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Tag Archives: Golden Ear

World News

2022 Golden Ear: Taiko Audio Extreme Music Server

Posted on by Matthew Clott

Taiko Audio Extreme Music Server

$34,000

Ignore the aircraft-grade-aluminum enclosure with enormous heat sinks. Ignore the 6000 holes drilled into the top plate of the chassis to attenuate resonance. Ignore the linear power supply with 400VA transformer, Lundahl chokes, and 700,000µF of Mundorf and Duelund capacitors. Ignore the two-microprocessor architecture, designed to provide Roon with its own microprocessing environment for software tasks, while isolating the music engine on a separate dedicated microprocessor. Ignore that the Extreme is a music server that weighs a massive 99 pounds. Even ignore the fact that the Extreme is engineered and built (in The Netherlands) from the ground up to optimize the playback of streaming music as well as natively stored files. Oh, you might as well also ignore the fact that Taiko is constantly upgrading its own native software to optimize Roon and outperform its previous generation music software, while also providing a 100% reliable environment. What you can’t ignore is the fact that this music server sounds like music without a hint of digital artifact and does so better than any other digital source I have ever heard. The Taiko Extreme got me closer to what was recorded and the venue it was recorded in then any source but the best analog rigs I have been exposed to. It is expensive, but this is a supreme case of “you get what you pay for.”

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World News

2022 Golden Ear: Ortofon Verismo Cartridge

Posted on by Andre Jennings

Ortofon Verismo Cartridge

$6999

Sitting squarely in the empty spot between the Windfeld Ti and the top-line MC Diamond cartridge in Ortofon’s Exclusive Series, the company’s newest offering, the Verismo, fills the gap comfortably. Using Ortofon’s Selective Layer Melting (SLM) process, the Verismo’s body is made (layer by layer) of titanium to form a dense and rigid structure with high internal damping. Equipped with Ortofon’s Replicant 100 stylus, Aucurum coils, low-magnetic armature, and field stabilizing element, the Verismo has the added advantage of an upgraded Wide-Range-Damping (WRD) system. (WRD consists of a platinum disc sandwiched between two dissimilar rubber/multiwall-carbon-nanotube absorbers.) The Verismo has also inherited the diamond cantilever formerly only available on its flagship MC cartridge. With the new rubber formulation, WRD provides optimal damping and improved tracking abilities. As a result, the new Verismo tracks and traces grooves effortlessly, while providing an exceptional amount of perceived realism. The Verismo offers up the most truthful evenhandedness and musical transparency that I can recall from this manufacturer, surpassing my previous most-preferred Ortofon, the MC A95. The new rubber compound and diamond cantilever have taken the Verismo to new heights.

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World News

2022 Golden Ear: Ramar Record Brush

Posted on by Wayne Garcia

Ramar Record Brush 

$340 

Let’s face it (unless your friends are all audiophiles), most regular people would think you’re crazy to spend $340 on a record brush. Even I took a deep breath before placing my order for this sexy bit of German craftsmanship. But as Neil Gader reported in Issue 326, the Ramar’s mix of multiple rows of carbon fiber and goat’s hair bristles, combined with a larger than usual felt pad, seems to do a noticeably better job at dust removal than the competition. You’ll still want some sort of record-cleaning machine, but the Ramar ensures the smoothest possible playback surface thereafter. And a nifty stylus-cleaning brush completes the package. 

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World News

2022 Golden Ear: Lumin S1 Audiophile Network Player

Posted on by Neil Gader

Lumin S1 Audiophile Network Player

$12,000 

Not too long ago the useful shelf life of a digital-audio component was notoriously short. The ground beneath performance and musicality was shifting as rapidly as innovations to D/A conversion, sampling rates, and formats occurred. The Lumin S1 is one of the new breed of network players that in my view represented the long-anticipated maturation of this segment. With four ESS SABRE32 Reference DAC chips, a revised clocking system, plus dual Lundahl LL7401 output transformers, the S1’s reproduction of music is relieved of all tension, becoming warmer, weightier, more present, open, and airy in sound. Bass response is pitch perfect and saturated in complex textures and resonances. Upper harmonics and decay are more naturally resolved and, perhaps most telling, the soundstage is far more dimensional. I’ve also noted previously that Lumin made certain that its products were well supported with regular over-the-air software and firmware updates, including, most recently, the new Leedh processor—an advanced, digital, volume-adjustment algorithm that eliminates rounding errors and, in so doing, gives owners the option of playback without a traditional preamplifier Although the S1 was recently replaced by Lumin’s X1, it is still available and typically at a reduced price–which makes it even more of a bargain. Even now, the Lumin S1 draws the listener closer to the recorded event than ever before.

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World News

2022 Golden Ear: Paradigm Founder 80F Loudspeaker

Posted on by Muse Kastanovich

Paradigm Founder 80F Loudspeaker

$3700

These are really very special speakers, offering a wide array of sonic strengths—detail, dynamics, coherence, realism, imaging, agility—at an affordable price. They aspire to compete sonically with speakers at twice the price. (I listened to well-regarded competitors at $6000 and $5000/pair, and the Founders won the comparison.) Incorporating multiple driver-diaphragm materials, special cabinet design, and vibration-isolation mounting and feet advancements, these are some of the most sophisticated speakers Paradigm has ever made. Extension at the frequency extremes, evenness of response, good driver integration, time alignment, nearly inert cabinets, low overhang and ringing, all contribute to low-coloration sound. Their ability to make individual instruments or singers pop out of the mix in front of you with startling immediacy and precise location always brings a smile; it’s almost as if you had paid for a private concert. Their high sensitivity, moderate impedance, controlled dispersion, and bottom port all mean they can be used with a wide variety of amps (including low-powered ones) and listening rooms. They are very honest and revealing; increases in fidelity from remastering, high-resolution files, and improvements in source components, amplification, and cables will all be easily heard (and enjoyed); and they are attractive, with refined and elegant cosmetics that should be domestically appealing for most. 

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World News

2022 Golden Ear: J.Sikora Standard Max Turntable

Posted on by Jacob Heilbrunn

J.Sikora Standard Max Turntable 

$21,000

The J.Sikora ‘table immediately goes to the head of the class. Its fit ’n’ finish can only be termed exemplary; the sound it produces, captivating. The Sikora, which accepts up to two tonearms and employs two motors and rubber belts, is impressive when it comes to speed stability, creating a deep and wide soundstage allied with excellent pitch accuracy. A more expensive reference power supply ($4625) kicks overall performance up another notch. Throughout, the Standard Max displays an enviable certitude in navigating treacherously dynamic vinyl passages that makes for hours of blissful reproduction, whether the genre is rock or classical or jazz. Perhaps its most notable feature is that like far more expensive ’tables, the Max produces the jet-black backgrounds that were once thought to be the sole province of digital recordings. Not so. With the Sikora, many of the irritants that were once part and parcel of listening to LPs are simply relegated to yesteryear, at a price tag that until recently would have been considered inconceivable. Anyone searching for a ’table that will deliver the musical goods with panache and power, solidity, and punch, need look no further.

The post 2022 Golden Ear: J.Sikora Standard Max Turntable appeared first on The Absolute Sound.

World News

2022 Golden Ear: VooDoo Power Cables

Posted on by Matthew Clott

VooDoo Power Cables

$2900/$3450/$4700

While I am still in the middle of my review listening period, I am so impressed with these power cords that I’m awarding them a Golden Ear before the proverbial pen has hit paper. With Air Dragon on the server, Air Phoenix on DAC and preamp, and a double dose of Air Tesla on my dual-mono amplifier I am attaining improved levels of resolution, better 3-D rendering of instruments/vocals, and a boost in dynamics and presence over my previous reference Shunyata Sigma power loom. The quality of the products is Fabergé level, and they are enormously flexible, which can be a huge issue with reference power cables due to their volume and mass. Stay tuned for the full review.

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2022 Golden Ear: MBL 101 X-treme MkII Omnidirectional Loudspeaker

Posted on by Jonathan Valin

MBL 101 X-treme MkII Omnidirectional Loudspeaker

$325,000

These truly remarkable omnidirectional loudspeakers have been awarded Golden Ears from me for the past three years (and an Overall Product of the Year Award from TAS in 2019), but since they remain the most realistic-sounding loudspeakers I’ve ever heard, I’m awarding them another GE in 2022. Comprising two Radialstrahler columns and two outboard, powered subwoofer stacks, the 101 X-tremes are giants. Expensive giants. But until you find a speaker system that sounds more like the real thing (on every kind of music) for less money…well, you’re gonna have to settle for second best. As good as drivers-in-a-box speakers have gotten to be (see the Stenheim Alumine 5 SE above), nothing else, dynamic or planar, sounds like these gargantuan Radialstrahlers, because very little else projects its energy, from top to bottom, throughout a true 360 degrees, like instruments themselves do. As a result, the 101 X-tremes simply own the third dimension. And now in this year’s MkII version, the X-tremes have been substantially updated (at a substantial rise in price), with new DSP’d subwoofers and other extensive tweaks and improvements. (I will be reviewing the latest versions as soon as they are available.) As I said in my original review of the X-tremes a decade ago, listening to every other transducer is like going to a movie of a concert; listening to the 101 X-tremes is like going to the live event. If you’ve got the dough (and the space) and are looking for the closest approximation of the real thing, these are the transducers to own. 

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World News

2022 Golden Ear: Technics SU-R1000 Reference Class Integrated Amplifier

Posted on by Anthony Cordesman

Technics SU-R1000 Reference Class Integrated Amplifier

$9499

Having said this, my final selection is the Technics SU-R100. Its phono cartridge optimizer is another demonstration of what digital correction and processing can do—even to the front-end component that most audiophiles treat as anti-digital. I think it does a very good job of getting the best out of a given cartridge, even though its “English” instructions have their limits. More broadly, it has one of the best-sounding digital amplifiers I’ve encountered and a very-good-sounding set of digital coax and optical inputs. Neutral rather than warm, it has lots of detail and really good dynamics for a unit of 150Wpc (8 ohms) to 300Wpc (4 ohms) output power. Also, it is a compact solution that offers the capabilities that normally require three separate components—no need to invest in interconnects between such components—and it is priced at a very affordable level for a design this advanced. 

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World News

2022 Golden Ear: Metronome DSC Streamer/DAC

Posted on by Alan Taffel

Metronome DSC Streamer/DAC

$25,000 

Twenty-five grand is a steep but by no means unheard of price for a streaming DAC/preamplifier. In the case of the Metronome DSC, you get your money’s worth. Not only is the product built to the highest of high-end standards, with an aluminum chassis to reduce RF interference and a generously sized touchscreen interface, its sound is in some ways revolutionary. Thanks in large part to a volume-control technology called Leedh, the DSC is a DAC/pre with a purity and non-digital nature you thought you’d never hear. The DAC and streaming modules are fully up to the quality of the linestage section, too, which makes for incredibly engaging and gratifying listening. Of course, you could use the DSC purely as a DAC, setting its volume control to fixed, and running it into an outboard linestage, but that would bypass its raison díÍtre. Plug this unit directly into a power amp to see what it can really do.

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