May - June 2016
Audio Discourse
John Marks Welcomes You to The Tannhauser Gate...and I Welcome...
I have had a long acquaintance and friendship-at-a-distance with John Marks of John Marks Records, and, until recently, a contributor to Stereophile....
The Neoteric Listener - The Ayon Scorpio Integrated and CD-07s...
The Ayon Audio Scorpio is a heavy, Class A integrated amplifier made of high grade aluminum and powered by gleaming KT88 and 12AU7 tubes. One look and...
Journeys in Audio Subjectivism - Part Five
(Not) Another $18,000 Challenge, or: "Whoa! This system costs how much?!" "I like Downbeat, you know?" This was the first sentence Graeme Humfrey...
Impressions: The Stillpoints ESS Reference Rack System
"Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll touse you Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose." William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure The...
Impressions: AXPONA 2016 and my Audio Oasis! Awards, Part 2
In part two, I cover the balance of my Audio Oasis! Awards for AXPONA 2016. As I said in part one, these notes are presented in no particular order,...
Jenna & Alex: Live Concert Broadcast in DSD
Jenna Mammina and Alex de Grassi (Photo: David Pappas) On April 21st, a bit of music history was made as singer Jenna Mammina and guitarist Alex de...
New Sony Receiver with 5.1 Multichannel DSD 5.6 MHz Playback
Sony STR-DN1070 AV Receiver with 5.1 Multichannel DSD 5.6 MHz Playback Sony Electronics has expanded their DSD series of High Resolution Audio products...
Impressions: AXPONA 2016 and my Audio Oasis! Awards, Part 1
In which our hero meditates… [Sketch by Robinson, c. 1989, during a particularly boring faculty meeting…] So…another audio show in the books, and...
Audio Ramblings - The PS Audio BHK Signature 250 Stereo Power...
So back on track here… got the Aurender review (a truly wonderful product—read that HERE) done and so on to another product that I loved so much, I...
Audio Ramblings - The Aurender N100H Music Streamer and More
I have become quite lazy and it is all to blame on the technology that we use today to get our music out into the room. It all started with CDs...
High End Audio in the Age of Uncertainty
Plus a Few Album Recommendations Component Droughts, the Grumblings of Privileged Men, and Happy Endings For longer than I care to remember, I don't...
Nativ Touchscreen Music System Tops Fund Raising Goal
Nativ Sound, an audio start-up based in Hong Kong working on a family of elegant touchscreen music components, has announced that they have passed...
The MOON Neo 280D and the MiND of Simaudio
"Shine on you crazy diamond" - by Pink Floyd First of all, I should say that I like the Simaudio MOON Neo 280D ($2200) very much and that, with the...
Impressions: A Note from an Editor's Backside
Things can pile up. From time to time, especially when I get too busy, miscellaneous projects and notes accumulate. They don't warrant a major article,...
Audio Ramblings - The Daedalus Audio DiD, iFi USB and DC...
So in my last Audio Ramblings, I wrote… "Not sure how this came about, but man do I have a lot of stuff here to review… the PS Audio BHK250...
Hardware Reviews
Dynamic Design’s Neutron SW16 Digital Power Cord
An importer/distributor I know has taken to calling me "the stalwart reviewer." At first we both laughed, although I wasn't sure what he meant. On...
Audio Tekne TEA-2000 Phonostage
It happened only once before that High Fidelity tested the same product twice. It was the Nagra's PL-P preamplifier, that was firstly reviewed in our...
Gorgon Interconnect Cable from Stage III Concepts
"That is a…a…a power cord?" It's a guilty pleasure witnessing visitors' disbelief when I show them a Stage III Concepts cable. Even seasoned...
iFi iDAC2 and iUSB3
The impact of computers as a source for high quality musical enjoyment cannot be underestimated. Computers allow listeners to store and stream massive...
Audio Sensibility Cables: Musings on Price and Prejudice
"I can cable an entire audiophile system for $1000" This was back in May of last year, and I was on the phone with Steven Huang of Audio Sensibility...
LampizatOr Euforia
Apparently, I left a few readers in the lurch by closing my LampizatOr Euforia review saying I'd discovered a difference making change and that I'd...
Audioengine P4
My girlfriend had surprised me with the Audioengine P4 as a birthday present. I've had them for a couple of years now, and I have to say, it's one of...
Marigo Labs Iridium v1.0 Power Cable
I was introduced to various Marigo Labs wire products back in the early 1990s. Ron Hedrich, owner and chief designer, was just minutes away in the...
ZeroUno DAC Review – Part 2
Introduction to Part Two Having described the sound of the ZeroUno in the foreground in the first part of this review, I will in this second part of my...
The Mytek Manhattan DAC
Gee, what happened to the time? Yeah, that construct or concept that continually moves forward. Not only forward in the sense of progress (for some for...
ZeroUno DAC Review – Part 1
In early February I picked up a large wooden box in the office of HiFi Statement. With the active support of Dirk Sommer, we both lifted the crate into...
Lumen White Mystere Reference Turntable
I had hoped that testing the Verity Sarastro IIS would be fun rather than hard work, but I would never have expected this premium speaker to also...
The Mytek Brooklyn DSD DAC
About four years ago, the Mytek 192-DSD-DAC impressed me with its sound in a way that caused me to abstain from purchasing expensive D/A converters for...
Audio Consulting Silver Rock Toroidal Phono Amplifier
There are times when High End audio puts me in mind of the ancient Greek myth of Sisyphus. Condemned to an eternity of boulder rolling, he slowly...
From the Kipnis Studios (KSS): Waterfall Audio – Glass...
Common Beliefs "GLASS Speakers? Oh, they MUST sound bright and edgy!" "Anyone using GLASS to make a speaker has to be using it only as a gimmick." "I...
Backert Labs Rhumba 1.1 Linestage
I reviewed the first product from Delaware-based Backert Labs, the Rhythm 1.1 Linestage, over a year ago in Issue 76 (HERE). I thought designer and...
Acoustical Systems Aquilar Tonearm
I haven't introduced new tonearms to you for many years, which was due to the fact that—among the rest—really new solutions are extremely rare....
Interviews
Seong-Jin Ho - The Man and His Music
The winner of the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition The 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition which took place...
Music Reviews
Notes of an Amateur: Tchaikovsky, David Matthews, Ben Johnston,...
Tchaikovsky, Symphonies 1, 2, and 5. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Vasily Petrenko. Onyx 4150 (2 CD's) Vasily Petrenko found the poetry in...
Todd Hunter Trio – Eat, Drink, Play
Like most audiophiles who are into jazz, I tend to reach way back into history for my sonic fixes. I'm talking late '50s and early '60s, of course, and...
Foundations of Burden by Pallbearer
When listening to this album, I found it difficult to do so with a strict, examining state of mind. I wanted to capture all of the technicalities and...
The 3.5.7 Ensemble’s Amongst the Smokestacks and Steeples
One of the advantages of writing about LPs and turntables for the last 18 years is that sometimes records just show up in my mailbox without warning or...
Music from Prokofiev, Sylvia, Gabrieli, and More!
Prokofiev, Scythian Suite & Symphony No. 3. Orchestra: Sao Paulo Symphony. Conductor: Marin Alsop. Recording: Naxos NBD0047 There certainly are...
Notes of an Amateur: Ibragimova’s Mozart x 2; Return of Eighth...
Mozart, Sonatas for Violin and Piano, Alina Ibragimova, violin. Cédric Tiberghien, piano. 2 CD's. Hyperion CDA 68091. Most of us know when we're...
New Old Stock - Articles from Our Days in Print
Positively dB’s Feedback
This article, by Doug Blackburn, originally ran when Positive Feedback was in print - Vol. 6, No. 4, 1997. There is so much stuff going on here lately...
Our Friends at HIFI Statement
HIGH END 2016: Messerundgang mit Helmut Baumgartner
Eine neue High-End-Disziplin: Marathonlauf mit Kamera. Auf den letzten High-End-Messen hat unser Fotograf diese Sportart erfolgreich etabliert. . . . Read More »
ZeroUno DAC – Teil 2
Während im ersten Teil der Klang des ZeroUno im Vordergrund stand, werde ich mich im 2. Teil meines Berichts mit der Technik des ZeroUno.... . . Read More »
ZeroUno DAC – Teil 1
Anfang Februar verlud ich in den Redaktionsräumen von Hifistatement mit tatkräftiger Unterstützung von Dirk Sommer und einer Sackkarre eine riesige.... . . Read More »
Our Friends at High Fidelity
Clones Audio 25iR Integrated Amplifier
Funjoe, the owner of CLONES audio, left his well paid job of a graphic designer to take on his life's true passion—audio. He is not the first as...
Audio Alto DMI 3H Integrated Amplifier
I'll elaborate on that later but let me start with information that products by Slovenian company Audio Alto are custom made—to be exact they are...
High End Exhibition 2016 - Munich, Germany
The original plan was completely different: the Old Pinacotheca (German: Alte Pinakothek - collections of paintings from the 14th to the 18th century),...
Sikora Reference Turntable
Lublin is a city in the south-east part of Poland and the capital of Lublin Voivodeship (province). The name Lublin, exactly the same as today which...
Pylon Audio Sapphire 23 Loudspeakers
Considering the present times and other Pylon Audio products, 23 loudspeakers from the Sapphire series have untypical proportions. If they had been...
Show Reports
Behind the Booths & Back Vol.2 - T.H.E. Show Newport 2016
"There's always somethin'..." Howard Mercer I don't mean to bite off my friend and co-PF scribe Andy Schaubs' style by leading with a quote for this...
Munich 2016, Part 2: “Affordable” Standout Rooms
Now that I have highlighted the systems that for me were the top of the show, I will now turn attention briefly to a few systems that were still...
Report from AXPONA 2016
The 2016 edition of AXPONA (also known as Audio Expo North America) was held at the Westin O'Hare hotel in Rosemont, IL just a short distance away from...
A Munich 2016 Show Report Part 1: My Top 5 Systems at the...
As usual for the Munich show, the numbers of rooms that I can call truly excellent were quite limited. Now, one can debate as to whether this was due...
Images of the High End Exhibition 2016 - Part 3
Tape cassettes recorded directly from an analog master tape, the so-called "Master Compact Cassette". And the box! The Hemiola Records company...
Images of the High End Exhibition 2016 - Part 2
The Italians from Pathos have a sense of style—in the photo there is the new INPOL Heritage integrated amplifier, which resembles the INPOL topology...
Images of the High End Exhibition 2016 - Part 1
Hideaki Nishikawa-san, the TechDAS constructor, is signing a printout with the May High Fidelity cover. "Japanese style? – Sure, with pleasure…"...
AXPONA 2016: Bodies, Motion, Sound
Ever since the annual AXPONA/Chicago high-end show relocated in 2014 to the jazzy Westin O'Hare, located just down the street from the show's former...
Axpona 2016 – Into The Mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry Smell the sea and feel the sky Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic And when that foghorn blows I will be coming...
