Indholdsfortegnelse for January 2025 i Stereophile

To watch as Rega very slowly expands its turntable offerings upmarket requires the patience of a Thomas Pynchon addict waiting for each new tome from the notoriously slow-working and reclusive author. Starting out 51 years ago with just one turntable model, Rega now offers turntables at seven different price levels, plus a few minor variations in between. During the “lost years” of waning turntable and vinyl sales in the 1990s and early 2000s, Rega boss Roy Gandy 1 candidly admits that the company put little effort into advancing its turntable designs, as sales at the time didn’t really justify the investment. Rega had shifted its focus to digital source components, amplifiers, and loudspeakers, and even introduced a tube CD player. That momentum finally started to reverse about 15 years ago,…

In midsummer 2022, I reviewed the Germanmade Clearaudio Reference Jubilee turntable, 1 a $30,000 vinyl virtuoso that played music with clear-headed realism, brain-opening transparency, and lifelike speed and dynamics. Its performance was nothing short of exhilarating. It was one of the top three turntables I had ever laid my ears upon. Of the Reference Jubilee I opined, “The Reference Jubilee’s sound combined vivid detail retrieval, forceful dynamics, a delicate, refined top end, and a translucent midrange. [It] combined staggering detail, energy, and forward-flow allied to a 3D stage that was large, deep, and transparent. The music it made was profound and life-affirming.” I had earlier assessed Clearaudio’s Concept Active Wood turntable, which was priced at $3700 or $4600, depending on the tonearm and cartridge configuration. 2 Despite its humbler origins,…

Back in 2016,1 I documented the rise of class-D amps using the early TriPath technology. Used in the Bel Canto eVo 200.2, 2 TriPath cracked open the door to the High End but was never admitted due to a dim and opaque treble. The second wave was based on B&O’s ICEpower technology, again via a Bel Canto amplifier, the Ref1000M monoblock. 3 ICEpower had more credibility and was accepted by many but, often, only with, ahem, due consideration for size and efficiency. There was an explosion of new class-D amps in 2016 when Stereophile featured glowing reviews of Bel Canto’s e. One Ref600M monoblock, Theta’s Prometheus monoblock, and NAD’s Masters Series M22 stereo amp, 4 all based on Bruno Putzeys’s Hypex NCore technology modules. Finally, it seemed that class-D was…

After my review of the Hegel H400 streaming integrated amplifier was published in Stereophile’s October 2024 issue, 1 it finally received Roon Ready certification. Because the Roon control interface is more user-friendly and offers more searching and streaming options than Hegel’s own app—and the JPlay app I used in Roon’s stead during my review—I am following up with my impressions of using the H400 with Roon. The H400 was the second streaming amplifier I reviewed while it was in a slow-moving line (queue in British English) to receive Roon certification; the other was the T+A R 2500 R streaming receiver, 2 which received Roon certification shortly after the Hegel H400. I asked Roon CEO Enno Vandermeer why it’s taking so long for devices to get certified and working with his…

Music history, like all human history, is filled with nooks and crannies—digressions from the main course of events. Take Anton Bruckner for example. The global concert hall calendars are filled with performances of his symphonies and some of his choral works. New recordings of these pieces are frequently released. How many of you have ever heard a performance, or recording, of any piece for solo piano by Bruckner? I had not, until now hearing the new sparkling recording by pianist Mari Kodama, Bruckner Piano Works. I spoke with Kodama about this, and she commented: “Nobody is aware of the piano pieces. They are so different, and they deserve to get some attention. They are so different from what we think of as Bruckner. At first sight it looks like Bach,…

Clearaudio Signature turntable Thanks to Ken Micallef for reviewing Clearaudio turntables over the past five years and accurately assessing what he calls their “house sound … refinement, lucidity, clarity, precision, and quietness.” Precision-made in their German factory two hours north of Munich, their products combine materials science with technological innovations. In addition to their own brand, Clearaudio manufactures turntables and tonearms for famous hi-fi brands in the USA, England, and Japan. The Signature model reviewed is a special edition designed exclusively for the US market, marking 24 years for Musical Surroundings as the US importer of Clearaudio. The Signature was conceived to maximize Clearaudio’s newer technologies, TSC speed control and IMS motor isolation, found in their Reference Jubilee ($30k) and Master Jubilee ($60k) turntables. We combined these with the successful…

Like romance or car racing, the act of playing records is tactile by design. Like drifting through curves or making out, spinning vinyl is a learned skill that requires users to touch everything with practiced assurance. To play a disc with Technics’ new SL-1300G record player means pushing its round On button, then touching one or more of its rectangular speed selector buttons, then pushing the big square [Start:Stop] button, then unclamping the tonearm and using its cue lever to raise it up. Next comes the part where my heart beats a little faster: using the headshell’s fingerlift to position the arm over the disc and lower it into a groove. When the needle contacts the groove, the whole system kicks in and sound comes out. Every time I repeat…

What’s in a name? Denmark-based Gryphon Audio Designs laid down a marker when company founder Flemming Rasmussen chose that name in 1985. Browsing through the current Stereophile Recommended Components list, I only found one other manufacturer that utilizes an animal moniker. The imagery summoned by the use of the mythical treasure-guarding Gryphon seems appropriate; a hybrid creature combining features of the eagle and the lion, creatures of strength and speed—this choice underlines some of the aesthetics and performance Gryphon Audio has become known for. The handsome hardcover user’s manual for the Diablo 333 simply states in gold “The Gryphon,” along with a side-on profile of that winged lion-tailed creature, as a logo. The Gryphon Diablo 333, a solid state, stereo integrated amplifier ($24,900 without optional DAC and phono stage modules),…

No less than eight boxes, powered by six after-market power cables, comprise my current reference front-end. 1 As much as separate boxes can afford superior isolation and provide far more room for visionary engineers to work their magic, the advantages of a single box, which requires a single power cable and far fewer after-market interconnects, are obvious. Enter Simaudio’s Moon 891 network player/preamplifier ($25,000). 2 Also called a “streaming preamplifier”—Simaudio frequently struggles with how to clearly and succinctly brand its Moon products—it includes a DAC that converts PCM and MQA files up to 32/384 (with 24-bit files upconverted to 32-bit) and DSD files up to 256. It also includes what Simaudio company co-owner Costa Koulisakis describes as “a fully configurable” MC/MM phono stage. Both theoretically and practically, it’s an ideal…

Tom Fine mentioned in his review of the T+A R 2500 R in the August 2024 issue 1 that a phono module would be available for this multisource receiver. 2 After that issue’s content had been sent to the printer, TF received a phono module, which he forwarded to me to install in the review sample of the R 2500 R and measure before he started his auditioning. (His Follow-Up will appear in the February issue.) Following the supplied instructions, installing the phono module was straightforward; it replaces a multi-pin jumper cable behind the input jacks on the rear panel, and a new jumper cable connects it to the output board. Both the R 2500 R’s display and the T+A Navigator G3 app on my iPad Mini now recognized input…

For musicians’ sake, the terms “sure thing” or “a hit” should be permanently stricken from the music business lexicon. Like Beetlejuice, if you say it enough, bad things are sure to occur. But in the long annals of the music business crushing the dreams of artists who were a “sure thing” and singles or albums that were guaranteed to be “a hit,” few have risen higher and fallen faster than Lone Justice. Rising stars on the Los Angeles music scene in the early 1980s, they melded punk-rock attitude and ethos with a love for classic country music. The New York Times called them “Impressive, ingenious, and forceful.” After seeing them, both Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton genuinely praised their sassy young singer, Maria McKee. Formed around McKee and guitarist Ryan…

VPI ANNOUNCES MODEL ONE, THE FIRST FOREVER SERIES TURNTABLE Mark Henninger VPI Industries, the New Jersey–based, high-performance turntable maker, has introduced the Model One as the first offering in its new Forever Series. The new design emphasizes modularity and upgradability, allowing users to adapt their systems over time. At the heart of the Model One is the Motor Drive and Platter Module, designed for both performance and flexibility. Mounted on an aluminum plate with a resonance-damping layer, this module minimizes vibrations. It features a 300rpm belt-drive motor (500rpm in regions with 230V power) equipped with a two-speed pulley for accurate speed control. The “Forever Platter” is a 2"-thick, 12"-diameter platter utilizing an inverted bearing design to reduce friction and enhance rotational stability. The Model One includes the new VPI S-Tonearm…

“Give me the seduction, give me the pleasure,” Ron Sutherland was nearly shouting into the phone. “I want to turn off the analytical mind and just enjoy myself!” Sutherland speaks in the chipper Midwestern cadences of a comic character actor from the 1940s, sort of like a grown-up Eddie Bracken from The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, and I’d never heard him sound so excited. He was talking about his new phono stage, the Dos Locos, the first product he’s designed collaboratively, having enlisted a group of audiophile friends who listened to and critiqued each iteration. “These friends are excellent listeners,” Sutherland related, “whereas I’m a gearhead, and don’t have the patience or discernment for that kind of listening. Sometimes I’d change something and they’d say, ‘You made it worse!’” It…

Typically, though not exclusively, amplifiers employing reduced levels of corrective feedback may also exhibit some thermal drift, a ‘feature’ more common still when the amplifier is also generously-biased. Gryphon’s very substantial Diablo 333 is a case in point as distortion (1kHz/10W) gradually reduces from ~0.07% immediately after switch on to a minimum of ~0.014% after some 50 minutes [Fig.1]. The case temperature increases by some 25o C over this period, distortion rising very slightly again as the chassis and key components reach an equilibrium. This is not to suggest that so basic a test directly correlates with any change in sound quality during warmup, but it is illustrative of both change and ‘character’ in general. As, for example, are the extended patterns of harmonics that appear in both power and…

I performed a full set of measurements on the Moon 891 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system,1 repeating some of the testing with the magazine’s higher-performance APx555 analyzer. For logistic reasons, I measured a different sample from that reviewed by JVS; mine had the serial number 310A22426340. Before I lifted the Moon onto the test bench, I unfastened the three transit bolts on its base—a good thing I read the startup guide before starting the testing! I installed Moon’s MiND app on my iPad mini, which allows the 891’s volume to be controlled but doesn’t allow settings to be adjusted. As JVS only auditioned the Moon 891’s digital inputs in his review—I understand that another reviewer will be reporting on the sound of the 891 as an analog preamplifier in…

There’s a clear evolution in technology and performance from Hypex’s original and innovative “self-oscillating” UcD through to NCore and now to the Purifi Eigentakt class-D module used in the Buckeye amplifier. The original UcD circuit married an input comparator, a power stage, and LC filter with feedback looped back between output and input “undoing” enough of the LC filter’s phase shift to ensure stable operation. Loop gain was a respectable 30dB, but designer Bruno Putzeys has said this was as far as he could go and still guarantee the amp’s stability. The later NCore modules combined a UcD amp with a filter that simulated its response, the difference between the two outputs being the distortion of the power stage alone. This error signal drove the corrective feedback with a limiter…

I was fascinated by Herb Reichert’s adventures with the KEF KC62 subwoofer, 1 so I borrowed one. Beautifully engineered, contoured, and finished and chock-full of cutting-edge technology, it would be welcome in any room and easily integrated into any system. However, it struck me as not just small but miniaturized, like the meticulously functional samples made for the traveling salesmen of a century past. Since its two force-canceling 6.5" radiators were the same size as or smaller than the midrange drivers in my main speakers at the time, I had low expectations and returned it without comment. That was in 2021. I asked for a pair of KEF KC92s in early 2024 in the hope that these two relatively small subs would improve my system. Like the KC62, the gloss…

FROM MAY 4 THROUGH AUGUST 18, 2024, THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (SFMOMA) STAGED THE LARGEST MULTISENSORY INSTALLATION CUM PERFORMANCE ART EXHIBITION IN ITS HISTORY. ENTITLED ART OF NOISE, THE MULTIROOM SHOW, WHICH OCCUPIED 14,000FT 2 ON THE MUSEUM’S SEVENTH FLOOR, DREW AN ESTIMATED 140,000 VISITORS, BOOSTING MUSEUM ATTENDANCE BY OVER 33% FROM THE SAME PERIOD IN 2023. EVEN ACCOUNTING FOR POSTPANDEMIC ATTENDANCE DECLINES, THAT’S AN IMPRESSIVE FIGURE. The exhibit, designed to celebrate “pioneering designs shaping our music experiences,” was the creation of two visionaries: Museum Curator Joseph Becker, 40, and New York–based 1 audio salon host/entrepreneur/system and fashion designer Devon Turnbull, aka Ojas, 2 45. Some particularly nostalgic attendees spent hours gazing silently at 128 early, iconic LP record covers by trend-setting designers who included Reid Miles of Blue…

A quick Clash, survey of 1977’s rock albums shows a vibrant genre, pushing in many directions at once. British punk went major label, with debut albums from The The Damned, Wire, and The Sex Pistols (their only studio album). The Ramones released Rocket to Russia. David Bowie explored a new direction with both Low and Heroes. Mainstream blockbusters included Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, News of the World by Queen, Slowhand by Eric Clapton, and Pink Floyd’s Animals. Not to mention Meat Loaf ’s Bat Out of Hell and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever. 1 Amid all of this, there was a distinct new sound, quickly labeled New Wave. It wasn’t rock like Queen, Pink Floyd, or anything coming out of Laurel Canyon. And it wasn’t manufactured in the disco-pop…