Jason Victor Serinus

Russian Romantic Piano Trio Bonanza
Jason Victor Serinus
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 16, 2019  |  0 comments
Romantics rejoice! In an age where ice seems to melt faster than hearts, there are still great musicians who uphold the Russian tradition of romantic music. Vadim Gluzman, Johannes Moser, and Yevgeny Sudbin may not (yet) have the cachet of David Oistrakh, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Sviatoslav Richter, who famously came together with Herbert von Karajan to record Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, but their new SACD of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50, and Arno Babajanian’s sole Piano Trio (BIS-2372) places them firmly in the grand Russian tradition of emotive, give-it-all-you’ve-got musicianship.
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Audio Vision SF’s 20th Anniversary Premiere-filled Celebration
News
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 04, 2019  |  10 comments
Audio Vision SF, one of San Francisco’s two major high-end dealerships, celebrated its 20th anniversary on September 27–29 with a three-day celebration in two locations.
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Accustic Arts Audio Mono II monoblock power amplifier
Solid State Power Amp Reviews
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Oct 01, 2019  |  26 comments
Accustic Arts of Lauffen, Germany, was founded in 1997 by Fritz Schunk, who sold the company to Hans-Joachim "Jochen" Voss in 2016. Voss's professional background had more to do with sweet spreads than sweet sounds—he spent 20 years doing sales and marketing, including with the Ferrero Group, which produces Nutella—but he happened to own some Accustic Arts components, and as a music-loving consumer with a special fondness for rock, had been in touch with Schunk for many years before the company went up for sale.
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Amazon Music Goes High-Rez
News
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Sep 17, 2019  |  71 comments
The era of streaming in CD-quality and hi-rez music has arrived at one of the world’s major subscription streaming services, complete with a free 90-day trial.
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RMAF’s Bold Move Pays Off
RMAF 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Sep 10, 2019  |  32 comments
After talking with a number of exhibitors and attendees, I’d have to call the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest’s daring move to a new and very different venue—a controversial if also inevitable move—a success. Everyone I spoke to was happy with attendance, and the sound in the hotel rooms was generally excellent.
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WBT’s New Plating Process
RMAF 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Sep 10, 2019  |  14 comments
Ray Kimber of Kimber Kable was in “You gotta” mode. After he told me that WBT, the 34-year-old German company that supplies connectors and cable terminations to hundreds of manufacturers worldwide, had a new, environmentally friendly facing process that made for better sound, I arranged to meet with WBT founder and CEO Wolfgang Thoerner on Sunday morning to discuss their new "WBT-PlasmaProtect" PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) plasma process.
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MartinLogan Motion 35XTi speakers and 800X subwoofers; Benchmark D/A DAC3 B DAC, LA4 line amplifier, AHB2 power amplifier, and Star-Quad speaker and interconnect cabling
RMAF 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Sep 10, 2019  |  31 comments
If you, like me, tend to associate MartinLogan with electrostatic transducers, you may be surprised to learn that their more traditional Motion line accounts for most of their sales.
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Innuos Zenith Mk3 and Statement music servers and PhoenixUSB reclocker, Boulder 1161 amplifier, Ayre Acoustics QX5 pre/DAC, YG Acoustics Vantage loudspeakers, AudioQuest Niagara 7000 power conditioner and cabling, and SGR Audio Hi-Fi rack
RMAF 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Sep 10, 2019  |  1 comments
My last exhibit in one of the multi-tower Gaylord Hotel’s 1500 rooms was sponsored by Portuguese music server manufacturer Innuos. I’ve been looking for a music server to review and, with Jim Austin’s approval, hope to tackle the top-of-the-line Statement ($13,750 for 1TB SSD up to $15,150 for 4TB SSD). Released last November, here at the show it reproduced music with impressive transparency, depth, color, and body.
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Vandersteen Kēnto Carbon loudspeaker and M5-HPA amplifiers, VTL TP-6.5 Series II phono stage and TL-6.5 Series II Signature preamplifier, Aurender A30, AMG Viella turntable with Lyra Atlas cartridge, AudioQuest Niagara 7000 power conditioner and cabling
RMAF 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Sep 10, 2019  |  11 comments
Another speaker debut and another winner. Introducing the Vandersteen Kēnto Carbon ($37,500/pair), which, together with Vandersteen M5-HPA amplifiers ($15,800/pair), VTL electronics, and more sounded open and alive on top on a Mercury Living LP of Dorati’s rendition of Stravinsky’s The Firebird.
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Endow Audio’s Remarkable FS301 Loudspeaker
RMAF 2019
Jason Victor Serinus  |  Sep 10, 2019  |  19 comments
What is this strange creature with an upper driver that looks like something from a Marvel movie? Is it benign, or is it the blob that obliterated Kansas?
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