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Coming up:
May 2008: Steve Marsh visits Red Wine Audio: After the Montreal Show concludes, Steve has been invited to visit Vinnie Rossi in his new expanded digs to report on how a well-loved small entrepreneur is dealing with increased demand for his product... |
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May 2008: fairaudio.de does Munich: Show time. Size matters is a slogan and 230 exhibitors makes quite a number on the neighborhood curb. It's also the figure the 27th installment of High End -- meanwhile in Munich for the fifth time -- clocked for new record attendance. Yet sheer gigantomania isn't what bowls us over at fairaudio. More interesting is that High End attracts a growing cadre of foreign firms (24 countries had representation). Some exotic flair is always welcome, we think... |
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May 2008: Run of the Mill: Jonathan Weiss opens up Oswald's Mill once a year for what he's dubbed a Tube and Speaker Tasting. People travel from far and wide to attend: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, the Carolinas, Portland, Berlin and more. The things to be tasted at the Mill include audio, music, amazing food, drink, smoke and most importantly (it appeared to me) good company. When I say Jonathan opens up his home, I mean that quite literally. There's nothing off limits, no "be careful on that carpet", no locked doors. Part of the reason is that there's vintage audio to be seen. Everywhere. Piles of it. Rows of it, stacks of it. And we're talking about an RCA professional and industrial products-centric collection with some rare and nearly extinct species... |
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May 2008: Music First (Audio) news: I tend to prefer active preamps with tubes. However, there are occasions when the amplifier/speaker interface is so locked in and dialed that you don't want to "season the stew" with any additional spice whatsoever. Now a superior passive preamp becomes necessary, a field in which Music First Audio, the subsidiary of Stevens & Billington, has major experience for their transformer-attenuating solutions.... |
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April 2008: Srajan and Marja & Henk report from the Munich show: 11 pages of packed show reportage still overlook about 60% of who and what was there. Really. Still, we've worked hard to give you our 40%... |
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April 2008: Franckenese: If you see dead people, they will surely inform your after-life notions. If you're a psychotherapist who successfully applied techniques to stop himself from seeing ghosts, anyone else seeing them will be viewed as hallucinating and treated accordingly. Should a hallucinator proceed to relay to the therapist detailed messages from his long dead grandmother only she could possibly know about, our shrink could be in serious trouble - especially when his techniques vaporize grandma's specter before she could finish describing to the hallucinator where the lost family treasures were buried... |
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April 2008: Rethmosis: No, it's not the curse of the mummy, just a humorous bow to the osmosis-like transformation of Rethm's new Maarga speaker which integrates certain design cues from the cosmetically upgraded Saadhana. From a performance perspective, the most important change is the integrated bass amp which now gives each speaker its very own power source. The integrated trap absorbers on the speakers' cheeks continue the theme begun with the Saadhana whose originally veneered side covers gave way to silk-wrapped foam/perf masonite panels intended to absorb acoustical reflections and thus subtract the speaker enclosure from the reflective listening environment as much as possible... |
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April 2008: Thorens TEP 3800: As my review of them makes clear, the Thorens TEM 3200 monaural hybrids are true reference amplifiers and, in my necessarily limited experience, the best such devices I've yet heard. Knowing that the patent-pending DC-coupled counter-parallel Circlotron iteration of the monos had also found its way into Frank Blöhbaum's matching TEP 3800 preamp, I was naturally curious how it would do there. As it turns out, readers of Germany's Stereoplay magazine already know. The TEP 3800 displaced their current Lyra Connoisseur as their new in-house reference. One might suspect nationalistic pride -- after all, Swiss Thorens manufactures in Germany -- but... |
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April 2008: Paul Candy visits Le Festival Son et Image, Montreal |
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April 2008: Isabella: Vinnie Rossi's much anticipated battery-power tube preamp cum DAC is nearing its first official sighting at the upcoming Montreal hifi and home entertainment show. Or as the man put it: "This has been a ton of work but it is coming out (and sounds) awesome! Hopefully we'll be in production soon. Realistically, probably not until the end of April. There are just a few more things to wrap up but I will have the prototype unit in use at the Montreal show next week. Just wanted to give you a peek :-)" |
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April 2008: Second Coming: Today's episode involves bozos, bumbling fools, lurid sex, gratuitous violence, exotic locales, explosive special effects. No plausible story line or any character development however. Not quite - though some might wish. Let's begin this beguine at the beginning. Walter Liederman is an industry veteran who was a senior partner in the Atlanta-based HiFi Buys chain before teaming up with Mark Schifter in Perpetual Technologies and AV123.com, launching his own highly successful Underwood Hifi business, creating various mod collaborations with Chris Johnson of the PartsconneXion and Rick Cullen of Cullen Circuits, starting Peachtree Audio and other ventures... |
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March 2008: Plagiarism and flattery: As an equipment review editor, I'm keenly aware of the difficulties of "keeping tabs" in today's globalized markets. When manufacturers submit items for review, we always assume, in good faith, that they own the right to said products (and that these products conform to the electrical and safety codes of the countries they're sold in). Should we happen to know that a product solicited for review is a gross rip-off of another, we of course refuse to review it. But, chances are high that we won't always know because in audio, the real inventions tend to hide beneath the covers where it takes circuit analysis to make the call... |
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March 2008: Tecon Audio Model 55: The world can seem an awfully small place when you're having fun. "About amps, I had one positive experience (Glow Amp); one very positive (Tecon, also with USB port); and one negative (more expensive EL34 amp from another vendor with no dynamics and both bass and highs rolled off, together with poor communication -- emails not answered -- while the little guys were very courteous). But you know me, this didn't influence my verdict." That was my Swiss friend and benefactor. When he sez 'very' which ain't often, I pays attention. So I investigated the unfamiliar Tecon Audio website and posted a little announcement on their Model 55 in our news page. Two days later, Swiss expat Pierre Tecon checked in from California with an unexpected offer to review it... |
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March 2008: Globalization: If e-mails were people, my inbox would make for a helluva party. Someone interesting joined the party today. Name Daniel Březina; position in life, editor in chief. Cool: "Dear Mr. Ebaen, I found your contact on your website and would like to start cooperation with your magazine. If you are not the right contact person, please forward this mail to the right person. Let me introduce myself and the Hi-Fi Voice project in a few short sentences. We are a new small online fan magazine in the Czech Republic about high-end hifi, music and home cinema. We started our website two months ago and would like to start informing Czech hifi fans about all the important events, hifi news and also offer component reviews. But this right now is our main problem... |
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March 2008: Liquid Cable: Brian Kurtz has plied the audio trade seemingly forever. From regional sales rep to national sales manager for Tara Labs back to rep o'man, he's been proud proprietor of Austin's Sound Mind Audio dealership for a decade since. Brian and I go way back to his days at Tara Labs calling on the NorCal hifi shop where I worked at then. When Brian solicited me now with a new cable which firmly relegates his beloved Tara Labs The Zero to second place, I could not not take note. And this despite my cable blaséphemy this side of Ken Kessler. Brian's story quite liquefied any resistance. You see, his Teo Audio cable (it's his in the sense that Brian is the exclusive global distributor for it) uses a liquid conductor..." |
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March 2008: Laurent Thorin interviews Renaud de Vergnette: Since 1997, Laurent has been editor of the French magazine Haute Fidélité to be well connected to the French audio scene. "What's very interesting is that RDV is fond of very exotic things and has much to say about them. I have been invited to conduct the interview in his house and to take pictures of him with his own system while conducting a little informal analysis of the performance in situ (dCS, Magnum Dynalab, big tube monoblocks, the biggest and latest €40,000/pr Triangle speakers with an exclusive sub never released)..." |
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February 2008: Various degrees of decomposure & decrepitude. "Dead or in the final stages of dying. That's what one hears a lot today, about the state of high-end audio. But the iPod phenom surely proves that it's not because folks stopped listening to music. They did stop listening the high-end way. If they ever even got started. If listening the high-end way means an asocial gathering of one in the basement dungeon's sweet spot, you'd nearly feel inclined to proclaim, good riddance. I'm not about to. I'm one of those who experience emotional rejuvenation through listening. Not just any listening though. It's gotta be deliberate, with intention on being transported to elsewhere..." |
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February 2008: Yamamoto once more: "I think the 'S' is the thing. When Shigeki-San of Yamamoto Soundcraft revised his 45-based A-08 SET to 'S' level, the world took notice and that amp remains my favorite valve machine to this day. Now the 'S' has cozied up to the A-09 300B SET and I've got a hunch that a true classic is in the offing..." |
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February 2008: Yamamoto: "Anyone on the reviewing beat eventually hits her groove. You know what you like and what works in your room. You also have a list of manufacturers who consistently release products you're smitten with. It's human nature to avoid pain and seek pleasure. As such, sticking with a proven formula that generates the pleasure of writing with honest enthusiasm about great finds becomes the groove. Naturally, not much separates groove from rut if one doesn't occasionally jump the groove. This needn't be screechy as with a vinyl record..." |
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February 2008: Minor site adjustments February 08: "Our readers are sharp and responsive. No sooner had I activated the slightly adjusted appearance of our audio reviews and industry features than the first e-mail arrived, complaining bitterly about now having to scroll over sponsor banners in the middle of a content page. "Put them on the side if you must". The gist of his ire was clear as day. This reader wanted the ads parked such that he could overlook or bypass them. Having their ads seen is naturally what ad sponsors pay for - and with it, they pay for this entire site's existence hook, line and sinker. Make no mistake, no sponsors will sink 'er, this site..." |
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January 2008: AudioSector: "Some components work year in, year out with such yeoman reliability and solid excellence as to eventually be taken for granted. Then they fall below the radar of loquacious reviewers who constantly chase the latest and greatest - even if they're owned by such a one. Thus it is with my Peter Daniel designed and built AudioSector Patek SEs. These bloody chip amps are simply flawless and based on a recipe of parts minimalism and extreme mechanical chassis coupling which Peter has perfected over various incarnations including his versions for AudioZone..." |
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January 2008: Price & Perception: "You needn't be Jane Austin to stir up the proverbial hornets nest with a Pride & Prejudice yarn. We all love nothing better than scoring a product at one quarter the price of another that kicks its butt. Yet deep down, common sense expects that you get only what you pay for. We're disdainful of being had, eternally hopeful to beat the odds. Price & perception are the poles between which this teeter totter plays out...." |
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January 2008: Srajan Ebaen comments on CES 2008 from afar: "The header says it all. I wasn't there. What could I possibly have to write about then? Well, just one thing, really. Knowing of specific manufacturers introducing new products and relying on the various show reports to learn about those launches drove home just how much each of those show reports overlook. But before you infer arm-chair sabre rattling while others were running their soles off in the sweaty trenches, no such cheap noise..." |
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January 2008: Michael Lavorgna reports from CES 2008:" ...The new Pythagoras turntable (estimated retail price $80,000) from Audio Stone designed by Micha Huber is a precision-made piece of Swiss engineering. A belt-driven platter is powered by a synchronous motor which lies hidden beneath this table's clean, smooth surface. An optical sensor is integrated into the platter that monitors, calibrates and sets rotation speed while in 'calibration mode'. Once calibrated, the turntable goes into 'music mode' and maintains perfect pitch according to Audio Stone. The integrated rack is made from Norwegian granite and marine-grade stainless steel. Completing this package is the Thales tangential pivoted tonearm..." |
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January 2008: Glow Audio's Amp One: "Occasionally, one comes across a product so cute and cool that one thinks nothing of writing a quasi 'infomercial' for it, all entirely unprompted and unpaid for. Consider this such a case. Glow Audio operates out of El Paso/Texas and for their first product, offers the $480 Amp One single-ended pentode integrated with USB input, EL84s with 6N3 drivers, one RCA input, one 1/4" headphone output and 6 different color options in thick high-gloss Enamel over anticorrosion sub-coated steel. The attenuator is a quality Alps, tube sockets are ceramic, the innards are wired point-to-point, the transformers are precision hand-wound jobs, negative feedback is minimal, bias is automatic and internal voltages are switchable from 115 to 220V..." |
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January 2008: On Assignment 3: Warwick Freemantle reports from Guangzhou: "So I arrive in China one week after the goods left Melbourne, expecting to see them at Melody's factory ready for final testing only to discover that they are still sitting in customs. It's Monday and we have to be setting up at the show on Thursday. Alex is trying to find out what is going on and heads off to the airport with Zhen from Melody while I wait at the hotel. He finds out that because the goods were not marked "Express", it takes 2 weeks to clear them. But there's more. Because they are a commercial import of electronic goods, you are on the proverbial slow boat to China..." |
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January 2008: Gone with the Wind: Jeff Day phones in from CES 2008: "...The Totem room was sounding mighty fine. In particular I was impressed by the wall-mounted Tribe speakers, which were bloody impressive and a big temptation. I'd love to try a pair in my TV room. These wall-mounted speakers could give just about any speaker a run for their money, both musically and sonically. They'd be perfect flanking that new wide screen LCD you've been eyeing..." |
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January 2008: Mike Malinowski visits Tenor Audio: "...The fate of a small start-up business in any industry is precarious. The four year failure rate is over 50% and I would expect it is even higher for two-channel audio companies. Expertise alone rarely guarantees success. Often it's the mundane areas such as overhead, costing and cash flow which determine the life or death of a small business. Such is the story of the original Tenor Audio. It started with the passionate leadership of François Lemay, followed by Robert Lamarre and with the engineering brilliance of Michel Vanden Broeck. Formed in 2000, they hit the ground running and started out with a home run... Unfortunately..." |
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December 2007: The return of the widebander?: "Those of us believing that premium resolution and dynamic verisimilitude at least in the micro domain rely on high speaker sensitivities have long belabored the fact that none of the well-funded, established, big - well, majors in the drive unit manufacturing scene have picked up the slack. Lowthers for example are expensive, many of them in need of after-market modifications and when you inspect them closely, not as nicely made as you'd want for the money. AER, Feastrex, Jordan, PHY, Supravox - while the art of the hi-eff widebander is being kept alive in the hifi sector, it's by very small outfits. When a modern speaker designer wants to explore such drive unit options, he is often forced to go pro..." |
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December 2007: State of the (non) Union 12/07: "State of the (Non) Union addresses. They're useful. Hindsight commentary creates context going forward. Being the middle of December, I had just finalized the awards graphics for this year's winners in our pages. This de facto overview of 2007 reminded me of component highlights. Where we'd been. Then something struck. There was a highly unusual peak (well beyond linear) of class D amp winners this year. All of 'em -- with only one exception -- were based on lower-power Tripath chips. Had all this occurred by way of the same writer, one would cry personal biases, system context and write it off. Which is why it would never have happened in the first place..." |
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November 2007: On Assignment 2: Warwick Freemantle on Feastrex: "Some of you may remember that a year ago, I reported on the Guangzhou AV Fair in China and how very impressed I was when visiting the Melody factory in Shenzhen. Well, a lot of things have happened since then. The Melody brand has been refreshed in Australia with new dealers and a new marketing strategy pioneered by my outfit, Pure Music Group. Parallel to this, my passion for single driver loudspeakers has been fuelled by the introduction of new drivers from Feastrex in Japan..." |
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November 2007: Rubanoide Update: On location in Switzerland: "Rubanoïde. The name derives from the French word ruban which is equivalent to the English ribbon. The "oid" suffix turns it into "ribbon-like" as this new driver operates similarly to the way ribbon speakers work while still being different from a true ribbon. The basic Rubanoïde concept was developed by a French engineer who is nearly 80 years old today. He labored over this project for 20 years because his invention, while deceptively simple in concept, is quite tricky to implement and even more difficult to usher into regular production. Swiss Audio Consulting has advanced the Rubanoïde development further by working on the wooden frame and other proprietary aspects..." |
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November 2007: Perspectives: "Perspectives. Musicians have very odd ones when it comes to the sound of their instruments. So odd in fact that they're shared with nobody else. Take a clarinet since I've played one for nearly 20 years. The mouth piece is tightly pressed against your upper teeth, the vibrating reed against your lower lip. Every tone you make vibrates an air column inside the bore of your blackwood. The column's length is determined by which finger holes you open. The oscillating shaft of air couples directly to your lungs, the vibrations of wood and reed through your upper teeth into your skull. Your upper body resonates. You are in the eye of the cyclone which is sound. Except it ain't still in there but louder than anyone else will hear it...." |
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November 2007: RMAF 2007 with Marja & Henk: "...This year's installation of the event was once again bigger than last year's. Now more than 140 rooms were booked, about all the Denver Tech Center Marriot can handle. Yet to visit 140 rooms properly during the formal duration of the show is impossible. There are two options then - only visit the 'interesting' rooms by making a selection based on the very well laid-out show catalogue; or treat all rooms/exhibitors alike and visit 'em all. In our opinion, the latter had the best chances of discovering something new and exciting. So here follow our impression of the rooms we saw. Mind you, we did skip a few. One for the choice of music, some because the emphasis was on video and one -- Linn -- because they did not let us in. A demo in progress..." |
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October 2007: Jeff's Meditation on Musicality & Music Lovers: "During the last four years, my thoughts about all things HiFi have changed enough that I decided I should tell you about it so you would know what you're getting into when you read my scribblings here at 6moons. My perceptions of what is important in the hifi reproduction of music have changed substantially, primarily as a result of studying music with John La Chapelle over the same time frame. John is a legend in the Pacific Northwest for his jazz guitar playing and teaching. Now 86 years of age, John has been playing the guitar for over seventy years! He's my guitar hero!..." |
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October 2007: Stephæn meets Matt at RMAF 2007 - again: "Matt and I first met on the shuttle going from Denver International to the Marriot Tech Center for the first RMAF in 2005. Aside from listening to music, it turned out he was an avid musician who plays bass, drums, guitar, piano and whatever else necessary to keep his band moving forward. He had just flown in from Minnesota, spoke of a love of classic rock and claimed to be an inveterate vinyl hound. And, he was seriously stoked because the very first RMAF was to be his very first audio show..." |
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October 2007: Stephæn at RMAF 2007: "...Being of a decidedly non-conformist bent, Stephæn had just the solution: People and music. What kind of music are the people listening to who make and design audio components or bother attending a hifi show? Isn't that a telling bit of info on the state of affairs? Under hectic show conditions of course, such a question needs to be less open-ended to solicit a quick answer. So Stephæn decided on asking for two albums. The first-ever bought (think "the morning after" once your music-lover's cherry had been popped); and the most recent album purchased (the latter quite possibly at the show proper)..." |
| RAM:EF - Room Acoustics Mastery: "Expert Feedback" at a glance |
RAM:EF13: On the design process
RAM:EF12: On sound isolation and noise control
RAM:EF11: On the perfect room
RAM:EF10: On room acoustics at trade shows
RAM:EF9: On the soundstage at home and in the recording studio
RAM:EF8: On rooms without boundaries
RAM:EF7: On LEDE live-end/dead-end considerations
RAM:EF6: On bass traps
RAM:EF5: Acoustical measurements - what are they?
RAM:EF4: On dipolar speakers and their specifc room acoustics needs
RAM:EF3: More on high-directivity speakers and the need to control early reflections with treatments
RAM:EF2: Introduction to room acoustics terminology
RAM:EF1: On high-directivity speakers and the need to control early reflections with treatments
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