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My first exposure to the $280,000-a-pair Børresen M3 loudspeakers came last April at AXPONA 2023 in Schaumburg, Illinois. Hearing them there, driven by the flagship Aavik C-880 linestage and P-880 amplifier, $70,000 each, and a full loom of Ansuz flagship cabling left me more than merely impressed. They presented with an infectious degree of quickness,... Read More »

Craft Recordings is offering another exciting line-up of limited-edition LPs for the upcoming November 24th Black Friday celebration of Record Store Day (RSD). Craft's offering of rarities and specialty releases are just a handful among literally hundreds of cool records that will be available online and at your favorite independent record store. For Black Friday,... Read More »

The Pass Labs HPA-1 Headphone Amplifier seen here is accompanied by the iconic Artemide Tizio Desk Lamp For many—especially those in their teens through their 20s—headphones are the preferred mode of listening to music, and when it comes to a quality sound experience, they offer them their biggest bang for their buck.  "I never sold... Read More »

Craft Recordings continues their impressive Original Jazz Classics reboot with a brilliant pair of live album reissues, featuring the Dave Brubeck Quartet's Jazz At Oberlin (1953, Fantasy Records) and the Bill Evans Trio's Sunday At The Village Vanguard (1961, Riverside Records). Dave Brubeck's Jazz At Oberlin showcases an earlier incarnation of the group that would... Read More »

Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition, Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra. HDTT 1957 2023 (DSD256, DXD "Redux") HERE Just superb - you owe it to yourself to get this! This recording from December 7, 1957, in Orchestra Hall, Chicago, is a world treasure. It is among the earliest stereo recordings released on LP (1958) and it... Read More »

Das habe ich jetzt davon: Als ich das mit seiner Ausgewogenheit und tonalen Stimmigkeit faszinierende Palo Santos teste, kam mir der elegante Transrotor-Arm aufgrund seiner effektiven Masse sehr gelegen. Die Klangbeschreibungen der Kombination war folglich vor gut zwei Wochen im Sumiko-Artikel lesen. Da wird mir hier wohl schnell der Stoff ausgehen.

12 Uhr Mittags. Das ist der gesetzte Beginn für den ersten Tag der Audio Video Show Warschau. Den Ausstellern gibt dies etwas mehr Vorbereitungszeit, aber auch ich bin froh, nach der späten Anreise am Donnerstag, vor dem Showdown etwas länger ausschlafen zu können. Im Gegenzug nimmt der Messetag den Rest des Tages bis 20 Uhr in Anspruch.

Nachdem mich im letzten Jahr reine Neugier auf die Audio Video Show Warschau gelockt hat, gehört die Messe dieses Jahr für mich bereits fest in meinen HiFi-Jahreskalender. Als Dirk Sommer mich fragte, ob ich wieder die Berichterstattung für Hifistatement übernehmen möchte, musste ich dementsprechend nicht lange überlegen.

I'm far from being an expert on Hawaiian music, but I'm crazy about it. LPs, both stereo and mono, of Hawaiian music have provided me with decades of pleasure. I also love the way  vintage Hawaiian records sound, because they often sound amazing. I currently own 55 Hawaiian LPs, and I used to have more.... Read More »

Premier Divine Acoustics is a Polish specialized company, founded in 2003 by Piotr Galkowski. It’s core business are loudspeakers, but the lineup also includes an anti-vibration platform, anti-vibration feet and loudspeaker cables. Divine Acoustics products are in-house developments, significantly different from other products of those kinds available on the market. We are Premier testing its... Read More »

Bartók Concertos. Bartók Piano Concertos 1-3, Pascal Rogé, piano; London Symphony/Walter Weller. Violin Concerto 1, Kyung-Wha Chung, violin; Chicago Symphony/Sir Georg Solti. Violin Concerto 2, Iona Brown, violin; Philharmonia Orchestra/Simon Rattle. Two Portraits, Chantal Juillet, violin; Montreal Symphony/Charles Dutoit. Decca Eloquence 480 2320 (2 CDs).  TT: 79.30, 78.13. Downloads: Amazon.com (all except Violin Concerto 2) This compact collection, fitting Bartók's major concerti onto... Read More »

Toronto (pronounced: Tir-ran-Nah) is a Native Canadian word for "place of high taxation." It was also the city where TAF 2023 (the Toronto Audio Fest) was held at the Westin Toronto Airport Hotel from Friday 20 October to Sunday 22 October 2023. The Westin is located right next door to Hell…er, ehm…the Lester B. Pearson... Read More »

Rhino Entertainment has just released Devo: 50 Years of De-Evolution (1973-2023), a box set that celebrates the legacy of the iconic band and their 50th anniversary as performers. Devo's genre-bending style of rock and roll bounded across a half-century of art punk, new wave, post-punk, and synth pop, and their nine studio albums never failed... Read More »

Van Morrison His Band And The Street Choir (Rhino High Fidelity Series) Released in 1970 on the Warner Bros. label, Van Morrison His Band And The Street Choir was recorded at the infamous A&R Studios in New York City earlier that year. As an interesting aside, the original title for this album was Virgo's Fool,... Read More »

The Stellar Phono Preamplifier is now the third piece from PS Audio's Stellar line that has graced my listening room. Somehow, while it was exceptionally difficult, I mustered the gumption to return those first two amazing pieces back to PS Audio after the earlier reviews. However, this may be the phono stage that I cannot... Read More »

It's been a tad over 15 years since The Tape Project set the audiophile world atwitter with the release of their first, soon to be followed by 29 more, real time duped, high speed, 15-ips tapes. And it was love at first listen for oh-so many of us! In that intervening time, the reel-to-reel tape... Read More »

Impex Records is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Jennifer Warnes' 1992 album The Hunter with a limited edition, individually numbered LP pressed on crystal clear, HQ-180 green vinyl. With compact discs ruling the marketplace at the time of its release, Warnes' Grammy-nominated follow-up to her classic Famous Blue Raincoat was never made available as a... Read More »

If you missed it, the other day I posted a review of the PS Audio DirectStream DAC MK2 (HERE) that was prefaced by the idea that is it ever "As good as it can get?" Or something like that. Simply, one does whatever and sits back thinking that it is as good as it gets…... Read More »

Power to Drive Virtually Any Loudspeaker with Incredible Performance at a Ridiculously Low Price   I have a fairly constant presence on social media, particularly Facebook, and I belong to a number of audio-related groups there. So when I saw a post in one of them announcing the new Vera-Fi Audio Vera-Link Bluetooth Wireless Stereo... Read More »