Equipment Reviews

Fluance reps asked to meet at Munich High End this past spring and I agreed thinking it would be new turntable pitch but instead it was a request for a $399.99/pr. powered Bluetooth bookshelf loudspeaker review. Big surprise, but why not hear what's possible for $399.99? I wasn't expecting much, but got an earful!Fluance shipped a pair in walnut that were placed adjacent to our family room Panasonic plasma television (family is 2 of us, 4 dogs and 2 cats) on... Read More

Jazzed by the positive review here of Ortofon's X40 moving coil cartridge, a friend asked what he should do for a step up solution. He liked his excellent sounding Graham Slee MM phono preamp and wanted to keep using it. There's nothing worse in an analog audio chain than a bad step up transformer and known good ones don't come cheap. You can take a chance on a step up transformer you find on Ebay (and admittedly I saw a few good known used ones), but... Read More

This past May I visited the Munich High-End show for the very first and, as it turns out, last time. Next year the exhibition will take place at the beginning of June in Vienna, the city that served for centuries as the capital of the Hapsburg empire before it collapsed at the close of World War I. Despite Munich’s displacement, the mood at this year’s show was anything but funereal. I was pumped to discover a passel of enjoyable and exciting audio exhibits, including... Read More

Revisiting a rave review can be uncomfortable. Was the product as good as you’d written it was? As conceptually groundbreaking and sonically spectacular as you’d described it? You never know until you return to it, unless of course you bought it and regularly use it, and even then, sometimes after a while you say to yourself “What was I thinking?” Or that but laced with expletives.The Supatrac Blackbird Farpoint got a rave review, and I bought it, but it’s not been in... Read More

Ortofon's MC X line introduced at last Spring's High End Munich show is an all new moderately priced moving coil series that from bottom (X10) to top (X40 reviewed here) is a major mechanical and electrical upgrade from the older Quintet lineup introduced in 2017. Despite the all new design, and worldwide inflation between 2017 and now, Ortofon has kept prices relatively stable. The Quintet Black (and Quintet Black S that Malachi Lui reviewed on AP during... Read More

Product lines are generally drawn straight. But not always. That is, as you move up from the least expensive to the most expensive, quality usually improves—in terms of materials, construction consistency and performance, whether you're talking about cars, cameras or high performance audio. Phono cartridge lines are sometimes crookedly drawn. Spending more money on one doesn't guarantee that in the critical cantilever/stylus interface you'll be getting... Read More

Erhard Audio located in beautiful Ennis, Montana is the exclusive American Lundahl transformer distributor—(along with offering a variety of custom built, limited supply tube-based electronics) . It's basically a one couple operation with Holger doing the designing and building of a wide range of products and his wife Kelly doing the books—at least that's what I gleaned from the website. This review is way late and to the couple I apologize. Erhard supplied... Read More

In a Tracking Angle review in March of this year, I called Philharmonic Audio’s Balanced-Mode-Radiator (BMR) Monitor loudspeaker “The Loudspeaker Bargain of the Century—at Least So Far.” (And I am so glad that I put that weasel-y little derrière-covering qualifier in.) That's in the context of, in my 2023 Tracking Angle review of Bricasti’s M3 Digital-to-Analog Converter, I called Solen Electronique’s fully-assembled SB Acoustics Sasandu Tx Finale three-way (with double woofers) loudspeaker “the Audio Bargain of this Century—so far.” And now, I announce a NEW Loudspeaker Bargain of the Century. As Shakespeare wrote:

Men were deceivers, ever.
One foot in sea, and one on shore.
To one thing, constant, never.

I believe most hi-fi consumers and professionals hop scotch (my term) in the pursuit of audio nirvana. The reasons are, by and large, obvious: Upgrade neurosis coupled with a strong dose of financial considerations. This has been my story going back to my first audio purchase in 1968. I would listen to my system for a certain period of time and then decide which unit (turntable, cartridge, receiver, amp, preamp, speakers) would get the next upgrade. Back in the early... Read More

Ortofon celebrated its 90th anniversary by launching in 2009 the MC A90 ($4200) a revolutionary moving coil phono cartridge, the first to use SLM (Selective Laser Melting) to 3D "spray" an impossible to machine-shaped body using melted stainless steel powder. The result was a highly rigid, dense, low resonance minimalist body that resembled no other cartridge.The A90 also made use of a newly developed remarkably "dead" elastomer used in the damper.... Read More

The post-WWII landscape of Japanese high-performance audio represents one of the most fascinating chapters in the story of recorded sound: a remarkable convergence of engineering precision, artistic sensibility, and cultural reverence for craftsmanship. What began as an industrial recovery effort blossomed into something far more profound: a multi-faceted ecosystem where technical innovation and aesthetic refinement achieved rare harmony.The narrative typically begins... Read More

“These are what I listen to when I want to know what I’ve recorded, Roy Halee told me, standing in front of a pair of the original Wilson WATTs (Wilson Audio Tiny Tots). That’s what I listen to for pleasure,” he added, pointing to the Infinity IRS monoliths dominating his large, vaulted-ceilinged Connecticut listening room. Mark Levinson electronics juiced the WATTs. Big Jadis tube amps powered the panels. It was early 1987 and Halee was still relishing his Graceland... Read More

The author tells the long and winding tale of getting his Kuzma arm and Lyra cartridge to surrender their potential.

Believe it or not, I think that the Falcon Loudspeakers F50 (to me, “F50” sounds like the name of a not-yet-built US fighter jet), and which, at $2,495, is loosely in the same sub-$3,000/pr. price tier as the Philharmonic Audio BMR Monitor I reviewed last time out, really is a respectable alternative to the much larger, three-way BMR Monitor ($1,900/pr. and up, depending on finishes; but, currently out of stock, because of a few great reviews). Despite the F50’s having only a (nominal) 5" woofer. And, even if the F50 costs more. It all depends upon which virtues are more important to you, and which vices are less important to you.

The Absolute Sound review of the Original Live Sovereign S turntable and Agile tonearm that I wrote will soon be published, but before publication, in the embedded video below you'll see what makes this turntable arm/combo special.The combo costs around $25,000 so it's pretty costly but its design features are unique and while I'm not putting up an actual review here, when you see what's going on "under the hood" the design is sure to... Read More

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