AudioKeyREVIEWS! ISSUE 18 - SEPTEMBER 2024

AudioKeyREVIEWS !

MCINTOSH

C8 VACUUM TUBE

PREAMPLIFIER

FERN & ROBY RAVEN III

LOUDSPEAKERS

ACCUPHASE

E-700

INTEGRATED AMP

SILVERSMITH

FIDELIUM

SPEAKER CABLE

ALLNIC AUDIO

HPA 300B

HEADPHONE AMP

DAN CLARK

EXPANSE

HEADPHONES

AND MORE…

E LECTRIFIED S TABILIZATION P LATFORM The Last Platform You’ll Ever Need

Music is art, art is music.

Vincent Van Gogh - Irises, 1889

MUSICIANS

SILVERSMITH FIDELIUM SPEAKER CABLE

HIFIMAN SUSVARA UNVEILED PREVIEW

DEVORE FIDELITY ORANGUTAN 0/96 PREVIEW

RECOMMENDED COMPONENTS

MAGICAL SYNERGIES COMING

Front Inside Cover: Vincent Van Gogh, Small Pear Tree in Blossom

Back Inside Cover: Wayne Thiebaud - Morning Freeway

The Other Art. It is my belief that the artist and the musician are not only creatives, but they access heart and soul and experience, perhaps, in the selfsame ways. My own love for art and music are inseparable. And so art, music, and those things which facilitate the music shall share theses pages.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - SEND HERE

Paul Cezanne - Table Napkin and Fruit, 1895-1900

EDITOR’s CHAIR

Well, it has been a banner issue for AudioKeyREVIEWS! Magazine’s July issue, a summer issue no less(!), that has hit a new record for views—4.6 million—year over year! The only other issue that surpasses it is our November Best of the Year issue. This bodes well for the September issue and certainly for our upcoming November Best of the Year issue.We are also excited as we expand our writing staff and areas of interest, and grow our industry relationships to achieve ever higher reach, growth, views.

We have come to realize that our best endeavor going forward is to concentrate our efforts on a single magazine— AudioKeyREVIEWS! US. Our efforts with the U.S. audio industry— manufacturers, distributors, retailers, etc.—have been decidedly mutual and successful, as we have helped each other to meet our respective goals. In continuation of this, we will push forward with new targets—30 million+ views/year, a doubling of our marketing efforts on behalf of our advertising clients, the growth of our staff, and more content creation, expanded reviews, editorials, interviews, and guest articles. To this end, we welcome Kathe Lieber as Senior Copy Editor and Columnist, and Douglas Brown as an Editor and Reviewer.

A persuasive argument can be made that change is constant and unending. We have the world around us as the final arbiter of this, in every respect. To that end, we will be ceasing the publication of both our Canadian AudioKeyREVIEW! Magazines. For further explanation, please do read the Editor’s Letter in the AudioKeyREVIEWS! September Canadian issue, our last. Finally, here’s to continued growth, the support of our industry, and mutually beneficial working relationships. May we all grow, “live long and prosper.”

Sincerely,

K.E. Heartsong Editor-in-Chief

THE CREW

Publisher/Editor-in-Chief

K. E. Heartsong

Managing Editor

Dr. Irina Kuzminsky

Senior Editor(s)

Andre Marc

Oliver Masciarotte

Senior Copy Editor

Kathe Lieber

Columnists

Dr Irina Kuzminsky

Rain Jordan

Kathe Lieber

Editor & Reviewer

Douglas Brown

Music Reviewers (Video/Written)

Dr. Irina Kuzminsky

Photographer

K. E. Heartsong

Graphic Design

Wabi Sabi Design Group

HermanMiller

Vincent Van Gogh - Wild Roses

HermanMiller

Joan Miro - Woman, Bird and Star

BORDER PATROL

SE-I DAC

By K.E. Heartsong

Iasked a question in a review a couple of years back:“Do good products receive bad reviews?” The question was in response to a Stereophile review—well, several Stereophile reviews evaluating/ debating the merits of the Border Patrol SE-i DAC. the music in a manner that made voices more “delicate and intelligible…and natural” or an acoustic guitar more timbrally “woody and solid.” Certain members of the audio group collective also found the Border Patrol more timbrally correct: “I could hear more of the wood around the strings or the body of the

instrument,” and “with the Border Patrol, it felt like I had a good seat and was there. I could hear the bowing better on the wood instruments.” There were other statements from both the reviewers and the audio group that spoke to the Border Patrol SE-i as musically, timbrally engaging, and with an “air and breathiness you get in a live performance.” One imagines these few testimonial bona fides were enough to cement the little DAC’s standing, or at least a higher rating than it received in Stereophile. With a review and a couple of followups, I now wholeheartedly concur that the Border Patrol SE-i DAC is truly exceptional for the engaging music it renders, its timbral accuracy and beauty, and the atmosphere it renders relative to a given album. I work with highly resolving DACs day in day out, as their purpose is discernment. They help me to discern differences between the various components under review. Often they are considered

Imogene Cunningham

BORDER

“neutral,”whatever that means in terms of a live event, as I’ve never been to a “neutral” live event. Perhaps in this respect I’ve simply been lucky to have attended nothing but musical or even unmusical events that broached no aspect of neutrality. In this respect the Border Patrol SE-i is a musical event, as it banishes the “neutral ghost” from any and all stereo systems and recreates or earnestly attempts to recreate the experience.

One last point concerned a reviewer, editor, and tester who took great issue with the Border Patrol SE-i DAC's build and its impertinence for using a DAC chip, which the reviewer-editor-tester believed was an “underperforming” chip.” This despite the reviews from others and me on how much we value (and continue to value) the Border Patrol SE-i DAC. And in truth, shouldn’t a reviewer actually be reviewing the sound and functionality of a component instead of its parts, rather than making parts recommendations?

This follow-up is an homage to the least expensive DAC in either the AudioKeyReviews Reference Stereo system encountered at live musical events.

REFRAIN: Unlike most reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the headphones actually sound and not the process of physically “undressing” them and/or laying out their various parts, specifications, etc. Think of this review, then, as a non-linear movie—Memento, Kill Bill, Arrival, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc—that likewise starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning.

THE SYSTEM - REFERENCE

HEADPHONE

Grimm Audio MU1 Streamer

Silent Angel Rhein Z1 Streamer

Silent Angel Forester F2 Power Supply

Silent Angel Bonn NX Network Switch

Silent Angel Genesis GX Clock

Bricasti Design M1 Special Edition DAC

Border Patrol SE-1 DAC

Aurorasound HEADA Headphone Amplifier

HeadAmp CFA3 Headphone Amplifier

Pass Labs HPA-1 Headphone Amplifier

ABYSS AB1266 Phi TC Headphones

Dan Clark Expanse Headphones

HIFIMAN Susvara Headphones

HIFIMAN Susvara Headphones Unveiled

Meze Empyrean Headphones

Kubala-Sosna Interconnects (XLR, RCA), power cords

Grimm Audio SQM Interconnects (XLR, RCA)

RSX BEYOND, MAX power cords

AntiCable Level 3 power cords

TORUS AUDIO RM20 power conditioner

THE SOUND & THINGS

I have had the pleasure of pairing the Border Patrol SE-i USB+SPDIF DAC ($2,125), its highest-priced version, with nearly every manner of streamer, amplification type— preamps, power amps, headphone amps— and cables, with some components/cables costing up to 20 times its price. It has never let me down and has served me incredibly well, always.

The Border Patrol SE-i DAC is a small, lightweight metal/aluminum box. As I mentioned in an earlier review, “Two red bricks side by side would give some measure

to its volume, though the bricks would weigh far more.” And it will fit just about anywhere on your desk, and certainly on an equipment rack. It’s quite cute and comes in either black or silver with a little glowing tube at its top front.

Now for the tasty bits: the sound. There is a natural musicality and an organic quality to the music that issues from the SE-i DAC that comforts one as if bundling up with a warm comforter in front of a roaring fire, perhaps with a libation, preparing to be entertained. In this particular case, the entertainment will come from the system with which the Border Patrol SE-i DAC finds itself partnered, whether it be a trio, quartet, or even a quintet of audio components. And as the music begins…

Olafur Arnalds’ Árbakkinn (Island Songs, Mercury (Universal France)) plays and the Icelandic poet—Einar Georg Einarsson— recites his poem, which has become most familiar to me and whose English translation I know. The timbre of his voice is deep, rich, natural and conveys a calm and ease that so few DACs, regardless of cost, can render properly—it is lifelike and engaging. A good turntable would no doubt provide further insight into what the SE-i DAC is capable of portraying.

And as I wrote of the Border Patrol SE-i DAC’s bass in my earlier review, which remains true to this very day:

Emerald Tears (Emerald Tears, ECM), from one of my favorite Dave Holland albums, plays and the deft movement of Dave’s fingers along the bass is easily captured and superbly resolved. The transient-quick pluck of strings and their reverberation across waves of air and ambient space bring a tactile reality. And the resolution and tonality from the Border Patrol SE-i DAC is topflight and would not be embarrassed in nearly any pricey DAC neighborhood.

Shirley Horn, Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (Blue Note), Sophie Hunger, Patricia Barber, Andy Bey, Hilary Hahn’s Rest (UME Global Clearing House), Dave Brubeck’s Take Five (Columbia), and others all receive such treatment, and their respective timbres and tonalities are likewise realized in a very natural and organic manner via the SE-i. I cannot tell you how rare this trait of the SE-i is, especially for those who are mired beneath literally hundred of pounds of digital gear and are, in a like manner, hundreds of miles away from a natural and organic rendering of their music. I have heard these systems often, too often, and have always diplomatically excused myself from their “listening rooms.” But as I have learned over long years as an audiophile, there are those for whom music, natural and organic music, could be staring them in the face, mere inches away, and they would not be able to hear it.

The Border Patrol generates a rather large and well constructed soundstage that is deep (deeper still with the right speakers), wide, often beyond the speakers, of good height, with excellent separation, spacing, and layering. Though some reviewers-editorstesters might argue with its “measurements,” its ability to make music is without question.

FUNCTIONALITY

Simple. The Border Patrol SE-i DAC is available with asynchronous USB input, SPDIF(COAX) input or both, and is then switchable.

There is no oversampling, no digital filtering, no output buffering, but there is an R2R DAC chip. There are also “high quality signal capacitors that couple the chip to the output of the DAC.”

It is a “tube/solid state hybrid choke input filter power supply featuring over-sized power transformers, high speed low noise diodes with resistor-capacitor snubbing, a high inductance choke and a EZ80 tube rectifier.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

And both the USB and the SPDIF inputs and the DAC have “independent voltage regulation.” The version sent to AudioKey Reviews—the SE-i version—uses “Jupiter Beeswax film and foil output capacitors.”

Okay. It will play up to 24/96kHz and Tidal Masters to the same 24/96kHz, but no more. For those who mainly stream and have

rather large CD collections, with the occasional high resolution CD, you and your music will be very well served. For those who understand the relative paucity of music sampled at greater than 24/96kHz compared to that which is not, you and your music will be very well served.

CONCLUSION

Some audio components change over time, in general not always for the best. I could easily point out a good number of components, regardless of price, whose better days are far behind them, and even the memory of their greatness now fades.

The Border Patrol SE-i is not one of those products. It is a product that has held onto the best of yesteryear, incorporated it into its design schema, and dispatched DACs at twice its price easily, without a sideways glance. The Border Patrol SE-i is a true gem of a product whose trademark is natural and organic music that brings incredible engagement. As I wrote some time ago:

“The Border Patrol SE-i DAC is a true gem that hides its wondrous capabilities beneath a simple, clean, unadorned facade. To look past it though is to look past the tattered, dirt-crusted Van Gogh at a garage sale, posing as nothing more than an amateur's well-intentioned, paint-bynumbers, work. Don’t do that. [Really!]”

This is a rare thing for us: in fact, it has never happened before. But given years now with the Border Patrol SE-i DAC and its ability to strip away the detritus from the world, its dauntless natural and organic musicality, its continual engagement, we believe it is merited. We upgrade the Border Patrol SE-i DAC to our next-highest honor, the GOLD KEYNOTE AWARD, for flawless service over these long years. If you have any doubts, now’s the time to chase them away.

And for any cynics and skeptics who might just possibly read this, we are not affiliated in any manner with Border Patrol.

THE COMPANY

Border Patrol SE-i USB ($1650)

Border Patrol SE-i SPDIF ($1650)

Border Patrol SE-i SPDIF X2 ($1750)

Border Patrol SE-i USB+SPDIF ($2125)

BORDER PATROL

Waldorf, MD

Tel./fax 301 705 7460 borderpatrolaudio@gmail.com http://borderpatrol.net AKRM

ATMA-SPHERE

GEM INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

By K. E. Heartsong

The previous review of the AtmaSphere GEM was as a headphone amplifier (HPA), and to excellent effect. The GEM’s five watts were utilized to drive perhaps the best but least efficient headphone in the world today—the HIFIMAN Susvara (83dB). And the GEM

integrated amplifier with a maximum of five watts of power at its disposal. While its five watts represent a paucity of power to traditional speakers of less than 92dB, the current in-house speakers, the Fern & Roby Raven III (94dB, 8-ohms) and the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 (96dB, 10-ohms),

its five watts of power and handily won our highest award—the DIAMOND AWARD.

In part two of this review, the AtmaSphere GEM has been cast as itself—an

ratings. And with the balance of the Reference System equipment (below), the stage has been well set for the review and evaluation of this mini-mite integrated amplifier—the GEM.

Claude Monet - Normandy Farm Under the Trees

As I mentioned in part one of the review with regard to Ralph’s Atma-Sphere line: “The stories are many of individuals and couples discovering Ralph’s OTL amplifiers and keeping them till the end or

amplification line. Ralph had, well, almost guaranteed to me that his GEM would get the better of SET integrated amplifiers, which he believed to be a true “apples-toapples” comparison, as opposed to SET

near end-of-life, when they would be bequeathed to family or finally sold to someone else for their decades-long enjoyment.”

The GEM would then be my introduction to Ralph’s storied Atma-Sphere

integrateds versus higher-powered push-pull amplifiers, which he does not believe is an apples-to-apples comparison.

REFRAIN: Unlike most reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the component actually sounds and not

the process of physically “undressing” it and/ or laying out its various parts, specifications, etc. Think of this review, then, as a nonlinear movie—Memento, Kill Bill, Arrival, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc.— that likewise starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning.

THE SYSTEM - REFERENCE TWO CHANNEL

• Grimm Audio MU2 Streamer/DAC/ Preamplifier

• AIR-TIGHT ATC - 5s Preamplifier

• AIR-TIGHT ATM - 1E Amplifier

• ATMA-SPHERE - GEM Integrated

• LYRIC Ti 100 Single-Ended Integrated

• Devore Audio Orangutan 0/96

• Fern & Roby Raven III Speakers

• Kubala-Sosna Interconnects (XLR, RCA), speaker cables, power cords

• Grimm Audio SQM Interconnects (XLR, RCA)

• TORUS AUDIO power conditioner

• RSX BEYOND, MAX power cords

• SEISMION Amplifier Stand (powered)

THE SOUND

The GEM’s sound was much like it had been as a headphone amplifier in the reference headphone system. It was exceptionally transparent, resolving, and detailed, which not only removed veils but in a number of well-known tracks, it was as if a clear cellophane or plastic layer had likewise been

removed. This resulted in one of my much used and well-known tracks for reviews, “Àrbakkinn” (Island Songs, Mercury KX), giving up more music and ambient information than it had ever before (!), as detailed below.

And in terms of realism, the GEM’s ability to go “deeply” into a given track, movement, mix provided, as I had mentioned in its HPA review, “the intimacy of a violinist’s breathing, her movement with bow and violin, which becomes a great deal more intimate and immersive.” And in the reference two-channel system, the GEM’s performance became more real and imbued a greater sense of “humanity” that translated as in-room and palpable. What this little fivewatt integrated was doing to voice, tone, and timbre was without precedent. Where there had been nothing before, there was now the rush of air, of birds, of hidden messages between performers, of obscure performers at the very depths of a given “stage” that were now new and previously unheard.

There was, however, one thing that the miniature five-watt integrated could not translate from its HPA endeavors, and that was top-to-bottom frequency extension, even via the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 speakers. One imagines physics being the primary culprit here, and despite the O/96’s efficiency, the little amplification engine that

could was up against far more massive drivers than those of headphones, and its relatively small transformers found issue with those larger conical masses. The bass frequency, as a result, was not as potent, nor could it reach to sub-bass depths. The physics did not at all affect the GEM’s soaring or pristine treble, nor its superb rendering of the midrange.

made in the reference system. And as I stated then:

And I must say that as a reviewer’s tool, the GEM is exceptional. It demonstrates a non-invasive “neutrality” that allowed me to easily and quickly discern component and even cable switch-outs immediately.

The aliveness and dynamics of the GEM were well intact, as it had been as a HPA. Its “neutral” voice did carry over to the twochannel reference system, which provided great discernment whenever a change was

The Atma-Sphere GEM’s volumetric cube was very deep, given its match to the Orangutan O/96, fairly wide, just outside of the speakers, and high enough for full-sized performers. Soundstaging—width, depth,

layering, spacing, and volume—overall was very good, very believable.

BASS

I used the same tracks that I had used in part one of the GEM’s review:

• Charlie Hayden and John Taylor’s “Chairman Mao” (Nightfall, Naim Records)

• Delfeayo Marsalis’ “The Secret Love Affair” (The Last Southern Gentleman, Troubadour Records)

As mentioned above, while there was certainly good bass to the mid-bass region, which some might well consider more than appropriate, the sub-bass reach of the GEM was wanting and did not have the weight of more watt-enabled amplifiers.

The “Chairman Mao” track was beautifully rendered by the GEM with deep transparency, resolution, and detail, which revealed Charlie Haden’s bass licks as clear, tight, quick, and tuneful. And “The Secret Love Affair” was rendered very well and with a clarity that few other amplifiers have brought to bear; again, while the bass was good, it did not carry the weight or the propulsiveness of the other more powerful amplifiers.

MIDRANGE

Whereas the GEM was exceptional as a headphone amplifier, it was even better as an integrated amplifier when it came to the midrange. Ólafur Arnalds’ “Àrbakkinn” (Island Songs, Mercury KX) is a staple when it comes to the timbre of poet Einar Georg Einarsson’s voice and the ambient sounds of the birds outside the actual studio, whose songs can be heard on the recording. The GEM easily provided the best rendering to date, as the ambient noise outside the studio was heard at zero-plus— immediately—and not four seconds later, as has been standard for all other modes of amplification—SETs, push-pull, electrostatics, etc. The Atma-Sphere GEM, as mentioned above, not only pulled every single veil away from the performance, but the clear protective cellophane skin as well, which resulted in ambiance and air and birds immediately. “What is that?” I asked myself. Repeat. It was everything that had been recorded on the track and until now, unheard. This was without precedent and was momentarily stunning. Einar’s voice was real, textured, beautifully articulated, and alive. In the GEM’s headphone amplifier review, I equated the resulting sound to that of a cross between a 300B and a 211 amplifier, as it was, truly, deeply resolving, transparent, which furnished a sort of “holographic humanity” in-room. Bravo!

TREBLE+

The GEM lost nothing in the treble region either, and again beautifully rendered Dave

Brubeck’s “Take Five” (Time Out, ColumbiaLegacy). There was that “aliveness” again, with deep treble resolution that brought dimensionality to Joe Morello’s drum kit and cymbals in perhaps one of the most dimensional ways I have ever heard. That’s saying something, as I have listened to the CD, and this track in particular, for decades. And when Hilary Hahn’s “Partita for violin Solo No. 1 B Minor” (Rest, UME) queued for play, her violin soared silky and clear and beautifully extended, with superb resolution and air and ambiance. As I mentioned in part one of the review, “The experience provides a crystal clarity that one experiences when seated right in front of a musician.”

DESIGN—LOOK AND FEEL

FUNCTIONALITY

Like the Atma-Sphere GEM’s design, its functionality is very straightforward and very simple. You will most likely not need an instruction manual to ferret out its workings.

The Atma-Sphere GEM integrated amplifier is, well, a straightforward, utilitarian design, which Ralph tells me will come in a variety of colors, much different from its other offerings. The GEM is definitely an “Old School” design that harkens back to a much earlier, straightforward age, free of the glitz and glamour and the associated price tag. I for one find that rather appealing. It is a tube-forward design, with three exposed tubes per side (1-12AT7, 2-EL95s). The GEM is small enough to sit on a single 8-1/2 by 11-inch sheet of paper. It easily makes for a very friendly desktop integrated or headphone amplifier (w/adapter) that did not compromise my workspace.

There are two toggle switches on the front facade. The switch on the far left selects between two input channels—channel one (up) and channel two (down). The switch on the far right selects between on (up) and off (down). There is also a knob centered on the GEM’s front face that controls volume.

The GEM’s rear facade features, from left to right, two sets of single-ended inputs, two sets of speaker terminals (0, 4, 8 Ohms/per side) beside them, next a fuse, and beside it to the far right, an IEC socket.

FYI: Ralph also mentioned for those wishing to “tube roll”—change the various tubes out for new tubes—that while changing out the two 6DL5s or EL95s would make little difference in the GEM’s sound, changing out the single 12AT7 would bring about more substantive changes to the overall sound signature of the GEM.

The Atma-Sphere’s design is straightforward, clean, and its functionality easy and easily comprehended.

CONCLUSIONS

The Atma-Sphere GEM provides outstanding transparency and resolution, and a resultant crystal clarity that places it on a peak where it has no current peers, regardless of price. Yes, this little five-watt, fit-on-thepalm-of-your-hand integrated brought light and detail, insight, and clarity to where there had been none, as witnessed with all manner of integrateds or preamplifier/amplifier combos that I have reviewed these past several years. Stunning!

The Atma-Sphere GEM is not perfect, however. While it beautifully and superbly abided the midrange and treble frequencies, it could not descend to the sub-bass, nor could it capture the Holy-Bass-Head-Grail, though its mid-bass was quite good. There will be those, nonetheless, whose listening preferences would not require attainment of the Holy-Bass-Head-Grail. In this respect, I say again, you will have the most transparent, resolving, and detailed integrated, beyond all SETs that I’ve listened to or reviewed, as well as any combination of preamp/amplifier combinations—and that is saying a great deal. You will need a speaker that is efficient enough to make its five watts adept at rending your music, however.

The Atma-Sphere GEM integrated is the winner of our GOLD KEYNOTE AWARD for its preternatural transparency

and resolution, its crystal clarity and aliveness, and its undoubted ability to get out of the way of the music and the way it flows.

Pros: Extraordinary transparency, resolution, and detail, which synergize to a profound crystal clarity that allows it to consistently outperform SETs, let alone push-pull amplification.

Cons: Will not plumb to sub-bass depths. It is not feature-rich. Most aftermarket power cords will not fit in the space for the IEC, as the fuse is positioned too close.

THE SPECIFICATIONS

Atma-Sphere GEM

• Power Output: 5 watts

• Gain: 20-25dB

• Differential Inputs: 2 - single-ended RCA

• Speaker Outputs: 0, 4, 8 Ohms/per side

• Tube Complement: 1 - 12AT7, 2 - 6DL5 (EL95s)/per side

• Frequency Bandwidth: XXHz - 100kHz

THE COMPANY

ATMA-SPHERE

The GEM Integrated: $4,700 www.atma-sphere.com

ralph@atma-sphere.com

Tel. : +1 651-690-2246

Vincent Van Gogh - Oleanders, 1888

FERN & ROBY RAVEN III

By K.E. Heartsong

FERN & ROBY RAVEN III

In the preview of the Fern & Roby Raven III speakers, I wrote:

“The first thing you notice about the FERN & ROBY Raven IIIs is that they are quite beautiful, beautifully made of real wood. To see them on the website and then in person are two completely different experiences. I would liken the experience to seeing Henri Matisse’s Flowers, 1907, in a magazine for far too many years, and then seeing the painting in person at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Suffice to say that the experience was far beyond astonishing or magnificent. You’ll find Flowers (page 3, July issue) continually making its way across exhibitions in the AudioKeyREVIEWS magazines. Yes, the FERN & ROBY Raven III does indeed bring a measure of that experience.”

After living with the Raven IIIs for several months now, one quickly realizes that their outer beauty is by no means skin deep. There’s been many a listening session that has brought me to this understanding, while a number of components, from DACs to integrated amplifiers to streamers, were sent on their merry way, unable to meet the minimum criteria necessary for evaluation.

Unfortunately, folks, this happens, but as stated across my reviews and on our website, “We don’t write bad reviews, we just send the components home. Because who knows, maybe the issue was our inability to provide the appropriate synergy for the component in question.” I have seen and listened to a number of reviewers’ truly “interesting” systems and understand that perhaps this is the reason for those bad reviews. Yikes!

The Raven IIIs are amplification-flexible —they play with 8 watts all the way up to,

Paul Cézanne - Still Life with Flowers in an Olive

FERN & ROBY RAVEN III

I’m told, 400 watts. This, given its other traits listed below, makes it a reviewer’s dream. And especially for a reviewer/audiophile/music lover who does not listen to loud, bombastic music, or who has attached his reference stereo system to his television or movie projector…just saying.

REFRAIN: Unlike most other reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the component actually sounds and not the process of physically “undressing” it and/or laying out its various parts, specifications, etc. Tink of this review then, as a non-linear movie— Memento, Kill Bill, Arrival, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc—that, likewise, starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning.

THE SYSTEM - TWO CHANNEL

• Grimm Audio MU2 Streamer/DAC/ Preamplifier

• AIR-TIGHT ATC - 5s Preamplifier

• AIR-TIGHT ATM - 1E Amplifier

• ATMA-SPHERE - GEM Integrated

• LYRIC Ti 100 Single-Ended Integrated

• Franco Serblin Accordo Essence Speakers

• Fern & Roby Raven III Speakers

• Kubala-Sosna Interconnects (XLR, RCA), Speaker Cables, Power Cords

• Grimm Audio SQM Interconnects (XLR, RCA)

• TORUS AUDIO Power Conditioner

• RSX BEYOND, MAX Power-cords

• SEISMION Amplifier Stand (powered)

THE SETUP

My new listening room’s dimensions are 14 feet (4.63 m) by 18.5 feet (5.64 m). The system is placed along the short wall. The left side of the room is open. The floors are carpeted, and while I prefer area rugs, the carpeted floors work very well with regard to taming reflections and other unwanted anomalies.

I placed the Raven IIIs eight feet apart, two feet from the side walls, and 42 inches from the front wall. I sat with the Raven IIIs toed, so that neither their right or left sides were visible. It was a quasi-equilateral triangle, as the angles were not quite 60 degrees and its two sides were not quite equal to its base, but you get the idea.

THE SOUND

The Fern & Roby Raven III is an intimate speaker: it brings forth the resolution, detail, and nuance needed to create a connection with listeners and usher them into a jazz club, speakeasy, or the local coffee shop. In this respect, the Raven IIIs evoke a performance that is freed from the confines of the speakers themselves and places the performance, depending on the recording, right in one’s room. I paired the Raven IIIs exclusively with tubed amplification of the single-ended,

Class A, and Class A/B varieties, and in every instance was served exceedingly well.

No doubt the Raven III’s technical abilities—94dB efficiency and 8-Ohm impedance—worked wonders with the 20 watt Lyric and allowed it to shine far above

think to myself, “This is a relatively inexpensive speaker, certainly as compared to a few of the others I’ve reviewed—how is it doing this?” And I’d continue listening.

The Raven IIIs proved to be musical, highly transparent, resolving, and

Preamplifier and ATM-1E Amplifier— would also put forward their best performance, with a weight, gravitas, across the bass region, and a rich, highly engaging midrange that their quartet of EL34 tubes are known for producing.

I spent entire days listening to the Raven IIIs, in truth for pure enjoyment, though there were many times when hand was forced to pen and pen to pad, so compelling was the listen. I’d then contemplate for a moment and

volume to venue after venue in the most nuanced and beautiful ways. Notes, riffs, even complete artists not noticed or heard before came to the fore and became part of the mix. The way the Raven IIIs handled horns was astonishing. The ‘blatt’, timbre and tone, and three-dimensionality of horns was always more, well, real than it had been with other speakers, and this constantly drew my attention. It also facilitated many, many “horn-rich” albums—Coltrane, Miles,

FERN & ROBY RAVEN III

Desmond, Gordon (Dexter), Cannonball, Lloyd (Charles), Shepp (Archie), etc.—and it via the Raven IIIs is superb. Despite its diminutive stature and single driver it

a single beat. And as stated in the AIRTIGHT review:

“There was also great texture and dynamics, while the horns demonstrated exceptional timbre, tone, and bite. There was an aliveness that in truth was startling, fresh, and engaging.”

Truly, the Raven IIIs not only delivered on the various “bass-addled” tracks: the soundtracks from a couple of my favorites— Music from the Benjamin Button soundtrack and the Blade Runner soundtrack—all had tasty bits of bass that were surprisingly reproduced by the Raven IIIs and their eightinch single drivers. I had not expected the tautness or the depth or the alacrity of the Fern & Roby Raven III’s bass response, but it was impossible to argue with. Bravo!

MIDRANGE

The midrange via the Raven IIIs was quite spectacular in that it provided exceptional transparency and resolution—clarity— copious amounts of detail, while rendering tone, timbre, and texture that was both natural and compelling. In a way, I was taking dual notes as I reviewed the AIR-TIGHT combo as allied to the Raven IIIs.

Andy Bey’s “Angel Eyes” was more than provocative as played through the assembled combo—Grimm Audio MU2, AIR-TIGHT combo— to the Fern & Roby Raven IIIs.

Andy’s beautifully aged, gravel-rich voice was textured, in-room, and palpable. Everything was there, and with the Lyric Ti 100 MkII Single-Ended Triode integrated as wed to the Raven IIIs, while bass depth was scaled back, everything else—whole-cloth beauty, detail, stage depth, layering, and spacing— was profound. I listened to vocal music for hours afterwards.

TREBLE+

I had noticed on Charles Mingus’ “Ysabel’s Table Dance” (Tijuana Moods, RCA-Legacy) when reviewing the Air-Tight Combo that the way the Raven IIIs handled the various horns and Ysabel’s castanets was more “energetic and had more dynamism,” was more “real” and more alive than I had heard it before. All the necessary details and microdetails, the spatial information, the timing, etc., appeared to be on hand as the various musicians, one after another, performed at Casa Heartsong. It was very clear that with the Raven IIIs, all horns or “horn-abetted” materials came alive, were timbrally and tonally spot on, and had an alacrity that horns are supposed to have, and in a most sublime fashion. This was from a speaker, mind you, with no dedicated tweeter!

And Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (Blue Note), one of those “horn-abetted” media, likewise came through with an immediacy, a timbral, tonal, and textural whole-cloth

FERN & ROBY RAVEN III

accuracy that other speakers I’ve reviewed simply did not. How does a diminutive single-driver speaker of limited relative cost do this? How is this possible? I had to ask Christopher of Fern & Roby. His response:

“To address the issues (undesirable resonances in the surround and the primary cone), we designed a filter to subtly adjust them into a desirable range, allowing the single driver to perform optimally. The net effect was satisfying with deeper perceived bass and more refined detail.

“The filter isn’t a crossover because we aren’t using it to manage multiple drivers and it allows the best characteristics of the driver to shine. Some might say that this kind of correction should be made in the driver design itself, eliminating the need for our filter, but after studying the problem and looking at the options available with the driver, I determined that any mechanical changes I would make to address the hot spots I wanted to eliminate would also smother the qualities of the driver I loved.

The filter is the best and most correct strategy and I believe it is part of what makes our overall design so special.”

Well, it worked, and to excellent effect, bravo!

DESIGN—LOOK AND FEEL

The Fern & Roby Raven III speakers are decidedly Mid-Century Modern (MCM) speakers, built primarily from solid walnut or solid ash, with Richlite forming the front

baffle and a walnut veneer plywood the back panel. I find them quite beautiful, and their diminutive stature would no doubt make them welcome in many a home, including homes with MCM as their primary motif— though given their size, there would be few small apartments that could not comfortably accommodate the Raven III speakers. I imagine them beautifully taking the place of the speakers in my San Francisco Fillmore Center apartment back in the day, when the apartments cost less than a third of the price they are now.

CONCLUSION

What Christopher has accomplished with the Fern & Roby Raven IIIs is exceptional, both technically and musically, hidden in a beautifully constructed though petite container, and its eight-inch single driver completely belies its rather daunting talents. In this respect, it is the classic “you can’t tell a book by its cover.” Tough once you’ve read it or listened to it, much if not all will be made clear.

The Raven IIIs will scale easily with paired amplification ranging from as little as eight watts to 400 watts, which exceptionally few speakers can even dream of doing. And given their voicing, the Raven IIIs will allow one’s system—various curated components— to “sing” in the manner for which that very system was assembled. Further, all

component and wire changes made before the Raven IIIs will be easily distinguished.

The Fern & Roby Raven IIIs are petite, beautifully built artisanal speakers of exceptional technical abilities and superb musicality. In many ways, they are like a Porsche as opposed to the Ferrari or the Lamborghini in that all the glitz and bling are not there, but the performance certainly is. The Fern & Roby Raven IIIs are an easy Gold KeyNote Award winner, and you can bet your bottom dollar you will see them again in November’s Best of the Year Awards issue.

Pros: Musical and technically adept speakers that are very efficient, beautifully made, and unobtrusive in a home context. Cons: Sub-bass is there but in limited form, though most will not miss it.

THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

FERN & ROBY Raven III

• Frequency Response: 30-Hz to 20,000kHz

• Impedance: 8 Ohm

• Efficiency: 94 dB

THE COMPANY

Fern & Roby

Raven III Speakers:

Natural Ash: $8,500

Natural Walnut: $9,150 702 E 4th St Richmond, VA 23224

info@fernandroby.com (804) 233-5030

Connect to t Performance

“ The Kubala-Sosna Emotion interconnects connected me to the music like no other interconnects I've heard, at anywhere near the price.

Robert H. Levi

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”

“ ”

The Expressions present music without noticeable boundaries to a stage; sound stages don't erupt from a black background, but from an invisible and expanding one…

Larry Cox

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MUSICAL MUSINGS

By Irina Kuzminsky

THE title appealed to me straight away.

“Piano Dances” conjured up all manner of images, including that of a dancing grand piano, mobile but rather heavy on its feet. I checked it out and found

Anna Vinnitskaya’s new album to feature suites of waltzes and other dances by Ravel, Shostakovich and Jörg Widmann (b.1973), a German composer hitherto unknown to me.

Te album opens with Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911), which took me back to the last piano recital I ever gave. It was a set of pieces I particularly enjoyed playing for their exploitation of pianistic colours and textures. Ravel wrote the Valses nobles et sentimentales as a homage to Schubert who had written a set of Valses nobles and a set of Valses sentimentales. I had not listened to them for a very long time, and in a way this was like rediscovering them all over again – and coming to terms with a different interpretation. As I listen I realize that our understanding of the music, our interpretation of it, both as listeners and performers, grows and changes with us.

Te first thing that stood out for me was Vinnitskaya’s scintillating piano fingerwork. She possesses a steely finger technique, but musically seems to sit on the surface of these pieces. I find myself wishing for a bit more whimsy and bigger spaces between the eight pieces, more silence to absorb the transitions between moods, and a less mannered approach. Having said that, the pianism on display is impeccable, notes flow in crystal clear

Vincent Van Gogh - Peach Trees in Blossom, 1888

MUSICAL MUSINGS

cascades. I listen to a couple of other recordings to check my reactions. Louis Lortie brings out the unresolved dissonances more strongly in no.1 in a harsher interpretation, and the jazz elements in no.2. Vinnitskaya’s sounds is more brittle and more crystalline. Tere is also Ravel’s own performance for comparison, a great reference point, although one needs to take into account the recording limitations of the time. But I find I cannot go past Walter Gieseking, the famed Debussy interpreter, with his ear for nuanced musical details, and his sense of colour and dynamic contrast. His playing draws me in, the Valses emerge more subtle, more understated, dreamy, whimsical and refined under his fingers.

It is with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Dances of the Dolls for Piano (1952–1962) that Vinnitskaya truly comes into her own. Te “Lyric Waltz” is convincingly delightful, nuanced, and a joy to listen to. Te “Gavotte” and “Romance” are unpretentious, sweet and simple, while the “Polka” has a great dance quality and feel for rhythm. Te “Waltz scherzo” has

some great staccato passages, and the second part of the “Hurdy Gurdy” takes the folk song material at a dizzying speed with no loss of clarity. It makes one want to chuckle! Vinnitskaya’s programme notes speak of feeling transported into the world of childhood by all the pieces on this album, but for me this holds true only for these Doll Dances by Shostakovich. All the other works are far darker, distinctively adult affairs.

Te Zirkustänze (Circus Dances) from 2012 by Jörg Widmann are a total novelty for me. Te opening “Fanfare” is jarring after the Doll Dances, but certainly catches your attention for a change of mood and soundworld. Te pieces are interesting and, on the whole, more sombre. Tere is a sense of the steps falling over each other in no.3, “Erster Walzer”, perhaps portraying the clumsiness of a first attempt at waltzing which ultimately disintegrates and simply wanders off the dance floor.

Widmann seems to have a predilection for the extreme top register of the piano which he exploits regularly, either throughout a piece or adding splashes of colour. No.8, “Karussell-Walzer”, places the merry-go-

MUSICAL MUSINGS

round almost exclusively into the extreme top register with a sudden intrusion of the extreme bass, only, ultimately, to leave the piece hanging there. But it is probably no.9, “Hebräische Melodie”, that exploits that top register best. Sudden splashes of a high tessitura chord erupt into the low melodic line disrupting its solemn flow with what feels like a threat, a lashing cut, growing ever more frequent. No.11, the “Bayerisch-babylonischer Marsch”, a rather laboured, disjointed march, as the title suggests (Bavarian and Babylonian!?), closes proceedings. Needless to say, Vinnitskaya gives a bravura performance.

Vinnitskaya returns to Ravel to round out the programme, this time to the piano arrangement of La Valse (1919-1920), which uses a motive from the Valses nobles et sentimentales. Ravel wrote La valse for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes intending it as a ballet score. Diaghilev admired it but turned it down as unsuitable. It was not until 1951 that La valse, the ballet, was premiered in New York with Balanchine’s choreography. For his ballet Balanchine used not only La valse but also Ravel’s

Valses nobles et sentimentales to precede it. Tis was the second time the Valses nobles et sentimentales had turned up as a ballet – the first time was in 1912, commissioned in its orchestrated ballet version by Russian ballerina Natasha Trouhanova with a love triangle libretto written by Ravel himself. As for La valse, it is a kind of apotheosis of the swirling Viennese waltz and the remnants of the society that so loved it which swirls its way into a frenzied distorted chaos. “We are dancing on the edge of a volcano”, Ravel wrote in his notes to La valse. Vinnitskaya plays it with great energy in a virtuosic tour de force but for me the highlight were the Shostakovich pieces, “sincere and beautiful”, to quote Vinnitskaya herself. Te rest I can admire but not feel compelled by on the same level.

By Douglas Brown

MCINTOSH C8 TUBED PREAMPLIFIER

Making a success of any consumer electronics venture is an exceedingly hard thing to that’s not a misprint. Today, in 2024, McIntosh has been manufacturing ultra high-end audio gear for 75 glorious years. When the opportunity to review McIntosh’s C8 vacuum tube pre-amplifier ($4,000 USD MSRP) arose, I was more excited than a racoon on a caffeine bender that’d tunnelled its way into a bakery and

landed upon a fresh batch of warm peanutbutter cookies.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

used to scroll through input values when the set-up or trim modes are selected. There’s also a ¼” headphone output jack for headphone listening. Headphones are NOT included.

The C8’s front panel has a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD) for set-up and monitoring. The unit’s striking industrial

Vincent Van Gogh - Roses, 1890

design boldly embraces McIntosh’s proud heritage with a classic yet modern aesthetic.

The C8 is targeted to budding audiophiles who’ve (probably) owned a sub$2,000 USD integrated amplifier and who’d like to climb higher up the sonic ladder to a multi-component stereo system. McIntosh designed the C8 to mate with a pair of their single-channel MC830 solid state monoblock amplifiers.

pairs of RCA Phono inputs—one pair for moving coil (M/C) cartridges and a second pair for moving magnet (M/M) cartridges. The C8 has two pairs of single-ended (i.e. unbalanced) RCA outputs and one pair of balanced 3-pin XLR outputs. The unit also comes with a threeprong male IEC plug so that the supplied A/C power cord can be upgraded. A binding post is included if a user wishes to connect the C8 to an isolated grounding system. The pre-amp also comes with a remote control.

AKR will publish a review of the MC830 mono-block amplifiers in an upcoming issue.

The rear of the C8 has five analog inputs. These include a pair of XLR (left and right channel) balanced inputs; two pairs of singleended (unbalanced) RCA inputs; and two

Custom integrators will delight in finding an array of triggers and control ports. The unit even offers a user-selectable auto off switch that automatically turns the C8 off after 30 minutes if no incoming audio signal is detected. This is (obviously) designed to extend the lifespan of the vacuum tubes. The C8’s dimensions are 31.2 cm (12+9/32”) wide; 19.4cm (7⅝”) high; and 41.3cm (16¼”) deep. Unboxed, the unit weighs 18 pounds. Given its small dimensions and sensible weight, the C8

could be THE solution for audiophiles looking for a tube pre-amp for a desk-top headphone system for the cottage or at work.

Users can order McIntosh’s custom DA2 Digital Audio Module upgrade board ($1,200 USD). This optional digital module features a quad balanced 8-ch 32-bit DAC.

My review unit did NOT come with this DA2 module installed. Therefore, I cannot comment on the sound quality of the optional DAC.

The C8 offers everything 99% of audiophiles would need in a tube preamplifier. One of the single-ended RCA outputs can be configured as a subwoofer output.

INITIAL SET-UP OF THE C8 PRE-AMP

I swapped the C8 in for my Audio Research LS-28 SE tube pre-amp in my $180K-level

Esoteric and Sonus faber two-channel rig. The C8 sounded its best when powered with a 1.5m Rick Schultz Audio™ Apparition 15 Amp A/C cord.

Squeezing this much sound out of any high-end tube pre-amplifier usually requires upgrading the supplied vacuum tubes with exotic NOS (New Old Stock) valves.

Although tube rolling was FAR beyond the scope of this article, an end-user might want to call or email McIntosh’s tech support department for their advice on possibly upgrading the tubes.

INTRINSIC

SONIC IMPRESSIONS + COMPARISON TESTS

The C8 has bass and treble (i.e. tone) controls. Accordingly, the sound quality can be adjusted to better sync with room acoustics. For my listening tests, I set these tone control levels to a flat zero position.

C8 VS. MCINTOSH’S C22 TUBE PREAMPLIFIER

I first compared the $4,000 USD C8 to McIntosh’s $6,000 USD C22 tube pre-amplifier. The C8 definitely has McIntosh’s tube-DNA in its blood. Midrange vocals

M C INTOSH C8 TUBED PREAMPLIFIER

were warm, smooth, and rich. The C22 has a much bigger power supply. A better power supply usually results in superior sonics.

Soundstage size between the C8 and the C22 was similar. The C22 did, however, create better image placement and separation of individual instruments within the soundstage. In terms of imaging, the C22 delineated individual instruments with about 20% more precision than the C8.

In my two-channel system, the C22 offered deeper resolution and slightly faster transients. The C8’s sound quality was a lot closer to the C22’s sonics than I expected it to be. The C8 has the same velvety smoothness and tactile texturing that the C22 delivers. It’s just that the C8 doesn’t offer as much of it.

I tried both RCA phono inputs with a heavily modified Rega P-25 turntable, RB-600 tonearm, and various M/M and M/ C cartridges. The sound quality was surprisingly coherent and musical. Although the sonics won’t compete with standalone tube phono stages priced north of the $2,000 USD retail price point, the sound quality of the C8’s M/M and M/C phono stages sits in the $1,000 USD to $1,200 USD retail price range.

I also compared McIntosh’s C8 to the following tube pre-amplifiers: a) an ARC LS-28 SE ($10,000 USD); b) an ARC Reference-6 SE ($17,000 USD); c) a heavily modified Sonic Frontiers Line-3 SE ($14,000 CAD); and d) a First Sound™ Presence Deluxe 4.0 Mk#2 Special Edition ($9,000 USD) hot-rodded with a pair of NOS Siemens-Halske 7308 gold pin tubes.

The C8 won’t get a listener to the last 5% of what’s currently available from pre-amps in terms of bass extension, low-level detail retrieval, soundstage width and depth, and overall sonic coherency. The C8 simply does not have the resolution or incisiveness of

tweaked-out tube pre-amps that can be found north of the $10K USD retail price point.

To be fair, the C8 wasn’t designed to climb to the highest sonic peaks that current vacuum tube pre-amps are capable of ascending to. McIntosh is trying to offer new(er) audiophiles a taste of the sound quality that their flagship C12000 tube preamp (MSRP $12,000 USD) delivers. At one-third of the C12000’s retail price, the C8 achieves this goal.

The C8 reminded me—fondly—of affordable tube pre-amps from the mid-1990s. And yet, the C8 creates faster dynamics, a much lower noise floor, and a coherent sound that isn’t as syrupy or overly romantic as tube pre-amps from 30 years ago. The vast majority of music lovers will neither need nor want to climb any higher up the sonic ladder into five-figure vacuum tube sound.

LISTENING TESTS

I started with the Rolling Stones’ 2016 album Blue & Lonesome [Polydor: 5714942] on Redbook CD.

Featuring tracks like “All of Your Love,” “Hoo Doo Blues,” and “I Gotta Go,” Lonesome won a Grammy™ for Best Traditional Blues Album in 2018. The Stones’ 23rd studio album, the record showcases cover songs of blues tracks.

Engineered by studio czar Don Was, the recording has stellar sonics that take a listener on a deep dive into blues classics.

What I noticed immediately with the C8 tube pre-amp directing things was how cohesive and musical Lonesome sounded.

There are a million ways to cripple the sound quality of a high-resolution blues recording like this one. What the C8 delivered—in spades—was a flow and musicality to the songs that was a joy to hear.

I next listened to Rossini: Overtures/ Sinfonie Norrington [EMI Digital: CDC 554091].

Featuring memorable tracks like “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” “La gazza Iadra,” and “Guillame Tell,” this album is one of my goto recordings for testing any component’s ability to reproduce PRaT, soundstaging, and dynamics. The brutal shifts in the orchestra’s movements go from subtle, delicate, and serene to caffeinated and explosive at necksnapping speed. If a tube pre-amp can’t accurately replicate gunshot dynamics heard across a huge soundstage, this recording will expose that sonic flaw in record time.

As the Barber of Seville transitions through the Andante maestoso, Allegro con brio, and final Più mosso sections, the song builds and builds, and then crescendos into a freakin’ musical explosion. It’s the cannonblast sonic assault in this Overture that at times has the entire orchestra playing at

warp-speeds that practically fracture the space-time continuum. Looking for some calming music to soothe your jangled nerves? Look elsewhere. This is the kind of orchestral onslaught that an air-cavalry helicopter squadron should blast at max watts when blitzkrieging into enemy territory.

The C8 pre-amp did a wonderful job of reproducing the shivering espresso-fuelled dynamic energy of Rossini’s rampaging Overtures. Far too many cheap(ish) pre-amps that I’ve heard down through the decades completely fail to recreate the complex PRaT and booming percussive assaults in these songs. Not so with the C8 in play.

CONCLUSION

If I were starting over and didn’t already own several reference-calibre valve pre-amps, McIntosh’s $4,000 USD C8 is THE vacuum tube pre-amplifier I’d buy. For those who are new to high-end audio and have a sub$5,000 USD budget for a tube pre-amp, the C8 is the first unit I’d recommend they audition. Only a very small percentage of audio-nutters will ever need—or want—a more expensive pre-amplifier than McIntosh’s C8. Heartily recommended!

AKRM

Vincent Van Gogh - Straw Roofed Houses, 1890

JOAN OF AUDIO & MUSIC

By Raine Jordan

A HIGHER LOVE

“The greatest journey we can ever take is the one that leads us back to ourselves.” ~ Alexandria Bellefleur

THE JOURNEY HOME

Imet Gary Muszynski on Facebook. We are both part of the music scene in the greater San Francisco Bay area. Gary has a much wider international circle, but nonetheless the Facebook algorithms did their thing. Later, I learned by way of our audio interview, as Gary riffed about his creative process, that he’s met and collaborated with quite a few extraordinary musicians on that same seemingly “unhip” social media platform.

Apparently unhip is the new hip, as it will always be. In his interview, he shares several spectacular stories about those connections and subsequent collaborations. One of the many things he said that stood out for me was his ability to connect with people. He said, “I know how to invite people.” Gary elaborates on this aspect of his collaborative

approach by affirming how important it is for him to be deeply drawn to the artist and their music, to immerse himself in it, and to understand it. And equally important is to feel a personal kinship with the artist. If they are local, he invites them over for food and to jam with him. He mentioned that he has turned down extraordinarily talented musicians for lack of personal kinship or connection. But, with enthusiasm, he says, “probably 98% of the people I invite, including some of the most amazing musicians in the world, say yes.” Wow, amazing odds, considering who he has collaborated with. Relevantly, on his first album, Roots and Wings: Medicine Music, he collaborated with 24 master musicians from eight countries. And it won the top Global Music Award in 2021.

Painting by Rossetti

Henri Matisse -Bay of Nice, 1918

JOAN OF AUDIO & MUSIC

So, while I listened to his stories and immersed myself in the newest album, The Journey Home: Songs of Longing and Belonging, which is absolutely stunning from beginning to end (I’ll say more about it later) it became quite apparent that his capacity to invite and collaborate is part of his brilliance as a musician, a producer, and composer. Moreover, it is an expression of his love for people and music, particularly as conduits for healing and culture change. I wholeheartedly agree with his stance on relational intelligence, aka, our ability to create authentic connections with one another. The quality of our relationship with anyone we choose to collaborate or partner with is fundamental. A relationship is a synergistic and alchemical experience. To create something new, real, transformative, something that breaks through barriers, we must be willing to share our most authentic creative expressions with one another. That takes love, trust, communication, generosity, humility, and a supreme yielding to a creative force that is greater than us.

Gary Muszynski is an award-winning global percussionist, handpan artist, composer, producer, and organizational leadership consultant who brings to light the neuroscience of music and the beneficial role music plays as medicine for both body and mind. He composes and produces original music across genres and countries, using a collaborative intuitive approach, a testament that music is a universal language understood by all. As mentioned earlier, his first album, Roots and Wings: Medicine Music, won the gold medal at the 2021 Global Music Awards. And I have no doubt that his newest album will garner even greater accolades. Gary Muszynski has played and collaborated with some of the greatest musical luminaries throughout the world; early on with Brazilian samba legend, Martinho da Villa, and then with Olodum in Salvador, Bahia, and more recently with Bobby McFerrin, Omar Sousa, Mads Tolling, Jaques Morelenbaum, Teco Cordoza and vocal sensation”, Varijashree Venugopal, to mention just a few.

On his newest album, entitled, The Journey Home: Songs of Longing and

JOAN OF AUDIO & MUSIC

Belonging, released in August 2024, Gary collaborates with an amazing array of worldclass musicians from around the globe, including “classical raga-meets-jazz scat vocal sensation”, Varijashree Venugopal, master flautist, Teco Cardoso, Brazilian cello maestro, Jaques Morelenbaum, violinist, Mads Tolling, and guitarist Ed Littlefield Jr. on pedal steel guitar, among many other greats. The first song, also the title track, The Journey Home, features Varijashree Venugopal on vocals and Carnatic flute. Gary refers to her as “Vari”. She is one of the musicians that he connected with and “invited” to collaborate with him, through Facebook. When he connected with her, she was not yet as recognized as she is now. In his interview, he tells the story of meeting Vari and bringing her to the U.S. from India to collaborate with him. She is now a vocal sensation and has collaborated with many acclaimed musicians, including Jacob Collier. And has since signed with a record label. Lastly, Gary told me “95% of the newest album was completely improvised in the studio, which means that I have to select my collaborators very carefully.” I say this to emphasize the impact of collaborating with people who align with your heart and your work. And to highlight Gary’s incredible acumen as a musician, composer, and producer.

On the title track, “The Journey Home”, Vari’s voice is truly a sublime transcendental instrument all by itself. Her musicianship on

the flute is as stunning. The song is a phenomenal start to the album and as the album moves on, it unfolds like the bloom of a thousand flowers. Every song is a kind of benediction and healer. There is so much talent and “musical grace” in this album, to use one of Gary’s phrases. Below are the credits for the track because it’s cool to know who did what. But every song in the album is worthy of praise. You can find the new album on all popular music platforms.

• Varijashree Venugopal on Carnatic flutes and voice

• Frank Martin on piano

• Daniel Berkman on kora and cello; and yours truly

• Gary Muszynski on percussion and production

Recorded, and mixed at Opus Studio in Berkeley, CA, and 25th Street Studio in Oakland in 2022/2023.

• Tracking engineers: Gabriel Shepard and Dave Luke

• Mix engineers: Gabriel Shephard, Billy Engels (EARStudios), and Gary Muszynski

• Mastering guru: Bob Katz, Digital Domain

• Artwork cover credit: Karma Moffet

• Gary Muszynski: Executive producer

In his interview, Gary talks freely and expressively about how his interest in music began and how that journey is paved with improvisations. It would be difficult to dismiss the amazing synchronicities that shape his life’s work. His instant attraction to the percussion as a child, his early encounter with the rhythms and harmonies of Brazilian and Afro-Cuban music, his introduction to audiokeyreviews.com

the handpan drum are all seamlessly related. If you are familiar with the handpan, which is a relatively new percussion instrument, you know it has a unique, ethereal sound. It’s uses some of the same principles as the steeldrum, but it has a convex shape which creates a much gentler, natural sound and is played with the hands. Once you hear it, you cannot forget its sensitive and expressive beauty or its effect. It has a deep healing resonance which makes it a potent tool for transformation and healing. The handpan is central to Gary Muszynski’s signature sound and work, although he plays many other percussion instruments. He refers to himself as a global percussionist and handpan artist. On both albums, there are a myriad of global influences from India to the Caribbean, to Brazil and parts of Africa and Europe, including Ireland and of course America, where jazz, rock, R & B and hip hop are major influences. However, the Brazilian and African influences are quite prevalent in much of his music. And variations of the jazz element are fundamentally always apparent. I love what he says about Brazilian, music, because he speaks to the heart of it:

“It's got everything. It's got incredible rhythmic complexity, harmonics, sublime harmonics. It's just this sense of harmony. It's a little bit different than what we think of as jazz harmony. And then the melody lines, oh my God. I mean if you listen to Milton Nascimento and Jobim and Ivan Lins and Djavan. I can go on and on.”

Gary Muszynski is on the hero’s journey much alike “The Journey Home”. He is following a prompting from deep within that was impressed on him as a child. He heard it. He could have dismissed it, instead he said, “yes” to the journey. The artist’s path is an arduous one, but it is an authentic one. It transcends the conditioned life that teaches us to value the superficial; to strive to become something “valued” by our culture’s standards of prominence which is more often based on dominance and acquisition. Our culture often exiles the artist to the fringes of society. Gary represents what is possible in each of us; realness, our capacity to live from our souls, to recognize and live from our inherent value as expressions of a divine creative source (you know, the one Pharoh Sanders sings about). And, to live in harmonious relationship and collaboration, with all living beings, including the earth. I encourage everyone to listen to his music and his audio interview. It will reveal so much more than I can say here about him. He is truly a gift. Both of his albums are worth a very mindful deep dive. His music is immersive and alive. It feels brand new yet it is pervaded by an eternal resonance, a transformative medicine that seamlessly adapts to the needs of the partaker, a kind of organic metronome for our body, mind and soul.

“Solid state dynamics, resolution, detail retrieval, and spaciousness married to tube liquidity, remarkable tone/timbre/texture, offer #%$*@! musical bliss. What more could one ask for (Aurorasound HEADA)?”

—K.E. Heartsong, AudioKeyREVIEWS! Magazine

INTERVIEW

Gary Muszynski

Conducted by Raine Jordan

Gary Muszynski: Hello Raine, what beautifully crafted questions. I just think these are great and I'll try and be succinct, but they open up a lot for me. So let me do this one by one.

Raine: How did you initially become interested in music?

Gary: At age five I attended a music assembly at an elementary school in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. I grew up in Shaker Heights. I was a really shy kid, and it was a musical assembly. I was five years old and in kindergarten, and I got to hear an African American percussionist play. I don't know his name, but he starts soloing on four conga drums. I’m pretty sure he was playing guaguanco. So, it was my first introduction to Afro Cuban music. And even though I was shy, I kind of was impelled to get up and I started to dance in front of the whole school. And this provoked finger pointing, and the other kids were kind of ridiculing me, but I didn't feel any shame or embarrassment. I was transported to another world, a very happy place. Within a few minutes, the first brave follower stood up and joined me. I can't remember if it was a boy or a girl. Then all of a sudden, that made an aberrant behavior into a normalized one. More and more kids got up and started to dance and within a few minutes the whole auditorium of five

hundred people, including board members, teachers, principals, schoolteachers, kids, were up shaking their butts. Lo and behold, it was a bifurcation point. It was what we call critical mass. It was how change takes hold of the culture. My insight was not very well articulated or formed then, but the insight was that rhythm can change culture, and that's the power of the groove. And, as I studied neuroscience, the brain, I found out more about the entrainment via the mirror neurons, and how basically whether you want to call it emotional contagion or you know, an energetic cohesive state that gets formed, that was my first taste of it. And I had this voice in my head that said, I want to do this someday, and to me that became my life's work to this day; to investigate the impact of music, rhythm, melody. and harmony for well-being, for wellness, and for culture change. So, it led me to learning about how percussion and rhythm can be used as a tool to create more harmonious collectives and spaces. I've brought my work into organizations, conferences organizational retreats, leadership development, team development, as well as onto the stage. I think that's really what became my interest in music.

So, based on that, I got turned on to a Brubeck, Miles Davis, Santana, Return to

INTERVIEW: GARY MUSZYNSKI

Forever, you know in like in 6th, 7th, 8th grade, something like that. I remember hearing Kind of Blue when I was in 6th grade and falling asleep. I'm pretty sure it was either Flamenco Sketches or maybe it was

I promoted it, and the five instrumentalists, the five singers, five-part harmony. Our piano player, since then, went on to The Tonight Show band. He had perfect pitch, and he was an extraordinary vocal arranger. So, we were

Freddie Freeloader, but I was in this halfawake, half-dream state. Well, that just went directly into my subconscious and my soul. I was hooked. Then I started being involved with the band and choirs. In 8th grade, I formed a ten piece a cappella, well it was a ten piece band. We did doo-wop and early rock'n'roll. We were called, “The Dukes of Earl”. I kept that band together for four years.

playing and in-between our doo-wop sets, all the musicians played Chick Corea, and Herbie Hancock (laughing). It was quite an incredible early music education. Then another seminal event was really getting into Airto [ Moreirat] through Chick Corea, Return to Forever, and Weather Report and Santana. And then starting to play bongos and congas. My first instrument was my

INTERVIEW: GARY MUSZYNSKI

brother’s mahogany chair, for a year. I learned all the conga parts to Santana, Santana conga parts, on that chair. Finally, my dad said “I think we need to get him some drums. This is not a bad passing fancy”. So, he got me my first pair of bongos, paid $110.00 for them, way back then. They were amazing. And so, I played along with records and started to develop my own methodology. I wasn't formally taught. After that, I started taking formal Conga drum lessons. I really got badly bit by Afro Cuban music, samba, and Brazilian music. In 1989 I got a grant to study music in the Amazon, in the state of Para’ at a Music Conservatory. At that time, I met Martinho Da Vila. He is kind of like the Stevie Wonder of samba, and in Brazil he's a

living legend. I got to meet his daughter Martnália. They musically adopted me, and I started studying with her samba school in Rio carnival in 1990. Then, I went to Salvador and studied with Oladom. I was the only white person parading with them in 1996. It was a complete honor, amazing, life changing experience. So, I know this is a very long answer to your question, but I hope it's relevant.

Raine: What was it that attracted you to the Hand Pan and can you tell us a little about the instrument?

Gary: Well, you know, this has been a lifelong learning journey. I discovered the hand pan in 2004. it was invented in Switzerland in 2001 by two people Felix and Sabina. They have been making steel pans for about 10 years. They were really into the Trinidadian steel pan. Then they got the inspiration to create a new acoustic hybrid instrument that

combined the sound of the Indonesian nipple gong with the tone fields of the steel pan. And on the bottom basically the sound of an udu drum, a deep earthy sound. The udu drum is from Nigeria. It's a clay ceramic pot with two holes in it that create a really incredible watery, deep sound. It's also in South India and it's called the ghatam. In the music of Shakti [fusion band] you can hear Vickku, one of the great masters, I forgot his exact name, play the ghatam, similar to a tabla. So, this new acoustic instrument was born when I was studying folk and improvisation with Bobby McFerrin at the Omega Institute. In 2004, I met the North American distributor and fell in love with them. I ordered three of them. But before that I should mention, I think it was in 2003, I went to Slovenia for an arts and business conference. It was actually held in a 13th century medieval castle associated with the Knight Percival. When I walked in, we were greeted in the courtyard by the sound of three people playing hand pans. It was like, “oh my God beam me up”, so I was hooked. And there's something about melodic percussion that is very special. Because I don't play keyboard or a chordal instrument, guitar or anything like that, what melodic percussion allows me to do is to create rhythmic motifs, but also melodic lines. Then this allows me to then create compositions that involve both rhythm, harmony and melody. And then to

collaborate with masterful musicians from around the world to create sonic landscapes to transport people. And that's one of my favorite things to do. That's really become the basis of what I call my global medicine music. And I would say that my influences have been Bobby McFerrin for sure, and his Medicine Man album and also his Circle Songs album. I've gotten a chance to perform with Bobby a few times and have gotten to know him over the years and the people he collaborates with, foremost, Joey Blake and David Worm are featured prominently in my recordings and in some of my workshops. So, I'm so indebted to him in terms of his inspiration, including voice as an instrument in my music. It has been really important to me. And in a way, you could say that's also part of the legacy of Brazil and what Milton Nascimento brought us, and Flora Purim, and people like that. I just got to hear Aubrey Johnson last night in Healdsburg. She and I had a conversation about her uncle, Lyle Mays, and also Pat Metheny and how much they were really inspired by Milton Nascimento and Naná Vasconcelos. And so, one of the greatest compliments was paid to me by Brian Walker, who's an incredible sound engineer at The Freight and Salvage. He said, “you know your music reminds me a lot of Lyle May’s music. I said, “holy crap man, that is like wow, okay”. He said, “yeah it's just transporting”. So, after my

INTERVIEW: GARY MUSZYNSKI

conversation with Aubrey last night, I had kind of a deeper “aha” moment around, yeah, I think that's what has attracted me to Brazilian music. It's got everything. It's got incredible rhythmic complexity, harmonics, sublime harmonics. It's just this sense of harmony. It's a little bit different than what we think of as jazz harmony. And then the melody lines, oh my God. I mean if you listen to Milton Nascimento and Jobim and Ivan Lins and Djavan. I can go on and on. Tonight, I'm going to go hear Monica Salmaso, one of the most incredible vocalists in the world. And, her husband Teco Cardoso, master of all the saxophones, and flutes is on the new album. You know I'm just like beside myself that Teco said yes. If you listen to the track, Roots and Ragga, you'll get to hear one of the best flute players in the world.

Raine: Can you describe your current creative process?

Gary: I try and create motifs. My saying when I'm teaching other students about my compositional process is it starts with a groove, or it all starts with a seed. If you think of, like a mantra, it's repeated, it's a groove, and it becomes a seed for a much longer process once you unpack it. So, the seed can be a series of notes like a scale or a mode. Most of the hand pans that I play and compose with are in modes. Some have

diatonic scales, some are pentatonic, and some are close to being fully chromatic, if there are enough notes. I'm not that sophisticated in terms of written music. Although, I have had people help me turn in stuff I've composed into charts. It's very useful when you're playing with different musicians in different parts of the world or country, and you have a set composition, or an A part, a melody and then a variation, to have it written down. It is very useful. So, I try and start with something that sounds beautiful. I remember Paul McCartney’s quote and he just attributed it to Mozart. But when someone asked him, “what is harmony?”, He said, “I like to find notes that like each other”. (Laughing) I think there's something very poetically beautiful about that. And that's it. It's as simple as that. I like a certain sequence that moves me, or surprises me, or provokes me. But it takes me to a different place, you know. That's the magic of music and sound.

[Interview continued in video above]

Vincent Van Gogh - The Saint Paul Hospital, 1889

Wassily Kandinskiy - Starnberger Landscape

DAN CLARKE EXPANSE

By K. E. Heartsong

DAN CLARKE EXPANSE

This will be a shorter review than usual, as the Dan Clark STEALTH and EXPANSE are in many ways more alike than different, so it will be more of a comparison between the two headphones.

Over the past several years, I have become very familiar with Dan Clark’s line of both electrostatic and planar magnetic headphones. And every single Dan Clark headphone that I reviewed was enjoyable, technically proficient, and musical. I must, however, confess to having a particular penchant for Dan Clark’s electrostatic headphone, the CORINA. At $2,000 less than the STAX SR-X9000 flagship, it is every bit its equal and on certain measures, its better.

My last review of a Dan Clark headphone was the flagship headphone, the STEALTH, a closed-back planar magnetic headphone that easily won our DIAMOND AWARD. This review focuses on its “fraternal” twin, the Dan Clark EXPANSE.

The Dan Clark EXPANSE, unlike the STEALTH, is an open-back planar headphone. That said, both headphones share many features—styling, headphone cup shape, size, and relative weight. The difference, of course, is that the EXPANSE

has an open back and the STEALTH does not. As a result, the tuning profile—the “voice”—for each headphone, via the patented Acoustic Metamaterial Tuning System (ATMS), has been adjusted to meet their respective mandates—open- back or closed. How does this difference translate to technical bona fides and “voice,” and what similarities do they share?

REFRAIN: Unlike most reviews, this review will be non-sequential, as it will start with how the component actually sounds and not the process of physically “undressing” it and/ or laying out its various parts, specifications, etc. Think of this review, then, as a nonlinear movie—Memento, Kill Bill, Arrival, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc.— that likewise starts at the end and winds its way to the beginning.

THE SYSTEM - HEADPHONE REFERENCE

• Grimm Audio MU1 Streamer

• Grimm Audio MU2 Streamer

• Silent Angel Rhein Z1 Streamer

• Silent Angel Forester F2 Power Supply

• Silent Angel Bonn NX Network Switch

• Silent Angel Genesis GX Clock

• Bricasti Design M1 Special Edition DAC

• Border Patrol SE-1 DAC

Henri Matisse - The Closed Window, 1919

DAN CLARKE EXPANSE

• ALLNIC AUDIO HPA-300B

Headphone Amplifier

• Aurorasound HEADA Headphone

Amplifier

• HeadAmp CFA3 Headphone

Amplifier

• Pass Labs HPA-1 Headphone

Amplifier

• ABYSS AB1266 Phi TC Headphones

• Dan Clark Expanse Headphones

• Dan Clark Stealth Headphones

• HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled

Headphones

• HIFIMAN Susvara Headphones

• Meze Empyrean Headphones

• Audience FrontRow Interconnects (XLR, RCA), USB, Ethernet

• Kubala-Sosna Interconnects (XLR, RCA), power cords

• Grimm Audio SQM Interconnects (XLR, RCA)

• RSX BEYOND, MAX Power cords

• AntiCable Level 3 power cords

• TORUS AUDIO RM20 power conditioner

THE SOUND

The sound characteristics of the EXPANSE embody exceptional transparency, resolution, and detail retrieval. This remains true whether they are paired with a solid state or a tubed headphone amplifier, as “good” amplification seems to make very little difference. The STEALTH was notably on the warm side of neutral, and so too is the EXPANSE, though they share excellent technical abilities, as noted above.

The Dan Clark EXPANSE soundstage is certainly a defining factor in separating it from the STEALTH. As with most if not all open-back designs, the ‘“limiting wall” has been removed to a very large extent. This provides an expanded, airy, and ambient rendering that allows musical energy to fill the space naturally and for the resultant notes to decay more naturally. The EXPANSE, given its technical makeup or its “missing” bits—the back panel—rises above its sibling in this way most notably. The result is a larger, immersive, more defined, and layered stage relative to the STEALTH.

Air. Ambiance. Natural decay. The defining sound signature of the Dan Clark EXPANSE is that of an open, spacious, or “expansive” sound stage that has more air, ambiance, and a more natural decay of notes than the STEALTH.

As with all Dan Clark designs, a good headphone amplifier (HPA) with at least a good 2-watts will be needed to make the EXPANSE sing and sing well. We had a number of solid state and tubed HPAs that all fit the bill exceptionally well and drove the EXPANSE beautifully (see Reference HPA System).

BASS

I played the same music for the EXPANSE as had been played for the STEALTH, Eiji

Oue’s “V. Infernal Dance of King Kashchey” (Stravinsky, Reference Recording). It was necessary and pragmatic to gauge their relative abilities in regard to bass response via the same material. Interestingly, while the EXPANSE could not plumb the depths to the Holy-Bass-HeadGrail as easily as had the STEALTH, it did manage to get there with a wee bit more power and once there, like its sibling, it never missed a beat.

MIDRANGE

I had written of Patricia Barber’s piece “The Moon” (Verse, Koch Records), which I had used for the STEALTH review, that “The dissonance portrayed by the piano and assorted instruments is given distinction and air and space.” The EXPANSE expanded the stage for this piece while also highlighting texture, presence, tone/timbre, and palpability. Interestingly enough, this gave Patricia’s voice more intimacy and made the song more immersive.

If the EXPANSE had lost a wee bit to the STEALTH via the bass, it more than made up for it in the midrange. Voices8's “Prayer to a Guardian Angel” (Lux, Decca) was likewise rendered with a stage that seemed to encompass or expand beyond the STEALTH’s, and ambiance, air, volume were all beautifully rendered, not at the level of an electrostatic headphone, but still quite good.

TREBLE+

Immediately on Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five” (Time Out,Columbia), Joe Morello’s drum kit with cymbals high were more open, airy, and ambient than they had been with the STEALTH--no question about it. The stage was wider still and spacing and layering were also better. And again, there was greater intimacy with the EXPANSE relative to the STEALTH, though both provided exceptional resolution, transparency, and a naturalness of tone/timbre of Joe Morello’s drum kit. The EXPANSE does indeed

DAN CLARKE EXPANSE

seem to bring more high-frequency energy and with it a more open, natural, and extended decay, that translates more dimensionally.

COMPARISONS

EXPANSE vs STEALTH

There is, in truth, only one headphone comparison relevant here and especially so, since the other in-house headphones— HIFIMAN Susvara, HIFIMAN Susvara

Unveiled and Abyss AB1266 Phi TC—are a good deal more expensive.

Easily stated, the EXPANSE and the STEALTH do have much in common and those traits ‘out of common’ are, perhaps, much closer than one would imagine. For instance, with regard to bass response it

took the open-air EXPANSE a wee bit more power to achieve the selfsame bass slam, drive, and Holy-Bass-Head-Grail reach, that the closed-back STEALTH was able to achieve. Though the EXPANSE did manage to differentiate itself across the midrange with a more open, airy, and ambient staging, with better decay of notes, that the STEALTH could not replicate. And treble reach, transparency, resolution, were quite similar for both headphones, though the EXPANSE’s open-back, again, allowed notes to unfold more noticeably and naturally and ambient space, especially in large cathedrals, big open spaces to be better defined.

The EXPANSE and STEALTH headphones are true to their technological underpinnings—open-back, closed-back— and what those underpinnings allow when a given space is closed or restricted and when a space is opened up to, well, breathe more readily. This is the difference you will experience regardless of the frequency “boosts” or “lifts,” etc.

DRIVABILITY

The Dan Clark EXPANSE, like the STEALTH, was not too difficult to drive, but power was most certainly required. While

DAN CLARKE EXPANSE

their sensitivity is not a “shared” measure, it would seem, based on the dial settings of the various headphone amplifiers used, that a possible range would be 86-88dB. You’ll need a bit of power to get the EXPANSE to sound its best, but once you do, nirvana.

CONCLUSIONS

The Dan Clark EXPANSE, like the closed-back STEALTH planar-dynamic headphone, is also revelatory, albeit in a mildly different way.

The EXPANSE differentiates itself across the midrange versus the STEALTH with a more open, airy, and ambient staging, with better decay of notes, that the STEALTH could not replicate. And treble reach, transparency, resolution, were quite similar for both headphones, though the EXPANSE’s open-back design again allowed notes to unfold more noticeably and naturally within an ambient space, especially in large cathedrals, big open spaces, arenas that were better defined as a result. And in terms of bass, the EXPANSE will definitely get you to the Holy-BassHead-Grail, it will just need more power than the STEALTH to do so.

The EXPANSE easily wins our DIAMOND AWARD for technical excellence and sublime musicality and that open airiness for which open-back headphones are known.

Pros: Technical excellence—soundstaging, layering, resolution, transparency, detail, air— and sublime musicality. Exceptionally well made, beautifully designed, easy to transport. Cons: Efficiency. You will need more power than resides in most DAPs

THE SPECIFICATIONS

Dan Clark EXPANSE

• Driver Type: Planar magnetic

• Driver Size: 76mm x 51mm single-ended planar magnetic

• Driver matching: 0.25db weighted 20-10,000Hz

• THD: less than 0.03% 20-20KHz, ref. 1KHz at 94dB

• Weight: 415 grams

• Ear Pad Material: Synthetic Suede and Leather

• Headband: Nickle-Titanium

• Baffle: Carbon Fiber

• Sensitivity: 87-89dB/Wm (approximation)

• Carrying Case: included

THE COMPANY

Dan Clark EXPANSE ($3,999.99) 3366 Kurtz Street San Diego, CA 92110 USA

+1.619.501.6313 info@danclarkaudio.com

Paul Cezanne - Still Life with Apples and Pears

ACCUPHASE

E-700 INTEGRATED

By Oliver Masciarotte

Incorporated over fifty years ago, Accuphase Laboratories manufactures all manner of stereo componentry, from amplifiers and SACD transports to tuners and phono cartridges. That attention to hi–fi’s past as well as it’s future is makes for a compelling brand and, visually, their products possess a classic appeal that echoes their philosophy.

Of the two Class A integrated amplifiers made by Accuphase, the E–700 is the least expensive model at $16,975. It’s also a hard working piece of kit, with actual tone controls, multiple balanced and unbalanced inputs, a tape loop, balanced and unbalanced preamp I/O, and slots for optional DAC and phono modules. All that plus a hefty remote and front panel headphone jack makes for a captivating, champagne–toned package.

Given the completeness of it’s connectivity choices, note the absence of both HDMI and Blutooth, one might expect the E–700 to act as the cherished core of a simplified yet upscale rig. Of course, that

hinges on its sound quality and ability to drive difficult loads…Will it live up to my lofty expectations? I’ll be running it through its paces in an effort to incite your curiosity and inform your intellect…stay tuned! AKRM

Vincent Van Gogh - Field with Irises near Arles, 1888

FIDELIUM CABLES

By Andre Marc

SILVERSMITH AUDIO

Silversmith Audio Group, based out of the great state of Wyoming, is slightly different from your average high-end audio manufacturer. They essentially have just

The lead designer and proprietor, Jeff Smith, has numerous science degrees related to defense technology and served in the US armed forces for 28 years. Smith also spent extensive time studying sound transmission of acoustics in oceanic environments. To say the least, that is quite a unique background.

According to Jeff Smith, Silversmith Audio started out as something of a personal pursuit, but quickly grew into a wellrespected company that is now going on two-

plus decades. We had known several Silversmith cable owners who had sworn by Smith’s designs but had never had them in our own system. That changed when we speaker cables, or any other kind of cables, that we’d encountered before.

What was also immediately noticeable was that this was a seamless single run of ribbon, with no soldered, crimped, or welded connectors at all. The method of connection is “U-Notch,” cut into the end of each cable. Each run of cable is 2.25” wide and onehundredth of an inch thick. The U-Notch can accommodate most binding posts, depending on the layout and spacing of the

Paul Cezanne - Still Life with Fruit Basket

SILVERSMITH AUDIO FIDELIUM CABLES

posts. Take note: there are actually four runs of cable. The left and right runs are stereo pairs. The Fidelium speaker cables start at $995 for 6-foot lengths.

The cables themselves are made from

Silversmith’s documentation, ”Fidelium reflects our design philosophy in its purest form: A single, ultra-thin ribbon conductor per polarity; seamless from end to end and without traditional sound-degrading soldered, welded, or crimped connectors; and individually laminated in an extremely thin, yet rugged, polyimide film to achieve a geometry with a primarily air dielectric.”

According to Jeff Smith, the Fidelium speaker cable performs as if it were 5.5 times thinner, experiencing less frequency-

dependent variation and phase distortion He also claims that the skin effect characteristics of the Fidelium alloy are vastly superior, in the range of up to 33 times, to those of copper or silver. As duly noted, the design also benefits sonically from not having to

utilize conventional spade and banana connections, which can significantly reduce sound.

SET-UP AND LISTENING

We used the Fidelium cables between an Audio Research VS55 tube amplifier and Scansonic monitors. We carefully installed each run of cable so they had no contact with each other, and attached the U-Notch to each binding post, both on the amp and speaker, with careful routing for neatness. The rest of

the system consisted of a Sonore microRendu streamer connected to a Roon-based server, a Marantz HD-DAC1, and a Channel Islands Audio PLC-1 passive preamp.

We decided to stream from our local library many albums that we were intimately familiar with for reliable reference points. We started with The Distance To Here, by the great ‘90s band Live. The opening track, “The Dolphin's Cry,” is a high-energy alternative rock song with lots of dynamics and a buildup of tension and release. We were amazed how explosive the choruses were, and how much texture was in the chunky, layered electric guitars. Quite an impressive start.

Another track that had similar dynamic contrasts was “Where Fishes Go,” a heavy spiritual rocker that alternates between hypnotic verses and all-out ensemble power in the choruses. We were delighted to hear that the layering of the guitars and keyboards was more intricate than we had remembered. Individual elements were distinct, yet everything ultimately was rendered as a cohesive whole. Well done!

We went a bit vintage with one of our favorite albums, The World Is A Ghetto, War’s 1973 opus that yielded the classic single “The Cisco Kid.” The 50th Anniversary edition, with the original album remastered at 24 bits, 192 kHz, adds on a slew of outtakes and alternate versions. The title track with the

Fidelium cables was a psychedelic funk opus, making it impossible not to be absorbed in the sound. The midrange and lower treble was as pure as we can ever recall hearing.

An album that has been in heavy rotation lately is Jimmy Johnson’s 1979 Chicago blues masterpiece North // South on the historic Delmark label. The album strikes the perfect balance of bluesy grit, urban funk, and even a bit of rock and roll. Johnson’s smooth, yearning vocals and blistering electric guitar were made to sound as fresh as the day they were recorded, with tracks like “Country Preacher” and “Talkin’ ‘bout Chicago” transporting us to the Windy City on a hot, humid summer day. The Fidelium seemed to extract that last bit of groove and provided the glue and cohesiveness for an excellent listening experience.

We were craving some soul-jazz, so we called up the Analogue Productions SACD reissue of Ben Webster’s The Soul of Ben Webster. The Fidelium did a masterful job of rendering the sound of the horns and the piano. There was great momentum, and the bass drums were perfectly spaced to allow the soloists room to stretch. The cleverly titled “Coal Train” was a joy to hear with the Fidelium, as Webster and company create a smooth groove, with wonderful dialogue between the horns, piano, and guitar.

One of our last spins was Van Morrison’s Common One, his 1980 masterpiece. The

album is filled with jazzy, spiritual, Celtic, and folk overtones, and has sadly been somewhat overlooked as it does not contain a major single. Nonetheless, this is Morrison at his artistic peak. There are two extended pieces on the album, and they flow by like a peaceful river in the Irish countryside. Mark Isham’s

trumpet is gorgeously rendered with the Fidelium, as is Morrison’s voice. The vocals are filled with dynamics, with some lines sung at a near whisper-like delivery and others a joyous crescendo. The Fidelium cables brought out all the pastoral glory.

The Silversmith Fidelium cable really has only one consideration for prospective buyers, and that is whether the cable will fit ergonomically into a system. The U-Notch should definitely fit on most sets of speaker and amplifier binding posts, but if not, Silversmith offers solutions. They sell a

binding post adaptor for a reasonable $50, as well as adapters for those who prefer biwiring for $195. The other thing to consider is that the Fidelium are essentially four cables, two runs per side, and are a bit more difficult to organize than a standard pair of speaker cables in the usual tubing. However, all it takes is a few minutes of creativity or a small investment in some cable risers, or even better, a DIY solution.

CONCLUSION

Silversmith has had an excellent reputation since Jeff Smith launched the company 24 years ago, and after hearing the Fidelium speaker cables, it was easy to see and hear why. The cables are musically rich, transparent, balanced tonally, and offer a coherence that is rather uncanny. At $995, the cables are a real bargain when the technology, sonics, and overall performance are taken into account.

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Silversmith Audio Group (619) 460-1129

https://silversmithaudio.com/fidelium-1/ Fidelium speaker cables: starting at $995 per pair.

Vincent Van Gogh - Lallee des alyscamps arles

Vincent Van Gogh - Landscape with House and Ploughman, 1889

HIFIMAN SUSVARA UNVEILED

By K.E. Heartsong

Over the past several years, I’d amassed a great many headphones of various technologies— electrostatic, planar, dynamic—as well as In Ear Monitors (IEMs). It comes with the territory of reviewing headphone gear. The

So I slowly began to mete them out. Several I gave to my reviewers and writers, who could no doubt put them to good use in their writing. Several were given to friends who had embarked upon the “Headphone Fidelity” journey, and why shouldn’t they do it

problem had quickly become where to place or store them all, as many had not been listened to for quite some time. In truth, only a few—HIFIMAN Susvara, Abyss AB1266 Phi TC, Meze Empyrean—had continued to hold my attention.

in style, via the various headphones and IEMs that were good to exceptional. This would start them on the high fidelity journey to an ever better listening experience. I would sell the balance, allowing for time past their respective reviews. And I would keep those

HIFIMAN SUSVARA UNVEILED

stellar headphones and IEMs that were continually a joy to listen to. As mentioned above, I have kept the HIFIMAN Susvara, the Abyss AB1266 Phi TC, the Meze Empyrean, Rai Penta, and Advar and just a few others.

Truth be told, I can imagine the Susvara being with me should I ever need that desert island headphone rig, as in my opinion it is at the pinnacle of headphone technological design, musicality, and enjoyment. It just does everything right, and beautifully so, which is why I listen to it nearly every day.

So when I discovered that HIFIMAN was bringing out an “updated” version of the Susvara, I was very interested and placed my bid immediately to be one of its first reviewers. Shortly after I placed that bid, the HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled arrived.

The scuttlebutt was that the Susvara Unveiled would take things even further, in terms of technology, musicality, and enjoyment, than had its predecessor, the Susvara. That, in and of itself, generated a good bit of, well, excitement, intrigue, and curiosity. How would this be done?

Well, the first bit of improvement was in the name itself— Susvara Unveiled. This reflected the fact that the headphone’s grill or “window shade” (the grill looks like an opened window shade) would be removed. HIFIMAN believed that this would in turn remove “reflections and refractions” and the resulting distortion from their interactions.

The “distortion-free”sound would be more natural, more refined, and, perhaps even more nuanced, owing to every musical note being left undisturbed.

Unveiled would be the use of silver as the conductive layer compared to the Susvara’s gold conductive layer. The change here via silver’s higher conductivity (62.9) versus gold’s (45.2) would be to increase the Susvara Unveiled’s sensitivity (86dB) and lower its impedance (45Ω) relative to the Susvara’s daunting sensitivity (83dB) and higher impedance (60Ω). The Susvara’s specs, of course, dramatically limit its pairing with headphone amplifiers. Further, HIFIMAN believes that this will result in the revelation of “subtle details…and a sense of ‘air’ that is performance.” Time will tell.

Currently, the Susvara Unveiled is going through its break-in regime, which should find it in tip-top shape for the review process in several weeks. I look forward to evaluating and reviewing it, and to sharing the results with you.

Claude Monet -Water Lillies

Vincent Van Gogh - Autumn Landscape, 1885

By K.E. Heartsong

As most readers know, listening at an audio show is definitely a mixed bag when it comes to “high-fidelity” sound actually being highfidelity sound. There are of course the rooms where, against the odds—difficult room, nonworking components, poor system synergy, etc.—the music is engaging, immersive, and technically astute. The size of the room or the price tag, in particular, of a given system is more often than not of little relevance, or antithetical to a musically engaging system. Perhaps it’s that the smaller rooms have much less to contend with and are more easily able to tune in good sound. Whereas the rooms boasting six-figure price tags have

a great deal more to contend with in regard to synergizing components within the system, faulty components, room compatibility with too large speakers, etc., which can lead to at best a rather poor listening experience. We’ve all been there and have excused ourselves, hopefully diplomatically, from those rooms. We all have our bad days.

There have always been those rooms, certainly a number of the smaller rooms, which have had the music dialled in beautifully. These are the rooms where one gets behind schedule because the music is so very good and the folks hosting are considerate and kind. One such room is John

DEVORE FIDELITY ORANGUTAN

Devore’s DeVore Fidelity room, where the Orangutan O/96 loudspeakers have anchored component trios or quartets, and always beautifully so.

Though late to the Orangutan O/96 show, I had expressed my interest early on in reviewing John’s Orangutan O/96 loudspeakers for the magazine. And why not? The music always flowed through them, they were beautiful in a new/old-school way, and they were very efficient and had excellent impedance—96dB/ 10Ω. The latter point is ideal for a reviewer in that the Orangutan O/96 made amps from five watts to 400 watts available for review.

debut.! I guess this is part and parcel of a creative having to deal with and endure those who are decidedly not creatives and possess little to no imagination.

The timing for one of John’s most popular loudspeakers was an all-important issue, as was lining up the magazine space to feature them. Though coming late to the party did establish one thing: there had been numerous very good reviews, awards, and purchases by the most cynical of all buyers— reviewers—and the continued growth of the Orangutan loudspeaker family—O/Reference, O/ 93, O/Baby, and micro/O —is always a good sign of

The Orangutan O/96 has also proven to be one of John’s most popular loudspeakers, which interestingly enough found John receiving heaps of scorn and derision, with some folks even questioning his sanity, on its

The DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/96 is currently undergoing break-in, though with 200 hours already on them when they arrived and now another 200 hours added to that, the threshold for “review-level” evaluation is almost at hand.

AKRM

Claude Monet - Red Water Lilies, 1914-19

Tamara de Lempicka - Femme a la robe jaune

Welcome to AudioKeyREVIEWS Magazine’s Recommended Components, which will become part and parcel of each of our various issues. The purpose of this section is to acquaint the reader with products—speakers, DACs, amplifiers, preamplifiers, turntables, headphones, IEMs, streamers, portable audio, etc.—that we feel are quite exceptional and rise above their like brethren. There will be three categories —Budget, Mid-Tier, and Top-Of-The-Line. In our Budget Recommendations there will be products that compete far above their respective price point and are, generally, also built to reflect this.Our Mid-Tier Recommendations will encompass those products within arms reach, in terms of relative affordability, that present value and a challenge to the vanguard of their respective product niches. Finally, our TOTL Recommendations will be composed of those products that are at the cutting edge of technological advancement now happening across the world. The three categories of recommendations will rotate across the various issues of our magazine and there will also be a fluidity to the products within the various lists. Things change and especially now given our current technological epoch. The various lists, however, will be fixed on the AudioKeyReviews.com website.

Paul Klee - Southern Tunisian Gardens

COMPONENTS RECOMMENDED

AURORASOUND HEADA

$2999: If you’re looking for an endgame headphone amplifier and even if your headphone amplifier is more expensive, try this one, you may be quite surprised. That said, the Aurorasound HEADA headphone amplifier is a top echelon component and an easy DIAMOND AWARD winner.

SILENT ANGEL RHEIN Z1

$2299: The Rhein Z1 and Forester F2 combo played far above the league that their combined price would indicate. For many, this $3,900 combo may well represent an endgame streamer/ power supply capable of exceptional fidelity with DACs from entry level to those on the cutting edge.

ABYSS AB1266 PHI TC $5999: I think that I’ve said it all. The Abyss AB1266 Phi TC is a phenomenal headphone. It brings an undying passion for musicality and a ferocity for transparency and clarity and detail retrieval, formerly the domain of the best electrostatic headphones. But this planar headphone speaks that language—electrostatic—fluently and well.

COMPONENTS RECOMMENDED

TORUS RM20 $3999: Can you say pristine, natural, open, and unhindered frequency response? Wide dynamic range? And there were oceans of detail, air, microdynamics, and ambience rendered by the Torus RM 20. It was not subtle. On the contrary, it was stunning.

RSX POWER8 $399: The RSX Power8 clearly holds to the dictum, “Do no Harm,” to the system in which it is being utilized. What it, in fact, offers is pure, clean power, a testament to the meticulous parts selection, research, and conscious minimalism all employed in its design. suffice to say, that it has no competitors at 3 to 4 times is cost.

GESHELLI LABS ERISH2 [E2] $219.99, JNOG2 [J2]

$249.99: Disinterested in ostentation, Geshelli Labs believes in real world pricing with high fidelity performance. Their JNOG2 plus ERISH2 are a petite and potent bargain. With just enough character to put flesh on bone, the classy little twosome sets your music free without excessive color or dispensable features.

MAGICAL SYNERGIES

MID TO HIGH-END

The interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.2

For us a Magical Synergy represents two components or more, that together make music far above what either make separately. Generally, we’ve discovered Magical Synergies via reviews, where we mix and match a good number of components to determine how one of the components—the component under review— sounds.

And while there may be strengths and weaknesses between the various combinations, the Magical Synergy represents that combination which has very few if any weaknesses and a wealth of combined strengths.

In this respect, we’ve done the homework for the reader by evaluating numerous combinations to uncover the Magical Synergy, as many of you may not have the time, options, or financial wherewithal to make these determinations. And Magical Synergies are not always uncovered in our reviews and or our research, as they tend to be, well, rare.

A note on the various Magical Synergies that we uncover. We are music lovers first and foremost and not professionals who produce music or movies for a living and require different synergies, nor do measurements come into determination for us of what is a good Magical Synergy and what is not. No,

for this we determine by ear, heart, and soul, that which moves us, provides for that “vibrational” comfort food, and a rich and engaging musical experience. The experience should, of course, come with sufficient detail and resolution and fidelity to recreate venue and/or the experience of listening to live music, when appropriate. After a long and trying day in this topsy-turvy world, wouldn’t it be wonderful if some small measure of nirvana could be achieved through one’s music and the components that play it back?

In other words, our Magical Synergies do not render music that is dry, unengaging, subtractively neutral (see dry, boring, etc.), flat, or lacking in dynamics, when called for.

Please find for your review a number of Magical Synergies below.

1, 2 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

MAGICAL SYNERGIES UNDER $9k

ABYSS AB1266 PHI TC/AURORASOUND HEADA

What happens when transparency is, seemingly, exceeded? Realism? Or, perhaps, seeming realism? This is the conundrum raised by the Abyss AB1266 Phi TC and its easy ability to make the best of the best headphones sound dull and uneventful, while it waxes on clear as a wellmade bell … Yikes! The Abyss AB1266 Phi TC is a phenomenal headphone. It brings an undying passion for musicality and a ferocity for transparency and clarity and detail retrieval, formerly the domain of the best electrostatic headphones. The Aurorasound HEADA headphone amplifier is musical from ‘Square One’, ‘Jump Street’, ‘Scratch’, or, practically, as soon as you turn it on, though it gets worlds better thereafter. It is a beautifully, carefully designed endgame component to pass down. If you’re looking for an endgame headphone amplifier and even if your headphone amplifier is more expensive, try this one, you may be quite surprised. That said, the Aurorasound HEADA headphone amplifier is a top echelon component and an easy DIAMOND AWARD winner.

MAGICAL SYNERGIES UNDER $30k

LYRIC AUDIO TI 100 MKII & VIVID AUDIO KAYA 45

There was immediate magic from the Ti 100 MkII, though this was purely from a musical perspective, which was immersive in the extreme. However, after about 100 hours the magic suffused to all aspects of the Lyric Ti 100 MkII’s performance. Tis was easily witnessed, as it followed an exceptional pair of 200 watt/channel, solid state monoblock amplifiers with dedicated preamplifier with relatively minor lessening in overall performance. Remarkable! Te Lyric Audio Ti 100 MkII is, of course, not one of those products as it has easily met our criteria for the DIAMOND AWARD, our highest award, which reflects on its excellence.

Te Vivid Audio Kaya 45s came in, with little expectation from me.

Tey sat patiently while the other inhouse speakers were put through their paces And when its turn came, well, it astonished and continues to astonish. Additionally, the Kaya raised the bar of performance and award citation for not only speakers but all other equipment aw well. No small task. And this speaks to the profound abilities of the Vivid Audio Kaya 45.

Te Kaya 45s will beautifully play all genres of music and have you neglecting none, as was the case with this reviewer. Te high-fidelity touchstones are always scrupulously met and with a refinement, naturalness, ease, and musicality, most will simply never expect. I certainly did not. Tat said, the Vivid Audio Kaya 45s win our highest award, the DIAMOND AWARD, while making it look easy and yet a good deal more difficult for other speakers and components alike.

MAGICAL SYNERGIES UNDER $8k

DAN CLARK STEALTH & HEADAMP GS-X MK II

The Dan Clark STEALTH planardynamic headphone is a revelation. It exceeds its prescribed edict—to excel in planar magnetic duties—and goes on to become exceedingly familiar with, if not master of the edicts of the other headphone worlds and technologies. Again, there are very few headphones capable of doing this and fewer still with such compelling musicality. You and your music, regardless of genre, will be well served…Please note that to date, I have listened to a great many headphones, and these days it takes a great deal to move me.

Te HeadAmp GS-X MkII is an exceptional headphone amplifier that not only outperforms its GS-X Mini sibling, but a goodly number of headphone amplifiers that have come my way for review these past years, some being a good deal more expensive. Its attributes are many, starting with its exceptional transparency and resolution, which ferret out both detail and insight in a manner that compels one’s attention. And one mustn’t forget the lickety-split transient responses or the dynamic contrast or the air and ambiance set free. When I wrote of the Mini that, “You can’t possibly be making all of this incredible music”, the same thought, though of a higher order, can now be said of the HeadAmp GS-X

André Derain - Cagnes

NOVEMBER 1, 2024

1. DEVORE FIDELITY ORANGUTAN O/96

2. HIFIMAN SUSVARA UNVEILED HEADPHONES

3. TRANSFORMATIC RHAPSODY INTEGRATED

4. ACCUPHASE E-700 INTEGRATED

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