Bluesound has built a leadership position in the audio streaming landscape by offering attainably priced, real-world-oriented components. A brand in the Lenbrook portfolio, Bluesound sits at the intersection of mainstream and audiophile markets. This is my first review of a Bluesound product but I have known the brand by reputation for both their streaming hardware and their software ecosystem known as BluOS which is used by other Lenbrook brands such as NAD.  For the last couple of months, I have been using and evaluating the Powernode Edge ($649), a streaming-focused, compact integrated ..read more

I have for you here the drop-dead-gorgeous Italian-made Neptune Vacuum Tube Integrated Single-Ended Triode Amplifier with 211 Tubes by Tektron from Catania, Sicily (USD 19,500). This beauty is the quintessential example of “form following function,” in the best of Italian manufacturing traditions, where style and elegance are always the Janus-headed partners of form. Since the Renaissance, the best of Italian creations have integrated form with style, and the Neptune is a wondrous example of this tradition. I should state this beauty is courtesy of the ineffable, Don Corby, owner and operator ..read more

To Mono, or not to Mono, that is the question… I was excited to hear Audio-Technica had released an anniversary edition of their AT33Mono MC cartridge. Most of my mono albums are in the jazz category (vocal and instrumental), but I also have some stellar pop and rock albums, too, that would now be able to get the proper mono treatment they deserve.   As an avid record collector in many genres, I generally prefer and choose stereo pressings over mono pressings. This was always due to my system constraints. I have never had quite the right equipment to truly appreciate the single-channel so ..read more

With the plethora of new jazz vinyl reissues from many excellent labels, we are bound to find some artists new to us. Just so with this new Booker Ervin LP, TexBook Tenor. This March 2024 release is from the Bluenote Tone Poet Vinyl Series, Joe Harley’s project to bring superior remastering and production values to the mainstream for a reasonable price. As such, all the Tone Poets I’ve reviewed to date have been pressed very well, everything centred and the records flat. The same for this exceptional new LP. I’ve become used to the gorgeous gatefold covers so I was a little surprised this new ..read more

Getz/Gilberto is probably my favourite non-classical album. Right up there with The Dark Side of the Moon, a couple of classic Sinatras and Miles’ Kind of Blue. My history with the album goes back a long way. My father, a professional tenor player and disciple of Stan Getz, had a copy soon after its 1964 release and would play it for us constantly during our time living in Malaysia and Germany. I grabbed a copy when we moved to Canada in 1969 and played it endlessly. That Italian pressing followed me back to England when I studied there and back home to Montreal, then to Toronto, and finally t ..read more

I was going to pass on the latest ESOTERIC vinyl remastering release. Not because of the expected improvements to the sound or legendary performance, but because of the wobbly French horn playing in the famous slow movement (for me, how goes the solo, goes the symphony) and, as I remember it, the somewhat hard-edged sound DG recorded in London’s Wembley Town Hall (the orchestra was on a 1960 British tour). I was wrong about several things. First, only the great Russian conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky’s seminal Symphony No. 4, still top of the performance/interpretation league in 2024, was recorded ..read more

Musical Fidelity, the UK-founded HiFi brand now under the same corporate ownership as turntable specialists Pro-ject Audio Systems, offers a full suite of gear from sources to speakers but is most well known for their amplifiers. Despite making waves in the last year with vintage-inspired product launches like the M1 Class A integrated amplifier and two BBC-style monitors, Musical Fidelity remains committed to their powerhouse Class A/B amplifier offerings. I had the privilege of spending quality time with their M3si integrated amplifier. Priced at USD 1599 the M3si sits one level above the en ..read more

A turntable/arm combo was coming in for review and I was mulling over a good cartridge match. We have a few in-house that would be financially compatible (around 2K) with the $2990 ‘table, but I wanted to try something new. After some discussion at a recent meeting, Bryan Taylor, Canadian distributor of Skyanalog suggested the Chinese manufacturer’s range of cartridges. Skyanalog has been around for nearly a quarter of a century and has been manufacturing OEM cartridges for important brands and now manufactures nine of its in-house branded cartridges, all moving coil. The REF, the G Series (th ..read more

Whither wireless playback standards? Wired headphones such as the very expensive Abyss AB1266 Phi TC and the Sennheiser Orpheus HE-1, not forgetting the wide variety of superb headphone amplifiers, make headphone listening a luxury experience. Wireless technology has made strides in recent years, but because of the idiosyncrasies of WiFi and Bluetooth, wireless headphones have had difficulty catching up to wired, and that’s before we get to the wireless challenges of deciphering HiRes files. Hold my beer. Swiss company HED Technologies has developed a standard that reproduces lossless audio st ..read more

Since ESOTERIC, the Japanese manufacturer of expensive components, analogue gear and remastering agents for some of the greatest recordings in history got back into the vinyl business last year, many of us have been waiting for this particular release. Originally released by Decca/London in 1961, Ernest Ansermet’s classic performance of Falla’s ballet The Three-Cornered Hat (1919) has been everybody’s go-to for recording quality, interpretation and performance. Sure, other fine performances are very well recorded (see our video here), but the Roy Wallace/Victoria Hall gem is the gold standard ..read more