Vertere DG-1S, Sabre & Phono-1 record player Where would we be without turntables like the Vertere DG-1S? Think of all those tons of historical vinyl pressings that would be useless if we were unable to access what’s stored in those tiny grooves. As a result, many people have taken very innovative and different approaches to […]
Readers might have the feeling that they have read about this cartridge before on The Ear, in fact quite recently. They are not wholly wrong. There are now two versions of the Dynavector DV-10X5 MkII. In April last year my colleague Chris Kelly wrote about his time with the high output version of the DV-10X5 […]
Origin Live Calypso Mk4 & Illustrious Mk4 Turntable makers come and go. Some endure for a variety of reasons, others bite the dust very quickly. But Origin Live is one of a special breed, an enduring, steadily improving must-have breed that gets under the skin of its owners and provides musical satisfaction for year after year. […]
The best of the best that we have reviewed on the Ear over the last 12 months
Radical styling is not something one associates with moving coil cartridges, there are some brands that use exotic woods and semi-precious stone to imbue their creations with special properties but I don’t recall a mass produced example that looks as radical as the AT-ART20. Their first ART series model, the AT-ART1000 is exotic in tech […]
Turntables come and turntables go, and so do arms, cartridges and the other paraphernalia surrounding vinyl replay. However, unlike the majority of ‘me too’ CD or digital replay systems, many vinyl replay products still manage to have an enduring place in people’s memories, almost regardless of when they were encountered. For my sins I hold […]
Goodness, I can’t recall the last time I was able to put an FM tuner through its paces and yet there was a time when I used to undertake group tests, there were so many coming to the market. Having recently enjoyed the streamer/DAC/integrated SDA200 Signature from French manufacturer Atoll I jumped at the chance […]
OK. So turntables are still the ‘new kid on the block’ after all this time, and still the debates rage regarding whether they should be suspended, rigidly mounted, plinth or no plinth, belt, idler or direct drive… But let’s face it, as with speaker types, or your preferred music to listen to, it’s whether a […]
Let me start with what I believe is a full disclosure statement. I was the very happy owner of a MkI version of this cartridge for several years after I joined the sales staff of a UK retailer back in 2009. It was bought on the strong recommendation of the store manager who described it […]
My first review of the Vertere Acoustics MG-1 MkII turntable was published here in The Ear back on 8 October 2019. It was awarded a well-deserved 5 Stars by our esteemed editor and I subsequently nominated it as one of my products of the year. So why, a reasonable person might ask, do we need […]
I have been involved in reviewing hi-fi equipment for some time now, but only occasionally have I been genuinely excited but also nervous about receiving a piece of equipment to audition. When the editor told me that his request to Linn Audio for a review sample of their range-topping LP12 had been approved, I actually […]
At the last Bristol show, in the carefree days of February 2020, Rega launched its first all in one system and called it the Rega System One. Thanks to the pandemic the first examples of this system didn’t reach the shops until December last year, with a price only a bit higher than that given […]