High-End Audio

The MartinLogan Motion 4 answers the question, can a speaker be considered a high-end design if it retails for $499 a pair? Jeff Dorgay at Tone Audio magazine thinks it can!

MartinLogan made a splash with audiophiles in the early 1980s with its electrostatic panel speakers. The clear, 5-foot-tall panels were remarkable for their "see-through" transparency of sound. The company still makes big-panel speakers but has branched out into home theater, and now with the Motion 4, it's making overachieving small speakers.

The Motion 4's tweeter is pretty special; its Folded Motion transducer works by moving air, similar to the way an accordion works. Its low-mass diaphragm "squeezes" air and produces almost 90 percent less back and forth movement than a dome tweeter. The Folded Motion tweeter also has a large surface area; eight times that of a 1-inch dome tweeter. The Folded Motion technology is said to minimize distortion.

The Motion 4 is a small bookshelf design, 5 by 5 inches and just over a foot tall; it has a 4-inch woofer.

Dorgay listened to the Motion 4s with a few different amplifiers: a Naim Uniti receiver, Prima Luna Prologue 1 vacuum-tube integrated amp, and a Denon AVR 3910 receiver. In a small room placed near a corner, the Motion 4s had a surprising amount of bass. MartinLogan concentrated on making a great speaker that only goes down to 75 Hz cleanly, instead of a mediocre speaker that goes down to 50 Hz. Need more low-end oomph? Add a subwoofer to provide deep bass. … Read more

This was my third Head-Fi "meet," and at each one I've met lots of great people sharing a common passion for hi-fi. I'm not sure why, but Head-Fi members are a lot younger than most audiophiles. You see a lot of under-30 members, and it seems like under-40 Head-Fi-ers are in the majority! The weather outside on Saturday in Queens, NY, was frightful, but inside the vibes were warm and inviting. This event was hosted by my friend, Aaron Kovics (Head-Fi username Immtbiker).

Head-Fi meets gather Internet friends at a place, in this case a hotel, where they can listen to each other's headphones and headphone amplifiers. Some amps are home-built designs, some are commercial units. And unlike regular hi-fi shows, you can listen to what you want, with your own music, as loud as you want.

I met one guy with a set of vintage Grado Signature HP-2 headphones, probably from the early 1990s. They had a very dynamic, bold sound, and a special something I can't quite put my finger on. I'm a big fan of John Grado's current line of headphones (and phono cartridges), and I sold a lot of those early Grados (designed by John's uncle, Joseph Grado) when I worked as a salesman at a high-end audio store.

As I recall the original Grado headphones sold for $400 or $500, but used ones now go for $1,300 to $2,000! That's what I love about the best high-end gear; it sounds amazing, it's built to last, and it goes up in value! Think anybody will want to buy a 30-year-old iPod for a premium price in 2040 to actually listen to? I doubt it. … Read more

Sure, iPods and Zunes can sound perfectly fine, but no one ever claimed they were bona fide portable high-end audio devices. Their "good enough" sound isn't entirely their fault: they're too small to house a battery potent enough to power a high-quality headphone amplifier and a high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz digital-to-analog converter.

The Hifiman High Fidelity Music Player HM-801 is the Hummer of portables; it's big enough to get the job done. It's 3 inches wide, 4.5 inches high, and 1 inch thick; that's about the size of an old Walkman cassette player from the 1980s. Hifiman doesn't say how much the HM-801 weighs, but it feels substantial.

If Apple wanted to build something as good or better, it could, but the potential market for something that sounds better than an iPod is probably insignificant, and certainly too small for Apple or Microsoft to bother with. They're too busy jamming more features into their players, and sound quality never makes the cut. Besides, the market demands ever cheaper products, and real quality is never cheap. so the HM-801 is downright pricey.

That's another way of saying it's aimed at the sort of music lover who's already invested in a set of top-of-the-line Etymotic, Grado, Klipsch, Monster, Shure, or Ultimate Ears headphones. If you have and you're using an iPod or Zune, you're not hearing all the sound quality you paid for with those headphones.

The HM-801 was conceived as an audiophile player, so non-sound-oriented features are pretty scarce. The HM-801 has a user removable headphone amplifier circuitboard/module that makes future upgrades easy as pie. Hifiman already has one such upgrade in the works, a $170 board specifically designed to maximize detail and resolution of high-end in-ear headphones. Looking inside the HM-801--it has removable panels--so you can see it features top quality components, like a Burr-Brown PCM1704U digital-to-analog converter and Burr-Brown OPA627 Op-Amp. This is a level of technology normally found in audiophile home componentry, and never before used in a portable music player. … Read more

Maybe it's an American thing; we love big stuff. We equate size with quality, and think that exquisitely designed, silly, expensive products are always better than more affordable alternatives. Is the new iPod always better than last year's model? Then again, how do you define "better"?

A lot of audiophiles believe more watts, more power, higher digital sampling rates, higher resolution, heavier turntable platters, speakers with more drivers, bigger drivers, or more channels of sound will always produce better sound. It ain't necessarily so.

Don't get me wrong, I love high-end audio. But I … Read more

When I first met Dennis Yetikyel at Park Avenue Audio last year, I didn't realize he was the owner of the store. He's so laid-back and easygoing I just thought he was one of the guys who worked there. The store was founded in 1976 as a family business by Yetikyel's granddad, so it's definitely a mainstay in the New York City high-end audio scene. Yetikyel started working at Park when he was 16; he now heads a staff of eighteen people.

Park has a welcoming vibe and a carefully selected roster of brands for its … Read more

Sonus Faber may be a small Italian speaker company, but you can literally see its influence in the curvy look of various B&W, KEF, Magico, Tannoy, Wharfedale, and countless other speakers. Thanks to Sonus Faber, the box is out and round is in.

Looking straight down on the top of the Liuto's cabinet, you can't help but notice its curves mimic those of a classical lute (liuto is the Italian word for lute). The shape has graced a number of Sonus Faber speakers, but instead of the company's traditional solid-wood cabinets, the Liuto's is … Read more

There have always been good- and bad-sounding recordings, and advances in technology haven't really tilted the balance all that much, but they've changed the playing field. Musicians and bands no longer have to go into a high-priced studio to make a decent recording. If you fancy yourself as any kind of recording engineer here's your chance to strut your stuff.

The Audiophillie Music Awards For Excellence In Recorded Sound contest is hosted by The Audiophiliac and my friends Jeff Bakalar, Wilson Tang, and Justin Yu over at The 404 podcast. Winners will receive either a Monster Turbine Pro Gold or Pro Copper in-ear headphone, a review on this blog, and we'll play the winning songs on The 404. There will be six winners in all.

This isn't "American Idol"; we're not looking for the next Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood, it's all about the recordings' sound quality.

I like natural-sounding recordings, ones that sound as realistic as possible. Voices should sound like voices, guitars like guitars, etc. You could record your tunes in your bedroom or basement; low-tech, uncompressed, unprocessed sound quality is a plus. Or make yours in a great-sounding space like a church, concert hall, or club.

I wouldn't rule out recordings made on an analog cassette deck (but the entry must be on CD). Or use a portable digital recorder like the Zoom H2. Or your laptop.

Point is, you don't need a lot of expensive gear to make a credible entry, just skill and knowledge of what good sound sounds like.

But I also love recordings that don't bear any relationship to reality. The creative use of effects and processing that take the sound to another level are just as welcome. Go nuts and push the boundaries. Make a sound I've never heard before.

Music categories range from rock, blues, folk, soul, jazz, acoustic, and world music.

The Audiophillie Awards, selected solely by the Audiophiliac, will be reviewed in the Audiophilac blog, and winners will receive (1) set of Monster Turbine Pro Gold or Pro Copper in-ear headphones. Approximate retail value is $399 for the Turbine Pro Copper, and $299 for the Turbine Pro Gold in-ear headphones. I'll review the winners here, and we'll play the winning songs on The 404.

To enter this contest you need to (PDF link) download, print, and complete the contest entry form, which you can also get it from The 404 .

Read the full contest rules to enter after the jump.… Read more

My expectations heading into the Panasonic press event on Wednesday in New York City were pretty low. I'm the audio guy and most of the hubbub was focused on new plasma and LCD displays, and Blu-ray players.

I sat there, eyes glazing over, as Panasonic spokespeople prattled on about "exciting" new advances in Viera Link and PHL Reference Chroma Processor Plus technologies--good times for me! But then something amazing happened: they mentioned sound quality! Trust me, that doesn't happen very often at these things, so I was all ears.

First, the new DMP-BD85 Blu-ray player features an HDMI Jitter Purifier, which, according to Panasonic, "affords clear, robust bass sounds faithful to the original." That sounds like something the PR department dreamed up, but it may be useful. We'll see.

Then they said the DMP-BD85 uses a Digital Tube Sound Simulator to produce the warm sound quality associated with vacuum tube amplifiers! What? They even had a small plastic display box fitted with three small tubes to illustrate the concept. DMP-BD85 owners can select between the "sound" of three different tube effects over the HDMI and 7.1-channel analog audio outputs (or turn off the effect and hear unprocessed sound). They didn't mention it, but this sort of sonic enhancement probably won't be compatible with Dolby or DTS soundtracks. That leaves DVDs, Blu-rays, and CDs encoded with PCM audio.… Read more

And now there are three Monster Turbine in-ear headphones: the original and still great Turbine ($180), Pro Gold ($300) and now Pro Copper ($400). Which one sounds the best?

From the outside the three Turbines' earpieces look the same, differing only in the plated color finish; the standard Turbine's look is, cosmetically at least, my favorite. Its black chrome is the most understated, the Pro Gold is finished in gold, and the new Pro Copper is, you guessed it, copper.

All three Turbine metal earpieces feel solid and sturdier than most in-ear headphones, and my fears that the metal construction would adversely affect comfort in the winter months turned out to be a false alarm.

The Turbines are also heavier than the other in-ear models I've tested, but overall comfort is average, and the generous assortment of eartips included with the Turbines go a long way to toward insuring the best possible eartip-to-ear-canal seal. Like every in-ear headphone I've ever used, if you don't get a proper seal sound quality suffers.

The Copper and Gold models come with two really nice travel pouches, and get this: a one-time, no-questions-asked replacement guarantee. So when you break them you automatically get a new one. Sweet!

But this report will focus on the sound differences between the three models. I still love the Turbine, it's a seriously powerful in-ear headphone, and in early 2009 it immediately became my reference, displacing my trusty old, and more expensive Etymotic ER-4 in-ear headphones. … Read more