CHROMA: OFC Music.Gear.Style. December No.81 2016 STARLIGHT: SILVER-CLAD OFC PLATINUM STARLIGHT: OCC-7N SOLID SILVER Bellissimo! Franco Serblin’s Lignea Speakers Spin the Black Circle: Reviews of Early 2017 Albums from The Orwells, the XX, Pissed Jeans, Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau, Delbert McClinton, Patent-pending triple-shielded design Priests, Chavez, and Much More Back Tracking: 2016’s Best Rock Box Sets Thin, flexible, easy to assemble and install Compact Performance from GamuT and Atoll Solid 23 gauge parallel conductors Analog Excellence from VPI and Esoteric The Mighty Hiato from Plinius 2GHz bandwidth, 40 Gbit/sec @ 30 meters Surprisingly lifelike sound and imaging Other cables filter your music. Wireworld cables let the most music through. Technology that channels musical expression. © 2017 Wireworld, Inc. www.wireworldcable.com Listen to Your Speakers In A New Way Don’t let your existing wired loudspeakers miss out on high-resolution streaming audio. Paradigm’s new PW AMP delivers 200-Watts of Ultra Class-D power and lets you wirelessly stream high-resolution audio to existing loudspeakers over your home Wi-Fi network. Set-up is simple, app control is easy, and your options are unlimited. Go wireless, with Paradigm-level performance. Exclusive Anthem Room Correction (ARC™) technology uses a digital microphone with advanced DSP algorithms to correct for room distortions in any space. You’ll actually hear the difference ARC makes. ™ PW600 Wireless Freedom. Paradigm Performance. PW800™ A Better Audio Experience. PWLINK ™ PWAMP™ Stream music to any Paradigm Premium Wireless Series product using your Android, PC or iOS device. Only Paradigm delivers wireless performance that is truly on par with traditional non-streaming audio systems. ARC ™ Digital Microphone Room Correction Technology Visit paradigm.com for more info. 98 79 tone style Podium XL from HiFi Racks 11. PUBLISHER’S LETTER Beautifully Robust features 76 The Bubble Sofa by Roche Bobois Old School: 79 Listening Room Statement 14 VPI HW-19 MK3 Turntable Revisited and Revamped Snap Power Guide Light Outlet By Jerold O’Brien 80 Outlet with a Charger! Journeyman Audiophile: Orvis WW1 Wooden Propeller 46 Rotel A14 Integrated Amplifier and 83 Nostalgia for Your Man Cave CD14 CD Player By Andre Marc WineSkin Bottle Protector 84 An Elegant Solution to an age-old Problem 995: Sounds That Won’t 98 Break The Bank 42mm Timex + Red Wing Chronograph Venture Electronics Monk Plus IEMs 87 Japan Meets and American Icon The Greatest $5 Bang for Your Buck By Kyle Dusing Jackson Pollock Pomegranate Puzzle Fun, Therapy or Torture? 88 88 6 TONE AUDIO NO.81 DECEMBER 2016 7 gear previews 104. GamuT Zodiac Speakers 10 7. MartinLogan Expression ESL 13A 108. Exogal Comet DAC gear reviews 110. GamuT Di150 Limited Edition Integrated Amplifier By Jerold O’Brien 92 120. Esoteric’s E-03 Phonostage Not Just Digital By Greg Petan 126. Franco Serblin Lignea Speakers music Delectable! 146 By Jeff Dorgay 20. SPIN THE BLACK CIRCLE: 136. Plinius Haito Integrated Amplifier Reviews of New Pop/Rock Evolution of Excellence and Country Albums by Chrissie Dickinson, By Rob Johnson from the web Bob Gendron and Todd Martens 146. VPI Prime Turntable 172. Eden Acoustic Sweet Spot Tomei Speaker System 56. BACK TRACKING By Jeff Dorgay 2016 Rock Reissues 174. ProAc Tablette 10 Speakers You Souldn’t Miss 156. Atoll’s HD120 and MA100 176. Questyle CMA600 by Bob Gendron Headphone Amp/DAC Petit Miracle By Jeff Dorgay 90. JAZZ & BLUES: 179. Slummin’ Eric Hofbauer Quintet, Steve Slagle, 164. SVS SB-2000 Subwoofer Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau Best Budget Bass Ever 180. Music Links 66. Lou Reed The RCA & Arista Album Collection by Jim Macnie and Kevin Whitehead By Jeff Dorgay 183. Manufacturer Links 8 TONE AUDIO NO.81 DECEMBER 2016 9 PUBLISHER’S LETTER ere we go with the last Even this last week has been tragic, issue of the year, and from the looks of with George Michael, Carrie Fisher, it, it’s been a pretty wacky, if not rough and her mother, Debbie Reynolds only Hone. We’ve lost our fair share of people two days later. One of my good friends in the CE industry, and the year began quipped on Facebook, “If you’re famous, with the tragic loss of Ghislaine Dalcourt you’re just hoping to get through the from Audio Plus Services. For those of next four days.” As our former editor, you that didn’t know her directly, she Ben Fong-Torres always says, “crazy.” was the glue that held the company Reflecting on this takes me back to together, and always showed me tons a sunny day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. of patience and kindness in the midst Walking out of my office on the way of rounding up review samples. Just to lunch, I saw an incredibly old man recently Ken Furst, a gentleman who’s driving an equally old Dodge pickup been a major force for decades has also truck and the bumper sticker said, “any passed on. All of us who worked with day above ground is a good day.” At 27 him knew what a kind and genuinely years old, I did not see the humor in this affable guy he was. My deepest quite as clearly as I do staring 60 pretty sympathies to his family, friends, and squarely in the eyes. As the man on the clients. wheelbarrow in Monty Python’s The Holy We’ve lost a lot of amazing people Grail says, “I’m not quite dead yet.” But from the creative world this year too; it I’ve had a good checkup. feels like more major players than years So to my friends, readers and past. I remember coming home from colleagues who are still above ground, I CES in January, downloading Bowie’s value you all more now than ever. Thank Blackstar from HD Tracks and listening you for reading, and I wish you all a to it before falling asleep, enthused that I happy, healthy and calm 2017. might see an old favorite on tour one last time. The first thing I heard upon waking the following day was my wife saying, “David Bowie died this morning.” And that was only January. Many more icons would follow. DECEMBER 2016 11 PUBLISHER Jeff Dorgay MUSIC EDITOR Bob Gendron GEAR/WEB EDITOR Ellen Green ART DIRECTOR Jean LaCrosse Follow us M EDIA SUPPORT Terry Currier Tom Caselli RESEARCH Earl Blanton Ken Mercereau on Facebook. AUDIO HISTORIAN Ken Kessler (You never know what we’ll get into next.) SENIOR Jaan Uhelszki CONTRIBUTOR CONTRIBUTING Bailey S. Barnard WRITERS Aaron Cohen John Darko Paul DeMara Lawrence Devoe Chrissie Dickinson Andrea Domanick www.facebook.com/tonepub2 Andy Downing Rob Johnson Jim Macnie Richard Mak Andre Marc Mark Marcantonio Todd Martens Monique Meadows Jerold O’Brien Kevin Whitehead Annie Zalewski Jeff Zaret CARTOONIST Liza Donnelly WEBSITE bloodymonster.com tonepublications.com Editor Questions and Comments: [email protected] ©2016 TONE AUDIO MAGAZINE All rights reserved. 12 TONE AUDIO NO.81 DECEMBER 2016 13 FEATURE FEATURE am no stranger to VPI turntables. Currently, I’m on my third one, The VPI HW-19 MK 3 which happens to be an HW-19 Revisited and Revamped MK IV with and SME 309 tone By Jerold O’Brien arm, fitted with a Van den Hul Frog low output moving coil cartridge. Previously I owned a HW-19 Jr. with an AudioQuest PT-6 tone arm and a Scout with the JMW-9 tone arm. So you could say that I’m a supporter, a fan, a VPI enthusiast. When our publisher told me that he was going to drop off a Irecently updated HW-19 MK III with VPI’s entry-level Scout Jr. tone arm to try, I was curious how this would stack up against my current setup. The table in question was purchased at an estate sale about a year ago for $100 in somewhat tattered OLD SCHOOL shape. Mat Weisfeld and his team at VPI gave this table some tender loving care and restored it from top to bottom, along with fitting a new tonearm, reminiscent of what is supplied with the current Player table, as this one came with a dilapidated Eminent Technology straight track arm. (but our publisher has more about that arm later) 14 TONE AUDIO NO.81 DECEMBER 2016 15 FEATURE FEATURE For the record, the MK III was dropped in my lap with a ZYX Bloom medium output moving coil cartridge. A specially de- signed Audience tone arm cable, optimized for use with cartridges having an internal impedance of fewer than 30 ohms proved a perfect match. Tracking was set at the recommended 2 grams. The award-winning Manley Chi- nook is the phonostage set with a 500-ohm load impedance; optimal for the ZYX after some experimentation. My first listening impression confirms the VPI sound that I’ve experienced over the years. First, the deep and wide soundstage which is a VPI hallmark exhibits itself with layers of front to back separation. Secondly, the bass punch and the firm grip on bass fundamentals that I’m used to is there in spades. I believe that these traits are what makes VPI turntables so popular these days as well, and right now the compa- ny seems to be riding a wave of innovation that keeps them at the forefront of analog reproduction. OLD SCHOOL Serious listening begins with Applewood Road (Gearbox Records), a single mic all-analog, live two track recording of three female musicians who sing and play hauntingly beautiful songs in a traditional country fashion. The sense of space and the immediacy of the vocals and instruments were displayed literally in front of me by the VPI.