KLH Model 5 $2000 Per Pair: Price Includes Risers

Walnut or Mahogany Finishes

(34.25h on riser, 13.73w, 13d, 52 lbs, 6 ohms, 90.5 dB)

A new KLH-5 has just been introduced to the market. What is different about KLH-5 vs a zillion other speakers?

First of all, it uses a SEALED cabinet- there’s no port. This helps tighten the bass. It doesn’t have the FAT sound most speakers have. If you prefer bass definition to thud, consider Model 5.

A sealed speaker has “air spring” within the cabinet. The drivers have to be solid to behave properly under this pressure wave. Of course KLH has paid attention to this detail with cast drivers.

It isn’t coupled to your floor. It comes with riser stands (5% tilt). The acoustic suspension design and inclined risers create well delineated bass. Both techniques are employed to achieve taut, vs sloppy bass.

It is a legit 10” 3-way. You have a dedicated midrange driver to help purvey clear vocals.

The tweet is a 1” aluminum dome. The 4” mid (housed in its own enclosure) and 10’ woof (with 6 pound magnet!) are comprised of pulp fiber. The cabinet is internally braced just above the woofer within the enclosure. Most are not! There is a 3 position acoustic balance control to allow you to tune the timbre to your room.

The crossover is sophisticated with Mylar caps.

The warranty is a generous ten years!

The grill that comes with the walnut version is an off white linen design. The mahogany finish comes with wheat colored grills. You can buy linen grills a la carte for the mahogany finish, but it’s an upcharge of $200. The grills are magnetically attached and affix easily.

The essence of this new speaker is to present sound with plenty of presence and taut

bass. While KLH-5 is efficient enough to be driven by any amp, it will reward you for using something special. How about Hegel for example?

Hegel H-390 Integrated Amp $6000

(250×2, 5.71h, 16.93w, 17.32d, 44 lbs)

Hegel’s H-390 integrated amp is among the smartest purchases in high end audio!

First of all, it is a great integrated amp by any measure. It has enough power to drive any speakers quite well. Beyond having a lot of power, more importantly, Hegel has prodigious damping factor. To compete with H-390, you’d need to buy a stack of separates that will run you about $12-15k from anyone else.

H-390 delivers a damping factor of over 4000. You’ll find most 250×2 amps have a damping factor of about 250-500. What does this mean? Damping factor is like torque. A VW Beetle with go 70. So will a truck. Which will pull your boat? H-390 will control your speakers as a lesser amp cannot.

Hegel has a patented technology called the SoundEngine 2. Why?

Amplifiers have output transistors. They are not exactly alike. In fact, with mass production of thousands being built, the dozen or so transistors that end up in YOUR amplifier, are likely to be quite varied in performance.

Think of 6 transistors for the R channel, and 6 for the L channel. All 12 are essentially tuning forks- that don’t play the same frequency. Instead of having 12 identical “tuning forks” you have 12 different ones. The frequency they’re playing is slightly blurry as they work as a group. The more you have, the louder, and more fuzzy the response.

Old guy audiophiles (guilty!) remember that when a company made a monster power amp, the same company’s smaller power amps sounded more detailed and less gritty. This was primarily because the less expensive amp only had a plus and minus transistor per channel. The big boy amps might have used a dozen per channel. Sure, they played louder. But they also sounded more harsh.

Back to the point… SoundEngine2 is Hegel’s patented control system to ensure that the output transistors WILL work in precise harmony. Your tuning forks will play the pure frequency desired. They won’t be smeared.

H-390 uses a DISCRETE preamp. The preamp section of H-390 is comprised of hand matched components in Norway. Hegel insists this is vital to attain its pristine clarity and vivid colors of sound. Op amps simply can’t perform as musically. By the way, all the Hegel integrateds, even entry level H-95, have these matched parts in the preamp.

H-390 has a SyncroDAC on board that is as good as you can get. Hegel shakes hands with the native digital signal and does not upscale or bugger with it. Hegel feels SyncroDAC sounds better than trying to process the sound. Traditional asynchronous DACs upscale or PROCESS the sound. In so doing, the result is typically the same as the output transistor discussion above. Or, another analogy would be… back when TVs had relatively few lines, you could see the lines in the picture. If you employed a line doubler to soften the lines, the device tried to fill in information between the lines. Of course it was somewhat artificial. While the line intensity was softened- so was the picture.

You’ll love the SynchroDAC’s high resolution.

Hegel H-190 Integrated Amp $4000

(150×2, 4.75h, 16.93w, 16.45d, 42 lbs)

Fortunately, everything you read above this for H-390, holds true for H-190 as well! H-190 is a less powerful little brother. It uses a bit smaller transformer, caps and fewer transistors. It has the same sound, sans a bit of the weight that big brother has!

Hegel H-95 Integrated Amp $2000

(60×2, 4h, 17w, 13d, 25 lbs)

We just got another batch of H-95s in! This is the entry level Hegel integrated, yet it still has SoundEngine 2 and the SynchroDAC. H-95 has a more immediate and dynamic sound than main stream brands like Yamaha, Denon etc. Buy it before the price hike!

Steve Moore “The Mad Drummer”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blbM6dwtC1Y

Wipeout!

Bryston Middle T: $6870 Per Pair

(39.4h, 10.4w, 16.3d, 81 lbs, 88 dB SPL, 20 Year Warranty!)

Who would be a candidate to buy the Bryston Middle T speakers?

How about… someone who wants large and powerful sound without adding subs?

How about … someone who wants reference level size and scale but doesn’t have room for a monster tower?

There are middle linebackers, and then there are Nitschke and Butkus who broke the mold.

Middle T falls into that category!

Middle T is a great sounding speaker regardless of size. The bullet point not to miss here is that Middle T is not enormous. It’s under 40” tall. If you take a look at any $2k tower these days, they’re virtually all significantly taller boxes without anywhere near the muscle of Bryston.

Middle T is Steinway smooth and yet has bass that will explode out of your floorboards if its in the music. But you have to pay attention how to make it sing.

Middle T is, as much or more than any speaker system, going to show you what your amplifier is made of. If you hook Middle T up to a sissy, it will sound just OK. If you hook it up to an amp with some serious octane, you’ll hear it fire barbells across your room! Seriously, Middle T will perform anywhere from stunning, to pedestrian- based on what you run it with.

If you want to hear Middle T at its best, of course consider a Bryston 4B Cubed power amp, $6800 (300×2). If you don’t want to spend $6800 on an amp…

Please consider the brand new NAD C-298 ($2000, 185×2) Eigentakt designed amp that will light up Middle T like no amp short of a Bryston! C-298 is a Ferrari and will make the Middle Ts sound downright ferocious! You don’t need a $7k ish amp to make Middle T sound spectacular. Oh, and by the way you can bridge C-298s (620w mono).

Or, you might consider NAD’s C-275BEE ($1400, 150×2) and Middle T will love it. Please don’t run middle T with flimsy amp or surround receiver. Middle T will swallow them whole.

Middle T uses two massively constructed 8” ceramic coated aluminum, cast frame woofers. These are the kind of woofer drivers that subwoofers are jealous of. They’re housed in the 81 pound cabinet which is thick and generously reinforced with a complex bracing network.

Middle T uses one ceramic coated aluminum midrange driver, housed within its own enclosure in the cabinet. Middle T uses one Titanium tweeter, also housed within its own enclosure within the cabinet.

When you analyze the hardware you’re getting for your money, Middle T offers a substantial- built in Canada- value with a TWENTY YEAR warranty. When you see Middle T in the flesh, you’ll be surprised at how small it looks. When we hook it up to substantial electronic mates, you’ll be surprised at how large it casts a soundstage, complete with earth quaking testosterone.

By the way, Bryston and Axiom have merged to become one company. Since 2012, Bryston CEO James Tanner has designed Bryston loudspeakers. Hence the T designation. Bryston funded the speaker project and hired Axiom (friends down the road a piece) to do the actual build out, because Bryston didn’t have the logistical space and staff in its Peterborough facility. The business has flourished and now we’ll expect an even more synergistic relationship since the companies are now ONE.

Hegel V-10 Phono Preamp $1500

Hegel’s Bent Holter has turned his attention to phono preamps! The new V-10 is already turning heads as a phono preamp that competes with the best available, running $3k plus.

V-10 supports MM&MC, of course. V-10 offers BALANCED and single ended outs. At $1500!!

V-10 is an all out Hegel assault on the top phono preamps on the market.

As always, Hegel thinks outside the box. V-10 has:

*MM&MC with numerous adjustments

*Low noise J-FET transistor design for both MM&MC

*Subsonic Filter

*MC settings: 33-550 ohms

*Comprehensive capacitance load settings (MM 100-467pF)

*Output jacks are XLR and RCA!

The chassis is divided into two compartments. The power supply is physically separated from the electronics. If you missed it above, please note that V-10 does have BALANCED outs as well as RCA. Hegel’s biggest problem is making enough V-10s. They’re way behind in production on integrated amps with C-19 clobbering their supply chain. Hopefully we’ll get enough V-10s to support you serious vinyl lovers.

RIP Chick Corea (1941-2021)

We’ve lost the ever versatile and talented (with 25 grammys) Chick Corea. Chick played with Miles Davis in the 60s and was a pioneer of jazz fusion, forming Return To Forever in the 70s. Time is flying by. I can’t believe Chick was 79!