Gryphon Audio Designs Commander LINE PREAMPLIFIER

Are well-heeled audiophiles ready for a knob-free future? Gryphon Audio Designs thinks so. In contrast to Gryphon's volume knob-dominated Pandora preamplifier, the Danish company's new Commander offers nothing on its bold front panel to grab or turn.

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

Dream incubation

ANALOG CORNER

The J.Sikora Reference turntable and KV12 VTA tonearm

Bluesound Powernode

Streaming integrated amplifier

Melco N50

DIGITAL MUSIC LIBRARY

PrimaLuna EVO 400

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

Meitner MA3

INTEGRATED D/A PROCESSOR

The Art of Cable

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

Chario Aviator Amelia

LOUDSPEAKER

JansZen Valentina P8

LOUDSPEAKER

Linn Klimax LP12

RECORD-PLAYING SYSTEM

Revinylization

Round Trip: Ornette Coleman’s Blue Note sides

CH Precision D1.5 SACD/CD/MQA-CD Player/Transport

There’s a school of thought that maintains that among all hi-fi components, the D/A converter is easiest to perfect or come close to perfecting. Just make sure that every sample is converted accurately, that there’s little rolloff in the audioband, that aliased images are suppressed almost completely, and that background noise is extremely low, and you have a top-quality D/A processor. Use of a high-quality DAC chip is assumed.

Analog Corner

Paradox’s remarkable Phono 70 Signature MC phono preamplifier

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

Stax, EAR, and Bob’s Devices

SINGING TO THE SOUL

THE MAGIC OF ART SONG ON RECORD

MayFly Audio Systems MF-201A LOUDSPEAKER

If you’ve ever read Homer’s Iliad, you probably remember the Cata-log of Ships at the beginning. It’s an exhaustive record of the contingents the Achean army deployed against Troy, naming the commanders, their hometowns, the number of ships in each contingent, and more. Not to put too fine a point on it, it’s a snoozefest. It makes you dread what’s next. But of course, if you come to this point only to abandon the Iliad in frustration, you’ll miss the fabulous war epic that follows, chockablock with action, drama, and romance.

Gold Note PH-1000 PHONO PREAMPLIFIER

Gold Note’s $11,999 PH-1000 is by a con-siderable margin the most sophisticated, most configurable phono preamplifier that any audio manufacturer has ever produced, at least that I know of. Remarkably, considering all that flexibility and sophistication, using and adjusting the PH-1000 is straightforward.

“Music Was Mine to Experience.”

For all its ghastliness and heartbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic has been good to Keb’ Mo’. When the virus hit the US, it forced the cancelation of a string of his concerts. “I was getting a little burned out on touring,” he confesses.

Book Review

The Secret History of Washington, DC, R&B

Forget about the sound of the recording.

MY BACK PAGES

Monitor Audio Silver 500 7G

LOUDSPEAKER

Iron OOR

GRAMOPHONE DREAMS

Topping Pre90

LINE PREAMPLIFIER

Turntable setup is a diagnostic exercise

ANALOG CORNER

Riviera Audio Laboratories Levante

INTEGRATED AMPLIFIER

Mingus

REVINYLIZATION

Joe Henderson: Blue Note and Beyond

REDISCOVERIES

Fyne Audio F500SP

LOUDSPEAKER

Bowers & Wilkins 804 D4

The boxes sit there in our storage units, opposite the 20 banker’s boxes that hold 33 years’ worth of product-measurement workbooks. The two large boxes are for the Bowers & Wilkins Matrix 801s my wife owned when we got married in 1987.1 The four smaller boxes are for the B&W John Bowers Silver Signatures and their stands, which I purchased after reviewing them in June 1994.2 Both pairs of speakers gave superb sound quality back in the day, but now they sit there in the storage unit, their boxes giving me recriminatory looks when I visit.