20th Annual Positive Feedback Writers' Choice Awards for 2023

Beginning at the end of 2003, PF established its first annual awards for fine audio. The Brutus Award was established for the best that David Robinson and Dave and Carol Clark had heard in their own listening rooms during that year. You can think of it as our equivalent of an "Editors' Choice" award.

The Gizmo Award, on the other hand, was established in memory of our very good audio friend, Harvey "Gizmo" Rosenberg, and is given by David Robinson to the most conspicuous audiomaniac(s) of the year. Only one Gizmo is given per year; some years, no Gizmo is given at all.

The following is an opportunity for our editors and writers to recognize superior merit in the audio arts though their "Writers' Choice Awards." Our writers and reviewers have been given broad leeway to cite excellence in fine audio wherever they find it: products, people, recordings, events, groups, etc., so that our readers can be better informed.

It is our hope that you will find the PF Writers' Choice Awards to be helpful to you in your audio journey.

All the best,

Positive Feedback

John Acton

Audience frontRow powerChord HP. $6700

Audience frontRow powerChord. $6300

My Positive Feedback Writer's Choice Award for 2023 goes to Audience's frontRow powerChord. In creating its flagship frontRow line of cable products, Audience AV has distilled all of its considerable design prowess and manifested it in a series of products that takes the performance of Audience cables to an heretofore unrealized level.

The frontRow powerChord employs numerous proprietary technologies. Utilizing oxygen-free OHNO continuous-cast copper of 99.9999% purity combined with cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) as a dielectric, Audience optimizes conductor layout to eradicate electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RMI). Audience then applies its Musically Optimized Reduction of Resistive Energy (MORRE) treatments, including its proprietary "Deep Cryo II" cryogenic treatment, extensive burn-in conditioning, and its Extreme High Voltage Process (EHVP). Audience offers the frontRow powerChord in two configurations: High Power (HP), for components like amplifiers, integrated amplifiers, and power conditioners that draw more than 150-watts, and Medium Power (MP), for components such as preamplifiers and digital sources that draw fewer than 150-watts.

The frontRow powerChord's performance exceeded that of any power cable I've experienced, with soundstaging and imaging that was tactile and dimensional, imbuing musical performances with a presence and verisimilitude I would not have previously deemed possible. Detail retrieval was also unmatched, with the frontRow presenting an abundance of information in an unforced manner that allowed me to hear deep into the presentation. Tonally, the frontRow was essentially neutral, adding just enough lower-midrange warmth to avoid sterility while avoiding any perceived bloat or overhang. Possessing a sublimely low noise floor, the frontRow powerChord reproduced dynamic contrasts explosively, a boon to compressed recordings.

Few additions to my system have resulted in the level of sonic gains imparted by Audience's frontRow powerChords. A supreme achievement.

Read more HERE

Myles B. Astor

Equipment

Goldmund Telos 1000 Nextgen Monoblock amplifiers. $135,000/pair

Make no mistake! These Swiss-made monoblocks are the Ferraris of solid-state amplifiers. The Telos 1000 Nextgen amplifiers adeptly navigate the most tortuous musical chicanes and accelerate like a F1 racing car down the straightaways. Their musical character lies smack dab in the middle between the analytical and forgiving camps and are oh-so easy to listen to for hours upon end. Throw in this wide-bandwidth amplifier's speed, resolution, bass reproduction and huge soundstage and we are talking a contender for state-of-the-art in audio amplifiers.

Kubala-Sosna Realization Speaker cables. $14,300 for 2 meters (add $2300 for each additional meter).

I've never been one prone to hyperbole but in this instance Kubala-Sosna's top-of-the-line Realization speaker cables totally transformed the reference system's sound. Like manna from Heaven. Plus, these state-of-the-art cables really locked and brought out the best qualities of the Zellaton Plural Evo speakers and Goldmund Telos 1000 Nextgen amplifiers. The Realization speaker cables are characterized by their lack of coloration, vanishingly low noise floor, resolution, dynamics, linearity and boundless soundstage. In short, the Realization speaker cables succeed where few others do: be seen and not heard!

VPI Avenger Direct Drive Turntable. $36,000

Designing and manufacturing a turntable seems pretty simple, e.g. make sure the product runs at the right speed and prevents deleterious vibrations from affecting the sound. Pretty simple right? But this is clearly another case of the task being much easier said than done. Yet, I was totally unprepared for the sonic improvements wrought by VPI's newest direct-drive motor and speed control (originally developed for the HW40 turntable) and isolation feet. Not to mention, a major streamlining of the Avenger direct-drive looks! The most obvious and unmistakable sonic change is a significant decrease in the table's noise floor resulting in a remarkable increase in low level resolution and transparency. That's accompanied by a greater dynamic ease particularly in the lowest musical registers. Couple that with the ease of setup and the ability to support three tonearms (how many have a phono section with three inputs?) and we're talking about a table that belongs on everyone's must-hear list!

Symposium Acoustics Ultra Pro Ampstands. $1499 for standard 19 x 18-inch stand, $1749 for special black Stealth Edition.

Location, location, location! Preamplifiers, phonostages, digital equipment, etc. are easy to stuff into an equipment rack but what to do with those orphan amplifiers? Enter Symposium Acoustics' Ultra Pro Ampstands and their patented constrained layer, stepwise density damping construction. In contrast to Symposium Acoustics' normal Ultra Platforms, the Pro Ampstands come equipped with their custom-made screw in Terminator Cone feet equipped with reversible Tellurium copper spikes (for carpets or bare floors). The Symposium Acoustic stands easily added a half star, maybe more, to the performance of the Goldmund amplifiers most notably in the areas of soundstage transparency, resolution and openness.

Music

Looking for music to play on your system? Check out these 2023 reissues!

15-ips Reel-To-Reel Tape

2023 was a bumper year for Jazz at the Pawnshop reissues headlined by four 15-ips reel-to-reel tapes and two LP reissues. The best sounding release of the trio of tapes is hands down Late Night closely followed by Jazz at the Pawnshop 2 and the album that started it all, Jazz at the Pawnshop. Late Night consists of seven previously unreleased songs originating from as described by 2XHD, "…the end of the evening, before packing their instruments to go home, jazz musicians often will play a set for themselves. These tapes hold the recording of such a moment…" The sound on this tape is extraordinary and the band's longer solos really allow the music to develop. The track that stands out here is "Gubben Och Kallingen (Alternative Take)–Traditional."

Jazz at the Pawnshop, AudioNautes/Proprius Records, AN-RTR-2203, 15-ips tape, 4 reels.

Jazz at the Pawnshop 2, AudioNautes/Proprius Records, AN-RTR-2107, 15-ips tape, 2 reels.

Jazz at the Pawnshop, Late Night, 2XHD, 15-ips tape, 2 reels.

Jazz at the Pawnshop, 2XHD, LP.

Clair Marlo, Let It Go. HyperAnalogue (Brilliance Music and Studios/Genesis Advanced Technologies), 15-ips tape, 2 reels.

Let It Go has all the earmarks of that Sheffield direct-to-disc sound, save it's a live-to-two track recording done by then soon to be double Grammy award winning engineer Bill Schnee (he of course engineered many of the great Sheffield direct-to-disc recordings). New York City born Marlo is backed on Let It Go by the likes of Jeff (of Toto fame and one of the most recorded artists in rock history) and father Joe Porcaro, LeLand Sklar and Dean Parks among others. Marlo's 1989 debut album Let It Go gave rise to two hits including "Til They Take My Heart Away" and "Without Me" from among the several Porcaro and Marlo written and arranged songs. Another great track on this tape is Marlo's rendition of that classic Stevie Wonder tune "I Believe When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever." A great addition to the catalog of a relatively new label.

Cantate Domino. AudioNautes/Proprius Records, AN-RTR-2107, 15-ips tape, two reels.

Now the green blade riseth. AudioNautes/Proprius Records, AN-RTR-2303, 15-ips tape, two reels.

2023 also saw a bumper crop of 15-ips reel-to-reel tape reissues from the Proprius Records vaults courtesy of Fabio Camorani and AudioNautes. Proprius Records is renowned for Bertil Alving's choral (and organ) recordings and Cantate Domino and Now the green blade riseth are two of the best examples of the state-of-the-art. Alving just had an uncanny knack for capturing the ambience of the churches he chose for the recordings along with a naturalness to voices and instruments.

Norah Jones, Come Away With Me. Analogue Productions/Blue Note Records RRAP 0022, 15-ips reel-to-reel tape, 2 reels.

Not enough pop and rock titles to get into reel-to-reel tape? Does Norah Jones' debut album that swept practically every award at the 2002 Grammy Awards make that decision any easier? Come Away With Me is worth buying just for the title track alone but there's not a throwaway song here with sound to match. What a coup for Chad Kassem owner of Acoustic Sounds!

LPs

Grateful Dead, Anthem of the Sun. Vinyl Me Please

A simply stunning sounding reissue of the original version of the Grateful Dead's second album and the first with drummer Mickey Hart. Anthem of the Sun probably sounds even better if you live in a state that has legalized the sale of pot too! This Chris Bellman remastering is super transparent with a seemingly limitless soundstage! Anthem of the Sun is a true kaleidoscope of sound featuring both live and studio recordings spliced together. From "The Faster We Go the Rounder We Get" on might be some of the finest sound found on a Grateful Dead LP. Simply stunning and a total knockout.

Hamza El Din, Al Oud—Instrumental and Vocal Music of Nubia, Real Gone Records/Vanguard Records RGM-1540

I was perusing the Acoustic Sounds website earlier this year and shocked to see that Real Gone Records was reissuing this 1965 Hamza El Din Vanguard Records release! Now Hamza El Din isn't exactly well known among audiophiles, but he did release Lily of the Nile on Water Lily Music (recorded by Kavi Alexander on Tim de Paravicini's 2-track/1-inch machine and sponsored by George Cardas and Cardas Cables) in 1989. Al Oud was recorded shortly after El Din's performance at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival where he awed the crowd (I've always wondered if this was a Marc Aubort recording?) Al Oud features El Din playing nine Nubian folk songs with his 12-string oud and singing. The music is absolutely mesmerizing and the sound is extraordinarily natural sounding!

Bill Evans, Some Other Time. Vol. 2, 2XHD, 45 rpm

Another winner from Rene LaFlamme and 2XHD, and a worthy alternative for those that don't own a reel-to-reel tape deck to experience the wonders of this previously unreleased HansGeorg Brunner-Schwer Bill Evans MPS recording. Evans is accompanied on Some Other Time by one of his best post-Scot LoFaro trios featuring Eddie Gomez on bass and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Recorded five days after Evans' legendary Montreux performance, Some Other Time is for the first time available in glorious all analog sound. (The 15-ips tape version of Some Other Time received a PF 2022 Writer's Award from me.) The sound here is simply gorgeous without some of the artificial piano sound haunting many Evans' recordings. Going to love Evans performing several tried and true jazz standards here including one of my favorite songs "On Green Dolphin Street!"

Leroy Vinnegar Sextet, Leroy Walks. Craft Records 00594/Contemporary Records

1957 was a busy year for Roy DuNann and Contemporary Records with the recording of Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, Sonny Rollins' Way Out West, Barney Kessell The Poll Winners, and Curtis Counce You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce. Lost in the shuffle was Leroy Vinnegar's debut album Leroy Walks and hands down one of Craft Records best reissues to date. In fact, I have been searching for an original release for many years now to replace my OJC copy, but was unwilling to pay the asking price. Walking is the major theme here featuring the bluesy tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards and the interplay between Carl Perkins on piano and Victor Feldman on vibraphone (Feldman was also responsible for many of the arrangements on Leroy Walks!

Tim Aucremann

Aidas Mammoth Gold Cartridge. $8650

Here is a delightful handmade moving coil cartridge with an ivory body and a heart of gold. The Aidas Mammoth Gold comes from cartridge maker Aidas Svazias in Lithuania and features a 0.28mV output with a 12 µm/mN compliance that worked great on my 11-inch Kuzma 4Point tonearm. Exhumed from the ice in Russia, its unique body is carved from a 21,000 year old mammoth tusk that now cradles hand-wound pure 999 0.04 mm gold coils. This is the second version of the Mammoth Gold Aidas dropped the 'Mk.2' designation and its US msrp is $8650.

Received with only 20 hours on it, from the outset the Mammoth Gold was impressive. Construction and build quality on the review sample were excellent with a best-as-I-could-tell perfectly straight cantilever and a body that was easily adjusted to be front-to-back and side-to-side parallel to a record on the platter using the Wally Reference tool. The protruding boron cantilever made alignment a breeze using the Acoustical Systems UniPro protractor and I found azimuth was near spot-on out of the box.

Listening to acoustic music I found the Mammoth Gold easily differentiated orchestral performances across different record labels. Timbre and harmonics were very well balanced across the frequency range although the cartridge did not always reach into the very tippy-top breathy filigreed extension of some five-figure carts such as the van den Hul Master Signature. Mid-to-low bass was excellent with weight, articulation and harmonic depth. Fine micro- and macro-dynamic gradation coupled with natural transients and a sense of drive and forward propulsion delivered both sweetness and explosive power from the likes of Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. I really enjoyed my time with this cartridge.

Review Forthcoming

Wolf von Langa WVL 12638 SON Loudspeaker System. $17,995

The Wolf von Langa SON is a full-range two-way speaker that uses a field-coil mid-woofer paired with an externally mounted AMT dipole tweeter and a passive rear radiator. The package includes an external variable-current power supply with a user-adjustable potentiometer gauge. The SONs are priced at $17,995 and come with a 5 year warranty.

The SON's accommodating specifications, adjustable field-coil driver and compact cabinet allow them to easily integrate into smallish and mid-sized rooms with a variety of existing audio systems. With a mid-woofer offering a nominal impedance of 8 Ohms and 94dB efficiency, the SONs are at home driven by either high-power amplifiers or low-wattage SETs. I used them with 110W Lamm M1.2 and 18W Lamm ML2.2 monoblocks. The SONs are very revealing of their downstream playback chain and will reward the quality of the amplifier you mate with them. Construction is top-notch.

The SONs deliver mid-to-lower bass punch and highs without etch or glare. Adjusting the amount of field-coil current lets you fine tune transient response. The mid-woofer's match with the AMT tweeter is excellent as I heard no lack of coherence between these drivers. The SONs sounded quick and precise, capable of fine dynamic gradation across a wide dynamic range. Tonality is a wee bit on the cool side with rich harmonics on all types of music. From simple acoustic duets to Mahler's 2nd Symphony, the WVL SONs deliver the goods with compelling value.

Read more HERE

Juan C. Ayllon

Two thousand and twenty-three has been a tremendous year for reviewing some excellent equipment and electronics in my listening room. No doubt, there were other outstanding performers, but forced to choose, the following comprise my top four.

The Pass Labs XP-12 Preamplifier. $6100

The Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier works extremely well, making it an indispensable audio evaluation tool and purveyor of aural bliss.

Let's be honest here. In my household, we spend more time watching TV than listening to music, and with the XP-12, the soundstage, detail, depth, and vividness of HD movies, shows, and music videos are a constant source of pleasure and amazement for us. Be it the creaks of timbers straining, then snapping—followed by a thunderous building collapse, the engine whine and screeching tires of James Bond's Aston Martin, or Andrea Bocelli's bewitching baritone tenor in "Perfect Symphony," it's a sensory treat that keep us glued to our couch way past bedtime.

But A/V bliss aside, the Pass Labs XP-12 is an invaluable tool in evaluating numerous review subjects, providing me a precise reference and a clear purview into the varied and often subtle nuances with its wonderfully transparent delivery. And as a music lover at heart, I really enjoy the Pass Labs' house sound—maybe a tick or two to the warm side of neutral, which allows hours of non-fatiguing listening.

In a time where high-end audio prices are skyrocketing, bordering on the obscene, the XP-12 affords you a greater portion of the upper end experience for a mid-fi price. It's like getting to drive a Ferrari for the price of a Toyota. I like that! And this is why I not only recommend the Pass Labs XP-12 preamplifier, but keep one in my reference system.

Read more HERE

The Pass Labs HPA-1 Headphone Amplifier $3675

I am very impressed with the Pass Labs HPA-1 Headphone amplifier that's, in a nutshell, a powerful and versatile, standout headphone amp that can double as a superb preamplifier for a two channel speaker system. I love its rugged and iconic, minimalistic machined aluminum chassis Pass Labs, and it can sing, too! It delivers a deeply satisfying, vivid, and robust aural experience.

While powerful and detailed, it's never fatiguing. In fact, the joy and ease of listening for hours on end motivated me to make some changes in my room acoustics, speaker toe-in and placement in my two channel listening space so I could derive that same level of pleasure over my loudspeakers. Bottom line, I am very impressed with this headphone amp!

Read more HERE

Dan Clark Audio Stealth Headphones. $3999

Already very impressed with the Dan Clark Audio Ether 2 headphones that retail for $2299, I was curious to hear if paying nearly double that price for the $3999 Dan Clark Audio Stealth planar headphones would really be an improvement. So, I reached out to Dan Clark Audio, and I'm certainly glad I did!

Less efficient than the Ether 2s, the Stealth indeed wrings out an extra level of detail, nuance, and refinement that I had not expected. Sleeker in look and featuring improved ergonomic design, they feel lighter and more comfortable. Boasting a new planar driver, it renders a delightful and effortless sonic experience devoid of listener fatigue.

For example, in Eva Cassidy's "Cheek to Cheek," the Stealth renders Eva Cassidy's humming intro, Lenny Williams' piano, Chris Biondos' deep purring bass, Cassidy's deft electric guitar and sublimely expressive, honey-gilded soprano vocals, accompanied by Raice McLeod's cymbals and snare with uncanny realism, vim, and vigor (Eva Cassidy, Live at Blues Alley. Qobuz FLAC 44.1kHz, Eva Music May 1996).

Listening to high quality recordings with Stealth headphones in tandem with good electronics, time passes quickly, as you fall in love with music again.

Review coming soon.

Usher Audio UA-50 Anniversary Loudspeakers. $7800

Being familiar with the Usher Audio house sound, I had a feeling that these standmount speakers would play well, but I had no idea they would impress this much!

Sitting atop a pair of Sound Anchor stands, they looked stunning and regal, befitting Usher's 50th anniversary as an audio company—and the fact that only 100 pairs were released for production worldwide (only 10 pairs were allocated for the US market–which the US distributor quickly secured). However, it was as if they took the signature Usher sound, slightly warm, and lush, and blended it with the warmth and intimacy of Harbeths!

Comparing it to my reference Usher Audio ML-802 loudspeakers, they sounded warmer and more intimate (whereas my ML-802s were more neutral, open, and larger through the lower bass region).

One guest, who's a seasoned industry professional, was mesmerized and announced that the cohesiveness from top to mid-bass was spectacular. I would concur!

Unfortunately, with my docket of items in for review, I did not have enough time to grant them a formal evaluation, however, it is coming up very soon. In the meantime, consider me impressed!

The UA-50 is available in either dark walnut or white birch.

Review coming soon.

Larry Cox

Audio Hungary A75

Audio Hungary A75 is a tube integrated amplifier built to a very high quality. Four KT88s, matched with four 12AT7s and two 12AX7s produce 75-watts and a sound I loved from a device with a robust build quality. A sweet, full-range presentation with enough detail to be engaged with your entire music collection. I expect the build quality will let buyers enjoy it for a long time. Not a tone control and not a magnifying glass. An instrument of pleasure for those seeking that.

Audio by Van Alstine M750 Amplifier

Another amplifier I loved. Connected to my Pass XP12 preamplifier, I was surprised to enjoy the M750 in places I expected the Pass XA30.8 to beat it. This is the vehicle to deliver micro and macro dynamics in spades, but without telegraphing that's what it is doing. This is a neutral, but not neutered amplifier, that may be a sliver on the side of lean, or its exactly neutral but with the right recording could also sound rich. If I read portions of my comments on this amplifier before I actually heard it, I'd predict I would not like it, yet, I did. And, I liked it a lot. It sort of upended a lot of my prejudices and that was confounding. Comes with a 30 day trial period - I'm betting not many go back. Highly recommended.

Origin Live Gravity Record Weight

How to say this clearly and simply: place this on your records. It will damp some of the noise coming off your records, yielding a quieter, more relaxed presentation. Do not buy this thinking your awful sounding turntable will now be cured, think, I like what my table is doing, but maybe I can hear low level sounds a little bit easier. I liked it, you may, too!

This year I gave three awards, but I also liked Schiit's Rekker and the Saga + preamp even more. The quality of audio at reasonable prices is at a zenith; when you read fora with complaints about gear not sounding good, consider that the author's complaints are akin to his dominatrix not abusing him just the way he likes it. So much good stuff, a great time to get into this hobby.

Read more HERE

Jeff Day

The Writers' Choice Awards are always a special time of year in that I'm able to reflect back on the year and tell you about the crème de la crème audio components that I've had the pleasure of writing about for you here at Positive Feedback.

I absolutely adored the performance of the Mactone XX-440 line preamplifier and 65-watts per channel MH-120 stereo amplifier combination with my Tannoy Westminster Royal SE loudspeakers during their visit.

Mactone's hand-crafted, point-to-point wired, premium vacuum tube amplification designs are sure to impress, as they possess a beautifully natural tonality, dynamic prowess, and a liquid and refined presentation, that represents vacuum tube amplification at its finest.

Mactone XX-440 Line Preamplifier. $11,500

Mactone MH-120 Stereo Amplifier. $13,500

I suspect that 'love' at first listen will be a common response for many auditioning the Mactone XX-440 line preamplifier and MH-120 stereo amplifier combination—it certainly was mine—and I encourage you to stop by In Living Stereo to hear them for yourself.

Read more HERE

Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD Player. $30,850

More than any audio component that's ever visited my listening room, I've lusted after the Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x CD player. I am absolutely awed by its level of performance, and thrilled by the intensity of listening satisfaction it is capable of delivering from CDs.

The top-of-the-line Audio Note CD 5.1x Red Book CD player deeply impressed me in terms of its sound quality, musicality, and its extraordinary build quality. The CD 5.1x rewrites what kind of performance I thought was possible from CD players and the Red Book CD format.

The Audio Note (UK) CD 5.1x Red Book CD player has challenged my perceptions of what a digital audio reality sounds like. The CD 5.1x's refined analog-like presentation, superb musicality, and exemplary sound quality from CDs puts it in a performance category that can match or exceed the performance of even a top-notch turntable playing LPs. Truly extraordinary!

Read more HERE

Sophia Electric Aqua II 274B Rectifier. $250

The release of this new premium Sophia Electric Aqua II 274B was originally planned to coincide with Sophia Electric's 20 Year Anniversary in 2021, but production was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The new Aqua II 274B is impressive: a beautifully natural tonal balance, a huge sense of recorded acoustic, gorgeous tone color, a vivid sense of imaging presence, excellent dynamics, and increased clarity and resolution of nuance.

I am writing the feature review of the new Sophia Electric Aqua II 274B rectifier now, but until it is published you can read my first impressions of it HERE, and the feature review of the original Aqua 274B rectifier in Issue 115

Read more HERE

Michael Laurance

PS Audio Stellar Phono Stage. $3000

This year, the highlight for me became two phono preamps, each a decimal point apart. While seemingly at opposite ends of the spectrum, they both did their respective jobs exceedingly well.

First, the $3000 PS Audio Stellar showed itself as the do-it-all of phono stages, with two inputs, remote control, class A operation, and over 700 internal parts. Besides being one of the best sounding phono preamplifiers that I have ever had the privilege of auditioning, it is also a sleek and stylish piece that will compliment any high-end system.

Read more HERE

SOTA Pyxi Phono Stage. $300

Second, the SOTA Pyxi, at a mere $300, gives just about any phono stage a run for its money. While conversely simple compared to the Stellar, with only one input and some jumper switches, the Pyxi focuses on bang for the buck. Detailed, full, and deep, SOTA has delivered a true winner with this phono stage.

Read more HERE

Gary Lea

Von Gaylord System

Why I chose this group is simple. The amplifier, preamp, and speakers are simply glorious together. The system punches way above its weight class, and along with the Chinchilla cables it all provides a very satisfying system that is sure to meet, if not exceed the expectations of any entry to midfield aficionado.

Reasonable pricing that gives you so much more in value when compared to similarly priced items and the symbiosis of a system that was designed to be a system from the ground up provides that familial relationship that you simply don't get when mixing and matching components across lines.

The "Return of the Legend" speakers, for me, were the real eye opener. Diminutive box that provides an actual, measurable response range of 28Hz to 20kHz is hard to beat when downsizing. In a few more years this is a system that could become my main system.

As a final note, I bought the speakers and they are now my reference speakers. Enough said.

Read more HERE

Steve Lefkowicz

As a change of pace, for this year I am only giving out one Writer's Choice Award instead of the usual three. Not that I haven't heard more products, but I want to get the point across that this one product is something special. Though it falls into my general focus of "lower cost/higher value" equipment, it does so in a way that belies its presence as a real, honest to goodness, High End product. It should be viewed not as a great "budget" component (which it is) or an "entry level" device, though due to its reasonable price it very well could find it place in someone's first moderately priced system.

No, you have to look past the modest price of this device and see it for what it is, a truly superb device that plays way above its price point. And that product is…

Khozmo Acoustic Passive Preamplifier. $1249

More precisely in terms of my review sample the Khozmo Acoustic Stereo with Input Selector (RCA) with 64-step LADDER AMRG (remote) attenuator and the New Class D Active Stage for $1249. As a longtime fan of passive preamps and linestages, the Khozmo Passive I've had in for review is the most transparent and natural sounding preamp I've ever had in my system. It exhibits the clarity, neutrality and transparency one might expect from a passive unit, but goes far beyond any passive I've ever tried. It doesn't really sound like the best active preamps I've heard, rather sounding more free and less intrusive than those designs. It is a different sound, born of truly not adding anything to the signal, but also not taking anything away either. It is uncanny in its ability to both make things sound great while also sounding like it isn't even there.

Most of this excellence comes from the Khozmo 64-step ladder attenuator, which in the case of my review sample is a stereo, single-ended using AMRG resistors, a $389 upgrade over the base 48-step series attenuator. There are in fact seven variations to choose from. There are also fully balanced versions and shunt (instead of ladder) version too.

I often imagine what I would get for a system if I dropped my low-cost stance and just went all out to build a killer system, price be damned. I could see myself replacing all the equipment in my system, moving up to big and pricey models for everything, but keeping the Khozmo and building around it. It is that good. The full review is almost finished and should post very soon.

Read more HERE

Robert H. Levi

SAE Mk One Preamplifier. $16,000

The SAE Mk One Preamplifier was a stunning surprise. I had no idea an active solid-state preamp could be neutral and musical without any discernible or identifiable character. With the Cardas Beyond Power Cord or the AudioQuest Dragon Power Cord for AC, the SAE was the most perfectly transparent solid-state preamp I have ever auditioned at any price. Even at concert-level playback, the highs were always delicate and very slightly sweet. The mids were faithfully reproduced, and the bass was delightfully detailed and deep.

Boasting a ground-breaking 130dB signal-to-noise ratio, the resulting reproduction of depth, imaging, and soundstage width was beyond extraordinary. The definition, if you are a definition hound like me, was as good as it gets. Whatever the source, the innate character of the music was flawlessly passed along to the amplifiers. If there ever was a "straight wire with gain," the SAE is it. Made in California from parts sourced for optimum musical perfection, loaded with all the features an audiophile may need, and balanced/RCA connectors galore, you may access everything from a powerful remote. This is the preamp for those who want solid-state's carefree construction in an elegant case weighing less than 25 pounds! A remarkable value at $16,000 considering the state-of-the-art performance. The SAE Mk One Preamplifier is a commanding selection for my Writer's Choice Award.

Read more HERE

Zesto Audio Eros 500 Select Class A Monoblocks. $35,000

I have grown tired of expensive tube amplifiers designed by committees utilizing ancient circuits like class AB and triode that are full of warmth and color when the sources are not. Well, guess what?

The new Zesto Audio Eros 500 Select Class A Monoblocks are, in my judgment, the most advanced and powerful all-tube amplifiers with unique full-time class A operation and zero feedback on the market today. Someone tell me who else does this? With a circuit exclusively designed by the award-winning George Counnas, these monoblocks are audiophile heaven able to drive any speakers on the planet to their fullest potential. His third amplifier creation to date, the Eros is his finest. With only six output tubes per monoblock, the Eros 500 can achieve up to 250 watts RMS per channel. A selector on each chassis allows the user to try four different output tube types achieving sonic perfection through superb speaker matching. The amplifiers will never become obsolete due to the lack of a specific tube type availability.

Supplied with KT150 tubes, my favorite type in this amplifier, I was amazed at the intense musicality and liveliness of the amplifiers. My Marten Birds never sounded better, with clear sweet highs, fully fleshed-out mids, and powerful layered bass. Class A power is addictive as the rise time is instantaneous. The class A Eros perform like they are double their rated power, able to give the music a swagger and foundation few amps of any type can achieve. I had 600-watt solid-state Pass Amps at one time which brought none of the musical blood and power these 250-watt tube amps deliver. Plus, those delicate and sweet violin and flute notes are exquisitely portrayed exactly as you would want them.

If you have been waiting for a powerful all-tube amplifier that will do it all, it has arrived. From the hand of George Counnas, most likely the finest tube equipment designer for the audiophile in the world today are the mighty Eros 500 Select Class A Monoblocks. Made in the USA, they are $35,000 the pair, designed for the musical aficionado who wants the very best.

They easily deserve my Writer's Choice Award as, in my judgment, they are the best tube amps available.

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Unique Innovation Technology Co. (UIT) Perfect Music Booster (PMB) Series. PMB USB cable $780 one meter, PMB Stick $499

Uitaudio's Mitch Ko surprised me with an email to alert me that his excellent passive USB cable has gone active. Plus, he has added a new creation, the UIT Perfect Music Booster Stick that improves any audio system. I have used his previous USB cable exclusively and frankly wondered why no one has utilized USB's ability to carry an active signal with a 5-volt path. Well folks, UITaudio becomes the first cable manufacturer (located in California) to produce an active self-powered USB cable that not only works well but improves on every USB cable I have auditioned to date. The Stick, as I call it, increases the overall definition in every system I tried it in, lowering the noise level, and improving musicality overall.

I have heard many, many audiophile inventions from the Tice Clock to giant grounding systems, but they did not consistently improve different systems and they affected music frequencies in different ways. Some pumped the bass. Others bloat the midband. Some erase the highs and screw-up the imaging. Well get ready for the real deal. The UITaudio Active USB Cable and the Stick really work! I dare you to buy the new UIT USB cable and compare it to your megabuck USB wire. I bet dollars to donuts you will NOT return it! I cannot find any USB cables upwards of $3500 to beat this $780 cable. It just improves everything streaming.

Now for the Stick; I have no idea what it does but you can read about it on the UITaudio.com site. It plugs into your AC power distributor and improves definition at all frequencies immediately. Buy it with no risk but even the most picky, deep pocketed, high-end audiophiles I know never took it out of their systems once they heard the Stick. I have it on both my systems and enjoy the amazing improvements on every source including phono. I therefore quite happily give my Writer's Choice Award to the brilliant Mitch Ko and Unique Innovation Technology Co. UIT Perfect Music Booster Series.

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Hana Umami Blue Moving-Coil Cartridge $2500

The newest addition to the Hana Umami line-up of excellent cartridges, the Blue is a medium low output MC design with many of the hand built features of the more expensive Red. I have not heard the Red and compared the Blue in a Helius Omega Arm to my best reference cartridges. The Red held its own and more at its friendly $2500 price.

I am very impressed by this high value design with its trickle down technology and gorgeous performance. It tracks anything and produces gorgeous full-bodied sound. The Blue, my favorite color by the way, is fully integrated from top to bottom with prodigious dynamic range. Yielding some image texture and color to my $12,000 Grado Epoch, it is musically satisfying and offers plenty of definition to please even jaded audiophiles. I played it for my friends and they could not believe this cartridge performs at this high level for the price. The Blue very well may be the sweetheart of the Hana line. The Hana Umami Blue clearly earns my Reviewers Choice Award for a superb phono cartridge design at such an attractive price!

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Marshall Nack

Da Vinci Power Cable & Interconnect from Crystal Cable. Power Cable $15,000/1.5m, XLR Interconnect $23,900/1m pair

Like all members of Crystal Cable's ART Series, the Da Vinci Power Cable and XLR Interconnect share a strong cosmetic resemblance. This is indicative of a consistent aesthetic extending beyond the cosmetics to the design and selection of internal parts as well. Most significantly, every member of the ART Series uses the latest generation of their pure silver conductor material, called infinite Crystal Silver. That imparts a degree of commonality to the sound, but each type of cable reveals its own expertise.

The Da Vinci Power Cable is excellent at preserving time domain relationships. Gremlins which can compromise fidelity lurk everywhere in an audio system, from multi-driver loudspeakers with coherency issues, to jitter in the digital sphere, to cables with unsynchronized timing of frequencies. The Da Vinci Power Cables get those transients lined up accurately and convey PRaT like nobody's business.

The Da Vinci XLR Interconnect's specialty is smoothly unfolding dynamics plus unforced flow that conjures the continuousness of analog. Their multi-hued timbres are realistically beautiful without resorting to any form of euphony, a combination all too rare in reproduced sound.

For the enthusiast with a top-level rig in pursuit of the delirious state of mind we call suspension of disbelief, where the auditory illusion attains increasing credibility, the Da Vinci's push back awareness of the electronic/mechanical origin of the sound. They bring you closer to the source and, with well-recorded material, closer to the live experience. Yes, the MSRP of these top-of-the-line Crystal Cable wires is daunting, but very few cables offer transport of that kind. The Da Vinci's are very special.

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Gregory Petan

PS Audio FR-20 Loudspeakers. $18,999

PS Audio, long held in very high regard for their power conditioners and electronics, have taken a flier into the speaker arena.

The $18,999 FR-20 are terrific. They are engaging, smooth, image very well, and go very low with authority. And they look really cool to boot. Throw on any type of music and the FR-20 serves up the entertainment never being caught out by any type of music. They are slightly on the darker side so system matching is always a good idea. And frankly, this renders the upper mid/lower treble issues often encountered in systems moot.

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Estelon Aura $19,900

Estelon has been very savvy since their appearance on the scene in 2010. From right out of the gate they seemingly have not made one misstep on the road to being regarded as one of THE major high end players.

The Aura($19,900) is the apple that has fallen very near the Estelon tree. The larger models well recognized clarity, vibrancy and ease are all there. You are not suffering if you cannot afford the XB diamond. The Aura are high-end, no apologies necessary. A phenomenally open and dynamic upper mid and lower treble never adds extraneous emphasis that leads to fatigue. Unless upstream components or poor recordings force them to. Serve them what they deserve and you will get a nice tight bottom end into the upper 30Hrtz range and a tremendously open mid-band and treble. Then you have the supple satin white marble composite curvature that will make planting your system in the living room a net gain. Review to come.

Krell K-300p phono stage. $7000

Krell has been busy populating their range with some really brilliant and convincing designs. It's no secret I've been a fan for decades but it's the XD circuit that has made me set up and re commit to the brand. First the K-300i flirted with me and ended up in my in my system, now it's the K-300p ($7000) that has seduced my audiophile sensibilities. The K-300p is Noise free, Warm yet open, fast and smooth, Detailed and without any dissection of the entire frequency range resulting in a continuous weave of the musical

Fabric as great analog can do. I've been listening to the k300p for three months and I fail to find a single flaw. You May find a different sound, but a better sound will be costly. Very costly. It's staying in my system right next to 300i integrated. Review to come.

WAY Cables

Every so often I will throw a dart at the cable dart board and see what's in store. So it was with WAY Cables from Serbia

I quickly found out Miroslav Popovic is an artist in craft and at heart. His PoetryX Series (PoetryX XLR analog interconnects 1 meter $8700, EndlessX speaker wire 2 meters $14,800, CORE power cable 1.5 meter $8900) are the culmination of Miroslav's 10 years in business. If there are parts of the system I feel pretty confident in preaching about are cables. And the WAY Cables are some of the best I've heard. Smooth and creamy ( in my system) with a very expressive mid band and treble casts the music in sublime beauty. Recordings character differed greatly suggesting great neutrality. Review to come.

Dean Waters

RSX Tech Benchmark Series Cables

The RSX Benchmark series of power and transport cables utilize a unique Teflon insulator instead of the traditional PVC material often used. This results in a dielectric that holds very little charge and provides a fast dump-rate for any charges that are induced into the cable medium. The result is a more pure delivery of signal from one end of the cable to the other. The cable itself does not 'color' the signal with additional distortion caused by the repeated charging and discharging of EMF and RFI generated within the cable insulation itself. These cables are priced at a fraction of the cost of higher-end audiophile-grade cables making them an excellent value. These cables perform much higher than their price point. For this level of performance, these cables are an outright bargain.

Price varies by product and length

Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC. $13,500

The Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC is perhaps one of the cleanest DACs available. It features unmatched clarity and low noise coupled with an impressive array of features and capabilities. All inbound signals are upsampled to 3.125MHz @ 32 bits and then converted to PWM (DSD) bit-stream. The unit features balanced XLR inputs as well as S/PDIF (coax & optical), Bluetooth with lossless codecs, USB with native quad-DSD support and is Roon ready. It features both balanced XLR 4-pin and unbalanced headphone jacks. The unit can be configured wirelessly with the Mola Mola Remote app.

A standout feature is the ability to swap polarity from either or both channels on the fly from the remote app. As Clark Johnsen explains in The Wood Effect, a significant portion of the recordings we listen to suffer from reversed polarity from what was being recorded. With the Mola Mola Tambaqui the listener can fix polarity issues from the seated listening position without needing to re-route and re-connect speaker cables.

Vivid Audio Kaya Loudspeakers

The Kaya series floor-standing loudspeakers bring about a sense of clarity and precision that can only be described as breathtaking.

I've had a chance to audition both the Kaya 45 and the Kaya 90. The cabinets are gorgeous and would be a highlight in any listening room. The shape and size of the cabinets serve to guide and control the resonances and frequencies of the music being played. These cabinets have no parallel surfaces and no corners. There is no build-up of cabinet resonant frequencies that color the overall sound. Rather the frequencies inside the cabinets are folded back onto each other.

The mid and high drivers are suspended in silicone O-rings which decouple the drives from the cabinet, thus reducing further any resonances that would be generated by the interaction of the driver being physically attached to the cabinet. The bass drivers are mounted back-to-back on the sides of the cabinets and the magnets within the drivers are coupled together to cancel out vibrations that would otherwise be transmitted to the cabinet. All-in-all the result is like few others can produce.

Highly recommended!

Greg Weaver

Hana Umami Red Moving Coil Phono Cartridge. $3950

I would suggest that it is because this superb MC cartridge is manufactured by the same artisans and craftsmen of Excel Sound in Yokohama, Japan, and employs an Orbray cantilever assembly, as are the exceptional world-class Etsuro•Umami products, which contributes directly to its overachieving qualities.

Its bass performance is exceptionally well-extended and pitch-defined, capable of exposing remarkably detailed texture and delivering a degree of resolution that is both very compelling and utterly unexpected at this price. The midrange bandwidth is practically blustering with life, offering fertile detail and saturated with authentic textures, harmonic bloom, and a purity of tone that is disarming. Its remarkable resolution extends well into the upper registers, which are extremely well extended and capable of revealing delicate detail, conferring an articulate and lively sense of shimmer and air.

Globally speaking, this is a simply superb cartridge, one that consistently performs well above other entrants in its price class. While it may lean a tad to the warmer, smoother side of absolute neutrality, its broadband resolution, nuanced microdynamic expressiveness, macrodynamic control and scaling, inspiring neutrality of timbre, and overall octave-to-octave balance make it not only an exceptional value at its asking price of $3950, but render it a best buy in today's moving coil cartridge universe.

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