Enjoy the Music.com High-End Audio Review Magazine, Hi-Fi Audiophile Equipment And Gear Articles

High-End Audio / Audiophile Equipment Reviews And Think Pieces

January 2021

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.

Remembering Tim de Paravicini
October 1945 To December 2020
Lecture by Tim de Paravicini in December 2006 as we all celebrate the triode's 100th anniversary.
Article By Joe Rasmussen
It was the year 2006 and the annual European Triode Festival was looming at the very end of November and into early December. This was a special year for those into tubes, or valves as some call them. In fact, Triodes is the very raison de'tre for the annual European Triode Festival. Mostly for Europeans, but many would come from other parts as well, all Triode lovers. I have attended a number of times, all the way from Australia and I am fairly sure I have the record for the most-traveled distance. This was one year I was not going to miss out. Behind the scenes, Guido Tent and Emile Sprenger of the organizing committee wanted to invite somebody significant, somebody of importance.
---> Remembering Tim de Paravicini.

And The Music Goes 'Round And 'Round...
Roger Skoff writes about changing ideas of perfection.
Article By Roger Skoff
I just saw a picture of a truly remarkable recording studio mixing/mastering console. It has 48 channels, 56 monitors, 1046 Routing Modules, four bands of EQ on every input, and, for only a little under two hundred grand, it has enough features, knobs, dials, special effects, toys, and goodies to satisfy even the most control freak engineer or producer. I loved it! And, when I was a Hi-Fi Crazy kid recording maven, back more than half a century ago, I would have lusted after it as the fulfillment of my every recording dream.
---> And The Music Goes 'Round And 'Round....

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.

How A Vinyl Record Is Made
We tour Quality Record Pressings / Acoustic Sounds vinyl LP pressing plant.
Enjoy the Music.com presents to you our tour of the Quality Record Pressings (Acoustic Sounds) vinyl LP pressing plant. We join plant manager Gary and owner Chad Kassem as they take us on a step-by-step journey through how a vinyl LP record is produced. As always, in the end what really matters is that you... Enjoy the music!
---> See how a vinyl LP record is made.

10 Questions To David Solomon Of Qobuz
Sharing the joys of Qobuz's lossless streaming music service.
Enjoy the Music.com's 25th Anniversary brings you a new special feature!
During Enjoy the Music.com's very special 25th Anniversary we're asking various high-end audio manufacturers and personalities to answer questions about their love of music. Their answers may surprise you! This month we're featuring David Solomon, Chief Evangelist for streaming music service Qobuz. When they formed Qobuz in 2008, their goal was to offer the digital world the aspects of music fandom that audiophiles, those who love music best, have always cherished. For Qobuz, this meant quality sound, quality editorial, and a freedom of choice that wholly excludes bias. As a result of their diverse collective culture and musical education, Qobuz' business catered to artists old and new.
---> 10 questions to David Solomon of Qobuz.

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.

LampizatOr MM2 Moving-Magnet (MM) Phono Stage Review
Beautiful to behold and a joy to use.
Review By Brett Rudolph
Turntables have always been one of my favorite sources for my playback system. They are highly customizable, straightforward to use. They tend to offer a great bang for the buck, especially on the entry-level ones. In fact, you can purchase a more expensive turntable, start with a reasonably inexpensive cartridge that sounds great and move into higher performance ones over time, if you wish. Of course, there is a downside. They do require a bit more care and feeding than their digital brethren. The two main types of cartridges on the market are moving magnet (MM) and moving coil (MC). They both have their advantages and disadvantages. However, as a rule, moving magnet cartridges tend to be less expensive to date.
---> LampizatOr MM2 moving-magnet (MM) vacuum tube phono stage review.

Tekton Moab Floorstanding Speaker Review
With their thunderous bass complementing a dazzlingly beautiful midrange, Tekton's Moab full-range speakers stand tall both in appearance and in musicality.
Review By Rogier van Bakel
For virtually everyone on the planet, this past calendar year brought a range of challenges and sorrows; 10/10 would not recommend. Hooray for 2021, with its promise of health, actual instead of virtual hugs, and a return to normalcy. When looking back on our collective annus horribilis (Latin for dumpster fire), I consider the arrival of a pair of Tekton Moab speakers in my listening room a welcome ray of light. Like many audiophiles confined to home by the pandemic, I've found much meaning and comfort in music these past nine months. With my photography business on the skids, there was suddenly occasion to burrow into a couple of thousand standout tracks, old and new. I almost didn't miss the roughly two dozen concerts I would've attended in a normal year. I think that's in part because, well, if any stereo speakers I've ever heard sound just like live music, it's the Moabs.
---> Tekton Moab floorstanding speaker review.

Audio MusiKraft Polished Lithium Nitro 2 Cartridge Review
Discovering the joys of a new realm in listening enjoyment.
Review By Bob Grossman
Audio MusiKraft's polished Lithium Nitro 2 cartridge with Ipe wood inserts is a dramatic enhancement of the classic Denon 103 that performs in a nuanced, balanced, lively, engaging, musically satisfying way with having a stunning bejeweled shell. While the cost is way beyond that of the basic 103 cartridge, so is the performance! The MusiKraft cartridge will be appealing to the most discerning and demanding audiophile and can be the ultimate tunable piece of equipment for bringing listening enjoyment. Deciding upon a cartridge can be a complex and difficult challenge for any audiophile. Cartridges are not usually an item that can be borrowed to easily install at home for a demo evaluation.
---> Audio MusiKraft Polished Lithium Nitro 2 cartridge review.

DS Audio DS-E1 Optical Phono Cartridge / Phono Energizer And DS Audio ION 001 Vinyl Ionizer Review
New heavyweight contenders!
Review By Maurice Jeffries
My first encounter with DS Audio's fascinating line of optical cartridges and matching phono energizers (the term that DS Audio uses to describe the outboard power supply/phono equalization units supplied with each cartridge) occurred at the 2020 Florida Audio Expo Show, held last February in sunny Tampa, Florida. Musical Surroundings distributes DS Audio's growing line of products here in the United States. In the Musical Surroundings suite, company head honcho Garth Leerer and his team put together a swell little system headlined by the affordable and overachieving Maggie .7 speakers, a stem-to-stern suite of Rogue electronics, Wire World cables, an eye-catching cobalt blue AMG Giro turntable, and matching arm, this fronted by an entry-level DS Audio DS-E1 optical cartridge and matching phono energizer.
---> DS Audio DS-E1 optical phono cartridge / Phono Energizer and DS Audio ION 001 vinyl ionizer review.

Sennheiser HD 800 S Open-Back Headphones Review
Keith Howard continues his adventures in headphones with an in-depth look at this classic design, first reviewed by Martin Colloms.
Review By Keith Howard
When Sennheiser launched the original HD 800 – of which the S is an improved version – in 2009, none of us knew just how momentous the next decade would be for headphones, driven principally by the arrival and rise to ubiquity of the smartphone and the dawn of hi-res portable digital music players. Before we knew it, everyone and his dog was making headphones, planar magnetics were having an unlikely renaissance, speaker manufacturers sought a slice of the action, and people wore not just earbuds on public transport but large circumaurals too. With no trace of embarrassment.
---> Sennheiser HD 800 S headphones review.

Simaudio MOON 600i v2 Stereo Integrated Amplifier Review
A truly special performer.
Review By John Acton
As I've grown older, and presumably, wiser, I've come to appreciate more the significance of anniversaries. Whether they be personal, such as birthdays and wedding anniversaries, or professional (it occurs to me that I've been on the masthead at Positive Feedback for nearly 20 years), these milestone accomplishments resonate with me, due perhaps to their reinforcement of continuity and longevity in a world of seeming constant flux and uncertainty. Mayhap this explains the vicarious pleasure I experienced, learning earlier this year of Simaudio's 40th anniversary. The Canadian-based high-end audio manufacturer began its life as Sima Electronics, founded in 1980 by Victor Sima.
---> Simaudio MOON 600i v2 integrated amp review.

Dokoni HiFiMan HE6SE Elite Series Earpads Review
Greatly upping the game in both sound quality and elegant luxuriance.
Review By Gary Alan Barker
After seeing my review of the Dekoni earpads for the Spirit Torino Twin Pulse headphones, Dekoni decided to send me earpads for my HiFiMan HE6se headphones, which I saw as a great opportunity to not only review the earpads but the HE6se themselves. Earpads are one of the least expensive ways to upgrade not only the look and feel of your headphone but the sound also. In fact, by selecting different earpads for different occasions you can often eliminate the need for multiple headphones to accommodate different music genres.
---> Dokoni HiFiMan HE6SE Elite Series Earpads review.

The Intro
Editorial By Art Dudley
Passions run high among music lovers. We vilify "bad" musicians (the ones we dislike), and we elevate marginally functional savants with a couple of 2-minute singles and some album filler under their belts. When it comes to more unique and productive figures like Phil Spector, Jimi Hendrix, Wilhelm Furtwängler, John Cage, or [insert your own heroes and villains here], music fans either revere them as gods or dismiss them as meaningless. Sometimes there are shades in between, but perspective is at a premium. This tendency to paint things black or white spills over to the equipment we use to play back our favorite recordings.
---> Read Art Dudley's intro article from Listener magazine.

Try A Screen Driven Driver Stage
Article By Rikard Berglund
From Sound Practices Issue 8, Winter 1994/1995
Some output tubes (211 and 845) need a very high drive voltage with low distortion. Some tube freaks have used the 300B tube as a driver but it is very expensive. Others have tried to use a triode connected EL34 but it is not linear enough. A pentode driven on the screen grid is very linear. I have tried this concept in a new driver stage, as shown on the accompanying schematic. The first two tubes V1 and V2 form an asymmetrical mu-follower. V3 is a screen grid driven pentode. Adjust the potentiometer R9 to 350V DC at the plate of V3. You can use many different tubes for V3.
---> Read Try A Screen Driven Driver Stage article.

Rare Birds
Listening impressions of some collectible equipment.
From VALVE Volume 2 Number 6 June 1995
There, I hope that helps keep anyone from getting to upset, because I'm going to be honest about what I thought of some very highly touted equipment. Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to audition a Marantz 7 preamp and 8 power amp which were consigned to me. Both pieces were in excellent electronic shape and very good to excellent cosmetic shape. The preamp had been checked out and a new filter cap installed by Audio Classics, the guys in New York who sell all the Mac stuff for huge prices.
---> Read Rare Birds from VALVE magazine.

The Neoteric Listener
Furutech DSS-4.1 Speaker Cables And DPS-4.1 Power Cable Review
Review By Dean Seislove Of Positive Feedback
Cables have it rough. Last in thought, least in budget, forever to be put to work quickly, and then quickly overshadowed by flashier audio gear. When gushing about an audio system, who starts with the cables? Nobody ever, that's who. Such neglect is a crying shame. Cables bear the precious audio signal like a yeoman's cart dispatched by his ladyship. They're the pack mules in the trip down the Grand Canyon; the Pontoon boat floating down the Mekon river. Without cables, your audio system deluxe is just odd-looking furniture. Cables deserve accolades, no matter how much contrary nonsense is spouted off by cynics. I deny the cable deniers!
---> Furutech DSS-4.1 speaker cables & DPS-4.1 power cable review.

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'être
– 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.

Enjoy the Music.com's 20 Year Anniversary
We get by with a little help from our friends.
Article By Steven R. Rochlin
Frankly, 20 years is a short period of time. Has it really been 20 years? Would love to say it seems like only yesterday that Yours Truly was this wild four ear piercings, nose ring and dog collar wearing avant-garde young kid strolling the hallways at shows, yet when it comes to the modern Internet 20 days ago seems like forever. Knowing that simply offering basic advice and how-to articles, plus my senseless ramblings, were fun yet the site also needed to start reviewing gear. Longtime and highly respected reviewer Dick Olsher and others agreed to join Enjoy the Music.com back in those early days and we've continued to grow ever since.
---> Enjoy the Music.com's 20 year anniversary editorial.

World Premiere Review!
PureAudioProject Quintet15 Horn1 Modular Open Baffle Loudspeakers Review
The pure essence of music at Kipnis Studios (KSS).
Review By Jeremy Kipnis
For as long as I can remember, I've been interested in audio and particularly the qualities associated with really good Stereophonic music reproduction. And I've often noted how there are such a myriad of different ways to design a pair of speakers and still get a high quality sonic illusion that easily communicates qualities like believable imaging, spatiality, height, dynamics, frequency extension, sense of immersion, and toe tapping musicality; should they be found in the recordings listened to in the first place. Apparently, speakers can come in all shapes and sizes, be constructed of wood, metal, glass, carbon-fiber, concrete, and even plastic. And they have been in use in telecommunications and related industries for almost a hundred and fifty years....
---> PureAudioProject Quintet15 Horn1 loudspeaker review.

Metronome Le Dac Review
...and the Technicolor Dream.
Review By Paul Schumann
Those of you who have read some of my previous reviews know that I am in some ways a throwback, sticking with my compact discs while some audiophiles have moved to uncompressed digital files and others have embraced the vinyl side. I have a lot of CDs, and by God, I'm going to still listen to them.... Sometimes you start to wonder, are those fancy high-end DACs really that much better? A few months ago, I noticed an announcement for a new DAC by a company called Metronome. Appropriately it is called Le Dac. The announcement said that the Le Dac is the new low-cost entry into the Metronome line.
---> Metronome Le Dac review.

Previous Issues

2021

January

2020

January/February March/April May/June

July August September October November

Great Audiophile Gift 2020 December

2019

January/February March/April May/June

July/August September/October November/December

2018

January/February March/April May/June