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High End 2023 Listening Session: ESD Acoustic’s Biggest System in the World
- Details
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
Are you not entertained? Is it a spectacle you want? Well, ESD Acoustic, a new-to-me company that’s just thrilled to tell you it’s from China, presented a truly over-the-top spectacle at High End 2023. In all my days, I’ve never seen anything like this outrageous system. I mean, just look at this setup.
High End 2003 Listening Impression: Sonus Faber and McIntosh—Italian Elegance Meets American Muscle
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
Certain iconic products have become part of our cultural DNA. The Coca-Cola bottle. The Rolex Submariner watch. The Chanel N°5 bottle. The Ferrari 308.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Stenheim Alumine Two.Five Loudspeaker
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
Switzerland’s Stenheim used High End 2023 to launch the new Alumine Two.Five loudspeaker, which the company describes as “a passive two-way, floorstanding, high-performance speaker that incorporates the company’s essential design attributes in an elegant tower that adapts to most living spaces.” The Alumine Two.Five reportedly “builds on the simplicity of the original bookshelf Alumine Two, but with greater cabinet volume and double bass drivers for lower extension.”
High End 2023 Listening Session: Verity Audio, the Mint Meltaway of Audio
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
After sitting down in Verity Audio’s room, I realized within 15 seconds just how much I’ve missed listening to the company’s speakers. It’s been well over a decade since I reviewed a Verity speaker. It was the Amadis, back in 2010. That sealed my fate, as the Amadis was probably the most musically satisfying speaker I’d ever heard in my room.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Lyngdorf Audio Cue-100 Loudspeaker
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
For 20 years, Denmark’s Lyngdorf Audio has been making products that are both technically advanced and lifestyle-friendly—the latter meaning that interior designers might approve of using Lyngdorf components in the home. That can’t be said of all hi-fi brands.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Gryphon Audio Designs Diablo 333 Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
Denmark’s Gryphon Audio Designs is well known for massive class-A-biased power amplifiers that generate a lot of heat, take up a lot of space, and probably injure a lot of backs as buyers try to maneuver them into place. Examples include Gryphon’s flagship Apex stereo and monoblock power amplifiers. The stereo version of the Apex won a SoundStage! Network Product of the Year award in 2022.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Naim Audio Nait 50 Integrated Amplifier
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
I’ve been into audio since 1980. Since then, I’ve been aware of the Naim Audio brand, but I’ve never owned a Naim product—though I’ve been tempted to. Naim Audio has always had a fervid, almost cult-like following. People don’t seem to just buy Naim; they live Naim. I’m reminded of that whenever UK-based SoundStage! contributor Jonathan Gorse speaks of the brand. He owns several Naim components, including the Nait 1 integrated amplifier, which the company released in 1983 and just refurbished for Jonathan. Never having owned a Naim component, I can’t quite understand this fervor, but it’s something I kind of envy.
High End 2023 Listening Session: YG Acoustics Ascent Loudspeakers and My Horrible Hangover
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
It had been a slow start to Friday morning. After dinner Thursday night, we’d made a tactical error and ended up at a bar with some industry folks. I proceeded to drink more than was strictly advisable given the early starts we had scheduled for ourselves. Doug Schneider is much more mature than I am when it comes to this sort of thing. He had one beer and then split, shooting a look of warning at me as he bellowed, “8:30 tomorrow in the hotel lobby. Right, Jason?”
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Diptyque DP 140 MKII Loudspeaker
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
France’s Diptyque showed the new DP 140 MKII in one of High End’s hall-area displays on the main floor. Priced at €14,000 per pair and measuring 55″H × 19″W × 1.85″D, the DP 140 MKII is a ribbon-based design described by the company as being part of “a new generation of isodynamic speakers designed for music lovers.” Frankly, the beauty of this tall, wide, shallow speaker might be in the eye of the beholder, but I think it looks really good. It could dress up an appropriate living room with its lithe, modern look.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: PMC Prodigy1 and Prodigy5 Loudspeakers
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
At High End, companies usually showcase very expensive products. But at High End 2023, the focus of UK-based Professional Monitor Company, aka PMC, was affordability.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Sonus Faber Stradivari G2 Loudspeaker
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
When covering events like High End, we hardly ever include products that are being displayed away from the show itself. It takes too much time to visit offsite exhibits, which means we’d shortchange the event we’re supposed to be covering.
High End 2023 Listening Session: Marten and Engström Present Speakers in Tuxedos
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
If you’re ever feeling too comfortable in your life, if you ever wanna be overwhelmed for a spell, nip on over to Germany and spend a morning walking around Munich’s High End show. It’s huge—way bigger than any show I’ve ever experienced. I’m on audio overload.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: NAD Masters M66 Streaming DAC-Preamplifier
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
In the weeks leading up to High End, many companies send out press releases describing the products they’ll be unveiling at the show. I try to look at every press release, though I sometimes miss a few. But the one that jumped out at me the moment it arrived came from NAD, announcing the Masters M66 streaming DAC-preamplifier. The M66 is priced at €5999 and will be available this fall.
High End 2023 Listening Session: DALI Epikore 11—the Sensible Trickle-Down
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
Last year I spent a week visiting Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries (DALI), one of the world’s largest manufacturers of hi-fi speakers. DALI had invited a group of journalists to Denmark to tour its factory and gain detailed insight into the design and construction of its flagship Kore loudspeaker.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Estelon Aura Loudspeaker
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
Since its founding in 2010, Estonia-based Estelon has focused on making sculpture-like speakers where form and function appear to be on an equal footing. According to CEO Alissa Vassilkova, this form-and-function approach has been guided by her father, chief designer Alfred Vassilkov. From the beginning, his goal has been to make speakers that look and sound beautiful. Estelon’s latest speaker is the Aura, which was announced a few months ago. As far as I know, High End 2023 was its first public showing. It sells for €17,500 per pair.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Crystal Cable Minissimo Forte Loudspeaker
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
Holland’s Crystal Cable is well known among audiophiles for its thin, attractive interconnects, speaker cables, and power cords. It’s the sister brand of Siltech, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. But although much younger, Crystal Cable has enjoyed astonishing success during its 19-year history.
High End 2023 Introduction: Like a Magpie to a Shiny Stone
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
Have you ever looked in the window of a bar and watched people dancing? Without hearing the music? It’s creepy to watch, sort of like human versions of those weird-ass birds of paradise you see on nature shows, doing nutty dances while the female bird watches intently from a nearby twig. We’re not far removed from the simpler animals. We build fences to protect our territory from intruders. We dress up and work out to attract mates.
High End 2023 Introduction: A New Less-Is-More Approach
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- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
As I’m typing this, I’m in Munich, Germany, and it’s one day before High End 2023 opens. The show will run May 18 to 21.
Audio Show East 2023
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- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: Audio Show East 2023
Audio Show East 2023 took place over the final weekend in April. The event was organized by Signals Hi-Fi, a well-known British audio store located in a converted church in Trimley St. Mary, Suffolk, England. This year marks the store’s 30th anniversary. The show was held in the modern facilities of Trinity Park on the outskirts of Ipswich. This large showground normally plays host to vast agricultural shows for farmers and traders, so access and parking were a breeze for hi-fi manufacturers and punters alike.
Thom’s Top Turntables Today
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- Written by: Thom Moon
- Category: Thom Moon
The past two years have been great for me, as a reviewer, having had the opportunity to audition a good number of fine turntables, from entry level to the top of SoundStage! Access’s purview. (You can find my turntable reviews on SoundStage! Access almost every month.) For this posting, I revisited my reviews for the past two years, selected the finest examples of the science and art embodied in high-value turntables, and summarized my findings in reverse order of preference.
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