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Hegel Music Systems V10 Phono Stage
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- Written by Jason Thorpe Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 January 2021 15 January 2021
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio Electronics Lab, click this link.
Have you ever looked closely at the coils of a moving-coil cartridge? If you have a jeweler’s loupe and a cartridge with a relatively open body, it’s worth exploring this tiny, elegant universe. The coils themselves are so small that it seems impossible they could be made by hand, or mounted inside a cartridge, or that they can work at all.
Three Reasons Why the SoundStage! Network Has So Many Websites (Important Lessons for Aspiring Online Hi-Fi Publishers)
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 January 2021 01 January 2021
Last month, I wrote about our 25th anniversary of online publishing. In that article I described how we began, how the SoundStage! name came about, the events that took place before we secured the soundstage.com domain name for the initial website, and some of the other things that helped us to get off to a pretty good start.
Yamaha A-S3200 Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 January 2021 01 January 2021
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio Electronics Lab, click this link.
Though now perhaps best known for their motorcycles and other vehicles produced by their Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. division, the Yamaha Corporation has a long, rich musical history—the logo of even the Yamaha Motor Co. is still a trio of crossed tuning forks. Founded as Nippon Gakki in the late 19th century, the Yamaha Corporation began as a maker of pianos, and has since become the world’s biggest manufacturer of pianos and other musical instruments. Yamaha has made audio equipment since the 1920s, and what many would consider high-fidelity audio components since the 1950s.
Inexpensive Outboard Alternatives: Bellari VP549 and NAD PP 2e Phono Stages
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 January 2021 01 January 2021
In August 2020, I reviewed the Hegel Music Systems H95 integrated amplifier-DAC for this site. If you read that review, you’ll know that the H95, which is priced at $2000 (all prices in USD), is a good performer and good value, but you’ll also see it’s not as feature-rich as some other integrated amps on the market. For example, like all of Hegel’s integrated amplifiers, it has a built-in DAC but lacks a phono stage. Vinyl playback is a pretty big thing for hi-fi buyers across all price ranges, and many lower-priced integrated amps answer that demand, so I intended to criticize this omission in the review.
Formats Gone but Not Forgotten
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- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 January 2021 01 January 2021
You have to laugh: there’s an ad on TV in the UK plugging some financial app for people who want to invest in shares but are clearly too stupid to seek out a legitimate, accountable broker. Whatever. Anyway, the gist of the ad is that you wouldn’t ask your brother-in-law or bartender for stock market tips, and it shows some grubby-looking, beardy, unkempt schmuck suggesting one should invest in LaserDiscs to the far cooler-looking target of the advertisement. Chuckle? I almost fell off the sofa.
Recommended Reference Component: Technics EAH-TZ700 Earphones
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 January 2021 01 January 2021
In Brent Butterworth’s review of the Technics EAH-TZ700 earphones, which appeared on SoundStage! Solo in October, he highlighted that they “employ an unusual design that almost no one uses, and that’s for very good reason. From an engineering standpoint, it makes a lot of sense. But from a marketing standpoint . . . not so much.” Brent went on to explain how “the design packs a single driver into a tiny enclosure made from highly non-resonant material,” which, he said, “adds no significant resonance of its own” and, due to its small size, negates the “need for a long or twisty soundtube between the driver and your eardrum.” The result, Brent summed up, has the listener “hearing the driver and almost nothing else.”
The 2020 SoundStage! Network Products of the Year—in One or Two Sentences
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 15 December 2020 15 December 2020
It’s that time of year again. We are pleased to announce our annual SoundStage! Network Products of the Year, which have been selected from the Reviewers’ Choice products reviewed in 2020 on one of our sites: SoundStage! Access, SoundStage! Hi-Fi, SoundStage! Simplifi, SoundStage! Solo, SoundStage! Ultra, or SoundStage! Xperience.
Kinki Studio EX-M1+ Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 December 2020 15 December 2020
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio Electronics Lab, click this link.
I’ve reviewed a slew of exceptional integrated amplifiers in the last few years, from the likes of such well-known companies as Anthem, Cambridge Audio, Hegel Music Systems, Lyngdorf Audio, NAD, and Naim Audio. But this latest integrated to arrive is made by Kinki Studio, a Chinese company I’d never heard of. I didn’t know what to expect when Jeff Fritz contacted me about reviewing the EX-M1+, but what Kinki themselves say about it on their website made it seem at least promising. Later, when we posted a picture of the EX-M1+ on the SoundStage! Network’s Instagram feed, I was surprised by how many likes and positive comments it got from those familiar with it.
We Are 25 Years Old — And Some Other Things You Might Not Know About the SoundStage! Network
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 December 2020 01 December 2020
November was going to be a really big month for us — it marked the 25th anniversary of the SoundStage! Network. But with all the COVID-19 lockdowns around the world, resulting in people being cooped up in their homes, businesses shutting down, travel being restricted, and events being canceled, we decided to postpone all the plans we had made for celebrations until next year. However, I still think it’s worth marking the milestone here this month by highlighting a few interesting things about our founding that many people — including most of our writers, since I’m the only person who’s been here from the beginning — don’t know.
Musical Fidelity M8xi Integrated Amplifier-DAC
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 December 2020 01 December 2020
A couple years ago, Musical Fidelity was bought by Audio Tuning Vertriebs GmbH of Austria, which is owned by Heinz Lichtenegger, a cordial and respected industry veteran who founded and is CEO of Pro-Ject Audio Systems. At the time, a news release stated, “The future vision for Musical Fidelity is to grow with new products and push into new markets, while still retaining the sound quality, reliability and striking industrial design that helped make the brand such an influential part in the annals of hi-fi history.”
