Introduction I first ran across DALI loudspeakers at RMAF 2010, and was so impressed with their performance I requested a pair of Ikon 6 MKIIs ($2000) for review. I found them exceptional loudspeakers at a modest price, the perfect floorstanding loudspeakers for an entry level system. You can read my thoughts about the Ikon...
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Introduction You can’t swing a dead cat at an audio show without hitting a couple of dozen new DACs, introduced by both established manufacturers and start-ups, ranging in price from $99 up to the cost of a luxury automobile. The new entrants join the literally hundreds of DACs already available. Virtually all of them...
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In 2001, Krell introduced the LAT-1, a monitor loudspeaker in an all aluminum enclosure. Shortly thereafter, YG Acoustics began business and has been producing loudspeakers with all aluminum enclosures - and drivers - for more than a decade. Magico followed suit and now its complete lineup is all aluminum. Other companies have been slow...
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I always know I’m in trouble when the freight truck pulls up in front of my house and I make the 200 foot walk down to see what has arrived. It usually means several hundred pounds of amplifiers or loudspeakers on a wooden pallet to haul up the driveway and wrestle into my listening...
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I began my journey into computer audio in 2004 with the introduction of the Windows version of iTunes and the Apple lossless codec. I first began ripping my collection of more than 1500 CDs with my rock, pop and jazz selections, and it was a joy. iTunes retrieved the metadata from Gracenote with ease...
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I think it is fair to say that in the eighteen or so months it has been on the market, the dCS Vivaldi has taken the ultra high-end DAC market by storm. It has been comprehensively reviewed by the audio print publications, and adopted by many of the major audio manufacturers, particularly loudspeaker companies,...
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Several months ago I reviewed the AURALiC VEGA DAC, and found it to be a tremendous performer and exceptional value. In fact, the only shortcoming I could find with it was that it lacked a headphone output, which of course is not a criticism of its performance but of its feature set, one it...
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Audience is perhaps best known for their interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords, and of course their highly regarded power conditioning products. (I reviewed the adeptResponse aR2p power conditioner favorably here), but their loudspeakers undeservedly fly under the radar of reviewers and audiophiles alike. Audience currently offers four models of loudspeakers: the ClairAudient The...
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Meridian makes some very expensive state-of-the-art components, including the 808.5 CD player ($22,000), 818v2 digital preamplifier ($16,000), 861v8 surround sound processor ($25,000), and DSP8000.2 digital active loudspeakers ($65,000/pair). What is interesting is that Meridian’s emphasis over the past 12 months has been on releasing more affordable products, both to compliment their reference components and...
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Twenty years ago I went shopping for a new pair of loudspeakers. At the time, there were no hi-fi shops close by. The best I could do was one dealer, who carried Thiel and Vandersteen, about 60 miles in one direction, and another dealer, who carried Thiel and MartinLogan, about 40 miles in the...
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Based in Vancouver, Washington and Beijing, China, AURALiC is a relative newcomer to the high-end audio arena. The company was co-founded by Xuanqian Wang and Yuan Wang (unrelated), who met in 2008 Festival of Waldbühne Berlin, an outdoor festival of music and film. Xuanquian Wang, an accomplished pianist, was trained as a professional engineer,...
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Room and speaker correction have been with us for sometime now, and are getting more sophisticated with every new iteration. I have been using the room correction built into my Meridian G68ADV surround sound processor to good effect for the past five or six years in my media room. But I have not made...
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Class D amplifiers. Great for subwoofers, active monitors, and PA systems, but certainly not for audiophile system. At least that’s what I’ve read. And everyone knows you can believe everything you read on the internet. In the past, it even may have been true. However, there is a new player on the field named...
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Non-audiophiles consider Sony high-end; audiophiles, not so much. In this case, non-audiophiles are the better informed, though they don’t know it. Sony as a high-end product first showed up on my radar in 2009 at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest, where they debuted the prototype of what was to become the SS-AR1 ($27,000/pair) in Ray...
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Since introducing the world’s first audiophile CD player in 1984, Meridian has been on a relentless mission of improving the sound of digital playback. It has been vastly successful, and continues on what has been a non-stop roll of introducing groundbreaking technologies and products for thirty years. In the past twelve months alone, they...
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When choosing an amplifier, to paraphrase Hamlet, to Class A or to Class A/B, that is the question. There are ardent supporters of Class A designs, while others, citing the limitations of generally low power, low efficiency, and high heat, champion the more potent Class A/B designs. To be honest, most audiophiles probably do...
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I first laid eyes on the Zesto Audio Andros PS1 phono stage ($4300) at RMAF 2011, where it was introduced in several rooms with little fanfare. I was immediately smitten with its distinctively curved, powdered-coated and chrome chassis, which I later learned was designed by the talented Carolyn Counnas, wife of Andros’s designer, George...
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Ed Meitner has been creating audio components for four decades. His early work included professional analog mixing consoles and audiophile components for Museatex and Melior. He is also responsible for the offering the first commercially available cryogenically treated cables. But his work in the digital domain is what gives him legendary status in both...
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Maker Audio is a relatively new name on the audiophile scene; however, its principal, Tom Maker, is anything but new to the high-end, having designed and marketed the well-regarded and breathtakingly expensive Edge amplifiers for over 20 years, until he sold the company in 2008 to focus his attention on developing the M10 powered...
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Two products generated the lion’s share of the buzz at RMAF 2012: the Wilson Alexia loudspeaker ($48,500/pair) and the dCS Vivaldi four-box digital playback system comprised of the Vivaldi Transport, DAC, Upsampler and Word Clock (together, $108,500). Perhaps not coincidentally, they were available for audition in the same room, and the crowds were stretched...
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It was the first day of CES 2013. I was talking with Ken Forsythe, Meridian’s Director of Product Management, about its surprise introduction of two new digital active in-wall speakers – the DSP520 and DSP640, as well as their recent announcement of performance enhancing upgrades to the Reference 808 CD player, Reference 818 Digital...
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YG Acoustics received a great deal of well-deserved attention and accolades at CES 2013 for its new flagship Sonja loudspeakers. Not only are they beautiful to behold, with seductive curves replacing the angular design of the Anat III, but they take the sonic achievements of their predecessors to new heights, remarkably with barely a...
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Following my tour of the the YG Acoustics factory, Yoav Geva sent me a pair of his Carmel loudspeakers for audition (review forthcoming). YG Acoustics uses a dCS digital source and Krell amplifiers in its listening room, as well as when demonstrating its products at trade shows. Fortuitously, I had been in discussions with...
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If you spend any time at all on the internet audio forums, you know that there is a vocal contingent which maintains that all DACs sound the same. These are the same people who, if you disagree with them, demand that you provide proof of your position in the form of double-blind ABX tests,...
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In addition to checking out the no-holds-barred, ultra-expensive components and loudspeakers at trade shows, I keep an eye out for products that are candidates to serve as pathways to the high-end, at prices ordinary mortals can afford, and more importantly, would be tempted to spend for a slice of sonic nirvana. One of the...
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