The Latest Features
From Focal to the French Riviera—How I Was Floored Twice in France
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 December 2021 01 December 2021
For about 25 years, I’ve made it a point to visit every hi-fi company that will open its doors to me. Some of those companies—Paradigm Electronics, Axiom Audio, Simaudio, Totem Acoustic, Verity Audio, Benchmark Media Systems, Blue Circle Audio, Classé Audio (when its products were still made in Montreal), and the now defunct Audio Products International, to name a few I’ve been to—are or were about two to five hours from my home by car, so, by my standards, pretty much right next door. But others have required a plane trip—sometimes within North America, but oftentimes overseas—which I’m almost always happy to take.
KLH Model Five Loudspeakers
- Details
- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 December 2021 01 December 2021
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
In my “System One” column published on September 1, I wrote about KLH’s Albany II loudspeaker, which sells for just $299.99 per pair (all prices in USD). In that article, I described how the US brand was originally founded in 1957 as KLH Research and Development Corporation by Henry Kloss, Malcolm S. Low, and Josef Anton Hofmann. But after being sold in 1964 to Singer Corporation, the company went through additional sells and buys over the years to other entities—transactions I described as “messy,” because from the outside looking in, it sure seems that way. But in 2017, the KLH name was bought by David Kelley’s Kelley Global Brands and set up in Noblesville, Indiana, and I commented that this move brought it “stability.”
Ken Kessler's New Stereo System: Part Seven
- Details
- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 December 2021 01 December 2021
Before we get to the sound of the system we’ve been assembling over the past six months, a momentary pause. If the suspense is killing you, I’m afraid there’s no relief yet because, as much as I wanted to write about the system’s sound al fresco and sans accessories, sticking rigidly to the $6000 budget (plus or minus a few bucks), I found the system so capable and so revealing that its response to add-ons—e.g., upgrading the cables—became a distraction. The gains were too good to dismiss.
Recommended Reference Component: PSB Synchrony B600 Loudspeakers
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 December 2021 01 December 2021
Paul Barton, founder and chief designer of PSB Speakers, has been designing speakers of all shapes and sizes since 1972. That wealth of experience shows in the company’s latest offerings: the Synchrony T600, a floorstander priced at $7999/pair (all prices in USD), and the Synchrony B600, a standmounted design priced at $2499/pair. Optional stands for the B600 are available for $599/pair. Diego Estan reviewed a pair of B600s on this site last month and advised that readers shopping for standmounted speakers “absolutely must audition a pair of PSB Synchrony B600s,” because when they do, they’ll likely “see no reason to keep searching.”
PSB Synchrony B600 Loudspeakers
- Details
- Written by Diego Estan Diego Estan
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 November 2021 15 November 2021
Note: measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
The existence of PSB Speakers makes me feel proud to be Canadian. The company, founded in 1972 by Paul Barton, named after him and his wife, Sue, and now owned by the Lenbrook Group, is part of the long, rich history of Canadian speaker R&D—much of which took place at the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa, the city where I was born and still call home. But I also felt a bit embarrassed when PSB’s speakers came up in conversation, because, although I’d heard several models over the years, I think I’d only seriously listened to one pair in my own room, some 20 years ago! So, when I was recently offered the chance to review PSB’s new bookshelf speaker, the Synchrony B600 ($2499 per pair, all prices in USD), I jumped at the chance to remedy this noteworthy gap in my résumé as a reviewer.
Sonus Faber, Evolved—World-Class Loudspeaker Excellence in Italy
- Details
- Written by Douglas Schneider Douglas Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 November 2021 01 November 2021
Sonus Faber was founded in 1983 by Franco Serblin, in Vicenza, Italy, although Serblin, who left the company in 2008, had been making speakers prior to that. One of his most memorable creations, the Snail, debuted in 1980—an all-in-one satellite-subwoofer system named after the way it looked.
The Affordable All-in-One Streaming Solution that Surprises—Bluesound’s New Powernode
- Details
- Written by Douglas Schneider Douglas Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 November 2021 01 November 2021
I’m often the last stop for products that are sent to the SoundStage! Network for review. Normally, a review product is shipped direct to the assigned reviewer, who listens to it and writes it up, and then it gets shipped to me for photography and/or measurements. Typically, I also listen to a product before it goes back to the manufacturer or distributor, so I can get a feel for how it sounds.
Simaudio Moon 860A v2 Stereo/Mono Amplifier
- Details
- Written by Jason Thorpe Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 November 2021 01 November 2021
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click this link.
I’ve been a tube guy for much of my life, but I’ve always been acutely aware of the deficiencies of most tube amps—noisy, unreliable, hot, soggy-bottomed, and rolled-off up top. Why on earth would anyone want to listen to and own one of these liabilities? You can likely guess my rationale, right? It’s that magic middle that has always drawn me in. For most of my audiophile life, I’ve been willing to deal with the extensive support infrastructure that, by necessity, has to go along with the ownership of a tube amp—especially the vintage ones that always seem to end up between my speakers—in order to receive that lush midrange that only tubes can produce. Over the years, I’ve purchased a couple of solid-state amplifiers, but I’ve always sold them and gone back to tubes.
Ken Kessler's New Stereo System: Part Six
- Details
- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 November 2021 01 November 2021
By now, for those who have been following this project for the past five months, we have collected the four key components. For you who are new to this series, the idea was, for a number of reasons, to put together a single-source system for $6000 (please check the previous five columns for the full mission statement) with a singular proviso: that any item would survive when it came time to upgrade any other part of the chain.
Recommended Reference Component: Arcam SA30 Integrated Amplifier-DAC
- Details
- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 November 2021 01 November 2021
Priced at $3300 (in USD) and armed with a host of features, including an internal moving-magnet/moving-coil phono stage, a built-in high-resolution DAC, seven selectable digital filters, wired and wireless digital connectivity options, Dirac Live room correction, streaming functionality, and a headphone amp, the Arcam SA30 is one of the most versatile integrated amplifiers on the market. It’s also one of the best sounding in its price range, or even beyond. According to Roger Kanno in his October 2021 review of the SA30 on this site: “There isn’t another product I know of at this price point that does as much, or sounds as good while doing it.”
