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AVID HiFi Acutus Dark Iron Turntable, Nexus Tonearm, and Ionic Cartridge

Written by: Jonathan Gorse
Category: Full-Length Reviews
Created: 01 January 2025

Reviewers' ChoiceFor more than 25 years, the AVID Acutus has been regarded as one of the world’s finest turntables. A brainchild of Conrad Mas, who heads AVID HiFi to this day, the fundamental design of the Acutus has remained largely unchanged since its introduction in 1999: a heavy subchassis and 10kg platter hung from three sprung suspension turrets held in position by elastomeric bands and driven by an AC motor via twin rubber belts. Of course, the Acutus line of turntables and associated power supplies have undergone many refinements over the years.

Read more …

Mitmat Foundation Premium and the Downside of Streaming

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 December 2024

Streaming is insidious

For years I kept my digital and analog systems completely separate. My big rig in the basement was analog and the smaller system on the main floor was digital only, running off a Squeezebox Touch. The main-floor system saw the most use in our house—it provided the music to our life for Marcia and me. For years she would get up earlier in the morning than I would, and she’d play John Zorn’s Alhambra Love Songs, Brian Eno’s Music for Airports, or The Plateaux of Mirror by Brian Eno and Harold Budd. I’d walk downstairs a half hour later and encounter an accidental renaissance scene. The lights dimmed way down, the gas fireplace casting a warm glow, and Marcia on the couch with the dog, writing in her journal.

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King Crimson Across Two Continents

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: Opinion
Created: 01 December 2024

I don’t get out much these days. COVID did a bit of a number on me, forcing me inward, making me reclusive. Used to be I’d ride my motorcycle to work 25 miles each way, dicing with traffic, then go out for lunch, and out for beers afterward. I had a social life, a social circle. Working from home did away with all of that.

Read more …

Bowers & Wilkins 801 D4 Signature Loudspeaker

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: Full-Length Reviews
Created: 01 December 2024

Reviewers' ChoiceClose your eyes and picture a chair. This image in your mind is the ideal of a chair, of how a chair should look. The Platonic conception of a chair. That chair may not exist in the real world, but it’s what you think a chair should look like.

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Keith Monks Prodigy Plus Record-Cleaning Machine

Written by: Jonathan Gorse
Category: Full-Length Reviews
Created: 15 November 2024

Reviewers' ChoiceOrigins

The vinyl era dates back to 1948, when Columbia Records issued the very first 33rpm LP, a recording of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, with soloist Nathan Milstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Bruno Walter. But it wasn’t until the mid-1960s that the challenge of keeping records clean was seriously addressed. That happened when Percy Wilson, then technical editor of the UK classical-music magazine Gramophone, wrote a series of papers on the subject for the Audio Engineering Society.

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Speaker Scenarios and Preparing for Warsaw

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: Opinion
Created: 01 November 2024

It’s getting tense here at Thorpe Manor. As I begin writing this editorial on October 15, I’m getting set to cover Audio Video Show 2024, which starts on October 25, on location in Warsaw. It seems like just yesterday I was counting down three weeks until departure, which felt like plenty of time to get my editorial finished, wrap up a review, and pack at my leisure.

Read more …

European Audio Team Fortissimo S Turntable and F-Note Tonearm

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: Full-Length Reviews
Created: 01 November 2024

Reviewers' ChoiceAt Munich’s High End 2024, I spent an inordinate amount of time browsing the European Audio Team display. Their booth was encircled with turntables and tube electronics, two 20th-century technologies with which I’ve had a long-standing love affair. My relationship with EAT goes back eight years, to 2016, when I reviewed the company’s C-Major turntable. I got a real charge out of that ’table, out of its combination of visual low-slung elegance and excellent sound quality.

Read more …

Bury Me with These Analog Accessories

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: For the Record
Created: 15 October 2024

In the world of analog accessories, there are entire catalogs of stuff you didn’t know you needed. Of course, I know there’s a distinction between want and need. We humans really only need food, water, shelter, and companionship. A turntable is a want. Heck, any form of hi-fi is a want.

Read more …

Goodbye to an Old Friend

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Category: Opinion
Created: 01 October 2024

I’ve lived in the same house for 25 years. I’ve owned my motorcycle from new in 2007, and I bought the one before that new in 1990. Once I find something I like, I keep it longer than I should. Perhaps it’s inertia, or maybe it’s because I make shrewd buying decisions. Either way, I don’t let go easily.

Read more …

Simaudio Moon 891 Streaming Preamplifier

Written by: Aron Garrecht
Category: Full-Length Reviews
Created: 01 October 2024

Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.

Reviewers' ChoiceThe term “integrated product” can mean many things in the audio industry. In browsing through the North Collection of components on Simaudio’s website, you will find several integrated products differentiated by number-based identifiers, each positioned opposite its functional counterpart. The 641 integrated amplifier ($11,000, all prices in USD) and matching 681 streaming DAC ($12,000) are the most wallet-friendly products in the North Collection. The 700 series, comprising the 761 power amplifier ($14,000) and 791 streaming preamplifier ($16,000), delivers a step up in performance and complexity. The flagships are the 861 power amplifier ($22,000) and 891 streaming preamplifier ($25,000), the latter of which is the subject of this review.

Read more …

  1. Electrocompaniet AW 300 M Mono Power Amplifier
  2. Teaching Turntable Setup to an Analog Lightweight and the Next Generation
  3. Perlisten Audio R5t Loudspeaker
  4. Do What You Love! Setting Up a European Audio Team Turntable
  5. Hard Work or Humble Brag?
  6. Voodoo Labs Witchcraft Speaker Cable
  7. Charisma Audio Signature Two Moving-Coil Phono Cartridge
  8. What Happens When the Magic Smoke Escapes?
  9. Vertere Acoustics MG-1 Turntable
  10. Thales TTT-Compact II Turntable System

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