Analog

Peter D’Amario has posted a review of the Benz Micro Glider SL cartridge ($1200) at HiFiZine. His conclusions: If I had to use one word to characterize the Glider, it would be “honest.” Honest in the sense that I didn’t feel that the cartridge was getting in the way of the music, and wasn’t...
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Henry Wilkenson has posted a review of the Clearaudio Virtuoso Wood MM phono cartridge ($800) at Audiophilia. His conclusions: As I said earlier, I would characterize the overall sound of this cartridge as warm and full bodied (I will spare you the comparison to red wine). It showed excellent balance from top to bottom...
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Garrett Hongo has posted a review of the Ortofon Cadenza mono phono cartridge ($1120) at Ultra Audio. His conclusions: The vinyl hobby can be a bit like industrial archaeology: to fully and properly participate in the pursuit, one needs the right tools. This is partly why gearheadedness is so endemic to the hobby. After...
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Greg Petan has posted a review of the Origin Live’s Sovereign Mk II turntable ($6450) at Stereo Times. His conclusion: The first thing that struck me was the sense of drive and energy of the music. Foot tapping head bobbing booty shaking rhythm and pace just pours out of the records grooves…First off, the...
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Wojciech Pacuła has posted reviews of the Scheu Analog PREMIER Mk2 (€650) and CLASSIC Mk2 (€3299) turntables at High Fidelity. His conclusions: This is a selection of four discs of Cole recorded with an orchestra, with rich arrangement, etc. Scheu Analog played it just like that – a collaboration of the vocalist, piano player...
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Ken Choi has posted a review of the Well Tempered Lab Simplex turntable ($1995) at The Audio Beat. His conclusions: The Well Tempered Simplex runs counter to my intuition that over-engineering and high mass are necessary to squeeze the most out of vinyl playback, and it underscores the importance of squelching resonances at the...
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Jerry Seigel has posted a review of the Miyajima Kansui moving coil phono cartridge ($3600) at 10 Audio. His conclusions: The new Kansui improves on the Shilabe in the areas of overall resolution and upper frequency purity, the latter not just an incremental upgrade but one that offers a significant improvement in the believability...
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Steve Harris has posted a review of the Micromega FM10 FM tuner (£698) at Hi-Fi News and Record Review. His conclusions: Compared with the notably weighty Creek, the Micromega sounded rather lightweight in the bass, and although it gave a pleasing image spread, it couldn't match the impressively layered depth effect that the Creek...
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Wojciech Pacuła has posted a review of the TW-Acustic Raven One turntable and Raven TW10.5 tonearm (together, €8800) at High Fidelity. His conclusions: Does this German turntable have weaker sides? I am not sure, how to answer this question. On one hand – of course, it has. On the other hand comparing with the...
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Wojciech Pacuła has posted a review of the Transrotor Argos turntable system ($250,000) at High Fidelity. His conclusions: The many hours spent with the Argos did not bring me closer to response to the question - how should the ideal turntable sound. It was exactly the opposite – it gave me a few more...
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Martin Colloms has posted a review of the Continuum Criterion turntable and Copperhad tonearm (together, £50,000) at Hi-Fi Critic. His conclusions: Vocals sing out with crisp and coherent but blended articulation. Massed choirs are not rendered perfectly - in my view they almost never are - but the Criterion digs more deeply than before...
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Jeff Dorgay has posted a review of the Clearaudio Concept turntable ($1400) at TONEAudio. His conclusions: Whether you power the Clearaudio Concept with the standard issue power supply or take it a step forward with pure DC power, I feel this table is the new benchmark in its price class. It combines simple setup...
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Jeff Dorgay has posted a review of the Rega RP1 turntable ($) at TONEAudio. His conclusions: While plenty of budding audiophiles will argue to the ends of the Earth over the merit of the RP1 versus a few other contenders that are similarly priced, the fact is that the RP1 offers solid performance, excellent...
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Frederic Beudot has posted a review of the Dynavector 20X-2 phono cartridge ($850) at 6moons. His conclusions: In my quest for a DL103 replacement the Dynavector 20X-2 in the end offered all I truly wanted. My usual vinyl fare comprises over 80% classical music or quality recordings of jazz and country. What the...
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Paul Seydor has posted a review of the SOTA Sapphire Series V turntable ($2700) and Origin Vive Encounter MK III tonearm ($1400)at AVGuide. His conclusions: The Sapphire is not perfect. It doesn’t have the extreme resolution, control, “blackness ten times black” background quietness, and elusive sense of life and vitality of a few (very...
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