Canton Vento Reference 5 DC Speakers ($10,000) on Ultra Audio

Monday, September 1, 2008

Ultra Audio, a site that focuses on the high-end of the hi-fi spectrum, has reviewed the Canton Vento Reference 5 DC speakers ($10,000/pair) and designated them a “Select Component.” Here’s an excerpt of what reviewer Albert Bellg had to say about these “delicious” German floorstanders:

Few of the audio components that have come through my listening room have given me as much pleasure. There are many words to describe the 5 DC, but ultimately, it’s not about words. The musical food this speaker serves up is just delicious — sit back and enjoy.

Read the entire review, and check out the great new opinion piece by Jeff Fritz on the perils of excessive tweaking.

TONEAudio Posts New Reviews, Articles

Friday, August 29, 2008

TONEAudio published another 145 pages of audiophile goodness today. In addition to music and lifestyle features, it includes a whole slew of equipment reviews and articles. Here are just some of the items covered:

  • Manley Massive passive equalizer ($6,000)
  • Lehmann Black Cube SE phono preamp ($1,050)
  • Mystére ia21 integrated amp ($2,999)
  • Stirling LS3/5a V2 speakers ($1,795/pair)
  • Channel Islands VDA-2 DAC ($599)
  • Nagra VPS phono stage ($5,995-7,490)
  • Audio Research PH7 phono preamp ($5,995)

TONEAudio publishes their issues in PDF format, which results in a slick magazine-style layout but a potentially cumbersome download process. At 41 MB, the issue may take a couple of minutes to download completely.

Get the entire issue (41MB PDF), or check out the list of gear reviewed in previous issues.

HIFICRITIC Condenses 25 Years of Reviews on Four Web Pages

Friday, August 29, 2008

HIFICRITIC has been around for only a couple of years, but its publisher, Martin Colloms, has been at it for more than two decades. Having written hundreds of in-depth reviews for magazines such as Stereophile and Hi-Fi News, Martin’s knowledge of hi-fi gear is both deep and rich.

To find out how all the components Martin reviewed compare to one another would involve a good deal of reading. Lucky for us, Martin created the Colloms Sound Quality Archive. It rates components by showing “comparative sound quality ratings” based on Martin’s own relative scaling system (it goes to 120!).

See the four categories in the Colloms archive here:

  1. Power Amplifiers
  2. Preamplifiers
  3. CD Players
  4. Integrated Amplifiers

Do you want to hear more from Martin and his crew at HIFICRITIC? You’ll have to pay for it. The British bi-monthly journal is print-only, ad-free, and costs over $100 for a year subscription (slightly less for UK and EU residents). Editor Paul Messenger explained the high subscription cost in a recent editorial:

It’s certainly true that plenty of magazines out there on the internet apparently offer hi-fi advice for free. But in my opinion you get what you pay for, and our freedom from advertising revenue and pressure inevitably means that the magazine must be wholly funded by its subscribers.

Learn more about the Colloms Sound Quality Archive, and check out HIFICRITIC.

Enjoy the Music.com Lists 20 Best Hi-Fi Products of 2008

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Online powerhouse Enjoy the Music.com released its “Best Of 2008 Blue Note Equipment Awards” today.  Winners were chosen from the 150 products the publication reviewed since September, 2007. A few winners include:

The list also includes several “Budget Beaters”:

Read the entire list, then read an article about the list (?).

Stereophile Revisits the Subjectivist vs. Objectivist Debate

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The debate between audio subjectivists and audio objectivists has been raging for decades. Discussions on the subject of double blind testing (DBT), in particular, are often so nasty and fruitless that some audio forums have banned them altogether.

Stereophile‘s John Atkinson has been beating this dead horse on the part of subjectivists for some time now. Here is an excerpt from his newly republished 1991 column, “Subjective Fact or Objective Fantasy?”:

If you want to know what a component sounds like, just listen. If the system doesn’t detract from the music’s emotional content, if it allows the music to “raise goosebumps,” as Stereophile’s founder J. Gordon Holt has phrased it on many an occasion, you’re on to something good.

Read the entire article, then read this 496-post thread on the subject (or not).

Oracle Delphi Turntable Flashback on Stereophile

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Stereophile continues the admirable practice of posting selected older reviews to it’s online archive. This is useful because: A) older equipment is still being sold on the used market, and B) older reviews are just as valuable as new ones when taken in the context of the time in which they were originally written.

In addition to posting older individual reviews, Stereophile is also stringing together older reviews of multiple versions of the same component. This is interesting because it shows how the product evolved, and how it compared to similar products at each step in the process.

Here is what Anthony H. Cordesman had to say about the Oracle Delphi Mk.II turntable back in 1986:

The Oracle Delphi Mk.II ($1250) is both a turntable and work of art. It is a visually stunning product, retaining a level of styling that, in my view, has never been equalled by any other audio component. It also adds enough sonic improvements to the original Delphi that it ranks close to the VPI HW-19, and is superior, in naturalness of sound quality, to the SOTA Star Sapphire.

And Thomas J. Norton on the Mk.IV back in 1991:

Using a variety of arms and cartridges, my general impression of the sound of the Oracle Delphi Mk.IV is that it is detailed, tight, quick, and has excellent clarity with a definite tendency to resist sounding in any way veiled, thick, or heavy. Or perhaps I should say that it permits the best arm/cartridge combinations to sound this way.

And Michael Fremer on the Mk.V back in 1997:

The new Oracle offered outstanding image focus and stability, and a very quiet ride—a very low noise floor combined with finely scaled dynamic gradations. The ‘table’s high-frequency performance was smooth yet detailed, indicative of outstanding speed stability and effective energy transfer from the motor to the platter.

Read the full set of Oracle Delphi reviews, or check out the complete list of turntable reviews in the Stereophile review database.

TIME Magazine and the Audiophilia “Disease”

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

CNET blogger Steve Guttenberg thinks TIME magazine may have been joking when it published its article on “Audiophilia” as a disease back in 1957. Here’s an excerpt from the original story:

What distinguishes the psychopathological addict from the enthusiastic followers of this (or any other) hobby? Dr. Bowes answered: “His tendency to become preoccupied with, and dependent upon, the bizarre recorded sounds . . . combined with the urgency of the need and the final insufficiency of all attempts to satisfy it … The sound is turned up and up until it reaches the physical level of pain . . . One addict told me he would not be satisfied until he could hear the drop of saliva from the French horns.”

Sounds about right to me! Read the entire TIME article, and check out Steve Guttenberg’s post about it.

HOLFI Power 150 Power Amp ($2,500) Review on Audio Asylum

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Audio Asylum inmate Tone! has written a rather extensive review of the Power 150 power amp from Danish company, HOLFI. According to the reviewer, this is a solid state, Class AB, stereo, zero feedback, 150W power amp that retails for NZ$3,500 (approx. US$2,500). Here’s an excerpt:

So my quest to replace my beloved single ended triode power amplifiers with a solid state cousin has drawn to a close.

Our living-room now enjoys absolute system silence at idle so I am able to leave the HOLFI fully-powered 24/7. This ensures that it is always warm, willing and able to please; and I’m not wasting electricity nor heating the room in the process.

Purchasing the HOLFI has completely removed the amplifier maintenance factor too. No more costly tube replacements or biasing duties required here. Yet combined with my tubed preamplifier, the HOLFI has preserved that special bloom, intimacy and spaciousness for which tube amplifiers are justifiably legend.

Read the entire review and check out the resulting backlash in the follow ups.

JohnBlue JB3 Speakers ($350) Review on StereoMojo

Monday, August 25, 2008

StereoMojo‘s Russ Gates says this about the diminutive JohnBlue JB3 single-driver speaker ($350/pair):

So what is the JB3 in a nutshell? It’s the full range driver speaker for the audiophile that hates full range drivers. I’ve heard back-loaded Fostek, Lowther, etc etc. I’ve built the ‘gimmie’ ratshack 40-1354 5.25 inch full range drivers in a tuned quarter wave. They all did some things very well, but nothing overall in spades. The JB3 shines in the near field and I would ecstatically recommend it for a computer, office, or spare room rig. Pair them together with a subwoofer that has a brick wall crossover around 80hz, and really open them up. The JohnBlue JB3 offers what others in its category don’t – USEABLE bass response, and believable top end extension.

Read the entire review at StereoMojo. Also see David Kan’s review on 6moons.com and Geoff Husband’s review on TNT-Audio.

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