Over the Rockies and hundreds of miles from San Francisco’s Silicon Valley, tucked in a quiet Colorado town, is what I now think of as the Aluminum Valley of speaker manufacture. And much like Silicon Valley, there is a certain innovation and startup mentality at YG Acoustics. Gone is the old YG, and under new and very technically inclined leadership, the company is revising and improving the engineering of the product line from top to bottom. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We were greeted in Arvada by Duncan Taylor, Head of Marketing for YG Acoustics and one of my favorite people in hi-fi. Duncan is that rare combination of immensely knowledgeable in fields as diverse as outdoor pursuits, recording, hi-fi, fishing, etc., and also delightfully funny and down-to-earth.

Words and Photos by Grover Neville

The Tour Begins

One could not ask for a better tour guide than Duncan, who led us through a tour of the company offices and manufacturing facilities, making for a refreshingly relaxed and educational experience. We started in the offices, which included a display of almost every model from the Peaks and lower-priced portion of the Reference line. Next up was the listening room, a fairly mammoth and well-treated room hosting some YG Acoustics XX speakers and snazzy-looking Burmester amps.

Exploring the Factory: Machining!

Continuing on to the factory, we were greeted by perhaps the largest collection of aluminum shavings I’ve ever seen. Practically every part of a YG Acoustics speaker is machined from aluminum. Blocks of billet were being milled, water-cut, channeled, and bolted in every way imaginable, followed by a careful combination of machine and hand assembly.

As we moved further into the factory, it became clear that YG’s love of aluminum and attention to detail extend to every part of the speaker—cones are milled from blocks of aluminum, and cabinets come in several varieties including double- and even triple-walled aluminum enclosures. All aluminum shavings are collected and recycled by the machine shop, and in general, YG seems to have very little waste—operating more like a sustainability-minded tech company than a boutique luxury goods brand.

As An Aside

I need to take a small detour here to say that although I’m not at liberty to divulge much about the technical aspects of the YG crossovers, these are absolutely some of the best-built and most carefully designed crossovers in the industry. Fabulous work that goes unseen is a chief indicator of dedication to the craft, because the end user will really never see it. You do it because it matters and you can take pride in the work. Kudos to YG in this department.

A Highly Technical Overhaul and Major Sonic Improvements

When it comes to the sonic and technical improvements that have been made under the new company ownership, Duncan further explained to us that finite element modeling and a variety of other sophisticated measurement methods have been applied to nearly every part and surface of the speakers. Complex ridges, asymmetrical waveguides, delicate tweeter lattices, and even structural supports for driver cones are just a handful of the numerous updates that have been made.

The result, as experienced in YG’s listening room with massive Burmester amplifiers, is an extremely quiet speaker that departs from the YG sound of yore. To me, there is a body, fullness, and density to the sound that I often found missing with past speakers from the brand. Dynamics, low-end, and general sweetness of midrange and treble presentation are all excellent and plentiful, and have placed YG Acoustics, in my mind, among a small handful of brands that make the very finest loudspeakers available today.

Excellence in the Peaks Series and In-House Production

Down to the Peaks series, this attention to detail and willingness to alter and improve upon the existing technologies are serving YG well. Even in the most affordably priced Peaks speaker, there were levels of engineering thoughtfulness and ingenuity that I have seldom seen on speakers many times the price. Equally impressive is YG’s ability to do so much in-house, from the machining to crossover assembly, to cabinet milling and right up to final speaker assembly. It’s rare to see a company that has this much control over every step of the process. Add to this a remarkable degree of automation for an audio company, and although the final speakers are hand-assembled by skilled workers, the consistency demonstrated by Duncan was among the highest I’ve yet seen.

Connecting with the Team

Taking a quick lunch break from the buffet of manufacturing details, we enjoyed some pizza and a listening session with the factory workers and Duncan, where a few guys shared a tune they’ve been listening to lately. As guests, we were graciously allowed to share a tune that hopefully did not embarrass us. Although I suspect obsessed audiophilia is not in the veins of every worker there, it seems that every one of them loves music and enjoys hearing the fruits of their labor in action. I have always felt it makes a brand easier to love when the folks making the stuff are nice, passionate about what they do, and engaged at least a little with what they’re making. I’m grateful to Duncan for giving us a peek inside the passion these YG employees bring to the product.

Reflections and Future Outlook

After a long day touring the manufacturing facilities, observing machines, listening in the YG room, and generally filling my brain with all manner of fascinating wisdom and tidbits from Duncan and the crew at YG, we ended with a very nice but simpler affair—a dinner of classic Denver-style Mexican cuisine. In a way, this meal in all of its quirks was a parallel for YG—new and old in conversation, high-tech and human passion meeting to form something beautiful in a way that is all its own. If you get a chance to meet Duncan and hear any of the new generation of YG speakers, I highly suggest you take it, like we did in our review of the excellent Carmel 3 loudspeaker. I see nothing but sunny skies and smooth slopes ahead for this particular American speaker manufacturer.

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Walk just a few steps down to the actual riverwalk, or to the north side of the bridge, and you’ll get a far better angle, especially during sunset; plus you’ll miss the dozens of posing tourists waiting their turn. The lesson here is, as Robert Frost once put it, the road less traveled has made all the difference.

Scene change: Long Valley, New Jersey, a tranquil enclave an hour west of New York City. A Dutchman, a Brit, and an American walk into a hi-fi shop. Except it isn’t really a hi-fi shop as you’d traditionally think of it, but a temple to music, within which everything has been curated with the idea that the road less traveled is very much worth the journey.

Here I spent two of the most delightful days of my hi-fi career communing with speakers and people that have chosen to do things on their own terms. Courtesy of the incredibly gracious Bill Parish and Dick Diamond of GTT Audio, the opportunity to listen to Laurence Dickie and his newest creation—Vivid Audio‘s flagship Moya—was a rare pleasure.

Words and Photos by Grover Neville

Vivid Audio

The first day began with some presentations by Ewald Verkerk, the brand manager and chief evangelist of Vivid, followed by Laurence Dickie himself giving us insight into the Vivid speakers. There are some novel technologies used in the construction of Vivid speakers that no other manufacturer I am aware of implements.

The primary and most noticeable among these are the glass composite cabinets, which, while quite stiff, are actually fairly light compared to the heavily mass-damped cabinets of many other manufacturers. The G4 Series 2 I reviewed could be lifted easily with one hand—a refreshing change from the massive and challenging loads of other high-end speakers.

The reason these cabinets work is also partially due to the internal structure, which decouples the drivers from the cabinet. The drivers float, in a sense, unimpeded by the vibrations of the cabinet, and a finger on the cabinet will reveal a startlingly inert feeling. Even at full blast, the cabinet is eerily vibration-free in a way that is hard to communicate in words.

Those same beautifully organic cabinets also serve two other purposes—minimizing the baffle interactions with a smooth surface, as well as containing the resonance-damping Tapered Tube Loading system and a sort of Helmholtz resonator that Laurence Dickie and Ewald demonstrated for us. These and the other unique Vivid technologies add up to a speaker which has a distinctly different sound than what has been mainstream in high-end loudspeakers for some time.

Moya’s Invisible Sound

In contrast to a modern trend for a somewhat overdamped alignment in modern speakers, which tends to result in a drier, more analytical sound, the Vivid line—and most of all the Moya—opt for a sound I would describe as much closer to invisible. Sounds from the Moya emerge from empty space and create more of that lucid-dreaming “the sound is detached from the speakers” sensation hi-fi enthusiasts crave.

Perhaps most of all, though, Vivid speakers, and particularly the Moya, make you realize just how many resonances, cabinet vibrations, and other distortions you’re hearing with other speakers. There is a total lack of the sense of a box sound even well-damped boxes have, replaced instead by a liquid-smooth midrange and a sound I can only describe as drivers floating in space.

Add to this the fact that the Moya has none of the clinical coldness or steel often mistaken for good low-level detail retrieval, and you have instead a seductive and wide presentation which takes the focus off the speakers and puts it squarely back on the music—dare I say this is closer to that famous transparency we audiophiles are always chasing?

The Road Less Traveled

The road less traveled approach clearly works in favor of Mr. Dickie’s approach here, and was perhaps no better demonstrated by my experience listening to Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony’s recording of the premiere of Christopher Theofanidis’s *Rainbow Body*, a piece inspired by Hildegard von Bingen’s Ave Maria. I’ve always thought this a nice recording of wonderful music, with middling sound quality. At a pivotal crescendo, however, rather than folding inward and getting congested, the Moya instead exploded outward and enveloped Bill Parish’s enormous room with a scale that was astonishing. It’s rare that I hear something new in a recording I know well—even rarer that a massive, aspirationally priced speaker like the Moya reveals something new to me in a way that is also flattering to the music. Yet everything the Moya did uplifted the music and gave me insight that also enhanced my enjoyment.

While the Moya undoubtedly has the house sound, I did take a listen to the G1 Spirit and a few other Vivids around GTT during the two days. The Moyas, by far, had the most astonishing soundstage scale and low-end power. No matter the speaker, that seductive, invisible, and liquid sound was maintained, but in the new flagship it was able to breathe on an even larger scale. This is the heady stuff that Summit-Fi is made of, and the Moya attained heights comparable to the very best of what I’ve heard from Tidal and TAD.

Behind the Sound: Vivid and GTT

What was less heady was the wonderful company, and it cannot be overstated that the personnel at Vivid and GTT make the idea of a purchase more of the warm and fuzzy than the transactional variety. From hearing Ewald hold court on being snuck into the King of Denmark’s seats at the Concertgebouw, to experiencing Nicki Minaj performing virtual duets, to witnessing Laurence Dickie finger-drumming on a table to Lucinda Williams while analyzing CAD files, there is an indescribable something quirky yet human about Vivid Audio. The people are as unique as the speakers, and while I frequently reserve my unfiltered commentary for non-audio spaces, I felt as at home with Bill, Dick, and the team at Vivid as I feel with any of my non-audio community. They are the kind of people that make purchasing and listening to music as fun as it should be.

The path less traveled requires this team, a team which is willing to try the novel, the unexpected, and even the risky. I came away impressed however at the judiciousness of the team—make no mistake, for all the joviality and fun, these people are experts in their field. From Laurence Dickie’s exceptional technical knowledge and engineering-based designs, to Ewald’s masterful presentations, and Bill Parish’s wealth of knowledge and system setup skills—seriously, this guy has at least seven rooms and they all sounded spectacular—I felt I was in the presence of the highest caliber of people. Bill Parish at one point expressed his interest in classical music, and that “I’ll spend a year or two on Lieder, then chamber, the Second Viennese School, and so on…” and my jaw about hit the floor. The level of open-mindedness to engage with what many consider deeply challenging material extends, I think, to leaving no auditory stone untouched.

The picture I came away from this experience with was inspirational. To find people who love their jobs and also possess the talent requisite to execute at the level of something like Moya is rare. Laurence Dickie even made a comment about Bill Parish’s setup of the Moyas being the best he’d heard—a testament to the team effort involved. With a team this good, it’s hard not to want to run out and buy something from them right away. If you haven’t experienced Vivid, Moya, or even just GTT, I cannot recommend the experience highly enough. This is as complete an experience of audio as I’ve ever seen, and all the more impressive for blazing a unique trail in products and people along the way.

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Words and Photography by Grover Neville

“Everything is sculpture. Any material, any idea without hindrance born into space, I consider sculpture.” – Isamu Noguchi

Seldom does a single artist alter my perception of a fundamental law of nature as much as Isamu Noguchi. The sculptor and designer was fascinated with space and our relationship with it, yet he himself existed in a cultural third space: neither fully Japanese nor totally Anglo-American, supported but never fully accepted by his famous father, and an iconoclast in the world of art and design with a style all his own. It’s hard not to imagine a great deal of loneliness in his life.

Yet what we find beneath the contradictions is joy realized in the renegotiation of space. Noguchi spent six months in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II, but did so voluntarily. He was called talentless by Borglum, the sculptor behind Mt. Rushmore, and almost went on to become a doctor before falling into his own distinct path in the art world. And yet this supposed talentless failure carved his art in negatives and natural shapes across some of the most iconic public spaces in the world.

Noguchi himself, in 1988, the year of his death, mused: “For one with a background like myself, the question of identity is very uncertain. And I think it’s only in art that it was ever possible for me to find any identity at all.” Heady, aspirational stuff for any artist, myself very much humbly included. To exist between spaces and also carve his vision from them in such elegant shapes is perhaps a perfect analogy for Noguchi’s own Japanese-American identity.

The inspirations and parallels between Treehaus Audiolab and Noguchi, I think, are fairly clear—a marriage of structural and organic shapes, like sculptures carved into the space where speakers ought to be. But I believe these similarities are just the bare surface of a more meaningful throughline. If Noguchi’s concept of harmony between positive and negative space influenced my perception of our fundamental relationship with space, what would it mean to renegotiate our fundamental relationship with auditory space and time?

“The essence of sculpture is for me the perception of space, the continuum of our existence.” – Isamu Noguchi

Speakers are an unusual creation, perhaps one of the most unusual creations of the modern era. They are amongst the simplest devices—when compared to a computer or car, for example—and yet one of the most mystifying. They are, in essence, time machines, carving out aural space or time within the space of our day. Like a photo negative, the Treehaus speakers seem to be cut from the space around them, partially due to their open baffle nature and live edges, and partially due to the acoustical sculpture they present.

Those handmade field-coil drivers are run full-range and capture a certain tonal and harmonic magic I’ve only heard well-implemented full-ranges and field-coils do—a kind of immediacy and naturalness of harmonic structure that tickles my brain in a very pleasing way. Unlike most of those who’ve spent time pursuing ‘vintage’ audio, however, Treehaus AudioLabs is a different animal because the pursuit is not one beholden to nostalgia but a search for an undeniable something that the best methods of the past provide—that thing that gives us a thrill that allows us to more than the present would appear to offer.

This is not idle speculation either; speak with Rich Pinto, the mind beyond Treehaus’ loudspeakers, and you’ll quickly realize he’s an audiophile’s audiophile with a keen ear and high standards. This manifests most obviously in the powered and DSP-driven bass module and Fostex bullet super-tweeter that come alongside that romantic-sounding handmade field-coil. Art, meet science.

In my conversations with him, I’ve also realized he values the pursuit of music in time. I’ve lately been reflecting on the fact that music is one of the few media forms we cannot accelerate our experience of. The written word can be skimmed, movies and videos scrubbed through, or watched at faster speeds, but music simply does not work as intended unless it is experienced in its own time. This, then, can be thought of as auditory or temporal space, and as we know, space can be empty or filled. It seems to me that Treehaus is very much about filling that temporal space with things that are deeply considered.

“We are a landscape of all that we have seen.” – Isamu Noguchi

This irresistible magic from years past that led to Treehaus searching for inspiration from Sakuma-style circuits, to designing Noguchi-inspired speakers, to deep explorations of Japanese transformers and bass DSP is all the result of one simple truth: sometimes the human touch is just better. No, perhaps not better measuring, or more precise, or any of those other analytical methodologies we use so often in the theater of the mind, but better for the subjective delight it brings.

Compare, if you will, modern Deutsche Gramophone digital recordings—spectacularly clear, free of artifacts, quiet, clean, and marvelously open—to say, the recordings of Reiner with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by Living Stereo and RCA; Less wide, less immediate, more naturally compressed by the tube electronics and tape used, and yet, there is a magic that pervades these recordings that is transfixing. This is the essence of what Treehaus is looking for, and they just happen to be looking for it beyond the boundaries of carbon fiber, milled aluminum, and graphene.

Instead, they looked to the beautiful and timeless design work of the 1950s and 1960s from the likes of Eames and Nakashima, the early Klangfilm and Western Electric loudspeaker efforts, Telefunken, and later, Japanese transformer and tube experiments, and from this historical perspective, they synthesized and distilled each of these elements to their core pieces. Of course, there is a heavy influence from Japanese audio and design, but also, and equally, an American modernist touch.

This marriage of past and present—perhaps mirroring the duality of Noguchi and his art—in Treehaus’ work celebrates what is seldom done: a study of how past and present meet. As I mentioned in my review of the SW1X DACIV, the very best experiences of music help us to mark time with memory. If the suspension of disbelief is key to immersion in cinema, then the suspension of time or our awareness of time is what the best musical experiences do. And this is where the Treehaus AudioLab products come into play.

“It is weight that gives meaning to weightlessness.” – Isamu Noguchi

When listening to either the electronics or the loudspeakers from this idiosyncratic brand, I find myself considering another duality: the difference between Hi-Fi and Audiophilia. Of course, I’m practicing a bit of semantics, but I think there’s an important distinction between the listener who is pursuing absolute bandwidth fidelity and the lowest possible distortion and the listener who is pursuing listening pleasure. The former is grounded in what math and tools of analysis can tell us about the experience, and the latter is purely based on what we feel when we enter that concentrated listening space.

I won’t advocate for either of these being superior approaches, and in truth, any endeavor requires a bit of both. Treehaus undoubtedly aims for the listener who leans subjectively but has that analytical itch inside them, or at least gives them the option to sate it. The field-coil driver has several settings that offer various sounds, and the DSP low end is, of course, endlessly adjustable to taste. The pursuit of this art is just a little personal, a little unique to each of us.

If any idea born without hindrance into a space is sculpture, then one can see the capability for personalization and adjustment, as helping to birth without hindrance Treehaus products into the auditory space of our rooms. The results are a merging of the old and the very new. The richness of a wideband field-coil and bullet supertweeter with the dynamics and power of corrected and separately amplified bass modules is… well, it’s not a sound profile I’ve really heard before. One might even call it iconoclastic.

At its very best, this approach captures more than a vintage magic or nostalgia; rather, it captures that magic of things that are simply very good. In a tech-obsessed world that places high value on innovation and often disregards the ideas of the past, The Canon, or at least a respectful eye towards the shoulders we stand on, often enriches our understanding in ways we least expect. While we continue to be clever, we have also been clever for a very long time. In this light, the pressure of total invention can be seen more as a continuum, and our contributions more as building on the gestalt.

“Art should become as one with its surroundings.” – Isamu Noguchi

The space between wonder and existential dread is defined by scale. Zoom out a little from the quotidien, and you’ll marvel at our progression from caves to canvases to cars, but zoom out too much and the crushing enormity of space and time starts to wash away any sense of individual identity. The key is expanding to fill the right amount of space, and like Noguchi’s abstract sculptures, sometimes we see it most clearly by subtracting and repositioning.

In this way, the subtraction of various elements that Treehaus performs—the subtraction of a cabinet, excepting the baffle, and the subtraction of a more complex crossover and modern materials—better highlights the additions they make to a space. Sculptural, intentional, not an object in pursuit of a purpose but a purpose realized by an object. The sensation of weightlessness that accompanies the thrill of life’s highs, delivered and given shape by its avatar of wood, steel, and wire.

Treehaus is a synthesis of all of these elements, examined carefully and presented for those who understand and appreciate what it means to participate in a celebration of the history of art and science in reproduction. The space they occupy in a room tells a story that encompasses the history of both sculpture and audio reproduction and yet exceeds the dualities inherent in both: if a speaker can be elegant and functional, both imposing and easy to live with, both Hi-Fi and Audiophile, then Treehaus accomplishes this, and in marrying these dualities, becomes as one with its surroundings.

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Words and Photos by Grover Neville

The Munich Experience

To set the stage, I’ve been in Munich for a few days, having already spent several days wandering the halls of the excellent Munchen Deutsches Museum and enjoying a tour of the BMW Welt and distinctly quirky-cool BMW Classic Workshop tour–stay tuned for the report on that one–suffice it to say, it’s very much worth doing. I’ve also had my share of some excellent Bavarian food and drink and popped my head into MotorWorld across the street from the MOC. Needless to say, I’m feeling fairly sure that Munich Hi-End 2024, while exciting, will be the least experientially stunning part of the trip. It’s an audio show; I’ve seen nearly 12 years of them at this point, and while gear makes impressions, it’s hard to be truly impressed these days. 

A Lifetime of Audio Expertise

Further hindering my ability to be blown away by show systems is a 20 year history as a musician, audiophile, and audio engineer – I’ve spent time at Remote Control, Skywalker Ranch, Dolby Studios, and countless other top recording and mastering studios. I live in LA and have owned more studio and hi-fi systems than I can count. I learned to mix classical music from Telarc and Aspen alumns. I say all this not to be self-aggrandizing but to illustrate a history and passion for this audiophile business. I like it, I know it intimately, and I’ve gotten close enough to scratch, sniff, and separate the boys from the men, so to speak. 

A Paradigm Shift in Audio

Nothing in all my years as a student of sound prepared me for the Tidal Bugatti Royale. Jӧrn Janczack, the founder of Tidal, welcomed me warmly into the room and simply handed me an iPad and told me, “play whatever you like.” No long spiel, no carefully curated set of demo tracks–simply an invitation to listen to music. In a sense, this is what the Royale’s are all about: an invitation to listen. 

If I can attempt to describe what I heard, the sound of the Tidal Bugatti Royale’s is the sound of so much nothing. On hearing the first notes of one of my favorite tracks, I was greeted not by any sort of audiophile revelation or sonic spectacular, but rather by the complete absence of any auditory cues that speakers were playing in a room. The Royale’s quite simply sounded like they were not there, and instead that music was emanating from thin air. Strain and try as I might, even with all the years of listening experience and conservatory ear training, I could detect no real hint whatsoever of any coloration or aberration in the sound. 

Expectations Shattered

I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m gushing too much, but the experience foundationally shook a long held belief of mine: everything has a sound. Maybe there was some slight fractional smoothness, but in every way, the Tidal Bugatti Royale fulfills that aspirational experience those of us in audio playback talk about but really never experience more than once–the total immersion of that first exhilarating listen when we realize how good music can sound. And much like the first high of any experience, rarely does the rollercoaster peak there again. 

Well, I’m here today, eating my words. The Tidal Bugatti Royale, near as I can tell, really has no sound. Tidal’s slogan “We Build Emotions” rings true, and the result feels less like a loudspeaker in a room and more like an experience engine with music as its mode of transmission. Not the Dolby Room, not Skywalker Ranch, or any of the astonishing sounding studios or hi-fi systems I’ve heard from Berlin to Buenos Aires, Beverly Hills to Bow, have ever managed to get me to so fully turn off my brain.

The Search is Over

The Bugatti and Tidal names are synonymous with creations that surpass their categories, objects that exceed the limitations of form to deliver something else. More than just a car, more than just a loudspeaker. I’m still digesting and conceptualizing exactly what that second part means, but I can say one thing with certainty. There are two worlds: before Tidal for Bugatti and after. Hearing is believing. 

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I’m visiting on the occasion of Common Wave’s official premiere as an Acora Acoustics dealer, and present are a host of talented folks, including Acora Acoustics VP of Sales and Marketing Isaac Markowitz, to present the entire Acora line up to and including the flagship VRC speaker. After a short luncheon, it’s down to brass tacks, and I strolled past several very nicely arranged setups which included the SRB and SRC speakers in Wes’ chic industrial space.

Words and Photography by Grover Neville

What is most striking about Common Wave is not the taste with which it is decorated, but the feeling of just how intentional and home-like the environment is. There’s a self-contained ecology to the space, which is not limited by mindless Minimalism. Each and every piece here has a story: the lacquered record boxes, Ukiyo-e prints and posters of Jazz legends all feel unified by more than an eclectic aesthetic sense, and more by what they say about the taste of the owner. Everything here belongs without shouting.

The total effect is one of a very nice yet comfortingly lived-in space, and the underlying organization never comes off as antiseptic. Plunking down in any of the plush Danish Modern sofas or lounge chairs I’m treated to the effortlessly clean sound Acora Acoustics is well known for, combined with systems of various price points and one unifying trait: they are all easy to use and sound not only excellent but expensive.

In the main room with the Acora VRC speakers and new flagship gear from Simaudio’s Moon line, the sound was quick, explosively dynamic and even in a way I don’t often hear from a living-room style space. Sure there’s treatment here, but the furniture and overall environ is much closer to a typical living room than a totally customized studio space. The VRC speakers perform splendidly here.

The nearly mirror-polished granite cabinets of the Acora play brilliant tricks in the concrete playground of Common Wave’s art-loft. Minimalist electronic designs Nagra as well as Leben and the aforementioned Simaudio electronics pair for that enviable combination of sleek and stark that defines so much of what is desirable about modern East-Asian interpretations of mid-century modern.

Sound is neither cold nor overly warm, but instead simply human and lively. On the Acora speakers horns snap and bite in that intricate rhythmic dance we call swing, but feel as something unnameable that combines structure with the unbridled desire to dance. When the sound is this good, it’s hard not to want to share the music — another thing I think sets apart Common Wave from other dealers where the experience is focused solely on the individual’s pursuit. Like the Kissa spaces that have clearly inspired it, thoughtful communal experiences
are alive and well here.

Wes Katzir, Common Wave HiFi – Los Angeles, CA (pictured)

In some ways this mirrors the trajectory of Jazz — from the dancehall swing of the 1920s to the more cryptic, cerebral bebop of the ’60s. Jazz has always been an art form seeking to make sense of American life. What then does America reckoning with itself look like when exported to Japan and back? Like playing telephone with Google Translate, you run the risk of the message getting garbled.

And yet Common Wave does not bow to the grey square modular sofas or sad beige of modern Minimalism. The cultural rapport between the United States and Japan that exists in say, the conversation around Spaghetti Westerns, Kurosawa and Tarantino is not a case of garbled translation, but respect and enhancement. Like a great improv it says: “yes and…”

In this case, the Japanese and foreign perspective enhances and asks us to listen afresh to the familiar tones of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. These Jazz giants have moved from trailblazers to members of the canon, and in so doing, lost some novelty. The Japanese pursuit of structure and patterns shows us in some ways what the true meaning and core of the message is.

Jazz is dead because it must die for the next thing to come along. Miles Davis killed Jazz with In A Quiet Way, Bitches Brew and Agharta, by abandoning what had been done and moving to new horizons, expanding and stretching the meaning of the genre beyond its limits. This same diversity and color is vibrantly on display in Common Wave’s unpretentious but precisely curated living-room-esque listening spaces. What’s here feels real because it charts its position in time by referencing the canon. It is not just for the connoisseur of hi-fi but those who live and care about music.

Besides giving you a realistic taste of what a high-end living space can be both sonically and visually, Common Wave has an excellent selection of ‘real’ music and records – as opposed of course to fake music. You won’t find a plain musical choice here, from rare cuts of Yoko Kanno and The Seatbelts to import copies of live recordings by Bebop titans from Tokyo venues, the message is more than clear. Jazz is dead, Jazz is alive. It was the best of times, and the worst of times. But most of all the music — whatever you choose to call it — is living, breathing, and in the flesh at Common Wave.

www.acoraacoustics.com
www.commonwave.net

About the Author

Wanderer, Wonderer, Musician, Actor

Grover Neville resides in sunny Los Angeles, California, and is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied music and creative writing. After graduating he pursued a freelance career in audio, and professional research in the fields of Auditory Cognition, Psychoacoustics, and Experimental Hydrophone Design. He is a native of Chicago, Illinois and previously did work there as a mixing and mastering engineer, working in music genres such as Avant-garde Classical and Jazz.

As a transplant to Los Angeles, Grover still works in the music industry, but now adds the video game and film industries to his calling. He is actively pursuing a career as an independent musician, composer, and producer.

Grover previously contributed to Innerfidelity, Audiostream, and Part-Time Audiophile—before becoming an editor and co-founder of INDULGR magazine.

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“If only you could design just one good chair in your life…but you simply cannot,” Hans Wegner once mused. Wegner is best known as the most prolific chair-designer of the Danish Modern movement which sprang orthogonally from Bauhaus in the Nordic-sphere, and in contrast to the current rather dreadful interpretation of minimalism at play in the US, is warm and inviting with organic shapes hung across structures derived from classical furniture.

Words and Photography by Grover Neville

As Danish Modern stripped away excess ornament and pretense from classical furniture, it also added an element of playfulness — the work of Finn Juhl as shown in his colorful credenza, or Wegner’s Dali-inspired Ox Chair remind us in the words of Wegner; “We must play–but we must play seriously.”

Alluxity INT One MkII

Much in the same way that I have never aspired to uncomfortable furniture, I have never desired to pay more for an amplifier which brings me less musical pleasure. If only you could design just one good amplifier in your life… but you simply cannot. There are too many versions of the right way to be counted.

The best designs of Wegner, Juhl and Kaare Klint are not remarkable for their minimalism, but in how they convey what the Dutch call Gezelligheid or Gezellig. Gezellig roughly translates to coziness or congeniality, and if you’ve ever spent a winter in Benelux or Denmark, you know just how warm and inviting those brick row houses can be. They seem to invite like a soft blanket and warm drink on a chilly evening.

Though Alluxity is a Danish company, I see in it the same kind of inviting warmth, not only in sound, but in design and use. An amplifier and its relationship is perhaps the most important connection in a system, followed closely by the ease of ownership and pride of ownership of said amplifier and speakers.

But let’s return for a moment to the sound, which is not warm as I typically think of it, but rather fast and detailed, while retaining an inner smoothness. To my ears there is a graceful and challenging mix of the accessible, sweetness of tone and musical engagement you tend to find with high-value gear, and the sort of detail and musical insight you tend to find with very high-end premium gear. I would say the Alluxity INT One MkII sounds premium and refined, but with a certain appealing smoothness, especially in the mids and low end, which are must faster than I’m accustomed to with a unit in this price range.

Add on to this the build of the unit itself, which is simply beautiful — there is no other word for it. I received a unit in a custom Blu Victory, but first saw and fell for the Alluxity equipment in the stunning bright Titanium Orange color that festoons their website and marketing materials. My living room is very much a living room, and this is equipment that fits in and invites compliments from both hi-fi enthusiasts and the sorts of artsy designer and musician types that frequent my apartment.

The build quality is a solid piece of milled aluminum available in the aforementioned orange, or a quieter white, and I have seen Black, Silver, White, Titanium Orange. on the Alluxity website as well — not a single color looked bad in my opinion. The unit in person has the right amount of visual weight and physically is quite easy to place being a bit shallower than a typical component, and thus quite easy to place. Ease of ownership here gets top marks.

What about that other element I harp on so often though, pride of ownership? If you’re at all familiar with the high-end Vitus Audio, this company is run by the son of the founder of Vitus, Alexander Vitus Morgensen (son of Hans-Ole Vitus), whom I had the pleasure of speaking with at Axpona in 2023. Our conversation concerned design, European versus American tastes and of course great sound. He struck me as someone who really understands the place of hi-fi in the home, and he knows well what he’s doing technically as well.

In use the Alluxity INT One MkII is a simple affair — it runs off an Apple remote with a thoughtfully laid out interface that even allows for changes of color. Volume control and input switching is all about as easy as can be, and plugged into a variety of sources I had zero issues with useability in a variety of context with speakers ranging from 87 dB to 100 dB sensitivity. Even with a high-sensitivity horn-based loudspeaker these transition points were smooth as butter from top to bottom.

Our INDULGR Audiophile playlist includes 600+ tracks perfect for auditioning high-end audio gear, and was curated by our team of editors.

I have to also point out that this smoothness of presentation is not at the cost of high frequency detail, and the Alluxity offered an amount of detail beyond what I expect from most amps at its price, while never verging into dry or unmusical territory. The low end particularly is extremely fast and liquid in a satisfying way. I found this tonal signature perfect for both focused deep listening and also background listening when the mood struck or company was over.

Pride of ownership then is a check, between excellent sound, UI and fantastic build and pedigree, there aren’t too many things I can criticize the Alluxity INT One MkII on. I did notice that most folks seemed to assume that it would have a DAC and phono, though for the level of quality on offer in such a compact package, I’m glad they didn’t simply throw convenience-level options like that onboard. The focus here is as much on quality as it is on usability.

The Alluxity INT One MkII is one of the many right answers to the question of ‘what is a good amplifier?’ But is it the right answer for you? If you value style, a sonic substance that centers music, and can find a place for some color in your space, then I would say the answer is very much yes. This amplifier is very much an object for those seeking a relationship with music however, and not gear – this is not for the gear-swapper looking for a shiny toy to admire and discard quickly. The Alluxity INT One MKII is, in so many words, a very good chair.

www.alluxity.dk

About the Author

Wanderer, Wonderer, Musician, Actor

Grover Neville resides in sunny Los Angeles, California, and is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied music and creative writing. After graduating he pursued a freelance career in audio, and professional research in the fields of Auditory Cognition, Psychoacoustics, and Experimental Hydrophone Design. He is a native of Chicago, Illinois and previously did work there as a mixing and mastering engineer, working in music genres such as Avant-garde Classical and Jazz.

As a transplant to Los Angeles, Grover still works in the music industry, but now adds the video game and film industries to his calling. He is actively pursuing a career as an independent musician, composer, and producer. He previously contributed to Innerfidelity, Audiostream, and Part-Time Audiophile—before becoming an editor and co-founder of INDULGR magazine.

The post Alluxity INT One MkII | REVIEW appeared first on INDULGR.

Most of this comes down to the sound of course, where TIDAL Audio is simply perfect in execution. Every piece of TIDAL gear I’ve heard just sounds premium. Their bandwidth is wide, distortion low, and dynamics as varied and controlled as one could ever wish for, but even with all of its technical finesse, TIDAL equipment always lets the most important parts of the music come through, with a purity and focus that many high-end brands (and listeners) miss. This is the Bugatti to several other brands’ Bentley or Rolls Royce.

Words and Photography by Grover Neville

Supporting these efforts in America is Doug White of The Voice That Is — a man I can comfortably call one of the classiest in hi-fi. I have had the pleasure of interacting with Doug over the years at international trade shows like Axpona and regional hi-fi shows like Capital Audio Fest, and he is consistently organized, insightful, warm and genuine. It doesn’t hurt that any exhibit space he sets-up will almost certainly clinch a best-of-show prize for sound before the expo is over.

I recently had the pleasure of hearing a few of TIDAL’s newest creations during their public debut in North America — that would be the Contros Digital Controller and the Contriva G3 loudspeaker. Paired with the immensely powerful TIDAL Intra Stereo Amplifier which my fellow co-conspirator Eric Franklin Shook is well familiar with, I was struck by how much value this system provides. In the realm of summit-fi this system has a level of convenience and synergy you’ll be scant to find elsewhere; one could easily spend much more and get very much less.

The simplicity of Mr. White’s expo system was comprised of a TIDAL Contros Digital Controller handling digital source, digital-to-analog conversion, and volume control duties, using design principles found in the TIDAL for Bugatti Royale MC-1—while the Intra Stereo Amplifier handled amplification duties. Doug played track-after-track of sheer excellence, music that drew me in and simultaneously supplied plenty of ear candy. We just don’t get to hear things like this very often.

While I have laid ears on several TIDAL systems before, there was a rightness and purity to the sound of this system I found surprisingly more irresistible than in my past experiences. Perhaps the immersion came from the new completely exclusive TIDAL Diamond Black Ceramic and Carbon-fiber Aluminum drivers in the Contriva G3 that were just a little more effortless than before, or the Intra which seems less a class-D derivation of amplifier and more an amplifier in its own class entirely — one devoid of notions of class topology, and simply transmitting music like pure water.

Or maybe it was the Contros with its R2R and ASRT² Analog Remediation technology, which seemed to take the system even further into refinement and coherence than other third-party converters have. Regardless, everything here just worked, and the more TIDAL that gets into the system, the more I like it. With each generation the house sound becomes an even purer expression of the coherence and beauty at the core of the TIDAL Audio ethos: “We Build Emotions.”

I cannot think of another manufacturer with such a seamless product line. I’d go as far as to say TIDAL products are symbiotic, they deserve each other. All are top notch separately, yet they deserve to be heard together, where they coalesce to harmony in that uniquely TIDAL way. If you happen to find yourself in search of new peaks to ascend in the world, include amongst them: the view from K2, sunset atop the Salar de Uyuni, and an all-TIDAL system from Doug White at The Voice That Is.

www.thevoicethatis.com

About the Author

Wanderer, Wonderer, Musician, Actor

Grover Neville resides in sunny Los Angeles, California, and is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied music and creative writing. After graduating he pursued a freelance career in audio, and professional research in the fields of Auditory Cognition, Psychoacoustics, and Experimental Hydrophone Design. He is a native of Chicago, Illinois and previously did work there as a mixing and mastering engineer, working in music genres such as Avant-garde Classical and Jazz.

As a transplant to Los Angeles, Grover still works in the music industry, but now adds the video game and film industries to his calling. He is actively pursuing a career as an independent musician, composer, and producer.

Grover previously contributed to Innerfidelity, Audiostream, and Part-Time Audiophile—before becoming an editor and co-founder of INDULGR magazine.

More Photography and System Details Below

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Outside of the Paddington Station west entrance there is a man inside the face of a clock, and every minute he wipes away the minute hand and paints a new one in its place – watch him long enough and you’ll even see the hour hand replaced. I have stared at the man in this clock for several weeks now, and though I do not know its intended significance, he has accompanied many a late night walk home from the Paddington Elizabeth Line tube stop.

Not too far away, just across the Little Venice Canal from Paddington, I passed by Abbey Road Studios, which on this particular Thursday evening was a hub of quiet freneticism. Three men in leather jackets, smoking outside, gave me a nod as I made my way to the nearby bus stop. As I made a mental note to stay on the lookout for a new Oasis album, I noticed a certain easy, unhurriedness in their posture. These were not first-timers, and unlike myself they had no destination other than where they were standing—they had all the time in the world.

Words and Photography by Grover Neville

In contrast to my thoughts on the SW1X DAV IV Special, a piece which was written on the train from Amsterdam to London, I write this particular piece about a South African company, while seated kilometers under the ocean on a Eurostar train back to Amsterdam. One thought had while greeting England, another had while leaving it, both mirrors of the other.

Vivid Audio, is nothing if not a mirror of SW1X. Laurence Dickie (founder) is a native of the British Isles, and is well known for being the mind behind the Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus project—the famous blue ‘Super Snail’ that still gets trotted out by that company from time to time. He has since taken his knowledge and created an entire new lineup which includes the Kaya and Giya lines— the latter of which is the subject of this particular piece. In this case however, Vivid Audio is that South African company, an inversion of northerly expectations in an audiophile world thought to only inhabit the spaces under a halo of the boreal zone.

Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2

The inversions, like Bach, don’t stop there. Vivid’s graceful, organic lines and design work are in stark contrast to the traditional cherry-clad ply we think of when calling to mind Harbeth, Spendor, LS3/5a—british speakers. These are no Brit-Fi speakers however. This is international, avant-garde design at its finest, mated with high-end technology. While Dickie’s work at B&W on the Nautilus was beautiful, the work he is doing currently with Vivid has advanced well beyond it in both looks and design. Step aside Blighty, enter Johannesburg.

Bill Parish and the folks at GTT Audio who distribute Vivid in the states or Mr. Dickie himself could detail the exact functions of some of those graceful curves—the little curlicue that graces the top of all the Giyas for example is more than simply a design flourish, but instead an artfully incorporated acoustic solution.

I’ll point you towards Vivid’s delightfully named ‘Technical Overture PDF’ for all the gory details, but suffice to say, these are seriously high-tech beasts. Drivers are completely customized in sophisticated ways, the cabinets themselves are designed to be light yet rigid unlike the hefty metal cabinets of some competitors, and solutions for resonance control often involve clever magnet and structural design, which goes for elegant rather than the brute force damping approach employed by so many these days. Lauren Dickie and the folks at Vivid are clearly not first-timers.

(Link: https://vividaudio.com/downloads/Vivid-Audio_Technical-Overture.pdf)

The Set-Up: Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2

The unit I received, the Vivid Giya G4 S2 is the smallest and most affordable of the Giya range, though it is not diminutive by any means. Dick Diamond from GTT was kind enough to come out and help set them up in my loft in Santa Monica, and the entire experience was one of the most pleasant and best thought-out of any hi-fi component I’ve reviewed. The speakers ship in a single, pallet-crate, and are bolted in securely. Removal requires some tools, but is a simple and painless affair.

I have to give Dick and the folks at GTT a shout-out here, as this is my third time reviewing a component from them, and they truly are some of the friendliest, most organized and unpretentious people I’ve worked with. They are consistently on-time, responsive and enjoy a wide variety of music and conversational topics. I haven’t got a single complaint about any interaction I’ve had with them. GTT always makes me feel as if we have all the time in the world.

Well… almost. I do wish I’d gotten to review a pair of Giyas in one of the more adventurous colors like Hot Pink, Oyster Matte Yellow or Lime Green. Alas. What I received was still a very attractive pair, finished in a pearlescent white, which I suppose those with less adventurous tastes than myself will find properly respectable.

Setup is a simple affair, which took little time to get good. The trickiest part is not moving the speakers, which are surprisingly light due to that glass-fibre composite material, but rather getting the speaker cables on. With the G4, the speaker terminals are accessed through the rear-most bottom of the speaker, set in somewhat deeply, which necessitates either of two scenarios: lying the speaker down to the floor, or having a second person tip the speaker body fairly far forward. The speaker’s lack of hard edges makes this a two hand job.

The Sound: Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2

Once the cables are attached, the bottom plate cleverly hides and manages the cables, though anyone with a disposition towards constant speaker-cable swapping may find the process a little challenging to perform regularly. Oh, and I should mention: banana plugs are by far the better option here. After this, the magnetic grilles simply pop into place.

What greets me on first listen is quite unlike anything I’ve heard before. Forget the questionable gimmicks of Dolby Atmos, if you have just a pair of these Giya speakers, the perception of stereo recorded space is effortless and enormous, both wide, deep and with a certain smoothness of texture that makes it hard to pinpoint any kind of obnoxious coloration. I would not say it is warm exactly, as the level balance seems appropriate, but the quality of the mid and high ranges is devoid of the hard, brittle and forward sound that many heavily-damped, very expensive dome-tweeter speakers have tended towards for several years now.

Our INDULGR Audiophile playlist includes 600+ tracks perfect for auditioning high-end audio gear, and was curated by our team of editors.

I am reminded of the man in the clock face—every small mesmerizing movement reaching towards the inevitable moving of the hands. The Vivid Giya G4 S2 display every tiny movement and detail, yet always in pursuit of the destination of the musical whole, and not as some speakers do in a buffet style where everything is served up equally, with no sense of musical organization. Even when I’m fussing with positioning, the Vivids reminded me to pause, and enjoy where I am right here, and right now. ‘You’re already at your destination,’ they remind me.

That said, no matter where I positioned them, the top end sounded excellent, and toe-in was really a matter of taste. If you prefer more razor precision, apply more, if you enjoy a wider, more pillow-y, expansive sound, apply less. Bass on the other hand was a trickier beast.

In certain positions I experienced enormous low end, while in others I struggled to get a quantity I found satisfying. I finally came to the conclusion after much fussing, that the dual-opposing woofers and ports did not enjoy the corners of my listening room. Toeing-in the speakers towards my head, and bringing them a fair bit off the back wall reward me with a rich, dense and surprisingly robust sound below ~80hz. I’ve never had speakers in this particular position in this room, but as they say: do what works.

Another challenge was the efficiency of these speakers. At an 86dB listed sensitivity, these speakers most certainly were not a match for the modestly-powered tube amps I typically enjoy. Beefy solid state from brands like Alluxity and Mark Levinson were the order of the day, and it was with these that I listened most during the review period.

When it comes to time spent listening, I look most especially for a purity and coherency of musical presentation. I care little for experiences which speak to facile technical capabilities, or the analytical brain. I want music to sound irresistible at every listen—there isn’t time in life for anything less. The Giya G4 S2 is the kind of speaker which may be able to do a bit of both.

There is purity in the Giya’s sound, and it has a trait many properly high-end speakers do, wherein the sound has a noticeable lack of any identifiable, objectionable coloration. They simply let music come forth, and in the case of the vivid do it with relaxed precision. The entire music picture is coherent and unhurried, even if you decide to play something from the Oasis discography.

The midrange and treble of the Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2 are amongst the purest, sweetest and most enjoyable I’ve ever heard, and are perhaps reason enough to purchase these. The low end is textured and plentiful, though occasionally I felt I’d heard speakers with more speed or dynamic slam—not a knock on these, simply that those who demand damped, clinically precise bass and an awful lot of it may find something more to their tastes elsewhere.

The Conclusion: Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2

After I had some time to digest my initial impressions and really dig deeper with the Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2, it occurred to me that despite the exotic looks and technologies, these are in many ways a quintessentially British loudspeaker, yet also… not. They do not offend, they play smooth, easy and precise. Low end is present but not overwhelming and the sweet and delicate midrange is the focus of the presentation. All traits I think of when I think of the most admired Brit-fi. True to the international heritage of Vivid however, these have been polished, preened, and gone through Hyperdrive to land on Kamino. What remains is something that exists as a sonic objet d’art, that is one hundred percent blood and born of Laurence Dickie, and to my ears, an offering at the church of the art and music lover.

From Amsterdam to London, and now back again, much like the journey from Abbey Road to the Nautilus, to Vivid, time and destination are always the critical questions. Though the Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2 speakers have since left, the time I spent with them remains stamped in my mind and senses. At their price point, a price which represents a sort of first gateway to the truly high-end, they have one carbon-fibre base (per channel) firmly planted in the realm of—dare I say it—summit-fi.

Like the man in the clock, the Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2 speakers accompanied many a contemplative late night, and at their best I was similarly transfixed. From his roots in the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern, and the multitudinous heritage and artistry, Laurence Dickie has landed at a perspective as unique as any I’ve found in audio and beyond. As I land on Amsterdam’s doorstep once again, I feel most acutely that which I am not: unhurried, expectation-less, destination-less. I am present, and my destination is where I am right now—a realization made firmer, more concrete, more real with the Giyas. The magnitude of precision it takes to make an object which can help us locate ourselves in space or time, is enormous. It requires designers to give of themselves, and I believe Mr. Dickie has done a very fine job of this task indeed.

www.vividaudio.com

About the Author

Wanderer, Wonderer, Musician, Actor

Grover Neville resides in sunny Los Angeles, California, and is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied music and creative writing. After graduating he pursued a freelance career in audio, and professional research in the fields of Auditory Cognition, Psychoacoustics, and Experimental Hydrophone Design. He is a native of Chicago, Illinois and previously did work there as a mixing and mastering engineer, working in music genres such as Avant-garde Classical and Jazz.

As a transplant to Los Angeles, Grover still works in the music industry, but now adds the video game and film industries to his calling. He is actively pursuing a career as an independent musician, composer, and producer. He previously contributed to Innerfidelity, Audiostream, and Part-Time Audiophile—before becoming an editor and co-founder of INDULGR magazine.

The post Vivid Audio Giya G4 S2 | REVIEW appeared first on INDULGR.

Some experiences in life just hit more than others. This is often due to their simplicity rather than in spite of it—and so, with simple music and the gentle rains of Hanover, I find all sorts of internal background noise has gone quiet. This is an experience that is almost impossible to have in hi-fi.

Words and Photography by Grover Neville

I suspect the reason for it to be so difficult is not so much the fault of any of the hi-fi equipment, but the focus and trappings of the setting. A room full of hi-fi components, that even resplendent in fanciful chassis, really is no substitute for the enormity of ‘out there.’ As humans, we are always and forever searching for whatever lies in ‘out there.’

I believe that the very best expressions of almost any pursuit connect us with a sense of the enormity of the world. A drive in a spectacular car on an amazing road or track, a meal cooked not just well, but perfectly, a painting that captures an emotion through a scene without being beholden to literal reality, or perhaps even a song playing through a hi-fi system rather than a hi-fi system playing a song. And the more we know, the more fleeting those senses of wonder and curiosity become. When we start asking ‘why does that happen?‘ the joy begins to bleed a little. Analysis is turpentine to the colors of awe.

SW1X DAC IV Special

Here I am, navel-gazing a little, and analyzing, well…a DAC (a digital-to-analog converter). Not quite so sexy sounding is it? I hope the presence shows off one thing however: nothing will ever quite be the same after you listen to any of the SW1X DAC models. The company, run by lead designer Slawa Roschkow and based in the UK, is one of the few makers of tube DACs that is doing things a little differently.

Rather than simply throwing tubes in the output stage of a typical modern DAC design, SW1X instead opts for a more interesting I/U stage. The exact implementation depends on model, for the DAC under review, the active voltage to current conversion uses a specially selected and very high quality transistor. The rest of the DAC is either tubes or transformers, with nary a shade of silicone in sight. And there is a serious amount of iron and tubes in this thing, including the signal output transformer de-coupled 6V6 output stage.

My review unit had no less than 7 tubes: one for rectification, two more tubes inside the DAC on the digital side—their function is oscillation or pace-making of the digital side of the DAC. Then two each for gain and voltage output, one of which was a 6V6 type power tube. When’s the last time you’ve seen something so beefy in a line-level component? Speaking of which, the balanced output of this review unit was listed at ~6V on the balanced outputs, and 3V RMS @-3dB for the single ended outputs. This certainly presented no problem for my pure tube linestage and integrated amplifiers. In any case, with all of the tube gear I used downward in the system chain the ~6V balanced output presented zero issues.

The Connections: SW1X DAC IV Special

In terms of functionality, the unit I reviewed did not have a USB input of any kind, supplying only AES/EBU and S/PDIF over Coax as inputs, though a VSB or valve-based USB module is available from SW1X, separately or integrated into certain models. Other than this input omission in the DAC IV Special, functionality of the review unit was straightforward—turn it on and turn the volume up. Simple as can be.

The Sound: SW1X DAC IV Special

It would be somewhat incorrect to say that the SW1X DAC IV Special just converts a digital signal to music—rather the experience of listening to the DAC IV Special is more that you are experiencing music through the source that is the DAC IV Special. There is a notable focus and density to the midrange that casually dismisses with audiophile notions or dispositions. This special DAC is made for a music listening experience that feels like Technicolor 5K UHD looks.

Compared to every other DAC I’ve had on hand during the review period, all of which were some kind of solid state—whether R2R ladder, chip-based, with op-amp or discrete output stages—there was a focus and immediacy of dynamics in the SW1X DAC IV Special, especially to the midrange that was simply unparalleled. I’ve also had a recent discussion with the chief designer of a very well known (and famous) tube amplifier manufacturer who expressed the opinion that, ‘if the midrange isn’t right, it’s hard for me to care about the rest of it.’ A statement of which I couldn’t agree more to.

In the case of the SW1X DAC IV Special: the midrange is simply the best I’ve ever heard in a DAC, and more closely approximated the sense of pleasing dynamic liveliness as vinyl playback. Now, that is not to say it possesses the characteristic curve, lathe-specific imprints or surface noise of vinyl, but from a dynamic liveliness, midrange focus and textural density standpoint, my level of satisfaction was elevated closer to that analog set of characteristics than I’ve experienced with any but the most exceptional vinyl playback.

The low end and top end are essentially invisible—in the sense that rather than having a characteristic tightness, looseness or a particular characteristic that would draw one’s attention, they simply sound correct. Or at least like whatever acoustic principal is correct based on your chosen loudspeakers. The top end is smooth and the low end is present and provides a substantial foundation, with perhaps an overall hint of warmth to the ears of those accustomed to inexpensive modern chip-based dacs. To my ears it could only be described as right.

Our INDULGR Audiophile playlist includes 600+ tracks perfect for auditioning high-end audio gear, and was curated by our team of editors.

Besides drawing the ear specifically to the midrange, the overall effect of this style of presentation was one of exceeding naturalness and deep detail. Typically, a forward or boosted treble presentation is misinterpreted as being too forward, but here I was able to easily pick out layers and experience details of presentation at a deeper level than with lesser DACs.

Though, I was also drawn to experience this information in a musically relevant way, and I found myself much more likely to notice subtleties which contributed to the artistic whole, rather than those fun but often creatively boorish ‘background chair squeak’ noises most audiophiles fuss over. None of that audiophile squabble matters in the end—a clock radio can convey the basic musical message of most popular music. An audiophile hi-fi system which draws one’s attention only to details without exposing the whole picture has failed no matter the level of perceived resolution.

The Conclusion: SW1X DAC IV Special

This then is the conceit of the SW1X DAC IV Special—if you are looking to escape the form of acquisition and analysis that accompanies so much of the mainstream audiophile experience, here is an answer. While this will not suit the audiophile who prizes the dry, bright or hard sounding digital, or is chasing some fantasy of ‘accuracy’ the sonic perspective the DAC IV Special offers had me listening to my system every day without a miss. This has not happened for several years, and I feel as though I’m experiencing the wonder and joy of the novice once again. Not from the perspective of an audiophile, but merely from the position of a professional musician with a hi-fi system.

This SW1X DAC IV Special takes me places typically reserved for train windows, rainy days, and the mornings after a birthday party. If emotional engagement is the metric, the SW1X DAC IV Special is quite simply the best digital converter for hi-fi I have ever heard, and I will be purchasing an SW1X DAC in the near future.

www.sw1xad.co.uk

UPDATE: As of Monday, August 21, 2023 a few minor changes were made above to correct the model designation and specific build details.
Our sincerest apologies, and thank you to early readers.

About the Author

Wanderer, Wonderer, Musician, Actor

Grover Neville resides in sunny Los Angeles, California, and is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied music and creative writing. After graduating he pursued a freelance career in audio, and professional research in the fields of Auditory Cognition, Psychoacoustics, and Experimental Hydrophone Design. He is a native of Chicago, Illinois and previously did work there as a mixing and mastering engineer, working in music genres such as Avant-garde Classical and Jazz.

As a transplant to Los Angeles, Grover still works in the music industry, but now adds the video game and film industries to his calling. He is actively pursuing a career as an independent musician, composer, and producer. He previously contributed to Innerfidelity, Audiostream, and Part-Time Audiophile—before becoming an editor and co-founder of INDULGR magazine.

The post SW1X DAC IV Special | REVIEW appeared first on INDULGR.

Words and Photography by Grover Neville

This line of thinking defines the experience at Roister, where fellow INDULGR editors Jameson Mourafetis and Eric Franklin Shook stopped by for lunch the day before Axpona 2023. For those familiar with the whimsical precision of Alinea and Next, Roister will be familiar, and despite the street-food titles, the execution is thoroughly Achatz-brand modernist.

Chicken sandwiches, bibimbap, cheese croquettes, cookies and ice cream are the stuff of comfort food, yet in the hands of the team at Roister, the meal began with an interrogation of that most fundamental kitchen ingredient: salt.

The first course of cheese croquettes was, to my mind entirely made to question the size of salt crystals. These are soft, pillowy beignet-style puffs, with a side of dairy, chili oil and green onions. Those aforementioned salt crystals were neither the large, chunky cubes you might find on a steak, nor were they the miniscule, indistinguishable powder you might see sprinkled into a stew or soup. Rather they occupied a notable middle ground: big enough to draw attention, yet small enough to dissolve shortly after hitting the tongue.

Mind those of you who may think I’m living with my head in the clouds – my fellow editors commented on this same phenomena, and the tone for the meal was set by exactly this kind of deliberate precision. Everything at Roister is cut, ground and sliced to very exact proportions, almost more the work of a baker than a cook.

After the crispy, tangy, and surprisingly light appetizer, our second courses and drinks appeared with a swiftness that will be familiar to anyone who has dined at Alinea or Next. In the lexicon of Grant Achatz, the flavors, textures, timing, smells — everything is considered. While I’m an enthusiastic owner and user of the ZERO Mocktails book by the team at Alinea, I’ve been occasionally unimpressed by the capability of the Aviary when it comes to mocktails. In this case, the pomegranate-citrus infusion I got was fine, albeit forgettable. Thankfully it was not cloyingly sweet.

Our mains arrived, consisting of Roister’s real claim to fame: their fried chicken. The chicken sandwiches the rest of the table received would put even a southern mother to shame, and the same fried chicken applied to my bibimbap bowl was even better. Remarkably, every single piece of fried chicken on the table was identical in tenderness, consistency of breading — somewhere between a light batter and a breading — and even shape. Though the trappings of a typical mid-price lunch spot adorn Roister, the food is undeniably a step up, and that Alinea-like precision subtly underpins every course.

Alongside the aforementioned chicken sandwiches and bibimbap, we also ordered a side of french fries and Tikka Masala carrots, which proved perhaps the most curious dish of the afternoon. Exactly as advertised, it was modestly-tender grilled triangle carrot slices covered in a very british cream-based Tikka Masala sauce. Quite tasty and savory, though perhaps not as harmonious with chicken sandwiches as the french fries.

With my Bibimbap it made an excellent combination however, and though nothing on the Roister menu indicated this, I detected the ghost of Alinea’s prix fixe in the DNA of Roister’s menu. There are most certainly pathways on the menu, split roughly into more vegetarian and carnivore friendly, with some crossover. The french fries and chicken sandwich are obviously meant to pair together, and the vegetable dishes obviously compliment the vegetarian pasta and asian-fusion dishes. For the most consistent experience, I would recommend diners stick to these pathways. Tikka Masala carrots, savory and refreshingly earthy as they were, do not necessarily make the greatest compliment to a fried chicken sandwich.

My bibimbap bowl on the other hand, with its almost kimchi-like house-made gochujang and spectacularly perfect fried tofu was a different matter entirely. One of my weaknesses by hubris is having somewhat of a spidey-sense for hidden gems on excellent menus. The tofu was nearly like a sous-vide steak, crispy on the outside, yet nearly custard-soft on the inside. The signature fried chicken was tender, a hint crispy, and yet again made by a saltiness I can only describe as being measured down to the size of the grains. The sandwiches were equally exceptional, with buns toasted to a delightful softness.

The mains courses took us some time — Roister does not skimp on the portions. When it came to the final course, we waffled briefly over desert but decided eventually on the cookies and ice cream, as it seemed the most thematically apropos ending to our trek down the comfort-fusion inspired pathway of the menu.

Here is where I was least impressed – a simple high quality execution of cookies and ice cream would have been sufficient to put a period on the meal, but instead we received a comma of sorts. Rather than ice cream, small bits of frozen cookie-infused frozen toffee and a pie-crust like substance were presented in a sundae dish. While the flavor and texture was more or less appealing, cookies and ice cream it was not. The texture was a bit too chunky on the ‘ice cream’ resembling a frozen candy more than Oberweis, and the pie crust was too crumbly to be pie crust, yet too hard to be a proper cookie. All of this again underpinned by that signature saltiness, which for a third course proved just a bit excessive to my taste buds.

While the dessert was no means a miss, for a meal with such a strong thematic core and precision execution, this felt like a bit of a stumble. The execution was no less excellent, but the concept of the dish felt a little indulgent. In this case, while some rethinking of familiar dishes was welcome in the early stages of the meal, the dessert stumbled on what ought to have been
an easy landing.

Roister Defined

That said, the entire meal at Roister was defined by its hits rather than any misses, and to my taste buds, this is perhaps one of the best mid-price lunch spots in the West Loop. While not a destination restaurant like its older, spendier siblings, I can recommend it without reservations as being among the best sub-$40-a-head lunches I’ve had. Through a sometimes mechanical precision, Achatz has managed to insert his signature whimsy into familiar dishes and this is perhaps even more uniquely suited to the simple, classic choices of Roister’s menu than it is to the sometimes novelty-centric offerings at Alinea and Next. Two carnivores and an omnivore walk into a bar, and we left, satisfied equally by the quality of the meal and its relatively modest impact on our pocketbooks.

Learn more at: www.thealineagroup.com

About the Author

Wanderer, Wonderer, Musician, Actor

Grover Neville resides in sunny Los Angeles, California, and is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied music and creative writing. After graduating he pursued a freelance career in audio, and professional research in the fields of Auditory Cognition, Psychoacoustics, and Experimental Hydrophone Design. He is a native of Chicago, Illinois and previously did work there as a mixing and mastering engineer, working in music genres such as Avant-garde Classical and Jazz.

As a transplant to Los Angeles, Grover still works in the music industry, but now adds the video game and film industries to his calling. He is actively pursuing a career as an independent musician, composer, and producer.

Grover previously contributed to Innerfidelity, Audiostream, and Part-Time Audiophile—before becoming an editor and co-founder of INDULGR magazine.

The post Roister: The Application of Salt | REVIEW appeared first on INDULGR.

Reporting by Grover Neville

More of our reporting on THE Show 2023 can be found here.

Aurender

Ari Margolis of Aurender presented Aurender’s new AP20 integrated amplifier, which combines streamer, DAC and amplifier into a single elegant Aurender housing for the first time. The Amplifier modules are Bruno Putzeys’ Purifi Eigentakt 1ET400A units, and will put out a beefy 200W into 8 ohms. DAC duties are accomplished with an AKM4497. Volume control is a resistor stepped attenuator. Overall a very classy package… but that’s not all.

The AP20 is loaded with additional features, some technical like the OCXO fpga-based clocking system, while others are more functional such as the suite of analog and digital inputs, analog pass through, hard-drive expansion slots, and critical listening mode which darkens the front panel screen for those late-night listening sessions. My impression of the featureset is that this an exceptionally livable product.

The question remains however, how does it sound? Driving the Estelon Aura speakers on display, which have a rather punishing 4 ohm nominal impedance and 2 ohm impedance dip at 58hz, the sound was clean, clear and actually a little on the smooth and sweet side of neutral. Color me surprised – I’m quite impressed with what I’ve heard of Bruno Putzeys’ Purifi modules, and this was no exception. Ari Margolis’ excellent DJing didn’t hurt – seriously, this guy is one of the nicest and most knowledgeable folks in hifi – and I’m eager to hear more of what this unit can do.

Aurender AP20 all-in-one – $22,000

Boulder

The Acora Acoustics room mentioned in the speaker part of our T.H.E. 2023 coverage was being driven by a pairing I have not personally heard before – that esteemed Colorado manufacturer of solid state gear. While Acora is often spotted mated to VAC 452iQ monoblocks, these were replaced this time with Boulder 2100 series gear.

Amplifier duties were done by the 2150 monoblocks, delivering an earth-shattering 1000W into 8 ohms, doubling right down to 2 ohms. This was paired with the 2110 linestage which is no less imposing a piece. Together these brought out a purity and precision in the Acora VRC speakers that made for what was probably the best sound of the show. Loads of clarity, width and imaging precision were on offer without a hint of antiseptic qualities. Seriously impressive.

Boulder 2150 monoblocks – $128,000/pair
Boulder 2110 line stage – $76,000

Nagra

Doing phono and digital duties in the Acora and Boulder room were Nagra tube units, mated to an Innuos Statement and TW Acustic turntable respectively. The Innuous Statement was leashed to a Nagra HD DAC X, and the TW to a Classic Phono with external power supply.

Both digital and analog had plenty of impact, dynamic and palpability, but the tubes in the Nagra did not make themselves known much – the sound was so quiet, clean and clear through both chains you might not have known there were tubes in the path at all.

Nagra was also displaying alongside YG speakers and a Moonriver Audio integrated, and to my ears the Nagra tube gear here was again making that very classy precise sound with near-solid state precision.

Nagra HD DAC X – $70,875
Nagra Classic Phono Package with PSU – $42,950
Innuos Statement 2TB music server/streamer with Next-Gen PSU – $22,100

TW Acustic

TW Acustic provided the turntable and tonearm for the Acora room, and while digital was excellent in-room, the Vinyl was on another level altogether. Rich, vanishingly quiet and punchy in a way that is altogether TW – my experiences with these tables have been nothing but superb time and time again. T.H.E. 2023 was no exception, and at the asking price, while they may omit some of the bling of more expensive tables, the TWs offer stunning levels of sonic performance.

Although the digital in the Acora room was fully satisfying and rich, the vinyl setup added additional density, lower register dynamic slam and a slight sparkle to the treble that I found just that much more musically engaging. I could live with either setup, but I’d probably pick the vinyl everytime given the choice.

TW Acustic Raven LS-3 turntable – $24,000
TW Acustic 10.5 tonearm – $6,000
Lyra Etna Lambda SL cartridge – $9,995
Erodian EVO step-up – $6,000

Westminster Labs + Ars Machinae

Gary Leeds of Here This was present showing off Westminster Lab Rei Class-A amplifiers which were bridged as monoblocks for even greater power output. These are pretty amplifiers, boasting clean lines and a modest form factor – things usually antithetical to the North American concept of Class-A amplifiers as large, hot and heavy. With a pair of Raidho speakers however the sound in the room was extremely dynamic and more even than I am accustomed to hearing with these speakers. I came away quite impressed, and you’ll hear more from me about these little amps.

Equally responsible for the sound was likely the Westminster Lab matching Quest preamplifier which features a fetching minimalist front panel with dot-matrix display. Again, this is design I expect to see at Munich High-End, not so much stateside, but I’m delighted to find brands executing products with beautiful form, great functionality and great sound.

Sources included a Berkeley Alpha DAC, and an Ars Machinae M1 turntable from Germany – an absolute beast of a turntable, that not only matched the Bauhaus-minimal aesthetic of the system, but was among the best built turntables I’ve ever laid eyes on. Stay tuned for more from Gary and both of these brands.

Westminster Labs Rei monoblocks – $32,900
Westminster Lab Quest preamplifier with full carbon shielding – $24,000
Ars Machinae M1 turntable – $35,000
Ars Machinae Isolation Base with Finite Elemente footers – $2,750

The post The Electronics | T.H.E. Show 2023 appeared first on INDULGR.

Reporting by Grover Neville

More of our reporting on THE Show 2023 can be found here.

Acora Acoustics

With a price north of $200k USD the Acora VRC loudspeaker is an absolute assault on the state of the art in audio reproduction. Designer and owner Valerio Cora, while humble about his achievements, is a consummate connoisseur of high-end audio, and his sensibilities show clearly in his speakers. This room threw a huge soundstage, with a sense of never-ending headroom, huge dynamics and nearly limitless clarity. Partnered with Boulder and Nagra electronics, this room was among the cleanest and most even sounding rooms at the show.

Acora VRC – $218,000 (pair)

Estelon

Showing with Scott Walker Audio, Estelon loudspeakers had several rooms, but this one, with presentation and music selection by Ari Margolis of Aurender stood out not only for its music selection, but also for its sweet and inviting sound. Some of the smaller Estelon Aura speakers demand amplifiers with plenty of power and refinement, and the Aurender integrated was happily cruising along, demonstrating with ease just how good great a single-box solution can be. A marriage of excellent design and sound.

Estelon Aura – $19,900 (pair)

Linn Audio

Hi-Fi icons, Linn Audio of the UK, long absent from the North American show circuit made a debut of their new 360 loudspeaker system, which is firmly entrenched in the digital realm. Digital output from the Linn LP12 turntable goes into the Linn Klimax DX for DSP (digital sound processing) and then on to the new 360 loudspeakers, which have a dedicated D/A converter and amplifier for every driver. While unashamedly digital, the results were impressive on the familiar ‘Paper Tiger’ cut off Beck’s Sea Change LP. Tonal balance in the mids and bass was excellent, and despite a rather large boost above 8-10khz, the system was very listenable. A good example of a bright speaker done well, and like the aforementioned Estelon/Aurender room, a nice example of great design married to good sound.

Linn 360 Speaker

• Exakt Integrated Variant (for use in conjunction with a Linn DSM Network Music Player): This model incorporates all crossover, amplification, and digital-to-analog conversion circuitry within the speaker. Prices start at €87,500 (pair)
• Passive with Aktiv Bass (PWAB) Variant: This version requires 3rd-party amplification or an all-external Linn Exakt system using Exaktbox. Prices start at €55,500 (pair)

TAD Labs

TAD Laboratories (Technical Audio Devices) had one display of their newest Compact Evolution loudspeakers (TAD-CE1TX), looking smart and running on an all TAD Electronics stack. This room was packed throughout almost the entire show, and the sound was nothing less than smooth and even handed. Though bass was not thunderous, the speakers filled up the modestly sized hotel room well and I can see these being excellent for those with space constraints who don’t want to give up output.

TAD CE1TX – $32,500 (pair)
TAD CR1TX – $89,000 (pair)
TAD ST2TX Stands – $2500 (pair)

Von Gaylord

Though not a new brand, it’s one that I was previously unfamiliar with. Alas, this room was quite the sonic surprise. Both the amplifiers and loudspeakers were made by Von Gaylord, and were putting out a very sweet and musical sound with particularly wide and stable imaging and a lightning fast midrange. This is definitely a brand I’ll be keeping an eye on.

Von Gaylord – Return of the Legend $4,900 (pair)

YG Acoustics

Showing with D’Agostino and MSB Technology electronics, YG Acoustics loudspeakers had their new line of more affordable Peaks Series making excellent sound, a trend continued from Axpona 2023 this year. My preference was for the smaller bookshelf room, which seemed a little livelier and more open, whereas the large MSB and D’agostino stack, though impressive, seemed a little unengaging and overdamped. Overall tonal balance and dynamics were spot on in both rooms however.

YG Tor Monitors – $10,500 (pair) + $1,500 Stand (pair)
YG Descent Sub – $7,800
YG Ascent Towers – $19,800 (pair)

The post The Speakers | T.H.E. Show 2023 appeared first on INDULGR.

Reporting by Grover Neville

While I had a hard time finding a spot to listen on not two but three different occasions because the room was so packed, the few auditory glimpses of unfamiliar material seemed promising. Avantgarde and Angie usually put on an excellent show, and I’ve always heard good sound from this large suite room and these german horn loudspeakers – in this case, I’ll let the packed room speak for itself. Folks enjoyed what they were hearing!

The post Avantgarde, Phasemation, Esoteric, dCS, American Sound of Canada | AXPONA 2023 appeared first on INDULGR.

The crossover design uses Milfex caps and a Fostex L-Pad for tweeter attenuation. Speaker terminals are from Cardas, and Neutrik PowerCon for the field coil power. MiniDSP (for woofer), and speaker-to-power supply are included (Belden 9497). As these are bespoke designs, more options are available upon request.

Reporting by Grover Neville

Organic lines, especially in living rooms with hifi equipment, which can often verge into the rather grey, square and boxy, can be just the touch of panache needed to keep things cozy and inviting. And, happily, here again is another system that is both visually and sonically appealing. On first sight you’d expect the absence of harsh edges that can result from harsh breakup modes in stiff-metal cones, and an inviting and smooth presentation. What you don’t expect from the Treehaus system however is how relatively even the frequency response is, how low the bass goes and how snappy and quick everything is. Setup correctly these are capable of serious musical scuba diving hi-fi duties.

Speaking of setup, the field coil woofers are highly adjustable, as is the powered bass, and I’ve heard these do both an almost horn-like immediacy and dynamic, and also a very wide, very even, almost wide-bandwidth electrostat type presentation. Variety is the spice of life as they say, but especially for those looking for that rare combination of goosebumps and detail, I can heartily recommend investigating Treehaus loudspeakers.

No less responsible for the sound is the Treehaus electronics, done in their own fetching boxes, and playing by their own rules much like the loudspeakers. The transformers use some exotic core materials and are based on no longer produced Japanese designs, but use somewhat higher primaries for the 300B than most, along with a few other tricks, and to my ears go for a clean and open sound with subtle fairy dust, rather than the overly syrupy presentation some associate with directly heated triodes.

Treehaus Audiolab have collaborated with legendary electronics designer and builder Radu Tarta to produce thermionic tube amplifiers and preamplifiers ideally suited for high-efficiency loudspeakers. Based on the work of Susumu Sakuma (Japan) the amplifiers utilize a DHT driver interstage coupled to a directly heated triode power tube.

The Treehaus preamplifier is based on the 4P1L design and utilizes TVC (Transformer Volume Control) to abate signal losses often found in more traditional attenuation devices. Parts are quality, using Finemet transformers, Coleman filament regulators, and Cardas connectors.

The Preamplifier features a tube rectified power supply, multiple power supplies, Cardas RCA in and out, Elma input switching, Amphenol connectors on the PSU umbilical, and hardwood veneer over baltic birch multi-ply casework.

The Amplifier features an outboard Sakuma architecture PSU, 10Y/801A driver tube, Finement Interstage iron, Gold Lion 300B power tubes, Finement output iron, Coleman filament regulators, and an LED voltage readout. Along with other connection and finishing features found in the preamplifier design.

Loudspeakers

National Treasure Field Coil Loudspeakers (Starting at $19,000 USD)

Amplification

Treehaus Audiolab Preamplifier ($16,000 USD)
Treehaus Audiolab Amplifier ($17,500 USD)
Treehaus MC Step-Up Transformer ($3,000 USD)

Cabling by Iconoclast Cable

The post Treehaus Audiolab, Innuos, Iconoclast Cable | AXPONA 2023 appeared first on INDULGR.

Reporting by Grover Neville

Yes, that was my first impression, ‘wow, this is some serious low end.’ Mate that low end to the kind of quick, holographic and detached-from-the-speaker imaging panel speakers are also known for and you have a recipe for a very sweet room indeed. Add on to this the fun dotted pattern of the Diptyque speakers, a notable departure from the fancy mosquito appearance of some panel speakers, and you’ve something that would be right at home in a Bauhaus Nouveau living room.

I did visit this room a second time, and while the small room made low end and imaging challenging, with bass a hint sloppier and imaging a little fuzzier on some highly loudenated electronic music, the Diptyque speakers were still making sound that struck me as distinctly high end. Mind you, I was not intimately familiar with the listening material, and the refinement of the speaker was still evident. If you’ve a love of panel speakers and their signature sonic perspective, these could be the ones.

Loudspeakers

Diptyque Audio Reference Loudspeakers ($49,999 pr USD)

Amplification

Audia Flight Strumento No. 1 Preamplifier ($19,999 USD)
Audia Flight Strumento No. 8 Monoblock Amplifiers ($29,999 ea USD)
Michell Audio Orbe SE w/TechnoArm2 ($8,498 USD)

Rack

NEO High End Rack ($3,999 USD 3 shelf / $5,999 USD 4 shelf)

The post Diptyque, Audia Flight, Michell Audio, NEO, Fidelity Imports | AXPONA 2023 appeared first on INDULGR.

Reporting by Grover Neville

Ayre was showing off their new Ayre VX-8 Stereo Power Amplifier, with beautiful guts on display. Playing were the Ayre MX-R Twenty monoblock amplifiers, and the combination of this amp and the Seawave speakers was making surprisingly lovely sound. There was not an excess of horn colorations, and integration with mids and low end was smooth, though the listening material was unfamiliar to me.

I visited the room twice, and both times was pleasantly impressed by what I heard. Beneath the Seawave’s charming cherry red horns, there is a surprising amount of high tech – HDMT high-damping metal, no-solder connections and unicast aluminum are features that speak to a thoroughly high end brand. In the last few years we’ve seen some seriously good Korean audio enter the North American market, Allnic and Waversa coming to mind. I would now add Seawave to this list, and look forward to seeing and hearing more from them.

Loudspeakers

Seawave AM45 ($150,000 pr USD)
Seawave AM23 ($20,000 pr USD)
Seawave Aletheia III ($16,000 pr USD)

Amplification

Ayre CX-8 CD Player ($5,450 USD)
Ayre QX-5 Twenty Digital Hub ($15,000 USD)
Ayre KX-R Twenty Preamplifier ($40,000 USD)
Ayre MX-R Twenty Monoblock Amplifiers ($48,000 pr USD)
Ayre QX-8 DAC/Preamplifier ($6,950 USD)
Ayre VX-8 Stereo Amplifier ($6,800 USD)
Aurender N30SA ($25,000 USD)

Cabling by Seawave and Cardas

The post Seawave, Ayre, Aurender, Cardas | AXPONA 2023 appeared first on INDULGR.

A factoid of note: Bricasti Design owns three pairs of TIDAL speakers, and uses a pair of special finish TIDAL Contriva to develop and voice the electronics.

Reporting by Grover Neville

The sound was TIDAL through and through — complete refinement and a tonality like pure water from top to bottom, with that iconic TIDAL high frequency sound that is frankly best described as sounding ‘expensive.’ TIDAL speakers elevate musical experiences in a way that’s hard to describe, and if you haven’t heard a pair yet, you owe yourself the favor of an audition. Starting Yesterday.

Equally at home with the these high-end loudspeakers were the aforementioned Bricasti electronics. I’m fairly familiar with the M7 Reverb unit and control units from my work in the music and film industry, but less so with the amplifiers and D/A converter. To my ears they had that trademark linearity with a hint of richness, depth and smooth treble that Bricasti is known for. Very nice.

The post TIDAL Audio, Bricasti Design | AXPONA 2023 appeared first on INDULGR.