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This has been the most significant year by far for me as an audiophile and music lover. The discovery of Definitive Audio's Kondo/Living Voice system has thrown old certainties straight up in the air. Like a tornado, it's completely changed the entire landscape while carrying off some things only to deposit them intact miles away. There are considerable sacrifices involved in reviewing (not least the way one is forced into critical listening for considerable periods of time) but there are lots of perks as well. The toughest part may be to try to remember and communicate that one's opinions are simply that, the fallible views of an individual audiophile with his or her own predilections and peculiarities and our own musical obsessions and aesthetic tastes.
The Living Voice OBX-RW for me is a milestone of a speaker. I have a strong suspicion that it may well be the standard setter in both ultimate transparency and musical coherence for wide bandwidth (30Hz-20kHz) speakers. While extraordinary designs like the Cogent field-coil compression drivers, Shindo's field-coil Latours or Audionautes' Goto Unit hornsystems offer fascinating glimpses into how varied the assault on the state of the art can be, the OBX-RW remains for me the most musically transparent, complete and satisfying speaker I've come across.



The Kondo KSL LP cable loom (review forthcoming) has completely swept me off my feet and overthrown my views on the significance of cables in the audio system. With their incredibly natural and instinctively musical presentation, they are hallmark and seminal Kondo products and a must explore for anyone looking to enliven and enrich their musical experience. They can be recommended even with quite inexpensive (though high quality) amplification and are a must to find out what your system actually sounds like. These cables repeatedly underlined how utterly fallible we are as reviewers. Again and again what I heard through them was completely different to what I'd spent so long establishing and trying to describe in reviews during the past year.

For instance, the Tom Evans Audio Design Groove Plus reviewed by Jeff Day had at times sounded glassy and a touch overworked while playing my Allaerts MC2 Finish. The Groove Plus' incredible transparency remains in my experience unmatched but there were times when I questioned its suitability with the prima donna that is the Allaerts. It also sounded at times soulless due to its almost spectral presentation. In reality this is probably more to do with two absolutely star performers not being a perfect match for each other - or so I thought. However, once I'd connected the Groove Plus up using a KSL power lead and KSL LP interconnect, a dramatic change took place. The character of the cartridge and phonostage suddenly gelled. What had been at times glassy took on an openness and that hugely generous litheness that is simply difficult to describe. For the first time instruments like acoustic double basses in 50's recordings sounded like they were really in the room and the spray of harmonics simply had me open-mouthed. Unfortunately for the moment I'm not going to be able to keep the Groove Plus but as soon as I can afford it, I will be trying to get another one again. Meanwhile for those interested in exploring the cutting edge of vinyl transparency, I would urge you to check out having Tom Evans' captive lead between power supply and phonostage replaced with Kondo KSL. The TEAD Groove Plus is a must-hear phonostage and well deserved product of the year.


The Allaerts MC2 Finish is another. The Finish is the second cartridge down in Jan Allaerts stable and shares the 845 ohm load with the Formula One. It's minimal .2mv output and load mean that it is a challenge for many phono stages and can easily get lost in the crowd with an indifferent one. In fact, with a well-known high-quality step up into one of the best valve phonostages available, the sound was frankly embarrassing. But put it into the Tron Seven or the Groove Plus and there is real magic to be had. The Geiger stylus is less forgiving than that on the MC1B Mk2 and surface noise a bit
louder but there is tons more detail and body to each note and a special magic that Jan Allaerts seems to be able to conjure from his creations. It's a very finicky cartridge to set up and thus repays doing a very careful job with a vinyl experience that is rarely matched.


Finally, the Resolution Audio Opus 21 which Srajan reviewed two years ago is a truly remarkable discovery for me. In one fell swoop it has solved the digital problems I've had for what appears to be ages. From the moment I heard what it was truly capable of in the Kondo/Living Voice system, I realized there was a digital front end that while not quite the equal of the best of vinyl, has enough of the analog gestalt to mean that I don't have to worry so much about trying to find vinyl versions of music I really love. The CD versions, through the Kondo M77 preamp and OBX-RW, can be just as mind-blowing and heart-wrenching an experience. Which isn't something I'd ever thought I'd say. I can completely see why Kevin Scott of Definitive Audio specifies this little two-box gem when he is commissioned to set up super systems costing hundreds of thousands of pounds. It's a musical star of the first order and I can't recommend it highly enough.


For your Christmas stocking, I'd recommend Arvo Pärt's Alina [ECM new series 1591 445958-2], Vivaldi's Gloria L'oiseau-Lyre [455 727-2], Paolo Pandolfo's Bach - the Six Suites for Viola da Gamba [GCD P30405] and Norwegian Jazz combos Tord Gustavson Trio and Ketil Bjornstad as well worth exploring.