Sorry to be off of here for so long.  After the festivities and happiness at the end of the year, January came with a few trials and tribulations.  I had a bit of a health scare for a few months, which even more sadly forced me to cancel exhibiting at Axpona this year. When the deposit deadline of March came along, I thought I was meeting my own deadline of sorts and had to withdraw.  Now, happy to say, I am here and back at it at the Haven, though unfortunately it was too late to get geared up for dear ol Room 630 at the Renaissance Hotel.  I do hope some of you make it to the show, and please let me know what you heard that you liked, and even what you didn't.   After all, there's nothing better than to dish about a hifi show. 
Getting things going again, some new products...yes! can you believe that?  And taking appointments again.  So please, my apologies to anyone in the first of the year who I might have ignored or totally blown off.  Please give me another chance. The place is a bit of a mess at present, with things scattered everywhere, so when you come please don't judge too harshly, the outside especially....where do all these weeds come from? Maybe I should fence the place in and get sheep.  
Thanks!  Charlie

as in paid for and ready to hit the floor, no, not that way, when they get here.
After much anticipation and hand wringing, the next level of Jadis integrateds is coming, the Jadis DA50.  The middle child of the Jadis integrated line, the DA50 sports KT120's but used as only Jadis can, 30 watts instead of the usual 100 or so.  I can't spew all the technical stuff like some dealers, I merely listen.  And I'm ready, I keep hearing nothing but high praise for this model.  Words like color, texture, dynamics are descriptives I keep being told, so proof will be in the listening when it gets here. Soon!  It is the one thing that many in the trade and hobby lack, and that's knowledge. You read, you guess, you have a hunch, you talk to forum experts and your listening pals, yet you have no actual listening knowledge. And not just a quick or lengthy listen in one particular set up, but working the hell out of that piece, trying it with different combos, knowing it back ways and sideways and all ways in between. There are tons of decent products out there, there are a good amount of good products, and there are very less great products.  Here at the Haven it's the very best that we're striving for, as many of you comment on by looking at the product roster. Products that are so satisfying that you feel, at least for a little while, that you are done. We can never say never, of course.  Bravo to the ones that can.  So we'll hear soon enough how this middle child stacks up.....stay tuned....

There is also yet another new integrated, this time from Spec, the V11.  Extremely curious about this one, since the Spec team of Japan has knocked it out of the park with their recent DAC 1. If this is as good, you'll hear me screaming louder than my coyotes across the fields as to its goodness.  Definitely stay tuned on this one....

And dare I add, more Reynauds will be coming next year....a new flagship, the Orfeo Grande, will be here, based on a cross between the Orfeo Jubilee and Voce Grande stand mount.  And Jean Claude promises several  more models as well, no idea what.  He's been a busy boy after redoing the line since his father, Jean Marie, passed away.  The Reynauds have become one of my favs, and probably yours as well when you hear them.  

oops, and I have one more....Fredrik Lejonklou has been working on the digital side, and has brought out a new all in one streamer/dac, the Kalla (there's a double dot about the first a, but I can't sort that yet on my keyboard). Two sets of ears whom I trust have told me it is phenomenal, like all of Fredrik's designs, so we'll hear soon enough.....I think retail will be $8495.  It will be in the normal plain Jane (sorry, Jane) black casing, like the Boazu integrated.. not for those that want a big lit front panel with graphics, to be sure. Only for those wanting great music making. And you'll only use whatever app the streaming service you are using has.  

there's more, yet that's enough for today......off to listen to the Reynaude Euterpes....I can not believe how good these $3500 floor standers are....if I had a pair like this when I was starting out my whole life would have been different today...when I think of all that time wasted. Sheesh! 

 just to say, things have been very busy here....with recent additions, break in of new goodies, sorting out who goes best with what....
Now here to demo, in no particular order:
-Funk Firm LSD and Gett2! turntables....can I just say now I love them, they're all that I was hoping for from Arthur and more...priced at $3450 and $1195 for the versions shown here at the Haven

-Well Tempered Lab newest version of the Amadeus, the Amadeus Jr.   a bit of a redesign, similar to the Simplex 2 with no visible ball cups/footers, on/off switch in the back, a tad smaller than the original Amadeus but not as small as the Simplex 2.  Priced at $2950

-the latest cables from Atlas, from Scotland....the Mavros line is what I have.  

-new rack from Lateral, of England, the Cadenza....a build a shelf approach, really nice sounding. This is their starting model.  Love it...below the Box Furniture and above the Quadraspire in musical terms.  Earned a "worth the money" from a local...$475 a shelf/set of columns

-also from England, the Whest 40 phono stage.  This fella is a doozy, very adjustable gain and loading for moving coils.  It's one I would use on its own instead of flipping to mm and using a step up. $6000  I can remember when I had the $12K ARC REF 2 phono...this is better

-the Weiss DAC, the 502, is sounding better than ever...it does so much that I still have yet to play with all its features....but musically it is a winner....$8950
-the Jadis Orchestra Black, as you may have seen mention/photo of earlier, continues to impress. It is one heck of a 40w tube integrated...It's becoming my go to for a great many speakers and late night listening sessions....$4500  another newbie here that I think shoots way about it's price point. 

-and last but certainly not least, I'm typing fast so my chocolate sundae doesn't melt before I get to it....I have now what I consider the best sounding power conditioner, yes, from me, who usually rolls eyes at such things....the best sounding I have heard so far....the Puritan Audio line.  3 models here, the PSM 156, the PSM136, and the 106DC strip......$2300, $1600, and $1190...they are flying out the door.  And Puritan makes some very different and very very affordable power cords...which I'm in the process of evaluating now.   You must audition these power conditioners if you're in the market....my only real take away from them now is toss those Shunyatas away! bleh

-and if you haven't seen the British green color of the Sugden faceplates, you really should come have a gander.  They're marvelous! Sometimes muted, sometimes shiny, sometimes almost a grey sheen, then clearly switch to green.  That with silver knobs is the way to go! Good job, Patrick and 
Sugden. 

-and one last shout out to the newish Dynavector 10X5 LOW....$750...it's been here for a bit, but after hearing it on the Funk Gett2, it is clearly hitting on all levels...stomped a recent Hanna comparison.  LOVE THIS CARTRIDGE.... musical and FUN!  I predict right here that this will be a very big seller....

Schedule your appointment now....no mask required if you've had your shots (no, not the Four Roses kind) otherwise be civil and mask up....see you soon....
                                                                                                            Charlie

  I have a long history with Arthur Khoubesserian, having had as a hobbyist a Pink Triangle turntable back in the late '80's.  Arthur then moved onto the Funk Firm, with his Vector tables. I was busy off exploring Well Tempered Labs after the Pink Triangle, so have not really revisited his tables until now.  In house at present, the above LSD, or Little Super Deck, is being rigorously put through its paces, running it non stop and playing the bejesus out of it. It's proving to be quite the table I was hoping it to be. Arthur's tables have always had a great sense of flow, of generally great musicality, a foot tapping experience, a bit more of everything I hold dear from getting out of my records than the multiple palleted types in all the online ads. They're just better, like the Well Tempereds, and that's that. On demo now.....as I've been saying a lot lately on phone calls and emails, if you aren't enjoying the whole record playing experience, come see me.  The other table coming from the Funk Firm is the lower priced Gett.  With Arthur, you get a bit of cheese, of tongue in cheek humor with product naming, like the Smoothie for the new external power supply. But god love him for making such great music making machines!  

  Someone recently payed me a visit, and had this Sinatra record in tow.  As much as I love Frank, his Columbia years are not my favorite period.  Well, this one, from the Impex record label, blew me away.  Such great songs, they just leapt out of the DeVore 0/96's, the speakers this customer came to hear. While it is a mono recording, it was extremely nice with a stereo cartridge, the Dynavector 20X2L, to be exact. l can officially say this record, and several recent reissues I've purchased, all mono, have made yours truly finally, yes, finally, order a mono cartridge. So soon it will be mono time over here at the Haven.  I do have quite a few already, mostly jazz or classical, but a few of the aforementioned recent reissues are dying to be heard properly, some that Michael Fremer, of Analog Planet, and Mark Ainsley, of The Piano Files, have helped me procure. 
As a matter of fact, we were actually going to have had a MONO DAY ONLY at Room 630 at Axpona last year, home of Stereo Haven the past 3 years at the Renaissance Hotel in Chicago. This year's show has been rescheduled to October, yet who knows.  It wouldn't be quite so bad to get a case of this kind of mono, yet no one needs that nasty covid business. 
  I know many of you have never heard a proper mono setup, so when my cartridge gets here and broken in, (not broke! egads, too many of you are having that happen, please be careful) you should schedule a listen. 

Let's see....lots of new goodies here.
Top of the heap are the JMREYNAUD speakers, from France.  Love them, adore them, I could do cartwheels over them if I could indeed cartwheel.  So instead I'll raise my bowl of Ben & Jerry's and salute.  Also there is a new dac, the WEISS 501.  One of those half sized chassis jobs, from Switzerland, it is what I have been waiting for in a dac.  Easy to use, absolutely excellent build, lots of highly technical engineered features for those of you who like to play with your gear- I am solely in the listening camp here, yet you fiddle about all you want.  It's the first piece of digital gear I cannot wait to listen to each day. I do still sell the Chord dacs, which are also very very good, and some might prefer, like Callas over Tebaldi (yes, I've been listening to lots of opera during covid), the precision of the Chord dacs.  As I keep saying, sometimes it's a matter of taste, or systems. 
And then there is a new cable line....cable line, you say?? What! more bloody cables!! and I say, why yes, there is this marvelous Scottish cable line, ATLAS, which after first hearing my samples this fall I told my lil group, guess what, I'm signing up with another cable company. Of course there was the expected laughs and boos and name calling, at me, not the cable line I've signed up with. I get my first batch very soon.  And yes, I'm excited.  They do have several levels, and at present I'm going with the Mavros.  The speaker cable will be the first on the floor.  All I can say is I found it extremely musical, extremely easy on the ear. And they have this earthing system called Grun, so in my test sample I ran the speaker cable as is, and then after a good break in period I added the earthing cables.  A quite dramatic drop in the noise floor, which I gather is what a good grounding system does. I was sold instantly. No voodoo or snake oil.  There is a grounding system offered by PURITAN, another new product, from England. I have their 6 outlet power conditioner. Quite good. So then this grounding system has rods for outside that get pounded in-ground and get attached back to the power conditioner via a junction box.  Can't wait to try that now that I heard what the Grun can do.  That won't happen until the flowers are blooming again,  however.
There's also a new entry from DYNAVECTOR, the low output version of the venerable 10X5, making it a, yes, you guessed it, moving coil low output version of the traditional high output 10X5.  A bit redundant there but making sure everyone was paying attention.  It is a super fun cartridge. Like all Dynavectors, it soars thru those grooves with ease- a great tracker. And not just a pretty cartridge like many in its price range. This one has the goods.  
Soon there will be a new record cleaning machine here, the Nessie from Hannl. 
And soon, another phono stage company, the Whest.  
I've been working on one more, details later on that.  
​Stay tuned..... 

Okay, ready or not, here I am again.  Admittedly it's been awhile since I've been on here. I am on Instagram some,  stereo_haven.  But mostly I talk the hifi talk these days on the phone, in email, or in my head most of the day, so by the time I drag myself upstairs where my iMac is I'm pooped out or numb.  The iPhone app for weebly doesn't work well for me. So if I've been idle on the website it's not for lack of interest.  Most dealers, myself included, have been super busy once the initial covid alert of last February wained a bit.  It took probably til the middle of summer for people to start shopping again, all online or by phone.  I did not take appointments until much later into the fall. and that's been going fine.  Still, it's all masked up all the time, one person visits at a time, tons of spraying down both before and after an appointment.  
  So the upside has been many people at home, playing their hifi more and giving it more attention or being struck with upgraditis.  The downside is the waiting.  Waiting for product.  The way it's mostly been going is you order and pay, I order and pay, and then we wait.  Sometimes not an eternity, sometimes it is an eternity.  There are the parts shortages, the factory lockdowns, and the shipping jam ups to blame, and also long long waits at customs. I've been a happy yet nervous wreck for months.  You see, I'm like you, I like to get my stuff in a timely fashion.  Oh, I say I can wait, you say you can wait, yet when we wait wait wait, it gets to be a little much.  I've tried the meditation path, I've tried to be like the Buddha, yet when you hear the sea freight that was promised next month will now be the following month will now be sometime in the future whenever the boats can dock or whatever else you might get told- well, it gets one nervous. Almost all of you have been saints.  Truly.  I laugh on the phone and empathize and try to act calm, yet I'm a wreck.  You are taking it in stride much better.  Well, all but one of you.  Stiffed me and left me with a paid product, which, unbeknownst to you, is a hot product, and will sell as soon as it comes in. So even you are forgiven.  Maybe my meditating has paid off slightly.  
  Of course some companies have been quite good with filling orders. So you never know. 
​

  A bit of sad news to share today.  KL Audio has announced they are discontinuing production of the LP200 ultra sonic cleaner.  I have found that this is the only ultra sonic cleaner to have.  I hate the Audio Desk from Germany for many reasons, and could never understand why reviewers and magazines praised it so, I guess the all mighty dollar spoke to them more than common sense.  And this new Kirmuss cleaner, while not an ultra sonic, is bizarre to say the least.  I like how reviewer Michael Fremer skirted around just basically saying how weird it was to use.  Ah, money!
  So there are a few still available if anyone wants one, they are saying they will back their service for the warranty period. And no, there is no deep discounting going on, so bottom feeders look elsewhere. 
  To me, the KL Audio and Keith Monks are still the best out there period, and I'm very sad to see KL go....I've had mine since 2014 with no issues, and tons of usage.  So we'll see how it goes...

  New to me and this area is the newish DAC from Exogal, the same folks who did Wadia way back when.  I love that it's not suitcase size, like a Lampizator, and with its separate power supply is easy to shelve.  I've been using the AES cables from both Audioquest (Diamond) and the new Tellurium TQ (Silver Diamond).  Loving the new TQ, btw.  The Exogal is controlled by its own app, generally once set up, no need to app up again. It would be handy for headphone users, having an easy volume control, which I am still not, and probably won't be.  I've been doing a bit of a DAC shootout with both my own here and from several local customers in recently, and the Exogal is holding its own.  Quite a lovely sound, so absolutely no quibbles so far. DACs are a little funny in shootouts, as I've been discovering. They're not like turntables or amps, where you immediately get a huge sense of what each is doing.  More like you need to do long term listening, to see how the overall effect gets to you. Seems like an odd statement to make, even for me, yet it's been proving true. If DACs are your secondary source, perhaps it's not so critical.  But if digital is your only source, or dare I say, one's main source, then take the time, and do go all out.  After you get the unit that appeals best to you, take the time to get the right cables, the most proper shelf, even if the more money spent yields only a wee bit more....with digital that bit more can make a huge difference between wanting to listen or not, at least to Mr. Picky here.
  I've been told by my new Exogal rep that it has great appeal amongst women, due to its ease of use and size.  Comes in silver and black.  Now taking orders....so come have a listen.