Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i Stereophile

JOHN GIOLAS ASSUMES MARKETING LEADERSHIP AT CH PRECISION AND WATTSON AUDIO Jason Victor Serinus Industry veteran John Giolas, global director of marketing for Swiss-based Wattson Audio since November 2024, has expanded his portfolio by also becoming global director of marketing for Wattson’s parent company, CH Precision. The appointment, effective July 16, 2025, consolidates marketing strategy across both Swiss brands under Giolas’s direction. “I manage all aspects of content creation, from websites, videos, and visual assets to messaging, social media, and all outward-facing communication,” Giolas told Stereophile. “It’s similar to my former job at Wilson Audio, where I was strictly in charge of marketing for the last six or seven years of my time there. I originally did sales as well, just as I did sales and marketing at dCS. But…

I measured a different sample of the CH Precision C10 from that auditioned by Jim Austin; mine had the serial number 0X651902. The power supply was the same one that he had used; its serial number was 0X651904. I carefully followed the instructions in the manual to connect the processor chassis to the external power supply with the four umbilical cables, one for each channel’s analog circuitry and one for each channel’s control circuitry. The umbilicals were long enough that I could keep the power supply chassis on the floor, well away from the processor. I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system1 for the measurements and used the five small buttons to the right of the frontpanel display to access the setup menu. As JCA told me that he had performed…

Way back in the age when Stereophile’s print magazine was the size of a theater playbill, common wisdom declared that the tube preamp was the ideal complement to solid state amplification. That axiom was rooted in two assumptions: (1) Tube equipment produces softer, warmer, more flowing and pleasing sound than solid state, and (2) transistor-based devices need some softening because their sound is often hard, brittle, and mechanical. The trope was the high-end audio equivalent of the yin/yang stereotype that depicts women as soft, gentle, pliable, and flowing and men hard, harsh, and unyielding. Godzilla the Hun weds the Celestial Mermaid. Over the past few decades, advances facilitated by research, computer modeling, and higher-quality parts have helped transcend the tube-vs–solid state dichotomy. Most of the solid state amps that I’ve…

I performed a full set of measurements on the Bricasti M21 using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system.1 The coaxial S/PDIF, optical TosLink, and AES3 inputs all accepted data sampled at rates up to 192kHz. Apple’s AudioMIDI utility revealed that the USB port accepted 32-bit integer data sampled at all rates from 44.1kHz to 768kHz. The USB Prober app identified the M21 as “MDx” from “Bricasti” and indicated that the USB port operated in the optimal isochronous asynchronous mode. When I connected the Bricasti’s Ethernet port to my network, Roon recognized the processor as “Bricasti M12 Source Controller.” I used optical, USB, and network PCM data for the tests. For logistical reasons, it wasn’t possible to perform any testing with DSD data. I used the remote control to set the Bricasti’s output…

Often nakedly personal and direct in their responses to life events, Shostakovich’s 15 String Quartets can over-whelm with the enigmatic elements that make his music so compelling and unique. Shaped as much by intimate relationships as the repressive political realities that wore him down, they stand as one of the later 20th century’s major musical achievements. The seven quartets Nos. 6–12 that comprise the second volume of Cuarteto Casals’ traversal of Shostakovich’s complete string quartets were completed between August 1956 and the summer of 1968. The first arrived the month before Shostakovich turned 40; the last was composed seven years before his death at age 59. This fertile period commenced shortly after the death of Stalin, when Shostakovich’s music was again able to circulate openly and be performed in the…

Visual aesthetics One aspect that attracts me to a specific brand, along with musical performance of course, is the design and aesthetics. Whether it is the sculptured beauty of a D’Agostino amp, the attractive minimalism of a Hegel, or the hypnotic blue of a McIntosh, there is an artistic merit to these jewels of audio design. Have you considered adding a commentary and rating for aesthetics? Nick Giuffre Toronto, Canada Mr. Giuffre, Most reviewers care about design and visual aesthetics, and they surely affect our ultimate judgment about products we review, if only implicitly, and occasionally we comment. But, though it has limitations, the best way we can address visual aesthetics is to provide good photos. —Jim Austin August issue highlights I was very sad to learn that Bob Lietz of…

On the first page of the Radiant Acoustics Clarity 4.2 Welcome Guide, Radiant Acoustics founder Peter Lyngdorf states, “The first thing you’ll notice when listening to these speakers is the absence of distortion.” Seeing that, my brain responded: I hope not. When I listen to records, the first thing (or things) I want to notice is, who is singing what song and where might they be singing it? I say this without cynicism. I understand that an engineering-focused company is likely to frame the virtues of their products in technical terms. But when I sit down to listen, I want the first thing I notice to be the music and its qualities. Radiant Acoustics of Denmark is a technology-forward enterprise. Its declared intention is to make small, room-friendly speakers that…

I performed a complete set of tests on a different sample of the Octave Jubilee from that auditioned by JVS; mine had the serial number 6119179. I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system1 for the tests, repeating some of the measurements with the magazine’s APx555 system. I was initially confused by the presence of a pair of balanced inputs on the rear panel labeled “Phono,” as I had understood that the Jubilee was a line preamplifier. However, a look at the manual revealed that the “Phono” input is a line-level input intended to be used with an external phono preamp. JVS told me that he exclusively used the Jubilee’s balanced line input and output; the former are labeled “CD SYM,” and a switch next to the XLR jacks allows them to…

These days, listeners the wide world over enjoy hearing their music recreated for them by equipment whose origins are international; trade isolationists might consider the example of PrimaLuna. This Holland-based company’s operations span three continents, with designers from Floyd Design and Durob Audio in the Netherlands, manufacturing in China, and input from California-based Harmonia Distribution. The PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid is a hefty 63.8lb. It’s designed to be used as either a stereo amplifier or, in pairs, as a monoblock ($7195 each, $14,390 for a pair). The handsome grayishblue metal exterior is offered with either a black, pink, or silver-brushed front plate. The front panel is minimalist: just brand labeling and a power-status indicator light. Output specs for the EVO 300 Hybrid are 100Wpc into 8 ohms running stereo, and…

It takes audacity for a company that already builds one of the finest DACs on the planet, which is already expensive, to set out to build one that’s so much better that it warrants an extra digit in the model number and a much higher price tag. But then CH Precision has never lacked audacity. The Swiss company did exactly that not just with their DAC, but with almost their whole line. The newer, pricier 10 series currently includes an amplifier, preamplifier, a transport, an enhanced, redesigned power supply, and a new Master Clock, the T10. Like the 1-series components, the 10-series components are modular: You can get the base model, or you can upgrade to versions with channels separated (one chassis per channel), with the converter itself separated from…

Lars Risbo, the man behind Purifi’s range of innovative drive units, is not only the brand’s co-founder but also the designer of the legendary TacT Millennium amplifier, one of the first genuinely digital class-D amplifiers to emerge in the 1990s and forerunner of the Lyngdorf models of today. That ability to think “out of the box” is equally evident in Lars’s approach to improving the mechanical and electromagnetic parameters of the classic moving-coil driver, realized here in these small-cone, extended-stroke woofers (pictured, below right). Called Ushindi (Swahili for victory), these drivers combine a deep magnet, voice coil and suspension with the exceedingly novel “NeutralSurround” to “exceed the bass performance of a largecone/short-stroke driver.” The new surround profile endows the Ushindi’s smaller cone with a longer, more linear throw—also extending its…

Those of us who review audio equipment, and even audiophiles who don’t, often talk about our reference systems. The term implies a certain level of consistency. If you are changing components every week, your system probably lacks the stability to be a true reference. In the case of reviewers, this presents an irony: Those most in need of a reference system are called on to change out components more frequently than other folks. Our reference systems are intrinsically unstable. How do we deal with this? By maintaining as much stability as we can. When forced to change (as we are often), we change just one component at a time; that way we know exactly what’s responsible for any changes we hear.1 The longest-running component in my system is the Bricasti…

I used my Audio Precision SYS2722 system1 to measure one of the PrimaLuna EVO 300 Hybrid amplifiers that had been auditioned by SM. It had the serial number XA994S8721BN. After making sure the six preamplifier tubes were correctly seated and letting the amplifier operate at low power for 30 minutes, I performed a complete set of tests in both Stereo and Mono modes. The PrimaLuna preserved absolute polarity with both the balanced and singleended inputs in both Stereo and Mono modes. The balanced input XLR jacks are wired with pin 2 hot, the AES standard. A switch on the rear panel allows the gain to be set to Low or High. In Stereo mode with the Low setting, the voltage gain at 1kHz into 8 ohms was 24.2dB, balanced input, and…