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Spin Doctor #26: The Sorane TA-1 tonearm and the Ortofon MC 90X phono cartridge
Photo by Dave Archambault@vinylnirvana.com. A friend who sells high-end audio gear once pointed out that people who shop for separate tonearms are very different from those interested in phono...
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Gramophone Dreams #98: Woo WA24 headphone amplifier, Lyra & Hana phono...
Woo Audio's 20th Anniversary WA24 headphone amplifier comes in a distinctive, low-slung chassis that welcomes the eye with gentle angular volumes and bright, frosty-surfaced, copper-toned controls. In...
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Brilliant Corners #27: Ortofon SPU Royal N phono cartridge (and Patsy Cline)
Back in the '90s, when I was young and marginally employed, one of the things I looked forward to most was going downstairs to my mailbox and finding a copy of Audiomart. The booklet arrived every two...
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Gramophone Dreams #96: Falcon 2024 Limited Edition LS3/5a loudspeaker, Lyra...
The story goes that starting in 1962, Malcolm Jones was KEF's "first employee," where he "did most of the design and development of the legendary KEF drive unitsthe B139, B200, B110, T15, T27and the...
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Benz-Micro MC-20E II & MC Silver phono cartridges
In these waning days of Analog's Last Stand, it might seem absurd to review mid-priced phono cartridges when this space could be given instead to the gear Stereophile usually coverslike $3000 OTL tube...
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Analog Corner #232: HiFiction Simplicity II tonearm, Miyajima Labs Madake...
In my January 2014 column, I reviewed HiFiction's Thales TTT-Compact turntable and Simplicity tangential-tracking pivoted tonearm, an intriguing combo from Micha Huber, a talented Swiss watchmaker...
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Gramophone Dreams #93: The Kalman R Experience, Audio-Technica ART20 Phono...
The day I visited Stereophile Senior Contributing Editor Kalman Rubinson, I arrived back home with a headful of new understandings, but before I could ponder those things, I made a cup of tea and sat...
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Analog Corner #235: Kiseki & Lamm
At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show, Herman van den Dungen handed me a surprise: a brand new Kiseki Blue cartridge manufactured from new-old-stock parts. It wasn't mine to take homeonly to look at,...
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Spin Doctor #19: An exotic Audio-Technica cartridge and a Vivid flagship speaker
I think of Audio-Technica as the maker of some of the best high-value cartridges out there. From the ubiquitous AT3600L, which can be had for a little more than a Big Mac meal at McDonald's, to the...
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Gramophone Dreams #91: Mobile Fidelity, PrimaLuna, and First Watt Redux
Herb waits for Godot It's important for readers to remember that I've spent my adult life as an artist and mechanic. Making things. Working as a tradesperson during the day then at an easel or...
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Analog Corner #237: Ortofon MC A95 phono cartridge, Brinkmann Audio Spyder...
It's difficult to believe that more than five years have passed since Ortofon introduced its ground-breaking MC A90 moving-coil cartridge ($4200 when last available). The limited-edition MC A90, with...
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Spin Doctor #18: Moonriver 505 Phono Stage, DS Audio E3 Optical Phono...
I spent the second three-and-a-half years of my life living with my family in Sweden. Our home was on an island just outside of Stockholm called Lidingö, which locals tell me today is like the Beverly...
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Gramophone Dreams #90: Collecting Phono Cartridges, Hana, MoFi
In a video on his YouTube channel Jazz Vinyl Audiophile (footnote 1), Stereophile contributing editor Ken Micallef asks Jeffrey Catalano of High Water Sound how he manages to be so consistenthow his...
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Analog Corner #238: A Tale of Two Cartridges from Ikeda and Ortofon
But first, the blowback I expected following my February 2014 column on Synergistic Research's Uniform Energy Field Technology room treatments never arrivedin fact, quite the opposite. My own positive...
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Brilliant Corners #19: Music Among the Fairchildren
Pull down the shades, find a comfortable seat, and come with me on an imaginary journey to the year 1956. The Eisenhower-Nixon ticket wins reelection, the United Methodist Church begins to ordain...
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Spin Doctor #16: Sutherland Dos Locos Phono Preamp, Dynavector XX-2A Phono...
Ron Sutherland makes a strong case for being crowned the king of all phono preamps, though I expect he would blush at any such suggestion. In 1979, with degrees in physics and electronic engineering...
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Brilliant Corners #18: Adventures in Schwabylon, Ortofon Cadenza Mono Phono...
Meeting up at High End Munich: Grover Neville (left), a contributor to Stereophile's late headphone blog InnerFidelity, with his dad, Craig, a civil engineer from Chicago."Schwabing isn't a...
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Analog Corner #242: Cornering the Vinyl Scoffers; Fuuga & Air Tight Phono...
The "Meet the Editors" panel at T.H.E. Show Newport Beach 2015. (LR): Robert Harley, Chris Connaker, John Darko, Michael Fremer, David W. Robinson. Add to the deniers of the Holocaust and Climate...
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Brilliant Corners #17: Monomania! The Miyajima Zero Mono phono cartridge
Stereo is the most successful audio gimmick of all time. While dashboard record players, quadraphonic LPs, and MQA have gone the way of Ron Popeil's hair-in-a-spray-can infomercials, stereo remains...
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Gramophone Dreams #87: Deejay Coolosities, AudioQuest Yosemite tonearm cable,...
SME’s Kathryn "Kat" Ourlian deejays a turntable shootout. Photo by Michael Trei. One August night in 1965, I parked in the driveway of my best friend Derf Marko's house and let myself in the back door....
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