Equipment Reviews

Written by Bill Philpot, the late Paul Messenger and Rega co-founder Roy Gandy, “A Vibrational Measuring Machine” released in 2016 chronicles Rega Research’s long, rich history and the evolution of its design concepts. In its quest to create and market the ultimate “vibration measuring machine”, Rega Research has over the years worked diligently, you could say almost ruthlessly to reduce mass and increase the rigidity of its turntables. A low mass, stiff plinth (or... Read More

KLAUDiO introduces a state of the art turntable featuring a direct drive magnetically levitated platter and an automated spindle and periphery clamp.

Many Grails ago, in 2009, van den Hul introduced its original "The Grail" transimpedance-based MC/MM phono preamplifier. I reviewed it in 2018 when it cost $7950. Yes, it’s pretentious to name anything, but especially an audio product, “The Grail” but at least it wasn’t called “The Holy Grail” and it wasn’t packed in a cup and didn’t promise mystical healing powers. But it surely did deliver the promised outstanding sonic performance and it's still in... Read More

For audiophiles on a limited budget the choices have never been more fantastic. Especially for the folks who want to find out what all the noise is about regarding vacuum tubes. A glut of affordable (some ridiculously so), vacuum-tube-based, integrated amps have recently appeared on the market. Most are from companies located in China, South Korea, and other parts of East Asia, but in the last several years, more and more of these glowing glass bottle beauties have been coming out of Poland.

We live in a clickbait, hype-infested, hyperbolic, anything goes commercial world—even when it comes to medicine. You can buy a brush-on cure for "toe fungus". Of course, there's no such thing as "toe fungus". There's toe nail fungus that no brush on liquid cures but these telemarketing geniuses have conflated the two and are probably raking it in from people who think they can now brush away gross looking, thick yellow, fungus-infested... Read More

AVM’s Ovation PH 8.3 vacuum tube-based phono preamplifier is among the most versatile, useful, and well-conceived phono preamps I’ve yet encountered. How’s that for an opening paragraph? As with all models in the Ovation 8 series, the PH 8.3’s output stage uses a matched pair of AVM’s 803T tube, which is a 12AX7, modified per AVM’s specifications, that helps produce, according to the company, “an unmistakably charming tube sound”. BTW "AVM" stands for Audio... Read More

In 1953, a music-loving Cambridge University engineering student named Finch James Shepherds-Pye had an idea. He was fascinated by the reproduction of recorded music on discs and had started thinking seriously about the subject. This led to (the eventually knighted) Sir Shepherds-Pye's doctoral thesis on the tonearm and the geometry required to place a cartridge stylus at the most accurate point on a record. He came up with the concept of mirroring the cutter... Read More

My relationship with subwoofers began in the late 70s while making my rounds at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, back then one of two summer Consumer Electronics Show high performance audio hotel sites. The other was the nearby Blackstone. The main show was at the giant McCormick Place Convention Center.I walked into the Janis Audio display room, where owner/designer John Marovskis had set up a demo of his new Janis W1 subwoofer and Interphase crossover/amp. I... Read More

When in 2018 Micha Huber's Switzerland-based HiFiction AG bought the storied brand EMT Tontechnik, taking control of EMT's cartridge business including development, production, repair, and international distribution and moving it to his Winterthur, Switzerland factory, he clearly had more in mind than just phono cartridges, though that's the core business he purchased.A year later in order to have space for both the EMT production line and increased... Read More

Maryland-based Black Ice Audio manufactures and markets an extensive line of vacuum tube-based audio products. The company had a long association with the late audio genius Jim Fosgate, who passed away in 2022.Rather than list Jim’s accomplishments here, please read his obit, though if you don’t, just know that among his many tech accomplishments Jim invented and licensed to Dolby what became Dolby Pro Logic II. It made him a well-deserved wealthy man, but it didn’t... Read More

Reviewing an elegant analog system from Clearaudio.

Dave McNair reviews a uniquely enjoyable preamplifier that pushes the envelope on the usage of italized and bold in a HiFi review. 

The latest wrinkle in the 50 year Rega “vibration measuring machine” saga is a special edition of the “bread and butter” Planar 3. It’s no surprise that the cover photo of Rega’s 2016 hardcover book “A Vibration Measuring Machine” features a P3. It's the model that gets you all Rega’s core design concepts well-executed at an affordable $1595 price including a top of the moving magnet line Exact cartridge.For its 50th, Rega offers the Planar 3 50th Anniversary... Read More

In the autumn of 1973, I walked into an audio store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, intending to buy an album. As I entered the store, I could hear James Taylor's music playing from a pair of Rogers LS3/5A loudspeakers. At that time, I owned a Marantz 1060 and AR 3a loudspeakers that I had used during my college days in Boulder, Colorado. I was instantly captivated by the sound that day, and this singular moment initiated me on a lifelong pursuit to experience those... Read More