The Latest Features
Canada’s NRC: A Forthcoming Look at Its Role in the Advancement of Canadian Loudspeaker Design
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 February 2024 01 February 2024
The NRC connection
In 1980, at the age of 16, I bought my first stereo system, which was centered on a pair of PSB New Avanté loudspeakers. It was through PSB’s product information for those speakers that I first learned of Dr. Floyd Toole and his work at Canada’s National Research Council (NRC), in Ottawa. Dr. Toole, an electrical engineer and a renowned acoustician, conducted seminal research in acoustics and psychoacoustics at the NRC in the 1970s and has published extensively in the field. PSB’s founder and chief designer, Paul Barton, was introduced to Dr. Toole by Ian G. Masters, who was the editor of Audio Scene Canada magazine at the time, and who had published some of Dr. Toole’s writing. Barton began R&D work at the NRC under Dr. Toole’s mentorship in 1974, a relationship PSB was not shy about in their product information.
Arendal Sound 1723 Tower S Loudspeaker
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- Written by Philip Beaudette Philip Beaudette
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 February 2024 01 February 2024
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
“They’re the SVS of Norway.” Such was my introduction to Arendal Sound in November 2023, when Doug Schneider dropped off a pair of their 1723 Tower S speakers at my home. The similarity to the Ohio-based SVS can be seen in the type, price, and quality of speakers from the two companies but also in their business model: both sell directly to customers (as do Canada’s Axiom Audio and Denmark’s Buchardt Audio, among others). This, of course, reduces overhead costs and allows the manufacturer to pass savings to the consumer.
Recommended Reference Component: Simaudio Moon 791 Streaming Preamplifier
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 15 January 2024 15 January 2024
In his review of the Simaudio Moon 791 streaming preamplifier, published on this site on December 1, 2023, Doug Schneider describes the 791 as a feature-rich successor to the company’s 740P preamplifier, released more than ten years ago. “The 740P was strictly a line-stage preamplifier [that] provided input switching for balanced and single-ended analog sources, gain for all incoming signals, and volume control,” Doug writes in his review. The 791 still provides these functions, but it also incorporates a phono stage that’s compatible with moving-magnet (MM) and moving-coil (MC) cartridges, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) that supports nearly all of today’s music file formats, and Roon Ready streaming, wired or wireless (Wi-Fi or Bluetooth), via Simaudio’s MiND 2 platform. These additional capabilities partly account for the 791’s much higher price: $16,000, compared to $9500 for the 740P (both USD).
Meitner Audio PRE Preamplifier
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- Written by Phil Gold Phil Gold
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 January 2024 15 January 2024
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
When contemplating the very best in digital audio, Canada’s EMM Labs, along with dCS and certain other brand names, comes to mind. EMM Labs is equally adept at analog electronics, to be sure—the company’s founder, Ed Meitner, has long been involved in both analog and digital electronics—it just may not be the first company you think of in the vast analog domain. Ed Meitner’s most recent exploits include developing the EMM Labs DS-EQ1 optical phono equalizer for the DS Audio line of optical cartridges. The current EMM Labs range also includes the PRE analog preamplifier, the MTRX and MTRX2 monoblock amplifiers, the MTRS stereo amplifier, the NS1 streamer, and two DACs: the variable output DV2 and the fixed output DA2 V2. These highly regarded products are designed for maximum performance rather than being built to hit a particular price.
How I Define “Oligarch Audio”
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 January 2024 01 January 2024
Last September, Futureaudiophile.com featured an article by writer Steven Stone titled “Oligarch Audio Is Not the Same as High-Performance Audio.” Stone opens his article with a humble disclaimer, noting that although the term “oligarch audio” has been ascribed to him by his publisher, he takes no credit for it. This term, insofar as I can find, first appeared as a title of an article Stone wrote for Audiophilereview.com in 2014, so he may well have coined it.
Darlington Labs MP-7 Phono Preamplifier and SU-7 Step-Up Amplifier
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- Written by Matt Bonaccio Matt Bonaccio
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 January 2024 01 January 2024
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
Keen-eyed readers of my previous reviews and blog articles have by now picked up on my preference for DIY gear and relatively simple, class-A circuitry, usually based on discrete components. And it’s true, I generally eschew complex designs, integrated circuits, and high part counts in my preferred equipment.
The 2023 SoundStage! Network Awards for Outstanding Achievements and Products of the Year
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 15 December 2023 15 December 2023
For over two decades, we’ve presented our annual awards for Products of the Year at around this time of year. The 2023 award recipients have been culled from the product reviews written over the past year on SoundStage! Hi-Fi, SoundStage! Access, SoundStage! Ultra, SoundStage! Simplifi, and SoundStage Solo. (SoundStage! Australia announced its own awards for Products of the Year on December 6.) Our product awards are divided into three main categories: Distinction (formerly called Individual Awards), Outstanding Performance, and Exceptional Value.
Simaudio’s Moon 791 Streaming Preamplifier: Uncompromised
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 December 2023 01 December 2023
Comprehensive reviews of high-end, feature-rich hi-fi products may require 3000, 5000, even 8000 words to adequately describe the product’s performance and features. I appreciate that, as do many of our readers. Although video reviews are growing in number and popularity, in-depth written reviews will undoubtedly continue to thrive alongside. And while article length in itself has proved not to be an obstacle, a pitfall inherent to all detailed reviews is the potential obscuration of salient features or aspects of performance by protracted coverage of features and attributes of lesser import.
Simaudio Moon 791 Streaming Preamplifier
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 December 2023 01 December 2023
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
Ten years ago to the day, my review of Simaudio’s Moon Evolution 740P preamplifier was published on this site. I was so impressed with the 740P that I’ve kept it in my system after the audition period until earlier this year. What better time, I thought, to review its recently released successor, the Moon 791 preamplifier, part of the company’s new North Collection. For a complete picture, though, a brief overview of the 740P is in order.
Rotel Michi X5 Series 2 Integrated Amplifier-DAC
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- Written by Philip Beaudette Philip Beaudette
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 November 2023 15 November 2023
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
When the Rotel Michi line re-emerged in 2019 after a two-decade absence, I was caught off guard. It’s not that I didn’t think I’d ever see a Michi product again—I didn’t know Michi existed in the first place! Mea culpa.