Artisan Audio is pleased to announce that we are the UK importer for Durand Tonearms' stunning new Talea. The Talea was given its first showing at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in October 2009 and won appreciative comments from analogue aficionados.

The arm is the culmination of several years of research during which designer Joel Durand experimented with design details and material choices until he found the ideal combination. One of his key goals was to eliminate sources of resonance from internal reflections within the arm assembly. These unwanted vibrations are a source of noise that lower the dynamic range of the arm/cartridge combination.

Quicksilver's Silver 88 monoblock amps are reviewed by Stereophile's Sam Tellig in the April 2010 issue. The review features some interesting quotes from Quicksilver President, Mike Sanders, on the virtues of point to point wiring, short speaker cable runs and mains cables.

The Silver 88 is closely related to the Triode amp; the key difference being the KT88 output valves operate as tetrodes whereas the name of the Triode amp is a very big clue to how the valves are utilised in that design. The Silver 88 is good for 80 W/channel into 4 or 8 ohms.

Our demo system will showcase the critical importance of time coherence in music replay. Our analogue source, Soundsmith’s Strain Gauge cartridge system, has minimal phase error due to its unique design, so delivers exceptional imaging, nuance and dynamics.

Green Mountain Audio is unique in building time-coherent loudspeakers. Their Eos, Hi FI News Editor’s Choice (April 2010), has its tweeters mounted in pods which are adjustable so that sound leaves the drivers in phase and also arrives at the ears in phase.

Our new Apple Macintosh-based music server features the Prism Sound Orpheus FireWire interface and Channel D software’s Pure Music server. The Orpheus is a professional studio product with class-leading jitter measurements and sophisticated clock circuitry which preserve the time relationship of music in the data stream.

Amplification will be Quicksilver’s V4, 120 W/channel KT88 monoblocks.

System:

Soundsmith SG-610 cartridge/preamp

Galibier Gavia turntable
Morsiani CM-1 tone arm
Discovery Plus 4 cable

Apple Macbook
Prism Sound Orpheus FireWire interface
Channel D Pure Sound iTunes music server program

Quicksilver V4 monoblocks

Green Mountain Audio Eos speakers
Atacama stands

We are pleased to launch our new music streamer capability.

After a lengthy evaluation we concluded that the best approach is to build a streamer from professional quality components. Since the dawn of commercial digital audio, Apple computers have been used in post-production studios and they are quiet and reliable.

We have been working with Pure Vinyl software for Mac as a tool for ripping LPs to high resolution digital files since 1996. The developer has evolved the program so that it works elegantly with iTunes which manages all the file organisation and storage tasks whilst Pure Vinyl looks after memory play and upsampling.

We have been using a pro audio FireWire interface for vinyl ripping for some time so when Prism Sound’s Orpheus caught our eye we had to investigate. It is a genuine studio quality product with sound quality that matches (if not bests) any high end consumer product.

We are very confident that the sound quality of our Mac/Pure Vinyl/Orpheus combo will see off any alternative music server regardless of price and invite anyone considering their options to investigate the Artisan Audio option.

The Valvet L1/A1r pre/power combination is reviewed in March 2010’s Hi Fi World magazine. The reviewer confirms our experience of this combo’s punchy output and great timing.

The Soundsmith Strain Gauge phono cartridge system won the Innovation award 2009 at the Hi Fi Choice Product of the Year awards announced in its awards issue published October 2009.

This follows the Editor’s Choice classification awarded to the SG-400 model reviewed in the October edition.

Soundsmith's Strain Gauge cartridge system won the Best of Show award at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest recently from the influential webzine Steremojo.

Positive Feedback also raved about Soundsmith's room at the show.

Meanwhile Stereophile listed the Soundsmith SMMC-1 (the non-selected version of the Aida) as a runner up in its Analog Product of the Year and its Budget Product of the year in the December 2008 issue.

Finally, a Strain Gauge owner has posted an informative review at Audiogon.