Stereophile – August 2019

128 August2019nstereophile.com

1 See stereophile.com/content/magnepan-lrs-

loudspeaker.

the LRS review because I was expect-

ing something similar to his AXPO-

NA show report, which is very funny.^1

The LRS also has a sense of humor

and finds today’s speaker pricing rather

amusing. I still think Herb is a funny

guy. But this time, he chose to show

his serious side.

Wendell Diller, Marketing Manager

Magnepan

Thales Slim II/Simplicity II

Thank you for this very nice review;

we are proud you adore our effort

to produce high-quality products in

Switzerland, following a very long

tradition indeed. Sometimes it’s

difficult to compare vintage with

modern products, as many boundary

conditions (LPs, cartridges, amplifiers)

have changed in the meantime. That’s

why we appreciate you gave the

tonearm a try on your TD 124,

combining 60 years of Swiss audio

technology. I myself used this unique

combination for many years in my

private listening room.

Regarding skating compensation:

the Thales Simplicity II works with

tangential tracking. However, the offset

angle is variable but not zero: There-

fore, side forces do occur, and they are

compensated with an internal mag-

netic mechanism. Since the offset angle

and skating forces are significantly

lower than with normal tonearms and

furthermore not constant (they both

decrease toward the center), we do

preset the compensation, and it’s not

adjustable by the client.

Micha Huber, President

Thales Audio

Tzar DST
It’s my pleasure to let you experience
the amazing sounds that this incompa-
rable recreation of the “unobtanium”
Neumann DST62 cartridge can elicit.
The Tzar never ceases to produce
the most sublime, dynamic, and vivid

reproduction of your stereo LPs. Now
offered in a beautiful, exotic stone
box, each one of these limited-edition
beauties is engraved with a serial
number. My sample has been perform-
ing perfectly for me in my system for
the last two years. Every time I drop
the needle, I am transported into the
performance on that recording, just as
Art so succinctly stated.
Thank you, Art, and Stereophile,
for keeping the analog light burning
brightly and offering your readers
insightful reviews of not only the well-
known brands but also small passionate
designers that many readers would
never discover without your coverage.
Robin Wyatt
Robyatt Audio

Etsuro Urushi Cobalt Blue
We would like to thank Herb Reichert
for such a tremendously detailed and
insightful review of the Etsuro Urushi
Cobalt Blue cartridge. His wealth of
experience shows in the many ways
he listened with a variety of configu-
rations in order to hear it at its best.
Oftentimes we fail to see how much
of an impact associated equipment
makes to draw out the equipment’s full
potential. Thank you again.
Joshua Masongsong, Owner
Believe High Fidelity Ltd.

Hana ML
Thanks to Stereophile and Herb
Reichert for his Gramophone Dreams.

Herb-san captures the musical spirit of

LPs, and we share his love of all things

vinyl.

At RMAF 2017, Hiroshi Ishihara and

I began discussing a new Hana series.

Building on the strengths of Excel’s

hand-made cartridges and Alnico mag-

nets, we wanted to explore how higher

spec parts, advanced materials, techni-

cal treatments, and better mechanical

interfaces could yield more than the

sum of its parts. One focus was on

cartridge body construction with POM

or Delrin, a high-tech polymer used by

leading turntable companies for plat-

ters and record clamps, as an affordable

low-resonance body material.

Next idea was a brass cap with

tapped metal inserts to eliminate nuts

for mounting to the tonearm. This

provides a rigid coupling between

cartridge and tonearm, increasing the

weight to 9gm for expanded tonearm

compatibility, and placing the low fre-

quency resonance in the ideal 8-12Hz

range.

Masao Okada, CEO/CTO of Excel,

named it the M Series, using a nude

Microline tip, which resembles the

cutting stylus, to fit more precisely into

the vinyl groove. Okada-san designed a

new moving coil for the ML, winding

a finer gauge of higher purity cop-

per wire with an 8-ohm resistance

and output of 0.4mV, ideal for phono

stages and SUTs loading at 100 ohms

or higher.

Cryogenic processing is cold anneal-

ing at near-absolute zero temperature

that restructures metals at the molecu-

lar level. Excel found this process offers

greater linearity, so in the M Series,

they treat key generator parts including

the front yoke.

When visiting Excel in Yokohama

last year, Okada-san honored me with

the title “Godfather of the M Series”

for my input into the design. I look

forward to working with Excel in the

future to further advance the art of

vinyl playback. Garth Leerer, President

Musical Surroundings

Magnepan LRS

I told my friends and colleagues that

Herb is the funniest man in high-end

audio. So I was a little disappointed in

MANUFACTURERS’

COMMENTS

THIS ISSUE:RepresentativesfromRobyattAudio,

BelieveHighFidelity,MusicalSurroundings,

Magnepan,ThalesAudio,KlipschGroup,and

Aesthetixrespondtoourreviewsoftheirproducts.