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THERE ARE AS MANY OPINIONS AS THERE ARE EXPERTS

AS WE SEE IT

BY JIM AUSTIN THIS ISSUE :

There are winners and losers in audio, as in most other things, but winning has little to do with what it takes to assemble a good audio system.

Current events

y first exposure to current-mode phono preamplification was maybe a dozen years ago, when such products were new. The one I received, though nicely packaged, was not ready for prime time. I never smelled smoke, but I never heard sound, either: If it wasn’t DOA, it was at a minimum DSAA—Dead Soon After Arrival. If you’ve followed our coverage, you know that prime time has arrived for current-mode phono preamps. Over the last year, Stereophile has reviewed, in columns or regular reviews, The Loco ($8200) and Little Loco ($3400), both from Sutherland Engineering; the Lino C 2.0 from Channel D ($2400); and the pithily named Haniwa HEQ-A03-CI ($12,000). Michael Fremer reviewed van den Hul’s The Grail ($9350) in August 2018, and the same issue contained his Follow-Up on his reference, the CH Precision P1 ($31,000, plus another $17,000 for its optional X1 power supply), which has both current- and voltage-mode amplifiers. If you’ve followed our coverage, you also know that current-mode preamplifiers have a low tolerance for moving-magnet phono cartridges, preferring low-output/low-internal– impedance moving coils. They must be connected to a balanced circuit—no ground connection on either of the signal leads. Since most tonearms have RCA cables and most current-mode preamps have XLR connectors, you may need to replace your phono cable with a balanced one or buy a set of RCA-to-XLR adapters—which may need modification. All of those preamps were favorably reviewed, but one got special a special commendation: The Sutherland Little Loco was named our Analog Source of the Year, and Brian Damkroger made it his Editor’s Choice. Writing in our Products of the Year issue (Vol.42 No.12), Brian suggested that, while the Little Loco might not have been the first current-mode phono preamp, it was “the first one that mattered.” Which brings me to my point. Stereophile gives reviewers wide latitude in expressing opinions about audio equipment, especially in contexts that allow only a few words. And when I asked Brian about his comment later, he stuck to his guns—while reiterating that his was just one man’s opinion. To sort this out, I decided to do some listening. On short notice, I was able to secure two current-mode phono preamplifiers: the Sutherland Engineering Loco—the Little Loco’s big brother—and the Channel D Lino stereophile.com

February 2020

C 2.0. This was not the kind of close examination readers should expect from a Stereophile review. In a review, the reviewer lives with a component for weeks or months and comes to know its every nuance, or at a minimum, most of its sonic nuances. This, in contrast, was just a couple of hours of focused listening one Saturday afternoon. I auditioned the two phono preamps in a system consisting of the Ortofon MC Windfeld Titanium phono cartridge mounted on an SME V-12 tonearm, which in turn adorned an SME 30/12 turntable. The cartridge was connected to the Lino C 2.0 via a pair of Neutrik RCA-to-XLR adapters with pin 1 removed with pliers. On the Loco I have here, RCA connectors have been custom-installed. The rest of the system was the Audio Research Reference 6 line preampliﬁer, the Audio Research Reference 160 S stereo ampliﬁer, which I review elsewhere in this issue, and Revel Salon2 loudspeakers, all connected with Clarus Crimson interconnects and Auditorium23 speaker cables. Both the Loco and the Lino were extremely quiet—indeed, they’re the two quietest MC phono stages I’ve heard in my system: With proper grounding, there is literally no audible hum. Both were detailed and threedimensional on recordings containing such information, producing rock-solid images in a broad, deep soundstage. They differed in tonal character, the Loco being slightly darker-hued and

perhaps a little more forceful; I loved the way it reproduced string bass and bass drum. The Lino seemed subjectively brighter—but not bright—which led to more sparkle on high piano notes. Neither was the Lino a slouch on bass and percussion—far from it. The more expensive Loco is built to a somewhat higher standard, and I preferred it overall, ﬁnding the images it created a little more corporeal and the sounds it produced, in my system, slightly more natural. But it costs more than three times what the Lino costs. Brian was making a broader point— about sound quality, sure, but also about value, market timing, and overall appeal. But I don’t think you should worry about which component won what award. Read our reviews. Shop around. Listen to as many as you can, in your own system if possible. Choose the one you like best. Which one you buy—the Lino, Loco, Haniwa, Little Loco, van den Hul, CH Precision, or something else—should depend on your budget and taste and on matching the tonal character of the preamp with the rest of your system. The two current-mode phono preamps I listened to in my system both sound amazing, and nothing I’ve written here should make Brian’s Editor’s Choice, the Sutherland Little Loco, seem any less appealing. But the world is rich and full of possibilities. As much as Brian loved the Little Loco, you may ﬁnd you prefer something else. There’s a larger point here about awards and commendations. There are many outstanding products, but there’s only one winner. In every category, there’s at least one writer who argues passionately on behalf of a different product. Add to this the fact that none of us gets to properly audition every candidate—we often base our votes on brief exposure at shows and in other reviewers’ listening rooms—and the only conclusion is that such awards, from Stereophile and other publications, should be kept in perspective. Our reviews deserve far more serious consideration than awards do. Q 3

FEBRUARY

2020

Vol.43 No.2

p.91

FEATURES 46

Records to Die For This month as in every February issue, Stereophile’s editors and writers add to the list of records they consider timeless, indispensable, and worthy of saving from ﬁre or ﬂood.

p.79

Hi-Fi in Pictures Jim Austin reviews a coffee-table book for high-end audio enthusiasts.

EQUIPMENT REPORTS 68

Magico M2 loudspeaker by John Atkinson

Audio Research Reference 160 S ampliﬁer by Jim Austin

Pass Laboratories INT-25 integrated ampliﬁer by Herb Reichert

111

SEE OUR EXCLUSIVE EQUIPMENT REPORT ARCHIVE AT WWW.STEREOPHILE.COM

Vivid Kaya 45 loudspeaker by Kal Rubinson

101

p.68

Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD preampliﬁer by Jason Victor Serinus

123 Schiit Ragnarok 2 integrated ampliﬁer

Stereophile (USPS #734-970 ISSN: 0585-2544) Vol.43 No.2, February 2020, Issue Number 481. Copyright © 2020 by AVTech Media Americas Inc. All rights reserved. Published monthly by AVTech Media Americas Inc., 260 Madison Avenue, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10016. Periodicals Postage paid at New York, NY and additional mailing ofﬁces. Subscription rates for one year (12 issues) U.S., APO, FPO, and U.S. Possessions $19.94, Canada $31.94, Foreign orders add $24 (including surface mail postage). Payment in advance, U.S. funds only. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS. (See DMM 707.4.12.5); NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY Facilities: send address corrections to Stereophile, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Mailing Lists: From time to time we make our subscriber list available to companies that sell goods and services by mail that we believe would be of interest to our readers. If you would rather not receive such mailings, please send your current mailing label, or an exact copy, to: Stereophile, Mail Preference Service, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235. Subscription Service: Should you wish to change your address, or order new subscriptions, you can do so by writing to the same address. Printed in the USA.

by Ken Micallef stereophile.com

February 2020

The All-New QuadraMag™ Midrange

The sound of unamplified, live music has always driven the development of Wilson’s drivers. Just as Wilson’s current midrange driver finds its origins in the g reat concer t halls of the wor ld (c hief among them the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria), the QuadraMag’s development was fueled by a passion for the authentic reproduction and emotional impact of live music. Wilson’s ne w est midrange driver be gan with a question: Could a driver combine all the vir tues of Alnico magnets in a design that also offered the extreme resolution and dynamic expression of Wilson’s benc hmark midrange driver? The original prototype mid using Alnico magnets was co-developed by Dave Wilson (his last design project) and Vern Credille. From there, Dar yl and Vern continued experiments and researc h. The ne w QuadraMag midrange combines Alnico magnets in an entirely re-imagined “quadrature” geometr y. It brings together unparalleled natural beauty, harmonic inte g rity, musicality, low distor tion, and ultra-high resolution in a single design—a distinctive admixture of musical and tec hnical vir tue unique to the QuadraMag. It makes its debut in Wilson’s ne w flagship, the Chronosonic XVX.

www.wilsonaudio.com

FEBRUARY

2020

Vol.43 No.2

p.31

As We See It

Jim Austin listens to some contemporary phono preamps— and considers the limitations of allowing awards to determine buying decisions.

Letters

Readers praise our writers, express regret for the end of Kal’s column, seek answers from Herb, and explain the real meaning of OCD.

G YOUR SET ON OA VISIT THPBOX! E STEREOP HILE.CO FORUMS M

Industry Update

Streaming service Qobuz drops MP3 (along with their subscription prices), the legendary Cafe Bohemia returns, Danish electronics ﬁrm Vitus solidiﬁes its US presence, and Kal explores a New York performance space with an innovative sound system—plus our usual calendar of audiophile events, some of which include lunch.

STAY INFORMED: GO TO STEREOPHILE.COM FOR UP-TO-THE-MINUTE INFO.

23 Analog Corner Mikey auditions the new Premium version of the TechDAS Air Force One with the Graham Phantom Elite tonearm.

Listening

Art Dudley listens to the latest iteration of the Shindo Cortese single-ended ampliﬁer, with its NOS Telefunken ECL 82 tubes.

Gramophone Dreams

In which Herb learns he’s an audiophile, discourses on Van Gogh and Charles Burchﬁeld, and describes his strategy for assembling a proper suite of wire for his audio system.

133

Revinylization

In which Art Dudley rounds up the most interesting recent vinyl reissues, including records from Frog Pad, the Electric Recording Company, Blue Note, and Speakers Corner.

135

p.101

Record Reviews

February’s Recording of the Month—our ﬁrst with a bearded woman on the cover, insofar as anyone here remembers—is Cecilia Bartoli’s Farinelli. We also offer reviews of new rock/pop from Leonard Cohen, the Beatles, Beck, and Brooklyn Funk Essentials; new classical music from Igor Levit and Kaija Saariaho; and jazz from Maciej Obara, Bill Frisell, and Nat King Cole.

143 Manufacturers’ Comments Feedback from PS Audio, Graham Engineering, TechDAS, and Schiit.

146 My Back Pages Robert Schryer reﬂects on the joys of musical camaraderie.

INFORMATION 142

142 140 145

Manufacturers’ Showcase Dealers’ Showcase Audio Mart Advertiser Index p.135

Follow Stereophile on Facebook: www.facebook.com/stereophile.

p.23

stereophile.com

February 2020

Powering the Future of Audio™ FEBRUARY 2020 EDITOR JIM AUSTIN DEPUTY EDITOR ART DUDLEY TECHNICAL EDITOR JOHN ATKINSON SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MICHAEL FREMER, HERB REICHERT, KALMAN RUBINSON WEB PRODUCER JON IVERSON COPY EDITOR LINDA FELACO

AVTECH MEDIA AMERICAS INC EDITORIAL DIRECTOR PAUL MILLER FINANCE DIRECTOR OWEN DAVIES GENERAL MANAGER KEITH PRAY

FOUNDER J. GORDON HOLT COVER PHOTO ERIC SWANSON ART DIRECTOR JEREMY MOYLER

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS (AUDIO)

BRIAN DAMKROGER, ROBERT DEUTSCH, LARRY GREENHILL, JON IVERSON, DAVID LANDER, ERICK LICHTE, SASHA MATSON, PAUL MESSENGER, KEN MICALLEF, THOMAS J. NORTON, JASON VICTOR SERINUS

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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS (MUSIC) DAVID ADLER, LARRY BIRNBAUM, THOMAS CONRAD, FRED KAPLAN, RICHARD LEHNERT, ROBERT LEVINE, SASHA MATSON, FRED MILLS, JASON VICTOR SERINUS, JOHN SWENSON

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IMPORTANT STEREOPHILE CONTACT INFORMATION SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES

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Any submissions or contributions from readers shall be subject to and governed by AVTech Media’s User Content Submission Terms and Conditions, which are posted at www.stereophile.com/images/terms.html BACK ISSUES

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LETTERS

FEEDBACK TO THE EDITOR

Where do I want my music to take me? Editor: Mr. Austin, you are so correct in your editorial “Spirited away by music” (AWSI, Vol.42 No.10). I often think of my record collection (be it vinyl or digital) as a library of souls captured in a speciﬁc time and place. When I sit down to listen I’ll ask myself, “Where do I want to go?” or “How do I feel now, and who else in my library feels that exact same way right now?” From that beginning, I’ll let those souls take me along a path that can lead me to happiness, or sadness, to full-on party mode or to intellectual insights I never had before. Many times, I’ll jump around from artist to artist as they lead me down a path that I (most often) wasn’t expecting. Other times, there can be just one particular singer, musician, or composer who wants to keep me company all by themselves. Sometimes I can listen for hours; sometimes I’m spent after just a few very intense minutes. As Sasha Matson writes in My Back Pages, “Emotions and memories can be brought back to life by the listener who, in his or her determined pursuit of music, invests in it a certain passion.” That passion is surely a two-way street, reviving the passion inside the artist and in us, the listener. —Jay Jackson Orlando, FL

Well-rounded Editor: I’m a septuagenarian, published author, pseudo-audiophile, and decades-long subscriber, so perhaps the sharp points of my youth have been rounded by age and experience. Rather than critique every review in your exceptional publication, Stereophile, seeking to ﬁnd fault, I read every word trying to learn more and be more cogent in the appreciation of my beloved hobby. Your As We See It article (Vol.42 No.10) was ﬁlled with philosophical Truth rather than word-count babble like so many articles available today in lesser publications. Further, reading articles by Art, Ken, Kalman, Herb, etc., is like receiving authoritative missives from friendly family members. Thank you for not only helping readers decide the quality of available audio hardware and software, but for feeding our minds with 10

TAKE HEED! All letters to the magazine and its writers are assumed to be for possible publication. Please include your name and physical address. We reserve the right to edit for length and content.

Reading articles by Art, Ken, Kalman, Herb, etc., is like receiving authoritative missives from friendly family members. quality writings of merit. —Tony Sanchez Pineville, LA

Collin Walcott was a Yank Editor: I really enjoyed Fred Kaplan’s article about ECM Records and Manfred Eicher (Vol.42 No.12). In my role as a live-sound mixer, I have had the privilege of working with many of the ECM artists in concert, including the Codona Trio—which is the one error I must note in Mr. Kaplan’s piece: Percussionist and sitar (and clarinet and guitar) player Collin Walcott was not British but was born in New York City and spent most of his life living there and in upstate New York. He was also my friend. He is much missed. —Lee E. Brenkman Oakland, CA

Kal’s Kolumn Editor: I was saddened to hear that Kal Rubinson’s one-hundredth Music in the Round column (Vol.42 No.11) would also be his last. Kal’s subject was unique in Stereophile, and, certainly since Harry’s death, it was unique in high-end audio. As you know, Gordon Holt and Harry Pearson were both advocates of multichannel sound. They took the subject out of the gimmick category and put it squarely in the subject area of extending high ﬁdelity to another level. I don’t like the idea that multichannel sound is “becoming mainstream” because, obviously, it hasn’t or Kal would have competition among critics writing in the ﬁeld—which he doesn’t! I’m old enough LETTERS TO THE EDITOR should be

sent as e-mails only. Email: stletters@ stereophile.com. Please note: We are unable to answer requests for information about speciﬁc products or systems. If you have problems with your subscription, call (800) 666-3746, or email stereophile@emailcustomerservice.com, or write to Stereophile, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0235.

to remember the “quad chaos” of the 1970s, when a good idea was sabotaged by immature technology. But today’s multichannel media (SACDs and Blu-ray in particular) are fully mature technologies that need a persistent and professional champion such as Kal to keep them visible until they ﬁnally catch on. (It reminds me of an earlier time when color television took more than 12 years to become popular because people complained that it “wasn’t perfected yet” when it was!) I hope that Kal and Stereophile can create a forum of some sort for people who are interested in multichannel hardware and recordings until multichannel can get back on its feet again and show how multichannel can enhance the audio experience. —Ron Levine Philadelphia, PA Editor: Thanks for publishing Stereophile! I look forward to spending an evening every month listening to music and reading the latest issue, and I’ve gotten back my subscription costs thousands of times over when I purchased a very good but reasonably priced system of recommended components. However, the end of Kal Rubinson’s column (Vol.42 No.11) is a bit sad. I’m sure Mr. Rubinson will be happy to no longer have deadlines looming, but the lack of surround sound in your magazine, and indeed, among the high-end manufacturers in general, is depressing. I’ve been listening in surround for about 20 years now. I have maybe 600 SACDs/Blu-ray audio/DVD audio discs and about 100 surround FLAC downloads in my collection. Listening to this music is thrilling, and I have yet to draw a blank when perusing my library. Even the kitschy stuff from the seventies is fun to hear when it’s all around you! And, as a musician and producer, everything I mix is in surround. When I hear someone dismiss the idea of surround sound, I think of the old mono/stereo arguments. But I’d like to February 2020

stereophile.com

take that a step further. Imagine if, right now, music manufacturers announced that from here on in, all their releases would be in mono only. I ask your readers to seriously consider how they would feel about that. How much new music would they be buying, and what would they be thinking about the whole time they were listening in mono? Well, that’s what it feels like out here on this lonely 360° desert isle. Every time I see the rear panel photo of a piece of equipment in one of your reviews, I see that it only has two outputs. To me, that’s useless. It’s still nice to read about, and I think about all the beloved stereo recordings I still listen to and enjoy, but it just seems so yesterday to me. It makes it hard to even think about upgrading my system, which is based around an Oppo 105D player. Thank you for keeping Mr. Rubinson in the magazine’s loop, and I look forward to reading more from him. And, readers, give surround sound a thought. It’s like the difference between mono and stereo, squared. —Tim Casey Boston, MA It’s an odd time to be ending a column on surround sound. For the last several years, “immersive audio” has been the highlight of the New York meeting of the Audio Engineering Society. Dolby Atmos appears to have a foothold now, and some new “immersive” technologies are emerging. Of especial interest are platform-agnostic technologies that link up to system software or ﬁrmware—like device drivers on computers—to determine how the audio should be distributed. High-end performance venues are installing innovative multichannel audio systems that turn the space into a new means of musical expression: See Kal’s report on Brooklyn, New York, club National Sawdust in this month’s Industry Update. With all this going on, there’s reason to think multichannel audio for music might just be catching on, ﬁnally, at least in a small way, just as Kal’s column comes to an end. But rest assured, we’ll keep an eye on things and make sure Stereophile readers are apprised of new developments.—Editor

Sidebars and subwoofers Editor: I was excited to read about the Magnepan LRS speakers, which seem to offer signiﬁcant quality for the money (Vol.42 No.8). As the article notes, the system is greatly enhanced with the addition of a subwoofer. In articles like these (and selﬁshly, this one in particular), I wonder if you might not add a sidebar to the main story on stereophile.com

February 2020

likewise inexpensive but well-matched subwoofers to pair with these speakers. I deﬁnitely want to audition the new ’pans, but if I like what I hear I have little idea of what’s available in the way of wellmatched and equally affordable subwoofers. First time I’ve written to an audio magazine after more than 40 years of reading. Always ﬁnd it interesting, even if health woes have prohibited me from pursuing my passion in recent years. —Bob Russ Canton, OH Over the last year or so, we’ve auditioned two excellent, affordable subwoofers that should match up well with the LRS, depending on the size of your room—the SVS SB-3000 (Vol.42 No.9) and the Martin-Logan Dynamo 800X (Vol.42 No.2)—and if your room is especially large or especially small, other, similar models are available from the same companies. If you do try one, please write in and let me know how it works out. —Editor

Herb, that’s some good Schiit Editor: Your recent review of the Schiit Aegir amplifier (Vol.42 No.10) inspired me to commend you not only for reviewing this modestly priced piece of gear but for having the courage to rate it Class A in your Recommended Components section. There it sits with its $799 price tag among five- and six-figure behemoths. I have two Aegirs driving KEF LS50s that I bought partly on his recommendation a couple of years ago. Sadly, it is often impossible to audition audiophile gear, so reviews from people like Herb and others in Stereophile are very important. Retirement forced me to downsize from a “Big” system to something more modest, with an integrated rather than separates. Herb’s assessment of the LS50s with the Schiit Ragnarok convinced me to try the Rag, which performed exactly as he said it would. I also want to thank Art Dudley for reminding us that hi-fi is a hobby with its roots in do-it-yourself craftsmanship. I got my start with my father’s hi-fi rig in the 1950s: Bell amp with selectable phono curves, Garrard turntable with GE cartridge, and a kit-built corner speaker. He added an AM/FM tuner he salvaged from a console radio. And he built a very serviceable rack for it all. He did not anticipate that I would be listening to Bob Dylan through his beloved system. Kids today! I’ve built a couple of racks out of oak, particle board, audio points, plenty of bracing, and other custom touches that

I thought of all by myself. Yes, I can hear readers ask, but how did they sound. DUDE! THEY SOUND AWESOME!! BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU CAN BUY. BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU EVER HEARD!! And if you don’t believe me, bring your rack over to my house and we’ll have a double-blind shootout. I await the arrival of your U-Haul. —Al Hurtado Roseville, CA Thank you, Mr. Hurtado. I am not only grateful you read my articles, but I am honored that you actually trusted my words enough to try combinations I suggested. Most of all, I am grateful my suggestions lived up to your expectations. The part that makes me the happiest, though, is that you and your father are exactly the “thinker-and-builder” persons I imagine I am writing for. I come out of DIY and will someday surely return to DIY. In general, I like people who make things. (I imagine Mike and Jason at Schiit are down-to-earth thinker-andbuilder types also.) Thank you for taking the time to write. Peace and cheers. —Herb Reichert Editor: I read with interest Herb Reichert’s recent review of the Aegir, and your comparisons with other amps. I was intrigued, however, with how you compared them with the Rogue Sphinx, since there is no way to bypass the preamp side of that integrated. Could the differences you hear not be the result of the superior preamps you were using to drive it? —Brad Bortner Somerville, MA Thank you for reading my Aegir review, Mr. Bortner. What you say is true. There is no way I could isolate the Rogue Sphinx power amp section. But I really thought readers would like some comparison between the Aegir and the Rogue because an Aegir with a Schiit preamp like the Saga would cost about the same as the Sphinx. What I did was connect the Schiit Aegir to the Sphinx’s line-level “variable output” so it was driven by the Sphinx preamp. Not a perfect plan, but it was the best I could do to compare class-A to class-D at that price point. Stay tuned—you will be hearing a lot more about the Aegir in next few issues. Peace and full moons. —Herb

More for Herb Editor: While in the Navy, I did a NATO op in Scotland on the HMS Vanguard for a brief period. Taking in Glasgow, I found myself at Alan James Hi-Fi, where I fell 11

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“ Its performance is so complete and beautifully balanced; it has a way of projecting the music through its wide soundstage with a stunning sense of musical separation and then aiming lead vocals or instruments straight across the room at you.” Chris Thomas, HiFi+ Magazine

“ ..it’s easy to see how this DAC can be the end of your digital journey.”

“This is the highest praise. Consistent with my expectations, there was no discernible ‘digital’ sound.”

“ It had that elusive ability to pull you in and connect to the music in a deeply emotional way.”

“ It produces the body of a performance on more levels and to a degree that I’ve not experienced.”

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Jim Austin, Stereophile Magazine

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Neil Gader, The Absolute Sound

“ Fully transparent sound across the board. Music as clear as I have heard. Everything I threw it as a source of ones and zeros was handled with aplomb.” Lee Scoggins, Part-Time Audiophile

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LETTERS

in love with the Wharfedale Pacific—the ones with the tweeter separated on top—so much so that I bought a pair and brought them back to the States with me. At home, they sounded nothing like they did in the store—just okay. One day, the neighbor across the street had his car stereo up loud, so as a joke, I put the speakers out on my deck and cranked them up loud. When I brought them back inside, they sounded fantastic: Just like in the store. When the Opus line came out, in the piano gloss, I had to upgrade. When they arrived and I hooked them up, I was horrified. They sounded like boxed ass. I had sold the Pacifics, so I thought, “Great, I am stuck with them.” Then, while I was on a business trip, my teenage son had a bunch of his friends over, and they apparently had the music up to 11. After I returned home, when I sat down to listen, it was like different speakers. I was wondering if the Lintons needed a long break-in. Did you experience the same thing? —Eric Lang Chesapeake, VA Eric, I am gonna steal that line: “they sounded like boxed ass.” Your story reminds me of an urban legend about a reviewer asking Joe Grado how long he should break in the Grado cartridge he was reviewing. Annoyed, Grado grabbed the cartridge out of his hand, pulled off the stylus guard, and rotated the stylus a few turns with his thumb. “There!” He said, “It’s broke in!” To answer your question: All mechanical transducers seem to require some loosening up when new and after periods of unuse. Also, with the Lintons, I would advise choosing a lively, dynamic amp with at least 60W. Peace and safe holidays. —Herb

The only Clash article that matters Editor: After driving home the other evening listening to London Calling on the car stereo, imagine my surprise as I found your latest issue in my mailbox with Phil Brett’s wonderful article on the music I’d just played! Such a thorough and insightful article with lots of background info new to me. Thanks so much for this addition to your magazine. While London Calling may not be an “audiophile quality” recording, the Clash may still be the only band that matters. —Sherm Clow SLC, UT

OCD is not what we think it is Editor: I enjoyed Sasha Matson’s My Back Pages essay on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and its stereophile.com

February 2020

connection to the author’s fondness for precisely tweaking his stereo system and organizing his record and CD collection (Vol.42 No.10). Allow me, however, to comment on his speculation that this afﬁnity for precision and order suggests “a mild case of OCD—neurosis, even?” OCD is grounded in repetitive, anxiety-provoking, intrusive, irrational thoughts. In an attempt to neutralize the anxiety created by these thoughts, the sufferer will engage in mental or behavioral rituals that bring momentary anxiety relief. These rituals begin to interfere with the OCD sufferer’s functioning, dominating their time and draining their psychic energy. As the parent of a teen with OCD, I have witnessed the misery endured by the one in 40 Americans on the OC spectrum.

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There is no such thing as a mild case of OCD. People with untreated OCD are trapped in a vicious cycle of anxious thoughts and imprisoning rituals. There is no such thing as “a mild case of OCD.” It is a serious and tragically underdiagnosed mental health problem. Left untreated, it can lead to depression and even thoughts of suicide. The fact that Mr. Matson likes to keep his record collection arranged in alphabetical order does not mean he suffers from OCD. But if, for example, the intrusive thought that he might have returned one of his LPs to the wrong record sleeve caused him such overpowering anxiety that he was unable to leave the house for work each day until he had spent several hours checking and rechecking every LP in his collection to make sure it was in the right sleeve, a mental health professional with the right training might diagnose that he was suffering from OCD. And then he could begin his recovery through proper treatment. Although there is no cure for obsessive-compulsive disorder, there is effective treatment through a combination of cognitive behavioral therapy and medication. That’s why it’s so important that OCD (and other mental health issues) be portrayed accurately in the various media, reducing stigma and helping sufferers and their loved ones to get the treatment that can give them back their lives. You can get lots more information on the website of the International OCD Foundation at iocdf.org. —Rabbi Steven Folberg Austin, TX

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INDUSTRY UPDATE

AUDIO NEWS & VIEWS

US: NEW YORK, NY Jason Victor Serinus

On November 8, at the very small New York Audio Show, Paris-based music streaming service Qobuz announced that it has streamlined its subscription plans, lowered prices—and eliminated MP3 ﬁles from its streaming catalog. At a press event, Dan Mackta, managing director of Qobuz USA, said that Qobuz now offers “Studio Premier” subscriptions for $14.99/month or $149.99 for a full year. Studio Premier grants subscribers unlimited access to Qobuz’s catalog of more than 50 million CD-quality tracks and also millions of hi-rez tracks up to a resolution of 24/192. Qobuz will continue to offer its “Sublime+” plan ($249.99/year), which includes streaming access plus a “substantial” discount for hi-rez download purchases from the Qobuz store. The service’s other plans have been eliminated—which means, importantly, that Qobuz no longer offers music in MP3 or other lossily compressed codecs. Some sort of move regarding price was anticipated since Amazon Music launched its Amazon Music HD service on September 17 with a gamechanging $14.99 subscription price

($12.99 for Amazon Prime members). Qobuz said its new rate would be available to the ﬁrst 100,000 new subscribers; current subscribers who switch to Studio Premier will not be included in the count. Four days later, on November 12, Germany-based classical-music streaming service Idagio, whose library contains more than 2 million tracks, also announced changes to its tiers and pricing. The new Idagio Free plan offers 192 kbps MP3 streaming with access to the whole Idagio catalog, streamed in Radio mode—ie, selected tracks are randomized and are not skippable. For ofﬂine listening and higher-quality audio, Idagio offers two plans: Premium at $9.99/month, for 320 kbps MP3, and Premium+, which

Those promoting audio-related seminars, shows, and meetings should email the when, where, and who to stletters@ stereophile.com at least eight weeks before the month of the event. The deadline for the April 2019 issue is January 20, 2019.

SUBMISSIONS:

streams CD-rez lossless FLAC ﬁles for $12.99/month. John Dalton, head of rival classical music streaming service Primephonic, which is based in Amsterdam and New York, responded to questions before Idagio’s free tier had been announced. Primephonic continues to offer their MP3 plan for $7.99-$9.99 and both CD-rez and hi-rez music for $14.99/month. Dalton said that an MP3 tier remains warranted because it is “typically adequate [for people] who mostly/only listen on mobile devices.” Tidal, which claims to offer 60 million tracks in CD-resolution plus an undisclosed number of MQA tracks for $19.99/month, didn’t respond to Stereophile’s queries.

US: NEW YORK, NY Jim Austin

The legendary Cafe Bohemia, which was open for only a few short years—yet hosted, during that time, many important jazz performers—has reopened in its original location in the basement at 15 Barrow Street, around the corner from the Record Runner in New York’s Greenwich Village. In the early 1950s, the Bohemia was just a bar—but Charlie Parker drank brandy Alexanders there, and

CALENDAR OF INDUSTRY EVENTS ATTENTION ALL AUDIO SOCIETIES:

We have a page on the Stereophile website devoted to you: stereophile. com/audiophile-societies. If you’d like to have your audio-society information posted on the site, email Chris Vogel at vgl@cﬂ.rr.com. (Note the new email address.) Please note that it is inappropriate for a retailer to promote a new product line in “Calendar” unless it is associated with a seminar or similar event.

arizona

] Wednesday, January 29, 2020, 7–9pm: Andrew Jones of Elac will be speaking to the Arizona Audio/Video Club on the art and science of speaker design. The event will be held in the recreation

stereophile.com

February 2020

room of Faith Lutheran Church at 801 E Camelback Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85014. This event is for members only. For more information on joining the Arizona Audio/Video Club and attending this event, please email prighello@hotmail. com or visitazavclub.com.

california

] Thursday, January 16, 6–9pm, San Diego, CA: Stereo Unlimited (3191 Sports Arena Blvd Suite C) is featuring the new KĒnto Carbon speaker with designer Richard Vandersteen and Global Sales Manager Brad O’Toole on hand to discuss the design and answer questions. A presentation will occur at 7pm in the big theater, with Q&A following. Music will be playing all night on a couple of

Vandersteen-based systems. ] Saturday, January 18, 1–4pm: The San Francisco Audiophile Society presents a “Tweaks” Event. Members are invited to bring their favorite tweak to share and let the attendees hear, or not hear, an improvement in sound quality. Snake oil or panacea? You’ll have to come hear for yourself and decide! Please contact the San Francisco Audiophile Society at query@sfaudiophilesociety. com, or consult our website at sanfranciscoaudiophilesociety.com for more information. ] Sunday, January 26, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at Audeze (3412 S Susan St., Santa Ana, CA 92704, audeze.com), known

INDUSTRY UPDATE

Richardson in Oscar Pettiford’s band— also at Cafe Bohemia.) The Bohemia, which ﬁrst opened in 1955 and closed in 1960, reopened in October. The proprietor is Mike Zieleniewski, who worked for a number of years as a bartender at the Barrow Street Ale House, just upstairs. In 2005, Zieleniewski bought the place with a partner, whose share he eventually purchased for himself.

US: LOS ANGELES, CA Jim Austin

Owners of audio electronics from Danish high-end audio company Vitus

Audio will no longer need to ship their products overseas when they need service. Importer/distributor High End by Oz has established a Vitus US service center on Santa Monica Boulevard in L.A. The facility will be operated by High End by Oz and its proprietor, Ozan Turan. The turnaround time on repairs depends on local parts availability, Turan told me, but as an example, a recent repair of a “very old” Vitus RI-100 integrated amplifier—which required parts shipped from Denmark—took 10 days. Vitus is also starting up a “certified” sales program that will include three tiers of used or not-quite-new products: dealer-certified, which have passed a dealer inspection; factorycertified, which have been upgraded or reconditioned (and checked out) at the factory; and certified dealer demos, which are just what they sound like.

US: NEW YORK, NY Kal Rubinson

In September, I made an afternoon visit to National Sawdust,1 a vibrant, innovative performance space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to attend a demonstration of the new Constellation

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he worked up a large enough tab that he agreed to perform there in order to pay off the debt. He died before playing there, but word had spread, and other jazz greats later did what Parker couldn’t. “Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, Philly Joe Jones, John Coltrane, and countless others graced the stage for the next 5 years,” I was told by Christine Santelli, the club’s managing partner and booking agent and a Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter (for co-writing “Step Away,” performed by Bettye LaVette). During its ﬁve-year run, Cafe Bohemia was the site of several important recordings, by artists including Charles Mingus, Kenny Dorham, and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. On May 17, 1958, a sextet led by Miles Davis and featuring John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones played a show there that was broadcast on the Mutual Radio Network. Philly Joe Jones left just after and was replaced in the quintet by Jimmy Cobb—the ﬁfth of six pieces that would record Kind of Blue less than a year later. (The sixth piece, Cannonball Adderly, became an overnight sensation three years earlier when he sat in for Jerome

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INDUSTRY UPDATE

and Spacemap systems installed there by Meyer Sound. According to Meyer Sound designer Steve Ellison, the two systems permit control of the space’s acoustics (Constellation) and empower performers and sound designers to construct a soundscape (Spacemap) in which voices, instruments, and other sounds can be located virtually anywhere within as well as beyond the confines of the performance space. Attendees were treated to a demonstration of how Ellison, by tapping on a tablet, could increase reverberation or dampen it, or recreate the acoustics of different spaces, from a small room to a small theater, arena, gymnasium, for their award-winning headphones. Audeze will be providing a factory tour! Dragoslav Colich (CTO) and Sankar Thiagasamudram (CEO) will take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of Audeze, demonstrating how Audeze products are designed and manufactured. Audeze will have a slew of new products that they plan to introduce at CES and NAMM. All the new products for 2020 will be available for demo. The presenters will follow up the tour with a Q&A. A raffle will include an LCD-24! You can look forward to an exceptional raffle and a life-altering lunch. Eastwind Import will be on hand to offer handselected vinyl and CDs for sale. Free parking is nearby. Guests, visitors, and new members are invited. For more information, visit laocas.com or call Bob Levi at (714) 281-5850. ] Saturday, February 8, 2020: Covina, CA, specialty audio retailer Sunny Components will host Vandersteen Audio. Sessions will start at 1pm and 3pm. Featured special guest Richard Vandersteen, Vandersteen’s founder and head engineer, and Global Sales Manager Brad O’Toole will demonstrate the new KĒnto Carbon loudspeakers with the Vandersteen M5-HPA high-pass amplifiers. Every model of Vandersteen speaker will be available for audition. ] Saturday, February 22, 1–4pm: The San Francisco Audiophile Society presents a Music Streaming event. Members are invited to hear David Snyder discuss everything you need to know on how to get started or refine your system’s ability to stream music. Snyder has worked in computer engineering for nearly 30 years and is passionate about applying his understanding of computer

stereophile.com

February 2020

or even an outside space. The changes were instantaneous, and even in the absence of visual cues were convincing to my ear and brain. Ellison then demonstrated how, usarchitecture and engineering to the art of digital audio playback. Come and listen to him share from his experiences as he describes how you can get the most out of streaming audio from a perspective that is well-grounded in the technological developments that got us from the dark ages of computer audio to where we are today. Please contact the San Francisco Audiophile Society at query@sfaudiophilesociety. com or consult our website at sanfranciscoaudiophilesociety.com for more information. ] Sunday, February 23, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at Scott Walker Audio (1215 N Tustin Ave, Anaheim). Representatives from Sonus Faber, McIntosh, Aurender, MSB, and Constellation will be on hand. Scott Walker and his team will have demonstration rooms showcasing the latest offerings from Magnepan (LRS), Magico (A3), Sonus Faber (Olympica Nova), and Rockport (Atria II and Avior II). Speakers from Rockport and turntables from VPI will be demonstrated with electronics from Constellation (Revelation series), Gryphon, McIntosh, VAC, and Soulution. Digital from Roon Labs and MQA will be showcased on gear from Berkeley Audio Design (Alpha Reference series 3), Aurender, MSB Technology, and Mytek. Turntables from Acoustic Signature (Invictus Jr.) and VPI (Avenger Reference and Prime Signature in rosewood) will be demoed using cartridges from Air Tight, SoundSmith, and Ortofon. Eastwind Import will offer personally selected vinyl and CDs. A rafﬂe is planned, and an intense lunch will be served. Parking is ample and

ing Spacemap, he could move sounds, live (via microphone) or recorded, to any place on any of the walls or ceiling and control the apparent distance of the sound. At ﬁrst this seemed rather a gimmick, but performances by trumpeter/experimental sound musician Eric Dahlman and multiinstrumentalist/composer/performer Bora Yoon dispelled such concerns. As the two played and sang, voices separated, moved, and coalesced, and the ambiance varied to frame the shifting moods. It was clear to all that the tools af1 See stereophile.com/content/national-sawdustartistic-incubator.

free. Guests, visitors, and members alike are invited. For more information, visit laocas.com or call LAOCAS President Bob Levi at (714) 281-5850. ] Saturday, March 21, 2–4pm: The San Francisco Audiophile Society presents a wine and music event. Clark Smith, creator and proprietor of WineSmith, returns to SFAS for another opportunity for members to enjoy his Wine and Music presentation. Clark has been working in the winemaking business since 1972. He has taught classes at UC Davis, consulted with wineries around the world, and blended his own wines. Join us and ﬁnd out how music affects the taste of wine. Sounds crazy? Maybe, but those who attended our last event were amazed at the results of this fun event and had a wonderful time. Please contact the San Francisco Audiophile Society at query@sfaudiophilesociety. com or consult our website, sanfranciscoaudiophilesociety.com, for more information. ] Sunday, March 22, 2–5pm: The Los Angeles & Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at ESS Laboratories (9855 Joe Vargas Way, South El Monte, CA, 91733; esslabsusa.com). Join in a factory tour at ESS Labs! ESS’s CEO, Rickey Caudillo, will take you on a behind-the-scenes tour of ESS Labs which will include how ESS products are designed and manufactured. ESS Labs has been an industry leader since the mid-1970s. The company has recently relocated its facilities in Southern California and is proud to announce the introduction of its enhanced ESS-Heil Air Motion Transformer. Eastwind Import will be on hand to offer carefully selected vinyl and CDs for sale. A majestic lunch will

VON SCHWEIKERT AUDIO

T HE S OU ND O F RE ALI T Y

INDUSTRY UPDATE

forded by Constellation and Spacemap could be used to expand musical expression. There was a lively discussion of how composers and performers could use these tools and how they are being implemented at other sites. When I saw Michael Jurewicz (Mytek Digital) at the 2019 meeting of the Audio Engineering Society in New York, I told him about my visit to National Sawdust and we decided to ask for a behind-the-scenes tech tour. Our host was Garth MacAleavey, National Sawdust’s technical director and chief audio engineer. Garth told us that the actual concrete block room walls are a couple of feet behind the black-andwhite surfaces we see. Those walls be served. A rafﬂe is planned. Parking is ample and free. Guests, visitors, and members alike are invited. For more information, call LAOCAS President Bob Levi at (714) 281-5850.

minnesota

] Tuesday, February 18, 7–9pm: The Audio Society of Minnesota will hold its monthly meeting at the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in St. Louis

presented a reﬂection problem that was only partly resolved with heavy acoustic draping. Now that space and the space above the apparent ceiling are occupied by 86 individually addressable, powered loudspeaker systems supported by a steel grid; the speakers radiate into the performance space through acoustically transparent white panels, plus 16 strategically arranged subwoofers. Constellation uses DSP to manage the speakers while monitoring the sound through an array of microphones. The system adds and subtracts energy to control reﬂections from all surfaces and create needed ambiance. The Spacemap system utilizes the same speakers and microphones, but to Park, Minnesota. Refreshments will be served. Guests, members, and new visitors are encouraged to attend. For the most current information regarding our meetings, please visit our website at sites.google.com/site/ audiosocietyofminnesota. ] Tuesday, March 17, 7–9pm: The Audio Society of Minnesota will hold its monthly meeting at the Pavek Museum of Broadcasting in St. Louis

a different purpose. Each microphone or instrument input can be controlled and mixed in the usual way but, in addition, its input can be output by any array of loudspeakers, so that the audience hears it as originating from a chosen point in space. Garth showed us a tablet application that displayed the position of a source in horizontal and vertical planes, with sliders that moved the source. The engineer in the control room can do it or can program the system in advance to make changes correlated with a performance. A performer can perform these manipulations, for one or more sources, in real time, as I had seen and heard on my previous visit. Q Park, Minnesota. The meeting will feature Atma-Sphere Music Systems. Ralph Karsten will be on hand to show the company’s award-winning vacuum tube ampliﬁers and preampliﬁers. Refreshments will be served. Guests, visitors, and new members are welcome to attend. For the most current information regarding our meetings, please visit our website at sites.google. com/site/audiosocietyofminnesota.

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INSIDER VIEWS ON EVERYTHING VINYL

THIS ISSUE : Mikey auditions the TechDas Air Force One Premium tunrtable with the Graham Phantom Elite arm and concludes—well, you’ll have to read the article to ﬁnd out.

The TechDAS Air Force One Premium turntable

n 2013, when I ﬁrst wrote about it,1 the TechDAS Air Force One ($105,000) was that company’s best and most expensive turntable; it joined the handful of products that have earned an A+ in our semiannual Recommended Components feature—a rating that remained in place for six years. But too much time has passed since the Air Force One was auditioned by a Stereophile writer, so it has now fallen from that list. The Air Force One is still available, but it’s now a special-order product that, according to distributor Graham Engineering, can take up to six months to deliver. So rather than revisit the One, I decided to check out the readily available Air Force One Premium— the upgraded and costlier version ($145,000). The TechDAS Air Force Two and Air Force III also now have Premium versions, but hey: one ’table at a time! Meanwhile, the $19,500 Air Force V, which I reviewed in the September 2019 issue,2 ended up in Class B (where I said it should go), just above a $1500 VPI! Oops. My thinking at vote time was: Had I put the Air Force V in Class A along with the far more costly TechDAS turntables, that would cheapen the Air Force One’s own Class A rating. In retrospect, I don’t think I’ve heard a ca-$1500 turntable that belongs in Class B. What distinguishes a $145,000 Air Force One Premium ($162,000 with Titanium upper platter, as supplied) from a “plain old” $105,000 Air Force One? The upgraded ’table’s chassis is identical to the original’s. The two biggest differences are a new and far more complex, more effective, and more convenient air delivery system that “ﬂoats” and thus isolates the chassis, and all-new motor-drive electronics. The Premium retains the original turntable’s air bladder–based suspension stereophile.com

February 2020

system, but it’s been improved with an automatic, continuous pressuremonitoring system. And in light of my experience with the original Air Force One, the new air delivery system isolates more effectively. In addition, bladder inflation no longer relies on a bicycle pump. Instead, the new system incorporates a motorized air pump: A coiled hose, connected via a pneumatic fitting, is used to inflate the bladders, then keeps them properly inflated as needed—which, during the months I had the Air Force One Premium, was never. The system was 100% stable and required no topping up. As on the original Air Force One, removing a small magnetic plate on the chassis front reveals three air plugs,

one for each bladder. On the front panel of the ’table’s new outboard Air Condenser/Air Charger unit is a diagram of the turntable chassis in which the position of each bladder contains a button switch and an LED indicator; the latter glows red when that bladder is underinflated and green when it is properly inflated, at which time the air pump automatically stops. The new unit also doubles the air capacity of the original’s, reportedly for smoother air flow and more dynamic sonic performance. Each of the three insulators also incorporates a rotary height adjustment mechanism that allows for precise chassis leveling once the bladders have been inflated. I’ll skip the rest of the inflation and suspension setup details, other than to say that when you pay $100,000 or 1 See my review in the April 2013 Stereophile, and my reassessment in the April 2016 issue. 2 See stereophile.com/content/techdas-air-force-vturntable.

ANALOG CORNER

more for a turntable that includes an inflatable air-suspension system, an elegant and effective automatic inflation system— not a bicycle pump— should be included. And now it is. This system takes the guesswork out of the inflation process. The newly refined isolation system proved This belt-tension setting produced more extremely effective. overall frequency variation but smoother low-pass–filtered results. I could bang on the platform the turntable sat on—a six-foot HRS base made for stylus onto a stationary record, after aplarge, heavy turntables—and I heard plying the vacuum hold-down, and tap nothing through the speakers, not even on the record directly adjacent to the the faintest tap. This is as effective a stylus—and again hear nothing through turntable isolation system as I’ve used. the speakers, even with the volume What’s more, I could tap the cranked up. turntable’s main chassis while a record In addition to the aforementioned played; nothing got transmitted Air Condenser/Air Charger unit, the through the system that way, either. Air Force One Premium comes with That’s obviously not due to the suspen- a second outboard unit—the two can be stacked—containing a pair of totally sion but rather to the combination of a silent air pumps. One floats the platter; high-mass, three-material sandwiched the other is for the platter’s vacuum chassis (only aluminum is specified, hold-down system. so I don’t know what the other two The compressed-air systems of the materials are) and the air-suspension two outboard chassis are connected to platter bearing. I could even put the

the ’table via a total of six hoses—one each for platter float and vacuum hold-down and four to deliver, stabilize, and monitor the suspension system and smooth the airflow that floats the platter. It is a complex, sophisticated system designed to ensure instant, secure platter levitation and vacuum holddown (as well as instant vacuum release), smooth, silent operation, and complete freedom from air “pulsing.” It’s a long way up to this system from the Eminent Technology 2 air bearing tonearm I once owned, which was pressurized by an aquarium pump whose pulsing was “smoothed” by a “floss”-filled 5-gallon plastic water bottle! A DC amplifier controls and monitors the rotational speed of the outboard AC motor, which is housed in a substantial outboard pod. The motor, topped with a crowned, machined– stainless-steel pulley, drives the platter via a flat, nonflexing, surface-polished

ANALOG CORNER

polyurethane-fiber belt. The main platter of nonmagnetic, forged stainless steel weighs approximately 42lb. You have an upper plate choice of aluminum (approximately 9lb) or pure titanium (13lb) for respective totals of 51 and 55lb. Based on the clearly audible differences between the two platters I auditioned for the original Air Force One review, I’d say that if you’re already planning to spend $145,000 on a turntable, why not go the $17,000 extra for the titanium upper platter? It’s well worth spending the additional money to get the extra levels of background quiet, dynamic punch, and bass solidity the titanium upper platter produces. The total weight of the main chassis, platter, and outboard motor is in excess of 160lb. The fit ‘n’ finish of the original Air Force One was what you’d demand and expect from such a costly product, and though I don’t have an original handy with which to compare the

tensioning first requires precise motor pod positioning using supplied spacers. Loosening fixing screws allows the motor to slide, within the pod, farther away from the platter as needed. A calibration mode then guides you to the proper tension, which is within a narrow range This belt-tension setting produced less of pulley-to-platter overall speed variation but less-smooth low-pass filtered results. distances that, using the Feickert Platterspeed app, I found produces results that are Premium, it appears that TechDAS has measurably and audibly different, the further upped the finish quality. latter subtly so. Due to the air bearing’s low friction Get your motor running and the belt’s nonelasticity, the motor’s TechDAS claims its unique, nonjob is to provide a small, encouraging stretch-fabric belt, used in conjunc“nudge” to the platter’s rotation while tion with the frictionless air bearing at the same time preventing a “runplatter, produces direct drive–like speed consistency. Achieving this result away” platter—certainly more so than requires careful setup that, considering it is to maintain a tight, controlling the ’table’s cost, will surely be done by grip. The new motor control system a well-trained dealer. monitors and adjusts as necessary the Because the belt offers no flex, the platter rotation speed to keep things motor pod must first be angled so the rolling smoothly. belt can fit over the pulley, at which I found that one end of the acpoint the fit will be loose. Critical belt ceptable belt tension range produced

Does your system need an MRII? (Music Reproduction Imaging Instrument)

“Alta Audio has indeed pulled a rabbit out of a hat with the Alec” —Karl Sigman, Audiophilia New from Alta Audio, the Alec proves that a compact footprint doesn’t necessarily equal limited performance. Featuring sonics that immerse the listener in a natural soundstage, the Alec is Alta Audio’s ultimate statement of how meticulous a ention to crossover design is essential to creating a diminutive, carefully cra ed speaker that conveys the detail, dimensionality, and feel of a live performance. Available in Piano Black and Rosewood, the Alec stands in a league of its own. For further information, visit www.alta-audio.com or call 631.424.5958.

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greater absolute speed variation measurements but impressively flat and stable high-pass–filtered results (smooth green line), while at the other end, there were smaller absolute speed variations but greater filtered speed undulations. Crisply executed commands For this kind of money, you should expect your playback wishes to be obeyed. The Air Force One Premium does not disappoint. Once set up, it remains set up. It’s physically quiet (including the pumps), responsive, and neither finicky nor tweaky. The status screen lets you know when the platter has achieved speed and “locked,” and with the push of a pair of buttons, you can adjust pitch up or down in increments of 0.1%, or, by holding down the buttons, by 1% per second up to 10% maximum. Hold down the “stop” button and the ’table goes into “standby” mode, which turns off the compressor and “unfloats” the platter. The Graham Engineering Elite tonearm Graham Engineering, which imports and distributes TechDAS turntables, loaned me one of their Phantom Elite Tonearms ($13,500; the price varies somewhat depending upon armwand length). TechDAS has distributed Graham tonearms in Japan and recommends the Phantom Elite for use with the Air Force One Premium, so supplying one for this review made sense. The Elite is a completely redesigned and substantially upgraded (in terms of parts and execution) reimagining of the basic and highly regarded Phantom design. Like the less-costly Phantom, the Elite uses an inverted unipivot bearing featuring Graham’s patented Magneglide magnetic stabilization system, which mitigates the typical unipivot “wobble” and ensures that the arm will not deviate from correct azimuth as it pivots across the record. Graham supplied an additional armwand: an optional TechDAS-manufactured wand made from titanium (approximately $4000). I auditioned both it and the standard armwand. I’ve not had any previous experience with the Elite, so it’s impossible for me to strictly separate the sonic performance of the arm and the turntable. Switchstereophile.com

February 2020

ing out the armwands, though, allowed me to get some insight into what the tonearm was doing, as discussed below. What price serenity? Referring to the aforementioned two extremes of the belt-tension range, though the audible differences were minor even when comparing solo piano and other music with long sustained notes, the ﬂatter green line produced a smoother, more serene, and one could even say “creamy” sound, which I believe is the goal of designer Hideaki Nishikawa. The reason I think that’s his goal is that the smooth-midband, “bubbly” sonic character of the two TechDAS cartridges I’ve heard was very similar, especially the top-of-the-line TDC01 Ti titanium-bodied cartridge ($15,500; not supplied for this review). That cartridge has a smooth, rich, mid-

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With Paul Gonsalves (SAM/French Decca 153924)

range-to-die-for sonic signature—not surprising since Nishikawasan is a big opera fan, and vocals are critical in his musical world. That cartridge, combined with the $450,000 Air Force Zero demonstrated earlier last year at The Audio Salon in Santa Monica and later at High End Munich 2019, produced among the most realistic and convincing vocals I’ve ever experienced from an analog front end. When I compared TechDAS’s titanium armwand for the Graham Elite with Graham’s standard Elite armwand, using, among other cartridges, the Ortofon Anna D, the differences were not subtle; those differences helped me distinguish between the sound of the arm and that of the ’table—as well as the sonic differences between the armwands, which were considerable. While I stand by everything I wrote in the January 2020 Stereophile about the $15,000 VPI HW-40, the TechDAS Air Force One Premium, at 10 times the price, produces dramatically blacker backgrounds and a far more sophisticated level of transient subtlety and precision. You wonder how much blacker backgrounds can get until you hear them. The blackest by far were on the Zero, but the One Premium comes close! Can you measure serenity? No, but listen to the Air Force One Premium and you’ll immediately hear it. On the Blue Note Tone Poet release of Grant Green’s Born to Be Blue (Blue Note BST 84432), on which the guitarist performs a set of six stan27

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dards with Ike Quebec, Sonny Clark, Sam Jones, and Louis Hayes, the ensemble exploded almost violently from the speakers. Green’s precisely placed singlenote lines were richly textured yet endowed with sharply and cleanly delivered transients and surrounded by a satisfying and subtle decay envelope. Each note was like a major event, as were Hayes’s rim shots. Clark’s piano, centered in the stereo mix (and lower in the mix on some tracks than on others), was rendered between the speakers with unforced clarity. Equally impressive (and expressive) was the ’table’s microdynamic performance on a new, superbly mastered, pressed, and packaged Deutsche Grammophon box set reissue of Pierre Fournier and Friedrich Gulda’s Beethoven: Complete Works for Cello and Piano (3 LPs, DGG 483 7316), recorded in June 1959 and originally released individually. The limited-edition (1700 copies) set was half-speed mastered at Emil Berliner Studios and, like the Bernstein Beethoven cycle box set issued earlier this year, includes facsimiles of the original production sheets, and I can attest that the set’s Cello Sonata in D major sounds far better than on my single-LP original (DGG 138 083). Pressing quality, on my set at least, was absolutely perfect: black backgrounds, not a single pop or click. The recording quality is “you-are-in-the-hall” natural. Gulda’s piano is center stage, Fournier’s cello stage left (right channel), and the recording space—the 600-seat Brahms-Saal of the Wiener Musikverein—subtly reveals itself behind and around the two players. Fournier’s low-note “growls” have appropriate traction—sufﬁcient grit to excite and be believable—and Gulda’s precise playing is well-preserved both in the mastering and especially in the Air Force One Premium/Phantom Elite’s transcription of it. Image stability was rock solid. Attack, sustain, and decay were natural. (Attack was neither edgy nor too soft.) It was believable on all well-recorded material. No wonder that, lights out, you can time-travel back to 1959 and be in the hall for the performance. This stereophile.com

February 2020

forth between the former on my Continuum Caliburn and the latter on the Air Force One Premium made it clear: As good as the Elite’s overall performance was in every parameter, the SAT’s bottomend extension, drive, and deﬁnition remain unchallenged in my listening experience.

recording is why people with the cash (and some without it) lay it down for a turntable like this. The Air Force One Premium’s smooth and serene personality doesn’t mean it can’t transmit grit when grit is in the recording. The Kinks’ overlooked concept album Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire) (Pye NSPL 18317) has just been reissued, but since I have two original UK pressings and a 1983 Japanese PRT label reissue (SP-20-5030) that’s spectrally better balanced, I’m set! This is a bright, bass-shy, in-your-face but oddly in-the-studio–natural recording that the ’table does not smooth over or make pretty. But the Air Force One Premium’s commendably low coloration and nimble bottom end helped reveal inner details, like Dave Davies’ complex, unusual, “Middle Eastern” overdubbed guitar lines on “Mr. Churchill Says.” Ray’s voice on the 1920’s “flapper” tune “She’s Bought a Hat Like Princess Marina” hovers between the speakers, sounding as if you are listening from the microphone side while all of the sound effects and oldfashioned sonic ephemera shimmer, well-defined, bright, and silly, more clearly defined than is necessary—but the Air Force One Premium laid it all out evenhandedly. The turntable’s uncolored nature and freedom from resonances and stored and released energy guarantees that almost every record you play is likely to reveal, in an unforced way, details that, even if not previously hidden, seem to fit more comfortably into the fabric of the whole. While I couldn’t directly compare the SAT CF1-09 tonearm and the 75% less expensive Graham Phantom Elite on the TechDAS ’table, going back and

Conclusion With its ultraquiet backgrounds, the generosity of its presentation of instrumental sustain and decay, its neutral spectral balance, and a dynamic presentation that seems to project and establish the musical picture far from the speaker boundaries and without limitations, the Air Force One Premium has a knack for getting out of the way and letting your cartridge of choice exhibit its sonic character without restrictions. It’s as much reliable test instrument as supreme carrier of unassuming musical pleasure. Up to now, I’ve avoided comparison between the Air Force One Premium and my long-term reference Continuum Caliburn (which over the few years it was in production underwent signiﬁcant running upgrades), because the latter is now almost 14 years old. However, in terms of smoothness, sonic sophistication, background blackness, and yes, the unmeasurable aforementioned serenity (which is not a euphemism for boredom!), I have to give the nod to the Air Force One Premium. The longer you listen to it, the more musically surefooted and certain its performance becomes. Q

CONTACTS TechDAS Stella Inc. 51-10 Nakamarucho, Itabashi-ku Tokyo 173-0026 Japan Web: techdas.jp. US distributor: Graham Engineering 25M Olympia Avenue Woburn, MA 01801 Tel: (781)932-8777 Web: graham-engineering.com.

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IN SEARCH OF THE EXCEPTIONAL

BY ART DUDLEY THIS ISSUE : Art Dudley takes a good long look at the latest version of Shindo’s only stereo single-ended ampliﬁer.

Shindo’s third-least-expensive amp

PHOTOS: ART DUDLEY

nly recently did I learn that successive generations of the Chevrolet Corvette are referred to by the cognoscenti with two-character alpha-numeric identifiers: C1, C2, C3, and so on. I learned this while reading about the most recent version—C8, known to non-cognoscenti as the 2020 Corvette—which happens to be the first version since C2 that impresses me. (I say that as one who used to work for the owner of a C3, a then-middleaged male who actually boasted, while under the influence, that he and two of his C3-owning friends drove them solely because their juvenile styling attracted juveniles. Rest assured I left his employ within days of that revelation.) In most ways, the Shindo Cortese power amplifier ($13,500 with F2a output tubes) is as far from an audio Corvette as one can get. It is modestly powered, its build quality is in tune with its luxury-goods price tag, and its styling is the very soul of mature understatement. Yet it, too, has gone through a number of versions, evidence of which hides behind the amp’s modestly-sized casework. The late Ken Shindo, who founded Shindo Laboratory in 1977, was also known for his distinctive model designations—some are the names of rare wines, some are musical terms, at least one is a woman’s name—which he recycled from time to time. Thus HautBrion has been both a KT88-powered monoblock and a 6L6-powered stereo amp, Petrus has been both a two-box and a single-box preamplifier, and so forth. But as far as I know, Cortese has always been a stereo, single-ended amplifier priced near the budget end of the Shindo line. The Cortese is known by most Shindo enthusiasts in the US—which is to say those who’ve come on board since 2003, when Tone Imports introduced the brand to North America—as a single-ended amplifier that uses one F2a power tetrode per side, offering about 10Wpc. (Indeed, if you do a search on the F2a tube, which is relatively stereophile.com

February 2020

Every good recording ever made contains at least 0.1% of pure animal chaos. unknown among audiophiles, photos of the Cortese will be among your first hits.) Throughout most of that time, the amp’s small-signal tube of choice has been the 6AW8A triode-pentode: Some versions of the amp used one of these per channel, others two—yet in either case, the Cortese is a threestage design, like all Shindo amps I’m aware of. Most of those Corteses used solid-state rectification, yet an earlier, pre–Tone Imports version included a rectifier tube and used 300B directly heated triode output tubes instead of the F2a indirectly heated tetrodes. True grid In some ways, the most recent Shindo Cortese, designed by Takashi Shindo and available in the US since 2017, harkens back to older versions. This

version, too, uses a rectiﬁer tube (a 5U4GB), and the amp is available with either new-old-stock (NOS) F2a or newly manufactured 300B output tubes. I haven’t heard the 300B version ($12,995), nor do I know what technical changes were required for the amp’s use with that popular output triode—but ﬁeld-swapping a four-pin tube and a nine-pin tube, the latter requiring an oddball, asymmetrical socket, is clearly not possible. (Note also that the new Cortese’s four-pin 300B sockets are mounted on a separate, recessed platform, presumably because those tubes are taller than F2a tubes. The tube cage could not otherwise clear them.) Another twist: For the new Cortese, Shindo eschews the Philips 6AW8A— a tube whose prevalence in post-2010 Shindo amps and preamps was striking—in favor of an NOS Telefunken ECL82, also a pentode-triode. Here, Takashi Shindo uses a single ECL82 per channel—with the input signal from the volume pot appearing on the signal grid of the triode half, which 31

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is not how things were done in the earlier Corteses I’ve seen. Internal changes abound. In addition to that rectifier tube, the Cortese’s power supply resembles that of the very earliest Shindo amps in its inclusion of a very large NOS 10.0Mf, 600V oil capacitor (an NOS Micromold Radio cap, in this case) in the power supply’s pi circuit. (But unlike those early amps, including the whimsically named Sinhonia and the enduringly available Western Electric 300B, the new Cortese stows its oil cap underneath its transformer cover rather than letting it share real estate with the tubes.) And the use of a rectifier tube has made redundant the EY88 diode tube that’s used to slowly ramp up the B+ voltage in so many other Shindo amps. The new amp’s circuit layout, which is tidy to the point of being unabashedly beautiful, also shows Takashi Shindo’s predilection for putting passive parts on tag boards—in this case, another beautifully finished steel plate. In his father’s later products, resistors and capacitors were fastened to seemingly random lengths of terminal strip, their physical positions dictated by their locations within the circuit.

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Perhaps most striking is this Cortese’s use of auto-bias for its output tubes: The amp is designed and constructed without a bias-voltage supply. (The circuit contains only a single solid-state bridge rectifier, for the tubes’ heater voltages, and one solid-state regulator, apparently to maintain precise screen-grid voltages: The output tubes are operated as tetrodes, not triodes, and the pentode halves of the ECL82s are operated as pentodes.) The cathodes of the F2a tubes are raised above ground via 150 ohm, 30W Dale wirewound resistors. (On earlier, fixed-bias Corteses, cathodes were held only 1 ohm above ground—a boon to the math-challenged technician, since voltage measured across those resistors was the precise equivalent of bias current—and the negative bias charge was adjustable with potentiometers.) The new amp also has an output-tube plate voltage of 359.2V, which is lower than the 387 volts I noted in my first (2007) Cortese. (Screen grid voltage is held at 313.6V, vs the earlier Cortese’s 369.2.) Between that and the fact that, in an auto-bias circuit, the tube “sees” only the voltage differential between the cathode and the plate, it’s a safe

guess that the amp’s notably robust F2a tubes will enjoy very long lives relative to other audio-output tubes run in class-A. One other change worth noting: Less-than-generously-sized though it may be, the newest Cortese is slightly larger and heavier than its predecessors. It measures 15" wide × 8.85" high × 11.6" deep and weighs 32.4lb, compared to 13.75" × 6.7" × 10.25" and 27.5lb for the earliest one. Other things remain the same. The output transformer of choice in the latest Cortese, as in every other Cortese I’ve seen, is a Lundahl LL8820, a single-secondary design that appears to be a Shindo exclusive. Similarly, the mains transformer is a robust, copperwrapped Denki that’s at least outwardly similar to those in other Shindo amps. The dual-mono level pots are the same Japanese-made Cosmos I saw in the very ﬁrst Shindo amp I encountered (the original EL84-equipped Montille), and which I’ve seen in no other audio gear. Its inputs are lowmass Switchcraft RCA jacks, which apparently offer desirable electrical and thus sonic qualities in compensation for what they lack in reliability.

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(As someone who breaks and makes signal connections far more often than the average enthusiast, I’m forced to keep spares on hand; for most users, that surely won’t be necessary.) And the steel enclosure and removable tube cage are of the same very high quality construction and ﬁnish as seen on all Shindo amps and preamps. It almost goes without saying that the Cortese is a physically beautiful thing, in a Bauhaus sort of way. Company founder Ken Shindo felt that enclosures made of steel result in better-sounding electronics than those made of aluminum, but of course steel needs paint, and Shindo’s enclosures have almost always been painted— every surface, inside and out—in a trademark shade of green. The amp’s published speciﬁcations are minimal.1 According to the supplied one-page info sheet, apart from its 10Wpc power rating, the new F2a Cortese exhibits an input impedance of 100k ohms, an input sensitivity of 1V, and a signal/noise ratio of 90dB. Note to self I pride myself on making and keeping extensive notes on the most interest-

The Shindo Cortese is as far from an audio Corvette as one can get. ing products that have come my way, and that includes almost every Shindo preamp and amp I’ve had in my home long enough that I could open them up and see what makes them tick. So you can imagine my frustration at not being able to ﬁnd the notes I made in 2007 or ’08 when I brought the thencurrent Cortese to the test bench of my friend Neal Newman and we conducted some basic tests.2 I can’t quote the precise output power numbers we observed—but I can assure you that the amp proved most powerful when driving a 16 ohm load, conﬁrming the assumption that the single secondary coils of the Cortese’s Lundahl output transformers were optimized for such high impedances. That’s unsurprising, given Ken Shindo’s obvious fondness for pre-1969 Altecs and similar vintage loudspeakers. (Jonathan Halpern of Tone Imports tells me that, during a long-ago visit to his sister’s home in

Boston, the elder Shindo found, in a thrift store, a good-condition pair of Altec Flamencos, such as I own and enthusiastically use, and went to considerable trouble and expense to ship them back to his workshop in Tokyo, where he set about modifying them: a story for another day.) Also unsurprising: Although the Cortese sounded quite ﬁne on my DeVore O/93 loudspeakers, it locked in better with my own Flamencos, and it is that pairing that forms the basis for the comments to follow. But note also, irrespective of the loudspeaker in use: In every listening session I’ve enjoyed so far, the Cortese has taken at least an hour to warm up—and even then its sound continues to improve over at least another hour. I don’t recall another Shindo that has taken as long to perform at its best, and that leads me to guess that this sample 1 On Shindo’s website, one can see only the specs for the 300B version. 2 One test Neal and I never performed on a Shindo amp was measuring the output tubes’ current draw under dynamic conditions, in an effort to determine the power envelope in which it is true class-A: That requires unsoldering and resoldering at least one connection, which I avoid doing to someone else’s property, especially something as meticulously built as a Shindo. In any event, a single-ended amp such as the Cortese always operates in class-A, by deﬁnition.

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still has a while to go before it is fully broken in. Which is kind of fun, really. And note that other Shindo setup tricks to which I’ve alluded in the past hold true here. In particular, also like all Shindo amps of my acquaintance, it seems that the enclosure for this one was “tuned” during its design, presumably in order to resonate just a bit throughout a wide range of frequencies rather than resonate sharply within one or more small ranges of frequencies (or to be so massive that it doesn’t resonate in real time but rather stores energy). But over time, especially during shipping, materials contract and expand, and by the time it reaches you some of the casework’s mechanical joints may be too tight. I find that systematically loosening each screw on the top panel and, especially, on the Plexiglas decorative front plate, and then turning them in so they’re just barely snug and no more pays sonic dividends. On a related note, as virtually every Shindo owner comes to know, their amps all sound better—bigger, more open, and more vivid, with sound images that are more palpable and present—with their tube cages removed. Theories abound as to the reason(s) why, but with the new Cortese at hand I think I have some idea: This amp too sounded slightly better without its cage in place, but only slightly; it sounded very, very good with its cage in place, which is a first in my experience. Wondering why, I had a close look at the means of holding in place the Cortese’s cage and I saw that Takashi Shindo has added two very small brackets, not to the steel casework but to the comparatively spare aluminum plate above the tube sockets. Contrast that with the company’s previous amps, in which the steel tube cage bolts directly to tapped holes drilled into the steel casework— and thus damps that casework, at least a little. That’s just a guess—but whatever the reason, people with small children or inquisitive, heat-loving pets can run this amp with its very attractive cage in place, confident that they’re hearing at least 90% of what this Cortese can do at its best. And what this amp can do at its best is remarkable. Artisanal, or Art is anal? First of all, the Cortese did precisely what I expect a good single-ended amplifier to do: It put recorded instruments and voices in front of me with a near-psychedelic level of presence. stereophile.com

February 2020

It’s a safe guess that the amp’s notably robust F2a tubes will enjoy very long lives. Nowhere was that more audible than while listening to Haydn’s String Trio in G, Op.53, performed by the Grumiaux Trio (LP, Philips 802 905 LY—an astonishingly good-sounding early-’70s record that isn’t at all difﬁcult to ﬁnd). And the Shindo offered an appropriately large sense of scale on this slightly close-miked recording. I’ve been fortunate to attend two annual gala events put on by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, one of which featured a performance, perhaps 20' from my table, of the Schubert Quintet in C, with the great David Finckel as one of the two cellists; listening through the Cortese to recordings of small string ensembles was as close as I’ve come to enjoying at home the same sense of scale and overall feel. But the Cortese did even more with that Haydn LP: It gave me more of the bounce of bow on string—even more than the Shindo Haut-Brion, which is tonally richer but not quite as limber —and it captured those nuances of note-attack timing that reminded me I was listening to music made by humans and not computers. Given the assumption that every good recording ever made contains at least 0.1% of pure animal chaos—more for the

Replacements, less for any recording produced by Peter Asher—the Cortese was the rare amp that didn’t filter it out or gloss over it. Sonically, as noted above, the latest Cortese sounded less timbrally rich and maybe a hair less textured than the Shindo Haut-Brion, a 20Wpc amp that uses two 6L6 pentode tubes per side. But once fully warmed up, the Cortese was capable of making music that sounded physically larger than its push-pull stablemate. The Cortese was also slightly more extended in both its trebles and its bass range, the latter notable in Neil Young’s “Albuquerque,” from Roxy: Tonight’s the Night Live (LP, Reprise 566051-1), where it found more power than I’ve heard before in Billy Talbot’s electric bass lines. The same could be said of Bob Cranshaw’s enormous-sounding double bass on “Yesterdays,” from Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins’s Sonny Meets Hawk! (LP, RCA/Classic Records LSP-2712). And the two isolated bass drum strikes fairly early in the first movement of Berg’s Violin Concerto (“Dem Andenken eines Engels”), by Itzhak Perlman and Seiji Ozawa with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (LP, Deutsche Grammophon 2531 110), sent shivers down my spine. More important, the Cortese was almost uniquely successful at allowing Berg’s odd melodies their full emotional weight. An example: 57 seconds into the piece, a sustained E-flat on the violin resolves into E natural, just a 35

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heartbeat before the orchestral backing settles into a very staid-sounding G minor chord. I have no explanation for why that brief passage is so moving— but with the Cortese in my system, it melted my heart as never before. The latest Cortese was also crazy detailed—but musically detailed. Yes, you’ll hear audience sounds, air-conditioning systems kicking in, dropped bows, and traffic noises from the street outside the hall, all of which have their place: If they’re on the record, you might as well be able to hear them. But far more important, if you want to hear what the trombones are really up to in the Berg concerto, then this is your amp. Is the new Cortese better than any or all of the older Corteses? Does the owner of an older F2a—one with a single 6AW8A per channel and all-solid-state rectification—need to consider trading it in for the new one? With most other brands of my acquaintance, it might be easier for me to find an answer, be it yes or no. Some companies seem content to leave well enough alone—nothing wrong with that!—while others strive to make things genuinely better, and still others play to our cynicism and make new

versions of their products just so they can keep getting new versions of our money. But if I had to guess, I’d say that Shindo keeps revising their earliest amp designs for the same reason that Miles Davis stopped putting “My Funny Valentine” on his set lists. It’s not a criticism of either that song or those amps, but rather the simple fact that some people just have to keep moving, and have to keep finding different truths in the fields of endeavor that are most important to them. So on the one hand, yes: I’m tempted to say that this is my favorite Cortese so far—and on the other, I can’t forget that listening to a Jimi Hendrix album through a 2007 Cortese driving a pair of Shindo-rebuilt Altec 604E speakers was one of the five most hypnotic hi-fi experiences I’ve ever had. In either case, I don’t doubt that all of Shindo’s artisanal, vintage-inspired amplifiers just get better with use; I intend to keep this one for myself, so I guess I’m on the road to finding out. We screwed up In our December 2019 issue, in my Recording of the Month piece on Apple/Universal’s new 3-LP Anniver-

sary Edition of the Beatles’ Abbey Road (P.139), my ratings were garbled during their trip from my computer to the printed page: I had awarded the set our highest rating for sonics—ﬁve stars, or, for the non-verbal, ★★★★★—and yet what arrived in my mailbox was a copy of Stereophile in which I awarded the record only three stars. What bullshit! I would suggest that heads will roll, but because it might have been my own fault, I’ll keep piously quiet. In any event, my apologies to our readers and to the very nice people at Apple and Universal Music, not to mention Ringo and Paul. Q

CONTACTS Shindo Laboratory 20–9, Hongo 2 Chome Bunkyo-ku Tokyo 113–0033 Japan Web: shindo-laboratory.co.jp US distributor Tone Imports Web: toneimports.com Email: shindo.usa@mac.com

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GoldenEar Technology is pleased to announce the introduction of the new Triton One.R. This extraordinary new reference quality loudspeaker is a smaller, less expensive follow up to the Triton Reference. The T Ref has been compared with speakers selling for over ten times its surprisingly affordable cost. It has had a remarkable response from both music and hifi enthusiasts as well as press and reviewers from around the world, who have bestowed upon it innumerable Speaker-of-the-Year and Product-of-the-Year awards. Now the T One.R is here for your ultimate delight. Al Griffin raved, “ The panoramic soundscape that the One.Rs rendered was a revelation...drums and percussion spread incredibly wide...with incredibly transparent rendering of vocals”.

“...a pair of Triton One.Rs really kick the width of the soundstage into overdrive, spreading the wall of voices far beyond their physical placement in the room, with undeniably enhanced clarity and articulation.” –Dennis Burger, HomeTheaterReview.com We developed new drivers for the T Ref, which incorporate advanced technologies for better sound, and brought these advancements into the Triton One.R. The new Reference Folded Ribbon Tweeter, with 50% more neodymium, is silky smooth and ultra high resolution. The new Focused-Field magnet structures deliver better control and higher efficiency. The new internal wiring, with a special critically perfect twist, provides better coupling and more coherent blending of the drivers. The new wiring topology further improves clarity and definition. And the very special film caps in the crossover make faster transient response a reality. The list goes on and on: long fiber lambs wool, accelerometer optimized bracing, special internal damping pads….. Everything contributes to T One.R’s remarkable ability to recreate a huge soundstage and deep three-dimensional image. And the voicing, which our engineers labored so long and hard over, makes the T One.R a proud follow up to the Triton Reference.

The 1600 watt built-in powered subwoofers can be musically delicate or simply rock your world! There are three newly designed racetrack shaped active subwoofer drivers on the front of the cabinet, which have special polymer impregnated nomex cones, in order to minimize cone breakup when strongly driven. Huge magnet structures are utilized in order to better control cone movement and improve transient response. There are four quadratic planar infrasonic radiators. They extend the low frequency response and are inertially balanced (two on each side) in order to minimize cabinet movement, resulting in clearer, more detailed sound. Combined with the 1600 watt sub amp and advanced 56 bit DSP, the built in powered bass section is superior to most stand-alone subwoofers, and of course, you will have two subs, one in each speaker. Al Griffin raved about,”...intense and gut-punching slam...I didn’t once feel a need for additional subwoofers.”

“If I could pull a Spinal Tap and push the Triton One.Rs Value rating past our usual maximum, I’d do it in a heartbeat.” –Al Griffin, Sound & Vision The gorgeous cabinet is painstakingly finished in hand-rubbed piano black lacquer. Its signature narrow profile looks incredible, helps it to disappear visually, and delivers important imaging advantages. It presents itself as an exquisite, sleek, ultra-highperformance lifestyle loudspeaker that delivers tremendous value and sound quality comparable to speakers selling for many times its cost. And unlike most speakers that are only good for two channel listening, or home theater, the Triton One.R, like all GoldenEar speakers, is engineered to excel at both.

www.goldenear.com PO Box 141, Stevenson, MD 21153 (410) 998-9134 Like us on Facebook! facebook.com/goldenear

Call us or check our website for your nearest dealer

“Flawless”

First and foremost, the amp’s musical performance was ﬂawless.

The Orchestra Reference is a classic 40 watt

The Orchestra Reference was as beautifully built as the somewhat more

EL34 integrated ampliﬁer. But with Jadis’ new

expensive Jadis I-35. Apart from three small circuit boards - the amp

third generation custom in-house hand-wound

is hand-wired, point-to-point. The layout is sensible, the wiring and

transformers this amp is truly exceptional and

soldering are impeccably done, and the parts quality ranges from very

offers spectacular musicality. Optional remote

good to superb.

available. Outstanding value at $4,795.

The amp’s sound was richly colorful and beautifully balanced, with very good musical drive. It was about as perfectly balanced an amp as I ever heard. The Orchestra made no secret of its dynamic expressiveness.

Please visit www.bluebirdmusic.com to ﬁnd a Jadis dealer near you.

And the steady, stately way in which the Orchestra played the melody and chorale-like harmonies of the Molto adagio was further testament to its superb musical timing. In the long run, I could live with the Orchestra Reference quite happily. For a (mostly) tubed integrated of this performance level to sell for under $5,000 is noteworthy. Rest assured the Jadis Orchestra Reference is extremely unlikely to disappoint. Strongly recommended. - Art Dudley, Stereophile, Class B Recommended Component.

P A S S I O N , CR A FT S M A N S H I P A N D M U S I CA L I T Y L I K E N O O T H ER .

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

BY HERB REICHERT

EXPLORING THE ANALOG ADVENTURE

THIS ISSUE : Herb holds forth on the importance of wire in a well-turned-out audio system.

Fly-by-wire: the importance of audio cables

hen I applied for this job, I wrote a pretend review of the Rogue Audio Sphinx integrated ampliﬁer and emailed it to Stephen Mejias, then Stereophile’s assistant editor, who printed it and put it on John Atkinson’s desk. Before I sent it to Stephen, I showed a rough draft to my business agent, Sphere, who said, “Herb, you can’t turn this in like this.” “Why?” I asked. “Because you speak as if you are not an audiophile and think you’re superior to audiophiles.” “So?” “You can’t do that, because your readers are all audiophiles . . . and so are you.” “I’m not an audiophile. I’m a record collector!” Sphere squinted and stared at me suspiciously. “What kind of speaker cables are you using?” Like it meant nothing, I replied, “Audio Note AN-SPx.” Sphere responded sternly, “People who are not audiophiles do not use thousand-dollar silver speaker cables. They use cables from Radio Shack.” Sphere was right. I am an audiophile. Not because I use silver cables, but because I listen to recordings to experience purity of sound. I have been listening critically to sound coming out of boxes since 1968. I have developed a conscious need for my records to be reproduced with a certain physical force and tonal rightness. Therefore, I had no choice. I surrendered and declared proudly, “Okay then, I am an audiophile!” Last year, when I visited Nelson Pass of Pass Labs at his home in Sea Ranch, CA, I was surprised to discover that he connected all the gear in his laboratory listening room with Radio Shack cables. When I asked why, he told me, “Because I don’t want anybody else taking credit for my accomplishments.” Last month, when I visited John and Rich Grado at their funky-cool factory in Brooklyn, I asked John why the cables on their headphones are not detachable. John declared, “Because stereophile.com

February 2020

these cables are a significant part of why Grado headphones sound the way they do, . . . and I don’t want people to mess with that.” You know I am old Back in the 1960s, audiophiles began fabricating their own interconnects and loudspeaker cables. They believed they could improve, sonically, on the zip cord and generic interconnects included with the products they bought. In every audio magazine, the big debate was over which sounded better: stranded or solid-core wires. I thoughtfully compared both in my own system, finally deciding I was in the unbraided, solid-core camp, because I thought this electromagnetic geometry made instruments sound the most solid and distinct. In comparison, braided, stranded wires sounded softer and more diffuse, but also more elegant and refined. I remember

thinking, I am a solid-core kind of guy. My decision was partly a hormone-fueled identity thing and partly a compromise. I thought neither type sounded more “accurate” than the other. Each, I realized, emphasized different aspects of the reproduced sound. During the 1970s, I was an avid reader of the magazines Speaker Builder and Audio Amateur and a vociferous part of the DIY community. One day I got a call from Robert W. Fulton of Fulton Musical Industries, asking if I would beta-test some proprietary loudspeaker wires he had concocted: “Herb, just tell me what, if any, difference you hear with my cables.” My task was easy. The difference between Fulton’s wire and my DIY twisted, soft-rubber-encased, 14-gauge (stranded) Belden wire was not subtle. (I was using homemade transmission line speakers with Haﬂer ampliﬁcation.) On the phone, I told him, “Bob, with your cables, my amp and speakers appear to dance more in sync. I sense a tighter coupling.” I told him, “Using your wire is like putting better shoes on dancing couples.” With Fulton’s wires, I experienced more nuance of tone and bigger, but not tighter, bass. During the 1980s, I switched to Kimber Kable for all my interconnects and speaker cables. I even used Ray’s silver and copper wire in the many DIY tube amps I built. Prior to Kimber, my daily-driver hookup wire came from bulk rolls of Belden and vintage, new-old-stock Western Electric cable. (Thirty years later, I’m still a fan of Kimber Kable, because it has that solid and distinct quality I love in my audio system.) During the 1990s, I imported Audio Note products from Japan. Audio Note’s founder, Hiroyasu Kondo, was a metallurgist by trade and based the sound aesthetic of his entire line on the character of his very pure stranded and braided silver wire, in which each extremely thin wire was lacquer41

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

coated. Kondo believed his handdrawn silver preserved small-signal information better than even the best purist-quality copper. He believed his winding geometry canceled several varieties of noise. My long-term listening corroborated his claims. Audio Note silver was lush and added a glorious, seductive glow to sopranos and pianos. Because the sound was so luminescent, I used to tell people my Audio Note system sounded like a Charles Burchﬁeld painting.1 The sound of massed strings was seductively supple and nuanced. Most important, and more than any other cable I had used, AN silver cables restored lost beauty to classic recordings by Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Willem Mengelberg—a welcome blessing and not an easy task. One day, around 1995, Andy Singer (Sound by Singer) was ringing up a customer who was spending around $300K on Audio Note ampliﬁcation and asked the man, “Would you like some Audio Note cables to hook everything up? They will complete your system without damaging the sound.” The man replied simply, “Yes, please.” That “yes, please” added $55K for

Charles Burchfield, Glory of Spring (Radiant Spring), 1950. Watercolor on paper, 40 1⁄8 × 29 3⁄ in. (101.6 × 73.7 cm). Parrish Art Museum, 4 Southampton, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Corning Clark, 1959.

what was then regarded as an accessory— not a necessity. I must now interrupt these prosaic wire stories to tell a different kind of wire story. One that happened on the

Côte d’Azur in France. It was a balmy early-fall night. I was standing at the end of a long pier on the bay at Cannes, with Audio Note’s Hungarian distributor, the late István Csontos, and our Philippine distributor, Hondoko. We had left the Top Audio Show (in Milan) that morning, prior to which we ﬁnished exploring some really big boats at the Cannes Yacht Show. We were tired, hungry, and ready for the day to end. To the east, the sky looked like Van Gogh’s 1888 painting Starry Night Over the Rhône: 2 clear azure blue, with shimmering light-lines streaking the water. To the west, the sky was densely clouded and starless black. City lights dotted the horizon, which was under siege by streak lightning and stroboscopic heat lightning. As I stared alternately east and west, I fell into a blissful reverie. My friends stood silently behind me. My spirit felt elevated. Then . . . into this otherworldly silence, Hondoko spoke these words: “Herb, do you twist your SPx?” Can you believe? There was magic all around and suddenly I’m startled back to normalcy by my beloved friend, who was worrying about his Audio

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

Note AN-SPx speaker cables: whether the slender and separate plus and minus strands should remain loose and irregularly parallel, or be twisted into EMI-rejecting pairs. A reasonable and important question. I told him either way was ﬁne; the difference was subtle, maybe nonexistent. Mostly, I said, I dress my SPx attractively to suit my customer’s needs. “If it looks nice on the ﬂoor,” I explained, “it will sound good.” (Cable risers anybody?) Today, if I were not a professional reviewer, I might wire my system with silver wires by Audio Note. But I am a professional reviewer, and those wires would color the sound of every component I reviewed. Similarly, if I used Radio Shack interconnects and zip cord for speaker cables (like ampmaster Pass), the Shack wires would color the sound just as much as the

smearing, timbre-bending, contrast-reducing, subtractive effect—one that (don’t laugh) actively complements the hard, overly contrast-y sound of global feedback in amps such as my formerly beloved Haﬂer DH-200. Like I told Robert Fulton, “Zip cord sounds dull compared to your wire.” When I began using a standalone DAC with a CD player as a transport, I compared Radio Shack’s 75 ohm coaxial cable to some Audio Note AN-Vx interconnect and decided I preferred the AN-Vx. When I started reviewexpensive silver, but in Starry Night Over the Rhône a different way. Neither ing DACs for Stereophile, I (September 1888, French: Nuit étoilée sur le Rhône) is one of type of wire is more spent some effort comparVincent van Gogh’s paintings neutral or “accurate” ing audiophile-branded 75 of Arles at nighttime. (I hate that word) than ohm coax and discovered I the other. Both would much preferred the Kimseparate me from what the designers ber Kable D60 Data Flex Studio. of the electronics had accomplished. Don’t laugh: I’ve made several 1 whitney.org/Exhibitions/CharlesBurchﬁeld. minicomparisons and found that 2 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starry_Night_Over_the_ Radio Shack wires create a slightly Rhône.

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

What must an audiophile do? My strategy is to carefully mix diverse teams of moderately priced but superbly constructed wires from a range of popular cable manufacturers. This allows me to avoid swamping my system with any single cable manufacturer’s “house sound.” I’ve learned two main things from this mixing and matching: The lower the signal level, the greater the cable’s apparent effect on the sound. And: Some brands of cable have stronger flavors than others. I first discovered this flavor-mixing strategy when I built DIY amplifiers. For example, I found that mixing capacitor types would avoid too much Sprague paper-in-oil, or Teflon film, or polystyrene, or polypropylene (Wonder Cap) sound. For resistors, I discovered that, in the same circuit, small, properly specified half-watt metal-film resistors sounded more hard-compressed and colored than large, way-overspecified 5-watt wirewound resistors—which to my ears seemed to disappear completely. I imagined that similar principles apply to audio wires. I believe that every single bit of the audio chain sounds like the resonant nature of the material(s) it is made of, like a violin or a human voice. Likewise, I believe the purity, form, and configuration of its materials define a component’s specific resonant fingerprint and ultimately the degree to which it colors the sound (ie, dirty tin-clad copper sounds like dirty tin-clad copper). More recently, I discovered that power conditioners and audiophile power cables dramatically affect my system’s sound. The effect of these components on system sound is so dramatic that I’ve been reluctant to experiment with them. But don’t worry: I will experiment, if only for the purpose of sharing my experiences with you. These are some of the reasons why I regard audio cabling as a componentlevel consideration—not an accessory. Of course, legions of audiophiles cannot imagine how interconnects, speaker cables, power cords, AC fuses, or line conditioners could possibly affect the sound of a properly engineered stereo. To these people, all this boutique crap is just overpriced snake oil created for “audiofools.” I understand exactly why they feel this way. I mean, If they can’t hear a difference . . . how could I ? 44

One thing I do know from ﬁve decades of hanging with audiophiles: Most seasoned audiophiles are capable of recognizing extremely subtle differences in DACs, amps, phono cartridges, tubes, and audio cables. Not only that, audiophiles actually enjoy learning to discern these differences and discussing them with their friends. I mean, Aren’t discernment and connoisseurship among the chief pleasures of our hobby? I’m guessing, but I think the nondiscerning, can’t-hear audiophiles are deafened by their expectations.

These All-boutique-cables-are-justoverpriced-snake-oil guys get deafer (and oftentimes angrier) when they see onemeter interconnects selling for $3000. I understand that feeling too. And I admit to being confused and bewildered by what I perceive as the dystopian chaos of the audio cable marketplace. During literally decades of buying and comparing audiophile interconnects, I have noticed a few other interesting things. I like to use one brand of interconnects with my DAC and another with my phono stage, partly to mix up the sound, partly to ﬂatter the component the cable is connected to, and partly so that when I swap preampliﬁers, I can identify which cable goes to which source. More pertinent to this discussion, I have noticed that each of these sources sounds slightly different with each brand of wire. I emphasize the word slightly! To my surprise, however, DAC outputs and USB inputs seem much more affected by cable choice than my tonearms or phono stages. The latter makes me wonder: Why should digital be more susceptible to cable interface than analog? Consequently, I pick interconnects, USB cables, and power cords that complement my digital sources. Over the last few years, I have preferred Auditorium 23 interconnects for phono because they sound the most natural

and the least hi-ﬁ. For years, I’ve used AudioQuest Cinnamon wires for digital USB because they sound quiet and dynamic. Plus, I did not want to review budget products with $1000 USB cables. However, as a recent experiment (not a review comparison), I replaced my 5m AudioQuest Cinnamon USB with the much more expensive Cardas Clear HS USB (also in 5m length). I just wanted to see if I could hear a difference. Which I did, but not instantly. The next day, in the afternoon, I was streaming a very familiar Vladimir Horowitz recording while doing chores and walking from one room to the other. Twice, I walked by the Harbeth M30.2 speakers and thought, Damn! Vladimir is sounding good today! And then I sat down at my desk, saw the blue Cardas wire, and remembered that I had changed the cable. After listening carefully to a few assorted Tidal favorites, I switched back the AudioQuest Cinnamon. The difference in USB cables was obvious now, and I much preferred the enhanced clarity of the more expensive Cardas. Immediately, I contacted my old friend Gordon Rankin (Wavelength Audio), pestering him about why these cables sounded different. I will tell you the story of what he said, and compare more USB cables, in following “Wire Dreams” installments. If I had to buy my own cables—if I were not a reviewer who gets to borrow lots of different cables—I would have no idea how to begin choosing the most effective, compatible, musically satisfying cables for my system. How could anybody choose?3 Making things worse, experienced reviewers (including myself) choose to not review cables, either because they don’t perceive differences or, more likely, because they’re afraid of perceiving those differences incorrectly.4, 5 The latter was my excuse—until now. Jim and Herb share a dream When Jim Austin, Stereophile’s new editor, informed me that I could do 12 columns per year,6 I squealed with joy because I enjoy telling Gramophone 3 Since 1989, one of the best answers to that question is the Cable Company’s Lending Library: thecableco. com/lending-library. 4 Or 3: They’re avoiding controversy.5 —Jim Austin 5 Or 4: They dislike dealing with new cable makers in particular, whose hunger for publicity sometimes borders on desperation.—Art Dudley 6 Alternate months, Herb is ﬁlling the space vacated by Kal Rubinson’s Music in the Round column, which ended with its 100th installment in the November 2019 issue.—JCA

February 2020

stereophile.com

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

Dreams stories and have too many to tell for only six columns. I was already covering phono sources, but all along I’ve wanted to venture deeper into headphones, headphone amps, tubes, tube-rolling, and cables. Why these products? Because I think it’s time to stop marginalizing them. It is time to recognize them all as the important audio components they are. In order for neophyte audiophiles to feel comfortable considering expensive cables, I believe every high-priced audio cable manufacturer should explain why their cables cost so much. Because I imported Audio Note cables from Japan, I know the short answer to that question: Manufacturing audio cables is more difﬁcult, time-consuming, and expensive than manufacturing DACs or ampliﬁers. At Audio Note, Hiroyasu Kondo purchased 99.99% pure silver ingots from Italy. Then he drew this imported silver slowly, and at low temperatures, through diamond dies that he designed himself. That extreme work produced only bulk rolls of very thin silver wire; after that the wire was coated with several layers of natural lacquer, braided, and jacketed. Easy?

Cheap? Definitely not. A friend of mine who runs a small cable-manufacturing outfit told me the prices of his handmade audio cables are based on these factors: “The bill of materials; machine time (on homemade and modified machines); my and my helper’s labor and learning time; packaging costs; promotional costs; and overhead (rent, insurance, utilities, property taxes, etc.).” To this he adds 15% to avoid screwups. Then, as he says, “The sum of all that is multiplied by a number that allows my dealers and distributors to buy at a fair price, and I can feed the family.” The second question for cable manufacturers: What makes expensive cable sound better than Belden, Mogami, or Radio Shack? Part of the answer is obvious: quality of materials and workmanship. I have disassembled a few big-name audiophile cables and found them all extremely well-made and structurally complex. Unlike Radio Shack cables, they were crafted to take use and abuse—sometimes in proaudio conditions—without breaking or oxidizing.7 That is superimportant. Also: Do the low-priced cables (under $100), moderately priced cables

(under $500), and expensive cables (I’ve seen $5K interconnects!) sound better in ways directly related to their cost? In my experience they do—up to a point. However, all the cable brands I have tried have a sweet spot, where the buyer acquires maybe 80% of the virtues of the brand’s best cable at about 40%-50% of the best cable’s price. I intend to search out those sweet spots. As of this writing, I do not understand what design features make one cable sound better than another. But now that I have 12 columns per year, my intent is to spend time finding out. Besides looking inside the wires and how they are manufactured, I will begin comparatively auditioning a variety of cable brands to determine if I can fairly describe their house sound in a way that might help others. But these are difficult tasks, with uncertain outcomes. I am willing to listen and learn. Are you? Q 7 This is also true—especially so—of pro-audio cables such as those from Canare and the aforementioned Mogami, which are almost always priced far below high-end audio cables. This pricing advantage arises at least partly from the fact that such cables are made efficiently in factories and not via boutique methods such as those described in the previous paragraph. —Editor

R2D4’20 RECORDS TO DIE FOR 2020

t’s 3am. You’re lying in bed. Something woke you up—you don’t know what it was. You pull back the covers, get up, and tiptoe out to your listening room. There, standing by your record rack, thumbing through your prized LPs, is a man in black (no, not Johnny Cash—a different man in black). You see a bulge in his pocket; it could be a gun. Something shiny catches your eye—there’s a switchblade knife between his teeth! At his feet, leaning

against your record shelf, is a cudgel. Oh, and it looks like he might have some infectious disease. You, of course, are in your PJs. You notice, at the top of the stack of records that he holds under his arm, that one record, the one you love the most, the one you can’t live without. He hasn’t seen you yet. You could sneak back to the bedroom and quietly call the cops, but he’ll be long gone before they arrive (unless he decides to listen with your

excellent turntable, which seems unlikely), taking your records—including that one record—with him. Or you could charge him and tackle him, risking life and limb. After all, it’s your favorite record. So what do you do? Few of us would really take a bullet—or a knife, or a knock on the head—for a song or even a symphony. After all, with apologies to Jerry Garcia and company, you can’t enjoy your music when you’re Dead. But R2D4 is actually less

February 2020

stereophile.com

IMPROVING ON PERFECTION INTRODUCING THE NEW MOMENTUM HD PREAMPLIFIER

THE ORIGINAL MOMENTUM PREAMPLIFIER from Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems was a landmark component, recognized by the audiophile community worldwide. Now, the new Momentum HD Preamplifier builds on the platform of its award-winning predecessor, bringing dynamic, high-definition improvements through advancements in the audio circuitry, power supply, and control sections to make it the very finest preamplifier that Dan D’Agostino has ever designed. Dan started with a new, higher-current transformer to deliver greater dynamic contrasts. A completely new FET-style front-end stage reveals greater fine-grain detail and a remarkably dimensional soundstage. Redesigned tone and volume control circuitry offers even greater precision, and a new Bluetooth-enabled remote control eliminates line-of-sight limitations of infrared remote technology. Outside, new copper elements of the elegant casework complement the look of the Momentum M400 and S250 amplifiers. Like everything bearing Dan’s signature, the Momentum HD Preamplifier was created for listeners who demand that music be reproduced with accuracy and emotional impact, from a component that is elegantly conceived and impeccably crafted. For them, the Momentum HD Preamplifier promises an unequalled audio experience.

LEARN MORE ABOUT DESIGN FOR REAL AUDIOPHILES

w w w. d a n d a g o s t i n o . c o m

4 8 0. 5 75 . 3 0 6 9

R2D42020 about dying than it is about living. For us writers, it’s about taking time to reﬂect and acknowledge the importance of music in our lives—not just any music, but that special music. For readers—and I’m one of those, too—it’s a great opportunity to discover new music. The importance of such recordings to every Stereophile writer—that and our shared obsession with top-notch sound—provides a virtual guarantee that, while you may not wind up loving or even liking all our recommendations, they are absolutely worth checking out. I’ve been writing R2D4 entries for quite a few years, but I’ve been reading them for even longer, virtually ever since the feature was launched in

RAFE ARNOTT

BOARDS OF CANADA MUSIC HAS THE RIGHT TO CHILDREN Matador OLE 299-2 (CD). 1998. Marcus Eoin, Michael Sandison, prods.

1991 by then–music editor Richard Lehnert. I have often used R2D4 to guide my musical explorations. Yes, there are writers whose tastes I don’t share—but R2D4 has led to some great discoveries, too numerous to list in this introduction. Much of the music that I’ve discovered here and come to love is stuff I would not otherwise have tried. It’s time again. As always, we asked our writers to select two recordings that they wouldn’t want to live without. We gave them two rules: make sure that at least a few copies are available, and don’t choose a record you chose in a previous year. This year’s R2D4 includes 45 recommendations from 28 writers.

« An emotronic psychedelic head-music album that deﬁes being dated, Music Has the Right to Children eschewed late’90s synth/electrowave norms and painted bleak, sentimental watercolor

One writer—Art Dudley—made just one selection, hence the odd number. Several others chose multidisc sets—including Sasha Matson’s 14-disc Ravel set. If a record has been reviewed before in Stereophile, either as a record review or in a previous R2D4, we’ll indicate the issue it was in, like this: (Vol.40 No.3). There’s easily 100 hours of music here, enough to keep you out of trouble for a while. So enjoy. And whatever happens, you should avoid tackling well-armed people in your pajamas.1 Just let them go. You can probably ﬁnd another copy on Discogs. 1 How he got into your pajamas I’ll never know.—Groucho Marx

landscapes awash in analog warmth. This music was, to me, the future from my past, and with each new listen another angle of melancholy would rise forth from deep in my chest. Created by two

brothers from Scotland who pirated part of a Canadian public broadcaster’s ﬁlm-series title for their name, this is the album I’d use to change the mind of anyone who doesn’t like electronica. It is a deep-set

OVER 2,000 SOLD IN 1 YEAR:

³AFTER 1 YEAR OF TESTING: I wholeheartedly endorse the Kirmuss System.´ (In a test):

³The top end fully restored in Peter Townsend¶s rhythm guitar strings (Tommy). ..the backgrounds were super quiet, transients were sharpened, the inner detail produced an almost new listening experience.´

IT DOES RESTORE! (Not just clean surfaces) ³ENTHUSIASTICALLY RECOMMENDED,´ ³Works as promised, and it¶s reasonably priced.´ Michael Fremer, STEREOPHILE MAGAZINE, July 2019

WHAT OTHERS HAVE TO SAY:

I have to declare that the KA-RC-1 Is the best record cleaner on the market. Bar none.´ Paul Rigby, HiFi World Jan 2019

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R2D42020 rendition of “Everything Happens to Me,” and that includes Chet Baker’s. But here the main attraction is Pepper’s clarinet on “When You’re Smiling.” Pepper would be dead in a year, but on this track his playing is light and fun. A pure delight. emotional favorite for the fading light of autumn that paints with long brush strokes of melody. I found the CD for $6 in the used section of one of my local record stores, but I just pulled the trigger on an original 2-LP pressing, from Discogs.

PHILIP GLASS REWORK_PHILIP GLASS REMIXED The Kora Records TKR026 (2LP). 2012. Various engs. and prods.

« I was flipping through new arrivals at Red Cat Records and stopped dead when I saw “Philip Glass,” “Beck,” and “Amon Tobin” on an LP cover (cool magnetic filings photography). How could putting these heads together, on remixes of Glass’s work, not be genius? The album was born out of a conversation between Beck and Glass regarding artists who wanted dibs on reinventing pieces from Glass’s catalog, which Beck then set out to weave together. Rework_Philip Glass Remixed has an ebb and flow like any great concept album, but it can also be broken down like pieces of a delicious pie: Each LP side is a perfect portion. As you listen, alternating patterns from the disparate renditions tug at a thread of musical awareness in your consciousness. It’s as if the underlying story is being teased out in the many hypnotic beats, rhythms, synth riffs, and percussive melodies. Only 1500 white/

stereophile.com

February 2020

black vinyl copies were pressed, and 500 clear vinyl copies, so if you can ﬁnd one, grab it.

Anyway, it’s hard to justify recommending vinyl for an album that includes fake groove noise and with tracks that appear to include MP3-rez content. I will anyway: If you do vinyl, the current Universal vinyl reissue, the 2016 20th anniversary version, is ﬁne. Odelay won two Grammys—Best Alternative Music Album and Best Male Rock Vocal Performance—and deserved album of the year. (It was nominated but lost out to Celine Dion’s Falling into You.) But no matter: NME, Rolling Stone, and the Village Voice all gave Odelay their biggest prize. It’s an important record, containing the most interesting and extensive use of sampling up to that point, and possibly since. Artists sampled include Grand Funk Railroad, Edgar Winter, Bob Dylan, and Beck himself, among many others. What’s extraordinary though, to me, is Beck’s sampling ﬂuency—it’s so spontaneous and witty that it’s like listening to a really clever jazz solo. To this day, when I listen to this album I laugh out loud.

JIM AUSTIN

ART PEPPER ROADGAME Art Pepper, alto sax and clarinet; George Cables, piano; David Williams, bass; Carl Burnett, drums Galaxy GXY-5142 (LP). Ed Michel, prod.; Baker Bigsby, eng.; George Horn, mastering eng.

The last time I included an Art Pepper album as an R2D4 selection, it was because of one track of great sadness—characteristic of Pepper’s late, postaddiction period. There is some of that on this album, recorded live under a full moon at L.A.’s Maiden Voyage in 1981: I’ve never heard a more poignant «

JOHN ATKINSON

BECK ODELAY Geffen DGCD-24823 / B0025124-01 (CD/LP). 1996/2016. Beck Hansen, others, prods. Beck Hansen, others, engs.

« It’s hard to know which version to recommend, since there have been so many, and the one I prefer—the four-LP set on ORG from 2008, with an essay by Thurston Moore and student interviews conducted by novelist Dave Eggers—is out of print, and they currently sell used for $125 and up.

STEMMEKLANG TOMBA SONORA Stemmeklang, vocals; Dag Øystein Berger, Erlend Habbestad, Katrine Pedersen, Vilde Alme, cello; Kristin Bolstad, composer. 2L 2L-155-SABD (SACD/MQA CD/Pure Audio Blu-ray; 24/44.1k MQA-encoded FLAC Tidal stream unfolded to 24/352.8k). 2019. Morten Lindberg, prod.; Morten Lindberg, eng.

« In his “The ghost in the machine” essay in the November 2019 issue (p.146), Herb Reichert discussed how important he felt it was for a recording to capture a venue’s sense of space.

R2D42020 In a talk given at the 2019 AES Convention in New York, 2L’s “onlie begetter,” Morten Lindberg, discussed how he did just that with this astonishingly immersive recording, captured in DXD (24/352.8k). The women singers, accompanied by cellos on some tracks, were arranged around Lindberg’s one-metersquare array of spaced omnidirectional DPA microphones in the almost sealed Emanuel Vigeland mausoleum in Norway. Even in two channels, the sense of being present in this highly reverberant space—below 100Hz, the reverb time is 22 seconds!—is palpable. To this end, composer Kristin Bolstad even changed the keys of the ﬁve works so that they maximally ex-

Philharmonic Orchestra Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR190261 (24/192k FLAC ﬁles). 2019. Olaf Maninger, Robert Zimmermann, exec. prods.; Christoph Franke, prod.; René Möller, eng.

cited the resonant modes of the mausoleum’s acoustic. The Tidal stream is MQAencoded, as is the CD layer on the SACD. In addition to the SACD/CD disc, the disc set includes a Pure Audio Blu-ray with a 7.0.4 Dolby Atmos version sampled at 48kHz, a 7.0.4 Auro-3D version at 96kHz, a 5.0 channel DTS version at 24/192k, and a 2.0 24/192k LPCM version. The two-channel versions, which I auditioned, were taken directly

from the front left and right microphones, with no mixing of the rear and height channels console, no equalization, and no compression. That Tomba sonora still sounds enveloping is a tribute to Lindberg’s rare ability to position his mikes in exactly the right places to fulﬁll Herb’s criteria.

TCHAIKOVSKY SYMPHONY NO.6 IN B MINOR (“PATHÉTIQUE”) Kirill Petrenko, Berlin

« Michael Fremer turned me on to Simon Rattle’s superbly performed and recorded Beethoven symphony cycle with the Berlin Philharmonic, so when the release announcement of this Tchaikovsky Pathétique from the same orchestra appeared in my email inbox, I gave the credit card some action. Kirill Petrenko brings new life to this warhorse, recorded in 24/192k at two Philharmonie concerts in March 2017. The second movement’s 5/4 waltz, in particular, beneﬁts from his lyrical approach. The

February 2020

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sound has superb clarity and though the perspective is relatively close, the woodwinds and brass are set sufﬁciently far behind the rich-sounding strings. The pedal notes on the horns rasp appropriately before the despairing close of the ﬁnal movement, underscoring the emotional journey—from the dancing second movement through the joyful third movement to the resigned ending—on which Tchaikovsky, aided by Petrenko and his Berliners, has taken you.

LARRY BIRNBAUM

SUN RA SUN SONG

Sun Ra, piano, Hammond B-3 organ; Art Hoyle, Dave Young, trumpet; Julian Priester, trombone; James Scales, alto saxophone; John Gilmore, tenor saxophone; Pat Patrick, baritone saxophone; Richard Evans, bass; Wilburn Green, electric bass; Robert Barry, drums; Jim Herndon, timpani Delmark DD-411 1957/1991 (CD). Tom Wilson, orig. prod.; Bob Koester, reissue prod.; Stephen Fassett, Will Connor, engs.

« Originally recorded for the Transition label as Jazz by Sun Ra, this brilliantly arranged debut album is essentially a hard-bop session, barely hinting at outer-space excursions soon to come. Ra’s mid-’50s Arkestra includes only saxophonists John Gilmore and Pat Patrick from his free-jazz future, as well as more conventionally oriented players such as trombonist

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February 2020

Julian Priester. The opening “Brainville” anticipates the classical minimalism of Steve Reich, while the balladic “Possession” sports unusually sumptuous sonorities, and the propulsive “Future” spotlights the leader’s expansive piano solo. But the musicians, even Ra himself, never quite transcend bebop, except on the cosmic “Sun Song.”

WILLIE COLÓN THE HUSTLER Willie Colón, Joe Santiago, valve trombone; Mark Dimond, piano; Santi González, bass; Pablo Rosario, bongos; Héctor Andrade, congas; Nicky Marrero, timbales; Héctor Lavoe, lead vocals Fania SLPCD-347 1968/1991 (CD). Johnny Pacheco, prod.; Irv Greenbaum, eng.

« The Nuyorican trombonist was still a teenager when he cut his second album, making a transition from the hybrid Latin-soul boogaloo style to Cuban-based salsa. “Boogaloo no va conmigo,” sings the budding salsa superstar Héctor Lavoe on “Eso Se Baila Así”— “boogaloo doesn’t go with me.” “The world is coming to an end,” he wails on the rollicking “Se Acaba Este Mundo,” laying the blame on long-haired hippies and girls in miniskirts. Besides Lavoe’s plaintive, penetrating voice, The Hustler features Mark Dimond’s sparkling piano, Nicky Marrero’s crackling timbales, and, not least, Colón’s brash trombone, heard to slash-and-burn effect on

the hard-throbbing instrumental title track.

THOMAS CONRAD

ANDRÉ PREVIN AND HIS PALS WEST SIDE STORY André Previn, piano; Red Mitchell, bass; Shelly Manne, drums JVC JVCXR-0209-2 (CD). 1960/2001. Lester Koenig, prod.; Roy DuNann, eng.; Alan Yoshida, remastering.

« This album is not a masterpiece. André Previn was an astonishing polymath (Oscar-winning ﬁlm composer; conductor of major symphony orchestras; badass pianist), but he was not a jazz innovator. He was an irresistible popularizer and entertainer. His ecstatic versions of eight Leonard Bernstein songs swing like crazy. (Shelly Manne and Red Mitchell, of course, also kick ass.) Previn is even more seductive when he slows down and goes all rapt, like on “Tonight” and “Maria.” The sound is by the great Roy DuNann. This recording is available in several formats on several labels. Spring for the JVC XRCD if you can ﬁnd one.

ERIC DOLPHY AT THE FIVE SPOT VOL. 1 Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet; Booker Little, trumpet; Mal Waldron, piano; Richard Davis, bass; Ed Blackwell, drums Prestige VDJ-1504E (CD). 1961/1986. Esmond Edwards, prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, eng.

« This harsh, noisy recording preserves

the raw truth of a priceless New York jazz moment in time: July 16, 1961. In the Five Spot in the Bowery, Eric Dolphy (who would live three more years) and Booker Little (who would live four more months) unleash wild beauty. Dolphy is explosive, piercing, and lyrical. On “Fire Waltz,” he soars up from Mal Waldron’s piano intro and ﬂies, a glorious winged bird of prey. Little’s brilliant, brassy, free, coherent lines are like those of no trumpet player before or since. The crowd sounds loose, oblivious to the fact that history is being made as they drink and laugh.

BRIAN DAMKROGER

SARAH VAUGHAN WITH COUNT BASIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA COUNT BASIE/SARAH VAUGHAN Sarah Vaughan, vocals; Freddie Green, guitar; Sonny Payne, drums; Edward F. Jones, Jr., bass; Chas. Baker Fowlkes, Frank Wess, Billy Mitchell, Frank Foster, Marshall Royal, saxophone; Thad Jones, Joe Newman, George Cotton (Sonny Cohn), Eugene E. Young, trumpet; Albert T. Grey, Henry Coker, Benjamin Powell, trombone; Kirk Stewart, piano (not credited) Roulette Birdland Series R 52061 (LP). 1961. Teddy Reig, prod.; Bob Arnold, eng.

Count Basie/Sarah Vaughan isn’t Sarah Vaughan’s best performance or that of the Count Basie Orchestra, but when combined, they’re magic. Vaughan’s vocals have her «

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usual layered richness, but the lyrics are delivered in a softer, far more nuanced way than with the arresting strength she’s known for. Count Basie’s orchestra, on the other hand, is typically dynamic and bouncy, but Teddy Reig’s production has it far enough down in the mix to work perfectly. It’s there and

engaging on its own but never draws attention from the vocals. The original 1961 mono release is the one to get.

THE DEL-LORDS JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME EMI America ST-17183 (Promotional LP). 1986. Neil Geraldo, prod.; Michael Frondelli, George Tutko, engs.

« Johnny Comes Marching Home was released in 1986 to mixed reviews, the major criticism being that it lacked the roots-rock grit of their debut album, Frontier Days. Fair enough. The DelLords’ sound had drifted a bit toward power pop, and the production was more polished than it was on Frontier Days. And absolutely, Frontier Days’ “How Can a Poor Boy Stand Such Times and Live” was, is, and always will be a ﬂat-out killer single. As an album though, Johnny’s more complex musical and lyrical themes have better stood the test of time. Both were good in 1986. In 2019,

ART DUDLEY

DONOVAN A GIFT FROM A FLOWER TO A GARDEN Epic B2N 171 (2 LPs). 1967. Mickey Most, prod.; Michael Ross Trevor, eng.

« The time has come for the rehabilitation of Donovan Leitch, not just because he scored his second Top-Ten hit with a song about a vibrator (“Mellow Yellow”) and taught fellow guitarist John Lennon the fingerpicking pattern that would become the framework for some of his own best songs (“Dear Prudence,” “Julia,” “Look at Me”), but for creating a body of work that is at once innocent, original, and almost indescribably lovely: high art that is perfectly artless, and thus almost perfectly childlike. Without Donovan there’d be no T. Rex and perhaps even no Nick Drake (my friend Ken Kessler would rejoice at that last one), and Led Zeppelin, whose Jimmy Page once made a living decorating Donovan’s hippy hits with his buzzsaw guitar, would never have had their redeemingly flowery mien—which is to say, there’d be no “Stairway . . .” Think of it! There is no better example of Donovan’s brilliance than A Gift from a Flower to a Garden, the artist’s first double album and, arguably, rock music’s first box set: It comes packaged with a folder filled with lavishly illustrated single-song lyric sheets, although their suitability for framing is open to debate. The album’s 22 songs are spread between two differently themed discs: The first, referred to by most fans with the title of the album’s best-selling and most conspicuous single (“Wear Your Love Like Heaven”), was described by the artist as a gift to fellow flower children who were, by 1967, of child-rearing age. On this LP the songs are given either elaborate arrangements, in the manner of other Donovan hits up to that point, or played with electric guitar, bass, and drums, the latter courtesy of John Carr, who would go on to join Donovan’s short-lived Open Road band. The second disc, titled “For Little Ones,” is where the real magic lies. Here you’ll find the most deeply colored gems of Donovan’s entire output, including “Isle of Islay,” “Epistle to Derroll,” and “Widow with Shawl (A Portrait),” the last a remarkably moving song in the great British tradition of seafarers’ laments. All are performed with just solo voice and acoustic guitar, all deal at least peripherally with loneliness, loss, and regret, and all are among the most well constructed and evidently heartfelt lyrics and charming melodies you’re likely to hear. Yes, the concept (and the liner notes) are a bit twee, and the exaggerated tremolo in Donovan’s voice may be a little over the top for some listeners—but not for me. If A Gift from a Flower to a Garden is a guilty pleasure, I’ll fess up to it with pride.

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February 2020

Johnny Comes Marching Home is great.

ROBERT DEUTSCH

ROBERT GOULET THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF ROBERT GOULET Jasmine JASCD 841 (2CDs). 2017. Jim Foglesong, prod.

« “Camelot! Camelot! In far off France, I heard your call.” I still remember the ﬁrst time I heard “C’est Moi!” sung by Robert Goulet on the original cast album of Camelot. What a voice! An aspiring musical theater performer myself, I decided that this was a singer I would like to emulate. Alas, although I later sang much of Goulet’s repertoire (including “C’est Moi!”) and was adept at copying Goulet’s singing style, I never came close to matching his sound. That sound is fully in evidence in this two-CD collection that encompasses four LPs Goulet recorded in 1962. His singing is more relaxed than in Camelot, but there is always a sense that he is using only a small part of the power he has at his disposal. And when he unleashes that power, he shows that if he’d wanted to go in that direction, he could have had a career in opera. The songs in this collection are mostly classic pop, which hardly tax his resources, but he gives them all his full attention. My favorites are the songs that hearken back to his roots in musical theater; if you’re like me, when you listen to Goulet’s rendition of “Make Someone Happy,” you’re likely to think, “So this is how this number should be done.” The keys are generally on the low side, but, as if to show that this was by choice rather than necessity, at the end

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MICHAEL FREMER

NAT KING COLE HITTIN’ THE RAMP: THE EARLY YEARS (1936-1943) Nat King Cole, piano; Oscar Moore, guitar; Wesley Prince, bass; others Resonance HLP 9042 (10 LPs/ 7CDs). 2019. Zev Feldman, others, prods.; Matt Lutthans, lacquer cutting.

of “It Was Always You,” he sings a lovely, ﬂoating G-ﬂat (or, if you like, F-sharp). Sound quality on these CDs is typical of studio pop recordings of the time, sometimes with excessive reverb, but Goulet’s voice transcends any technical limitations of the recordings.

has a knack for coming up with melodic lines that sound like something you’ve heard before, and then she goes in a direction you did not anticipate. The three songs that are

KARIN PLATO THIS COULD BE THE ONE Karin Plato, vocals; James Danderfer, clarinets; Chris Gestrin, piano; Laurence Mollerup, bass; Joe Poole, drums; Rebecca Shoichet, Jim Byrnes, vocals; Rod Murray, trombone Stikjazz Music KPO0418 (CD. 2018. Karin Plato, prod.; Sheldon Zaharko and Nick Civiero, engs.; Graemme Brown, mastering eng.

« I ﬁrst heard Karin Plato sing at the 2019 Audiofest in Toronto and was struck by her phrasing and the beauty of her voice, an impression that was reinforced listening to her CD This Could Be the One. Like all great singers, she has the ability to make each song sound as if it were written for her—and, given that she wrote most of the songs on the recording, we can be sure that they were written for her. In her own songs, she

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February 2020

« Perhaps you already own 1961’s The Nat King Cole Story box later reissued by Analogue Productions. That set chronicled in stereo rerecordings Cole’s more “poppy” Capitol Records output. This remarkable 10 LP set compiles close to 200 of Cole’s pre–Capitol-era recordings and includes some previously unreleased studio tracks, transcriptions, and recently uncovered private record-

ings. It’s another Nat King Cole story every Cole fan will treasure. Here, Cole’s piano (and the impeccable fretwork of the Eddie Lang–inﬂuenced guitarist Oscar Moore) takes center stage. No excuses need be made for the sound. 2019 marks the centennial of Cole’s birth. This set arrives just in time to celebrate.

CLARK TERRY CLARK TERRY AND HIS ORCHESTRA FEATURING PAUL GONSALVES Clark Terry, trumpet; Paul Gonsalves, tenor saxophone; Raymond Fol, piano; Jimmy Woode, bass; G.T. Hogan, drums Sam/Decca 153.924 (LP). 1960/2019. Anders Stefansen, prod.

« Near the end of his 8-year stint with the Duke, trumpeter Clark Terry led a small group of fellow Ellington Orchestra members in this small session set recorded for the French Decca label during a European tour in 1959. “Satin Doll” is the only Ellingtonia on the date, which also includes Monk’s “Pannonica ou Les liaisons dangereuses 1960-No 2” plus three Terry originals.

covers are an interesting assortment: “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (Lennon/ McCartney), “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” (Hank Williams), and “Heart and Soul” (Hoagy Carmichael/Frank Loesser). I’ve always thought of “Heart and Soul” as a novelty/ party piece, in the same category as “Chopsticks,” but Plato takes it seriously and makes a convincing case that it is really a lovely song. Oh, and all the arrangements in this recording are by Karin Plato. Talented woman. The technical quality of the recording is excellent.

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7KH 6 DQG 0 DUH WKH UHVXOW RIbQHZO\ LQYHQWHG PHWKRGV RI DPSOLI\LQJ WKH DXGLR VLJQDO HPSOR\LQJ SURSULHWDU\ WHFKQRORJLHV LQFOXGLQJ ]HUR QHJDWLYH IHHGEDFN DW ZDWWV SHU FKDQQHO 7KH UHVXOW ORZ OHYHO GHWDLOV DQG UHVROXWLRQ KHDUG IRU WKH ȴUVW WLPH KXJH ' VRXQGVWDJH DQG VHSDUDWLRQ RI LQVWUXPHQWV VXSHUEO\ UHDOLVWLF WLPEUH DORQJ ZLWK LQFUHGLEOH G\QDPLFV DQG IDVW PDFUR DQG PLFUR WUDQVLHQWV 06% EHOLHYHV WKLV SURGXFW UHGHȴQHV WKH OHYHO RI UHDOLVP DYDLODEOH IURP RXU PRVW WUHDVXUHG UHFRUGLQJV 'HDOHU DQG FXVWRPHU FRPPHQWV “The blackest backgrounds we have ever heard” “live recordings? ….you are there in the space” “incredibly natural and musical” “the sense of new and delicate information washes over me constantly” b

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R2D42020 Terry and Gonsalves tangle memorable musical lines throughout much of the cool, sophisticated set. Cut from the original superb-sounding analog tapes, pressed at Pallas and presented in a laminated foldover sleeve, Clark Terry . . . is a perfectly executed reissue.

Shelly Manne’s legendary drums and Lew Tabackin’s sax add jazzy authenticity. The great news is that the remastered sound is miles beyond the lackluster Asylum original. The soundstage literally oozes whiskey and cigarette smoke; this is Waits at his early best, and one of the last clear glimpses of the iconic hipster before he headed down the dark path of the Island years.

TOM GIBBS

TOM WAITS SMALL CHANGE

WIDESPREAD PANIC EVERYDAY

Epitaph/ANTI Records 045778756865 (CD). 2018. Bones Howe, prod.; Bill Broms, Geoff Howe, engs.

« On 1976’s Small Change, Tom Waits wheezes and boozes through a travelogue of

Capricorn Records 789394201346 (CD). 1993. Johnny Sandlin, prod.; Kent Bruce, eng.

skid-row classics like “The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me),” “Invitation

LARRY GREENHILL

FELIX MENDELSSOHN SIX ORGAN SONATAS, OP.65

Andante with Variations in D. Thomas Murray, organ Raven Recordings OAR-390 (CD). 1996. Lincoln Mayorga, William T. Van Pelt, prods. David Griesinger, Edward Kelly, Stephen Fassett, engs.

I learned about this recording from Kal Rubinson’s 2017 review of the Kii Audio Three, which used the fourth movement of Organ Sonata No.1—his “go-to for low-frequency articulation and extension”—to evaluate the speaker’s bass response. In 1973, Lincoln Mayorga recruited Thomas Murray to perform the Sonatas on two 19th century pipe organs. In 1996, this Sheffield Town Hall recording was rereleased on CD. It excels in overall balance throughout the audio spectrum, featuring well-articulated bass with surprising extension. The fourth movement of Sonata No.1, on the 1854 E. & G.G. Hook organ, reproduced the music’s descending pedal notes and the focused sound of a “single 42Hz throbbing column of air” and even greater extension in the fourth movement of Sonata No.4 in B-Flat. The last chord of Sonata No.2, marked “Fuga,” played on the 1857 W.B.D. Simmons organ, includes a solid 31Hz note that pressured my room and rattled objects on shelves. This recording captures the extension, solidity, and superb pitch definition of the deep pedal notes, balanced evenly with the instruments’ other ranks. Definitely a Record to Die For. (Vol.40 No.9)

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February 2020

to the Blues,” “Bad Liver and a Broken Heart,” and “The One That Got Away.”

« With Everyday, their third album on the Capricorn imprint,

HANS ZIMMER AND JAMES NEWTON HOWARD THE DARK KNIGHT: ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK Matt Dunkley, Bruce Fowler, Gavin Greenaway, conds.; Peter Lale, principal viola; Mary Scully, principal double bass; Owen Slade, tuba; Maurice Murphy, trumpet; Pete Davies, trombone; Frank Ricotto, Gary Kettel, Paul Clarvis, percussion; Richard Watkins, horn; Hans Zimmer, synthesizers Warner Sunset/Warner Brothers Records 9362049860-0 (CD). 2008. Various engs.

Edgy, unsettling, disturbing, dysphoric, overpowering, enveloping: Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s 2008 ﬁlm score for The Dark Knight (CD, Warner Sunset/ Warner Brothers 9362049860-0) has it all and more. Take the album’s “Why So Serious” track: It opens with a faint, staticlike, ripped 294Hz note, bursts into loud, crashing heavy-metal bursts, falls into a silence punctuated with ticking clock sounds mixed with jarring 31Hz jackhammer synth notes, and ends in a concussive meld of synth pulses and heavy metal chords. The album’s “I’m Not a Hero” grows out of a sustained 24.9Hz synth note, then dissolves into dissonant unsettling chords. The liner notes quote producer Christopher Nolan’s ﬁrst impression of the music as “the harshest, most incomprehensible sounds ever to enter my ears,” which was able to convey “the sound of the joker, his threat screaming out from the quietest and most delicately painful slides.” Distressing and dystopian, The Dark Knight soundtrack’s terrifying chaos compels me to listen again and again during reviews, wondering how such disturbing music can be so compelling.

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Athens, Georgia, jam band Widespread Panic took the music to a signiﬁcantly higher level of complexity. This CD stayed in my car’s player for two solid weeks; how long has it been since you heard an album that you just couldn’t get enough of? The late Michael Houser’s inimitable guitar playing is chameleon-like here; he displays a shockingly diverse range of styles from song to song and was an amazingly gifted guitarist. Every aspect of this album clicks perfectly, and many of the songs eventually became extended-jam staples of the band’s live concerts.

JON IVERSON

IRON BUTTERFLY IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA Atco/Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab UDCD 675 (CD). 1968/1996. Jim Hilton, prod., eng.

« It’s time for this monster molten metal masterpiece to get the respect it deserves. Don’t expect this album to be more than it is, hoping for the ﬂuid guitar of Hendrix or the concise hits of the Beatles. Instead,

stereophile.com

February 2020

yet, here is your second reminder. It’s an R2D4 near–triple threat: great music, great performance, and almost great sound. White is currently credited as part of the resurgence of folk/countrypolitan/ Americana, but when he ﬁnally gets his due, he’ll be regarded simply as one of our greatest songwriters.

FRED KAPLAN

SONNY ROLLINS OUR MAN IN JAZZ Sonny Rollins, tenor sax; Don Cherry, cornet; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Billy Higgins, drums

immerse yourself in the newfound freedom and exploration of what was suddenly musically and sonically possible in 1968. The title track is 17 minutes of pure pounding phuzztone pleasure, and back in the day every kid I knew could perfectly paddle the drum solo with two ﬁngers on their school desk. Some of us still can. (Vol.20 No.3)

RCA LSP-2612 (LP). 1963. George Avakian and Bob Prince, prods.; Paul Goodman, eng.

JONI MITCHELL THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS Asylum Records 7E-1051 (LP). 1975. Joni Mitchell, prod.; Henry Lewy, eng.

« My previous dozen outings in this game, in which I (and others) put life and limb at risk to save a couple of slabs of aluminum or vinyl, have favored undisputed classics or meditative reveries. This time I’m going for more jagged fare: great mainstream artists stepping out more adventurously than usual, music to hum while stepping into a blazing ﬁre. Our Man in Jazz was recorded live at the Village Gate in July 1962, soon after Sonny Rollins’s return from a three-year hiatus during which he ﬁrmed up his chops and explored outward-bound music. This is about as outward as he got, teaming up with two players from Ornette Coleman’s quartet (Cherry and Higgins), the leading lights of the era’s avant-garde.

JOHN PAUL WHITE THE HURTING KIND Single Lock Records (Bandcamp Digital Download, CD, LP). 2019. John Paul White, Ben Tanner, prods.

« As I wrote in my Stereophile review (Vol.42 No.9), “the songwriting is stellar throughout.” With time, I’ve become more certain of this observation, as I’ve looked for albums to equal or top it. If you haven’t bought it

R2D42020 Today, it’s still thrilling stuff, it swings, and the sonics are 3D-vivid. The original LP pressing ranks among the two or three best-sounding live jazz albums ever. (RCA’s much later CD reissue, not so much.) (Vol.20 No.3) Is The Hissing of Summer Lawns a better album than Blue? Probably not, but it’s more head-spinning, more breathtaking. Mitchell was diving into her experimental phase, ﬂirting with jazz cadences, Latin rhythms, exotic harmonies, oblique poetry, and this

ﬁrst dive mined the richest treasures. (Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, and Mingus would follow.) It triggered enormous controversy at the time. Rolling Stone gave it two reviews—one 4-star, the other 1-star. Prince called it his favorite Joni Mitchell album, and that sums it up. It’s lush, jarring, mysterious, at times delirious—and the sound quality (recorded by Lewy, mastered by Bernie Grundman) is among her best, which says a lot. (Vol.14 No.1)

ROBERT LEVINE

HOVHANESS MYSTERIOUS MOUNTAIN

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, cond. Telarc CD-80604 (CD). 2003. Robert Woods, prod.; Jack Romano, eng.

« Much of Hovhaness’s work is so beautiful and accessible that one wonders if it can be any good. His spirituality, as it comes across in his music, is cinematic—think Ben Hur or The Ten Command-

RICHARD LEHNERT

KEITH JARRETT LA FENICE

ECM 2601/02 (2 CDs). 2018.

KEITH JARRETT MUNICH 2016 ECM 2667/68 (2 CDs). 2019. Both: Keith Jarrett, piano Keith Jarrett, prod.; Manfred Eicher, exec. prod.; Martin Pearson, eng.; Christoph Stickel, mastering eng.

« With these two sets, recorded in 2007 and 2016 and released in 2018 and 2019, Keith Jarrett proves that in the short-form improvisations that have been his practice the last two decades, he can, at his best, say everything he was able to say in the long-form improvs he gave up after 1996, when chronic fatigue syndrome ruled out hour-long stretches of unbroken improvisation. His elegance, restraint, freedom, austerity, richness, breadth of allusion, heartfelt depths, rhapsodic heights, passionate musical intelligence, rigorously disciplined expressiveness, development of forms invented in the moment, and concentrated brilliance—all executed with undiminished perfection of technique—are amazing, at times overwhelming. No one else does anything that comes close. No one ever has. Jarrett’s best solo concerts have always sounded like comprehensive histories of the world told in music, or histories of the musics of the world, or both. Except in their concision, these are no different. The two concerts share the same basic shape, each beginning with the evening’s most challenging music: longish, almost tortured explorations of how to further subdivide apparently indivisible atomies of harmony—and, especially, rhythm—in precisely articulated densities of musical information. These are followed by interludes of gospel, long-lined modal sinuosities, haunting folk or hymn tunes, and the entirely unclassifiable. Then, in each set, encores ensue: improvised rags and boogie-woogies, three standards apiece, and, on La Fenice, an aria from Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado. The magic of these sets is that Jarrett consistently demonstrates that any apparent boundaries between these musics, genres, and styles are matters of mere musical taxonomy. To him—and, in these recordings, to us—such labels indicate only subcategories of aural delight. The music is no less precious or special for seeming to flow through his body, fingers, and pianos with so little effort and so much generosity. They may be labors of love, but there is no labor in the listening. Each time I finish playing one of them, my facial muscles are stiff from an hour and a half of grinning in continuous delight. The sound is lush: ECM at its supremely accomplished best, Steinway concert grands purring warmly and chiming clearly by turns, each of Jarrett’s meticulous navigations of tonal nuance lovingly rendered. This is music of permanence. (Vol.41 No.12, Vol.43 No.1)

ments. These three symphonies—Mysterious Mountain, Hymn to Glacier Peak, and Mount St. Helens—all have elements of that religiosity, along with stunning orchestration, magnificent use of counterpoint, and, in the case of the eruption of Mount St. Helens (the symphony’s third/final movement), something akin to awe. It might be obvious to score a volcanic eruption with wild timpani, ferocious brass, and what might be heard as panicstricken strings and winds, but it’s still enormously effective, especially when it’s not just noise: Hovhaness has sculpted a triple canon in 20 voices for the event. And the central, exquisitely placid central movement, titled “Spirit Lake,” features dazzling bells and winds. Mysterious Mountain too, evokes huge expanses; Hymn to Glacier Peak (No.66) opens with a hymnlike passage and leads to a big brass crescendo, which in turn works its way into a three-flute riff. The work ends in gigantic glory. Post-Romanticism, vitally recorded. (Vol.26 No.7)

MOZART LA CLEMENZA DI TITO Mark Padmore (tenor), Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Sunhae Im (soprano), Bernarda Fink, Marie-Claude Chappuis (mezzo-soprano), Sergio Foresti (bass); Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, RIAS-Kammerchor, René Jacobs, cond. Harmonia Mundi 801923.24 (3 CDs). 1999. Barbara Valentin, prod.; Mark Hohn, eng.

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R2D42020 « This, Mozart’s penultimate opera, retains its stepchild status, mostly because its form—opera seria—is stilted, and so is its plot. Emperor Titus is so magnanimous that he forgives his best friend, Sesto, who tries to kill him, and Vitellia, who, spurned by Tito, goaded Sesto on. Sesto is torn between passion for Vitellia and friendship and loyalty to Tito, and Vitellia is jealous, vindictive, in love, and crazy. They have the opera’s most remarkable music: complex arias with wind obbligatos and dramatic accompanied recitatives, all requiring huge ranges and superb coloratura. A minor couple, Annio and Servilia, have music that is merely gorgeous; Tito’s arias are all noble and elegant. Mark Padmore’s Tito is fluent and wellaccented; Alexandrina Pendatchanska is a spectacular Vitellia, taking the role’s 2- 1/3 –octave range in stride and singing with a Slavic edge to her voice that brings out the jealousy and looniness. Bernarda Fink brings great passion— and superb coloratura—to Sesto. René Jacobs and his periodinstrument Freiburg Baroque Orchestra play with snap, energy, beautiful wind tone, thwapping timpani, fine brass, and crisp strings. There are too many récits, but pianoforte continuo keeps things fresh. The engineers catch every nuance without artificiality. (Vol.29 No.8, Vol.30 No.2, Vol.34 No.2)

SASHA MATSON

RAVEL THE COMPLETE EDITION Various artists Decca 478 3725 (14 CDs). 2012. Various prods.; various engs.

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February 2020

« If I’m going to die for records, or take them to a desert island, I might as well get my money’s worth. For less than $4 per CD, you can pack this superb collection of everything Maurice Ravel composed into a small carry-on. Spanning virtually the entire stereo era, with a global collection of artists and terriﬁc sound, plus all of the vocal texts in a 183-page book, there are no weak links. Organized by type—three discs of piano works, two of chamber music, and so on—you can immerse yourself in all aspects of this greatest of French musical craftsmen.

JOHN COLTRANE THE COMPLETE 1961 VILLAGE VANGUARD RECORDINGS John Coltrane, tenor, alto saxophone; Eric Dolphy, alto saxophone, bass clarinet; McCoy Tyner, piano; Jimmy Garrison, Reggie Workman, bass; Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, drums; Ahmed Abdul-Malik, oud; Garvin Bushell, oboe, contrabassoon Impulse IMPD4-232 (4 CDs). 1997. Bob Thiele, original prod.; Michael Cuscuna, reissue prod.; Rudy Van Gelder, eng.; Erick Labson, remastering eng.

« On November 1, 1961, John Coltrane began the ﬁrst of four nights at the Village Vanguard. With a quintet that expanded and contracted across sets, it was as if the band was actually standing on the deck of a Star Trek transporter. Simultaneously moving into the future with tunes such as “India,” Coltrane and his band also swung hard on standards such as “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise.” Rudy Van Gelder, who didn’t do too many location recordings, tries to ﬁt things into his formula,

ZERO Tech: Cables that Get Out of the Way

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and mostly the sound is outstanding. I agree with Fred Kaplan’s earlier assessment: This is “some of the most ecstatic jazz ever recorded.” (Vol.21 No.3)

KEN MICALLEF

THE BRANDT BRAUER FRICK ENSEMBLE MR. MACHINE Ketan Bhatti, gong, cajon; Boram Lie, cello; Matthias Engler, marimba, cowbell, wooden table, percussion; Daniel Brandt, drums, percussion, piano; Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir, harp; Jan Brauer, Paul Frick, piano !K7 K7286LP (LP). 2011. Daniel Brandt, Jan Brauer, Paul Frick, prods.; Rashad Becker, Axel Reinemer, engs.

« German percussion troupe Brandt Brauer Frick upends the often standardized world of percussion concertos with extreme dynamic levels, Stockhausen-inspired playfulness, and massive groove. You can dance to Mr. Machine or simply listen in awe of its complex rhythmic interplay and cerebral sense of humor.

DUKE ELLINGTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA ELLINGTON INDIGOS Jimmy Woode, bass; Sam Woodyard, drums; Duke Ellington, piano; Harry Carney, Jimmy Hamilton, Johnny Hodges, Paul Gonsalves, Russell Procope, saxophones; Britt Woodman, John Sanders, Quentin Jackson, trombones; “Cat” Anderson, Clark Terry, “Shorty” Baker, Ray Nance, Willie Cook, trumpets Columbia CL 1085 (LP). 1958. Irving Townsend, Michael Brooks, prods.

« The beautiful sonorities and exquisite solo voices of the Duke Ellington Orchestra in its prime is rare terrain, unequalled in jazz, and timeless. Duke and Billy Strayhorn’s artistry ﬁnds its voice in nine compositions that practically stop time with their slow, measured tempos, blissful harmonies, and resounding dynamics. If you can only own one Ellington, Indigos is the easy choice.

TOM NORTON

ANN LEAF & GAYLORD CARTER THE MIGHTY WURLITZER—MUSIC FOR MOVIE-PALACE ORGANS New World Records NW227-2 (CD). 1977. Michael Moore, prod., eng.

« Silent films were rarely totally silent. In their heyday, large, firstrun theaters in major cities often had a full orchestra accompanying the action on the screen. Smaller venues couldn’t afford that luxury. A theater organ, while hardly cheap, was far more affordable. Thousands of them were built and installed prior to the advent of the talkies. In addition to a basic organ foundation, they could simulate conventional instruments plus a wide range of other sounds to complement a silent film. With the switch to film sound, most such organs fell into disrepair—or into landfills. But some

remained, and over the years they were updated and refurbished. This stunning 1977 recording (originally released on vinyl; I auditioned it on the still-available CD) brings together two theater-organ virtuosos and three carefully preserved Wurlitzers. (Wurlitzer was the biggest and best-known maker of these instruments.) The tracks here include classic numbers such as “Strike Up the Band,” “You Were Meant for Me,” and “My Romance,” plus longer compilations with evocative names such as “The Son of the Sheik,” “Orphans of the Storm,” “The Phantom of the Opera,” and “Intolerance.” It’s pure fun, beautifully recorded, and includes an excellent, informative booklet on the history of such organs and the artists performing here.

LOREENA MCKENNITT NIGHTS FROM THE ALHAMBRA Loreena McKennitt, voice, accordion, harp, piano; Brian Hughes, guitars, oud, Celtic bouzouki; Caroline Lavelle, cello; Hugh Marsh, violin; others Verve B0009459-00 (2CD + DVD). 2007. Loreena McKennitt, prod.; Jeff Wolpert, eng.; Bob Ludwig, mastering eng.

Loreena McKennitt is a superb vocalist, a quality strikingly evident in this 2005 concert set in Spain’s Alhambra. Backed up by a skilled ensemble of musicians playing modern and period instruments, the results are stunning. «

If you’re in the mood for sweet, warm, often wistful songs, heard in a ravishing acoustic environment, this box set is irresistible. All of the songs were written and/or arranged by McKennitt. The audio is uniformly excellent on this boxed set’s two CDs and the 2-channel track on the included DVD (the latter LPCM 48Khz, 24bit—a 5.1 channel option—is lossy Dolby Digital). The DVD includes everything that’s on the two CDs plus video of the stunning venue, McKennitt’s spoken song introductions (which aren’t on the CDs), and closeups of the period instruments. The DVD’s adequate, standard-deﬁnition video helps clarify the lyrics (not included in the printed materials), sometimes obscured by McKennitt’s Irish brogue. The latter, oddly, is rarely evident in her speaking voice on the DVD.

HERB REICHERT

MILES DAVIS A TRIBUTE TO JACK JOHNSON (SOUNDTRACK) Miles Davis, trumpet, arr.; Billy Cobham, drums; Michael Henderson, Fender bass; John McLaughlin, electric guitar; Herbie Hancock, organ; Steve Grossman, saxophone; Miles Davis, trumpet; Brock Peters, voice Columbia 30455 (LP). 1971. Teo Macero, prod.

« If you have never experienced this staggeringly creative moment in Miles Davis’s

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stereophile.com

R2D42020 (and producer Teo Macero’s) art played loud, with absolute clarity and unfettered transientprowess, you might have only a partial understanding of what a god-walking-the-earth Miles Davis was. I am currently obsessed with this delirious musical construction because it reminds me that in order to make art at the highest levels, one must ﬁrst give oneself permission to emancipate and explore the uncharted. “I’m Jack Johnson, heavyweight champion of the world. I’m black. They never let me forget it. I’m black all right. I’ll never let them forget it.”

ANTONIO VIVALDI GLORIA Giovanni Pergolesi

MAGNIFICAT Elizabeth Vaughan, soprano, Janet Baker, contralto, Ian Partridge, tenor, Christopher Keyte, bass; the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; the Academy of St. Martinin-the-Fields, Neville Marriner, leader; Roger Lord, oboe obbligato; Kenneth Heath, cello obbligato; John Langdon, organ; Noel Mander, chamber organ; Andrew Davis, harpsichord; David Willcocks, dir. Argo ZRG 505 (LP). 1966.

« The sound quality of this Decca-made recording is at the perfect-to-sublime level. This hypervivid sound serves the divine purpose of drawing the listener into the spatial realms of the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge. It shows the listener the chapel’s cubic volume, the stone-and-glass walls, and a crystalline illusion of performers. Most important for me though is how Vivaldi’s Gloria is an ordinary mass that, with the help of the Choir of King’s College (and David Willcocks), distills the essence of human faith, mystic vision, and

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February 2020

universal spirituality. This Gloria is my Church.

We Love Wireless!

KALMAN RUBINSON

KURT WEILL, ET AL. BYE BYE BERLIN Marion Rampal, vocals; Raphaël Imbert, saxophone and bass clarinet; Quatuor Manfred Harmonia Mundi HMM 902295 (CD). 2018. Alban Moraud, artistic dir. and prod.

A gentle bass clarinet introduction, Rampal’s soft and breathy voice, and a plucked bass in a habanera rhythm set us up for the entry of her full voice, with strings, as they launch into the eager, longing tango of Weill’s “Youkali.” Rampal, the quartet, and— importantly—Imbert’s low winds share a moderately dry acoustic whose subtle ambiance is just enough to let the music breathe The 17 tracks range from familiar—Friedrich Hollaender’s “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)” and other cabaret songs—to Hindemith’s startling arrangement of Wagner’s Overture to The Flying Dutchman. In between, there is delight, wit, and a lot of sadness. The disc is generous but, at the end, I always long for more of this clear, uncolored window into that distant time and space of a Berlin between the World Wars. (Vol.41 No.9) «

SIBELIUS KULLERVO, OP.7 (1892) Johanna Rusanen, soprano; Ville Rusanen, baritone; Estonian National Male Choir; the Polytech Choir; Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu, cond. Ondine ODE 1338-5 (SACD/CD). 2019. Reijo Kiilunen, Laura HeikinHeimo, prods.; Anna-Kausa Kempi, Enno Mäemets, engs.

Why does a cable company love “wireless”? Easy —“wireless” is almost never wireless. For maximum performance, wireless components need the world’s greatest power cables. In his review of Dali’s Callisto 2C wireless speaker system, The Absolute Sound’s Muse Kastanovich upgraded the stock AC cords with AQ’s NRG-Z3. He exclaimed … “I had no idea AC cables could make such a large difference in the sound. It wasn’t just emerging from a blacker background; everything was more crisp and exciting. The soundstage was better defined, and the music seemed louder … Do not even consider running your Callistos with the included power cords… Is it crazy to spend $500 on a pair of AC cords for a sub-$5000 system? Not after hearing the sonic improvements they bring.” —Muse Kastanovich, The Absolute Sound, April 2019

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« Formerly obscure among Sibelius’s early works, Kullervo has moved into the limelight. In 2017, I singled out for praise Osmo Vänskä’s performance with the Minnesota Orchestra (BIS BIS-9048, SACD) from the six in my collection. It is the slowest of the lot, at 80:00, but the determination of its bardic declamations makes it special. Hannu Lintu’s new version is refreshingly different. Lintu’s performance is faster, at 72:26, and from the ﬁrst note, one feels the irresistible momentum. It also has a lyrical ﬂexibility and by far the most revealing and impressive recording. The soundstage is forward and immediate but deep enough to encompass the orchestra, a male chorus of 90, and 2 soloists. Many who have not connected with Kullervo before will be swept away by Lintu’s drama and pacing.

ROB SCHRYER

DOMINIQUE FILS-AIMÉ NAMELESS

NEIL YOUNG WITH CRAZY HORSE COLORADO

Dominique Fils-Aimé, vocals, arr.; Jacques Roy, bass; Laurent SaintPierre, drums and percussion; Jean-Michel Frédéric, keys; Étienne Miousse, guitar; Laurence Möller, violin; Kevin Annocque, didgeridoo

Reprise Records 2 599670 (CD). 2019. Neil Young, John Hanlon, prods.; John Hanlon, eng.

Ansoul Records (CD). 2018. Jacques Roy, prod. and eng.; Harris Newman, mastering.

« Montreal-bred Haitian-Canadian singer Dominique Fils-Aimé has

one of those comforter-like voices I want to wrap myself in at the end of a long, hard day: warm, soothing, maternal, but also strong, seductive, and sensuous. What it might lack in absolute power it makes up for in magnetism. An audiophile favorite, 2018’s Nameless is Dominique’s debut LP, whose eight jazz/ soul-straddling, bluestinged gems are performed in an intimate-sounding, reverberant setting. Instrumental accompaniment is sparse and well deﬁned, delivered most noticeably by double bass and percussion, leaving room for Dominique’s closely miked vocal inﬂections and harmonies to pierce straight into your heart.

« The 73-year-old rocker/environmentalist’s ﬁrst studio album with Crazy Horse since 2012’s Psychedelic Pill—and it sounds good to boot—Colorado is a surprisingly optimistic oeuvre

« It’s hard to believe that in her 53rd year, the voice and technique of Cecilia Bartoli, the incomparable coloratura mezzosoprano, remain as fresh, free, and flawless as when I first heard her live 30 years ago. If anything, her range has increased—she spans considerably more than two octaves on this recording of impossibly florid baroque music written for the three-octave range of Italian castrato Farinelli— and her coloratura has smoothed out just enough to make her pinpoint precision seem more natural. Not every aria on this recital may be as artistically exalted as on Bartoli’s recent Vivaldi recital, but her breath-defying spans of rapid-fire notes and ability to shift from boiling fury to tender fragility confirm that she remains the finest exponent of baroque singing on the planet.

populated by charming melodies, vibrant choruses, and fuzz-dripping guitar tones. Lyrically, this album delivers a high quotient of poignancy, as when Neil, in his pleadingangel falsetto, sings of the people he’s lost along the way: “Now I know that they’re here to stay in my heart.” Neil still sings about the environment, but it’s not all bleak. It has also never sounded more relevant. The old hippie wasn’t living in the past; he was ahead of his time.

MAGGIE TEYTE A VOCAL PORTRAIT Maggie Teyte, soprano; various accompanists and orchestras. Naxos 8.110757-58 (2 CDs). 2002. Ward Marston, prod. and eng.

« One of British soprano Maggie Teyte’s claims to fame arrived in

JASON VICTOR SERINUS

CECILIA BARTOLI FARINELLI

Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo-soprano; Il Giardino Armonico, Giovanni Antonini, cond. Decca 4850214 (24/96 download). 2019. Arend Prohmann, prod. and ed.; Philip Siney, eng.

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R2D42020 1908 when, not long after she had “Francosized” her name from Margaret Tate, she spent six months coaching the role of Mélisande with Debussy. Her unique artistry, with its famed downward portamento tinged with sadness, exquisite phrasing, low tones that speak from the depth of her being, and pure highs, was ideal for many of the songs of Debussy, Fauré, and Hahn. After her career stalled in the aftermath of WWI, Teyte re-emerged at age 48 with recordings of 14 songs by Debussy, accompanied by the great Alfred Cortot. All these, along with many more unforgettable performances recorded between 1932 and 1948, ﬁll this anthology, whose superbly remastered sound trumps EMI/ Warner’s efforts. Has anyone ever sounded as nakedly sensual and honest as Teyte when, in her recording with Gerald Moore of Hahn’s love song “L’heure exquise,” she sings “Un vaste et tendre apaisement semble decendre du ﬁrmament . . .” (A vast and tender calm seems to descend from the sky . . .) before rising to a high A on the line “C’est l’heure exquise” (It is the exquisite hour)?

JOHN SWENSON

DAVE BARTHOLOMEW SPIRIT OF NEW ORLEANS: THE GENIUS OF DAVE BARTHOLOMEW EMI USA 07777-80184-21 (2CD). 195062/1992. Dave Bartholomew, prod.; Cosimo Matassa, others, engs.

« “Blue Monday” and “Every Dog Has His Day” are two of the Dave Bartholomew–writtenand-produced classics included here. Bartholomew, one of the R&B maestros who worked their magic at Cosimo Matassa’s

stereophile.com

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J&M studio in the 1950s, had the hottest band in New Orleans (including drummer Earl Palmer and saxophonist Alvin “Red” Tyler) at the same time he was producing legendary singles by Tommy Ridgley, Shirley and Lee, James “Sugar Boy” Crawford, Earl King, Smiley Lewis, and of course Fats Domino. If Gale Storm’s cover of Smiley Lewis’s “I Hear You Knocking” didn’t push this version aside, Smiley might have rivaled Fats on the hit parade. The song later became a hit for Dave Edmunds. The Big Beat is featured in all its glory on this 50song compilation of sides cut for Imperial Records between 1950 and 1962.

THE SAVOY FAMILY BAND TURN LOOSE BUT DON’T LET GO

DRAGONFLY “good,

better, bloody hell!”

“If you have a demonstration of two or more DragonFlys, it takes longer to swap the DACs over than it does to hear the benefits of the Cobalt. Whenever there are three products in a line, there’s a temptation to class them, ‘good, better, best!’ but in this case, it’s, ‘good, better, bloody hell!’

Arhoolie 525 (CD). 2007. The Savoy Family, prod.; Joel Savoy, eng.

The music of Louisiana Acadians, one of the deepest folk traditions in the US, is best expressed in family-band contexts where singers harmonize with instinctive surety and the music is handed down generation to generation. The Savoy Family Band is one of the greatest exponents of this genre, and this 2007 release on roots-music–oriented Arhoolie Records is their crowning achievement, a carefully chosen showcase of great songs from Cajun music history. Fiddler Dennis McGee, a cornerstone of Cajun inﬂuence, is recalled on “Valse Des Reeds,” and “Rosa, Tomorrow Is Not Sunday” is a twinﬁddle performance by Joel and Wilson Savoy. Accordionist Marc and guitarist Ann Savoy play a barnstorming version of the great Amédé Ardoin stomper, “Two Step De Prairie Soileau.” «

“Get one. Now!” —Alan Sircom, HiFi+

DAC + PREAMP + HEADPHONE AMP

THERE ARE BOOKS OF THE HOUR, AND BOOKS OF ALL TIME

BOOK REVIEW

BY JIM AUSTIN THIS ISSUE :

A coffee-table book for audiophiles.

Hi-Fi in pictures A hi-ﬁ history from a high-end perspective

Audio’s changing forms is the subject of Hi-Fi, written by Gideon Schwartz—proprietor of New York City–based audio salon/distribution company Audio Arts—and published by art-book specialists Phaidon, with photos collected from a wide variety of sources. Hi-Fi tells the story—or at least a story—of its titular industry, in mostly well-chosen words and stunning photos. Hi-Fi offers well-known stories and conventional wisdom, especially in depictions of companies and industry figures, but there are some surprising insights. Did you know that the first music-streaming service started in Paris—during the 1880s? Schwartz introduces us to Clément Ader, a selftrained French inventor who filed a patent in 1881 for what he called the “Théâtrophone,” which broadcast music and other performances out to listening stations and homes over phone lines. The technology was exhibited at the first International Exposition of Electricity, which was held in Paris. It was heard there by Victor Hugo. Schwartz writes that Marcel Proust heard it and signed up. The Théâtrophone was a success in Paris and got a foothold in some other European cities. Coming as early as it did, the Théâtrophone was not only the first music-streaming service: It was also, Schwartz writes, the source of “the first domestic audio replay.” It wasn’t a flash in the pan, either. Théâtrophone hung on for decades, fading only when the first form of wi-fi—radio—rendered it obsolete. By the way, in the very same 1881 patent application, Ader invented stereo. You can read all about it in 66

Schwartz’s book. Schwartz’s understanding of the culture of high-end audio ﬁrst becomes apparent on p.13, where he writes, “Edison’s phonograph was a purist’s dream. Recording and playback could not have been more closely intertwined.” Vibrations were recorded on Edison cylinders via a simple mechanical device and read the same way, inverted. Among audiophiles, that kind of immediacy has meaning. Those today who seek high-efﬁciency singledriver speakers, simple tube amps, and low parts counts would understand. However, the simple Edison cylinder was soon superseded by another simple technology: the gramophone. And in Switzerland, music-box maker Thorens soon launched its own version

Prototype for the MartinLogan Monolith, 1982.

of both machines. “Unquestionably Swiss in its micro-precision, sophistication, and elegant functionalism, the company forged the philosophical substrata for all of the country’s future audio firms, as well as paving the way for companies worldwide,” Schwartz writes. Schwartz understands us. By p.18, Schwartz is already up to the 1930s and the creation of the first Zellaton loudspeaker, with its cones made from foil-covered lightweight foam, a construction technique that became an industry standard. (The German company Zellaton is still around—in fact, Schwartz is a Zellaton dealer. Two of the company’s recent loudspeakers are pictured on p.248 of Hi-Fi.) The 1950s were, to Schwartz, a decade of “Industrial Stereo Utopia.” “This industrial emphasis on quality was unique,” Schwartz writes, “since it was unencumbered by later influences such as cheaper manufacturing, Asian imports, planned obsolescence, and creative marketing. It is fair to say that the seeds of high-end audio were firmly planted in the 1950s, and these would yield the cottage high-end 1 See stereophile.com/content/pawelensemblepa-1-amp-reference-loudspeakers

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stereophile.com

PHOTO: MARTINLOGAN, LTD.

he ongoing evolution of hi-ﬁ can be measured in any number of ways. Most obviously, we see that evolution in the technologies associated with our industry: in big breakthroughs—mono to stereo, tubes to transistors, analog to digital—as well as incremental improvements in materials and manufacturing techniques. Those and other reﬁnements bring with them changes in sound quality—hopefully, but not always, improvements—but no less important to the industry are changes in form and design, which mirror developments in art, aesthetics, and fashion.

PHOTOS: TOP, 1STDIBS; RIGHT, BRINKMANN AUDIO GMBH

audio industry that occurred during the 1970s.” Hi-Fi is mainly about audio components as physical objects, and the 1950s “introduced the world to bold simplicity and uncluttered virtuosity in industrial design,” taking cues from Modernism, Schwartz writes. New technology was paired with “austere functionalism,” starting a design trend that continues today. Illustrating this trend are photos of Braun products from Dieter Rams and Hans Gugelot, familiar-looking turntables from EMT, Garrard, and Thorens, components from Fischer, Leak, and Marantz, and loudspeakers from Quad and Acoustic Research. As he browses the decades, Schwartz injects quasi-technical discussions on the nature of sound and philosophical disquisitions on “The Truth About ‘Faithful Reproduction,’” which lay out the debate between those who want accuracy and those who want beautiful sound. The 1960s, for Schwartz, were the years when stereos got sexy. Hi-fi was accepted into the mainstream. New, less techy approaches proliferated. “The hi-fi became an aspirational product as portrayed in films and literature of the time—particularly among younger and more affluent single men.” Hi-fi coverage escaped from audio-geek journals. Playboy perpetuated the idea that every man needs a stereo system and included reviews of new audio components. But in the 1960s, the industry’s economics were also changing. Even as America’s collective wealth grew, and more people entered the hi-fi marketplace, price became more of a consideration, not less. Marantz found it couldn’t make a profit on perfectionist products like its 10 B stereo tuner, undoubtedly the best of its day. Manufacturing shifted from an industrial aesthetic toward mass production. Newer, cheaper materials were used, not only plastic but also silicon. “Many of the early manufacturers that embraced solid state in the 1960s were stereophile.com

February 2020

Project G2 stereo, Hugh Spencer, Clairtone, 1966.

not compelled by sound quality, as tube designs of the day actually offered superior fidelity,” Schwartz writes. Still, gorgeous audio objects were created then, including stereo consoles from Clairtone—I want one!—the aforementioned Marantz 10 B tuner, components from McIntosh, and loudspeakers from Bose, Klipsch, and Tannoy, plus the astonishing JBL Paragon loudspeaker by Arnold Wolf (p.83). Schwartz describes the 1970s as the decade of “The Birth of High-End Audio,” commenting that it “would not be entirely inaccurate” to “label the 1970s as an analog elysian fields.” That may be, but this is where the text starts to lag: It seems that there’s both more to say—more companies to write about—and also less: fewer compelling story lines. After spending several pages on tape—reel-to-reel and cassette— Schwartz moves on to discuss Mark Levinson, Audio Research, Threshold, Linn, Naim, B&W, and the first Magnepans and Infinitys, briefly telling each company’s story and showing some of their products from that era. For Schwartz, the 1980s was the decade of “High-End Audio in Full Bloom.” Electrostatics and ribbon speakers come into their own. There’s even a company I didn’t know about: Swiss Physics. Founded by Mauro del Nobile, Swiss Physics housed its components “in piano-finish lacquered wooden cabinets, and to match the exterior’s execution, the interior technical layout was pure Swiss beau idéal.” And then it’s on to the compact disc player in its various guises, and then to the earliest DACs.

The theme of the 1990s for Schwartz was the “Return of the Vacuum Tube,” featuring amplifiers from Kondo, Audio Note, Jadis, Lamm, Conrad-Johnson, and Fi; horns from Avantgarde and Acapella; and dynamic loudspeakers from Wilson, Sonus Faber, and Celestion. By the time we reach the final chapter, dubbed the “Post-Digital Analog Renaissance,” the text is little more than a series of capsule profiles of the various audio companies—but the photos here document some of the most visually compelling designs in the book. There’s turntable porn from Artisan Fidelity— their modified version of the Garrard 301—and Clearaudio: the Statement and its TT-2 Linear Tracking tonearm. There’s a stunning shot from above of a Brinkmann Balance ’table, and a head-on shot of the magnificently odd R-evolution Meteor Stealth from Serge Schmidlin and Audio Consulting. Several pages cover cartridges, with photos of pick-ups from Koetsu, Miyajima, and Ortofon. The book ends with half a dozen pages of tasty designs from our era, from Soulution, Magico, Zellaton, Thöress, and others. Hi-Fi is a quick, easy, read—especially engaging in the earlier part, from eras when the industry was less crowded and with more room for longer, more engaging stories—with photos you’ll want to linger over. It’s true that, with patience, you could probably discover most of these images and more on the World Wide Web—but who wants to do that? Recommended, for solid writing, much of it interesting, and circa 300 well-reproduced, mostly color images. Q Brinkmann Balance turntable, 33rd ann. edition.

EQUI PMENT RE PO RT

JOHN ATKINSON

Magico M2 LOUDSPEAKER

n a snowy day in March 2019, the ﬁrst room I visited at the Montreal Audio Fest, hosted by retailer Audio by Mark Jones, featured the world premiere of the Magico M2 loudspeaker.1 The soundstaging produced by these elegant towers was palpable, the full-range tonal balance superbly uncolored. Both aspects reminded me of my experience of Magico’s S5 Mk.II loudspeaker, which I reviewed enthusiastically in Stereophile’s February 2017 issue.2 Accordingly, I made a note that the M2 was going on my “must review” list. Seven months later, Magico’s Alon Wolf and Peter Mackay visited to set up a pair of M2s in my listening room.

The M2 . . . . . . costs $56,000/pair plus $7600/pair for the MPod threepoint outrigger bases. Like the S5 Mk.II, the M2 is a threeway, floorstanding design using two woofers in a sealed enclosure (see later). But whereas the S5 Mk.II’s enclosure used aluminum panels mounted on an aluminum space frame, the slightly smaller M2 features gracefully curved, 3/ "-thick side panels formed from multiple layers of carbon8 fiber composite. Magico says that this construction increases the structural strength-to-weight ratio by a factor of 60 compared to machined or extruded aluminum parts, while reducing the overall weight by 50%. The M2’s curved front baffle still comprises two hefty pieces of aluminum attached to an internal skeleton, and three tension rods run from it to a vertical aluminum spine at the speaker’s rear. The M2’s drive-units are all new. The tweeter is the third version of the 28mm unit that Magico originally developed for their “M Project” loudspeaker. Like the 26mm tweeter that was used on the S5, the M2 tweeter’s beryllium diaphragm has a layer of diamond vapor-deposited on it to allow it to operate pistonically to well above the audioband, without compromising the moving mass. The dome has a steep profile, which confers wide dispersion despite its larger-than-normal diameter.

The internal midrange enclosure is similar to the one used in the S5. Formed from a proprietary polymer, it isolates the midrange driver from the woofers’ back wave. The cones of the M2’s 6" midrange driver and 7" woofers use multiple layers of woven carbon-fiber, incorporating graphene, a form of carbon in which the atoms are assembled in a sheet just a few atoms thick that is said to be 100 times stronger than steel. The resulting cone is both light and stiff, pushing breakup modes well above each unit’s operating passband. The midrange driver features a titanium voice-coil and an underhung motor system—a short coil operating in a long magnet gap—to maximize linearity. According to Wolf, all of the M2’s drive-units were designed by Magico. Some are sourced from OEM manufacturers; others are made in-house. The M2’s crossover features Magico’s Elliptical Symmetry Crossover topology. Wolf told me when he visited, “We have been using an elliptical crossover from Day One, which basically allows us to create a 24dB/octave slope with only two legs. So you have less parts in the crossover, less losses. . . . The tricky part with elliptical crossovers is that you need to have precise values; . . . these are not off-the-shelf values, so we have to have custom-made capacitors. But the results are quite desirable. You get the cleanness of the [24dB/octave crossover], yet you get some of the lush, free sound that you get with lower-slope [filters].” Infinite baffles Like all of Magico’s models, the M2 uses a sealed enclosure to load its woofers and, as Art Dudley wrote in his November 2019 Listening column,3 such loudspeakers “are now as rare as tooth fairy sightings in West Virginia.” I asked Wolf why he was one of the few manufacturers to use exclusively 1 See stereophile.com/content/jas-saturday-morning-montreal. 2 See stereophile.com/content/magico-s5-mkii-loudspeaker. 3 See stereophile.com/content/listening-203.

Description Three-way, sealed-box, ﬂoorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1.1" (28mm) diamond-coated beryllium-dome tweeter, 6" (153mm) XG Nanographene–cone midrange unit, two 7" (178mm) XG Nanographene–cone woofers. Crossover frequencies: not

speciﬁed. Frequency range: 26Hz–50kHz. Nominal impedance: 4 ohms. Sensitivity: 88dB/W/m. Minimum recommended power: 50W. Dimensions 45" (1143mm) H × 18" (457mm) W × 17.5" (445mm) D (all with MPod three-point stand). Weight: 165lb (75kg) each (with

MPod stand). Finish Matte black aluminum baffle, top, and base, with gloss-finished carbon-fiber sidewalls. Serial number of review samples 00156/00157, made in the US. Price $56,000/pair; MPod three-point stands cost

$7600/pair. Approximate number of dealers: 35. Warranty: 5 years from date of purchase. Manufacturer Magico, LLC, 3170 Corporate Place, Hayward, CA 94545. Tel: (510) 649-9700. Web: magico.net.

February 2020

stereophile.com

ERIC SWANSON

SPECIFICATIONS

stereophile.com

February 2020

MAGICO M2

sealed enclosures. He responded that while he had experimented with ported enclosures—known as “bass reflex”—early in his career, he quickly realized that it just wasn’t possible to make ported designs work. “Don’t get me wrong,” Wolf explained, “I like some of the aspects of [reflex designs], that big, full, charging bass, which is more difficult to get with a sealed design. But unfortunately, the cost you have to pay for that is too great. What you gain from the sealed alignment is, first of all, your group delay goes down to almost nothing. Everything becomes much clearer, not just in the bass but across the midrange as well. Not having that noise that a port generates, being able to have a linear bass where no note is sticking out, and you start hearing things that you didn’t quite hear before. Once you hear that, it is difficult to go back to a ported design. If you look at the way we hear the world and how we respond—the Fletcher-Munson [equalloudness] curves—you can see why [ported speakers] have a problem. While the sound might seem more natural [at low levels] if you have more bass at low frequencies, because in effect you’ve EQ’d the speakers, as you increase the volume the bass continues to rise as well. It messes up the midrange because the level of the bass is now too high. “And there’s also what people are accustomed to,” Wolf continued. “People are used to ported sound. I cannot tell you how many times when people hear our speakers their first reaction is ‘where is the bass?’ when, in fact, we have more extension in the bottom end than a typical ported design would have. So, even though measurement-wise the sealed enclosure goes lower, it doesn’t necessarily sound like it, because you don’t have that extra oomph at 60Hz or so

that ported designs will give you.” I asked Alon if one reason ported loudspeakers are ubiquitous was that most of the low-frequency drive-units available from OEM suppliers are optimized for reflex designs. “Yes, exactly,” he agreed. “You don’t really see many off-the-shelf drivers designed for [sealed enclosures]. It requires a lot more of a robust design for a woofer to be able to work in a sealed environment. Because you are actually 12dB up at 20Hz [compared with a ported design], it puts a lot of stress on the drivers. Of course the drivers will still work, but your distortion will skyrocket. So unless they actually design and manufacture their own drivers, the go-to [woofers] used by most companies work better in a ported design.” MPods The M2’s MPod three-point stand is said to act as a low-pass filter, coupling low-frequency energy to the floor while dissipating higher-frequency energy as heat. Wolf explained that the objective is always to couple the speaker well to a floor, “especially since with sealed designs, there’s a tremendous amount of pressure inside of the box. You don’t want the box to be moving while that pressure is being generated. Spikes . . . create a very good coupling mechanism. However, a spike is also a tremendous channel for noise. So though spikes prevent speakers from moving, . . . any other noise in the speaker, anything above 300–400Hz, reflects right back into the speaker because there’s no way for that energy to be dissipated. “You do not want to put the speaker directly on softermaterial dampers because they will allow it to move. So how

MAGICO M2

PHOTO: ALON WOLF, MAGICO

do you couple it below a certain frequency, yet let it ﬂoat above a certain frequency? That’s how we came up with the MPods. We use constrained-layer damping to very effectively dissipate highfrequency vibration as heat. Below 300Hz, the speaker sees just a direct contact, there’s no dissipation of any energy. But above that frequency, the constrained-layer damping dissipates the noise.” Setup After making sure the M2s’ tension rods were correctly torqued, Wolf and Mackay started with the speakers in exactly the same positions in my room where the S5 Mk.IIs had worked best. Then, listening to familiar recordings, they moved the M2s in small increments side to side and forward and back until the low bass was well-integrated with the mid and upper bass and the stereo imaging was well-focused and stable. Measured with a Bosch laser tool, the speakers’ front bafﬂes were 75" from the wall behind them and 122" from my listening position;

the left speaker was 53" from the closest sidewall, the right 49" from its sidewall. The big surprise came when, after the optimal speaker positioning had been determined, Mackay installed the three MPods for each speaker and removed the pins that had locked their suspensions. The tightly focused imaging became more palpable, the soundstage ﬂoating free of the loudspeaker locations. While the MPod outrigger bases are not inexpensive, I feel that their use is essential with the M2s. Listening As with all my loudspeaker reviews, I started my critical listening to the M2s using the test tracks I created for my Editor’s Choice CD (Stereophile STPH016-2), using Lamm M1.2 monoblock ampliﬁers. The M2s reproduced the 1/3 -octave warble tones with full weight and minimal distortion down to the 50Hz band, with a slight reduction in level for the 40Hz band. The 32Hz tone was boosted by the

MAGICO M2

lowest-frequency mode in my room, the 25Hz warble was just audible, but I couldn’t hear the 20Hz tone at my normal listening level. The halfstep–spaced low-frequency tonebursts on this CD spoke very cleanly down to 32Hz, with no emphasis of any of the tones and without any of the aliasing-like pre-echo I sometime hear with other speakers. When I listened to the cabinet walls of both speakers with a stethoscope while these tones played, I could hear some liveliness between 600Hz and 800Hz. The dual-mono pink noise track on Editor’s Choice sounded hollow if I stood up but evenly balanced, uncolored, and smooth when I sat with my ears level with the M2s’ tweeters, which are 38.5" from the ﬂoor. The pink noise sounded mellower than it had with the Q Acoustics Concept 300s that I reviewed in the January 2020 issue, but the central image of the noise signal was appropriately narrow and stable. Stable, accurate stereo imaging was a consistent feature during my auditioning of the M2s. I have been a fan of

pianist Mitsuko Uchida since Stereophile’s then-publisher Larry Archibald and I saw her performing at London’s Royal Festival Hall the February 1986 night we sealed the deal on my replacing J. Gordon Holt as the magazine’s editor. A recent purchase was Ms. Uchida’s live 2010 Beethoven Piano Concerto cycle with Simon Rattle conducting the Berlin Philharmonic (24/48 FLAC ﬁles, Berliner Philharmoniker BPHR 180241). I have many performances of the “Emperor” concerto in my library, but this powerful performance has taken pride of place. The M2s presented an upfront image of the piano—I suspect that that is how it was recorded—with the orchestra set farther back in the soundstage within a somewhat reticent dome of ambience. Each piano note at the hushed start of the concerto’s second movement was precisely and unambiguously positioned in space. What was unusual about the M2’s imaging was that it was preserved even when I was sitting at my desk to the left of my listening seat. Yes, Uchida’s piano moved to the left, but

MEASUREMENTS

ampliﬁer. This, and the combination of 3.2 ohms and –54.5° at 60Hz, means the M2 will be a demanding load. The single impedance peak at 40Hz indicates that this is the tuning frequency of the M2’s woofers. The reduction in impedance above the audioband, in combination with an increasingly negative phase angle, is unusual. Loudspeakers typically have a rising magnitude in this region coupled with an increasingly positive phase angle, these both due to the tweeter’s voice-coil inductance. The traces in ﬁg.1 are free from the small discontinuities that would imply

resonances. When I investigated the enclosure’s vibrational behavior with a plastic-tape accelerometer, with the speaker sitting on its MPod stands, I found that there was a low-level mode at 797Hz on the sidewalls.1 The relatively high frequency and Q (Quality Factor) make it unlikely that this mode will have any audible consequences. The blue trace in ﬁg.3 shows the woofers’ summed nearﬁeld response. (Both woofers behaved identically.) 1 This graph was not taken with MLSSA, so the Y-axis level is not calibrated. It cannot be compared with cabinet vibrational cumulative spectral-decay plots in other Stereophile loudspeaker reviews.

Stereophile Magico M2 Impedance (ohms) & Phase (deg) vs Frequency (Hz)

Fig.1 Magico M2, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical div.).

Fig.2 Magico M2, cumulative spectral-decay plot calculated from output of accelerometer fastened to center of sidewall level with midrange unit (MLS driving voltage to speaker, 4V; measurement bandwidth, 2kHz).

February 2020

stereophile.com

PHOTO: ALON WOLF, MAGICO

used DRA Labs’ MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Magico M2’s frequency response in the farfield, and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield and in-room responses. The 165lb loudspeaker was too bulky to move outside for testing or to lift onto my computer-controlled turntable. I therefore had to do the quasi-anechoic measurements in my listening room, where the proximity of room boundaries led to more aggressive windowing of the time-domain data than usual, which in turn reduced the graphs’ resolution in the midrange. Although Magico specifies the M2’s sensitivity as 88dB/W/m, my estimate was slightly lower, at 86dB(B)/2.83V/m. The M2’s impedance is specified as 4 ohms. My measurements indicated that the impedance magnitude (fig.1, solid trace) was close to 4 ohms in the midrange but drops to 2.3 ohms between 74Hz and 88Hz. The electrical phase angle (dashed trace) reaches –71° at 50Hz. Although the magnitude at this frequency is 6.5 ohms, this phase angle significantly increases the current needed from the

FOR EVERY ARGUMENT, THEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S A SOLUTION. The MA352 Integrated Amplifier is a hybrid design that combines the finest of vacuum tube and solid state audio design principles. The result is an eye-catching amplifier that enjoys the best of these two opposing audio philosophies all while reproducing music at the highest quality level.

www.mcintoshlabs.com

MAGICO M2

I could still perceive sufficient stereo spread of the Berlin orchestra when sitting off-axis. I have only experienced this phenomenon before with some minimonitors. That a tower like the Magico can do this is a tribute to its dispersion and even tonal balance. The M2 may feature sealed-box woofers, but the low frequencies were weighty when appropriate. The orchestral basses in the Uchida “Emperor” sounded suitably rich but without sacrificing articulation. The solo double bass on “Come Together” from Musica Nuda’s Live à Fip (16/44.1 Tidal FLAC stream, BHM Productions) was reproduced with excellent weight, as was my Fender bass guitar on the channel ID and phasing tracks on Editor’s Choice. Both instruments also benefited from the M2’s superb low-frequency clarity. Staying with Simon Rattle, I was streaming his Sibelius Symphony No.5 with the Berliners (16/44.1 Tidal FLAC stream, Berliner Philharmoniker) when I realized just how transparent the M2’s low-frequency reproduction was. At 4:30 in the third and final movement, to echo the ambiguous tonality of the symphony, Sibelius has the double basses, normally used by composers to provide a solid foundation to the harmony taking place above, playing divisi two notes that “fight,” G-flat and F natural. At 6:20, the composer does the same thing, but now the contrarian notes are E-flat and F.

With many speakers, especially those with an underdamped reflex alignment, while I would be aware that there was something sour with the apparently muddy bass writing, it took a look at the orchestral score to comprehend what I was hearing. With the Magicos, the score is unnecessary. You hear the discord as Sibelius intended: two low notes very close in frequency but far enough apart in pitch to be distinguished. This double-bass discord is something I hear in real life but not often as clearly with recordings as it was reproduced by the Magicos. Toward the end of the five weeks I had the M2s in my system, I had to prepare the CD master for the Portland State Chamber Choir’s second album of works by contemporary Latvian composer Ɯriks Ešenvalds, Translation, which is scheduled to be released by Naxos in March. Doug Tourtelot and I had recorded the original sessions at 24/96. I therefore needed to audition the various noise-shaping options and sample-rate conversion filters offered by my dCS 972 processor, in order to preserve as much as possible of the hi-rez album’s resolution. The Magico M2’s transparency and its lack of coloration were a boon when it came to this task. They allowed me to make a clear choice which processing options worked best. This transparency was maximized by the MPod stands, which made me suspect that Wolf was correct when he said

measurements, continued

this measurement with the Dayton OmniMic system as well as with FuzzMeasure using the Earthworks QTC-40 microphone. While the OmniMic system is limited to 20kHz, the Earthworks has a 40kHz bandwidth. The FuzzMeasure measurement with the QTC-40 conﬁrmed that the M2’s response rises again above 20kHz, with a small peak present at 22.5kHz and a higher-level peak close to 35kHz. I understand that with a tweeter using a pistonic hard dome with a high-Q, high-amplitude, ultrasonic resonance, there will be a lack of energy in the region below that resonance. Fig.4 shows the Magico’s horizontal dispersion, referenced to the

response on the tweeter axis, which thus appears as a straight line. The contour lines in this graph are evenly spaced throughout the midrange and treble, implying stable stereo imaging, and, commendably, the M2’s on-axis balance in the treble is maintained to >30° to the sides. In the vertical plane (ﬁg.5), a suckout starts to develop in the crossover region 15° above the tweeter axis. Even so, the M2 maintains its tweeter-axis balance over a wide ±10° vertical window. The red trace in ﬁg.6 shows the M2s’ spatially averaged response in my room. This is generated by averaging 20 1/6 -octave–smoothed spectra, taken for the left and right speakers

Fig.4 Magico M2, lateral response family at 50", normalized to response on tweeter axis, from back to front: differences in response 45–5° off axis, reference response, differences in response 5–45° off axis.

Fig.5 Magico M2, vertical response family at 50", normalized to response on tweeter axis, from back to front: differences in response 15–5° above axis, reference response, differences in response 5–10° below axis.

Amplitude in dB

The slight peak in the bass is almost entirely due to the nearfield measurement technique, which assumes that the drive-unit is firing into half-space rather than in all directions. The woofers cross over to the midrange unit (red trace) just below 300Hz, with a fast rolloff that is peak-free. The Magico’s farfield response, averaged across a 30° horizontal window centered on the tweeter axis, is shown as the green trace above 300Hz in fig.3. The balance is superbly flat and even, though with a slight excess of energy in the upper midrange. Unusually, the M2’s output in the top audio octave slopes gently down before starting to rise again above 20kHz. I repeated

Frequency in Hz

Fig.3 Magico M2, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50", averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response (green), with the nearfield responses of the midrange unit (red) and woofers (blue) respectively plotted below 350Hz and 700Hz.

stereophile.com

February 2020

MAGICO M2

that these dissipate noise, which will reduce noise modulation. When there’s no music, there is no noise, of course. But when there is music, the noise rides on top of it. This noise might be at a low level, but listeners are more sensitive to it than the level would suggest because it’s correlated with the music. Conclusion It has been said about loudspeakers that “A good big’un always beats a good little’un!” While the speakers I have purchased and used for much of my critical listening over the past 40 years have been good little’uns—Rogers LS3/5a’s, Celestion SL600s, Bowers & Wilkins Silver Signatures, KEF LS50s—there are still good big’uns that catch my ears and that I would be happy to live with. Magico’s M2 joins that exclusive club—if I could afford them. Yes, this is an expensive loudspeaker, even without the mandatory MPod bases. However, this level of quality, not just of sound but also of construction, has never been cheap, as you will appreciate watching the 2018 video “How To Build A Magico Loudspeaker in 10 Easy Steps.”4 The M2 is a loudspeaker designed and manufactured by craftsmen, to be appreciated by well-heeled music lovers. Q

A S S O C I AT E D E Q U I P M E N T Analog source Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge, Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier. Digital sources Roon Nucleus+ file server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream and Chord DAVE D/A processors, Chord Hugo M Scaler upsampler, Ayre QA-9 A/D converter. Power amplifiers Lamm Industries M1.2 Reference monoblocks. Integrated amplifier NAD M10. Cables Digital: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), AudioQuest Coffee (USB), DH Labs (1m, AES/EBU). Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue (balanced) with Lamms, AudioQuest Fire (single-ended, with NAD). Speaker: AudioQuest K2. AC: AudioQuest Dragon Source & High Current, manufacturers’ own. Accessories Target TT-5 equipment racks; Ayre Acoustics Myrtle Blocks; ASC Tube Traps, RPG Abffusor panels; AudioQuest Niagara 5000 Low-Z Power/Noise-Dissipation System. AC power comes from two dedicated 20A circuits, each just 6' from breaker box. —John Atkinson

4 See youtube.com/watch?v=r5OMquMru3Y.

measurements, continued

Frequency in Hz

Fig.6 Magico M2, spatially averaged, 1/6 -octave response in JA’s listening room (red), of the Magico S5 Mk.II (blue), and of the Q Acoustics Concept 300 (green).

stereophile.com

Magico designs is very similar in the bass and midrange, though the M2 and the Concept 300 have slightly greater output between 600Hz and 1kHz than the S5 Mk.II has. The M2 has less energy between 1kHz and 2kHz than the other two speakers have, though all three behave similarly in the low to mid-treble. The slightly sloped-down output above 7kHz of both Magico speakers is due to the increased absorptivity of the room’s furnishings at higher frequency, though the M2 produces less energy above 13kHz in-room than the S5 Mk.II. By contrast, the Q Acoustics speaker has signiﬁcantly more top-octave output than the two pairs of Magicos have. In the time domain, the M2’s step response (ﬁg.7) indicates that all four

drive-units are connected in positive acoustic polarity. The decay of the tweeter’s step, which arrives ﬁrst at the microphone, smoothly blends with the start of the midrange unit’s step, the decay of which blends smoothly with the start of the woofers’ step. This time-coherent behavior suggests optimal crossover implementation. The Magico M2’s cumulative spectraldecay plot (ﬁg.8) is superbly clean overall, though with some low-level delayed energy apparent at the top of the midrange unit’s passband. As with the other Magico loudspeakers Stereophile has reviewed, the M2 offers excellent measured performance. —John Atkinson 2 See stereophile.com/content/magico-s5-mkiiloudspeaker-measurements.

Data in Volts

Amplitude in dB

individually using a 96kHz sample rate, in a vertical rectangular grid 36" wide by 18" high and centered on the positions of my ears. For reference, the blue trace shows the spatially averaged response of the Magico S5 Mk.II that I reviewed in February 2017,2 while the green trace is the spatially averaged response of the Q Acoustics Concept 300 I reviewed in the January 2020 issue. (Because the Q Acoustics’ response was taken with the NAD M10 ampliﬁer, which digitizes its analog inputs at 44.kHz, the green trace drops like a stone above 20kHz.) While performing these measurements, I noticed that the responses at the listening position of the two M2s matched very closely above 900Hz. The in-room response of the two

February 2020

Time in ms

Fig.7 Magico M2, step response on tweeter axis at 50" (5ms time window, 30kHz bandwidth).

Fig.8 Magico M2, cumulative spectral-decay plot on tweeter axis at 50" (0.15ms risetime).

EQUI PMENT RE PO RT

JIM AUSTIN

Audio Research Reference 160 S POWER AMPLIFIER

his, our February issue, is the first Stereophile issue to arrive during the year 2020, which marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of Audio Research—in my view one of the key events in the history of high-end audio. So it makes sense for this issue to include an Audio Research review—in this case, of the $20,000 Reference 160 S stereo amplifier. Following an auspicious start, hi-fi in the ’60s got complicated. It went backward by going forward. Hi-fi expanded to reach a larger audience. But it did so partly by going mid-fi, with a focus on style, convenience, and broad appeal. Technological advances also took hi-fi back. Believe what you want Is honesty aligned of-the-art in music reproduction,” David Gordon, about today’s tube-vs-transistors Audio Research’s current brand ambassador, wrote with beauty or debate: Back then it was no contest. to me in an email. “He did this through innovative “Solid state” audio—remember that new circuit design combined with new transformopposed to it? trademark on all those cheap plastic er and custom parts designs.” For a company to radios?—made things smaller, lighter, sleeker, and cooler— design its own internal parts was unusual—and remains so— that last one in both senses of the word—but it damaged as was the notion that specific capacitor and wiring choices sound quality. And yet, even though transistors were not could affect the sound of an amplifier. ARC would soon be ready for audio prime time, tubed electronics already were designing its own capacitors, wire, and transformers. looking like yesterday’s technology. Also new was the idea that measurements should not be That was the world Audio Research Corporation (ARC) the final arbiter—that the best way to hear things was with was born into. From the start, ARC and its founder, Wilour ears: another idea Johnson advocated. liam Zane Johnson, embodied values that have come to be The ARC Reference series embedded in high-end audio’s fundamental ethos. “As an engineer, [Johnson] believed each product must have “Bill’s goal was simple: to constantly advance the state-

SPECIFICATIONS Description Fully balanced, class-AB tubed stereo power ampliﬁer. Tube complement: four KT150 (output), two 6H30 (gain stage) per channel. Inputs: unbalanced (RCA), balanced (XLR). Three sets of speaker output taps: 4, 8, 16 ohms. Output power: 140Wpc continuous, 20Hz–20kHz (21.5dBW). Frequency response: 0.5Hz–

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110kHz –3dB at 1W. Power bandwidth: –3dB at 5Hz and 70kHz,. Input sensitivity: 2.4V RMS balanced for rated output (25.5dB gain into 8 ohms). Input impedance: 300k ohms balanced, 100k ohms single-ended. Output regulation: ca 0.6dB into 16 ohm load to open circuit (damping factor: ca 14). Overall negative feedback:

14dB. Slew rate: 13V/μs. Rise time: 2.0μs. Power requirements: 400W at rated output, 260W at idle, 1W off. Dimensions 19" (483mm) W × 10.25” (260mm) H × 21.5" (546mm) D; with handles, 24" (610mm) D. Weight: 100 lb (25.5kg) net, 73.2 lb (45.4kg) shipping. Serial number of unit

reviewed 51780. Price $20,000. Approximate number of dealers: 60. Manufacturer Audio Research Corp., 6655 Wedgwood Road N., Suite 115, Maple Grove, MN 55311. Tel: (763) 577-9700. Fax: (763) 577-0323. Web: audioresearch.com.

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AUDIO RESEARCH REFERENCE 160 S

good specifications as a foundation, but good specifications alone did not assure good sound quality,” Gordon’s email continued. “As a pianist, Bill wanted to replicate the sound of live music, which required wide bandwidth and big power supplies with lots of regulation. Audio Research tube products were not meant to act as euphonic filters; they were meant to be transparent, with great bandwidth, and the regulated power supplies allowed the micro- and macrodynamics to bring music to life.” Over the years, Audio Research has produced many amplification products, but a handful stand out, most of all, perhaps, the Dual 150 “High Definition” stereo amplifier, from 1975. The D-150 weighed 115lb, and, with its meters, knobs, and front-panel fuse holders, resembled a piece of precision scientific equipment. Sonically, too, the D-150 aspired to precision—to precise reproduction of the input signal. The notion that precision and musicality are aligned, not opposed, was one of Johnson’s key commitments. J. Gordon Holt apparently was convinced. Writing in Stereophile, he described the D-150 as sounding like “Nothing. Nothing at all. If it has any sound of its own at all, we were unable to hear it, on the most revealing speaker systems we could round up.” This was the tube amplifier that, more than any other I’m aware of in the whole history of hi-fi, made the case that sonic accuracy and not a euphonic, romanticized presentation was the route to musical enjoyment. It also helped make the case that transistor-based amplifiers

weren’t gettin’ the job done circa 1975. The D-150’s high aspirations were clear from the product brochure: “Only a few audiophiles will pay the price for a product that is ‘state-of-the-art’ in performance and quality.” No surprise: In his review of the D-150, JGH called its price—$2685, or about $13,000 in today’s dollars— ”murderous.” Sounds like a statement product to me. But at some point over the next 20 years—perhaps as they began to consider the introduction of the new Reference series—a new theme emerged at Audio Research. In a 1994 Stereophile interview1 with then–Technical Editor Robert Harley, Bill Johnson said that it hadn’t made sense to make a no-holds-barred product until a reliable supply of high-quality tubes could be secured. That had happened the previous year, when a Russian version of the 6550C tube was (re)introduced. Two years after that, Audio Research released its first Reference-series component, the Reference 600. If the price of the D-150 was murderous, the Reference 600 monoblock was a Gatling gun. A pair of Reference 600 monoblocks cost $29,990/pair, about $50,000 in today’s dollars. Circa 2020, there may be much more expensive amplifiers on the market—including the $170,000/pair darTZeel monoblocks we put on the cover of our December issue—but in 1995 that was an impressive price. (That year’s Stereophile Amplification Component of the Year was another Audio 1 See stereophile.com/interviews/894z/index.html.

MEASUREMENTS

s with the Audio Research Reference 160 M amplifier that was reviewed in the October 2018 issue of Stereophile,1 measuring the Reference 160 S was a complicated business. The amplifier has balanced and singleended inputs, output stages that can be run in either triode or Ultralinear mode, and three output-transformer taps. In effect, it is 12 different amplifiers. I performed full sets of tests using the balanced inputs in both triode and Ultralinear modes from the 4 ohm, 8 ohm, and 16 ohm output taps, then

repeated some of the tests using the single-ended inputs. After I installed the tubes, I used the Tube Check button on the front panel to make sure all was well with the eight KT150 beam tetrode output tubes; the four LEDs for each channel illuminated green, indicating no problems. I tested the REF 160 S with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”2). As with the REF 160 M, the ampliﬁer’s voltage gain at 1kHz into 8 ohms depended on the input, mode, and output tap. Using the balanced inputs and Ultralinear

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Fig.1 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 8 ohm tap, frequency response at 2.83V into: simulated loudspeaker load (gray), 8 ohms (left channel blue, right red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta), 2 ohms (green) (1dB/vertical div.).

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mode, I measured 26.4dB from the 16 ohm tap, 24.2dB from the 8 ohm tap, and 21.5dB from the 4 ohm tap. In triode mode, these gains were all 0.5dB lower and, as with the monoblock amplifier, the unbalanced inputs offered 6dB more gain than the balanced inputs. The amplifier’s balanced inputs preserved absolute polarity (ie, were noninverting) with both output modes 1 See stereophile.com/content/audio-researchreference-160m-monoblock-power-amplifiermeasurements. 2 See stereophile.com/asweseeit/108awsi/index. html.

Fig.2 Audio Research REF 160 S, Ultralinear mode, 8 ohm tap, frequency response at 2.83V into: simulated loudspeaker load (gray), 8 ohms (left channel blue, right red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta), 2 ohms (green) (1dB/vertical div.).

Fig.3 Audio Research REF 160 S, Ultralinear mode, 16 ohm tap, small-signal 10kHz squarewave into 8 ohms.

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AUDIO RESEARCH REFERENCE 160 S

Research amplifier, the much cheaper—$11,990/pair—VT150 monoblock.) 2020, then, isn’t just Audio Research’s 50th anniversary; it’s also the 25th anniversary of the company’s Reference line. And the product I’m reviewing—the Reference 160 S—is that line’s newest component. This is its worldwide review debut. And while it’s hardly inexpensive at $20,000, in a historical context it looks like a relative bargain. Plus ça change The 160 S has an antecedent that’s much more immediate than the D-150 or even the Reference 600: the Reference 160 M reviewed by Jason Victor Serinus in Stereophile’s October 2018 issue.2 In fact, the 160 S is so like the 160 M— or, rather, like two of them stuffed into one chassis—that I considered writing this piece as a Follow-Up review. But stuffing two channels in one chassis is a nontrivial exercise, and there’s a lot to say about the 160 S. So I decided to write a full review. Audio Research has stuffed two 160s in a case that’s only a little bit larger than one 160 M case—the same width and height, but 3" deeper. Those extra inches make the 160 S exceptionally deep: With the added rear handles, the 160 S extends 24" front to back. That shape gives it a unique look and could create placement challenges. Before you buy, figure out where you’re going to put it. You may need to acquire an extra-deep component rack or amplifier stand (although the feet will sit on a normal 21” stand). Otherwise, there are few important differences between

the M and the S. The M, of course, has a separate power supply for each channel, and separate power cords, whereas there is one power transformer in the 160 S and one power cord.3 The output transformers are mounted higher up on the S than they are on the M, to make room for some extra power supply capacitors underneath. Also, here, the transformers are covered by a perforated metal cage—not so on the monoblock version. The M version has handles only on the front, but the S version adds handles on the back to help with handling the longer, heavier, back-heavy product. Some owners of the 160 M have learned that they can get away with leaving the cooling fan turned off, as long as they keep the cover off so that heat can dissipate quickly. The S version, though, with twice as many tubes in about the same area, requires fans; there is no “off” position. I was able to keep the 160 S’s two fans on “low” throughout my listening, however, and I didn’t once hear them. Perhaps the most important difference between the 160 S and the 160 M is the price: A pair of monoblocks will set you back $30,000, but when you buy the single-chassis version, you get the same features, same power, and nearly the same performance—“sonically they’re very close,” Gordon told me—for $20,000. Buy one channel, get the second 2 See stereophile.com/content/audio-research-reference-160m-monoblockpower-ampliﬁer. 3 The 160 S’s single power cord is thick, apparently well-shielded—and terminated on the ampliﬁer end with a “C19” IEC connector. Gordon told me they chose the C19 connector because it “makes a very solid chassis connection and sounds better than the C15”—C15 is the standard IEC connection used by almost all other audio components. This is something to keep in mind if you’re accustomed to using aftermarket power cords, since the standard ones won’t work here.

measurements, continued

and from all output taps. However, the unbalanced inputs inverted polarity. The balanced input impedance was usefully high at >220k ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz, dropping to 192k ohms at 20kHz. The unbalanced input impedance was 49k ohms at low and middle frequencies, dropping to a still-high 26k ohms at the top of the audioband. The REF 160 S’s output impedance depended on mode and output tap. In triode mode from the 8 ohm tap, the impedance ranged from 0.7 ohm at 20Hz to 0.8 ohm at 1kHz and 1.1 ohms

at 20kHz. The impedance was higher from the 16 ohm tap, ranging from 1.1 to 2 ohms, and lower from the 4 ohm tap, ranging from 0.42 to 1.1 ohms. The output impedances were all slightly higher in Ultralinear mode, but even so, for a tube ampliﬁer, the REF 160 S has a commendably low output impedance in all of its modes. Consequently, the modulation of the ampliﬁer’s frequency response, due to the Ohm’s law interaction between this source impedance and the impedance of our standard simulated loudspeaker,3 was

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relatively small, at ±0.7dB (figs.1 & 2, gray traces). Fig.1 was taken in triode mode from the 8 ohm tap; the behavior from this tap in Ultralinear mode (fig.2) was almost identical, though a small ultrasonic peak can be seen into 8 ohms (blue and red traces). In both modes, the response into 8 ohms (figs.1 & 2, blue and red traces) was flat in the midrange, with a slight tilt-down in the treble that became more pronounced 3 See stereophile.com/content/real-life-measurements-page-2.

Fig.4 Audio Research REF 160 S, Ultralinear mode, 4 ohm tap, small-signal 10kHz squarewave into 8 ohms.

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Fig.5 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 8 ohm tap, spectrum of 1kHz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 1W into 8 ohms (left channel blue, right red, linear frequency scale).

Fig.6 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 16 ohm tap, distortion (%) vs 1kHz continuous output power into 16 ohms.

AUDIO RESEARCH REFERENCE 160 S

channel at 50% off. The things that set both Reference 160 models apart from their Reference-series forebears are far more significant than the differences between the S and the M. To wit: k The 160 power supply is more robust. k Those house-made passive components have been tweaked for better sound. That includes transformers, which are made to spec by a domestic company; some of these have been improved compared to previous Reference-series parts. k The auto-bias circuit has been updated, resulting, Gordon says, in longer tube life and, it is claimed, better sonics due to a reduction in residual DC currents in the output transformer. k Gordon told me that the 160 M and 160 S both use a new, four-layer circuit board, “which allows for more optimal signal routing, with a smaller footprint, and less noise, thanks to the separate ground plane.” k A single-ended (RCA) input has been added—a first for an ARC Reference-series amplifier. k The 160 M and 160 S amps are the first Audio Research amplifiers to allow switching between triode and Ultralinear operation. Those early ARC amplifiers, especially the D-150, could be tricky to use. It was necessary to bias the tubes, of course, but D-150 users also had to select, via a front-panel knob, the correct AC operating voltage for their locale—the setting closest to but not lower than the actual voltage going into the amp, which was displayed on the middle of three meters. In contrast, using the Reference 160 S could hardly be

simpler. You, or your dealer, must install the tubes—and then there’s almost nothing else to do, other than to replace them every few thousand hours.4 Back-panel mechanical toggle switches let you set the fan speed, activate the autooff feature (which, when activated, turns the amp off after two hours with no signal, extending tube life), and choose between the balanced (XLR) and unbalanced (RCA) inputs. You can read the number of hours your tubes have been in use from a recessed back-panel LCD display. On the front panel, you can set the brightness of the lit-up power meters or turn those lights off completely. You can push the Tube Monitor button to check tube operation: If all is well, eight green lights light up on the front panel, one for each KT150 tube. And then there is the big decision: triode or Ultralinear? Tube-audio experts, please indulge me while I brieﬂy explain what this means. The KT150 tube is a tetrode, which means it has two grids instead of just one as in a triode. You can turn it into a triode by electrically connecting the screen grid—the grid closest to the plate—to the plate. Alternatively, you can apply a constant voltage to the screen grid and you have pentode operation, used by many Audio Research ampliﬁers. In Ultralinear mode, a smaller (lower-voltage) version of the audio signal is taken from a tap on the output transformer primary winding and applied to the second grid. The keys to Ultralinear operation are choosing just the right signal level to apply and choosing precisely where on that 4 ARC says the KT-150s should be replaced every 3000 hours, and the 6H30s every 4000. There’s an hour meter around back.

measurements, continued

as the load impedance fell. In the worst case, with the 8 ohm tap driving 2 ohms (figs.1 & 2, green traces) or the 16 ohm tap driving 4 ohms (not shown), the output was down by 2dB at 20kHz. This is associated with slightly lengthened risetimes with the amplifier’s reproduction of a 10kHz squarewave under these conditions (fig.3). A small overshoot can be seen when the load impedance is higher than the nominal tap impedance (fig.4). This correlates with the small ultrasonic peak in the frequency response in fig.2, but the squarewave is free from ringing.

Fig.7 Audio Research REF 160 S, Ultralinear mode, 8 ohm tap, distortion (%) vs 1kHz continuous output power into 8 ohms.

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Channel separation was excellent, at >90dB in both directions below 2kHz, falling to an okay 66dB at the top of the audioband. Measured at the 8 ohm taps and taken with the unbalanced inputs shorted to ground, the ampliﬁer’s unweighted, wideband signal/noise ratio was 82dB, ref. 1W into 8 ohms, this ratio improving to 89.2dB when the measurement was A-weighted. The S/N ratios were about 2.5dB higher from the 4 ohm taps and 2dB lower from the 16 ohm taps, this behavior correlating with the respectively lower and greater gains from these taps.

February 2020

Spuriae at the 60Hz power-supply frequency and its harmonics were present in the REF 160 S’s noise floor at low levels but were a little higher in the left channel (fig.5, blue trace) than the right (red). The REF 160 S is specified as delivering up to 70W into 8 ohms (18.45dBW) in triode mode and 140W into 8 ohms (21.5dBW) in Ultralinear mode. Using our definition of clipping, which is when the output’s percentage of THD+noise reaches 1%, the amplifier with both channels driven in triode mode with a 1kHz signal clipped

Fig.8 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 8 ohm tap, distortion (%) vs 1kHz continuous output power into 8 ohms.

Fig.9 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 8 ohm tap, distortion (%) vs 1kHz continuous output power into 4 ohms.

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AUDIO RESEARCH REFERENCE 160 S

coil—usually expressed as a percentage—you want the tap. Get those things right and distortion is minimized. Ultralinear is a form of feedback. The other big advantage to Ultralinear operation is that you get more power. The 160 is specified to put out twice as much—140W—in Ultralinear mode than in triode mode, where it is specified at 70W. To invoke a cliché, triode is for your right brain and Ultralinear is for your left. Triode sound is sweeter and rounder, while Ultralinear sound is punchier, and perhaps more extended. “Most will default to Ultralinear and use triode on certain recordings,” Gordon told me. That’s all the adjustments it is possible to make. The Reference 160 S is not really an amp to play with. It’s an amp to listen to . . . and also to look at, because the Reference 160 S is lovely in an uncommon way—unique in my experience except for its untwinned twin, the 160 M. I don’t know if they were thinking about it this way—I kind of doubt it—but to me, visually, the 160 S is a slightly arch, minimalist riff on what Audio Research amps are supposed to look like. With its pale faceplate and starlit power meters—all silver and white light—there’s a heavenly austerity to it that complements its sound. Fairy dust. That sound I wonder what Bill Johnson would think of today’s transistor amplifiers. You’ve probably heard this before, but Bill wasn’t against transistors—his company built amplifiers out of them for years—he just didn’t think they sounded as good as tubes do. He acknowledged during his lifetime that transistor amps had gotten better.

Johnson also made the point, from the company’s earliest days, that Audio Research doesn’t make euphonic tube amps. He claimed to be aiming for honest, accurate, undistorted sound. So I wonder, if he were still around, how he would judge the Reference 160 S’s performance against that of any of a number of very good solid-state amplifiers that, like the Reference 160 S, defy sonic clichés. I started my listening with that question in mind. Weeks ago, I de-crated the 160 S, added the tubes, and hooked it up to my system. I left it in as we—the amp and I—got used to each other. Finally, I got down to business. I put on the first movement of Mahler’s Symphony No.2 with Benjamin Zander and the Philharmonia Orchestra (Linn Records, 24/192 ALAC download). I turned up the volume to the lowest point where I could hear the quietest passages distinctly. This recording has such a wide dynamic range that, at this volume setting, the loudest passages were over 95dB. At this volume, with the amplifier in triode mode, with these 86dB/W/m speakers, during the loudest peaks, the needles drifted into the “caution” zone and occasionally beyond. This amp should have been at or near clipping, according to the meters, but I heard only the same relaxed clarity. The soundstage was deep, rising toward the back as if the orchestra was on, well, risers. It’s difficult to articulate the change I heard when I switched the Reference 160 S from triode to Ultralinear. I did not hear more bass extension. There was, I suppose, a touch more air. Articulation and detail may have been a touch better set to Ultralinear—I felt I was now hearing a suggestion of individual instruments within an instrumen-

measurements, continued

at 70W when the load was matched to the output transformer tap (fig.6). The clipping power in Ultralinear mode was at least 140W, again when the load and output tap were matched (fig.7). Less power was available when the load was not matched to the nominal transformer tap. In triode mode from the 8 ohm tap, the REF 160 S clipped at 70W into 8 ohms (fig.8) but at 61W into 4 ohms (14.8dBW, fig.9). With the worst mismatching, the REF 160 S clipped at 31W

8 ohms, 10W into 4 ohms, and 20W into 2 ohms. The THD+N was very low in the midrange into 16 ohms from the 16 ohm tap in Ultralinear mode (ﬁg.10, gray trace), but rose both at higher frequencies and into lower impedances. The THD+N was very high in level across the audioband from the 16 ohm tap into 4 ohms (cyan and magenta traces); the ampliﬁer is being driven into clipping above 8kHz at 10W into 4 ohms. The distortion

Fig.10 Audio Research REF 160 S, Ultralinear mode, 16 ohm tap, THD+N (%) vs frequency at 6.3V into: 16 ohms (left channel gray), 8 ohms (left blue, right red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta).

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(11.9dBW) from the 16 ohm tap driving 4 ohms and 26W (8.1dBW) from the 4 ohm tap driving 2 ohms, in both triode and Ultralinear modes. As with the REF 160 M, the upward slope of the traces in ﬁgs. 6–9 suggests that the REF 160 S uses only a modest amount of loop negative feedback. I examined how the percentage of THD+noise changed with frequency at 6.33V, which is equivalent to 2.5W into 16 ohms, 5W into

February 2020

Fig.11 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 4 ohm tap, THD+N (%) vs frequency at 6.3V into: 16 ohms (left channel green), 8 ohms (left blue, right red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta), 2 ohms (left gray).

Fig.12 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 8 ohm tap, 1kHz waveform at 5W into 8 ohms, 0.127% THD+N (top); distortion and noise waveform with fundamental notched out (bottom, not to scale).

AUDIO RESEARCH REFERENCE 160 S

tal section. (“You’re the best one in your row!”) Punchier? Maybe, but not obviously so. In triode mode there was a ﬁne velvet, burnished beauty. In Ultralinear, voices and instruments had pure, penetrating edge and the music was more explicit—but the sound was just as lovely. What was happening sonically? There was obviously a little more top-end energy in Ultralinear. I don’t consider my other sonic observations trustworthy because they’re tainted by my expectations. (Was there more secondharmonic distortion in triode mode? Less third harmonic? I would say yes to both.) As I was busy writing, just now, Roon Radio took over from Zander and Mahler (who were ﬁnished playing) and delivered me to a series of familiar tracks, and then on to some unfamiliar ones. I was having a blast listening to this music, familiar and unfamiliar. It happens sometimes, but not that often, and Roon Radio is often at fault: I forget about reviewing and start having fun. It’s that cliché about the reviewer staying up late listening to records. So forgive me for setting aside the serious business of direct comparisons and familiar tunes. Roon Radio took some odd turns, at one point playing what sounded like Korean Christmas music (Tell me, Roon, how do you get from Zander’s Mahler to music on the Wellmade Yedang label?) Soon, I was on to some chamber music: The Borodin Trio playing Arensky, and then a piece I didn’t know but now love: the Sonata No.1 for Piano and Cello by Brazilian composer “Mozart” Camargo Guarneri (what a name for a composer!), performed by Antonio

Menenses and Celina Szrvinsk on the album Soirées Internationales, which features music composed in Paris during the 1920s (CD-rez stream from Qobuz, originally Avie Records AV2162). Recommended. Roon Radio soon returned to more familiar tunes: the Brahms Violin Sonata No.2 in A, performed by Augustin Dumay and Louis Lortie, on Onyx Classics (FLAC rip from CD, Onyx 4133). It sounded gorgeous, but before I could ﬁnish writing this paragraph—guess I was doing too much listening and not enough writing—we were on to the Granados Piano Trio performed by the LOM Piano Trio on Naxos (Naxos 8.572262), and one particular moment when Joan Orpella’s violin, just inside the left speaker, sounded startlingly real, as if her bow had poked a hole in space. This was in Ultralinear mode. They say that every ampliﬁer has its own sound, and I’m sure that’s true. But not every sound imposes itself on music in ways that matter. Through all of this, I noticed no particular coloration; in fact, the sound was more open than I’m used to, which I take to be the absence of coloration. The soundstage was three-dimensional, sometimes startlingly so. On some recordings, images seemed etched; on others they seemed loose, bloody, and abundant. Whether from a violin’s bow or a piano’s hammer, transients seemed natural. On wellrecorded piano, the balance between woody impact and string tone seemed ideal—this all still in Ultralinear mode. To paraphrase JGH describing the D-150 years ago, if the Reference 160 had a sound of its own, I couldn’t hear it. Except: I was consistently aware of beautiful tone. Perhaps

measurements, continued

from the 8 ohm tap into 8 ohms in Ultralinear mode was slightly higher than it was from the 16 ohm tap, as it was in triode mode. However, while the 4 ohm tap offered low distortion in both modes when the load impedance was greater than 4 ohms (ﬁg.11, green, blue, and red traces), the THD+N was high into 4 ohms (cyan and magenta traces). Into 2 ohms, from the 4 ohm tap, at 20W output, THD is above our 1% deﬁnition of clipping at 1kHz and above (gray trace). Fortunately, the REF 160 S’s distortion was predominantly the subjective-

lower in level. As with the Audio Research Reference 160 M monoblock, the REF 160 S’s measured performance is affected by the design team’s decision not to use a lot of loop negative feedback. The amplifier will offer relatively high levels of low-order harmonic distortion when the load impedance is less than the nominal output transformer tap, so owners should make sure that the impedance of their loudspeakers is not significantly lower than the value of the output tap that gives sufficient loudness.—John Atkinson

d B r

Fig.13 Audio Research REF 160 S, Ultralinear mode, 8 ohm tap, spectrum of 50Hz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 10W into 8 ohms (left channel blue, right red, linear frequency scale).

ly innocuous second harmonic (fig.12), and higher harmonics other than the third are all low in level (fig.13). This spectrum was taken into 8 ohms from the 8 ohm tap. Dropping the load to 4 ohms (fig.14) increased the levels of both the second and third harmonics, with the third now equal in level to the second. When the amplifier drove an equal mix of 19 and 20kHz tones at 10W into 8 ohms from the 8 ohm tap in Triode mode (fig.15), the second-order difference product at 1kHz lay just below –60dB (0.1%) and the higherorder intermodulation products were

Fig.14 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 8 ohm tap, spectrum of 50Hz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 20W into 4 ohms (left channel blue, right red, linear frequency scale).

Fig.15 Audio Research REF 160 S, triode mode, 8 ohm tap, HF intermodulation spectrum, DC–30kHz, 19+20kHz at 10W peak into 8 ohms (linear frequency scale).

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AUDIO RESEARCH REFERENCE 160 S

a bit more in triode mode than in Ultralinear, but always present, always there. This is the Itzhak Perlman of amplifiers. And like any good tonalist, the 160 S could also make scratchy, strident sounds when the music required it. It was time for some jazz. With albums in Roon arranged by “most played,” I noticed Patricia Barber’s Nightclub on the first page and put it on. On “Bye Bye Blackbird,” I heard big, rich, close-miked midrange piano notes, mainly from the left side of the soundstage, sounding natural if larger than life. On the next track, “Invitation,” about 23 seconds in, Barber’s voice hits the t in the second syllable of “after” with real force: She practically spits it, soon followed by a sustained, accentuated “sssssssss.” Through the ARC, there was appropriate harshness in that spat t, and the extended “s” was hissing-intense, but without unnatural sibilance—only the natural kind, harsh but not alien. It sounded bad in a good way, or good in a bad way, or something. On several albums, the sound closed the gap between electronic sound and physical, mechanical, real-sounding sound. Sound that’s been recorded and reproduced always has a certain amount of electronic character. Often it’s baked into the recording. The best purist recordings come close to getting rid of it, but the reproduction system can add it back. This system, with this amp, was adding back less of it. The electricity stayed inside, where it belongs. Michael Fremer reviewed the Audio Research Reference 6 line preamplifier in the December 2016 issue of Stereophile.5 The ARC preamp, he wrote, “was an exceptionally skilled and unerringly convincing teller of sound stories that revealed, with every record I played, musically significant information not found in the usual checklist of sonic at-

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tributes.” Intriguing. I’ve got one here, in a box in the spare bedroom. Sometimes I love this job. Conclusion: With the Audio Research Reference 6 After the change of preamp, I lost my sonic bearings. There was too much change. I couldn’t keep track. The late hour surely had something to do with it, as, I’m sure, did the fact that the preamp itself was new and fresh from the box (although the tubes are preaged). At a minimum, it needed a good warmup. I let the music play overnight and tried again late the next day. By then, things had settled in a bit. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the twin, possibly conflicting, goals of audio: on the one hand, to deliver fidelity, and on the other, to provide pleasure. (Any allusion to love and marriage is unintentional—really!) Is honesty aligned with beauty or opposed to it? William Zane Johnson was committed (or so he claimed) to delivering as much accurate musical information as possible, to not pretty things up with tubey euphonic coloration, but his ultimate goal was musicality. This Audio Research combo—the Reference 6 preamplifier and the Reference 160 S amplifier—combined gorgeous tone with physicality: horsehair on gut, hammer on strings, soft wood buzzing in brass, the harshness of spat vocals or an intentionally scratchy violin. I didn’t know that so much of the music in my collection possessed so much tonal beauty. Maybe it doesn’t. Maybe the beauty is added, not revealed. I’m not sure I care. Q 5 See stereophile.com/content/audio-research-reference-6-line-preamplifier.

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Vivid Kaya 45 LOUDSPEAKER

or a decade, the sound of the Vivid Giya loudspeakers, which I had heard only at CES in private demonstration suites, beguiled me. My positive impressions were completely consistent from one show to the next—but then, so were the host and the surroundings. I had to wonder how much those factors contributed to my impressions. I had a similarly positive reaction to the sound of the new Vivid Kaya speakers in a tiny demo room on the show floor at the 2018 High End Show in Munich. Smaller and simpler in appearance than Vivid’s flagship Giyas, the Kayas are also significantly less expensive, even though they incorporate the same major design features. When Art Dudley and I sat down to talk about the Kayas with Vivid’s Laurence Dickie and Philip Guttentag, I pushed to get a pair for review. After dallying, as a young man, with KEF B139 bass drivers in transmission lines, Dickie went to work at Bowers & Wilkins and developed a means of loading drivers with exponential tapered tubes. This culminated, in 1991, with the prototype of the B&W Nautilus loudspeaker system, which saw its commercial release in 1993, and which remains an iconic product for B&W. Dickie left B&W in 1997, and, in 2004, after a few years working overseas, co-founded Vivid Audio. There he combined his commitment to the use of exponential tapered tube loading with the use of synthetic materials for cabinet construction and in-house driver design

and assembly. Vivid introduced the Giya G1 in 2008. The Vivid Kaya is available in three different ﬂoorstanding models: the two-way Kaya 25 and the three-way Kaya 45 and Kaya 90. For me, choosing to review the Kaya 45 ($18,000/pair) over the 90 was somewhat arbitrary. They share the same midrange and treble drivers and the same overall design, construction, and appearance. The 45 is

SPECIFICATIONS Description Three-way reflex-loaded floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive-units: 1" (26mm) tapered-tube–loaded aluminum dome tweeter, 4" (100mm) tapered-tube– loaded alloy cone midrange driver, 2 × 5" (125mm) alloy cone bass drivers with exponential tapered-tube/ bass-reflex loading. Cross-

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over frequencies: 300Hz, 3kHz. Frequency response: 37Hz–25kHz (–6dB). Nominal impedance: 6 ohms. Minimum impedance: 2.8 ohms. Sensitivity: 87dB/2.83V/1m. Recommended ampliﬁer power: 25–250Wpc. Peak power handling: not speciﬁed. Dimensions 45.39"

(1153mm) H × 11.75" (298mm) W × 15.16" (385mm) D. Net weight: 55.12lb (25kg). Finishes Piano (black), Pearl, and Oyster Matte. Custom colors available at extra cost. Serial numbers of units reviewed 5215 & 5216. Price $18,000/pair. Approx-

imate number of dealers: Not disclosed. Warranty: 5 years. Manufacturer Vivid Audio, 6 Star Road, Partridge Green, West Sussex, RH13 8R, UK. US distributor: Vivid Audio LLC, 1815 SE 40th Street, Portland, OR 97214. Tel: (650) 996-2295. Web: vividaudio.com

VIVID KAYA 45

smaller, with only a pair of 5" woofers per speaker rather than the quartet of same in each Kaya 90. I thought these must be some special 5" drivers and wondered how just a pair could work in this line of high-concept ﬂoorstanders. I felt an immediate afﬁnity with the size and shape of the 45 because it conjured up visions of Al Capp’s legendary cartoon character the Shmoo. Capp depicted this sympathetic and benign friend of humankind as a mustachioed, armless biped shaped like a bowling pin. Shmoos were said to be more entertaining than TV or movies, and they were excellent playmates for children. That’s probably too much to expect of a loudspeaker, even one that looks like a Shmoo in a piano-black tuxedo, but the Kaya 45s were welcome guests in my living room. Delivery and setup The two Kaya 45s arrived in a single wooden crate with a pair of wheels and a pair of handgrips on opposite ends: The crate can be moved by a single person without the need for a handtruck or dolly. Inside, each Kaya is cradled face-up and attached to a small plywood panel with handgrips at its

base. It was actually pretty easy to lift the speaker out of the box and into position. Very Shmoo-like so far. Pictures of the Kaya 45 convey more information than I could possibly put into words, but I can say that this 45"-tall speaker is quite sleek and will blend in with a wide range of furnishing styles—although it will attract the attention of new visitors. That said, with or without the removable grilles for their midrange Vivid’s C125L alloy-cone woofers, and bass drivers, the 2μ125mm in reaction-cancelling configuration. Kayas look graceful: They don’t scream audio! or tech! A single pair of multiway speaker posts, placed close together at the extreme bottom of the rear surface—sort of under the Kaya’s “derriere”—are inconspicuous. The enclosure itself is constructed of a glass-reinforced sandwich composite described by Vivid as “soric-cored.” The material’s thickness varies to minimize mass where it is not needed but to endow other portions exposed to higher pressures with more mass, to prevent panel movement. The ﬁnish quality of this seamless skin was superb. As one would expect from Vivid, every driver is loaded

MEASUREMENTS

sing DRA Labs’ MLSSA system, I measured the Vivid Kaya 45’s farfield behavior with a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone and its nearfield responses with an Earthworks QTC-40 mike. The Kaya 45’s specified sensitivity is 87dB/2.83V/m. To my surprise, my estimated sensitivity was higher, at 90dB(B)/2.83V/m. (I say “surprise” because my experience is that measured sensitivities are often lower than the specified figures, but they’re rarely significantly higher.) The Kaya 45’s nominal impedance is specified as 6 ohms, with a minimum magnitude of 2.8 ohms. The solid trace in fig.1 shows that the impedance drops below 6 ohms throughout the upper bass and lower midrange, with a minimum value of 2.4 ohms at 122Hz. The electrical phase angle (dashed trace) is often high, and the combinations of –51° and 4.3 ohms at 30Hz and +41° and 3.65 ohms at 195Hz will be particularly demanding on amplifiers. The Kaya 45 should be partnered with amplifiers that are comfortable with 2 ohm loads.

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February 2020

The gracefully curved enclosure seemed lively when I rapped it with my knuckles. When I investigated the enclosure’s vibrational behavior with a plastic-tape accelerometer, I found resonant modes at 375Hz, 414Hz, and 777Hz on the front bafﬂe (ﬁg.2) and the sidewalls. This behavior is not too high in level, however, and, in combination with the modes’ relatively high Q (Quality Factor), might not lead to audible coloration. The ports on the Vivid’s sidewalls are tuned to a low 35Hz, this indi-

cated by the fact that the impedancemagnitude plot has a saddle centered on that frequency. The blue trace in fig.3 shows the nearfield response of the two woofers, and the minimummotion notch, which is the frequency at which the back pressure from the port resonance holds the cones stationary, occurs as expected at 35Hz. The nearfield response of the ports (green trace) peaks between 25Hz and 60Hz, and its upper-frequency rolloff is clean. The woofers cross over to the midrange unit (red trace) at the speci-

Stereophile Vivid Kaya 45 Impedance (ohms) & Phase (deg) vs Frequency (Hz)

Fig.1 Vivid Kaya 45, electrical impedance (solid) and phase (dashed) (2 ohms/vertical div.).

Fig.2 Vivid Kaya 45, cumulative spectral-decay plot calculated from output of accelerometer fastened to center of front baffle midway between the midrange unit and the woofers (MLS driving voltage to speaker, 4V; measurement bandwidth, 2kHz).

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VIVID KAYA 45

with an exponentially tapered tube; while those for the tweeter and midrange are closed, the bass tube travels up and down internally, terminating in a pair of reflex ports. These ports are positioned symmetrically, slightly above and behind each of the woofers. Symmetrical side-mounted woofers are not unusual, but the drivers are physically braced to each other to further cancel extraneous vibrations due to their motion. Furthermore, the symmetrical placement of the ports ensures that internal pressures are balanced to minimize reradiation of signals from the cabinet. While playing a bass-heavy recording, I ran my hands over the Kaya and could not discern any vibrations. When I put my hands close to the two ports, there was the weirdest perception of the Kaya blowing out of both sides in perfect synchrony. Once in position, the user has the option of employing the six floor spikes for carpet placement or the six polyamide feet for delicate hard floors. On my carpet, I used the spikes and followed Vivid’s simple but detailed instructions for setting them up. The Kayas ended up about 7' from the wall

behind them, about 7' apart, and 4' and 3.5' from the left and right walls, respectively. I aimed the Kayas straight ahead—ie, without any toe-in—and the distance between each speaker and my main listening position was 8.5'. Each Kaya was connected to its own Benchmark AHB2 power amplifier, operated in monoblock mode. My initial impression was of a clear midrange and treble—and, at the bottom end, a notable Vivid’s C125L alloy-cone woofers, degree of richness that exploded view. All Vivid drivers are designed and built in-house. didn’t so much affect the sounds of the instruments as convey the ambiance of the recording studio: an effect I find to be more common with much larger speakers than these. However, as I played an assortment of recordings, the delightful sparkle of the treble began to seem persistently highlighted and I readjusted the toe-in so that the speaker axis aimed directly at my listening seat. Snap! The midrange came up in perfect balance with the treble. (Vivid’s setup suggestions do recommend that orientation, expressly in order to reduce reflections off the side walls.)

measurements, continued

rather than absolute extension, the speaker relying on the usual room gain at low frequencies to give sufficient bass weight. The Kaya 45’s farfield response, averaged across a 30° horizontal window centered on the tweeter axis, is shown as the black trace above 300Hz in fig.3. The balance is superbly even up to the presence region, where there is an excess of energy reaching +3dB at 4kHz. (This might have affected

my sensitivity estimate.) However, the plot of the Kaya 45’s horizontal dispersion, referenced to the response on the tweeter axis (ﬁg.4), indicates that there is a lack of energy in this same region to the speaker’s sides. In medium-sized and large rooms, this will tend to balance the on-axis excess, though the speaker might sound a touch bright in small rooms. The contour lines in this graph are otherwise even throughout the midrange and

Fig.4 Vivid Kaya 45, lateral response family at 50”, normalized to response on tweeter axis, from back to front: differences in response 90–5° off axis, reference response, differences in response 5–90° off axis.

Fig.5 Vivid Kaya 45, lateral response family at 50”, from back to front: responses 90–5° off axis, response on tweeter axis, responses 5–90° off axis.

Amplitude in dB

fied 300Hz with symmetrical steep slopes. The black trace below 300Hz in fig.3 shows the sum of the Kaya 45’s nearfield woofer and port outputs, taking into account acoustic phase and the different distance of each radiator from a nominal farfield microphone position. The usual peak in the upper bass in the output, which will be due to the nearfield measurement technique, is absent. This suggests the Vivid’s bass alignment is tuned for articulation

Frequency in Hz

Fig.3 Vivid Kaya 45, anechoic response on tweeter axis at 50”, averaged across 30° horizontal window and corrected for microphone response (black), with the nearfield responses of the midrange unit (red), woofers (blue), ports (green), and their complex sum (black) respectively plotted below 500Hz, 800Hz, 500Hz, and 300Hz.

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VIVID KAYA 45

Listening impressions The Kayas were marvelous in their rendering of voices, individual and massed. I did a historical survey of recordings by Dame Emma Kirkby, whose career spans decades. Beginning with her early recordings of Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate in 1984 (CD, L’Oiseau-Lyre 168055) and Hildegard von Bingen’s O Jerusalem in 1982 (CD, Hyperion CDA66039) through Dowland’s “Flow, My Tears” in 2005 (SACD, BIS BIS-1475) and 2017 (SACD, BIS BIS-2283), her unique sound has changed less over the years than have the recordists who work with her and the technologies at their disposal. The clarity of the Kaya 45s made the technical differences so explicit and allowed me to hear through them to that same wonderful and unique voice. Even the Mozart from ’84 sounded neither too bright nor too close, as it is on some speakers: It was well balanced if a bit distant compared to the recordings made in this century. One can generalize from that to other female voices—and to male voices, too. The latter were endowed with appropriate body but without unnatural resonance. I was particularly struck by the massed male voices in a recent recording, with

Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, of Sibelius’s choral work Kullervo (SACD, Ondine ODE 1338-5). From the pictures in the recording’s accompanying booklet, I estimate there are about 90 men in the combined Estonian National Male Choir and Polytech Choir—and no, I cannot distinguish them all individually by ear. However, the Kaya 45s did resolve them so The Kaya’s D26 26mm tapered-tube– that I was always aware loaded alloy dome tweeter—the same tweeter used in Vivid’s flagship Giya that the work was being G1 Spirit. performed by a multiplicity of individual voices, yet with combined weight and power. The baritone soloist, Ville Rusanen, is recorded closer, as is appropriate, and sounded remarkably present, almost in the room, when I played the recording loud, the way I like this one. Even at those levels, the Kayas had no problems with the volume and dynamic range of the combined chorus and orchestra at these levels. The Kaya passed another test with ﬂying colors: The First Tears, from Ɯriks Ešenvalds’s The Doors of Heaven, performed

measurements, continued

or just below the tweeter. In the time domain, the Kaya 45’s step response on the tweeter axis (ﬁg.7) indicates that the tweeter, midrange unit, and woofers are all connected in positive acoustic polarity. The decay of the tweeter’s step, which arrives ﬁrst at the microphone, blends smoothly with the start of the midrange unit’s step. The slight discontinuity at 4.4ms suggests that the optimal blend between the midrange unit’s output and that of the twin woofers occurs just below the tweeter axis.

The Vivid’s cumulative spectral-decay plot (ﬁg.8) is very clean overall. While two ridges of decayed energy can be seen in the mid-treble, which are presumably due to breakup modes in the midrange unit’s metal cone, these are suppressed by the crossover. (As always with my CSD plots, ignore the small ridge just below 17kHz, which is due to interference from the computer monitor’s line-scan frequency.) Overall, the Vivid Kaya 45 offers excellent measured performance. —John Atkinson

Data in Volts

treble, implying stable stereo imaging. The apparent off-axis peaks above 20kHz in this graph are actually due to the tweeter’s output rolling off faster on-axis than it does to the sides. This is shown in fig.5, which shows the actual off-axis responses rather than normalizing them to the on-axis output. In the vertical plane (fig.6), a suckout develops in the crossover region 15° above the tweeter axis. The tweeter is 39" from the floor, and this suckout won’t affect the Vivid’s tonal balance for listeners with their ears level with

Time in ms

Fig.6 Vivid Kaya 45, vertical response family at 50”, normalized to response on tweeter axis, from back to front: differences in response 15–5° above axis, reference response, differences in response 5–10° below axis.

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Fig.7 Vivid Kaya 45, step response on tweeter axis at 50” (5ms time window, 30kHz bandwidth).

Fig.8 Vivid Kaya 45, cumulative spectral-decay plot on tweeter axis at 50” (0.15ms risetime).

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VIVID KAYA 45

by Ethan Sperry and the Portland State University Chamber Choir (CD, Naxos 8.579008). This mixed choir recording has become my standard for soundstaging and ensemble imaging, and while the Kayas presented the collective voices clearly and in a warm acoustic space, they also allowed me to attend to the tone and locations of individual voices. In general, the bass performance of the Kaya 45s was remarkable for their size. From a closely recorded Spanish guitar to pipe organ and large, dynamic ensembles, these relatively small ﬂoorstanders delivered respectable—and musical—bass. That’s not to say a pair of 5" woofers per cabinet can push as much air as bigger or more drivers. What was wonderful about the Kaya 45s is that the quality and balance of the bass and upper bass in my altogether normal listening room was such that I lacked for nothing, except in direct comparison to bigger speakers (and Vivid makes those, too). With a classic recording of Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonata in F, performed by Thomas Murray on the E. & G.G. Hook organ at Jamaica Plain (CD, Raven 390 1), the detail and fullness were immensely satisfying. As the tones descend in the fourth movement, there was a slight attenuation of the lowest tones, but that did not affect the progression or impact of the music. Especially noteworthy is my experience with a recent and wonderful recording, by Viktoria Mullova, Paavo Järvi, and the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, of Arvo Pärt’s Fratres (CD, Onyx ONYX4201). After violinist Mullova’s brilliantly played solo introduction—reproduced by the Kayas with equal brilliance—the orchestra steps in with a thud, followed by a slow progression in the lower strings. With the Kayas, I could hear the hall during the solo, but I feel it when the orchestra enters. Getting that and the weight of the strings was unexpected from a couple of 5" drivers per channel. The Kaya 45s feasted on Hugh Masakela’s “Stimela (The Coal Train),” from Hope (SACD, Sheridan Square Records/ Analogue Productions APJ 82020). With the right speakers, this is a powerful and exciting experience, but it requires the capacity to recreate a large and lively space that can barely contain all the performers and audience participants. Other versions of this recording, even in multichannel, never seem to achieve this effect, but with this stereo release, the Kaya 45s proved up to the task in a way that some bigger or more expensive speakers have not. I turned it up, and the Kayas delivered the crescendos, the contrasts, the buzz of the space (and electricity of the crowd), and the immediacy of Masakela’s voice and trumpet. The Kaya 45s played bigger than they appear. And not just because of bass. They recreated a deep and detailed soundstage—and a wide one. Lately, I’ve been enjoying the delightful and offbeat album Pure Imagination, by oboist Keve Wilson (CD, Composers Concordance COMCON002). It contains refreshing arrangements of Broadway and pop tunes, framing Wilson’s skillful playing and honeyed tone with a small ensemble—piano, bass, etc.—that varies from track to track. The Kayas vividly recreated the recording’s evidently modest space, making it seem like an extension of my room, stretching about 15' behind the fronts of the speakers. I did most of my listening with the aforementioned Benchmark AHB2s, but I also spent time listening with other amps: the Hegel C53, the Parasound A31, and the Classé Sigma Mono. All had sufﬁcient power, and each had subtle and ultimately unobtrusive distinctions. The Classé sounded much like the Benchmark, offering a lively and open upper stereophile.com

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A S S O C I AT E D E Q U I P M E N T Digital sources Oppo Digital UDP-105 universal disc player, Baetis Prodigy-X PC-based music server running JRiver Media Center v25 and Roon, exaSound e38 Mark II D/A processor, QNAP TVS-873 NAS. Preampliﬁers Audio Research MP1, Parasound P7. Power ampliﬁers Benchmark AHB2, Hegel C-53, Classé Sigma Mono, Parasound Halo A 31. Loudspeakers Revel Ultima2 Studio, GoldenEar Triton One.R, Revel Performa F228Be, Dutch & Dutch 8C. Digital cables AudioQuest Coffee (USB). Analog interconnects AudioQuest Earth/DBS balanced, Kubala-Sosna Anticipation (RCA). Speaker cables Benchmark Studio&Stage (NL2 to banana), Canare 4S11 (Blue Jeans Cable). AC cables Kubala-Sosna Emotion, SignalCable MagicPower 20A. AC accessories AudioQuest Niagara 5000 and BrickWall 8RAUD power conditioners, HDPLEX 400W ATX Linear Power Supply, CyberPower 850PFCLCD BBU (supplied with server). Listening room 24' L × 14' W × 8' H, furnished with 2 MSR Acoustics Dimension4 SpringTraps in the front corners, 2 Ready Acoustics Chameleon Super Sub Bass Traps to the sides and moderately sound-absorbing furniture. Front wall has large windows partly covered by fabric drapes and 4" thick 2' × 4' OC 705 panels.—Kal Rubinson

midrange but with slightly less detail. The Parasound, too, presented slightly less detail. Those presentations may appeal to some listeners who do not share my fondness for the ruthless revelation the Kayas proved capable of. With the Hegel, the Kayas sounded much as they did with Benchmarks. The Hegel or a single AHB2 in stereo would drive these speakers well in smaller rooms, or in systems that use a subwoofer. In the larger context of speakers I’ve recently reviewed, the Kaya 45s stood out. Compared to the bigger but less expensive GoldenEar Triton One.R, the Kayas were more transparent and resolving but didn’t play as loud or go as deep in the bass. The Revel Performa F228Be had superior bass extension, while the Kayas disappeared more completely. The active Dutch & Dutch 8Cs must be placed close to the front wall, and their soundstage presentation differs from that of a passive system placed well away from room boundaries. Each satisﬁed in its own way. Summing up Vivid’s Kaya 45 speakers exceeded the expectations raised by their heritage and impressive show previews. Sure, some speakers can play louder and go deeper, but one must pay one price or another for that privilege: larger size, higher cost, or less beauty. The Kayas sounded good from the moment they hit the carpet, and better after I toed them in toward the listening position. They never failed to please, with any musical source at any reasonable listening level. (Perhaps they really are Shmoos!) The Kaya 45s are among a handful of speakers that I will miss after they are gone. You should not miss auditioning them. Q 1 Originally released on a Shefﬁeld LP (S-13).

EQUI PMENT RE PO RT

HERB REICHERT

Pass Labs INT-25 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

n my personal life I prefer the minimalist, one-box architecture of integrated amplifiers. Always have. Before I started writing for Stereophile, my only audio system consisted of a pair of 15 ohm Rogers LS3/5a loudspeakers (with factory wall mounts) and an ancient Creek integrated amplifier, connected to my computer via a Halide DAC HD, and to an Oppo CD player. That system had pitchperfect tone and was satisfying with all types of music. I would never purchase an integrated amplifier with a DAC or phono stage residing in the same box. To me, that’s like buying an active loudspeaker. Why would I pollute a fine audio component with a nonupgradeable and possibly third-rate ancillary? For digital, I want a superquality DAC like the HoloAudio Spring I used for this review. For my moving-coil cartridges I want a step-up transformer and the best tubed phono stage I can afford. Therefore, I need my integrated amp to be a simple, purist, high-bias class-A design, like the new Pass Labs INT25 ($7250). Description If you look at the back panel of the INT-25, you’ll see only three pairs of gold-plated RCA line-level inputs and two pairs of Furutech loudspeaker connectors, plus a generic IEC socket. If you look at the front, you’ll see a modestly thick brushed-aluminum faceplate with a small OLED display that tells me only where the volume level is set, plus a power-on button, three input-selector buttons, a mute button, and an IR window for the heavy, brushed-aluminum remote control. Very clean and minimal. The INT-25 measures 17" W × 6" H × 17.9" D and weighs more than 50lb, which makes it infinitely more

manageable than the INT-60 I reviewed back in November 2016.1 The INT-60 measures 19" W × 7.6" H × 21.2" D and weighs 93lb. I could not lift the INT-60 into or out of its box without help. The INT-25 is simply a Pass Labs XA25 ampliﬁer with a minimalist, single-ended version of the INT-60’s line-level preamp attached. I wrote Nelson Pass an email asking him to give me some new words to explain to my readers why the XA25 amp drives so many loudspeakers with so much dynamic authority and unmatched transparency. He responded: “The XA25 has a very simple topology using some new parts and uniquely operating them in push-pull Class-A without degeneration. Developing the .8 series, we clearly saw that degeneration—putting resistance in series with FET Source pins (or Emitter pins for Bipolar transistors) impacts the sonic performance, and not for the better. “Of course, there is a reason why people use degeneration 1 See stereophile.com/content/pass-laboratories-int-60-integrated-ampliﬁer.

SPECIFICATIONS Description Stereo integrated ampliﬁer operating in class-A using JFETs and MOSFETs. Inputs: 3 pairs single-ended (RCA). Outputs: stereo pair of Furutech 3-way binding posts. Power output: 25Wpc into 8 ohms (14dBW), 50Wpc into 4 ohms (14dBW). Peak cur-

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rent: 10A (200W peak into 2 ohms). Class-A envelope: 50W peak for 2, 4, or 8 ohm load. Bandwidth: DC to –2dB at 100kHz. Input impedance: 47k ohms. Voltage gain: 26dB. Damping factor: 500. Slew rate: 100V/μs. Idle power draw: 2.3 amps at 120VAC (240W).

Dimensions 17" (430mm) W × 6" (150mm) H × 17.9" (454mm) D. Weight: 51.0lb (23.1kg). Finish Silver. Serial number of unit reviewed 35484. Price $7250. Approximate number of dealers: 18. Warranty: 3 years, limited,

transferable. Manufacturer Pass Laboratories Inc., 13395 New Airport Road, Suite G, Auburn, CA 95602. Tel: (530) 878-5350. Fax: (530) 878-5358. Web: passlabs.com.

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(the ‘other form of feedback’) in gain stages—it stabilizes the characteristics of the transistors so that you don’t have to do precise matching and compensation to keep circuits stable. “At the same time, it is a form of feedback, and carries some of the same baggage. Interestingly your ‘no feedback’ solid-state amplifiers routinely depend on degeneration in the gain stages to control the stability and distortion, and so do not achieve the same characteristics that help make SET tube amps so popular. “The XA25 is our first example of undegenerated pushpull class-A with Vertical MOSFETs, enabled by new techniques. The result is more life to the character and improved dynamics. This is not a big surprise; degenerating resistors are usually inserted to ‘tame’ a transistor’s personality. “So, with power FETs, it turns out that there are a couple more advantages that you don’t see with bipolar transistors: FET character is ‘square-law’: The current through the transistor is a square function of the Gate-to-Source voltage, and in this respect, the FET is like a tube. “Push-pull class-A operation of purely square law devices results in a perfect cancellation of distortion (literally perfect), while degeneration adds measurable higher-order harmonic and intermodulation distortions to that arrangement. “Also, square law devices in push-pull class-A have a naturally larger class-A envelope at a given fixed bias, along with a lower output impedance and higher efficiency. “What’s not to like?”

Protocol For the purpose of this report, I’m going to forgo my normal amp-testing procedure and not bother connecting the INT-25 to the whole pile of speakers lining my hall walls; if you read my XA25 amplifier review, you’ll know how the INT-25’s power amplifier section works with most of them. You’ll also learn how the INT-25’s amplifier section compares to the other power amplifiers stacked by my equipment rack. Instead of all that heavy lifting, I decided to use only three transducers: the Harbeth M30.2 monitors; the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 floorstanders; and the RAAL SR1a ribbon headphones. The Harbeths and the Rhinemaidens The first music I experienced with the INT-25 driving the Harbeth 30.2s was Scene 1 of Wagner’s Das Rheingold with Kirsten Flagstad singing Fricka and Georg Solti conducting the Vienna Philharmonic (3 LPs, London OSA-1309).2 The moment the Rhinemaidens appeared, it was obvious the INT-25 was reaching extra-deep and extra-microscopically into this uniquely spacious recording. The voices of Alberich and Wellgunde and the huge force of the Vienna Philharmonic came from a more vast, more precisely described three-dimensional space than I had ever before noticed. 2 stereophile.com/content/solti-iringi-remasteredagain.

MEASUREMENTS

rior to measuring the Pass Labs INT-25 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system,1 I preconditioned it for an hour at one-third power into 8 ohms. At the end of that time, the heatsinks on the amplifier’s sides were hot, at 122°F (50°C), as was the top panel, at 116.6°F (47.8°C). Owners should make sure this amplifier is well-ventilated. The amplifier’s maximum voltage gain into 8 ohms was 25.4dB, and the amplifier preserved absolute polarity (ie, was noninverting). The Pass Labs’ input impedance is specified as 47k ohms; I measured 46k ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz and 37k ohms

at 20kHz. The small reduction at the top of the audioband will be inconsequential. The output impedance was very low, at 0.06 ohms at low and middle frequencies, rising very slightly to 0.08 ohms at the top of the audioband. (Both measured impedances include the series resistance of 6' of speaker cable.) Consequently, the variation in frequency response with our standard simulated loudspeaker2 (fig.1, gray trace) was minimal. The response into impedances of 4 and 8 ohms (fig.1, cyan, magenta, blue, and red traces) was flat up to 20kHz, and the output into 2 ohms (green trace) was down by just 0.25dB at 20kHz. The ultrasonic

rolloff varied with the load impedance; the –3dB point was close to 200kHz into higher impedances but dropped to 100kHz into 2 ohms. The traces in ﬁg.1 were taken with the volume control set to its maximum. Commendably, the frequency response didn’t change at lower settings of the volume control, and the already good channel matching improved. The Pass Labs’ reproduction of a 10kHz squarewave into 8 ohms (ﬁg.2) featured very short risetimes and no ringing, though there was a very 1 See stereophile.com/content/measurementsmaps-precision. 2 See stereophile.com/content/real-life-measurements-page-2.

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Fig.1 Pass Labs INT-25, frequency response at 2.83V into: 8 ohms (left channel blue, right channel red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta), 2 ohms (gray) (0.5dB/vertical div.).

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Fig.2 Pass Labs INT-25, small-signal, 10kHz squarewave into 8 ohms.

Fig.3 Pass Labs INT-25, spectrum of 1kHz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 1W into 8 ohms (linear frequency scale).

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Those qualities made this spellbinding recording even more vivid and dramatic. I mean, who out there doesn’t enjoy “watching” a Wagner opera from microphones positioned just above the performers’ heads? This slightly elevated view makes me feel like a detached spirit hovering above and among ancient gods. This landmark recording, produced by Decca’s John Culshaw and recorded by Kenneth Wilkinson, cast a top star in every role and had them perform on an enormous studio stage (with a grid painted on the floor). Each singer’s choreographed movements were mapped out to simulate a scaled-down version of an actual performance. Listening with the Harbeth 30.2s pointed straight at me in the extreme nearfield, I felt the weight of the orchestra and sensed the performers’ movements. When I used this recording to compare the INT-25 integrated to the combination of Pass XA25 amp and PrimaLuna EVO 400 preamp, Decca’s studio space sounded distinctly more 3-D via the INT-25 than it did with the Pass-PrimaLuna combination. This newfound dimensionality appeared to be related to the INT-25’s greater depth of field: Performers’ voices seemed more in focus no matter where they were positioned on Decca’s studio stage. The walls of the Decca studio were more discernable. More surprising was how the overall sound of this recording seemed finer-grained with the INT-25 than it did through my Rogue Audio RP-7 preamp and Stereo 100 amplifier combination—a combo that excels at grainlessness. Driving DeVore Fidelity The DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 loudspeakers are, by

design, tube-friendly. They couple well with single-ended directly heated triode amps such as the 845-tubed Line Magnetic LM-518 IA and the Elekit TU-8600R singleended 300B integrated. They’re also friendly with lowpower class-A solid-state designs by Nelson Pass. The O/93s are a chief reason I fell in love with Pass’s First Watt SIT-3 amplifier; now, with the INT-25, I’m discovering a new and different side of the Orangutan’s personality. The Pass Labs integrated elicited a pristine, extremely well-sorted behavior from the O/93s. It played Wagner’s Die Walküre, with Birgit Nilsson and Gré Brouwenstijn singing and Erich Leinsdorf conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (44.1/16 FLAC, Decca/Tidal), with an unprecedented amount of detail and spatial acuity. Better still, the INT-25 allowed the O/93s to play this utterly stunning Kenneth Wilkinson recording at high-ish volumes—with no noticeable clipping. No blurring. No clumping of detail. And no solid-state hardness. Please forgive my focus on opera recordings. Probably only a few of you listen to this arcane art form. I use them in my reviews because I like how they sound, and opera recordings present difficult information-recovery challenges for any hi-fi system. I no longer have the Decca LPs (which were among the most thrilling-to-play, informationrich discs I’ve owned). But even from a Tidal stream, this Wilkinson-recorded Wagner is a musical supernova that instantly shows me how low-distortion clear (or smeared-andblurred) my system actually is. The INT-25 let the O/93s make that Die Walküre into something so beautiful I just laid back and basked in it. Life was good—and poetic. No question: With the O/93s, the INT-25 made a righ-

measurements, continued

slight hint of overshoot. Channel separation was very good, but asymmetrical at >77dB, R–L, and >90dB, L–R, below 1kHz. Both ﬁgures dropped to close to 60dB at the top of the audioband, however. The wideband, unweighted S/N ratio, ref. 2.83V and measured with the volume control set to its maximum and the input shorted to ground, was 75.1dB (average of both channels), which improved to 83.2dB when the measurement bandwidth was restricted to the audioband,

Fig.4 Pass Labs INT-25, distortion (%) vs 1kHz continuous output power into 8 ohms.

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and to 86.9dB when A-weighted. Spectral analysis of the INT-25’s noise floor (fig.3) revealed a low level of random noise, but spuriae related to the power-line frequency were present at low levels. The 60Hz component, which will be due to magnetic interference from the power transformer, was highest in level, at –76dB. The INT-25’s output power is specified as 25W into 8 ohms and 50W into 4 ohms, both equivalent to 14dBW, with a “class-A envelope” of 50W peak

into 2, 4, or 8 ohm loads. With “clipping” defined as when the THD+noise reaches 1%, I found that the Pass Labs amplifier with both channels driven at 1kHz clipped at 60W into 8 ohms (17.8dBW, fig.4) and 98W into 4 ohms (16.9dBW, fig.5). Fig.6 shows how the INT-25’s THD+N percentage varied with frequency at a moderate output voltage of 8.95V, which is equivalent to 10W into 8 ohms, 20W into 4 ohms, and 40W into 2 ohms. While the Pass Labs offered very low distortion at all frequencies into

Fig.5 Pass Labs INT-25, distortion (%) vs 1kHz continuous output power into 4 ohms.

Fig.6 Pass Labs INT-25, THD+N (%) vs frequency at 8.95V into: 8 ohms (left channel blue, right channel red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta), and 2 ohms (gray).

February 2020

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PASS LABS INT-25

teous, musically satisfying alternative to tubes. Compared to Line Magnetic triodes My Russian neighbor was totally zonked out, snoring on the couch, while I quietly exchanged the INT-25 for the Line Magnetic LM-518 IA tube integrated. When I turned the volume back up, he snapped bolt upright and began a disoriented barrage of Russian curses. “ɬɵ ɫɭɦɚɫɲɟɞɲɢɣ? ɑɬɨ ɡɚ ɱɟɪɬ?” I was playing exquisitely recorded guitar music from the album Tassili (44.1/24 FLAC Anti-Epitaph/Qobuz) by Tinariwen, a Saharan Tuareg group that performs a type of Malian music known as Tishoumaren. My neighbor’s response: “What the &%*# is this?” He couldn’t tell I was laughing. “Be quiet and listen,” I instructed. This album has a unique, extremely vivid sound because it was recorded in a series of unedited takes performed live in the silence of the desert, near the town of Djanet on the Tassili n’Ajjer plateau in Algeria. The Line Magnetic’s 845 tubes driving the DeVore O/93s amped up Tinariwen’s vividness factor. Playing Tassili, the sonic force produced by the LM-518 made the INT-25 sound not threadbare, nor dry, but slightly skeletal. I and the now-calm Russian sat in silent awe, listening carefully to every track as rendered by the Line Magnetic amp. Vlad broke the silence ﬁrst, saying how intense and real the guitar on “Tameyawt” sounded. How every note was “%*#@ exploding.” It was true. Tinariwen’s music is rooted in moody, sometimesdroning electric guitars and relentless drum rhythms that

shift unexpectedly. With the Line Magnetic LM-518 (driving the O/93s), goatskin drums pounded the floor and note decays appeared as touchable room-filling densities. With the INT-25, these densities were rendered more as resolved detail and less as energy, as through the 845 tubes. Bass was tighter, and drumbeats pounded the floor more distinctly with the INT-25 powering the O/93s. Nevertheless, it was the crisp clarity with which the Pass labs projected vocals into the room that held my attention. The INT-25 made the O/93s image more precisely; but images were not quite as weighty or tangibly present as with the LM-518. The INT-25 seemed uncanny in how it showed fingers on guitar strings and tappings on the guitar body. In comparison, it was uncanny how physical and painterly the Line Magnetic LM-518 IA made the guitar amp’s reverb sound. Fancy-pants audiophile audio is all about where various components direct the listener’s attention: The INT-25 focused more on the visions in my head, while the LM-518 IA addressed feelings in my body. Both honored the music on Tassili. The INT-25’s ability to excavate detail was even more apparent on Tinariwen’s recording, from their album Live in Paris 3 (48/24 FLAC Anti-Epitaph/Qobuz), of “Tinde Final Tinariwen,” featuring 75-year-old tinde master Lalla Badi performing at Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. Lalla Badi’s voice made me cry in 30 seconds. The powers of rhythm and tone forced my surrender. The word tinde in the title refers to the goatskin drum as well as the intimate celebratory nature of the chosen songs. Again, on this album, the 3 aquariumdrunkard.com/2015/12/01/tinariwen-live-in-paris.

measurements, continued

8 ohms (blue and red traces), with only a small increase at the top of the audioband, the distortion at this output level increased dramatically above the midrange into 4 ohms (cyan and magenta traces) and 2 ohms (gray trace). It is possible that this behavior is associated with the amplifier’s output stage moving out of the class-A bias condition. The waveform of the residual distortion and noise with a 1kHz signal at this voltage into 8 ohms (fig.7) is dominated by the subjectively benign second harmonic. This was confirmed

by spectral analysis (fig.8), though it is appropriate to note that the second harmonic lies at a very low –86dB (0.005%). Higher-order harmonics are virtually absent, though the low-level power supply–related spuriae can be seen in this graph. Both high-order intermodulation products and the second-order difference product with the INT-25 driving an equal mix of 19kHz and 20kHz tones at a peak level of 10W into 8 ohms were very low in level (fig.9). However, as expected from fig.6, repeating this test at the same

output voltage into 4 ohms produced high levels of intermodulation distortion. I had to reduce the peak output level to 6.32V into 4 ohms, equivalent to 10W into this load, to get a similar spectrum to that shown in ﬁg.9. There is much to admire in the Pass Labs INT-25’s measured performance. However, its intolerance in the treble for loads of 4 ohms and below means it will work best with loudspeakers whose impedance doesn’t drop below 8 ohms at high frequencies. —John Atkinson

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Avg: 32

Fig.7 Pass Labs INT-25, 1kHz waveform at 10W into 8 ohms, 0.0092% THD+N (top); distortion and noise waveform with fundamental notched out (bottom, not to scale).

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Fig.8 Pass Labs INT-25, spectrum of 50Hz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 10W into 8 ohms (linear frequency scale).

Fig.9 Pass Labs INT-25, HF intermodulation spectrum, DC–30kHz, 19+20kHz at 10W peak into 8 ohms (linear frequency scale).

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LM-518 exceeded the INT-25 in its ability to deliver the dense sound bodies of the performers and their instruments. It also edged out the Pass Labs INT-25 at making goatskin “feel” like real stretched skin. At an average level of only 84dB, the INT-25 made bass that physically shook the floor and the couch. (I don’t know how Live in Paris was recorded, but damn! It sounded live in a way I think live actually sounds.) The reverb drone from the electric guitars made the air in my room feel like it does at concerts with enormous speaker stacks. Rhythm delivery kept my head nodding in time. While comparing these two drastically different amplifiers, I fell back in love (again) with the DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93 speakers. I forgot how warm, vibrant, and satisfying their midrange could be. I had never realized how elegant and detailed their top octaves could be. Best of all, I discovered how fresh and transparent they could sound with some sparkling clean solid-state. With the DeVore O/93s, the INT25 was a highly recommendable alternative to tubes. Compared to XA25 + HPA-1 The most relevant comparison I can make is between the INT-25 integrated, which costs $7250, and the $4900 Pass Labs XA25 amplifier connected to the $3500 Pass Labs HPA-1 line stage/headphone amplifier. Together, these Pass Labs separates cost slightly more ($8400 plus interconnect) but include a world-class headphone amp designed by Jam Somasundram. After extended listening, I could not describe the sound of either the INT-25 or the combination of HPA-1 and XA25 as vivid in a tube-like way, or one that presents musical tone in its most completely saturated form. Both Pass Labs setups sound fresh, alive, and clear, but a little Apollonian compared to the above-mentioned Line Magnetic SET amp. However! The INT-25 does generate a delightful amount of “FET sparkle” and a distinct but subtle “tubelike” glow. The HPA-1/XA25 combo does not. Neither does any other solid-state amplification I know. This is an important distinction. This subtle radiance enhances the INT-25’s breezy, clear-sky transparency, making the INT-25 the most musically satisfying yet neutral (I hate that word) solid-state amp-preamp combination I’ve encountered. With RAAL-Requisite SR1a headphones Because its drivers are full-range ribbons, the RAALRequisite SR1a headphones have a DC resistance of only 0.018 ohms; this requires a power-absorbing resistive network (included with the headphones) to bring the ribbon’s dead-short impedance up to a level capable of being driven by a loudspeaker amp like the Pass Labs INT-25. (The RAAL ribbon headphones were designed to be used with loudspeaker power amplifiers in the 50W to 150W range— not a traditional headphone amp.) I played Act 1 of the previously mentioned Die Walküre and Scene 1 of the previously mentioned Das Rheingold and, as I often do while listening to opera or large orchestral recordings via headphones, I sat there shaking my head in amazement. The INT-25 put the uncanny resolving powers of this unique transducer on full display. Even more than my JPS Labs Abyss AB-1266 Phi headphones or the HiFiMan Susvaras, the RAALs resolve—by which I mean something conceptually and perceptually different than the dry, gray, unsupple, artificially etched sounds some audiophiles mistake for resolution. The SR1a shows the INT-25 about stereophile.com

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A S S O C I AT E D E Q U I P M E N T Analog sources Dr. Feickert Analogue Blackbird turntable with Jelco TK-850L tonearm and Koetsu Rosewood Signature Platinum moving-coil cartridge; AMG Giro G9 turntable with 9W tonearm and Etsuro Urushi Cobalt Blue moving-coil cartridge. Digital sources Apple Mac mini computer running Audirvana Plus; HoloAudio Spring “Kitsuné Tuned Edition” Level 3 D/A processor; Integra DPS 7.2 (used as CD transport). Preamplification EMIA MC step-up transformer (with Koetsu), Excel Sound Corporation ET-U50 SUT (with Etsuro Urushi); Musical Surroundings Phonomena II+ and Tavish Design Adagio phono preamplifiers; PrimaLuna EVO 400, Rogue RP-7, Pass Labs HPA-1 line-level preamplifiers. Power amplifiers Pass Labs XA25, Rogue Audio Stereo 100. Integrated amplifiers Line Magnetic LM-518 IA, Elekit TU-8600R. Loudspeakers Harbeth M30.2, Devore Fidelity Orangutan O/93. Headphones RAAL-Requisite SR1a. Cables Digital: AudioQuest Cinnamon, Cardas Clear HS (USB), Kimber Kable D60 Data Flex Studio (coax). Interconnect: Triode Wire Labs Spirit, Black Cat Coppertone. Speaker: Black Cat Coppertone. AC: AudioQuest Tornado, manufacturers’ own. Accessories AudioQuest Niagara 1000 power conditioner; Harmonic Resolution Systems M3X-1719-AMG GR LF isolation platform; Sound Anchor Reference speaker stands. —Herb Reichert

5.8 ohms of series resistance, and while said resistance does consume amplifier power, the RAALs have no crossover or time-twisting reactances. When I use these full-range ribbons, I feel like they are exposing the kaleidoscopic inner workings of a recording better than any other transducer I’ve encountered. On the Decca Rheingold, this exposure didn’t just show me an avalanche of tiny, previously unseen details, nor did it show me just the Decca studio space and the singers moving about on the gridded floor under the microphones: It seemed to reach back into the guts of the INT-25 and show me, in sonic terms, the clock workings of its separate amp and preamp sections. What the RAAL headphones exposed was something that confirmed my developing suspicions: The INT-25’s minimalist, Wayne Colburn–designed preamp and its Nelson Pass–designed amplifier (with its lack of degenerative feedback) are the “secret” Pass Labs ingredients that raise the INT-25’s sonics to the best solid-state I’ve ever heard, along with the First Watt SIT-3 and J2 power amps. Conclusion Every day, the Pass Labs INT-25 sounded like a purer, more austere instrument than the combination of the Pass Labs XA25 amplifier with any of my in-house preamps. Every day, I noticed how the INT-25 offered a less obstructed and more transparent view of what my source components were excavating from my recordings. In addition, it made my hi-fi less hi-fi and the musicians more there —with a lower level of editorializing than I’ve gotten from any previous amp-preamp combination I’ve reviewed. My new solid-state reference. Q 109

EQUI PMENT RE PO RT

JASON VICTOR SERINUS

Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum HD LINE PREAMPLIFIER

I was blown away by the seemingly boundless soundstage and maximum color saturation.

thought I knew what a preamp could do. But when the Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Momentum HD preamplifier ($40,000) arrived for review, all my expectations flew out the window. The two-piece Momentum HD preamp wasn’t exactly a stranger. I’d heard it in two of the finest sounding systems I have ever encountered, at a March 2019 event at Seattle’s Definitive Audio1 and, a month later, at Chicago’s AX-

PONA.2 Both systems included Wilson Audio Specialties’ Alexx loudspeakers and Subsonic subs; D’Agostino Relentless monoblock ampliﬁers paired with the Momentum HD preamp (and other D’Agostino products); dCS Vivaldi digital stacks; Clearaudio Master Innovation turntable and 1 See stereophile.com/content/superb-sound-deﬁnitives-music-matters-14. 2 See stereophile.com/content/wilson-alexx-loudspeakers-dagostino-momentumhd-preamp-dcs-vivaldi-one-digital-front-end-and.

SPECIFICATIONS Description Solid-state, balanced, line preampliﬁer with separate power supply/base and remote control. Inputs: 6 balanced (XLR). Outputs: 2 balanced (XLR). Control connections: 12V trigger in/ out, RS-232. Voltage gain: Selectable, 10.95dB or 26dB. Frequency response: 20Hz–

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75kHz, ±0dB; 0.1Hz–1MHz, ±0.5dB. Input impedance: 1M ohm. Output impedance: 10 ohms. THD: <0.02%, 20Hz to 20kHz. Signal/ noise: 75dBu, unweighted. Dimensions 4.3" (108mm) H × 18" (450mm) W × 12" (300mm) D (preamp); 3" (75mm) H × 11" (275mm)

W × 8" (200mm) D (power supply/base). Weight: 98lb (45kg) w/power supply. Serial number of unit reviewed 7002. Finishes Silver, black, and custom ﬁnishes. Price $40,000. Upgrade from Momentum preampliﬁer, $7500. Approximate

number of US dealers: 25. Warranty: Five years, nontransferable. Manufactured in US. Manufacturer Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems. 5855 E Surrey Drive, Cave Creek, AZ 85331. Tel: (480)575-3069. Web: dandagostino.com.

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cartridges; top-level Transparent Audio cabling; and HRS racks. But without hearing the Momentum HD preamp in my own system, I had no idea what it had contributed to the outstandingly open and clear, precisely focused, naturally balanced, and superbly musical sound I gushed over. All I knew for certain: If that preamp was doing something wrong, everything else had to be doing something very right. Hence to my reference system did the Momentum HD preamp come. Arriving just one month after I had used the one-box tubed Audio Research Reference 6 line preamplifier ($15,000) to review the Gryphon Audio Ethos CD player/DAC, I took advantage of the Ref 6’s presence for easy comparison. Being an all-balanced, fully discrete, zerofeedback design, the Momentum HD preamp also benefited from the extra pair of loaner Nordost Odin 2 balanced interconnects that I had used in the Gryphon review. With its battery of six sets of balanced inputs, two sets of balanced outputs, Bluetooth antenna—for its uniquely round Bluetooth remote handset—and more, the Momentum HD’s rear panel has a quasi-military appearance that seems to prioritize uniformity over grace. That look contrasts with the front panel’s distinctive audio-jewelry profile, in which a large, green-lit volume meter, surrounded by a rotating volume control, reigns supreme. Other controls include eight input and operation buttons, each center-lit by a different color,3 and prominently placed bass and treble controls—

which, as you’ll read below, serve on a part-time basis. The Momentum HD’s regal air is enhanced by its position atop its throne—a combined stand/power supply from which the preamp proper is isolated by three spiked feet. All in all, the Momentum HD, the substantial copper-and-aluminum aesthetic of which reflects the preamp’s substantial cost, is anything but a plain-Jane design. And then there’s the sound—but first, a few . . . Whys and wherefores “I was listening to the Relentless amps at home, and I wanted to see the dynamics,” Dan D’Agostino explained during a Skype screen-to-screener in which he touched upon his company’s three model ranges: Progression, Momentum, and the top-of-the-line Relentless. “I was trying to get the kind of dynamic contrast and extra layer of detail from a preamp that I get from the Relentless amplifier. The original Momentum preamp was doing an awesome job, but I decided to try putting part of the Relentless preamp4 circuit that I was working on into the Momentum preamp. Once I heard a huge improvement, I started to try to fit all the Relentless stuff I could inside the Momentum preamp. That led to the HD version. It’s a monster that swings over 40 volts at the output, and has tremendous dynamic range 3 Illumination can be set to only turn on momentarily during changes. 4 Tentatively due 2nd quarter 2020.

MEASUREMENTS

measured the Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD’s performance with my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1), checking some of the measurements with a loaned sample of Audio Precision’s top-of-the-line AP555x system. The gain at 1kHz for the balanced inputs to the balanced output with the volume control set to the maximum was 10.85dB for the low-gain setting, which was how JVS auditioned the preampliﬁer. (Unless indicated otherwise, all the measurements were taken with this gain setting.) Setting the gain to “26” resulted in a gain at 1kHz of 26.2dB.

To my surprise, as this contradicts what is described in the Momentum HD’s manual, the preampliﬁer inverted polarity with the front-panel meter illuminated green. Pressing the Phase button on the remote control turned the meter’s illumination red and resulted in correct absolute polarity. My test system is wired with pin 2 of the XLR jacks “hot,” ie, carrying the positive phase of the balanced signal, which is the AES standard. The Momentum HD’s input impedance is speciﬁed as an extremely high 1M ohm. The technique I use to estimate input impedance becomes increasingly inaccurate for values greater

than 100k ohms; my measurements indicated that the preamplifier’s input impedance was at least 500k ohms. Although the specified output impedance is a very low 10 ohms, I measured 80 ohms. This value is still low and was consistent across the audioband. The preamplifier’s volume control operated in accurate 0.5dB steps. With this control set to its maximum, the frequency response was flat from 100Hz to 20kHz both into the high 100k ohm load (fig.1, blue and red traces) and into 600 ohms (cyan, magenta). A slight boost can be seen in the low 1 See stereophile.com/asweseeit/108awsi/index. html.

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Fig.1 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, frequency response with volume control set to the maximum at 1V into: 100k ohms (left channel blue, right red), 600 ohms (left cyan, right magenta) (0.5dB/vertical div.).

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Fig.2 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, frequency response with volume control set to the maximum at 1V into 100k ohms with gain set to 26dB (left channel blue, right red) and 10.95dB (left cyan, right magenta) (0.5dB/vertical div.).

Fig.3 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, frequency response with bass and treble controls set to their maximum and minimum positions into 100k ohms (left channel blue, right red), and set to “0” but still in-circuit (left green, right gray) (2dB/vertical div.).

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ORANGE is the new Blue.

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DAN D’AGOSTINO MASTER AUDIO SYSTEMS MOMENTUM HD

and extraordinary ﬁne grain detail at both low and high levels. It’s not a Relentless preamp, which is much more elaborate and will cost much more, but it has some of the same circuitry and ability to reproduce the leading edge of notes and musical passages.” Dan D’Agostino designed “almost all” of the Momentum HD preamp’s audio circuitry. Everything in his current line

uses entirely different circuits than what he designed and used at Krell, the company he co-founded, co-owned, and served as chief engineer. “At Krell, I used to suffer under the burden of the commonly pronounced judgment, ‘The ampliﬁers are fabulous, but the preamps are okay’,” he confessed. “I ﬁgured that if more than one person said that, I wasn’t hitting the home

measurements, continued

bass, reaching +0.55dB at 10Hz. Unlike the original Momentum preampliﬁer, which Michael Fremer reviewed in August 2014 and had a ﬂat response to 200kHz,2 the HD’s response was down by 2.25dB at 200kHz. Fig.1 also shows the superb matching between channels, which was maintained at lower settings of the control and in the two gain conditions. However, with the gain set to 26dB, the response rolled off

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earlier, with the output now –0.5dB at 20kHz and –3dB at 60kHz (fig.2, blue and red traces). With the gain set to 10.95dB and the tone controls active but set to “0” (fig.3, green and gray traces), the audioband response was the same as it had been in fig.1. Set to their maximum and minimum positions, the bass and treble controls offered sensible amounts of boost and cut (blue and

red traces). Channel separation was superb in the L–R direction, at >110dB below 3kHz and 100dB at 20kHz (not shown). It was not as good in the R–L direction, at 80dB below 1kHz. The original Momentum had low levels of noise, with an unweighted, wideband S/N ratio with the volume control set to its maximum of 75.3dB 2 See ﬁg.1 at https://tinyurl.com/wbtveej.

Fig.4 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, spectrum of 1kHz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 1V into 100k ohms with volume control set to its maximum (left channel blue, right red) and to unity gain (left cyan, right magenta) (linear frequency scale).

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Fig.5 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, distortion (%) vs 1kHz output voltage into 100k ohms.

Fig.6 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, distortion (%) vs 1kHz output voltage into 600 ohms.

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Wireworld Silver Eclipse Interconnect & Speaker Patented DNA Helix® design Composilex® 3 Insulation OCC®-7N Silver-clad Copper

Other cables ﬁlter your music. Wireworld cables let the most music through.

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DAN D’AGOSTINO MASTER AUDIO SYSTEMS MOMENTUM HD

run with the preamps like I was with the ampliﬁers. When I designed this preamp, I really wanted it to be over-the-top. I had to do something completely different.” Among the HD’s many changes to the original Momentum preamp design is the use of a Bluetooth remote, which is said to extend its range around the corner, so to speak. The Momentum HD’s ladder volume control, which D’Agostino claims “places a single resistor between you and the sound,” now has an additional 60dB more volume-control steps, with 1dB increments in the critical range between 10pm and 2pm where most people listen. Every touch of the remote’s volume buttons adjusts volume by 1dB. “There’s nothing digital about the volume control save for the relays, which are governed by a digital controller,” he said. “But the relays are not in the volume path; it simply selects the different resistor values.” The Momentum HD’s power supply/stand has grown much larger, due in no small part to a much larger highcurrent transformer, much higher voltage rails, and three

added stages of regulation. There’s a new input board that uses military-grade FETs to give the preamp a 1M1 input impedance, and an additional output stage that has been modiﬁed to take advantage of the very high voltage swing. D’Agostino described one of the reasons he endowed the Momentum HD with tone controls: As he was getting more involved with analog, he discovered that many of his prized records needed “a little tweak of the tone control.” Rather than place the tone controls in the middle of the gain stage, as is often done, and which in his opinion invariably affects sound quality, he added a completely separate tone-control ampliﬁer that, when engaged, diverts the signal through a circuit that is exactly the same, sonically, as in the preamp. “When you engage the tone controls, you’re not affecting how the rest of your preamp sounds,” he said. “It only affects the band you’re operating in. For the treble, you’re working from about 7 or 8kHz up, and on the low side, from about 50 or 60Hz down. They’re not big tone controls; they’re not going to shake the earth, but they are going

measurements, continued

ref. 1V output, this improving to 92dB when the measurement bandwidth was restricted to the audioband. The Momentum HD wasn’t as quiet, the wideband, unweighted signal/noise ratio, taken under the same conditions, measuring 60.2dB, again ref. 1V output. Restricting the measurement bandwidth to the audioband increased the HD’s S/N ratio to 77dB, while switching an A-weighting filter into circuit gave a further improvement to 79.7dB. The low-frequency spectrum with the preamplifier reproducing a 1kHz signal at 1V into 100k ohms (fig.4), with the gain set to 10.95dB and the volume control set to its maximum (blue and red traces) and unity gain (cyan, magenta), indicated that the noise components occurred before the volume control. While supply-related spuriae can be seen at 60Hz and 180Hz in this graph, these are very low in level, even with the preamplifier chassis sitting on top of the power supply, which is how I

Fig.7 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, distortion (%) vs frequency at 4V into: 100k ohms (left channel blue, right red), 600 ohms (left cyan, right magenta).

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February 2020

performed the measurements. Fig.5 plots the percentage of THD+noise in the Momentum HD’s output into 100k ohms. The THD+N rises below 4V output due to the fixed level of noise becoming an increasing percentage of the signal level. The preamplifier’s balanced output doesn’t clip (ie, when the THD+N reaches 1%) until a very high 24V. Reducing the load to a punishing 600 ohms reduced the maximum output level to 16V (fig.6), which is still much higher than will be needed to drive a power amplifier into clipping. To be sure that the reading was not dominated by noise, I measured the Momentum HD’s distortion change with frequency at 4V, where figs.5 and 6 suggested that actual distortion was starting to rise above the low noise floor. The THD+N percentage was extremely low in both channels throughout the audioband into 100k ohms (fig.7, blue and red traces). Though the THD+N

percentage rose into 600 ohms (cyan, magenta traces), it was still below 0.02% across the band. While the second and third harmonics can be seen in the spectrum at the same output level into 100k ohms (fig.6), these are at very low levels, close to –100dB. Though the second harmonic remained at the same level when I reduced the load impedance to 600 ohms, the third harmonic rose to –78dB in both channels. Tested for intermodulation distortion with an equal mix of 19 and 20kHz tones at peak level of 4V, the second-order difference product at 1kHz lay at or below –10dB (fig.9). The higher-order products in this graph were even lower in level. While the Momentum HD’s measurements in some areas—channel separation, S/N ratios—are not the equal of the original Momentum’s, this doesn’t detract from the fact that it is a well-engineered preamplifier. —John Atkinson

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Fig.8 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, spectrum of 50Hz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 4V into 100k ohms (left channel blue, right red; linear frequency scale).

Fig.9 Dan D’Agostino Momentum HD, HF intermodulation spectrum, DC–30kHz, 19+20kHz at 4V into 100k ohms (left channel blue, right red; linear frequency scale).

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to make slight differences.” Installation and setup Removing the two-piece Momentum HD preamp from its secure, wheel-equipped flight case and setting it up was a snap. Given the high power output of my reference D’Agostino Progression monoblock amplifiers—1000W into 4 ohms—there was no need to raise the preamp’s gain from the default setting. The only question concerned whether to use the AudioQuest Niagara 5000 power conditioner into which I usually plug all my equipment, with its two high-current outlets reserved for the Progressions. During our chat, I read Dan an email from Niagara designer Garth Powell, who wrote that my Niagara 5000, fed by a 1m 20V AQ Dragon power cable, performs at “20 Amps RMS, with a 90 amp peak current reservoir that can sustain up to 25mS at 120 VAC input. If you get a 1000 watt class A operation power amplifier, it could be an issue. Otherwise the 5000 will make the amplifier better, given its transient power correction circuit. Many companies are justifiably concerned, because many AC filters, isolation transformers, and AC regenerating circuits raise AC impedance, create a phase lag, and therefore current compress the power amplifier. We do the opposite (if you use the high current outlets).” D’Agostino responded, “If I were listening at your house, I would plug the amps directly into the wall and plug the preamp into the power conditioner. I don’t know the Niagara 5000 so I can’t speak definitively, but my experience with power conditioners is that they’re not doing my amps any favors. I think you should leave everything the same in order to do the initial listening to the preamp, because that way you don’t mess up your reference.” I followed Dan’s counsel. First, with the monoblocks plugged into the Niagara 5000, I used the Momentum HD preamp with two excellent DACs that have their own volume controls, the dCS Rossini and EMM Labs DV2. After more or less removing those volume controls from the equation by setting them to 0dB, I allowed the Momentum HD preamp to control volume and evaluated the sonic differences. I next compared the sound of the solid-state Momentum HD preamp to that of the tubed Audio Research Ref 6. I also listened to the DACs with no preamp in the chain and later evaluated the sound with the amps plugged into the wall. Switching between all those pieces of equipment while keeping power cables and interconnects separate, ensuring optimal setup consistency, and taking coherent notes is not for the faint of heart. A touch of madness helps. Some may be tempted to resort to mood stabilizers or out-of-body escape when they realize that, because the Momentum HD preamp lacks a numeric volume display, it’s virtually impossible to match volume levels by sight. There’s a reason for the manual’s caution: “The dynamic capability of the new Momentum HD Preamplifier is beyond what is normally experienced with other preamplifiers or source units with volume controls. . . . The unlocked dynamics can be system damaging if some care is not exercised.” If you can’t see the meter’s slim volume indicator from afar, listen to your mother for once: Always turn the volume down when switching between components to avoid blowing out your eardrums or speaker drivers. Reveling in the sound As so-called chance would have it—are there really such stereophile.com

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A S S O C I AT E D E Q U I P M E N T Digital sources dCS Rossini SACD/CD transport & Rossini DAC & Rossini Clock & Network Bridge; EMM Labs DV2 DAC; Apple 2017 Macbook Pro computer with 2.8 GHz Intel i7, SSD, 16GB RAM; Roon Nucleus+; Linksys routers (2), Small Green Computer Systemoptique optical isolation bundle, TP-Link gigabit Ethernet media converters plus multimode duplex fiberoptic cable (2); Small Green Computer linear power supply & Small Green Computer/ HDPlex four-component 200W linear power supply (2); external hard drives, SSD USB sticks, iPad Pro. Preamplifier Audio Research Ref 6. Power amplifiers Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Progression monoblocks. Loudspeakers Wilson Audio Specialties Alexia 2. Cables Digital: Nordost Odin 1 & Odin 2 & Valhalla 2 (USB) & Frey 2 (USB adapter), Wireworld Platinum Starlight Cat8 (Ethernet). Interconnect: Nordost Odin 2. Speaker: Nordost Odin 2. AC: Nordost Odin 2 & Valhalla, AudioQuest Dragon HC, Kimber Palladian. Accessories Grand Prix Monza 8-shelf double rack & amp stands, 1.5" Formula platform, Apex footers; Nordost QB8, QX4 (2), QK1 & QV2 AC power accessories, QKore 1 & 6 with QKore Wires, Titanium and Bronze Sort Kones, Sort Lifts; AudioQuest Niagara 5000 power conditioner & NRG Edison outlets & Jitterbugs; Tweek Geek Dark Matter Stealth power conditioner with High Fidelity and Furutech options; GreenWave AC filter; Marigo Aida CD mat; Stein Music Super Naturals, Signature Harmonizers, Blue Suns/ Diamonds, Quantum Organizer; Bybee Room Neutralizers; Absolare Stabilians; Resolution Acoustics room treatment; Stillpoints Aperture panels. Room 20' L × 16' W × 9' H.—Jason Victor Serinus

things as accidents?—production delays brought an already broken-in Momentum HD preamp to Port Townsend just one day before a previously scheduled group of six local audio/music enthusiasts arrived for a listening session. Taking advantage of the Roon Nucleus+ to send music to the Rossini DAC/clock combo from reference files, Tidal, and Qobuz, my friends presented a golden opportunity to explore the preamp with music other than my usual fare—not that there’s anything “usual” about Morton Feldman, David Lang, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, Ellen Reid, Terry Riley, Iannis Xenakis, Claude Debussy, Missy Mazzoli, Bryce Dessner, or Ludwig van Beethoven, to name a few of the composers whose music I’ve explored of late. For reasons that some might ascribe to the current political climate, we got on a “Sympathy for the Devil” kick. We began with a bizarrely captivating, crackly-voiced studio rendition by Rickie Lee Jones (Tidal, 16/44.1 FLAC), from her album The Devil You Know. I was immediately taken by the striking spatial depth accorded the sounds of the accompanying instruments, the clear timbral differentiation between bass and electric guitar, the smoothness on top, and an extra touch of warmth to the full midrange. The presentation was also significantly wider and tonally weightier than I expect from the Rossini, and reminded me of the sound of dCS’s reference Vivaldi DAC. One visitor, photographer Jonathan Jones, was especially struck by the “detail and micro-inflections of the presentation, and Rickie Lee Jones’s 119

DAN D’AGOSTINO MASTER AUDIO SYSTEMS MOMENTUM HD

vocal hooding technique.” with the Momentum HD preamp. I missed every last iota Then we switched to the Rolling Stones’ original version of the creaky raspiness in Rickie Lee Jones’s voice that made of the song—one that I reveled in shortly after college—from her HD devil as spooky as it was weird. Beggar’s Banquet. With the Momentum HD preamp, I briefly switched DACs and used a single S/PDIF cable differences between Tidal’s 16/44.1 and MQA files, which from the dCS Network Bridge to convey signals from the unfolded to 24/192, were obvious. With higher resolution Roon Nucleus+ to the EMM Labs DV2. With the Mocame greater percussive depth, bottom reach, and clarity; mentum HD preamp controlling volume, I heard more significantly fuller and more enveloping sound, greater air around Cassandra Wilson and Rickie Lee Jones’s voices dynamics, and realistic treble that saved us from the overly and accompaniment, but a bit less midrange profundity. brittle top of the original digital transfer. The D’Agostino After realizing that the comparison was flawed due to setup Momentum HD preamp conveyed everything with an ease constraints—I’ve since moved equipment around on my I was unaccustomed to. eight-shelf double rack so I don’t run into this problem in We moved on to versions of “Come On in My Kitchen” the future and sent the DV2 back for a major upgrade—I acfrom Crooked Still (Tidal 16/44.1 FLAC), David Bromberg knowledged that a valid comparison between the two DACs (Qobuz 16/44.1 FLAC), Cassandra Wilson (Tidal would have to wait. 16/44.1 FLAC), and, of course, Robert Johnson When I returned to the A new window (Qobuz 16/44.1 FLAC). In all cases, bass was absoRossini DAC/Momentum opened, and every HD preamp combo, revisiting lutely firm, and the midrange gorgeous. I was blown away by the seemingly boundless soundstage and recording became a Cassandra Wilson’s performaximum color saturation on Cassandra Wilson’s mance revealed a complexity source of wonder. version, which we played numerous times with difof string tone, deep bass grind, and increased color contrast ferent electronics. Photographer Marco Prozzo, an and depth that, compared to what I heard from either DAC uncommonly inquisitive music lover who was familiar with alone, left me in awe. Adding the preamp delivered Rickie the recording, wrote, “Wow! I’m hearing low-level subtle Lee’s creepy vocals with much more subtlety and intimacy, details I’ve never heard before, great separation of instruments, and cymbal splashes that are defined and unclouded.” and markedly greater dynamics, even at low volume. I didn’t want the music to end. For a make-it-or-break-it track, I cued up the emotionUntil I shipped the Momentum HD preamp to John ally devastating second movement (“The Ninth of JanuAtkinson for measurement, one joy-filled listening session ary”) from Shostakovich’s Symphony No.11, “The Year followed another. Further revelations arrived with Praeludi1905,” performed live by Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (24-bit/96kHz download, Deutsche um, the first track from Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Grammophon 002859502). In Shostakovich’s astoundFrancisco Symphony’s digital-only recording of Berg’s Three Pieces for Orchestra (24/192 WAV, SFS Media SFS0070). ing fff depiction of the infamous Bloody Sunday massacre, Even though the dB Pro app on my iPhone measured the where merciless Cossacks fired on unarmed citizens, every music’s blaring climax at 90dB, highs were smooth, every musician and their mother pounds, blares, and saws away as line was clean, and multilayered bass lines remained solid. if their life depended upon it. The Momentum HD preamp If at any time in my listening I found the treble too toned rendered their efforts more controlled and less noisy than down, engaging the tone controls and raising treble to “1” the Rossini DAC solo, with deeper and more resonant bass did the trick without, to my ears, negatively impacting other and an all-enveloping three-dimensional soundstage that ranges or the presentation as a whole. Although I used it was as thrilling as it was terrifying. The huge dynamic contrast between that all-out assault and the subsequent hushed, rarely, I ended up surprising myself by liking the tonesorrowful drone that eventually faded away, like smoke from control option. In all my listening, the only problem that arose occurred gun barrels dissipating into the air as peasants’ souls left their after I plugged the Progression monoblocks directly into the lifeless bodies, was chilling. wall and left break-in tones running for 24 hours. When I Sticking with Shostakovich, Rickie Lee Jones, and Casreturned to the music room, the Momentum HD preamp sandra Wilson, we switched preamps and discovered that emitted a steady hum that was annoying from 12' away. Rethe contrast between the D’Agostino Momentum HD and the Audio Research Ref 6 was profound. While timbres turning the power cables to the Niagara 5000’s high-current were actually more neutral through the Ref 6 and air was outlets eliminated the hum. When I attempted to duplicate quite fine, highs were noisier, midrange less full, and bass the problem by reconnecting amps to the wall, there was no less astounding albeit excellent in its own right. On Yello’s hum after four hours of break-in tones. I have no idea what “Electrified II” from Toy (24/48 WAV, Polydor 4782160/ was going on. All I could confirm was that, in my system HDtracks) and will.i.am’s “#thatPOWER” (featuring and to these ears, AudioQuest’s non–current-limiting power Justin Bieber) from #willpower (16/44.1 mqa.flac, Interconditioning enhances rather than detracts. Nights followed when, thanks to Tidal, Qobuz, and my scope Records UICS-9136/7), the Ref 6 preamp couldn’t own collection, I revisited one beloved soprano, mezzo, deliver the same degree of bass impact, midrange fullness, tenor, and baritone after the other. (Sorry, basses; I’ll try extended evenness on top, and wall-to-wall sound as the Momentum HD. Which isn’t surprising, given the $25,000 to visit you in the next review.) Words are inadequate to convey the heart-opening expansive glow mezzo Dame price difference. With the Ref 6, my system still sounded Janet Baker achieves on her first high note of “Die zwei like the system I knew inside out; with the Momentum blauen Augen von meinem Schatz” (The Two Blue Eyes HD, a new window opened, and every recording became a of my Beloved), in her famous recording of Mahler’s Songs source of wonder. of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen) with Sir With no preamp in the chain, the Rossini solo could not John Barbirolli and the New Philharmonia Orchestra; deliver the same level of detail and mesmerizing expanse as 120

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DAN D’AGOSTINO MASTER AUDIO SYSTEMS MOMENTUM HD

the smiling warmth that baritone Gerhard Hüsch brings to Schubert’s “Die Taubenpost” (The Pigeon Post) from Schwanengesang; the thrilling mixture of fear and abandon that propels Jussi Björling up to the high C in “Che gelida manina” (How cold your little hand is) from Puccini’s La Bohème, and that keeps expanding the note to uncommon length as he discovers that everything is working exactly as he hoped it would, in a live 1939 performance I discovered on Tidal; and the beauty that Leontyne Price brings to her marvelously sensual performance of “Depuis le jour” (Ever since the day) from Charpentier’s Louise. I knew all but the Björling performance backward and forward, but thanks to the additional clarity and resolution that the Momentum HD preamp brought to recordings old and new, I discovered new details and colors previously only hinted at. The only disappointment? The sound was so clear and fleshed out that I could hear every teeny flaw in Price’s vocal production, as well as Björling’s tendency to end low-lying phrases somewhat prosaically as he focuses on the highflying passages to come. Thus do false goddesses and gods affirm their humanity. Toward the end of the audition period, I queued up an ultrafamiliar track that I’ve used in numerous reviews, “Sleepers Awake” from Bach Trios, by mandolinist Chris Thile, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and double bassist Edgar Meyer (24/96 FLAC, Nonesuch 558933). This was the same track that blew me away when Peter McGrath played it through the Momentum HD preamp at the Definitive Audio Music Matters demo last spring. Paired with equipment one level down and several hundred thousand dollars less than the Definitive system, the Momentum HD preamp couldn’t

deliver sound anywhere near as breathtakingly life-sized and realistic. Nonetheless, it conveyed far more air around instruments, with more subtle detail, natural leading treble edge, midrange richness, and fully fleshed-out, solid bass than I’d come to expect from my system. For the first time, I could sense when Yo-Yo Ma’s mike was turned on and hear the short delay between his bow’s initial contact with his cello’s strings and the emergence of sound so rich and full that it made me content. The D’Agostino Momentum HD preamp delivered much of what I have sought ever since I began upgrading my crappy components 35 years ago: It got me closer than ever to the point of creation, and to the artists I love. Beyond summation In every respect, the D’Agostino Momentum HD preamp improved the sound of two superb DACs that include excellent volume controls. Bigger, clearer, smoother, deeper— more musical and involving, mesmerizing and revelatory in turn—the Momentum HD preamp checked off every box on the Holy List of Audiophile Superlatives and tempted me to ignore the inviolable commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Covet.” Forgive me, Lord, for so wanting to meld with the music I love that I momentarily lost my way. But please, may I ask two small favors? Santa is bored at this time of the year: Could you please buy him a gym membership so that he and the Momentum HD preamp can squeeze down my proverbial chimney real soon? And please afford every Stereophile reader the opportunity to hear everything the Momentum HD preamp can do, in systems fine enough to reproduce music at its heavenly best. Q

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Schiit Audio Ragnarok 2 INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

n Herb Reichert’s review of the original Schiit Audio Ragnarok integrated amplifier,1 he wrote, “Schiit Audio’s Ragnarok [is] the first amplifier of my experience that plays earth and sky, mind and body, brown eyes and blue, speakers and headphones, with equal narcotic intensity.” Herb’s colorful conclusions so persuaded me of the Ragnarok’s worth that, when Schiit Audio’s Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffatt announced the impending release of the Ragnarok 2, I pitched a Stereophile follow-up review.

I soon learned that the new amp is more than just a refined version of the original. The Ragnarok 2, which Schiit says is the first example of their new Nexus currentfeedback differential amplifier topology, is a modular amp that can be ordered as “Just An Amp,” with two balanced (XLR) and three single-ended (RCA) line-level inputs ($1499), or it can be ordered “Fully Loaded.” With the 1 See stereophile.com/content/schiit-audio-ragnarok-integrated-amplifier.

SPECIFICATIONS Description Two-channel solid-state integrated ampliﬁer with optional DAC and phono preamp. Analog inputs (as reviewed): 2 pairs balanced line-level (XLR), 1 pair single-ended line-level (RCA), 1 pair MM phono (RCA). Digital inputs (as reviewed): 1 USB. Outputs: 1 pair speaker connectors, 1 single-ended headphone

stereophile.com

February 2020

(RCA), 1 balanced headphone (XLR). Input impedance: 10k ohms. S/N ratio: >115dB, A-weighted. THD: <0.01%, 20Hz–20kHz, at 100W RMS into 8 ohms. Power output, loudspeakers: 60Wpc into 8 ohms, 100Wpc into 4 ohms. Power output, balanced headphones: 24Wpc into 32 ohms, 15Wpc into 50 ohms,

etc. Power output, singleended headphones: 6Wpc into 32 ohms, 3.75Wpc into 50 ohms, etc. Dimensions 13" (330mm) W × 3.89" (98mm) H × 16" (406mm) D. Weight: 32lb (14.5kg). Serial number of unit reviewed 09201165. Designed and assembled in California. Price $1799 as reviewed,

$1499 without DAC and phono preamp. Approximate number of dealers: Direct-sale only. Warranty: 5 years, 15-day money-back guarantee with 5% restocking fee. Manufacturer Schiit Audio, 22508 Market Street, Newhall, CA 91321. Tel: (323) 230-0079. Web: schiit.com.

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SCHIIT AUDIO RAGNAROK 2

Fully Loaded conﬁguration, the buyer loses one unbalanced line-level input but gains a moving magnet phono stage and a USB multibit DAC. The Fully Loaded costs $1799—just $100 more than the bare-bones original Ragnarok. The Just An Amp version can be upgraded to Fully Loaded at any time for $350 ($300 for the cards, $50 for the labor); alternatively, the DAC and phono stage cards can be purchased and installed by the owner. Design The Ragnarok 2 is rated at 60Wpc into 8 ohms and 100Wpc into 4 ohms. Its output stage directs 24Wpc to the balanced headphone output and 6Wpc to the single-ended headphone output—a lot of power for a headphone amp. As with the original Ragnarok, the Ragnarok 2 includes a choice of three gain levels—in this case, 2× (6dB), 8× (18dB),

and 25× (28dB), all specs referring to the total gain with the volume control turned all the way up. You’ll want 25× for driving most loudspeakers, while 2× and 8× will work well for headphones. The Rag 2’s volume control has also been improved. “We make the 128-step microprocessor-controlled relay ladder attenuator with discrete resistors and relays, same as with the original Ragnarok,” Stoddard wrote in an email. “And same as our Saga and Freya preamps. 128 steps offers much ﬁner volume control than 64, with about 0.63dB steps.” The phono stage and DAC are sourced from other products in the Schiit lineup. “The phono card is similar to a single-gain Mani phono preamp (ﬁxed gain for most MM cartridges), with a couple of key changes, including DC coupling and a DC servo,” Stoddard wrote. “Both are passive phono preamp topologies, however, and measure similarly.

MEASUREMENTS

performed a full set of measurements on Schiit Audio’s Ragnarok 2 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see the January 2008 “As We See It”1). I preconditioned the amplifier by running it at one-third the specified power into 8 ohms for 45 minutes. At the end of this period, the temperature of the top panel had stabilized at 106.0°F (41.1°C), while the heatsinks measured 126.9°F (52.8°C). This amplifier should be placed in a well-ventilated location. Looking first at the small-signal measurements with line-level input signals, the Schiit amplifier’s maximum voltage gain, measured at the loudspeaker outputs, was 29dB into 8 ohms with the gain set to “25,” 18.6dB with it set to “8,” and 5.9dB with it set to “2.” (Schiit specifies gain in multiples— 2×, 8×, 25×—instead of the usual dB units.) These gains were identical for balanced and single-ended input signals, and, on the 8× and 25× settings, match up well with the specifications. On the 2× setting, the gain was (5.9dB) instead. The amplifier preserved absolute polarity (ie, was noninverting) for all inputs and outputs. The maximum gain, measured at the unbalanced headphone jack on the front panel, was 29dB (balanced input) and 23.1dB (unbalanced input) at the highest gain setting; the output impedance from this jack was a very low 1.3 ohms from 20Hz to 20kHz. The maximum gain from the balanced preamplifier output was 29dB sourced from 600 ohms. The single-ended preamplifier gain was 23.1dB, with an output impedance of 75 ohms.

stereophile.com

February 2020

The unbalanced input impedance was close to the specified 10k ohms at all audio frequencies and twice that value for the balanced inputs, as expected. The output impedance from the speaker terminals was a low 0.08 ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz, rising to a still-low 0.12 ohms at 20kHz. As a result, the amplifier’s response driving our standard simulated loudspeaker2 varied by just ±0.05dB (fig.1, gray trace). The responses into 8 and 4 ohm resistive loads (blue, red, cyan, and

magenta traces) were ﬂat up to 30kHz, with excellent matching between the channels and a gentle ultrasonic rolloff. Into 2 ohms (green trace), the output rolled more rapidly above the audioband, reaching –7dB at 200kHz. Commendably, the ampliﬁer’s frequency response was not affected by the gain and volume-control settings 1 See stereophile.com/content/measurementsmaps-precision. 2 See stereophile.com/content/real-life-measurements-page-2.

d B r A

Fig.1 Schiit Ragnarok 2, frequency response at 2.83V into: simulated loudspeaker load (gray), 8 ohms (left channel blue, right red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta), 2 ohms (green) (1dB/vertical div.)

d B r

Fig.2 Schiit Ragnarok 2, small-signal, 10kHz squarewave into 8 ohms.

Fig.3 Schiit Ragnarok 2, spectrum of 1kHz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 1W into 8 ohms (linear frequency scale).

Fig.4 Schiit Ragnarok 2, THD+N (%) vs 1kHz continuous output power into 8 ohms.

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SCHIIT AUDIO RAGNAROK 2

The True Multibit DAC card is similar to a single-input Modi Multibit, using the same DSP-based digital filter and Analog Devices AD5547 D/A converter.” Like all Schiit amplifiers, the Ragnarok 2 uses a linear power supply, this one including a 600VA, mu-metal shielded, potted-in-a-steel-case MCI transformer and more than 132,000μF of Nichicon capacitors. The Ragnarok 2’s aluminum front and top plates are similar to those on the original Ragnarok. The steel chassis is also similar but adds external heatsinks on each side for cooler running temperatures. The Rag 2’s aluminum remote control handset is finished in silver and measures just 4.65" × 1.3" × 0.25." It controls input selection, volume, gain setting, speaker/headphone selection, and muting. Those who prefer to control the amp from the chassis will encounter, to the left of the volume control, three flat, round control buttons for selecting the source, speakers or

measurements, continued

and was identical when measured from the headphone and preamplifier jacks. With its wide small-signal bandwidth, the Ragnarok 2’s reproduction of a 10kHz squarewave into 8 ohms (fig.2) was very good, with no overshoot or ringing visible. The channel separation was excellent, at >100dB in both directions below 2kHz and still 75dB at 20kHz. The unweighted, wideband signal/ noise ratio, ref. 2.83V into 8 ohms and taken with the gain set to 2×, the unbalanced input shorted to ground, and the volume control set to its maximum—the worst case—was very good, at 88.4dB. Restricting the measurement bandwidth to the audioband improved the ratio to 96.7dB, while an A-weighting filter improved it further, to 108.5dB. (All ratios are the average of the two channels.) Setting the gain to 8× reduced the S/N ratios by 1–5dB; setting it to 25× further reduced the ratios by another 6–9dB. But even in the worst case—right channel, high gain, unweighted, wideband—the ratio was a still-good 81dB. This is a quiet amplifier, and as shown in fig.3, in the low-frequency spectrum of the Ragnarok 2’s output while it drove a 1kHz tone at 1W into 8 ohms, the power supply-related spuriae all lie at or below –105dB. The Ragnarok 2’s maximum output power is specified as 60W into 8 ohms (17.8dBW) and 100W into 4 ohms (17dBW). Figs. 4 and 5 plot the percentage of THD+N against power with both channels driven into 8 ohms and 4 ohms. With clipping defined as

stereophile.com

February 2020

when the THD+noise reaches 1%, this sample of the Ragnarok 2 clipped at 78W into 8 ohms (18.9dBW) and 93W into 4 ohms (16.7dBW). Below 10W or so in these graphs, the actual distortion lies below the noise ﬂoor, so I plotted how the THD+N percentage changed with frequency at 8.95V, which is equivalent to 10W into 8 ohms, 20W into 4 ohms, and 40W into 2 ohms. The result is shown in ﬁg.6. The THD is extremely low, especially in the lower midrange, but is a little higher

in the right channel into 8 and 4 ohms (red and magenta traces) than it is in the left channel (blue, cyan). Though the THD into these loads rises in the treble, it remains low in absolute terms. Only with the left channel driving 2 ohms (gray trace) does the distortion reach 0.1%, but then only in the top audio octave. The waveform of the residual distortion and noise (ﬁg.7) suggests that the subjectively benign second harmonic is dominant. Spectral analysis (ﬁg.8)

Fig.5 Schiit Ragnarok 2, THD+N (%) vs 1kHz continuous output power into 4 ohms.

Fig.6 Schiit Ragnarok 2, THD+N (%) vs frequency at 8.95V into: 8 ohms (left channel blue, right red), 4 ohms (left cyan, right magenta).

d B r A

Avg: 32

Fig.7 Schiit Ragnarok 2, 1kHz waveform at 30Wpc into 8 ohms, 0.0045%% THD+N.

Fig.8 Schiit Ragnarok 2, spectrum of 50Hz sinewave, DC–1kHz, at 20W into 4 ohms (linear frequency scale).

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SCHIIT AUDIO RAGNAROK 2

headphones, and gain setting; to the right, there’s a gain setting indicator and connections for single-ended (via a 1/4" connector) and balanced (via male XLR) headphone output. Each button and corresponding LED is identified on the fascia by a tiny, hieroglyph-like icon which is impossible to see from more than a few feet away. If you find this sort of thing frustrating, just use the remote. The Rag 2’s back panel has the expected array of RCA, XLR, IEC power, and loudspeaker connections. If Fully Loaded, one pair of single-ended (RCA) line inputs is given over to the phono stage, and a USB DAC input is added. Preamp-out is provided via both RCA and XLR connections. Schiit Audio components are designed, assembled, and manufactured in the United States, as are most of the parts. The Ragnarok 2 comes with a five-year warranty, and if within 15 days of its arrival you decide you don’t like it, you

may return it for a refund minus a 5% restocking fee. Setup The Ragnarok 2 was easy to set up. When the time came to compare its internal DAC to my BorderPatrol DAC SE, the latter was connected via a 1m pair of Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA interconnects. I used Shindo Laboratory RCA cables when hooking up my Tascam CD player to the Schiit’s single-ended inputs. I ran a generic Amazon USB cable from my Asus Laptop running Tidal to the Rag 2’s internal DAC input. Shindo cables connected Auditorium 23 and Bob’s Devices moving-coil step-up transformers to the Rag 2’s internal phono stage. I began this review with the Thorens TD 124 MkI turntable but eventually changed to the Kuzma Stabi R. Similarly, Klipsch Forte III loudspeakers were swapped out

measurements, continued

indicates that the third harmonic is 10dB lower in level than the second, with the fourth harmonic about 5dB lower still. Higher-order spuriae are all very low in level. Tested with an equal mix of 19 and 20kHz tones at moderate power into 8 ohms, the second-order difference product lay at just –93dB (0.006%) in both channels (fig.9). However, higher-order intermodulation products can be seen, due to the amplifier’s reduced linearity at high frequencies. Turning to the USB digital input, I tested this with data sourced from my MacBook Pro running on battery power, with Pure Music 3.0 playing WAV and AIFF test-tone files. Apple’s USB Prober utility identified the Schiit amplifier as “Schiit USB Multibit\000” from “Schiit Audio\000.” The Ragnarok 2’s USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode, and Apple’s AudioMIDI utility revealed that the amplifier accepted 16-, 24-, and 32-bit integer data sampled at all rates from 44.1 to 192kHz. The USB input preserved absolute polarity, and with the volume control set to its maximum and the Ragnarok’s gain set to 2×, a 1kHz tone at 0dBFS resulted in a level at both the balanced preamplifier and loudspeaker outputs of 4.5V. Setting the amplifier’s gain to 8× increased the maximum level with digital data by 12.7dB, which suggests that setting it to 25× will clip the Ragnarok 2 with full-scale data unless the volume control is backed off. Even so, the digital input’s gain architecture seems sensibly organized. The following measurements were all made at the balanced preamplifier

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output. The Schiit’s impulse response with 44.1kHz data (fig.10) was typical of a time-symmetrical, linear-phase reconstruction filter. The frequency response with 44.1kHz-sampled white noise (fig.11, red and magenta traces) reached full stop-band suppression just above half the sample rate, indicated by the vertical green line in this graph. The aliased image at 25kHz of a fullscale tone at 19.1kHz (blue and cyan traces) is suppressed by >90dB. The harmonics of the 19.1kHz tone can be

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seen at –61dB (second) and –80dB (third), though the noise floor with this high-frequency tone is more raggedlooking than I usually see with this test. When I increased the bit depth from 16 to 24 with a dithered 1kHz tone at –90dBFS (fig.12), the noise floor dropped by 10dB, meaning that the Ragnarok 2’s USB input offers just below 18 bits’ worth of resolution. With undithered data representing a tone at exactly –90.31dBFS, the three DC voltage levels described by the data

Fig.9 Schiit Ragnarok 2, HF intermodulation spectrum, DC–30kHz, 19+20kHz at 10W peak into 8 ohms (linear frequency scale).

sec

Fig.10 Schiit Ragnarok 2, USB input, impulse response (one sample at 0dBFS, 4ms time window).

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Fig.11 Schiit Ragnarok 2, USB input, wideband spectrum of white noise at –4dBFS (left channel red, right magenta) and 19.1kHz tone at 0dBFS (left blue, right cyan) with CD data (20dB/vertical div.).

Fig.12 Schiit Ragnarok 2, USB input, spectrum with noise and spuriae of dithered 1kHz tone at –90dBFS with 24-bit data (left channel blue, right red) and 16-bit data (left cyan, right magenta) (20dB/vertical div.).

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for DeVore Fidelity O/93s, using Auditorium 23 speaker cables for both. Listening I brought out several vinyl chestnuts from my collection to establish the Ragnarok 2’s basic sound: Ella Fitzgerald’s Swings Brightly With Nelson (LP, Verve Records V6-4054); Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne & Ray Brown’s Poll Winners Three! (LP, Contemporary Records M 3576); Miles Davis Quintet’s Workin’ (LP, Prestige PRLP 7166); and Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell’s El Corazón (LP, ECM Records ECM 1-1230). All four records revealed the Rag 2’s sound to be bold and punchy, with good dynamics and precise imaging. A strong presence I love Ella’s Swings Brightly With Nelson for Riddle’s arrangements and buoyant big band—and of course, Ella herself, who sounds joyful throughout. Through the Rag 2, Ella’s artistry—every dynamic nuance, every subtlety of timing, every inhalation and exhalation—was reproduced better than through any ampliﬁer I’ve had in house. The Ragnarok 2 was so resolving, yet in such a nonanalytical way, it was almost like being inside Ella’s head. Her vocals sounded more human and less canned than I’ve ever heard. The big band was reproduced with admirable soundstage depth but without the spaciousness provided (or allowed) by my tube amps. The explosive thwacks of drummer Warren Smith’s Warren Smith & Toki (45, RCA RVL-8501) and the timpani and snare drum battles of Makoto Aruga’s Digital Percussion (LP, Seven Seas K2BC-165) revealed an ampliﬁer that doesn’t soften transients. The trio interplay on Poll Winners Three!, where each musician’s timing—how one musician pushes the beat as another pulls it back—was clearer than I’ve heard before. El Corazón is a musical duel between a trumpet and drumming master, Cherry and Blackwell romping through bubbling New Orleans swing with exploratory avant play-

fulness. This recording always sounds palpable and present, but via the Rag 2, which mated beautifully with my DeVore Fidelity O/93s, I could better hear the metallic vibrancy of Blackwell’s snare drum and the spitty textures of Cherry’s trumpet. As with the Ella disc, the music was more immediate and brilliantly dynamic than I recall it sounding through other gear. Each instrument in the mix was crisp and vivid, with commendable tone. On Poll Winners Three!, a jazz master class if ever there is one, the Rag 2 provided a frontrow–seat perspective, presenting palpable images within a deep soundstage. Midrange frequencies are where this amplifier excels. Kessel’s guitar on Poll Winners Three! sounded particularly lush and toneful. Shelly Manne’s drums were textured and present—not as present and colorful as when played through my Shindo gear, but with more warmth than any other solid-state amplifier I’ve reviewed. The Rag 2 performed the neat trick of being crisp and warm at the same time. While the Rag 2’s midrange was consistently full and engaging, I found its bass response mixed. The Schiit’s reproduction of bass weight—upright and electric bass, bass drums, timpani, deep organ notes—was less substantial than that of other solid-state (and some tube) amplifiers I’ve had in house. Paul Chambers’s acoustic bass on Miles Davis’s Workin’ had less weight than I’ve heard. Dave Holland’s upright bass on Triplicate (LP, ECM Records ECM 1373) had good palpability. A $150 DAC The Rag 2’s Fully Loaded package adds a phono stage, a USB DAC, and $300 to the price of the Just An Amp version. Assuming that half that goes to the phono stage, the Ragnarok DAC costs $150. The $1850 BorderPatrol DAC SE did not trounce it. Stacey Kent’s “It’s a Wonderful World” (FLAC, 16/44.1kHz, Tidal) sounded more natural and relaxed through the Rag 2 DAC, but the soundstage was deeper through the Border-

measurements, continued

were well resolved and the waveform was symmetrical, though overlaid with high-frequency noise (fig.13). Tested for its rejection of word-clock jitter with 16-bit data, most of the odd-order harmonics of the LSBlevel, low-frequency squarewave were reproduced at the correct levels (fig.14, sloping green line). However, there was some accentuation of the sideband pair closest to the primary tone, and a lowlevel spurious tone at 14.35kHz can be seen. This tone was also present with 24-bit J-Test data (not shown). As well as providing a digital USB input, the Fully Loaded option adds a moving-magnet phono stage. With the amplifier gain set to 2, a 1kHz tone at the standard MM reference level of 5mV resulted in maximum levels of 2V from the loudspeaker and balanced preamplifier outputs, equivalent to a

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gain of 52.1dB. The phono input didn’t invert absolute polarity, and the input impedance measured an appropriate 45k ohms at 20Hz and 1kHz, dropping inconsequentially to 40k ohms at 20kHz.

Measured at the preampliﬁer outputs, the Ragnarok 2 offered superbly accurate RIAA equalization (ﬁg.15); any error remained below ±0.1dB. Channel separation via the phono inputs was also excellent, at >80dB

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sec

Fig.13 Schiit Ragnarok 2, USB input, waveform of undithered 16-bit, 1kHz sinewave at –90.31dBFS (left channel blue, right red).

Fig.14 Schiit Ragnarok 2, USB input, high-resolution jitter spectrum of analog output signal, 11.025kHz at –6dBFS, sampled at 44.1kHz with LSB toggled at 229Hz: 16-bit data (left channel blue, right red). Center frequency of trace, 11.025kHz; frequency range, ±3.5kHz.

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SCHIIT AUDIO RAGNAROK 2

Patrol. The BorderPatrol presented Sarah Vaughan’s “Mean to Me” (FLAC, 16/44.1kHz, Tidal) with natural-sounding tone and good texture, the latter including an emphasis on the slight burr in her voice. The Schiit reproduced her voice with less texture; spatially, it placed her band farther back on the soundstage. If I had to choose, I think I’d take the Schiit’s DAC and keep the cash.

A S S O C I AT E D E Q U I P M E N T Analog sources Kuzma Stabi R turntable & Kuzma 4Point 11" tonearm; Hana ML MC phono cartridge, Thorens TD 124 turntable & Jelco 350S tonearm; Denon DL-103 MC cartridge. Digital sources BorderPatrol DAC SE, Tascam CD-200iL CD player, Asus laptop running Tidal. Preamplification Auditorium 23 SUT, Bob’s Devices Sky SUT. Integrated amplifiers Schiit Audio Ragnarok. Loudspeakers DeVore Fidelity Orangutan O/93, Klipsch Forte III. Headphones Master & Dynamic MH40. Cables Digital: Mytek (USB). Interconnect: Shindo Laboratory, Triode Wire Labs Spirit II. Speaker: Auditorium 23. AC: manufacturers’ own. Accessories IsoTek EVO3 Aquarius line conditioner, Salamander five-tier rack; IKEA Aptitlig bamboo chopping boards (under preamp, power amps); Mapleshade maple platform (15" × 12" × 2", under turntable), mahogany blocks (2" × 2" × 0.5"); 3"-thick studio-treatment foam damping (ceiling, walls). Listening room 12' L × 10' W × 12' H, system set up along long wall; suspended wood floor, 6"-thick walls (plaster over 2×4), wood-beamed ceiling.—Ken Micallef

In your head I connected my Master & Dynamic MH40 headphones to the amp’s 1/4" jack. The Stacey Kent track sounded natural, lush, creamy, and spacious. Kent’s girlish vocals sounded better with the cans than through any of my loudspeakers, with opulent tone and an excellent sense of air. Schiit vs Schiit I’ve been scavenging JVC XRCDs of late. A friend—Robert Silverman, who frequents the Jazz Record Center (where I work Saturdays), and who is not the Robert Silverman who has recorded classical great works on the Stereophile label—gave me the bug. On Robert’s advice, I purchased two XRCDs: The Montgomery Brothers’ Groove Yard (JVCXR-0018-2) and Count Basie & His Orchestra’s 88 Basie Street (JVCXR-0021-2). Compared to pristine vinyl, the same titles on XRCD have better deﬁnition and superior extension in both directions. They sound smooth as velvet. I compared Ragnarok 2 to the Ragnarok using these XRCDs and the Tascam CD-200iL CD player connected with Triode Wire Labs Spirit II RCA interconnects. Only after switching out the amps four times did I start to understand what I was hearing. Instrument tone and impact were superior through the new ampliﬁer. The orchestra’s soundstage was slightly wider. Brass and reeds, placed hard left and right, sounded farther back on the soundstage. On the piano/ acoustic bass introduction of the Montgomery Brothers’ “Bock to Bock (Back to Back),” there was more air around the higher piano notes. These were small differences, but the

in both directions across most of the audioband. As with the Schiit’s line inputs, the phono input’s S/N ratios depended on the ampliﬁer’s gain setting. The unweighted, wideband ratio, ref. 1kHz at 5mV, was an excellent 76dB with the gain set to 2×, respectively falling to 63.6dB and 53dB with

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Fig.15 Schiit Ragnarok 2, MM input, response with RIAA correction (left channel blue, right red) (0.5dB/vertical div.).

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February 2020

Conclusions In its Fully Loaded version, the Schiit Ragnarok 2 offers greater ﬂexibility than its predecessor and includes a remote and an evidently capable DAC and phono stage. And when purchased as Just An Amp, the Rag 2 is $200 less expensive than the original Ragnarok. Where else can you get all this hiﬁ goodness for that kind of money? Highly recommended. Q

the gain set to 8× and 25×. This is still good performance, however. The overload margin, again ref. 1kHz at 5mV, was excellent, at 22.7dB across the audioband, and harmonic distortion was extremely low. Fig.16, for example, was taken with a 1kHz tone at 20mV, 12dB higher than the nominal

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Rag 2 deﬁnitively improves on its sibling’s performance.

Fig.16 Schiit Ragnarok 2, MM input, MM input, low gain, spectrum of 1kHz sinewave, DC–10kHz, for 20mV input (linear frequency scale).

MM reference level, yet the second and third harmonics lie at just –114dB (0.0002%) and –119dB (0.0001%). The phono input’s intermodulation was also extremely low in level. I had problems measuring the behavior of Schiit’s original Ragnarok amplifier, due to the unique biasing scheme, where the output stage bias was modulated by the signal history.3 But I had no such issues with the Ragnarok 2. It is a well-engineered, apparently conventional design offering low noise and distortion coupled with usefully high power. The options include an excellent, low-noise, MMcompatible phono preamplifier, though the USB digital input will be outclassed by standalone digital processors. —John Atkinson 3 See stereophile.com/content/schiit-audio-ragnarok-integrated-amplifier-measurements.

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REVINYLIZATION

A MONTHLY SURVEY OF THE BEST NEW LP REISSUES

BY ART DUDLEY

THIS ISSUE : New reissues from Frog Pad, the Electric Recording Company, Blue Note, and Speakers Corner.

A Bach LP that’s cut from a diﬀerent cloth

ext to Christmas carols, Sousa marches, and the collected works of Bobby “Boris” Pickett, there’s no more seasonal music than bluegrass, which comes to life at the 30 or so major outdoor festivals and scores of smaller events that take place every summer throughout the US. As I write this, on the day after Thanksgiving, 2019’s bluegrass season is only a memory, and the 2020 season is more than a half a year away. So I’m cheered to have a bluegrass reissue to recommend this month: the 20th anniversary LP release of Yonder Mountain String Band’s ﬁrst album, Elevation (2LPs, Frog Pad Records, no catalog number). Recorded when the band members were in their 20s, and produced by Dobro ace Sally Van Meter, who also plays on the album’s “40 Miles from Denver,” Elevation is an auspicious debut: four very talented pickers who brought to the genre their own brand of songwriting, with unusual chord sequences and engaging lyrics that went well beyond the “My little darlin’ brings me corn in a jar” norm. The recording quality on the new LP version of Elevation is very good, if lacking the last word in top-end extension, and the pressing is clean and noise-free. This is a great starting place for listeners who are new to the band. The years between the original release of Elevation and this reissue were bookended by tragedies. The recording was made at Rancho DeVille, the studio that was founded by Hot Rize’s beloved guitarist Charles Sawtelle, who died of leukemia just months before the band started recording. And not long before this reissue, YMSB’s founding mandolinist, Jeff Austin, passed away, aged 45. But the band endures, now with the amazing ﬁddler/ singer Allie Kral (Green Mountain Grass) as a permanent member.

he ﬁrst release by the Electric Recording Company, which went on sale at the end of 2012, was a reissue of the exceedingly rare

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February 2020

seven-LP monaural set Mozart à Paris (Pathé Marconi DTX 191–197), cut from the original master tapes with an all-tube remastering chain including a rebuilt mono cutting head. Not content to offer such a painstakingly remastered set in slapdash packaging, ERC founder Pete Hutchison devoted months to recreating the original release’s box and booklet, an effort that

included haunting Savile Row for the precisely correct silk twist (the Tailor of Gloucester kind, not the Chubby Checker kind). ERC’s latest reissue posed a similar challenge: It’s a recording of Bach’s six Sonatas for Violin and Clavier, played by violinist Michèle Auclair, accompanied by Marie-Claire Alain—on organ, rather than the far more common harpsichord or piano (Les Discophiles Français, DF 209–210). The original 1957 release of this two-LP mono set came packaged in a gatefold sleeve bound in dark red cloth, with gold lettering on the outside. Hutchison secured the precisely correct cloth from a bookbinder in Italy, and all 99 copies of this limited-edition reissue are assembled by hand in London. The price is steep at £900—but as one can see at popsike.com and other such sites for record collectors, original copies, on the rare occasion they become available, sell for a great deal more.

Auclair and Alain’s Bach is intense and deliberate, with sound to match. When I ﬁrst played this exquisitely packaged set, my impression was that the recording, which I’d never before heard, sounded similar to the famous (and famously melancholy) recordings of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas made in the 1950s by Johanna Martzy: a violin sound with exceptional body and a dramatically faithful (but not antiseptically stark) portrayal of the player’s considerable technique. (Just listen to how Auclair sneaks up on her note attacks in the largo of Sonata No.5 in F minor: The effect is almost chilling—at least it would be if the music

weren’t so faith-afﬁrming.) Add to that Alain’s understated approach to the organ obbligato, captured with thick tonal colors and extraordinary texture, as in the voicing used in the adagio of Sonata No.3 in E major. Also captured in the grooves is a room sound that, for reasons I’m unable to describe, contributes to the music’s emotional weight, especially when listening late at night. The information in the groove is physical, colorful, musically convincing, and altogether hypnotic; the spaces between the notes and all of the lead-in and lead-out grooves are deathly silent. This may be ERC’s most beautiful record, and that’s saying something.

he ﬁnal selection on Sam Rivers’ Contours (Blue Note ST-84206), which was reissued not long ago as part of Blue Note’s Tone Poet series, is called “Melliﬂuous CONTINUED ON PAGE 145 133

CLASSICAL ROCK / POP JAZZ

RECORD REVIEWS

hen I first heard belief, before launching into the EDITOR’S PICK mezzo-soprano aria’s take-no-prisoners coloratura Cecilia Bartoli reprise. in person some On Maria, Bartoli focused more 29 years ago, at her West Coast on limpid lyricism than arias of debut in the “Cal Performances” fury. Here her singing knows no series at Berkeley’s Hertz Hall, bounds. After Porpora’s pastoral she was just 24 years old. Along and lovely “Vaghi amori, grazie with the rest of the audience, amate” (Pretty cupids, beloved I was astonished at her ability graces), from La festa d’Imeneo, she to ally phenomenal coloratura turns up the heat and allows her technique with an out-of-the-box voice to boil over with passion in range of expression—unheard Hasse’s “Morte col fiero aspetto since the prime of Maria Callas. It (The grim countenance of death), was clear why Decca had already from Marc’ Antonio e Cleopatra. signed her and released her first Abetted by instrumental recording the year before, when embellishments, Bartoli delivers she was just 23. glowing, radiant highs and some Astonishingly, 30 years later, surprisingly deep lows. Recorded Bartoli’s musical powers have at close range in the Salzburg increased. On Farinelli’s 11 tracks, Odeïon’s intimate, wood-andshe spans nearly three octaves glass–lined Dorothea Porsche and executes multioctave leaps Saal and at the 900-seat Le Rosey CECILIA BARTOLI without apparent effort. Her Concert Hall in Rolle, SwitzerFarinelli embellishments remain as tasteful land, her voice sounds natural and and consonant with the music’s resonant, and the small baroque Cecilia Bartoli, mezzo-soprano; Il Giardino emotional expression as they were orchestra sounds surprisingly full. Armonico, Giovanni Antonini, cond. at the start of her career—but now Don’t miss the viola and organ Decca 4850214 (24/96 download). 2019. they have grown more elaboduet in Caldara’s “Questi al cor Arend Prohmann, prod. and editor; Philip Siney, eng. fin’ora ignoti” (I do not underrate, demanding breath control PERFORMANCE attained by few. The individual stand why my blood is rising SONICS notes in her rapid-fire coloratura within me) from La morte d’Abel. are now more smoothly conAnyone wishing to assess the extent of Bartoli’s mastery need only by Nicola Porpora, who composed a nected, with less of the idiosyncratic number of his most demanding operat- compare her recording of Porpora’s “shotgun” effect that divided opinion beautiful 10-minute lyrical expanse early in her career. Her tessitura, if any- ic roles. Farinelli’s fame spread quickly “Alto Giove” (Almighty Jove), from from Italy, where he debuted at age thing, has risen, with freer and sweeter Polifemo, with those by mezzo Julie top notes. She can turn on a dime from 15, to the rest of Europe, leading to Boulianne and countertenors Franco his first appearance in Vienna in 1724. some of the most limpid and lyrical Fagioli and Philippe Jaroussky. BouliUpon encountering his phenomenal singing on record to passages that boil range, intonation, breath control, and with unbridled fury. anne, who mostly avoids trills, sounds technique, one composer after another It seems natural that, after tackling tame by comparison, and the accompawrote impossibly demanding music the repertoire of her great predecessor niment is rather staid. Fagioli, singing for him until 1737, when he became Maria Malibran, on her 2007 album over a much heavier bass section and Maria, Bartoli would delve further back a chamber musician for King Philip with electronically enhanced ambiV and thereafter confined his vocal in time and follow the lead of others ence, is a monster in his own right, but activities to the relative privacy of the who have recorded arias written for he lacks Bartoli’s peerless emotional Spanish court. Farinelli, the great 18th century Italian resonance. The very French Jaroussky Four of the strongest tracks on Faricastrato. Her timing, though, is canny: is all pearly elegance and loveliness Bartoli’s album of castrati’s songs until he tries to turn up the heat—then nelli are by Porpora. The album begins comes at a time when gender fluidity with his “Nell’attendere il mio bene” (I his dynamic and expressive limitations is a key social (and legal) issue, and in shall await my beloved) from the opera become apparent. a package featuring a photo of herself Beyond her absolute technical masPolifemo (1735). Bartoli grows breathsporting a beard. takingly soft and sweet in the aria’s tery, Bartoli’s ability to touch the heart Farinelli was born Carlo Maria Midemanding middle section, where as she sings from music’s palpating core her succession of perfect trills defies remains unmatched.—Jason Victor Serinus chelangelo Nicola Broschi and tutored stereophile.com

February 2020

RECORDING OF THE MONTH

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RECORD REVIEWS

P O P/ ROC K

LEONARD COHEN

THE BEATLES

Thanks for the Dance

The Singles Collection

Legacy Recordings 886447830109 (24/44.1 FLAC download). 2019. Adam Cohen, Patrick Watson, prods.; Howard Bilerman, eng.

Apple/Universal 0602547261717 (23 7” singles). 2019. George Martin, original prod.; Jeff Jones, exec. prod.; Jonathan Clyde and Guy Hayden, prods.; Norman Smith, Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott, others, engs.; Sean Magee, vinyl mastering.

PERFORMANCE SONICS

2016 found Leonard Cohen in the studio with his son, Adam, working on what was to be his final studio release, You Want It Darker. Cohen, Sr., was suffering from advanced leukemia (among other ailments) and, sensing his mortality, moved quickly to get his final songs on tape. He figured he wouldn’t be around for the album’s completion, and You Want It Darker was released three months after his death. The nine songs left over from those sessions contained only Cohen’s vocals. Son Adam has now assembled them into this new release, Thanks for the Dance. Adam received assistance from long-time Cohen collaborator Jennifer Warnes and recruited the likes of Beck, Leslie Feist, Daniel Lanois, and the National’s Bryce Dessner to contribute. His spare arrangements have crafted a recording that keeps the focus on Leonard’s voice and words. And although I fully expected Jennifer Warnes to burst into song, she stayed in the background. Cohen’s last songs range from contemplative to profane. Clearly he’s a man no longer battling demons, at peace with his own mortality. There’s no trace of the bravado of his earlier years. In the opener, “What Happens to the Heart,” he sings, “I was always working steady, but never called it art. I got my shit together, met Jesus and read Marx.” In “The Hills,” he sings, “I’m living on pills, for which I thank God.” Despite his advanced age, Cohen was at the height of at least some of his powers. Son Adam, Warnes, and a team of sympathetic contributors have helped him deliver a stunning postdenouement. —Tom Gibbs 136

PERFORMANCE SONICS

Between 1962 and 1970, The Beatles released 22 7" 45rpm singles. At the group’s adamant instruction, these singles didn’t appear on the Beatles’ original UK albums (“You can’t release singles off an LP after the LP’s been out,” John Lennon stated in a 1964 radio interview)—although on many of their early US releases, songs were spliced, diced, and rearranged to create entirely different albums. The Singles Collection compiles these 45s in one set, most in mono, cut from the analog master tapes used for 2014’s The Beatles in Mono set. “Come Together/Something” and “The Ballad of John and Yoko/Old Brown Shoe,” reﬂecting their original stereo releases, were taken from the stereo cutting masters. The new remasters aren’t entirely analog. “Love Me Do”/“P.S. I Love You” and “She Loves You”/“I’ll Get You” were cut from digital sources, as the original mono tapes were in poor condition. The new set’s 23rd single, “Free as a Bird”/“Real Love,” was originally mastered on U-matic 1610 digital tape. The lavish, deep blue, two-section box set includes a 36-page laminated booklet, rare group photos, a year-byyear singles chronology, photos of the original UK and US sleeves, and notes by Beatles’ historian Kevin Howlett, who writes, “In our current digital age, the concept of making a journey to buy a favourite song on a record from a shop might seem antediluvian. But through most of the 20th century, that was the ritual that made the single central to the history of popular music and gave it a totemic signiﬁcance in the

lives of millions of young people.” A particularly nice touch is the inclusion of picture sleeves and label art taken from the Beatles’ European singles. The Fab Four’s British single releases until “Strawberry Fields Forever”/“Penny Lane” were adorned with plain green sleeves. Each single comes in a polylined inner sleeve and heavy cardboard outer sleeve. A handful of the singles in my review set were warped, but not so badly as to affect playback. I compared The Singles Collection to my original European 45s, all of which were cut from tape or stamper copies of the original master tapes and EQed in the countries where they were released. Unlike Giles Martin’s remastered editions of Sgt. Pepper’s . . . , The Beatles, and Abbey Road, which bettered the original releases in many regards, The Singles Collection is not a categorical slam dunk. Each of those original European singles had its own weaknesses and strengths. The Italian “You Can’t Do That” 45 plays with fantastic punch, dynamics, and aliveness; the new single has ﬂeshier images. The new single of “Ask Me Why” betters my Swedish EP version, with a larger, deeper soundstage, a deeper low end, and generally cleaner instrumental lines. The Danish “Day Tripper” 45 bolted out of my speakers with excellent presence, pacing, and power, while the new single covered a broader frequency range. The same held true for my Danish “We Can Work It Out”: better in some ways, but not as extended. The French “I Feel Fine” had better electric bass presence and deﬁnition but lost out to the new single’s lower noise, which improved the texture and focus on the feedback-enhanced guitar notes of the song’s introduction. The Danish and original UK versions of “Get Back” played with more openness and immediacy than the new single. But the new collection’s “Hey Jude”/”Revolution” 45 stomped my German copy, offering larger images, better attack, warmer bass tone, and an even more searing intro guitar on “Revolution.” The Beatles’ original European singles average $30 apiece on the used market, far more than the cost of The Singles Collection. If your goal is to bask in the energy and ingenuity of the Beatles’ singles that conquered the world, The Singles Collection is a worthy starting point. —Ken Micallef February 2020

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RECORD REVIEWS

“A superbly well-balanced loudspeaker that gave me extended hours of listening pleasure” John Atkinson, Stereophile BECK

BROOKLYN FUNK ESSENTIALS

Hyperspace

Stay Good

Fonograph/Capitol Records 00602577692666 (24/44.1 FLAC MQA 44.1 download). 2019. Pharrell Williams, Beck, others, prods.; David Greenbaum, Andrew Coleman, others, engs.

Dorado Records DOR115LP (LP). 2019. Lati Kronlund, Iwan Van Hetten, prods.; Janne Hansson, Lati Kronlund, Iwan Van Hetten, engs.; Joffe Stannow, mastering.

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

At the close of the tour following 2017’s Colors, Beck convened in the studio with Pharrell Williams for a one-off contribution to the next N.E.R.D. album. The session was expected to yield a single; instead it resulted in this, Beck’s 14th studio album. Williams serves with Beck as the primary coproducer. The pair cowrote seven of the album’s 11 songs. Coming on the heels of the collapse of Beck’s 15-year marriage, this “breakup” album covers familiar Beck ground—he explored this same territory on 2002’s Sea Change. Hyperspace shares Sea Change’s angst but from the perspective of an artist approaching his 50s, with all the associated anxieties. In “Uneventful Days,” Beck sings, “Everything has changed, and nothing feels right.” His vocals overlay Pharrell’s funk-laden beats, built up on a foundation of electric guitars, analog synths, and drum machines. It’s an irrepressibly poppy song that seems the antithesis of the misery Beck expresses, but as art, it totally works. Virtually every song is depressed and depressing, but there are moments of euphoria, as in the hook-laden “Chemical,” where jangly guitars, synths, and stratospherically layered vocals provide an upbeat take on the “love is the drug” mantra. If this album has a single, this is it. On Hyperspace, Beck delivers a mixed bag that covers the map stylistically, but Williams’s persistently savory beats keep it mostly on course. The best songs showcase Beck’s ability to craft misery into near-perfect pop tunes that still could crash the charts. This, after all, is the artist whose song “Loser” jump-started his career. —Tom Gibbs stereophile.com

February 2020

Initially, I could have mistaken this LP for an ’80s-era reissue. On closer examination, though, it’s definitely a 21st century creation. Brooklyn Funk Essentials formed when Swedish bassist Lati Kronlund went to Brooklyn after making “Where Love Lives,” an unexpected club hit, with Alison Limerick. The current lineup includes three Londoners: Anna Brooks, Desmond Foster, and trumpeter and music director Iwan Van Hetten, although Foster is from Jamaica and Van Hetten is Dutch. Kronlund and drummer “Huxflux” Nettermalm are both from Sweden. Most of Stay Good was recorded at Atlantis Studios in Stockholm, which has a giant Neve board and lots of classic microphones. In recording the album, the musicians stood in a circle to jam, except for the vocals, which were recorded at another studio outside Stockholm, and for Brooks’s sax, which required an isolation booth. Stay Good—the title of the album and its first track—means remaining true to yourself and your values in unsettled times, holding on to decency in a world in flux. This is funky music, but it’s self-aware. Styles are varied. There’s a jazzy jam on “Y Todavìa La Quiero,” a Joe Henderson tune. After the intro to the second song, “No Strings,” I half-expected Donald Fagen to enter. Another reference point, for me, is the funkier music from Was (Not Was) circa What Up, Dog?, although Stay Good is far more earnest. If you’re wondering, after what I’ve written, whether I really liked this album: I did. It’s a fun, well-recorded record to be enjoyed with friends on a Friday or Saturday night. —Jim Austin

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IGOR LEVIT

KAIJA SAARIAHO

Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas

True Fire; Ciel d’hiver; Trans

Igor Levit, piano Sony 19075843182 (24/96 WAV). 2019. Jack Ryan Smith, Tessa Fanelsa, Anselm Cybinski, exec. prods.; Andreas Neubronner, Stephan Schellmann, prods.; Andreas Neubronner, mastering.

Gerald Finley, Xavier de Maistre, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Hannu Lintu, cond. Ondine ODE1309 (24/48 FLAC). 2019. Laura Heikinheimo, prod.; Jari Rantakaulio, Anna-Kaisa Kemppi, Enno Mäemets, engs.

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

One of the most hotly anticipated albums in our celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday, this recording of the complete piano sonatas from young Russian-German pianist Igor Levit demands comparison with the greats. Captured in three venues between 2013 and 2019 by uncredited engineers, its sonics seem intentionally equalized into a single distant, slightly diffuse perspective. But those who enjoy the sonically compromised sonata recordings of Artur Schnabel, recorded between 1932 and 1935, will care far more about the interpretations of a young pianist who reveres him. Sonata No.21 in C major, “Waldstein,” which Levit cites as pivotal in Beethoven’s output, affords an ideal opportunity to judge Levit’s strengths. The first movement, “Allegro con brio,” is very fast. Technically perfect, which Schnabel’s even faster first movement was not, it seems rushed at the expense of the detail and dynamics that distinguish Alfred Brendel’s version for Philips. Levit’s gorgeous “Adagio molto” slow moving and deeply felt, and succeeds in conveying the hushed magic of a composer whose embrace of truth frequently transcends the physical. In the final “Rondo: Allegretto moderato–Prestissimo,” where Brendel seems too relaxed, Levit perfectly judges the gentle, soft, and chiming bars of the opening. Brendel is also heavy-handed in the middle section’s staccato passages; Levit is less choppy. Brendel’s playing may be more dynamic, but Levit is more in tune with the range of the 1817 Broadwood fortepiano that pleased Beethoven most. —Jason Victor Serinus

By publication time, we will know if this collection of music by the remarkable Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho has won a Grammy for “Best Classical Compendium.” The album presents three pieces in which Saariaho’s luminous writing, abetted by superb engineering, creates an expansive universe of wonder and light. This is music from a mature composer who has pondered deeply the relationship between humans, nature, and the metaphysical, and developed language capable of transporting serious listeners. In Saariaho’s mysterious and uniquely sensual sound world, the color and placement of every instrument holds cosmic signiﬁcance. True Fire (2014), a six-movement song cycle, intersperses settings of three excerpts from transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay “Spiritual Laws” with Irish, Native American, and Palestinian poetry. Read Emerson’s words: “We are the photometers, we the irritable goldleaf and tinfoil that measure the accumulations of the subtle element. We know the authentic effects of the true ﬁre through every one of its million disguises.” The cycle was recorded live with bass-baritone Gerald Finley, for whom it was intended. Finley’s voice, which rises from a dark bottom to a warm top, conveys the profundity of each text. The shorter Ciel d’hiver (2013) traverses the starry winter sky in ways I can’t get enough of. Trans (2015) references “transmission” and “transformation” as it explores the relationship of harp to orchestra. The titles of its three movements, Fugitif, Vanité, and Messager, barely convey what’s in store. —Jason Victor Serinus February 2020

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JAZ Z

MC Quintet Series MACIEJ OBARA QUARTET

BILL FRISELL

Three Crowns

Harmony

ECM 2662 (CD). 2019. Steve Lake, prod.; Gérard de Haro, eng.

Blue Note B003078202 (CD). 2019. Lee Townsend, prod.; Tucker Martine, eng.

PERFORMANCE

SONICS

Ideally, a critic should hear a band live right before reviewing their album. Sometimes it happens. I heard Maciej Obara’s quartet play the Belgrade Jazz Festival in Serbia in late October 2019. I returned home from that festival and sat down with Three Crowns. Obara live is quite different from Obara in a studio. In Belgrade, he played two tunes for 80 minutes of extravagant outpouring. Three Crowns contains eight concentrated tracks. But both the concert and the recording conﬁrm that Obara, from Poland, is one of the most exciting alto saxophonists to enter jazz this millennium. The album opens with “Three Pieces in Old Style” by 20th century Polish composer Henryk Mikoáaj Górecki. It is introduced by Dominik Wania’s isolated, darkly hesitant piano notes. When Obara enters, he does not so much play the theme as unleash it like a cry from his soul. Then he repeats it with subtle variations until it becomes an incantation. Most tracks sustain this rapt atmosphere, and while Three Crowns never approaches the swirling turbulence of the Belgrade concert, there is an edge to its energy. Obara is a deeply melodic player with an emotionally naked sound, whose melodies are usually overtaken and consumed by passion. There are two eulogies, one for his father and one for Poland’s greatest jazz musician, Tomasz Stanko. They contain loss and mourning but also strength and celebration. Remember a second name from this album: Dominik Wania. Whether comping or soloing, he enlarges Obara’s work with continuous lyrical revelations. He is the next badass Polish pianist after Leszek MoĪdĪer and Marcin Wasilewski. —Thomas Conrad stereophile.com

February 2020

Harmony is the Blue Note label debut of our greatest living jazz guitarist. Bill Frisell’s aesthetic has deep country roots. His new album, in its Americana cultural perspective, is representative of his work, but its vocal emphasis is unprecedented in his discography. Harmony is not a great Frisell record, because the format limits his capacity for improvisation and expression. His role here is to provide context and support. Petra Haden is the lead voice. Cellist Hank Roberts and bassist Luke Bergman sing harmony. Six tunes are Frisell originals with wordless vocals by Haden. Six pieces with wordless vocals are too many. All those ooh’s and la-la’s eventually wear thin. Frisell’s background ﬁlls and counterlines are exquisite. Harmony is not Frisell’s best record, but it may be his most innocent and charming. The folk songs and standards with lyrics are pure and spare. Who knew we needed to hear “Red River Valley” again? Three voices sing it a cappella. It is literal, touching, and timeless. Some of the arrangements are not literal. Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” is stark and stream-of-consciousness. In its sonic landscape, there is only Haden’s lonely voice and a few perfectly placed Frisell guitar details. Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” is fragmented and abstracted, dark and surreal. And you would need a heart of stone to be unmoved by Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times,” with the guitars of Frisell and Bergman softly twanging behind Haden’s fearful, hopeful voice. When she sings “Oh hard times come again no more,” it is a plea the human heart already knows, even before Roberts and Bergman join her in poignant three-part harmony. —Thomas Conrad

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NAT KING COLE

Hittin’ the Ramp: The Early Years (1936–1943) Resonance Records HLP 9042 (10 LPs). 2019. Zev Feldman, George Klabin, Will Friedwald, Seth Berg, Jordan Taylor, Matthew Lutthans, prods.; Doug Pomeroy, Matthew Lutthans, Malcolm Addey, Harry Arends, et al, engs. PERFORMANCE SONICS

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February 2020

In the 1950s and ’60s, Nat King Cole was one of the most popular male vocalists in the world, outselling even Frank Sinatra. Fans loved Cole’s velvety baritone croon, relaxed phrasing, and the sense of calm and cool exuded in his many film and television appearances. My earliest recollection of Cole was his role as the banjo-playing-andsinging “Shouter” (aka “Sunrise Kid”) in the 1965 Jane Fonda movie Cat Ballou. (Cole was ill with cancer during filming and passed four months before the movie’s release.) Prior to his Capitol Records fame and such hits as “Pretend,” “Mona Lisa,” “Unforgettable,” and his final hit in 1962, “Ramblin’ Rose,” Cole was beloved purely for his sterling jazz musicianship. Hittin’ the Ramp, a 10-LP box set (also available as 7 CDs), chronicles Cole’s early years as a master jazz pianist, arranger, bandleader, accompanist, and composer. In 1937, Cole formed the King Cole Trio—Cole on piano, Oscar Moore on guitar, Wesley Prince or Johnny Miller on bass—helping create the jazz-trio template that later evolved, with drums replacing guitar, into the form practiced by everyone from Diana Krall to Keith Jarrett. But few contemporary jazz trios, regardless of instrumental lineup, can match the energy, ingenuity, virtuosity, and brilliance of the King Cole Trio. As was the practice of popular musicians on 1930s and ’40s commercial radio, Cole’s trio tracked many 16" 33.3rpm direct-to-disc transcription records, used by radio stations to aug-

ment live broadcasts. Recording for such transcription services as Decca, Philo, Associated, Thesaurus, World, Standard, and MacGregor, the King Cole Trio became very successful because of its ability to cover holiday songs, standards, novelty songs, and even classical melodies, imbued with the trio’s trademark close harmony singing, clever (at times complex) arrangements, and sparkling musicianship. As dazzling as Cole’s combined piano and arranging skills were, guitarist Moore matched him riff for riff, going on to record nine solo albums including the popular titles Oscar Moore Quartet (Tampa, 1955) and Galivantin’ Guitar (Tampa, 1956). A motherlode of joyous, hardswinging locomotion, Hittin’ the Ramp includes early versions of such Cole hits as “Sweet Lorraine,” “Honeysuckle Rose,” and “Straighten Up and Fly Right.” But that only cracks the surface of this beautifully packaged set. A deep dive into Cole’s unique genius, the set also documents the trio’s coverage of the wide-ranging material that would become known as the American Songbook—and also the “cool cat” and “jive” lingo that would pervade beatnik parlance some 20 years later. As the circa 200 songs in this set attest, the Cole trio could play anything, at any tempo, in any format or style, and back any musician. The trio’s high-energy performances include harmonized scat-singing—an adrenalized version of that popular ’40s/’50s quartet, the Mills Brothers. Drop the needle and enjoy the trio’s jumping version of “Jingle Bells,” the animated guitar and piano solos of “Lullaby in Rhythm,” the blazingly fast tempo of “Liza,” the masterful boogie-woogie piano and sophisticated arrangement of “Caravan,” or the hipster-infused “Solid Potato Salad.” (“I’ll dig you later, bud, for some solid potato salad.”) High-resolution transfers of rare 16" transcription discs and some shellac 78s were used to cut lacquers for Hittin’ the Ramp. While very light background hiss can be heard on some tracks, and upper-frequency piano transients are occasionally distorted, the 10 LPs are generally clean, quiet, and exhilarating. From disc one’s “Stompin’ at the Panama (Skoller’s Shufﬂe)” (1938) to disc 10’s “Hit That Jive, Jack” (1942), Hittin’ the Ramp delivers enough energy and toe-tapping fun to rock your house party—another successful release from Resonance Records.—Ken Micallef 141

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MANUFACTURERS’ COMMENTS PS Audio Stellar Phono Editor: Thanks to Michael Fremer for his incredibly thorough and detailed review of our Stellar Phono preamplifier. Because I started PS Audio 46 years ago with a phono preamplifier that performed well above its price, Darren Myers’ creation is very special to PS—and to me, personally. That first phono preamp was my baby, designed through trial and error, based upon extensive listening tests. My design didn’t follow the textbook standards of the day, but it sounded great. The same is true of Darren’s design, and we couldn’t be prouder of it. Michael’s praise is especially meaningful given his unmatched experience and superb reference system. We’ve all heard moderately priced components that sound fine when used in a not-toorevealing system but that fall apart in a great setup. To know that Stellar’s performance is—well, stellar in a system that shows all the details, warts and all, as Michael’s system does, is incredibly gratifying. Both Darren and Bill Leebens verified that they’d never heard such incredible sound from LPs. PS Audio’s goal has always been to provide state-of-the-art sound at moderate prices. It’s both exciting and rewarding to hear Mikey say, “I recommend a listen to the Stellar to anyone in the market for a new phono preamp, regardless of price. I don’t think I’ve ever before written that.” Thanks so much to Michael and to the Stereophile crew, Darren, and Bill for making this stellar Stellar review possible. Paul McGowan, founder and CEO PS Audio

TechDAS Air Force One Premium/ Graham Phantom Elite Editor: Rather than repeating the superlatives Michael wrote, I will instead address some of the technical points he raised. The silence Michael observed from his speakers when he was pounding on the equipment shelf results from the combination of the air-ﬂotation and distributed mass of the chassis and the air-bearing ﬂotation of the platter. All details have been calculated and designed stereophile.com

February 2020

ANY CLOD CAN HAVE THE FACTS; HAVING OPINIONS IS AN ART

THIS ISSUE :

to effectively isolate the LP surface from vibrations from any source. In addition, the LP, once it is held in place with a silent and ripple-free vacuum, is effectively made part of the massive platter. The chassis is machined in three sections, from three types of aluminum alloy, which, when combined, provide greater strength and more effective internal damping than a single unit of the same size. Working together, these components form a highly inert, energy-absorbing environment in

Representatives from PS Audio, Graham Engineering, TechDAS, Dan D’Agostino, and Schiit Audio comment on our reviews of their products.

machining of the component parts, often at 0.001" tolerances. The Phantom Elite provides the stable platform necessary for the phono cartridge to work optimally. The Phantom Elite has been designed to complement the design and appearance of the Air Force turntables, and in particular, the Air Force One (original and Premium versions). We are sincerely honored that the combination of the TechDAS Air Force One Premium and the Graham Phantom Elite equaled and in some ways bettered Michael’s longtime reference turntable. Thank you very much for your appreciation of our work. Bob Graham Graham Engineering Hideaki Nishikawa TechDAS

D’Agostino Momentum HD

which to play a record. Two 150W amplifiers feed a hysteresis-synchronous drive motor as it locks onto the frequency of the driving oscillator. Once the platter is up to speed, the power supplies drop their output level to about half, allowing rotational inertia—nature’s near-perfect speed control, you could say—to take over as the main controlling force. The drive system keeps the platter gently fed with just enough energy to overcome any resistance. This, in combination with the air-bearing platter flotation system, assures rock-steady speed accuracy—just listen to a sustained piano note for proof. The platter air flotation and the LP hold-down vacuum systems are fitted with a unique filtering system incorporating a series of glass chambers from which the air supply is smoothed to ripple-free levels, like filter capacitors in a power supply. This system is utterly quiet and maintenance-free. The other key part of any record-playing system is of, course, the tonearm. The inverted unipivot bearing plays an important part in the Phantom-series tonearms. These tonearms have been the subject of continuing design analysis and choosing the best materials, as well as precision

Editor: Thank you to JVS for his very thorough and positive review. It is always gratifying to have a design goal be fully realized in a listener’s experience. Jason’s obvious enthusiasm matched ours when we ﬁrst heard the new Momentum HD update. One note: JA’s measurements mentioned something we caught before production commenced but was in the early pre-production control code. The operation of the phase button was reversed in the pre-production code, which is what JSV had. All production units have the correct code. Dan D’Agostino, founder and chief designer Dan D’Agostino

Schiit Audio Ragnarok 2 Editor: Thank you again for taking the time to review the Ragnarok 2. Your feedback

143

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MANUFACTURERS’ COMMENTS

REVINYLIZATION

on the original Ragnarok was (at least in part) the catalyst for radical change in both the gain stage and feature set for the second generation. Gain stage–wise, Ragnarok 2 debuts what we are calling Nexus. Now, you may roll your eyes at the trademark, but this SE-or-balanced-in, SE-or-balancedout single discrete gain stage exhibits some unique qualities, such as inherently high impedance on both input terminals, and no N/N+1 gain relationship when driven single-ended. It’s not a circlotron, nor supersymmetry. But I should probably shut up now because I’m just a huge engineering nerd and excited about circuits that most people don’t care about. Features-wise, Ragnarok 2 is a good example of what we always try to do: deliver greater value at lower cost in succeeding generations. Even with the addition of a modular architecture, remote control, higher resolution relay volume ladder, and much more efﬁcient thermal design, it costs less than the old model. I’m very happy you took the time to give it a listen, and I hope it thrills you as much as it does me—Ragnarok 2 sits on my desk, contentedly driving both speakers and headphones. Jason Stoddard, Co-founder Schiit Audio

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 133

young as this music sounds.

Cacophony,” and I can’t think of a better description of the sound produced by the quintet that made it: Rivers on ﬂute and tenor and soprano saxes; Freddie Hubbard on trumpet; Herbie Hancock on piano; Ron Carter on bass; and Joe Chambers on drums. The music is at times challenging— sonic wallpaper this ain’t—but always edge-of-your-seat exciting. And in this expert remastering, the grooves are so quiet that the opening numbers on both sides seldom fail to startle me, and the recording quality is exceptional. Rivers’ soprano sax solo in “Point of Many Returns,” with its doubleharmonic scale colorings, sounds and feels like it’s in the room. Likewise, Ron Carter’s colorful/physical accompaniment to Freddie Hubbard’s extended trumpet solo in “Dance of the Tripedal.” And the sheer beauty of the sound of Herbie Hancock’s piano chording disputes the accepted wisdom that engineer Rudy Van Gelder tended to shortchange that instrument. As a bonus—as with all of the reissues in the Tone Poet series—Contours is packaged in a gatefold sleeve, illustrated with inthe-studio photos of the ﬁve musicians, most of whom look as impossibly

final recommendation for this month: When deciding what music I’d like to hear from one moment to the next, I seldom choose recordings for their ability to let my hi-fi sound its best. But were I to do so, and in deference to my high-efficiency, tube-and-horn–enhanced system’s ability to sound physical when called for, I would choose without hesitation the recent reissue, from Speakers Corner, of The Max Roach Trio Featuring the Legendary Hasaan (Atlantic/Speakers Corner 1435). This 1964 collection of compositions by Hasaan Ibn Ali, a peerlessly adventurous pianist whose only commercial recordings are contained in these grooves, was recorded by Tom Dowd with remarkably vivid sound and without the treble edge that mars some of that engineer’s work. Roach’s drumming was captured with uncanny impact, and when the trio hits its stride, as in the album opener “Three-Four vs. Six-Eight Four-Four Ways,” the music and sound are unignorable. The all-analog remastering and noiseless pressing are up to Speakers Corner’s usual high standards. You need this record! Q

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GOOD AND BAD, I DEFINE THESE TERMS QUITE CLEAR... —BOB DYLAN

BY ROBERT SCHRYER

THIS ISSUE :

On the camaraderie inherent in shared passions.

“Isn’t our hobby the greatest?”

s per our ritual, Karim and Dan arrived at my door in late afternoon, bearing our ritual’s customary offerings: dark beer, wine, cold pork sandwiches, fruit and chocolate tarts, good music on well-recorded CDs, and audio hardware to try out on the host’s hi-fi—on this particular Friday, my hi-fi. It’s what we did: break bread while gabbing like regular folk about regular things, then bolt for the listening room for an evening of hi-fi fun. It was that evening, during our fun, that I was struck by the specialness of the moment, and of us. We had gotten together no more than a handful of times over a span of six weeks, knew little of each other’s personal lives, yet already our event felt traditional, like we’d been doing it for years. Because of audio, we’d become instant best friends, to the point that I knew in my gut that I could count on either of them to bail me out of a sticky situation. But . . . why? Our hobby isn’t exactly a social activity—it’s not bowling or line dancing. Most of the action happens in our minds. It’s a selfish business, conducted mainly in isolation, to better immerse ourselves in our music. That’s how we like it, obviously, or else we wouldn’t be audiophiles. And yet, as antisocial as our hobby fundamentally is, something about it had superglued Karim, Dan, and me together. But what? Curious, I replayed our story from the beginning, to that winter day when I received an email from a Karim. I’d never heard of him. Attached was a photo of a man with an enormous smile, possibly explained by the even more enormous Dunlavy SC-V speakers in the background. The thrust of his text: Would I bring my $5000 Audible Illusions L3A preamp so that he could audition it in his home? “As if!” I thought. “It’s a trick! I’m going to get bonked on the head and be out a decent preamp.” That’s when the audiophile angel who sits on the pinna of my right ear whispered: “He just wants to evaluate the L3A’s sound where it counts most: in his own system.” It was a convincing argument. I related, totally. I wrote back, saying I would grant Karim his wish and might 146

even lend him my preamp for the night if it would help. As it turned out, Karim was his real name, and I didn’t get bonked on the head for my preamp. But if I did, I would’ve chalked it up to karmic reckoning. That’s because my decision to help out Karim wasn’t entirely selﬂess. As much as I appreciate the private nature of our hobby, the audiophile in me was lonely and craved contact with other hobbyists. So, with preamp in hand, I GPSed my way to Karim’s house. There, I was greeted by Karim and his new friend Dan, who I didn’t expect, along with a kitchen table crammed with food and drink, also unexpected. Five minutes into our chat, I saw in them the audiophile that exists in me. It felt almost like a homecoming. In the days after, I was introduced to music and audio gear I had never come across on my own, and I learned, at age 53, that female vocals appeal to

me more than I’d led myself to believe. I was also reminded of basic truths I seem to forget and remember in cycles: that despite personal preferences, every audiophile seeks a variation on the musical truth; that A/B testing is untrustworthy when it comes to deciding what I can live with; that system synergy is what we spend our lives trying to perfect; and that as much as I enjoy the intimate, vibrant presentation served up by my stand-mount speakers, big monitors like the Dunlavy SC-V’s are kings of scale, sweep, and bass tones that seem to shake the very fabric of the space-time continuum. There is a pot of gold at both ends of the rainbow. At last year’s Montreal Audiofest, Karim called me just as I was preparing to rush home, 20 miles away, to complete my show report—and discovered that I’d lost my car key. I was panicking. “Don’t worry,” Karim said calmly. “I’ll drive you home to get your second key and bring you back to your car.” That we hardly knew each other made Karim’s offer seem incredible to me. So . . . how come? I suggest the answer to that question starts with the music: its timelessness, universality, humanity, power to unite—its link to our collective and personal pasts and our refusal to live without it. Then comes our reverence for audio gear that holds the promise of making our favorite music sound new again. Most important, I think—what makes the superglue super—is what happens when the three of us get together. It is celebratory. Liberating. Suppressed thoughts leap out of our mouths, and we scamper in the half-light placing gear and recordings in their proper place. When the music begins to ﬁll the room, I can feel my gratitude swell to triple its normal level, commensurate with the number of us collectively reveling in life’s most essential pairing: of music and highﬁdelity audio. Or, as Dan put it to me after a particularly memorable listening experience: “Isn’t our hobby the greatest?” Q February 2020

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