Tabla de contenidos para February 2024 en The Absolute Sound

If you're looking for more great high-end audio coverage, check out The Absolute Sound's YouTube video channel. Our channel is chockfull of videos (more than 200 and counting) that cover everything from a nostalgic look at classic audio products to reviews of the latest components. We've got behind-the-scenes factory tours, show reports, audio-basics tutorials, and designer interviews. We've also got product reviews, primarily of lower to midpriced components that are stunning overachievers. The newest videos include a preview of the new YG Acoustics Talus speaker and Descent subwoofer set up in Tom Martin's listening room; Michael Fremer talking with Atlantic Records CEO Craig Kallman about vinyl, streaming, and more (Kallman's LP collection must be among the world's largest); Kevin Hayes of VAC ex-plaining the Signature 202iQ; the Endow Audio factory…

Show Highlights AS I SAUNTERED THROUGH the 2023 Capital Audio Festival, Brad O'Toole, the representative for Vandersteen Audio loudspeakers, tapped me from behind on the shoulder. My assignment, should I choose to accept it, was to accompany him to Suite 319 to listen to the new $19,200 Vandersteen Quatro CT speakers. I accepted. It was a wise decision. The Quatro CT loudspeakers, which features an active bass section that comes in at 100Hz, sounded very nifty indeed. On an LP featuring Melody Gardot played back on the new Rega Naia $12,995 turn-table with the $4000 Rega Aphelion 2 cartridge, the bass was rock solid and the highs clear and dynamic. The $10,500 m500 Meitner MA3 DAC and $6299 Innuous Zenith server delivered premium digital sound, as well. The system was…

In Issue 337, I reviewed the new Thorens TD 124 DD direct-drive turntable, a revised, re-engineered, and updated version of the classic idler-driven TD 124, one of the most highly regarded tables in the history of audio. As part of the product's launch, Thorens CEO Gunter Kürten wanted to offer consumers the option of an all-in-one, plug-n-play combination with table, tonearm, and phono pickup that would answer the not always congruent demands for a record-playing ensemble that is at once true vintage and true high end. Kürten arranged with Ortofon to market that company's Synergy G pickup, part of its classic SPU line (the acronym stands for Stereo Pick Up), under the Thorens brand as the SPU TD 124 Phono Pickup. It can be purchased with the 124 DD (the…

PS Audio's new DirectStream DAC MK2 digital-toanalog converter is the focus of this review, and I should begin by making it clear that it is one of a relatively small number of digital products that define the current state of the art in high-end sound. At the same time, I'm writing this review at a point when TAS is entering its early 50s, and I cannot approach an analysis of the best in today's digital sound without remembering the earliest days of digital playback and noting how much its quality has improved over time. I can remember the first days of digital audio all too well. These were back in the early 1980s when Sony and Phillips—who pioneered CD—introduced their CD players as providing “perfect sound forever.” The reality—much like…

Avantgarde Trio G3 Loudspeaker A heartfelt Dankeschön from Lautertal Germany and our associate North American distributor American Sound of Canada, Angie Lisi, to TAS and Jacob Heilbrunn for a thorough test of the Trio G3. Jacob's preference for external amplifiers over our own integrated three-way current-amplification option is well understood, and his description of the musical results certainly speaks for itself. However, we have seen a growing interest in active loudspeaker systems over the last few years, and this has given us the opportunity to apply our unique iTRON current-drive technology, developed over 10 years, a technology that is virtually unrivaled by that of any other manufacturer today. Our approach, which already accounts for almost 50% of the speakers we sell today, is to offer a physically precise and unique…

When Nirvana finished mixing its third and, tragically, last studio album, 1993's In Utero, it sent copies to a close circle of friends to get their take on it. Half the recipients loved it; the other half were, shall we say, muted in their enthusiasm. Listening to the album now, 30 years after its release, it's easy to understand that informal focus group's reaction. Half of the album is intentionally repellent, meant to send all the fans of the band's smash hit Nevermind running for the hills. The other half is brilliant. Why did Kurt Cobain, Nirvana's frontman, songwriter, and creative engine, revel in alienating his newest fans? He had no respect for them because, looking back on it, he had no respect for Nevermind. Most rock historians consider that…

This essay was first published in the book, Ways of Hearing, published by Princeton University Press in 2021, in which several authors were asked to contribute an essay on their favorite piece of music. Ms. Anderson and Prof. Choueiri chose, instead, to write about their favorite topic: spatial music. Reprinted with permission from Princeton University Press. I Bach's Mass in B minor, Schütz's Passion Motets, Lou Reed's “Pale Blue Eyes,” Umm Kulthum's chanting of the Surah of Abraham, every Georges Brassens song, Led Zeppelin's first two notes on its first album…Our favorite musical bits are erasure-proof memories —pleasurable recollections we can always conjure up with a mere tap on an audio player. We like to talk about them, see something of us in them, and share them with kindred spirits.…

Ever since I was a young lad first foraging like a hunter-gatherer through eBay listings for a reasonably priced receiver with the pretty wood sides and the big silver faceplate, I've wanted to try a SOTA. Something about that classic styling, about that wood grain, just gets me. I'm a simple man. SOTA started back in 1979, moved to Chicago in 2018, morphed into SOTA Sound Inventions, which means it has direct access to a full machine and wood shop and is now pumping out new decks. The Quasar ($2995 base price; reviewed here with the full Eclipse package, including tonearm, cartridge, dust cover, and Roadrunner tachometer at $3670) is the top of its Urban Series, meant to be the entry-level audiophile line. SOTA also sent along its Pyxi phonostage…

MUSIC Let's see. You joined the New York Philharmonic as associate principal trumpet at the age of 25, departing after seven years to establish a successful conducting career, with music director appointments around the globe. You took over a good regional orchestra, transforming it over a quarter-century into a world-class ensemble. You serve as artistic director for a summer music festival that attracts hundreds of talented young people every year. You've composed your own music and produced useful arrangements of other's work. You've made more than 350 recordings, championing new music and neglected corners of the symphonic repertoire, notably 20th-century American composers. What could you possibly do for a next act? Well, if you're Gerard Schwarz, Conductor Laureate of the Seattle Symphony and currently Music Director of the Palm Beach…

Even by Beatles standards it was a stunning announcement— that in 2023, Apple Records was releasing a previously unheard John Lennon tune, and that the finished song, titled “Now and Then,” which was originally recorded as a demo in Lennon's Dakota apartment in 1978, had been performed by all four Beatles. Touted as the last Beatles song, its journey from Lennon's rough demo to an authentic Beatles release was indeed a long and winding road. The story goes something like this: Previous attempts at recording “Now and Then” actually date back to the mid-90's during the “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” sessions, but technical problems with Lennon's soft, low-level vocal on the cassette demo derailed the project, and it was placed on the back burner. When George died…

AudioQuest PowerQuest The new rack-mountable PowerQuest models—PQ-303, PQ-505, and PQ-707—follow AudioQuest's comprehensive approach to AC power conditioning by addressing noise linearly to provide class-leading, wide-bandwidth noise reduction. The PQ-303's linear noise-dissipation comprises differential-mode filtering (30kHz–1GHz), which addresses asymmetrical noise already present on the utility line or backwashed via electronic appliances and components. The PQ-505 (pictured) adds common-mode filtering (30kHz–100MHz) to address symmetrical noise, which is typically picked up by the AC line's neutral and ground leads. The PQ-707, takes noise dissipation even further with a wider-bandwidth (8kHz to 1GHz) differentialmode filter and also includes Transient Power Correction (TPC). All models feature surge protection and automatic shutdown at 140VAC. They provide 12 total AC outlets: Four high-current and eight linear-filtered outlets for constant-current source components. The inclusion of a direction-controlled AC…

In 1967 Blue Note released a record by tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley featuring a female model dancing on the expansive hood of a white Cadillac El Dorado. The pithy album title said it all—A Caddy For Daddy. For decades a Caddy was synonymous with American power and swagger, which is why the singer and actor Isaac Hayes zoomed around Memphis, Tennessee, in a gold-plated El Dorado and Bill Clinton used a 1993 Fleetwood as his presidential state car. Fleetwood—a small town located in Pennsylvania Dutch country—was at the heart of much of the Cadillac success story. Fleetwood Metal Body was founded in 1909 and supplied the coaches for brands like Rolls-Royce, Duesenberg, and Cadillac before it was bought out by General Motors, which transferred its operations to Detroit. The fabled…

A couple years ago I received an invitation from Mo-Fi's chief loudspeaker designer, the ever-cordial Andrew Jones, to visit a newly acquired space that was in the process of becoming MoFi's design facility in Los Angeles, only a few short miles from where I live. I'm always interested to see and hear what Jones is up to; so, with little prompting, I accepted. Still in the throes of unpacking boxes and arranging furnishings, Jones guided me through the large space and described the plans for its completion. I also took a walkaround and had a brief listening session with a near-final version of what would become the SourcePoint10 ($3999 w/stands). Jones was still putting the boxy, two-way coaxial prototype through its paces, listening and tweaking, tweaking and listening. He dubbed…

“Besides the worldwide challenges we all must face, the high-end industry needs to attract young people.” How and when did your interest in highend audio begin? I was born and grew up in the city of Kassel. We were living not far away from the AEG factory and its consumer elec tronic division, Telefunken. Telefunke produced everything from simple radios up to—for that time—high-priced hi-components. My first hi-fisystem consist ed of a receiver from Telefunken, a Dual turntable, and some DIY speakers. For me, that was the start of high end. What components made up your first “true” high-end system? That is not so easy to say, as I changed my system often. I spent a lot of money for cartridges, new drivers for my speakers, various amplifiers, and so…