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A New Arms Race—Jason Gets Gimballed

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

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; Created: 01 June 2024

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; Created: 01 June 2024

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

Reviewers' Choice 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; Created: 15 May 2024

Reviewers' Choice 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; Created: 15 May 2024

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; Created: 01 May 2024

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

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

Reviewers' Choice This wasn’t how a review process normally starts. I’d just received the Thales TTT-Compact II turntable for review and was rolling up my sleeves to dig right into this fascinating product. According to Wynn Wong, the Canadian distributor, the Thales ships to the dealer, and thus the customer, as a ready-to-go package, complete with their Simplicity II tonearm and—this is what threw me—the X-quisite Voro cartridge.

Musical Fidelity M8xTT Turntable

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Category: Full-Length Reviews; Created: 15 April 2024

I have a sweet tooth when it comes to turntables, but I’m not stuck on one type of confection. I’m an equal-opportunity fetishist. I love turntables made from solid steel, real wood, MDF painted to look like wood. Piano lacquer, matte paint, or—gasp—clear acrylic.

Bounce with Counce and Mat Matters

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

Curtis Counce, and that album cover!

I’ve always loved You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce! by the Curtis Counce Group. It’s a delightfully easy, loping album, full of smooth, juicy lyricism, almost totally absent of the paid-by-the-note speed-bop that often leaves me feeling cold. But it’s not so laid-back that it’s going in reverse. Rather, it’s a midway blend of West Coast chardonnay and Chicago barrel whiskey. There’s some wonderful soloing going on here—Miles meets Ben Webster without the drug addictions. The arrival of the Craft Recordings reissue of this criminally underappreciated album really sent me down a rabbit hole.