The Absolute Sound

1 week ago | theabsolutesound.com | Neil Gader

Dynaudio, the Danish loudspeaker maker, debuted its Evoke series at Munich High End in 2018 with the first production models appearing in the U.S. by mid-2019. Regretfully, Evoke somehow managed to elude my radar. Until now, that is. The svelte and slender four-model range (plus center channel), includes the Evoke 10 and 20, two-way compacts, and a pair of floorstanders, the 36″-tall Evoke 30 and the larger 49″-tall three-way Evoke 50.

3 weeks ago | theabsolutesound.com | Derk Richardson

A A A That four musicians who’d never played together as a quartet could make such a coherent album owes in part to bassist/flutist Joe Fonda’s past collaborations with pianist Satoko Fujii, with drummer Tiziano Tononi, and with his mentor and the record’s inspiration, trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. That an avant-garde session, rife with abstract structures and free improvisations, could have such a comforting effect on a listener is more surprising.

3 weeks ago | theabsolutesound.com | Chris Franklin

Although connecting up a REL subwoofer is easy, it is different from other subwoofers. Rather than taking the output from your preamp or amplifier subwoofer output sockets (which the Classic 99 can also do), it derives its signal from the positive speaker output terminals of the amp (or one or both of the speakers, if that is easier) and the cable provided plugs into the Neutrik socket on the rear of the subwoofer.

4 weeks ago | theabsolutesound.com | Jacob Heilbrunn

Right off the bat, I was impressed by the combination of the Kaiser Kawero loudspeakers coupled with a prototype GM70 tubed single-ended-triode amplifier from Ypsilon as well as a new anniversary preamplifier and phonostage. Designer Demetris Baklavas explained that he has now banished all electrolytic capacitors from his equipment, allowing it to achieve a new level of transparency and dynamism.

4 weeks ago | theabsolutesound.com | Michael Fremer

What began as an analog whisper in 2004 at the High End Munich premier show exited with an exuberant, triumphant scream at the 2025 show finale. Vinyl was always relatively strong in Germany, even during the turn of the century “nadir years,” so it’s not as if record playing in 2004 was gasping for air, but compared to this show it was, though record vendors were in short supply this year. Why?