High Fidelity

Contents

No. 239 April 2024

COVER REVIEW: Muarah MT-3 & MY-1/9 ⸜ turntable & tonearm » POLAND
KRAKOW SONIC SOCIETY ⸜ meeting № 145: POLSKIE NAGRANIA (Polish Recordings label) on SACD, with Damian Lipiński onboard » POLAND/Kraków
REVIEW: Carbide Audio CARBIDE BASE ⸜ anti-vibration feet » USA
REVIEW: Fezz Audio EQUINOX EVO ⸜ digital-to-analog converter » POLAND
REVIEW: Marton OPUSCULUM OMNI V1.0 ⸜ integrated amplifier » POLAND
REVIEW: Norma Audio Electronics REVO IPA-80 ⸜ integrated amplifier » ITALY

TSURU FOR JAPAN

CONVERSATIONS

Red Fingerprint

I am not sure if you remember, but some time ago “High Fidelity” honored especially interesting devices with a distinction “Product of the month”. We awarded it for the first time in issue nr. 3, from July 2004 – that were the Penaudio Alba loudspeakers. We awarded this distinction for the last time two years later, in July 2006 (Nr 27). I wrote then, that we abandoned this idea due to a culmination of bad emotions related to that – those were the emotions of most distributors and a part of the Polish manufacturers. We let go of the idea of award products during the year, because – I say it straight – I was fed up with whining, moaning and hissed questions, emails with question marks, exclamation signs and having to prove, I am not a horse. And it was a pity, because besides the Product of the Year awards, which were the only “confirmed” waypoints for the readers, the choice of one, most interesting product seemed interesting and valuable for me.
But nothing is lost, probably time had to pass until a new idea would come. And it came, when I listened to the USB DAC Ibuki from the company Musica. The device, which is neither especially well built, nor any rocket science used to construct it, using and – in fact – obsolete chip, sounded in such a way, that I did not want to close the computer, and after the test (writing this text) I returned to it many times just for pure pleasure.
What is also important, this is not the best DAC I heard, or even the best I had at home. But it had something in its sound, that gave enormous joy, what tied me to the headphones for hours. And while there are lots of devices better than it is, everything in the sound of the Ibuki is in its place, everything together switched something on inside me.
And it was during the listening session to the Musica that I decided to reactivate the idea of awarding devices during the year. This time it will be a more subjective award than the Product of the Month, or Product of the Year. I call it the “Red Fingerprint”, after the idea of leaving a “fingerprint” in my mind.
How many awards will be granted – I do not know. In a given issue they may be none, or they may be two or three. I only know, that there will not be many of them. And not because there are no valuable products. Like I underlined many times, the amount of test we are able to do is limited (about 8 per month), this is why the selection of devices for testing is very thorough. And yet some of the products we choose and listen to do not reach the publication stage – if some unit does not live up to our expectations, then we just resign from testing it. We do not know, if we did not make any mistake, or if the device is not damaged, or the reference system not fitting to the testing unit, etc. Are there doubts – we resign. This is the politics of our magazine, and we stick to it for seven years.
Despite the Red Fingerprint being a very subjective distinction, I hope, that it will be helpful, for at least some of you, be it only for assessing, what is my musical (sound) sensitivity, and if it is compatible with yours. Because regardless of how much we try to make our test objective, how much we try to eliminate all the unknowns, how well we define the methodology, in the end there is always a human, like in all areas, where there is place for an interpretation. And each human has his or her opinion.

V-CAP CuTF 1 μF capacitors for the Ayon Polaris III

You probably remember, that when I bought for me the CD player Ancient Audio AIR I ordered it with the output capacitors exchanged for the V-CAP. And because the choice turned out to be a shot in the bull’s eye, I exchanged the coupling capacitors in my Leben CS-300 X [Custom Version] to similar ones – the CuTF version, with copper plates. This was a good move. The capacitors were very expensive, but now I cannot imagine to return to the standard ones. This is why I wrote to Chris VenHaus, the owner of VH-Audio, manufacturer of the V-CAP-s to recommend some capacitors for my preamplifier Ayon Audio Polaris II. Chris recommended the oil version, because the biggest CuTF had a capacity of 0.47μF. Shortly afterwards Gerhard Hirt, the owner of Ayon called me and told, that he prepared something special for me – a new power supply for my preamplifier. It turned out to be the AC-Regenerator that changed my Polaris II into Polaris III. I was the first user of that version in the world. This was a giant step forward – the preamplifier sounded so well, that instead of testing it, I just listened to it and tested other things, taking its sound for granted. And this is how the premiere test was gone…
Sometime later Chris called me with the news, that he made 1µF CuTF capacitors especially for me, exactly what I needed for the Polaris. Also this time, the capacitors needed some extra shelf time (4 months) – but I think, that it is time to have a closer look at them – I promise, that I will prepare a test of the Polaris with those capacitors shortly.

Plans

We plan the following test for July:

the British stand mount loudspeakers Monitor Audio 40.1,
the Danish power amplifier (monoblocks) Vitus Audio with a preamplifier,
the American DAC Wyred4Sound DAC2,
DAC and headphone amplifier Antelope Audio Zodiac Gold + Voltikus,
the German turntable Transrotor Rondino,
the British multiformat player Cambridge Audio Azur 571BD,
Array electronics (earlier sold under the brand van den Hul),
the new, top cabling from the American Acoustic Zen.

As usual – we will see what will come out of that.

Wojciech Pacuła
Editor in Chief

About Us

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Our reviewers regularly contribute to “Enjoy the Music.com”, “Positive-Feedback.com”, “HiFiStatement.net” and “Hi-Fi Choice & Home Cinema. Edycja Polska” .

"High Fidelity" is a monthly magazine dedicated to high quality sound. It has been published since May 1st, 2004. Up until October 2008, the magazine was called "High Fidelity OnLine", but since November 2008 it has been registered under the new title.

"High Fidelity" is an online magazine, i.e. it is only published on the web. For the last few years it has been published both in Polish and in English. Thanks to our English section, the magazine has now a worldwide reach - statistics show that we have readers from almost every country in the world.

Once a year, we prepare a printed edition of one of reviews published online. This unique, limited collector's edition is given to the visitors of the Audio Show in Warsaw, Poland, held in November of each year.

For years, "High Fidelity" has been cooperating with other audio magazines, including “Enjoy the Music.com” and “Positive-Feedback.com” in the U.S. and “HiFiStatement.net” in Germany. Our reviews have also been published by “6moons.com”.

You can contact any of our contributors by clicking his email address on our CONTACT page.

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