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Vitus Audio
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Hegel

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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.

Exogal Comet Digital-to-Analog Converter

Written by: Jeff Fritz
Created: 01 April 2015

Hardly any other name in the history of high-end digital audio components is as storied as Wadia Digital. If you’ve been around high-end circles for any number of years, you’ve no doubt known an owner of a Wadia DAC, transport, or player. Maybe you’ve owned one yourself.

Read more …

NAD Masters Series M22 Stereo Amplifier and M12 Preamplifier-DAC

Written by: Jeff Fritz
Created: 15 March 2015

These are interesting times for an aficionado of high-end audio gear. Consider this: ESS Technology’s Sabre Reference ES9018 DAC chip can be found in products costing over $30,000 that are claimed to be the state of the art -- and just may be. You can find the same chip in products costing under $1000.

Read more …

Ascendo C6 Loudspeakers

Written by: Sid Vootla
Created: 01 March 2015

Last summer, Sharath Chandran, the highly knowledgeable proprietor of audio dealership Audire, in Chennai, India, where I live, invited me to attend an audition of the flagship loudspeaker made by German manufacturer Ascendo GmbH, which Audire distributes in India: the M-S Special Edition, with external crossovers. These humongous, man-sized speakers were impeccably finished and visually arresting. I was spellbound by their superb transparency and dynamic capability, and would rank them among the top few speakers that I have heard. They cost a staggering $74,880 USD per pair, and their girth means that they’ll work well only in larger listening rooms. However, as with any other manufacturer, technologies from these vanguard products ultimately trickle down to smaller, more affordable models, and it was one of those -- the Ascendo C6 -- that Sharath Chandran recommended that I review.

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Hegel Music Systems HD12 Digital-to-Analog Converter

Written by: Jeff Fritz
Created: 15 February 2015

Hegel HD12Reviewers' ChoiceNowadays, to get noticed in the entertainment industry, you have to do something flashy or downright bizarre. At least, that’s how it looks from the outside. Take, for instance, the antics of pop-music stars, whose behavior seems to find new lows each week. The argument goes that any press is good press, so these people seem to fabricate ways to get a Yahoo! story written about them -- often ways that most of us would find humiliating and degrading. The interesting thing is that these people seem to revel in the attention, making no distinction between whether their actions are considered positive, negative, or just plain stupid.

Read more …

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.

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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 …

  1. Audio Research VSi75 Integrated Amplifier
  2. Triangle Magellan Cello Loudspeakers
  3. Audience Au24 SE powerChords, Interconnects, and Speaker Cables
  4. Zanden Audio Systems 120 Phono Stage
  5. Grimm Audio LS1 Loudspeakers and LS1s Subwoofers
  6. Aurender W20 Music Server
  7. Transfiguration Phoenix S Phono Cartridge
  8. M2Tech Young DSD Digital-to-Analog Converter
  9. Audio Research SP20 Preamplifier
  10. Magico S3 Loudspeakers
  11. Synergistic Research High Frequency Transducer (HFT) and Frequency Equalizer (FEQ) Room Treatments and XOT Crossover Transducer
  12. Ayre Acoustics KX-R Twenty Preamplifier
  13. Resonessence Labs Invicta Mirus Digital-to-Analog Converter
  14. Vivid Audio Giya G4 Loudspeakers
  15. Aurender X100L Music Server
  16. Sonus Faber Olympica I Loudspeakers
  17. Clarity Cable Organic Speaker Cables, Interconnects, Digital Interconnect, and Vortex Power Cord
  18. EgglestonWorks Nine Signature Loudspeakers
  19. Light Harmonic LightSpeed USB Cable
  20. David Berning Company ZH-230 Stereo Amplifier
  21. Esoteric Master Sound Works C-02 Preamplifier
  22. Vivid Audio Oval V1.5 Loudspeakers
  23. Daedalus Audio Argos v.2 Loudspeakers
  24. Octave Audio V 70 SE Integrated Amplifier
  25. KR Audio VA910 Mono Amplifiers
  26. T+A Criterion TCD 110 S Loudspeakers
  27. Birch Acoustics Raven Loudspeakers
  28. Monitor Audio Platinum PL200 Loudspeakers
  29. Essential Sound Products Essence Reference-II Power Cords and Reference-II Power Distributor
  30. JE Audio Dyad S400 Stereo Amplifier
  31. Dynamique Audio Celestial Speaker Cables, Zenith Interconnects, Firelight USB, and Infinite Power Cables
  32. Music Culture Elegance MC 501A CD Player-DAC
  33. KR Audio VA340 Mk.II Integrated Amplifier
  34. PMC IB2i Loudspeakers
  35. Cabasse Pacific 3 Loudspeakers
  36. Sonus Faber Venere 3.0 Loudspeakers
  37. Hegel Music Systems HD25 Digital-to-Analog Converter
  38. EMM Labs DAC2X Digital-to-Analog Converter
  39. Esoteric P-02 SACD/CD Transport and D-02 Digital-to-Analog Converter
  40. Vivid Audio Giya G3 Loudspeakers
  41. PBN Audio Scan-Speak B741 Loudspeakers
  42. Blue Circle Audio BC109 Preamplifier
  43. Dynaudio Confidence C2 Signature Loudspeakers
  44. First Watt J2 Stereo Amplifier
  45. Simaudio Moon Evolution 810LP Phono Stage
  46. Boulder Amplifiers 1060 Stereo Amplifier
  47. SMc Audio VRE-1C Reference Preamplifier
  48. Blue Circle Audio NSL Stereo Amplifier
  49. Audio Research Reference 250 Mono Amplifiers
  50. Von Schweikert Audio VR-35 Export Deluxe Loudspeakers
  51. Vitus Audio Signature SM-010 Mono Amplifiers
  52. YG Acoustics Kipod II Signature Loudspeakers
  53. Vandersteen Audio Treo Loudspeakers
  54. Magico Q1 Loudspeakers
  55. Hemingway Audio Prime Reference Mk.II Speaker Cables, Interconnects, and Power Cords
  56. Synergistic Research Element Copper, Tungsten, and Copper-Tungsten-Silver Interconnects and Speaker Cables
  57. Crystal Cable Arabesque Mini Loudspeakers
  58. EgglestonWorks Fontaine Signature Loudspeakers
  59. AudioQuest Diamond and Carbon FireWire 800 Cables
  60. Artos Audio Sunrise Loudspeakers
  61. Esoteric I-03 Integrated Amplifier
  62. NuForce DAC-9 Digital-to-Analog Converter
  63. Audience adeptResponse aR6-TS Power Conditioner
  64. EAR MC 4 Step-Up Transformer
  65. PBN Audio Montana InnerChoic Liberty Loudspeakers
  66. Simple Design Sonore Music Server
  67. Herron Audio VTSP-3A Preamplifier
  68. Copland CDA825 CD Player
  69. TW-Acustic Raven 10.5 Tonearm
  70. Artisan Silver MC Phono Stage
  71. MSB Technology Universal Media Transport
  72. Well Tempered Lab Amadeus Turntable
  73. Purity Audio Design Purity Reference Preamplifier
  74. Silverline Audio Sonatina Mk.IV Loudspeakers
  75. Ayre Acoustics DX-5 Universal A/V Engine
  76. Coda Technologies 15.0 Stereo Amplifier
  77. LessLoss Firewall Power Conditioner and DFPC Signature Power Cable
  78. Miyajima Laboratory Premium BE Mono Cartridge
  79. Magnum Dynalab MD 309 Integrated Amplifier
  80. Audio Research Reference 5 Preamplifier
  81. VAC Phi 200 Stereo Amplifier
  82. Ortofon Cadenza Mono Phono Cartridge
  83. Ultrasone Edition 8 Headphones
  84. YG Acoustics Carmel Loudspeakers
  85. Atma-Sphere Music Amplifier M-60 Mk.3.1 Mono Amplifiers
  86. AudioPrism Ground Control Grounding Cables
  87. Nordost Norse Frey Interconnects and Speaker Cables
  88. Ayre Acoustics KX-R Preamplifier and MX-R Mono Amplifiers
  89. Raysonic SP-300 Integrated Amplifier
  90. Synergistic Research Galileo Universal Interconnect and Speaker Cells, and Mini Power Couplers
  91. VAC Renaissance Mk.3 Preamplifier
  92. Accustic Arts Reference Tube-DAC II SE DAC and Reference Drive II CD Transport
  93. Silent Running Audio VR fp isoBASE Equipment Platforms
  94. EAR 890 Stereo Amplifier

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210x600 T+A R Criterion S (20240601)
Dynaudio Contour 20BE
Simaudio
Electrocompaniet AW 300M
Vitus Audio
Vitus Audio

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