Review: Ken Kessler

Is there a more outrageous-looking cartridge than Ortofon’s radical MC 90X? By now we should be used to the shape since the MC 90X’s form was first introduced 15 years ago in Ortofon’s MC A90. This revised version, in a cool blue hue, still has that look of a Bizarro horseshoe from the side. Forgive the Superman reference, but this cartridge turned out to be something of a hero.

Ken Kessler admires the luxurious design of a top-loading CD player with upgrade potential. But will its performance also leave him spellbound?

Are you the hands-on type who finds most power amps a bit boring because all they have is an on/off switch? Manley Laboratories’ Neo-Classic SE/PP 300B monoblock (£13,699 per pair) is the opposite: it lets you fine-tune the sound by fine-tuning the applied feedback.

This just may be the most self-fulfilling review I’ve ever written. DS Audio has unleashed a valve energiser and equaliser, the TB-100, for its optical cartridges. Up to this point, every one of its cartridges has been launched with a matching solid-state energiser of relative or comparable price, but the TB-100 has been released on its own. Because every DS Audio cartridge will work with any of the energisers regardless of price, this time it’s all about the tubes.