Designer looks, battleship build quality, superior sonics... Ken Kessler is beguiled by an amplifier that shows off its manufacturer’s true colours
True story: a knowledgeable audiophile arrives at my listening room in mid-November. Pink Triangle’s Integral integrated amplifier is driving a set of Wharfedale Diamond 8.1s, its badge covered with tape. I state to this collector of some repute with a memory spanning 35 years, ‘You will never guess who made this amplifier. Never’.
This month we review and test releases from Anne Drummond & Café, Roger Eno, Nadia Tarnawsky/Cappella Romana, Bill Cunliffe and The Devin Daniels Quintet
This month we review and test releases from: Sun Ra Arkestra; Janine Jansen and Klaus Mäkelä; Arild Andersen; Trondheim Jazz Orchestra & Espen Berg; and Michael Dease
Bargains are something we like, so an all-valve pre/power combination for under £7000 is worthy of all our attention – say ‘hello’ to Fezz Audio’s Sagita Prestige and Titania
Baffled by its name, I assumed Polish manufacturer ‘Fezz’ took it from its distinctive toroidal transformer covers, which reflect the shape of the famous Moroccan hat if not the city itself. Here was a valve amplifier with the full complement of toroidal transformers – not all that common with tubes – but there’s even more novelty to the Sagita Prestige preamplifier (£3499) and Titania power amplifier (£3495). Eastern European price advantages are just the start.
EAT’s first-ever phono amplifier, the all-valve E-Glo, is retiring after a decade of service. Its replacement is the E-Glo 2 with fresh styling, balanced inputs and illumination!
After ten faultless years of duty, my trusty reference phono stage, the EAT E-Glo, has been superseded by the E-Glo 2 (£7999). The changes turn out to be more than merely cosmetic, as I was first led to believe in a hasty conversation with EAT (European Audio Team) founder and CEO Jozefina Lichtenegger. She matter-of-factly explained that, due to customer demand, the company redesigned the look of the E-Glo in a number of ways.
Hi-fi’s style icons of the ’60s are reimagined here over a half century later combining a sympathetic industrial design with a performance beyond the reach of its ancestors
It’s taken long enough but Quad has finally revived one of the best-selling pre/power amp combinations of all time. Between 1967 and 1982, 120,000 Quad 33 ‘control units’ were sold, while the 303 power amplifier remained in production until 1985 to reach 94,000 sales. So these new Quad 33 and 303 models have big shoes to fill, but retaining the original model designations and dimensions are a start. And that’s pretty much where the resemblance stops. Welcome to the 21st century.
To celebrate a half century of the Wilson Audio family brand, it returns to its founding and arguably most iconic loudspeaker - The WATT, with bass support from the Puppy!
Whether it be cars or guitars, anniversaries benefit small manufacturers because they present authentic marketing opportunities. One of these is a reason to release a special model while another is to declare one's provenance. You can't fake longevity, so the real value is that anniversaries cannot be 'made up' as they arrive only with the passage of time. And while it's hard to believe, 2024 marks the first half-century of Utah-based Wilson Audio Specialties, and the designated birthday cake is The WATT/Puppy you see here.
Is this the largest cartridge manufacturer we've never heard of? Stepping out of the OEM shadows to unveil its own-brand MCs, Skyanalog looks set to be a major disruptor
Two things struck me when PM said we'd be reviewing a cartridge from a new manufacturer. The first thought, from my glass-half-empty side, was: do we really need another? But the second was: this must be proof that the vinyl revival is substantial enough to warrant it. When told that the company was planning a 25th anniversary model, my curiosity about Skyanalog was truly piqued. 'New' it most certainly isn't.