The Latest Features
Why I Prefer Vinyl
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- Written by Jason Thorpe Jason Thorpe
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 August 2020 01 August 2020
“You could tell a lot about a man by the books he keeps -- his tastes, his interest, his habits.”
-- Walter Benjamin, Illuminations: Essays and Reflections
Dr. Feickert Analogue Volare Turntable
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- Written by Jason Thorpe Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 August 2020 01 August 2020
Right now, two turntables sit side by each on my custom double-wide equipment rack. On the right is my VPI Prime Signature, and to the left is a newcomer, Dr. Feickert Analogue’s Volare. Each is illuminated by its own 3000K potlight. They look quite dramatic.
What Is Your Current Reference System?
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- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 August 2020 01 August 2020
After “Which component should I buy?” the most oft-asked question of reviewers is: “What is your current reference system?” Both are loaded requests because of myriad implications. Most obvious is the suspicious thought related to the first demand: Why did he/she recommend Product X and not Y or Z? As for the second query, your nagging doubt is, How can a schmuck like you afford Product X, Y, or Z?
Recommended Reference Component: Focal Utopia Headphones
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 August 2020 01 August 2020
When Tyll Hertsens reviewed Focal’s Utopia headphones in August 2016, that former editor of Inner|Fidelity called them the “World’s Best Headphone.” Wanting to hear how, four years later, they’d stack up against his own current favorite headphones, our own Brent Butterworth reviewed the Utopias in June 2020 for SoundStage! Solo. We’re glad he did. He ended that review by asking, then answering, a question: “Are the Utopias the ‘world’s best headphones’ like others have claimed? No -- well, not now, at least -- but they are among the world’s best headphones.” (Brent’s italics.)
PMC Fact.8 Signature Loudspeakers
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- Written by Jason Thorpe Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 July 2020 15 July 2020
Here in Toronto, Ontario, we live in a small community of nine townhouses set back from the main road in a private cul-de-sac. We each have our own parking spots, and from our kitchen table I have an unobstructed view of our courtyard. The cars out front are mostly what you’d expect to see: a couple of Honda CR-Vs, three Subarus, a Hyundai, an Audi, a BMW -- with one outlier. One day last summer, my next-door neighbor Felix pulled in driving an Aston Martin Vantage. Just like that, our cul-de-sac’s property values went up by 15% -- or so I like to think. Felix has put an abrupt stop to any attempts at one-upmanship in the car department. He’s trumped us all.
Bryston's Benchmark -- the 4B Power Amplifier
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 July 2020 01 July 2020
Last month, Jeff Fritz conducted a SoundStage! Talks video interview with Bryston Ltd.’s VPs of marketing and sales, respectively James Tanner and Gary Dayton. Mostly they talked about Bryston’s Cubed series of amplifiers, now comprising nine models that range in power output from the 2.5B³ stereo amp’s 135Wpc ($4295, all prices USD) to the 28B³ monoblock’s 1000W ($24,390/pair). The Cubed line includes the B135³ integrated amplifier, which costs $6695-$8195 depending on the options selected (e.g., a DAC and phono stage) and is specified to output 135Wpc.
Vivid Audio Giya G2 Series 2 Loudspeakers
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 July 2020 01 July 2020
On a recent trip to the UK, I interviewed Laurence Dickie, Vivid Audio’s cofounder and chief designer. He told me that every Vivid loudspeaker is an extension of his work at Bowers & Wilkins, where he was employed from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s. His work there culminated, in 1993, with B&W’s revolutionary Nautilus loudspeaker, which Dickie had begun designing in the late ’80s. As a testament to how advanced the Nautilus was in its day, consider this: B&W still makes it.
Triangle's Borea BR03 Loudspeaker Sounds (Mostly) Spectacular
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: System One System One
- Created: 01 July 2020 01 July 2020
Of the reviews we’ve recently published, I was most intrigued by Diego Estan’s May 1 writeup of Triangle’s Borea BR03 loudspeaker, on SoundStage! Access. Of particular appeal was what he described as an “open, airy, lively midrange that was smooth yet rich, and with inviting tonality.” He concluded: “In these ways, the BR03’s midrange reminded me of that of my reference Focal Sopra No1s.” That’s high praise for a speaker costing just $549/pair (all prices USD) -- his Focals cost $9990/pair, more than 18 times the Triangles’ price -- and makes the Borea BR03 a perfect candidate for “System One,” my column devoted to budget gear.
Hi-Fi Shops: The Death Rate Continues
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- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 July 2020 01 July 2020
While I can only speak for the UK -- every country is reacting differently to the relaxing of the lockdown -- I must admit to a newfound pessimism about the future of all retail, but especially hi-fi. Stores in the UK deemed “non-essential,” which includes anything other than pharmacies or supermarkets, reopened on June 15th, but shopping in 2020 is (1) hellish due to limited numbers allowed in-store so one has to queue, the 6' distancing, and wearing masks, and (2) unsustainable for something like hi-fi, where you don’t just enter a shop, pick up what you need, pay, and depart.
Recommended Reference Component: Rockport Technologies Avior II Loudspeakers
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 July 2020 01 July 2020
Located in South Thomaston, Maine, Rockport Technologies is a boutique audio manufacturer known for the tremendous attention they pay to every detail of their loudspeakers. As revealed in a SoundStage! Shorts video featuring president Josh Clark, every Rockport speaker is thoroughly checked before leaving their shop to ensure that its finish is flawless; its acoustical output is listened to and measured, and its crossover is tweaked, until its sound duplicates, as closely as possible, the sound of that model’s prototype. Rockport is not a high-volume manufacturer.
