Prana Fidelity‘s Steven Norber always seems to be smiling about something. He’s just one of those guys who seems to suffer from a terminal case of good cheer. A complete space alien by my standards, […]
George and Carolyn Counnas of Zesto Audio usually present a close variation on the same recipe. You’ll have some great TAD speakers, a Merril-Williams turntable, a Tri-Planar arm, a Dynavector XX2 cartridge, a full loom […]
Jonny Wilson of Snake River always makes sure that his room is jumping, but this year the air was electric. Jonny was debuting his new Recital 2 bookshelf speakers ($1,900/pair). When Randy Bankert of Sonist […]
There’s been a lot of buzz about the VPI Nomad since it was announced last year, and it made a big splash at Axpona and Munich, so I was pretty psyched to give it a […]
Over the past year, I’ve occasionally been tempted to award David Cope the dubious title of Unluckiest Man in HiFi. Seems like whenever I run into him at a show, he’s had one disaster or […]
Well that was fun. No. That’s not right. That might give the wrong impression. Let me try that again. Holy crap! That was a complete blast! Yeah. That’s better. Greg Roberts of Volti Audio partnered […]
I’m going to come right out and say that I like Magnepan‘s Wendell Diller more than a little. He’s a damn fine fellow, opinionated as all hell, and pretty much a walking encyclopedia about the […]
Former Stereophile troubadour and pitchman to the stars, Jonathan Scull, showed up to manage the unveiling of newcomer Aluminous Audio. Aluminous is a Pacific Northwest company that has followed in the footsteps of Magico and […]
Rick Cullen and EJ Saramento of Wyred4Sound have a side business. Several, actually, but the one I’m thinking of here has to do with amplifier legend James Bongiorno, perhaps best known for his work with […]
Bill Hutchins is a fine fellow. His audiophile brand, LKV Research, has been merrily upsetting apple carts for the last few years with their over-performing and under-priced phono preamplifier. Newport saw Bill with two new […]
At first, the German-made Tocaro Loudspeakers look like another version of “the usual” — my first thought upon entering the room was “British monitors?” They’ve got some interesting things going on, however. The 42D ($14,000) […]
Steve Nugent’s Empirical Audio room has been near the top of my list at Newport for three years running. Last year’s show, his first partnered with Missouri’s Vapor Sound, may have been the top of the […]
“Neutrality” is a crock of s***. There. I said it. This bean has been rattling around in my can for several months, pretty much ever since I took the belly-flop into personal audio. Everyone in […]
Mal and I first encountered acoustical engineer Jim Suhre and his LRE (Low Residual Energy) spearkers at the California Audio Show last summer. At the time, Mal noted appreciatively that Jim’s speakers offered a big […]
The first I’d heard of Polymer Audio was at AXPONA this year, and I’d actually heard about them at that show long before I actually heard them. “You gotta go check them out,” was whispered sotto voce by far too many […]
Dusty Vawter of Channel Islands Audio may often be a friendly guy, but he’s always a no-nonsense guy. Both of those personal qualities are famously echoed in his products. That’s never been more clearly on […]
Featuring both a planar panel and a ribbon tweeter running the length of the speaker, the Analysis Audio Epsilon loudspeakers ($16,000) gave this room a hefty dose of expansive sound. These speakers offer treble precision […]
You can’t really count on predictions for Zu Audio. Sure, they bring serious engineering chops, a sort of juvenile irreverence, and a real style to every show, but they also delight in culture jamming audiophile expectations. Take […]
The BMC Audio PureVox ($6,490)is an powerful-sounding little speaker with bipolar architecture and an extruded aluminum case. My notes from the room suggest that this is the North American debut of this speaker, although a web […]
Warren Jarrett is the California outpost of Music First Audio. He’s also a dealer for other audio exotica and pretty much a superhero when it comes to making a hotel room sound good. The man […]
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