Let’s see what the boys are writing about this month!

*Chesky Records has been sold to a Chinese company. Yuk. Oh well, Chesky has made excellent sounding recordings for years. One of the brothers retired and the other is still recording. We have to thank them for their work and can’t blame them for cashing out.

*p17 returns to the Krell saga. The owner died last June and the company is still under water. Last month they told us everything had been worked out. Not so fast. I do understand that Krell has a long history of audio fans. But their gear has always run hot as blazes and goes down regularly. I do feel sorry for owners whose gear was in the barn when the company shuttered. But I’ll happily advise them not to waste their repair money on equipment that will still run hot and break again AFTER you spend a pile to fix it.

*They tell us Advance Paris has come to the US, “a French audio manufacturer.” Um, hey boys, Advance Paris is actually manufactured, subbed out (!!) in friggen China. Do not try to purvey this as a proudly run family company who builds gear in France, as Atoll does! It’s fine to give this line some

publicity, but be forthcoming about what it is- another brand punched out by a Chinese job house.

*They announce ghastly expensive new speaker offerings from Tidal, TAD & Borresen. Who cares?

*They announce new Chinese built Onkyo products that look like the 70s with hideous fake meters.

Again, nobody cares.

*p25 begins a 5p review on a 5” full range speaker from Voxativ. Pages and pages about 5” fullrange drivers that sound like they have no bass in a normal sized living room. Voxativ is known primarily as a company who sells you a pair of its 5” drivers ALONE for $3k-4600 per pair. Wow!

*p31 starts a 5p review about new Klipsch ko-R1 speakers. I’m surprised. I’m a K Heritage dealer and haven’t heard of these. Nobody from K called to give us a heads up. This is a kinda fun TWIST on the $3200 per pair Heresy. It’s kinda crazy that it’s only a 2-way for $8500- with Heresy woofer and 1970s looking tweeter diffraction mechanism. I called my rep to ask about these. He says, “It’s a limited run collaboration with OJAS. Not in production.”

Oh? Then why did you have Stereophile do a 5p review on them? I shake my head, not that I’d be whipped up about this $8500 speaker that looks like it was made in your basement. But I’m a K Heritage dealer and should know about it- if it exists. Holy cow guys!

*p37 begins a discussion about the Loricraft record cleaning machines. You have to hunt through the fine print on p 38 to find out they run $5-6k. In the process you read that the reviewer isn’t a big fan of the cavitation cleaning technology that has been popular in high end cleaning. It has its own ring in a bathtub problems. Even with this new system you have to be careful to use the correct fluid with the correct formulation of vinyl so you DON’T RUIN YOUR RECORDS! He likes Formulation 15 with old records, but of course it has to be rinsed by Formulation 6. Heaven help us.

*p40 goes on for a couple of pages to tell us why we need a new Wally Tools alignment device to properly mount our tonearms. Did you know the tonearm on your turntable is mounted improperly- according to Wally?! The writer says this is very valuable and you need it, for $310. No, I don’t think so. I think Mo-Fi and Rega know what they’re doing. Take a hike, Wally.

Guys, if you buy into all this, p37-41, you need a life.

*p127 reviews the Grimm Audio powered speakers, $26-32k per pair. Yup, only $30k ish for Seas built drivers (8” woof, 1” tweet). Further… $30k gets you 500w D amps tied to the woofs and 120w D amps tied to the tweets, and you can fiddle-fool with DSP options till you go mad. The reviewer liked them, but recommends adding subwoofers, of course. Grimm subs run another $13k.

*p137 brings us the 2.3 pound chassis, with wall wart PSU, for $5000, Wattson streamer/DAC.

DACs are made by Texas Instruments and cost $8.27 from DigiKey. It says it’s made in Switzerland, which explains how it lands at $5k for a streamer with TI DAC chips. They don’t reveal which streaming board they’re using, but almost everyone uses a Stream Unlimited. It works very well and is available in Bluesound starting at $300. It’s just CRAZY to buy an expensive streamer.

*p145 begins a review for a table/arm combo that runs over $50k. You’ve got to be nutso to buy such a thing, to play plastic records that audiophiles can’t even agree on how to clean. Oh, and did you read last month that Stereophile reviewed an integrated amp with multiple RIAA curve options- because there isn’t a standard RIAA EQ! 4P of this nonsense.

*p151 reviews a Technics powered speaker at $3k per pair. It’s a 5.9” two way coax design with 60w for the woofs and 40w for the tweets. Of course it’s made in China with digital inputs like Kef and hundreds of others doing the same thing. And it has EQ and DSP that you can play with and drive yourself wild.

*p159 reviews a Cambridge streamer DAC. It’s only $1800 because of course, it’s made in China, despite the writer saying “From England.” Shame on you guys!

It has their “StreamMagic” platform, which I assume is a Stream Unlimited module, which is fine, they work. It uses a Sabre DAC. I’m sure this thing is OK but I will tell you to buy a Bluesound streamer and save a bundle. Run your streamer into an affordable, FRENCH BUILT Atoll integrated amp and get superior performance.

*p165 brings us Philharmonic speakers, only $2200 pr pair. Not bad, until you analyze what’s in them. They buy their woofers (SB Acoustics) from Indonesia, tweeters (RAAL) from Serbia and the other parts from China. It’s assembled in the US. You can buy the same drivers cheap, from Madisound. Now, I’m sure these guys are trying hard. But Audio Emporium sells speakers that are manufactured in house, not parts off the UPS truck screwed into boxes.

Summary

I realize you have to write about tons of equipment to run a magazine. Every month you have to produce a handful of reviews. You need to write about a variety of products and brands.

I can’t help but be disappointed by some of the same old writing habits though.

When products like Cambridge and Advanced Paris are not called out for being built by Chinese job houses, it doesn’t reveal truth to the reader. The inference of what we’ve read here is that these brands are made in England and France. They’re not!

I’m very touchy about this! I have made the concerted effort to support Atoll. It’s a family owned company who actually DOES make its own electronics in France with a 3 year warranty. Further, Atoll products have very competitive pricing. Let’s break down the nuts and bolts of what is used in Atoll vs anything coming from China. The Atoll will win every time, not to mention, it’s not MADE IN CHINA.

It’s a similar story in speakers. Grimm buys Seas drivers. They’re good. They tie them to D modules and sell for $30k. Are you kidding us? I’m not saying they don’t sound good. But… is that your idea of good value? No, it’s just something to fill pages in a magazine.

Lastly, please buy speakers from people who actually make them. There are plenty of good ones! We sell Bryston and Axiom, that are manufactured in their own house in Canada. We have Magnepan from Minnesota, Atohm from France and Klipsch Heritage from Arkansas. All of these companies make their own drivers and finished speakers. They don’t just assemble components from a parts house, as you would a DIY project.