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North West Audio Show: Day 1
- Details
- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: North West Audio Show 2023
It’s not often one gets to spend the weekend listening to some of the world’s best audio systems in an Elizabethan-style manor house built in 1828, surrounded by Doric columns and illuminated by glorious chandeliers. It’s not often that one enters a hi-fi show by walking Oscars-style up a red carpet before getting personally greeted by the organizer and receiving a perfectly chilled glass of fizz from a silver platter. But that was my experience entering the North West Audio Show, which was held June 17–18 at the De Vere Cranage Hall Estate in Cheshire, England.
Audia Flight and Alare—Huge Sound from a Small Team
- Details
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Audia Flight/Alare, May 26, 2023
I found it somewhat challenging to get a handle on the town of Civitavecchia, which is about an hour southeast of Rome. On the one hand, it has a sleepy, small-town feel—lots of narrow streets lined with cafes and restaurants, exuding charm and quiet, old-world sophistication. But Civitavecchia is also a major port that services Rome. I saw two enormous cruise ship monstrosities moored just offshore, out of which poured waves of tourists whom the locals seemed to bear with admirable patience.
Gold Note—Dreaming in Tuscany
- Details
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Gold Note, May 24-25, 2023
Following the Unison Research and Opera Loudspeaker factory tour, the Fidelity Imports caravan pulled into the Santa Maria Novella train station in downtown Florence on late Tuesday afternoon of the week after the High End Show in Munich. After a short tram ride, we were met by Ottavio Marino Cerrato, Tom Dolfi, and Alice Zoppi, Gold Note’s graceful, stylish, and friendly representatives. We traveled along some of the twistiest one-lane mountain roads I’ve ever experienced, up an ear-popping circuitous route that devolved into a rough dirt track. The end game was the classically marvelous Le Fonti a San Giorgio “farmstay” villa. I melted into a puddle as I soaked up the twilight views of hillsides layered with vineyards, cypress trees, and flowering honeysuckle.
Opera Loudspeakers and Unison Research—Slow Down and Eat
- Details
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Opera Loudspeakers/Unison Research, May 22-23, 2023
As is my wont, I woke up early on my first morning in Treviso, Italy. My presence here, an extension of my week in Munich covering High End 2023, was arranged by Steve Jain of Fidelity Imports. A US distributor of high-end audio gear, Fidelity represents Opera Loudspeakers, Unison Research, Gold Note, and Audia Flight—all of which I’d be visiting over the course of the week, along with several other journalists and one dealer. Jain had arranged this trip so that we could gain some familiarity with these Italian brands.
Yamaha’s R-N2000A Network Receiver: Beautiful Old-School Amplification Meets Thoroughly Modern Streaming
- Details
- Written by: Roger Kanno
- Category: Roger Kanno
When I first heard from Yamaha Canada about its yet-to-be-released integrated amplifier with an integral DAC and streaming capabilities over a year ago, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. All of the previous models in the company’s four-digit series of high-end integrated amplifiers and preamplifiers have been all-analog affairs requiring an outboard DAC or optical disc player for digital playback. Case in point, the gorgeous A-S3200 integrated amplifier I reviewed a couple of years ago. While I loved the sound of the A-S3200, including its fabulous MM/MC phono stage and its absolutely stunning cosmetics and build quality, I lamented its lack of an internal DAC.
High End 2023 Trophy Time: Products of the Year and Outstanding Achievement Awards for 2022 (and 2020)
- Details
- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
At the end of each year, the SoundStage! editors pick the best products based on the reviews that have appeared across our network of sites during the previous 12 months. This year, we created an award for Outstanding Achievement in the industry—and there were three people in 2022 who won.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Auris Audio Bayadere 5 Turntable and Hawk Tonearm
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
It’s not often I get stopped in my tracks by a turntable. I should qualify that statement a bit . . . I’m a cheap date, and any turntable that isn’t a rectangular slab of wood will give me horny pains. But that said, I’m quite capable of walking past most of the chrome and acrylic monstrosities without going ga-ga.
High End 2023 Listening Session: Rockport Technologies and Absolare—Fly to the Moon in Luxury
- Details
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
The Rockport Technologies and Absolare room was packed. Standing room only. This was Saturday, the first of two days during which High End was open to the public, and attendance seemed to have more than doubled. Thank heavens the COVID-19 emergency has officially ended because this would have been a superspreader event.
High End 2023 Product Coverage: Vitus Audio Signature Series SM-103 Mk.II Mono Amplifier and SD-025 Mk.II Digital-to-Analog Converter
- Details
- Written by: Doug Schneider
- Category: High End 2023
In the weeks leading up to a show like High End 2023, I research what new products have been announced and ask manufacturers to let me know what new products they’ll be displaying. I plan my initial coverage around products for which I’ve received advance information. Everything else I discover at the show is secondary.
High End 2023 Listening Session: AudioSolutions Rocks Out for a Reasonable Price!
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- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: High End 2023
For the first time ever, I got to listen to Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut at an audio show—on vinyl, no less. It impressed me that Gediminas Gaidelis, owner and engineer of AudioSolutions, had this LP buried in among the usual audiophile bumfluffery. Why more exhibitors don’t use this album in demos is beyond me.
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
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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
- Details
- 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.
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