The Absolute Sound

Email the Editor: rharley@nextscreen.com or: Nextscreen LLC, 1801 Red Bud Lane, Ste B, Round Rock, TX 78664 Sharing Our Love of Music Robert Harley’s editorial in the Fall 2024 issue about audio shows hit the nail on the head. I attended about three shows a year starting in the 70s. Back then, as a novice music lover, I asked my musician friend to recommend a decent system. When I told him my budget was $250, his raised eyebrows told me that he would help and that I should trust his judgment. A week later I was $2500 poorer but extremely happy. It was a midfi system consisting of a Marantz 2265 receiver, Altec Lansing Stonehenge speakers, a Dynaco equalizer, Technics 1600 turntable with a Pickering cartridge, and a BIC tape deck.…

In this issue’s Letters, reader Earl Shick asks how his nearly 50-year-old Carver receiver, Revox turntable, and Dahlquist speakers compare to today’s “unaffordable” equipment. Specifically, he asks whether he could hear a difference between his vintage gear and today’s products. His letter made me reflect on the dramatic changes in high-end audio over the last 50 years, in technology, sophistication, industrial design, types of manufacturers, and yes, pricing. An audiophile from the 1970s touring a modern high-end show would be astounded by the industry’s radical transformation. First, there are vastly more manufacturers competing today than in the past. The market was once dominated by a smaller group of companies, each of which sold products in relatively high numbers. For example, at the Carver Corporation’s peak, the company was manufacturing and…

Audio Technica AT-ART1000X Cartridge Hand-built in Tokyo, the AT-ART1000X Direct Power moving coil builds upon the engineering excellence of the AT-ART1000 with improvements in design and materials and threaded mounting holes for easier installation. Unlike conventional moving-coil cartridges, this new cart places its dual moving coils on top of the stylus tip rather than at the base of the cantilever, enabling the cartridge to deliver greater fidelity and musical detail. Its coils are now rectangular, which positions more of the surface area in the magnetic field providing improved reproduction of record-groove modulations, along with a higher output voltage for better signal-to-noise ratio. The coils are made of 20µm diameter PCOCC (Pure Copper by Ohno Continuous Casting) wire, hand-wound in eight turns enabling each coil to generate a higher 0.22mV output…

Absolute Analog Phonomena III Phono Preamp and Linear Power Supply The Phonomena III is the culmination of the several phonostages Mike Yee has been designing for Musical Surroundings since the late 1990s. Back then it was intended as an economical alternative for demanding audiophiles on limited budgets, but Yee, a gifted designer with a sophisticated knowledge of circuits and an inventive turn of mind, never stopped searching for ways to make it better. Before long, it became evident that Yee’s evolving technical and audio improvements through subsequent versions made them easily competitive with phono preamps costing multiples of their relatively modest retail prices ($600 originally, $1200 now). Terms like “budget,” “economical alternative,” “value driven,” etc. should by no means be equated in this product to “good for the money,” let alone…

ACCORDING TO YEE, “at the front end of most amplifiers is a pair of transistors that amplification is based on. This is often called a ‘differential amplifier’ (or diff amp) where accuracy and noise are paramount. The large-die bipolar transistor pair, which we call the ‘Super-Matched Pair,’ now used in the Phonomena III allows it to operate with almost mathematically perfect behavior. Where most preamps are using integrated op-amps usually intended for general purpose use, our signal path is fully discrete, with a total of 17 transistors in each channel, 15 of them used to linearize the front end.” The power supply of the Phonomena III has also been upgraded, Yee informed me, “to the ‘Frequency Matched Impedance’ power supply of the Nova and Super Nova line. This includes multistage…

Absolute Analog Rega Research Naia Turntable Written by Bill Philpot, the late Paul Messenger, and Rega co-founder Roy Gandy, A Vibrational Measuring Machine is the title of the 2016 book chronicling Rega Research’s history and design concepts. In its quest to create and market the ultimate “vibration measuring machine,” the British company has worked diligently, you could say almost ruthlessly, over the years to reduce the mass and increase the rigidity of its turntables. A low-mass, stiff plinth (or whatever you wish to call the platform that holds the platter bearing and tonearm) is essential, Rega argues, to thwart the transfer of bearing and motor noise to the platter surface, as well as to minimize the intrusion upon the system of outside vibrations, both airborne and surface-produced. Properly executed, super-low-mass rigid…