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Equipment Reviews

Ultra Audio's site platform was changed in August 2010. For equipment reviews previous to that, use this link to transfer to the old site.

Esoteric Grandioso P1 SACD/CD Transport, Grandioso D1 Mono Digital-to-Analog Converters, and G-01 Master Clock Generator

Written by: Howard Kneller
Created: 01 February 2015

Esoteric P1/D1Reviewers' ChoiceAlmost every month, I hear about a new, midpriced digital-to-analog converter that’s supposedly taking the audiophile world by storm. These flavors of the month typically include the latest, greatest conversion chips and cost $2000-$3500 USD -- sometimes much less. They almost always come with a story about a guy who bought one, got better sound than he was getting with his $125,000 multibox digital stack, sold the latter, and laughed all the way to the bank.

It was just after I’d had a conversation with an audiophile friend about a $500 flavor-of-the-month DAC that Scott Sefton, Esoteric’s marketing specialist, offered to send me for review samples of the company’s new statement models. At the time, the Grandioso line comprised the M1 monoblock amplifier ($21,000 each), the two-box P1 SACD/CD transport ($40,000), and the D1 mono DAC ($20,000 each). There is also, now, the Grandioso C1, a two-box preamplifier ($40,000).

Read more …

Blue Circle Audio BC60X1 Power Conditioner

Written by: Michael Wright
Created: 01 February 2015

Blue Circle Audio BC60X1I considered myself lucky. I’d finished reviewing Blue Circle Audio’s PLC Thingee FX-2 six-outlet power conditioner with XOe low-frequency filter module (affectionately known as the 3PO), which enlightened me as to what a well-designed, well-thought-out $500 power conditioner could do. The FX-2 cleaned up the incoming power and made the very best of what I had to plug into it sound better than it had any right to. This at a time when I was having trouble getting my money’s worth after having invested so much of it, and time, in power-line conditioners (PLCs) of various prices but never finding anything that performed to my total satisfaction. I was all set to buy the FX-2 -- I saw no reason not to spend $500 USD for a PLC that performed as well as it did. (See my review of the Blue Circle Audio PLC Thingee FX-2 for a description, and for everything I had to say about its sound.)

Read more …

Octave Audio V 110 Integrated Amplifier

Written by: Hans Wetzel
Created: 15 January 2015

Octave Audio V 110I am, in general, no fan of vacuum tubes, and said as much a few years ago in an editorial that earned me scornful e-mails from readers. I have been guided to that conclusion by a philosophical stance and by sonic taste. While I greatly respect the multitude of people who prefer tubed to solid-state amplification, and welcome their presence in the marketplace, tubes have just never held my interest. Earlier this year, I resolved to review a tubed integrated amplifier and give this archaic technology a fair and impartial perspective. Enter Octave Audio’s V 110 integrated amplifier.

Read more …

JL Audio CR-1 Active Subwoofer Crossover

Written by: Jeff Fritz
Created: 01 January 2015

JL Audio CR-1Usually, within a given line of loudspeakers made by a given company, as the models increase in cost, the aspect of their sounds that sees the most change is the bass response. Look at a speaker line from almost any brand and you’ll see, at the bottom of the price hierarchy, a smallish bookshelf speaker, usually a two-way. Above that will be, perhaps, a bigger bookshelf model, followed by two or three floorstanders, the largest being three- or four-way models. Often, all of these speakers will use the same model of tweeter and similar if not identical models of midrange drivers; it’s the woofers that grow in size and number as you ascend the ladder of price and size.

Read more …

fo.Q Damping Products and AB-4045 Audio Board Isolation Platform

Written by: Howard Kneller
Created: 15 December 2014

fo.QLike many audiophiles, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with tweaks. I’ve gone from being crazy about tweaks to being anti-tweak to somewhere between those positions. Presently, I use only those tweaks that significantly improve the sound of my system, as opposed to merely change the sound.

However, despite my substantial history of tweaking, I’ve only rarely experimented with the many products that are claimed to control electromagnetic fields and/or resonances when wrapped around or covering cables, connectors, component circuits and interiors, and speaker cabinets. There are several reasons for this.

First, since there is virtually nowhere such products can’t be placed, they can sometimes enable astonishing levels of audiophile neurosis. A friend and I once visited a guy who had covered literally his entire system -- components, speakers, cables, fuse box -- with a product said to diffuse EMI and RFI. When I saw that system, I told my friend that, if I ever did that, he should, regardless of any sonic benefit, shoot me.

Read more …

Devialet 400 Mono Integrated Amplifier-DACs

Written by: Jeff Fritz
Created: 01 December 2014

Devialet 400Reviewers' ChoiceAlthough he didn’t found Devialet until 2007, Pierre-Emmanuel Calmel, a Nortel Networks engineer, dreamed up what would become the heart of the company’s products in 2003: the Analog Digital Hybrid (ADH) amplifier. The ADH concept is elegant: an analog amplifier provides the output voltage, in parallel with a digital amplifier that supplies most of the current. This hybrid approach to amplification, Calmel surmised, would use the best attributes of each amplifier type in a package that would exceed the performance of either configuration on its own. Although this sounds simple enough, the implementation of ADH in the company’s original product, the D-Premier, was anything but easy. According to the company’s press materials, it took 100,000 lines of code and “many sleepless nights” to realize the goal of ADH.

Read more …

Audio Research VSi75 Integrated Amplifier

Written by: Jason Thorpe
Created: 15 November 2014

Audio Research VSi75The tubed integrated amplifier is the ne plus ultra of audio. Strong words, those -- fighting words, even. But think it through: The tube integrated is the Platonic ideal of amplification. It’s one box that performs all the required, necessary tasks -- and nothing more.

While it’s true that technology stands still for no man, it seems that every pimply, shining-morning-faced schoolboy with a MacBook seems to think you need to add a DAC to every bloody component in order for it to do anything actually useful. While buying a DAC-in-the-amp might be reasonable if you plan to upgrade next year, I’m firmly against locking today’s computing technology into a product you might want to use for a few years, and doubly against it when considering an audio component of reference quality (and high price). Digital technology changes so rapidly that it just doesn’t make sense to incorporate it into an expensive amp or preamp that you might actually want to keep.

Read more …

Triangle Magellan Cello Loudspeakers

Written by: Jeff Fritz
Created: 01 November 2014

Triangle Magellan CelloTriangle Manufacture Electroacoustique, of France, has been making loudspeakers for over 30 years. Although the company doesn’t enjoy the footprint in North America that would give them the broad name recognition of a Paradigm or a Bowers & Wilkins, they are one of the larger speaker manufacturers in Europe. Boasting their own anechoic chamber -- something possessed by only a very few speaker makers -- and designing and manufacturing their own drive-units, Triangle has impressive technical capabilities that must be the envy of many companies.

Today, Triangle has six loudspeaker lines with models ranging in price from hundreds of dollars (their Color models) to many thousands, for the flagship Magellans. Clearly, Triangle wants to serve a diverse market by covering as many different price points as they can manage. Wanting to experience the best of what Triangle offers, but also wanting a speaker whose size and cost were still approachable by many serious audiophiles, I chose the smallest Magellan floorstander: the Cello, which retails for $12,000 USD per pair.

Read more …

Audience Au24 SE powerChords, Interconnects, and Speaker Cables

Written by: Doug Blackburn
Created: 15 October 2014

Audience Au24 SEReviewers' ChoiceAudience’s top cables comprise its Au24 line. The second generation, the Au24 e cables, appeared several years ago, and were reviewed by Vade Forrester in February 2009.

The third generation, the new Au24 SEs, debuted last year. Besides cables, Audience also manufactures power conditioners, crossoverless loudspeakers with very clever 3” full-range drivers, and a surface treatment for optical discs. If you were to ask Audience how they characterize themselves, they’d probably say that they’re a company of audiophiles and engineers.

Read more …

Zanden Audio Systems 120 Phono Stage

Written by: Garrett Hongo
Created: 01 October 2014

Zanden Audio Systems 120Reviewers' ChoiceOver the past six years, I’ve noticed that a few elite audio manufacturers have been incorporating, into their newest phono preamps, other equalization curves in addition to the standard one established in the 1950s by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). These ultra-choice tubed and tube/solid-state models range from the Audio Research Reference 2 ($12,000 USD) and Allnic H-3000V ($13,900) up to the Zanden 1200 Mk.3 ($25,000) -- mighty tall cotton for the average audiophile. But there’s good news. Zanden has now developed a solid-state phono stage that’s relatively affordable -- the 120, launched at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, lists for $7500.

Read more …

  1. Grimm Audio LS1 Loudspeakers and LS1s Subwoofers
  2. Aurender W20 Music Server
  3. Transfiguration Phoenix S Phono Cartridge
  4. M2Tech Young DSD Digital-to-Analog Converter
  5. Audio Research SP20 Preamplifier
  6. Magico S3 Loudspeakers
  7. Synergistic Research High Frequency Transducer (HFT) and Frequency Equalizer (FEQ) Room Treatments and XOT Crossover Transducer
  8. Ayre Acoustics KX-R Twenty Preamplifier
  9. Resonessence Labs Invicta Mirus Digital-to-Analog Converter
  10. Vivid Audio Giya G4 Loudspeakers
  11. Aurender X100L Music Server
  12. Sonus Faber Olympica I Loudspeakers
  13. Clarity Cable Organic Speaker Cables, Interconnects, Digital Interconnect, and Vortex Power Cord
  14. EgglestonWorks Nine Signature Loudspeakers
  15. Light Harmonic LightSpeed USB Cable
  16. David Berning Company ZH-230 Stereo Amplifier
  17. Esoteric Master Sound Works C-02 Preamplifier
  18. Vivid Audio Oval V1.5 Loudspeakers
  19. Daedalus Audio Argos v.2 Loudspeakers
  20. Octave Audio V 70 SE Integrated Amplifier
  21. KR Audio VA910 Mono Amplifiers
  22. T+A Criterion TCD 110 S Loudspeakers
  23. Birch Acoustics Raven Loudspeakers
  24. Monitor Audio Platinum PL200 Loudspeakers
  25. Essential Sound Products Essence Reference-II Power Cords and Reference-II Power Distributor
  26. JE Audio Dyad S400 Stereo Amplifier
  27. Dynamique Audio Celestial Speaker Cables, Zenith Interconnects, Firelight USB, and Infinite Power Cables
  28. Music Culture Elegance MC 501A CD Player-DAC
  29. KR Audio VA340 Mk.II Integrated Amplifier
  30. PMC IB2i Loudspeakers
  31. Cabasse Pacific 3 Loudspeakers
  32. Sonus Faber Venere 3.0 Loudspeakers
  33. Hegel Music Systems HD25 Digital-to-Analog Converter
  34. EMM Labs DAC2X Digital-to-Analog Converter
  35. Esoteric P-02 SACD/CD Transport and D-02 Digital-to-Analog Converter
  36. Vivid Audio Giya G3 Loudspeakers
  37. PBN Audio Scan-Speak B741 Loudspeakers
  38. Blue Circle Audio BC109 Preamplifier
  39. Dynaudio Confidence C2 Signature Loudspeakers
  40. First Watt J2 Stereo Amplifier
  41. Simaudio Moon Evolution 810LP Phono Stage
  42. Boulder Amplifiers 1060 Stereo Amplifier
  43. SMc Audio VRE-1C Reference Preamplifier
  44. Blue Circle Audio NSL Stereo Amplifier
  45. Audio Research Reference 250 Mono Amplifiers
  46. Von Schweikert Audio VR-35 Export Deluxe Loudspeakers
  47. Vitus Audio Signature SM-010 Mono Amplifiers
  48. YG Acoustics Kipod II Signature Loudspeakers
  49. Vandersteen Audio Treo Loudspeakers
  50. Magico Q1 Loudspeakers
  51. Hemingway Audio Prime Reference Mk.II Speaker Cables, Interconnects, and Power Cords
  52. Synergistic Research Element Copper, Tungsten, and Copper-Tungsten-Silver Interconnects and Speaker Cables
  53. Crystal Cable Arabesque Mini Loudspeakers
  54. EgglestonWorks Fontaine Signature Loudspeakers
  55. AudioQuest Diamond and Carbon FireWire 800 Cables
  56. Artos Audio Sunrise Loudspeakers
  57. Esoteric I-03 Integrated Amplifier
  58. NuForce DAC-9 Digital-to-Analog Converter
  59. Audience adeptResponse aR6-TS Power Conditioner
  60. EAR MC 4 Step-Up Transformer
  61. PBN Audio Montana InnerChoic Liberty Loudspeakers
  62. Simple Design Sonore Music Server
  63. Herron Audio VTSP-3A Preamplifier
  64. Copland CDA825 CD Player
  65. TW-Acustic Raven 10.5 Tonearm
  66. Artisan Silver MC Phono Stage
  67. MSB Technology Universal Media Transport
  68. Well Tempered Lab Amadeus Turntable
  69. Purity Audio Design Purity Reference Preamplifier
  70. Silverline Audio Sonatina Mk.IV Loudspeakers
  71. Ayre Acoustics DX-5 Universal A/V Engine
  72. Coda Technologies 15.0 Stereo Amplifier
  73. LessLoss Firewall Power Conditioner and DFPC Signature Power Cable
  74. Miyajima Laboratory Premium BE Mono Cartridge
  75. Magnum Dynalab MD 309 Integrated Amplifier
  76. Audio Research Reference 5 Preamplifier
  77. VAC Phi 200 Stereo Amplifier
  78. Ortofon Cadenza Mono Phono Cartridge
  79. Ultrasone Edition 8 Headphones
  80. YG Acoustics Carmel Loudspeakers
  81. Atma-Sphere Music Amplifier M-60 Mk.3.1 Mono Amplifiers
  82. AudioPrism Ground Control Grounding Cables
  83. Nordost Norse Frey Interconnects and Speaker Cables
  84. Ayre Acoustics KX-R Preamplifier and MX-R Mono Amplifiers
  85. Raysonic SP-300 Integrated Amplifier
  86. Synergistic Research Galileo Universal Interconnect and Speaker Cells, and Mini Power Couplers
  87. VAC Renaissance Mk.3 Preamplifier
  88. Accustic Arts Reference Tube-DAC II SE DAC and Reference Drive II CD Transport
  89. Silent Running Audio VR fp isoBASE Equipment Platforms
  90. EAR 890 Stereo Amplifier

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210x600 T+A R Criterion S (20240601)
Dynaudio Contour 20BE
Simaudio
Gryphon Audio StandArt
Vitus Audio
Vitus Audio

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