Mark Levinson No.333 power amplifier $8495 Review
August 7, 2020 Comments Off on Mark Levinson No.333 power amplifier $8495 Review
“An area where the No.333 excelled was dynamics. I never got the sense that I was running out of headroom, even on high-level, percussion-heavy recordings. Yet, perhaps more important for a high-power amplifier, the Levinson remained transparent at very low levels. Often, the designer’s need to use multiple pairs of transistors to obtain the combination of high output voltage and output current results in a murkiness at low levels. This wasn’t the case with this amplifier: in the performance of the Brahms Horn Trio on Stereophile’s Serenade CD, there is a magical moment when horn soloist Julie Landsman (first chair of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and violinist Sheryl Staples (associate concertmaster at Cleveland) are playing the slow movement’s theme triple-pianissimo. When I made the recording at the 1995 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, I tried to capture the full dynamic range of the live sound, which meant that this elegiac passage peaks at no more than –50dBFS. Yet with the Levinson driving the B&W Silver Signaturess, you could easily hear the slight unevenness in the violin tone that results from the player not using vibrato and drawing the bow very slowly across the string. This is one transparent amplifier.”
SVS Prime Pinnacle Loudspeaker £1995 Review
August 7, 2020 Comments Off on SVS Prime Pinnacle Loudspeaker £1995 Review
So where’s the trade-off that the Prime Pinnacle’s price tag implies? Sure, there’s a sense that treble definition could be sharper, which robs tracks of that top layer of incisiveness, and the superb driving nature of its low-end isn’t matched by the same forcefulness higher up the frequency band. As such, the astonishing lead solo in Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ [The Wall; EMI 50999 028944 2 3] sounds a little shy, Dave Gilmour’s axe not so much cleaving through the instrumentation as gliding across it.
This is hardly a blot on the copybook for, as well as being nuanced, authoritative and weighty with bass, these SVS’s floorstanders are very effective at creating soundstage depth and width.”
The Drop + Audio Technica Carbon VTA
August 7, 2020 Comments Off on The Drop + Audio Technica Carbon VTA
Raidho TD2.2 Loudspeaker £38,000 Review
August 6, 2020 Comments Off on Raidho TD2.2 Loudspeaker £38,000 Review
“And bass? Neither the cabinet volume nor drivers are especially capacious but the TD2.2 still digs impressively deep while very rarely biting off more than it can chew. The signature drum programming that powers Gorillaz’ ‘Dracula’ [G Sides; Parlophone, 44.1kHz/24-bit] takes these Raidhos as far as they will comfortably go, while the opening of ‘Faust’ moves them just a little bit further still – no overt bloom or boom here but there is some loss of rhythmic composure. Time to back off the volume control.
The TD2.2s seem otherwise quite at home penetrating and untangling the densest of mixes. Their ability to convey energy without chaos was ideally suited to a session listening to Jimmy Page’s latter-day remastering of Led Zeppelin’s Presence, the band’s seventh album also produced by Page back in 1975-76 [Warner Music 0081227955724; 96kHz/24-bit]. The album, free of keyboards, still sounds raw but the multiple, over-dubbed guitars have a greater clarity in this 96kHz rendering – a quality not lost on the TD2.2s.”
Akitika GT-102 Power Amplifier $488 Review
August 6, 2020 § 1 Comment
“Just when I’ve been moaning to myself about how expensive everything has gotten in high-end sound, the Akitika GT-102 comes along and blows that complaint out of the water. It ain’t perfect, but it is a satisfying amplifier if you match it properly. Dan Joffe’s design and implementation proves you don’t have to be a one percenter to play in the high-end audio game. The assembled, tested, GT-102 amp goes for $488 plus $26 shipping in the lower 48 states. The kit version is $314 (really?) plus $26 shipping in the lower 48 states.”
FIR AUDIO M4 $1899 Review
August 6, 2020 Comments Off on FIR AUDIO M4 $1899 Review
“There is some warmth to be heard here, however, the N8’s solid-state mode takes some of that away. It won’t turn it cold, but it will very slightly reduce the warmth and smoothness and replace it with some more of that neutral sound as well as precision.
The bass doesn’t bleed into the midrange, but the lower mid area sounds smooth since there is a gradual decline from the high base range moving into the middle section of the midrange. I enjoyed listening to Sara Bareilles singing Let The Rain Begin in this regard because of the smoother presentation compared to the Dita XLS’ and CA Andromeda’s performance.”
JL Audio Fathom f110v2 powered subwoofer Review
August 5, 2020 Comments Off on JL Audio Fathom f110v2 powered subwoofer Review
“With a single subwoofer set up along the front wall, listening to the test tones during the D.A.R.O. calibration, which go well above 80Hz, I found it easy to hear the sub’s location. When I added the second sub, on the left sidewall, the test tones seemed to come from the whole left wall. When I added the third sub in the right rear corner, the test tone filled the room, with no identifiable source. That last situation is ideal, but I judged the first acceptable: It’s OK to have bass emerging from the part of the room where the main speakers are located. I eliminated the two-sub setup from consideration and limited my listening to one f110v2 along the front wall and the three-sub array, arranged as in the third bullet point above.”
Monitor Audio Bronze 100 review
August 5, 2020 Comments Off on Monitor Audio Bronze 100 review
On the plus side, those changes in mid/bass and cabinet size help the speakers produce an output of impressive scale and authority. Play Hans Zimmer’s Interstellar OST and the Bronze 100s render a huge sound underpinned by a good hefty slab of bass. They can play loudly too, retaining their composure even when pushed to high levels with demanding music such as this.
The Monitor Audios are also clear and manage to dig up a fair amount of detail. On a dense and demanding track, such as Where We’re Going, they do a good job of separating the various instrumental strands and keeping them easy to follow.”
VTL TL-6.5 SERIES II SIGNATURE LINE-STAGE AND S-200 SIGNATURE POWER AMPLIFIER
August 4, 2020 Comments Off on VTL TL-6.5 SERIES II SIGNATURE LINE-STAGE AND S-200 SIGNATURE POWER AMPLIFIER
“Let’s start with the latest version of the well-established TL-6.5. Wedging the full feature set and functionality of the company’s two-box flagship line-stage into a single chassis was no easy feat, requiring a vertical extension to the established casework used for the TL-7.5’s PSU and control section. The resulting box can be supplied in silver, black or two-tone mix, the latter making the most of the original’s elegant design and front-panel proportions. On the inside it houses a fully balanced and differential circuit built around a single pair of ECC82 tubes, used for the critical voltage gain. Paired with a sophisticated FET-buffered, high-current output stage, you could argue that this should be more properly described as a hybrid design, but frankly, I’m more interested in the performance than the labels. With its large and highly regulated power supply, what the 6.5 does is deliver the coherent dynamics and presence that make tube pre-amps so musically appealing, combined with an incredibly low noise floor and the ability to drive almost any load – both extremely unusual in a tube design. Even more unusual is the functional versatility, with a full suit of balanced and single-ended in and outputs, processor and tape loops, adjustable overall and individual input gain. Look inside and you find a mirror-imaged circuit, precision resistor ladders and more by-pass capacitors than you can shake a stick at. The package is topped off with a sensibly sized, full function remote and a display that you can actually see from across the room.”
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