Equipment Reviews

Denmark based Dynaudio designs and manufactures loudspeaker systems for professional studios, car audio, and home hi-fi, all using advanced driver technology engineered and developed in-house. When Dynaudio's John Quick offered the opportunity to review the Evoke 30s, I was absolutely stoked. Though I've been impressed by casual listenings to their stand-mount Special 40, I've never had the chance to spend quality time with a pair of Dynaudio speakers.... Read More

I’ve been a fan of Charisma Audio for a while now. I reviewed and purchased a Charisma Audio Signature One several years back. I consider that cart to be my first high-end cartridge. Although I previously used several other MC carts, the Signature One gave me a more neutral tonality along with more resolution than I previously had. So when Bernard Li of Charisma Audio asked if I’d like to hear his new top-of-the-line YYZ cartridge (the latest evolution up from the... Read More

At a press conference during last spring’s Munich High End 2024 YG Acoustics introduced its new “flagship” $498,000 XV 3 Signature loudspeaker—a four tower, limited-to-eight-pairs edition.This isn’t a review of that speaker, so there’s no point in going through all that went into its design and execution overseen by YG CEO and chief designer Matthew Webster.No doubt designing and executing this modestly priced Talus loudspeaker introduced in 2023 was at least, if not... Read More

The Gryphon Audio Designs Diablo 333 integrated amplifier is the highly anticipated, long-awaited replacement for the very successful Diablo 300, which had a remarkable 8-year run and sold thousands of units. This new design incorporates advanced technologies used in Gryphon's flagship Apex and Commander amplifier and preamp. I met Anthony Chiarella, Gryphon's Director of Sales and Marketing for the USA, at AXPONA 2024. We talked about Gryphon's... Read More

Obviously, MoFi Electronics has not gone into the cartridge making business, though it does manufacture its own turntables and phono preamp. The lineup of three cartridges appears to be manufactured per Allen Perkins' order by Audio-Technica, which has of late been doing this for a number of American companies.The $999 StudioSilver is the middle of the three cartridge line, with the MasterTracker MM below and the $1495 UltraGold MC above. A value-packed cartridge... Read More

It’s no secret that with vinyl once again popular, many well-known brands eager to enter or re-enter the turntable market have them manufactured at the same well-established, highly capable Taiwanese factory using familiar looking parts. It doesn’t take an ”eagle eye” to spot the similarities. Other companies, like Canada-based Fluance.com, once an “upstart” but now well-established, do likewise. Most of these turntables are not “branding exercises”, in which a... Read More

Taking a lunch break during a mid 1990’s Consumer Electronics Show, Allen Perkins, then working for turntable manufacturer SOTA and I writing for The Absolute Sound, exited The Riviera Hotel, site of the “high end” exhibits, and took a walk along Las Vegas Boulevard, better known as “The Strip”. The west side of the street then was mostly demolished brick rubble behind chain link fencing. Among the few buildings on that side of the street was the old blue backlit... Read More

Jerome Sabbagh's newest album Heart arrived as I was packing for Munich so I couldn't play it before leaving. Upon returning, once my ears had unclogged from the plane flight, I got right to it, playing it on the MoFi Electronics Masterdeck turntable, a review of which is coming right up. First play I found the James Farber engineered at The Power Station live to 2-track analog tape recording wonderfully transparent, timbrally rich, and overall, sonically... Read More

Vera-Fi Audio’s “Vanguard Scout” shoebox-sized (but, which is DEFINITELY NOT an LS3/5A DESCENDANT OR EMULATION) loudspeaker, direct-to-consumer priced at $299 USD the pair, has had me ruminating on quite a few things.

Japanese conglams re-entering the two-channel audio market have mostly gone with nostalgia-based retro looking receivers. And why not? It’s what they were doing when they exited the market and there seems to be a newfound yearning for them among audio enthusiasts of all ages. Technics makes a few of these too, including the SU-R1000, a $10,000 full featured, "modernized" retro-looking integrated receiver.Technics has gone the opposite route with its SU-GX70,... Read More

Here's an easy way to approach using a step up transformer with a moving coil cartridge: The load that a step-up transformer presents to its primary is calculated when you divide the resistance connected to the secondary with the turns ratio squared. So for the Ypsilon MC16 for instance, it's Rin=47k/16*2=183.5ohms. To be more precise this stands for an ideal transformer with no winding resistances. So add also 450ohms secondary and 8ohms at primary coil.... Read More

Westminster Lab is relatively new to the hifi scene, but since introducing their Rei power amps and Quest preamplifier, the company has rapidly gained a reputation for excellence. There is a lot of available online information and interviews with Westminster Lab founder and CEO Angus Leung so I won’t rehash too much of it here. Mr. Lueng started as a digital-only listener and designer until a meeting with DS Audio founder and bossman Tetsuaki Aoyagi resulted in Mr.... Read More

Getting good sound in a hotel room is always dicey and most of the time nearly impossible, even when an experienced exhibitor has previously used the same room. Sometimes it’s the electricity, sometimes the room’s décor has been redone and sometimes, well, it’s whatever sometimes makes your system not “happening” and there’s no good reason for it that you can think of, so you just pack it in for the evening and do something else, only to return next night and it’s... Read More

This is another of those very familiar stories. The vinyl bug bit EBI Audio's founder Tariq Shafeeque at an early age. His father was a big collector and you know how that goes. He grew up and became a structural engineer but vinyl continued to be his passion and hobby. Over time it morphed into a business, which is EBI Audio. EBI stands for "Engineering Beyond Imagination".You'll be thrown by your first visit to EBI's website where... Read More

By breaking the connection between floor and speaker, the Seismic Isolation Podium frees speakers from sound-degrading room/floor interactions

Schiit's Skoll phono preamp is a wonder of miniaturization and efficient product design, that much is certain. The photo makes it appear larger than it really is, which is approximately 9"x6"x1.5". Now, that's compact and perhaps not unusual in itself but consider that it features both single-ended and balanced XLR inputs and output connectors. There's even a multi-pin jack for the special wall-wart that provided the chassis both 24VAC... Read More

Maintenance is really the most important part of owning anything you’ve invested in, isn’t it? Whether it’s a house, a car, a nice watch, some decent wine, whatever it might be, it’s important to keep it well-maintained, otherwise, that wonderful item can quickly turn into trash. This is especially true in the hi-fi and record collecting world. Everything requires a bit of upkeep and the more a user gives thought and effort to maintenance, the more joy and financial... Read More

Dave McNair listens and evaluates four moving coil cartridge step-up transformers.