Reviews of Attainable Hi-Fi & Home-Theater Equipment
Equipment Reviews
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- Written by: Roger Kanno
Last June, when I reviewed Bel Canto’s e.One DAC2.5 DAC-preamplifier, I found it to be an excellent combo worthy of being used as the digital control center of a high-quality audio system, and it's relatively affordable at $1995 USD. But for those who prefer the convenience of an integrated amplifier, Bel Canto also then offered the e.One S300iU with built-in USB DAC, also an excellent value at $1995.
Although the S300iU was very favorably reviewed by our own Randall Smith, its single USB input for the DAC and no S/PDIF inputs meant that it wasn’t possible to digitally connect a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray player. The new e.One C5i DAC and integrated amplifier is more like one of Bel Canto’s DAC-preamps, with multiple S/PDIF digital inputs in addition to its USB input, which makes it much more practical, in my view. And because the C5i costs even less -- only $1895 -- it has great potential for use in the high-end systems of budget-conscious audiophiles.
Read more: Bel Canto Design e.One C5i Digital-to-Analog Converter/Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by: Roger Kanno
Essential Sound Products (ESP) -- or, more specifically, its owner and head designer, Michael Griffin -- knows a thing or two about making power cords and power distributors: that’s all they make. Griffin’s company offers the budget MusicCord products and above them a complete line that tops out at their highest-priced models, the Essence Reference power cord and power distributor. They’ve carved out a niche for themselves by offering high-quality gear at what most audio enthusiasts would consider to be reasonable prices. They’ve been in business since 1995, so they must be doing something right.
In the years I’ve been using various models of ESP’s budget cords in my reference system, Griffin has continually upgraded his entry-level products without significantly raising their prices. His latest MusicCord models are still priced very reasonably by high-end standards, but feature a complex conductor geometry that’s similar to that used in his more expensive Essence Reference cords, and lots of other technology trickled down from that line. The MusicCords are marketed as professional products, but according to Griffin they’re good enough to be used in high-end audio systems, especially the MusicCord-Pro ES. Reviewed here are the MusicCord-Pro ES power cords ($399.99 USD/2m) and matching power distributor ($799.99).
Read more: Essential Sound Products MusicCord-Pro ES Power Cord and Power Conditioner
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- Written by: Hans Wetzel
Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which he explained in a 1905 paper, ushered in a paradigm shift in the study of physics. Two-century-old Newtonian mechanics, which viewed space and time as fundamentally independent of one another, were superseded by a framework of space-time in which space and time existed coextensively. One of the consequences of Einstein’s theory was that certain absolutes could no longer be counted on as empirical constants, and one of those was time. Specifically, time would be measured as elapsing more slowly the closer one approached the speed of light. A curious hypothetical result of this would be that astronauts making an interstellar journey of 100 years (as measured by those left behind on Earth) at a constant velocity approaching the speed of light, might themselves experience the passage of only one year. Time is thus, like other terrestrial concepts, relative, and dependent on one’s perspective.
This all resurfaced as I thought about the various types of people who are interested in high-end audio equipment: the engineers who design it, the dealers who sell it, the consumers who buy it, and the people -- like me -- who review it. Standing apart from these individuals is everyone else: the folks who can’t tell a vacuum tube from a light bulb, and would choke on hearing that people spend thousands of dollars on cables. In short, depending on where one stands, a single audio product can simultaneously represent wildly different things. As in so many other areas of life, perspective is everything.
Read more: DH Labs Odyssey Speaker Cables, White Lightning Interconnects, Silversonic USB Digital...
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- Written by: Ron Doering
For a short while I owned a Saab station wagon (too short for me; not short enough, saith my wife) that was, at the same time, the sweetest and the most frustrating ride I’ve ever had. Saab must have made a vow at some point in its history that its cars would never be propelled by any engine having more than four cylinders, no matter how large their cars became or how much power the car-buying public demanded. This was basically true even during GM’s ownership of Saab and its attempts to work a V-6 into the line. The result was that, as Saab’s competitors settled on the V-6 engine as the absolute minimum for a self-respecting near-luxury car, with a V-8 available as a common option, Saab’s self-imposed constraint forced it to become extremely clever about extracting the maximum from engines of smaller displacement. As you can imagine, Saab had to pay a high price in R&D costs, and Saab owners in problems with reliability.
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- Written by: Brooke McClelland
When I was asked to review Paradigm’s new A2 active monitor, I was more excited than I’ve been about a product in a long time. The A2 is the first product in Paradigm’s new Paradigm Shift line, which has been in development for some time. I’d been checking the Paradigm Shift website for months, seeing only a launch date that never seemed to arrive. When the review samples finally appeared, I opened their boxes with great anticipation.
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- Written by: Hans Wetzel
Evolution
Darwinism is more than 150 years old, and while it serves as a cornerstone of modern biology, it has not found universal acceptance. Irrespective of its 19th-century origins, however, the notion of evolution manifests itself in today’s world with a rapidity that is difficult to keep up with. Divorced from its biological underpinnings, the evolution of modern technology is such that radical new hardware, software, and Internet services seem to appear every few months. Companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter have harnessed ideas and methodologies that are purely derivative, and repurposed them in such a wildly popular fashion that the companies’ names are now more often than not used as verbs.
The high-end audio industry has yet to see an explosion of innovative new products and technologies in the same vein as the rest of the technology sector. For a series of reasons, this has been true for some time, and may well continue for the foreseeable future. By their nature, audio cables, as a generality, tend to evolve at a downright leisurely pace. Even if one product is not wildly different from another, however, it is refreshing to see new perspectives on cabling. As is so often the case, today’s startup may well be tomorrow’s industry leader.
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- Written by: Thom Moon
For many years, one of my obsessions has been to find really good, reasonably priced small speakers. I’ve reviewed a number and owned several: the KEF Coda 7, Britain’s best-selling speaker in the mid-1990s; and the Celestion 3, long a favorite of mine. Then there was the PSB Alpha A/V, an early model of that company’s high-value, low-price line. When I was asked to review the Aperion Audio Verus Forte Tower speaker ($1090 USD per pair), I jumped at the chance due to the very high perceived value.
Description
As floorstanders go, the Verus Forte Tower is small: only 35" high by 6" wide by 8.25" deep and 30 pounds. It bridges the price gap between the Verus Forte Grand Bookshelf ($598/pair) and the Verus Forte Grand Tower ($1798/pair). The Forte Tower has four drivers in a three-way configuration: a 1" Axially Stabilized Radiator (ASR) tweeter, a 4.25" Kevlar midrange with aluminum phase plug, and two 4.5" Kevlar woofers, all seamlessly integrated into a baffle of black polymer. Each woofer has a port on the rear of the stylish, curved enclosure, which, in the samples I received, was finished in a beautiful Gloss Cherrywood (Gloss Piano Black is available). My wife, averse as she is to speakers "cluttering up our living room," liked the Towers’ appearance. In all, they’re quite attractive.
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- Written by: Ron Doering
I wrote recently about how, concerning their new DM 3/7 loudspeaker, Dynaudio may have struggled to find anything new and exciting to crow about. The DM 3/7 sounds wonderful, to be sure, but even Dynaudio’s own publicity department was at pains to find anything new or cutting-edge about the speaker’s design. I wondered whether that could be chalked up to the high cost of European manufacture, which will account for a good bit of the speaker’s price of $1995 USD per pair.
Atlantic Technology, on the other hand, fills literal pages with news about the technology it has included in its AT-1 model, specifically its Hybrid Pressure Acceleration System (H-PAS). With H-PAS, Atlantic claims to achieve, in a single loudspeaker, the somewhat contradictory goals of truly deep bass, high sensitivity, and reasonable cabinet size. That this technology, which appears to be neither cheap nor easy to implement, is attempted in a speaker that retails for $2500/pair means that, you guessed it, the AT-1 is built in China. The AT-1 may seem to possess advantages that no speaker made in North America or Europe can hope to match, at least for now.
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- Written by: Hans Wetzel
Honesty. It’s not always the best policy, and in some instances it may be the worst. The calculus of perceived realism in audio reproduction appears, at times, to be predicated more on alchemy than on chemistry. Such alchemy, in my opinion, is born from our own preferred taste in what something should sound like, rather than on the audio reviewer’s unicorn: objectivity. It is, perhaps, presumptuous then to assume that objectivity is even possible when it comes to reviewing audio equipment, for every reviewer’s audial perspective is unique. This truth is liberating and a little depressing. For every vinyl fan there is a staunch follower of the digital path, and for every tube lover there are those who, like me, do not want a tube anywhere near their gear.
The SoundStage! Network’s own writing staff is emblematic of this. When Jeff Stockton reviewed B&W’s CM5 loudspeakers, he concluded by saying that "The best audio products make bad recordings sound tolerable, good recordings sound better, and great recordings sound sublime." With the utmost respect to Jeff, I could not disagree more. The notion that a piece of audio equipment should universally color the music passing through it is repugnant to the search for sonic honesty. The truth is, however, that I suspect that there are many more listeners who, like Jeff, prefer equipment that allows their music to sound its "best," even if such reproduction is not ultimately faithful to the original recording. Arguably, then, honesty is in the ear of the beholder, and its attendant beauty will not reveal itself to everyone.
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- Written by: Roger Kanno
When I first got interested in high-end audio, I could afford less than I can now. I owned an Arcam Alpha 5 integrated amplifier, an NAD 502 CD player, and a pair of NHT SuperZero speakers -- all excellent components, each costing only a few hundred dollars. Nowadays, Arcam’s least-expensive integrated costs a cool $1000. NAD still makes excellent budget-priced CD players, but I play most of my music through a laptop computer. But NHT is still producing the SuperZero, now in 2.0 form, and for only $99 USD each. That means that a pair of them costs $50 less than they did 15 years ago!
NHT has gone through a few changes since the 1990s, when they became known for making high-value speakers. Their product line has been streamlined, with an increased emphasis on budget-oriented models. Most notably, though, NHT products are now available directly from NHT, or from dealers who have speakers on hand for demos, though the products are shipped to the customer only after they’ve been purchased. NHT has also gone through some changes in ownership -- but Chris Byrne, one of the founders, is still at the helm.
I felt a great sense of pride when, more than 15 years ago, I bought the high-value, high-quality SuperZeros. So when SoundStage! Network Editor-in-Chief Jeff Fritz asked me to review the new SuperZero 2.0 with matching Super 8 subwoofer ($349), I agreed without hesitating.
Read more: NHT SuperZero 2.0 Loudspeakers and Super 8 Subwoofer
- Anthem MRX 500 A/V Receiver
- AudioQuest Carbon, Cinnamon, and Forest USB Cables
- Hegel Music Systems HD2 Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Dynaudio DM 3/7 Loudspeakers
- Arcam Solo rDac Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Thorens TD 309 Turntable
- Wavelength Audio Proton Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Bel Canto Design e.One DAC2.5 Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Mordaunt-Short Mezzo 8 Loudspeakers
- Furutech Alpha Design Labs GT40 DAC and Headphone Amplifier
