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Prologue I used Pass Labs' XP-10 as a reference preamplifier for most of 2017. I had no problem distinguishing it from my previous reference, a circa 1995 YBA Alpha 1 linestage. The XP-10 was more relaxed in the midrange and had every bit as much detail while forming more realistic renderings of bass depth and register... Read More »

Image courtesy of Accustic Arts A bloody busy year so far, with much more to go. One of the projects that I took on very early in 2018...with some hesitation, I confess, due to the workload that was already building...was an offer to hear the Accustic Arts Tube Preamp II Mk2 and Mono II Monoblock... Read More »

Where are the Gatekeepers? Even as audio-related content has proliferated on the web, I tend to spend my browsing time elsewhere. The three reasons are: the slippage in quality, the ubiquitous upbeat bias, and the sheer redundancy. Click on the latest hardware article and it won't take long to realize you've already read it—just replace... Read More »

About five years ago, I'd just gotten an HRT Streamer HD DAC with balanced outputs, and had also just upgraded my system amps to a pair of Emotiva XPA-1Ls. The Emotivas were (and still are!!) capable of fully-differential, balanced Class A operation, and I was itching for a balanced preamplifier to help me enter what... Read More »

$42,790 worth of preamp sound for $4695? Part Un – Genesis: "Horn-type speakers almost ruined my hearing," said Audible Illusions' head honcho, Arthur Ferris, of his bygone love affair with JBLs and Altecs. "One night I was playing a record of Frederick Fennell's Band Marches," said Ferris. "On one of the cuts there was a... Read More »

Thöress - A Tribute to Professional Equipment from the Golden Age of Electronic Tubes Among the audio equipment we awarded during Audio Show 2012 with the Best Sound there was a small, unusually looking phonostage from the German company Thöress. I met its owner, Mr. Reinhard Thöress, in May of the same year at the High... Read More »

From the inventor of the world's first practical equipment and turntable isolation devices, the first practical and most utilized ribbon super tweeter, the most effective turntable/tonearm design with both isolation and active tonearm damping, and probably other "firsts" I am unaware of, comes the first totally passive audiophile preamp (no power cord, no tubes, no... Read More »

The Apartment Life For those curious about the name I've chosen for my new Positive Feedback column, the New Apartment Lounge, here's the story. Last spring, I moved into a new apartment, a bigger space than my former digs, but still on the small side. Shortly thereafter, I found a CD I had not listened... Read More »

Having known the legendary John Curl's work since he did the JC2 Preamplifier for Levinson in 1972, a ground-breaking design for solid-state, and every bit as competitive as the tubed ARC SP-3a-1 of the era, I fearlessly replaced my current mega phono gear, both tube and solid-state, with the Parasound Halo JC 3 Jr. Phono Preamplifier, costing just... Read More »

Gold Note might not be familiar to us here in the States as they are a relatively new company from Italy that is rapidly filling its offerings with anything and everything a music loving audiophile could imagine; from amplifiers, preamplifiers, speakers, turntables, servers and DACs, they have it all. And all made with that Italian... Read More »

Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson of Virginia-based conrad-johnson feel that typical integrated amplifiers are compromised in performance compared to high-end separates. Audio manufacturers, they posit, build integrated amplifiers to meet a price point, sacrificing parts quality and sonics along the way. The CA150 Control Amplifier represents conrad-johnson's answer to the ubiquitous integrated amplifier. Note the subtle distinction in terminology—conrad-johnson refers to the CA150... Read More »

Reviewing Reviewing has been a boon to me. I enjoy audio and music more than I ever have because of it. While my time for listening is pinched by my life outside of audio, I enjoy a greater variety of music than ever. I've discovered the wonder underneath the horror of the distant shore of... Read More »

This article, by Carol Clark, Victor Chavira, and Larry Cox, originally ran when audioMusings was in print - Issue 3, 1998 I met Gilbert Yeung, president and founder of Blue Circle Audio, at the Hi Fi '97 show in San Francisco. When I ran into him again at CES this year, he agreed to send us some products... Read More »

I was on the phone with Vladimir Lamm discussing delivery of his LL1.1 Signature Preamp when somehow we got onto the subject of foreign accents. MN: "I am intrigued by foreign languages. I like sounds. My office is like the United Nations, so I get the chance to be an equal-opportunity abuser." VL: "That is... Read More »

The little preamplifier that could? KR Audio is the now relatively well known Czech amplifier brand that made its name on very big, and big sounding, tubes and tube amplifiers. Who, in the audiophile world, doesn't know the fearsome name of the Kronzilla, with its awe-inspiring KR T1610 output tubes. While these are no longer... Read More »

To go reel-to-reel tape or high resolution digital? That was the question facing this basically all analog person some ten years ago. No, there wasn't a lot of tape software available at the time but the same held true for high-rez digital too. Not to mention that digital playback technology was (still is?) changing from... Read More »

Back in the olden days, I owned an Ortofon MC30 Cartridge. It had output to low for my ARC SP3 to handle so I went looking for a step up transformer. I acquired the cool looking and flexible Ortofon T30 that did quite well. At $400 it was expensive as gear in 1977 goes, but... Read More »

Sometimes you write reviews. Sometimes you write raves. And sometimes you write love songs… Introduction "Sherman, set the Way-Back Machine to THE Show Newport Beach Michael Vamos. I met him a few years ago at a THE Show at Newport Beach. He had just started his high-end audio distribution biz, Audio Skies (http://www.audioskies.com), at around... Read More »

The Audia Flight Strumento n°1 mk2 Preamp Many audiophiles believe that they can get along without any preamplifier in these digital times. However, I do not share this point of view: To me a preamplifier is an indispensable partner that, by the way, also should have sufficient balanced inputs. Yet, the Audia Flight does not... Read More »