Year in Review

Click pics to enlarge.

Year in Review, 10th Anniversary Edition: 2019

I started this blog in 2008, but did not add this feature till 2010, so this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Year in Review feature, which I think is a useful capsular summary for the year. A reader can read each one for what I liked most that year. This has been a stressful year for the family, so fewer acquisitions, but what I did get were of superb quality! Read on!

New Features This year marks the first that the blog has a new writer, and I am happy that it happened just like that! In the coming year, I may just solicit some more articles from friends. Andy, in particular, is a treasure trove, and has written a lot on various forums, but it is hard to tap him. I also thought to interview my friends on how they got into audio. Let's see...

Man of The Year
This category is a First! Of course, it has to be Kevin, who has acquired and done so much this year that this blog has worked hard to track him. I thank him for all the good time, the great food, and of course for making my Thorens TD-124 arm board! His DIY and restoration efforts are also deserving of praise. I am still amazed by his DIY Tonearms (bottom pic; feel my admiration? description here) and Cactus Cantilever/Stylus (left pic, click to enlarge, here). This man re-invents himself virtually every minute; watch this space!

Loudspeakers of the Year
What else! Infinity! Although the sound changes often, sometimes for the worse, Kevin's forever in-flux RS-1B system earns my Best Sound of the Year. No less a picky man than JBL horn user Simon said the Infinity is good enough for playing everything, and indeed that is what I think too (we maintain the same for horns too). Considering it has only been a few months, it is a miracle! Even more of a legend and housed in a larger room, Mark's IRS Beta is potentially even better (here) but I have heard them only once and am still waiting for another invitation. If you ever wonder why a horn lover would fall for a line source loudspeaker, read this article! Other types of loudspeakers are only also-run's. We have to thank our great leader Andy for inspiring these 2 to choose to go down this path, and if not for his experience they would not have mastered the sound so soon. 

Best Component of the Year
The Linear Tube Audio MicroZOTL 2.0 (MZ2) (here) is the hands down winner. It is a 1 watt amp, preamp and headphone amp in one. I have tested it thoroughly as an amp and it is a horn lover's dream. I have also tested it as preamp and headphone amp and it is equally great (more report to follow). Considering its multiple functions, it is actually a bargain.

Bargain of the Year
Given, in kit form, its ridiculously and improbable low price, it has to be the Akitika GT-102 (here). If not for the LTA, I'd have voted it as best component of the year, that is how fond of it I am. It works a charm with my LS3/5A and is now my go-to amp for that! It has actually rejuvenated my interest in the LS3/5A and more on that may follow. Mind you, I have heard the LS3/5A with all the greatest tube amps, and the Akitika can be considered in their company, with a quite different sets of virtues.



Cartridge of the Year, and More
The most gratifying thing to me is what VAS is doing, which is both re-tipping (repair) and selling modified cartridges (usually Denon DL-103) under the VAS name, like many others (Zu, for example), but VAS goes far beyond them in modification (not just a shell change, but tinkering with everything else). Repair This is a crazy business only for those simultaneously steady of hand and crazy in mind, two things that don't usually go together (like IQ and EQ). Some people want the original sound (like I for my Koetsu Black (here) and Denon DL-301 Mk II, which Steven delivered with a sure hand), and there are others who want a different sound. I personally think Steven has truly mastered his craft and has significant insights of his own. VAS Cartridges The VAS 103 series are impressive. While the stereo (here) is excellent, the 103 Ebony Mono scaled new heights (here) and is my cartridge of the year.

DL-301 Mk II Although mine is VAS re-tipped, since I compared it to the original (here) I am confident this is an excellent cartridge, a good buy in it price class. For those who want a even-handed approach, a sleeper. Of course, don't forget its more famous sibling, the even cheaper evergreen DL-103, for which I need to say nothing more!

Shure SC35C (and M44-7) Although Shure has ended their cartridge making (a despicable decision certainly made by executives oblivious of tradition), many good examples can still be bought on Ebay at prices that are higher than before but are still commensurate with the quality of these transducers. The SC35C has always been of broadcast quality (here), and the M44-7 I have always liked too (here).

Vintage CD Players
Not all vintage CD Players are good, far from it. But, many people (there is a huge subculture here) have long known a whole class of CDPs using early Philips chips, the 14-bit (TDA-1540) 4x oversampling machines and the later but ubiquitous cheap 16-bit (TDA 1543, non-oversampling) ones are very musical (my recent re-visit here). A disc like Shirley Horn's May the music never end (Verve, CD) is sparse and can be quite bland when played by a modern player, but her distinctive and instantly recognizable vocal style, with its inimitable pauses, silence and cadence, is poignantly cast by the old CDPs. Incredible. I shall be listening and writing more on this, one of my favorite topics.

And so do old CD transports impress. I have long used the old Theta Data and Basic, and more recently, firing up my old Meridian 200 just pleasantly surprised me (here).

Time to Collect CDs Funny thing is, red-book physical CD is now considered a thing of the past. Me? I don't think so. And, these old CDPs can really throw you; you owe it to yourself to listen to a few for beer money. Come to think of it, a couple of so-called craft-beer or even one of the more expensive newer "natural" stuff, can easily buy you a machine! As for used CDs, in thrift stores they are worth next to nothing; great time to collect!

Elekit Continues its SE Quest
Having been occupied by the LTA, I have not yet listened to it that much, but from just first impression the new Elekit TU-8800 (left pic; review here) is surely their strongest amp in a long time. The output transformers are beefy and the amp can use more tubes than any other pentode/tetrode tubes that I can remember, including my TU-8300 (which however is also a 300B amp). VKmusic, the American distributor, is in the final stages of developing an upgrade of Lundahl transformers, so those interested may want to wait a little. I'd definitely try it out with my favorite flea-powered 6V6, which most who buy this amp would not do. But my horns are 104 db, so I wonder how does it compare with its much more modest sibling, the dedicated 6V6/6AQ5 amp, TU-8150 (right pic, review here), which I personally enjoy a lot but would hesitate to recommend to others whose loudspeakers are not nearly as efficient as mine. Both let you choose between Triode and Ultralinear, but the latter also unusually offers a pentode option, which I prefer.

Re-Visits

As one's system improves (I sure hope this is your case), from time to time one should rotate in surplus gears for re-evaluations. Sometimes one is surprised, or reminded of certain aspects of audio reproduction. See, improvement is almost never all-encompassing. A gain in an area seldom comes without the cost of a loss in another. As we make compromises (we all do), we forget. It is good to remind ourselves. This year I have not done much revisits, but certainly re-visits to current amplification phonoamp AQVOX 2 CI Mk II (here and here) and Micromega MyDac (here) made me smile! I have also re-enlisted the service of the Fosgate Signature Phonoamp and Air Tight PC-1 cartridge (here). The PC-1, one of the first super-cartridges, sets such a high bar that others (even the Koetsu Black) struggle to come up against it. The Fosgate, which I have written up only in piecemeal fashion (but this is its third mention in Year in Review), is amazing in that it possesses the best virtues of both tube and ss, even if it is all-tube (I wonder about its newer Black Ice iteration). Hopefully, the coming year shall see a lot more re-visits, in the analog as well as digital realm.

Earphone
I was really surprised by the even-handed performance of the cheap Monoprice Bluetooth Earphone (here), a great buy!

What I Miss
It surprised me a little. In NYC, I have over 10,000 records and at least over 2,000 CDs (some brought over from HK), but on more than one occasion I yearn for a CD that I had in HK. It shows no library is too large! Of course, I miss many people and things in HK too.

I wish you a purposeful and fulfilling 2020!