Audiophilia

Integrated Amplifier, Star Component Award

I spent a good portion of 2019 in the company of Vinnie Rossi’s superb L2 Signature Preamplifier ($16,995). My review was in three parts—the Line Stage proper, the added DAC module and finally the Phonostage module. The two modules ($3495/each) increased the price just shy of a not inconsiderable 24K. However, fewer large boxes clogging up your rack and a superior, lifetime component.

Jump to September 2019 and the introduction at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest of the new Vinnie Rossi L2i-SE ‘Signature Edition’ Integrated Amplifier ($18,995), the subject of this review. The ‘SE’ improves upon his L2i Integrated Amplifier ($13,995) by adding matched Elrog 300B DHT tubes and other changes. The DAC and Phono modules are available for both the standard L2i and SE versions. This review is of the SE integrated amplifier without modules. My unit was in silver. Rossi builds every SE by hand. The fit & finish is exemplary, commensurate with such an expensive, boutique component.

Feb 28

Feb 28 Qln Prestige Three Loudspeakers

Loudspeakers, Star Component Award

My introduction to Qln loudspeakers was at the 2019 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest where they played along side Vinnie Rossi’s new L2i-SE Integrated Amplifier ($18,995—review up next month). This room was chosen by all Audiophilia attendees as one of their favourites. For sure, there were other rooms featuring systems approaching a million dollars which sounded like the proverbial ‘million bucks’, but there was an innate musicality to the presentation from Rossi’s integrated design and these Swedish floor standers that improved upon superb every time we returned. Mark Sossa of Well Pleased A/V and distributor of both Qln speakers and Vinnie Rossi gear had the moderately-sized room sounding balanced, dynamic and musically inviting.

Sossa is as pleasant as they come in high end audio. Professional, patient, knowledgeable and kind. In partnership with his high end star roommate, Vinnie Rossi, Sossa’s carefully curated representation (also incl. Swiss Cables and Gigawatt) produced amazing, digitally-sourced sound (Innuos—review forthcoming).

Feb 24

Feb 24 IsoAcoustics Gaia Series loudspeaker isolation footers

Accessories

Every so often, when my stereo system sound quality has been inspiring delight for an unusual lengthy period of time, I decide to tinker just to see what else is possible. Can I get the sound quality even better (even if just a tiny bit) by some small adjustment? Examples include experimenting with different analog or digital interconnect cables, power cables, or isolation footers to be placed under various components.

Coincidentally, I was in just such a tinkering mood when I visited a Fall 2019 VPI Industries House event in which IsoAcoustics, a Canadian company specializing in audio isolation products, was there represented by President Dave Morrison. He was demonstrating his Gaia Series of loudspeaker isolation footers on various Focal floor standing speakers.

Feb 14

Feb 14 Icon Audio PS1 Mk. II All Valve Phono Stage

Analog, Star Component Award

UK-based Icon Audio is a maker of ‘Award Winning Valve Amplifiers’. Icon also manufactures valve preamplifiers and phono stages (FYI: ‘valve’ is Brit speak for ‘tube’).

I was contacted by a local Icon Audio dealer followed by the Canadian distributor to gauge interest for a review. I heard the subject of this review, the PS1 Mk. II All Valve Phono Stage, at last year’s Toronto Audio Show. It had impressed, prepping lots of varied vinyl repertoire under show conditions. Sweet. ‘Yes, I’d like one to review’.

Feb 7

Feb 7 Linnenberg SATIE Reference D/A converter with integrated preamp

Digital

Mark Sossa from Well Pleased Audio Vida (AV) contacted me several months ago concerning a new DAC that he thought I would be interested to review. He tends to find products that are off the beaten track, are worthy of attention for their outstanding quality/performance, and are not in the very highest level of price range. I agreed to review it after confirming that it would work with my stereo system. The DAC was the Linnenberg Satie DAC at $8995, the newest DAC by Linnenberg and considered their reference.

Linnenberg is a German company, now 25 years old, led by Ivo Linnenberg. Their products are manufactured in Germany where they are hand-assembled. Ivo Linnenberg is an engineer, designer–and artisan.

Jan 31

Jan 31 Beethoven: The Complete Piano Sonatas—Igor Levit

These complete recordings of Beethoven’s 32 Piano Sonatas are always welcome, especially this year during the 250th anniversary of the great composer’s birth.

Although listening and reviewing a nine disc set may seem daunting or even onerous, when it’s the greatest set of music in the Western canon, no problem. And when executed by one of the world’s leading and most interesting pianists, the task less so.

Jan 24

Jan 24 MBL N31 CD/DAC

Digital, Star Component Award

The MBL N31 CD/DAC was the second of two pieces from MBL’s midrange Noble Line that was sent from Germany to the island for review. You can read about my musical adventures with the striking and powerful MBL Noble Line N51 Integrated Amplifier here. Much like that glorious looking component, the N31 CD/DAC is cut from the same cloth—a machined beauty of metal and gloss black reflectivity.

Like all MBL components and speakers (MBL calls its loudspeakers ‘Radialstrahlers’—MBL Radialstrahler 120 review forthcoming), the N31 was designed from the smallest circuit up by MBL’s chief designer for over 35 years, Jürgen Reis. Reis is a legend, born from the litany of outstanding equipment he has produced. It seems once you go MBL, you rarely look back. From the ‘entry level ‘ Corona Line’ through MBL’s ‘Reference Line’, all the gear looks expensive and consistently sounds expensive.

Jan 17

Jan 17 WAudio 3900 Hi-End Audio Grade Noise Filter

Accessories

This Chinese-made, $200 Amazon stop-gap device had audiophile mediocrity written all over it.

First, a story.

My power conditioner (PC) blew an onion, and the short to ground left it humming badly and tripping the breakers for the music room and kitchen!

The only casualty was a $100 electrician visit plus the conditioner fault blew a $100 Sylvania NOS 4U5AG rectifier tube in the $16,500 phono stage’s power supply.

I’m waiting for a few stellar, expensive PCs from three very capable companies, but, in the meantime, threw in this $200 unit.

Dec 20

Dec 20 MBL N51 Integrated Amplifier

Integrated Amplifier, Star Component Award

It’s been a bumper few years at Audiophilia on the integrated amplifier front. There have always been outstanding examples mating a preamplifier and power amplifier in one chassis and playing nicely together, but more and more high end companies are designing and manufacturing expensive integrated boxes with varying topologies.

In fact, my reference power/pre is the Jeff Rowland Continuum S2 Integrated Amplifier ($10,000) which has served me spectacularly well—it’s a Capri II preamp ($5,500) on top of a 400W Class D power section. It is not only much improved Class D—as seen and heard over the past decade—but Class D as sanctified by Jeff Rowland. Which means it’s a gorgeously transparent, sweet, very powerful solid state component.

Dec 13

Dec 13 Pangea Audio Record Doctor VI Record Cleaning Machine (20th Anniversary)

Accessories

Complimenting the ongoing upsurge in LP sales, one can find a variety of record cleaning machines in the market place from which to choose, anywhere from a low of $30 to a high of $6000 (CLEARAUDIO - Double Matrix Professional Sonic Record Cleaning Machine, fully automatic). They can look in appearance anything from a toaster to a turntable.

Certainly one of the classics (at $600) with a history going back decades is the VPI Industries HW 16.5 Record Cleaning Machine, combining both an 18 RPM turntable motor (while you clean with fluid and brush) and a high-powered vacuum (to remove the fluid from the grooves after cleaning)—I currently use one as my reference. Machines of this sort can be heavy and large and there are various other companies that follow this route.

Dec 6

Dec 6 Audiophilia Products of the Year 2019

Audiophilia Staff

Miscellaneous

Our writers are lucky to intersect with the gear we do. Even luckier to have the kit in our homes and review it for you. There are numerous requests for reviews that we just do not have the manpower to cover. Imagine the thousands of pieces we miss?

With that in mind, please take into account our 'winners' and rate accordingly. The equipment chosen is for a small list we admire unreservedly. We hope you get a chance to listen to the kit in your system. We loved it in ours.

Dec 6

Dec 6 Audiophilia Recordings of the Year 2019

Audiophilia Staff

Miscellaneous

The finest recordings/performances we listened to this year. We discussed some of the recordings on our social media channels, used them in our equipment reviews, reviewed them on YouTube or they received full reviews at Audiophilia. For the latter and YouTube, clicking on the image will take you to the review.

Format and initials of nominating reviewer appear under the selection. The CDs and LPs are available at many online or artist sites, or, as streamed on Qobuz or Tidal HiFi. Recordings must be released or rereleased in 2019.

In no particular order:

Nov 21

Nov 21 Streaming the Classics/The Firebird—Stravinsky

Do you ever type a streaming query in Roon for a classical work and are overwhelmed by the choices? Rather than clicking on any old recording or the first one you see, Audiophilia will make things a little easier for you and do the heavy listening.

These choices are for streaming only. Is the best in streaming also the best vinyl recording and performance? That’s for another article.

A few criteria:

Recording must be on Qobuz and/or Tidal HiFi.
It does not have to be HiRes or MQA.
No more than ten recommendations in no particular order, then my top three for streaming in order of preference.

Nov 14

Nov 14 Streaming the Classics 7/Mahler 9 Symphonies Box Sets

Charles Brown

Do you ever type a streaming query in Roon for a classical work and are overwhelmed by the choices? Rather than clicking on any old recording or the first one you see, Audiophilia will make things a little easier for you and do the heavy listening.

These choices are for streaming only. Is the best in streaming also the best vinyl recording and performance? That’s for another article.

A few criteria:

Recording must be on both Qobuz and Tidal HiFi.
It does not have to be HiRes or MQA.
No more than ten recommendations in no particular order, then my top three for streaming in order of preference.

Nov 13

Nov 13 van den Hul Colibri Master Signature Moving Coil Phono Cartridge

Analog

van den Hul is a Dutch company, created in 1980 by renown A.J. (Aalt Jouk) van den Hul (VDH) that designs and manufactures high-end moving coil phono cartridges, audio cables and other audio electronics. (Bowers & Wilkins, for example, among others, are known to use van den Hul internal wiring in their speakers.)

On an early Autumn phone call from Mat Weisfeld, President of VPI Industries, I was informed that VPI had become the sole USA distributor for their phono cartridges and I was offered a chance to review van den Hul’s newest top-of-the-line moving coil cartridge: the Colibri Master Signature, entirely hand made and tuned by A.J.—now in his 80s—and with a retail price of $11,995. Now that I use a VPI Industries HW-40 Direct Drive turntable as reference, I thought this may be an intriguing match. Besides, it uses a high-density wood for its enclosure, and I happen to be a fan of that (my current reference cart is the Grado Labs Aeon). Last, but not least, I was attracted to the simple van den Hul philosophy of cart design in which they claim to provide ‘The link between technique and emotion’:

Nov 12

Nov 12 Master & Dynamic MH40 Over-Ear Headphones: 5th Anniversary New Wireless Model

Headphones

Five years ago, at the New York Audio Show, I came across a new Manhattan-based headphone Company, Master & Dynamic, debuting their first headphones. The MH40, at $399; was an over-the ear closed model. I was impressed, and planned on trying to get a review sample at some point soon after.

Coincidently, the next day I went back to the show with my then 3-year old daughter and started by having lunch in the hotel restaurant. At the table next to me, I recognized the two very nice ladies who had been working the show table for Master & Dynamic and they recognized me. They were lunching with a gentleman I did not know; the ladies introduced him to me: Jonathan Levine, Founder and CEO of Master & Dynamic. We had a very pleasurable conversation about his new company, and we ended up with a beautiful and priceless (to me) photo (taken by Levine using my camera) of my daughter in my lap wearing a pair of the MH40. Soon after I wrote a review of the MH40, and in my summary, I stated:

Oct 24

Oct 24 Martin Vatter—Homeland

Martin Vatter is a German pianist/composer playing and writing in the New Age genre. New Age music is often described as optimistic, life affirming and relaxing. Not Muzak. And definitely not Muzak in the case of this gifted German artist.

Musically, the twelve tracks of his latest recording, Homeland include titles such as ‘Exciting’, ‘Soulful Moments’, ‘Forgotten Love’ and ‘Your Tears Will Dry’. The titles, if compared to the greatest art works, could be considered of one focus. But don’t let that bias put you off listening to this lovely, musical album.

Oct 22

Oct 22 Master & Dynamic MW07 True Wireless Earphones: The new GO and PLUS models

Headphones, Star Component Award

About one year ago, New York City based Master & Dynamic debuted the terrific and classy MW07 True Wireless Earphones at $299.

On October 17th, 2019, Master & Dynamic introduced two new versions of the MW07 to replace the original, and I report upon these here: the MW07 True Wireless Go ($199) and the MW07 True Wireless PLUS ($299) pictured above. I am grateful to Jonathan Levine (CEO of Master & Dynamic) and his team for alerting me of this new development and sending me review samples.

Although both new models use the same superb custom 10 mm Beryllium drivers, both have significant advantages over the original. For example, both now utilize Bluetooth 5.0 (and support both aptX and SBC) as opposed to Bluetooth 4.2 and now with a connectivity range of 30+ meters up from 20, both pack longer battery life, both charge faster, and both have a higher water resistance level. But there are differences between the two that depend on one’s needs or lifestyle. Think of the GO as a more rustic, smaller and lighter version of the MW07 meant for sports in particular (jogging, biking, going to the gym, etc.), and think of the PLUS as a premium, luxury version.

Oct 10

Oct 10 Streaming the Classics 6/Bruckner 9 Symphonies Box Sets