Benjamin Britten: Violin Concerto, Chamber Works Isabelle Faust, violin; Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Jakub Hrůša, cond.; Boris Faust, viola; Alexander Melnikov, piano Harmonia Mundi HMM902668 (CD, reviewed as 24/96). 2024. Sebastian Braun, Julian Schwenker, prods.; Schwenker, Klemens Kamp, engs. Performance ***** Sonics **** I sat mesmerized when I first encountered a recording of Benjamin Britten's early Violin Concerto from 1939 (revised in 1958) at an audio show exhibit sponsored by High End by Oz. Ever since I heard those portions of Linus Roth's superbly recorded SACD fo ..read more

On the 12th floor of the Schaumburg Renaissance hotel, visitors found a cluster of Fidelity Imports rooms that highlighted one strong foreign brand after another. To my eye, the most unusual newcomers in the diverse collection were three Ruark products. Beyond a small single-cube wireless speaker (the R1 Mk4 Bluetooth Radio, $399), there was a hefty-looking unit that approached the size of a small desk. Dubbed the R810 High Fidelity Radiogram ($3999), its form calls to mind stereo consoles from the 1950s. Sitting on tall polished-chrome legs, the R810 gives off that popular midcentury-modern ..read more

Magico turns 20 this year, but founder and chief designer Alon Wolf isn’t the type for gauzy remembrances. In Magicoland, looking ahead beats looking back, so we’ll have to marvel some other time at how the Californian brand has shot to the top of the high-end heap. At this year’s AXPONA, Magico introduced an upgraded S5 speaker—the S5 2024 ($74,500/pr)—but while it was present for close-up inspection, it wasn’t hooked up to anything. Wolf had decided that the standard hotel rooms he’d been able to rent weren’t large enough to do the new S5s justice sonically. On paper, the improvements Magico ..read more

Rhythm Distribution’s Craig Hoffman teamed up with Garrard, Goldmund, and Tannoy to unveil a beautiful-looking, primarily analog rig at AXPONA. Kat Ourlian—Global Head of Sales and Marketing for SME—was on hand to spin vinyl; she had Room 660 rocking from the first needle-drop with selections from Morphine, War, Jaco Pastorius (playing Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee”), and Massive Attack (“Angel”). What was she spinning vinyl on? It wasn't just any turntable. It was a Garrard 301 Advanced ($54,900)—an SME-rebuilt 301 that Garrard calls "the ultimate and most advanced Garrard ever made, with pion ..read more

First-time AXPONA exhibitor Sierra Sound was founded in 2020 as a distributor for strictly analog hi-fi equipment. Rather high minded, wouldn’t you say? Personally, I’m all in. With their minds on a new music direction, Sierra Sound hosted Friday and Saturday "metal nights," but I was holed up in my room writing, with copious quantities of English breakfast tea and peanut butter. But I greatly enjoyed their room during daylight hours. Sierra Sound boasted the world debut of the AMG Giro MK II Wood turntable. Also in room was the semi-new to the USA, ViV Lab tonearm; ViV Lab has never enjoyed U ..read more

I typically attend Audio Note (UK) rooms not just to listen, but to learn. At Capital Audiofest, Audio Note (UK) owner Peter Qvortrup was reading a book about economics: Limitarinism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth, which calls for caps on the individual fortunes of the super wealthy. I bought it. At AXPONA, Qvortrup carried another massive tome everywhere he went. Noting my curiosity in the Audio Note (UK) room, Qvortrup gave me an audio test CD, The Likhnitsky Files (Audio Note), by Anatoly Markovich Likhnitsky. After telling Peter how fond I was of John DeVore’s room playing 78s on an EMT ..read more

YG Acoustics speakers were featured in several rooms at AXPONA 2024. The highlight for me was a room featuring the Carmel 3 speakers ($29,800 per pair), the entry point to the company's Reference range. These speakers are housed in aerospace aluminum cabinets finished in silver or black, embodying a minimalist, modern-sculpture aesthetic. The design is purposeful: Form follows function in this slender tower. The Carmel 3 is a two-way that crosses over at 1750Hz. YG emphasizes phase alignment between the drivers across the crossover range. Core specifications include "usable output" from 32Hz t ..read more

Rogue Audio's Nick Fitzsimmons and Bill Magerman ran a room that operated smoothly and sounded smooth. It featured a Technics SL-1210G turntable ($4299) with an Ortofon 2M Black LVB 250 cartridge ($1099), as well as a Hifi Rose RS150B Streamer ($4995), both front ends feeding a Rogue Audio RP-5 v2 preamplifier ($3995) and class-D–hybrid Rogue Audio DragoN monoblock amplifiers ($5995/each), which are capable of putting out 325/525Wpc into 8/4 ohms. Speakers were the Magnepan 2.7i panels ($5995/pair). Cables were by Cardas. The upgraded Rogue Audio RP-5 v2 preamplifier features a new volume cont ..read more

During a ferocious storm one recent Saturday, firefighters knocked on my door and urged my family and me to evacuate. The gale had smashed loose a neighbor's large propane tank and plunged it into the choppy waters of the fjord we live on. An explosion was possible, we were told. Five minutes later, our teenage daughters, our dogs, and my wife and I were in the car on our way to safety. (No blast occurred.) Coincidentally, the last thing I'd read that turbulent morning was the Washington Post's front-page story about the late Ken Fritz (above), a diehard audiophile who'd spent 40 years creatin ..read more

What better way to start the first day of an audio show than with some light joyful music? In this case, it was with a 1974 LP, Heinz Holliger: Famous Oboe Concertos, on which the famous oboist joined players of the Dresden State Orchestra under Vittorio Negri for, among other works, Leclair’s Concerto in C for Oboe, Strings, and Continuo, Op. 7. In the first movement, the lively presentation complemented equally lively music, which cheerily zipped along. Holliger’s oboe sounded delightful, the instrument’s glowing timbres unmistakable. The balance may have tilted toward the top, but it served ..read more