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JE Audio HP20 Phono Stage
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- Written by Oliver Amnuayphol Oliver Amnuayphol
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 June 2018 15 June 2018
With LPs on a seemingly endless comeback streak -- 2017 marks the 12th straight year of sales growth, according to Nielsen SoundScan’s figures, as reported in Billboard -- the demand for vinyl-related gear seems to have concomitantly increased: Turntables abound, with more models at more price points available than ever before. The number of available phono stages seems higher still, in a market well populated by less-well-known, specialty audio firms offering quality hi-fi at less-than-stratospheric prices. Among these is JE Audio.
The Best of Munich's High End 2018 -- Under €10,000
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 June 2018 01 June 2018
Exploring High End 2018 throughout all four days of the show (May 10-13) with five other SoundStage! Network reporters -- the biggest team we’ve ever sent to Munich, Germany, where the show is held each year -- I could have sworn that the 2018 edition was High End’s biggest show yet, based on the many new products introduced. But on May 23, when the High End Society released the statistics for HE2018, there were some surprises: totals of 530 exhibitors and 19,899 visitors, which respectively represent drops of 2% and 7% from HE2017. It reminded me that perception and reality don’t always coincide.
Anthem STR Integrated Amplifier-DAC
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- Written by Roger Kanno Roger Kanno
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 June 2018 01 June 2018
Anthem began as a line of less-expensive audio electronics made by Canadian manufacturer Sonic Frontiers, which in the 1990s was known for its tubed components. In 1998, Sonic Frontiers was acquired by loudspeaker manufacturer Paradigm, and in the years since has built a strong reputation primarily based on their solid-state power amplifiers and their AVM and D series of audio/video processors, and eventually the Sonic Frontiers name was replaced with Anthem. While there have been a few Anthem stereo components over the years -- e.g., the budget-oriented TLP preamplifier, Integrated 225 integrated amplifier, the formidable P2 power amplifier (still in production), and, of course, their original tubed components, I would say that Anthem has never been considered much of a player in the high-end stereo market.
Munich's Mini-Tapefest
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- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 June 2018 01 June 2018
Much as I love saying “I told you so!” I will resist crowing about what transpired at the recent Munich High End show. It was only a mini-tapefest, not a veritable flood, but I saw enough reel-to-reel machines and pre-recorded tapes to be able to argue that the format -- if not back so strongly that Maxell, BASF, TDK, et al., are reopening their factories for it -- is enjoying enough of a renaissance to create a dependable cult.
Recommended Reference Component: T+A Elektroakustik PA 3100 HV Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 June 2018 01 June 2018
As Jeff Fritz pointed out in in his May 2018 review of T+A Elektroakustik’s PA 3100 HV for SoundStage! Ultra, it bucks the current trend of including in an integrated amplifier such features as digital-to-analog conversion, network connectivity, and streaming. The stock PA 3100 HV ($23,500 USD) doesn’t even have a phono stage -- though you can add an optional internal moving-magnet/moving-coil stage ($1600). As Jeff stated in his review, “The PA 3100 HV focuses on preamplifying and amplifying, period.” And those things it does extraordinarily well.
Paradigm Prestige 15B Loudspeakers
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- Written by Jeff Stockton Jeff Stockton
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 15 May 2018 15 May 2018
Note: Measurements taken in the anechoic chamber at Canada's National Research Council can be found through this link.
Paradigm’s Prestige series is near the center of the Canadian company’s wide range of loudspeaker lines, slotted between the Persona models and the new Premier series. In Paradigm’s model-naming system, B stands for bookshelf: The Prestige 15B costs $799 USD each, while the Persona B goes for $3500 each, and the Premier 200B for $599 each.
Muraudio's SP1 Loudspeaker -- Way Outside the Box Again
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- Written by Doug Schneider Doug Schneider
- Category: Monthly Column Monthly Column
- Created: 01 May 2018 01 May 2018
How Muraudio’s new SP1 loudspeaker ($14,700 USD per pair) came to be is probably best summarized by the old adage “Necessity is the mother of invention.” The SP1 was one of the five products I wrote about last month, in “The Best of Montreal Audio Fest 2018.” However, the interesting commercial and technical stories behind it deserve more than the few words I gave it in that editorial, especially when those stories are about a brand I thought wouldn’t last more than a couple of years.
Simaudio Moon 240i Integrated Amplifier-DAC
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- Written by Philip Beaudette Philip Beaudette
- Category: Full-Length Equipment Reviews Full-Length Equipment Reviews
- Created: 01 May 2018 01 May 2018
In 2007, I reviewed Bryston’s B100 SST integrated amplifier. In its base configuration it was simply an integrated amplifier, but it could be outfitted with an onboard digital-to-analog converter and moving-magnet phono stage. At the time, it was easily the best-sounding amplification I’d ever heard, and I admired the fact that with the optional DAC and phono stage it could perform so many functions without the additional cables and space that separates would require. When I finished university and started working, I saved my money, and about a year later purchased a fully equipped B100 SST.
Franco-phile
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- Written by Ken Kessler Ken Kessler
- Category: SoundStage! UK SoundStage! UK
- Created: 01 May 2018 01 May 2018
As one grows older and witnesses the passing of one’s mentors, there’s a sense of deprivation not a million miles removed from the loss of a parent. No mentor, however influential, can provide the same impact as those who brought you up from birth to adulthood, but the specificity of a mentor’s guidance in his or her area of expertise can attain similar importance to, say, your mother teaching you how to roast a chicken, or your father showing you how to get that dimple in your necktie.
Recommended Reference Component: Constellation Audio Revelation Taurus Mono Amplifiers
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- Written by SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors SoundStage! Hi-Fi Editors
- Category: Components Components
- Created: 01 May 2018 01 May 2018
With its ability to output more than 500W into 8 ohms, and so stable it can be used to drive almost any speaker load, Constellation Audio’s Revelation Taurus Mono amplifier ($39,000 USD per pair) would impress many with its muscle alone. But it wasn’t its prodigious power-output capabilities that most impressed Doug Schneider when he reviewed the Taurus Monos for SoundStage! Hi-Fi in December 2017; instead, it was the superbness of their sound at volume levels of very low to very high, as well as how they “took hold” of each of the three pairs of speakers he used them with -- GoldenEar Technology Triton Reference, Dynaudio Special Forty, and Revel Ultima2 Salon2 -- and “made them sound their best.”
