Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems Progression S350 Stereo Power Amplifier Review $27,250 Review
May 29, 2026 § Leave a comment
I also must stress that most of the time when listening to this album, I was luxuriating in the sensation of being enveloped by the music on Led Zeppelin II, a recording that I must have heard a thousand times previous to that day. Despite this, before the D’Agostino S350 was in my system, I don’t remember ever having the experience of whipping my head around because I thought I heard something entering my listening room from its far corner. Of course, I’d quickly realize this was a tambourine or other percussion instrument entering the perimeter of the huge soundstage.
The frequency extremes the Dan D’Agostino Master Audio Systems S350 reproduced were extraordinary; never before have I heard a treble sound so extended yet so natural sounding. I’ve had experience with tube amps that had a seductive treble, one that sounded as if it possessed the gestalt of the real thing. Still, the S350 came close to doing this, but at the same time, no amplifier I’ve previously auditioned gave me the impression that I was hearing as close to what was exactly on the signal feeding it. Transparency is the name of the game, and the D’Agostino Progression S350 sound quality possessed what I would call, without exaggerating, the epitome of transparency.
After the D’Agostino S350 was in my system for a while, I never became accustomed to its supernatural sound. Never before have I had a component in my system that made each musical selections, regardless of how many times I’ve heard it before, sound as if I’ve never really heard it. I could use this amplifier to demonstrate every audiophile characteristic that one would desire, frequency extension, transient response, micro and macro dynamics, soundstage, imaging, etc.
Ella Fitzgerald – Sings The Rodgers and Hart Song Book—Verve (Acoustic Sounds Series) vinyl reissue
May 29, 2026 § Leave a comment
And when she phrases masterpieces like “Have You Met Miss Jones?”, “The Lady Is a Tramp”, “Spring Is Here”, “It Never Entered My Mind”, “My Romance”, and my personal favourite, “I Could Write a Book”, it’s breathtakingly musical. Check the track listing for your own favourites.
Buddy Bregman did the arrangements, and they fit the songs perfectly. They’re not Riddle-style swingers, but they match Ella’s style and sentiment beautifully. The personnel reads like a who’s who of L.A. studio royalty, including Harry “Sweets” Edison, Maynard Ferguson, and Pete Candoli on trumpets; Benny Carter and Ben Webster on saxes; and a rhythm section featuring Herb Ellis (guitar), Ray Brown (bass), and Alvin Stoller (drums), plus a full string section.
Wilson Benesch Greenwich Turntable
May 28, 2026 § Leave a comment
https://www.analogplanet.com/content/wilson-benesch-greenwich-turntable
As for the OMEGA Direct Drive motor, it was developed specifically for the GMT platform by way of a collaborative research programme involving Wilson Benesch engineers and academic partners from Sheffield Hallam University. The OMEGA employs a slot-less synchronous motor with a circumjacent radial force architecture, said to eliminate cogging and reduce torque ripple to “extremely” low levels. Its design is intended to deliver “smooth, stable” platter rotation without the noise and vibration associated with conventional belt, idler, or traditional direct-drive systems.
The 15in (diameter) motor incorporates 21 precision-wound coils and 14 NdFeB magnets, arranged to create a uniform magnetic field that governs rotor synchronicity without requiring complex speed compensation. A magnetic counterforce system reduces the effective dynamic mass acting on the Angstrom bearing. This is said to ensure Hertzian contact forces will remain “within safe limits” while allowing efficient energy transfer from the motor to the platter and surrounding structure.
Hagerman Audio Cornet MM Vacuum Tube Phono Stage Review
May 28, 2026 § Leave a comment
The Piccolo Zero head-amp is designed to increase gain from a low output moving coil cartridge and feed its output signal into a phono stage that is intended to be paired with a cartridge that has an output level in the range of 3 to 5 mV, which is what you have with a typical moving magnet cartridge. This is the type of cartridge the Cornet MM is designed for, so to use a low output moving coil cartridge you need a step up device, whether it be a head amp like the Piccolo, a step up transformer, or a trans-impedance device like the Piccolo Zero. A standard head amp or a step up transformer requires matching between the cartridge’s internal impedance and its resistive load. Without getting into deep math, a trans-impedance head amp is a 0 ohm load circuit that operates a cartridge in current mode and does not rely on external resistive load. This design is best suited for cartridges with lower internal impedance, with single digit impedance levels being more desirable. Internal impedance times the cartridge output voltage equals output gain of the cartridge/head-amp combination. As an example an Ortofon X40 cartridge has an internal resistance of 4 ohms and .4 mV output voltage and is a solid choice over a Denon DL103 which has a 40 ohm internal resistance and .25 mV output voltage. While a trans-impedance head amplifier has a smaller pool of cartridges that are compatible with it, there are benefits beyond negating the process of getting the correct resistive load for the cartridge and phono circuit. One event that is not often discussed is dynamic braking. Dynamic braking stiffens the cartridge assembly at higher frequencies and the result is the diamond maintains improved contact with groove walls and results in less tracking errors.
Aequo Audio Ensium Review
May 26, 2026 § Leave a comment
When designing a speaker with a strong focus on coherence, the assumption might be that the best position for the woofer would be as close to the midrange as possible. However, as Ivo explained, the speakers behave much more predictably across a wide range of rooms when the woofer is positioned near the floor. This is because room modes become twice as severe with equal wall distances, and if a woofer is placed at the top (where the midrange and treble need to be to produce the proper stage height), it’s also almost halfway up the room’s height. Thus, it would excite far more severe room modes in that position than if it were vertically asymmetrical. Careful attention was paid to the crossover and the speaker’s phase behavior. To time-align the drivers relative to the listening position, the midrange and tweeter are positioned farther back than the woofer. To accommodate various seating heights and listening distances, the rear spike is height-adjustable.
According to Aequo Audio, the Ensium’s maximum linear output is higher than that of a typical dual-10-inch closed-cabinet speaker or even a triple-9-inch ported speaker, and in practice, more comparable to a closed-cabinet speaker with three 10-inch bass drivers. While it’s tempting to take such claims with a grain of salt, I can confirm that the bass does actually dive right down into what’s normally considered subwoofer territory with utter authority. The Ensium is specified at an absolutely ludicrous 16 Hz – 45 kHz (-3 dB in-room response), with a nominal impedance of 8 ohms.
Heaven 11 Billie Amp Mk3 tube/class D hybrid integrated amplifier Review
May 26, 2026 § Leave a comment
In my review of the Mk2, I suggested that Heaven 11 upgrade the RCA input jacks, but it appears for the sake of affordability they are unchanged. The company might have to retool the chassis for such a change, so I can see why they have not done so. Still, I hope that in the future with new designs such an improvement is employed. Does that issue put me off from using the Mk2 or Mk3? Absolutely not! I have had other components with similar RCA jacks. The firmness of the connection is not confidence inspiring, but it never seems to affect the operation. Thankfully, the company is putting the money into serious speaker posts, and the ones used in the Mk2 and Mk3 are exemplary! The heavy posts inspire confidence when heavier cords with spades are cinched down. Far better the speaker posts are strong than the other way around.
As it appears a similar chassis was used for the Mk3, there is still quite close spacing of the output posts, and larger spades are closely anchored. Thus, I continue my precautionary practice of slipping a piece of leather (any non-conducting material will do) between the posts and spades to ensure that if one is loosened it does not contact the other. We know what would happen then, and I take no chances with a class D amp’s output channels shorting. The spades have never come loose previously; the posts are very good. But I am not about to chance it. It may seem odd, then, that I go about system building by splitting digital signals out from sources and horizontally wiring pairs of integrated amplifiers to speakers! While these are odd methods, I have not found them to pose serious risk to components. If they did, I wouldn’t use such methods. As usual, such activities are “do at your own risk”.
Mobile Fidelity’s UltraDisc One-Step 180g Editions of Michael Jackson’s Career
May 25, 2026 § Leave a comment
The inner cover design — which is basically a flat black oaktag sleeve with a CD-sized matte image of the original album cover art centered in the middle — is indeed dramatic-looking, and it does conform with the design of other One-Steps like MoFi’s Van Halen reissue series and their recently released One-Step for My Morning Jacket’s Z. That said, I would have preferred those replicated cover images to be bigger on the sleeve cover, if not covered the entirety of them, but I do get why MoFi are keeping them uniform for the overall design concept of the One-Step series. (And, like AP editor Mettler, I also appreciated the full-size, four-sided inserts that did indeed replicate the cover art in full and also included the lyrics and track-by-track credits.)
As to whether you need to get these two UltraDisc One-Step editions of Michael Jackson’s two greatest solo releases, that is always a personal decision. If I had to choose between the two, Off the Wall would be my hands-down recommendation, and it is well worth shelling out the extra bucks to get it in hand right now. But, of course, Thriller is what it is — the most popular non-compilation album of all time — so if you want to hear what is quite possibly the best-sounding version of it to date, the MoFi One-Step is totally right for you.
Audiophilepure 
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