I first met Tone Imports proprietor Jonathan Halpern long before I started writing about hifi while he was working at NYC dealer In Living Stereo and just beginning to import the exquisite gear from Japan’s Shindo Laboratory.
I ended up owning and loving a Shindo system for many years, the Cortese F2A stereo amp and Cortese preamp, and they brought me countless hours of musical joy. As regular readers know, my main amplification squeeze these days is the overachieving champ of an integrated amp, the Leben CS600X another line of fine gear imported by Tone Imports. And to fill in more of this story, among my all-time favorite amplifiers remains the Riviera Labs Levante (review) and APL10 Preamplifier/AFM25 Monoblock Amplifiers combo (review) that are also a Tone import. You see the pattern, right?
During my all too brief visit, the system in play at Axpona 2024 in the Tone Imports room included the Dynavector DV500 turntable/DV507mkII tonearm with an Audio MusiKraft MC cartridge going into the Leben HiFi RS-28CX preamp (w/phono)/Leben CS-1000 stereo amp driving the intriguing Atalante 5 speakers from France’s Revival Audio.
As I hope these photos illustrate, in addition to making perfectly lovely music this gear is also easy on the eyes and as you’ll see below, relatively easy on the wallet. This was one room I could have camped out in as Jonathan also plays some of most interesting music that included “Exodus” from 1970’s The Source by the incomparable Jimmy Scott whose voice soared beyond belief with sweet pure beauty.
System Details:
Audio MusiKraft MC Phono Cartridge / Bronze: $3650
Box Furniture MS4S Modular Series Furniture: starting at $2210
FonoLab EQVES Moving Coil Step Up Transformer: $1200
FonoLab Qvattvor Balanced MC SUT: $3750
Leben HiFi RS-28CX Tube Preamplifier w/phono: $7995
Leben HiFi CS-1000 Stereo Tube Power Amplifier: $13,995
Revival Audio Atalante 5 Loudspeakers: $4995/pair
Sugden Masterclass IA-4 Integrated Amplifier w/phono: $6750
Tellurium Q Ultra Black II Speaker Cable: $1,800/2.5M pair
Tellurium Q Black II, Ultra Black II and Black Diamond Interconnects: $350, $525, $1100
Dynavector DV500 Turntable: $6750
Dynavector DV507mkII Tonearm: $7250
