Charisma Audio Signature Two Moving-Coil Phono Cartridge
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
We’re on an analog roll here at SoundStage! Ultra. In the past couple of months, we’ve reviewed the Thales TTT-Compact II turntable system and the matching X-quisite Voro cartridge, the Musical Fidelity M8xTT and Vertere Acoustics MG-1 turntables, and the Audio-Technica AT-ART20 cartridge. I’ve kept up the pace with the first installment of my VPI Prime Signature tonearm upgrade path and thrown in some analog love from European Audio Team.
What Happens When the Magic Smoke Escapes?
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Opinion
Ian, Andrew, and I were standing around at the dog park, chatting as we do each morning. Three boomer-adjacent white males, keeping one eye on the dogs to make sure they weren’t eating things they shouldn’t, although this was more my concern; my dog’s an idiot and will eat anything, including mud and dog shit.
Vertere Acoustics MG-1 Turntable
- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
In 2023 I visited Vertere Acoustics, a small London-based manufacturer of turntables and related products. The company was founded in 2006 by mechanical engineer and turntable designer Touraj Moghaddam after he separated from Roksan, a company he had cofounded some 20 years earlier. Roksan achieved early success with Moghaddam’s first turntable design, the Xerxes, which is still in production, after many iterations, and is still highly regarded.
Thales TTT-Compact II Turntable System
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
The Swiss know how to make high-quality, compact machines. They own the high-end automatic watch market, right? Every year, a Swiss manufacturer like Audemars Piguet brings out a new complication—movement—that contains even more parts, does more crazy computations, that never needs resetting for leap years, the orbit of Neptune, Easter, all that stuff. I own an Omega Speedmaster watch, and it doesn’t do any real tricks. It’s a NASA-approved chronograph, so I can time my steaks superbly to ensure they’re medium rare every time, but other than that, all it does is tell the time with great accuracy. I have seen this watch with the back cover removed, and there’s a whole world in there—gears, levers, springs—all manufactured with insane precision. Switzerland is the land of miniaturization.
A New Arms Race—Jason Gets Gimballed
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: For the Record
My VPI Prime Signature has been in my system for six years now, ever since I reviewed it back in 2018. After I finished the review, I agonized over my next steps. I’d owned a Pro-Ject RPM-series turntable since 2004, starting with the RPM 9, which I bought after I’d finished that review. Then came the RPM 10 in 2007, followed by the RPM 10 Carbon in 2017. Those turntables had made me an honest man three times over, and I really, really enjoyed my time with them.
Munich Exhaustion and EAT’s New Products
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Opinion
Show coverage is hard work, but sometimes we make it harder on ourselves.
This year marked my second visit to the High End audio show, which was held May 9–12 in the ginormous Munich Order Center (MOC) in Munich, Germany. This is one of the largest audio shows in the world, and by many accounts, the most important. Coming anywhere close to seeing the whole thing in the four days it’s open requires an Olympian effort. Last year, Doug Schneider and I attempted to cover the show on our own. While we went balls-out to do so, in the end, we felt that it would be a good idea to rope in another writer so we could do better justice to this massive exhibition.
Naim Audio NAP 350 Mono Amplifier
- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Note: for the full suite of measurements from the SoundStage! Audio-Electronics Lab, click here.
The NAP 350 is the third and final component of Naim Audio’s 300 series to be evaluated here on SoundStage! Ultra.
Naim has an illustrious history of amplifier manufacture, but the vast majority of its power amplifiers to date have been stereo designs. Perhaps the firm’s most famous mono power amplifier was the legendary NAP 135, which first emerged in 1984 and became established as a more powerful alternative to the stereo NAP 250. In active guise, a sextet of NAP 135s could be assembled into a magnificent “six-pack” active system to drive three-way speakers such as Naim’s cavernous DBL.
Audio-Technica AT-ART20 Moving-Coil Cartridge
- Written by: Jonathan Gorse
- Category: Full-Length Reviews
Design and development
In 1962, when The Beatles were raising the roof at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, Hideo Matsushita founded Audio-Technica in a small apartment in Japan. His first product, the AT-1 phono cartridge, received a warm reception and was quickly followed by the AT-3 and AT-5 moving-magnet designs. By the 1970s, Audio-Technica was the biggest manufacturer of phono cartridges in the world. With the advent of digital audio and the CD, the firm diversified into headphones and microphones, fearing the impending decline of vinyl. While vinyl sales did indeed fall, the firm continued producing an array of cartridges to suit all budgets. The resurrection of vinyl from its 1990s nadir has enabled A-T to continue to innovate and to grow its cartridge-manufacturing operation.
Shelly Manne & His Men: “At the Black Hawk, Vol. 1”
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Contemporary Records / Craft Recordings / Acoustic Sounds CR00601
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****½
Sound Quality: ****½
Overall Enjoyment: ****½
I’ve reviewed quite a few of the Contemporary Records / Acoustic Sounds vinyl reissues by Craft Recordings. It would be easy to just say, “Buy them. They sound great.” That would be true, but Craft has made it a point to reissue Contemporary Records LPs that deserve more recognition. Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section is well known, but André Previn’s take on West Side Story is perhaps less so. Craft has done jazz lovers a service by casting a wide net.
Read the Instructions! The Perils of Cartridge Setup
- Written by: Jason Thorpe
- Category: Opinion
It’s a failing of mine. I’m impatient. And even at this stage of my reviewing career, I’m still excited when I receive new gear. Combined, those two traits are a recipe for disaster.
- X-quisite Voro Moving-Coil Phono Cartridge
- Musical Fidelity M8xTT Turntable
- Bounce with Counce and Mat Matters
- The Hardest-Rocking Album Ever—“Van Halen” on Vinyl
- Naim Audio NAC 332 Preamplifier and NPX 300 Power Supply
- The Grateful Dead: “Terrapin Station”
- DALI Epikore 11 Loudspeaker
- Old Man Yells at Clouds
- Naim Audio NSS 333 Streaming DAC
- YG Acoustics Peaks Ascent Loudspeaker
Page 4 of 48
SoundStage! Ultra is part of
All contents available on this website are copyrighted by SoundStage!® and Schneider Publishing Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
This site was designed by Rocket Theme, Karen Fanas, and The SoundStage! Network.
To contact us, please e-mail info@soundstagenetwork.com