Product Debuts

Vivid Audio Giya G1 Spirit Loudspeaker

In my write-up about the unveiling of Sonus Faber’s Homage Tradition lineup of speakers, which took place on February 2 in New York City, I described acoustical engineer Paolo Tezzon and industrial designer Livio Cucuzza as being to speaker design what Mick Jagger and Keith Richards or John Lennon and Paul McCartney are to rock ’n’ roll songwriting. There’s definitely a synergy and timelessness with what the Italian speaker-making duo creates.

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Magico A3 Loudspeaker -- the Sound

Magico’s founder, Alon Wolf, isn’t the kind of person to say things just to appease you; he’ll tell you what he thinks with absolutely no softness in his delivery. It’s hard, just like the metal used in the cabinets of his speakers. For example, he’s told me that my Canon camera is crap, my recommendation of the 2013 movie Gravity is a “stain on my résumé,” and that my high praise for a well-regarded two-way standmounted speaker that many other writers also like is an embarrassment. Don’t talk to him if you’re easily offended.

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Magico A3 Loudspeaker -- the Concept

There’s no shortage of high-end loudspeaker companies whose products few people can afford. Five- and six-figure speakers from these companies line the halls of almost every hi-fi show I go to, with an occasional seven-figure model showing up from time to time. That’s all well and good, but when I see these loudspeakers I can’t help but ask, how many actually get sold? After all, that’s a lot of money for just loudspeakers.

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MartinLogan Launches the Next Generation of Dynamo Subwoofers

Undeniably, MartinLogan’s Dynamo subwoofers, first introduced in 2004, have been a smashing success. At one point, I owned the now-retired Dynamo 1000W, and over the years, I have known many very happy Dynamo owners. Likely of intense interest to those owners and many other home-theater and music aficionados, MartinLogan has launched a revamped Dynamo line. In late June I braved 100-plus-degree temperatures in Dallas, Texas, to visit one of the company’s largest dealers, Starpower, for the launch celebration.

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Sonus Faber Sonetto Loudspeakers Launch

Thirty-five years. That’s a generation. A long time to be alive. It’s halfway through the biblical three-score and ten that us humans are supposedly allotted -- the best half of a life, some might say.

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Bowers & Wilkins 600 Series Loudspeakers: The Sixth Generation

Past

Bowers & Wilkins and I have some history. Theirs weren’t the first speakers I bought -- those were PSBs, when I was 17, in 1981-- but a year later, the very first hi-fi seminar I attended was one held by B&W. It took place not in a hi-fi shop but in a hotel, during a large conference packed with audiophiles. Back then, the British company, founded by John Bowers in 1966, was called B&W (or the more conversational “B’n’Dub”), and was already a big and influential player in hi-fi worldwide. Now formally renamed Bowers & Wilkins, they still are.

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