The Absolute Sound February 2023

Email the Editor: rharley@nextscreen.com or: TAS, 2500 McHale Ct., Ste. A, Austin, Texas 78758 David Hafler's Legacy I just got the issue inducting three new members into The Absolute Sound's High-End Audio Hall of Fame [Issue 333]. I thought all the new members [David Hafler, Andrew Payor, Paul Barton] were fine choices. I have a few comments about David Hafler. Mentioning Hafler's effect on other companies made me think of a significant contribution not mentioned in the article—his purchase of Ortofon. In the early 70s, after selling Dynaco, Hafler bought Ortofon and increased its market share by at least an order of magnitude in the few years he owned it. He deserves credit for that. In his tribute, Dick Olsher wrote about how the Dynaco Stereo 70 became the foundation for many modified…

Most audiophiles pay more attention to an amplifier's power-output spec than they do to a speaker's sensitivity rating. Yet those two specs carry equal weight in determining how loudly a system will play. Consider the Göbel Divin Noblesse speaker featured on this issue's cover. It has a sensitivity rating of 95dB—a very high figure. The Göbel will produce the same volume with a 30W amplifier as an 86dB-sensitive speaker with a 240W amplifier. In addition to needing less power, high-sensitivity speakers seem to confer certain sonic qualities that low-sensitivity speakers just don't deliver to the same degree, particularly the sense of lifelike immediacy and dynamic verve. It's not that low-sensitivity speakers can't sound dynamic and lifelike, only that these qualities seem to come more easily and universally to high-sensitivity designs, in…

THE REFERENCE MC is Nagra's first cartridge. Designed in parallel with, but not exclusively for, the Nagra 70th Anniversary Reference turntable/tonearm system, the Reference MC employs a multi-layer transducer with a double-layer coil body, wound with hyper-pure silver windings. A ruby cantilever is mated to a titanium structure featuring a DLC (diamond-like carbon) coating. The titanium structure addresses a traditional source of resonance and substantially reduces vibration unrelated to the musical signal. The stylus tip is a Swiss-produced Fritz Gyger S profile chosen for its detail retrieval and musicality. Developing the cartridge body led the team to an aerospace-researched, non-ferrous alloy of very high damping properties called EXIUMÒ AM. It proved to be ideal for use in audio applications, where the elimination of vibrations and resonances is critical. It's inlaid…

SourcePoint 10 is the result of 18 months of research and development led by Chief Speaker Designer Andrew Jones. Noteworthy is MoFi's own custom driver—a 10-inch-diameter two-way concentric that both minimizes spurious cone movement and produces deep bass. MoFi worked from a paper-pulp mix and developed a cone shape that both optimizes resonant behavior and meets the requirements of the tweeter waveguide. The 1.25” soft dome tweeter is capable of working at the 1.6kHz crossover point due to its wide-roll surround and large-diameter voice coil. SourcePoint 10 is driven by a magnet system that MoFi calls “Twin-Drive.” Jones selected high-flux neodymium magnets for the woofer and tweeter that are precisely coupled to create a compound effect: Each aids the other in driving the flux across the woofer and tweeter gaps.…

THE NEW PLATINUM Series 3G series from England's Monitor Audio features a third-generation, Micro Pleated Diaphragm (MPD III), high-frequency transducer, which reduces distortion and flattens frequency response. The waveguide provides controlled directivity, improving both soundstage and sensitivity. The new midrange and bass drivers on the Platinum 200 3G, 300 3G, and 250 3G models sport improvements, as well. The drivers feature light but strong, third-generation, Rigid Diaphragm Technology (RDT III) cones that when coupled to the optimized and contoured cone surround and spider makes the drivers the lowest distortion of any speaker in MA's history. U pgraded bass drivers feature large-diameter edge-wound underhung voice coils. The curved front profile reduces diffraction, and new aluminum driver frames and tension rods secure the drivers to the cabinet for an almost vibration-free enclosure.…

Audiophiles tend to be highly opinionated, particularly about competing technologies—analog versus digital, conventional LP mastering versus half-speed, tubes versus transistors, 33rpm LPs versus 45rpm…the list goes on. But most of these opinions are formed from an accumulation of random anecdotal experiences over many years rather than by direct, apples-to-apples comparisons of the technologies in question. The only way to really know how an audio technology affects the sound, and in what ways it differs from an alternative technology, is to perform a side-to-side comparison in which the only variable is the technology under evaluation. Such comparisons are nearly impossible, unless you are a recording engineer with the ability to make recordings of the same performance using different technologies. Now, however, anyone can make these direct comparisons with a unique new LP from…