THIS ISSUE: A preamp and an amplifier from a company fairly new on the US hi-fi scene, Lab12.
In my realm, the most sophisticated, intelligent, difficult thing anyone can do is create something mysterious. It could be a poem, a photo, a movie, a song, a symphony, or a piece of painted wood. What’s most important is the mystery—and that experiencing the mysterious creation inspires in the observer a desire to probe its hidden realms, to somehow figure it out. Human cultures are founded on mysteries: Mysteries incite art, inspire science, and facilitate dreaming.
To me, mystery and beauty are synonymous. Consequently, I have steered my years so that I am always engaged in a search for, or a study of, the mysterious. And nothing—not books, nor museums, nor seas, nor forests, nor even my day job as a flâneur—has captured more of my mystery-seeking and -studying time than listening to recorded music in my studio.
I’ve spent 50 years developing my current viewpoint about audio system engineering, a set of beliefs about how sound systems work (and should work) and which engineering strategies result in the probing, high-engagement sound I seek. Historically, I’ve favored directly heated triodes powering large horns, or, alternatively, paper-cone drivers with powerful magnets on open baffles, or, less esoterically, class-A solid state amplifiers powering electrostatic, ribbon, or planar-magnetic dipoles.
Unfortunately, all but the smallest of those speaker types are too big for my apartment. Fortunately, my listening room works perfectly with small nearfield-monitors such as my current references, the Falcon Gold Badge LS3/5a and the Genelec G Three. The Genelecs provide the cleanest window I know for examining line-level source components. And, during my 30+ years of almost continuous use, different versions of the LS3/5a have proven themselves worthy of being powered by the finest tubed and solid state amplifiers, low power or high. Who would have guessed an 83dB-sensitive, dome-and-cone, sealed-box loudspeaker could thrive on 8W from a single 300B tube? Or sound an equal but different kind of wonderful with 300W from Parasound’s A
