Back within the Seventies, I lived in Japan for a yr, ostensibly to check Buddhism and the Japanese language; in actuality, I used to be knocking round Kyoto as a lot as I happy. I used to be dwelling with my girlfriend in a small eight-mat room, watching kabuki performs on the Minami-za theater, studying poetry in espresso retailers, and hanging out at a blues membership on weekends.
Back within the Seventies, I lived in Japan for a 12 months, ostensibly to review Buddhism and the Japanese language; in actuality, I used to be knocking round Kyoto as a lot as I happy. I used to be dwelling with my girlfriend in a small eight-mat room, watching kabuki performs on the Minami-za theater, studying poetry in espresso retailers, and hanging out at a blues membership on weekends.
Rightly or wrongly, Germans have a status for being an exacting bunch—usually involved extra with perform than type. For this car-loving reviewer, cars are a main instance of what fuels this stereotype. If you need a high-end sports activities automotive which you could run ragged day in and day trip, purchase a Porsche 911 GT3. This automotive’s magnificence has been honed via many years of refinement of the underlying 911 physique form. If, on the Freudian continuum, you tilt much less in direction of the ego and extra in direction of the id, and have a tendency to forego Teutonic pragmatism in favor of extra primal urges, then the sensual strains of a brand new Ferrari F8 Tributo could be a more sensible choice. While vital engineering sources have been poured into every of those cars, the German mannequin is the devoted workhorse in comparison with the Italian present pony.
I was a large-speaker form of man. Early in my audiophile life, I figured going larger could be extra satisfying in the long run, not essentially as a result of dimension by itself makes a distinction, however as a result of audio system tended to get bigger as you progressed from the underside to the highest mannequin of any given firm’s lineup. Come to consider it, I can’t give you a single instance of an organization whose audio system truly get smaller as you progress up the road. As a end result, I equated larger with higher as a result of, nicely, that’s what I used to be advised was the case by nearly everybody who made audio system.
Kharma is a model I’ve admired for a really very long time. I first examine their profitable Ceramique line of loudspeakers again within the late Nineties, which—as you could have guessed from the identify—featured their signature ceramic midrange driver. Way again within the mid-Nineteen Eighties, the pioneering Dutch agency was the primary audio firm to make use of ceramic drivers. And in more moderen years, I’ve seen and heard their choices at commerce reveals, like Munich’s High End, and appreciated their distinctive designs and fastidious consideration to element.
Audia Flight is an Italian electronics manufacturer whose products I’d seen at shows in the past but never had the chance to listen to for an extended period. So when the opportunity arose to review their flagship FLS10 integrated amplifier ($12,999, all prices in USD), I grabbed it with both hands. I’m a sucker for a high-powered integrated amplifier, and the big Audia Flight amp looked promising: lots of power, an optional phono stage ($1299), an optional DAC ($1999), and an RCA ($599) expansion board—all designed and built by hand in Italy. The fact that it ships in a crate rather than a cardboard box should be a welcome sign for the hi-fi-by-the-pound types among you.
Audiophiles are typically divided when the subject of power conditioning comes up. On one hand, many audiophiles will tell you that power conditioning—or more accurately, the entire electrical chain associated with a stereo system, including the in-the-wall wiring and outlets—is the foundation of an audio system. The theory behind it is that if you don’t start with pristine power delivery, everything that comes after—meaning everything—will be compromised.
The Best of British
Quite simply, SME is one of the crown jewels of the British audio industry, and is as quintessentially English as the BBC, Windsor Castle, or strawberries and cream at Wimbledon. Nestled in the foothills of the beautiful South Downs in West Sussex, you’ll find the magnificent art deco headquarters of one of the world’s finest engineering companies. Note the lack of qualification there: not audio engineering companies, but engineering companies—period. For SME doesn’t just build some of the world’s most desirable turntables and tonearms; it also undertakes leading-edge engineering projects for Formula 1 racing teams and aerospace firms. It’s no exaggeration to say that SME’s astonishing capability in precision metalwork is world-renowned and globally respected. This is a company that builds analog replay equipment to the sort of tolerances that NASA specifies for its spacecraft. So when Stuart McNeilis, SME’s charismatic CEO, offered me the opportunity to review the company’s new flagship Model 60 turntable, he didn’t need to ask twice.
Art thou troubled? Music will calm thee . . .
—G.F. Handel, Rodelinda
I’ve been in this game long enough to know that something special is arriving when it comes in flight cases the size of telephone booths. I half expected to see “Pink Floyd, Wembley Stadium, London” stamped on the side. Ben Lilly, ATC’s cheerful sales director, read my mind as he flung open the rear doors of the firm’s smart blue van. He smiled and said, “Don’t worry, it’s not too bad, they’re on casters.” When I was younger I thought it would be great fun being a roadie, traveling the world, getting drunk with rock stars, getting laid by groupies, and sharing the camaraderie of the tour bus at 4 a.m. as the sun rose over the Nevada desert. Nowadays, my aspirations are more limited—managing to haul these ATC speakers into the house without my feeble spine crumbling into a mixture of dust and broken sinews would do. I reckon I could still manage the getting-drunk-with-rock-stars thing quite well, but I’m not sure I could keep up with the groupies anymore.