit longer
so I can try a few more cartridges, exploring just how far I can push things past the
normal effective mass–vs-compliance way
of thinking. Korf says he has used the arm
successfully with the high-compliance
Shure V15 Type V-MR. That’s a bit like
stuffing a big block engine into a Smart car.
We shall see.
2 See korfaudio.com/blog.
3 See korfaudio.com/calculator.

pearances in these pages in September 1975,
reviewed by J. Gordon Holt. Its first appearance in Audio Magazine’s annual directory
was in 1977; it cost $135. Plug that figure into
an inflation calculator, and you’ll find that
it’s the equivalent of $715 in today’s money,
or more than double its $349 retail price. I
December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

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SPIN DOCTOR

guess there really is a production cost benefit when you’ve
been making something more
than a half-century, at least in
this case.
Over the decades, an extensive aftermarket has grown
up around the DL-103. These
modifications range from a
simple replacement of the lightweight plastic body to complete
rebuilds with exotic new cantilevers and styli. Sometimes
it can be tricky to spot original
Denon parts. Some even try to
hide their creation’s humble
origins with a new name and
slick packaging that makes no mention of Denon.
Zu Audio’s approach is straightforward and honest.
They take the guts from a standard, off-the-shelf DL-103
and install it very precisely in their own hard-anodized
aluminum body. Then they run an extensive series of
tests to determine each cartridge’s channel match accuracy and assign it one of four quality grades.
The Zu’s Mk.II version made several changes over
the previous generation. The body is machined from
a new, tempered aluminum alloy. The housing shape
was changed to address resonances. The epoxy used
to bind the mechanism to the housing was changed.
Zu calls the update “significant, both in performance
and handling.” Mk.II, though, has been out for a while.
The new version is Mk.II Rev.B, and the changes here
are more subtle: The generator was moved slightly
further forward in the body, and a notch was added
above the stylus position to make cueing easier. Zu
says these latest changes don’t affect the sound.
Prices start at $599 for the standard grade, which is
still less than the inflation-adjusted price of the stock
plastic version in 1977, making it a remarkable value.
A Grade 1 Zu/DL-103 costs $791, Grade 2—the version
I received for review—is $959, while the top version,
Grade 2 Prime, costs $1319. All are delivered with the original
Denon manual, test results, and packaging in addition to Zu’s
own extensive test results and detailed instructions.
In his Gramophone Dreams column, Herb Reichert wrote
about his experiences auditioning the DL-103 with a range of
resistive loads—see p.23—but I had the advantage of being able
to run the Zu/DL-103 through the CH Precision P1 phono stage’s
loading wizard, trying dozens of load values and getting a
frequency-response plot for each. I learned just how insensitive
to load the DL-103 really is. There is no sign of the expected steep
high-frequency dropoff as the loading value approaches the
cartridge’s own 40 ohm internal impedance. Even at 40 ohms, the
response remained pretty flat out to 18kHz, with a fairly gentle
rolloff above that. (The main effect of increasing the load—of
reducing the load impedance—is to reduce the output.) According to the P1, the most technically accurate response was with a
210 ohm load, but I expect IM distortion will play more of a role
in the subjective performance, as Herb discusses in his column.
Another characteristic of the DL-103 seems to cause a lot of

confusion: its compliance, which
Denon specifies as 5 × 10–6cm/
dyne at 100Hz. A cu of 5 makes
the DL-103 sound like a very low
compliance cartridge, but it’s
not as low as it sounds. Most
manufacturers specify compliance at 10Hz, not 100Hz, which
leads to a dramatically different
result because the stiffness of
the elastomer increases linearly
with frequency. A few years
ago, Martin Colloms measured
the DL-103 at 10Hz. He found
that at that lower frequency,
the compliance is closer to 13.4
That’s still low, but it’s nothing
like the buckboard-stiff, emptybed-dually-pickup-truck-goingdown-a-rutted-trail stiffness that
5cu would suggest. The upshot
is that the Denon doesn’t require
the super-heavyweight iron
girder arms that some suggest;
it should work fine in any medium- or high-mass arm. Zu’s
aluminum body rebuild adds
about 5.5gm over the stock
plastic Denon, so most modern
arms should work well—not just
very high-mass arms.
I have installed dozens of
Zu-modified DL-103s, so I am
quite familiar with its sound. My
main goal in getting one of the
latest Revision B versions was to
see how it matches up with the
high-mass Korf tonearm. For
the answer to that question, see
above.

4 For those new to turntable-tech nomenclature: Compliance measurements and calculations are presented in different units—10–6cm/dyne; μm/mN—which however are the
same numerically. Consequently, “cu,” short for “compliance unit,” is often used in place
of the specific units. Martin Colloms’s DL-103 measurement appeared in the June 2015
Hi-Fi News & Record Review.

42

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

SPIN DOCTOR

67$10$;:(//Ȇ6*$7(6&%ৰ৯৯
TRANSCRIPTION TURNTABLE
As a fully paid-up member of audio
hoarders anonymous, I confess
that I have way too many turntable
projects lying around. A while
back, someone asked me how
many turntables I own. I gave up
counting at 30. Because I have such
a backlog, I try to avoid adding
more to the pile. But sometimes,
something pops up that’s too hard
to resist.
A good example is a Gates CB100
transcription turntable I acquired
recently from the family of its
original owner. After serving with
the US Navy intercepting German
U-boat messages during WW2,
Stan Maxwell founded a company
called Academy Transcription
Service, which provided wired
music to businesses in Monmouth
County, New Jersey. A few years
later, he sold Academy to what
would become the Muzak company and went to work at WJLK
in Asbury Park, New Jersey, one
of the nation’s first FM stations.
For 30 years, he was WJLK’s chief
cook and bottle washer—producer,
engineer, and presenter—before
retiring in 1981. I wish I’d had
the opportunity to meet him. His
daughter thinks we would have
gotten along great.
The term “transcription turntable” is often misused—or maybe it
would be more accurate to say that
the meaning of the term has drifted.
Historically, it refers to a turntable
with a very large platter that’s
capable of playing the 16" transcription records used to distribute programming to radio stations in the
1930s and ’40s. Transcription discs,
which were recorded and played
back at 33 1/3 as early as the 1930s,
were widely used to record radio
shows before and during the war.
(Another difference is that transcription discs were often recorded
vertically, not laterally, so they could not be
played back by standard mono cartridges.)
The introduction of high-quality tape
recorders after the war and changing programming—specifically the trend toward
human deejays playing music from short
records and talking in between—slowly
made transcription discs obsolete.
The Gates 100 was made by the Gates Radio Company of Quincy, Illinois. While it is
hard to get a sense of scale from the photo,
in the flesh the Gates is huge. A regular 12"
44

standard position on the right is a
Gray Research “Micro-Balanced”
216 with a pivoting headshell
that reminds me a bit of the crazy
Transcriptors Vestigal arm from
the early 1970s (another project I
have on my back burner) and the
more modern Dynavector DV 507.
The Gray was one of the first arms
designed to properly handle the
new low-tracking-force, highcompliance cartridges that were
becoming popular in the early
1960s. It is fully compatible with
modern stereo cartridges.
Even more interesting is the
second arm and cartridge setup
mounted on the back, a package
of components made by Western
Electric called the 109A Reproducing Group. This includes the 9A
moving coil reproducer (cartridge),
the 5A reproducer arm, the
KS-13386 equalizer, and the 171A
repeating coil. I like to think of this
system as being a bit
like the Oppo universal
Above: Stan
disc player of its day
Maxwell. Below:
because it can handle
Michael Trei’s
Gates CB100
both laterally cut discs
transcription
like standard 78s and
turntable.
vertical, hill-and-dale
cuts like many of those
big transcription records. A switch
on the equalizer allows you to
select between three lateral-cut and
two vertical-cut settings, each with
different EQ characteristics. The
brochure says that the 9A pickup’s
“jewel stylus tip, together with the
extremely light 35gm pressure
of the generating element on the
record assures long record life.”
Well okay then!
So far, I have only managed to
haul the Gates into my apartment
and clear out a spot where it can
stay pending further attention,
but the plan is to sort it out, tidy it
up, and explore its capabilities in a
further update. More to come. Q
LP looks lost on its 16" platter, and the main
bearing shaft is about as thick as a broom
handle. The synchronous motor looks like
it was hijacked from a commercial washing
machine; you wouldn’t want to drop it on
your foot. Coolest of all is the speed selector: Its ball-topped gated shifter looks like a
miniature version of the gear selector in a
1962 Ferrari 250 GTO.
Stan Maxwell equipped his Gates with
two tonearms that would cover just about
any type of record he wanted to play. In the

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Web: korfaudio.com
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Web: zuaudio.com

December 2023

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Tech Savvy

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P
R
3
O
2
D
0

YEAR
A
HE

O
F
T
C
T
U
STEREOPHILE’S

ND
BY
JOHN
ATKINSON

ANNUAL
RDS
2
WA

hen we introduced Stereophile’s Product
of the Year awards in 1992,1 we decided
that, unlike some other publications’
awards schemes, we would avoid what
the late Art Dudley once described as
the “every child in the class gets a prize”
syndrome. We decided to keep the number of categories to the minimum. That
way, in Loudspeakers, for example, highvalue minimonitors would compete with
cost-no-object floorstanders. In Analog
Products, turntables would compete with
tonearms, phono cartridges, and phono
preamplifiers. And in Amplification,
single-box integrated amplifiers would go
up against separates. In Budget Product
of the Year, we lumped everything
together, recognizing products from every category that offered the best sound for the buck. The
overall Product of the Year, meanwhile, would be the winner of all the winners—a single product,
unless the voting resulted in a tie.
To be considered for our 2023 awards, products must have been subjected to a full review
or considered in a column published from the
November 2022 issue through the October
2023 issue. Each product was subjected by the
reviewer to a thorough evaluation over a period
of weeks or months—plus, for regular reviews
(not columns), a session in my test lab.
As Stereophile Editor Jim Austin wrote in the
introduction to the 2022 awards: “The resulting
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

review documents what’s almost certainly the
most thorough evaluation that product will
receive outside the manufacturer’s development lab. … That document, then—the review
itself—is a product’s best argument for winning
an award—or against it if the review lacks
enthusiasm.”2

THREE ROUNDS OF VOTING
In early September, I compiled and shared

with Stereophile’s audio-equipment reviewers
a list of eligible products.3 Each reviewer was
invited to nominate three products in each of
seven categories: Amplification Component
of the Year, Analog Source Component of the
Year, Digital Source Component of the Year,
Headphone Product of the Year, Accessory of
the Year, Loudspeaker of the Year, and Budget
Product of the Year. Reviewers were asked
to award three points to their top choice, two
points to their second choice, and one point to
their third choice.4 The result of Round One was
a list of Finalists comprised of top vote-getters
in each category.
The Budget category is, of course, a bit
different from the others. For the 2022 Awards,
Jim Austin decided not to put an absolute maximum price on products eligible for the budget
category; “after all, a $500 amplifier or pair
of speakers is obviously budget, but a $1000
phono cartridge might not be,” he wrote. So he
played it by ear, on the grounds that a “budget”
component was one that, in his judgment as
Stereophile’s editor, was considerably cheaper
than most of the products that had been
reviewed in its category. I followed his example
for the 2023 voting.
In addition to qualifying for the second round
of voting in their category, every Finalist from
every category—not including Budget or Accessories—remained in the running for overall
Product of the Year.
In the second round of voting, reviewers
were again asked to award three points, two
points, or a single point to their favorites in
each category—but this time, the lists were
shorter. The highest vote-getter would become
the category winner.
There were clear winners in every category
except for the overall Product of 2023. A third
round of voting was therefore necessary—I sent
out a third ballot that listed the 10 products
that had garnered the highest number of nominating votes. As you will read, the result was a
tie between two high-performance products.
Some final notes: The prices listed herein
were current at the end of August 2023; some
may have changed by the time you read this.
Finalists in each category are listed in alphabetical order.
We regret that back issues of the print
magazine are no longer available. However,
electronic issues can be purchased from
Zinio—see zinio.com/recent-issues/stereophile-m4542. Reviews of all the products listed
are available online, free.
And the winners are …
1 Past Product of the Year articles can be found at
stereophile.com/category/products-year.
2 See stereophile.com/content/stereophiles-products-2022.
3 Because Jim Austin was traveling for much of September 2023, he delegated the voting process and the
preparation of this feature to me.
4 See my explanation of how this voting system works
at stereophile.com/asweseeit/1207awsi/index.html.

47

Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification

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Analog

Digital

Headphone

Amplification Component
AUDIO NOTE MEISHU 300B
TONMEISTER PHONO
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER
($15,740; REVIEWED BY KEN MICALLEF IN VOL.46
NO.2)

FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
AYRE VX-8 POWER AMPLIFIER

($6800; REVIEWED BY KEN MICALLEF IN VOL.46
NO.10)

BENCHMARK AHB2 POWER AMPLIFIER

($3499; REVIEWED BY JOHN ATKINSON IN VOL.46
NO.1)

DAN D’AGOSTINO MOMENTUM M400
MXV MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER

($79,500/PAIR; REVIEWED BY JASON VICTOR
SERINUS IN VOL.46 NO.6)

HIFI ROSE RS520 STREAMING
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

($3695; REVIEWED BY ROGIER VAN BAKEL
IN VOL.46 NO.7)

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KARAN ACOUSTICS POWERA MONO
MONOBLOCK AMPLIFIER

($106,000/PAIR; REVIEWED BY JASON VICTOR
SERINUS IN VOL.46 NO.5)

Accessory

Loudspeaker

Budget

midrange that leaned toward lush, and a
surprisingly taut yet rich low end.” Listening
to LPs through the Meishu’s phono input,
KM commented that “the amp’s transparency, to tube-choice, sources, and recordings,
rendered from every vinyl LP what sounded
to me like original intent—what the musicians, producer, and mastering engineer
conceived in the studio—though I realize
that’s impossible to know. What I’m sure of
is that each recording I played through the
Tonmeister had more depth, physicality,
and flow than I’ve previously heard from any
variation of my Greenwich Village rig.”
KM concluded, “If there’s a better integrated amplifier in the world than the Audio
Note Meishu Phono 300B Tonmeister, I
haven’t heard it yet.”
NOTES ON THE VOTE

Despite the wide range of prices in this category, the voting was very close. It was only
when the final couple of reviewers submitted
their ballots that a clear winner emerged.
Three solid state candidates—Ayre’s VX-8,
Benchmark’s AHB2, and Dan D’Agostino’s
Momentum M400 MxV—were not far behind.

The product lineup in this category echoed the dichotomy that
is happening with amplification.
Audiophiles are offered high-power,
high-feedback, low-distortion
solid state designs with low output
impedances, and low-power tubed
amplifiers that use little or no
loop negative feedback, have a
single-ended output stage and
a correspondingly high output
impedance, and produce high
levels of (subjectively innocuous)
second-harmonic distortion. Add to
the mix the fact that an increasing
number of integrated amplifiers
stream digital audio, and it should
come as no surprise that we ended
up with a diverse mix of contenders
for this award.
It was a low-power, single-ended
tube amplifier that won this year’s
Amplification award. Audio Note’s
Meishu Phono 300B Tonmeister
is specified as delivering just
8W into 4 or 8 ohms from each
channel’s Psvane Standard Hifi
Series 300B output tube, with the
measured distortion approaching 10%! However, Ken Micallef
found that the Audio Note had no
problem driving his high-sensitivity
DeVore Orangutan O/96 speakers,
“delivering smooth highs, a clear
December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

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Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification

Analog

Digital

Headphone

Accessory

Loudspeaker

Budget

Overall

Editors’ Choice

Analog Source Component
SME MODEL 60 TURNTABLE
W/SERIES VA TONEARM
($71,900–$85,900; REVIEWED BY MICHAEL TREI
IN VOL.46 NO.8)

FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
AMG GIRO MK II TURNTABLE W/9W2
TONEARM

($12,300; REVIEWED BY MICHAEL TREI IN VOL.45
NO.12)

TW-ACUSTIC RAVEN GT TURNTABLE
W/12" RAVEN TONEARM

($19,000; REVIEWED BY ALEX HALBERSTADT
IN VOL.46 NO.7)

VPI AVENGER DIRECT TURNTABLE
W/12" FATBOY TONEARM

($36,000; REVIEWED BY KEN MICALLEF IN VOL.46
NO.6)

SME’s new flagship record player is based
on 1990’s Model 30 turntable but with the
latter’s DC motor replaced by an AC synchronous motor and everything else maxed out
and fully optimized. The tonearm is based on
SME’s Model V, which was originally reviewed
in Stereophile’s September 1986 issue but
is still in production. The VA replaces that
tonearm’s cast-magnesium-alloy armtube
with one machined in-house from a solid
block of polymer resin. Michael Trei found
that the Model 60 was exceptionally quiet.
“How much of that is due to the VA arm and
how much to the new motor drive and the
more massive chassis isn’t entirely clear,” he
wrote, “but the 60/VA manages to stay out
of the way of the music more emphatically
than the 30/Series V combination.”
MT concluded that with the Model 60,
“SME has managed to raise the bar on what
can be achieved with their design philosophy. … This turntable is capable of extract-

50

ing an astonishing amount of
music from the record groove. It
should be considered the new
real-world reference against which
other turntables can be judged.”
NOTES ON THE VOTE

It came as no surprise that the
Model 60 from venerable British
company SME won this category.
But it was a surprise that the other
three finalists were also turntables, given that tonearms, phono
cartridges, phono preamplifiers,
and MC step-up devices were also
eligible. However, with no fewer
than nine phono cartridges and
seven phono preamps reviewed between the
November 2022 and October 2023 issues,
none got enough nominating votes to get
through to the second round of voting.
It was satisfying to see that VPI’s latest

turntable was a high-scoring finalist, given
that the New Jersey–based manufacturer’s
HW-19 Mk.IV turntable was the Analog
Source of 1992, in Stereophile’s very first
Product of the Year awards.

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

The Ultimate
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Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification

Analog

Digital

Headphone

Digital Source Component
DCS BARTÓK APEX D/A
PROCESSOR
($20,950–$22,950; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT
IN VOL.46 NO.8)

FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
BENCHMARK DAC3 B D/A PROCESSOR

($1890; REVIEWED BY JOHN ATKINSON IN VOL.46
NO.3)

CH PRECISION C1.2 D/A PROCESSOR

($36,000–$43,500; REVIEWED BY JIM AUSTIN
IN VOL.46 NO.2)

DCS VIVALDI APEX D/A PROCESSOR

($46,500; REVIEWED BY JASON VICTOR SERINUS IN
VOL.46 NO.3)

HIFI ROSE RS250A STREAMING D/A
PROCESSOR

($2695; REVIEWED BY JOHN ATKINSON IN VOL.46
NO.10)

LEJONKLOU KÄLLA D/A PROCESSOR

($8495; REVIEWED BY ALEX HALBERSTADT
IN VOL.46 NO.3)

The Apex redesigns of the D/A processors
from British manufacturer dCS involve
revisions to the proprietary, massively

52

Accessory

Loudspeaker

Budget

oversampling, 5-bit, R-2R Ring DAC topology and an all-new analog output stage,
with individual transistors on the board
replaced with compound pairs. The first dCS
processor to feature the Apex upgrade was
the Rossini, which was our Digital Source
Component of 2022. The Apex upgrades to
the flagship Vivaldi and lower-priced Bartók
were both eligible for the 2023 awards, and
it was the Bartók—base price $20,950; a
headphone output adds $2000—that won
the category.
The original dCS Bartók was Herb
Reichert’s “top-level, system-anchoring digital source” after it was introduced in 2019.
As well as the upgraded Apex Ring DAC and
output stage, the new Bartók features a
bigger power supply, which HR credited with
appearing to put less artificial digital-mechanical grunge between him and the files he
streamed with the dCS Mosaic app. “When I
switch back to the ‘old Bartók’,” he wrote, “it
seems less clear and refined.” He concluded
that with the Bartók Apex, he felt like he was
listening “to recordings at a rarefied level
of harmonic insight. … With my amps and
speakers, the Apex’s most obvious improvement was how much less digital it sounded.

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification Analog

Digital

Headphone

Accessory Loudspeaker

Budget

Overall Editors’ Choice

It mixed an R-2R naturalness, such as what I get from the HoloAudio May and
Denafrips Terminator Plus, with a muscular, free-flowing dynamic that kept my
attention focused on musical content.”
NOTES ON THE VOTE

We were concerned that with two dCS digital processors making it into the
second round, these would split the vote. The Bartók Apex, however, emerged
with considerably more votes than the more expensive Vivaldi Apex, which in
turn got a few more votes than the similarly expensive CH Precision 1.2. Props
to the Benchmark DAC3 B and HiFi Rose RS250A, whose prices are fractions of
those of the other finalists.

Headphone Product
ABYSS DIANA TC
HEADPHONES
($4495–$5995; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT
IN VOL.46 NO.5)

FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
APPLE AIRPOD PRO 2 IN-EAR
HEADPHONES

($249/PAIR; REVIEWED BY ROGIER VAN BAKEL
IN VOL.46 NO.3)

FOCAL UTOPIA HEADPHONES

($5000; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT IN VOL.46
NO.5)

HIFIMAN HE-R10P HEADPHONES

($5499; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT IN VOL.46
NO.8)

NAIM UNITI ATOM HE HEADPHONE
AMPLIFIER

($3799; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT IN VOL.46
NO.5)

The stock, fourth-generation Abyss Diana
TC costs $4495. The version reviewed by
Herb Reichert was the “Complete” package,
which, for an extra $1500, substitutes a 1.8m
Superconductor HP cable for the standard
1.5m cable, in the purchaser’s choice of termination: three- or four-pin XLR or ¼" stereo
jack plug. HR also used the optional ported
pads, which are offered as an alternative
to the stock lambskin or vegan Ultrasuede
ear-cup pads. According to designer Joe
Skubinski, these pads “add a gentle bass
bump in the lower bass range, adding a bit
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

more soundstage depth and openness.” HR
wrote that it was easy to distinguish between
the punchier, more direct stock pads and the
ported ones, which, as Skubinski suggested,
play a touch warmer and more spacious. “It
was not easy to choose a favorite.”
HR found that streaming the album
La Guitarra dels Lleons from Tidal, which
features Xavier Díaz-Latorre on guitar and
55

Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification

Analog

Digital

Headphone

Accessory

Loudspeaker

Budget

Pedro Estevan on percussion, the 69 ohm,
90dB/mW-sensitive Diana TC headphones
“preserved the nuance of these artists’ most
subtle dynamic shifts, letting me feel the
musicians ‘feeling it’ more and better than
with the Abyss AB-1266 and every other
headphone I can remember using.” He concluded that the Abyss Diana TC “is the Abyss
AB-1266 disguised as a pretty woman.”
NOTES ON THE VOTE

There was no ambiguity in the voting for this
category: the Abyss Diana TC headphones
scored head-and-shoulders above the other
finalists. But the inexpensive Apple AirPod
Pro 2 gets a shoutout for making it through
to the second round of voting.

Accessory
SHAKNSPIN2
($280; REVIEWED BY MICHAEL TREI
IN VOL.46 NO.6)

FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
BENCHMARK STUDIO&STAGE
LOUDSPEAKER CABLE

($188/PAIR; REVIEWED BY JOHN ATKINSON
IN VOL.46 NO.3)

HERBIE’S WAY EXCELLENT II
TURNTABLE MAT

($88; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT IN VOL.45
NO.12 & MICHAEL TREI IN VOL.46 NO.9)

NESSIE VINYLCLEANER PRO PLUS+
RECORD-CLEANING MACHINE

several of his turntable setup jobs and found
it easier to use and more accurate than
relying on a strobe disc. “The Shaknspin2
is a dedicated tool with better calibration
features, more precise positioning, and more
accurate and detailed results” is how he
summed up his review.
NOTES ON THE VOTE

The vote tally was closest in this category,
perhaps due to the fact that the final five
products had nothing in common. But the
Shaknspin2 edged out the Nessie record
cleaner (a Julie Mullins choice) and the
Benchmark speaker cables (Kal Rubinson’s
and my choice) for first place.

($2495; REVIEWED BY JULIE MULLINS
IN VOL.46 NO.4)

TIMERETTE STYLUS TIMER

($130; REVIEWED BY MICHAEL TREI
IN VOL.46 NO.9)

As is always the case in this
category, a mixed bunch of accessories were nominated. But
perhaps reflecting its usefulness in checking a turntable’s
rotational speed accuracy, the
Shaknspin2 got the nod. The
Shaknspin2 allows the user to
check speed in real time and
wow & flutter, and promises
more accurate results and a
more streamlined calibration
procedure than the original
version, which was favorably
reviewed by Michael Fremer in
September 2021. Michael Trei
found that the on-screen display
gave him everything he needed.
He brought the Shaknspin2 to
December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

Introducing

Adam
by
“The Adams proved delicate and
powerful at the same time, even on
non-audiophile, pop recordings.”
—ROGIER VAN BAKEL, Stereophile

Sound for your soul
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Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification Analog Digital Headphone

Accessory

Loudspeaker

Budget

Overall Editors’ Choice

Loudspeaker
WILSON AUDIO SPECIALTIES
ALEXIA V

($67,500/PAIR; REVIEWED BY JASON VICTOR
SERINUS IN VOL.46 NO.1)

FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
HARBETH SUPER HL5PLUS XD
($7995/PAIR, PLUS STANDS; REVIEWED BY
KEN MICALLEF IN VOL.46 NO.9)

KEF LS60 WIRELESS
($6999.99/PAIR; REVIEWED BY KAL RUBINSON
IN VOL.46 NO.3)

KLIPSCH LA SCALA AL5
($13,198/PAIR; REVIEWED BY ALEX HALBERSTADT
IN VOL.46 NO.4)

MOFI ELECTRONICS SOURCEPOINT 10
($3699/PAIR, PLUS STANDS; REVIEWED BY
JOHN ATKINSON IN VOL.46 NO.2 & KEN MICALLEF
IN VOL.46 NO.6)

RAIDHO TD3.8
($117,000/PAIR, REVIEWED BY ROGIER VAN BAKEL
IN VOL.46 NO.8)

TAD CE1TX
($32,500/PAIR, PLUS STANDS; REVIEWED BY
HERB REICHERT IN VOL.46 NO.6)

It has long been said about loudspeakers
that “a good big’un will always beat a good
small’un.” While the contenders for this
category included both good big’uns and
good small’uns, it should come as no
surprise that the latest Wilson floorstander
won this category. However, the Alexia V is
not just a “good big’un”: It demonstrates the
Utah-based company’s consistency of
design philosophy. While the Alexia V
resembles the earlier Alexias in featuring two
enclosures with two reflex-loaded woofers in
the lower cabinet and arrival-time adjustment for the upper tweeter/midrange
module, it incorporates no fewer than 30
upgrades. The most significant of these are
new drivers, strategic use of the new

stereophile.com

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December 2023

V-Material (a high-density phenolic-resin
composite), improved capacitors, custommade cables, improved connectors, a new
spike system, new enclosure dimensions and
characteristics, and a new, more accurate
alignment mechanism.
Listening to a familiar recording of Richard
Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, with
Andris Nelsons conducting the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Jason Victor Serinus
commented that the soundstage was wider
and more convincing. “I heard more warmth
on the solo violin and firmer, better-controlled
low lines on the cello and double basses. I
heard more detail and more nuanced dynamics, which further increased my appreciation
of Nelsons’s mastery and invited deeper
involvement with the music. It was, to indulge
in a cliché, as if I was hearing the recording
for the first time.”
His conclusion? “Assisted by first-rate
amplification and source components, the

Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia V presented
the entirety of the musical argument more
completely and satisfyingly than its predecessor did. And its predecessor was very
fine.”
NOTES ON THE VOTE

The TAD and Klipsch speakers, which came
in second and third in the voting, are
examples of opposed design approaches:
The TAD is a thoroughly modern, directradiating, low-sensitivity standmount with a
reflex-loaded coaxial drive unit, while the
Klipsch is a variant of a decades-old, fully
horn-loaded, high-sensitivity design.
The relatively affordable Harbeth, KEF,
and MoFi speakers each got the same
number of votes, falling slightly ahead of the
expensive Raidho and slightly behind the
Klipsch and TAD. Wilson’s Alexia V outscored
those two speakers by five votes and three
votes, respectively, to take the top honors.

59

Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification

Analog

Digital

Headphone

Budget Product
JOINT WINNERS

KLIPSCH REFERENCE
PREMIERE RP-600M II
LOUDSPEAKER

($749/PAIR, PLUS STANDS; REVIEWED BY
HERB REICHERT IN VOL.46 NO.8)

NAD C 3050 LE
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

($1972; REVIEWED BY JOHN ATKINSON IN VOL.46
NO.4)

FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
BENCHMARK DAC3 B D/A PROCESSOR

($1890; REVIEWED BY JOHN ATKINSON IN VOL.46
NO.3)

ELEKIT TU-8600S POWER AMPLIFIER

($1880, PLUS TUBES; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT
IN VOL.46 NO.1)

IFI NEO STREAM STREAMING D/A
PROCESSOR

($1299; REVIEWED BY SASHA MATSON IN VOL.46
NO.8)

LSA DISCOVERY WARP 1 POWER
AMPLIFIER

($1499; REVIEWED BY TOM FINE IN VOL.46 NO.7)

Accessory

Loudspeaker

Budget

modern amplifier, with line and phono analog
inputs, HDMI eARC, Type-A USB, coaxial
and optical S/PDIF digital inputs, and an
Ethernet port and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi antennas to allow streaming with the BluOS app.
The amplifier incorporates Dirac Live room
correction, which I found very effective,
bringing my KEF LS50s’ midbass region into
good balance with the upper bass and lower
midrange.
“Excellent upper-bass articulation was
combined with a natural-sounding midrange
and clean highs,” I wrote in my review,
concluding that while considerably more
expensive systems could play louder, deeper,
and clearer, with a greater sense of scale,
what I heard from the NAD with Dirac Live
optimizing the low-frequency output of my
minimonitors “didn’t leave me wishing for
more.”
NOTES ON THE VOTE

The price spread in the Budget category is
the narrowest of any in this year’s awards.
But the least expensive product, the Klipsch
loudspeaker, and the most expensive, the
NAD amplifier, scored the same number of
votes, which was considerably more than the
third-place Benchmark D/A processor.

A tie between two deserving products was
not unexpected in this category. The Klipsch
Reference Premiere RP-600M II is a revised
version of the standmount loudspeaker that
Herb Reichert reviewed in March 2019 and
that was a Finalist in our Budget Component
of 2019 category. The II features a redesigned woofer, which Klipsch says sports
Faraday rings and a larger voice-coil, a larger
tractrix-flare horn opening for the tweeter,
which is now mounted flush with the front
baffle, and upgraded binding posts.
Compared with the original, the high
frequencies emerging from the RP-600M II’s
larger horn felt smoother and more refined,
with less noise in the crossover region, HR
wrote. “The combined effect of the revised
horn and bass driver is to add weight,
presence, and low-signal delicacy to the
presentation. The new Klipsch is simply more
refined-sounding. … In my system, it sounded
exactly as romantic or resolving, as thrilling
or dull, as the amp I chose to drive it with,” he
concluded.
The retro-styled C 3050 LE BluOS streaming integrated amplifier was released in 2022
to celebrate NAD’s 50th anniversary. Reflecting the year the company was founded,
just 1972 samples were manufactured at
a price of $1972. (A non-LE version, which
costs $1899 with the BluOS module, $1299
without it, is also available.) Despite the styling, the 100Wpc C 3050 LE is a thoroughly
December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

We Rocked Munich!

I’ve never given an honorable mention to a cable
company... This year is different. AudioQuest totally
nailed it at High End Munich 2023. AQ cabling and
power delivery, combined with the debut of the
Rockport Orion speakers, was a magical combination…
This is what I came to the show to experience. Sound
as pure as the driven snow, with spatial cues and
texture, combined with an emotional performance and
spectacular soundstage, captivated me.

With regard to the Munich show I must say,
that one of the most natural but foremost
realistic sounding rooms of the entire show
was not from an equipment manufacturer, but
from a cable manufacturer — AudioQuest! The
system was sort of a blueprint, how close music
reproduction can get to the original and how
satisfying listening to recorded music can be.
– Ingo Schulz, FIDELITY Magazine

– Chris Connaker, Audiophile Style

AQ Dragon, Niagara 7000, CH Precision C1.2, Riviera Labs APL01SE & AFM100s,
Rockport Orions system was curated by AudioQuest as part of an ongoing series
of Munich presentations at which AQ proves how important cable, power and
careful curation are toward creating a truly great audio system.

Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification Analog Digital Headphone Accessory Loudspeaker Budget

Overall Product
JOINT WINNERS

DCS VIVALDI APEX D/A
PROCESSOR

($46,500; REVIEWED BY JASON VICTOR SERINUS
IN VOL.46 NO.3)

WILSON AUDIO SPECIALTIES
ALEXIA V LOUDSPEAKER

($67,500/PAIR; REVIEWED BY JASON VICTOR
SERINUS IN VOL.46 NO.1)

FINALISTS (IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER)
ABYSS DIANA TC HEADPHONES

($4495–$5995; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT
IN VOL.46 NO.5)

AUDIONOTE MEISHU PHONO 300B
TONMEISTER INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

($15,740; REVIEWED BY KEN MICALLEF IN VOL.46
NO.2)

DCS BARTÓK APEX D/A PROCESSOR

($20,950–$22,950; REVIEWED BY HERB REICHERT
IN VOL.46 NO.8)

HIFI ROSE RS520 STREAMING
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

($3695; REVIEWED BY ROGIER VAN BAKEL
IN VOL.46 NO.7)

KLIPSCH LA SCALA AL5 LOUDSPEAKER

($13,198/PAIR; REVIEWED BY ALEX HALBERSTADT
IN VOL.46 NO.4)

SME MODEL 60 TURNTABLE W/SERIES
VA TONEARM

($71,900–$85,900; REVIEWED BY MICHAEL TREI
IN VOL.46 NO.8)

TAD CE1TX LOUDSPEAKER

($32,500/PAIR, PLUS STANDS; REVIEWED BY
HERB REICHERT IN VOL.46 NO.6)

Overall

Editors’ Choice

I quoted Jason Victor Serinus’s conclusion in
his review of the Wilson Alexia V in the text
for Loudspeaker of the Year. But he also
wrote in that review that “The Wilson Alexia
V isn’t just excellent, it’s superb. Within the
limitations of the scale and reach of
speakers their size, their ability to deliver the
range, color, texture, detail, nuance,
dynamics, visceral impact, and emotion—all
central to musical greatness—is among the
finest I’ve ever experienced. They can thrill
you to the core and make your heart sing.”
Enough of the magazine’s team of reviewers
agreed with him to vote the loudspeaker into
joint first place.
When Jason reviewed the Apex update
of dCS’s flagship Vivaldi D/A processor, he
auditioned it with the dCS Upsampler Plus
and Master Clock. “Every month, I welcome
fresh opportunities to find the right words to
convey what I feel when I sit before my system, close my eyes, and listen to great music.
But there are times when reactions are so
extreme, the awe so overpowering, that eloquence cedes to one-word (or even nonword)
exclamations,” he wrote. “Recorded music
has never sounded as full, rich, flowing,
rewarding, and natural as with the Vivaldi
Apex. It is rare, in a home listening room,
to experience anew the full impact of great
orchestral music heard in a concert hall. But
the Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler
Plus, and Vivaldi Master Clock together have
made that possible, repeatedly. … The finer
and more concentrated an artist’s focus,
the finer the Vivaldi Apex system sounds. It
conveys inspiration and genius like no other

VPI AVENGER DIRECT TURNTABLE
W/12" FATBOY TONEARM

($36,000; REVIEWED BY KEN MICALLEF IN VOL.46
NO.6)

62

December 2023

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stereophile.com

:KDWKDYH\RX
EHHQPLVVLQJ"
MorrowAudio.com
MorrowAudio.com

"It took about 30 seconds
to hear the difference.
2XWVWDQGLQJ$:b

6FDQIRUVDOH

Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Digital

Headphone

Accessory

Loudspeaker

Budget

Overall

Editors’ Choice

equipment I’ve heard.”
I was impressed by the dCS Vivaldi Apex’s
superb measured performance. It offered
vanishingly low levels of harmonic and
intermodulation distortion, very high channel
separation, excellent rejection of datastream
jitter, and very high resolution: at least 20
bits.
NOTES ON THE VOTE

It came as no surprise that the Wilson Alexia
V was one of the winners in this category,
but it was a surprise that the dCS Vivaldi
Apex, which lost out to the dCS Bartók Apex
in the Digital Product category, was the joint

winner for the overall Product of 2023. The
Wilson and dCS both got three first-place
votes; the Alexia V got one more secondplace vote than the Vivaldi, but the dCS
made it up in third-place votes.

Editors’ Choice Awards

the SourcePoint 10 gets a thumbs-up from
this reviewer.”—John Atkinson

MOFI ELECTRONICS
SOURCEPOINT 10
LOUDSPEAKER

CH PRECISION C1.2 D/A
PROCESSOR

I have had so many loudspeakers pass
through my listening room in the past 40
years that it is rare for one to stick in my mind
for more than a couple of months after it had
been returned to the manufacturer or
distributor. But my memories of this relatively
affordable standmount—it costs $3699/pair,
plus stands—which was designed by veteran
speaker engineer Andrew Jones, have
outlasted those of many much more
expensive speakers. As I wrote in my review:
“When you consider the clean, superbly
well-defined low frequencies, the naturalsounding midrange, the high sensitivity, the
easy-to-drive impedance, the ability to play
loudly without strain, and the affordable price,

Of all the digital sources that I’ve had in my
system—not so many, actually—the CH
Precision C1.2 proved the most satisfying.
Why? It’s hard to put my finger on, but I think
it boils down to a rare, near-paradoxical

combination of relaxation and surprise.
There is nothing off-putting about the sound:
It welcomes close listening—then rewards it
with great contrasts of texture and color,
when those things are captured on the
recording. I wish this level of performance
were available at a significantly lower price.
Perhaps it is—I’ve only listened closely to
a small fraction of the available digital
processors—but if it is, I haven’t yet
encountered it.—Jim Austin
BENCHMARK AHB2 POWER
AMPLIFIER

This is the closest thing to a straight wire
with gain that I have ever heard. If the
December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Amplification Analog Digital Headphone Accessory Loudspeaker Budget

Overall

Streaming. A fine smartphone app controls
things. Just add speakers—banana plugs are
best—and a turntable. Germany-based AVM
is on a roll.—Sasha Matson
VPI AVENGER DIRECT
TURNTABLE WITH FATBOY
GIMBAL TONEARM

purpose of a power amplifier is to faithfully
reproduce the source signal, with gain to
drive the loudspeakers, then this is as close
to perfection as the state of the art now
stands.—Tom Fine

It may sound like hyperbole to say a
turntable changed my life, but when
referring to the VPI Avenger Direct, that
comment is anything but fantastic. The 68lb
Avenger Direct, paired with the 12" FatBoy
tonearm, rejuvenated my system by the
sheer boldness of its audacious sound. The

Editors’ Choice

etc. A capable, quiet onboard MC/MM phono
stage and remote control complete the cool
package.—Julie Mullins
HERETIC AD614 LOUDSPEAKER

Choosing Heretic’s AD614 loudspeaker
as my personal Product of the Year was
easy: It’s new, innovative, and sounds like
a high-rez studio monitor on magic
mushrooms. It is at its best sitting right up
against the wall. It uses a series crossover

KLIPSCH LA SCALA AL5
LOUDSPEAKER

When I reviewed it, I expected the Klipsch La
Scala AL5 to sound dynamic as all get-out,
but what surprised me was its high resolution, delicacy, and ability to honor all genres.
A pair of these fully horn-loaded speakers
will properly energize even the largest
rooms, though you may find yourself

21lb aluminum platter provided excellent
low-end stabilization, pitch stability, and
deep-sea–black backgrounds, while the
FatBoy tonearm, along with the optional
Signature Weight and Periphery Ring Clamp,
comprised a system that tracked every
record with assured precision. Harry and
Mat Weisfeld: long may they reign.
needing more power than the sky-high
sensitivity rating suggests. The big La Scala
is also uncommonly good at making musical
sense of recordings and engaging the
emotions, making it a fine candidate for
lifetime duty—at what is still a very competitive price.—Alex Halberstadt
AVM INSPIRATION CS2.3
CD RECEIVER

—Ken Micallef

HIFI ROSE RA180
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

This full-featured, all-analog amplifier’s
steampunkish aesthetic is only part of the
picture: It deploys gallium nitride transistors
(as opposed to traditional silicon types) said
to deliver a faster slew rate. Sonically, this

and a 97dB-sensitive, Italian-made, 12"
coaxial driver to make it equally happy with
low-power, single-ended tubes or highpower, class-A solid state. It loved the First
Watt SIT-3, it was cozy-comfy with Elekit
300Bs, and it came explosively alive with
Parasound’s Halo A 21+ amplifier. The
Heretic AD614 is the first speaker since the
Falcon LS3/5a Gold Badge that I’ve wanted
to use every day for the rest of my life.
—Herb Reichert

KEF LS60 WIRELESS
LOUDSPEAKER

This is a landmark product that leverages
advanced practices in transducer design,
materials research, and DSP to offer
outstanding sound and value. It’s balanced,
transparent, and powerful (with its built-in
multiple power amps). The LS60 is worthy
of challenging speaker systems, larger and
higher-priced, without consideration of its
compact and sleek stature. With an added
subwoofer or two, its performance is
stunning. Finally, the LS60 is more than a

A truly outstanding “all-in-one” integrated.
The price ($6995) may not be strictly budget,
but when you add up all the features, and how
well executed they are, I challenge you to find
a better value out there. With lovely sound,
this covers my three bases: CD, Phono, and
means quicker rise times, speedier responsiveness—leading-edge transients quick and
clean on the attack and an easy way with
dynamic swings, providing power with
effortlessness and discretion. I experienced
a few app-based quirks, but it was a joy to
interact with overall: a tactile, outsized
volume control, old-school toggle switches,
66

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Stereophile Product of the Year Awards 2023
Digital Headphone Accessory Loudspeaker Budget

loudspeaker, as it incorporates power amps,
wireless links, and streaming, and requires
only a source of music to satisfy the most
critical listener.—Kal Rubinson
TAD CE1TX LOUDSPEAKER

Gorgeous to look at, built like fine
furniture, and, most importantly, able to
deliver ravishing sound, the made-in-Japan
TAD is a standmount to make you not miss
floorstanders. I’ve heard this big-sounding,
three-way design on only a few occasions,
but each time I walked away scheming to
find a way to buy them. One caveat is their
sensitivity, which, at 85dB, combined with
a nominal 4 ohm impedance, means you’ll
probably need robust amplification if you’re
a headbanger. Otherwise, hook them up
and you’ll be rewarded with the fruits of
a design whose measured performance
John Atkinson deemed “superb,” and which

reviewer Herb Reichert called “the finest
example of speaker engineering I’ve ever
encountered. Absolutely Class A.” And
absolutely my Editor’s Choice.—Rob Schryer
WILSON AUDIO SPECIALTIES
ALEXIA V LOUDSPEAKER

In the year since I reviewed the Alexia V, I’ve
had the opportunity to challenge it with
some of the most complex music I’ve ever
played on my system. No matter how many
different musical lines I’ve thrown at it—no
matter how wide the frequency extremes
and dynamics—it has rendered everything
cleanly, with clear timbral differentiation

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Overall

Editors’ Choice

between musical instruments. It has also
honored music with a depth of expression,
nuance, and dynamic range previously
unheard from my system. As I’ve upped the
performance of my front-end components
and amps, the Alexia V has unfailingly
reached into the heart of the music at hand
and displayed it with a veracity that would
make many speakers of less quality blush. I
also love looking at it; its aesthetics make
me feel good. Wilson’s Alexia V is one superb
loudspeaker.—Jason Victor Serinus

Nothing
is left to
chance

SME MODEL 60 TURNTABLE

SME rarely introduces new models,
and when they do, it’s always an event. The
Model 60 is only the second flagship
turntable from SME in over 30 years,
building on the strengths of its predecessor,
which remains in production. SME is one of
the only turntable manufacturers that makes

almost every mechanical part in house, right
down to the tiniest screws and washers, and
this attention to detail shows in its unsurpassed quality of fit and finish. The performance is reference quality, with an uncanny
ability to extract more music from the
grooves of a record than pretty much
anything else.—Michael Trei
HIFI ROSE RS520 STREAMING
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

The HiFi Rose RS520 provides more fun per
cubic inch than any other single audio box I
can think of. My Naim Uniti Atom, an
understated rival, wins on minimalist looks,
but the Rose has a giant touch display that
can mimic the fascia of a standalone tuner or
the dancing VU meters of a bevy of vintage
amps. Powerful, great-sounding, userfriendly, and unabashedly entertaining, the
RS520 is a relative bargain to boot. What’s
not to like?—Rogier van Bakel

From the intelligently
designed, inert
aluminum enclosures,
to the custom-made,
high-efficiency drivers,
by way of the technically
advanced crossovers, we
thought of everything.
We think differently,
to give you a sound like
no other. All your
music, every nuance,
all the excitement of
the performance. Hearing
is believing. Book a
listening session now.

Your music, live

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E Q UIPMENT REP ORT

JASON VICTOR SERINUS

Accuphase A-300
STEREO/MONO POWER AMPLIFIER

O

ne of the finest chamber
music performances I
have ever attended took
place this past August
under far from ideal circumstances.
The venue was one-month-old
Field Hall in Port Angeles, Washington, a city of fewer than 20,000
people known more for its port and
proximity to the Olympic National
Forest than for its rich culture.
Perhaps that reputation will soon
change, because the performers
in the concluding concert of the
Music on the Strait 1 chamber music
festival included its two local founders, violinist James Garlick of the
Minnesota Orchestra and violist
Richard O’Neill, the newest member
of the Takács String Quartet. These
excellent musicians, who have
been friends since high school,
were joined by the superb pianist Jeremy Denk and cellist Ani
Aznavoorian.2 These are world-class musicians who attract eager
audiences to New York’s 92nd Street Y and Carnegie Hall, London’s
Wigmore Hall, and other prestigious venues.
From orchestra level—even from row C—Field Hall’s acoustics favored the midrange, shortchanged treble brilliance, and
truncated reverberation: good for talks and theatre, not so good
for unamplified music. Also problematic was the piano, a Steinway
D that lacked warmth and richness because it was still recovering
from a player piano mechanism–ectomy.

These shortcomings mattered not once the music started. The
program consisted of compositions by the three members of the
love triangle of Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes
Brahms. The performances were so heartfelt, so filled with poetic
give and take, that the greatness of music and artistry transcended
the limitations of both hall and piano.
What was true for that live performance in Field Hall is also
1 See Musiconthestrait.com.
2 The week before, the Takács String Quartet and pianist Garrick Ohlsson opened the
festival.

SPECIFICATIONS
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true for performances reproduced on
audio systems: A system can be less
than technically perfect yet still transmit with eloquence every iota of care
and feeling that artists and engineers
put into recordings. Perfection is not
an essential component of musical
truth. Inspiration is.
Lest readers think this preamble is
intended to suggest some shortcoming
in the component under review, the
Accuphase A-300 monophonic power
amplifier ($51,900/pair), let me reassure you at the outset: Time and again,
the A-300, like Jeremy Denk’s artistry,
inspired a state of wonder. The more I
listened to the A-300 monoblocks, the
more I wanted to listen. In my too-busy
life, every occasion for listening was
an occasion indeed, a special event.
Inside
“To reduce noise is very important to sound reproduction. We’ve
been pursuing reducing noise throughout Accuphase’s 51-year
history. So, after the A-250 monoblock was released in 2017, we redesigned it all over again.” So spoke Takaya Inokuma, Accuphase’s
director of engineering, near the start of a four-person Zoom chat
that also included Accuphase International Marketing Manager
Kohei Nishigawa and Axiss Audio USA’s new owner, Cliff Duffey.
“Before we tune a component’s sound, it is very important to
make the performance perfect,” Inokuma said. “First, we focus on
the performance—on noise, speaker driving ability, and so on—
and adjust as necessary. After all that is complete, we start to tune
the sound to our ideal. We don’t listen to amplifiers from other
manufacturers; instead, we listen to the latest Accuphase model so
we can better it and better reproduce the dynamism, intonation,
and emotion of music.

“All music is the same. It’s not just sound. All music has
atmosphere. There’s something the performer wants to tell the
audience. The challenge of audio is how to transfer those kinds of
feelings to listeners. That is the most important thing.
“Ensemble is also very important. In live performance, performers try to breathe together before the first sound comes out. That
inhalation is very important for an Accuphase amplifier. We try to
revive that kind of atmosphere—the timing of what happens just
before the sound comes out. It’s not a case of which amplifier has
more bass or less bass or sounds ‘better’; instead it’s about how
to transmit the emotion, the atmosphere, and the feelings to the
listeners.”
Inokuma oversees all aspects of Accuphase’s engineering, design,
and development; Nishigawa described him as Accuphase’s “Sound
Master.” So he was the best person to ask how the company tunes

MEASUREMENTS
performed a complete set of measurements on one of the Accuphase
A-300s (serial number L2Y188) in its
Normal mode with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system.1 I preconditioned the
A-300 by following the CEA’s recommendation of running it at one-eighth the speciࢉHGSRZHULQWRRKPVIRUPLQXWHV$W
the end of that time, the temperature of
the top panel was 97.6°F (36.4°C) and that
of the side-mounted heatsinks 120.4°F
(49.1°C).
As auditioned by JVS, the balanced input
was wired with pin 2 negative, the opposite
of the AES standard. (A rear-panel switch
allows it to be changed to pin 2 positive.)
In the default position, therefore, the Accuphase’s balanced input inverted absolute
polarity, though this is easily changed. The
single-ended Line input was noninverting.
The A-300’s balanced input impedance is
VSHFLࢉHGDVNRKPV,PHDVXUHGN

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stereophile.com

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December 2023

ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz, 14.8k ohms at
20kHz. The single-ended input impedance,
VSHFLࢉHGDVNRKPVZDVNRKPV
at 20Hz and 1kHz but 5k ohms at 20kHz.
With the gain set to MAX, the voltage gain
at 1kHz into 8 ohms with both input types

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respectively.
1 See stereophile.com/content/measurements-mapsprecision.

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into: simulated loudspeaker load (gray), 8 ohms
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Fig.2 Accuphase A-300, small-signal 10kHz squarewave into 8 ohms.

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the sound of its products. First, Inokuma focuses on capacitors. “Capacitors are the most sensitive parts that influence sound quality,”
he said. “Changing caps is the easiest way to change and control the
sound. We have a lot of capacitors in the A-300. Changing the filtering capacitor has the most effect on sound quality. We use many
types of filtering capacitors, from many different companies. For
example, the big capacitor in the amp is custom-made. We discuss
with the manufacturer what we want to hear, and we try different
capacitors with different values and sleeves until we get it right.”
The A-300’s output specs are impressive. The monoblock
outputs 125W into 8 ohms and doubles down each time the impedance halves: 250W into 4 ohms, 500W into 2 ohms, 1000W into 1
ohm. “Its performance is extremely linear,” Inokuma said. “With a
speaker like the Alexia V, whose nominal impedance is 4 ohms, the
first 60 or so watts is pure class-A.”
Accuphase’s literature describes the A-300 as a class-A amplifier—so why is class-A limited to the first 60W? I asked Stereophile
Technical Editor John Atkinson to explain. “The Accuphase is what
I would call a ‘high-bias’ class-AB amplifier. With such high power,
running it in true class-A up to the clipping point into low impedances would be impractical, as the heatsinks would have to be the
size of a house.”
I also wrote to Duffey, who relayed the question to Inokuma
and forwarded his response. “Here are our thoughts and technical approach to the question. For a push-pull output stage using
a bipolar transistor as the output device, it operates as class-A up
to twice the idling current flowing to the output device when the
output is zero. If more than this amount of current flows through
the speaker, one of the output devices, operating as a +/– pair, will
turn off. Of course, current can be supplied to the outputs without
any problem, and this is called class-AB amplification.
“In the case of the A-300, the idling current is applied so that the
class-A range into 8 ohms is 125W. The amplifier operates as classA up to 62.5W into 4 ohms and 31.25W into 2 ohms.”
This inverse relationship between class-A power and load im-

pedance is easily understood when you consider that current—idle
current—determines an amplifier’s class-A range and that power
equals current squared times load impedance: Cut the impedance
in half and the power is halved as well. “So, the A-300 does in fact
provide 125W of class A power into 8 ohms,” Duffey wrote. “Into
4 ohms, though, the amplifier’s fixed amount of ‘idle current’ can

measurements, continued
The output impedance, including the series impedance of 6' of spaced-pair cable,
was a relatively low 0.14 ohms at 20Hz
and 1kHz, 0.18 ohms at 20kHz. As a result,
the variation in the frequency response
with our standard simulated loudspeaker 2
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small-signal bandwidth, the Accuphase’s
reproduction of a 10kHz squarewave into
8 ohms featured with very short risetimes
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75

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compared to the more commonplace practice of letting a couple of larger devices
handle the job. Combined with ultra-efficient heat dissipation and a standard-setting
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support just 62.5W of class-A power.”
Inokuma’s response included a table relating impedance, rated
power, class-A range, and maximum power at clipping rated at 1%
THD. The table showed that the clipping power easily surpasses the
rated maximum output power at each load impedance, reaching
1100W into 1 ohm. How much power does a person need?
“The A-300 is equipped with a real-time watt meter that measures the actual current and voltage flowing and displays output
power,” Inokuma wrote. “When you have time, check how much
power your speakers require at the volume you normally use.”
The Accuphase A-300 monophonic power amplifier’s balanced
input section is fully discrete. The output stage uses 20 push-pull
MOSFETs in two parallel power-amplifier modules said to have
very low output impedance. A gold-plated, glass-cloth, fluorocarbon-resin printed circuit board with big, gold-plated bus bars helps
lower that output impedance. So do the large, easily tightened
speaker terminals, rectangular wire coils, and short, thick signal
paths. The A-300’s damping factor is specified as 1000,3 sufficient
to tightly control driver motion in loudspeakers. In case this isn’t
enough power, the A-300 has connections and switches that allow it
to be bridged with a second A-300 or used in a biamped configuration.
Created to help celebrate the company’s 50th anniversary year,
in 2022, the A-300 is claimed to have 20% less noise than its predecessor, the A-250. Central to the amp’s low noise is an amplification
section that operates like an instrumentation amplifier, equalizing input impedance on the + and – sides. Equally important
are “assigning a high gain (12.6×) in the signal input section” and
implementation of a “double MCS+ circuit.” What is a double MCS+
circuit? The website puts it this way. “By placing the voltage amplification stage in a two-parallel circuit layout, the MCS+ (Multiple
Circuit Summing-up) circuit theoretically reduces the noise floor
by about 30%. The A-300 comes with two MCS+ circuits in a double
MCS+ circuit configuration.” Another listed feature, “Balanced

Remote Sensing,” is said to “lower the amplifier’s output impedance [via] negative feedback with signal sensing from nearby the
speaker terminals,” improving damping factor, total harmonic
distortion, and intermodulation distortion.
In addition to its robust power supply and high-efficiency toroidal transformer, the A-300 contains two large, specially designed
100,000μF filtering capacitors. The position of both devices has
changed from the A-250. The power transformer now sits farther
away from the input amplifier, which helps minimize leakage flux
from the transformer.
Importantly for such a powerful amplifier, protection circuits
protect against excess output current, excess temperature, and
short circuits. Such protections reflect longtime Accuphase
company policy. “We produce high-quality products with high
reliability, high performance, and safety,” he said. “We try to make
products that are unbreakable, with long-lasting components and
very simple circuit architecture that people can use for a long,
long time.”
On the outside
Several features made the A-300 one of the easiest big amplifiers
to install and repack to visit my music room. The large handles on
its front and rear are a reviewer’s dream, and the very large, easily
adjusted speaker terminals make connection a cinch. The packaging is equally well thought out; it includes an inner cardboard
amplifier holder with thoughtfully positioned indentations that
allow for easy lifting, Styrofoam protectors labeled by position (eg,
bottom front), and a removable cloth cover that is light years ahead
of the slippery, tight plastic component protectors—I call them
condoms—that ironically make lifting and repacking heavy equipment a disaster waiting to happen. You will not pinch your fingers
3 According to Accuphase A-300’s Technical White Paper, its damping factor of 1000 is “the
same as the A-250, but the actual measured value is over 2000, which is 43% higher than the
former model.”

measurements, continued
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as you and a helper remove this amp from its heavy cardboard
packaging or when you repack it.
Equal kudos for the multilanguage manual. Its easy-to-comprehend instructions and diagrams are as complete as you would
expect from a 51-year-old Japanese company.
Dominating the front panel are an LED bargraph, which displays
output power calculated from voltage, and a digital power meter
that shows actual output power. I did as Inokuma suggested and
watched the output power at my normal listening levels. It rarely
exceeded 62.5W, the power at which the amplifier switches from
class-A to class-AB with a nominal 4 ohm load like the Wilson
Alexia V.
Beneath the meters is a Standby/On button. When you turn the
amplifier on, the outputs mute for about five seconds to allow the
circuit time to stabilize. The power button is framed by a panellength cover you can open or close by depressing a small button to
the right. Beneath the cover is a switch for selecting gain, with four
choices: MAX, –3dB, –6dB, or –12dB. This setting alters the actual
gain, in the input stage; it is not an attenuator. Lowering gain also
lowers noise. When Duffey installed the amps, he set the gain
selector in the default, MAX position.
A rotary switch determines which meters are displayed: none,
both, dB (only the bargraph), or W (only the digital power meter).
Another rotary switch sets the meters’ range: Auto, 10W, 100W,
1000W. An input-selector button switches between the RCA and
XLR inputs. The settings selected are indicated on the illuminated
front panel.
The intelligently laid-out rear panel includes, on the left, a
line input on an RCA connector, another on XLR, and matching
outputs for use in bridged and biamped operation. An operationmode switch facilitates bridging and biamping. Another switch
enables you to choose which XLR pin is + and which is –. Two sets of
speaker terminals sit on the right, far from the inputs and above a
15A IEC power connector. Spade lugs, bare wire, and bananas are
all accepted.

Setup
I plugged the A-300s directly into the wall, as I do with my reference amplifiers. The front-end components received power from a
Stromtank S 2500 battery power source. I placed the monoblocks
on Grand Prix Audio Monza amp stands; Cliff said “okay” to using
the same three Wilson Audio Pedestals I use under my reference
D’Agostino monoblocks. All connections between the dCS Vivaldi
Apex digital system, preamp, and amplifiers were balanced.
As is my custom, initial listens were to unfamiliar recordings
under consideration for record reviews. First up was a whammo
orchestral tour de force, the superbly mastered DSD recording of
Reinbert de Leeuw’s Der nächtliche Wanderer/Abschied (DSD64,
Challenge Classics CC72957) with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Abschied is one of the most demanding
recordings I’ve thrown at a sound system. To do full justice to
cataclysmic music, intended as a farewell to composing, equipment must accurately convey a continuous barrage of assaults that
resemble universes colliding to the point of apocalyptic collapse.
The Accuphase A-300s sailed right through, leaving me feeling that
everything that the music had to say had been conveyed.
The recording’s other, far longer composition begins softly,
with the recorded sound of a dog barking in the distance. Its slowly
unfolding opening is more textured, atmospheric, and nuanced
than Abschied, with numerous small details that build slowly to
form a moving whole. The eventual deep, percussive thwacks had
tremendous impact. When the recording ended, I had no desire to
compare the sound to my reference. I felt whole and complete, as if
I had heard all that composer, musicians, and engineers wanted me
to hear.
Not realizing that Stephen Francis Vasta had already reviewed
Semyon Bychkov’s performance of Mahler's Symphony No.1
with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (24/96 FLAC, Pentatone
PTC5187043), I listened to it with rapt attention. The theme also
used in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, his unforgettable
song cycle, washed over me like a warm balm. I was struck by how

measurements, continued
was still low in absolute terms, however.
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79

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well the A-300s depicted the texture of cello, then of oboe, then
the clarinet, and then lower-pitched instruments at the start of
the third movement. Woodwinds sounded gorgeous. The fourthmovement percussion sounded tremendous; the horns were full
and lively but never overbright.
As I listened, I began to understand part of the A-300’s magic.
As revealing and full range as the sound was, these amplifiers emphasized midrange warmth over top-end brilliance. I also detected
a bit of a euphonic white core in the center of the midrange. The
subjective tonal balance was just warm enough to create some of
the most pleasing sound I’d heard since the Infigo Method-3 monoblocks visited my listening room.
Next up, the Hermitage Piano Trio’s Spanish Impressions
(24/176.4 WAV, Reference Recordings RR-151). Here again I found
the sound natural, warm, color-saturated—a total delight. If you
want to hear a cello sound like a dream instrument, play this recording amplified by the A-300s. Also play it, with these amplifiers,
if you want to hear how well they depict delicacy.
Delicacy reigned in one of my longtime references for color
saturation, beauty, and air, Debussy’s Sonata and Trio for Flute,
Viola, and Harp, performed by Emmanuel Pahud and friends on
Debussy: Sonates et Trio (24/96 MQA, Erato/Tidal). The music was
enrapturing, the lively acoustic depicted well if not as strikingly as
through my reference.
Switching gears, I cued up the Bill Evans Trio’s “Stella by Starlight” from Bill Evans at Shelly’s Manne-Hole (Live) (24/192 FLAC,
Riverside/Qobuz). Brushes sounded extremely clean. The piano
sounded well behind the drums. Then, another transition to jazz
vocals. The midrange of Youn Sun Nah’s voice on “Lento” (24/96
FLAC, ACT/Qobuz), set to the lento from Alexander Scriabin’s
Prelude Op.16 No.4 in E minor, sounded gorgeous and full. To quote
Ira Gershwin, Who could ask for anything more?
I had hoped to invite lots of friends over to hear the A-300s—
that’s how much I was enjoying them—but deadlines and an
injured dog limited visits to just three people. First up: Mark
Schecter, a not-exactly-retired piano technician, formerly of UC
Berkeley and Skywalker Studios, who transformed Field Hall’s
previously mistreated Steinway D in record time. Then came my
husband, followed by my dear fellow audiophile, pal, and Zen
Priest Scott Campbell. After time spent checking out a few recordings of the orchestral version of Pictures at an Exhibition, Mark and
I turned to another colorful, drama- and emotion-laden recording
that deserves reference status,4 Rafael Payare and the Orchestre
symphonique de Montréal’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No.5
(24/96 FLAC, Pentatone PTC5187067). I recall Mark’s excitement as
he exclaimed, “The cellos and oboe are doubling on the same note,
and I can hear each instrumental line clearly!”
Scott and I devoted two sessions to comparing the Accuphase A-300 monos ($51,900/pair) to the much more expensive
D’Agostino Momentum M400 MxV monoblocks ($79,950/pair).
During the first session, we attached a Fluke meter to one of the
Alexia Vs and used the “1kHz 1/3 -octave warble tone at –20dBFS”
track from Stereophile’s Sampler and Test CD to match levels as
closely as possible. At roughly the same levels, the D’Agostinos
seemed nowhere as loud, perhaps because the Accuphase amps
emphasized midrange warmth and fullness over treble brilliance—
they sounded warmer and fatter with that touch of whiteness in
the mids and a seductive cushion to the top edge. The D’Agostinos
sounded more neutral, with a leaner midrange, livelier top, and
cleaner bass. You could hear more of the leading edge and more
color differentiation with the D’Agostinos; the Accuphase amps
initiated tones in a rounder manner. The D’Agostinos also delivered more sense of black space between notes. Where the Accuphases filled silence with a seductive ebony glow, the D’Agostinos
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Digital sources dCS Vivaldi Apex DAC, Vivaldi Upsampler Plus,

Vivaldi Master Clock; Innuos Statement Next-Gen Music Server;
Small Green Computer Sonore Deluxe opticalModule; Uptone
Audio EtherRegen with SOtM sCLK-OCX10 Master Clock and
sPS-500 power supply; Nordost QSource linear power supplies
(2); HDPlex 300 linear power supply; Synology 5-bay 1019+ NAS
powered by Ferrum Hypsos linear/switching hybrid power supply; Linksys mesh router and Arris modem; 2017 Apple iPad Pro,
2017 MacBook Pro laptop with 2.8GHz Intel i7, SSD, 16GB RAM.
Preamplifier Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD.
Power amplifiers Dan D’Agostino Momentum M400 MxV
monoblocks.
Loudspeakers:LOVRQ$XGLR6SHFLDOWLHV$OH[LD9DQG/Ď.Õ
subwoofers.
Cables Digital: Nordost Odin 1, Odin 2, and Valhalla 2 (USB and
Ethernet), Frey 2 (USB adapter); AudioQuest WEL Signature;
Wireworld Platinum Starlight Cat8 (Ethernet), OM1 62.5/125
PXOWLPRGHGXSOH[ ࢉEHURSWLF ,QWHUFRQQHFW ;/5 1RUGRVW2GLQ
2 and Blue Heaven subwoofer, AudioQuest Dragon, Canare
(subwoofers). Speaker: Nordost Odin 2, AudioQuest Dragon. AC:
Nordost Odin 2, Valhalla 2, Valhalla 1; AudioQuest Dragon and
Firebird. Umbilical cords: Ghent Audio Canare on HDPlex 300
LPS and NAS; QSource Premium DC cables with Lemo terminations for QSources; SOtM sPS-500 umbilical cable for SOtM
Master clock.
Accessories Grand Prix Monza 8-shelf double rack and amp
stands, 1.5” Formula platform; Symposium Ultra Platform;
Nordost 20-amp QB8 Mark III, QKore 1 and 6; Titanium and
Bronze Sort Kones, Sort Lifts; Stromtank S 2500 Quantum MK
II power generator; AudioQuest Niagara 7000 and 5000 power
conditioners, NRG Edison outlets, JitterBugs; ADD-Powr Sorcer
;(QYLURQPHQWDO3RWHQWLDOV(3((VXUJHSURWHFWRUࢉOWHU
:LOVRQ$XGLR3HGHVWDOV$95RRP6HUYLFH3RO\ࢊH['LࢆXVHUV
Resolution Acoustics room treatment; Stillpoints Clouds (8); HRS
DPX-14545 Damping Plates; Marigo Aida CD mat.
Listening room 20' L × 16' W × 9'4" H.—Jason Victor Serinus

remained silent.5 Regardless, the beauty of the Accuphase A-300
sound, and its ability to convey musical truth, was beyond question.
Final thoughts
Every person I invited over for a listen to the Accuphase A-300
monoblocks shared my desire to listen more and more. Their
sound is that beautiful and seductive. Some amplifiers may sound
more neutral. Some will undoubtedly give you more of this or
more of that. But few will leave you yearning to play every piece of
music you can think of as you relish how beautiful and satisfying
it sounds.
The day we packed up these inherently musical, beautifully
thought-out monoblocks was a sad one indeed. As much as the
Accuphase A-300 Monophonic Power Amplifier deserves a Class
A rating on our Recommended Components list, that classification only begins to capture how wonderful it sounds. If pressed to
summarize the A-300 listening experience with a single word, that
word would be “joy.” Q
4 See stereophile.com/content/september-2023-classical-record-reviews.
5 I wonder whether the Accuphases would have sounded quieter if we had adjusted their
gain to –12dB, as shown in the specs, rather than “MAX.” Would the 5dB difference in S/N
ratio have produced blacker blacks? In retrospect, I regret that I didn’t conduct this test.

81

E Q UIPMENT REP ORT

KALMAN RUBINSON

Estelon AURA
LOUDSPEAKER

I

’ve been watching Estelon since they
came on the market in the US. Their
striking appearance grabs the eye, but,
preoccupied with other brands and
reviews, I was able to deny them serious attention until now.
I had my reasons—especially price. The
prices of those earlier Estelons were a poor
fit for my budget. I was also troubled by
the fact that, despite rhetoric about driver
and component choice, advanced cabinet
materials and construction, and fastidious
engineering, Estelon has been stingy with
details and specifications—not a complete
disqualifier but rather a missed opportunity
to appeal to objectivist proclivities.
What changed my mind? First, while
Estelon is deservedly known for the elegance
of its designs, the AURA is, to me, the cleanest design the company has yet achieved.
The black grille tapers from top to bottom in
clear counterpoint to the clean, curved white
body, which widens top to bottom and seems
to levitate just barely off the floor. The effect
is unfussy and graceful. Had I been asked my
choice of colors, I might have ordered black—
the only other color, besides white, that the
AURA comes in—but black fails to make the
bold fashion statement the white speaker
does. Second, at $19,900/pair, the AURA is
much less expensive than those earlier models, including the Forza reviewed by Michael
Fremer and the XB Diamond Mk.2 reviewed

by Jim Austin.1 $20,000 is still a lot of money
for almost anybody, and any claim that
$20,000 is affordable for a pair of speakers
would likely be ridiculed by non-audiophiles
as well as many audiophiles. Still, it is in
range to many more potential buyers than
Estelon’s other offerings.
Estelon remains stingy with technical
information. For example, while they state a
frequency range, they do not specify a deviation envelope, plus or minus how many dB.
When I asked Estelon for additional data, I
learned crossover points (77Hz, woofer–midwoofers; 2.1kHz, midwoofers–tweeter) but
not slopes or orders of the crossovers. Still, I
was so taken with the design and appearance
of the AURA that I went back and read those
earlier Estelon reviews. Both offered limited
technical specifications, but the speakers
were praised by the reviewers (MF and JA2),
and both measured well (JA1). That’s good
enough for me.
Arrival and setup
The AURAs arrived packed in individual,
foam-braced corrugated boxes enclosed
by a stronger box with an integrated wood
pallet. The test pair came from Estonia, of
course, and was “broken in” as a shop demo
1 Estelon Forza ($149,000–$163,000/pair) reviewed by
Michael Fremer in November 2021. Estelon XB Diamond
Mk.2 ($58,000–$65,200/pair) reviewed by Jim Austin in
October 2022.

SPECIFICATIONS
Description Three-way, four-driver
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83

ESTELON AURA

at a US AURA dealer before being shipped
to the local dealer (Stereo Exchange), who
delivered and unpacked them. The speakers and packaging were pristine on arrival,
attesting to the competence of the packaging design and execution. Included with
the speakers were eight adjustable spikes,
eight matching floor-protector discs, two
pairs of cotton gloves, a polishing cloth, and
a user manual.
Placed in the usual “sweet spots” at the
far corners of the carpet and lifted ever
so slightly by the small spikes, the AURAs
were eye candy, as expected; their graceful
simplicity would suit almost any room. Fit
and finish of the proprietary, mineral-filled
cabinet and drivers was flawless. The unusual shape and angled top avoid parallel
internal surfaces. With the grille in place,
the only notable exterior features are the
gently arched base plate, which is separated from the main cabinet by a 2cm gap to
allow for the output of the downward facing 10" woofer and the speaker terminals,
which are almost hidden under the bottom
rear of the main cabinet. The AURAs’ appearance benefits from the accent provided
by the grille, and I am pleased to say that I
preferred to listen to them with the grilles
in place. If that is a consequence of a visual
bias, so be it.
With the grille removed, one sees a vertical M-T-M arrangement, the 1" Scan-Speak

tweeter flanked by a pair of 5" midwoofers
near the top of the speaker. The crossover
between the tweeter and the midwoofers
is at 2.1kHz; the tight spacing results in a
midwoofer-midwoofer spacing of about a
wavelength at that frequency, the tweetermidwoofer spacing half that. Such an arrangement could cause beaming interfer-

ence, but in a vertical array, it would only
be an issue above or below a normal seated
position.
Estelon calls these drivers midwoofers
not midrange drivers because their range
extends down to a low 77Hz, where the
down-facing woofer begins to take over.
The center of the M-T-M trio is about a

MEASUREMENTS
measured one of the Estelon Aura
loudspeakers, serial number F35204B,
in KR’s apartment, using his NAD C
DPSOLࢉHUIRUWKHWHVWLQJ,PHDsured the Estelon Aura’s impedance with
Dayton Audio’s DATS V2 system and used
DRA Labs’ MLSSA system with a calibrated
DPA 4006 microphone to measure the
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to a dolly for the measurements, but to
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and dispersion with the microphone at 1m
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ohms, with a minimum value of 2 ohms at
+]7KHVSHDNHUȆVLPSHGDQFHPDJQLWXGH
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lies above 4 ohms for almost the entire
audioband, dropping below 4 ohms only

I

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December 2023

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This lies below 3 ohms through most of
the bass and midrange and below 2 ohms
between 10Hz and 36Hz and between 57Hz
DQG+],WGURSVEHORZRKPEHWZHHQ
61Hz and 71Hz, with a minimum EPDR of
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is loaded with a sealed enclosure and
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85

ESTELON AURA

meter above the woofer, a small fraction of
a wavelength (~4.5 meters) at the crossover,
so there should be no issues there. Estelon
emphasizes the care lavished on said crossover, which utilizes:
k Mundorf Supreme and Classic resistors
k Mundorf air-core coils (inductors) for
midwoofers and tweeter
k Mundorf resin-impregnated coils for bass
k Kubala-Sosna internal wiring.
I connected the AURAs to a single NAD
C 298 stereo amplifier, and later to a pair
of monoblock Benchmark AHB2 amplifiers, via spade-terminated AudioQuest
Granite cables; the AURA terminals also
accept banana-plug terminations. My
experiments with placement ended up with
the speakers about 7.5' apart, 5' from the
front wall, and about 3' from the sidewalls.
They were toed in just a little, close to the
factory-recommended 7°.
Hello, beautiful
From the first notes—well before I finalized position and toe-in—I found that the
AURAs’ beauty was not superficial. They
sounded open and detailed and, once properly placed, well-balanced. I like to use solo
piano recordings to start a review because

the piano is a single acoustical instrument
with wide ranges in frequency and dynamics. The challenge for any component,
including the AURAs, is to convey all the
notes, singly and in chords, with presence,
tonal balance, and clarity while also mak-

ing clear that the source of all that sound is
a single large instrument in a real acoustic
space.
The AURAs achieved all that with a pair
of new recordings of Liszt’s Transcendental
Etudes performed by Francesco Piemon-

measurements, continued

86

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December 2023

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dCSonlythemusic

ESTELON AURA

tesi (Pentatone 5187052) and by Haochen
Zhang (BIS-2681). Both play Steinways, and
both recordings were auditioned via 24/96
FLAC files downloaded from the labels’
websites. The instruments and their aural
environments are remarkably similar to
each other, but I detect a bit more focus in
the BIS recording. And, although Zhang
was recorded in a film/recording studio in
Munich and Piemontesi in a small, modern
concert hall in Lugano, neither recording
offered much information about the acoustics of the recording sites. The contrast is in
the playing. Zhang clearly relishes articulating individual notes, which he does with
almost superhuman precision. Piemontesi
leans toward a more legato expression,
although the Estelons still let me hear
each of the notes when I attended to them.
Zhang’s delineations were thrilling in the
“big” pieces, such as No.4, “Mazeppa,” and
No.8, “Wilde Jagd,” but also surprisingly
touching in the more delicate No.7, “Vision”;
he kept me hanging on every note, with
bated breath. Strangely, Piemontesi’s more
fluid playing achieved more momentum in
the big pieces and provided a much-appreciated grace in the delicate pieces. I listened
to both performances several times via the
AURAs. The experience was informative,

enjoyable, and totally nonfatiguing.
I recently came upon a recording of
chamber wind pieces by György Ligeti—a
new release from Harmonia Mundi (CD,
HMM905370) recorded in 2016 and remastered and reissued only this year. The
earlier issue (Musicales Actes Sud ASM
26) was criticized for its sound quality, but
Harmonia Mundi’s 2023 release, which I
downloaded in 24/96 FLAC, is spectacular.

Via the AURAs, the instruments in the
opening Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet
popped like a poster-painted posy, each
clearly delineated, richly colored, and
arrayed on a soundstage that extends
laterally beyond the speakers. The closest
wind instruments sounded as close as the
speakers, the ensemble extending to a few
feet behind, and there was a strong illusion
of performers in my room. Quite thrilling,

measurements, continued

88

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December 2023

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stereophile.com

ESTELON AURA

of course, but I missed any sense of the recording-site acoustics.
Fortuitously, the major work on this recording, Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto, with François-Xavier Roth conducting Les Siècles,
a larger ensemble, was recorded in a larger space, which endows
the ensemble’s sound with a richer ambience.2 This was appreciated, especially when the AURAs’ low-frequency performance
delivered tight and detailed bass. In the motoric third movement,
the pacing and percussion simulate synthetic music; it is reproduced here with surgical precision. The fourth movement is
mellow and flowing save for one manic outburst; I was engrossed
throughout by the music as the AURAs conjured a vivid illusion of
a live performance.
Hankering for a recording with a greater sense of space and
place, I moved to another recording by Les Siècles, one that has
become a favorite of mine, Fauré’s Requiem Op.48, which adds
the vocal group Ensemble Aedes to the mix, both ensembles
conducted by Mathieu Romano (24/96 FLAC, Aparté AP201). This
piece was recorded in Abbaye de Lessay, in Manche, which offers
a warm acoustic without loss of detail. From the first, defining
pedal, everything was sweet and clear, and the AURAs delivered
the voices and instruments distinct from the enveloping ambience. However, I heard less of the bass line than I have in the past
from this recording.
Is it all about the bass?
To follow up on that point, I listened to some recordings that
feature oktavists, singers whose range extends below that of a
basso profundo, “down to contra B flat and lower in a choral setting.”3 Among those in my library, the contribution of the oktavists
is clearest on Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil (aka Vespers), as
performed by Gloriæ De Cantores joined by members of the St.
Romanos Cappella, the Patriarch Tikhon Choir, and the Washington Master Chorale, all under Peter Jermihov (SACD, Gloriae
Dei Cantores, GDCD 063, also available as a half-speed–mastered
45rpm, 2-LP set). This performance incorporates seven oktavists
among 22 bassos. The AURAs did a grand job with this landmark
performance, depicting the large chorus with subtle, wide dynamics in a wide, tall, deep soundstage. The oktavists contributed
greatly to the richness of the chorus, but they can best be heard in
Part 5, “Nunc Dimittus,” listed as “Now Lettest Thou.” As this part is
ending, the music descends in pitch until only the oktavists are left
to sing the final notes. The AURAs let me hear and appreciate the
oktavists’ contributions and to contrast this with the many recordings of the Vespers that employ only “regular” bassos. Those deep,
otherworldly tones were stunning.
Still, I’d have liked a bit more from the lowest notes—which by
the way go down around 58Hz. Via the AURAs, a normal low voice,
such as Hans Theessink’s in “Late Last Night” from Burmester’s
Vorführungs - CD II (Burmester Art for the Ear, no catalog number),
displayed the expected gruff tonality in full. The AURAs did justice
to the accompanying trombone and tuba. The percussion had kick.
But if I pushed the AURAs with “The Flight of the Cosmic Hippo”
(Bela Fleck, Warner Bros. 9 26562-2, CD) or with my favorite recording of Mendelssohn’s first organ sonata with Thomas Murray
(CD, Raven 390), I heard everything there was down to the lows
in the second verse of “Hippo” and all the pedal tones in the last
movement of the Mendelssohn, but I didn’t feel the bass, and there
was much less bass energy in the room than I am accustomed to.
Although the AURAs have an extended low frequency response
as would be expected from their size and use of a 10" woofer, their
bass rolloff sounds like it begins rather high up—but hang on just
a minute.
I took a detour from stereo and briefly ran the AURAs as L/R
in a 4.1 mixdown of the recent release The Trondheim Concertos
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Digital sources Oppo Digital UDP-103 universal disc player,

Custom Intel/Win11 music server running JRiver Media Center
v30 and Roon, Merging Technologies Hapi MKII, exaSound s88
Mark II, and Okto DAC8 Pro D/A processors. QNAP TVS-873 NAS.
Preamplifiers Coleman Audio 7.1SW for balanced DAC-to-amp
switching.
Power amplifiers Benchmark AHB2, NAD C 298.
Loudspeakers KEF Blade 2 Meta, Revel Performa3 f206; two JL
Audio e110 and 1 SVS SB-3000 subwoofers.
Cables'LJLWDOFDEOHV$XGLR4XHVW&RࢆHH 86% $QDORJLQWHUconnects: Benchmark Studio&Stage XLR-XLR, Kubala-Sosna
$QWLFLSDWLRQ 5&$ &DUGDV&URVV VXEZRRIHUV 6SHDNHUFDEOHV
AudioQuest Granite, Benchmark Studio&Stage, Blue Jeans
Canare 4S11. AC cables SignalCable MagicPower 20A.
Accessories AudioQuest Niagara 5000, Brick-Wall BrickWall
8RAUD, and CyberPower 850PFCLCD UPS power conditioners,
7HGG\3DUGR936 IRUH[D6RXQGV +'3OH[:/LQHDU
3RZHU6XSSO\DQG$&ࢉOWHU IRUVHUYHU 
Listening room 24' L × 14' W × 8' H, furnished with custom-built
9" × 12" × 40" and 2" × 12" × 48" absorbent panels in each front
corner. Sidewalls lateral to L/R speakers have 2” thick, 2’ wide
ࢊRRUWRFHLOLQJ2&SDQHOV)URQWZDOOKDVODUJHZLQGRZV
partly covered by insulated fabric drapes. Rear of room opens
into 10’ × 7’ foyer and a 12’ × 8’ dining area.—Kalman Rubinson

(2L 2L-172-SABD, SACD+Blu-ray), a selection of baroque concerti
associated with the city of Trondheim and a good retort to anyone
who thinks baroque music is lightweight. The mid- and lower bass
was completely satisfying, suggesting that anyone who finds that
the AURAs lack something at the bottom end can get satisfaction by
adding a subwoofer. The rest of the spectrum was, as I have come to
expect from the AURAs, clean, open, and dynamic.
Resolution
I chose this moment to switch to the Benchmark AHB2 monoblocks
to see if what I was hearing was related to amp/speaker matching.
It was. I have swapped power amplifiers many times while reviewing speakers. I have even done so with these particular amplifiers,
the NAD and Benchmarks, and struggled to describe the subtle
differences I heard. But this time it was easy. Using the Benchmarks
with the AURAs, the bass was improved so much that the light bass
I heard previously was no longer an issue. The above caveats no
longer apply.
7KHJORYHVDUHRࢆ
I usually save the “big” music for the end of a review, and I am glad
I did so with the AURAs, now powered by the monoblock Benchmark AHB2s. The opening drum salvo of Rameau’s “Zaïs – Ouverture” from Une Symphonie Imaginaire, by Marc Minkowski and
Les Musiciens du Louvre (SACD, DGG Archiv 00289 477 5578), was
proof positive that all was well. When the whacks got louder to set
the tempo, the strings and winds exploded with the joyful melody,
filling a wide and deep soundstage.
The ability of the AURAs to project this soundstage with great
clarity was confirmed with “Stimela (The Coal Train),” from the al2 The album notes identify both recording sites, the Méjan Chapel in Arles and the Cité de
la musique in Soissons, but do not associate individual works with the sites. From the pictures I see on the internet and from what I hear, I suspect that the Concerto was recorded in
Soissons and the two pieces for quintet in Arles.
3 See oktavism.com/post/2014/11/16/what-is-an-oktavist.

91

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ESTELON AURA

bum Hope, by Hugh Masekela (SACD, Analogue
Productions APJ 82020). Played at a high level,
the AURAs thrillingly recreated the aura of this
large live event and presented Masekela’s voice
and trumpet, as well as the other performers,
with striking presence and realistic tonality.
There was a sense of immersion in the event
that is rarely achieved with only two channels.
Finally, with a stunning new recording of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony with the Pittsburgh
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred
Honeck (SACD, Reference Recordings FR-752),
the AURAs rewarded me with the richness and
glory of a symphony in a powerful performance of this Romantic-era classic. The dynamics were all there, as were the power of the brass
and the lovely sounds of the winds and upper
strings, but something else impressed me more:
I heard much detail in the rich underpinning of
the cellos and basses. The AURAs did this right.
A comparison
I compared the Estelon AURAs with my KEF
Blade 2 Metas, driven by the Benchmark amps.
The results were fascinating. Direct comparison highlighted the AURAs’ impressively pellucid and detailed soundstage, which, by contrast,
made the KEFs seem somewhat relaxed. The
AURA soundstage stretched across the room,
with lots of immediacy in the speaker plane,
while the KEFs depicted a soundstage that was

both wider and deeper.
The AURAs’ bass was somewhat less full and
less extended than that of the Blades, but this
might have escaped my notice had I not been
sensitized to it by my prior experience with the
NAD amp. Perhaps a different amplifier would
relevel the playing field, even more than the
Benchmark amps already had. Moreover, this is
the part of the spectrum most affected by room
acoustics and placement. I should also note
that the AURA’s tight bass will suit the tastes
of many listeners and will certainly be kinder
to neighbors. For those still not fully satisfied,
adding a subwoofer could resolve this, if not for
their neighbors.
Conclusions
I have spent weeks listening to the Estelon AURAs and thoroughly enjoying the music. They
are among the most transparent speakers I’ve
reviewed, and they present voices, instruments,
and ensembles with refreshing immediacy and
impact. Never did anything, including its bass
performance, disturb that enjoyment or distract from it. The choice of amplifier is critical,
however, for the AURAs’ potential to be fully
realized.
While my original attraction to the Estelon
AURAs was based on appearance, I believe they
are just as beautiful when I listen to music with
my eyes closed. Q

E Q UIPMENT REP ORT

JOHN ATKINSON

Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2
INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

I

first met Musical Fidelity’s founder,
Antony Michaelson, in 1978, when he
was running tube amplifier manufacturer Michaelson & Austin. I still have
an M&A TVA-10 amplifier, which was designed by the late, great Tim de Paravicini.1
Soon after Antony founded Musical Fidelity
in 1982, he employed de Paravicini to design
the A1 integrated amplifier.2
The A1 was a slim solid state design with a
class-A output stage that output 20Wpc into
8 ohms. By contrast, the massive, dual-mono
Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800 integrated
amplifier, which Michael Fremer reviewed
for Stereophile in November 2015,3 featured
nuvistor tubes for its small-signal circuitry,
coupled with a solid state, class-AB output
stage that could deliver 330Wpc into 8 ohms.
In 2017, Michaelson decided to retire. In
May 2018, the Musical Fidelity brand and
its intellectual property were acquired by
Heinz Lichtenegger of Austrian company Audio Tuning. (Lichtenegger is the owner of Pro-Ject Audio Systems.)
The New Nu-Vista 800.2
When the original Nu-Vista 800’s “retro-look,” front-panel greenLED display was discontinued, rather than discontinue the amplifier, Musical Fidelity decided to substitute a new front panel with
a larger display. They took advantage of the opportunity to make
some other changes: New, rewound power transformers—one for
each channel in this dual-mono design—are said to lower the noisefloor. The power supply was revised. The hefty aluminum remote
control now allows the amplifier to be placed into standby mode,

something that previously could only be done from the front panel;
and the Display button on the front panel is now accompanied by a
Display Mode button (see later).
The 800.2 still uses nuvistors for its input stages, a pair of 7586s
for each channel. As MF described in his 2015 review, a nuvistor
is a miniature, small-signal vacuum tube housed in a metal and
ceramic case (rather than the usual glass bulb),4 said to be good for
1 See stereophile.com/content/tim-de-paravacini-rip.
2 An updated A1 was released in 2023; see musicalfidelity.com/products/a1/a1-2.
3 See stereophile.com/content/musical-fidelity-nu-vista-800-integrated-amplifier.
4 See r-type.org/articles/art-150.htm and r-type.org/exhib/aaa0274.htm.

SPECIFICATIONS
Description Hybrid integrated
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100,000 hours of use. The nuvistor was introduced by RCA in 1959 for use in TV sets,
and although it was replaced by solid state
devices in mainstream uses, it appears to be
widely available on eBay. I understand that
Musical Fidelity has stockpiled sufficient
nuvistors for its long-term use.
The Nu-Vista 800.2’s specified maximum
power is the same as that of the original:
330Wpc into 8 ohms (25.2dBW), 500Wpc
into 4 ohms (24dBW), and 1000W peak
into 2 ohms (24dBW). The output stages
each still use five pairs of complementary
Sanken transistors, with a supply capacitor
mounted adjacent to each device to allow
more immediate access to stored energy and
reduce the amplifier’s source impedance.
The input complement is still the same
as on the 2015 amplifier: one balanced linelevel pair on XLR and four single-ended
line-level pairs on RCA. The RCA inputs are
labeled CD, Tuner, Aux2, and Aux/HT. A rear-panel switch allows
the volume control to be bypassed with the last input, for home
theater use. Loudspeaker connection is with two widely spaced
pairs of binding posts for each channel. There are also fixed-level
and variable-level preamplifier outputs on RCA connectors.
The new display dominates the 800.2’s appearance. Four themes
are user-selectable with the front-panel buttons or remote control:
a pair of large, white-on-black VU-style meters with blue needles,
below which are the input in use and the volume setting; the same
but with black-on-white meters; just the input in use and volume
setting in black on a white background; and the same in white on
a black background. Each of these themes can be permanently
illuminated, with the brightness adjusted with the front-panel buttons, or set to turn off after a short time with a “Screensaver” mode.

The amplifier’s bottom-firing lights and those that illuminate the
nuvistor sockets (visible through an opening at the rear of the top
panel) can also be turned on or off. When they are on, they light up
red when the amplifier is first powered up or the volume is muted,
switching to orange when the amplifier is ready to be used or the
mute is lifted.
Setup
Because of the Nu-Vista 800.2’s bulk—it weighs more than 90lb—I
set the amplifier up on a small, wheeled dolly so that I could move
it between the listening room and my test lab as necessary. For my
auditioning, I positioned the dolly midway between the Monitor
Audio Platinum 300 3G floorstanding speakers I reviewed in the
November issue. The speakers were single-wired with AudioQuest

MEASUREMENTS
performed a full set of measurements
on the Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista
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polarity for both balanced and unbalanced
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Robin Hood cables. Source components were either an Ayre
C-5xeMP universal disc player
or an MBL N31 CD player/
DAC, connected to the Musical
Fidelity with 3m Ayre/Cardas
balanced interconnects. I used
my Roon Nucleus+ server to
send network data to the MBL,
controlling playback with the
Roon app on an iPad mini.
Listening
Prior to installing the Nu-Vista
800.2, I had been using the Audio Research I/50 I reviewed in
the September issue.5 I wrote in
that review that this tubed integrated “has a touch of that ‘tube
magic’ but without going whole
hog, as so many of the current
crop of tubed amplifiers do.”
But with the I/50 driving the
Monitor Audios, on tracks like
Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well
(Taylor’s Version),” from the album Red (24/96 FLAC, Big Machine
Records/Qobuz), the low bass was overpowering. It turned out that
the Platinum 300 3G’s port tuning frequency coincided with that
of the lowest-frequency mode in my room, and the I/50 couldn’t
hold on to the speaker in that region. Monitor Audio supplies foam
plugs to block one or both of the speakers’ two reflex ports, and I
ended up with just one port open on each speaker. The low bass

still sounded magnificent, but it
was now in better balance with
the rest of the spectrum.
The first track I played with
the Nu-Vista 800.2 was “All
Too Well (Taylor’s Version).”
What? Compared with the
Audio Research amplifier, the
Musical Fidelity exerted such
tight control over the Monitor
Audios’ woofers that with half
the speakers’ ports blocked, the
lowest frequencies sounded
shelved down. I removed the
foam plugs—doing so restored
the low-bass balance. When
Anthony Jackson drops down to
his low B string as Paul Simon
sings “Negotiations and love
songs are often mistaken for
one and the same,” in “Train in
the Distance” from Hearts and
Bones (ALAC file ripped from
CD, Warner Bros.), his bass guitar had an optimal combination
of weight and articulation. The same was true for the twangiersounding bass guitar on Mary Chapin Carpenter’s live recording
of “Stones in the Road,” from Party Doll and Other Favorites (24/96
FLAC, Columbia/Qobuz).
The Musical Fidelity’s tight low-frequency control never led to
5 See stereophile.com/content/audio-research-i50-integrated-amplifier.

measurements, continued
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Made in the U.S.A. Contact a Vandersteen Dealer Today
facebook.com/VandersteenAudio Owners Forum: Forum.Vandersteen.com

086,&$/),'(/,7<189,67$৷৯৯ৱ

the sound becoming too lean, even
with light-balanced albums like
the Keith Jarrett Trio’s Standards,
Vol.1 (16/44.1 FLAC ECM/Tidal).
Keith Jarrett’s banshee-esque
vocalizing on “All the Things You
Are,” however, was more noticeable than it had been with the
Audio Research amplifier. Roon
Radio followed the Jarrett Trio
with a very different treatment of
this Jerome Kern standard, with
Andre Previn on piano accompanied by Ray Brown on double bass
and Joe Pass on guitar (16/44.1
FLAC, Telarc/Tidal). The soundstage on this laid-back performance, captured by the late Jack
Renner, was presented clearly,
with just enough studio ambience
to envelop me in the music. And
again, the bass of the Musical Fidelity/Monitor Audio combo had
the optimal combination of weight and articulation.
Soundstage presentation was also an area where the Musical
Fidelity exceled. An album I haven’t played in years is flautist
Vytautas Sriubikis performing two solo works by J.S. Bach in
St. Catherine’s Church in Vilnius (a free 24/96 download from
Lessloss). With the Nu-Vista 800.2 driving first the Monitor Audio
towers, then my reference KEF LS50 minimonitors, the image
of the flute was delicately precise, with the surrounding church
acoustic extending both across the soundstage and way behind the
plane of the speakers.
The manner in which this amplifier retrieved a recording’s

low-level detail, like the ambience
of the church acoustic on the Sriubikis Bach works, was addictive.
The obvious question is whether
the Musical Fidelity amplifier’s
superb transparency was revealing what is encoded in the bits or
exaggerating recorded detail.
I hadn’t yet played any of my
own recordings, which should
allow me to answer that question,
so I cued up Mozart’s Clarinet
Concerto, K.622, performed by
Antony Michaelson himself in
London’s Henry Wood Hall in
2003 (16/44.1 ALAC file, Musical
Fidelity Recordings). I didn’t engineer this recording—the sound
was captured by the inestimable
Tony Faulkner—but I was the
producer. As I wrote in the Stereophile article on making this album,6 the occasion was stressful.
It’s difficult enough for a critic to be right, even with the benefit of
hindsight the writing process affords. To be right in real time, with
a conductor, a soloist, an engineer, and 30 of London’s leading classical musicians, all of whom have forgotten more about music than
I ever learned, all waiting for my critical voice to emerge from the
talkback speaker, is a good definition of stress overload.
Ahem. Enough of my imposter-syndrome memories and back
to the task at hand—in audio-critic time. Everything sounded as it
6 See stereophile.com/musicrecordings/804k622/index.html. I also recorded Antony
Michaelson performing the Brahms and Mozart Clarinet Quintets; see stereophile.com/
features/575.

measurements, continued
frequency. These will be due to magnetic
interference from the two massive power
transformers, but are all very low in level.
Figs.4 and 5 respectively plot how the
THD+noise percentage varies with output
power with both channels driven into 8
ohms and 4 ohms. The downward slope
below 30Wpc into 8 ohms and 60Wpc into
4 ohms indicates that the distortion lies
below the noise up to these powers, but

%

both channels were clipping into 8 ohms.
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Fig.5 Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2, distortion (%) vs
1kHz continuous output power into 4 ohms.

stereophile.com

it remains low until the actual onset of
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though it’s fair to note that the supply
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December 2023

Hz

Fig.6 Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2, THD+N (%) vs
frequency at 20V into: 8 ohms (left channel blue, right
red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta).

Avg: 16

Fig.7 Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2, 1kHz waveform
at 50W into 8 ohms, 0.0041% THD+N (top); distortion
and noise waveform with fundamental notched out
(bottom, not to scale).

101

086,&$/),'(/,7<189,67$৷৯৯ৱ

should with K.622 and the Musical Fidelity 800.2 driving the big
Monitor Audios. The touch of brightness I had mentioned in my
review of these speakers was just noticeable but didn’t get in the
way of the music making. Michaelson’s pure-toned clarinet was
presented as a stable, narrow image at the front of the soundstage
with the orchestral instruments spread behind it and to the sides.
On that magically poignant slow movement, the hall acoustic was
so clearly defined that I was transported back to the sessions.
However, on the little KEFs, even with a touch of low-frequency
equalization provided by Roon, the upper mids sounded more
forward than I had anticipated based on my experience using these
speakers with my usual Parasound monoblocks.
The Monitor Audio speakers had been returned to the distributor when I sat down to write this review, so, as I stared at the screen
waiting for the words to emerge, I played the Ray Brown Trio’s Soular Energy (Concord Jazz) with the Nu-Vista 800.2 driving the KEFs. I
have two versions of this natural-sounding album on my Nucleus+’s
internal storage: one in DSD64, the other PCM at 24/192. With either, Brown’s double bass had an excellent sense of drive—of, as the
late Art Dudley would have put it, “force.” The highs were clean and
smooth, though with the Musical Fidelity’s transparency, I could
readily hear that the top octaves of Gene Harris’s piano sounded a
touch smoother in DSD than the PCM version.
Conclusion
This was a difficult review to write given that, like other 21st
century solid state amplifiers that offer superbly low distortion
and noise, the Musical Fidelity Nu-Vista 800.2 didn’t have a readily
discernible sonic character. Yes, Michael Fremer did write in his
review of the original 800 amplifier that “There’s no mistaking the
velvety, delicate sound of a nuvistor front end,” and I did indeed
find the 800.2 easy on the ears. But Michael also wrote that while
“CDs with a touch of hard edge and brightness were suitably

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softened and corrected, those that were hopelessly hard and bright
remained so.”
I found that to be the case with the Musical Fidelity amplifier. It
is exceptionally revealing of what was on the recordings I played
or, with the loudspeakers I used for my auditioning, their intrinsic
characters. But with its tight grip on the speakers’ woofers, its
sense of almost unlimited power, its superb soundstage definition,
and—again—that sense of ease to its presentation, the Nu-Vista
800.2 gets an unreserved recommendation from this audio critic. Q

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Clement Perry,
stereotimes.com

DOUBLE IMPACT
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15

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The Matrix LS delivers
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DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/baby
LOUDSPEAKER

I

trial site along the Brooklyn waterfront
owned since the early 1970s by the city
of New York. Formerly the birthplace
of the USS Arizona and USS Connecticut, in the very early 2000s the Navy
Yard was a collapsed, wrecked, rancid
ruin. I loved the corroding behemoth:
the colossal decomposing construction
sheds, disintegrating ’50s-era machinery rotting into (probably) contaminated earth, the ghost signs and ghost
buildings that held many secrets, the
decrepit nearby seaman’s bars. Here
was a major part of New York’s and the
America’s manufacturing and maritime history left to die many years ago
like Captain Scott on the South Pole and
now, slowly, starting to revive. DeVore’s
new Navy Yard facility is where our
gang decamped.
Not long after moving in, DeVore
built his famous Monkeyhaus, a listening room and manufacturing center
where this clan listened intently to
music in the central listening room
as, in the adjacent factory space
during these off-hours events, booze
was imbibed, cigars smoked, and
pizza inhaled. Old Coot and LuluBear,
the factory cats, kept an eye out for
shenanigans. All genres of music
were encouraged, as long as they were
played on vinyl, often played through
prototype amplifiers and speakers and
John DeVore’s Frankenstein turntable
assembled from parts by Eminent
Technology, Empire, Roksan, SME,
VPI, and Well Tempered.
After hearing DeVore’s Gibbon 7.1
in 2005, I reviewed that speaker for

n the mid-2000s, I worked at a
“white-shoe” law firm on Wall
Street, ran with renegades, and
fancied myself a writer. Fastforward some 18 years. The firm, like
many cash-flush NYC firms, has moved
to midtown and I’ve moved on. Those
renegades are now respected members
and players in the hi-fi community. I
still fancy myself a writer.
Back then, I made friends with a
big-eared clique that would influence my future in hi-fi: audio writer
Michael Lavorgna (currently editor
at TwitteringMachines.com); NYU
law professor Jules Coleman; former
Stereophile deputy editor and current
AudioQuest director of communications Stephen Mejias; record-industry
veteran Andrew Klein; composer
Dan Cooper; illustrator Jeff Wong;
vacuum-coffee–machine collector and
audiophile Margery Budoff, who regrettably passed in 2015; Tone Imports’
Jonathan Halpern; and DeVore Fidelity
proprietor-designer John DeVore.
Members of that roving gang typically met at Steven Mishoe’s Greenwich Village hi-fi salon In Living Stereo, where new equipment from Art
Audio, Cairn Audio, Conrad Johnson,
Nottingham Analogue, Pathos Acoustics, Komuro, and Verity Audio was the
cause of much fascination. ILS was the
first US dealer for several important
brands, including Leben, Shindo, and
DeVore Fidelity.
A few years before, DeVore Fidelity
had set up shop in the Brooklyn Navy
Yard, the 220-year-old, 225-acre indus-

SPECIFICATIONS
Description Two-way, rearSRUWHGEDVVUHࢊH[ORXGVSHDNHU
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December 2023

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105

DEVORE FIDELITY ORANGUTAN O/BABY

6 Moons. I bought a pair of Gibbon
Super 8s later that year, awarding
them “Best of 2005” at 6 Moons. In
2007, I reviewed and bought a pair
of Gibbon Nines and reviewed the
standmount Gibbon 3XL, awarding
it a Blue Moon Award. I purchased
a pair of Orangutan O/93s, followed
by Orangutan O/96s. I have a long
and positive history with DeVore
Fidelity products and their designer,
which made me keen to try his latest
creation, the Orangutan O/baby
($5700/pair).

piously about the tweeter and woofer
implementation.
“Vifa makes the dome/coil/magnet
assembly of the tweeter, which I originally designed for the supertweeter
in the O/Reference,” DeVore said.
“During the COVID slowdown, I
started tinkering with the idea of a
least-expensive Orangutan speaker
model. This led to using the supertweeter mechanism from the O/
Reference minus all its pricey bronze
mounts and horn. In order for Vifa
to make those tweeters for us, we
had to order 1000. Even in my wildest
dreams, I am never going to sell 500
pairs of O/Reference, so let’s do some
repurposing! I redesigned the horn
profile to work lower in frequency, as
a tweeter instead of a supertweeter,
and machined that horn right into
the front baffle to save on manufacturing cost.”
What’s custom about the O/
baby’s 7" SEAS woofer? “Everything,”
DeVore said. “Only the cast chassis is
an off-the-shelf part. The cone is made
from the same German paper as the
rest of the Orangutan woofers. Unlike
the other O/woofers, the O/baby
woofer does not have a phase plug; in-

Little ape
As you’d expect from its name, the O/
baby is smaller than the other, older
Orangutans, but it’s bigger than you
might think, standing 14.75" wide,
9.75" deep, and 35" tall when sitting on
its custom, dedicated highchair (aka
speaker stand). Each O/baby weighs
about 40lb, a heavy baby. Key parts
include a 0.75" horn-loaded textiledome tweeter from Denmark’s Vifa
and a 7" SEAS paper woofer from
Norway, both made to DeVore’s specifications. John is always tight-lipped
regarding his crossover designs (and
crossover points), but he will yack co-

MEASUREMENTS
performed the measurements on a
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107

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stead it has a rigid paper dustcap. The voicecoil is similar to those
on the other O/woofers but wound for 8 ohms instead of 10–12
ohms to make it a more universal impedance load for amplifiers.”
The drivers are positioned close together at the top of the
cabinet and intended to fire directly at your ears, so toe them in
and arrange them so that you can just see the tops of the cabinets,
although, within limits, listening height isn’t critical. “I mount
the tweeter as close to the woofer in all my designs. … Getting the
treble and upper-midrange drivers close together generally means
the tonal balance will change less as the listener moves around, all
else being equal. The fact that the drivers are so close in the O/baby
means the listener can be closer to the speaker, as close as 1.5–2',
compared to the minimum 6.5' required by the O/93 and O/96.”
The internal wiring, DeVore told me, is “a combination of the
same aerated-Teflon–insulated silver/copper wire I designed for
the rest of our models and a classic Western Electric–style twisted
pair for the woofer.” The binding posts are machined from brass
and gold-plated.
The O/baby closely resembles the larger Orangutan speakers.
Needless to say, the resemblance isn’t skin-deep—yet the route
from those earlier Os to the O/baby wasn’t as straight as you
might presume. “I didn’t start out to make a miniature O/96. The
micr/O”—a 10" sealed cube using the same drivers as the O/baby—
“was the original concept,” DeVore said. “That project was inspired
by a pair of speakers I threw together to appease an employee
complaining that she had no good sound out in the assembly area.
This sparked the concept of a new, more affordable ‘O’ model.
Working with SEAS, as always, I sent them designs for all manner

of 7" and 8.5" woofer variants to prototype, using whizzer-cones,
phase-plugs, lossy dustcaps, etc. When that little 7" with the hardpaper dust cap arrived, I loved the look right away. After burning them in, running full measurements, and playing with some
simulations, I realized that not only were these the likely solution
for the sealed cube; they would also fully blossom in a bass-reflex
[speaker] tuned like a mini O/96. Thus the O/baby was born, and
the new speaker project turned out to be twins!”
The front baffle of the O/baby’s cabinet—made, with the custom
stands, by Anthony Abbate’s Box Furniture Co.—consists of a
0.75"-thick birch-ply slab veneered with gorgeous white oak. The
stands are handmade, with no fasteners, also from white oak to
match the baffle. The box is finished in catalyzed (two-component)
polyurethane. Mounted on its optional stand, the O/baby reminds
me of an Arts & Crafts house: The gently splayed legs give the
speaker a homey yet regal appearance.
Were sacrifices required to develop a smaller, cheaper ape?
Of course. “Compared to the O/96, the O/baby cabinets are much
less expensive to make and ‘finish,’” DeVore said. “The cabinets
are made from a high-recycled-content MDF made in Europe with
black pigment mixed into the pulp to make the material itself have
that charcoal gray color. While this is far more expensive than
standard MDF, it ends up saving costs in production, as there is no
veneering the panels and no staining. We just clearcoat the gray
material to get the finished product.” Functionally, “the smaller
woofer is less expensive and requires a smaller internal volume to
work optimally,” DeVore said. The O/baby is not as sensitive as the
bigger Orangutan speakers, and it won’t play as loud.

measurements, continued
RIWKHZRRIHUDQGSRUWRXWSXWV ࢉJEODFN
trace below 350Hz). The small excess in the
EDVVZLOOEHGXHWRWKHQHDUࢉHOGPHDVXUHment technique, which assumes that the
GULYHXQLWVDUHSODFHGRQDED࢈HWKDW
H[WHQGVWRLQࢉQLW\LQERWKYHUWLFDODQGKRUL]RQWDOSODQHV7KH2EDE\RࢆHUVH[FHOOHQW
low-frequency extension for a relatively
small speaker.
:KLOHWKHPDQXDORࢆHUVFRPSUHKHQVLYH
advice on setting up the O/baby speakers,
it doesn’t mention the optimal listening
axis. As the tweeter is 20" above the botWRPRIWKHIURQWED࢈HDQGWKHPDWFKLQJ

stands are 12" high, that places the tweetHUD[LVIURPWKHࢊRRU7KLVLVVOLJKWO\
below what we have found to be the average ear height of a seated listener. While
,SHUIRUPHGDFRPSOHWHVHWRIIDUࢉHOG
measurements on the tweeter axis, I also
looked at the speaker’s behavior 5° above
that axis. The black trace above 350Hz in
ࢉJVKRZVWKH'H9RUHȆVIDUࢉHOGRXWSXW
averaged across a 30° horizontal window
centered on the tweeter axis. There is a
slight excess of energy in the presence
region, but the small response peaks are
balanced by small dips. The response 5°

Amplitude in dB

which is when the back pressure from
the port resonance holds the diaphragm
VWDWLRQDU\7KHSRUWȆVQHDUࢉHOGUHVSRQVH
(red trace) peaks between 25Hz and 60Hz
in textbook fashion, but while its upperIUHTXHQF\UROORࢆLVLQLWLDOO\FOHDQDVWURQJ
resonant mode is present at 300Hz, with
lower-level modes between 500Hz and
900Hz. The audible consequences of this
behavior will be ameliorated by the fact
WKDWWKHSRUWࢉUHVWRWKHVSHDNHUȆVUHDUEXW
the mode at 300Hz results in a discontinuity in the woofer’s output.
7KLVPRGHDOVRDࢆHFWVWKHFRPSOH[VXP

Frequency in Hz
Fig.2'H9RUH2EDE\FXPXODWLYHVSHFWUDOGHFD\SORW
calculated from output of accelerometer fastened
to the center of the side panel (measurement bandwidth, 2kHz).

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Fig.3'H9RUH2EDE\DQHFKRLFUHVSRQVHRQWZHHWHU
axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window
and corrected for microphone response, with the
nearfield woofer (blue) and port (red) responses, and
their complex sum (black), respectively plotted below
350Hz, 900Hz, and 350Hz.

Fig.4'H9RUH2EDE\ODWHUDOUHVSRQVHIDPLO\DW",
normalized to response on tweeter axis, from back
to front: differences in response 90°–5° off axis,
reference response, differences in response 5°–90°
off axis.

109

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Setup
John DeVore toted his O/babies from
the Navy Yard and up my stairs then
unsheathed them from heavy plastic.
(The boxes were left in Brooklyn.) After
much jogging, moving, taping, measuring, and listening, he secured them 64"
apart tweeter to tweeter and 80" from
my listening seat. After a week or two of
listening, including one night playing
hip-hop records brought by filmmaker
Jeremy Elkin, I pushed them back 5" farther, endowing the sound with a deeper
low-end with no sacrifice of presence,
sparkle, or soundstaging.

6 Halo integrated ($2995). I kept this
system for much of the current review.
I’ve included prices to make the point
that this is, by Stereophile standards, an
affordable system. The O/baby speakers
were the system’s most expensive part,
by a good bit. Yet the music flowing into
my room was terrific: physical, live,
enveloping, natural, with good scale.
Dynamics ranged from house-mouse
still to boisterous and brazen. The sweet
spot was truly sweet. I switched to my
reference system only at the end of the
review period.
Any new piece of kit, if it is good
and interesting, should pull new and
surprising sounds from oft-played recordings, and that was the very essence
of the O/baby experience. My standard
low-end workout record, Kraftwerk’s
Tour de France (LP, Kling Klang 50999
9 66109), sounded especially fresh. The
propulsive synth-base of the title track
was clearer than I recalled hearing
it—and I’ve heard it recently. As the
side-long track progressed, the O/baby
revealed each subtle textural, rhythmic,
and ambient variation in the bass. Said
bass was less weighty than through the

Listening
As I started working on this review,
I was finishing up another one, for
AnalogPlanet.com, of the new Michell
Engineering TecnoDec turntable with
the Michell T3 tonearm ($2698 for the
set) outfitted, alternately, with Goldring 1006 moving magnet ($399) and
Dynavector 10X5 LOW moving coil
($800) cartridges. That analog frontend supplied my Tavish Audio Design
Adagio phono stage ($1950). From there,
the signal passed to the Parasound Hint

measurements, continued
DERYHWKHWZHHWHUD[LVEXWODUJHVXFNRXWV
develop below the tweeter axis and more
WKDQrDERYHWKDWD[LV
,QWKHWLPHGRPDLQWKH2EDE\ȆVVWHS
UHVSRQVH ࢉJ LQGLFDWHVWKDWWKHWZHHWHU
DQGZRRIHUDUHERWKFRQQHFWHGLQSRVLWLYH
DFRXVWLFSRODULW\7KHWZHHWHUȆVRXWSXW
DUULYHVࢉUVWDWWKHPLFURSKRQHDQGWKH
GHFD\RILWVVWHSEOHQGVVPRRWKO\ZLWKWKH
VWDUWRIWKHZRRIHUȆVVWHSZKLFKLPSOLHV
an optimal crossover implementation.
7KHGHFD\RIWKHZRRIHUȆVVWHSLVRYHUODLG
ZLWKDVPDOODPRXQWRIULQJLQJZKLFK
FRUUHODWHVZLWKVRPHORZOHYHOULGJHVRI

GHOD\HGHQHUJ\LQWKH'H9RUHȆVFXPXODWLYH
VSHFWUDOGHFD\ ZDWHUIDOO SORW ࢉJLJQRUH
WKHDSSDUHQWORZOHYHOULGJHRIGHOD\HG
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LQWHUIHUHQFHIURPWKH0/66$KRVW3&ȆV
YLGHRFLUFXLWU\ +RZHYHUWKHLQLWLDOGHFD\
is commendably clean, especially in the
UHJLRQFRYHUHGE\WKHWZHHWHU
:LWKLWVKLJKVHQVLWLYLW\DQGHDV\WR
GULYHLPSHGDQFHWKH'H9RUH2EDE\ZLOO
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PHDVXUHGEHKDYLRUVXJJHVWVWKDWFDUHIXO
VHWXSZLOOEHQHFHVVDU\WRRSWLPL]HWKH
treble balance.—John Atkinson

Data in Volts

above the tweeter axis was very similar.
The O/baby’s horizontal dispersion
ࢉJ UHYHDOVWKDWWKHRXWSXWLQWKH
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the tweeter axis, which will tend to even
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WKHZLGHED࢈H,QWKHYHUWLFDOSODQH ࢉJ 
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Time in ms
Fig.5'H9RUH2EDE\YHUWLFDOUHVSRQVHIDPLO\DW",
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below axis.

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Fig.6'H9RUH2EDE\VWHSUHVSRQVHRQWZHHWHUD[LV
DW" PVWLPHZLQGRZN+]EDQGZLGWK 

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RQWZHHWHUD[LVDW" PVULVHWLPH 

111

DEVORE FIDELITY ORANGUTAN O/BABY

O/96s but tight and well-resolved. In a way, it
more transparent than its larger
They got me an up close and
reminded me of the GoldenEar BRX but with
sibling, faster on its feet. The
personal audience with, for
added weight and extension. The O/babies demidrange is similarly rich and
example,
female
vocalists
as
livered big-bass tonnage on electronic records
see-through, and as I’ve said, in
by Photek, a Tribe Called Quest, and Erik B &
varied as Stacey Kent, Carmen my small room, the O/baby’s bass
Rakim.
was tight and well defined.
McRae, and FKA Twigs.
The O/baby’s exacting, revealing, supersilky
It’s worth emphasizing—or
treble resolved not just the title track’s swoop
reemphasizing, since I’ve menswoop swoop hi-hat eighth notes but also the perky hi-hat 16th
tioned this in previous reviews—that the O/96 is too large for my
notes above. The speaker’s precise treble focus and upper-midroom. That’s surely part of the reason the O/baby bested it in some
range clarity provided constant surprise and delight. The O/babies
ways: The smaller speaker didn’t excite my room’s resonant modes
reproduced the recent Craft Recordings reissue of Art Pepper’s
as much. Bass synths, electric bass, and upright acoustic bass all
Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section (LP, Contemporary Records C
got serious traction here but with enough freedom to fly (if the
3532/Craft CR00382) with resonance, depth, and ambience I didn’t
bassist happened to be Jaco Pastorius, Ray Brown, or Paul Chamknow existed on that record.
bers). As expected in a two-way, the low-end seamlessly merged
I understood what John DeVore meant when he called the O/baby
with the mids, but—to return to a defining characteristic of the new
“a miniature O/96”; the surprise is that in some ways it bettered the
speakers—the O/baby’s treble put musicians, especially vocalists,
O/96. As deployed on the O/baby, the shared tweeter may lack the
into the room. They got me an up close and personal audience with,
“pricey bronze mounts and horn outer parts” used in the $100,000/
for example, female vocalists as varied as Stacey Kent, Carmen
pair Orangutan O/Reference system, but it made the O/baby seem
McRae, and FKA Twigs.

JOHN DEVORE
Considering John DeVore’s long legs, on
his person and in the industry, I thought a
historical Q&A was in order.
KEN MICALLEF: Why did you become a
loudspeaker designer?
JOHN DEVORE: I’ve always been
an audiophile. I always had music
on and my hi-fi carefully set up,
even as a teenager. I loved music,
loved the gear, and was meticulous about the sound. In college, I
realized I would probably never be
able to afford the best speakers I
was listening to at hi-fi stores, and
so in the 1980s, I began reading up, studying, and eventually
designing and building my own.
KM: Did your folks play music
at home?
JD: My mom was a concert pianist
who absolutely loved chamber music. Our house was always filled
with music. When it wasn’t records, it was her practicing, either
by herself or with the numerous
chamber groups she played with
over the years. A benefit of being
the pianist is the other musicians
tend to come to you to rehearse.
Such intimate and formative
exposure to live music laid the
foundations of what I expected in
reproduced music. It’s fundamental to my taste in hi-fi.
KM: For a while, you made
slim-profile speakers—the
Gibbon series. Then, with the
Orangutan series—the O/96
and O/93—you started making
speakers with wide baffles. Why

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

the change?
JD: The wide form of the Orangutan models

was a natural development of what I was
trying to achieve: high sensitivity and lowpowered tube drivability. I quickly realized

that these parameters required the use
of much larger drivers than found in more
typical narrow designs. The designs simply
evolved from form following function. The
design and fine-tuning for all the models
is still based on my fundamental
tastes and personal experiences,
whether Gibbon or Orangutan
models.
KM: Is there a throughline for
your speakers? A trait they all
share?
JD: All my designs share a naturalness of timbre and transparency
to the source, in addition to being
much easier than most speakers
for an amplifier to drive.
KM: What amplifiers do you use
to evaluate your designs?
JD: Currently, Audio Research
VT130SE, Pass Labs Aleph 3, Air
Tight ATM-300R, Komuro 300B
and 845 SET amps, Parasound
Halo A 21, Hypex 250W class-D
monoblock amps, and an Enleum
AMP23-R.
KM: For which DeVore customer did you design the O/baby?
JD: I don’t pretend to know who
a DeVore Fidelity customer might
be. The customers I’ve met or
interacted with vary enormously.
I approached these new models
with ultimate cost as an important
consideration, so they will appeal
to users who are not comfortable
spending the money needed to
build an O/96 system. Also, size
and style should allow the O/
babies to fit into more homes.

113

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The fidata “X-Cluster SSD system” feeds data uniformly across multiple SSDs. The resulting ability to access data
within the clusters, smooths the load on the power supply by limiting deviations in power consumption. This
technology results in greater noise reduction allowing extraction of more “hidden data” from within a file,
providing a smoother, highly detailed and extremely dimensional soundstage.

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DEVORE FIDELITY ORANGUTAN O/BABY

Listening through the O/babies was like getting a new, slightly
more powerful set of prescription eyeglasses. The music snapped
into focus, with gains in immediacy, detail, and resolution. Even
the musical context was clarified as the ambience became more distinct. It all cohered; whole is the operative word with the O/babies.
No one will be surprised to learn that there were some ways that
the larger, much more expensive O/96s bested the O/babies—easily in some respects. The larger speakers cast a larger soundstage
populated with larger images. They generate deeper, weightier,
louder bass. They play louder overall, with a wider dynamic range.
But the O/baby did its own things well. My audition made me
think that the sound John DeVore hears in his head, or the way he
realizes that sound, isn’t static. As we’ve seen when he introduced
previous designs, he still has tricks up his sleeve.
The O/babies meet the reference system
The PrimaLuna EVO 400 integrated amplifier delivers a big stage
with mucho depth and provides punch and sparkle with lots of
drive. Combined with the O/babies’ similarly sparkly, energetic
demeanor, would it prove too much of a good thing?
I didn’t just add in the PrimaLuna, though. I substituted my
whole reference analog front-end, including the VPI Avenger Direct turntable. I heard big improvements in presence, tonality, and
dynamics, just for starters, with zero downside, which tells me not
only that the O/babies were transparent to upstream components
but that I may not have fully plumbed the limits of their abilities.
Conclusion
If you’ve wanted to experience the DeVore sound but have a smaller room, this speaker was made for you. If you’ve wanted to sample
DeVore Fidelity but at a lower price: ditto. The O/baby’s top end is

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Analog sources Michell TecnoDec turntable with T3 tonearm,

Goldring 1006 and Dynavector 10X5 LOW cartridges. VPI Avenger Direct turntable, VPI Fatboy tonearm, VPI Shyla MC cartridge.
Integrated amplifiers Parasound Hint 6, PrimaLuna EVO 400.
Preamplifiers Sugden LA-4, Tavish Audio Design Adagio phono.
Power amplifiers Pass Labs XA-25, LKV Research PWR-3.
Loudspeakers Volti Audio Razz, Spendor BC-1.
Cables Interconnects: AudioQuest Pegasus, Triode Wire Labs
Spirit II. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC: Triode Wire Labs Obsession NCF.
Accessories TonTräger loudspeaker stands, Pro-Ject VC-S2 ALU
Record Cleaning Machine, Audio Desk Systeme Vinyl Cleaner
Pro, Hunt Mark 6 Carbon Fiber Record Cleaning Brush, IsoTek
(92$TXDULXVOLQHFRQGLWLRQHU6DODPDQGHUࢉYHWLHU$UFKHW\SH
rack (2), IKEA Aptitlig bamboo chopping boards (under turntable, preamp, power and integrated amps), mahogany blocks
(three to a stack) under cutting boards.—Ken Micallef

sweetly extended, supertransparent, and informative—probably
beyond its older, larger, more expensive Orangutan siblings, both
of which spent years in this room. Its midrange is rich but also
transparent, in keeping with the DeVore house sound. The low-end
delivered everything that mattered on my jazz, electronic, and hiphop albums with, in this room, more clarity and better control than
the larger DeVores.
John DeVore named these speakers “O/baby,” cutely and appropriately, but these babies pack a mighty, two-fisted wallop. Q

»I didn´t have
any other speakers
that could reveal
as accurate a
sound stage...«
Jack Vad. Grammy Winning Engineer

Auditions: worldwide
in LINKWITZ Lounges
Best Of AXPONA 2022
Best Of Capital Audiofest 2022
Best Of AXPONA 2023

www.LINKWITZ.audio

“Breakthrough”

E Q UIPMENT REP ORT

HERB REICHERT

Hegel Viking
CD PLAYER

T

he pleasures of reviewing a new CD
The Viking put Gieseking’s Hegel Music Systems, in part
because Hegel’s founder and chief
player reside in its light weight, comminutest
tempo
changes
engineer Bent Holter appears to feel
pact dimensions, and, most of all, its
front and center where I
the same way I do. “In a world full
ABC-simple installation: no cartridge
of options for downloading music,
to mount, no stylus to break, no step-up transcould “watch” them and be
sound formats, compression methformers or cartridge-load values to explore.
captivated by them.
ods, and streaming services, putting
No server, no Ethernet switches, no digital
on some music can feel overwhelmprocessor or outboard clock, no NOS, OS, filter
ing. What should be easy and enjoyable suddenly becomes comchoices, or upsampling (usually), no DSD or DXD, no specialized
plex and stressful. Playing a CD on the Viking is not stressful. It is
cables, and—especially—no garish, billboard-sized LCD menu to
only joy. The Viking is a true-native 16/44.1 CD player developed
trigger anxiety. Just plug the player in, connect it to a preamp, and
from the ground up for optimal performance on standard (‘Red
choose a CD to play first.
Book’) CDs.”
Yes, folks, digital audio was once that simple.
Today’s audiophile digital is caught in a vicious cycle wherein
Streamed digital presents audiophiles with a morass of format
every company is vying for consumer attention by inventing new
choices, streaming-company choices, and recording-provenance
engineering strategies and declaring them more advanced than
uncertainties. When I stream an album from Tidal or Qobuz, I
their competitors’. I tell my friends that we’re living in the era of
never know where that version came from or how many mysteri“designer digital,” when every new DAC is a tech-fashion stateous black boxes it has passed through on its way to me and my
ment, employing the latest in math-based filtering and trendy engisystem. Streaming has forced me to lower certain expectations.
neering to make digital sound ever more refined and luxurious but
Streaming can sound amazing, but when it does, I look up and
only rarely more real or exciting.
point a finger at the sky.
“The Viking does not upsample or tamper with the signal in any
The #1 worst thing about streaming is, I never know when my
way. Because by leaving the signal as it is on the disc, the Viking’s
internet will shut down or a glitch in someone’s software will end
already excellent DAC can be optimized to perform at its absolute
my subscription, dissolve my playlists, and leave me wishing for a
best.”
CD player. Where’s the joy in that?
When I asked Holter why he chose the AKM4493SEQ DAC chip,
I’m pleased to be reviewing a new CD player, the Viking from

SPECIFICATIONS
Description CD player using

a new-manufacture AKM4493SEQ DAC chip. Analog
outputs: one unbalanced
(RCA) and one balanced (XLR),
one BNC true 75 ohm digital.
Maximum output level: 2.6V
RMS. Output impedance: 22

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

ohms unbalanced; 44 ohms
balanced.
Dimensions 3.54" (90mm) H ×
17" (431mm) W × 12" (305mm)
D. Weight: 16.1lb (7.3kg).
Finish Black steel.

Serial number of unit reviewed VIK-63A 108. Assem-

bled and packaged in China.
Price $5000. Approximate
number of dealers: 75.
Warranty: Two years,
nontransferable.

Manufacturer
Hegel Music Systems,
PB26, Blindern, 0314

Oslo, Norway.
Tel: (47) 22-60-56-60.
US distributor:
Hegel America, Inc.,
)DLUࢉHOG,$
Tel: (413) 224-2480.
Email: usa@hegel.com.

117

Sonja 3

The modular Sonja 3 platform sets a new reference point for accuracy and musicality. Cutting-edge
computational models and thousands of hours of listening have driven unprecented advances in every
area: from our exceptional Lattice tweeter to the revolutionary performance of the version 3 crossovers.
The end result? Loudspeakers which delight the senses and the soul.

yg-acoustics.com

HEGEL VIKING

he replied, “We chose this chip because, in our eyes, it is the best integrated circuit for a 16-bit CD player, where we have 100% control
over the master clock. When the master clock is of extremely high
quality, it is even more important that the DAC chip is bit perfect
and does not resample or modify the audio data. With our discrete,
ultralow-phase noise master clock, this AKM is what gives the
Viking its racehorse performance.”
When the Viking CD player arrived, I decided to find out right
away how “absolute best”—how racehorse-like—its performance
is by playing some beautiful, artful music that was beautifully and
artfully recorded, with no processing, editing, or dynamic range
compression. I chose the ensemble Rubato Appassionato playing Le Temple du Goût, an anthology of 18th century music from
Italy and France recorded in 2005 at Capella de la Mare de Deu de
L’Esperança Barri Gòtic Barcelona, Spain (M·A Recordings M075A).
It was afternoon, the time the French call quatre-heures, and I
thought Le Temple du Goût would launch this review from a good
place and make a flavorful tea-time amusement.
And it did. The Viking played this venerable Todd Garfinkle
recording beautifully, with heaping measures of accurate tone,
spatial acuity, and fine detail. What I didn’t expect was how strikingly the Viking player presented dynamics, rhythm, and momentum, three traits I rarely notice while streaming.
Description
Hegel Music Systems’ new Viking CD player costs the same ($5000)
and looks almost the same as the now-discontinued Mohican CD
player, which I reviewed in 2017. The Viking is designed to match
Hegel’s latest pre- and power amplifiers, the P30A and H30A; in
contrast to the Mohican’s white-letter logo on the face of the CD
drawer, the Hegel logo is now situated in a palmwide chamfer
at the top-center of the chassis front, just above the narrow slot
used to load CDs. To me, this slash-chamfer feels like just the right
amount of cosmetic change to make Hegel’s new chassis look better
dressed without compromising the company’s signature, oldschool serious look.
I felt genuinely bad when, in 2020, Eileen Gosvig, general man-

ager of Hegel America, and Anders Ertzeid, Hegel’s Norway-based
VP of sales and marketing, told me that the 32-bit AKM AK4490
DAC chip used in the Mohican had been discontinued, and consequently, so was the Mohican. I was sad because the Mohican was a
sturdy, honest-sounding, fun-to-use machine with the courage to
be a “Red Book”–only player.
The Mohican had a fat drawer for loading CDs; the Viking has a
skinny slot. The Mohican used a transport made by Sanyo. Hegel
is not naming the manufacturer for the new Viking’s transport:
Ertzeid says the company sources the Viking’s transport “from a
major supplier of car stereo. It is quite good and measurably more
precise than the one in the Mohican.”
When TEAC and Philips announced they would stop making
their highly regarded transports, it felt like the end of days for CD
players. And it still does, because the transport mechanism broke
in every CD player I owned except one, my first, a TEAC VRDS-10.
These fails sent the rest on a sad journey, first to the curb then to
the landfill.
Right now, I know of only five companies that make CD transports: Sanyo, which Hegel used in the Mohican; D&M (Denon/
Marantz), whose CD/SACD-capable mechanism is used in several
of today’s most expensive CD players; TEAC, which makes the
5020A-AT used in Primare products and the new VRDS mechanism
developed for use in its own VRDS-701 CD player and -701T CD
transport; and the one made by StreamUnlimited, which is used in
the new Schiit Urd. There is also a company in Lithuania that even
my manufacturer-friend who uses it in his products refused to
name. “Plague and war have seriously impacted CD player manufacturing,” he told me.
A few companies use NOS transport mechanisms from peak-CD.
Apparently there are quite a few of those still around.
Like the drawer-loaded Mohican, the slot-loaded Viking only
plays “Red Book” CDs—not HDCDs, SACDs, or MQA-CDs. It has two
2.5V fixed-level analog outputs, one unbalanced (RCA) and one balanced (XLR), and a true, 75 ohm digital output on a BNC connector.
And no digital inputs! It comes only in black, measures 3.5" × 17" ×
12", and weighs 16lb.

MEASUREMENTS
measured the Hegel Viking using my
Audio Precision SYS2722 system.1
As this player doesn’t have digital
inputs, I used test signals that I
EXUQHGRQD&'5,ࢉUVWXVHGWKHPierre
Verany Digital Test CD to check the Viking’s
error correction. It played the tracks
with gaps in the data spiral up to 1mm in
length without any problems, but there
were audible glitches when the gap was
longer than 1mm or when there were two
0.5mm gaps in succession. The Compact
Disc standard, the so-called “Red Book,”
requires that a player cope with gaps of
only up to 0.2mm, and the Hegel exceeds
that standard. But the Hegel’s error correction is not as good as the best players
or transports that I have measured in
recent years.
As the Hegel Viking has a coaxial digital
output, to allow it to be used as a CD
transport with a separate D/A processor, I

I

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

examined the quality of that output. Fig.1
was taken from the digital output with a
CD playing J-Test data plotted over one
“unit cycle.” The eye pattern is wide open,
with almost no blurring of the leading and
trailing edges. The average jitter level,
assessed with a 50Hz–100kHz bandwidth,
was low, at 389 picoseconds (ps) compared
with 340.5ps when I looped the Audio
Precision SYS2722’s S/PDIF output to its coaxial input. Peculiarly, the Audio Precision’s
“Active Bits” monitor indicated that, in adGLWLRQWRWKHH[SHFWHGPRVWVLJQLࢉFDQW
ELWVWKHWKRUOHDVWVLJQLࢉFDQWELWZDV
active in the Hegel’s output datastream.
The Viking’s single-ended output
impedance was a low 22 ohms from 20Hz
to 20kHz; the balanced impedance was a
still-low 44 ohms, again across the audioband. A 1kHz signal at 0dBFS resulted in an
output level of 2.51V, which is 1.9dB higher
than the CD Standard’s recommended

maximum level of 2V. The Hegel’s impulse
UHVSRQVH ࢉJ LQGLFDWHVWKDWWKHRXWSXW
preserved absolute polarity from both
types of analog output and that its reconVWUXFWLRQࢉOWHULVDPLQLPXPSKDVHW\SH
1 See stereophile.com/content/measurements-mapsprecision.

V

sec

Fig.1 Hegel Viking, eye pattern of coaxial S/PDIF
output carrying 16-bit, 44.1kHz J-Test data (±400mV
vertical scale, 175ns horizontal scale).

119

HEGEL VIKING

Listening
Throughout my auditions, the difference in sound quality between
streaming via my reference DAC and playing CDs through the
Viking was mostly a matter of contrast: CDs exhibited more
crystallized forms than similar recordings played back from Tidal
at CD resolution. The Viking projected images with more-distinct
outlines than Tidal’s 16/44.1 tracks. Those more-distinct forms felt
more relaxed and less edge-sharpened than similar recordings of
the same program at higher sampling rates on Qobuz.1 I kept thinking that detail, contrast, and resolution-wise, Hegel’s Viking sat
naturally in the middle between 16/44.1 Tidal and high-rez Qobuz.2
Unfortunately, this CD-vs-streaming observation is less than a
click above meaningless, because any sound-quality differences I
noticed are most likely the result of sound-character differences
between the Viking’s DAC and my reference Denafrips Terminator Plus R-2R converter. Still, examining those differences closely
might be the only way to get a feel for the quality of the Viking’s
DAC. To that end, I made a point of listening to CDs first through
the Viking’s analog output and then, when the recording seemed
deserving, through its BNC digital output into the Denafrips DAC.
The timeless poetics of Claude Debussy’s compositions for

piano have been a decades-long inspiration for my own visual art. I
aspire to make contemplation-inducing paintings that feel as deep
and sensual as the Debussy creations that ushered in the modern
era. I want my atmospheres to be as evanescent as his and my
colors to float as insubstantially as Debussy’s notes.
To my taste, no pianist projects Claude’s notes or channels his
poetic intentions better than Walter Gieseking. When playing
Debussy, Gieseking sometimes used the pedals to paint tones and
overtones so translucent, so ephemeral, so “impressionistic” that
his piano seemed hammerless. Moments later, he would pound
out a progression of clear, unpedaled notes, reminding everyone
why Debussy is now considered a pioneering Modernist, not a late
Impressionist. Gieseking evinces a preternatural feel for tempo
and propulsion, and his expressive range of soft-to-hard, earthto-heaven dynamics is exceeded only by Samson François and
Debussy himself.
1 I say “similar recordings” because I have no way of knowing whether a streamed recording of the same performance shares any provenance with my CD.
2 Tidal is currently in transition mode, apparently moving away from MQA and toward
hi-rez FLAC. So far, though, all the (non-MQA) FLAC files I’ve encountered on Tidal have
been CD-rez.

measurements, continued
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December 2023

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stereophile.com

HEGEL VIKING

The Viking’s ability to expose Gieseking’s morphing tempos enabled me to revisit and mind meld with Gieseking’s transcendental
Debussy via a four-CD box set of his performances of Debussy and
Maurice Ravel (New Classical Adventure/Audiophidelity LC 12281).
These CDs are digital remasters made from a digital source, most
likely several steps removed from the original analog masters, yet
the Viking found the room, air, microphones, and—I swear, during
the quietest passages—some faint tube glow and a few momentary
hints of these recordings’ magnetic-tape origins. These are subtle
things I’ve never noticed while streaming, not even when streaming CD rips from local storage.
More obviously, and more importantly, the Viking put Gieseking’s minutest tempo changes front and center where I could
“watch” them and be captivated by them. Streaming rarely exposes
tempi this minutely. The Viking CD player made me feel like
CDs were somehow preserving the timing more perfectly than
streamed files. I wondered whether Holter’s tinkering with the
master clock might have enhanced this effect.
On some tracks, I watched my mind as it watched Gieseking
execute these tempo changes, from a vantage point slightly above
the piano, where I presume the microphones were hung. From that
vantage point, I watched volumes of harmonically charged energy
spread out in sync with the movements of his hands. This raw
piano energy was framed and absorbed by energy echoing off what
sounded like nearby walls of a not-large room. Echo chambers and
artificial reverb were scarce to nonexistent during Gieseking’s
lifetime, so it’s likely these performances were recorded in a small
studio or recital hall. The Viking showed me a small, moderately
lively room.
These recordings contain so much intense pianism that I was
more than curious to see what would change when I used a strand
of AudioQuest Cinnamon digital cable to connect the Viking’s digital output to the Denafrips Terminator Plus DAC’s S/PDIF input.3
When I played these Gieseking-Debussy CDs through the T-Plus,

in my preferred NOS mode, I observed an almost jolting increase
in dynamic expression. With the Viking as a transport with the
Terminator Plus DAC, the range of dynamic shading between the
softest and loudest notes was greater than it had been with the
Viking’s DAC—obviously so: Soft notes were softer and loud notes
were louder, with more distinct gradations of loudness in between.
With the Viking feeding the T-Plus, bass had a larger, stronger
force behind it, coming through more solidly than it did with
Viking’s AKM-based DAC. These forceful bass dynamics were
hardly more noticeable than how much the Denafrips made the
sky open through the top octaves. Treble detail was more present
and discernable. But what caused these differences? My brain
chalked these sonic improvements up to the Denafrips’s highpower current-to-voltage conversion and its multiple overspec’d
power supplies. Its non-oversampling architecture is another
obvious candidate.
While not as wham-pow as the Terminator, the Viking’s conspicuously strong drive and tempo reproduction are testimony
to the quality of its current-to-voltage conversion and its linear
power supply.
To finalize this DAC-to-DAC comparison—this is also commentary on the (apparently high) quality of the Viking transport—I
decided to listen using a simple, single-microphone recording that
I know extremely well and have used to analyze a wide range of
digital processors: “Buddy & Maria Elena Talking in Apartment
(Undubbed Version),” recorded during the first weeks of 1959, from
a three-CD set entitled Buddy Holly Down The Line Rarities (Decca
B0011675-2). To zero in on this recording’s atmosphere, I used the
state-of-the-art Meze Elite headphones powered by the extraordinary headphone amp in the Elekit TU-8900. This amp-headphone
combination is extremely insightful, and I felt confident in its abil3 The most current Denafrips Terminator Plus, the 12th Anniversary Edition, retails for
just over $7500—substantially more than the Hegel Viking—and of course it includes no
transport. When the model I own was replaced, it cost roughly $6400.

measurements, continued
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HEGEL VIKING

ity to show me what I needed to hear.
What I didn’t expect was how comparison out of the way at the
When I played the Buddy & Maria Elena
beginning of my auditions because
strikingly the Viking player
talking track through the Viking’s balthe real value of the Viking CD player
presented
dynamics,
rhythm,
anced analog output, I thought the track’s
resides not in how effective it is as
opening section with Fifth Avenue street
and momentum, three traits I a transport (very effective) or even
noise coming in through an open window
its DAC compared to a $7500 NOS
rarely notice while streaming. how
sounded thick and not as airy or transR-2R DAC (a comparison where the
parent as it usually does. This part of the
Viking also did very well) but in how
recording always pleases me because I know I am listening to the
it felt to use it and how exciting it made playing CDs.
sounds of actual 1950s automobiles sitting in traffic in New York
City in 1959 and, more remarkably, the sounds of Buddy and Maria
CDs are for collecting
enjoying themselves privately (smoking pot?) in their apartment
Talk about collectable CD box sets: You ain’t lived till you broke the
just weeks before Buddy died. That’s audio verité.
paper seal on You Ain’t Talkin’ to Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots
With the Viking’s DAC, street sounds sounded muffled, but
of Country Music (CD, Columbia Legacy Recordings AC3K 92780),
30 seconds in I realized that Buddy’s and Elena’s voices sounded
which comes in a wooden cigar box with an R. Crumb portrait of
nearer than usual to the microphone, which made them sound
Charlie Poole stuck to its lid. Inside are three CDs in rag-paper
clearer and rawer and more like real people talking. This “real
sleeves and a luxuriously produced 35-page booklet explaining the
people’s voices” part really grabbed me. The room sounds were less
origin stories of the 72 78rpm transfers made by Christopher King
spacious and well-defined than I am accustomed to, but Buddy’s
and restored and mastered by Andreas Meyer and Darcy Proper,
and Maria’s voices sounded right there, like they were sitting
respectively. In my experience, digital masters from 78s can sound
together on the couch by the coffee table (which maybe they were),
anywhere from dull and robotic (because the noise-reduction softand I was there with them.
ware was wielded with a too-heavy hand), to moderately delightful,
When the Viking’s digital output was feeding Denafrips’s
like the tracks on this Charlie Poole set. These 78s came from the
Terminator Plus, Buddy’s wife Maria was back where she usually
collections of Joe Bussard and John Coffey, and I bet they sounded
was, maybe a dozen feet behind the table-mounted microphone,
goosebump-level vivid on their 78-optimized systems. Through the
possibly in a kitchenette, talking on what was surely a wallHegel Viking, these highly processed remasters sounded quieter
mounted Bakelite telephone. (I can tell by how it sounds when she
than necessary but enjoyably sweet and folk-poetry authentic.
hangs up the receiver.) I felt like an invisible guest sitting on the
The Viking showed how carefully the remastering cats tried to
floor by the couch.
strike an appropriately tasteful balance between raw 78 sound
With the Terminator Plus, full-room spatial mapping was dra(which I love) and civilized modern sound, but to my taste, on these
matically more specific and three-dimensional, but the Viking with
CDs, they went too far. Nevertheless, Hegel’s Viking did its job
its own DAC felt more solid, more being there real.
perfectly, keeping my sound critique to a minimum, and my heart
I was happy to have gotten this Viking DAC–to–Denafrips DAC
locked on to all 72 tracks of this important box set.

measurements, continued
the high-order harmonics disappeared and
the third harmonic dropped by 10dB in the
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125

“ONCE HEARD, NEVER FORGOTTEN!”
Soundstage Global

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by AV Luxury Group International
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HEGEL VIKING

As a vocalist, I put Bob Dylan right up there with Little
Richard and Frank Sinatra, and I’ve bought nearly every record
he’s released. But I’ve always cringed at how bad his Columbia
recordings make his voice sound: opaque, compressed, slurred,
and muffled in a manner that would have killed a lesser artist.
Therefore, I’ve also purchased a lot of bootleg CDs of Dylan’s live
concerts because I felt these performances got me closer to Bob’s
songs than his studio issues do, even though the sound quality
on these live bootlegs was usually pretty rough and rowdy. In
the early ’90s, Columbia decided to cut in on the bootleg action
and began releasing a series of “bootleg” CDs featuring studio
outtakes that sounded more intimate and less overproduced than
their official releases. These bootlegs came in luxurious Deluxe
or Collector Edition packaging and featured multiple studio
outtakes of Dylan’s most iconic songs. These beautiful sets were
carefully mastered to come through just-washed fresh and Dylanscholar curated.
Through the Hegel Viking, the “Cutting Edge Deluxe Edition”
of Volume 12, Bob Dylan 1965–1966 (Columbia 88875124412)
consumed a whole day of my life, and by the time I’d heard six versions of “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again,”
I felt closer than ever to my hero. I would characterize the sound
through the Viking as not hard, or soft, or blurred, or shallow, or
tone-shifted in any way. All three discs came through crisp but
supple and straightforward, leaning toward slightly dry. Most of
these Volume 12 tracks were not close to the final album arrangement, so it was wild watching Dylan experiment, searching for
better and better arrangements to support his lyrics. The Viking
recovered these tracks in a sturdy, musically satisfying manner
that exposed Dylan as a master of bent words, eccentric phrasing,
and meaning-laden poetics.

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Digital sources Roon Nucleus+ music server; Denafrips Termi-

nator Plus DAC.
Preamplifiers PrimaLuna EVO 400, HoloAudio Serene.
Power amplifiers Parasound Halo A 21+, Elekit TU-8900.
Loudspeakers Falcon Acoustics LS3/5a Gold Badge, Heretic
AD614. Headphones: Meze Elite.
Cables Digital: AudioQuest Diamond USB and Cinnamon coaxial. Interconnect: AudioQuest ThunderBird, Cardas Clear Beyond,
Ikigai Audio Kangai-level. Speaker: Ikigai Audio Kangai-level. AC:
AudioQuest Tornado, manufacturer’s own.
Accessories AudioQuest Niagara 1000 power conditioner;
Harmonic Resolution Systems M3X-1719-AMG GR LF isolation
platform, Sound Anchor Reference speaker stands (for Falcons),
Fidelis custom stands under Heretics.—Herb Reichert

Which brings me to a dumb Herb-question: When audiophiles
rip their CDs to hard drives, what do they do with the deluxe
packaging?
The silver disc is still alive
Hegel Music Systems’ Viking presented every CD with enough
verve, transparency, and natural detail to make each disc sound
distinctly different, which shows that the player’s sound was not
swamping the disc’s sound. This ability to disappear and put the
character and vital energies of recordings up front made the
Viking exciting to use, and that is my highest compliment. Highly
recommended. Q

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E Q UIPMENT REP ORT

JULIE MULLINS

Audeze LCD-5
HEADPHONES

Y

ears ago, as a side gig
with a friend, I started a
small business importing and distributing
high-end women’s garments from
European makers: swimwear,
hosiery, bodysuits, underwear. At
the time, the consistent fit and finish, comfort, and manufacturing
quality we appreciated was hard
to find stateside.
I never thought I’d see these
two interests—women’s undergarments and hi-fi—converge,
until I started researching this
review of the $4500 Audeze LCD-5
headphones, the company’s current flagship.
Sometime in the middle of the
previous decade, Audeze was
seeking a better way to make
comfortable, high-performance
ear cups. A well-connected
packaging vendor learned about
this project and took the Audeze
design team to visit a small factory in “the OC”—Orange County,
California—that uses thermoforming machines to mold foam
into contoured forms for use in,
among other products, push-up bras. Turns out, the requirements
for these two product categories are not all that different. A curvy
path then led to Audeze’s process for making better-fitting, contoured earpads for superior comfort, seal, and sound. The LCD-5
features the most recent version of this high-tech ear cup concept.
The whole LCD-5 is manufactured close by, at Audeze’s facility in
Santa Ana, also in the OC.
The LCD-5’s black leather earpads are the softest I recall ever
nestling on my ear. But there’s more to these earpads than meets
the skin—they were “sculpted to eliminate resonance and ab-

sorption as much as possible,”
Audeze’s Chris Berens told me in
an email. Audeze refers to Chris
as their “artist-relations guru,”
reflecting the fact that, in addition
to the audiophile market, Audeze
does a good bit of business in the
pro-audio sector as well: recording and mastering engineers and
musicians in the studio. Audeze’s
top-range ’phones have a reputation for being sonically revealing
yet nonfatiguing, snug-fitting yet
comfortable, even for long listening sessions—characteristics that
endear them to musicians,1 recording engineers, audiophiles …
… and doctors? In 2016,
industrial-design firm BoomBang
and researchers from UCLA’s
Semel Institute for Neuroscience
and Human Behavior approached
Audeze for help designing a
headphone that could be used
inside an MRI machine. It had
to cancel noise effectively (those
MRI chambers are loud), incorporate a microphone, and—most
important—be transparent to
the scanner and safe in a powerful magnetic field. Herb Reichert told this story in Gramophone
Dreams #56, including his assessment of the civilian version of
the resulting headphone, the Audeze CRBN.2 I heard it at CanJam,3
powered by one of the same headphone amplifiers I used in this
1 They seem to have a special affinity for guitarists: The LCD-5 publicity pack features
photos of Julian Lage and Bill Frisell.—Jim Austin
2 See stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-56-woo-audio-3es-preamplifierheadphone-amplifier-and-audeze-crbn-0.
3 See stereophile.com/content/canjam-nyc-2022-audeze-crbn-electrostatic-headphonesand-filter-portable-speaker.

SPECIFICATIONS
Description over-ear,
open-back, planar-magnetic
headphones. Transducer
size: 90mm. Impedance: 14
ohms. Sensitivity: 90dB/mW,
measured at Drum Reference
Point. Frequency range: 5Hz–

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

5kHz. THD: <0.1% @ 100dB.
Maximum power handling: 5W
RMS. Minimum power: 100mW.
Recommended power: 250mW.
Maximum SPL: >130dB.
Weight 0.926lb (420gm).

Serial number of unit

reviewed 5-2029. Designed

and manufactured in California.
Price $4500. Approximate
number of US dealers: 156, also
sold online. Warranty: three
years for drivers, one year for
everything else.

Manufacturer
Audeze,
3412 S. Susan St.,
Santa Ana, California 92704
Tel: (714) 581-8010.
Email: support@audeze.com.
Web: audeze.com.

129

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review, the Linear Tube Audio (LTA) Z10e.
Audeze is in the gaming sector, too. The company made headlines lately when it was acquired by Sony, mainly for their gaming
headsets; Sony, of course, makes the PlayStation. Apparently, the
Audeze Maxwell is a major hit among gamers.
The product
Audeze’s LCD-5 headphone arrived nestled neatly in a black aluminum travel case, similar in its dimensions to my oboe case with a
similar suitcase-style handle and molded foam inserts to secure the
’phone in place. The case provides protection, which is good, and
it looks rather serious: I felt conspicuous when I took the LCD-5 to
the radio station to monitor my
weekly show on WAIF, feeling
more secret agent than deejay.
The case has latches; there’s
even a key. The matte-black finish is susceptible to scratching,
but that’s okay: A scratched
aluminum case shows the headphones have been in action.
The LCD-5 is the successor to
the LCD-4, which John Atkinson
reviewed for Stereophile and
Tyll Herstens reviewed and
measured for InnerFidelity.4
Like its predecessor, the LCD-5
uses planar-magnetic technology. Planar drivers must have a
large surface area, sometimes
resulting in a headphone that
is heavy and clunky. Yet the
LCD-5 weighs 420gm, a little
less than a pound, one-third less than its predecessor. The Audeze
website calls that weight “blazingly” low, and it is indeed low for a
planar magnetic, though it’s still considerably heavier than some
dynamic headphones.
The LCD-5 incorporates several technical improvements over
the LCD-4. The 90mm diaphragm’s Nano Scale polymer diaphragm
is 0.5 microns thick—much thinner than the previous Ultra-Thin
diaphragm and said to be among the world’s thinnest.
The LCD-5 drivers use proprietary, single-sided Fluxor neodymium N50 magnet arrays and a voice-coil concept called Parallel
Uniforce. The idea is to vary the width of the conductor to match,
or counter, variations in the magnetic flux to achieve uniform
force across the membrane. The secret sauce is Audeze’s process
of etching the headphone’s particular voice-coil pattern into the
conducting layer. “Each headphone model has its own unique
voice-coil pattern, which is computer-optimized for the best relationship to the flux density of its magnet arrangement,” Berens said
in an emailed response to my questions. “The LCD-5 pattern is by
far the most advanced and complex” of all Audeze’s offerings. “The
Parallel Uniforce voice-coil is a big part of increasing efficiency
while reducing weight, since we were able to use roughly half the
number of magnets compared to LCD-4 while keeping the impedance low to make the drivers relatively easy to drive,” Berens said.
All this technology adds up to a transducer with a sci-fi–sounding
name: Nano-Scale Parallel Uniforce.
With all their headphones, Audeze strives for a house sound.
Their proprietary target graph is similar, but not identical, to the
Harman curve.
In addition to those soft leather earpads, the enclosures’ other
structure had material updates. The headband is made of carbon
fiber. The yokes, grilles, and some internal parts are magnesium.
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Other internal parts, including the stator plates, are aluminum.
The yoke rods are stainless steel.
Whether a headphone is sealed or open-back—the LCD-5 is
open—the ear cup’s interior and its seal with the user’s head is an
engineered space that needs to be optimized for the soundwaves
moving inside it. The tapered design of the LCD-5 earpads minimizes contact area while maintaining a good seal. Their shape is said to
reduce interior reflections. The LCD-5’s “Fazor” waveguides—another technology with a sci-fi name—are said to organize soundwave energy, reducing diffraction close to the ear.
With some headphones, the earpad cushions attach with clips or
magnets, making them easy to remove and switch out. Some companies even provide a variety
of earpads to let you fine-tune
the sound. The ear cups on
Audeze’s higher-end models
are attached semipermanently
because Audeze is unwilling to
compromise sound quality.5 Besides, Audeze argues, Audeze
headphone users change earpads only every three to seven
years. When it’s time to replace
the earpads, they’ll send you a
kit for $125, with a new set of
earpads and instructions. Replacement is straightforward
and takes about five minutes,
Berens said.
The LCD-5 ships with a
slender, braided 2.5m cable that
ends in a 4-pin, balanced XLR
termination. A 1/4" adapter is
included. Directional, high-purity, continuous-cast copper strands
guide the signal. The cable feels substantial—it is likely to hold up
well—but it’s not heavy and it is quite flexible. Customers may, of
course, replace it with an aftermarket cable. Upon connection, the
cables lock securely into place with a click.
When it comes to headphones, I’m not an easy fit. Most headphones need to be set to the smallest/tightest setting to stay
securely on my noggin. The LCD-5 fit my head and ears with what
felt like a very good seal with a couple of notches left over.
One final, well-conceived detail: The cable-connection sockets
are positioned farther back on the ear cups than on many other
headphones, which helps keep the cables out of the way—farther
from your hands and out of your face. The cable’s “Goldilocks”
length worked well for me: long enough to let me roll a comfy office
chair around, but not so long that the cable dragged on the floor
or found its way under the chair wheels in the studio at the radio
station.
Listening
I plugged the LCD-5 into my PS Audio Sprout100 integrated amplifier’s 1/4" headphone jack for a few score hours of break-in time.
Serious listening started with the Audeze sourced and driven
by the Mytek Brooklyn Bridge DAC/streamer/preamplifier—the
discontinued version, not the current one—playing tracks from
my computer’s SSD via a USB connection. To listen balanced, I fed
4 See stereophile.com/content/audeze-lcd-4-headphones and stereophile.com/content/
technologically-impressive-lcd-4-planar-magnetic-headphone.
5 A graph provided by Audeze shows a significant reduction in low-bass output with clipon earpads—but also significant changes in the treble, especially the presence region. See
audeze.com/blogs/technology-and-innovation/why-we-use-adhesive-to-attach-earpads-onour-upper-end-models.

131

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Brooklyn Bridge’s line output to the Mytek Liberty THX AAA HPA
headphone amplifier, using the Liberty’s balanced XLR jack to connect the LCD-5. Later, I listened through a loaner LTA Z10e.
Whatever source/amplifier setup I used, aspects of the LCD-5’s
signature sound seemed consistent: air, spaciousness, and openness combined with copious fine detail. The LCD-5 was plenty
revealing. The LTA amplifier supplied more body, while the Mytek
amplifiers enhanced detail. My guess is that most audiophiles
would prefer the LTA, a pairing Audeze specifically recommended
to me, though for studio use, something like the Mytek might be a
better fit. It depends what you’re listening for, I guess.
The LCD-5 encouraged me to listen anew to corners of my
music collection that had been gathering dust, including some old
Y2K-era compilation CDs. I cued up a couple of tracks from DJ Pogo
Presents Block Party Breaks – Classic Original Breaks and Rare Funk
45s (16/44.1 FLAC CD rip, Strut Records STRUTCD002), a collection of classic tracks whose grooves got (and still get) sampled
on hip-hop tunes. Esther Williams’s “Last Night Changed It All (I
Really Had a Ball),” the CD’s first track, kicked off the party with
crisp percussion, disco-style strings, and a catchy chorus. The
production’s individual elements were distinct, easy to hear—it’s
clear why these ’phones are popular among sound engineers.
Next up, the fun, funky wah-wah groove on Badder Than Evil’s
“Hot Wheels (The Chase),” which poured into my ears heavy and
thick, infectious and irresistible. Next, I listened to Babe Ruth’s
rendition of “The Mexican,” by Babe Ruth songwriter and guitarist
Alan Shatlock, which originally appeared on the album First Base.
I encourage you to listen then guess where the band is from.6 The
revealing nature of the LCD-5 kept me listening, rapt, tuned in to
track-to-track production variations. On all these tracks, the music
sounded full-blown, spread out, spacious. Instruments expanded
beyond the headphones—beyond my ears—in various directions.
M.I.A.’s mashup of global influences, styles, and rhythms came
together on her debut Arular (CD, Interscope/XL Recordings
B0004844-02), which sprung to life in 2005 full of flavor and color.
I cued up “Sunshowers,” a single released ahead of this studio
album, which was derived from “Sunshower” by Dr. Buzzard’s
Original Savannah Band, cofounded by Kid Creole. A distant,
high-pitched hand drum precedes the vocals. Driven by the LTA,
the LCD-5 provided a tactile rendering of that drum’s skin, its
sense of boingy bounce and its timbral variations. As the catchy,
punchy tune bubbles over into the song’s quirky chorus, idiosyncratic pulses and pops punctuate the accents and syncopated
rhythms. The low, dubby backbeat bass sounded generous, clean,
and present, topped off by the buzzy fizz of M.I.A.’s Roland MC-505
sequencer/drum machine.
Atypical time signatures and blends of styles from free jazz
to twangy country turn up on Horse Lords’ “Mess Mend” from
Comradely Objects (24/96 WAV download, RVNG Intl. RVNGNL95).
There’s a lot to sort through on this track, but sorting through is
the LCD-5’s forte; it rendered this mélange of instruments into
clear individual images.
For a sample of traditional audiophile fare, I cued up a headphone mix of David Chesky’s The Excommunication Mass (24/48
WAV download, The Audiophile Society). On “Gabriel 8 ‘Hallelujah’,” the LCD-5’s spatial presentation—its rendition of the positions
of the choir’s various sections and soloists (left, right, blended),
with the instruments farther away—made this an immersive
experience. Hints of height were rendered along with a clear sense
of the acoustics of the recording space.
Live recordings sounded live; well-made studio recordings
sounded alive, with sufficient energy and detail to seem real.
Take Revelators (EP, 37d03d–030) from Revelators Sound System,
a collaboration led by M.C. Taylor (Hiss Golden Messenger) and
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Cameron Ralston (Glows in the Dark; the Spacebomb House Band).
This EP showed how the LCD-5’s handle air and space around
instruments on a soundstage occupied by a slew of them. Spacey,
soulful free jazz, looping guitars, and rich textures and rhythms
fill four instrumental tracks. On the meandering “Grieving,” J.C.
Kuhl’s breath against the reed at the end of his saxophone intro was
in-your-face intense. As the pace picked up, subtle dynamic variations built tension. Light taps on a cowbell (or possibly an agogo)
were clean on the attack. Each layer of this track occupied its own
space inside and around my head, making it effortless to slide into
its mellow groove.
The pianissimo intro on “Bury the Bell,” then the clear-as-a-bell
swells from what sounded like a clarinet (possibly with added effects) ahead of the track’s 2:00 mark sounded smooth and hypnotic,
powered by the LTA. The Brooklyn Bridge made it easier to identify the instrument as a clarinet. The piano sounded natural and
neutral regardless of which amplifier was used.
A highlight: At one point early in this track, I felt as though the
sound I was hearing wasn’t from the ’phones at all but from the
room beyond the headphones—my room. I moved one of the ear
cups aside just to be sure. The sound was coming from the headphones of course, and not the room, but the illusion was convincing.
The Heartless Bastards’ “Only for You,” from the album Arrow (CD, Partisan Records PTKF2101CD), delivered an audiophile
cliché: hearing a longtime familiar track as if for the first time. On
this track, Erika Wennerstrom explores her rich, earthy voice’s
range in a gutsy, heartfelt performance. Via the LCD-5, the production came through as at once raw and refined, in equal measure,
kicking off solidly with lone snare beats that sounded real in scale,
timbre, and time. Heavy, bluesy guitar grooves spiraled into solos.
Crisp drums wound down to a bookend conclusion. I played it
again just for fun.
Franz Ferdinand’s self-titled debut (CD, Domino Recording Co
Ltd EK 92441) was a blast to revisit. Maybe I was inspired by having
caught one of their live shows recently. All manner of PRaT stood
out on this raucous romp of punk-infused, danceable art rock,
recorded very loud. Not a problem though: This music is made for
turning it up.
On the introduction to “This Fire,” the ride cymbal sounded
ridiculously clean and close-up. Most tracks took on added, fiery
intensity. This stacked mix can feel packed in—compressed, spatially and otherwise—but the LCD-5 served it well, giving the music
room to breathe. The album’s rapid-fire tight, driving energy came
alive in and around my ears. “Auf Achse” revives a kind of mournful, New Romantic spirit, with organlike riffs backed by a dancey
bassline. The weird, theremin-like sound (probably a Moog) came
through more distinctly than it usually does.
I took listening to the LCD-5 as an opportunity to compare an
original and reissue LP release. I reached for Nina Simone’s Pastel
Blues (LP, Philips PHS 600-187), my old copy first. Then I listened
to the 2020 Analogue Productions reissue (Verve PHS 600-187
/ B0032266-01), remastered from the original tapes, which my
father gave me. The newer, heavier (180gm) vinyl was noticeably
smoother, with, as expected, quieter backgrounds. The absence
of distracting noise smoothed my mood and allowed me to soak
in Simone’s unique timbre and appreciate the microdynamics
the LCD-5 conveyed. I heard subtle vocal nuances, including her
softly fraying vibrato, with great clarity. The edges seemed slightly
smoother and cleaner than on the old LP, but the raw glory of
Simone’s original performance and her close-up delivery was
6 Babe Ruth was an English band founded in 1971. “The Mexican” was an early hit at discos.
It is “considered influential in the early development of b-boying and hip-hop culture,”
according to Wikipedia.

133

$8'(=(/&'৴

retained. Her finger snaps, on her rendition of Billie Holiday’s “Tell
Me More and More and Then Some,” were tactile, physical. When
she approached the end of her breath at the end of certain lines, I
found myself holding mine in anticipation.
Finally, I transported the LCD-5 in its case to the local radio station for my weekly show. My voice on mike sounded crystal clear,
far more immediate and detailed than I was accustomed to. My
direction and distance from the mike registered more precisely.
I seldom script my shows, aside from a few notes, and what I was
hearing was so eye-opening—ear-opening—that it almost threw
me off my game. Instead, I stayed focused, and the LCD-5 upped
my game, attracting my attention to my breathing and leading
me to enunciate better. The LCD-5 made me vigilant and probably
improved my on-air performance.
Conclusion
A headphone that helps get the music out of your head may seem
ironic, but it’s a good thing when it happens. The word immersive
comes to mind: The Audeze LCD-5 delivered a different kind of
immersive listening experience, without any special Dolby Atmos
tricks. These are headphones, sure, but (assuming the recording
allows for it) they’re capable of delivering an experience that’s
less headphone-like, roughly approximating the experience of
loudspeakers—all over the room, not limited to two. Their sound
is detailed and insightful but never aggressive, nonfatiguing, and
always enjoyable.
As Audeze’s flagship headphone, the LCD-5 is pricey, but you can
expect it to last for years, through several changes of its special ear
cups. Its handling of microdynamics and detail makes it suitable
for use not just at home but also in the studio. It fosters a keener
awareness of and appreciation for differences in production,

ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT
Amplification Original Mytek Brooklyn Bridge, Linear Tube
Audio (LTA) Z10E. PS Audio Sprout100.
Analog sources Clearaudio Performance DC Wood turntable
with Tracer tonearm and Talismann v2 MC cartridge; MoFi Electronics UltraDeck turntable with tonearm and UltraTracker MM
cartridge and weight. MoFi Electronics StudioPhono phono pre.
Digital sources MBL N31 DAC/CD player, MacBook Air (M1,
2020) as Roon Server, Mytek HPA AAA Liberty DAC.
Cables Analog interconnects: Ansuz Acoustics Signalz D2;
Morrow Audio MA-3 and MA-6. Digital interconnect (Ethernet):
AudioQuest Vodka. AC: Ansuz Acoustics Mainz D2, AudioQuest
Monsoon and NRG-Z3.
Accessories AudioQuest Niagara 1200 Low-Z Power NoiseDissipation System. Critical Mass Systems Maxxum equipment
racks. Record Doctor VI record cleaning machine. AudioQuest
Antistatic Record Brush. Onzow Zerodust stylus cleaner.
—Julie Mullins

across a broad array of styles and eras. It stoked my curiosity,
urging me to dig deeper into my collection: What hidden elements
might be unearthed?
You don’t have to be an audio pro to appreciate what a headphone like the LCD-5 reveals. It allowed me to examine music
forensically, to get into the guts of it, all its pieces and parts, pretty
or not, but always intriguing. That I did so, always, with pleasure,
shows that analytical listening and listening for pleasure need not
be mutually exclusive. Q

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FOLLOW-UP

A SECOND IMPRESSION

BY KEN MICALLEF
THIS ISSUE : Ken Micallef
listens to the Volti Audio Razz.

VOLTI AUDIO RAZZ
When I reviewed Volti Audio’s horn-loaded, 125lb Rival in 2017, I was captivated by its
lifelike, send-me-over-the-moon dynamics, its lush sound, and its ability to work well with
almost any amplifier. “The Rivals played music with supreme fidelity, openness, lifelike
images, transparency, impact, touch, timing, dynamics, and flat-out musical fun,” I wrote.
“They sang with tubed amplification and worked equally well with solid state. The Volti
Audio Rivals are inspirational music-makers. Magnifico!” 1
Tom Gibbs expressed similarly favorable opinions when he reviewed Volti’s smaller,
cheaper Razz in 2020.2 He wrote, “The ability of Volti Audio’s Razz to portray music of any
genre with scale, realism, and thrilling dynamics is unmatched by any loudspeaker I’ve
had in my system. The Razzes demonstrate a lovely midrange liquidity, but there’s no sacrifice of detail. The type of amplification—tubed or solid-state—made some difference in the
Razz’s sonic presentation, but the result was never less than musical.”
Today, the Razz in standard finish costs
$7500/pair, a significant increase over the
prepandemic price. It’s a three-way that
features a 1” compression tweeter, a 2"
compression midrange driver with a composite diaphragm that projects the sound
into a large midrange horn, a 12" diecast
woofer, and a small, rectangular port. Volti
specifies its sensitivity as 97dB/2.83V/m.
JA’s measurements clocked it at a lower but
still-sensitive 93dB/2.83V/m. The cabinet is
constructed of 1" Baltic Birch plywood covered in one of four realwood veneers: Walnut,
Mahogany, Cherry, or
Ash. (Other, “Premium”
veneers are often available
for additional cost.) It
comes with a black cloth
grille, which you can
upgrade to a premium
fabric for $500. The Razz
stands 40" tall, 15" wide,
and 12" deep and weighs
a considerable 90lb.
For the last couple of
years, Volti has offered an
LE version—LE stands for
Limited Edition—which
is different only cosmetically. On the LE version,
the veneer is infused with
intensely colored dye:
Crimson Red, Deep Blue,
Sage Green, Drift Gray
Oak. It’s a unique look. The
price for the LE version
is the same $7500/pair. If
you like it raw or want to
do your own finishing, you
can buy a pair of Razzes in
unfinished Baltic Birch—
they call it “Decorator
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Razz”—for $5500/pair. The pair I reviewed
were neither LE nor Decorator but the
original Razz in Walnut veneer.
Setup
Why does Stereophile do follow-up reviews?
Sometimes Editor Jim decides a second
opinion—a new perspective—is warranted.
Often, after reading the original report, a
second reviewer expresses an interest in
hearing the component under review. That
second opinion can be useful for readers—

a new experience in a different room with
different ancillary components and a different set of ears. More information for the
reader to consider when deciding whether
the component is likely to work well.
The Razzes are large speakers for my
smallish space—although Volti considers
them small, which they are compared to
the Rival—so for me exacting placement
was crucial. I ended up with the front
baffles 84" from my listening seat, 49" apart
measured from the inside corners, and 24"
from the front wall. The grilles were off, as
always.
I evaluated the Razz with tubed electronics: Shindo Laboratory’s Allegro preamp
and Haut-Brion power amp; the PrimaLuna
EVO 400 integrated; the Triode Labs 45
EVO Reference Integrated Amplifier (3Wpc
into 8 ohms, in for review). I also used transistors: the Sugden LA-4 preamplifier feeding a Pass Labs XA-25; the Ayre EX-8 2.0;
the Parasound Hint 6 Halo. All evaluation
tracks were played from vinyl, on a VPI
Avenger Direct turntable with Fatboy tonearm and Hana Umami Blue MC cartridge.
The small signal emerging
from the Umami Blue was
enlarged by the Manley
Chinook phono stage.
Cabling was by Analysis
Plus and AudioQuest.
Volti Audio allows the
user to tweak the output of
the tweeter and midrange
driver by replacing crossover resistors, which may
be accessed in a recess
on the back panel. I tried
juicing the midrange but
then returned the Razz to
its factory setup and left
it there throughout this
audition.
Listening
Powered by my Shindo
Laboratory electronics,
spinning the Quality
Pressings’ reissue of alto
saxophonist Art Pepper’s
1 See stereophile.com/content/voltiaudio-rival-loudspeaker.
2 Volti Audio, 6100 Nashville Hwy,
Baxter, TN 38544. Tel: (207) 314-1937.
Web: voltiaudio.com. See stereophile.com/content/volti-audio-razzloudspeaker.

137

FOLLOW-UP

monumental Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm
Section (Craft CR00382), the Razz played
with lifelike, massive scale. Images were
large, immediate, and jazz-hot tactile. The
Razz reproduced the darkish personality
of my Shindo separates with meaty tonality, bear-like lows, and small details adding
up to why we, or at least I, love recordings
like this.
It is a fabled recording. It was January
1957. This was Miles Davis’s rhythm section, in town to play a gig. Pepper, who had
a serious heroin addiction, had not played
his instrument for some time; in Straight
Life, his autobiography, he claims six
months; the liner notes say two weeks. Les
Koenig, founder of Contemporary Records,
and Diane, Pepper’s second wife, set up the
session in an attempt to drag him out of
his drug-addled state. His saxophone was
broken. He claims in Straight Life that before he left home, he “fixed a huge amount.”
The results are astonishing. Some have
speculated that this lack of preparation is
a reason for the session’s intense energy
and the total originality of the playing. Or
maybe it was the drugs.
With this Shindo/Razz setup, Pepper’s
alto was creamy and taut, Paul Chambers’s
growling bass lines were deft and oceanplumbing, and Philly Joe Jones’s drums
were as resonant and blood-pounding as
I’ve heard them. The Razzes reproduced
his wood snare drum and calf-skinned tom
with intensity, every sophisticated ruff,
careening roll, and willowy cymbal crash
dead-on and palpable. (At first I wrote
“with fidelity to the tape,” but how could I
know that? I haven’t heard the tape. Still,
that is how it felt.) The Shindo/Razz combo
brought out the slightly ahead-of-the-beat
pacing of Pepper’s inner clock as well as
Jones’s and Chambers’s oh-so-relaxed yet
driving pulse. The Shindo/Razz setup
nailed me with its rich tonality, relaxed
gait, and visceral sound. It was hard to turn
the music off.
Another recent reissue, of John Coltrane’s Coltrane’s Sound (Rhino/Atlantic
RHF 1419/081227827854), cut from the
original tapes by Kevin Gray, limited to
5000 copies, sounds better than my original 1964 “plum” label copy. It is as though
Elvin Jones’s drums and Trane’s tenor had
awakened from a long sleep. The stereo
spread sounded more alive, cleaner, and
information-dense than I’m used to. This is
partly due to the new reissue and partly to
the Razz/Shindo pairing.
The Shindo/Volti system pulled off
similar feats of scale and aliveness on two
recent Candid reissues: the oddly dark
and insular-sounding The Boy Next Door
(Candid CLP 32021) by vocalist Stacey Kent,
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

and Snooze (Candid CLP 32071) by pianist
Joanne Brackeen. These are very differentsounding records, but both benefited from
the VPI/Shindo/Volti system’s textural and
tonal largesse and mountainous scale. My
Shindo gear with Greg Roberts’s speakers proved deeply satisfying, record after
record.
When I replaced the Shindo separates
with the PrimaLuna integrated amplifier,
the sounds coming through the Razz practically turned me over and paddled me. Scale
increased, as did resolution and momentum. Pepper’s alto became throatier, with
a wider apparent bandwidth, and Paul
Chambers’s bass tightened up considerably.
Juiced by more wattage, the Razz punched
my gut and shook my soul. Reanimation
of the highest order. The VPI/PrimaLuna/
Volti tag team jolted me with rib-cracking
power, a clear sky, and a wide-open playing
field. The sensuous atmosphere of the
Shindo separates was now missing; that
earth-toned musicality had vanished. But
the Razz with this different tubed design

produced gusto, exhilaration, and similar
soul-sustenance.
Sticking with the new Trane and Pepper reissues: The Ayre EX-8 2.0 brought
creaminess and mannerly comportment to
the proceedings. Seemingly drawing on a
different set of audio principles, the Ayre
framed the music quite differently. Trane’s
horn no longer seemed confined to the left
speaker; it now filled out more of center
stage. Pepper’s tone now seemed more urgent. Steve Davis’s acoustic bass and Elvin
Jones’s drums had less separation than
before but were perhaps better controlled.
The droning feel of the lead track, “The
Night Has a Thousand Eyes,” gelled better.
As it had with the Shindo and PrimaLuna
amps, I felt that the Volti Razz mapped
out the essence of the Ayre, revealing its
strengths and personality.
Next up, with Parasound’s Hint 6 Halo,
the most powerful amp yet coupled with
the Razz, I expected good things. It certainly proved more than capable, emanating
forward drive and toe-tapping goodness
with every LP. The Razz exposed the Hint
6 Halo’s marginally recessed character
and its clear-as-the-night-sky-in-Montana
soundstage. The Parasound/Razz duo left
nothing to the imagination, but with this
amplifier, the music felt less inspired. Not
an ideal match.
Finally, I connected the Voltis with the
Sugden LA-4 preamp and Pass Labs XA-25
power amp. This combination extracted
amazing detail. Again, the recordings’ DNA
seemed rearranged, presenting a clearer
view, top to bottom, of the music, with less
murk than any of the tube amps and more
clarity than any of the other solid states. I
felt I’d entered the studio with the music
makers, whether it was Roy DuNann’s
warehouse for the Pepper or Atlantic’s
midtown-Manhattan studio for the Trane.
This was the most spatially impressive
presentation yet. Though perhaps not
as exhilarating as the PrimaLuna nor as
earthy as the Shindo, the Volti/Sugden/
Pass Labs powerhouse made music that
convincingly altered my space and my
listening perceptions, as if it were some
AI-based simulation but with real fleshand-blood sonic splendor.
Is the $7500/pair Volti Razz as good as the
$16,000/pair Volti Rival? I can’t remember.
Maybe. When Greg Roberts plays both
speakers at shows, the Razz’s demeanor
seems very much the same as that of the
Rival, just on a smaller scale, with the same
balanced sound, even temperament, and
genre-agnostic capabilities. I can say this
much with confidence: The Razz will get
you close to the Rival experience for considerably less money.—Ken Micallef
139

AURAL
ROBERT

THERE’S ONLY TWO KINDS OF MUSIC: THE BLUES AND ZIPPETY DOO-DAH.—TOWNES VAN ZANDT

BY ROBERT BAIRD
THIS ISSUE: A box-set collection and a
tribute album illuminate the career of the
great folk/country artist, gone too soon.

Nanci Griffith

A

vital member of the second wave of Texas singer-songwriters that emerged in
the 1970s and included Lucinda Williams, Butch Hancock, and Lyle Lovett, Nanci
Griffith was a product of a time when, to paraphrase a once-ubiquitous bumper
sticker, Austin was still weird. Gifted with a delicate, sweet voice and fierce
determination, she started playing out at the age of 12 and getting paid at 14. While never
having the ability to project Joan Baez–like volume, she could certainly fill a room. And
while her voice could at times take on a flat, almost-nasal resonance, her tight vibrato was
strong and evocatory the more you listened.
It took Griffith the songwriter, who also
became a powerful live performer, years
to hit her stride as a recording artist. Her
first albums, 1978’s There’s a Light Beyond
These Woods, released by Austin’s B.F. Deal
Records, and 1982’s Poet in My Window,
released on Featherbed Records, were
uncommonly strong as early efforts go,
but neither elicited much interest nor
sold enough to chart. They did, however,
pique the interest of Philo Records, which
released her second pair of albums in the
mid-1980s. Griffith had to wait until the
early 1990s, on Elektra Records, to find
widespread success, when the all-covers
album Other Voices, Other Rooms won a
1994 Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk
Album.
Her untimely death on August 13, 2021,
spurred the recent release of Working in
Corners, a reissue on Craft/Concord Records of her first four albums (1978–1986).
Freshly remastered, with lacquers cut by
Jeff Powell and pressed on 180gm vinyl
at Memphis Record Pressing, the collection is housed in a cloth-covered box and
supplemented with an excellent illustrated
booklet. A new tribute album on Rounder/
Concord, More Than a Whisper: Celebrating
the Music of Nanci Griffith, collects performances of her work by 14 different artists.
Both releases are also available digitally
and on CD.
The early albums are a fascinating
window into Griffith, always caught between genres, and her evolution from folk
to country to one of Americana music’s
founders. Strong but not overwhelming,
her debut is best known for the title cut addressed to childhood friend Mary Margaret. B.F. Deal Records owner Mike Williams
says in the booklet that there are “60 to 80
edits” on her first recording, which was
recorded direct to two-track and mixed on
the fly, but all are well-blended and inaustereophile.com

Q

December 2023

dible. Recorded at Loma Ranch Studios in
Fredericksburg, Texas, Poet in My Window,
which is dedicated to the memory of Carson
McCullers, Marilyn Monroe, and Thomas
Wolfe, among others—“lonely hunters
all”—continued the learning process.
Griffith’s career as a recording artist
stepped up a notch with 1984’s Once in a
Very Blue Moon. Named for the memorable
title track written by Patrick Alger and
Eugene Levine, it features
cover art of Griffith parked
alone at a diner’s corner
table, a copy of Eudora
Welty’s Delta Wedding
under her hand as she longs
for her date whose beer,
cigarettes, and motorcycle
helmet sit across from her.
The image refers to Griffith’s
high-school boyfriend,
who died in a motorcycle
accident, an event that affected her deeply.
Blue Moon was recorded with a band that
included pedal-steel player Lloyd Green,
bassist Roy Huskey Jr., a very young Bela
Fleck on banjo, and background vocalist
Lyle Lovett, who would become a lifelong
friend and ally.
While her lyrics are always dense and
overly wordy—she was a master at rapidfire packing of words into lines—here more
artistry emerges. Her vocal delivery begins
to cultivate the beauty in both words and
melody. The title track has both, and by
choosing it as the album’s title, she signals
how important these qualities had become
to her and an awareness that catchy tunes
sell albums. Much to her credit, Griffith
was never too proud or insecure to cover
a stirring song that spoke to her but was
written by someone else.
All her talents and experience came
together on The Last of the True Believers,
essential if only for three songs. The title

track hinges on its emphatic chorus refrain: “Last of the True Believers/You pack
your things and go back home/You could
go home again, home again, home.” Her
cover of Tom Russell’s irresistibly melodic
“St. Olav’s Gate” rings true. And then there
is the swaying, sentimental “Love at the
Five and Dime,” the story of Eddie and Rita,
two young lovers who met at the Woolworth counter, presumably like the one in
the cover-art image featuring Lyle Lovett
waltzing in one corner. Its lyrics, set to one
of Griffith’s most poignant melodies, repeat
themselves to great effect: “They’d sing/
Dance a little closer to me, dance a little
closer now/Dance a little closer tonight/
Dance a little closer to me, ’cause it’s closing
time/& love’s on sale tonight at this five and
dime.” The strength of this album led to a

deal with MCA Nashville and the follow-up
Lone Star State of Mind, her strongest-ever
collection of originals.
Filled with interpretations by other
artists, tribute albums inevitably have an
up-and-down quality as some artists try
harder and have more to say than others.
If there’s a revelation to be gleaned from
More Than a Whisper, it’s the strength
of Griffith’s incisive and clever lyrics.
Her carefully chosen words ring out in
Steve Earle’s “It’s a Hard Life Wherever
You Go” and longtime Griffith friend and
supporter Lyle Lovett’s rendition of what
may be her best song of all, “Trouble in the
Fields.” Nothing against any of the artists
who contributed, but their versions make
clear what a great singer of her own songs
and interpreter Griffith truly was. Gone
too soon, her music lives on, providing
much-needed inspiration in an era when
songwriting of this caliber is fast becoming
a lost art. Q
141

REVINYLIZATION

A MONTHLY SURVEY OF THE BEST NEW LP REISSUES

BY TOM FINE

THIS ISSUE: A new (or newly available) Verve-

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RI'XNH(OOLQJWRQDQG&ROHPDQ+DZNLQV

When Duke met the Bean

S

aturday, August 18, 1962, was quite a day in music. In England, Ringo Starr made his
first appearance as a full member of the Beatles, at a Horticultural Society dance at
Port Sunlight, Merseyside. In Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, two jazz giants met in
a recording studio for the first time. Duke Ellington showed up with a streamlined,
potent ensemble: Johnny Hodges, Harry Carney, Ray Nance, Lawrence Brown, Aaron Bell,
and Sam Woodyard. Then tenor sax legend Coleman Hawkins arrived.
Ellington and Hawkins had never recorded together, so there was an atmosphere of
energy and something grand and long overdue. Producer Bob Thiele and engineer Rudy
Van Gelder stayed out of the way and let the music unfold while making sure not to miss
anything. The result was a spectacular, loose, joyous, perfectly played album: Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins (Impulse! Records, AS-26, A-26 in mono).
The opening number, “Limbo Jazz,”
which Stanley Dance, in his detailed liner
notes, says was “conceived quite spontaneously halfway through the session,” sets
the tone. With Woodyard calling out key
changes, the band takes off on a Latin riff
as Hawkins changes his reed. About twothirds of the way through, with no audible
warm-up, Hawkins steps up to a mike on
the left side of the soundstage and blows a
great solo. The album is off to the races.
Next up, a beautiful rendition of the
Ellington classic “Mood Indigo.” After Ellington’s men, particularly Hodges, set the
tune in motion, Hawkins appears on the
right, seeming to step out of the speaker, a
living and breathing man in my listening
room. Other highlights include “Wanderlust,” the side-A closer, with its round-robin
solos; “Self Portrait (of the Bean),” written
by Ellington for Hawkins, referencing the
latter’s nickname; and the album finale,
“The Ricitic.” Notice, at around 4 minutes,
how Hawkins’s sound goes from left toward
the middle as Van Gelder opens the fader
on Nance’s violin. Also notice the interplay
between Ellington, Bell, and Woodyard at
the end.
The holographic illusion of Hawkins
stepping forward of the right speaker on
“Mood Indigo” was my first experience
with higher-end hi-fi, on a friend’s system
in the late 1990s. That generous friend later
gave me his copy of the original LP. I have
expected this cipher-saxman to step out of
the right speaker every time I’ve played the
album since. Alas, none of the CD issues
satisfied.
Most of the subsequent reissues—there
have been quite a few—have been on
Impulse!. Germany’s Speakers Corner
Records reissued the LP in 2007, cut from a
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

high-quality copy tape at Emil Berliner
Studios, which then was in Hanover.
Analogue Productions released a 45rpm
version three years later, with lacquers cut
by Kevin Gray. I haven’t heard that version.
The Speakers Corner version sounds quite
different from the original, partly due to a
different tape source and partly to the very
different mastering chains. Rudy recorded
the session direct to an Ampex 300 tubed
two-track recorder and cut the original LP
on his Scully lathe fitted with a somewhat
unique cutting system from Fairchild.1 In
Germany, Berliner’s AAA cutting system
was a Studer tape machine feeding a
Neumann cutting system based on a
VMS-70 lathe, all solid state.
The most recent version of Duke Meets
Hawk, released in 2022 but widely available only recently, is the Verve–Analogue
Productions reissue cut by Ryan Smith at
Sterling Sound Nashville from what sounds
like the same copy tape used by Speakers Corner. (The master tape reportedly
burned up in the Universal Hollywood

vault.) Playback was from an Ampex ATR100 with a custom preview-delay loop to
interface with Sterling’s Neumann VMS-80
lathe and solid state cutting system. This
newest version sounds most similar to the
Speakers Corner LP, but it too has unique
sonic qualities.
Which one sounds best? Each LP version
has something to recommend it, and each
may sound better or best on your system,
depending on your tastes.
The original LP sounds of its time: somewhat thin and veiled by today’s standards
but with strength in its crisp midrange,
which is part of what propels the life force
of Hawkins out of the right speaker when
his “Mood Indigo” solo begins, and which
brings out his slight grunting and breathing as he bears down on it. Whether you
prefer that original sound or a more modern sound is a matter of taste, as demonstrated by the back-and-forth between me
and my colleague Alex Halberstadt, which
he wrote about in his Brilliant Corners
column.2 The Speakers Corner version has
a quiet, modern surface and an extended
top and bottom end and retains the lifeforce elements, although they aren’t as
pronounced because there’s more detailed
sound around them. In short, it sounds
more like a modern LP. RVG’s recording
stands tall in the bigger spotlight.
The new Verve-AP version takes the
modern elements of the Speakers Corner
platter even further. The surfaces are quieter, and the average level is a bit higher. It
sounds very different from the original LP.
The bottom end smokes the old disc, and the
treble is more present and detailed. Those
who love the old records may well argue
that all that fidelity and extension diffuses
the life force of the original. I understand
this point of view, which is why I keep
that original and the Speakers Corner LP.
On my system, Hawkins still steps out of
the right speaker, and there’s more detail
around him. But because of that very
detail—that higher fidelity—he doesn’t step
as far into the room. Q
1 According to Van Gelder historian Rich Capeless (rvglegacy.org), Rudy used the Fairchild 641 cutter system, which
included the 642 stereo cutter head and 644 tubed cutter
amplifier. RVG moved to a more common Westrex stereo
cutting system in the mid-1960s.
2 See bit.ly/48wKJ1e.

143

CLASSICAL
ROCK / POP
JAZZ

RECORD REVIEWS

I

mpossibly ambitious? Too
gain,” and “This Song Is Over,” the
EDITOR’S PICK
many demands on the audimidrange dynamics now seem richer
ence? Tommy done better? A
and the bass response a touch more
final collapse before a gloriactive. Keith Moon’s more discious resurrection? 1971’s Who’s
plined drumming (in theory because
Next, which began life as a moreof Johns’s no-nonsense presence)
advanced-than-Tommy sci-fi rock
sounds more vital and alive. Also
opera called Life House (also called
on the sonics front, the two concerts
Lifehouse), is all that and more. All
on the Super Deluxe set are beautithe elements of this oft-reissued
fully clear and detailed, a rarity for
opus have been remastered and
50-year-old tape sources.
reissued in several new configuraThe five CDs of extra tracks here
tions, the most complete being the
are far more valuable than the extra
Who’s Next/Life House Super Deluxe
material in most reissues in providEdition, which includes 10 CDs with
ing an outline of how the grandiose
155 tracks sourced from the original
Life House was winnowed down to
tapes, 89 of them previously unreWho’s Next. A telling example is the
leased. That edition also includes
creative journey of “Baba O’Riley.”
demos, singles, studio sessions, and
The basic musical structure came
two complete Who’s Next–era confrom a demo that has Townshend joycerts, from London and San Franously exploring the then-new VCS3
cisco. A 100-page hardback book
and ARP synthesizers for more than
provides the visuals. For immersive
13 minutes. A second demo, trimmed
audio fans, there’s Blu-ray audio
to 7:48, has Roger Daltry singing
THE WHO
with new Atmos and 5.1 surround
words imported from another song
mixes of the original album. A
meant for Life House, “Teenage
Who’s Next / Life House
172-page Life House graphic novel is
Wasteland.” Yet another version,
Super Deluxe Edition
included for context. For superfans,
labeled “First Editing Demo” (7:53),
there’s a raft of tchotchkes including
with different guitar tones and withPolydor/UME (10 CD, Blu-ray). 1971/2023. The Who, orig. prod.;
a pair of gig posters, two concert
out the final drum tracks, is much
Glyn Johns, associate prod.; Bill Curbishley, Robert Rosenberg, exec.
prods. reissue; Bob Pridden, Richard Whittaker, Andy McPherson,
programs, four buttons, and a band
closer to the released version. In the
Jaime Haworth, Pete Townshend, engs.; Jon Astley, Layla Astley,
photo with printed autographs.
San Francisco show, “Baba O’Riley”
remastering engs.
After Tommy, Who guitarist
has John Entwistle’s bass guitar
PERFORMANCE
and chief songwriter Pete Townunusually forward in the mix.
SONICS
shend began work on another,
Album cover images are now coneven grander multimedia concept
sidered a consequential artform, and
album. Townshend told Billboard in 2003,
few have been as impactful as the peed-on
at which fans were expected to give their
“In Tommy I used the device of a child
opinions failed when the crowd just wanted concrete monolith from South Yorkshire
being smitten deaf, dumb, and blind by
that graces the Who’s Next cover. Accordto hear the band play. The project’s overwitnessing a violent trauma. In Life House
ing to Andrew Neill and Matthew Kent in
reach eventually had Townshend teetering
I used a similar device again: an individual
Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete
on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
plunged into a life of virtual reality fed by
Chronicle of The Who 1958-1978, an alternaOnce the Life House concept was abansomething like the internet, suspended in
tive suggestion was a shot of an extra-large
doned, Glyn Johns encouraged the band
a kind of parallel life in virtual animation,
naked woman, her genitalia covered by The
to release the best of the Life House songs
experiencing totally phony lifestyles.”
Who’s faces.
as a single album. Songs from Life House
According to the original concept, huThe plethora of extra material on the Suappeared on later Who albums including
manity’s salvation lay in devising a single
per Deluxe reissue of Who’s Next/Life House
Odds & Sods and Hooligans. A complete
musical note that would trigger unity in the version of the project, titled Lifehouse
is a fascinating window into the creative
face of society’s impending doom. Things
process. In that 2003 Billboard interview,
Chronicles, was released as 6-CD box set in
began to unspool when the idea of making
Townshend reflects on the experience of
2000 on Townshend’s Eel Pie label.
a film and eliciting audience interaction beturning Life House into the concentrated
What’s most impressive about the
came part of the plan. Music for Life House
Who’s Next: “I was really proud of it. Proud
exhaustively completist Super Deluxe
was recorded in New York at The Record
of the way it sounded. … I knew that there
reissue, as well as the separate, blue 180gm
Plant and later re-recorded at Olympic Stuwas a bit of depth there if you wanted to
vinyl-LP reissue of the original album, is
dios in London with Glyn Johns in charge.
look.” This new collection more than conthe improved sound. Most easily heard on
Concerts at London’s Young Vic Theatre
firms that.—Robert Baird Q
the LP versions of “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Bar-

stereophile.com

RECORDING
OF THE MONTH

Q

December 2023

145

Contour i, now in Nordic Silver. Take it all in.

Contour i
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RECORD REVIEWS

ROCK / P OP

THE BEATLES

Now & Then (single)
Apple Records (watermarked stream previewed;
no catalog number). 2023. Paul McCartney, Giles Martin,
-Hࢆ/\QQHSURGV*LOHV0DUWLQHQJ
PERFORMANCE

TEENAGE FANCLUB

DEVENDRA BANHART

SONICS

Nothing Lasts Forever

Flying Wig

Merge MRG842 (LP). 2023. Teenage Fanclub, prods.;
David Henderson, Joe Jones, Raymond McGinley, engs.

Mexican Summer MEX351 (LP). 2023. Cate Le Bon, prod.;
Samur Khouja, eng.

You’ve likely heard the story. Director
Peter Jackson’s tech wizards extracted John
Lennon’s voice from a song demo recorded
in the late 1970s using the machine-learning–based “de-mixing” developed for the
Beatles’ Get Back documentary. Sir Paul
McCartney undoubtedly caused agita in
Beatles World when, in June, he suggested
that “artificial intelligence” was behind
a forthcoming Beatles single.1 His illchosen words caused a speculation storm,
with some wagging tongues decrying a
synthetic, robotic Lennon, reanimated by
technology, singing from beyond the grave.
McCartney walked his words back. That’s
not the reality of “Now & Then.”
The song was one of four rough demos
on a home-recorded cassette that Yoko Ono
gave McCartney, George Harrison, and
Ringo Starr in 1995, ahead of the Anthology
project. Two songs, “Free as a Bird” and
“Real Love,” became mid-’90s singles. They
worked on “Now & Then,” but mid-’90s
technology could not separate Lennon’s
voice from the loud piano accompaniment.
His bandmates put the song aside. They
rejected the fourth song. Twenty-eight
years later, “de-mixing” technology was able
to isolate Lennon’s voice, and “Now & Then”
took on new life. Co-producers McCartney
and Giles Martin added Paul’s multi-instrumental contributions, newly recorded
drums from Ringo, George Harrison’s 1990s
rhythm guitar tracks, and a guitar solo by
McCartney. Martin added strings.
“Now & Then” sounds similar to the
Anthology singles but clearer and more
modern. It doesn’t break any new musical
ground. It sounds nostalgic and somewhat
maudlin compared to the rest of the top-40
charts these days, but because it’s “The Last
Beatles Song,” it’s likely to be a hit. It’s the
Beatles after all, reunited over time and
space, one final time. In the limited-edition
vinyl 45rpm single format, there are two
side As, just like they did it back in the day.
“Love Me Do,” the first Beatles song, is on
the other side.—Tom Fine
1 See bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65881813.

stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

SONICS

What happens when a once-great guitar
band that made its name on feedback,
ringing chords, and well-built melodies no
longer wants to rock? Scotland’s Fannies
slowly sunk from Creation label stars into
an aging band too comfortable making
music that’s unchanging and inoffensive.
On an album aptly titled Nothing Lasts Forever, they have, in a word, become a bore.
The sound here is equally somnolent:
manicured, pretty, and oh-so-tame. Oddly,
remaining original members Norman
Blake and Raymond McGinley are still
writing engaging melodies, like “See the
Light,” that could easily be enlivened by
some measure of rhythmic backbone and
assertive guitarwork. Yet they consistently
choose a wimpy, mid-tempo approach
that sounds like B-grade Byrds (lite). And
while the Byrds were always in this band’s
DNA, and the vocal harmonies so central
to their sound remain intact, the same can
be said about nearly every song here. The
opener, “Foreign Land,” starts with a held
guitar chord that echoes “The Concept,”
which opened 1991’s Bandwagonesque, yet
the song immediately lapses into undistinguished folk rock. “See the Light” and “It’s
Alright” are exactly the kind of tune they
would have once turned into bashers. Here,
they trundle along, struggling to keep up
a mid-tempo pace. Where the lyrics once
brandished inviting if silly nonsense like
“Hey, there’s a horseshoe on my door/Big
deal/And say, there’s a black cat on the
floor/Big Deal”—that’s from “Star Sign”—
they now gently and repeatedly assert,
“The past’s a foreign land/I did my best you
understand.” (That one’s from “Foreign
Land.”) Albums on which everything is
played at the same tempo—ballads, rockers,
or some singsong middle ground—fatigue
the ear, the brain, the very soul. It’s not that
every tune should rattle the rafters, but
variety would help the Fannies out of their
current rut.—Robert Baird

For two decades, Devendra Banhart has
been releasing sensitive and thoughtful
songs with lyrics that are often emotionally
driven and sometimes frankly bafflingly
surreal. His music has attracted several
genre labels, but “Freak Folk” is the one
that sticks. Like all labels, that one is somewhat limiting, but it has the advantage of
pointing out his psychedelic lyrics and the
centrality of his guitar.
Flying Wig, though, doesn’t quite fit the
pattern. This is, solidly—if one can use such
a term for such an ethereal set of songs—an
electronica album. To produce the album,
Banhart enlisted the skills of Cate Le Bon,
who also contributed vocals and played
various instruments. Le Bon is usually
known for her guitar style, but here it’s her
synth playing that shapes the music.
Banhart has never exactly been known
for creating albums to get the dancing
going at a wedding reception, and Flying
Wig is no exception. The movement is slow,
but here, slow doesn’t mean boring. This
is slowing down the hurly-burly of life, to
escape and to dream. Banhart’s lyrics are
as impenetrable as ever, but Le Bon’s lush,
trippy production and the sweet poetry
of Banhart’s vocal give it an exquisite
beauty and a contemplative feel. To employ
another musical shorthand—of comparisons—this is music Brian Eno might have
produced. With the arrival of intermittent
guitar, as on “Twin,” this music occasionally hints at a subdued Roxy Music ca 1980.
On “Sirens,” Banhart’s voice suggests Bryan
Ferry.
But this is no pop album. It is introspective. Some might find it melancholy. But
whilst the song “Charger” is reflective,
Banhart and Le Bon’s shared vocals, and the
repetition of “Everything’s burning down/
But everything’s gone green,” create something gently uplifting. That’s something
that can be said of the whole album.
—Phil Brett

147

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RECORD REVIEWS

ROC K/ P OP

JAZZ

ARIEL POSEN

JOHNATHAN BLAKE

MARK TURNER QUARTET

Reasons Why

Passage

Live at the Village Vanguard

Manitoba Film & Music (auditioned as CD; no catalog
number). 2023. Ariel Posen, Murray Pulver, prods.;
Paul Yee, Pulver, Phil Pelletier, others, engs.

Blake, drums; Immanuel Wilkins, alto saxophone;
Joel Ross, vibraphone; David Virelles, piano,
Fender Rhodes, Minimoog; Dezron Douglas, bass

Turner, tenor saxophone; Jason Palmer, trumpet;
Joe Martin, bass; Jonathan Pinson, drums

PERFORMANCE
SONICS

Ariel Posen has spent the better part of his
career as a highly valued sideman, serving the work of other musicians including, notably, the Bros. Landreth. Steady
accolades from musicians including John
Mayer, who calls Posen one of his “favorite
guitarists,” have raised his profile. He has
quickly established a presence in the guitar
world for his original sound and for music
that marries adult contemporary rock with
classic blues.
On Reasons Why, across 10 tracks,
Posen sings and plays about relationships,
forgiveness, and healing. The songs are
never too clever, heavy handed, or obvious.
Sonically, the drums are fat and firm. The
bass provides a great foundation, and the
keys are present without being showy. But
it’s Posen’s slide guitar that lifts this from a
solid rock record to one you’ll want to spin
again and again.
Posen is perhaps best known for his tone
on slide guitar. His slide sound is vocal and
full, largely due to the way he combines
his Jazzmaster guitar (with Stratocaster
parts sprinkled about), RockSlide, and his
main pedal, the KingTone Duelist. Together
they create a sound wrapped in the kind of
haunting aura you might once have found
in an Elmore James or Tampa Red tune. The
solo parts have economy, and they never
outstay their welcome. They add a kind of
grandeur that is rare for any music that
plays as accessible pop.
Standout tracks include “Broken But I’m
Fine” and “Man You Raised” (co-written
with Cory Wong). On that tune, Posen
demonstrates that rock’n’roll is far from
over, that its future is very secure in hands
like his. Just when it seemed that modernday radio had lost interest in and room for
anything guitar-driven, Posen arrived with
music that can make even the most stubborn station manager bend, put this on air,
and keep it in rotation.—Ray Chelstowski
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Blue Note B003706102 (CD). 2023. Blake, prod.;
Tom Tedesco, eng.

Giant Step Arts GSA 009 (2 CDs). 2023. Jimmy Katz,
Turner, prods.; Katz, James Kogan, engs.
PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE
SONICS

It is fitting that Johnathan Blake, an elite
drummer, records on the best labels with
major musicians. His last two albums, both
critically acclaimed, were Trion, on Giant
Step Arts, in 2019, and Homeward Bound,
his debut on Blue Note, in 2021. Trion included Chris Potter and Linda May Han Oh.
Homeward Bound had the same personnel
featured here.
Immanuel Wilkins and Joel Ross are the
most important musicians to enter jazz in
the new millennium on their respective instruments. On the title track here, Wilkins
announces himself with the kind of devastating solo that earned him first place on
alto saxophone in the 2023 DownBeat Critics Poll. His outpouring of startling ideas
threatens to overwhelm the ensemble. But
when Wilkins improvises, even when he
flirts with chaos, he is spontaneously shaping a meaningful form.
On “Muna and Johna’s Playtime,” Ross
has the unenviable assignment of following
Wilkins. He excels. The piece is based on
a powerful vamp generated by Blake, keyboardist David Virelles, and bassist Dezron
Douglas. Ross spills free of their throbbing
momentum and floats in his own domain,
out of time. His solo is a long, ascending exploration that climbs the sky before it softly
falls away. Virelles is another rising star in
Blake’s band. His concise, vivid contributions on Fender Rhodes and Minimoog
enhance the color palette of this album.
While the sidemen here are exceptional,
there is never any doubt about who is in
charge. Passage can be understood as a case
study in what it means for a drummer to
function as bandleader. Blake produces
surging, shifting rhythmic forces. He
infuses the whole musical space with vital
energy and inspires his four collaborators
to reach beyond themselves.—Thomas Conrad

SONICS

Giant Step Arts was founded in 2018 by
renowned photographer and recording
engineer Jimmy Katz. The output of this
nonprofit label has been small (10 titles to
date) but distinguished musically, sonically,
and graphically.
Katz believes in live recordings. This
new Mark Turner double album, by one of
the major small ensembles in current jazz
(see above), was recorded live on hallowed
ground: the Village Vanguard.
It is fascinating to compare it to Turner’s
previous release, Return from the Stars,
on ECM, recorded at Sear Sound Studio in
New York. The musicians are the same, and
all eight Turner compositions on Return
from the Stars are repeated at the Vanguard.
On the earlier album, when Turner’s
quartet played a convoluted, fast piece
called “Nigeria II,” they nailed it, in a taut
under-five-minute version. The Vanguard
rendition goes for 10 relentless minutes.
Turner’s solo speeds over the ground he
covered in Sear Sound then keeps hurtling
forward, discovering myriad melodies on
the fly, all newly derived from “Nigeria II.”
On all eight tunes, the Vanguard versions spike the intensity and sustain it
longer. In Sear Sound, “It’s Not Alright with
Me” was beautifully performed, for over
10 minutes. In the Vanguard it is turned
loose and set on fire, for almost 19 minutes.
Joe Martin takes a four-minute bass solo
like a dark ritual. Turner, an extraordinary
improviser, has time to bare his heart and
tell his story, unabridged. Palmer, one of
the most exciting trumpet players in jazz,
intellectually and emotionally, has time to
insert his own song within the song.
Remarkably, Katz’s live recording is
as high in resolution as the ECM studio
recording. He puts you in the electric air of
the Village Vanguard on a hot night.
—Thomas Conrad

149

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RECORD REVIEWS

JAZZ

C LASSICA L

DARCY JAMES ARGUE’S
SECRET SOCIETY

BRITISH PIANO CONCERTOS

Dynamic Maximum Tension

Works by Jacob, Addison, and Rubbra

Argue, compositions, arrangements; 21 others

Simon Callaghan (piano), BBC National Orchestra
of Wales/Stephen Bell, George Vass

Nonesuch 075597903508 (2 CDs). 2023. Argue, Alan
Ferber, Brian Montgomery, prods.; Montgomery, eng.

Lyrita SRCD 416 (CD). 2023. Adrian Farmer, prod.;
Andrew Smillie, eng.

PERFORMANCE

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

SONICS

The strong reputation of Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society is based on only three
albums, released 2009—2016. Now there
is a fourth. It is a lavish production with
a 32-panel fold-out poster, extraordinary
sound, and 112 minutes of incandescent
music composed by Argue and executed by
21 of the best musicians in New York.
Argue’s concept of big band jazz is extroverted, intricate, historically grounded, and
forward-looking. He loves to unleash explosive forces. His band roars. Yet the many
moving parts of his charts—the themes,
counter-themes, shifting riffs, provocative
backgrounds, striking harmonies, and fluid
meters—are assembled with precision.
Dynamic Maximum Tension is both
the album’s title and a description of its
contents. Argue intends this music as an
antidote to the “dystopian direction” of
our times. Tunes are dedicated to people
from “more optimistic” eras whose legacies
“rekindle” his faith. Pieces like “Dymaxion”
(for Buckminster Fuller) and “Wingèd
Beasts” (for Bob Brookmeyer) are passionate celebrations of positive energy. “Tensile
Curves” (for Duke Ellington), the album’s
35-minute centerpiece, is an in-depth reinterpretation of an Ellington masterpiece,
“Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue.” It is
a sweeping arc, rich in ensemble details
and riveting solos. (The band’s arsenal of
killing soloists includes trumpeters Nadje
Noordhuis and Ingrid Jensen, trombonist Jacob Garchik, and saxophonists Carl
Maraghi and Dave Pietro.)
An orchestra that begs comparison to
the Secret Society is Snarky Puppy, which
incorporates pop cultural elements into big
band jazz and plays large arenas. The Secret Society has just done something even
harder. It has made one of the essential
large ensemble jazz recordings of the new
millennium.—Thomas Conrad
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Three midcentury British concerti, unequivocally tonal, each composer using the
idiom to different purposes. Gordon Jacob’s
concerto starts out bright and chipper,
like one of the more congenial postwar
symphonists, and maintains a playful
mood even through some angular lines and
thoughtful, rhapsodic episodes. The slow
movement begins sparely, with woodwinds
over sustained basses, eventually opening
into a cautiously affirmative oboe solo and
ambiguously spacious piano writing. A
firm tread sets the finale’s assertive tone.
At just 15 minutes, John Addison’s score
begins and ends in brooding introspection;
the variations take in gently dissonant duets; broad, plangent cello and violin lines;
and, briefly, a Hollywoodish sort of waltz.
From its brooding cor anglais opening,
Edmund Rubbra’s concerto registers as
more substantial. The first movement’s
main Allegro goes with a hearty maritime
swing, punctuated by aggressive outbursts.
An unsettled minor section disrupts the
spacious slow movement; the finale reverts
to a proudly strutting Celtic jig.
Simon Callaghan’s clean, lightweight
piano sound, crisply articulate, is ideal for
Jacob and Addison, who favor linear figurations over big, splashy chords. Callaghan
is responsive to the varying moods, with
many lovely moments. In the larger-scaled
Rubbra, the quick, rippling scales are limpid, the quiet bits pensive. The conducting
serves, although Vass lets a brief passage in
Rubbra’s finale come unstuck, and the final
chord is oddly unemphatic.
Much of the time, the orchestra sounds
pleasing but slightly recessed, even in the
first of Rubbra’s climaxes. Conversely,
expressive reed and cello solos, and the
pungent low-clarinet and bassoon attacks,
emerge with an almost tangible presence.
—Stephen Francis Vasta

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RECORD REVIEWS

C L A SSIC AL

RICHARD RODGERS &
OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN

POSTCARDS FROM ITALY

Oklahoma!

Marco Albonetti, saxophone; Roma Sinfonietta,
Paolo Silvestri, cond.

CHSA 5322 (reviewed as 24/96 WAV). 2023.
Jonathan Allen, prod. & eng.
PERFORMANCE
SONICS

A complete recording of the music of
Oklahoma!, the groundbreaking Broadway
musical that determined the future of this
distinctly American art form, deserves a
strong welcome. But from the Sinfonia of
London rather than an orchestra based in
New York?
Before accusing it of inauthenticity,
listen up. Not only is this the first recording of the complete score, including all
the dialogue incorporated within vocal
numbers; it also contains every delightful
note in Robert Russell Bennett’s original
orchestrations. With an exceptional cast
of singers whose Oklahoma accent is as
believable as the story itself, Oklahoma!
sounds as fresh as it must have sounded
when it opened for an unprecedented fiveyear-plus run on the Great White Way.
Nathaniel Hackmann, previously the
Broadway lead in Les Misérables, Jekyll and
Hyde, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame,
plays the lead role, Curly. An alum of San
Francisco Opera’s famed career-launching
Merola Opera Program, he sounds totally at
home in the Broadway idiom. Once he shifts
from the forthright lyricism of “Oh, What a
Beautiful Mornin’” to seductive softness in
the reprise of “The Surrey with the Fringe
on Top,” you may find him superior to the
original cast’s Alfred Drake.
You’ll be similarly hooked by the orchestral introduction to “Beautiful Mornin’,”
which sounds as though Richard Rodgers
gained inspiration from the nature sounds
of Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony; by
Curly’s a cappella introduction, which
was omitted from the original Broadway
cast recording along with the essential
intersong dialogue; and the range of colors
produced by an orchestra of the same size
and composition as the one first heard on
Broadway 80 years ago. You’ll even hear
authentic instruments from the 1940s.
Simply wonderful.—Jason Victor Serinus
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Italian Music for Film
Chandos 20291 (24/96 WAV). 2023.
Marco Albonetti, prod.; Franco Patrignani,
Davide Dell’amore, eng.
PERFORMANCE
SONICS

With the many earworm hits from Oklahoma! playing on repeat in my head, how
could I resist another earworm recording,
this one featuring great movie themes
from Morricone, Rota, and others? Many
elements make this recording so winning. Foremost are the melding of Marco
Albonetti’s warm, smoothly seductive soprano saxophone and the silken strings of
the Roma Sinfonietta string orchestra. Also
contributing are expert chamber orchestra
arrangements and orchestrations by the
Sinfonietta’s conductor, Paolo Silvestri.
Then there’s authenticity. Silvestri
leads the orchestra that recorded many of
Morricone’s film scores the first time, and
they also perform in the warm acoustic
of Forum Studios, in Rome, where many
of the great scores of Italian cinema were
recorded. Piano interjections by Michelangelo Carbonara are another bonus in a
recording that favors charm and warmth.
Morricone’s themes from The Mission,
The Legend of 1900, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon a Time in America, and
Malèna are all warm, lovely, soothing, and
tinged with nostalgia. Romantic to the core,
they’re simpler than “Amapola,” a wonderful melody Morricone lifted from Joseph
Lacalle for Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a
Time in America. Rota’s music for Fellini’s
Amarcord and La Dolce Vita, as well as for
Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, is
less romantic, with “The Godfather Waltz”
scoring points for its haunting darkness.
Who can forget the circus elements and
sadness of La Dolce Vita? I’m less convinced
by Silvestri’s repetitive “Theme from Controvento,” and Gato Barbieri’s theme from
Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris
reminds me once again of Morricone’s
special ability to soothe the soul and touch
the heart.—Jason Victor Serinus

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RECORD REVIEWS

C L A SSIC AL
Statement of Ownership

BRUCKNER

TAN DUN

Symphony 7

Buddha Passion

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle
LSO Live LSO0887 (CD). Andrew Cornall, prod.;
Neil Hutchinson, eng.

Orchestre National de Lyon, Tan Dun, cond./
Internationale Chorakademie. Decca 4854221 (5), 2
CDs (reviewed as 24/96). 2023. Tan Dun, prod.; Pan Bo,
UUUStudio, Xiaoxing Lu, eng.

PERFORMANCE
SONICS

Back in the ’90s, this symphony was one of
the best entries in the young Simon Rattle’s
somewhat checkered recording series for
EMI. Fully a quarter-century later, he’s
improved upon it. His manner has become
quicker and more flowing, shaving a full
six minutes off his earlier timing, yet
without sacrificing the required breadth
or tonal weight. Rattle particularly excels
at eliciting the mystery in the development
sections. Quiet passages go with a wonderful hush—the Scherzo’s recap is tenderly
played—although some, like the start of
the final coda, almost get lost. Rattle keeps
a firm hand on the structures throughout,
with no aimless wandering.
The warm, unified cellos at the start give
way to clear, uplifting violins; the development is shaped with purpose—the alla breve
stays within bounds—and the recap’s “exotic” motif has a proud stride. The Adagio,
mournful and grave, rises aspirationally;
the second theme is dignified, like a court
dance, though a swifter recap loses some of
that. The Scherzo rolls along with lightness
and drive, a less relentless juggernaut than
some; its relaxed, singing Trio doesn’t quite
manage “rustic.” In the forthright Finale,
the walking basses could tread more firmly,
though the vaulting trombone statements
are suitably ominous.
The occasional iffy, frayed attack or
smudged arrival still betrays Rattle’s
basically catch-as-catch-can technique. We
hear some tentative ritards—the structural
intent is laudable, the execution unsure.
The LSO is otherwise in fine form.
The sonics are pleasing. The first tutti
brings a hint of an edge, but the problem
doesn’t recur; conversely, massed brasses
sound full and present, though without the
expected depth. Woodwind and horn soli
register nicely in the lighter passages, and
we hear a good, deep maestro sniff to start
the Adagio.—Stephen Francis Vasta
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

PERFORMANCE
SONICS

Ever since I reviewed Tan Dun’s six-act
Buddha Passion in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall
in November 2022, I’ve eagerly anticipated
this live recording. Its mammoth battery
of Western and Eastern instruments and
voices will test many systems.
The sound world of Buddha Passion is
an exotic amalgam of East and West with a
generous dollop of three-strip Technicolor
Hollywood film score in the mix. Inspired
by the two years Tan Dun spent researching the 750 Mogao caves and 2000+ wellpreserved sculptures that miraculously
survive in the Buddhist depository and
UNESCO Heritage site in the Silk Road city
of Dunhuang, Buddha Passion sprinkles
a Chinese fable about selflessness and
respect for all living things with a helping
of echt-Christian shame and punishment. In
addition to the large chorus, the work calls
for a baritone (Shenyang), mezzo-soprano
(Huiling Zhu), tenor (Chuanyue Wang), soprano (Sen Guo), indigenous female singer
(Weiwei Tan), indigenous male singer/
Dunhuang xiqin player (Batubagen), Dunhuang fantan pipa player (Yining Chen),
and percussion: Tibetan double cymbals,
rubbed Chinese cymbals, and transparent
paper cups in tubs of amplified water.
The work begins with sublime serenity,
evoking the stillness of silent meditation.
The music of Act V: “Heart Sutra” is free
of artifice and filled with extraordinary
sounds. At act’s close, “The Sutra of Compassion” expresses a paradoxical message:
“Form is emptiness; emptiness is form. …
All things … are in essence emptiness.” But
“emptiness” cannot describe when every
instrument under the sun joins with the
vocalists to produce a sensual battering
ram of spectacular sound. Special kudos to
Shenyang, whose handsome voice recalls
the greatest Broadway baritones on record.
You’ve got to hear this.—Jason Victor Serinus

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Business Office of Publisher: AVTech Media Americas Inc,
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a. Paid Electronic Copies ......11,603
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RE-TALES

INSIDER DISPATCHES FROM HI-FI’S FRONT LINES

BY JULIE MULLINS
THIS ISSUE: Designer and audiophile Devon Turnbull opens

the Ojas Listening Room showroom in New York City, aiming
WRH[SRVHQHZJHQHUDWLRQVWRROGVFKRRODQG',<KLࢉ

A new Ojas listening space in SoHo

N

PHOTO BY LAUREN COLEMAN

ew York City continues to have a rich hi-fi culture, but many of its fabled hi-fi
shops have shuttered—think of Lyric Hi-Fi, which played a major role in the
development of audio’s high end before it closed in 2021.1 But recently NYC’s hifi scene has experienced a bit of a renewal, with undertakings aimed at a wider,
younger audience. One example is a new, niche audio showroom in SoHo, which opened
in September, by former deejay and fashion designer, artist, and current audio craftsman
Devon Turnbull.2
The Ojas Listening Room could qualify as a concept store. Its reason for existing, Turnbull told me in a recent telephone conversation, is to create a kind of audio culture that
hasn’t existed in New York for decades.
Turnbull previously made a name for himself as one of four co-founders of Nom de
Guerre, a noted “underground” men’s streetwear line that garnered a devoted following in
the 2000s, housed in a Brooklyn boutique that was hard to find unless you knew where to
look. The Ojas showroom is similar, co-housed with a USM Modular Furniture showroom,
located on a busy SoHo shopping street but not so easy to find. Like the former Nom de
Guerre store, Turnbull says, he wants the Ojas Listening Room to be a discreet destination,
a place worth seeking out for those attracted to it.
Some years back, Turnbull began building custom hi-fi gear, mostly on commission, for private clients and nightclubs.
Those systems, naturally, reflected his taste
for Bell Labs, Western Electric, low-wattage, single-ended triode (SET) amplifiers,
and high-sensitivity loudspeakers with
vintage (or vintage-style) drivers. Under
the Ojas moniker—that’s his former deejay
name—he operated his made-to-order
business from his home studio in Brooklyn.
Orders came in via Instagram and through
other “social” means. DIY speaker kits were
his most popular items, he said.
Some years ago, Turnbull started to create “sound sculptures”—handmade, multicomponent, freestanding hi-fi systems
presented as art objects in galleries, first at
the New York branch of the London-based
Lisson Gallery and then, this past summer, at the London branch.3 Those “sonic
happenings” proved popular. Broad public
interest in those events set the stage for
opening the Ojas Listening Room.
The move into the new Ojas space represents both an expansion and a separation—
a way to move the business out of his home.
“I can only have so many people in my
house,” he said. The showroom sells Ojas
bookshelf loudspeakers (both as Brooklynmade complete models and as DIY kits, both
with JBL drivers), amplifiers (with some
Sun Audio kits to come), tubes (including Western Electric 300Bs), turntables,
“cult” tonearms (including Dynavector),
cartridges (including Ortofon SPUs), and
stereophile.com

Q

December 2023

Ojas cables. Turnbull says that a Denon collaboration is forthcoming. Turnbull is a rep
for TAD drivers and plans to stock some
Audio Note parts. He’ll also sell a selection
of records and Japanese audio magazines—
Stereo Sound and MJ—and curated books.
Besides selling wares, Turnbull wants to
encourage people to build their own hi-fi
gear. “DIY doesn’t have the same stigma
in Japan as it does here,” he said. “[There,]
it can be the highest form.” Single-ended
triode amplifiers, he noted, make especially
good DIY projects. “SETs are cool from a
project perspective,” he said. In such a simple circuit, every element matters. “There’s
a high percentage chance it doesn’t work
the way you expect the first time, even for
experienced builders.” It also might not
sound the way you expect it to. It’s all part
of the hands-on, ears-on experience—of
engaging with your audio system. Turnbull
appreciates imperfections: “There’s no spec
for beauty,” he says.
Turnbull acknowledges that his old-

school, purist design approaches won’t
appeal to the masses, and that’s fine. “I’m
not trying to compete with audio dealers
here. I’m not trying to rep all the brands.
If you’re someone who wants to hear 10
options, that’s not what we do.” His goal is
to carry audio products that are bespoke
and culturally significant, to cultivate a
segment of the market not generally represented by mainstream dealers. “I’m just as
happy to inspire someone to go home and
go online and figure out how to make their
own system their own way as I am to sell
them something,” he said.
Turnbull wants the Ojas Listening Room
to foster community among like-minded
people, especially people new to the hobby.
He envisions people stopping by to have
focused, spiritual listening experiences.
On the other hand, people want to ask questions, and he wants them to, and “the two
things are kind of at odds with each other,”
Turnbull said. Indeed, chat and spiritual
listening do not go hand in hand, as Alex
Halberstadt discovered in his recent tour
of New York City jazz kissa, documented in
his November Brilliant Corners column.
(It’s a predicament familiar to anyone who
spends time at hi-fi shows.) So maybe Turnbull will implement a reservation system,
or maybe the solution is to play music for
a while without conversation, followed by
questions. Both things matter: connection
with the music and connection with likeminded people.
“If you’re just getting into high-end gear
and just building your system, it can be
hard to find peers. It can be an isolationist
kind of activity,” he said. “You can learn
techniques on YouTube, but you have to
go looking for peers if you’re into building
and restoring amps, etc. At the very least,
we can provide some kind of platform and
operate as a community.” Q
1 See stereophile.com/content/goodbye-house-mike-kaybuilt and stereophile.com/content/lyrical-denouement.
2 See Herb Reichert’s account in Gramophone Dreams #59,
at stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-59-ojassystem-ej-jordan-marlow-loudspeaker. Also see Ken
Micallef ’s video coverage at bit.ly/3LGl0th. (The music is
better in person. I promise.)
3 Turnbull was part of a group sculpture exhibition called
“The odds are good, the goods are odd,” presented in the
New York gallery summer 2022 and in London this past
summer. See lissongallery.com/exhibitions/devon-turnbull-ojas-hifi-listening-room-dream-no-1.

157

MANUFACTURERS’
COMMENTS
Totaldac d1-unity DAC and
d1-streamer-sublime
Thank you very much, Alex Halberstadt,
for this excellent review and for sharing
your views about the listening feeling and
the traditional measurements. About your
comparison to a turntable, I would just add

that you can get a sound even closer to the
concert or to an analog source using the
Totaldac d1-switch (Ethernet switch) and
the Totaldac d1-player (Roon core). I use
them for the demos in Totaldac’s office and
at Munich or Paris hi-fi shows.
Vincent Brient, Founder
Totaldac
Korf Audio TA-SF9R
We are grateful to Stereophile and Michael Trei for featuring the Korf TA-SF9R
tonearm, especially for his open-minded
approach to our innovative ideas. For
example, we are the only tonearm manufacturer to offer a friction- and stiction-free
horizontal flexure bearing. Michael Trei’s
impressions of our tonearm’s sonic qualities and exemplary tracking closely match
our experience and that of our customers.
We could not ask for a better way to vali-

ANY CLOD CAN HAVE THE FACTS; HAVING OPINIONS IS AN ART

date our research.
As a classic car enthusiast, I enjoyed
and appreciated Michael’s automotive
analogies. Fortunately, the installation
of our tonearm is typically less daunting
than changing a spark plug. The necessary
tools and hardware are included with every
Korf tonearm. We opted against detailed
mounting instructions, as they tend to be
highly specific to the particular turntable
model. It is hardly helpful to tell the owner
of a modern advanced turntable such as
Michael’s SME Model 30 to “mark and drill
the armboard” (to quote from another
tonearm’s owner’s manual). Instead, we
offer unlimited 3-month email and phone
support to help buyers with their installation.
Alex Korf, Founder
Korf Audio
Accuphase A-300
We are very honored that our A-300 has
been covered so well in Stereophile’s great
review. Accuphase regards audio as an
important cultural link between music, art,
and technology. We have been developing and manufacturing equipment that

THIS ISSUE : Representatives of Totaldac,

Korf Audio, Accuphase, and Estelon
respond to our reviews of their products.

the ability to drive all types of loudspeakers. Furthermore, in the unlikely event of
an unexpected temperature rise or speaker
terminal short, the A-300’s safety devices
will reliably differentiate to inform the
user of the abnormality. All these features
are perfectly in line with our policy of
ensuring the safe and long-lasting use of
Accuphase products. We hope many music
lovers and audiophiles will know Accuphase products and enjoy a better audio
and music life.
Takaya Inokuma, Director of Engineering
Accuphase
Estelon AURA
We would like to express our heartfelt
appreciation to Kalman Rubinson for his
meticulous review of our latest speaker
model, AURA. His insightful article not
only provides a comprehensive overview but also eloquently underscores
the strengths of our new addition to the
Estelon collection.
Furthermore, we wish to express our
profound gratitude to the entire Stereophile team for their continuous support of
the Estelon brand. Their collaboration in
facilitating this review is invaluable, and
we look forward to continuing our journey
together in pursuit of audio excellence.
Estelon remains committed to pushing
the boundaries of high-end audio, and we
look forward to sharing our future innovations and endeavors with the Stereophile
community.
Alissa Vassilkova, Chief Executive Officer
Estelon

pursues the essence of audio for more than
50 years. The culmination of these efforts
reduces harmful noise to the utmost limit
so that the A-300 can faithfully reproduce
the expression of the performer and the
atmosphere of the stage or recording location. In addition, the A-300’s power supply
and amplifier design allow linear output
down to below 1 ohm impedance, giving it
158

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

Zu Audio’s New DWX

STEREOPHILE

ADVERTISER INDEX
Accuphase
Acoustic Signature
Alta Audio
Antal Audio
Antipodes Audio
Aqua Acoustic Quality
Audio Advice
Audio Element
Audio Ultra
AudioQuest
Audiovector
AV Luxury Group
International
Avantgarde
Axiss Audio
BEK Hifi
Bel Canto
Burmester
Cabasse
The Cable Company
CH Precision
Clarus
Clearaudio
Dali Speakers
Dan D’Agostino
David Lewis Audio
dCS
DS Audio
stereophile.com

Q

6
121
57
12, 13
134
35
70
92
135
61
27
126
96
6
161
116
150
98
24, 25
67
76
46
41
19
110
87
30

December 2023

Dynaudio
EISA
Electrocompaniet
Elusive Disc
Emotiva
Estelon Audio
Excel Audio
Fezz Audio
Fidelis Distribution
Focal Naim America
GoldenEar
Graham Engineering
Gryphon
Hana
Harbeth
Harmonic Resolution
Systems
HCM Audio
Infigo
I-O Data Device
JL Audio
Joseph Audio
KEF
Kimber Kable
Kirmuss Audio
KLH Audio
Kuzma
Legacy Audio
LINKWITZ
LKV Research
Lumin

146
154
12
144
106
72
128
38
51
152
21
53
132
58
51
10
127
76
114
8, 9
52
45
108
160
74
161
102
115
56
89

Luxman
90
Magico
2
MBL
151
Metaxas & Sins
80
MOFI Electronics Back Cover
Monitor Audio
43
Morrow Audio
63
MSB
80
Music Direct 32, 33, 51, 148
NAD
29
Nexus Audio
Technologies, LLC 57, 69, 76
Now Listen Here
60
Ortofon
64, 153
Pass Laboratories
136
PerListen
124
PrimaLuna
65, 138
Primare
57
PSB
29
Raidho Acoustics
126
Rogue Audio
63
Scott Walker Audio 142, 161
Sierra Sound
68
Siltech
163
SME Limited
22
SOtM
93
The Sound Organisation
54
Source Systems Ltd
89, 114
SourcePoint
Back Cover
Spin Clean
48, 49
Stenheim
69

Stromtank
SVS
Tannoy
Technics
Tekton
Triangle
Ultra Systems
Upscale Audio
Used Cable
VAC
Vandersteen Audio
Vitus Audio
VooDoo
VPI
Weiss Engineering
Wilson Audio
Wireworld
Wynn Audio
YG Acoustics
Zu Audio

37
82
140
17
104
13
160
36
161
84
100
123
112, 160
94
78
4
130
14
118
159

The Ad Index is provided
as a courtesy. The publisher
is not liable for incorrect
information or excluded
listings. Advertisers should
contact their sales representative to correct or update
a listing.

159

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161

MY BACK PAGES

GOOD AND BAD, I DEFINE THESE TERMS QUITE CLEAR...—BOB DYLAN

BY MIKE METTLER

THIS ISSUE: The great blues singer

RQKHUHDUO\PXVLFDOLQࢊXHQFHV

Joan Osborne’s Musical Talisman

Some of my old gear is boxed up in an
offsite storage space, but almost all of my
old LPs are within reach. I can reconnect
with them and how they make me feel in a
flash, with the drop of a needle.
I’m not alone. One kindred
spirit is soulful singer/songwriter
Joan Osborne. Her talisman LP
is 1965’s The Sound of Music: An
Original Soundtrack Recording
(RCA Victor). The gear she played
it on incessantly growing up was
an of-the-era all-in-one console
her parents had in their Kentucky
home.
“Yeah, we had one of those big
console stereos,” Osborne recalled in an interview, “and ours
was set against a wall. It was very
close to my dad’s little wet bar he
had set up in that fabulous 1960s
way. The console stereo had a giant speaker that was closest to the wet bar.
If I sat next to the speaker with my back
against the wall, and I opened one of the
lower cabinet doors of his wet bar, I could
make a little box that I would sit inside. In
there, I could listen to the Sound of Music
record over and over and over again, and
I’d sing along with it. I thought I was invisible in that little box I made for myself. I
thought nobody could hear me, either.”
Not content to only sing those well-loved
Sound of Music leads, Osborne took on
other vocal roles each time the record cued
up. “I would pick a different character to
be every time, and I would sing the part of
that character’s harmony as I listened to it,”
she said. “When the album was done—both
sides—I would flip it over back to the A
side, and I’d pick another character to be.
Most of the time, I was Julie Andrews, but
other times I would be other characters
162

too. Sometimes, I would be Kurt.”1 It’s fun to
think about how lush-harmony songs like
“Do-Re-Mi” and “Edelweiss” sounded in the
voice of a very young Joan Osborne.
That experience has long been incorpo-

rated into Osborne’s musical DNA. That’s
apparent in both her vocal delivery and
her repertoire choices over the course of
her 30-years-plus recording career. If you
think in these terms, you may detect traces
of Charmian Carr2 in Osborne’s Top 10 hit
single “One of Us,” from Relish, her 1995
major-label debut (Blue Gorilla/Mercury
P2-26699), or discover Julie Andrews’s
storytelling channeled into several of the 13
covers on 2017’s Songs of Bob Dylan (Womanly Hips WHRV001). Viewed through
that lens, Osborne’s acoustic-driven reads
of “Masters of War” and “High Water (for
Charley Patton)” display extra cross-decade
gravitas.
Osborne’s early, makeshift isolation
booth served as a blueprint of sorts for the
approach she took with her most recent
album, Nobody Owns You (Womanly
Hips, WYHP 2), her eleventh, released in

September. This excellent, poignant voiceand-acoustic-guitar–driven album plays
as a paean to lost time, lost life, and lost
memory.
Upon aging out of her Sound of Music–cabinet period, Osborne took the next
big step. “When I used to babysit, the first
big purchase I made with my babysitting money was a Radio Shack Realistic
turntable,” she recalls.3 “But I didn’t have
any records to play on it, so I bought the
Eagles’ Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), and
I bought a Cher record. It was the one with
the cover where she had on an amazing
outfit—a crazy bikini and a giant headdress
with antlers coming out of it.4 My older
brother had started borrowing
some records from a friend of his,
so I listened to Sly and the Family
Stone, Elton John’s Greatest Hits,
the Beatles’ White Album, and
John Lennon’s Shaved Fish. You
know, for a kid who was 13 years
old in Kentucky, that music was
pretty mind-blowing.”
Years later, The Sound of Music
enabled Osborne to bridge a generation gap. “When my daughter
was little, we used to watch [the
movie] together a lot,” she said.
“Back in the spring, we both
got COVID, and while we were
sitting around on the couch, we
were like, ‘Let’s watch The Sound of Music
again!’—so we did.”
Osborne would love to pay that mother/
daughter bonding experience forward in
a Rocky Horror Picture Show kind of way.
“What I’d like to do sometime is go to one
of those singalong screenings where everybody knows all the music, and we all get to
sing The Sound of Music together,” she says.
“It would be a lot of fun.” That would be a
surefire way to keep that sound we know
so well in our heads—to ensure that our
talisman music continues to come alive for
us whenever we need it to. Q
1 Julie Andrews played Maria in the film and sang that
character on the soundtrack album. Duane Chase played
and sang as Kurt von Trapp.
2 Charmian Carr played and sang as Liesl von Trapp.
3 These days, Osborne does her vinyl listening with a
vintage Sony turntable.
4 1979’s Take Me Home on Casablanca Records.

December 2023

Q

stereophile.com

PHOTO BY LAURE CROSTA

W

e all have at least one cherished album that takes us back to the exact time
and place we first heard it. Whenever we hear any of the music from that
special album—regardless of whether it occurs months, years, or even
decades later, of whether we hear it in the grocery store, on a car radio, or on
a friend’s playlist—we instantly reconnect with the feelings the music originally evoked
within us.
We audiophiles may even get nostalgic about the format we first spun that album on and
the equipment we played it through most often. And then we might wonder, “Do I still have
that LP in my collection?,” followed by, “Isn’t that old Technics SL-1200 turntable somewhere in the attic?”

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