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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Sunday, 12 May 2013 07:47
- Written by Administrator
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Sunday, 12 May 2013 06:11
- Written by Administrator
Companies featured in gallery below: Audio-Technica, Spendor, Hegel Music Systems, Ayre Acoustics, NAD, Arcam, PSB, Vienna Acoustics, Pro-Ject, Astell&Kern, Opera Only, Rosso Fiorentino, Bel Canto Design, Straussmann, CH Precision
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Saturday, 11 May 2013 17:56
- Written by Doug Schneider
Amphion's Anssi Hyvönen brings an interesting topic of discussion to every event in which he and his company participate. For High End 2013, the topic was studio-quality sound for the home for a reasonable price and without much inconvenience.
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Friday, 10 May 2013 17:17
- Written by Doug Schneider
Last week KEF surprised everyone by jumping into the headphone market with the introduction of the M500 on-ear cans and M200 in-ear monitors. But is it any surprise? Hardly. This is the fastest-growing segment of hi-fi right now, so with speaker companies such as B&W, Focal, and Paradigm offering 'phones of their own, the folks at KEF probably thought they should too.
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Friday, 10 May 2013 16:54
- Written by Jeff Fritz
In "Part 1" and "Part 2" of this series of articles, I highlighted why it can be important for loudspeaker companies to make their own drivers. One reason is that, as a loudspeaker manufacturer matures, their capabilities grow, and showcasing that newfound growth can be important for the brand. From a more technical perspective, some loudspeaker designers naturally want to control the entire engineering process so that the final products are more wholly their own. These are extremely valid reasons either alone or in concert with one another.
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Friday, 10 May 2013 12:11
- Written by Administrator
Companies featured in gallery below: Dynaudio, Grimm Audio, Sonus Faber, Wadia, Octave Audio, T+A, Audio Research, Crystal Cable, Penaudio, Apoll Acoustics, Gato Audio, Kaiser Acoustics, Auris Audio, Aurelia
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Friday, 10 May 2013 11:32
- Written by Administrator
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Friday, 10 May 2013 10:46
- Written by Jeff Fritz
Yesterday I examined the question that I know has been burning in your mind: does it matter if a loudspeaker company makes its own drivers? I answered in the affirmative, using the new Sonus Faber Olympicas as an example of why it can be important. And to whom. In Sonus Faber's case, it shows that the loudspeaker company has reached a certain level of maturity in their engineering and has improved their overall technical and logistical capabilities. In other words, they can really make a loudspeaker line. Make as in make.
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Thursday, 09 May 2013 14:00
- Written by Administrator
Companies featured in gallery below: Gryphon Audio Designs, KEF, Nordost, AudioQuest, PMC, Tidal Audio, Audio Physic, Devialet, Simaudio, Naim Audio, Avantgarde Acoustic, Gauder Akustik, Soulution, Constellation Audio
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Thursday, 09 May 2013 12:50
- Written by Doug Schneider
Devialet's Manuel de la Fuente opened the company's May 9 press conference with some important remarks, but probably the most important for me was this one: "What is the future for our industry if everything simply keeps on getting more expensive?"
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- Parent Category: High End 2013
- Created on Thursday, 09 May 2013 12:48
- Written by Jeff Fritz
The subject of making your own drivers comes up at shows. The loudspeaker companies that are doing it themselves like to brag about it, while those that don't . . . well, they don't tend to mention it. To the consumer, as far as I can tell, it doesn't really seem to matter all that much. But should it?
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- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
- Created on Monday, 06 May 2013 06:06
- Written by Doug Schneider
In 1987 the Beastie Boys released the song "No Sleep till Brooklyn" on their Licensed to Ill album. Whenever I travel, I think about that phrase. Overseas traveling to a show like High End isn't as hard as it used to be in the old days, but it still isn't easy, particularly when you live in a place where there are hardly any international flights, so everywhere you go requires a connection, and no matter what you do, you can't sleep on a plane.
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- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
- Created on Tuesday, 23 April 2013 17:30
- Written by Doug Schneider
Here's what I was thinking earlier today: The life of a full-time audio writer can be pretty great because of all the cool gear we review. What's more, you actually look forward to the doorbell ringing because chances are it's UPS, FedEx, or some other delivery service dropping off something new. The only downside to this gig is that you have to unpack and repack this stuff, which can be a hassle. But that's a small price to pay, particularly when a day is as inspiring as mine was today.
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- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
- Created on Sunday, 21 April 2013 20:13
- Written by Doug Schneider
Measuring speakers
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- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
- Created on Friday, 19 April 2013 08:02
- Written by Garrett Hongo
Bob Clarke started Profundo in 2002 after a stint at Musical Surroundings and while he was still a lecturer at UC Berkeley. He already repped the famed Viva tubed electronics and picked up the distribution of Transfiguration cartridges from Japan because, he said, he'd always loved them, temporally and tonally. "They're easy to listen to and natural," Clarke said.
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- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
- Created on Wednesday, 17 April 2013 11:48
- Written by Garrett Hongo
After a dinner of bistecca Fiorentina, some steamed greens, and a Casanova di Neri Brunello, Bob fired up "the big system" upstairs. It featured the original Trenner & Friedl Dukes ($125,000 USD per pair when available), a three-box-per-channel speaker system that stacked two long woofer cabinets on the bottom, a Harbeth-like monitor-shaped M/T cabinet in the middle, and a gleaming supertweeter like a grand silver eye atop it all. The Dukes had external crossovers and were biamped with Heed Obelisk PM monoblock amps (70Wpc; $4200/pr.) on the woofers (93dB/4 ohms) and a Viva Solista LT integrated amp (18Wpc; $7800 when available) on the M/T drivers (97dB/8 ohms). The speakers had a claimed range of 25Hz-40kHz.
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- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
- Created on Sunday, 14 April 2013 13:43
- Written by Jeff Fritz
Is it absurd to think that you could replace an entire audio system -- excepting the speakers and their cables -- with a single box that measures a mere 206mm x 72mm x 195mm? Well that's just what I did today.
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- Parent Category: BloggingOnAudio
- Created on Friday, 12 April 2013 09:38
- Written by Garrett Hongo
I first met Bob Clarke of Profundo in the hallway outside of his demo room at the California Audio Show back in 2010. I remember a strikingly gorgeous sound coming from a pair of Trenner & Friedl Art monitors driven by Heed electronics, with cabling from Cardas. But it was hard to get into the room, not only because it was so crowded with showgoers that there was no space to squeeze in, but also because Bob was so congenial, gracious, and witty out there in the hall. We struck up an exchange characterized by high-speed repartee, and I was having so much fun talking that, for a while, I forgot to keep up with my rounds of the show. It did help that Bob had a good bottle of wine in hand -- I think it was a California Cab from Mondavi -- and poured me some in a clear plastic cup.