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A couple of years ago, a designer of high-end tube equipment said something to me that left such an impact it eventually led me, now that the conditions seem right, to write this article. That mind-bomb was set off when I asked the designer if he’d ever consider making a class-AB amp. Shaking his head,…
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I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like company Stable 33.3’s founder and head designer Sylvain Pichette. Or, more specifically—met a mind like his. That may seem a strange thing to say, until you speak with him and realize, as I did when I recently visited him at his new Gatineau, Quebec, workshop, how…
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“Some studio effects seemed to pop out of nowhere, in a way that sounded completely liberated from the speakers.”
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“Don’t lose sight of what’s most important,” he said. “The music.”
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Ed Stone of Executive Stereo has led an interesting life, particularly from an audio perspective. Let’s start with that name—Ed Stone. It sounds rock ‘n’ roll verging on bad-ass, like a made-up rock star alias. Except it isn’t, as Ed confirmed with me during our interview over the phone, in which he jokingly added, “At…
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Read the first part of the interview here. Prices listed in US$. As the new owner of Audio Research, Val Cora has vowed to keep the iconic American manufacturer at its current location in Maple Grove, Minnesota, while he and his wife, Sheree, will still run their high-end Acora Acoustics speaker business in their hometown…
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Here it is—Issue 1 of PMA Magazine’s flipbook version. I know what you’re thinking: “PMA Magazine comes in a flipbook version?” It does now. And while its launch may come as a surprise to you, the audio elves behind its creation planned its release for months. What took so long? The timing. The elves thought:…
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I can’t think of any other piece of news in 2023 that was bigger in the audiophile community, at least not in North America, than that of Audio Research having been bought by AR Tube Audio Corporation, a company formed, for the occasion, by Valerio Cora of Acora Speakers. I recently sat down across from…
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One of the highlights at this year’s Toronto Audiofest was the launch of the album Of the Bird, Flying, the new release by Montreal band G!ve.
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“That’s what I like about Audiophile Experts and wish more audio stores would do.”
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The Toronto Audiofest 2023 had everything you could wish for in an audio show: great gear at all price-points, a communal and jovial atmosphere, overall good to great sound, friendly banter with peers or friends made on the spot, solid visitor traffic but not overcrowded, and plenty of coffee for dudes like me who were…
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Prices listed in CA$. Another room that served up incredible sound was that of retailer Bliss Acoustics, whose demo included a J.Sikora Reference turntable ($64,500) fitted with a KV Max 9″ tonearm ($16,450) and Nagra Reference cartridge ($24,500), a Nagra Classic preamplifer ($24,000), a Nagra Classic phono stage ($26,000), a Gryphon Essence stereo amplifier ($32,480),…
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Prices listed in US$ except where otherwise noted. I heard more fantastic sound in the Audio by Mark Jones room, which displayed a pair of Apogee speaker-inspired planar-type Clarisys Audio Studio Plus speakers ($66,000/pair) allied to a stack of twin-chassis products that included a CH Precision 300Wpc M10 stereo power amplifier ($104,000), an L10 preamplifier…
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Prices listed in CA$. When owner of retailer EQ Audio Video Ed O’herlihy told me he and his team had painstakingly set up the Focal Grande Utopias EM EVO ($359,998) better than they’d ever been set up at a show, I believed him. Why? Because I recognized that glint of confidence in his eye that…
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Prices listed in CA$. Be honest: When you saw the speakers in the above photo, did you immediately think, “Tannoy”? Me, too. They’re actually the Vintage 15 model ($49,950) made by Fyne Audio, and they looked gorgeous — and massive — when I saw them in person in retailer Gramophone Audio’s room. They also sounded…