High-End
Audio / Audiophile Equipment Reviews
March 2019
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Daily News: Essential High-End Audio Info
Enjoy the Music.com posts audiophile news virtually every day.
Enjoy the Music.com Sponsors AXPONA 2019 Industry
Mixer And All Seminars
Enjoy the Music.com, a leader in CE audio equipment reviews, news and show reports, are joining AXPONA in celebrating their ten years of providing high-end audio events within North America by sponsoring their
Industry Welcome Mixer and Seminar Room.
AXPONA's three-day experience features multiple hotel floors featuring
fascinating listening rooms, The Expo Hall's Record Fair, a dedicated Ear Gear Expo, seminars, and live musical performances.
---> Read
More
HIFICRITIC Celebrates 10 Year Partnership With
Enjoy the Music.com
Enjoy the Music.com,
a leader in CE audio equipment reviews, news and show reports, are celebrating
their ten year partnership with HIFICRITIC
audio review magazine. This marks the eighth print publication joining what has
been referred to as the Internet's leading site for high-end audio consumer
electronics reviews and information. HIFICRITIC's Editor In Chief Martin Colloms and Senior
Contributing Editor Andrew Everard see this as a mark of increasing
recognition for their professionally produced print publication directed at
serious stereo enthusiasts.
---> Read More
AXPONA
2019 Show Report
AXPONA 2019 show coverage by Enjoy
the Music.com Staff
AXPONA (Audio Expo North America) returns
April 12th through 14th, 2019 to its permanent home at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center for its tenth anniversary, marking its
largest show to date!
---> See our AXPONA 2019 show report.
CanJam Singapore 2019 Show
Report
Singapore's very special CanJam 2019 at
the Pan Pacific Hotel.
CanJam SoCal Show Report By Kok Chieat Wong
Head-Fi returns to the Pan Pacific Hotel in Marina Square for the
fourth edition of their CanJam Singapore. Featuring over 100 leading brands in over 20,000 square
feet of exhibition space, CanJam Singapore 2019 will showcase the latest products and innovations in headphones and personal audio electronics in all price ranges – from $50 earbuds to the world’s finest headphone audio systems at
$50,000.
---> Read More
Salon Audio Montreal / Audio Fest
2019 Show Report
Salon Audio Montréal / Audio Fest
was celebrating 32 years of producing a wonderful consumer audio event. The Montreal Audio Fest will
also be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic Woodstock Fest during its 2019 edition from March 22nd to 24th at the Bonaventure Hotel, which has just received a refreshing facelift to celebrate its
very own 50th.
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DIY Tube Tweaker Tuesday
New York Noise 2002 Audio Design Exhibition
Show Report By Steve R. Rochlin Of Enjoy the Music.com
Welcome to the official virtually live coverage of the nyNOISE Audio Design Exhibition festival and show held in New York City at Arlene Grocery (a NYC rock club). The 2002 show was held on Saturday, June 1 in New York City at Arlene Grocery (a rock club). Hosted by JC Morrison and Blackie Pagano, 2002 marks the fourth consecutive year they have both sponsored this event so others may bask in the glory of DIY audio.
---> Read More
Florida Audio Expo 2019 Show Report
Show Coverage By Steven R. Rochlin
The Florida Audio Expo was excited to announce their
inaugural show for 2019! This show was held on Friday February 8th
through Sunday February 10th, 2019 at the Embassy Suites by Hilton Tampa
Airport Westshore. This new Southeast show seeks to give music lovers
the chance to personally audition some of the industry's finest
offerings, all taking place in sunny Florida.
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Warsaw Audio Video Show Report 2018
Show Report By Andrew Harris Of HIFICRITIC
November is an important time in Poland, not just for Remembrance Day on the 11th but Independence too. For Poles, 11 November 1918 was also the day the country was first liberated from occupying neighbor countries. The Warsaw audio show has been held at around this time since it first began, back in
1997.
---> Read More
Interactive Music Xpo 1999
IMX 1999 Show Report By Steven R. Rochlin
With many of us watching Nat Geo's "Valley of the Boom" series,
we've been busy reworking the world's only computer media high-end audio reports from this time period. As
perhaps the industry's only photojournalist to fully grasp the future of Internet technology and the possibilities it could deliver...
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Streaming Media East 2000 Show Report
Coverage By Steven R. Rochlin
Welcome to the only audiophile
online magazine covering the future of Internet technology. Our Streaming Media East
2000 show report follows up on our previous coverage of last years Interactive
Music Expo (IMX). This show embraces major broadband media and is being held in the heart of New York City.
---> Read More
If
24-bit/96kHz Is Officially The Minimum For High-Res Audio...
Why are 24-bit/44.1kHz music files labeled 'Hi-Res Audio'?
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin
Here's some food for thought: If the official definition of Hi-Res Audio by the Japan Audio Society (JAS) is a minimum of 24-bit/96kHz [Decoding: File playability of 96kHz/24bit or above (FLAC and WAV both required
– source JAS)], then why
are 24-bit/44.1kHz digital music files being called Hi-Res Audio / Music?
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Please Tell Me Why Bother With
Lossy Compressed Music?
In 2020 and beyond, bandwidth is a non-issue.
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin
There's no doubt i tend to laugh at inventors who are solving outdated problems today. Unless you're into steampunk or some other fun hobby / fetish... would you design a new 8-Track tape player today? Hmm, maybe you would, yet personally 8-Track is... so don't expect the market to reach mega-million status. What about streaming
music?
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Is It Time For Academy II?
Roger Skoff offers another suggestion to help our hobby and industry.
Article By Roger Skoff
There's been a lot of talk, lately, about the state of our hobby and industry, and about what we might be able to do to bring them back into the mainstream of public interest. All kinds of suggestions for bringing about a high-end "renaissance" have already been given, both here and in other publications, and the consensus seems to be that, if we take the right approach, it's far from an impossible
dream.
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More
REVISIT:
Senseless Ramblings
"In A Time Of Universal Deceit
Telling The Truth Is A Revolutionary Act."
– George Orwell
Plus... Is digital really better than analog? Plus there’s a cold war happening and you’re part of it... sort of.
Article By Steven R. Rochlin
So let's being with the upcoming hi-res initiative shall we? For years Apple has demanded record labels send them digital music that are hi-res (read: at a resolution higher than 16-bit/44.1kHz). Sure we all know the major music labels <cough> might have misrepresenting <cough> the resolution of said files, since currently selling 'hi-rez' music files have been proven by various magazines, which have analyzed the frequency spectrum of said files, publishing their test results
accordingly.
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Read More
Help Support Enjoy the Music.com Via Amazon Shopping
Rebuttal: Lossless Streaming Music
Why whine and cry about lossless
audio, because anything is better than MP3.
Editorial By S.R.A.E.
I have some serious qualms with Enjoy the Music.com's Creative Director
Steven R. Rochlin's recent editorial Lossless Streaming Music: Welcome To 20 Years Ago.
First off Steven, you're certainly not the first person to realize that
streaming Hi-Res Music on the Internet was possible decades ago. Who cares if
you think you were the first to stream music online without the need for a
plug-in, because what did you do with that technology?
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Read More
Lossless Streaming Music: Welcome To 20 Years Ago
Today we're only 10 years behind the curve, and here's why...
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin
Welcome to the February 2019 edition of Enjoy the Music.com's
Review Magazine. Yada yada new reviews, some other bits here and there
you may enjoy in this issue, plus of course a wonderful think piece by Roger
Skoff.
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Read More
Come To The Party!
Roger Skoff writes about spreading the fun and saving money in the process.
Article
By Roger Skoff
Did
you ever wonder how it could be that the Mid-Fi companies are able to sell a
multi-channel, multi-function receiver for so much less than our High-End
manufacturers seem to be able to sell almost anything at all?
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Where Do We Go From Here?
Classic Audiophiles Versus Modern Music Lovers
Will 360-degree audio change the face of old-school stereo
'philes?
Editorial By Steven R. Rochlin
Modern
times bring modern solutions. First came recording audio over 100 years ago
using a now-primitive needle scraping wax. Eventually we humans invented the
microphone, to eventually amplifying musical instruments to the point of going
full-out synthesizing via Moog and others producing 100%
electronically-created musical instruments.
---> Read
More
The Three Building Blocks Of Acoustic Treatment
Time for a refresher.
Article By Bobby Owsinski
I've posted this before a few years ago, but I've been getting so many questions on acoustic treatment lately that I thought it was time for a refresher. While soundproofing the space where you have your recording gear set up can be an expensive and time consuming proposition, treating the acoustics of your room luckily can be quite the
opposite.
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Read More
Revisit: DRM Wars Concern You!
A format war that hurts billions of music lovers!
Article By Steven R. Rochlin
My editorial earlier this month, New Formats On Two Fronts, concerned a few things including the buzz around the possible failure of the Blu-ray format and the war between it and HD DVD. Little did anyone realize that a week later the buzz would be about major players in the music resale industry wishing to do away with Digital Rights Management
(DRM).
---> Read More
World Premiere Review!
Triangle Art TA-200M Class A Monoblock Amplifiers
Enjoying the heart of music.
Review By Tom Lyle
The first
orders of business after I received the two monoblock amplifiers designed and
manufactured by the California company Triangle Art was unpacking them, and then
I had to make plans to get them upstairs to my main listening room. The two very
heavy boxes containing the monoblocks were shipped from California, first by
train across the country, then once they arrived at a station on the East Coast,
by truck to my home.
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World Premiere In-Depth Review!
JBL L100 Classic Loudspeaker
A classic looking speaker with truly modern sound.
Review By Tom Lyle
Because I was a working musician from around high-school onwards, and more seriously during the 1980s, spent quite a bit of time in recording studios. In the studios I noticed many different makes and models of monitor speakers, and a large percentage of them were made by JBL.
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Black Cat 3200 Series
Interconnect, Speaker, And Digital Cable
My system become a sonic time machine.
Review By Tom Lyle
Black Cat Chris Sommovigo has been designing and manufacturing cables for the high-end audio industry since 1992. In his words, he has been "running in the opposite direction of what most audiophile cable companies seem to be
doing.
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Furutech NCF Cable Booster-Signal
Life often contains hidden gems awaiting exploration.
Review By Jeremy Kipnis
Sometimes, you can't help but get giddy about a product that most everyone is going to gripe that, "It can't possibly work!" But the fact is the highly debatable yet finely engineered Furutech NCF
Booster-Signal I've been lucky enough to be closely reviewing these past few months clearly improves the clarity, focus, resolution, and musical
enjoyment...
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KEF LSX Wireless Music System
The greatest thing since sliced bread!
Review By Phil Gold
What a pleasure to find an inexpensive component that excites a high-end reviewer. And a product from KEF! KEF Chorales were the first decent speakers I owned. Modestly priced, high performance, utterly reliable, what's not to
like?
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Re-Entering Analog: Assembling An Analog System
Featuring Pro-Ject turntables, Parasound JC 3 Jr. and Okki Nokki Record Cleaning Machine MK II.
Review By Dwayne Carter
The passing of a family member is often a time of reflection and grief. With the passage of time, wounds heal, and some memories begin to fade. If you are lucky, a few remnants and reminders get passed down to you. A lifetime of possessions can be reduced to a storage shed (or two), then eventually down to a few
boxes.
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Yamaha NS-10
Small Monitor Loudspeaker Phenomenon
Article By Phil Ward Of HIFICRITIC
The new CLA-10 is a dead-ringer for the Yamaha NS-10 nearfield monitor. This clone, created by US ProAudio manufacturer Avantone, has once again drawn attention to the phenomenon of Yamaha's ubiquitous and persistent studio
monitor.
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Focal Elegia Stereo Headphones
The new reference in a closed design.
Review By Frank Iacone of Headphone.Guru
Focal has been manufacturing outstanding headphones over the last few years, to complement their speaker line. The French based speaker company hit the market with the high-end Utopia and created a stir with the $4000 dynamic reference open-back reference headphone.
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Manley Labs Absolute Headphone Amplifier
The makings of a legend!
Review By Gary Alan Barker Of Headphone.Guru
Back in the late nineteen eighties I ran a small boutique by appointment only high end HiFi shop, and at that time our preamplifier of choice was the MANLEY (their first and only product at the time if my memory serves correctly), which we considered to be the finest audio product in the
world.
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MrSpeakers Ether 2 Over-The-Ear Headphones
Evolution of a classic open back planar magnetic headphone.
Review By Scott Lombardo
From their humble beginnings of modifying
Fostex T50RP headphones, to developing patented V-Planar technology and
eventually creating ground up electrostatic headphones, MrSpeakers has
continued to push the envelope while staying grounded to their roots.
Now with their latest flagship offering, the Ether 2, MrSpeakers aims to
cement their legacy in the world of headphones. Let's take a look and
listen...
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Sumiko Rainier Moving Magnet Cartridge
Happiness is a warm (vinyl LP) hug.
Review By Paul Schumann
When I was kid in elementary school, one of my
favorite times was when I had the chance to order books form the Scholastic Book
Club. The teacher would pass out a little pamphlet with books to choose from,
you would check the boxes of the books you wanted, then presto, they arrive
about a month later. Of course, my parents would have to pay for them, but they
were so cheap!
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World Premiere Review!
Analogue Artisan A1 Series Turntable
With Remote Control
VTA/SRA Mongoose Tonearm & Pod
Truly reference sound quality with astonishingly low distortion.
Review By
Tom Lyle
Brian Calaio,
the owner and chief engineer of Analogue Artisan and I have two things in
common. The first is our love of music; the second is that we both believe that
once a high-end audio system gets to a certain level of refinement, everything
contributes to the sound of the system.
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Read More
World Premiere!
Kronos Sparta 0.5 Turntable And Upgrade To Full Sparta
This is where I want my music to be!
Review By
Rick Becker
We are all doomed
to extinction in our own little way. It's called death. And the specter of death
causes many to seek comfort in the familiar – LPs, old movies and TV re-runs,
for example. But lest I be branded with the moniker of macabre, allow me to
point out that turntables, cartridges and phono stages have made impressive
strides in quality over the past two decades-long since the reported death of
vinyl.
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Senseless Rambling
Is Vinyl The New Heroin For Dyed-In-The-Wool Hard-Core Audiophiles?
IRL: I've seen the needle and the damage done.
Article
By Steven R. Rochlin
Last month's Enjoy the Music.com
review of the VPI Nomad is but one example of the many new turntables, vinyl LPs
and associated equipment making their way into the home of many music lovers
worldwide. Once again the record album is experiencing double-digit growth over
the previous year as consumers, and bands, can't seem to get enough of what
they desire.
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World Premiere Review!
Van den Hul Crimson Stradivarius MC Phono Cartridge
A truly fantastic high-precision phono cartridge.
Review By Tom Lyle
Perhaps
it's a bit of love / hate thing? I have a love/hate relationship with phono
cartridges. I assume I'm not the only audiophile who feels this way. As an
audiophile, I love phono cartridges. The beautiful phono cartridge is
an electro-mechanical device that converts the vibrational energy that it picks
up from its stylus into an electrical signal – and this is where it all begins
for lovers of vinyl playback.
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Coming At It From Both Directions
Roger Skoff writes about music lovers and Hi-Fi.
Article
By Roger Skoff
Back
in the very earliest days of Hi-Fi (high fidelity), everybody had a pipe organ
record. It might have been, if the listener was into "pop" favorites,
something featuring George Wright "at the mighty Wurlitzer organ". (Slaughter
on Tenth Avenue, for example) or, if the listener was more classical music
oriented, it might have been E. Power Biggs thundering out Bach's Toccata and
Fugue in D Minor, working every key and every pedal mightily as if to prove
the validity of his name.
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Krell SACD Standard CD And SACD Player
Can One Player Do Both Formats
Well?
Review
By Alvin Gold
Krell Industries announced its first high-resolution disc player, the SACD Standard, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2003, and it is now in full serial production. It is a dedicated SACD player of some sophistication, but it is far from representing the limits of
Krell's ambitions in high-resolution disc replay. A universal player is currently in development, which will bring DVD-Audio, DVD-Video, SACD and CD replay under one
roof.
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VAC Avatar Integrated Amplifier
You get what you pay for... and
sometimes you get more!
Review By Steven R.
Rochlin
I first saw the Valve
Amplification Company (VAC) Avatar at the 1999 CES. The Avatar is a very interesting
amplifier indeed. With quite a few integrated amplifier having visited my
own stable fairly recently such as the cj CAV-50, Audio Note Meishu, Manley
Labs Stingray, 47 Labs Gaincard and Linn Classik (review forthcoming), one
could come to the conclusion that either i love integrated units or i am
truly insane. As the case may be, odds are I am a little of both. You see,
the advantages of buying an integrated amplifier is in not just the
elimination of the interconnect going from the preamplifier to the
amplifier, but you are also getting a properly matched system.
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MrSpeakers ÆON Closed Back Stereo Headphones
The ÆON is very possibly
MrSpeaker's headphone masterpiece.
Review By Dave Hanson
How many over-ear headphones can you name priced between $499
and $999? You would think there would be more, but there really aren't many
these days. While there has been a flood of flagship-level megabuck headphones
over the past couple of years (to go with the usual selection of sub-$500 fare),
it seems many manufacturers somehow forgot about the middle.
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Mojo Audio Mystique V3 Non-Oversampling R-2R Hi-Res Audio DAC
The art and science of high resolution digital audio today.
Review By Jeremy R. Kipnis
Back in April
of 1980, when I was a lad of 15, I went to a recording session that featured one
of the new digital tape recorders. This big device on wheels translated the
microphone's sound into binary ones and zeros and recorded it on special 1/4"
reel-to-reel tape. This process, known as Analog-to-Digital Conversion (ADC),
resulted in a near perfect approximation of the incoming signal, unlike
traditional analog magnetic tape, which requires special biasing and noise
reduction.
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VIDEO: How A Vinyl Record Is Made
Quality Record Pressings / Acoustic Sounds vinyl LP pressing plant tour.
Enjoy the Music.com and Enjoy
the Music.TV presents to you our tour of the Quality Record
Pressings (Acoustic Sounds) vinyl LP pressing plant. We join plant
manager Gary and owner Chad Kassem as they take us on a step-by-step
journey through how a vinyl LP record is produced.
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McIntosh C2600 Vacuum Tube Stereo Preamplifier
With DAC, Phono Stage And Headphone Amplifier
A newfound family heirloom. For a lifetime... and longer.
Review By
Tom Lyle
The McIntosh
name can bring up all sorts of memories, images, assumptions, and yes, yearning
for many audiophiles and non-audiophiles alike. The first thing that comes to my
mind when I think about McIntosh components is their history. One of the first
pieces of high-end equipment I ever owned was a McIntosh MC-30 monoblock, a pair
of which powered speakers in my basement system in the 1970s while I was still
in high school.
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Falcon LS3/5A Classic Small
Monitor Reborn
Resurrecting the old classic BBC LS3/5A that lives up against
classics.
Review By Joseph Ki Cheong Ming
It is no secret that Malcolm Jones did most of the design and
development of the legendary KEF drive units such as the B139, B200, B110, T15,
and T27. He left KEF in 1974 having just completed the famous Reference Series
104 system and thus began work on an active professional monitor plus his new
company Falcon Acoustics Ltd.
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Stromtank S2500 Battery Power Supply
The joys of a pure sine wave with battery power.
Review By
Tom Lyle
I've been stricken with something I like to call an "audiophile illusion of grandeur" for quite some time. It started long ago, when I first discovered that the AC power supplied
to my stereo system was less than adequate. This wasn't too difficult to figure out, because in the daytime my system sounded
lousy, at least compared to how it sounded at night.
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See our archives section for all reviews.
