The HiFi Five Podcast
Welcome to The HiFi Five, a live roundtable discussion show about all things high-end audio plus music recommendations, produced twice per month --the second and the fourth Wednesday of every month.
The HiFi Five is hosted/moderated by Ron Resnick, co-owner of WhatsBestForum and audio reviewer.
Our other chairs will feature one-time guests and recurring guests.
This show is educational: explaining how to select components, how to build audio systems, how to treat rooms and how to help you achieve the greatest realism and emotional engagement from your audio system. This show also is a candid, freewheeling, behind-the-scenes look at the high-end audio hobby and industry, with reports from audio shows, and gives you insights, opinions and perspectives.
The HiFi Five Podcast
The Hi-Fi Five Episode 34: Thirteen Full System Recommendations from $500 to $100,000
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In this Episode 34 the guests and Ron explain thirteen full system recommendations from $500 to $100,000! The HiFi Five supports budget and student audiophiles!
Guests:
Erin Hardison -- Erin’s Audio Corner
Danny Kaey -- Sonic Flare
Eric Neff - Reviewer for HiFi+ Magazine
Andrew Quint -- Senior Writer at The Absolute Sound
Additional Topics:
How should audiophiles divide their budget among speakers, amplifier, preamplifier, source components and cables?
Would you rather have outstanding speakers with modest electronics, or modest speakers with outstanding electronics? Why?
Should audiophiles select the loudspeaker first, and match an amplifier to the loudspeaker, or select the amplifier first and match a loudspeaker to the amplifier?
Which source experiences faster diminishing returns to improving sound quality, digital playback or vinyl playback?
Welcome to the 34th episode of the Hi Five Five. Please like this video. And if you haven't optionally subscribed to the channel, please optionally subscribe. Tonight's guest, Aaron Horrison, runs the YouTube channel Erin's Audio Corner. Danny Kay runs the YouTube channel Sonic Flare. Eric Neff is a reviewer for High Five Plus magazine. And we welcome back Andrew Quint, a senior writer at the Absolute Sound. Tonight we are presenting 12 different complete systems starting at $500. High 5-5 supports budget audiophiles all the way up to $100,000. We're going to discuss our usual kinds of topics, but after each topic, we're going to post and discuss three or four different systems. Topic number one, how should audiophiles divide their budget among speakers, amplifier, preamplifier, source components, and cables? Andrew.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it depends which end of the budget spectrum, budget spectrum that you're on. I think it's always important that the speaker room interface be dialed in early on. So at the bottom of the range, I think you're looking at at least half of your budget going to the speakers.
SPEAKER_04Erin. Actually, I think that's a that's a really good way to put that. So I would say in general, the majority of the budget is going to go toward the speaker. But Andrew brought up a good point that I hadn't even considered until he mentioned that was as you start going up in the and the cost thing, the electronics, and I'm not talking about amplifier sounds and all that stuff. I'm not going to get into that, but DSP. That's a huge thing to have capable to have sitting next to you. So yeah, I would put some money into something like a DSP.
SPEAKER_00Um same thing. I mean, particularly with the smaller um and less expensive speakers, uh, there's a there's a lot of tremendous values out there in the in the very much affordable range. Um and I think that there's probably a little less differentiation when you get down to the actual electronics at that at that end of the spectrum. Um so I definitely would want to make sure that I'm happy with the speaker sound that I'm getting and then uh spend the rest on the uh the additional components, but no question about it. Um it's gonna be the speaker for your for me for what I've what I've experienced.
SPEAKER_02Danny, how would you divide a budget generally?
SPEAKER_05You know, pretty much agree with what everyone else has said. I think your bulk should go to your speakers, um, you know, regardless of what uh I guess budget level you're looking at. It's going to be the one component that is going to be the most deterministic of your sound quality in your room. Um bar none. I think everything else is going to be secondary to that. Uh don't count out or discount room treatment. I always say that to people as well. Uh and you know, look for bargains. I mean, there's uh there's there's definitely bargains to be had out there as far as speaker price versus performance.
SPEAKER_02I'm personally a very big fan of encouraging people to buy used. It lets them try components in their own systems at relatively little risk. Uh so I I um I encourage people to buy to buy used if they can't get uh dealer demos. Okay, the first system up is Erin's. We are at the $500 level. Let me put Erin's system on the screen.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so that's it. Uh, I want to preface this by saying that I didn't include stands in these pricings. So that's going to be have to see that'll have to be something that you'll have to add in on your own. Uh stands arrange anywhere, you know, from like a hundred bucks to a few hundred dollars, depending on what kind of stands that you want. Uh so having said that, the $500 budget includes the speakers, deck, and then the speaker wire. So uh if you can bring up the screenshot section for me there, Ron, please.
SPEAKER_02One second.
SPEAKER_04We got time, man. Everybody else is here, they're just hanging out. They're they're enthralled by this. Look, they're like speakers and charts. Oh my god, this is this is amazing.
SPEAKER_05An Excel sheet? Yeah, an Excel sheet.
SPEAKER_04Oh my gosh, this guy is serious. Um, so so I the speakers, right? The pulp mod audio monitor XT15. To me, these are some of if not the best value in speakers in terms of the budget audio range. And the reason I like them is the base gets down to about 80 hertz or so, maybe 90 hertz or so, before it starts to roll off, and then that's adequate. They're five and a quarter inch wolfers. And then if you want to go and look at something, how are you gonna power it, right? So I like the WIM amp, it's good price, 299 bucks. It's got all sorts of IOs. For a lot of people these days, we're gonna be running things like HDMI Arc, right? Has that built into it, and it has about 100 watts or so of power for the Polk speakers, and as far as speaker cable goes, 17 bucks for a hundred feet of this cable. I think that's I think that's all you need. I'm I'm happy with that.
SPEAKER_02Okay, your system is the next one as well, 1500. Should I put that back on the screen or do you want to leave that to you?
SPEAKER_04So we've got the Ascend Acoustics, Sierra One V2. Uh, I'm going to recommend the same DAC amp, which is the Wim Amp Pro, and the same speaker wire. So, what are you doing here? You're going to upgrade your speaker. The Sierra One V2 from Ascend Acoustics, under a thousand bucks. It's one of the best speakers you can get. Again, my opinion, but I've also got a lot of data and a lot of other references to uh my listening impressions on this particular speaker. I think it represents a really, really good value. And I do want to say real fast that I'm trying to shore up the bottom end of the budget here because I know a lot of these gentlemen that I'm here with today, fine gentlemen, they are, uh, consider budget a little bit differently than I do. And what I did was I went to my audience and pulled them and I said, What do you all consider budget? Uh, about 30, 30, and 30 was pretty evenly split between about a thousand bucks to about twenty five hundred dollars. So I'm I'm targeting that particular area with these suggestions because I don't think you have to be dumb rich in order to have a really good stereo system.
SPEAKER_05Completely agree.
SPEAKER_02What what do you think you uh you going from even 500 to 1500 is a three times jump, what is somebody getting for making that jump sonically?
SPEAKER_04So sonically, you're getting lower distortion, but you're getting better linearity in the speaker response. So linearity equates to accuracy. Now, if you want to talk about preference and you want to say that I prefer a speaker that has X, Y, or Z, that's fine. That's your prerogative and that's your preference. But if you're talking about in versus out, then you want something that doesn't really alter the signal, then you want a speaker that's more linear. And this particular Sierra V2 gives you something that's more linear, and it also just gives you a better overall finish. Now, I will say this anecdotally, what I've tended to find is about $800 or so for a bookshelf speaker is the price where you start to go from good sound but mediocre looks to good sound and good looks. That is kind of that transition area on the lower end of the budget.
SPEAKER_02Okay, now going to your $3,000 system. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_04What did I do for the $3,000? This is gonna be news to me. Uh, let's see here. Oh, the kef R3 Meta. And then I stepped up to the Wim Amp Ultra and still the same old cheap speaker wire. So uh the KEF R3 Meta, $2,500 a pair, really, really regarded for their again, their linearity, so their accuracy, and also their look. So this is a true three-way speaker with a coaxial design. It's going to give you broad and even dispersion, both horizontally but also vertically. And for some people, that vertically really does matter because if you're let's say you're hosting an event or or get together at your house and you know you're you've got some people walking around your kitchen or your living room, and you want that whole vibe of a nice stereo system still playing, it's kind of neat to have a stereo system that plays well, sounds good from all sorts of positions in the room, whether you're sitting down or standing up. And this speaker is going to give you that. It also has lower distortion than the previous speaker that I just recommended. And then if you want to upgrade your power, which I do recommend in this particular case, then you would go with the Wim Amp Ultra rather than rather than the Wim Amp Pro. So this gives you additional output and then gives you a couple of different IOs, as well as the app has a lot of built-in DSP features to kind of adjust things as you please. So if perfectly flat, let's say flat isn't your ideal. You want a little bit more treble, knock yourself out, boost the treble. If you want to cut it, cut it that way too. That's fine.
SPEAKER_02Okay, thank you. Next up is Danny's $5,000 system.
SPEAKER_05I don't even remember what it was. Oh, there we go. Um, yeah, I mean, kind of sticking with uh Aaron's recommendation of the KEF uh LS50W, which is the wireless model, so it contains the amp and all that built in. I think they are about $2,500 a pair uh these days. Uh app controlled, you have everything built in, streamer, DAC, etc. etc. I would get a Technics 1200 uh turntable uh or like a used BNO or a Luxman older Luxman turntable or an older Technics 1200 turntable that's been well kept. I'd get the basic shit phono amp and keep the rest for records and music. Okay. And you're gonna get fabulous sound. Uh I love I have a pair of the LS50 wireless. I've had them ever since they came out, uh, including the uh the Gen 2. Absolutely great speaker. Um, you know, you you you get the value out of everything's integrated. You know, no, no uh other than two power cables, or excuse me, one power cable and the Wi-Fi or the the uh Ethernet cable between them, uh you know, and of course the ancillary equipment for the turntable, you have everything you need to enjoy music and spend the rest on records.
SPEAKER_02And for buying used, what used platform do you recommend people to try?
SPEAKER_05Actually, that's a that's a fair question. Uh, you know, look, eBay has gotten extremely expensive uh just because of the insane fees that they charge now, which is up to like 13 to 15 percent on hi-fi. So, you know, obviously that automatically means that sellers are going to start including that into their price brackets. I would look at Facebook Marketplace, I would look on Craigslist, and you know, obviously do your due diligence. There's lots of nonsense on those platforms, but there are so many deals to be had. In fact, I'm I'm helping a friend of mine here locally in Maine uh get into a uh a good hi-fi system. And over the last couple of months, I've been looking around Facebook Marketplace, and it is astonishing what you can find uh on Facebook Marketplace. And again, you have to do your due diligence, right? You know, be smart about who you're dealing with. If you're getting a sense of, you know, hey, this is something shady, obviously walk away from it, right? I don't want to have any lawsuits hanging over my head after this show. Um so yeah, I mean, uh there's so many deals to be had, seriously. Amazing stuff for dirt cheap.
SPEAKER_02eBay's gotten expensive, and Audio Gun for some reason just find it clunky to deal with. Yeah, um I actually have I actually think I actually encourage people to try US Audio Mart.
SPEAKER_00I'll second that. It's an excellent platform, it's free, and if you can kind of you know click off the pop-ups because it's free, so they need to get revenue from something.
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, US Audio Mart is actually that's another good one.
SPEAKER_05I I agree. I completely forgot about that. Um, just because I've been so focused on on Facebook Marketplace, because it's all you can select it for local stuff that you're finding, uh, or you can set up your your radius on on what you're looking at. So anyway.
SPEAKER_02Topic two would you rather have outstanding speakers and modest electronics, or modest speakers with outstanding electronics? Aaron.
SPEAKER_04Speakers, outstanding speakers, far none. Yeah, completely agree.
SPEAKER_00Same thing, you know. The speakers, uh if if I mean the speakers will tell you if the rest of the chain is worthwhile.
SPEAKER_02Uh me too. I would support outstanding speakers and modest electronics. Next system, uh, Aaron's five thousand dollar system. Let's bring this up. All right.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so with this particular system, I went with something a little bit different. I need to apologize. That says Wharfdale Super Linton. That's really just the Wharfdale Linton.
SPEAKER_05Nah, that's it. I'm out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that should be Wharfdale Linton. Here, let's fix this in real time so nobody can y'all be screenshotting the wrong thing. But like, what are you talking about? It says Linton right there. I'm gonna gaslight your whole audience. Um so yeah, the Wharfdale Linton for about $2,000 a pair with the stands. That's these bad boys, and it's one of my favorite speakers. I reviewed these like maybe three or four years ago, and it's still to this day one of the speakers that I recommend the most. And then I thought, kind of keeping with that whole heritage vintage look, why not get you the NAT C, right? The 3050. So you can save a little bit of money and not get the blue OS if you don't really want to do the streaming portion of it. But I just think this thing has the goods, it's I think it's a Hypex amp. I may be mistaken, so don't quote me on that. But it's a Class D amplifier. Uh, I reviewed it, it has no load imbalance at all. So you can pretty much throw whatever speaker you want at it, and it's not going to change the response of the amplifier itself, which is an issue with some amplifier designs. Um, and then if you want to play with the speakers, you know you want to spend a little bit more money than $17. World's best cables on Amazon. I I can't tell you the number of times that I've recommended just hey man, spend 50 bucks, get you some nice cables. You don't have to spend $3,000 on cables.
SPEAKER_02I'd like to second that. I have used world's best cables on Amazon myself. And uh I also believe I'm not a huge crazy expensive cable person, frankly. So uh world's best cables, I'm fine with Megami. I'm fine with uh Belden 1192A. I think those are rational places to start.
SPEAKER_00Uh BloodGean also is a good source for a quality set of affordable cables.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yes, I would completely um recommend Nordost Odin Gold 2s for that setup. I think that's gonna highlight things and elevate things quite considerably. I'm just kidding. Okay, I was like, I don't maybe they just look cooler, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00They are cool.
SPEAKER_04You could just go with welding cable, right? Get you some zero gauge welding cable. There will be no resistance in that line at all.
SPEAKER_00Well, some bar stock and let's just roll.
SPEAKER_04And there you go, man. Just make sure you cover it because it's easy to short them out. Radio Shack.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, okay. The next system is Eric's ten thousand dollar system. Let me get this up here.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so uh carry audio.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh, carry audio.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right off the bat, um, you know, we're it's kind of interesting now seeing the uh uh emergence of the you know the all-in-one box uh alongside of like the LSW speakers, uh, the LS50Ws, because um interconnects can be expensive, and you start getting those more expensive components. And the beautiful thing about the carry is that it's an all-in-one box. So you've got the integrated amplifier, plus you've got all the digital input. Um you just uh hook up an internet cable to it. And then if you have um if you've got a uh a DAC, they already have one in the unit, but you can still use your own DAC if you wanted to. Um you could you know do anything you want in terms of connectivity. Um it'll handle pretty much any speaker load without any difficulty. Um, and um, you know, it's a very nice high quality uh price. And actually, that price is $59.95. That is their full-on retail. If you go to carry direct, if you do not have a carry dealer locally, you can go on to carry direct, probably save uh $1,500 off of that uh typically with their direct price. Um connect that to the MagnaPan uh LRS Plus, uh, which is their smallest uh quasar ribbon speaker from Magnapan. Um they are uh a stone steel value in terms of their transparency, um, great sound stage. Um I actually had them in for review. The review is forthcoming. Um speakers that were here prior were a hundred grand for the pair with custom diamond tweeters and and all that. Um I really didn't lose much other than lower register. Um, and that's why the next thing up is the SCS SP3000 Revolution Subwoofer. Um that thing integrates just seamlessly with the magna pads. You've got the um the app that SCS has available to dial in all of your crossover frequencies and where you want that to go, and you can experiment with it and just make sure that the thing is a seamless uh uh combination. I did go a little more upscale with uh the Rocket AudioQuest Rocket 88. Um I've used that speaker wire for many, many years on uh uh systems in this price range. Found them to be just outstanding. Um sound is great. Um love the value that they provide for what they offer, which is a much higher level of thread of cable. And then, of course, AudioQuest um subover cable just to keep things consistent. But this is a highly resolving, highly revealing, great sound stage and three-dimensionality for that price point. It's a lot of fun and it's not a complicated system.
SPEAKER_02If somebody wanted to upgrade the speaker to the Magnipan 3.7i, would you think that would be a rational upgrade?
SPEAKER_00Uh you certainly can make that jump because um the uh the DMS 300 carry does have the power, but uh when you start getting into more surface area on the Maggies, um I probably would want to seek out a different amp that has more oats to it. I think you'd be getting towards the limit uh with the DMS 300, but you wouldn't be um up against it if you started there, and then your next upgrade would be your amplifier power. You don't need to do that for a number of months and be fine.
SPEAKER_02I remember Carrie's uh uh a double 211 amps because I you don't hear much about carry anymore, they're all good.
SPEAKER_00They're they're in terrific shape, they're coming up on their 40th anniversary here in a couple of years as a company. But I really appreciate the um American-made company, but more importantly, they are known for tube gear, but they've been doing digital for over 30 years, and as we'll talk about a little bit with Atmosphere, their ability to voice their uh solid state gear to have the a similar make as their tube gear, I think, is very effective. They have a real knowledge of how to approach that and uh work with harmonics in a very effective way.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. Now we move to Erin's $19,000 system.
SPEAKER_04Ooh, ooh, that one hurt. Um, yeah, this one is super easy. That's a Dutch HC. You just buy those, you're done. You don't even have to get like a preamp or DAC to go in front of it. Brilliant. All that stuff is inside of it. They're fantastic speakers, yeah. And uh, that's it. You just buy those and you're done.
SPEAKER_02So, what exactly is inside a streamer, a DAC, a preamp, and an amp?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, it's a band, they have a live band in the speakers.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, they've got, but they're really small, yeah.
SPEAKER_00The little people, little tiny guys.
SPEAKER_01You can also get them, you can get them with Edgar's um crosstalk cancellation filter bit.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01They're the only speaker that he's licensed to the technology, the technology to to date.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's sweet. No, they're beautiful. I would had fun with them at Expo and I'm getting a good listen to them, and they're absolutely wonderful.
SPEAKER_04They're fantastic. And and one of the things that and we won't do a deep technical dive here, but they're a cardioid speaker, which means that they cancel the sound most of the sound that radiates to the back of the speaker, which means that you can put the speaker right up against the wall, and you don't have to worry about mid range reflections coming back to you and basically kind of sucking the sole out of the lower male registers and even female registers. Um, and in doing that, you also load the wolfers that are behind the speaker against the wall. So it's like corner loading a subwoofer, right? When you do that, you get a lot of output from there's two eight inch subwoofers on the back, so you get a lot of output. It and when I measured those in room, uh, they were plus I think 15 decibel at 30 hertz compared to the rest of the response. It was ridiculous. And and on top of that, so they've got an app that you can control volume from and switch between sources, but they also can hook up with room EQ Wizard. So you can measure the in-room response, run it through EQ wizard, room EQ Wizard. It will produce a profile, an EQ profile, and then you feed that into oh, we don't want that showing, which is fine. But um, you can feed that EQ into the speakers, and you can basically um tailor the speaker sound to how you want. But the main thing is is you can get rid of those nasty room modes that are like you know plus 10 dB at 70 hertz and those kind of things. You can bring those down, and you don't have to have anything outboard, it's all built in. But yeah, they're about 17 so 17.6 roughly uh US dollars 15,500 euro, 15,500 euro.
SPEAKER_05That's a great speaker, beautiful to look at too. Oh, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Here's the eight on the back. Nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Topic number three should audio files select the loudspeaker first and match an appropriate amplifier to the loudspeaker, or select the amplifier first and match an appropriate speaker to the amplifier. Eric.
SPEAKER_00Uh I suspect that uh we're going to continue the theme. Um, I'd I would go with uh the speakers first. Um you know if you if you've had the opportunity to go to your local dealer uh and get a chance to listen to a number of different speakers and a number of different amplifiers, and there's a speaker that really, no pun intended, speaks to you, um you can pair them up with two or three different amps. And if you're getting the same quality vibe with maybe some nuances, then um I would do that and know that you've got not just a good speaker that you you know vibe with, but you also have one you know you can have more than one uh power source hooked up to it and still feel like you're enjoying what you're you're getting. I think you get uh you know for me, that's that's always how I start my system.
SPEAKER_02Danny.
SPEAKER_05You know, uh just gonna second Eric in his opinion. Uh and and it calls to mind a uh an experience uh early in the 2000s without dating myself. Uh I'm 29, by the way. Um look good. I I thank you. Um, no, it was an early 2000s CES, I think. Dave Wilson had a demo. Uh it was, I believe it was a yellow pair of speakers, and I can't remember what they were. And everybody was gaga, and oh my god, these sound amazing. And in the middle of the room was a curtain, and presumably behind the curtain was you know the electronic setup and the gear that he was using to drive them, and he lifted the veil, and gosh, you know, I I can't remember what the heck it was. It was a cheap, inexpensive, integrated amp, and it made those Wilson sing. And so, same thing here. You know, get the best possible speaker you can get. A, it's the biggest component you're gonna have, even if it's just a bookshelf, it's gonna be by far the biggest component you're gonna have. It's gonna be the component you're gonna live with the longest, and it's the one that really is going to define the sound that you're gonna hear in your room, regardless of what components you're gonna get. So, yeah. Andrew, how do you look at it?
SPEAKER_02Speaker first or amplifier first?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it has to be um it has to be speaker first, as everyone has agreed. But a point I'm going to make when we finally get to my price range is that um the higher up in the price range you go, the more the electronics will catch up and eventually pass. Because the difference between a um, oh say $100,000 Wilson and a $250,000 Wilson is that um the $250,000 Wilson won't fit in most people's rooms. So there is a built-in limit to how much you can spend on speakers. So you get the best speaker you can get for your room, and there may be a cutoff in terms of the investment you can make.
SPEAKER_04Aaron. Yeah, I mean, uh every point that's been made, I would 100% agree with. Uh the only thing that I'll add to that is the livability aspect of it. I mean, it's got to be something that you like looking at. And that's what makes buying speakers, you know, even as somebody who leans into objective data, I'm not gonna buy just off data alone. I'm gonna look at the speaker and say, like, is this something I want to stare at every day? And if it doesn't sound quite as good, maybe as something that sounds better but is uglier, uh, I might get the one that looks better, you know. Like, I mean, I've got to look at it every day. And that's all part of the psyche. You guys know as well as I do. If you're listening to your stereo system, the best way to improve it is to close your eyes. Automatically, everything just starts lining up, imaging gets better, focus gets tighter, you know what I mean? So if you got to see it every day, that plays into your enjoyment as well.
SPEAKER_05True story.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Good point. Good point. I I want to say that I agree. My personally select the loudspeaker first because I'm kind of about the loudspeaker. However, as I like to do, I want to proffer a contra view. There is a uh minority view, especially in the Horn SET community, for people that really love certain low power SCT amplifiers, they may pick the amplifier first and then match an appropriate high-sensitivity speaker to their favorite amplifier.
SPEAKER_04Okay. So I want to take a couple of those in here.
SPEAKER_02I'm sorry, one at a time. Eric?
SPEAKER_00Uh having a couple of those here because I am a big SET tube amplifier fan. Um I can appreciate that very much. And if you're uh if you're working with you know um uh some of the 20, 30, 40, 50,000 or more of the uh low power, um you know, we're talking nine to maybe 15 watts, uh 300B, um 845, you know, that kind of thing. Um, you know, that may be a starting point. Uh I could I could definitely appreciate why that would be something very specific that would work that way.
SPEAKER_02Dandy posted a comment. You try to stay away from Chinese shit that ends up in a dump four months later. I do want to talk about that because uh a very dear friend of mine, Jim Yeager, is loving his LAVE amps, which are class D for like four grand.
SPEAKER_00Well, that's Singapore, not China. So I think I would I would uh you know take a point on that. But like a cayenne, which is uh Chi-Fi, uh Kayen is building some fantastic amps at uh you know they're becoming less of a difference in the price delta. I mean, that's it's starting to catch up a little bit, but um, you know, the the the cayenne gear is is very, very good. And I know um her Rikert's really enjoyed a couple of other Chi-Fi grant brands that he actually still has at his house right now that he really enjoys.
SPEAKER_02What about dendrips? What about I hear a lot of good things from about dendrafts?
SPEAKER_05I wonder what their um like longevity truly is.
SPEAKER_00I mean, obviously no one's ever done a study on it, but you know, I'm just point-to-point wire as opposed to transistor, then I think that that's uh you know, maybe they're starting off with a less expensive tube that might get burned up faster. But I think the base amp is probably uh you know something you could have some dependability with.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Next system, Danny's $20,000 system.
SPEAKER_01$25,000, actually. Um Danny.
SPEAKER_02Danny.
SPEAKER_01Oh Danny, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_05Go to Danny first, $20,000. So yeah, I mean, you know, look, I love I love Devore. I love Wilson. I think you can't go wrong with either one of these speakers. They're going to have a very different sound characteristic. Uh, the Devores are going to be much more of a you know sweeter sound, um, dare I say colored. Uh the Wilsons are probably gonna have a much better bass output with those Sabrinas. Um, a great phenomenal mention is the new, well, it's not so new now. I mean, it's probably been out for a couple of months now, the GR Research Alley. Um, so Danny uh Richie, uh owner of GR Research, reached out to me a couple of months ago and it was like, hey, would you be interested in uh you know listening to my new alleys? And I was like, Yeah, sure, why not? I'll be honest, guys, and Aaron, I actually meant to email that to you as well. You need to get your hands on a pair of alleys and really pluck them down and listen to them the way they're supposed to be set up. Absolutely astonishing loudspeaker for $4,000. Absolutely astonishing. Yes.
SPEAKER_04Okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05So it's it's not so much tweeter, it's the full range driver, right?
SPEAKER_04Okay, yeah, okay, okay. I'm vaguely familiar with it because I I followed Ron.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, it let me tell you, man, I look, I don't get impressed by much of the stuff around these days anymore. Uh call me jaded, call me whatever. Uh I get it. But these are absolutely astonishing loudspeakers for $4,000. Um Name Nate. I have one downstairs uh that I'm running. Actually, I own a pair of Devore 096s myself uh that are in Studio A as or Studio B, actually, as I call it, uh in the living room setup. And I run it with uh alternatively with the Einstein gear, and then of course with uh the name Nate, which is an all-in-one streamer, absolutely fantastic. Uh class A B amp, uh, you know, very well made, I think uh four or five grand somewhere around there these days. Built-in streamer, built-in phono input. Um, and just a fantastic all-in-one. The option two would be an Einstein integrated, which is called the Silver Shadow. Uh and yeah, for just about 20 grand, you ought to be able to cobble that together. You're gonna get phenomenal sound out of this setup.
SPEAKER_02Thank you, Danny. Now we move on to Andy's $25,000 system.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I see Danny's $20,000 and raise him, raise him. Something that we might have acknowledged in the beginning is that once you get past ten thousand dollars, this becomes a largely theoretical exercise because it's a rare person that's going to buy everything at once. Only once in my life did I uh take a neighbor with the with the for the reason being I wanted to ride in his Aston Martin to a local dealer and he he spent $200,000 on the spot. That doesn't happen terribly often, among other things, because audiophiles love the incremental aspect of improving their systems. But having said that, there are two other points that I would like to make with both of the systems that I have uh recommended here. The first is flexibility so that you have options in terms of what you what you um implement. And the second is there's got to be a view to the future that the upgradability is is an important consideration. So the LINS system, which which I reviewed for TAS, includes a speaker that's $7,800 and then electronics that begin at about 14 and go all the way up to $25,000. And that's because the electronics have a lot of options in terms of which DAC you get, in terms of whether or not you have one, two, or three, uh amplifier modules, um, and other options as well. The the company uh estimates that there are 120 different combinations. So um you can start small and without having to without having to sell your uh sell your new speakers when it's time to upgrade, you simply um you simply improve it without taking the speaker from your from your living room. Um I also think that um much earlier on in this in this journey, we ought to be thinking about um power conditioning and vibration control. So um actually before the $24,000 mark, I I recommended some kind of power conditioning. And um very often the speakers nowadays come with isoacoustics uh isolators um in the price, but if they don't, that's a that's an excellent investment.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Um we go to uh that was Andrew at 25. No, now we go to um Eric's 25. Okay. Remove this. Let me bring up Eric's 25. Eric, take it away.
SPEAKER_00All right, and um there we go with the Devoro 93s, which um I'm I'm my hands on right now. I I own the 093s, um they are a definite favorite for mine uh for all the points that got brought up previously. Um you know they're uh they're a heck of a value for for the price, and uh um they go down to about you know mid-30 hertz. Um you know, they are a ported speaker, so um they you know they get a little bit of uh room help. And uh I don't have it on this system, but I do have um an SCS uh SB16 Ultra sub that they are uh in place with. So low and register is not a problem for the ones I've got. Um a new piece that's only been out now for about three or four months is the Moon 371 Network Player Amplifier. Um similar to the carry that I had in the other system. The Moon is uh all of one piece. So they've got their Mind 2 streamer that they've had for a number of years, which is really bulletproof. I've had I own Moon Gear and really appreciate what they bring to the table. But the 371 is a real step up from some of their earlier all-in-one units, like their ace. And uh, you're getting a lot of effective trickle down, very thoughtful trickle down from their new North series. Um, this is about half the price of what you're paying to get into the beginning level of their new North Series, and I don't think you give up very much in terms of um sound quality. Um Denon's uh DP3000 turntable is a direct drive table. It's beautiful and uh it's uh pretty much bulletproof. Denon's been making tables now for over 40 years. I can turn around and attest to that with my newly recapped DP60L that I've got sitting on the cabinet behind me. Um, and uh the Denon 103 cartridge continues to perform and be relevant, and that doggone thing has been out for 60 years.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_00And continues to be an extraordinary value in the moving coil range and even in the moving magnet range. Um and then uh finish that up with uh some proper cables, the the new Audio Quest Loan Rangers. Um that uh that's a great speaker cable, really like it. And uh you come in, you know, as uh you know has been said, you've still got a little money left over to actually buy some music.
SPEAKER_02In the $20,000 speaker range, the 096 is a standard recommendation of mine personally, as is the Wolf von Lange San for about the same money. Uh Eric, what do you think somebody gets when they move when they upgrade from the 093 to the 096?
SPEAKER_00You know, part of it is buying the speaker to fit your room. And in my case, the 96s are just too big. Just, I mean, if I had another foot of width, I would uh consider that uh the 096s are incredibly special. Um, the difference is, you know, I guess as they as the term is, you get more M-O-A-R, right? You there's just more, you get a little more body, a little more richness, a little more fullness, but the the house sound, as it were, of DeVore is maintained for the 93s, to the 96s, to the bronzes, and now to their oh reference. Um it's it's really a function of uh uh for me, room size when you look at any of those. Uh the 96 and the bronze would be the real fight if I because they take up basically the same amount of room. Um it's just uh do you want to spend uh $16,000, $17,000 on the 96s, or do you want to spend 30 on the bronze? And uh that would be one of those where you spend the afternoon getting a really thorough listening for yourself.
SPEAKER_02Okay, topic four. Which source experiences faster faster diminishing returns to improving sound as you spend more money? Digital playback or a vinyl playback? Danny.
SPEAKER_05Um, which experiences faster diminishing returns? I would say digital playback. Um I think that you know digital has gotten so good uh these days and and it's so uh available. You know, the the the DAC chips are probably at peak performance if you're getting something that's from from AKM or from um uh what's that other company? Yes, yeah, ySS. Yeah, there you go. I mean, uh, you know, look, these guys have been making DAC chips forever and a half now. They kind of figured out what needs to be done. The biggest differentiator, I think, in in the DAC space is really the analog output stage. And that's where you're gonna have probably the biggest bank for your buck, but that's also I think the one that is, you know, you you can get a good DAC for very cheap money these days, which wasn't true uh, you know, just probably 10, 15, 20 years ago.
SPEAKER_00Well, think about how we really have even completely stopped talking about jitter in DAC. And 10 years ago we talked about jitter all the time. Yeah, but now you've got signal noise ratio, you're you're down 140 dB plus on these things. I mean, what noise for?
SPEAKER_05It's gone. Agreed. Yeah, very, very good point. Yeah, and and you know, even the top shelf companies have have, you know, been able to scale the performance envelope uh down to you know attainable money, I guess, depending on whatever that you know may be for you. But if I look at uh company like EMM Labs that I'm very familiar with, they're top of the line DAC uh and the Meitner line DAC, which uses really you know 90% of what the big stuff is, uh at much, much more accessible price points. Uh, you know, uh you're looking at endgame stuff that's gonna last you for a long time at you know affordable prices, all high-end audio.
SPEAKER_00And the big thing is the upgradable software because if we go back, you know, even 10 years ago, top-end DAX were 30, 40 grand and a lot of money, but they weren't really upgradable. Agreed. You know, something new. Today there's a there's generally an upgrade path for all of these Uber level DACs. And I think otherwise that could be really hard to justify writing you know a five or a six-figure check for a DAC when within six months somebody's maybe added another 10 D D down on things or you know, a new set of processing. So um yeah, I I definitely agree.
SPEAKER_01Uh the digital is where the uh value proposition, you know, it's especially true, I think, uh, with the streamer. Now most streamers are combined with a DAC, but I I've had the experience just in the last month. My uh my streamer, a betist, went south. So if I wanted to keep playing um uh those sorts of files, I I needed to have something, and I I spent um 200 or something dollars on an NVIDIA shield. And the uh the the quality of my sound didn't change much. I I think there's a point of diminishing return that's reached um earlier than we think, not even with DAX, but with streamers in particular.
SPEAKER_02Excellent point. Aaron, what do you think about diminishing returns of um digital versus vinyl?
SPEAKER_04I agree with everything already said. That's literally what I would have said. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I agree. I think digital experience is faster, diminishing returns. When you spend $10,000 on digital and $10,000 on vinyl, I think the next $10,000 spent on digital doesn't get you as much improvement as does the next $10,000 spent on vinyl.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_02Next system discussion. Now we're going into the expensive stuff. Eric at the $50,000 level.
SPEAKER_00So uh starting off with the Stenheim uh you mean 2.5s. This is the uh the smallest floor standard that Stenheim has. Um I was fortunate to have these in for review probably about a year ago. And um all credit to my Devours, the Stenheimes were the single best turf speakers I've ever had in my listening room. Um absolutely uh agnostic to the amp type that you connected to them. These things were wonderful. Um and uh and what I appreciated about them is uh if my sons weren't home to help me move a big speaker, these were movable. Now they're stout, but they're not 150 pounds or more per box stout. So um they look great, they got color options to them, kind of to Aaron's point. It's got to look good in the room, they've got some cool colors. Um but um the Stenheims, which are all made uh in the mountains in Switzerland, um very bespoke parts all the way through, even in their smallest level speaker. Um, you know, they're exceptionally well made, but at the end of the day, yeah, I didn't want to turn the stereo off. They just sounded amazing. And I had them paired for a good part of that review with the Atmosphere Class D monos, which at $6,700 a pair is an absolute steal for a reference level amp. And uh I will put that pair of Class D's up against all of our favorite Class A, either tube or solid state amps. They're 14 pounds a piece. You can run them at 100 watts into 8 ohms and 200 watts into 4 ohms, and you they never get warm. Um, Ralph Carson um he and I started talking about his idea for these in 2017, 2018 around the original Florida Audio Expo. And um I I asked him, I said, uh, so you're gonna go with Hypex? You know, you're gonna go you know, who are you gonna go with? And Ralph, who I've known for 40 plus years, gave me this shocked look and went, I'm a bloody engineer. I can build my own modules. And he did, and they're they're absolutely wonderful. And then I would pair that up with his uh MP3 tube amplifier, including the photo stage. Um, that is uh an amazing preamp. It's very old school, um, it is fully balanced. Um, you could run a hundred foot XLR cable between the amp and the preamp with zero degradation in the signal. So placement anywhere you need to place them is not a problem. The tubes he's got in there are incredibly affordable and get very little um uh very little stress put on, and those tubes could last a decade or more, and you'd spend a couple hundred bucks to replace them. Um, on the other hand, I love the Hi-Fi Rose Network Streamer DAC, which is now probably about 18 months old. But you know, it's just if you want a wow piece of equipment that's um 14-inch wide, all color screen, that you can either have the final uh album cover, you can have uh meters on it, you know, what do you want it to be doing for you? You can put that up and uh it'll accept Kobaz and uh title and rune and all the things that we're looking for. And then once again, I'm I'm just an audio fan, audio quest fan. So uh the Lone Ranger speakers, the new Black Beauty Interconnects, and uh the Red Rover's been Red River's been around a while, but uh once again, just in their space are a really good value. So this would be for you know for me. I mean, if that if I had that system sitting here, I'd probably never upgrade again. And I say that knocking on all the wood I can find because you know scrap of an audio file, and we all know how that goes.
SPEAKER_02There are a lot of Class D amps at modest prices these days, including that LAVE from Singapore. Thank you for correcting me. Um, have you had occasion to compare the Class D atmospheres to say LAVE or any of the AGD models?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would I would put the atmospheres in the AGDs, uh very similar category. Um I think the technology that AGD has built into their stuff is absolutely wonderful. And also, you don't get any of the historical criticisms of class D listening to their amps. They sound like a proper amplifier. Now we can argue A versus class A B. You know, at the end of the day, um, you know, is the music giving you what you want? And for sure that'll happen. I've only got a short amount of time with the laid stuff. Uh I have a very, very positive initial impression of their gear. So uh I would love to get one of their amps in here and give that a run. I would expect to be pleasantly pleased from what I've seen and what I've heard early on with respect to those amps. So you're talking about three, four thousand dollars. There, you're talking about 15 for the big AGDs uh for their monoblocks, and then kind of in the middle here you've got the atmospheres. But anybody that that is concerned about Class D having anything that people accused them of previously, and they were somewhat guilty of harshness and things back in the day because of the way the switching uh drove things. But when I was talking with Ralph specifically about that brief, brief moment in time between the amp going on, being fully on, and the amp being fully off when they're doing a hundred thousand switches a second, he actually has an aspect of the design that takes into account that quasi on off period, and that's addressed in the design parameters of that device. So, you know, all of that, these are, I mean, we're talking about people in some of these cases, Ralph's case, where he's been designing for nearly 50 years now, and you know he took his Novitrons, which is my favorite of his ants, his tube ants, out of his system and put the class D's in at home. So he's running the Class D's as his reference ants for a guy that can pick you know an ant that's 10 times the price or more. So it says a lot.
SPEAKER_02Okay. I am now going to bring up my my $83,000 system. So I wanted to I I asked myself a slightly different question. Uh my Frankenstein system, which uses two different pairs of speakers and three amplifiers, it's a whole hot mess, has an MSRP of around $650,000, including the tape machine. I asked myself the question: what is the closest I can get, I believe, to the sound of my system at a radically lower price? So as with uh Eric, I continue to believe that MagnaPen remains one of the very, very best values in the high end, especially so if you buy the thing used. But let's start with the MagnaPan 20.7 loudspeakers for 23,000. And what I've done here on this list is use similar components, but just change the source. So this is my $83,000 recommendation for a digital source and my $83,000 recommendation for a vinyl source. Let's go through it. Both systems use MagnaPan 20.7s, both systems use RHEL 212 SX subwoofers, which are uh dual 12 inchers with a PATSA radiator on the back and a PASA radiator on the bottom. Uh, they were actually the late Jim Smith's favorite RHEL subwoofer, as far as I understand. Um, for the uh analog system, I'm using the aesthetic mimis with the uh the phono module. This should be an extra thousand for the phono module. But the aesthetics memus is a very competent um uh um integrated amplifier with the phono module. I like the Brinkman-Bardot turntable. The Bardo is direct drive. My personal Brinkman balance is belt drive. Uh, Bardot's direct drive. Uh, my friend Keith Rochelle has had that for years and loves it. The read 5A tonearm is Bitmantis' uh mechanical pivoting linear tracker as opposed to the read 5T that I have, which is the laser guided, that crazy Rubgold laser guided linear pivoting tracker, but I love the thing. Um, and then a Hamani, uh Hana Umami red cartridge is widely respected. I use the same card of clear reflection as I do in my system. So that analog-only system, I really believe, gets you to a significant fraction of the sound quality of my system at 15% of the cost. Now, and you you you're able to do this only because of the astounding value of the magnipan, so you can allocate a lot of money away from the speaker, which otherwise would attract uh most of the money. Now, this system doesn't have the unlimited low frequency extension of depth of my system because I'm using the global Divin sovereigns, which are these beastly subwoofers, um, and it doesn't have quite the fullness in the upper base to lower mid-range because I'm using the Griffin base towers from 200 Hertz on down. But you're saving 85% of the cost of my system, and I think getting 85% of the value. On the digital version, I'm substituting the uh I'm using the Lapizator Genya Plus, which is a more expensive version of my Baltic 4, which is a very modest. I think the MSRP on my Baltic 4 is 6,000 or something. The MSRP on the Genya Plus is about 21,000. Uh and I'm using an Inuit Stream 3, whereas I use an Inuitus Pulsar myself personally here. But you'll notice that between these two systems, which have the same total MSRP, I'm spending about the same amount of money on each source. So the analog source, the turntable cartridge and tone arm, is about the same price as I'm spending on the DAC and the streamer. And again, using like the uh card is clear reflection, uh, which I like. So those are my uh 80, those are my recommended uh systems for digital and analog in the $83,000 range. And I think it gets you 85% of the sound of my system personally, with uh 15% of the cost.
SPEAKER_05Moving on to very pedestrian of you, Ron.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, well, I I yeah, I I I stick in my I I stay in the the the uh pond that I know best. Okay, Andy's hundred thousand dollar system.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm going to uh uh second the uh point that Ron just made and about 45 minutes ago Danny just made about finding a speaker that's a bargain opens all kinds of all kinds of doors. And the title, Piano Classic, is such a speaker. Um what Jor Nancek decided to do was to um honor his very first product of 25 years ago, which was the piano. It's gone through two iterations, and the cost of a regular piano now is about uh is over $60,000. The piano classic he started from scratch and didn't just uh cheap out on various aspects of the real piano, but um but found entirely different solutions for the enclosure, for the drivers. Um, what he didn't find um a solution for is the crossover, which is the same, which is sort of the secret sauce in all of Yorn's speakers. So um I had this speaker around for a couple of months, and um at uh at half the price of an actual classic, which used to be their entry-level speaker, you're you're getting, I'm I'd say, 80% of the performance. Um is another person who has has discovered how to make class D work, and this and the Teatle Intra Amplifier is a very flexible design device, class D, that has four channels of amplification, and you can um use it as um two bridge stereo uh modules. You can you can use just one of them depending upon your room and your musical tastes, but it's um it's it's another very good investment. And um again, um I think that it's important beyond the cables to look at power distribution. I I recently reviewed the Shinyata Delta X, which is the least expensive of Shinyata's X products, and um I had not upgraded my power conditioner in in something like 20 years, and I sort of had it as out of a sense of obligation. I'd sort of lost track of the uh degree of improvement that has been made. Putting that device in my system was the single largest improvement I have ever seen in my system. Now it's low-hanging fruit because I've ignored it for 20 years, but uh certainly at this level, you should be spent you should be spending um close to 10% of your budget uh of what the value of your total system is on power conditioning. It makes an enormous difference. I'll stop there.
SPEAKER_02Let me ask you a question about that. If somebody doesn't have a grounding problem, a home problem, a noise problem, if there's no apparent manifest problem to be solved, why do people have to spend money on power distributors and grounding boxes and that kind of stuff?
SPEAKER_01How do you know that you don't have a problem until you try it? And that's something that ought to be possible. Um you know, in in terms of um preventing um one component from infecting another with noise, that's something which has been underscored. And also in terms of being able to deliver peak power on demand, that's something that the Shinyata products do. And and you really hear it. It's like getting extra juice from your amplifiers.
SPEAKER_02And just out of curiosity, have you had an occasion to compare Shinyata to uh the similar conceptual products of synergistic research or um Nordost or Equitech? I I have or AudioQuest, the Niagara.
SPEAKER_01Um I'm I'm I'm looking forward to doing that because it's it's a wide open thing for me. But um I I I think that there are seven or eight different technologies that are patented by the Shinyata folks, and um a lot of the other products don't have all of them.
SPEAKER_02Okay, moving on to the music segment. Uh who's got music for us tonight? Danny.
SPEAKER_05All right, I brought a couple of records actually. Reviving the old music segment. So, first up is a fabulous Mono Liberty of the great Tommy Hendricks. So I was looking through my stash of records, and I was like, you know what? I haven't played this in forever. Uh, it's uh his only album. Um not that easy to find. I don't know if there's any available for sale. They kind of pop up every now and then. And he is a fabulous guitarist and um singer as well, absolutely fabulous singer. Think of uh Dream with Dean, that sort of thing. Um, this is a Liberty Mono. Came out in 56, I believe, 57. He played back up and uh lead with with just about everybody there is in that 50s, 60s, 70s era. Uh, very unfortunate that they only made one album, but you know, what are you gonna do? Uh sticking with the mono theme, I've got a fabulous capital of the Kingston trio here. Uh, ironically enough, these guys were from Palo Alto, the tech capital of the world. And here I am showing off a mono record um by a group formed in Palo Alto. Anyway, uh, late 50s, uh, they did a bunch of stuff, absolutely fabulous sounding. You've heard some of their hits, no doubt. Uh, there's two of them on this actual album, but yeah, Kingston Trio, fabulous, fabulous Sonics, beautiful music.
SPEAKER_02Let me ask you for mono records, in your expert opinion, how important is it for somebody to have a separate mono cartridge if they want to play mono records?
SPEAKER_05Uh just to correct you, I am not an expert. I'm just a peasant with uh some knowledge. Um, you know, I think the probably the easiest thing to do is obviously to just um click mono if you have a mono switch on your amp. The challenge with that is that you're introducing all sorts of phase issues and time issues with the signal as it's being reduced down to mono. So in a pinch, if you want to hear what mono sounds like, you can do it, but you're not getting the full fidelity. Ideally, you either want to have a uh mono cartridge uh or um you want to have a uh, you know, that's the ideal part. The the second most ideal part would be to just drive your stereo cartridge through the mono. Uh the challenge there is you're gonna have all sorts of the cartridge is gonna pick up all sorts of side left and right issues or left and right signal that's not really there. So, really the the best way to do it is to have a mono cartridge. The second best thing to do, and or coequal to it, is to run a stereo cartridge through your mono setup. The least best way is to switch a stereo signal to mono. Okay.
SPEAKER_02I don't know any hamp that has mono switch anymore, but my question to you is of course the mono cartridge is the best. What's the what how would you estimate the percentage increase in believability going from a stereo cartridge playback to a mono cartridge playback? What is somebody getting incrementally in terms of believability going from a stereo cartridge to a true mono cartridge?
SPEAKER_05Uh you know, I think the the first thing you're gonna notice is that you're gonna have a lot less noise just because the uh with a mono cartridge, just because it's not going to be trying to decode any left or right channel information, right? So it's gonna be a much cleaner signal uh than with a stereo cartridge. Percentage-wise, I I mean, I I don't know.
SPEAKER_02Tell us a number, make tell us a number, estimate a number. 6.8759%. Okay, so it's so it's a relatively trivial increase. It's not like you're saying, oh, Ron, it's like a 50% twice as good.
SPEAKER_05I was just being silly. Um I you know, I think it's it's it's a significant upgrade. Uh you know, I mean uh 50%, you know.
SPEAKER_02Um somebody somebody who has a mono record collection really needs a mono cartridge.
SPEAKER_05You do. Yes. I would strongly recommend you get a mono cartridge. You're you're going to get much more fidelity, even if it's not, even if the cartridge is not on par with your stereo cartridge, um, quality-wise or or performance-wise, just the fact that you're actually listening to a mono cartridge uh that is not going to pick up left and right channel information as it's tracing, tracing through the groove is going to give you a lot more fidelity. Thank you. You're welcome. Can I okay?
SPEAKER_02Anybody else?
SPEAKER_05What anybody else with me? Keep going, keep going, keep going. What is this? Am I getting kicked out of here? Not at all. Next up, super cushion. This is stereo, dynamagroove, RCA. I think, if I'm not mistaken, this was on Harry Pearson's list forever. And a half. I scored an absolutely mint copy for I think six dollars on eBay. This is uh, you know, the peak of stereo insanity back in the 60s. Um, it's uh it's Dick Shory uh with his percussion pop orchestra, absolutely fabulous music. Uh you really get a kick out of it. I mean, look, is it okay? Let me quantify that. Is it music? Ah it's probably not necessarily music in the sense that you think of music being like the Kingston trio, um, or or you know, Tommy Hendricks, but it's fun, it's a blast, man. You put this on and you're like, holy shit, man, I'm listening to stuff that A was recorded 60 years ago, and B sounds as good as it was recorded yesterday. So there. And then uh Alonnie Liston Smith, uh, you know, great jazz funk pioneer in the 70s. Uh, you can't go wrong with any of his albums. You really can't. Uh, maybe the 80s stuff, but any of his 70s stuff, absolutely outstanding music, jamming sessions, fabulous, great sounding. And then to go with something totally modern and totally different, the great Trevor Horn. I mean, he produced guys like Frankie Goes to Hollywood, um, and uh um who else did he produce? Um, oh gosh, my memory's escaping me. Bunch of bunch of famous artists from the 80s, that sort of 80s electronic vibe that was coming out in the UK. This is a covers album uh that he did a couple of years ago. It's called Echoes, and it's essentially all of his hits that he's produced, but covers and all um uh non-electronic, so all real music, absolutely fabulous, highly, highly recommended.
SPEAKER_02And that's it for the music segment. Great choices. Thank you for telling us about things I personally have never heard of.
SPEAKER_01Andrew, I did want to, I was amazed to see the Trevor Horn album up there because that's one of my very favorite immersive. You're kidding! It it is it is phenomenal. I love it. Phenomenal the seal cut and the lady with uh the ladybird.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, ladybird, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I do want to mention something which is brand new, which is going to be released in about two weeks, and I can be I can be quick about it. The um American classical composer Roy Harris is responsible for probably the second most famous American symphony, his third symphony, which is only second to the Copeland third in terms of popularity. But around the time he wrote the third, he wrote a symphony that's really a trombone concerto for Tommy Dorsey. And the Tommy Dorsey band played it once after a four-hour show at um the Rainbow Room, and they were tired and they were grumpy and they didn't do a very good job with it, and as a result, it never saw the light of day. The trombonist Jim Pugh, who um, well, is Steely Dan's um trombonist, but also a uh you know a first-call session guy in New York and a professor at a Michigan school, um, he made it his business to uh to resurrect it. And he has recorded it with its the accompaniment is a big band, and he recorded the top players he uh in New York to join him on this, and it is it is simply incredible. It'll be available on vinyl as well as streaming, and I'm sure because the uh the engineers were uh Jim Anderson and Ulrica. Um, it'll be available on immersive event eventually. But it's called the name of the album is called New American Symphonies, and it uh it leads with this piece which hasn't been heard for 90 years. Terrific. Anybody?
SPEAKER_02Eric.
SPEAKER_00Um goes along with this and 1981 Sheffield Labs direct to disc pressing, disc number 17, Tower of Power. Yeah, that thing, if you like dynamic, that album will absolutely let you know how loose your cartridge needle is. Because I can't imagine the Grand Canyon of the size of those grooves when you're listening to that. I've got a couple of copies of it. It's absolutely um a party if you are a fan of uh you know the blood, sweat, and tears and earth, wind, and fire, and uh you know, giving uh a ride to um Power Power at their absolute peak. Um that album just is something special.
SPEAKER_05Anything Sheffield Labs.
SPEAKER_00I've got a bunch of them, but uh that that's a particular favorite of mine.
SPEAKER_02Good call. Good call. I second anything with Sheffield Labs as well. Any other music for tonight? I got one. Please. Oh Ritchie.
SPEAKER_04Yes, can't slow down.
SPEAKER_05Is there you go? Is that the DSS version?
SPEAKER_04No, I'm not paying extra for that stuff. Fun fact though, so um, on running with the night, I learned this a few years ago watching an interview with Steve Lucather on Rick Biotto's channel. That Steve Lucather did the whole like breakdown guitar solo. They called it, so I just checked it to see if it was actually considered one take, but he calls it a zero take. He said he was just futzing with the guitar and they were recording and they were like, That's it. And he was like, No, Lionel, like that's not what I want to contribute to this track. And Lionel's like, No, you're done. That's it, we're taking that.
SPEAKER_02And that was brilliant. Um, is that your favorite track on the album? It is. Yeah, yeah. That's a great album.
SPEAKER_05Such a yeah, absolutely ever green.
SPEAKER_02Good call. Very good call. And uh up in the 80s range, which I like.
SPEAKER_04That's where I'll park. I stay parked in the 80s for music.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you, gentlemen. This has been really fun. The next episode of the High Fi 5, as you know, the schedule's the second Wednesday and the fourth Wednesday of every month. The fourth Wednesday should be July 22, but I will be at Southwest Audio Fest and not doing the show on that Wednesday. So the next Wednesday is July 29. The next episode of the High Fi 5 will be a Southwest Audio Fest show report on July 29. Please subscribe to the channel. Don't just watch, please actually subscribe. Thanks very much, gentlemen. This is great and fun.
SPEAKER_00Oh, thank you. Thanks very much, Rob. Appreciate it. Good night, everyone. Bye.