High-End Audio Reviews / Hi-Fi Audiophile Equipment Review Magazine

High-End Audio / Audiophile Equipment Reviews And Think Pieces

September 2019

Industry News: Essential High-End Audio Info
Enjoy the Music.com's audiophile news and information.

Win FiiO's M9 Hi-Res Audio Lossless Music Player!
Enjoy the Music.com is honored to join with FiiO for our September 2019 contest. You could win a FiiO M9 portable Hi-Res Audio portable music player valued at $299.99! FiiO's M9 Hi-Res Audio portable music player can handle everything from lossy MP3, OGG, and WMA to true lossless FLAC and WAV files for those who desire the very best in high-resolution music playback.
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Best Of 2019 Blue Note Equipment Awards
Celebrating the best high fidelity audio gear of 2019!
As Chosen By The Staff At Enjoy the Music.com
Enjoy the Music.com's Best Of 2019 Blue Note Awards celebrates the many great achievements by audiophile manufacturers within the high-end audio and Hi-Res Audio industry. Our 2019 Blue Note Awards is a culmination of 19 years of reviewing and carefully choosing what products have earned special recognition for our annual awards. Our Best Of 2019 Blue Note Award celebrates the finest products we have reviewed during the previous 12 months.
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RMAF 2019 Show Report
Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest 2019 Show Report
Featuring a luxury destination at the brand-new Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center, our Rocky Mountain International Audio Fest (RMAF) 2019 show report celebrates our sweet 16 years covering this highly popular high-end audiophile event. Take in the friendly atmosphere at RMAF where all are welcome and questions are encouraged. You will experience in one location many major household audio brands from Klipsch and McIntosh to ultra high-end brands Acora Acoustics, Audio Research, Kimber Kable, Mark Levinson, Nordost, Pro-Ject, VAC and many others.
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Synchronicity And Serendipity
Synchronicity and serendipity took this issue of HIFICRITIC and turned it into a de facto celebration and turned it into a de facto celebration...
Article By Andrew Everard Of HIFICRITIC
There's a lot of received wisdom involved in the world of Hi-Fi: things accepted as being facts just because – well, just because they've always been so, and as a result are beyond challenge. It's a nice, cozy way of thinking, taking in all sorts of myths and legends built up over the years, such as 'source first', 'analogue is always best', and 'the more boxes the better'.
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RMAF, CAF And NYAS
Plus Our Annual Blue Note Awards
Three shows in three months plus our Best Of 2019 Blue Note Awards!
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin
What do Denver, Washington DC and New York have in common from September through November? If you guessed luxury audio shows you'd be correct! First up is Rocky Mountain International Audiofest (RMAF) from September 6th through 9th at the brand-new Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center. From November 1st through 3rd is the Capital Audiofest (CAF) at the Hilton Hotel Rockville (near DC). Lastly, there's the New York Audio Show (NYAS) at the city's Park Lane Hotel by Central Park from November 8th through 10th. Let's take a look at each show, and then sum things up shall we?
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Why Listen?
Roger Skoff writes about the very essence of our hobby.
Article By Roger Skoff
If you've read any of my other articles in this publication or elsewhere, you know that I've always advocated listening as the final basis for any audio decision: Spending your time poring over spec sheets; reading reviews – regardless of how many, by whom, or in which magazine or blog – and even discussing the latest products, systems, or "software", with your friends or fellow audiophiles (even learnedly and with great passion) are simply not adequate substitutes for the evidence of your own ears.
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The Long View On Cables
Audiophiles are divided as to whether cables are snake oil or nirvana.
Article By David Schwartz, Member Of Gotham Audio
Last year, members of Audio Syndrome, a Long Island based audio club, got into a discussion about cables. They had all read a series of articles by Belden engineers Galen Gareis and Gautam Raja, on audio cable design. One of the club members looked into the cost of the Belden Iconoclast cables designed by the authors. He found them to be quite expensive.
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Is The Music BUSINESS Working Against Music Lovers
Do mastering engineers / music suffer at the hands of the lowest common denominator?
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin
Have been trying my best to stop writing about music and audio gear, yet there's a voice inside of me saying you should, make that must, speak your truth. It's no secret that I read an abundance of industry inside information. This is not just high-end audio, it also pertains to musicians, recording studios, FOH / live performance, and mastering engineers (to name a few). What I find very interesting is that those who dare to speak up have many of the same concerns we audiophiles do!
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Forget The Specs
Roger Skoff writes something that could change your mind completely.
Article By Roger Skoff
Until not very long ago, "spec sheets" were an important part of our audio hobby. You know what I'm talking about – those single-sheet write-ups that showed a picture of a product, gave a description of its features and qualities, and set down in detail such things as frequency response, measured distortion, signal-to-noise ("S/N") ratio, and so on. People used to pick them up at Hi-Fi Shows as reminders about products that had particularly caught their attention, or they would ask for them, supposedly "to show the Little Lady", as "get-out-of-the-store without-buying-anything" passes, when they'd auditioned something at their local HiFi dealer and either didn't want, or weren't yet ready, to buy them.
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Is Mastering An Endangered Audio Job?
Article By Bobby Owsinski
Mastering engineers are some of my favorite people in the music business and many of the best are friends that I speak with frequently. One subject that's been coming up more and more in conversation is how much that business has changed, and that work is getting much harder to find. This is actually no surprise when you think about it. Just about anyone can buy the same software tools that many mastering engineers use, even though the skills to use them may be lacking. Some mastering engineers even have their own branded plug-ins or presets that simulate their hardware and software signal chains, which may help engineers on one hand, but also encourages them to stay DIY and not seek out the services of a pro.
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Ideal Gear For The Monomaniac &
McIntosh And A Tip For The Beatles
From Woodstock to Newport and most points West.
Excerpts from the book McIntosh "...For The Love Of Music..."
Book By Ken Kessler
My grandfather was the radio/TV guy here in my hometown of Coxsackie, N.Y., at Rosa Radio and Television from the late 1940s through the 1960s, retail and repair. He used to occasionally tell me about "Dr. Yarvin," a grumpy, old family doctor here in town that supposedly had the hi-fi system to end all others. My grandfather said, "He always had me special order crazy equipment for him, brands that I never even heard of, like someone could actually hear a difference anyway...".
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Audio Dithering: What You Need To Know
Article By Mike Levine Of Waves Audio Ltd.
Dither is one of the least understood topics when it comes to mixing and mastering, but it can actually come in handy. We've compiled a one-stop shop for understanding when, why and how to use dither. Dither is one of the least understood words in the music-production lexicon, but it's an essential ingredient when working with digital audio, and one that you really should understand if you're involved in mixing or mastering. So, what is dither?
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Video: Japan's Hidden Listening Bars
Bridge / Resident Advisor x Asahi Super Dry
Located high above Shibuya's world-famous pedestrian crossing and equipped with high-quality Rey Audio speakers, Bridge offers a refuge from Tokyo's bustling streets. It's what the venue's manager, Masaaki Ariizumi, calls a "third place" — somewhere to unwind between home and work. This video is produced by Resident Advisor in partnership with Asahi Super Dry Beer.
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Video: NYC Mixcon 2019
Loudness Wars, AI Music Production, And 360 Sound
Video By SonicScoop Live From MixCon
This episode of the SonicScoop podcast comes to us live from MixCon 2019 in NYC, as Justin Colletti is joined by three brilliant panelists for a look at how music production is changing right now, and where the field is headed next. This video features Jonathan Bailey of iZotope, Alan Silverman of Arf Productions / Mastering, and special audio / 360 sound engineer Marta Gospodarek.
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High Style In High-End Audio
You don't need to be an Audiophile OG to chill with a sense of style.
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin
Have been taking photos of audiophile gear for many decades, and am always impressed by the creative flow of many designs. Below are a very small sampling of the incredibly talented engineering and design by a variety of high-end audio manufacturers.
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Copland CTA 408 Vacuum Tube Integrated Amplifier
A tube amplifier in disguise.
Review By Dr. Phil Gold
It has been seven years since I reviewed the Copland CTA 506 Power amp which I liked very much at the time and is still available today. From my 2012 review of the CTA 506: The Copland CTA 506 combines classic design with the latest developments in vacuum tubes to create an impressive and attractively priced power amp that seems equally at home across musical genres. It stands up well against the other power amps – tube and silicon based – that have been through my listening room.
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T+A SDV3100HV Streaming DAC
And PDT3100HV Disc Drive
T+A took a giant step forward with its HV series.
Review By Matthias Böde Of STEREO Magazine
Imagine if you had a free choice on the wheel of fortune. Over and over again. As often as you want! That's how it feels when you press the mighty volume control on T+A's brand new SDV3100HV Streamer-DAC-preamplifier, whereupon it jumps into source selection mode and scrolls through the numerous options in the turquoise illuminated display kind of like you would on a smartphone.
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PBN Audio M2!5 Loudspeakers
What's old, is new again.
Review By Gregory Petan of Positive Feedback
These days there are a lot of good speakers out there. More than ever, at every price point you can surely find something that fits your needs. As the price rises, the scrutiny and expectations grow, as well they should. At or around the $30,000 mark there have never been so many choices in all manners of design, materials, and technology. At the upper echelon, manufacturers have really pushed the state of the art in terms of secret composite materials for cabinets housing exotic drivers made from carbon fiber, ceramics, and other space age materials.
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World Premiere Review!
Wells Audio Commander Level II Tube Line Stage
I found myself often thinking of Van Morrison's "Cleaning Windows".
Review By Dr. Jules L. Coleman
For much of my life I tried my hand at playing guitar – with little, if any, success. Truth be told, early and often friends and family – several of whom are professional musicians – encouraged me to abandon my efforts. Ultimately, fear of being friendless and homeless carried the day, and my nascent, if not burgeoning, career came to a screeching halt. This tragedy, notwithstanding, my love of music has continued to grow unabated. Like the majority of you, I love listening to music, engaging it, getting to know and appreciate it for its artistry as well the narrative content of the music and where present the lyrics.
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World Premiere Review!
Merrill Audio PURE Tape Head Preamp
Simple to use sweet sounding analog!
Review By Richard Cohn
Have you ever noticed how people's pets tend to look like them and reflect their personalities? Well, I have noticed a similar congruency between audio components and their designers – for good or bad (no names mentioned here are the astringent amps/designers I have come across in my years as an audiophile). Fortunately, the subject of this review, the Merrill Audio PURE Tape Head Preamp (the "Merrill Preamp" or "Pure") for reel-to-reel decks and its creator Merrill Wettasinghe are on the right side of that spectrum.
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Quiescent Mains Cable Loom
The concept of vibration control in signal-carrying cables is a relatively well understood, but can the same factors affect a system via its mains cable?
Review By Kevin Fiske Of HIFICRITIC
Following my positive reviews in HIFICRITIC of the Quiescent Technologies Peak Speaker Cables (Vol. 12/2) and Peak Interconnect (Vol. 12/3) I was invited by the company to try its more costly Apex Interconnect. However, in my system the Apex sounded too fat in the bass and rather sluggish. I preferred the Peak. Quiescent's Steve Elford suspected my mains loom. Could one of his colleagues bring a selection of Quiescent – formerly Vertex AQ – mains products to try in my system?
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Sonus faber Olympica @ World Of McIntosh NYC
A good high-end system is akin to a time machine.
Review By Tom Lyle
Last year I took a tour of World Of McIntosh, a very impressive five-story luxury townhouse in the Soho neighborhood of downtown New York City. World Of McIntosh is an amazing place, packed with working audio systems featuring gear from McIntosh, Sonus faber, Pro-Ject Audio Systems, Audio Research, and more. This luxurious space is used as an event space, for invitation only audio tours, and for anything else one who wants to use a space "where music and design are merged in a way that's striking, memorable, and undeniably enjoyable".
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Audio Ramblings And The SOtM sNH-10G Switch
Worth the differences? For us, yes.
Review By Dave Clark Of Positive Feedback
For those of us who are pushing things in terms of what can we accomplish with playing our music back via files within some networked system, well... where does one stop? Or better yet, what else can one do to improve things? Obviously, it starts with files whether ripped from a CD or sourced from some website. So, we do our best to rip files in a reasonable way and / or source files that seem to be as perfect as we can figure out.
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Noble Audio's Mighty Khan In-Ear Monitors
A rare instrument that make listening to music as good as it gets.
Review By Frank Iacone Of Headphone.Guru
The Wiz has been busy creating new universal and custom designs using hybrid technology. Dr. John Moulton is well known in the personal audio community for creating outstanding designs with artful flair; John is an audiologist by trade and spends most of his time working with his brother Jim Moulton, an attorney by trade, who is the marketing arm and partner for Noble Audio. Jim is based in Texas and has been doing all the personal audio shows showing the new designs that the Wiz has been creating.
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World Premiere Review!
ELAC Alchemy DDP-2 DAC/Pre/Streaming End-Point
A benchmark accomplishment!
Review By Greg Weaver
Audiophiles exploring the boundaries of Red Book CD playback from the early to late nineteen-nineties will no doubt recall California based Audio Alchemy gear with great fondness; I know I do! Founded on the inspired design and engineering of one Peter Madnick, Audio Alchemy almost single-handedly set the stage for the acceptance and ascent of multi-box Compact Disc playback systems. Initially offering their lineup of very affordable yet remarkably high-performance outboard DACs...
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Legacy Audio Powerbloc2 Stereo Power Amplifier
A great value Class D stereo amplifier!
Review By Rick Becker
When I first discovered high end audio nearly 30 years ago, my economic circumstances and skepticism of the value of products kept me in tortoise mode. The real value of tortoise mode early on was to allow me time to learn how to listen and time to experience of a lot of gear at audio shows to learn what my personal acoustic and aesthetic values were. As the decades have rolled on, my ability to spend larger sums of money has increased but the pace has remained in the tortoise league.
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Melco N10 Music Server And PS10 Power Supply
Enveloping sound that activates all my audiophile senses!
Review By Tom Lyle
By now, the music server shouldn't be a foreign concept to most audiophiles. When servers first began to be a part of our digital front-ends, all that most audiophiles wanted and needed were designers to provide a convenient way to play their music files. Since then, enough research and development have gone into designing and building music servers that there are now plenty of options available at many different price points. Today, the name of the game is sound quality. Melco has upped the ante by providing not only a perfectionist audio module, but one that has its own outboard power supply connected to it in order to increase the level of sound quality.
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Backert Labs Rhumba Extreme 1.3 Preamplifier
A neutral presentation that excels in micro dynamics and harmonics.
Review By Dean Cacioppo
In my humble opinion, the two most under appreciated aspects of high-end audio are room acoustics/speaker placement and the preamplifier. These are the unsung heroes of the best sounding audio systems in the world. Speakers are generally front and center - kinda like a quarterback for a great football team. The power amplifier and the speakers complete the final circuit in audio reproduction, so the matching of the power amp and the speaker is crucial.
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World Premiere Review!
Audiomods Series Six Tonearm
It takes a great tonearm to get the best from your cartridge.
Review By Clive Meakins
The Audiomods Series Six is the first totally in-house all-Audiomods tonearm. Previous versions up to the Five relied upon the ubiquitous Rega arm-tube, albeit a modified version. Jeff Spall is Audiomods; it's his business based on his tremendous interest in vinyl replay and tube amplifiers. Jeff is an enormously practical "un-tweaky" audiophile. Over 10 years ago Jeff started out by modifying Rega arms; as the years progressed there became less and less Rega content in the Audiomods arms and upgrade kits
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Kanto YU4 Powered Desktop Loudspeaker
The little speaker that (really) could.
Review By The Audio File Of Headphone.Guru
The Kanto YU4 is a luscious little remote-controlled two-way powered gem of a loudspeaker at $349 per pair. These diminutive beauties are jam-packed with tech-for-days and built with equal amounts of integrity, pride, and precision. This is a Lifestyle product that can find itself as a killer "small scale" system but can just as easily find itself in an audiophile's second system, be it bedroom or office, or even home cinema. Read on – and YES, I loved it.
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KLH Kendall Floorstanding Loudspeakers
Very dynamic while still providing a graceful harmonic decay.
Review By Dean Cacioppo
There are few speaker brands that even non-audiophiles recognize. KLH is one of them. KLH Research and Development was originally founded in 1957 by Henry Kloss, Malcolm Low, and Josef Hoffman. Henry Kloss' reputation in the audio industry goes back to the 1950s and includes audio brands such as Acoustic Research, Advent, Cambridge Soundworks, and, of course, KLH. Today, the KLH brand has been reborn by David Kelley (formally of Klipsch) as KLH Audio, focusing on relatively affordable hi-fi speakers, subwoofers, A/V speakers and headphones.
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M2Tech Nash Phono Pre & Van Der Graaf MkII Power
Capable of producing both subtle and very dense recordings.
Review By Tom Lyle
M2Tech's Nash phono stage, a component that is part of their Rockstar series, seemed to me to be the not only a perfect match for the Pro-Ject Esprit SB turntable that I set up in my second system not long ago, but also for the moving magnet Ortofon 2M Red phono cartridge that is mounted on the turntable's integral tonearm. This is probably the least expensive cartridge I would ever consider using, and conversely, at about $100 my experience leads me to believe that it is also the most expensive cartridge a non-audiophile might consider purchasing. Thankfully, it has a relatively neutral sound, and its rather open, dynamic sound make it more than "good enough" to use in a high-end system, and especially one that is as good as the system in which I'm auditioning this M2Tech Nash phono stage.
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A Homebrew Horn For Dual Concentric Loudspeakers
Article By Roy Hilsley From Sound Practices Issue 17
I consider myself to be very lucky. My father introduced me to hi-fi when I was a teenager. That was over forty years ago! In those days audio electronics and hi-fi was very much an experimenter’s hobby and my father loved to put electronic components together to make all manner of things. He built our amps, tuner and speakers — first for mono and then stereo. He even built our first TV set!
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Triophoni: Triode Triumph
Article By Dan Schmalle From VALVE Issue 8, August 1994
This month I will take the opportunity to show off a little (Oh brother, not again...). I have today been putting the finishing touches on my latest amp project, a pair of triode output power amps called Triophoni. Since I spent a fair amount of time writing up a blurb to advertise them I will use excerpts from said blurb to describe them: 6CK4 cathode type triode valves operate class AB1 push-pull as the output tube.
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Van den Hul
The Frog MC Phono Cartridge
Smooth and soothing sounds for vinyl lovers.
Review By Steven R. Rochlin
Over the past five years i have been fortunate enough to avoid the digital wars. Let the other guys deal with DVD-Audio, SACD, HD DVD and Blu-ray as i sit back and enjoy my 8000+ and growing vinyl collection. Almost a year ago my review of the Oracle Delphi MK V turntable with Oracle-SME 345 tonearm proved that vinyl indeed has much to offer music lovers worldwide. While attending the recent Munich High End show (2007), i was chatting with Aalt Jouk van den Hul (A.J.) at some press event for another manufacturer. Have known A.J. for well over a decade, as he attends many shows, and we have sat down and enjoyed some nice conversations about music, audio equipment... whatever.
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Analogue Artisan A1 Series Turntable
Remote VTA / SRA Mongoose Tonearm & Pod
Truly reference sound quality with astonishingly low distortion.
Review By Tom Lyle
Brian Calaio, the owner and chief engineer of Analogue Artisan and I have two things in common. The first is our love of music; the second is that we both believe that once a high-end audio system gets to a certain level of refinement, everything contributes to the sound of the system. The problem is that if the manufacturer of a component believes that everything makes a difference, and designs equipment with that maxim in mind with no regards for price, things can get a bit hairy, that is, very expensive.
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HeadAmp Gilmore Lite Mk2 Class A Headphone Amplifier
HeadAmp's entry-level desktop makes us rethink what a $500 amplifier can sound like.
Review By Dave Hanson
The term "reference equipment" might be a bit overused in the personal audio hobby. Often times, it is simply a substitute for our "best" gear, but what should a true piece of reference gear really be? Neutral? Definitely! Transparent to all the gear in your chain? Unquestionably! Able to drive anything from IEMs to all but the most difficult planars? Indubitably.
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Reference 3A Reflector Stand Mounted Monitor
A speaker to live with... for a lifetime.
Review By Tom Lyle
Don't bother skipping to the conclusion of this review, as I'll tell you right now: The Reference 3A Reflector is a great speaker. If one has been searching for a stand-mounted speaker anywhere near its asking price of $12,000, these are the speakers to get. Not only do they do everything that one would expect of for a speaker of its size and price, but much, much more.
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EMM Labs DA2 Digital-To-Analog Converter (DAC)
Producing an extremely clear sonic picture of your music.
Review By Tom Lyle
On Amazon.com one can purchase a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with three digital inputs and a volume control for $30. Leave out the volume control and limit yourself to only one digital input and you can purchase a DAC for $14. So, why the heck would anyone, even an audiophile, pay more than $2000 for a DAC? And while we're at it, why would an audiophile purchase this EMM Labs DA2 for $25,000? There's really no answer to this other than sound quality...
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