This article is the last part of the Revolution One project story. At the time of this write up, 16 months have passed since the Evolution Ones were removed from the room and their crossovers were dismantled. It means finishing the project half a year later than expected. On this opportunity, I would like to look back and make a fair assessment whether the project has reached the goals and, ultimately, whether it’s been worthwhile at all.
A grounding unit that does not – technically speaking – ground, yet it can dramatically transform the sound that a pair of speakers sends to your ears. A red rag for those who can't explain exactly how it can work, a lure for those willing to venture into less explored waters in their quest for better sound. The Czech manufacturer bravely jumped into such waters and not only didn't drown, but swam away with a very interesting concept that is fully competitive with anything in the ‘grounding’ market segment.
While in the previous parts of the Revolution One journey I focused on the ideation, experimental modelling, and selection of parts, this penultimate part describes the baby coming to life. Theoretically, after all the hard work, it means clicking the things together and enjoy the music. Practically, this turned out to be the most difficult étape.
Moving from paper to soldering iron was a very exciting step in the project. Finally, all the hard work will materialize in the listening room, right? Well, almost. Unless someone provides you with a complete construction kit that was tested and tuned to perfection, there is still a lot to be done. It starts with a nightmare – which exact components to use?
Designing a loudspeaker is a very complex discipline if a certain level of performance should be achieved. Well, you can do it quickly and still have good results. However, should the target be to compete with the best, it takes a great deal of expertise, money and time to make an outstanding loudspeaker. In the TAD Revolution One project, we were spared such an elaborate work: Fortunately, TAD engineers had designed the cabinets, had chosen the drivers, and had put the whole assembly together. They had designed the crossover too, and a good one. Still, after taking care of the cabinets (please read the first part of this saga), the next step was to look at whether it was possible to improve this otherwise competent design.
TAD Evolution One are by no means ultimate loudspeakers. They are damn good, though, and represent Andrew Jones´ golden era. I have been owning them since they were released in 2013 and have never felt any urge to replace them. Over the years not once did I listened to speakers that sounded great (by great I mean better sounding than the Evolution One), yet these were either too big for my room or too ugly for my taste. There were only two occasions when I was considering selling the TADs and getting a new pair of speakers.
There is no need to explain to anyone that using good antivibration feet or platforms under a pair of loudspeakers may project into how the speakers measure and sound. But how does it come that using similar devices under a power amplifier may affect the power output of the amplifier? And why the very same devices may improve the sound of D/A converters or power distributors? This article is not a review - rather it outlines different paths that you can follow to improve the performance of your audio system. Often the effect of isolation devices is nothing short of magic.
I went to see a friend who powers his setup (that costs, at list prices, about 160 thousand Euro) through the Accuphase PS-1250 active power supply. His audio plays in a custom built and acoustically well treated room, a truly awesome listening environment. Expectations can do wonders and I did not want him to be biased, therefore I put it like this: "I've got a prototype of a homebrew power cord. I believe it is not bad, yet there are some attributes that I don´t like, so I would love to hear your opinion." He mumbled something to the effect of why I was bringing it to his house and sat down on his listening couch, rolling up his eyes. The Assoluto went into a spare outlet of the PS-1250 and was not plugged in to anything else, which he didn't know, because he ...
Is the bass that you hear from your loudspeakers in your room crisp, articulated, natural, uncoloured, tight, and - at the same time - deep and extended? Headphones do not count. If your answer is yes, then you are one of the lucky few. From my experience, I guesstimate that about 5-8% of listening spaces have an excellent bass response. All the other rooms require a lot of wit and hard work to achieve a good bass balance in them. The PSI’s device may be one of the most – if not the most - effective means to fight modal problems of any professional or home listening environment.
Oh my, what is that? A minuscule black cube that is heavy as a black hole and has two concentric drivers firing in opposite directions. The cube is all aluminum with only masking rims around the drivers being plastic. The cube is stylish, smooth, and looks like an aircraft engine.
The Steinmusic H2 system is - if correctly dialed in - beyond any description. It needs to be experienced to fully appreciate its power. No, it won’t replace proper acoustic treatment, and you will still need to address the room modes and reverberation through good old absorbers and diffusers, or their equivalents. However, let’s put it straight: As soon as the room’s acoustics is satisfactory, the Steinmusic devices have the power to transform the listening space to the point you’ve never dared to dream of.
After my spring hi-fi adventure with Acoustic System International’s Sugar Cubes, about which I enthusiastically reported in the article called ASI Sugar Cubes: Devil’s Dice, my autumn venture has become predestined. Unlike rather mysteriously but ultra-effectively functioning Sugar Cubes, the ASI Resonators follow the principles of physic: they resonate.
Imagine a handful of tiny aluminum cylinders attached to the walls of your listening room, let’s call them HFTs. In the last couple of weeks you’ve really worked hard to put them at right spots and now you feel that they contribute to how your system sounds. Other family members and visitors to your room exchange tolerant glances and quite understandably so – the tweaks like the HFTs fall, according to any reasonable standards, to the same category as fairies and alien abductions. The seed of doubts about your own sanity starts to grow and one night, when everyone is asleep, you start to remove them. The first is gone and the orchestra shrinks between the speakers. Second is gone and the opera diva drops down to an invisible chair and develops some obvious articulation ...
The ASI stands for Acoustic System International, a one-man show of Franck Tchang, a Chinese expatriate living in Paris, France. He is no newcomer to audio which many regular visitors to hi-fi shows can attest –entering as a non-believer and going out as a convert is the usual result of Franck’s demonstrations. The company's original product range consisted only of few resonators, which were essentially small metal bowls laid on three-point prongs on their wooden bases. Today, the resonators are available in several versions and models, from bronze to platinum. Over time, resonators have been joined by cables “that are connecting only on one end” (whoops!), and by small wooden cubes, aptly named Sugar Cubes. Indeed, browsing through the ASI’s portfolio makes one want to stifle a ...
Stromtank has been conceived to become an ultimate solution to clean power supply. It operates with no dependency on power grid quality, providing the purest possible voltage to electronics. It proves once again – and it does so in a rather unrivaled way – that it is the power foundation that lifts up the good systems to the great ones.
In 90’s dustbins were full of discarded vinyl records, ten years later we have seen the end of tapes, and after another decade had passed huge collections of CDs were ripped into MP3s and stored in iPods. These days see the return of the vinyl and tape, yet the CDs keep being discarded in favor of subscription to music libraries in an endless hunt for ´higher´ resolution. Who cares that your DSD or 24bit/192kHz files were upsampled from often lossy formats, it is business, isn´t it?
These days virtually everyone can build a capable DAC or a streaming device and I therefore keep wondering – why then there are so few that sound really good? Not only does the Mark Levinson № 519 sound good, to me it ranks among the finest digital sources available today.
Supernatural silence. I mean the blacker than black canvas for music, as if the Dragon Zero | Bass was devouring the light. The digital zero is the first day of creation, one can hear molecules splitting in the empty space. Still, this is not the silence of nothingness, rather of anticipation, as if something was in the air, like the electrical charge before a storm.
Gravis means heavy and serious in Latin, and it is an aptly chosen name for a subwoofer although the Gravis I is not particulary heavy with its 15kg. Nevertheless, the Gravis I is not alone and Sonus Faber markets also bigger subs, with the range topped by 52-kilos weighing Gravis VI that makes justice to the name.
“These evocative oriental textures become so sensual, it’s a kind of weaving the sound. It’s so mesmerizing. I can hear every single note and tonal shift clearly, so effortlessly. And now, the power of the music is incredible, the music is burning from the speakers!”
The listening session notes
The German brand builds its philosophy on four pillars: Perfection, Design, Technology and Ease of Use. Since its conception in 1978 by Dieter Burmester until today, when the business is run by the Burmester family after the owner passed in 2015, this approach has never changed. Unlike quite a number of high end audio newcomers the Burmester brand has a very solid reputation in technological industry, not just in audio business.
For a newcomer it is not easy to navigate among NOS tubes that are available through Ebay or similar sites. The majority of the offerings are of contemporary Chinese or Russian origin and deceptively sold as rare vintage tubes, they are often marked with “military specifications” or they are gold pinned despite their NOS counterparts have never been produced like this. Should we buy a new tube to avoid the counterfeit?
I love writing about subwoofers. Good subwoofing is a science that tries to make the best of several severe variables: the room, the listener, the main speakers and the subwoofer itself, and their mutual relations, spatial or temporal. Therefore I jumped on the opportunity to review SVS SB-3000 which sits right in the middle of the line-up of the company. I am so glad I did so.
Discussing power cords is like walking on thin ice. However, in hi-fi community what is not? Still this topic is even more subjective than any other – for example just swapping a cable for a longer or shorter one, otherwise completely identical, will probably alter what we are hearing. When AudioQuest completed their brand new “Storm” range of power cords we decided to organize a comparative review to see what kind of logic AudioQuest used for establishing their hierarchy. It was an interesting journey.
The Vitalizer MK2-T should – according to the manual – do all the things that our picky ears crave for: give the mids accurate transparency with a soft, unobtrusive sound, add depth, width and clarity to the stereo image, enhance highs with focus on their smooth and silky character, and last but not least provide deep, accurate and punchy bass. It sounds too good to be true and I considered the SPL’s text to be the usual overstatement. I could not be more wrong.
And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. But in the afternoon he became restless for he saw that some improvements are necessary for Ethernet cables to satisfy humans.
The most exciting moments in the lives of us, audiophiles, are defined by experiencing the sound like we've never experienced before. In such moments intimately known tracks become transformed into new thrilling pieces and the sound starts sending shivers down the spine. After this the next step is desire - the desire to own this miraculous piece of equipment that made it happen. Some enjoy those shivers quite often and end up in endless component upgrades. More seasoned veterans' ears are less easy to trick, however. To trigger alarm and ignite passion in their hearts (and ears) much more is needed. I reviewed dozens of pieces of audio equipment over the last few years and yet it happened to me maybe twice that my jaw dropped and my pulse got faster. But the price to pay was ...
This review will not be centered about technical information too much. There is enough info at the Accuphase's global website and smartphones with online translators are efficient today. The goal of the DG-58's introduction is to explain the philosophy behind the device, to inspire the reader to explore the world of the voicing equalizer.
Back in 1958 the Ortofon SPU sounded like no other cartridge because it was way ahead of its competition. Today the SPU still has a sound that is definitely its own, characterized by rich bass and transparent treble range plus those extra qualities which are so hard to define, but so easy to appreciate when they are realized.
In the vinyl world the Ortofon brand is unavoidable. From The Beatles mono mastering to the finest audiophile candies the cartridges and accessories from the Danish manufacturer represent landmarks in the industry. It is my pleasure to share the opinions and thoughts of Ortofon’s experts with our readers. Let them speak.
The AudioQuest Redwood is so skilfully balanced that imperfections cancel out each other and a result is the most invisible cable I have ever heard, irrespective of price. Through the Redwood music breathes as it neither compresses nor constricts the bloom of instruments´ natural timbre. It paints dense and palpable images yet it does not sound heavy. It is airy and delicate yet it is not wispy or thin – the upper octaves of cymbals are like life itself. It was as if the cable stepped aside and let the music communicate to a listener directly without any electrical mist induced by audio devices.
Is the AudioQuest brand completely new to you? If so you should re-enter a hifi nursery school to educate yourself. The most known cable manufactura of William E. Low produces a wide range of cables and accessories for all thinkable audio and video applications since early 80’s and though the majority of AudioQuest’s catalogue is what I would call upscale mass market, there is a bunch of top of the line cables that sound simply stunning. Let’s explore one of them.
I assume there is no audio enthusiast out there who have never heard of Cardas Audio. Then the terms of ‘golden ratio’ or ´golden section´have probably got stuck in your head because there is no Cardas without the golden section. The Clear interconnect is the Cardas Audio's top of the range signal cable. And it proved itself to be one of the best pieces of wire I've had in my audio system.
If someone prefers to build its own power cable he usually starts looking for decent conductors and terminations first. This is when he realizes that there are more than few options – copper, silver, solid core or stranded wires, and plugs with different plating and amperage. Choosing (theoretically or measurably) the best available parts very often does not yield the best results, and sometimes the DIYer ends up with a pretty crappy sounding cable. Why does this happen?
The DB-1 subwoofer is a simple monolithic cube finished in flawless piano lacquer. It extends ca half a meter to any side and is incredibly heavy. I had to pull the 50 kgs of the sub upstairs and it was not an easy job, rather an Olympic discipline, as unlike an amplifier there are no handles on the device. As such the DB-1 is among the most inconvenient pieces of hifi that I’ve had to move around my house.
We started with the ordinary idea to compare a few speaker cables in the budget segment of the market,that is what we call low-tier cables. Since the very beginning the idea has grown into this quite comprehensive group review of 18 different wires in much more generous price dispersion. Why not 20 wires, you may ask. After more than six months of connecting and disconnecting speaker cables from amps and loudspeakers even a reviewer gets saturated and wants to relax for a while. Therefore we said STOP at a certain moment throughout the review process and took no more cables aboard.
Behringer devices are very well known in the professional audio community – I mean sound engineers, mastering suites, recording studios and musicians, both pros and amateurs. The German company can provide you with a bulky catalogue of audio gear and gadgets that an audiophile will not ever need, however, there are also some devices that may come in handy even in high end audio.
Though humans cannot travel at the speed of light, an audio signal - after proper conversion - can do that. For long optical digital cables could not compete with coaxial connections and their use in high end audio was quite limited. Today, developments in material engineering enable to produce light-conveying fibers of such a grade that the situation is quite opposite: listening to the light may yield more pleasure than listening to electrical interferences of a coaxial cable.
Nobody will ever question one´s decision to invest one thousand euro in an amplifier. Investing the same amount into cables connecting the amplifier to other components may already cause some eyebrows to be risen. But putting the very same money in an power cord immediately raises questions about your sanity.
