APOGEE: Amplifiers suitable for 1 ohm Scintilla loudspeakers

Howard – help please! WHICH vintage Krell? Certainly. I sold many pairs of these magnificent but tricky-to-drive speakers when I ran Subjective Audio. I was, so I’m told Apogee’s most successful UK retailer. i mention this because I have a lot of direct, personal hands-on experience. The simple part of my 2-part answer is re […]

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ZESTO AUDIO: Their Leto 1.5 Preamp – an upgrade

  The Leto 1.5 Preamp upgrade includes 2 important features; a built-in headphone amp and a Unity Gain identifier on the volume control for home theater.  This upgrade is designed for Audiophiles who enjoy a great 2 channel stereo system, as well as, headphones and surround sound for home theater. George Counnas, President of Zesto […]

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BLIND TESTS: Show that louder is better … or what?

Blind tests show that louder is better (hence the importance of precise level matching). In practice (and I assume in blind tests, too), this is true up to the point at which too much volume produces effects that are detrimental to sound quality–distortion, for example, or excessive room resonances. This leaves me with a couple […]

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BOSE: Are the Bose 901 speakers still considered among the best?

Eric Huang replies …. I’m not an audio equipment expert. But I can share some things I learned about the Bose 901 speaker from the man himself, because I took Professor Bose’s acoustics class when I was undergraduate, and we got to ask him lots of questions. When people buy speakers, what sounds “best” is […]

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DEFINITIVE TECHNOLOGY: What they said ….. at the time

America’s ‘top-selling premium loudspeaker brand’ is coming to European shores armed with several £499 – £3399 speakers. Definitive Technology, founded in 1990 and now owned by Sound United (whose brand catalogue also includes the likes of Denon, Marantz, Classe Audio and Polk Audio), is bringing various home cinema and hi-fi speakers to UK and European markets. […]

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BENCHMARK MEDIA DAC: Into Meridian G08

Hello Howard. I have read HFA now for some months, deriving great pleasure and stimulation from it’s diverse contents… around the pursuit of the art of listening to music. Interested in recent exchange around the benchmark dac1. I currently have a meridian g08, along with a range of meridian pre power equipment of varying ages […]

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Xhadow Corp?

Hi Howard, what can you tell me about Xhadow Corp please?  Iain. Hi Iain, this is all that I have been able to find online – so far. Neil M. Company founded in 2004 by Chris Sommovigo of The Signals Collection and Stuart Marcus of Sound Connections and was based at the latter company’s headquarters […]

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NOSE HARVESTERS: ‘Launched some years ago and were very popular amongst the high-end crowd’

Paul McGowan: Noise Harvesters were launched some years ago and were very popular amongst the high-end crowd.  Many are still used today and we get continual requests to bring the product back – which we have. I thought it might be interesting to do a short little series on how the product developed – describing […]

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DIGITAL ROOM EQUALISATION: Is it a gimmick or does it have some application in domestic situations?

Neil, regarding digital room equalisation, is it a gimmick or does it have some application in domestic situations? I have heard these things in operation and I suppose that if you are prepared to spend any time experimenting and moving loudspeakers then it’s a good shortcut to a sort of middling performance. But by and […]

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