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High-End Audiophile
Equipment Reviews
Gear Reviews, News, Show Reports, Articles And More!
Celebrating 25 Years Of Service To Music Lovers
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World Premiere Review!
Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems
Momentum Lifestyle Integrated Amplifier
With DAC & Audio Streaming Review
Only for music lovers, because that is the MLife's raison d'ętre
– to enable the listener to revel in
one's love of music.
Review By
Tom Lyle
Many
audiophiles are familiar with the name Dan D'Agostino, by virtue of him being
the founder, CEO, and chief engineer at Krell which he founded in 1980. The
products made by Krell, which included everything from power amplifiers to SACD
players and speakers, were some of the best high-end components available. In
2009 he was ousted by investors that he himself invited into the company because
they thought the company should change direction. Almost immediately after
leaving Krell he formed Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems.... In
late 1970s a local dealer lent me a Krell power amplifier. When I auditioned it
in my humble system it was almost instantly apparent that no, all power
amplifiers do not sound the same.
--->
Dan D'Agostino MAS Momentum Lifestyle integrated amplifier with DAC/streaming
review.
AGD Gran Vivace Monoblock Reference Amplifier
AGD Productions Gran Vivace monoblocks ($18,500 in standard finish, optional polished finishing is $19,995) is the company's new top-of-the-line reference monoblock amplifiers. It produces 350 Watts @ 4 Ohms and is based on the new GaNTube KT120. The AGD GaNTube technology is a unique proprietary Class D modular platform with 100% Gallium Nitride MOSFET based amplification
circuitry. The AGD GaNTube KT120 is a large and powerful GaNTube that is pin-to-pin compatible with its lower power sibling GaNTube KT88 MkII, and utilizes a new state-of-the-art 600V rated GaN MOSFET
devices.
---> AGD Gran Vivace monoblock reference amplifier.
KEF KC62 Subwoofer With
Uni-Core Technology
KEF has just launch their new KC62 Subwoofer ($1499.99) with three technologies in design and sound. Using KC62's force-canceling and Uni-Core technologies, KEF has brought innovation to a subwoofer. Measuring at 9.68" x 10.07" x 9.76"
(WxHxD) and weighing 31 pounds, KEF's new KC62 active subwoofer powered by two 500 Watt Class D amplifier is said
to "deliver unprecedented depth and breath-taking accuracy with its compact and sleek design" says the
company. Uni-Core delivers excellent performance through the combination of a force
cancellation configuration and a single motor system with concentrically arranged voice
coils.
---> KEF KC62 active / DSP subwoofer with
Uni-Core technology.
Erztich Medousa Fully-Balanced Headphone Amplifier
Erzetich's Medousa (€3500) balanced headphone amplifier is ideal for those that wish to refresh their music experience and enjoy richer, deeper, clearer audio. The amplifier boasts an elegant stainless steel chassis alongside artificially aged wooden sides. Medousa is said by the company to blend the advantages of 'tube' and 'balanced' amplifiers in a single dependable system. The unit features a gain stage with a high-quality Electro Harmonix 12AU7/ECC82 triode vacuum tubes (other NOS tubes are available at additional cost). The tubed gain stage is followed by a solid-state current
buffer.
---> Erztich Medousa balanced headphone amplifier.
Tacet Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 9 Op. 70
Tacet's new Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony no. 9 op. 70, Symphony no. 5 op. 47 hybrid SACD features Concerto Budapest / András Keller. According to Tacet, "Pictures while listening to symphony no. 9: A joyful, almost boisterous opening movement. A dreamy, contemplative second followed by a sparkling presto. And then this short fourth movement, the helpless lament of a lonely bassoon, still showing signs of vitality against the stark, unbending, unison brass. A small, tormented individual under brutal state power. Nevertheless, still it
laments.
---> Tacet Dmitri Shostakovich, Symphony No. 9 Op. 70.
Piega Ace 50, 30, And Center Loudspeakers
Piega just launched their new Ace series of loudspeakers, which
consists of their Ace 50 floorstander, Ace 30 bookshelf, and Ace Center center-channel speaker. As a successor to their established TMicro loudspeakers, the new Ace series have been equipped with a number of state-of-the-art details. All models feature the AMT-1 Air Motion Transformer tweeter, with its extremely light 24mm x 36mm folded membrane and a powerful magnetic drive made of high-purity
neodymium.
---> Piega Ace 50, 30, and Center loudspeakers.
Mytek Audio Liberty THX Headphone Amplifier
Mytek Audio proudly introduces their new Liberty THX AAA HPA ($1495), an analog headphone amplifier featuring THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier technology. The patented THX Achromatic Audio Amplifier (THX AAA) is claimed By ytek to be the most linear amplifier technology available today. According to the company, their new headamp provides "astonishing musical accuracy, unprecedented dynamic range, as well as infinitesimally low levels of noise and distortion". Using THX's patented feed-forward error correction circuit topology allows the THX AAA-based amplifier to reach its maximum output power rating of 6 Watts while exponentially reducing noise and distortion
levels.
---> Mytek Audio Liberty THX stereo headphone
amplifier.
Enjoy the Music.com Celebrates
Adding Ecoustics As Content Sharing Partners
Enjoy
the Music.com and ecoustics are thrilled to announce our new content sharing partnership, expanding the reach of both online publications to a wider range of readers, listeners, and viewers across the globe. With a combined
46 years of online publishing history between the two magazines, both are cornerstones of the consumer
home entertainment media online world and charging into 2021 with a renewed sense of purpose and
direction.
---> Enjoy the Music.com
celebrates adding ecoustics.
Q&A With Jim Anderson
Recording Engineer And Grammy Winner,
Many Times Over
When Jim Anderson was a kid, his teacher told him to put down the records and focus on his studies. Luckily for the world of immersive audio, he didn't listen.
Article By Immersive Audio Album (IAA)
Jim Anderson's
recordings have won a whopping 11 Grammy awards. His projects have been
nominated for another 27, most recently for his role as the Surround Mix
Engineer on Gisle Kverndokk: Symphonic Dances in 2020. Jim recently spoke
with IAA about mixing this album, teaching at NYU, how he got into immersive
music, and more. Added note by Enjoy the Music.com:
Immersive audio is the three-dimensional approach to audio storytelling that is taking sound to new heights. While traditional
"surround sound" exists in a horizontal plane around the listener, immersive sound refers to an expanded sonic field that quite literally immerses the listener in a multi-dimensional
soundscape.
---> Q&A With Jim Anderson: Recording
engineer and Grammy winner, many times over.
The Right Call:
How To Avoid Poor Equalization Choices
Exploring the matter that how an analyzer is set up can greatly affect the appearance of the results.
Article By Merlijn van Veen
If
you don't know the answer before you start to measure, how do you know you are
getting a good measurement?" – Ivan Beaver, chief engineer, Danley Sound
Labs. If I were to ask you to measure the voltage
coming out of the electrical outlet closest to you using a multimeter or VOM (volt-ohm-millimeter),
you would have expectations. However, should the multimeter's display, for
whatever reason, not show the expected voltage for your specific region, there's
a valid reason to start investigating. Maybe the meter's batteries are dead or
maybe a circuit breaker tripped. Regardless, you were right to question the
outcome because it didn't meet expectations.
---> The Right Call: How To Avoid Poor Equalization Choices.
World Premiere Review!
Dynamic Sounds Associates Amp I Review
Class-A tour de force!
Review By Greg Weaver
I've
had the pleasure of writing about Dynamic Sounds Associates gear for over 16
years now, with my first take on the original Phono-ONE phonostage appearing
back in November of 2004! Since that time, I've reviewed, or used as reference,
the superb Phono II phonostage (with the Phono III coming on deck soon!), the
exceptional Pre
I Linestage, and now, I am privileged to bring you the world premiere review
of the exceptional Amp I monoblocks. The engineering mind behind all
these fresh and exceptional designs is one Dr. Douglas Hurlburt, whom I first
met while living in southern Maryland during the early to mid-nineteen nineties.
--->
Dynamic Sounds Associates Amp I review.
Nagra Tube DAC And Classic PSU Power
Supply Review
Sonic glory... worth it!
Review By
Tom Lyle
Nagra
is a Swiss audio equipment manufacturer that has been in business for over 65
years. Their professional portable tape records were an industry standard for
many decades, even appearing as props in many films and television shows. Their
reputation was rock-solid even before they started manufacturing high-end audio
equipment in the 21st Century. Because of this, and because of the fine high-end audio
components they've been designing and manufacturing since 2012, I suppose there
are many audiophiles, and plenty of non-audiophile, who might add the Nagra Tube
DAC and its matching Classic PSU power supply to their systems without an
audition, or without reading reviews on the subject.
--->
Nagra Tube DAC and Classic PSU Power Supply.
Burmester B38
Loudspeaker Review
Producing a very convincing airiness and generosity of orchestral music.
Review By Michael Lang
Burmester is not the largest hi-fi company, both
in terms of revenue and number of employees. The manufacturer also does not have
the ambition to offer the most expensive products in the high-end market at any
price – nevertheless, there are only a few other consumer electronics
companies worldwide that evoke a similar desire and enjoy a reputation as good
as this manufacturer does, founded by Dieter Burmester in 1978. However, the
first step towards this was not made by loudspeakers, as Burmester only started
producing these in 1994 with the model 949, but by the legendary preamplifier
777, introduced in the summer of 1977.
--->
Burmester B38 floorstanding speaker review.
An Interview With Alfred Vassilkov Of Estelon
Interesting
development from this brilliant loudspeaker
designer.
Interview By Andrija Curkovic Of hifimedia.
To be a success in a global market, and in a very challenging segment of
premium high-end speakers, from a country which many audiophiles, if you ask
them, would not be able to find on a map, is a huge success. Usually, the story
about such success would be preordained (fully unjustifiably) for some "other
young company", situated somewhere in one of the countries of the so-called
developed west. If we also know that the headquarters of the company is in the
city of Tallinn, in Estonia, the country which fulfilled its independence, and
end of the occupation by the former Soviet Union, which started after the World
War II, only in 1991, the story gets another dimension.
---> An
interview with Alfred Vassilkov of Estelon.
10 Questions For High-End
Audio Manufacturers
Featuring David Chesky Of Chesky Records
& HDtracks
During
Enjoy the Music.com's very special 25th Anniversary we're asking various
high-end audio manufacturers to answer the same ten questions. Their answers may
surprise you! This month we're featuring David Chesky of Chesky Records and
HDtracks. At Chesky Records, their philosophy is simple: to create the illusion of live musicians in a real three-dimensional space. Chesky Records tries to achieve the impression of reality with the most advanced technology available, careful microphone placement, and, most of all, a recording team that pays attention to every minute detail-making your listening experience tangible, pleasurable, exciting, and realistic.
--->
10 questions to David Chesky of Chesky Records & HDtracks.
More high-end audio
reviews & articles within our Review Magazine.
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