The September issue of US audio magazine The Absolute Sound is out, featuring their annual Golden Ear Awards, in which each member of the editorial / review team selects a handful of their favourite hi-fi separates, whether longstanding references or brand new favourites.
Jonathan Valin, who writes frequently about reel-to-reel tape, has included two tape decks in his 2024 selections – United Home Audio’s Ultima Apollo and Analog Audio Design’s TP-1000.
The Ultima Apollo is Greg Beron of United Home Audio’s latest creation. Last year Valin awarded the Golden Ear and also a Product of the Year Award to its ‘older brother’, the Ultima 5-OPS-DC. So how does the new Apollo stack up in Valin’s view?
“With a plethora of technical improvements and an all-new high quality EQ system, the Apollo sounded considerably better then any Ultima deck I’ve heard, with newfound power, colour, detail, density and extension in the bottom octaves, the midbass and the lower midrange and sweet, edgeless, sparkle and air in the upper mids and treble,” writes Valin. There’ll be a full review from Valin in due course, but for now he concludes that the Apollo comes “very, very close” to the sonics of Beron / UHA’s superdeck “for about half the price”.
Meanwhile, Analog Audio design’s TP-1000, created by French engineer Christophe Martinez, is “a deck with a level of utility and convenience that is unrivalled” according to Valin, with its “unique, built-in, multi-function touchscreen that is the brain of the unit”. “Virtually every playback parameter can be set or adjusted via a tap on its touchscreen.” None of which would matter, notes Valin, if the deck didn’t sound great “which, I’m happy to report, it does.”
It’s great to see tape featuring so prominently in this year’s selection!
You’ll find all of this year’s Golden Ear Awards in the September 2024 issue of The Absolute Sound.
Dave Denyer: The Reel-to-Reel Rambler 