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Heed Audio Quasar phono preamplifier
As a kid growing up in Milford, Michigan, my big brother always had the classiest clothes, latest records, and sharpest gear. He danced in Cuban-heeled leather boots, I climbed trees in lace-up Keds....
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Gramophone Dreams #20: Lounge Audio & MoFi UltraDeck
In my October 2017 column I reported on two turntables, the Palmer 2.5 and AMG Giro G9, each costing $10,000 and up, depending on ancillaries. It wasn't that I wanted to get all Mikey Fremer Uptown on...
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New York Audio Labs "SuperIt" phono preamplifier
Basically, I have to admit that I am a Valvophobe. I would give you the dictionary definition of that word, but it has been sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnall's porch since . . . Anyway,...
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Gramophone Dreams #24: Hana & Musical Surroundings
The days were long, the strawberries ripe, but it wasn't quite summer. It was, however, a perfect night for Otis Redding and Carla Thomas singing the Lowell Fulson–Jimmy McCracklin classic "Tramp," on...
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Gramophone Dreams #25: Dr. Feickert, Jelco, Koetsu, My Sonic Lab
I needed one black tiddledywink (not provided) to use Dr. Feickert Analogue's three-speed, two-motor, two-armboard Blackbird turntable. The tiddledywink was for covering the Blackbird's painfully...
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Listening #195: Ortofon SPU Century & Grandinote Celio
Easy pickup: Art’s Dog, Chatter, cozies up to Leif Johannsen of Ortofon A/S and Dee Hustinova of Ortofon USA. (Photo: Art Dudley) According to the 2018 edition of the UN's World Happiness Report,...
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Sutherland Engineering Little Loco phono preamplifier
Descriptions of the sounds of products from Sutherland Engineering nearly always include "refined." While that word is certainly justified, it would be more apt to use it as a verb: Ron Sutherland...
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PS Audio Stellar Phono phono preamplifier
We usually save the question of value for the end of a review, but this time it's worth mentioning up front, if only because PS Audio has been in the news lately. Late last August, the company...
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Channel D Lino C 2.0 phono preamplifier
Install a new component in your system and there's usually a period of adjustment as you get used to the difference in sound—especially if the new product costs much less than your reference. Channel...
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Analog Corner #300: Boulder 2108, Consolidated Audio Monster Can
The two biggest sonic jolts I've experienced involving phono preamps were from two very different ones: the Petr Mares's Connoisseur 2.0 and Boulder's 2008, which was reviewed in the July...
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Analog Corner #297: van den Hul The Grail SE+ phono preamplifier & SAEC...
The catastrophic February 6 fire at the factory where Apollo Masters produced LP-mastering lacquers—flat aluminum discs covered with nitrocellulose lacquer—will be old news by the time this column gets...
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FollowUp RoundUp
When Stereophile publishes followup reviews of various kinds in the print magazine, we add the followup as a "child page" to the full review. That means that they don't appear on the website's home...
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Channel D Pure Vinyl 5 & Seta L phono preamplifier
Ever since I stopped using my Audio Research SP10 preamplifier in the early 1990s—its eight phono-stage tubes used to get too noisy too quickly—I tried a variety of standalone phono preamplifiers....
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Gramophone Dreams #42: Sunvalley Audio SV-EQ1616D phono equalizer
The 1980s was a decade when I needed three jobs to support my wife, infant daughter, and octogenarian dad. My primary job was to make and sell art, and I'm sure you know how that can go. Between...
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Analog Corner #292: AVM R 2.3 turntable, Miyajima Destiny phono cartridge,...
AVM Audio, which has been in business since 1986 (footnote 1), chose last year to enter the turntable market with two models that reflect the company's brushed-aluminum/blue LED visual aesthetics. It...
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Analog Corner #291: SME Synergy LP player, Boulder 508 phono preamplifier
Since acquiring SME in late 2016, Ajay Shirke's Cadence Group has moved cautiously. First, it revamped and cleaned up the company's somewhat chaotic worldwide distribution. More recently, the new...
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Analog Corner #290: The Haniwa LP Playback System
Haniwa's Dr. Tetsuo Kubo is an interesting fellow. If you go to shows, domestic or overseas, you've possibly encountered him in his room a space known for being strewn, shrine-like, with LPs that once...
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Analog Corner #306: Phasemation, DS Audio, Audio Research, Clarus
I feel compelled to repeat here an eerie occurrence I related a while back on AnalogPlanet. I reviewed, in the February 1999 Analog Corner column, the Cartridge Man's Digital Stylus Force Gauge, which...
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Plinius M14 phono preamplifier
You think Watergate was a momentous break-in? You should hear what a good electronic Rolfing does to the sound of this meticulously built, full-sized, full-featured, and full-priced ($3495) phono...
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Analog Corner #286: StillPoints Aperture II, VPI Voyager, Bespoke Passive...
VPI Industries Voyager phono preamplifier Following my auditioning of Channel D's Lino 2C current-mode phono preamplifier, back in the world of voltage amplification, here's another phono preamp from...
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