$55,000

Though it looks the same and operates via the same controls as its 2023 POY Award-winning predecessor, the Ultima5, Greg Beron’s new Ultima Apollo deck doesn’t sound the same. In fact, it doesn’t sound like any previous Ultima that JV has auditioned. With an entirely new EQ circuit and a beefed-up gain stage, it is “darker” in overall tonal balance (more “bottom-up”) than any previous UHA offering, save for the SuperDeck. Instruments in the bass range not only sound better resolved, more present, denser in color, more three-dimensional, and more powerful, they also sound deeper going, as if the deck had added another half-octave on the very bottom and some extra energy in the midbass. The midband shows this same increase in presence, color, solidity, and impact, while the top treble is still soft, smooth, and slightly rolled. It’s as if the frequency-response curve that the AES currently recommends for loudspeakers (a boost in the bass with extension down to 20Hz and a gradual roll-off in the treble above 1.5kHz) has somehow been incorporated in the Apollo’s new equalization stage. The result is a marked increase in bass-range extension, definition, and density of tone color, in overall listenability, in three-dimensional solidity top to bottom, and in the lifelike continuousness that makes an ensemble of instruments sound as if they are playing together in the same space, without any loss of their individual contributions.

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$27,000

Here is yet another outstanding high-end component from France. Gallic engineer Christophe Martinez devoted four years of his life to designing and building this brand-new, two-track, quarter-inch, 15ips/7½ips reel-to-reel tape player, developing (entirely on his own) the deck’s physical design and layout, the eq and gain electronics, the tape playback and wind/rewind path (including the “strain-gauge” sensors that maintain tape tension at 0.5gm and read and correct errors in less than a millisecond), and the unique, built-in, multi-function touchscreen that is the brain of the unit. The result is rather incredible, especially given the price. Here is a deck with a level of utility and convenience that is unrivaled in my experience. Virtually every playback parameter can be set or adjusted via a tap on its touchscreen. Of course, none of this ergonomic excellence would matter if the TP-1000 didn’t sound great, which, I’m happy to report, it does. Although its treble is a bit less extended than that of, say, the Ultima Apollo, everything else about its sound would make it hard to choose between it and its more costly rivals. Listening to 15ips R2Rs will never be a bargain, given the ongoing cost of acquiring those tapes, but as the best new and completely refurbished tape decks go, the TP-1000 is a bit of a steal. (350)

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$55,000 (with outboard DC power supply)

This has been a very good year for reel-to-reel tape recorders. As you will see, I auditioned two decks that knocked me for a (playback) loop. The first is the latest unit from old hand Greg Beron of United Home Audio—the Ultima Apollo. Seeing that I’d given its older brother, the Ultima5 OPS-DC, a Golden Ear and a POY award in 2023, you might wonder, as I did, how much difference a year or two could make. Well, in this case, it makes a spectacularly large and impressive one. With a plethora of technical improvements and an all-new high-quality EQ system, the Apollo sounded considerably better than any Ultima deck I’ve heard, with newfound power, color, detail, density, and extension in the bottom octaves, the midbass, and the lower midrange and sweet, edgeless sparkle and air in the upper mids and treble. I listened to Greg’s statement three-piece SuperDeck for about a month, and to my ear the Apollo comes very, very close to its sonics—for about half the price. This is just an outstanding tape player from a man with long experience building superb (and superbly reliable) decks. (Forthcoming)

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Phonomena III $1200, LPS $1000

The culmination of the several phonostages Mike Yee has been designing for Musical Surroundings since the late 90s, the Phonomena III now boasts parts, circuitry, and sonic performance superior to every previous version without deviating from the original’s two fundamental constants: one, the widest choice of loading options for moving-coil pickups and capacitance options for moving magnets, plus gain options for either; two, a sonic profile that places a high priority upon tonal neutrality. With 256 different choices for load and gain, there isn’t an mc or mm past or present that the III can’t ideally accommodate for the most neutral frequency response the pickup is capable of. Sonically, the III has a wider dynamic window, lower noise, greater headroom, gain, transparency, detail, and resolution. There’s also a new-found impression of roundedness, dimensionality, and density of tone and body. (Those critics who found previous versions insufficiently revealing of color—I’m not among them—should be happy.) Don’t let the relatively modest pricing fool you. In a market full of outboard phono preamps costing tens of thousands of dollars more, you won’t find another at any price that offers its range of flexibility to match any pickup out there with a commensurate level of technical and sonic performance. With excellent build-quality, parts, engineering, and reliability, it comes supplied with a wall wart power supply; the optional Linear Power Supply raises the performance in key areas (notably noise and dynamic range). Either way, it displaces previous versions as my current reference. (Forthcoming)

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$3695

PrimaLuna’s first standalone phonostage accepts both mm and low-output mc cartridges. Rather than use the conventional mc solution of either a step-up transformer or a solid-state stage for generating an additional 20dB or so of gain, PrimaLuna opted for a 6922 dual triode gain stage connected as a grounded grid circuit. Combined with the 40dB of gain generated by the mm stage, the total gain is 60dB—more than enough to satisfy any mc. It’s an absolutely fabulous tube extravaganza. Not only are both gain stages tube based, but add tube rectification and tube regulation via a pair of EL34 pentodes, and you have a unique circuit solution. The EVO 100 uses active inverse RIAA EQ based on feedback loops, emulating such classics as the Marantz 7 and Audio Research SP3a. System integration is super-easy via front-panel selectable mc input-impedance settings. For those of us addicted to tube sound, the EVO 100 is a godsend. It serves up a luscious midrange without losing sight of resolution, as well as the image focus and 3D soundstaging, that are tubes’ traditional strengths. This superlative phonostage elevates the vinyl playback experience to new heights. It has magnified DO’s enjoyment level to the point where he just can’t stop spinning vinyl. Truly a sonic masterpiece! (345)

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$45,000 (10″)/$49,000 (12″)

The Air Force 10 pivoted air-bearing tonearm is both an engineering marvel and a sonic delight. Created by the late Hideaki Nishikawa-san, the designer of the mighty Air Force Zero table, it traverses the grooves of an LP with an unusual degree of suavity, particularly in the treble region. Overall, there is a cashmere-like quality to the sound. Composed of exotic materials such as titanium and tungsten, the Air Force 10 employs an external air pump box to float a horizontal air bearing. This bearing, in turn, helps eliminate friction and drag as the arm tube glides across the record. It’s hard to argue with the outcome.

To a remarkable degree, this sophisticated tonearm seems to exercise a liberating effect upon the music, transforming the complex process of extracting sound from LPs into a seemingly effortless task, as guitars, clarinets, and brass instruments veritably shimmer in the air. Add in a massive soundstage and gobs of dynamic prowess, and you have a sophisticated piece of engineering that conveys everything from rock to classical with unequivocal authority and grace. After years of patient research and design, TechDAS deserves high praise for creating another analog reference product. (Forthcoming)

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$25,000

I had this sinking feeling I was headed for trouble. While refreshing my memory of the history of Basis Audio for my review of the company’s first new (and most affordable) turntable in ages, dubbed the Bravo (see issue 341), I read these words from Editor-in-Chief Robert Harley’s 2016 review of the Basis SuperArm 9: “There’s one specific component swap that in my view delivers such a large increase in performance that it will likely dwarf any potential improvement in amplification, cables, and even many speakers. That upgrade is moving up from the Basis Vector IV tonearm to the recently introduced Basis SuperArm 9.”

Like Robert, I’d been a highly satisfied owner of Basis’ Vector 4 tonearm, a brilliantly innovative design that the late Basis founder A.J. Conti perfected over the course of 16 years before deciding it was ready for production.

What makes the Vector special is also fundamental to the SuperArm and is actually identical in both models—a dual-bearing system of Conti’s design that mitigates the dynamic azimuth error found in unipivot tonearms, which tend to “roll” side-to-side as the stylus tracks the irregularities of an LP’s groove modulations. Conti’s brilliant solution employs a secondary “stabilizer” bearing that the arm “leans” into, as the arm is asymmetrically weighted via a halfmoon-shaped cutout in the counterweight. Exceptionally stable, the design also eliminates bearing chatter and demonstrably reduces mistracking, as Basis arms hug the grooves like a speeding Porsche on a snaky mountain road.

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$370,000

There’s a reason 122,000 YouTube viewers have so far watched and listened on the Tracking Angle channel to the Wilson-Benesch GMT One direct-drive turntable system playing back the UHQR 45rpm version of Steely Dan’s “Babylon Sisters.” Despite YouTube’s 256kbps bit-rate, listeners can easily hear this system’s spectacular “musicality,” detail resolution, and absence of additive resonant characteristics on a track familiar to most everyone listening. A transcription of “Walk on the Wild Side” gets the same response. The usual troll comments are MIA, as people are disarmed and floored by what they hear, aided by the CH Precision P10 used to amplify the signal. They should only hear it “live!” The cost is extreme, but at least it includes the carefully designed stand, active pneumatic suspension, tonearm, and cartridge. Somehow this system brings out the best from every musical genre. It rocks with the greatest grit and authority, swings mightily, and delivers the concert hall’s acoustic space and the orchestra’s timbral and textural verisimilitude better than any turntable I’ve so far heard. The years of R&D that went into this project have surely paid off. There’s nothing mysterious about this system’s performance, once you work your way through the accompanying academic documentation that at some point I hope W-B makes available to the public. Less costly versions will “trickle down,” including one introduced at Munich High End 2024 that knocks off $100k but delivers essentially identical performance—if you have a solid floor. (350)

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$76,000

More than a year after obtaining one for review and later purchasing it, I’ve heard no phono preamp that betters or comes close to the P10’s transparency, dynamic authority, background quiet, transient and timbral “rightness,” and ability to set up and maintain a “reach out and touch it” soundstage. Its four-input, remote-controlled versatility matches its sonics. I can’t remember, but if I gave the P10 a Golden Ear last year, it deserves another one this year.

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$5000/$6000 (9″/12″)

A tonearm that breaks price/performance-ratio standards, design innovation rules, and set-up peculiarities. Once heard, you’ll never forget the newness and bold musical deliverance it extracts from the grooves of your most familiar records. The Blackbird employs a horizontally oriented unipivot bearing parallel to the record that works with and not at 90-degree opposition to the stylus’ groove travel. The setup is in some ways “el primitivo”—for instance the counterweight is a rectangular magnet hanging from a fixed “thrust box” that you slide fore and aft and left and right to set both tracking force and azimuth—but once you get the “hang” of it and hear the results, you won’t care. And the price could rightly be described as 1/10^th of the delivered performance. For once, the over-the-top unanimous reviews are correct. They result from a “heard” not a “herd” mentality. (Forthcoming)

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