Equipment Reviews

Michell is a name that’s primarily associated with turntables, John Michell was the engineer who made turntables for Transcriptors in the early days and started building his own models in 1976. Michell remains one of the longest running independent turntable companies but it has plenty of experience with electronics. The first example was the Michell Iso distinguished by a black acrylic case and a distinctly fast and engaging sound, that phono preamp was designed for... Read More

Does anyone enjoy the hassle of unscrewing a chassis top to access resistive and capacitive loading DIP switches, or to adjust phono preamplifier gain? It's a royal pain. Placing the DIPs on the chassis rear is a step up (no pun intended) but for many that means shutting the unit down, unplugging the cables and turning it around to access the DIPs. When you're trying out different loads and or gain settings, this becomes annoying to where maybe you just find... Read More

A piece of gear with no dials, knobs, switches, or any way to indulge my illusion of control over the sound coming out of my system? Hmmm... Out of the box that’s the energy the Sutherland Dos Locos phono preamplifier arrived with—a “my way or the highway” vibe. Input, output, power, and grounding connections. That’s it – just a blank face with one small light confirming it’s powered up and ready to dance (a choice of blue light in the black face or amber light in the... Read More

The initial interest draw here is a supplied Lenovo Tab M8 touchscreen remote, with Belleson’s visually attractive program installed, that lets you set all functionality from where you sit and listen.A powerful, unique convenience feature for sure, but it wouldn’t be sufficient to justify a review if that’s all that was tacked onto a ho-hum solid state phono preamplifier. So obviously there’s more to this American-made, fully balanced $8500 phono preamp that's... Read More

“Stunning. They can hang out in the living room”. Forty reviewing years and that comment from wifey was a first! Her response early last Fall seeing the dramatically “painted by nature” Acora VRCs unpacked and sitting in the driveway in the early morning sun.The light made an already dazzling looking speaker look even more so. It also resembled the delivery of our granite kitchen counters back in 2011, during which the narrowest section had cracked during the truck... Read More

Maximinus Thrax, a Roman emperor from the third century after Christ, was supposedly eight feet tall and possessed of superhuman strength. It was a bold move for Rumen Artarski, the head of Thrax audio, to name his company after this legendary emperor, but he and it have more than lived up to the challenge. After listening to Artarski’s formidably powerful tubed equipment for several weeks, I half expected to hear it ask through my loudspeakers, “Are you not... Read More

How would I define the BMR Monitor’s “Personality”? How about “This loudspeaker sounds like it was designed by an orchestral string player who knows enough engineering to achieve his goals with admirable economic efficiency.” The BMR Monitor is especially remarkable for its timbral and temporal coherence; midrange and treble articulation and detail; and its extraordinary soundstaging and imaging.

Switzerland may be the land of neutrality, but its audio gear has been steadily invading my audio system. It started with a CH Precision P1 phono stage. Next came a DartZeel preamplifier and monoblock amplifiers. Now a new entrant has arrived—the dual mono HSE 7 Masterline phonostage with separate power supply.Fans of Michael Fremer, the head honcho of this website, may recall that he reviewed this phonostage in The Absolute Sound, the very magazine where he commenced... Read More

At last year's Southwest Audio Fest I was impressed with Genesis Advanced Technology's introduction of its new G7 Foxtrot loudspeaker. I recognized it as one of the notable products in my 2024 SWAF report and quickly made arrangements with Genesis owner and designer Gary Koh to review it. Genesis History The late Arnie Nudell, a renowned figure in high-end audio founded Genesis Advanced Technologies in 1991. Before establishing Genesis, Nudell co-founded... Read More

How about starting a cartridge review with comments from YouTubers who have listened to it? Well, sort of. Last December I posted a video of the $20,000 Black Diamond DLC mounted on the Ortofon AS-309R arm ($3469), which was mounted on the OMA K3 prototype direct drive turntable ($360,000) driving the $70,000 CH Precision P10 phono preamplifier.Yes, it’s an outrageously costly “front end” chain with a $20,000 first link. Usually, these kinds of stunt videos attract... Read More

Got warped records? Warped records are a problem, though I have to say I really don't get too many of them. In fact, finding a warped record to flatten was not that easy for me. Finally one came along as a gift—a 180g Japan-pressed reissue of Happy End's Kazamachi Roman. Sometimes warped records come directly from the factory as a result of insufficient cooling time, but many a well-pressed record warps as a result of bad handling by the usual suspects:... Read More

Technics has a turntable problem most turntable manufacturers would be happy to have. The company’s SL-1200 introduced in 1972 and in continuous production until the “death of vinyl” in 2010, only to return to production with the “resurrection of vinyl” in 2016, is iconic. More than 3.5 million were sold and many are still in use.Because it’s iconic and instantly recognizable, Technics wisely chose to maintain the turntable’s oft-copied basic looks and even keep the... Read More

Needle Clinic is a Northern California company that offers retipping and repair of moving-coil cartridges, including upgrades.

Technics introduced these new $299.00 earbuds early last December to a group of editors, journalists and influencers at a Kyoto, Japan press event. The big launch was earlier this week at CES. Other than me and I think a writer from What Hi-Fi in the U.K. the "audiophile press" was absent. I travel a lot —I am a million miler on United and I always bring music and headphones. I've got multiple pairs of small "in ear" models from various... Read More

Reviewing, or judging the sound of audio gear at hi-fi shows is a fool's errand. I've written that before and I'll never stop writing it as long as some reviewers insist upon doing so in lousy sounding hotel rooms, I don't care the size. Sometimes good sound does happen and of course it should be pointed out and lauded and there are some exhibitors who know how to work around bad acoustics and bad electricity to achieve acceptable sound (High Water... Read More

Ortofon has long marketed a tonearm made in Japan to its specifications. For the recently introduced 12" AS-309R, the latest revision to Ortofon's tonearm, Ortofon provides few specifics other than "130 redesigned components.... crafted with unparalleled mechanical precision and advanced engineering". The company doesn't divulge what any of those parts are, or how and why they were redesigned.The additional 'boilerplate" marketing... Read More

With "retro" industrial design having been a "thing" in audio for the past few years, especially in loudspeakers and receivers, I've been wondering why VPI hasn't stepped up to the audio plate and knocked one out of the nostalgia Ozone Park with a re-imagined vintage VPI turntable (yes I do spend my spare time thinking of such things). Well here it is— a new and improved take on the venerable HW-19, proving there's VPI life beyond... Read More