High End 2018 Report. Head-Spinning Sounds in Munich!

The 2018 High End show promised to be the best one ever, in part because of the most pleasant weather conditions experienced in Munich - almost summer like - turning the Bavarian region into a tourist postcard and making any outing a true pleasure and the entire experience of beer and German food even more enjoyable, particularly in the fantastic nearby Englischer Garten esplanades and restaurants.

Brent Butterworth reviews the new RA040X Ear Simulators from G.R.A.S. Sound & Vibration. Measuring headphone response at frequencies above-10 kHz has been an imprecise, non-standardized process. The new RA040X ear simulator represents part of an effort by G.R.A.S. Sound & Vibration to update headphone measurement equipment to suit the needs of today’s headphone industry, and make the measurements more meaningful. This article was originally published in audioXpress, March 2018.

During Coachella 2018, a new subwoofer design, powered by Powersoft’s M-Force system, was put to the test and proved how promising the solution is for sound design in general and large music festivals in particular. The new SuperSub M-Force-powered cabinets by Rat Sound provided an unprecedented display of super-low frequency soundwave propagation for thousands of excited music fans, while also exciting the audio engineers with the excellent results.

Following the publication of its original SE 6C33C amplifier in audioXpress July 2004, Ari Polisois returned with more information on how to further simplify the whole construction and reduce the costs. The results, as the author describes, "combine the advantage(s) of the push-pull (mainly power) to the wonderful character of the SE: sensitivity, smoothness, simplicity, and warmth (due to the 2nd harmonic content, easily tolerated by our ears, as against the third, fifth, seventh, and so on harmonics produced by the push-pull)." This article was originally published in audioXpress, February 2008.

The 150-year-old Western Electric will reintroduce its flagship product to market, the famous 300B electron tube. In time for its 80th anniversary, the 300B is returning to production this year, and the Rossville-based company announced they will restart the manufacturing in a brand new facility. Charles Whitener, Western Electric CEO, also confirmed the company will unveil a new single-ended amplifier called the 91E, as an homage to its famous predecessor the 91A, first introduced in 1936.

Previewed in 2016, and originally scheduled for Spring 2017, Dynaco (a division of Radial Engineering Ltd.) announced the ST-70 Series 3 tube amplifier is now shipping. Since acquiring the legendary Hafler and Dynaco brands in 2014, Radial Engineering has been carefully working on the Dynaco ST-70 Series 3 tube amplifier, in an effort to create a truly worthy successor of one of the most successful tube amplifiers of all time. The result is finally available!

UK audio brand Q Acoustics recently opened a direct-to-consumer webstore in the US and now announced a new range of hi-fi speakers with the mission of making genuine premium design products affordable to a mainstream audience. The new 3000i speaker series consists of the 3050i ($799) large floorstander, the compact 3010i ($249) and the mid-sized 3020i ($299). All incorporate technology originally designed for Q Acoustics flagship speaker, Concept 500 ($6K), sold at accessible price points.

This article from respected author Ari Polisois deals with a single-ended amplifier with enough power to drive even the most difficult speaker systems - delivering 50W per channel. This is a project that quickly became the focus in lots of tube-oriented forums and has inspired long threads and many iterations, including further articles published in audioXpress from the author himself. This article was published in audioXpress, July 2004.

Where do tubes come from? In this article Richard Honeycutt revisits the history of tube electronics, from its early invention to the widespread adoption in radios and television receivers. And because familiarity simplifies tube selection, the article explains where some of the most common tube types can be applied in todays designs on power amplifiers and pre-amplifiers and tube stages. This article was originally published in audioXpress, April 2013 as part of the Hollow-State Electronics monthly column by Richard Honeycutt.

In this article, Richard Honeycutt provides a brief description of the main tube types used in audio applications, from triodes to tetrodes and pentodes, describing its uses, features and potential benefits. If you are looking for a quick reference reading about tubes that have been used in audio amplification this article is a great start. This article was originally published in audioXpress, May 2013 as part of the Hollow-State Electronics monthly column by Richard Honeycutt.