Welcome to Audiophilia. We publish honest and accurate reviews of high end audio equipment and music.
This is my second review of audio equipment from our Canadian producers, Tri-Art Audio (TAA). Please see my earlier review of the Tri-Art Audio open baffle speakers, the B series 4 Open, should you wish to learn more about this Canadian gem of a company.
Note: this review includes the added functionality of the Tri-Art B-Series DC Linear (Tube Buffered) 12 Volt Power Supply, which ships with the integrated amplifier. Price for the integrated amplifier and its outboard power supply is $3799.
The Accordo Loudspeakers were the last Franco Serblin voiced before he died in 2013. Serblin was founder of Italy’s Sonus faber (1983), maker of exquisite speakers with a reputation for the finest cabinetry in high end audio. Sonus faber practically invented artisanal cabinet making. Serblin left Sonus faber in 2006 and continued the high standard of art and design with his eponymous company.
I can report to you that the build quality of the Serblin Accordo is as good or even better than the glorious looking Sonus faber speakers. The mirror-imaged Accordos are small and beautifully balanced in design—they will pass any significant other test and fit into any decor.
I’ll start this review with a story. Since last year, I’ve experienced the following routine almost every morning. I wake up at five, and after the habitual espresso, I go straight to my audio setup and say hello to my turntable, CD player, speakers, and amp (like I imagine everyone does). Everything needed for me to begin my listening session, turn up my amp, speakers and enjoy. But, it’s too early. So, I compromise, I go for my phone and get the wireless headphones ready. There’s nothing wrong with this picture, of course, but after months of confinement, I felt my setup deserved more. Better sound, higher-end audio headphones and leave the wireless behind. Enter the audiophile headphone world.
My experience has always been with wireless over-the-ear headphones (Sennheiser PXC 550-II, Sony WH-1000XM3, Bose SoundLink—the Sennheiser’s are for me the clear winner of these three by the way). I had no need for wired headphones and the amp to drive them. I’ve had wireless headphones exclusively—some Apple AirPods Pro earphones as well because they are just so practical.
The first thing I heard through the Usher Audio SD-500 loudspeaker was the sound of Tony Dungy’s voice on Sunday Night Football. Watching television is a great method of speaker break-in because, for me, it’s the furthest thing from critical listening fare. Still, accompanying Dungy’s comforting drawl I couldn’t help noticing a realistic ambient din from the sparsely populated stadium. The feeling of air and space was immediate. Listening to the sound of an empty stadium, a sign of the times, and a neat first impression, but could the SD-500 impress with music as well? And who is Usher Audio anyway?
I’m fascinated by phono stages, or, more accurately, ‘phono preamplifiers’. I commonly use the term ‘phonostage’, and will do so herein.
I can remember back, after a flirtation with the ingenue Compact Disc, I bought a cheap, 2nd hand Direct Drive Sony Turntable. I can’t remember what I used as a phonostage. But, I do remember the exact moment when listening to the Sony I knew I had been missing something compared to the early, heady days of the CD and my burgeoning audiophilia.
First on the Sony platter was a beaten up, unremarkable CBS pressing of Murray Perahia playing Mozart Piano Concerto K503. I’m not sure what ‘it’ was, but it was something. Something in the timbre, something in the music’s communication. The soul of the performance was present. Immediately, I was involved. I had musical skin in the game rather than listening to a CD, admiring from above the platform.
L’Orchestre National de Lille (ONL) performed its first concert in 1976 under the baton of Jean-Claude Casadesus, who retired as music director in 2016. Since then, French conductor Alexandre Bloch has taken the reins. Bloch’s career is impressive; he is principal guest conductor for the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker (2015) and winner of the LSO Donatella Flick Conducting Competition (2012). Bloch has recorded 3 albums with the ONL, all for Alpha Classics: works by Ravel, Chausson and the recording reviewed here, Mahler Symphony No. 7 (2020). The ONL was also shortlisted for the Gramophone Classical Music Awards ‘Orchestra of the Year’ in 2020. A good pairing to take on a highly complicated symphony.
Mahler’s Seventh: The enigmatic symphony.
It’s been only a few years since I started listening to Mahler, although it does feel much longer. My first experience with Mahler, was with the First Symphony, under the direction of Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. I was confused about what I was listening to, those first notes of expanding, sustained high As. Nature sounds from a symphony I hadn’t heard before—a clarinet cuckoo call, a free fall of dangerous notes. It was an amazing moment. By the third movement, I was completely hypnotized—this is the ‘Mahler Effect’.
In 2016, after six years out of the SL-1200 turntable business, Japanese giant Technics retooled for a new, audiophile version of the popular turntable. Over the original’s 38 year life span, upwards of 3.5 million were sold. A remarkable HiFi story. A legendary product.
The old ‘table was more of a DJ ‘scratcher’ than purist product. The new ‘G’ turntable was aimed squarely at the audiophile market with an expected jump in price. Thus, in 2016, the $4000, SL-1200G turntable was born. To this day, it is usually snapped up as soon as it is in stores and is on constant back order. I’m surprised Technics took a six year hiatus from a real money maker.
UK based iFi audio has been on a roll lately, releasing a handful of critically acclaimed budget components under the ZEN moniker. Accolades for the ZEN DAC and ZEN CAN headphone amplifier set high expectations for the most recent addition, the ZEN Phono.
US consumers spent $232 million on vinyl records last year so iFi were wise to include some analog action in their entry level line. As with their other product lines, iFi has carefully considered the features included in the ZEN products to differentiate them from the ‘swiss army knife’ or minimalist approach of some competitors.
ZEN components are priced at under $200—high enough to offer a quality piece of hardware but low enough to have mainstream appeal. Can the ZEN Phono, priced at $150, stand up to expectations and hold its own in a competitive segment?
Since its founding in 2007 in NYC (now located in Tianjin, China), Hifiman Electronics, known simply as Hifiman, has almost exclusively been offering over-ear, open-back planar magnetic headphones and more recently open-back electrostatic headphones. Noteworthy among their highly regarded planar magnetic releases include the HE400, HE1000 and HE1000se, the Sundara (review forthcoming) and Susvara, and even a wireless model, the Deva. Prices range from $169 for the HE400 up to $6000 for the highest-level planar magnetic model, the highly acclaimed Susvara.
Hifiman’s two electrostatic models are the Shangri-La Jr. and Shangri-La, each paired with a special electrostatic Hifiman amp and sold as a combo. The cost is $8000 for the Jr, reaching a mind-popping high of $50,000 for the truly extraordinary ‘Ultimate Flagship’ Shangri-La combo; its vacuum tube amplifier alone is a masterpiece of art—a must see (and hear, if you get a chance; I have been lucky to do so). There is no serious debate; Hifiman makes some of the finest such high-end audiophile quality headphones available, along with worthy competitors such as Audeze, Focal, Sennheiser, Grado, among others.
No company takes as much flack for even the merest misstep as Apple. It’s like the social media universe is just waiting for another ‘battery-gate’, ‘keyboard-gate’, or ‘bend-gate’ (not forgetting brand new ‘condensation-gate’ attached to these headphones). I guess a two and a quarter trillion dollar company will have its trolls and haters. As you read on, beware, I’m a fanboy. Also, an audiophile. Yet, rarely do the two universes intersect.
In the latest ‘faux outrage’, Apple has produced an over the ear headphone, the AirPods Max, utilizing its array of computational audio and assembled with premium parts for $549 (the trolls hate the name, and wait ‘till we get to the ‘smart’ case! Well, maybe that hate IS deserved). Of course, other fine manufacturers such as B&O, M&D and B&W produce quality built, great sounding wireless Bluetooth headphones for the same price and above. We won’t get into comparisons with open back, planar magnetic beauties meant for use with high end headphone amplifiers from manufacturers such as Abyss (the finest headphones I’ve heard; remarkable in every headphone way for $5000), T+A Solitaire P (review forthcoming—$6400) Audeze, Focal, HIFIMAN (review of the HE-R10s coming Feb—$5500). They’re for a different purpose, a different market.
The new recording from classical guitarist Martin Van Hees (on the TRPTK label), brings together compositional works from prominent Dutch composers: Roderik de Man, Aart Strootman, Jan-Peter de Graaff, Christiaan Richter, Leo Samana, Louis Andriessen, as well as Van Hees himself. There’s such diversity of tone and colour in these works, I decided to briefly review each of them. All, I believe, complement the concept of the album. The expressive layers of each composition come through the guitar of Martin Van Hees, who plays the instrument with excitement and precision.
I found the idea very interesting of having all composers the same nationality. There are a few details in the album notes where Van Hees comments a little about each composer. Intrigued, I researched more and found several writings from the soloist dating back to his Master’s degree studies at The Royal Conservatory in the Hague. Since then, he showed a growing interest in these composers. A desire to learn about their work, questioning how the composers imagined the playing style of their compositions. This important work paves the way for a unique and coherent sound throughout the album. As such, he invested himself into each composition, its complexities, and even conducted interviews and played the work for some of the composers (de Man, Andriessen and Samana). The pairing of soloist and composer is for our benefit as we listen to a faithful interpretation of the score.
For a deep dive into the big sibling of the new HomePod mini ($99), please refer to our review of the original, full sized Apple HomePod (and our six month follow up). Many HomePod features found at launch and in updates can be found on the new mini.
With the mini, Apple’s smart home ‘Homekit’ features have been improved. Even silly Siri is better and she has added a useful ‘Intercom’ feature. Security, as always from the mothership, is a priority. No ‘anything goes’ Alexa.
There are literally hundreds of reviews on the web and YouTube videos with in depth looks at the features of the mini. I’ll list some important ones below then jump right into our brief, with focus on its use and sound.
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 hundreds of pieces we miss?
With that in mind, please take into account our 'winners' and rate accordingly. The equipment chosen is for a list we admire unreservedly. We hope you get a chance to listen to the kit in your system. We loved it in ours.
The finest recordings/performances we listened to this year. We discussed some of the recordings on our social media channels, used them in 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 (recordings must be released or rereleased in 2020), or, as streamed on Qobuz or Tidal HiFi (available presently in their libraries).
Down the ribbon of highway, due east from the frenetically paced GTA (Greater Toronto Area), lies the somnolent university town of Kingston, Ontario. Queen’s University, as an intellectual hub of all eastern Ontario, has been the centre of Kingston’s relevance for a century. But if one looks past this well established landmark, one finds a business of some significance that has been quietly sounding out its audio relevance for the last 10 years—Tri-Art Audio.
Arising out of the ashes of the great stereo retail shop of the 1970s and 80s, House of Sound, where Steve Ginsberg worked as a technician—that wonderful bricks and mortar place penurious Queen’s students like myself hung around in the few moments we had free—has come Steve’s and his sons, Simon and Evan’s extraordinary business adventure—a quality international seller of fantastically sophisticated paints and some of the hippest audio equipment on the planet—the fabulous jewel of Tri-Art Audio. A fantastically interesting business anomaly—paint and sound!
If you would like a deeper dive into Innuos as a company and its philosophy, please read my review of their ZENith Mk3 1T Black Music Server ($4249). As promised in that review, here we have a review of Innuos’ top music server, aptly called Statement. The $13,750 Statement is a no-holds-barred entry into the super server sweepstakes. With apologies for the alliteration, the ‘super’ is appropriate—the Statement will be compared to some very serious high end digital players. With the Statement, Innuos has joined an exclusive club after only four short years of manufacturing. Quite remarkable.
Interestingly, as this type of storage device becomes more de rigueur in a high end system, prices have been creeping up. A music server is basically a computer with a high end audio personality, meaning incredibly quiet power supplies (and many other attributes) bringing extraneous noise down to micro levels (there’s so much of it on standard computers through processing, apps, etc), leading to smoother, effortless digital sound for the DAC to apply its magic. Expect to spend several thousands to get top quality servers.
Here we take a new approach to the Audiophilia's Streaming the Classics series. Instead of highlighting top recordings of a classical work we shift to popular music to explore the live catalog of the Grateful Dead on high resolution streaming services.
During their 30 year career from the mid-sixties to the mid-nineties, the Grateful Dead evolved from a psychedelic garage band to the ultimate jam band and became loved worldwide for their myriad contributions to music and popular culture. Although the music itself is quite approachable, the vast discography of the Grateful Dead can be overwhelming.
Anne Bisson’s talents cover many musical and dramatic styles. The French Canadian chanteuse sounds as good singing and playing The American Songbook as she does singing the songs of her native language. She’s a fine songwriter, too, in addition to a mainstay on Quebec TV as an actress and a presenter. It’s an LP showcasing her multi musical talents that I bring to you in this review. Keys to My Heart is a set of Bisson’s own songs, with one standard (‘Killing Me Softly)’ and a French song (Charles Aznavour’s ‘For Me, Formidable’) included to add a different style, a different spice. The balance of the eleven songs are all by Bisson in collaboration with lyricist Pierre Lenoir. The sum makes for engrossing listening.
My home province of Quebec has produced jazz/popular singers such as Nikki Yanofsky, Ranee Lee, Diane Dufresne, Diane Tell, Martine St. Clair as well as megastar Celine Dion. And while each is very talented, all have focused on one style, sometimes, one songwriter. The great Luc Plamondon comes to mind (Dion did a whole album of Plamondon songs before she conquered the world of popular music). However, far fewer artists combine a great voice with equally wonderful (jazz) piano chops—with jazz, a much more difficult proposition than a songsmith/singer banging out simple Tonic/Dominant on the ivories. Canadians are particularly good at this marvelous combination. In addition to the superb Bisson, I give you Diana Krall (Nanaimo, BC) and my supremo in this genre, Carol Welsman (Toronto, ON, now Los Angeles-based).
This spectacular, $22,900 audiophile work of art came to me as a stop gap between distributor and dealer. Victoria is not exactly midpoint between Kelowna BC and Portland OR, but I was very grateful to distributor David Beetles of Hammertone Audio and US dealer John Ketchum of Kevalin Audio for their kind consideration. As such, the L-8000 DHT Preamplifier was here for a good time, not a long time.
Beetles has been slowly tormenting me with better and better Allnic Audio products to review, which I’m happy to accept on behalf of myself and our readers; a couple of which have been generously given on long term loans (H-7000 and L-7000) to use as references in my system. So, with full disclosure, I offer you my unencumbered story of what is probably the finest and certainly most expensive component to have graced my listening room.
