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Gryphon Audio Designs Diablo 120 Integrated Amplifier-DAC
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- Written by Uday Reddy Uday Reddy
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 September 2018 15 September 2018
Note: Measurements can be found through this link.
The Gryphon. Just say it -- the name rolls regally off the tongue, sounding as mythical as it is. How do you live up to such a name? By producing audio components that look and sound beautiful. Gryphon Audio Designs’ reputation for excellent sound quality had for years been on my radar -- when offered the opportunity to review their Diablo 120 integrated amplifier-DAC ($15,450 USD as reviewed, with DAC option), I couldn’t say no.
A Feature-Rich, Fully Modern Hi-Fi System You Can Begin, Live, and Grow With -- for $926.95
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 September 2018 01 September 2018
In the last few years I’ve reviewed some very expensive hi-fi gear (all prices in USD): Constellation Audio’s Revelation Taurus Mono amps ($40,000/pair) and Revelation Pictor preamplifier with optional DC filter ($23,000); EMM Labs’ DA2 Reference digital-to-analog converter ($25,000); Muraudio’s SP1 speakers ($14,700/pair) -- and, still to come EMM Labs’ Pre preamplifier ($25,000) and MTRX2 monoblock ($85,000/pair).
T+A Elektroakustik DAC 8 DSD Digital-to-Analog Converter
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- Written by Erich Wetzel Erich Wetzel
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 September 2018 01 September 2018
Herford, a town in the lowlands of northern Germany, is the home of T+A Elektroakustik. T+A -- aka Theory and Application in the Field of Audio Technology -- is an engineering- and science-based, family-owned and -operated business that has been designing and building audio equipment in Germany since 1978, and collaborates with universities and technical schools in the design of powered speakers and digital signal processing (DSP). Other than the music itself, their current product lines include just about everything required for the reproduction of two-channel audio: turntables, media players, disc players, DACs, amplifiers, integrated amplifiers, loudspeakers, interconnects, speaker cables, power cords, and power strips.
Days of Future Past
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- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 September 2018 01 September 2018
Despite the best efforts of certain brands, and in the waning years of our beloved hobby/passion/industry, high-end audio remains one of precious few fields with zero respect for its history. There are museums for peanut butter, rubber bands, sex toys, and shoes, alongside the obvious motorcar, aviation, watch, and other museums. Hi-fi’s lack of regard for its own achievements isn’t simply a disappointment; it’s a worry.
Recommended Reference Component: Simaudio Moon 888 Mono Amplifiers
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 September 2018 01 September 2018
Each measuring 22”W x 14”H x 27”D and weighing 230 pounds, and priced at $118,888 USD per pair, the Simaudio Moon 888 mono amplifier is as big and heavy as it is expensive and powerful. Simaudio says it can deliver at least 888W into 8 ohms or 1776W into 4 ohms from a typical 120V, 15A power source. But it wasn’t all that power, size, weight, or cost that most impressed Aron Garrecht, who reviewed the Moon 888 this month on SoundStage! Ultra -- it was that “Their sound quality is beyond anything else I have heard.”
2018-2019 EISA Awards Video Introduction
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: General General
- Created: 15 August 2018 15 August 2018
Welcome to the first presentation of EISA’s product awards in which SoundStage! Hi-Fi has taken part. SoundStage! Hi-Fi became an EISA member in June 2018, and is the organization’s only Canadian member.
"SoundStage! Hi-Fi" Inducted into EISA
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 August 2018 01 August 2018
If you’re reading this article before August 15, you won’t see a new menu option on this site that says “EISA.” But on or after August 15, it will be there -- you’ll be able to click it and see submenu items, including one for the EISA 2018-2019 product-award winners, as well as another for an EISA-related video that we produced. But even if you’re reading this before August 15, at the top you’ll see EISA’s logo alongside our SoundStage! Hi-Fi logo, as well as elsewhere on our site.
Muraudio SP1 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 August 2018 01 August 2018
Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
My experiences with Muraudio’s new, unconventional, two-way, stand-mounted hybrid loudspeaker, the SP1, began last March in Montreal, where I saw and heard its debut at the Montreal Audio Fest. (A single hybrid speaker has drivers based on different technologies; in the SP1’s case, electrostatic and dynamic.) We covered the SP1 on SoundStage! Global during the show, and I included it in “The Best of Montreal Audio Fest 2018.” In May, impressed by the innovative ideas that had gone into the SP1’s design, I wrote and published “Muraudio’s SP1 Loudspeaker -- Way Outside the Box Again,” and promised a full review of the speaker in June.
Speaking of Sad Bastards
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- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 August 2018 01 August 2018
Unless one is an active member of an audiophile club, like the Boston Audio Society or a similar group, it’s easy to feel detached from anything approaching a “high-end culture.” Unless one works in the audio industry, whether manufacturer or retailer, regular contact with fellow hi-fi enthusiasts might be limited at best. Isolation is fine for components -- not so much for anything else.
Recommended Reference Component: Audio-Technica ATH-ADX5000 Headphones
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 August 2018 01 August 2018
When Brent Butterworth began listening to the Audio-Technica ATH-ADX5000 headphones for SoundStage! Solo (the review was published July 10), he was “skeptical” about them: “At first glance, they don’t really seem all that different from their stablemates,” he wrote -- and while he’d liked the sound of A-T’s previous open-back headphones, he hadn’t thought any were “world-class.” Also, at $1999 USD, the ATH-ADX5000s are more than three times the price of A-T’s next-most-expensive open-back headphones, the ATH-AD1000s, which “seems a stretch.” By the end of his review, Brent’s skepticism had vanished.
