Vertere Dark Sabre cartridge Back in October, just as Storm Babet was about to make landfall, a small group of audio writers gathered at Vertere’s North London headquarters to spend a day with the company’s founder and engineering leader Touraj Moghaddam. Regular readers will know that I have had the pleasure of reviewing several Vertere […]
Hana Umami Blue moving coil cartridge Hana is a relatively new name, but parent company Excel Sound Corp. has been making phono cartridges for reputable companies for over 50 years, (including their own Urushi brand) accumulating vast experience in design and manufacture along the way. Hana, which draws on that expertise, is the brainchild of […]
The Ear picks the best hi-fi of 2023 2023 has been a tough year for the hi-fi industry but that has done nothing to stem the flow of first class products coming to market. In fact there are even more extraordinary audio components to choose from than there were last year, with advances made in […]
Vertere MG1 MkII, Imperium, Mystic and Phono 1 MkII L record player Hello again dear readers. Those of you who have been with us for a while may pick up on the fact that this is my third review of the Vertere MG1 MkII Magic Groove record player and the second of the MkII version. […]
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 […]
Dynavector DV-10X5 MkII L MC cartridge Readers might have the feeling that they have read about the Dynavector DV-10X5 MkII L 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]