Equipment Reviews

: Written by: Vade Forrester; Created: 15 November 2013

Octave V 70 SE Reviewers' Choice Tubes or transistors -- which sound better? Ask a typical group of audiophiles, then stand back as the argument heats up. Octave Audio, a German company, is firmly in the tube camp, contending that “true musicality in high fidelity can only be realized with tubes.” Their wide range of preamplifiers, amplifiers, and integrated amplifiers all use a combination of tubes and modern circuitry.

Octave Audio’s V 70 SE certainly looks like a modern integrated amplifier. Available in black or silver, it measures 17.8”W x 5.9”H x 16.3”D and weighs 48.5 pounds. It’s low-slung in front, with a streamlined tube cage that protects the tubes, and tiny fingers and noses, from contact with each other. I’ve never seen a tube cage that I could call handsome, but the V 70 SE’s looks better than most. Unlike in older designs, the V 70’s transformers are inside its case, which certainly looks sleeker. The V 70 SE sells for $7000 USD, or $7600 with optional moving-magnet or moving-coil phono stage. The phono board uses solid-state devices, and the MC version has a fixed input impedance of 150 ohms, with a signal/noise ratio of 73dB and an input sensitivity of 0.5mV. Those values should work with a wide range of MC cartridges, but wouldn’t with my van den Hul Platinum Frog cartridge, with its recommended input impedance of 500 ohms (I prefer 1000 ohms).

: Written by: Michael Wright; Created: 15 October 2013

KR Audio VA910 When I met KR Audio’s Eunice Kron at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, we spoke briefly about where we thought the high-end industry was going and about KR Audio in general. I found her to be very knowledgeable about music and about what’s going on in the industry, and we tentatively agreed that I would review one of KRA’s new amplifiers. After clearing things with my editor, I was in touch with Alfred Kainz, of Highend-Electronics, KRA’s US distributor (KRA is based in Prague, in the Czech Republic). I had worked with Kainz when I wrote about Artos Audio’s Sunrise speaker. He was most helpful, and extremely punctual about getting equipment out and answering my questions. Several days later, the KR Audio VA910 mono amplifiers ($16,500 USD per pair) were delivered.

: Written by: Aron Garrecht; Created: 01 October 2013

T+A TCD 110 S Reviewers' Choice One of the most rewarding aspects of writing reviews, at least for me, is witnessing the various approaches designers and engineers take to transform recorded media into convincing sound. Be it speakers or electronics, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve researched a product or company and found myself smack dab in the middle of a “who’da-thunk-it” moment. I experienced such a moment while looking into the recently released Criterion TCD 110 S loudspeaker, from T+A Elektroakustik. To most of us on this side of the pond, T+A (the letters stand for Theory and Application) is synonymous with designing and building high-end electronics -- amplifiers, preamplifiers, and digital sources. It surprised me to learn that things have not always been so. In fact, this German company, based in Herford, a district of Eastern Westphalia, opened its doors in 1978 as a maker of loudspeakers.

As I dug deeper into T+A’s history, I began to understand the culture behind their products and appreciate that, from the get-go, T+A has consistently striven to create products that differ from the competition in not one but every facet of design and performance. In 1982, T+A put this philosophy to the test when they decided to develop a groundbreaking series of loudspeakers, to be called the Criterion models, that would be designed as benchmarks against which all other T+A speakers would be measured.

: Written by: Vade Forrester; Created: 15 September 2013

Birch Acoustics Raven “The allure of single drivers is enticing as it can do things no other speaker can attempt: perfect impulse response, time and phase correct, single point source imaging, filterless connection to the voice coil, extreme efficiency.”

So says Birch Acoustics’ website, and I agree. But single-driver speakers can have some less appealing characteristics, too: restricted frequency extension, limited power handling, and a need for horn or other enclosure designs that try to circumvent the driver’s limits. Still, I’ve found wonderfully appealing the directness of sound from a speaker whose single driver is connected directly to the amplifier without any intervening crossover network, and so have pursued several such speakers. All of these have had significant drawbacks that I’ve had to live with or try to minimize. For me, their attractions have outweighed their drawbacks, but I realize that others won’t be willing to live with their shortfalls.

: Written by: Jason Thorpe; Created: 15 August 2013

Monitor Audio Platinum PL200 Select Component There’s a class of speaker manufacturer that gets little respect in this close-knit, parochial universe of high-end. If you lurk about in any of the many Internet audio forums, you’ll see much praise heaped on boutique speaker companies -- those small, exclusive shops that turn out speakers ranging from very to offensively expensive. This is all well and good -- I’ve often reviewed and raved about speakers from such companies. What I find odd is how the same audiophiles who rave about the boutique manufacturer du jour seem to have little love for larger companies -- the ones with huge resources who, in many instances, have forgotten more about speaker design than the boutique shops will ever know.

I think I know why. First, audiophiles can be arrogant. Read a bunch of magazines, digest some reviews, and you’re this close to being an expert. Then, you need some deep pockets and a hunch about a long-shot company. Buy the speakers, and become a shrill supporter on a forum. There you go.

Once the supporter of a boutique company has drunk the brand’s Kool-Aid, the result can be a disconnect too wide to even acknowledge the possibility that a company with an R&D budget the size of Luxembourg’s GDP probably builds a speaker with significantly better performance and brings it to market for one-fifth the price. And if that company also makes -- the horror -- lifestyle speakers, so much the worse.

: Written by: Howard Kneller; Created: 15 July 2013

ESP power cord Many years ago, shortly after taking an interest in high-end audio, I learned an unassailable audio truth: never, ever doubt the performance benefits of good AC power. But even after many years, whenever I upgrade my power cords, line conditioners, AC outlets, or fuses, I continue to be amazed at the reduction in noise and the improvements in detail, transient speed, dynamic range, imaging, and three-dimensionality. It’s a lesson I learn over and over.

I frequently receive new power products for review, and am pretty good at keeping up with industry news. Yet it seems that every few weeks I discover another maker of power products I’d never heard of. Reading the company’s website or new-product announcement, my eyes usually glaze over, and far more often than not, I never hear about that company again.

But when my editor mentioned Essential Sound Products, my interest was piqued. First, it’s been almost 20 years since ESP’s Essence power cords and distribution strip made a huge splash. Back then, the fact that a high-quality power cord could improve a component’s sound was not as generally accepted as it is today. ESP was one of the first companies to prove otherwise.

: Written by: Michael Wright; Created: 01 July 2013

Select Component A company you should get to know

Before embarking on this review, I hadn’t heard much about JE Audio, a company based in Hong Kong. But when editor Jeff Fritz asked if I’d be interested in reviewing JE’s Dyad S400 amplifier ($16,000 USD), I thought it might be an opportunity to discover an overlooked gem. I was soon in touch with John Lam, JE’s founder and chief designer, and not long after that, a review sample was on its way from Asia to Illinois.

Description

JE Audio Dyad S400 In just a few days, the Dyad S400 arrived at my doorstep in a flight case -- a pleasant surprise, as it made handling the amp a whole lot easier for me and the DHL deliveryman. Previously, I’ve seen flight cases from only a few European companies. I wrestled the case into my listening room, opened it, and there, in a black velvet sack, under the owner’s manual and a pair of white gloves, was the 95-pound S400. The flight case made unpacking and setup very simple.

: Written by: Hans Wetzel; Created: 15 June 2013

Dynamique Audio interconnect Select Component The median household income in the US in 2011, according to the US Census Bureau, was $52,762. Household income. To me, that sounds like a pretty modest amount of money, but I find that such a perspective is a wonderful thing to have. I’m hugely fortunate that my monetary worries are few. But reading such a statistic, I wonder if spending enormous amounts of money on audio gear brings me proportionally more enjoyment than, say, an iPod dock. The answer, of course, is no -- diminishing returns, and all that. It’s all well and good that I can hear the differences among various high-priced loudspeakers, amps, and cables, but it doesn’t mean that I can no longer be moved by listening to music through pair of $300 computer speakers.

I’m sure there are some people out there who, having sampled the best of the best, thumb their noses at lowly proletarians who enjoy anything else. It’s easy to comprehend why: the more expensive something is, the better it is supposed to serve its intrinsic purpose. Obvious stuff, this.

Suppose this wasn’t the case, however. Suppose that, one day, a top company came out with something twice as expensive than anything else on the market, but was little or no different from the company’s own next best product? Imagine competitors’ derision at such a move, and said derision replaced by shock, as people actually bought the product. Now all the competitors come out with equally expensive products, with equally little difference between them. Consumers buy them with gusto because the products cost what they think they should be paying for a top-quality product. Yet the products are no better than before. In short, you can’t have $60,000 speakers, $120,000 worth of electronics, but only a mere $20,000 worth of cables and interconnects. The weak point is obviously the wiring. Just sack up and pay the $50,000 it will take to balance out your system. The more expensive stuff is clearly better. But is it?

: Written by: S. Andrea Sundaram; Created: 01 June 2013

Music Culture MC 501A In 2011, according to Nielsen/Billboard, US sales of digital music downloads surpassed sales of recordings on physical media for the first time. That statistic is comprised of, almost entirely, sales of compressed music by websites such as iTunes and Amazon. While there are a couple dozen websites selling downloads of CD (16-bit/44.1kHz) or higher resolution, their offerings represent only a small proportion of current releases, and an even tinier fraction of back catalog. In 2013, CDs are still the dominant format for buying uncompressed music, and most of us own hundreds or thousands of them. Not everyone is inclined to rip his entire CD collection to hard drives for playback through a computer; the standalone CD player still has a place in a modern audiophile system.

On the other hand, a component that plays only CDs ignores the very real sonic benefits of higher bit depths and sample rates, as well as the undeniable trend toward downloads and computer-based playback. A number of companies have recognized that we are at this crossroads, and have responded by adding digital inputs -- often including USB -- to their newest CD players. One such is Music Culture, which introduced the Elegance MC 501A ($4490 USD) to succeed their Elegance MC 501.

: Written by: Vade Forrester; Created: 15 May 2013

Select Component KR Audio VA340 Mk.II The single-ended triode (SET) amplifier enjoyed a fairly brief surge in popularity several years ago, but then audiophiles rediscovered facts that had become obvious in the 1920s and ’30s: SETs just didn’t have enough power to drive most speakers. So push-pull amplifiers again became the standard, and SETs dwindled in popularity. But some companies found the SET sound so beguiling that they tried to overcome the technology’s power deficit. Their success has been mixed. Several models with more power than the early SET amps were developed, but the most powerful of these still produced little more than 50Wpc, and were typically big, heavy, and expensive.

It’s not surprising that KR Audio, in the Czech Republic, has continued to design and make higher-powered SET amps. Originally, KRA manufactured tubes; specifically, power triodes designed to be used in SET amps. It was a logical progression for KRA to build a line of amplifiers that could use their tubes -- such as the integrated amplifier reviewed here.